Norway Follow-Up: Up to 150,000 in Oslo Pay Homage to Victims (Al Jazeera English)

Photo: ReutersUp to 150,000 people paid homage in Oslo on Monday evening to the victims of the twin attacks that left 76 people dead. Mourners sang songs and cheered in solidarity while others placed flowers on a memorial wall next to the city hall.

Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian man, is accused of carrying out the bombing in Oslo and the shooting spree on the resort island of Utoya.

Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister, told the crowds in Oslo that Norway would not be defeated by the tragedy.

"Evil can kill a person, but it can never defeat a whole nation," he said, to loud applause.

"With the strongest of all the world's weapons - freedom of speech and democracy - do we set the course for Norway post 22 July 2011," Stoltenberg said.

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Norway Opinion: A Time for Restraint

We all need to look at how the Norwegian people and Government are dealing with this tragedy, following their lead and admiring their unflinching strength in the face of this gut-wrenching disaster. We need to allow them time to grieve in peace. They deserve the dignity of being able to bury their loved ones, care for their wounded, and find some measure of national solitude before we unleash a barrage of speculation from the impulse that we need to get to the bottom of the truth even if there is insufficient information to back up our ponderings.

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Norway Analysis: Questions and Lessons from Friday's Attacks in Oslo and Utoeya

Photo: GettyFinally, this case is an example of the dangers of a “rush to judgement” without the full facts. I am as guilty of this as anyone else with my analysis yesterday, potentially linking the attacks to Al Qaeda. Others went even further with media appearances and Twitter messages connecting the attacks to a so-called "jihadist" group that does not appear to exist. In turn, the media were only to happy to lap this up and this groundswell of misjudgements can have real consequences for ordinary people.

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Norway Follow-Up: At Least 87 Dead in Oslo Bomb, Utoeya Shootings

Anders BreivikUPDATE 1230 GMT: The youth branch of the ruling Labour Party (AUF) has said it will return to the island of Utoeya, where at least 84 of its members were killed, and continue its summer camp to show it will not yield to terror.

The head of the branch, Eskil Perdersen, said, "[We] will not be silenced. In the face of this heinous and incomprehensible attack, we have this message: AUF and its ideas will survive as they always have. We are not abdicating in the fight for our convictions. We will return to Utoeya."

UPDATE 0850 GMT: Back from a break to find that Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has appeared again on national TV to offer support for the injuries and families of the dead, although he could not express in words "how much I feel for all those affected....Many of those who lost their lives were persons I know. I know the young people and I know their parents." Stoltenberg said Utoeya Island had been "my youth paradise, and now it's been changed to hell".

Police have said Anders Behring Breivik, the main suspect in both the Utoeya shootings and the Oslo bomb appeared to a "Christian fundamentalist" from his websites. They said, "He is cooperating," while holding open the possibility that more than one shooter was involved.

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Norway Special: The Oslo Bombing and the Threat from Al Qa'eda

Photo: APThe targeting of Norway should not be a surprise. In 2003, Al Qaeda --- through its current leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri --- first threatened Norway, possibly because of the involvement of Norwegian special forces in Afghanistan. Since then, the Norwegian role in Afghanistan has expanded, although its troops are to be withdrawn later this year.

In July 2010, the Norwegian police announced the arrests of three suspected Al Qaeda members who may have been planning an attack. Two months later, the suggestion was that the attack they were planning was in retaliation for the publication of the cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad. In December 2010, there was the suicide attack in neighbouring Sweden by a British resident. On 12 July, an Iraqi-born cleric, facing deportation since 2005 as a security risk, was charged with issuing death threats against Norwegian politicians.

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Norway Video: Explosion in Prime Minister's Office Injures At Least 8

See also Norway Special: The Oslo Bombing and the Threat from Al Qa'eda

UPDATE 2045 GMT: As Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg delivers a message to the nation --- "You are not going to destroy us, you are not going to destroy our democracy" --- the Norwegian Minister of Justice says the shooter in the Utoeya attack is Norwegian.

UPDATE 1945 GMT: Police are now saying "9 or 10" people were killed in the Oslo explosion, caused by a car bomb outside the Prime Minister's office building.

UPDATE 1935 GMT: Alexandra Sandels of the Los Angeles Times passes on the first-hand observations of Swedish colleague Mattias Carlsson from the Utoeya shootings: "Between 15-20 bodies in water. Many young women. Groups of dead bodies at 4 different spots around the island. 8 people dead in one spot, 5-6 in another."

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Top 10 List: Why Libya 2011 is Not Iraq 2003 (Cole)

1. The action in Libya was authorized by the United Nations Security Council. That in Iraq was not. By the UN Charter, military action after 1945 should either come as self-defense or with UNSC authorization. Most countries in the world are signatories to the charter and bound by its provisions.

2. The Libyan people had risen up and thrown off the Qaddafi regime, with some 80-90 percent of the country having gone out of his hands before he started having tank commanders fire shells into peaceful crowds. It was this vast majority of the Libyan people that demanded the UN no-fly zone. In 2002-3 there was no similar popular movement against Saddam Hussein.

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Israel-Palestine Analysis: Ramallah's International Gains v. West Jerusalem's Version of "Peace"

The Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, without offering details, said Sunday that about ten more European Union capitals will upgrade the status of Palestinian delegations in the near future:

The Israelis are afraid that the issue of recognition of a Palestinian state would enter the EU. We urge the international community to salvage the two-state solution by recognizing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

The best description of Ramallah's expectations from the international developments came from a PA official who talked to The Jerusalem Post. He said that the Palestinian pursuit of international recognition will shift the conflict from one over “occupied Palestinian territories” to one over an “occupied state with defined borders".

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Israel-Palestine Analysis: US Congress Blasts Recognition of Palestinian State but International Pressure Increases

On Thursday, US lawmakers condemned the Latin American wave of recognition of the "State of Palestine". The House of Representatives approved a resolution opposing the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, claiming "true and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties".

The resolution calls on the US administration to "deny recognition to any unilaterally declared Palestinian state and veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognize a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties".

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