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ANDERS BEHRING BREIVIK

Norway killer and Dutch MP in fictional meeting

A play depicting a fictional meeting between Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik and Dutch anti-Islam far-right leader Geert Wilders is to be staged in Amsterdam next month, organisers said on Tuesday.

Norway killer and Dutch MP in fictional meeting
Photo: Politiet, Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst

"This is a fictional encounter between Geert Wilders and Anders Behring Breivik," Olivier Willemsen, spokesman for the cultural centre "Die Balie" told AFP.

"Behring Breivik asks Wilders the big question: 'How far are you willing to go for your ideas?'" Willemsen said of the play, which will premiere on March 22nd and run twice on March 25th.

In the work by Dutch playwright Theodor Holman, Wilders and Behring Breivik have a chance encounter at Heathrow airport after the British screening of Wilders' real-life anti-Islam film "Fitna" ("Discord" in Arabic).

Released in 2008, "Fitna" showed shocking images of 9/11 and other terror attacks on Western targets interspersed with verses from the Koran.

The movie caused widespread outrage in Muslim countries, as well as opposition from the Dutch government, which feared it might spark a militant response similar to that which followed the publication in Denmark of cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

On July 22nd, Behring Breivik, who has claimed to be on a crusade against multi-culturalism and the "Muslim invasion" of Europe, set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people.

He then went to Utøya island, some 40 kilometres north-west of Oslo, and, dressed as a police officer, spent more than an hour methodically shooting and killing another 69 people, mainly teens attending a summer camp hosted by the ruling Labour Party's youth wing.

Wilders strongly condemned Behring Breivik's attacks and said he was disgusted by the Norwegian's mention of him in his 1,500-page manifesto that circulated on the internet shortly beforehand.

The Dutch politician's Freedom Party has 24 seats in the 150-seat parliament, where it lends its support to the coalition government of Dutch Premier Mark Rutte.

A theatre in Copenhagen sparked controversy in January by announcing it would produce a monologue based on Behring Breivik's manifesto.

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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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