Norway killer: 'no link' to British far-right groups

Explosives found at a farm leased by Anders Behring Breivik, the sole suspect in Friday's killings in Norway, have been safely detonated in a controlled explosion about 160km north of Oslo by the Norwegian police.

Police believe that Breivik, 32, made his bomb using fertiliser which he had bought under the cover that he was a farmer.

Tueday's detonation came as Breivik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said that he is probably insane, and was on drugs while he carried out his attacks that killed 68 in Utoeya island and eight in Oslo.

Lippestad said it was too early to say if his client would plead insanity at his trial, even though he thought the loner and computer-games enthusiast was probably a madman.

"This whole case indicated that he is insane," Lippestad said of Breivik, who has confessed to "atrocious but necessary" actions, but denies he is a criminal.

Breivik, who killed at least 76 people in twin attacks last week, has written of meeting British right-wing groups nine years ago.

But Ms Kristiansen said she believed he had acted on his own.

The intelligence chief added that she did not believe the killer was insane, but calculating and evil, and someone who sought the limelight.

Breivik's lawyer Geir Lippestad, had said it was too early to say if his client would plead insanity at his trial, even though "this whole case indicated that he is insane".

He believes that he's in a war and he believes that when you're in a war you can do things like that without pleading guilty," Mr Lippestad told reporters.

Ms Kristiansen's comments came as Norwegian police started releasing names of some of Breivik's victims.

They published four names, with more expected to follow later today.

Norwegian police have also defended the fact that it took an hour and a half for armed officers to reach Utoeya.

"I don't think we think we could have done this faster," Police Chief of Staff Johan Fredriksen said in Oslo.

Norway suspect's claim of allies in doubt

OSLO, Norway — The leader of Norway's Delta Force says the breakdown of the team's boat didn't cause any significant delay in its efforts to reach the island where Anders Behring Breivik's shooting rampage killed 68 people.

Anders Snortheimsmoen told reporters Wednesday that even though the assigned boat quickly broke down, the team immediately jumped into another, better boat. He says his team arrived by the harbor at the same time as local police and that the boat mishap caused "no delay."

At the same news conference, Justice Minister Knut Storberget praised the team, saying it helped "limit the tragedy" on Utoya island and the bombing in the city center. Friday's twin terrorist acts claimed at least 76 lives.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

OSLO, Norway — A spokesman for the Norwegian Railway Authority says parts of Oslo's central station have been evacuated as police investigate an abandoned suitcase.

Olav Nordli says the suitcase was found in the area where buses depart for Oslo's airport. Police have sealed off the area and are examining the abaondoned luggage.

The city is on high alert in the wake of Friday's bombing and youth camp shooting that killed 68 people.

The first Cabinet ministers were to return to their offices Wednesday after a car bomb exploded in the government district of the Norwegian capital.

On Wednesday, police detonated an unknown quantity of explosives found on a farm owned by Breivik north of Oslo in a controlled blast.

CBS News partner network Sky News reports that Breivik posed for years as a farmer in order to purchase large amounts of synthetic fertilizer, some of which he obtained online from a Polish company.

Norway's intelligence chief told the BBC on Wednesday that investigators have found no evidence to support Breivik's claims of contact with other extremist individuals or groups in Britain or anywhere else.

"We don't have indications that he has been part of a broader movement or that he has been in connection with other cells or that there are other cells," Janne Kristiansen told the BBC.

She cautioned that the investigation was still underway and that connections to other groups or individuals could not be ruled out.

In a voluminous online manifesto posted the morning before the attack Breivik expressed an admiration for right-wing extremist groups in the U.S. and Europe.

"We are in close contact with our sister services in Europe, America and elsewhere," said Kristiansen.

US debt crisis after Republicans

US debt crisis has escalated after Republicans were forced to rewrite their proposal to lift the debt ceiling, because they miscalculated how much the original plan would cut spending.

In an embarrassing development for John Boehner, the Republican Congress speaker, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) ruled on Tuesday night that his bill would have only cut spending by $850bn over the next decade, not the $1.2tr he had aimed for. Republicans are now racing to rewrite the legislation, and have pushed back a Congressional vote on the plan from Wednesday to Thursday at the earliest.

Although Boehner was already struggling to find support for his package, the delay increases the risk that Washington will fail to agree a deal to raise the debt ceiling before 2 August, when the federal government is expected to run out of money.

The dollar dropped against other currencies on Wednesday morning as investors faced the possibility that America could default. Several economists believe the country will lose its AAA credit rating within months, which would push up its borrowing costs, even if the $14.3tr debt ceiling is increased in time.

The White House said on Tuesday it was working with Congress to devise a "Plan B" that might attract enough support. The two sides have been deeply divided for weeks, with Republicans demanding deep spending cuts and Democrats anxious to include tax rises as a major part of the deal.

Threat of a downgrade “is very damaging to all of us, and that would be a product of the dysfunction of Congress” said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who led a faction of House Democrats who argued for a “clean” debt-limit increase early in the process, only to watch escalating chatter about the “Armageddon” of a missed deal feed scrutiny of the nation’s fiscal health.

S&P raised the threat of a downgrade July 14 by declaring that raising the debt limit alone might not be enough. It wanted to see an enforceable agreement to cut $4 trillion over 10 years to affirm the triple-A rating.

Administration officials were shocked by the move. They suggested privately that it did not seem to square with prior S&P reports, which said the nation’s larger budget problems could be dealt with over several years. Some administration officials dismissed the S&P report as little more than amateur political prognostication by people with limited understanding of how Washington works.

But the White House’s statements in the past week show a downgrade is now top of mind. Obama himself invoked the country’s triple-A rating in a rare prime-time address Monday as he outlined the consequences of default.

“For the first time in history, our country’s triple-A credit rating would be downgraded, leaving investors around the world to wonder whether the United States is still a good bet,” Obama said. “Interest rates would skyrocket on credit cards, on mortgages and on car loans, which amounts to a huge tax hike on the American people. We would risk sparking a deep economic crisis — this one caused almost entirely by Washington.”

Nearly every debt-limit conversation on Capitol Hill is infused with debate over the potential for either a downgrade, a default, or both. Democrats have embraced the argument of the White House: A short-term plan could result in a debilitating downgrade even if default is avoided.

Republicans are moving forward with their two-phase plan, but they’ve shown some concern about the possibility of ratings agencies scarring America’s creditworthiness. There’s significant disagreement in the GOP about the prospects of default and downgrade, and some lawmakers believe the administration and congressional leaders have created a false panic to box them into voting to raise the debt ceiling.