Syrian army kills dozens in Hama

Syrian security forces have cracked down on anti-government protests across the country, killing 100 people in the city of Hama alone, reports say.

Witnesses said tanks moved into Hama at dawn, shelling civilians. Other towns also erupted in violence in one of the bloodiest days since protests began.
The government said troops had been sent in to Hama to remove barricades erected by the protesters.
US President Barack Obama said reports from Hama were horrifying.
"Once again, President [Bashar al-Assad] has shown that he is completely incapable and unwilling to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people," he said.
Mr Obama, who said he was appalled by the government's use of "violence and brutality against its own people", added that the US would continue to work to isolate Mr Assad's regime.

In over four months of protests, no-one can predict with any confidence what the outcome will be.
The uprising won't go away but has yet to engulf the two biggest cities of Damascus and Aleppo.
The protesters face a government that is talking about comprehensive reforms, but hitting back with ferocity.
The Americans have not explicitly called for President Assad to go. The international community is not united on this in the way it was on Libya. So there is not going to be any outside intervention.
It is up to the Syrians themselves, and at this stage, nobody can say how it will go.

By early evening, activists in Hama told the BBC that the city was quiet, and that the tanks had pulled out to the city's perimeters after failing to gain control of the centre.

With this latest military operation, the authorities are sending a clear message that they will not tolerate large-scale unrest ahead of the month of Ramadan, when protests are expected to grow, says the BBC's Lina Sinjab in Damascus.
But our correspondent says the people of Hama remain defiant, with some still out in streets shouting: "We will not be killed again," a reference to a massacre in 1982 when tens of thousands were killed.
Elsewhere in Syria, activists said about 30 people had been killed on Sunday amid widespread clashes:

• Witnesses said security forces in the Damascus suburb of Harasta threw nail bombs into a crowd of protesters, injuring about 50 people
• In the Damascus suburb of Muadhamiya, more than 100 people were arrested, rights groups said
• Residents in the southern town of Hirak said four civilians have been killed and dozens more injured or detained
• At least seven civilians were killed in the eastern provincial capital of Deir al-Zour, where tanks are patrolling the streets, according to activists
• A powerful tribal leader, Nawaf al-Bashir, was detained by secret police in Damascus
• The government said five soldiers, including a colonel, have been killed across the country

The recent protests - calling for widespread democratic reforms and political freedoms - show no sign of letting up despite a government crackdown that has brought international condemnation and sanctions.

Activists say more than 1,500 civilians and 350 security personnel have been killed across Syria since protests began in mid-March.
More than 12,600 people have been arrested and 3,000 others are reported missing.
Centre of protests Hama has been in a state of revolt and virtually besieged for the past month. According to activists on the ground, troops and tanks began their assault at dawn, smashing through hundreds of barricades erected by locals to reach the centre of Hama.
"[Tanks] are firing their heavy machine-guns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks," a doctor in Hama told Reuters by phone, with machine-gun fire in the background.

Significance of Hama

Hama - a bastion of dissidence - occupies a significant place in the history of modern Syria. In 1982, then-President Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar, sent in troops to quell an uprising by the Sunni opposition Muslim Brotherhood. Tens of thousands were killed and the town flattened.
Hama, with a population 800,000, has seen some of the biggest protests and worst violence in Syria's 2011 uprising. It was slow to join in, but has now become one of the main focuses of the revolt, and is largely out of government control.

Rights groups, residents and hospital officials in Hama told the BBC that 88 people had been killed in Sunday's operation.

Some residents said bodies were lying in the streets, and electricity and water supplies had been cut.
A Hama resident told the BBC World Service that the three main hospitals had run out of blood supplies after being overwhelmed by numbers of wounded people.
"They are treating people in the halls of the hospitals. A lot of injured people [have been] taken to homes and doctors are treating them there," he said.
The Syrian government defended its actions, saying in a statement on the state news agency Sana that armed groups had "set police stations on fire, vandalised public and private properties, set roadblocks and barricades and burned tyres at the entrance of the city".
"Army units are removing the barricades and roadblocks set by the armed groups at the entrance of the city."
Most foreign media is banned from the country, making it difficult to verify reports

Zara Phillips wedding: Crowds gather in Edinburgh

 

Celebrations have already started outside Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh

