Norway buries first victims as police question gunman

As Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg prepared to lead a national commemoration ceremony in Olso, an 18-year-old woman shot dead during the gunman\'s rampage on the island of Utoeya was to be laid to rest in a town outside the capital.

Norway\'s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, was to attend the funeral of Bano Rashid, who was originally from Kurdistan, in the town of Nesodden at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT).

Flags flew at half-mast across the country of five million, including at the suspect\'s high-security prison, as formal grieving began for those killed in the July 22 twin gun and bomb attacks.

The killer, Anders Behring Breivik, was brought to police headquarters in an armoured car early Friday from Ila high security prison where he is being held in solitary confinement. The windows were covered to prevent photographers seeing inside.

Police said Thursday that Behring Breivik would be questioned about information that had come to light over the past few days but would not say what it was.

A police press conference has been scheduled for 1:00 pm.

The 32-year-old admitted carrying out the attacks during questioning last Saturday, but stopped short of entering a guilty plea for actions that according to his lawyer he deemed "cruel" but "necessary".

Rashid, a Labour Party youth activist, had written frequently about the evils of racism and discrimination.

Her younger sister escaped the massacre on the island, and her mother told NTB: "The answer must not be hatred, but even more love."

Far-right extremist Behring Breivik said in a lengthy tract published on the Internet ahead of his killing spree that he was trying to change the policies of western European governments who were encouraging Muslim immigration.

Another of Behring Breivik\'s shooting victims, 19-year-old Ismail Haji Ahmed, will be buried at Hamar, in Norway\'s south-west, at 2:00 pm, TV2 reported.

Behring Breivik was arrested on Utoeya last Friday after shooting dead 68 people and wounding scores of others, hours after his car bomb killed eight people and devastated Oslo\'s government quarter.

At an arraignment hearing on Monday a judge remanded him in custody for an initial period of eight weeks, but prosecutors have said it will take months to gather evidence and Behring Breivik will not be brought to trial until next year at the earliest.

The gunman boasted before the attack in a 1,500-page manifesto that he was one of up to 80 "solo martyr cells" recruited across Western Europe to topple governments tolerant of Islam.

An Englishman cited by Behring Breivik as his "mentor" on Friday denounced the Norwegian\'s actions as "pure evil" that "did not equate to anything I am involved in."

Paul Ray, the 35-year-old leader of a Knights Templar movement inspired by mediaval crusaders against Islam, runs a "Richard the Lionhearted" blog believed to have underpinned Behring Breivik\'s manifesto, but told The Times of London: "I could never use what he has done to further my own beliefs."

Norway\'s intelligence services chief Janne Kristiansen told AFP the likelihood that the killer had acted as a "lone wolf" could make it more difficult for police to uncover his trail.

Authorities have so far released the identities of 41 victims.

The gunman\'s 76-year-old father Jens Breivik, who lives in the south of France, said in an interview published Friday that he "does not want to talk any more about my son" whom he labelled "a terrorist.".

Survivor Emma Martinovic, 18, recounted in her blog: "I heard the bastard laugh, I heard him shout \'you won\'t get away\'."

© Copyright AFP Agence France-Presse GmbH - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.