23 July 2012. VOR Presents… Memorials Held in Norway for the Victims of Last Year’s Terrorist Attack

On 22 July 2012, Norway remembered the victims of a double attack that shook the world a year ago. On that day, in the city centre’s government quarter, an explosion shook Oslo, eight people died and another 98 received various injuries. Later, the terrorist attacked a Norwegian Labour Party Workers’ Youth League (AUF) camp on Utøya Island, killing 69 people and wounding 60. The suspect in both crimes, Anders Behring Breivik, voluntarily surrendered to police.

******

Before the memorial in Oslo for the victims of a double attack began, police made a thorough inspection of the city centre, using specially-trained dogs.

******

At 11.00, Norwegian royal family members (pictured, at right, King Harald V) and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (left), laid wreaths at the explosion site at the parliamentary centre in Oslo.

******

Across Norway, memorial services marked the anniversary of the terrible events. In the image above, we see the Norwegian royal family taking part in a ceremony near a destroyed government building in Oslo. Left to right: Princess Mette-Marit, Crown Prince Haakon, Prime Minister’s wife, Ingrid, Queen Sonja, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and King Harald.

******

Members of the Norwegian royal family and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg attended a memorial service at the Oslo Domkirke. After the service, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit met with relatives of those killed and injured on 22 July 2011. From left to right: Princess Märtha Louise, Queen Sonja, and King Harald.

******

On Utøya Island, on 22 July 2012, a memorial event organised by the AUF of the Norwegian Labour Party marked the first anniversary of the tragic events that took place a year ago. A ferry took relatives and friends of the teenagers killed and injured by Breivik to the island to lay flowers at the scene of the tragedy.

******

On the evening of 22 July, Norwegians marched in the city streets holding flowers and candles; a concert by Norwegian and foreign artists at Town Hall Square in Oslo memorialised the tragic events of 2011. In the image above, we see relatives and friends of those killed and injured visiting Utøya Island on 22 July 2012.

______________________________

22 July 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/photoalbum/82452664/82471194/

A Chinese Take on the Terrorist Acts in Norway…

King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway paid tributes for victims of the country’s recent bomb attack and shooting spree at remembrance ceremonies Sunday. The king and queen joined survivors and their families, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Princesses Martha Louise and Ari Behn, and leaders from across Norway’s political spectrum, at a memorial service at Oslo Domkirke, the Norwegian capital’s historic cathedral. “Today we allow ourselves to honour and remember the dead”, Stoltenberg said at the service. “Each and every one that is taken away from us is a tragedy. And altogether, this is a national tragedy”, he added. The king and queen wept openly during the service and prayed for the victims and their families. Outside, thousands of ordinary citizens showed their grief and sympathy by lighting candles, and by placing flowers, soft toys, and notes of remembrance in the cathedral yard.

Their tributes followed a massive bomb blast Friday in downtown Oslo, which killed seven and damaged key government buildings. Hours later, a lone gunman dressed in police uniform shot dead 85 persons, mostly teenagers, attending a summer camp for the youth wing of Norway’ ruling Labour Party on tiny Utøya Island, on an inland lake some 40 kilometres west of Oslo. Police arrested the gunman, Anders Bering Breivik, 32, when they arrived on the island. He’s an ethnic Norwegian with extreme right-wing and conservative Christian beliefs, and admitted responsibility for both attacks.

“We’re still in shock and it’s going to take a long time to get over this”, said Oslo resident Christina Ørwen, who joined the huge crowds gathered outside the cathedral. She added that such attacks aren’t expected in Nordic countries, which are proud of their safe and open societies. However, even though people are in shock over this tragedy, they’re coming to terms with it. “I think we all stand together in this situation”, said Marit Nicolaysen, another attendee. “We don’t know what this’ll mean for our society, but are hoping for the best”.

Meanwhile, Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit took part Sunday in a memorial service for relatives of victims and survivors at Norderhov Church in Ringerike, in Buskerud County, some 90 kilometres northwest of Oslo. They later met injured victims of the attacks at the hospital there. The king and the queen themselves visited the wounded at Ullevål hospital, in Oslo, on Sunday afternoon, before making a trip with Stoltenberg to the capital’s bomb-hit government quarter. This was the royal couple’s first visit to the area since Friday’s blast, which blew windows off buildings and strewed shattered glass on the streets surrounding the bomb site.

Stoltenberg’s own office was badly damaged in the explosion. Following the royal couple’s departure, he told journalists at the site that the buildings in the area are still “unsafe” and that it would take “a long time” before they could be used again. He stressed that the attacks would not change Norway’s policy of being an open society. “This violence isn’t going to reduce our ability to be an open, democratic society”, he said.”Our answer to the violence isn’t less openness, it’s more openness… not less democracy, but more democracy”, he explained.

While the victims are remembered, the survivors of these devastating events aren’t forgotten. Earlier, on Saturday, the king, queen, and Crown Prince Haakon had a heartfelt meeting with survivors of the shooting, and their families, at a centre set up for them at the Sundvolden Hotel, near Utøya Island. They also met with police and emergency workers involved in the rescue and relief operations in the aftermath of the attack.

Here’s a longer Xinhua report on the Norwegian situation that you might find interesting:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-07/25/c_131006453.htm

24 July 2011

Xinhua

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-07/25/c_131006508.htm

RIA-Novosti Presents… A Memorial Service in Oslo Honoured the Victims of the Terrorist Acts in Norway

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.

******

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.

******

Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette Marit arrive for the service…

******

…as did Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, his wife Ingrid Schulerud, and Eskil Pedersen (the head of the Worker’s Youth League).

******

In a brief address at the service, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called the incident a “national tragedy”.

******

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.

******

Many survivors of the massacre on Utøya Island came to the service.

******

This was the scene on the Cathedral Square early in the morning.

******

The pavement on the square was awash in flowers.

******

Oslo residents brought flowers and candles to the shores near Utøya Island.

******

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.

******

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.

******

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.

******

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.

******

24 July 2011

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/photolents/20110724/406511466.html