New Delhi: Steve Jobs, co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Apple,Inc., is no more. He was 56. Jobs had been battling pancreatic cancer since 2004 and received a liver transplant in 2009. In the latter stages of his cancer battle, he gave up the day-to-day running of the company but remained chairman of its board of directors.

Apple on Thursday (September 6) announced the death of its visionary co-founder on its website, saying, “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

“Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

“His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”

According to his family members, Jobs “died peacefully today surrounded by his family. We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief.”

The charismatic former CEO of Apple revolutionised modern culture with Apple’s ubiquitous inventions like the iPod and the iPad.

President Barack Obama joined an outpouring of tributes to Steve Jobs, calling the Apple co-founder a visionary and great American innovator.

“Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it,” Obama said of Jobs, who died on Wednesday.

“The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”

The U.S. President was joined by political, technology, entertainment and business leaders around the world in paying tribute to Jobs.

Paying tribute to Steve, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a posting on the world’s leading online social networking site: “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.”

Microsoft CO-Founder and Chairman Bill Gates said: “Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives. The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor.”

In his message, Dell Inc CEO Michael Dell said: “Today the world lost a visionary leader, the technology industry lost an iconic legend and I lost a friend and fellow founder. The legacy of Steve Jobs will be remembered for generations to come.”

During a roundtable discussion with Hispanic journalists, Obama said the Palestinian effort would not solve the problem of statehood, said the reports. The Obama administration had already explicitly said that it would veto any Palestinian bid at the UN Security Council.

“This issue is only going to be resolved by Israelis and Palestinians agreeing on something,” he said.

Obama said the likely scenario was that the Palestinians would have their status elevated from the nonvoting observer entity to nonvoting observer state at the UN General Assembly which would start later this month.

But he made it clear that if the issue was brought to the UN Security Council, the United States would “object very strongly.”

The Palestinians said that they had decided to go to the world body later in September to request the recognition of a full membership of the state of Palestine established on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Analysts say that the potential veto by Washington at the UN Security Council would likely inflame anti-U.S. sentiment in the Muslim population and further alienate an already turbulent Arab world.

Cameron vowed an “all-out war on gang culture” in the face of “a wake-up call” for the country after “social problems that have been festering for decades exploded in our face.”

(Courtesy: Xinhua/Reuters)

He also confirmed that his government would review the relating policies over the next few weeks in a bid to tackle the causes of the violence.

Speaking in his parliamentary constituency of Witney, in Oxfordshire, Cameron admitted that the riots were caused by many social and cultural problems, not least the anti-social and irresponsible behavior of rioters.

He placed the blame on “children without fathers; schools without discipline; reward without effort; crime without punishment; rights without responsibilities; communities without control.”

Cameron also criticized the policies of past governments which had pulled back from tough policing and extended the already extensive welfare system.

“Some of the worst aspects of human nature have been tolerated, indulged –sometimes even incentivized–by a state and its agencies that in parts have become literally demoralized,” the Prime Minister said.

In the speech, Cameron put pro-family policies at the heart of future government domestic policies, saying “if we want to have any hope of mending our broken society, family and parenting is where we’ve got to start.”

Arrests were continued in the wake of the riots with police saying there have now been nearly 3,000 arrests. Courts have been working around the clock to cope with the cases. About 1,300 people have been charged, of which 1,000 have stood in court.

In Birmingham, where serious violence broke out last Monday and Tuesday, a peace rally was held Sunday. The rally was in memory of three Asian men who were killed when a car was driven across their bodies as they stood on the pavement protecting their community. Police have arrested and charged two men with murder in relation to the incident.

Police had posted 16,000 officers on the streets of London to prevent a repeat of Monday night’s scene of arson, looting, muggings and assaults that took place as hundreds of rioters clashed with police in many parts of the city.

In Manchester city center police were engaged in running battles through the early and mid-evening with a crowd which eyewitnesses said was about 2,000 strong. Shop windows were smashed and a women’s clothes shop was petrol-bombed, and several businesses — including a jeweler’s and clothes shops — were looted.

