Norway attacks intensify political resolve of many youths

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-norway-youth-20110728,0,4506045.story

Reporting from Oslo—
The sandy-haired young man runs his finger over an orange wristband with the word "Utoya," a leftover ID bracelet from the Labor Party youth camp where 68 people, mostly teenage activists, were gunned down last week.

"I can't take it off," Vegard Groslie Wennesland says softly, seated at a cafe in central Oslo where broken glass was still being cleared from the separate car bombing that terrorism suspect Anders Behring Breivik also admits to committing.

Tragedy is transforming the lives of young Norwegians — and in many cases, such as that of the 27-year-old Workers' Youth League member, strengthening their resolve.

A week ago, Wennesland's biggest worry was completing a University of Oslo master's thesis on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and then, perhaps, taking a jaunt around the Middle East to practice his Arabic.