Norway

Does evil equal madness? There can be little doubt that the confessed murders of 76 people in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik were evil. But was his calculated rampage concocted over a nine-year period an act of insanity? The answer matters. Those too willing to write off Breivik's misdeeds as the work of a deranged individual who was out of touch with reality are themselves being somewhat delusional. They are ignoring the hundreds of supposedly sane people using Facebook to voice support for Breivik's hatred of Muslims.

OSLO, Norway - Norway casts it as the isolated act of a lone-wolf terrorist whose boasts of a far-flung network of anti-Muslim warriors were the fantasies of a deranged mind. European officials at an emergency counterterror meeting see a continent-wide threat from right-wing extremists amid mounting Islamophobia and warn of possible copycats. Two visions of the Norway atrocity emerged Thursday as Europe gropes for answers following the massacre that claimed 78 lives. The twin attacks carried out by Anders Behring Breivik have stirred questions in Europe about whether authorities have neglected the threat of right-wing extremists in their push to crack down on Islamist terror groups after 9/11.

OSLO, NORWAY - When Anders Behring Breivik launched his assault on the youth campers of Utoya Island, he expected Norway's special forces to swoop down and stop him at any minute. Instead, Delta Force police officers made the 25-mile journey by car - they have no helicopter - then had to be rescued by a civilian craft when their boat broke down as it tried to navigate a one-minute hop to the island. It took police more than 90 minutes to reach the gunman, who by then had mortally wounded 68 people.

OSLO, Norway - When Anders Behring Breivik began his assault on the campers of Utoya island, he expected Norway's special forces to swoop down and stop him any minute. Instead, Delta Force police officers made the 25-mile journey by car - they have no helicopter - then had to be rescued by a civilian craft when their boat broke down as it tried to navigate a one-minute hop to the island. It took police more than 90 minutes to reach the gunman, who by then had mortally wounded 68 people.

STOCKHOLM - Norwegian police said yesterday that the double-counting of bodies in the chaotic aftermath of a shooting spree may have contributed to a dramatic overestimate of the number of people slain, but they offered few other details about the error. The sharp reduction in the shooting death toll, from 86 to 68, added to a list of police misteps. Officers took 90 minutes to arrive after the first shot was fired at youth gathering for a political-party retreat on an island resort.

OSLO, Norway - Anders Behring Breivik hoped to trigger a nationalist revolution in Norway. But his double act of mass murder and destruction seems to have stirred only dignified defiance in this wealthy, idealistic nation renowned for its commitment to peace. The capital's heart remains shattered and cordoned off after Friday's car-bomb blast. Communities up and down this sparsely populated land of fir forests and mist-shrouded fjords have yet to bury their 76 loved ones, most slain as Breivik gunned down defenseless teens and young adults at an island retreat of the governing Labor Party.

OSLO, Norway - The self-described perpetrator of Norway's deadly bombing and shooting rampage was ordered held in solitary confinement Monday after calmly telling a court that two other cells of collaborators stood ready to join his murderous campaign. Anders Behring Breivik, 32, who has admitted bombing the capital and opening fire on a youth group's island retreat, told authorities he expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. Declaring he wanted to save Europe from "Muslim domination," he entered a plea of not guilty, which will guarantee him future court hearings and opportunities to address the public, even indirectly.

LONDON - After Norway's terrorist attack, the European police agency Europol is setting up a task force of more than 50 experts to help investigate non-Islamist threats in Scandinavian countries, its spokesman said Saturday. Soeren Pedersen said the group, based in the Hague, hoped to help Norway in the coming weeks and to aid Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in assessing non-Islamist threats. Norway has not requested forensic experts but Europol stands ready to assist, Pedersen said. "There is no doubt that the threat from Islamist terrorism is still valid," he said, adding that the task force could be expanded to include other European nations.

OSLO, Norway - Police arrived at an island massacre about 90 minutes after a gunman opened fire, hampered because they didn't have quick access to a helicopter and then couldn't find a boat to make their way to the scene just several hundred yards offshore. The assailant surrendered when police finally reached him, but not before 82 people died. Survivors of Friday's rampage have described hiding and fleeing into the water to escape the gunman, but a police briefing Saturday detailed for the first time how long the terrorist act lasted - and how long victims waited for help.

OSLO, Norway - A homegrown terrorist set off a deadly explosion in downtown Oslo yesterday before heading to a summer camp dressed as a police officer to commit one of the deadliest shooting rampages in history, killing at least 80 people as terrified youths ran and even swam for their lives, police said. Police initially said about 10 had been killed at the forested camp on the island of Utoya, but some survivors said they thought the toll was much higher. Police director Oystein Maeland told reporters early today that they had discovered many more victims.