Earlier police had clashed with a much smaller group of youths in the neighboring city of Salford, where a community building was set on fire and several businesses attacked.

Police in the West Midlands reported trouble in Birmingham city center, where there had been trouble on Monday night, and also in the town of West Bromwich and the nearby city of Wolverhampton, which had both been spared violence on earlier nights.

In Birmingham, a 200-strong gang of youths with sticks was confronted by riot police amid reports of attacks on shops and a car being set on fire.

Police in Wolverhampton had made 20 arrests by mid-evening. In West Bromwich hooded youths blocked a road and set fire to dustbins but later dispersed after burning two vehicles.

In the east London area of Canning Town, some youths were reported to have built barricades and stoned passing vehicles.

Also in London, theaters in riot-hit areas such as the Battersea Arts Center, the Dalston Arcola and the Greenwich Playhouse, cancelled their evening’s performances, and shops in many parts of London closed earlier than usual. Many office workers left earlier to avoid being in the city if rioting began again.

The districts of Peckham, Lewisham, Croydon and Deptford in south London saw violence, as well as Hackney in east London. Shops were set on fire in Peckham, a building set alight in Croydon and cars were torched in Lewisham and Deptford.

Police reported they had made arrests in the north London district of Kilburn.

Courtesy: Xinhua

Meanwhile, Cameron has decided to cut short his holiday to return to London due to the ongoing riots, his office said on Monday night.

Cameron, who is on vacation in Italy, will return overnight and hold a high-level meeting on the escalating riots on Tuesday, his office said in a brief statement.

For the first time since the violence began on Saturday evening, disturbances have been reported outside London.

Police in Birmingham said they confronted a crowd of 200 youths who had smashed shop windows in the city center, and in the town of Croydon, police were facing a violent crowd in the town center.

Eyewitness accounts from the east London district of Hackney said that cars and vans had been burnt, shops looted and torched and that police in riot gear were fighting with rioters in the center of the district.

London was hit by rioting, looting and arson after police shot and killed Mark Duggan, aged 29, as they tried to arrest him on Thursday evening.

A protest on Saturday evening in the Tottenham area of north London, where the shooting took place, became violent and rioters looted shops in the area and burnt two police cars, a bus and several shops and private homes.

Sunday evening saw an outbreak of copycat rioting in east and north London and some violence in the central shopping district of Oxford Street.

Police said they had expected violence on Monday evening after monitoring social network sites. As a result, shops in Hackney were closed early and police moved into the area.

There was also a more visible police presence on the streets of many of the city’s districts. London mayor Boris Johnson has also cut short his holiday because of the seriousness of the rioting and will return to London on Tuesday.

Both Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Home Secretary Theresa May had both returned to their jobs after holidays on Monday. Both condemned the outbreaks of violence.

Clegg said “Earlier this afternoon I saw for myself the loss and devastation caused by mindless destruction in Tottenham. But, more than anything — more than the smashed-up buildings, the empty shops,the sight of so many police on the streets — I was struck by the determination of local people to stand together against the violence.”

May said, “I think this is about sheer criminality. That is what we have seen on the streets. The violence we’ve seen, the looting we’ve seen, the thuggery we’ve seen — this is sheer criminality.”

“That’s why I say that these people will be brought to justice, they will be made to face the consequences of their actions.”

Meanwhile, local media quoted police as saying that a police marksman had fired two shots when Duggan was killed and that he had not fired any weapon in return. This contradicts some earlier media reports which said that a bullet, possibly fired by Duggan, had been found lodged in the radio worn by a policeman at the scene.

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Barack Obama Sunday night unveiled a last-minute debt ceiling deal endorsed by Republican and Democratic leaders, in a bid to stave off a looming debt default crisis and ease market jitters.

The U.S. federal government’s borrowing limit, currently at 14.29 trillion U.S. dollars, was reached on May 16. The Treasury Department said that it would run out of cash to pay its bills unless Congress agreed to raise the limit by Aug. 2.

Obama stressed the deal also promised deficit cutting, saying the first tranche of deficit cutting would be about 1 trillion dollars over the next decade. But he said spending cuts would not come too quickly to hurt the fragile U.S. economic recovery.