Well-wishers are taking to the streets in Edinburgh ahead of the marriage of the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips and England rugby player Mike Tindall.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are among guests expected at the wedding in Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile.
It is Scotland's first royal wedding in almost 20 years.
Prince Charles and Camilla, Prince William and Catherine, and Prince Harry are also attending the ceremony and reception at Holyroodhouse.
The doors of the Canongate Kirk are to be closed to the press and public, but crowds have begun gathering in Edinburgh's Old Town to watch the arrival of the royal family.
One, Anne from Linlithgow, told BBC Scotland that having so many royals in the capital was "extremely exciting".
Jackie Rushton, 48, from Yorkshire, said: "I just love anything to do with the Royal Family, I'm a big fan, I have great respect for them.

 

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall are due to marry in Edinburgh on Saturday

 

"I do like Zara, but I'm also hoping to catch a glimpse of William, Kate and Harry."
Another well-wisher, Margaret Kittle, 76, said she had travelled from Winona in Canada to see the wedding.
She said: "I've come to all the royal weddings since Princess Anne and Mark Phillips' wedding.
"I like to come to the weddings and all the royal occasions that I can, because the Queen is queen of Canada."
Other guests are likely to include Prince Andrew and his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
The private afternoon ceremony will be followed by a reception at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
The couple hosted a pre-wedding party on the royal yacht Britannia, which is moored in Leith, on Friday night.

It also might be that Mike Tindall is going to wear tartan, in the Phillips tartan, which is blues and purples”

Ceril Campbell Stylist

 

They had previously attended a rehearsal for the ceremony at the kirk with the bride's parents, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips.

Princess Anne's second marriage, to Timothy Laurence, was the last Scottish royal wedding in 1992.
Mr Tindall, who plays for club side Gloucester and has been capped more than 60 times for his country, is likely to have invited some of England's best-known rugby players to the wedding.
He and best man Iain Balshaw were part of England's winning 2003 rugby World Cup squad in Australia, where the couple were introduced by Zara's cousin Prince Harry.
Ceril Campbell, who has previously worked as a stylist for Zara Phillips, told BBC Radio's 5 Live she expected to see her wearing a Stewart Parvin designed dress, which is likely be quite understated, with a top or jacket which she can take off later.
She added: "It also might be that Mike Tindall is going to wear tartan, in the Phillips tartan, which is blues and purples, and although we may not see Zara's shoes I would put my money on the fact they will be the highest heels you could possibly wear, because that's something else she's always loved."
Lothian and Borders Police said they had been working with the Palace and Edinburgh City Council to ensure the event's smooth running.
Supt Ivor Marshall, who is the Silver Commander responsible for overseeing security arrangements, said the kirk's location, close to both the Scottish Parliament and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, yet set on the busy tourist hub of the Royal Mile, presented unique challenges.

Libya rebel chief Younes' killing: Unanswered questions

Mystery surrounds the circumstances of the killing of Libya's rebel military commander, Gen Abdel Fattah Younes, a day after he and two aides were shot.

Rebel leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said they had been killed by gunmen after Gen Younes was recalled from the front.
He said the ringleader of the attack had been held but he gave no details about his identity or the motive.
Hundreds of mourners carried a coffin containing the general's body into Benghazi's main square.
"We got the body yesterday here [in Benghazi], he had been shot and burned," Gen Younes' nephew, Abdul Hakim, said as he followed the coffin in the square.
"He had called us at 1000 (0800 GMT on Thursday) to say he was on his way here," he told Reuters news agency.
Another nephew told the crowd of mourners that they would remain loyal to Mr Jalil and the rebel cause.
"A message to Mustafa Abdul-Jalil: We will walk with you all the way," Reuters quoted Mohammed Younes as saying.
"Libya first, until God gives us victory or chooses us as martyrs."
International suspicions The general - a former interior minister who had served at the heart of Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime since the 1969 coup - joined the rebels at the beginning of the Libyan uprising in February.

Gen Younes' death taps into tribal divisions within the opposition and some members of his Obeidi tribe are already armed and angry at what has happened.
Just when the rebels are desperate to drive forwards on the battlefield it leaves them without a leader.
And for those countries like Britain that have officially recognised the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya it feeds serious doubts and concerns about the rebels' ability to end this conflict and their ability to function as a cohesive government.

