10 years after massacre, Norway to ban semi-automatic weapons

Yahoo – AFP, 27 February 2018

Police and emergency services search the waters for victims some around Utoeya
 island, some 40 km southwest of Oslo, on July 23, 2011, after a bombing in central
Oslo and a series of shootings on an island just outside the capital

Norway plans to ban semi-automatic firearms as of 2021, a decade after right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik's mass shooting that left 69 people dead, a Norwegian lawmaker said Tuesday.

The minority right-wing government had presented a proposal on the ban last year.

"Today (Tuesday), it has become clear that there is a parliamentary majority in favour of the government's proposal. Semi-automatic weapons will therefore be banned in Norway," Peter Frolich, a Conservative member of parliament's standing committee on judicial affairs, told AFP.

The ban, which would enter into force in 2021, comes amid renewed debate on semi-automatic weapons in the United States, following a school shooting in Florida that claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers on February 14.

The massacre in Norway took place on July 22, 2011, when disguised as a police officer and armed with a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and a Glock pistol, Breivik killed 69 people, most of them teenagers who were attending a Labour Party youth camp.

Just a few hours before the camp attack, he had killed eight people in a bombing outside a government building in Oslo.

In a 2012 report, a commission tasked with drawing conclusions from the attacks had called for a ban on semi-automatic weapons, one of its 31 recommendations.

"This decision is a very good thing, even if it comes belatedly," the head of a victims' support group, Lisbeth Kristine Royneland, said.

The bill allows for several exemptions, in particular for shooting sports.

Frolich attributed the long delay in drafting the proposal to the fact that many hunters in Norway use semi-automatic firearms.

It was not immediately clear how the new law would affect hunters.

Breivik, 39, who now goes by the name Fjotolf Hansen, was sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in prison, which can be extended indefinitely as long as he remains a threat to society.

Sarah Clarke becomes first female 'Black Rod' in UK parliament

Yahoo – AFP, February 20, 2018

Sarah Clarke has become the first woman to hold the ceremonial and administrative
position of Black Rod in Britain's House of Lords. (AFP Photo/Victoria Jones)

London (AFP) - Sarah Clarke, the former director of the Wimbledon tennis championships, on Tuesday became the first woman to hold the post of "Black Rod" in the British Parliament.

Clarke was introduced in the House of Lords as "Lady Usher of the Black Rod", breaking its 650-year history of men only.

Tasked with banging on the House of Commons door to summon MPs to the Queen's Speech every year, Black Rod plays a key role in parliamentary events.

The name Black Rod derives from the ebony staff, topped with a golden lion, that the official uses to knock three times on the door.

Besides ceremonial duties, the British parliament website says the Black Rod is responsible for controlling access to and maintaining order within the upper Lords chamber.

Clarke, replacing David Leakey who retired, said she was "both deeply honoured and delighted" when her appointment was announced last year.

"The House of Lords is a place where the smallest detail is as important as the big picture and the depth of heritage and tradition is second to none," she said.

Clarke was presented with the ceremonial ebony staff last week by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

Sarah Clarke breaks centuries of male dominance in Britain's @UKHouseofLords https://t.co/hPFCZliHcw pic.twitter.com/kVFox8twrF

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 21, 2018

Inspired by Macron, new anti-Brexit party launches in Britain

Yahoo – AFP, Alice RITCHIE, February 19, 2018

The head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said it would not be "the end of the
 world" if Britain failed to reach a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, but there would be
costs (AFP Photo/Tolga AKMEN)

London (AFP) - A new anti-Brexit party was launched in London Monday, lacking any big names but vowing to revitalise the centre ground of British politics, inspired by French President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche movement.

Renew is one of several new initiatives by pro-European Union campaigners, hoping to capitalise on uncertainty over Brexit to pressure politicians into stopping the process.

The party's goal is to be "the vehicle for people who feel politically homeless", said James Clarke, one of three co-leaders.

The ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour party both back Britain's withdrawal from the EU in March 2019, while the smaller pro-European Liberal Democrats have failed to capitalise on anti-Brexit sentiment.

Renew said it had received informal advice about how to proceed from En Marche (On the Move), French President Emmanuel Macron's upstart centrist party which came from nowhere to sweep to victory last year.

"Mr Macron showed that it was possible to do something extraordinary in a short amount of time," Clarke said.