“The result would be the lowest level of annual domestic spending since Dwight Eisenhower was President — but at a level that still allows us to make job-creating investments in things like education and research,” he said.

The package would also set up a bipartisan and two-chamber congressional committee to find new deficit reduction ways in line with the second tranche of debt limit increase by November, Obama noted.

The White House said the panel will be tasked with finding a deficit of at least 1.5 trillion dollars to trim.

File photo of Barack Obama

An enforcement mechanism will also be established to force all parties to agree to balanced deficit reduction. If the committee fails, the enforcement mechanism will trigger spending reductions beginning in 2013, with evenly split spending cuts between domestic and defense programs.

However, the enforcement protects Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries and low-income programs from any cuts, the White House said.

Obama said this deal was not the one he preferred, but “this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need, and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year.”

This deal would lift the federal debt limit in two stages by at least 2.1 trillion dollars, enough for the White House to tide over the 2012 elections, a stance the Obama administration strongly supported.

However, it was a tentative proposal, as any compromise plan still needs to clear a Democratic-controlled Senate and a Republican-held House, where many of the 87 freshman lawmakers are Tea Party-backed conservatives who have asked for steep spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

“We’re not done yet,” Obama said, urging U.S. lawmakers to approve the debt ceiling compromise plan in the next few days.

Leading U.S. lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Sunday expressed optimism for a deal within reach and offered support to the emerging package.

After speaking to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Sunday morning, Reid said on the Senate floor that he was “hopeful” that Democratic negotiators were “close to an agreement” with Republican leaders.

“I ask those who have said they will never compromise on any terms to think about who their stubbornness will hurt,” Reid urged.

“We can not allow the U.S. economy to lapse into a default,” Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin said on the Senate floor during an unusual Sunday session.

U.S. Senate Republicans Sunday blocked a debt ceiling proposal put forth by Reid. By a vote of 50 to 49, the Reid plan fell short of the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle to end a Republican filibuster and advance in the 100-member chamber.

Forty-three Republican senators including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell Saturday signed a joint letter to voice their opposition to the Reid plan and vowed to block the measure to move forward.

The outcome of the symbolic test vote did not affect the broader ongoing effort of both parties to come up with a compromise plan. Experts held that elements of the Reid plan and an earlier plan by House Speaker John Boehner were incorporated in the package.

However, the right-tilted deficit cutting proposal without guaranteed revenue might face a backlash from liberal Democrats.

Although Reid had a head start in backing the blueprint compromise deal, key House Democrats including Chris Van Hollen, a senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee, suggested Democratic House leaders should wait for House Republicans to play their hand openly first.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday afternoon that Democrats in the House have not decided to support the last-ditch compromise deal to raise the U.S. debt limit, adding some fresh uncertainty to the bitter stalemate.

Pelosi told reporters that she will discuss the tentative agreement with House Democrats on Monday.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde Sunday urged the United States to solve the debt ceiling problem in a timely manner to avoid negative global repercussions, given the importance of the U.S. economy in the world.

Dire economic downturns — including the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s — giant tax cuts, costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a pricey new health program for the elderly all helped sour Washington’s fiscal picture.

Or, as President Barack Obama put it literally in a speech late Monday to plead for a blend of deep cuts to government programs and increases to tax revenues: “For the last decade, we’ve spent more money than we took in.”

Indeed, Washington posted a $236.2 billion federal budget surplus in the fiscal year ending October 1, 2000, and expected to post a $710 billion surplus a decade later, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

“However, enactment of major legislation during the past decade, in combination with changing economic conditions, altered the long-term federal budget outlook dramatically,” the CBO said in a March 2010 report.

The dramatic turnaround has left Obama predicting, in his budget released in February, a staggering $1.65 trillion deficit for the current fiscal year, a figure the CBO recently narrowed to about $1.3 trillion.

Obama’s fellow Democrats like to point out that Washington was running a surplus when Democratic then-president Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, and swung to sky-high deficits under his Republican successor George W. Bush.

