The Norwegian anti-Islamic gunman who killed 77 people said at his trial on Tuesday his shooting spree and bomb attack were “sophisticated and spectacular” and that he would do the same thing again.
Anders Behring Breivik, 33, has pleaded not guilty and said he was defending his country by setting off a car bomb that killed eight people at government headquarters in Oslo last July, then killing another 69 people in a shooting spree at a youth summer camp organised by the ruling Labour Party.
‘Albatross’ jet affair
Two high-profile politicians have been arrested in Cameroon in connection with the allegedly fraudulent purchase of a presidential plane.They were part of a delegation that went to the US in 2004 to buy a $31m jet, the Albatross.
It developed problems on its inaugural flight, and was later found to be an old aircraft with a new coat of paint. President Paul Biya, his wife Chantal and their children were onboard when mechanical difficulties forced the pilot to make an emergency landing.
Rwanda terror trial
Rwandan opposition leader VictoireIngabire says she is boycotting her terror trial, accusing the judge of bias.Her lawyer says he will also stop attending hearings, after the testimony of a defence witness was cut short.She is accused of propagating ethnic hatred and “genocide revisionism” – charges she says are politically motivated.She was arrested in April 2010 and barred from standing in elections.
Prostate cancer success
A new prostate cancer treatment could provide more effective for patients and have fewer side-effects, according to a report.The study was the first to use an experimental treatment known as HIFU (high-intensity focused ultrasound) to treat areas of cancer that are only a few millimetres in size, a technique known as focal therapy.
Focal therapy is similar in principle to the “lumpectomy” operation commonly used as an alternative to a full mastectomy in breast cancer.One year after treatment, none of the 41 men in the trial had incontinence and 95% were cancer-free.
US China war games
The US and China have been discreetly engaging in “war games” amid rising anger in Washington over the scale and audacity of Beijing-co-ordinated cyber attacks on western governments and big business.State department and Pentagon officials, along with their Chinese counterparts, were involved in two war games last year that were designed to help prevent a sudden military escalation between the sides if either felt they were being targeted. Another session is planned for May.Though the exercises have given the US a chance to vent its frustration at what appears to be state-sponsored espionage and theft on an industrial scale, China has been belligerent.
Syrian troops attack
The Syrian regime widened shelling attacks on opposition strongholds Tuesday, activists said, targeting a second town in a new sign that a U.N.-brokered cease-fire is quickly unravelling despite the presence of foreign observers.
The truce is part of an international plan to launch talks between President Bashar Assad’s regime and those trying to topple him. An uprising against Assad erupted 13 months ago, but became increasingly violent in response to a regime crackdown.
Palestinian hunger strike
The Israeli prison service says hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have launched a hunger strike to mark an annual commemoration of those detained by Israel. Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman says 3,500 prisoners refused meals on “Prisoners’ Day” that fell on Tuesday, and 1,200 of them said they would continue with an open-ended hunger strike.
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