James Clarke (left) and James Torrance are co-leaders of the anti-Brexit political

party Renew (AFP Photo/BEN STANSALL)

Asked about the absence of any high-profile names, he told AFP: "Renew is not a personality cult, it's not a vehicle for the ambitions of one or other politicians."

It was formed after last year's general election after a number of independent anti-Brexit candidates in London, including Clarke and co-founder Chris Coghlan, a former financier, decided to work together.

Renew now claims to have more than 450 applications for stand as candidates for the 650-seat House of Commons.

Despite the fragility of Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative government, an election is years away, however -- and the party admits it is still seeking financing.

Its current income was said by Clarke to be in the "low five figures".

Renew's main influence would likely come in lobbying existing MPs, who will have the final vote on the Brexit deal agreed by the government with the EU.

'Nation divided'

In this, they are not alone.

Several campaigns have emerged in recent weeks calling for a re-run of the 2016 EU membership referendum and putting pressure on MPs to oppose a Brexit agreement.

French President Emmanuel Macron's upstart En Marche party came from
nowhere to sweep to victory last year (AFP Photo/ludovic MARIN)

One of them, Best for Britain, captured the headlines this month because of a large donation from billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros.

Former Labour party politician Andrew Adonis, a member of the House of Lords, has launched his own campaign alongside the youth group "Our Future, Our Choice".

Several campaigns earlier this year united in a Grassroots Coordinating Group chaired by Labour MP Chuka Umunna, a leading pro-EU political voice.

They have taken heart from opinion polls since last year's election showing growing support for staying in the bloc.

However, polling expert John Curtice said last month that it was "not exactly a dramatic change" -- and there was no significant evidence to suggest a significant shift in support for a second referendum.

Some 52 percent of Britons voted for Brexit, and 48 percent, after a campaign dominated by warnings about mass migration from the continent, and demands for sovereignty.

Renew says there were many causes for the vote: co-leader Sandra Khadhouri said Britain was "a nation divided, with deep discontent at inequality".

The party said it would increase the minimum wage, boost infrastructure outside London and create more affordable housing, and look at "better ways to manage immigration".

Detailed policies will be drawn up after a "listening tour" of Britain involving university visits and public meetings.

Dutch parliament poised to formally recognise Armenian genocide: media

DutchNews, February 16, 2018

The Dutch parliament is poised to explicitly recognize the murder of 1.5 million Christian Armenian citizens by the Ottoman empire as genocide after a long campaign by ChristenUnie MP Joel Voordewind. 

There is also majority support in parliament to send a Dutch minister to the commemoration of the Armenian genocide in Jerevan in April, Dutch media said on Friday. 

Voordewind is expected to submit a motion on the issue to parliament next week, but is already guaranteed the support of a majority of MPs, now the coalition has thrown its weight behind the plan. 

Experts say that the decision will further anger Turkey, which already has a fraught relationship with the Netherlands. 

The Netherlands recently withdraw its ambassador to Turkey and the relationship between the two countries has been strained since the Dutch banned two Turkish ministers from campaigning on Dutch soil for a referendum to give greater powers to president Erdogan. 

‘We must not deny history for fear of sanctions. Our country is home to the capital of international law, so we must not be scared of doing what is right in this matter,’ Voordewind told Trouw. ‘We are acknowledging history. That is not the same thing as casting aspersions as Turkey has done towards the Netherlands.’ 

The Dutch government currently refers to the issue as ‘the question of Armenian genocide’ and will continue to do so, RTL said.

Former Dutch Prime Minister Rudd Lubbers dies

Deutsche Welle, 14 February 2018

Ruud Lubbers, the Netherlands' longest serving prime minister, has died aged 78. Lubbers also headed the UN refugee agency on a symbolic $1 salary, and, in 1991, hosted the EU's formative Maastricht summit.

Former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers in B/W (picture alliance/ANP/V. Kuypers)

Lubbers, a conservative who argued for "more markets, less government" and a closer European Union, passed away on Wednesday in his home city of Rotterdam, the Dutch government announced. No cause of death was given.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands had "lost a statesman with huge stature" and went on to praise Lubbers for his commitment to Europe and as a "world citizen" who was "intelligent and wise."

"He knew how to find a solution to every problem," Rutte added.

Lubbers, a Christian Democrat from a Rotterdam engineering and machinery family, who studied economics and then headed an employers' federation, formed his first government in 1982 with the liberal VVD party, on a pledge to cut back the Dutch welfare state.