But Clinton benefited from deficit-slashing measures enacted by his predecessor, George H. W. Bush, including tax increases that alienated fellow Republicans and helped cost the Republican reelection, as well as a high-tech bubble that helped inflate government revenues.

The younger Bush came into office in January 2001, initially citing the surplus forecasts as a reason to enact historic tax cuts, which he muscled through Congress over strong Democratic objections.

But the high-tech bubble burst, the US economy went into a recession in March 2001, and the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes traumatized the country, followed by tensions over the US invasion of Afghanistan.

Bush ordered US forces into Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, and with his Republican allies in theUS Congress beat back Democratic calls for tax increases or other measures to pay for both conflicts.

But plenty of Democrats ultimately voted to fund the wars on Bush’s terms, like a young senator named Barack Obama, who backed some $300 billion in such spending between taking office in 2005 and his history-making 2008White House run.

And plenty of top Republicans now loudly embracing fiscal sobriety backed Bush’s approach with little if any complaint, including House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority LeaderMitch McConnell.

The United States spent roughly $1.283 trillion on the two wars to 2011, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in a March 2011 report.

And the CRS said in a May 2011 that the overall cost of tax cuts passed in 2001, 2003, and 2004 cost Washington some $1.76 trillion in revenues to 2011.

A new government-backed prescription drug benefit for the elderly, approved in 2003 with bipartisan support, added another $552.2 billion over ten years, the CRS said, citing a CBO analysis.

By the time Bush’s second four-year term ended in January 2009, he had piled $4.9 trillion more on top of the $5.7 trillion in debt he had inherited, and the US economy was in freefall, a victim of the 2008 global economic collapse.

“Wall Street got drunk,” he explained memorably in July 2008. “It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover.”

Obama’s proposed cure, an $800-billion-dollar stimulus plan passed in 2009 over Republican opposition, stemmed job losses but failed to keep unemployment below 8.0 percent, as the White House had promised.

The US national debt deepened, reaching its congressionally set $14.3 trillion on May 16 and forcing Washington to use spending and accounting adjustments, as well as higher-than-expected tax receipts, to continue operating normally, which it can only do through August 2.

At that point, US leaders will face an agonizing choice about cutting an estimated 40 cents of every dollar in spending and defaulting either on debt payments or on other obligations like government health or retirement benefits.

Finance and business leaders have warned that failure to raise theUS debt ceiling by then would send shockwaves through the fragile world economy, while Obama has predicted a default would trigger economic “Armageddon.”

Republican leaders face restive members close to the archconservative Tea Party” movement who are dead set on draconian cuts, reject any tax revenue increases, and even doubt the debt ceiling needs to be raised — making a compromise elusive.

OSLO, July 24 (Xinhua) — Norway has plunged in grief as its people come to terms with life after the massive bomb blast and shooting spree on Friday killed at least 93 people.

Across Oslo, the Norwegian capital, makeshift memorials have been put up by residents near the sites damaged by the blast, and at key locations such as the country’s parliament and royal palace.

Flowers were offered and candles lit in remembrance of the 93 persons killed so far in what are described as the country’s worst attacks since World War II.

The Norwegian national flag flew at half-mast in honor of the victims.

REMEMBRANCE AFTER SHOCK

“Today we allow ourselves to honor and remember the dead,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday at a memorial service for the victims at Oslo Domkirke, the city’s historic cathedral.

The service was also attended by Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja, as well as the country’s top politicians.

“Each and every one that is taken away from us is a tragedy. And altogether, this is a national tragedy,” Stoltenberg said.

He added he was proud to live in the country that showed courage in the midst of such difficulty.

Outside, at least 2,000 people lined the streets leading to the cathedral, whose spire loomed against an overcast sky. Despite the crowds, the atmosphere was somber and quiet.

“It is very, very quiet today in Oslo. This is not usual. It seems like this has affected all the people here,” said Asbjorn Bergseng, a resident who stood with mourners in front of the cathedral.

The feeling of quiet shock was felt by others like Marit Nicolaysen, who said Friday’s tragedy made her “feel like other Norwegians: very, very sad.”

But she added, “I think we all stand together in this situation. We do not know what this will mean for our society but are hoping for the best.”

