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.
But families, workmates, and communities are already coming together to discuss the need for Norway to protect the best of what it is - a tolerant society open to the world. Many even express a paradoxical sense of relief that it was a local, not an al-Qaeda outsider, who sought to turn their well-ordered world upside down.
"These quite unimaginable attacks have challenged our national character, but they will not be able to alter our national characteristics," said Geir Lundestad, director of the Nobel Institute, which helps select the winner of each year's Peace Prize in Oslo.
"Even in these terrible days we have seen some of our sense of openness, democracy, equality come to the fore," Lundestad said. "Even our king and queen show they are one of us. They weep with the rest of the country."
Whereas other nations struck by terror have responded quickly with heavy security-force deployments and clampdowns on civil liberties, that is not apparent in Norway today. What remains striking to a visitor is how calm, and how easily accessible, Norwegian citizens and institutions remain.
Those arriving at Norway's airports still face only perfunctory ID checks. The pairs of soldiers who guard roads on the perimeter of the central city, where Friday's explosion occurred, appear to be the minimum deployed in the aftermath of an extremist threat.
Perhaps most surprising, leaders of the government and the royal family continue to visit the scenes of greatest tragedy - the bomb zone, hospitals, and hotels, where parents still await news of their missing children - with barely a police official or bodyguard in sight. The security buffer between the ruling elite and the public appears nonexistent.
The sea of faces among Oslo citizens displays every color and faith, reflecting the rapid demographic shifts under way as Norway's liberal government offers an open door to asylum-seekers from war-torn parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Charge against Anders Behring Breivik would mean he could serve more than the current 21 years he faces for terrorism-related charges after Friday's twin bombing and shooting, a term that many Norwegians feel is not long enough.
Prosecutor Christian Hatlo told Tuesday's Aftenposten newspaper that the new charge, which became possible after entering into law in 2008, was currently only "a possibility".
"Police have so far cited ... the law on terrorism but seeking other charges has not been excluded," police spokesman Sturla Henreiksboe told AFP.
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