Latest update: 15/12/2011 

- Belgium - guns - Norway - serial killers


Should gun controls be tightened?

When lone gunman Nordine Amrani opened fire on holiday shoppers in the Belgian city of Liege on Tuesday, the authorities were caught on the backfoot. Although Amrani was already known to police, he had no signs of mental illness and even those closest to him are struggling to comprehend Amrani's actions. The attack comes just months after Anders Behring Brevik shot dead dozens of Norwegian youths. Now, experts are calling for European gun laws to be reviewed.

By Mark Thompson
Closing the pay gap between men and women
25/04/2013 - FRANCE

Closing the pay gap between men and women

The French government says it's getting tough on employers who flout equal pay laws. Recently two companies were fined for violating equality legislation. According to the European Commission, the problem isn't restricted to France. Brussels says that, on average, men are paid 16 per cent more than women across the European Union.
Hollande the salesman visits new Chinese president
25/04/2013 - CHINA

Hollande the salesman visits new Chinese president

French President Francois Hollande has become the first foreign head of state to be received by new Chinese leader Xi Jinping. While his predecessor irked China over issues such as Tibet, Hollande is seeking to forget the past and start relations afresh - not least to boost the French economy. His hopes of launching new trade ties are helped by the fact that Shanghai is home to the largest community of French expatriates in China... and that the Chinese love all things French.
TV fans defend Afghan soap opera against conservative critics
24/04/2013 - AFGHANISTAN

TV fans defend Afghan soap opera against conservative critics

Afghanistan's TV industry is thriving. Since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, more than 40 channels have been created. Shows are usually imported from India, Turkey and even South Korea. But one of them is different: "University FM" is an Afghan-made soap opera that's breaking taboos by running storylines on arranged marriages and Islamism. The show has done well in the ratings, but it's provoked anger, particularly in a country where actresses are still considered by many to be prostitutes.
France legalises same-sex marriage in face of protests
23/04/2013 - FRANCE

France legalises same-sex marriage in face of protests

It's an issue that has divided French society for months, but this Tuesday, the National Assembly finally approved a bill making France the 14th country in the world to allow same-sex marriage. The bill also grants gay and lesbian couples the right to adopt children. But the past months have been marred by widespread demonstrations, for and against, and even a spate of violent homophobic attacks. We look back at the debate and division leading up to Tuesday's historic vote.
Polish community seeks to learn more about its Jewish heritage
23/04/2013 - POLAND

Polish community seeks to learn more about its Jewish heritage

Poland is marking 70 years since the start of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. It was the first major act of resistance against the occupying Nazis during World War II and went down in history as a heroic act to restore the dignity of a condemned people. Indeed, of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis, half of them were Polish. Poland had the largest Jewish population of any country before World War II; it now has only around 20,000.

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(1) Reaction

gun control

No.

We have strict gun control in the UK, has it stopped mass shootings? No.

Names of the locations here in the UK ring as loudly as those across the face of the globe, Dunblane, Hungerford, Cumbria to name a few of te more notorious events.

Those were multi killings by one person, then, extending back over the last hundred years or so there are many hundreds of individual murders by firearms.

Among the more well known are.....

Ruth Ellis, hanged for shooting her lover

Bentley, for being an accomplice in the killing, by gun,
of a policeman.

and a whole series of the same over then last six or seven decades

Does gun control work?

Obviously, here in the UK, it seems not to.

I can see nothing to be gained from a kneejerk reaction to these recent events in Liege and Norway.

What I can see is just another tranche of misguided do do-gooders wanting to hand the public's right to own, and sensibly use, a firearm, over to yet another tranche of control freaks,

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