The BBC's Ian Pannell in the rebel-held city of Misrata says his defection was seen as a coup for the opposition, but there had been rumours that he had kept contacts with the Gaddafi leadership.

Our correspondent says the death will feed international suspicions that the rebels cannot be trusted.
Mr Jalil announced the general's death late on Thursday, and said the head of the group of men who killed him had been captured.
Mr Jalil, who heads the rebel National Transitional Council, did not say who the assailants were or where the attack took place.
He said there would be three days of mourning in their honour.
It has not been disclosed where the attack took place; nor where the bodies were found.
Gen Younes was due to appear before a panel of judges in Benghazi.
The exact nature of the questions he was facing is also unclear. Mr Jalil said they regarded military operations.
Some unconfirmed reports said Gen Younes and two aides had been arrested earlier on Thursday near Libya's eastern front.
Shortly after the announcement of their death, gunmen entered the grounds of the hotel in the eastern city of Benghazi where Mr Jalil was speaking, reportedly firing into the air before being convinced to leave.
Divisions in Benghazi Earlier on Thursday, rebels said they had seized the strategically important town of Ghazaya near the Tunisian border, after heavy fighting with Col Gaddafi's forces.

Abdel Fattah Younes

• Helped Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi take power in the 1969 coup that ousted King Idris
• Close advisor to the Libyan leader for four decades, rising to the post of general and training Col Gaddafi's special forces
• Appointed interior minister
• Quit the government on 22 February 2011 and defected to the rebels - one of the earliest such moves by a senior official
• Appointed as the opposition's military chief in April, but faced mistrust due to his past ties to Col Gaddafi

They reportedly took control of several other towns or villages in the area.

The rebels are struggling to break a military deadlock five months into the uprising against Col Gaddafi's rule.
Rebels control most of eastern Libya from their base in Benghazi and the western port city of Misrata, while Col Gaddafi retains much of the west, including the capital, Tripoli.
Late on Thursday AFP news agency reported explosions shaking the centre of Tripoli, as state TV reported that planes were flying over the Libyan capital.
Nato, acting under a UN mandate authorising military action for the protection of civilians, has carried out regular air strikes in the Tripoli area.
South Africa's ambassador to the UN on Thursday warned that supporters of the rebels were in danger of violating UN sanctions and criticised calls by Western governments for Col Gaddafi to stand down.

About 30 countries have recognised the NTC.

Afghanistan: Deadly attack in Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan

Insurgents have carried out a gun and bomb attack in the south Afghan town of Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan province, leaving at least 22 dead, officials say.

They said the violence included three suicide bombings followed by fighting in a market, adding that all eight attackers had now been killed.
The dead include Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a local BBC reporter.
The Taliban say they carried out the attack, which comes amid renewed violence in Afghanistan.
Nato says it is providing air support to Afghan forces in Tarin Kowt.
TV station stormed Afghan intelligence officials said at least one bomb exploded near the governor's office and one near the offices of a security firm owned by a local militia commander. It is not clear where the third bomb was detonated.
Most of the fighting took place near these offices, which are close to the main market and a building which houses a local radio and TV station.

“Start Quote

Ahmed Omed Khpulwak was one of those brave reporters who have created that bond of trust with the people”

Peter Horrocks BBC Global News director

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary says the market was attacked from four sides, but the siege was broken by elite forces.

Residents said heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles were used by both sides.
Health officials said 22 people had been killed including three women and 40 injured, most of them civilians.
Among the dead is Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a reporter for the BBC Pashto radio service as well as the Pajhwok news agency.
He was one of several people killed when the TV and radio station was attacked.
BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks said: "The BBC and the whole world are grateful to journalists like Ahmed Omed who courageously put their lives on the line to report from dangerous places."
Two soldiers were among the dead but no senior government officials have been harmed, officials said.

Recent high-profile attacks

• 27 July: Kandahar mayor Ghulam Haidar Hameedi killed in suicide attack at city hall
• 18 July: Aide to President Karzai and former Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammad Khan killed along with lawmaker in an attack on his home in Kabul
• 12 July: The president's brother Ahmad Wali Karzai shot dead in Kandahar home by his head of security

'Doomsday'

Eyewitness Mohammad Dadu, a butcher at the market, told the BBC: ''I didn't have time to close my shop. I saw two dead bodies and four injured people with blood on their clothes.