Above all, few people can imagine that an attack of this nature could happen in peaceful Norway.

“We are not used to dealing with anything like this,” said Christina Oerwen, a Swedish citizen living in Oslo. “It is something you never thought would happen in this part of the world.”

But the facts of the case are indeed shocking. On Friday, a massive explosion rocked downtown Oslo, killing seven and damaging key government buildings including the offices of the prime minister.

Hours later, a gunman dressed in police uniform blasted his way across the tiny island of Utoeya, some 40 km west of the capital, in an orgy of violent shooting that left 86 persons dead.

At the time, the island was hosting a summer camp for the youth wing of Norway’s ruling Labour Party. Stoltenberg himself had been scheduled to address the attendees, most aged between 14 and 19 years old, on Saturday.

“It is impossible to comprehend, it is like a nightmare. Words cannot express how I feel,” Stoltenberg told a press conference Saturday.

Although shattered glass litters the worst-hit streets, and buildings with blown-out windows are clearly visible, clean-up operations are well underway.

SOLIDARITY

Oslo residents are also keen to express solidarity with the victims and show that life must continue as normal. Several of them spoke to Xinhua Saturday, about how they felt in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

“I feel absolute disbelief and shock,” said Hildegunn Toftning, who was attending an impromptu public-led memorial for victims at the steps of Oslo Domkirke, along with her children.

“Who could possibly do something like this?” she said.

“From what we heard, this is the work of a very, very sick person. And that is what it takes to do something like this, I believe,” she added.

In fact, Norwegian police have arrested the lone gunman and identified him as Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian with extreme right-wing and conservative Christian beliefs. He is also said to be responsible for the bomb blast.

Now, there is a feeling that the country must come together for peace.

About a kilometer away, in front of Norway’s Royal Palace, a teenage student from Azerbaijan sat on the pavement making posters with the words: ‘Nei til terror’.

“In Norwegian, it means ‘no to terror’,” said the student who gave his name as Amir. “This event has stressed us. Nobody wants this to happen again … nobody wants any terror, any blood or guns.”

Norway is a country of just 4.8 million people, and its citizens regard themselves as a close-knit community with liberal values and a reputation for transparency in public life.

The country has been led by socialist parties since World War II, and it has a history of being a peace broker and mediator in overseas conflicts such as in the Middle East and Sri Lanka.

Its healthy economy is underpinned by vast off-shore oil reserves and the country’s social policies make it one of the world’s richest welfare states.

This is a country that is proud of what it has achieved and wants to maintain its reputation as an open-society.

“I still feel safe in Oslo because it is one of the best and safest cities in the world. Nothing can change my mind,” Amir noted.

These thoughts were echoed by Per Arne Dahl, a priest at the local Trinity Church and Chaplain at Stortinget, the Norwegian Parliament.

“We have always felt Norway is an open and safe country, so this is a new experience for us,” he said.

“It will lead us into new debates, new reflections on how we can take care of the freedom and openness we have, and at the same time, protect us against evil and terrorism,” he added.

A picture of Anders Behring Breivik taken from a book downloaded from a link posted on the Norwegian discussion website, www.freak.no, and entitled "2083 - A European Declaration of Independence", is seen in this screen grab made July 23, 2011. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Suspect admits carrying out Oslo attacks:

The suspect in Friday’s bomb attack and shooting massacre in Oslo, Norway, has admitted responsibility and will appear in a court here Monday, according to authorities and his lawyer.

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, will appear before the judges to “explain himself.” If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 21 years in jail, authorities say.

“He is prepared to testify in open court about his motives and why he committed the actions he has admitted to,” Geir Lippestad, Breivik’s defense attorney, told reporters Sunday.

Earlier on Saturday, Lippestad said Breivik “has admitted it was atrocious to have performed these actions, but in his own head, it was necessary.”

Norwegian police have confirmed Breivik’s admission and said he claimed to have acted alone.

“He has admitted that he was responsible for the bomb attack and for the killing of people on Utoeya island,” a police spokesman told a press conference in Oslo on Sunday.

