Harlequins clinch Premiership top spot

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Faced with Breivik's unflinching account, Norway surprises world with its civility

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A reporter covering Anders Behring Breivik's trial marvels at the degree of civility Norwegians have shown him, considering the brutality of the July 2011 terror attacks and his lack of remorse.

In the first two weeks of Anders Behring Breivik's trial, the Norwegian man reiterated his conviction that he did the right thing when he killed 77 people on July 22, 2011 ? even if it meant shooting unarmed Labor party youth members as young as 14 trapped on an island or bombing government buildings in Oslo. Those killed were??legitimate political targets,? he said.

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The attacks were ?gruesome but necessary" for preventing Labor from continuing to undermine Norwegian society with its lenient immigration policies, Mr. Breivik said. The party had betrayed the country by promoting the Islamic colonization of Norway and ipso facto the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Norwegians. He would do it all again, he said.?

International onlookers have been shocked to see how civil the whole trial is proceeding, given the scale and brutality of his crimes ? together they are?the worst national tragedy the country has experienced since World War II ??and Breivik's lack of remorse.?

On April 16, the first day of the 10-week trial, a lineup of prosecutors, forensic psychiatrists, and the legal counsel for the victims all approached Breivik in court to shake his hand. Wearing a suit and neatly trimmed beard, he politely extended his right hand to greet them. Outside, people lined up orderly to enter Oslo District Court. There was not a single sign denouncing him, nor any banners calling for the death penalty.

On the second day of the trial, he was allowed to begin his six-day testimony of what happened in the years leading up to the attack, including his preparation for that day. At the end of the first week he recounted, in chilling detail, of how, after packing a ham and cheese sandwich that morning, he shot and killed 69 people at the Labor party youth summer camp on Ut?ya with a Glock pistol and Ruger semi-automatic rifle.

If this all sounds surreal, that?s because it is.?

It is surreal to see a well-dressed upper class man sit in a court and calmly explain how he killed Norwegians to prevent Norway?s demise. It?s incomprehensible to hear how a man, who supposedly had all the economic means and generous provisions of a cradle-to-grave welfare system, could turn into Norway?s most notorious killer in modern times. And that is part of what scares Norwegians: the thought that he is one of them.?

Despite the atrocity of his crimes and his behavior, Norwegians still want to see him get a fair trial. But that means?he has a legal right to explain himself in court, even if there is a risk that he spreads his propaganda. The trial is also key in determining Breivik's sanity, which is at the crux of this case. The prosecution even defended his right to keep reading from his prepared speech on his first day of testimony in spite of protests from the legal counsel for the victims, who were offended by his one-hour long monologue.?

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Nivac ? MMGY Global Reports Encouraging Signs For Year Ahead

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Despite concerns with the economy there are genuine sources of optimism for the travel industry. The most recent May MMGY Global/US Travel Association travelhorizons survey, reports that money available for travel experienced a gain of 20 percent and affordability of travel rose eight percent.

This suggests that consumers are increasingly more positive about their ability to afford travel adding up to good news for agents, suppliers and destinations.

The survey estimates that 56 percent of US adults intend to take at least one leisure trip through July 2012.

However, the latest affordability of travel index of 102.6 still remains well below its July 2009 peak of 124.0, when travel suppliers ramped up discounts and special offers to counteract the impact of the Great Recession, Peter Yesawich of MMGY Global reports.?? While these substantial gains would normally be touted as the start of a turnaround from the challenges through which the industry has passed the previous two years, comparisons with February 2011 reveal that the new TSI is still two points below the level of 95.2 observed one year ago signaling that US adults attitudes toward travel remain essentially unchanged, the survey cautions.??

The overall US Traveler Sentiment Index (TSI) soared 10 percent in February 2012 as perceptions of travel across all six factors from which the index is derived exhibited substantial improvement from last quarter. According to the most recent travelhorizons survey, the overall TSI now stands at 93.6, up from 85.0 in October 2011.

Leisure travel intentions have, similarly, changed little during the past 12 months. According to the travelhorizons survey, 56 percent of US adults intend to take at least one trip primarily for leisure purposes between February and July 2012.

One quarter of all adults, or 59 million, are not planning to travel for leisure purposes during the next six months. The remaining 44 million adults, however, have yet to decide whether or not to take a leisure trip, the survey reports.?? This statistic represents a significant market opportunity for destinations and other travel service suppliers to convert this latent demand, and indicates that aggressive marketers will likely be rewarded for their proactive business development efforts, the survey reports.

Visit www.mmgyglobal.com or www.hsmaieconnect.org

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Rare Met revival of Britten's shipboard opera

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NEW YORK (AP) ? Absent from the Metropolitan Opera for 15 years, Benjamin Britten's great maritime tragedy "Billy Budd" has made a brief but welcome return in the season's closing days.