"It feels like doomsday. Everyday people came to the market to shop. But today people are here collecting the dead and injured bodies of their relatives. There is blood, smoke from explosives and everyone has fled the area."
Afghan militants have stepped up their attacks as Nato troops begin the handover of security to local forces in parts of the country.
On Wednesday the mayor of the volatile city of Kandahar was killed in a suicide attack.
Two weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai's influential half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in the same city.

Afghan war: Mayor of Kandahar killed in suicide attack

 

Mr Hameedi returned to Afghanistan in 2006 at the request of President Karzai

The mayor of the volatile Afghan city of Kandahar, Ghulam Haidar Hameedi, has been killed in a suicide attack, officials say.

The attacker detonated explosives in his turban as the mayor made an address at the city hall, police said.
Two weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai's influential half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed in the same city.
The violence comes as Nato forces begin the handover of security to local troops in parts of the country.
The Taliban said they had carried out the attack.
Stability fears Correspondents say Mr Hameedi had been speaking to tribal elders who had come to discuss a land dispute when the attack took place.
The attacker infiltrated the group and detonated the explosives. Mr Hameedi was killed instantly, while the attacker and a civilian were also killed.

Recent Afghan assassinations

• 17 July: Jan Mohammad Khan killed in attack on his home in Kabul
• 12 July: Ahmad Wali Karzai shot by his bodyguard in Kandahar city
• 28 May: Gen Mohammad Daud Daud, police commander for northern Afghanistan, killed in provincial governor's compound in Takhar
• 15 April: Khan Mohammad Mujahid, Kandahar province police chief, killed in attack on police HQ
• 13 April: Pro-government tribal elder Haji Malik Zarin killed in attack in Kunar province
• 10 March: Abdul Rahman Sayedkhili, police chief of Kunduz province, killed in Kunduz city

• Ahmad Wali Karzai: Charm and controversy

The mayor had ordered the destruction of about 200 houses in the Loyawala area of Kandahar as they had been built illegally, and two children had been killed as they were knocked down on Tuesday, security sources said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the Taliban killed the mayor to avenge the deaths of the children killed during the demolition work, according to AP news agency.
The assassination is the latest in a string of attacks on influential officials in the country.
Earlier this month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan, was killed in Kandahar city.
His death prompted renewed fears over stability in Kandahar, seen as a critical area in the fight against the Taliban.
'Resilience' The BBC's Bilal Sarwary says Mr Hameedi had returned to Afghanistan from the US in 2006 at the personal request of President Karzai.
He was seen as one of the most competent and trusted politicians in the city, our correspondent adds.
The mayor survived an attack on his car in 2009, but his last two deputy mayors were both killed in 2010.
Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, said the US "condemned in the strongest possible terms the death of another top government official", and expressed his condolences.
He said it was "another indication again of both the challenges that Afghanistan faces but also the extraordinary resilience of the Afghan government and people".
Less than a week after Ahmad Wali Karzai's killing, a senior aide to Mr Karzai, Jan Mohammad Khan, died in an attack on his home in Kabul.
Kandahar was the country's designated capital during Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 and has been the centre of the group's insurgency since they were overthrown in the US-led invasion.

Amy Winehouse found dead, aged 27

Amy Winehouse sang as if her heart were damaged beyond repair. 

