Tveit urges effort for common values, respect

Shaken and saddened in the aftermath of the bomb attack and mass killings in his native Norway, Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, said a "huge task" lies ahead for churches and other faiths. "We must work together to find common values, ways to respect one another and . . . ways to live together without violence."

The terror and killings inflicted by Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian national, carried "a cruel irony," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokes person Melissa Fleming. "A country renowned for its impartiality, tolerance and devotion to peace, symbolized by its being home to the Nobel Peace Prize, has been subjected to such a brutal attack."

The oil- and gas-rich Nordic country of nearly 5 million people has welcomed hundreds of thousands of immigrants from around the world, taking in refugees from conflict zones such
as Afghanistan, Iraq, the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia and Libya.

Commented Tveit: "Now we know the reality of so many others in the world where violence pierces the lives of the innocent."  —ENInews