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
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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
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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. READ MORE: Norway killer on trial says he would do it again
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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.

READ MORE: Norway killer on trial says he would do it again

The bracelet, marked with the word UTOEYA in capital letters, was given to those attending last summer’s Labour Party youth camp on the island. Vegard Groeslie Wennesland hasn’t taken his off since the day far-right militant Anders Behring Breivik shot dead 69 teenagers and adults. Hours earlier the 33-year old had planted a car bomb outside the prime minister’s office in central Oslo, killing eight. In a nation of five million where most people either knew one of the victims or know someone who did, the attacks have cut deep. Survivors - including more than 240 wounded - still get flashbacks, panic attacks or the strange feeling they are spectators of their own lives. Young people have become more involved in politics. But it is striking too what “July 22,” as the attacks are commonly called in Norway, has not done. It has not made Norwegians more fearful of one another, or triggered calls for tougher anti-terrorist measures. Instead, many Norwegians say it has reaffirmed their faith in a society they like to see as liberal, tolerant and egalitarian. SPECIAL REPORT: Life after the Norway massacre
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The bracelet, marked with the word UTOEYA in capital letters, was given to those attending last summer’s Labour Party youth camp on the island. Vegard Groeslie Wennesland hasn’t taken his off since the day far-right militant Anders Behring Breivik shot dead 69 teenagers and adults. Hours earlier the 33-year old had planted a car bomb outside the prime minister’s office in central Oslo, killing eight.

In a nation of five million where most people either knew one of the victims or know someone who did, the attacks have cut deep. Survivors - including more than 240 wounded - still get flashbacks, panic attacks or the strange feeling they are spectators of their own lives. Young people have become more involved in politics.

But it is striking too what “July 22,” as the attacks are commonly called in Norway, has not done. It has not made Norwegians more fearful of one another, or triggered calls for tougher anti-terrorist measures. Instead, many Norwegians say it has reaffirmed their faith in a society they like to see as liberal, tolerant and egalitarian.

SPECIAL REPORT: Life after the Norway massacre

A general view of the aurora borealis near the city of Tromsoe in northern Norway January 25, 2012. [REUTERS/Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/Scanpix]
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A general view of the aurora borealis near the city of Tromsoe in northern Norway January 25, 2012. [REUTERS/Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/Scanpix]