Leading a rock'n'roll life has proved fatal to many artists, but few could be considered as much of a loss to music as Amy Winehouse, who has been found dead at the age of 27, the cause not immediately clear. One of the outstanding singers of her generation, she had suffered from drug addiction, and the destruction it causes. Her husky, soul-steeped voice belied both her youth and her London origins – singing from the gut is not the exclusive preserve of older black American performers.
Winehouse's music spoke to people so persuasively that her second album, Back to Black, became Britain's bestselling record of 2007 and reached number two in the US, making her one of only a few British female soloists to achieve that level of transatlantic recognition. Its success spurred sales of her initially overlooked first album, Frank (2003), so titled because of the diary-style lyrics that produced songs such as Stronger Than Me, which railed against a "gay ladyboy" ex-boyfriend. The two sold a total of more than 12m copies worldwide.
Born to a Jewish family in north Finchley, north London, Winehouse grew up listening to the jazz albums of her taxi-driver father, Mitch. He and her pharmacist mother, Janis, later divorced.
Amy caught the performing bug so early that by the age of eight she was attending stage school. She spent time at three, including the Sylvia Young theatre school, central London, from which she was expelled for "not applying herself", and the Brit school in Croydon, south London. Rebellious instincts surfaced in her mid-teens: by 16, she had acquired her first tattoo and was smoking cannabis. "My parents pretty much realised that I would do whatever I wanted, and that was it, really," she said later.
Her boyfriend of the time passed a cassette of her singing to a record company, which was impressed. "It was unlike anything that had ever come through my radar," said songwriter Felix Howard, who went on to collaborate with Winehouse on Frank. She signed a deal with the world's largest label, Universal, and was taken on by the management company run by Simon Fuller, the force behind Pop Idol and its television spin-offs. However, being in the bosom of the pop establishment turned Winehouse surly and defensive. When she was accused early on by the press of being one of Fuller's pop puppets, she retorted: "He's clever enough to know he can't fuck with me."
If Winehouse was not entirely singular – Dusty Springfield and Maggie Bell preceded her as white British pop singers whose complicated personal lives yielded unguarded, richly soulful music – she certainly stood out from almost every other artist under 40. When Frank was released, just after her 20th birthday, the prevailing female pop sound was the manicured slickness epitomised by Girls Aloud. Winehouse's disconcerting sultriness meant she was initially classified as a jazz vocalist. Despite being tipped by critics as a "buzz" act – borne out by two Brits nominations in 2004 – she did not catch the public's fancy, and Frank peaked at number 13 in the charts.
It was when she finished promoting the album and set about writing the follow-up that a remarkable transformation took place. During this time she met her future husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, who worked on the periphery of the music business as an assistant on video shoots. The attraction was apparently instant, at least on Winehouse's part, and when Fielder-Civil ended the relationship after a few months, she poured her depression into songs that would become Back to Black.
Of the months following their split, she said: "I had never felt the way I feel about him about anyone in my life. I thought we'd never see each other again. I wanted to die."
The album was released in late 2006, and when Winehouse began a round of concerts and TV appearances that autumn, it was obvious that she had spent the recent past walking on the wild side. She had lost several stone and acquired armfuls of tattoos, a mountainous beehive hairdo and, it was rumoured, drug and alcohol problems.
Typically forthright, she drew attention to the latter in Back to Black's first single, Rehab, which became her signature song: "I don't never want to drink again, I just need a friend... They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no." Despite its subject, the song was infectiously upbeat, and became her first Top 10 hit, remaining in the charts for a near-record-breaking 57 weeks.
The whole album was also an instant, and huge, success. The jazz-lite that characterised Frank had been supplanted by sparky R&B, immediately hummable songs and, crucially, the performance of a lifetime from Winehouse, who sang as if her heart were damaged beyond repair. Critical acclaim was heaped on it – "One of the great breakthrough CDs of our time… when this lady sings about love, she means every word," said the US Entertainment Weekly magazine – and it appeared on numerous best-of-the-year lists. Its appeal transcended language barriers, sending it to number one in 18 countries, including the UK.
A great imponderable was whether Back to Black would have connected so strongly with listeners if Winehouse had not simultaneously been playing out her emotional dramas in public. Still wracked by the failure of her relationship with Fielder-Civil, her behaviour was erratic: her weight dropped further and the monstrous beehive got even taller. She seemed to lack the inhibitions that stop most people from "acting out" in public, which made her a tabloid dream – drawn by the scent of disturbed celebrity, paparazzi were soon following her around the streets of north London.
Perversely, as her life became more complex, her success increased. She won the 2007 Brit award for best female artist, and Ivor Novello awards for Rehab and Love Is a Losing Game. In addition, she picked up Q magazine's best album trophy, and was nominated for that year's Mercury prize.
She unexpectedly reunited with Fielder-Civil in early 2007, and in May they married on impulse in Miami. If Winehouse had been fragile before, the marriage seemed to bring out the worst in her. She and her new husband became heavy drug users, and she was soon said to be injecting heroin. The couple were frequently photographed looking much the worse for wear, and Winehouse's arms bore the marks of self-inflicted cuts. She collapsed from an overdose in the summer, and paid the first of several unsuccessful visits to rehab.
Fielder-Civil was arrested in November 2007, and subsequently pleaded guilty to attacking a pub landlord and attempting to pervert the course of justice by offering him £200,000 to keep quiet about it. While he was on remand, Winehouse lurched on as best she could. She cancelled concerts, struck up a friendship with fellow junkie Pete Doherty and tried rehab again. In the midst of it all, her talent still unquenched, she won five Grammy awards in February 2008.
The couple's relationship ended when Fielder-Civil was received a jail sentence of 27 months the following July. Despite initially saying she would wait for him, they divorced in 2009 and she moved temporarily to the Caribbean island of St Lucia, where she hoped to escape the pernicious influence of the drug crowd in Camden, north London. Her flat in Camden was conveniently close to her favourite pub, the Hawley Arms. While she claimed to have kicked drugs in St Lucia, she admitted that she was drinking to compensate – though not to excess, she insisted.
Several other relationships followed, the longest-lasting with Reg Traviss, director of the films Screwed and Psychosis. Winehouse also began to record the follow-up to Back to Black: the head of Universal, Lucian Grainge, pronounced the demos "fantastic". She also launched her own label, Lioness, whose first signing was her 13-year-old goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield.
Nonetheless, Winehouse was constantly in one sort of trouble or another. She was arrested several times for public order offences, and hospitalised for emphysema and the pain caused by breast implants. There were always signs that she had not conquered the demons that she battled throughout her career: last year the tabloid papers ran a photo of her unconscious on a bench outside a pub, and last month she behaved so erratically on stage in the Serbian capital of Belgrade that the rest of her summer tour was cancelled.
Her final public appearance came three days before her death, at a gig by Bromfield at the Roundhouse, Camden. Winehouse danced in dreamy circles, then disappeared without singing a note.
Last March she made her final recording, the pop standard Body and Soul with Tony Bennett, to be released on his album Duets II in September. Bennett remembered her as "an extraordinary musician with a rare intuition as a vocalist": during the chaotic last years of her life, she was frequently compared to other singers with tempestuous existences, such as Billie Holiday and Édith Piaf.
She is survived by her parents and brother, Alex.

