Need to know: Anders Behring Breivik was denied the chance to share his anti-Muslim views with the world, following a judge's rule today that his hearing would be behind closed doors. Breivik, the suspect in Friday's twin attacks in Norway that killed at least 93 people, had asked for an open hearing where he could dress in uniform and air his belief that Europe must be saved from "Muslim colonization." Who is this man? Breivik saw himself as a modern-day Templar Knight, a Christian crusader fighting to chase Islam from Europe. In his 1,500-page online manifesto, he showed that he had closely followed the American debate over Islam. He quoted from the Unabomber. But was he part of a movement? Before Friday's attacks, he appeared to be a small fish in the murky waters of Europe's extreme right political fringe. He left politics in 2006, saying only violent action could bring about the overthrow of multicultural society. Security forces across Europe are now reviewing anti-terror policies to focus more on far-right organizations or "lone wolves" like Breivik. |
| Want to know: Following a deadly train accident in eastern China, authorities have reportedly been burying the wreckage as a way to conceal the evidence. Critics say the wreckage needs to be studied for the cause of malfunction that killed at least 43 people on Saturday, but the Railway Ministry seems more concerned with the fact that the trains contained valuable technology that could be stolen. Nevermind that foreign companies say the technology was actually stolen from them first. China may jumping through elaborate hoops to hide those "Made in Germany" logos, it hasn't done a very good job of hiding the fact that they are shoving the whole mess underground. Watch here. Since his release from North Korean prison in 2010, U.S. missionary Richard Park prays almost all the time. He prays for the 24 million people in North Korea still living under the oppression of leader Kim Jong Il, he says. But he won't talk about himself or what he went through in prison. All he wants to talk about is the plight of the North Koreans. Are his efforts doing any good? Activists say he cuts a controversial figure. |
| Dull but important: The Tamil National Alliance party won a sweeping victory in local elections held in the northern part of Sri Lanka, where ethnic Tamils comprise a majority of the population and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) once waged a bloody terrorist campaign for a separate Tamil nation. The results - which saw the Tamil party win 20 out of 25 election seats - have been seen as a blow to the ruling party of President Mahinda Rajapksa, who had campaigned vigorously for his party despite widespread feelings that the central government has done little to rehabilitate Tamils displaced and interned during the final push of the civil war in 2009. In North Korea, an election on Sunday for officials on the provincial, city and county level went off without a hitch. According to state data, 99.97 percent of people voted! Amazing! That's so amazing, North Korea! Meanwhile, a senior North Korean nuclear envoy will visit the United States this week. First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan is expected to be in New York Thursday on the invitation of private think tanks. He is also expected to meet with U.S. officials, including Stephen Bosworth, the top U.S. envoy on Korean Peninsula affairs. |
| Just because: Nafissatou Diallo, she finally has a name. The 32-year-old Guinean immigrant who accused the ex-chief of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, of assaulting her on May 14, has come forward to face the media in what many, especially DSK's lawyers, are calling a highly unorthodox approach. Diallo has been criticized for inconsistencies in her account, but in interviews with Newsweek and ABC News, she says her story of the alleged attack has never wavered. "Because of him they call me a prostitute," she said. "I want him to go to jail. I want him to know there are some places you cannot use your power, you cannot use your money," she said to Newsweek. See the onset of her media assault. Since 2001, the year American and Canadian troops entered Afghanistan, heroin production has reached record levels. And a significant amount of that heroin is ending up in Russia. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, it is the world's largest national market for heroin, consuming about 20 percent of all the heroin trafficked from Afghanistan annually. There are at least 1.5 million heroin users in Russia. It's estimated that every day 80 people die from heroin addiction. How are they dealing with it? Take a visit to Kimry, a town local officials describe as home to the living dead. |
| Strange but true: Talk about the living dead. A South African man thought to have died woke up in a chilly morgue and shouted to be let out on Saturday evening. Two mortuary attendants fled the building as they thought it was a ghost. An ambulance came to attend to the man, who had been exposed to extreme cold for 21 hours and needed medical attention. |
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