His slogan "more markets, less government" prompted conflict with trade unions but earned him a reputation for the "Dutch model" of spurring the economy to create more jobs.

Key role at Maastricht

In his third consecutive term, he formed a grand coalition with center-left Social Democrats in 1989, and played a key role in late 1991 when the Netherlands hosted an EU summit that formulated the bloc's Maastricht Treaty focused on political integration.

The accord, signed in early 1992, also laid the groundwork for the shared euro currency.

When he stepped down in the Dutch election year 1994, he had become the Netherland's longest-serving prime minister.

His 12 years in office had included his persuading parliament to accept the deployment of NATO European missiles in the Netherlands and ambitious conservation projects across the densely populated low-lying nation.

WWF and then UNHCR

After stints in academia, bids for top jobs at the European Commission and NATO, and criticism of Germany's then-chancellor, Helmut Kohl, Lubbers went on to serve as president of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2000, before becoming the head of the UNHCR refugee agency in 2001.

Bombing of Afghanistan wrong

A month after the 9/11 airline hijacker attacks on New York and Washington, Ludders rejected US bombardment of largely Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

He told Germany's Die Zeit newspaper in October 2001 that less US military action, not more, combined with aid agency assistance, would minimize the "danger of a conflagration."

As UNHCR commissioner he had urged the United States: "no revenge, no disproportionate reprisal attacks that will inevitably cause larger refugee flows and human suffering."

Resignation

His UNHCR post was extended in 2003 but in 2005 he was forced to step down over sexual harassment allegations, which he rejected as defamatory.

In latter years, when the Netherlands had difficulties forming coalition governments, Queen Beatrix reportedly called in Lubbers as adviser and intermediary.

Dutch broadcaster NOS said Lubbers had long suffered from an unspecified illness.

ipj/kms (AFP, AP, Reuters, Munzinger-Archive)

UK govt to meet Oxfam Monday over Haiti prostitutes probe

Yahoo – AFP, February 11, 2018

British charity Oxfam is embroiled in a scandal over allegations of sexual abuse
by its staff in Haiti in 2011 (AFP Photo/Andy Buchanan)

London (AFP) - Britain's International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt warned Sunday Oxfam must hand over to authorities any information it has collected on a "shocking" staff prostitution scandal in Haiti or face repercussions.

The Cabinet minister announced she will meet with the British-based charity's leadership on Monday as it continues to reel from accusations it covered up the episode in 2011.

"If they do not hand over all the information that they have from their investigation... then I cannot work with them any more as an aid delivery partner -- and any other organisation in those circumstances," she told the BBC.

In a sign of widening fallout from the scandal, the Sunday Times reported more than 120 workers for Britain's leading charities were accused of sexual abuse in the past year, "fuelling fears paedophiles are targeting overseas aid organisations".

Mordaunt said she was writing to all charities that receive state aid demanding they step up efforts to tackle sexual misconduct among staff or face funding cut-offs.

She will also seek to confirm they have referred all concerns about specific cases and individuals to the relevant authorities.

"I think this is an emerging picture, there are more allegations coming out about Oxfam and other organisations... and all of them will be followed up," Mordaunt vowed.

'No cover-up'

The government's hardening stance follows reports in The Times newspaper that young sex workers were hired by Oxfam's senior staff in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake which devastated the island and left up to 300,000 people dead.

The charity -- which employs around 5,000 staff and has 23,000 more volunteers -- recorded 87 incidents last year, referring 53 to the police or authorities and dismissing 20 staff or volunteers, according to the Sunday Times.

Oxfam Chief Executive Mark Goldring admitted Saturday that it had failed to detail fully the nature of the 2011 scandal but insisted it "did anything but cover it up".

"With hindsight, I would much prefer that we had talked about (the) sexual misconduct," Goldring told BBC radio.

"But I don't think it was in anyone's best interest to be describing the details of the behaviour in a way that was actually going to draw extreme attention to it."

However, Mordaunt said not disclosing the full picture was "a scandal" and Monday's meeting was a chance "to see if they are displaying the moral leadership that I think they need to now".

She added: "what is so disturbing about Oxfam is that when this was reported to them, they completely failed to do the right thing."

The minister noted offenses committed by British citizens anywhere in the world could still be prosecuted in Britain.

"We're talking about a historic case, but it is in some respects still live.

"They still have information they should be giving to the authorities."