• Amy Jade Winehouse, pop singer-songwriter, born 14 September 1983; died 23 July 2011

Norway attack: at least 80 die in Utøya shooting, seven in Oslo bombing

The island of Utøya, where at least 80 people have died after a gunman opened fire at a summer camp. 

A Norwegian dressed as a police officer killed at least 80 people at an island retreat, police said early on Saturday. It took investigators several hours to begin to realise the full scope of the massacre, which followed an explosion in Oslo that killed seven and that police say was set off by the same suspect.
Police initially said about 10 people were killed at the camp on the island of Utøya, but some survivors said they thought the toll was much higher. Police director Øystein Mæland told reporters early on Saturday they had discovered many more victims.
"It's taken time to search the area. What we know now is that we can say that there are at least 80 killed at Utøya," Mæland said. "It goes without saying that this gives dimensions to this incident that are exceptional."
Mæland said the death toll could rise even more. He said others were severely injured, but police did not know how many were hurt.
A suspect in the shootings and the Oslo explosion was arrested. Though police did not release his name, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK identified him as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight.
A police official said the suspect appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that "it seems that this is not linked to any international terrorist organisations". The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.
The official said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center."
The motive was unknown, but both attacks were in areas connected to the ruling Labour party government. The youth camp, about 20 miles northwest of Oslo, is organised by the party's youth wing, and the prime minister had been scheduled to speak there on Saturday.
The blast in Oslo left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings. Most of the windows in the block where the prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, and his administration work were shattered.
The police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Oslo bombing occurred at 3.26pm local time, and the camp shootings began one to two hours later. The official said the gunman used automatic weapons and handguns, and that there was at least one unexploded device at the youth camp that a police bomb disposal team and military experts were disarming.
Seven people were killed by the blast in Oslo, four of whom have been identified. Nine or 10 people were seriously injured.

Stepping Hill Hospital deaths: Nurse still questioned

 

Rebecca Leighton was arrested at her home in Stockport

Detectives are continuing to question a nurse on suspicion of murder over five deaths at a hospital in Stockport.

