from wikipedia: The 2011 Norway attacks were a pair of terrorist attacks against the civilian population, the government and a political summer camp in Norway on Friday, 22 July 2011. The first was a bomb explosion in Regjeringskvartalet, the executive government quarter of Oslo, at 15:22 (CEST), outside the office of Prime MinisterJens Stoltenberg and other government buildings. The explosion killed eight people and wounded several others. The second attack occurred less than two hours later at a youth camp organized by the youth organization (AUF) of the Norwegian Labour Party (AP) on the island of Utøya in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud. A gunman disguised as a policeman opened fire at the campers, killing 68 attendees, including personal friends of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the stepbrother of Norway's crown princess Mette-Marit, in a backlash against the alleged islamification of Europe. The Norwegian Police Service arrested Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian man, for the mass shootings in Utøya and subsequently charged him with both attacks. The European Union, NATO and several countries around the world expressed their support for Norway and condemned the attacks.
from nytimes: Sweden became the latest European nation to see a breakthrough for populist right-wingers Sunday, when the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats won their first parliamentary seats in elections that failed to produce a clear outcome.
The prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who led an alliance of four parties, claimed victory and is almost certain to become the first leader from Sweden’s center-right since World War II to serve two consecutive terms...
Unlike nearby Denmark and Norway, where populist anti-immigration parties have been successful for years, voters here had never before given the Sweden Democrats sufficient support to overcome the 4 percent threshold they needed to reach Parliament. The election authority said the Sweden Democrats won 5.7 percent of the vote and 20 seats...
However the integration of minorities within this nation of 9.4 million people has become a growing preoccupation, especially in cities that have experienced high rates of immigration.
Though the official campaign was dominated by discussion of welfare reform and taxation, immigration lurked beneath the surface.
in other news, freedom is slavery & ignorance is strength...
from latimes: President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize [in Oslo] today, acknowledging the irony of winning it as a wartime president and calling his own accomplishments "slight" in comparison to past winners.
But in his speech to the Nobel Committee, Obama spoke of the concept of a "just war" and the pursuit of a "just peace," which he said sometimes depends on more than simply refraining from violence.
Lauding the commitment of past Nobel laureates to nonviolence, Obama said that, as a head of state and commander-in-chief of a military at war sworn to protect and defend his nation, he cannot follow their examples alone.
"I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people," Obama said. "For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince Al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason."
With his remarks, delivered in the brief sunlight of the Norwegian winter's midday, Obama answered critics who complain that he was receiving the award before he has really done anything to achieve peace.
The award also comes just days after the president announced a military buildup in Afghanistan, a surge of 30,000 U.S. troops which the White House hopes will disable the terrorist headquarters in the region and bring the eight-year war to an end.
from kvii: Cloud seeding aims to maximize moisture in clouds and produce rainfall... Planes shoot flares of silver iodide into clouds in both the target area and the buffer zone...with only the goal of making it rain in the target area. Leading those in buffer zone to say...their rain is being stolen. "If the good Lord above decides I don't need a rain, I can handle that," said Cogdell. "But when it gets down to a man deciding who gets it in what amount and who doesn't...that's just plain ol' not right." The groundwater district sees it another way.
norway's biggest quake ever from afp: Norway's biggest ever earthquake, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, shook the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard early Thursday, a Norwegian seismology institute said... Longyearbyen, one of the world's most northerly towns, is home to a new "doomsday vault" of samples of the most important seeds on Earth aimed at providing mankind with a reserve in the event of a global catastrophe. The vault is set to be inaugurated next Tuesday by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Nobel Peace Prize winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
stealth b2 bomber crashes in guam from reuters: A U.S. B-2 stealth bombercrashed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam just after taking off but the two pilots on board ejected safely, the U.S. Air Force said... The B-2 bombers have been used for missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Serbia. Guam has had a U.S. military presence to varying degrees since 1898, when U.S. naval forces captured it from Spain
france, uae & qatar begin war games from press tv: France, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates begin joint military exercises involving land, sea and air forces in the Persian Gulf region. The military war gamesbegan on Saturday and are to continue for several days, the official WAM news agency reported.
uk govt wants personal details of every traveller from guardian: Passengers travelling between EU countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their mobile phone numbers and credit card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to "profile" suspects.
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from cbsnews: With the tenth anniversary of the September 11 approaching, memories of the attacks on that day are surfacing as well as concerns about an attack on that day next month. In an interview with CNN, President Obama said that he was more worried about a deranged individual perpetrating an attack on 9/11 in retribution for killing Osama Bin Laden than a large scale, coordinated Al Qaeda attack. "As President of the United States I worry about all of it, but the most likely scenario ends up being a lone wolf operations rather than a large well coordinated attack," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He gave the example of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway as an example of the lone wolf. "One person deranged or driven by hateful ideology can do a lot more damage... We are vigilant and constantly monitoring the potential risks of terrorist attacks... We are not letting our guard down." A joint FBI/Department of Homeland Security memo (PDF) echoes Mr. Obama's statements: "Small-arms operations could be employed through a range of tactics from a lone offender--as illustrated by the recent 22 July 2011 lone shooter attack that took place in Norway--to a coordinated small-unit attack involving several operatives. Recent lone offender attacks and plots in the United States and abroad illustrate the effectiveness of the small-arms tactic and the need for continued vigilance and awareness of this tactic. Attacks by lone offenders--which by definition lack co-conspirators, and therefore provide fewer opportunities for detection--may be more difficult for law enforcement and homeland security authorities to disrupt."
