OSLO // The anti-Muslim extremist who confessed to a bombing and shooting massacre that killed 77 people in Norway tried to declare himself a resistance leader yesterday.
Anders Behring Breivik made the claim at his first public court hearing but was quickly cut off by the judge.
He was escorted by guards into an Oslo courtroom packed with dozens of reporters and spectators, including survivors of his rampage at a youth camp near the capital, who were seeing him in person for the first time since the July 22 attack.
"I am a military commander in the Norwegian resistance movement," Breivik said before the judge interrupted him and told him to stick to the issue at hand - his further detention.
The court extended his custody for 12 more weeks until February 6 but decided to gradually lift the restrictions on his media access, visitors and mail.
Breivik is being held pending his trial on terror charges. At the end of the hearing, the 32-year-old Norwegian asked the judge, Torkjel Nesheim, if he could address survivors and victims' relatives but was turned down.
Investigators said Breivik set off a fertiliser bomb outside the government's headquarters on July 22, killing eight people, before heading to an island retreat, where youth sections of Norway's governing Labour Party were holding their annual summer camp.
Disguised as a police officer, he opened fire on scores of panicked youths, shooting some as they fled into the lake. Sixty-nine people were killed on Utoya island before Breivik surrendered.
Like he did in previous closed hearings, Breivik on Monday confessed to the attacks but pleaded not guilty to terror charges.
He has denied criminal guilt, saying he was in a state of war to protect Europe from being taken over by Muslim immigrants.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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'The Alchemist's Euphoria'
Artist: Kasabian
Label: Columbia
Rating: 3/5