Showing posts with label prime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prime. Show all posts

'We will fix it up ... just like before': Norway tries to return to normal

OSLO, Norway — A Norwegian cabinet minister will make a symbolic return on Wednesday to her bomb-damaged office as the nation tries to restore some normality after the massacre by a right-winger whose lawyer believes is insane.
Friday's attacks by Anders Behring Breivik killed 76 and traumatized normally peaceful Norway, which has been struggling to come to terms with his cold-blooded shooting of young people and bomb attack in the heart of Oslo's government district.
Story: Police begin to release IDs of Norway massacre victims
Administration and Church Affairs Minister Rigmor Aasrud will be the first cabinet member to return to her normal office after the bomb blew a hole through the prime minister's office and badly damaged other buildings.For the time being, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will work from the defense ministry, which is in another part of the city, and cabinet meetings will be held in a medieval fort near the Oslo waterfront.
It is not clear whether the prime minister's 17-story building will be rebuilt or torn down.
Also Wednesday, Norwegian police evacuated Oslo's central station after a suspicious suitcase was discovered on a bus. All train and bus services were halted.

Norwegians fill Oslo cathedral to mourn

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, center, his wife Ingrid Schulerud, and Eskil Pedersen, leader of the Labor Party youth wing, lay flowers before a memorial service at an Oslo cathedral. (July 24, 2011)

OSLO, Norway—
"Today we are mourning. Today we want to stop and remember those who died," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at the service, as attendees in the pews wept.

In all, 92 people were killed and 97 wounded in the Oslo bombing and Utoya Island shooting rampage. There are still people missing at both scenes, and divers were searching the waters around the island for bodies.

Stoltenberg grew emotional as he recalled a woman named Monica who had worked at the island youth camp for 20 years. "She has died, shot and killed while she tried to create safety and happiness for young people," Stoltenberg said.

"Soon we will be given the names and pictures of those who have died, and then the size and scale of this cruelty will become apparent. This will be a new trial for us, but we will manage that one as well. In the middle of all this tragedy I am proud to live in a country that is able to stand at such a critical moment, to stand together."

Also Sunday, Oslo Deputy Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim said the suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, was cooperating, and that "the dialogue between him and police has been good."

Police would not comment on the long right-wing online manifesto attributed to Breivik, saying only that it was part of the investigation.