If the lead singers were a variable lot at Friday's premiere, the night was still a success because the real stars of the show ? the conductor, the chorus and the set ? all performed magnificently.

That set, designed by William Dudley for the 1978 John Dexter production, is a cutaway depiction against a black background of the H.M.S. Indomitable, a British gunship sailing toward battle with the French in 1797. When the action begins, we're on the main deck, but as scenes change, the ship seamlessly shifts and grows before our eyes, taking us down to the captain's cabin and the sailors' berths and even expanding to reveal seven levels at once.

In adapting Herman Melville's novella, Britten and his librettists ? E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier ? invented a prologue and epilogue in which Captain Vere, now an old man, reflects on the events of the story. In brief, a good-natured young foretopman, Billy Budd, is falsely accused by the master-at-arms, John Claggart, of fomenting mutiny. Tongue-tied, Billy strikes Claggart dead, and Vere ? despite his conviction that Billy is innocent ? feels he has no choice but to see him hanged.

The role of the captain (originally written for Britten's life partner, Peter Pears) was taken in this revival by tenor John Daszak in his Met debut. He sang with a bright, pungent tone and notably crisp diction, though his sound occasionally turned strident on high notes. Dramatically, he was persuasive both as an old man tormented by guilt and as an embattled captain facing an impossible choice.

Baritone Nathan Gunn performed the title role, looking the epitome of Melville's handsome sailor and acting with youthful vigor. He sang sweetly in quiet moments like "Billy in the Darbies," his haunting aria on the eve of execution, but much of the time one longed for a more powerful sound.

Bass James Morris has virtually owned the role of Claggart at the Met, but his voice has lost strength, especially at the low end. He etched a subdued portrait of a corrupt soul who cannot tolerate the presence of unalloyed goodness in the world.

There were many strong contributions from the all-male cast, starting with the chorus, whose role in this opera is vital. The fine trio of officers consisted of baritone Dwayne Croft ? a former Billy himself ? and bass-baritones Kyle Ketelson and the debuting Ryan McKinny. Tenor Keith Jameson was impressive as the Novice, the weak-willed sailor who does Claggart's dirty work.

David Robertson, making a too-infrequent appearance, conducted the Met orchestra in an energetic and moving performance of Britten's score, which is filled with surging melodic themes amid its spiky dissonances.

An AP Entertainment Review

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HBT: O's 1B takes mound, tops Red Sox in 17

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It wasn?t pretty, but in many ways, Chris Davis had the most remarkable day on a baseball field that I can ever remember.

Starting at DH, Davis fanned in his first five at-bats, hit into a double play into his sixth and grounded out in his seventh before moving to the mound to pitch the 16th and 17th innings and picking up a win in a 9-6 game against the Red Sox.

Davis very nearly took the loss in the 16th, but Marlon Byrd was gunned down at home plate on Mike Aviles? double with two outs. The Red Sox then turned to a position player of their own in the 17th, and Darnell McDonald gave up a three-run homer to Adam Jones, giving the Orioles a 9-6 lead.

After Jones? homer, Davis grounded out, making him 0-for-8 on the day.

The bottom of the 17th started with an infield single off Davis? glove and a Dustin Pedroia walk, but Adrian Gonzalez struck out on three pitches to put a cap on his own 0-for-8 day and McDonald grounded into a double play to end it.

Davis became the first position player to win a game since Philadelphia?s Wilson Valdez got a victory in the 19th inning of a game last May 25. Before that, the last to do it was Rockies catcher Brent Mayne in 2000.

Davis?started his outing showing a 90-91 mph fastball, but he quickly faded into the mid-80s in the 17th. Of course, it still worked out for him. McDonald was sitting in the 81-83 mph range in his inning of work.

Despite having three opportunities, Davis managed to avoid picking up his sixth strikeout. He could have been just the eighth player to reach that mark (dating back to 1918) and the first since Milwaukee?s Geoff Jenkins in 2004.

