Briefly: Europe

NORWAY

Oslo massacre victims memorialized in ceremony

OSLO — Norway’s King Harald told citizens that freedom is stronger than fear Sunday, as the country concluded a monthlong mourning period with a candlelit memorial service to the 77 people killed by a right-wing extremist.

Addressing the gathering of 6,700 people in Oslo’s Spektrum arena, Harald said he felt for each person in the country, but that he was certain Norway would surmount its pain.

“I firmly believe that we will uphold our ability to live freely and openly in our country,” he said.

Elsewhere in the city, flags flew at half-staff as people lay flowers and children blew soap bubbles outside the cathedral.

The ceremony in the arena, which also hosts the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, was broadcast live on national television and was attended by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, government members, lawmakers and leading politicians and royals from neighboring countries.

BRITAIN

Tony Blair warns of riots response

LONDON — Former Prime Minister Tony Blair weighed in Sunday on the debate over the causes of this month’s riots, attacking current premier David Cameron’s claims that the country’s “moral decline” was to blame.

Two weeks after an unprecedented frenzy of looting and violence broke out in English cities, Mr. Blair made a rare intervention into domestic politics to warn that a flawed analysis risks producing the wrong policy response.

“Britain, as a whole, is not in the grip of some general ’moral decline.’ ” the former Labor leader wrote in the Observer newspaper. “The big cause is the group of young, alienated, disaffected youth who are outside the social mainstream and who live in a culture at odds with any canons of proper behavior.”

Debate has raged in Britain over why so many people went on the rampage, from the left’s claim that it was largely about deprivation, to assertions by Mr. Cameron and his Conservative Party that a lack of responsibility in society was to blame.

Mr. Cameron last week vowed to confront a “slow-motion moral collapse” in parts of the country, saying his priority is mending the “broken society.”

Writing in the Sunday Express, Mr. Cameron reiterated this, blaming the rioting on “a decline in responsibility, a rise in selfishness, a growing sense that individual rights come before anything else.”

However Mr. Blair, who was prime minister from 1997 to 2007, insisted: “The key is to understand that [the rioters] aren’t symptomatic of society at large. Failure to get this leads to a completely muddle-headed analysis.”

RUSSIA

Stealth fighter aborts takeoff at air show

ZHUKOVSKY — Russia’s first stealth fighter jet had to abort a takeoff at Moscow’s International Aviation and Space Show on Sunday because of what officials said was a malfunction in the right engine.

The T-50 did not leave the runway and was slowed by a brake parachute.

The twin-engined jet was traveling at 60 mph when the pilot decided to abort takeoff because of a right engine malfunction, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a representative of United Aircraft Building Corp., a state-controlled holding that incorporates top Russian aircraft makers,

The T-50, which made its maiden flight in January 2010, had been kept out of the public eye before its debut at the air show on Wednesday during a visit by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The fighter is intended to match the U.S. F-22 Raptor, which entered service in 2005.

The T-50 still lacks new engines and state-of-the art equipment, and its serial production is expected to begin in 2015 at the most optimistic forecast. Two T-50s are currently undergoing tests, and another pair is expected to join them later this year.

Russia has signed deals with India to cooperate on the aircraft’s development, and hopes that the Indian air force will become a major customer for the plane.