A week later, Norway mourns 77 victims of massacre

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Norway began burying the dead on Friday, a week after an anti-immigrant extremist killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage.

Mourners of all ages vowed they would not let the massacre threaten their nation's openness and democracy.

An 18-year-old Muslim girl was the first victim to be laid to rest since the gunman opened fire at a political youth camp and bombed the government headquarters in Oslo.

After a funeral service in the Nesodden church outside the capital, Bano Rashid, a Kurdish immigrant from Iraq, was buried in a Muslim rite. Sobbing youth accompanied her coffin, which was draped in a Kurdish flag.

The attack will "not destroy Norway's commitment to democracy, tolerance and fighting racism," Labor Party youth-wing leader Eskil Pedersen said at a memorial service in Oslo.

Pedersen, who was on the island retreat of Utoya when the gunman's attack began, said: "Long before he stands before a court we can say: he has lost."

Pedersen said the youth organization would return to Utoya next year for its annual summer gathering, a tradition that stretches back decades.

Police said all those killed in the July 22 terror attacks in Oslo and on Utoya island have been identified and that those who had been reported missing have been accounted for.

Police also said Norway's security service will issue a new evaluation of the threat posed by extremists. Since the massacre, questions have persisted about whether authorities had underestimated extremist dangers in Norway.