Three men and two women, aged between 44 and 84, have all died at Stepping Hill Hospital in the past month.
Police believe their deaths are linked to the contamination of saline. Insulin was injected to 36 containers of the solution.
Officers have until 21:05 BST to hold 27-year-old Rebecca Leighton, of Heaviley in Stockport.
They could then re-apply to a magistrate for further time to question her.
She was arrested at her flat in Buxton Road early on Wednesday morning.
The police investigation initially centred on the deaths of three patients - Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and 84-year-old George Keep.
On Thursday, police confirmed it had widened to include two further deaths.

 

Derek Weaver died on Thursday morning

 

Derek Weaver, 83, died on Thursday morning and a woman, 84, died on 14 July.
Mr Weaver was described by his family as "a lovely gentleman".
A 41-year-old man remained critically ill in hospital.
Police are also looking at the treatment of eight other patients since 7 July.
Assistant Chief Constable Ian Hopkins has said it was likely Greater Manchester Police would be asked to investigate further deaths.
He would not rule out making further arrests.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has said proceedings are under way to suspend Ms Leighton's nursing registration while she is under investigation.

Space shuttle Atlantis makes final landing

Space shuttle Atlantis has landed back on Earth, bringing to a close America's 30-year orbiter programme.

The vehicle swept into the Kennedy Space Center, its wheels touching the runway just before local sunrise.
Nasa's shuttles were instrumental in building the space station, and were used to launch the Hubble telescope.
"The space shuttle changed the way we view the world and it changed the way we view the Universe," said commander Chris Ferguson on landing.
"There's a lot of emotion today but one thing's indisputable: America's not going to stop exploring," he radioed to mission control.
Retirement of Nasa's iconic shuttle fleet was ordered by the US government, in part due to the high cost of maintaining the ships.
The decision leaves the country with no means of putting astronauts in orbit.
The US space agency's intention is to invite the private sector to provide it with space transport services, and a number of commercial ventures already have crew ships in development.
These are unlikely to be ready to fly for at least three or four years, however.
In the interim, Nasa will rely on the Russians to ferry its people to and from the International Space Station (ISS).
Despite the dark skies over Florida's Space Coast, large crowds came out to try to glimpse Atlantis as it made its historic return from orbit. Even in Texas, where mission control is sited, people mingled outside the gates of the Johnson Space Center.
The de-orbit track brought Atlantis across central Florida and the Titusville-Mims area before a hard bank to the left put the vehicle on a line to Runway 15 at Kennedy.

A huge cheer went up across the Kennedy Space Centre as the space shuttle Atlantis touched down for the final time just before dawn.
Many here believe this is the end of an era and the end, for now, of America's dominance in space.
It is a bitter-sweet moment. Nasa plans to celebrate the shuttle programme's countless milestones over the next few days but on Friday thousands of workers will lose their jobs.
For now, though, this is a chance for everyone involved in the 30-year programme to reflect on what the world's first re-usable spacecraft has achieved.
Over the decades, the orbiters deployed almost 200 satellites, carried out important scientific research and built the International Space Station.
A chapter in human space exploration has now closed for good, but the space shuttles' place in history is assured.

Atlantis' rear wheels touched the ground at 0556 local time (0956 GMT; 1056 BST).

It marked a moment of high emotion for the Space Coast - not least because the return of Atlantis will trigger a big lay-off of contractor staff. More than 3,000 people involved in shuttle operations will lose their jobs within days.
The orbiter programme itself does not officially end for a month, but even then it is likely to take a couple of years to close all activities, such as the archiving of decades of shuttle engineering data.
For Atlantis, its retirement will be spent as a static display at the Kennedy visitor complex.
The Discovery and Endeavour shuttles, which made their final flights earlier this year, will go to the Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia and the California Science Center in Los Angeles, respectively.
Nasa itself hopes to invest money saved from shuttle operations in a new spaceship and rocket that can take humans beyond the ISS to destinations such as the Moon, asteroids and Mars.
The conical ship, known as Orion, has already been defined and is in an advanced stage of development. The rocket, on the other hand, is still an unknown quantity.
The US Congress has told the agency what its minimum capabilities should be. However, the agency is currently struggling to put those specifications into a concept it says can be built to the timeline and budget specified by the politicians.
It promises to detail the rocket's baseline design before the summer is out.