Police said Breivik did not resist when armed officers arrested him on the tiny holiday island of Utoeya 40 km west of Oslo.

By that time, he had killed 86 people, mostly teenagers attending a summer camp for the youth wing of Norway’s ruling Labor Party, in a shooting spree that lasted about 90 minutes, according to eye witnesses.

An off-duty policeman was among those killed in a shootout, according to Sigve Bolstad, chairman of the Oslo Police Association.

Breivik is also held responsible for Friday’s massive bomb blast in downtown Oslo that killed seven people and damaged key government buildings including the office of the Norwegian prime minister.

Moreover, a total of 97 others have been wounded in the twin attacks.

But Lippestad told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that while admitting his actions were “atrocious,” Breivik “feels that what he has done does not deserve punishment.”

It is still unclear what his motives were, and authorities are unwilling to publicly speculate about it.

“I will not comment or speculate on the motives because it is very important not to jump to conclusions and to await the results of the on-going investigation,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told journalists on Sunday, following a visit to the bomb-damaged government quarters.

An off-duty policeman was among those killed in a shootout, according to Sigve Bolstad, chairman of the Oslo Police Association.

Breivik is also held responsible for Friday’s massive bomb blast in downtown Oslo that killed seven people and damaged key government buildings including the office of the Norwegian prime minister.

Moreover, a total of 97 others have been wounded in the twin attacks.

But Lippestad told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that while admitting his actions were “atrocious,” Breivik “feels that what he has done does not deserve punishment.”

It is still unclear what his motives were, and authorities are unwilling to publicly speculate about it.

“I will not comment or speculate on the motives because it is very important not to jump to conclusions and to await the results of the on-going investigation,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told journalists on Sunday, following a visit to the bomb-damaged government quarters.

PROFILE OF THE SUSPECT

Breivik is described as an ethnic Norwegian. Photos of him on social networking sites and local media show him with pale, clean-cut features and straight blonde hair.

According to messages posted on social networking sites and statements made to Norwegian media by persons who know him, Breivik, a conservative Christian, holds extreme right-wing views.

He enjoys weightlifting, video-games and hunting, holds strongly nationalist and anti-Muslim views, and is against multiculturalism.

Breivik posted a 1,500-page manifesto on the Internet Friday, describing the planning of the attacks and his personal philosophy.

Online searches revealed that Breivik has previously been in contact with far-right groups in Britain. He has also made derogatory remarks about leading Norwegian politicians.

According to Norwegian media, Breivik’s parents divorced when he was very young and he has subsequently had almost no contact with his father, who now lives in southern France.

Both his father and mother said they are bewildered and appalled to hear of their son’s violent actions.

Breivik had studied at an Oslo-based business college, and wanted to be an entrepreneur. But after failing at several businesses, he moved out of Oslo in 2009 and set up a farm in Asta, some 130 km north of the capital.

Police say six tons of fertilizer were delivered here in May and believe they may have been used in making explosives for Friday’s bomb attack.

The figure was revised after police said at least 80 people were killed in the shooting spree at a youth camp some 40 kilometers west of the Norwegian capital city Oslo.

The shooting is of “catastrophic dimensions” and many more victims had been discovered, Police director Oystein Maeland told a news conference early Saturday.

“The updated information we know now is at least 80,” he said.

Local police had put the death toll of the shooting spree in the Buskerud county, near Oslo, at 10.

A gunman wearing police uniforms and police identification landed on a small island about 40 kilometers west of Oslo, shooting people at a youth camp two hours after the deadly bomb explosion rocked the government building quarters in the Norwegian capital city.

A large number of people were injured in the incident.

The gunman in his 30s was described carrying a pistol and a rifle with telescopic sight. He started shooting a few minutes after he landed on the island known as Utoeya, in the Buskerud county.

The culprit, who has a Norwegian look and speaks an eastern dialect of the Norwegian language, was arrested later by police.

Eyewitnesses said the man fired several shots into participants of an annual event of the Workers’ Youth League. Some terrified young people jumped into water for safety.

At a press conference on Friday evening, Sveinung Sponheim, deputy police chief in Oslo, said they feared there was a bomb on the island.

