The following text, found in the 1,500 manifesto of Anders Breivik Behring, the 32-year-old right-wing extremist who masterminded the twin terrorist attacks in Norway recently, has been circulating on the Chinese interwebs lately. In it, Breivik talks about his time in China which led him to the conclusion that unlike the people in Islamic countries who are "directly hostile to Europeans", the Chinese are "usually just after your money". He also mentions his stepmother, who he claims was the Norwegian Vice Consul in Shanghai:

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"Al Qaeda once sent five terrorists to China: One was sent to blow up a bus, but he wasn’t able to squeeze onto it; one was sent to blow up a supermarket, but the bomb was stolen from his basket; one was sent to blow up a train, but tickets were sold-out; finally, one succeeded in bombing a coal mine, and hundreds of workers died. He returned to Al Qaeda’s headquarters to await the headlines about his success, but it was never reported by the Chinese press. Al Qaeda executed him for lying." more ›

Shanghai Daily reports that a morning raid on a border patrol police division in Kashi, Xinjiang Province today left 16 armed policemen dead and another 16 injured. Two men smashed two trucks into the police station at around 8am, got out of their vehicles, stabbed several policemen and then ended the attack by throwing grenades at the police. They have since been arrested. [AFP] [Al-Jazeera] [Bloomberg] more ›

Urumqi police have raided an apartment which housed 15 ethnic Uyghurs and alleged Islamic terrorists shouting "sacrifice for Allah". A spokesman said they tried to break out when police used tear gas to flush them out, wielding knives and injuring one policeman. Subsequently, police shot dead five, injured another two (which were sent to the hospital) and captured the remaining nine. A Xinhua report says the suspects have confessed that they've been planning for a 'holy war' to kill 'infidel' Han people. [Reuters] [The Telegraph] more ›

Swimming just got a whole lot safer. State media reported on Friday that all Shanghai public swimming pools will now have "specially trained staff" smelling the shampoo and body wash of all swimmers before entry is allowed in an effort "guard against explosions or other "terrorist attacks". Recently "some 400 of the city's more than 450 pools had passed safety examinations", but what of the remaining 50 pools? Well they may be "oblivious of the new rule". Bomb sniffing dogs in the airport, security checks in the metro stations, people smelling your shampoo. We feel so much safer already. See the full Reuters story more ›