Norway mourned those who died in a bomb blast in a government building complex in central Oslo and in a massacre at a youth camp on Utøya Island on 22 July. For this country of fewer than five million people, it was the bloodiest incident since World War II.
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King Harald V of Norway and his consort Queen Sonja attended the memorial service in the Oslo Evangelical (Lutheran) Domkirke (Cathedral) to honour the victims of the terrorist attacks.
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Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette Marit arrive for the service…
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…as did Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, his wife Ingrid Schulerud, and Eskil Pedersen (the head of the Worker’s Youth League).
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In a brief address at the service, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called the incident a “national tragedy”.
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The Cathedral was unable to accommodate everyone who wanted to come to the service, and many people stood under umbrellas in the rain on the street.
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Many survivors of the massacre on Utøya Island came to the service.
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This was the scene on the Cathedral Square early in the morning.
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The pavement on the square was awash in flowers.
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Oslo residents brought flowers and candles to the shores near Utøya Island.
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Most people in Norway expect that the king will declare an official period of mourning next week, after the search for the missing is completed.
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As foreign heads of state expressed their condolences to the King and people of Norway, the people of Oslo came to the Domkirke to pay homage to the terrorist’s victims.
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President Dmitri Medvedev sent a telegram of condolences to Norwegian King Harald V and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. “In this hour, we sincerely have compassion for and show our solidarity with the fraternal Norwegian people. I’m convinced that those who organised and carried out these merciless and senseless crimes will be brought to justice, and they’ll receive the punishment that they deserve. Please, convey my sincere condolences to the families of the victims, I support and wish recovery to all those injured in this affair”. In the above image, candles and flowers at the blast scene in Oslo.
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The information now available to us indicates that the attacks that took place in Norway on Friday killed 92 people, injured 97, and there are still some people missing. First, a bomb went off near the government complex in central Oslo, near the Office of the Prime Minister, and within a few hours, a man in a police uniform opened fire in a youth camp of the Labour Party on Utøya Island near the Norwegian capital. In the image above, we see the square in front of the Cathedral, which is a short walk from the bombing site.
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24 July 2011
RIA-Novosti
Voices from Russia 
Utøya Survivors to Sit In Norwegian Parliament
Tags: 2011 Oslo Terrorist Incident, 2013 Norwegian Parliamentary Election, Anders Behring Breivik, AUF, Breivik, Erna Solberg, EU, European Union, Gunn Karin Gjul, Jens Stoltenberg, Labour, Norway, Norwegian Labour Party, political commentary, politics, Politics of Norway, Prime Minister of Norway, Utøya
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Young candidates from the Labour Party will take part in the first parliamentary election since Breivik’s Massacre in Norway. The 27 survivors chosen from the Worker’s Youth League (AUF) of the Labour Party are expected to be slightly different from previous generations and raise tough questions. Usually, once left-wing young Labour MPs sit in the parliament (Stortinget), they’re likely to share more mainstream views with the rest of the party. However, this generation is believed to confirm confidence in staying true to their beliefs.
Gunn Karin Gjul, a Labour MP, in speaking about the terrorist attack in 2011, when 77 people were killed at the summer camp on Utøya island, noted, “The 22 July generation is a very unique generation within the Labour Party; their ideas were tested in a way that no generation since World War II in Norway has been”. The main question in the AUF candidates’ agenda is oil production. The youth wing would like some parts of the Norwegian continental shelf environmentally protected, the other branches of the party don’t believe this necessary. Another point is the immigration problem, as the AUF wants the government to be more tolerant in this respect. The liberal views of AUF members were one reason for Breivik’s attack… he wanted to stop immigration from Muslim countries to Norway and the AUF seemed to him an obstacle on the way to this. Gjul added that, as massacre survivors, they might question why Norway lacks the death penalty, why Breivik wasn’t given tougher prison conditions, or why he grew bitter and aggressive.
The crucial point in gaining a seat in the Stortinget is a candidate’s ranking on a party list. Many of the Utøya survivors running for parliament lost primary battles for safe positions higher up, so, now, they’re quite low on the list. Only 3 of the 27 survivors have high enough rankings to get elected for sure. According to Norwegian tradition, young people get involved early in politics. The current Prime Minister, Labour’s Jens Stoltenberg, became an MP at age 32, whilst one of his opponents, Conservative Erna Solberg, won election at age 28.
10 July 2013
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_07_10/Ut-ya-survivors-to-be-elected-in-Norwegian-parliament-9633/