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Hong Kong holds big protest as new leader sworn in

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Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, shakes hands with Hong Kong's new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying after Leung was sworn in, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong Sunday, July 1, 2012. Hong Kong's new Beijing-backed leader was sworn in on Sunday amid a rising tide of public discontent over widening inequality and lack of full democracy in the semiautonomous southern Chinese financial center. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, shakes hands with Hong Kong's new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying after Leung was sworn in, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong Sunday, July 1, 2012. Hong Kong's new Beijing-backed leader was sworn in on Sunday amid a rising tide of public discontent over widening inequality and lack of full democracy in the semiautonomous southern Chinese financial center. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A protester, center left, is ushered away by security officials after he shouted "(for China) To reverse its condemnation of the brutal June 4, 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square and to end to one-party rule in China " before Chinese President Hu Jintao's address after Hong Kong's new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was sworn in at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center Sunday, July 1, 2012. Hong Kong's new Beijing-backed leader was sworn in on Sunday amid a rising tide of public discontent over widening inequality and lack of full democracy in the semiautonomous southern Chinese financial center. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Hong Kong's Chief Executive-elect Leung Chun-ying, right, and his wife Regina shake hands with supporters during a flag raising ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China, Sunday, July 1, 2012, in Hong Kong. Leung was sworn in as Hong Kong's third leader amid growing discontent with China's rule over the Asian financial center. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, administers the oath to Hong Kong's new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, left, as he is sworn in for a five-year term in office at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center Sunday, July 1, 2012. Hong Kong's new Beijing-backed leader was sworn in on Sunday amid a rising tide of public discontent over widening inequality and lack of full democracy in the semiautonomous southern Chinese financial center. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents pack a street during a pro-democracy protest march in Hong Kong, Sunday, July 1, 2012. The march was an occasion for ordinary people to air their grievances over a range of issues. There is rising public discontent over widening inequality and lack of full democracy in the southern Chinese financial center. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

HONG KONG (AP) ? A pro-democracy heckler interrupted a speech by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the swearing-in of Hong Kong's new leader Sunday and tens of thousands of residents marched to protest Chinese rule on the 15th anniversary of the Asian financial hub's return to Beijing's control.

The outpouring of discontent underscored rising tensions between the Communist mainland and the vibrant city of 7 million that was returned to China in 1997 after more than a century of British colonial rule. While much of the discontent revolves around growing economic inequality and stunted democratic development, Hong Kongers are also upset over what they see as arrogant Chinese behavior - wealthy mainlanders taking over retail outlets during flashy Hong Kong shopping trips, for example, or even the choice of language during Sunday's swearing-in ceremony, Beijing-accented Mandarin instead of the Cantonese dialect spoken locally.

In the ceremony, self-made millionaire Leung Chun-ying, 57, became Hong Kong's third chief executive after Donald Tsang and Tung Chee-hwa. He has promised to address Hong Kongers' economic needs, including skyrocketing housing prices, which many blame on deep-pocketed mainland apartment buyers.

A demonstrator who tried to interrupt Hu as he began his address was bundled away by security officials. The man, one of the guests invited to the inauguration, waved a small flag and yelled slogans calling for China's leaders to condemn the brutal June 4, 1989, crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. He also called for an end to one-party rule in China. Hu took no notice and continued to read his speech, but the incident marred what was supposed to be a carefully orchestrated visit emphasizing strengthened ties between Hong Kong and mainland China.

Leung, a police officer's son, replaces career bureaucrat Tsang, who took office in 2005 and is barred from another term.

Leung was chosen as chief executive in March, winning 689 votes from a 1,200-seat committee of business elites who mostly voted according to Beijing's wishes. Hong Kong's 3.4 million registered voters, who can vote for neighborhood councilors and half of all lawmakers, had no say.

In mid-afternoon, tens of thousands of protesters began marching toward the newly built government headquarters complex on Hong Kong Island in sweltering heat, beating drums and waving British colonial flags in a gesture of nostalgia for an era during which democratic rights were limited but the rule of law was firmly in place.

The protesters jammed the route of the march, a series of thoroughfares bordered by high-rise apartments and office buildings. There was occasional tension with the thousands of police officers deployed to maintain order, but by and large the event went off peacefully.

Organizers said more than 400,000 participated while police estimated there were 63,000 at the procession's peak. Hu left Hong Kong before the march began.

In his speech, Hu said Hong Kong residents now have more democratic rights and freedoms than ever before - a reminder that China has largely kept the promise it made when it regained the territory from Britain to keep Hong Kong's relatively open political system in place for 50 years.

But that did little to assuage the feelings of the protesters, who see China's Communist Party rule as strongly at odds with the values that many inherited from a British-influenced education, and the continuing spread of democracy to Asian neighbors like South Korea and Chinese-speaking Taiwan.

"China's way of thinking is totally different from ours," said builder Bono Lau, 46. "Tung Chee-hwa talked about one country, two systems but there's no more of that nowadays."

Beijing has pledged that Hong Kong can elect its own leader in 2017 and all legislators by 2020 at the earliest, but no roadmap has been laid out.

Calls for democracy have been catalyzed by the stunted election that catapulted Leung to power and by corruption scandals surrounding his predecessor. Ordinary Hong Kongers fear that the political system in place since 1997 has resulted in the city's billionaire tycoons having too much influence over senior government officials. Government data now show that income inequality has risen to its highest level in four decades.