Serbia holds Croatia war crimes suspect Goran Hadzic

 

Goran Hadzic is the last major war crimes suspect wanted by the tribunal in The Hague

Serbian authorities say they have arrested Goran Hadzic, the last remaining fugitive sought by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Mr Hadzic, 52, is wanted for atrocities committed in the 1991-1995 war in Croatia. He led Croatian Serb separatist forces.
The arrest comes less than two months after Serbia caught former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.
Mr Hadzic is charged with the murder of hundreds of Croats and other non-Serbs.
Serbian President Boris Tadic confirmed the arrest at a news conference.
He said Mr Hadzic was detained early on Wednesday in the mountainous Fruska Gora region, north of Belgrade, near his family home. He had always been presumed to be hiding there, the BBC's Mark Lowen reports from Belgrade.
Mr Hadzic went into hiding seven years ago, shortly after the sealed indictment against him was delivered to the government in Belgrade.
He may be transferred to The Hague within days. Gen Mladic was arrested on 26 May and flown to The Hague on 31 May.

EU leaders congratulated Serbia for capturing Mr Hadzic, calling it a signal of Serbia's commitment to "a better European future". Mr Tadic has made joining the EU a key goal of Serbian foreign policy.
Wartime atrocities Mr Hadzic was a central figure in the self-proclaimed Serb republic of Krajina in 1992-1993, leading the campaign to block Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia.
Mr Hadzic, indicted in 2004, faces 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecution, extermination, torture, deportation and wanton destruction for his involvement in atrocities committed by Serb troops in Croatia.

Goran Hadzic was long eclipsed by the other big names on the most wanted list - Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who face even more serious charges from the Bosnian war.
But with the arrest of Karadzic in 2008 and Mladic in May this year, Goran Hadzic suddenly became the number one target.
State resources were redirected towards his capture; Serbia was determined that Hadzic would not be the one that got away.
President Tadic said that pressure from the EU did not drive the move. But he will now expect to be rewarded by Brussels.
Serbia will hope to receive EU candidate status and a start date for accession talks. And for this nation, desperate to move on from the 1990s, it is another big step towards its rehabilitation.

He is held responsible for the massacre of almost 300 men in Vukovar in 1991 by Croatian Serb troops and for the deportation of 20,000 people from the town after it was captured.

President Tadic insisted that Serbian investigators had been "working very hard in the past three years" to capture Mr Hadzic.
"You have to prepare your actions, at the end of the day you get concrete results," he said, comparing the search for Mr Hadzic to the decade-long US hunt for Osama Bin Laden, who was shot dead by US special forces this year.
The Hadzic case was seen as the last big obstacle to Serbia gaining EU candidate status and a start date for accession talks. There was a $1.4m (£870,000) bounty out for his capture.
European congratulations A statement from EU leaders said the arrest was "a further important step for Serbia in realising its European perspective and equally crucial for international justice.
"We salute the determination and commitment of Serbia's leadership in this effort.
"Following the capture of Ratko Mladic, this arrest sends a positive signal to the European Union and to Serbia's neighbours, but most of all on the rule of law in Serbia itself. The Serbian nation is in the process of confronting the past and turning the page to a better European future."

Counts against Goran Hadzic

• Count 1: PERSECUTION of Croats and other non-Serbs, on political, racial, and religious grounds
• Counts 2-4: EXTERMINATION AND MURDER of hundreds of Croats and non-Serbs, including 264 taken from Vukovar hospital and shot
• Counts 5-9: IMPRISONMENT, TORTURE, INHUMANE ACTS AND CRUEL TREATMENT against thousands of detainees, in camps where torture, starvation and sexual assault were common
• Counts 10-11: DEPORTATION, FORCIBLE TRANSFER of up to 90,000 Croats and non-Serbs from parts of Croatia
• Counts 12-14: WANTON DESTRUCTION, PLUNDER OF PUBLIC OR PRIVATE PROPERTY including homes and religious and cultural buildings

The statement was issued by EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton.

Separately, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also praised Belgrade for the arrest, saying it would "allow for the most painful chapter in recent European history to be closed".
Mr Hadzic lived openly in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad until 13 July 2004, when he fled because of the indictment against him, Reuters news agency reports.
For years the prosecutors in The Hague complained that Belgrade was not doing enough to track down top war crimes suspects including Mr Hadzic, and that criticism delayed progress in Serbia's EU bid.