Up to 40,000 Norwegians staged an emotionally-charged sing-along in Oslo on Thursday near the court house where Anders Behring Breivik is on trial for the murder of 77 people in a protest organizers said showed he had not broken their tolerant society.
“It’s we who win,” said guitar-strumming folk singer Lillebjoern Nilsen as he led the mass sing-along and watched the crowd sway gently in the rain. Many held roses above their heads, and some wept.
The protest followed several days of defiant testimony from Breivik who has admitted he killed his victims in a blood soaked attack on Norway’s multicultural society, but denied criminal guilt, saying he did so in self-defense.
READ MORE: Thousands protest at trial of Anders Breivik
In an account that shocked the nation, Norwegian anti-Muslim fanatic Anders Behring Breivik described with a chilling calm on Friday how he methodically chased teenagers room by room and shot them dead on an island summer camp last year.
Addressing a courtroom frozen in horror, Breivik said he shot most of his victims several times, using the first shot to take them down, then following up with a shot to the head.
His trial, now into its fifth day and due to last 10 weeks, has deeply traumatized Norway, one of the most tolerant and stable countries in Europe.
Speaking intensely, the steely-eyed Norwegian described how his body tensed up as he fired his first shots at the ruling Labour Party’s youth camp on Utoeya island.
“I took the gun out and thought it was now or never, and it seemed like a year,” he said.
READ MORE: Shocking nation, Norway killer describes island massacre
Norway killer on trial: “I would have done it again”
The Norwegian anti-Islamic gunman who killed 77 people said at his trial on Tuesday his shooting spree and bomb attack were “sophisticated and spectacular” and that he would do the same thing again.
Anders Behring Breivik, 33, has pleaded not guilty and said he was defending his country by setting off a car bomb that killed eight people at government headquarters in Oslo last July, then killing another 69 people in a shooting spree at a youth summer camp organized by the ruling Labour Party.
“I have carried out the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack committed in Europe since the Second World War,” Breivik told the court in a prepared statement.
“They (Norwegians) risk being a minority in their own capital in their own country in the future.”
“Yes, I would have done it again, because offences against my people … are many times as bad,” he said, taking to the stand for the first time.
While he has admitted the killings and will likely be kept behind bars for the rest of his life, Breivik’s main objective is to prove he is sane, a court judgment that he sees as vindicating his anti-Muslim and anti-immigration cause.
James Murdoch said on Tuesday he would step down as chairman at BSkyB, in a bid to protect the successful pay-TV group from being damaged by the phone hacking scandal that has hit part-owner News Corp.
“I am aware that my role as chairman could become a lightning rod for BSkyB and I believe that my resignation will help to ensure that there is no false conflation with events at a separate organization,” he said, confirming the news previously reported by BSkyB’s news channel.
Murdoch is deputy chief operating officer at News Corp and was in charge of the British newspaper arm in the aftermath of the hacking scandal.
READ MORE: James Murdoch confirms departure from BSkyB
Video footage filmed by the French gunman Mohamed Merah during his bloody shooting spree has been sent to the Al Jazeera television network in Paris, a police source said on Monday.
Al Jazeera received a computer memory drive containing a montage of footage accompanied by Islamist war songs, and sent the package on to police on Monday, the source close to the investigation told Reuters.
An Al Jazeera employee contacted by Reuters confirmed the report.
The package was dated Wednesday, March 21, the day that police surrounded Merah in his apartment in the southern city of Toulouse after a massive manhunt, according to a report in the Parisien daily newspaper.
Read more: Footage filmed by French gunman sent to Al Jazeera
Policeman strikes AFP photojournalist Patricia Melo during the Portuguese general strike in Lisbon March 22, 2012.
Portugal faces a general strike by workers angered by austerity measures imposed as a condition of a 78-billion euro bailout last year but doubts remain as to whether Thursday’s stoppage will receive widespread support. [REUTERS/Hugo Correia]
Read more: Portuguese strike against austerity snarls transport
Source: Media abuse group to call on Rupert Murdoch
The judicial inquiry into alleged media abuses is preparing to summon British newspaper owners, including Rupert Murdoch, to give public testimony in late April or early May, according to sources close to the inquiry.
One of the sources said that some of the proprietors to be called to testify have been notified of the intentions of the judge leading the inquiry, but did not know if Murdoch had yet been notified.
Another source said Brian Leveson had publicly indicated there would be opportunities during his inquiry when he would want to discuss its emerging findings with key figures.
Read more: UK media inquiry preparing to call Rupert Murdoch
People are not always clothed at these parties. I challenge you to tell the difference between a nude prostitute and a classy lady in the nude.
Henri Leclerc, attorney for former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, in a December radio interview.
Read more: DSK held in French prostitution probe
Euro zone finance ministers agreed a 130-billion-euro ($172 billion) rescue for Greece on Tuesday to avert an imminent chaotic default after forcing Athens to commit to unpopular cuts and private bondholders to take bigger losses.
The complex deal wrought in overnight negotiations buys time to stabilize the 17-nation currency bloc and strengthen its financial firewalls, but it leaves deep doubts about Greece’s ability to recover and avoid default in the longer term.
After 13 hours of talks, ministers finalized measures to cut Athens’ debt to 120.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, a fraction above the target, securing a second rescue in less than two years in time for a major bond repayment due in March.
![A worker looks at an Eiffel tower made from lemons and oranges during the lemon festival in Menton, southern France, February 16, 2012.
Some 145 metric tons of lemons and oranges were used to make displays during the 79th festival, which is themed “The regions of France”, and runs from February 17 through March 7. [REUTERS/Eric Gaillard]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzhshyXxyC1qmaoalo1_1280.jpg)
A worker looks at an Eiffel tower made from lemons and oranges during the lemon festival in Menton, southern France, February 16, 2012.
Some 145 metric tons of lemons and oranges were used to make displays during the 79th festival, which is themed “The regions of France”, and runs from February 17 through March 7. [REUTERS/Eric Gaillard]