Leung himself was implicated in an embarrassing scandal just last week when it emerged that he had made six illegal additions to his mansion in an exclusive neighborhood on Hong Kong Island's Victoria Peak.

___

Follow Kelvin Chan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/chanman

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-01-AS-Hong-Kong-New-Leader/id-f77750404e11432ca6a90b3730016a62

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Is it time to regulate $60 billion-a-year arms trade?

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UNITED NATIONS ?? Delegates from around the world gather in New York on Monday for the start of month-long U.N.-hosted negotiations to hammer out the first-ever binding treaty to regulate the global weapons market, valued at more than $60 billion a year.

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Arms control campaigners say one person every minute dies as a result of armed violence around the world and that a convention is needed to prevent illicitly traded guns from pouring into conflict zones and fueling wars and atrocities.

Most U.N. member states favor a strong treaty.

If they get their way, all signatories would be charged with enforcing compliance to any treaty by companies that produce arms and with taking steps to prevent rogue dealers from operating within their borders.

They say conflicts in Syria and elsewhere cast a shadow over the talks, reminding delegates of the urgency of the situation.

"In Syria, Sudan and the Great Lakes of Africa, the world is now once again bearing witness to the horrific human cost of the reckless and overly secret arms trade," said Brian Wood, international arms control and human rights manager at Amnesty International.

"Why should millions more people be killed and lives devastated before leaders wake up and take decisive action to properly control international arms transfers?" he said.

Despite human rights concerns, US to resume selling arms to Bahrain

There is no guarantee the July 2-27 negotiations will produce a treaty, let alone a good one. In February, preparatory talks on the ground rules for this month's talks nearly collapsed due to procedural wrangling and other disagreements.

In the end, the United States and other countries succeeded in ensuring the treaty must be approved unanimously, so any one country can effectively veto a deal.

But the treaty may not be doomed if that happens. Wood said nations that support a strong pact could bring a treaty to the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly and adopt it with a two-thirds majority vote if there is no consensus in July.

'Deadly reality'
There are deep divisions on key issues to be tackled in the treaty negotiations, such as whether human rights should be a mandatory criterion for determining whether governments should permit weapons exports to specific countries.

Arms control advocates say a strong treaty is long overdue.

"It is an absurd and deadly reality that there are currently global rules governing the trade of fruit and dinosaur bones, but not ones for the trade of guns and tanks," said Jeff Abramson, director of Control Arms.

Abramson, Amnesty's Wood and Anna Macdonald of Oxfam spoke with reporters on Friday about the negotiations.

Much of the discussion revolved around Russia's arms supplies to Syria, where President Bashar Assad's 16-month assault on an increasingly militarized opposition has killed over 10,000 people. Russia is Assad's top arms supplier.

Wood said Russia is not the only culprit in Syria, one of many conflicts fed by unregulated arms deliveries. Western nations have also helped Assad. There are tanks on Syrian streets, Wood said, that come from Slovakia, upgraded by Italy.

Syria rebels: 170 regime tanks mass near major city

Oxfam's Macdonald said: "From Congo to Libya, from Syria to Mali, all have suffered from the unregulated trade in weapons and ammunition allowing those conflicts to cause immeasurable suffering and go on far too long. In the next few weeks, diplomats will either change the world - or fail the world."

One senior Western diplomat said the Syrian conflict has led to a "polarization" within the arms trade talks, with Russia becoming increasingly defensive about arms supplies to its ally Damascus that it says have nothing to do with the conflict.

The campaigners outlined what they want to see in the treaty. Governments should be required to regulate the sale and transfer of all weapons, arms, munitions and equipment used in military and domestic security activities, ranging from armored vehicles, missiles and aircraft to small arms and ammunition.

Risk assessments
Governments should also be required to make risk assessments before authorizing arms sales, make public all authorizations and deliveries and track their use. Trading without permission or diverting arms should be made a crime, they said.

One of the reasons this month's negotiations are taking place is that the United States, the world's biggest arms trader accounting for over 40 percent of global conventional arms transfers, reversed U.S. policy on the issue after Barack Obama became president and decided in 2009 to support a treaty.

But U.S. officials say Washington insisted in February on having the ability to "veto a weak treaty" during this month's talks, if necessary. It also seeks to protect U.S. domestic rights to bear arms - a sensitive issue in the United States.

The other five top arms suppliers are Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

Wood, Macdonald and Abramson said some of the top arms trading countries have been joining other nations in an attempt to weaken the treaty. They said the United States, China, Syria and Egypt were pushing to exclude ammunition.

China, they added, wants to exempt small arms, while several Middle East states oppose making compliance with human rights norms a mandatory criterion for allowing arms deliveries.

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