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ANDERS BEHRING BREIVIK

Breivik court appearance open to public

The gunman behind the July 22nd twin attacks in Norway will appear in court via video link next week in the presence of the media and the families of the 77 victims, Oslo's district court said Tuesday.

Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old right-wing extremist who is currently being held at the high-security Ila prison near Oslo, is scheduled to appear before a judge at the Oslo district court on November 14th for a hearing on the extension of his custody for 12 more weeks.

"It's very unlikely that the suspect, in a public custody hearing, would have the opportunity to communicate with anyone in a bid to cover up information in the case," the judge said on Tuesday.

The decision was widely expected as both the police and the defense were in favour of a public hearing.

On Friday, the Oslo court decided the hearing would be held via video link from Behring Breivik's prison cell, in line with new regulations that came into force on September 1st.

His lawyers nonetheless appealed the decision, demanding that their client be allowed to appear in person before the judge.

The appeals court is due to decide the issue.

Behring Breivik has admitted setting off a car bomb outside Norway's government offices in Oslo, killing eight people, before going on a shooting rampage on the nearby island of Utøya where the ruling Labour Party's youth wing was hosting a summer camp.

Sixty-nine people, mostly teens, died in the shooting massacre.

In a manifesto he published on the Internet just before the attacks, Behring Breivik said he was on a "crusade" against Islam and professed his hatred for Western-style democracy, saying it had spawned the multicultural society he loathed.

His trial could open in April 2012.

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TERRORISM

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

Police in Milan said on Thursday they had arrested a 37-year-old Algerian man in the subway, later discovering he was wanted for alleged ties to Islamic State.

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

When stopped by police officers for a routine check, the man became “particularly aggressive”, said police in Milan, who added the arrest took place “in recent days”.

He was “repeatedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while attempting to grab from his backpack an object that turned out to be a knife with a blade more than 12cm (nearly five inches) long,” they said in a statement.

The man was later found to be wanted by authorities in Algeria, suspected since 2015 of belonging to “Islamic State militias and employed in the Syrian-Iraqi theatre of war,” police said.

Police said the suspect was unknown to Italian authorities.

The man is currently in Milan’s San Vittore prison and awaiting extradition, they added.

Jihadist group IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, launching a reign of terror that continues with hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.

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