Police were checking whether a likely correlation exists between the shooting incident and the bomb explosion which turned an area of downtown Oslo into a war-like zone.

At least seven people were killed in the bomb explosion and 16 others injured, according to a police spokesman. Two of the injured were in critical conditions.

Police said early Saturday that the deadly blast that shook Oslo city center on Friday was caused by a car bomb.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called on Norwegians to remain calm and do not let panic spread.

Until now, a Norwegian man who has links to right-wing extremis had been arrested.

“Our information is that he is a Norwegian,” Justice Minister Knut Storberget told a news conference. “I don’t know so much about him.”

Earlier reports cited police as saying that the terror acts were carried out by a home-grown terrorist.

Stoltenberg termed the incident as  ”a national disaster.”

At a press conference Saturday morning, Stoltenberg said what happened on Friday was a national tragedy which Norway has never experienced after World War II.

“It’s extraordinary hard for me because Utoeya is a place I have been every summer since 1974,” said the prime minister from the Labor Party.

Now a youth paradise has been turned into a hell in a few hours, he added.

Stoltenberg said it was difficult to express in words how much sympathy he had for those affected

The session, held just ahead of the three-week parliamentary recess, was meant to pressure on the prime minister, who had to cut short his Africa trip to personally deliver a response to the criticizers in the parliament over the scandal.

(Courtesy: Xinhua/Reuters)

But even as Cameron did manage to dispel some public doubts during the debate, he was apparently unable to put a sudden end to all the hysteria over the phone-hacking scandal.

CAMERON FIGHTS BACK

The most frequent accusation against Cameron was his appointment of Andy Coulson, the ex-editor of the tabloid News of the World (NoW) that closed on July 10 over the phone-hacking scandal, as his communications chief and media spokesman.

During Wednesday’s session, Cameron told the parliament’s culture, media and sport committee that he regretted having hired Coulson and that he was very sorry about the furor it had caused.

He told the lawmakers that in hindsight “I would not have offered him the job, and I expect that he wouldn’t have taken it.”

Cameron took responsibility for hiring Coulson, but denied any fault regarding his decision as there was no evidence showing Coulson’s link to the phone hackings when he was offered the job, and what Coulson did during his work at No. 10 Downing Street was indisputably appropriate.

Yet Labour Party leader Ed Miliband accused Cameron of making the wrong choice of sticking with Coulson after repeated warnings about Coulson’s suitability for the job as Cameron’s press spokesman.

The lawmakers also questioned Cameron on his close relationship with senior executives of News International, publisher of NoW, and media baron Rupert Murdoch, owner of News International’s parent company News Corporation.

Cameron defended himself by saying that his Labour predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had maintained a closer relationship with the Murdoch empire than him, and tried to show initiative in urging changes in the country’s tradition of the close relationship between politics and the press.

Besides these attacks on Cameron’s personal judgement and behavior, the resignations of two high-ranking police officers have also added pressure to the Cameron administration. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson and Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates stepped down several days ago due to hiring former NoW Deputy Editor Neil Wallis as a communications adviser and ill handling of the phone-hacking investigation.

NO GAME-CHANGER

While the scandal is evidently weighing on the prime minister, it’s no game-changer for British politics as so far only a handful of top officials have been involved.

According to a Sky News survey, as the debate was drawing to an end, people who say the scandal damaged Cameron’s credibility have dropped from 58 percent to 47 percent.

Moreover, although the scandal would be dominating media headlines for a while, but eventually the public cares more about things closed linked to their livelihood such as the austerity measures and the ongoing welfare and healthcare reforms.

In the end, it is the living standard that voters are really worried about, commentator Philip Stephens wrote in an article, adding that he expects the hacking “saga” would be “more of a sideshow than a slide into national decadence” by the next election.

His argument was, to some extent, vindicated by a Populus poll released on Tuesday, which indicates the hacking scandal hasn’t turned out to be an opportunity for the opposition Labour Party to rally support.

According to the survey, if there were an immediate general election, the Labour Party would have a 39-percent voting intention, one percentage point down from the previous month.