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As first funeral is held, Norway PM says: 'We're going to answer hatred with love'

Norway was holding the first funerals Friday for victims of Anders Behring Breivik's massacre of 77 people a week ago amid signs of a leap in popularity for the ruling Labor Party.
/ Source: msnbc.com staff and news service reports

Norway held the first funerals Friday for victims of the massacre of 77 people a week ago amid signs of a leap in popularity for the ruling Labor Party that was his main target.

Flags around the nation flew at half-staff to mark a day of memorial one week after self-confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik, an anti-Islam zealot, set off a bomb in central Oslo that killed eight people and then shot 68 people at a summer camp for youths of the ruling Labor Party.

Image: A large number of people from Bano Abobakar Rashid's local community pay their respects during her funeral at Nesodden Church
epa02846701 A large number of people from Bano Abobakar Rashid's local community pay their respects during her funeral at Nesodden Church just outside Oslo, Norway, 29 July 2011. Bano Abobakar Rashid is the first victim of the shooting rampage at Utoeya last Friday to be buried. Anders Behring Breivik has been charged with the 22 July bombing in the city that killed eight people, and the subsequent attack on nearby Utoya island that killed 68, mostly young people at a summer holiday camp. He was remanded in custody on 25 July and is to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. EPA/TERJE BENDIKSBY NORWAY OUTTerje Bendiksby / SCANPIX NORWAY

Bano Rashid, 18, and who came to Norway in 1996 with her family fleeing Iraq, was buried at Nesodden church near Oslo in the first funeral.

Rashid was buried to Muslim and Christian prayers as the nation tried to come to terms with the trauma. Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was expected to be among the mourners.

"We have to stand united and carry their dreams forward," Nesodden Mayor Christian Holm said of Rashid and another Nesodden youth, Diderik Aamodt Olsen, who died in the attacks on Utoya island.

A memorial service also was held by the Labor Party and its youth wing in Oslo Friday, with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg making an address followed by a moment of silence.

Stoltenberg described the victims as "heroes," saying the country would respond with "more democracy," .

"Today it is one week since Norway was hit by evil," the prime minister added.

"We are not going to be shocked and intimidated into silence," the BBC quoted Stoltenberg as saying. "The bravery that these young people have shown is catching. We're going to answer hatred with love. We're going to honor our heroes forever."

'Sun Rays' nickname Rashid was reportedly an outstanding pupil who grew up wanting to become a lawyer, and became active in the local branch of the Labor Party youth wing. She dreamed of winning a seat in parliament.

She was said to have dedicated her life to fighting for democracy and against racism, .

Image: Bano Abobakar Rashid, one of those killed in the tragic 22 July events at Utoya and in Oslo.
epa02845027 An undated handout photograph made available by Knut Utler on 28 July 2011 of Bano Abobakar Rashid, 18, from Nesodden, Norway. Bano Abobakar Rashid has been confirmed as one of those killed in the tragic 22 July 2011 events at Utoya and in Oslo. EPA/KNUT UTLER / HANDOUT NORWAY OUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALESKnut Utler / SCANPIX NORWAY / KNUT UTLER

Robert Weller, , said Rashid was a Kurdish refugee from Iraq, who had lived in Norway for 15 years.

He said she was known by the nickname "Sun Rays."

Weller added that violinist Alexander Rybak, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009, would perform at her funeral.

In a lower-key funeral, Ismail Haji Ahmed, 19, will be buried near Hamar, north of Oslo.

Ahmed, a dancer who appeared in a television talent show this year, was one of three in his family who were at Utoya, parliamentarian Thomas Breen said.

"We have lost one of our most beautiful roses," he said. The two other family members survived.

Meanwhile, Norwegian police said Friday they had identified all the bodies recovered after the attacks.

Many red and white roses lie wilting in the streets of Oslo after a march on Monday when 200,000 people, equivalent to a third of the capital's population, turned out to show a rejection of violence.

Image: Anders Behring Breivik, partially visible at center, the man who confessed to a bombing and youth camp shooting spree last Friday is transported in a police vehicle
Anders Behring Breivik, partially visible at center, the man who confessed to a bombing and youth camp shooting spree last Friday is transported in a police vehicle from prison to police headquarters for a second session of questioning, in Oslo, Friday, July 29, 2011. 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. (AP Photo/Scanpix Norway, Morten Holm) NORWAY OUTMorten Holm / SCANPIX NORWAY

Breivik questionedBreivik, who said he was on a crusade to save Europe by striking at the Labor Party which he accused of accommodating Muslim culture, was taken from jail to be interrogated by police for a second time on Friday.

"It is most likely that the perpetrator planned and carried out the actions with no support from others,'' the Norwegian Police Security Service said in a statement Friday, adding the bombing and shootings were "unique both in a national and international context."

"The terrorist acts bring no increase in the threat from known extreme right- or left- wing groups in Norway,'' the agency said.

Oslo district police's attorney Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said Friday's questioning stemmed from "information received over the last few days — which is a lot," .

Two psychiatrists have been appointed to try to determine why Breivik staged his attacks. His lawyer, Geir Lippestad, has said he is probably insane.

"I don't think anyone else in the world has the same understanding of reality" as Breivik, Lippestad told the daily Aftenposten.

Norway plans to set up an independent commission on the attacks, including investigating whether police reacted too slowly to the shootings at Utoya island, when Breivik was able to kill for more than an hour.

An opinion poll indicated that support for Labor had leapt about 10 percentage points in the days after the attacks, when Stoltenberg was praised for his calm handling of the crisis.

The poll, for newspaper Sunnmoersposten, was conducted in two parts: in the four days before the attack and in the four days after. Before the attacks, Labor support was measured at 28.1 percent, while after it rose to 38.7 percent.

At the same time support for the populist right-wing Progress Party, of which Breivik was once a member, fell sharply along with backing for the opposition Conservative party. The poll was of about 500 people each time.

The Progress Party became Norway's second biggest in parliament after the 2009 election on a largely anti-immigration platform, but says Breivik was never an active member.