Scotland has moved one step closer to a vote on independence as the nationalist leader of the devolved Scottish administration signed an agreement Monday with the UK paving the way for a referendum by August 2014.

Deutsche Welle, dw-world.de

Last week UK television audiences could watch celebrities taking hard drugs on live television. But this was not the latest in reality shows – it was part of a serious scientific trial of the drug MDMA – more commonly known as ecstasy. British Channel 4 invited 25 volunteers to take the drug while having their brains scanned. Among them were a well-known actor, an ex-member of parliament and the editor of a science magazine. But the TV show has proven nearly as controversial as the drug itself. Here’s my report for Inside Europe on Deutsche Welle Radio:

It’s a stated aim within the EU to get more girls interested in science – but it’s slow work. In Manchester in the UK they’re taking a grass-roots approach. A group calling themselves the Manchester Girl Geeks are running free work shops and stage talks by famous female scientists. Their latest initiative is computer coding lessons for girls from age 11 – and I went along to check it out. Here’s my report for Spectrum on Deutsche Welle Radio:

By Lars Bevanger, BBC News, Oslo

Relatives of Anders Behring Breivik’s victims and survivors of his attacks reacted with relief as an Oslo court found him to be sane and sentenced him to at least 21 years in prison.

Breivik had earlier said he would not appeal against a sanity verdict, and many here had wanted to see this long trial end.

“I feel happiness because he is a man who all the time knew what he has done,” said Unni Espeland Marcussen, who lost her 16-year-old daughter Andrine at Utoeya. She was one of the very last people Breivik killed.

Yet Mrs Marcussen said she did not think 21 years in prison was enough for the man who killed her daughter.

“I think he should get 21 years for each he murdered. But I also know when the time is coming when he maybe should get his freedom, they have to find out if he is dangerous for society still, and if he is he won’t come out.”

One of those Breivik tried but failed to kill on Utoeya was Tore Sinding Bekkedal. He managed to hide in a storeroom while Breivik killed 69 of his fellow Labour youth members.

He too was happy the court found Breivik to be sane – something Mr Bekkedal had believed himself while watching the trial from inside the courtroom.

“He’s not suffering from psychiatric insanity, he’s suffering from political insanity. And I’m worried it’s contagious”, said Mr Bekkedal after the verdict had been passed.

Conflicting conclusions

Many other survivors and relatives of the victims also welcomed the sanity verdict.

Mette Larsen, a legal representative for many of the bereaved, said said: “I think it was a correct decision, my clients are very relieved right now because they felt he was not insane. If he had been ruled insane, nobody would have understood.”

Few, if any, defendants in a Norwegian criminal case have been subject to the same psychiatric scrutiny as Anders Breivik. Two teams of court-appointed psychiatrists came to conflicting conclusions about his sanity.

The court also heard from several senior psychiatrists, including some who had observed Breivik in prison. They all said they believed he was sane.

“This will imply a deeper debate concerning the premises and the methods for how forensic psychiatrists work,” Pal Groendahl, a senior forensic psychologist who had followed the trial closely, told the BBC.

“We’re in the middle of that debate and of course this reinforces such a debate due to the fact that two of Norway’s most renowned court psychiatrists said that he was insane. Now the court says he’s sane.”

This is unusual. Whenever experts cast doubt on a defendant’s sanity, Mr Groendahl says, the court often rules that he is insane as treatment is generally regarded as preferable to prison.

The trial of Anders Breivik might now be over and for many of the bereaved, this will be a chance to move on. They will have to live with their loss for the rest of their lives, but see Monday’s verdict as a form of closure.

Unni Espeland Marcussen, mother of 16-year-old Utoeya victim Andrine, said it felt good to know her daughter’s killer was now behind bars, perhaps forever.

“I will never get my daughter Andrine back, but I also think that the man who murdered her has to take responsibility, and that’s good.”

As people in Norway gather this weekend to mark the first anniversary of the 22 July attacks, many will be seeking answers to how such terror could be visited on the quiet Scandinavian country. Here’s my report from Oslo for Monocle Magazine and online radio on how Norway dealt with the most severe attack on its society since World War Two, and what lessons the authorities and people in general have been trying to learn over the past year.

The 22 July twin terror attacks in Oslo and at the Utoeya island shocked Norway and the world. The self-confessed extreme-right terrorist Anders Breivik will be sentenced in August. But one year after he killed 77 mainly young people in a car bombing and shooting spree, people in Norway will be looking back and again try to understand what happened. And they will come together to remember those who died and to try to live up to their promise of safeguarding the open, multicultural society which Breivik says he despises. Here is the first of two features I’ve done for Monocle magazine and online radio looking back at what happened that day and in the year which followed:

After more than two months the trial of self-confessed mass killer Anders Breivik has entered its final week. And after long days of harrowing testimony from survivors and extreme-right speeches by the defendant, what do people in Norway make of it all? Here’s my report for Inside Europe on Deutsche Welle Radio:

By Lars Bevanger, BBC News, Oslo

The authors of the first psychiatric report which found self-confessed mass killer Anders Breivik insane have been giving evidence in the trial against him in Oslo.

Breivik’s sanity is the central question in this case, as he has admitted carrying out the 22 July twin terror attacks which killed 77 people last year.

After observing and talking to Anders Breivik for several weeks, forensic psychiatrists Synne Soerheim and Torgeir Husby published their report last year, concluding he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he killed 77 people in his Oslo car bombing and mass shooting at a Labour Party youth camp in Utoeya.

That led to an outcry from victims and their legal representatives, who wanted Breivik to be held accountable for his actions.

A second psychiatric report was commissioned, and it concluded Breivik suffered personality disorders, but that he was not psychotic and unaccountable for his actions in the face of the law.

This has created a unique situation for the court, which must now decide on the balance of all evidence whether to send Anders Breivik to prison or to a secure psychiatric unit.

‘Logical and coherent’

“We sometimes have two conflicting reports after the end of a trial, but we have not heard of any conflicting reports before the trial starts,” says Paal Groendahl, a senior forensic psychologist.

“This is not an easy task for them [the court], mostly due to these conflicting two reports and this army of psychiatric experts who have been witnessing here this week.”

Earlier the court heard from a string of psychiatrists, all arguing that the defendant is sane.

One of them, Eirik Johannesen, observed and spoke to Anders Breivik in prison for more than 20 hours.

“His speech is logical and coherent,” Johannesen told the court on Monday.

“He has shown no sign of cognitive lapses. He has created an identity in order to convince other right-wing extremists and fascists, and this does not fit in with his natural expression and with who he really is – but not in a psychotic way.”

Mr Johannesen’s colleague Arnhild Flikke also told the court she had found no signs of psychosis in her meetings with Breivik, and that he was accountable.

Another central witness this week was Randi Rosenqvist, who works as a psychiatrist at the prison where Breivik has been held since his arrest.

She concluded early on that he was sane, after having observed and spoken to him over several weeks.

“He adapted quite easily to the prison regulations and he has shown he is able to see himself as others see him,” Dr Rosenqvist told the court on Tuesday.

When asked by the prosecution how Breivik’s behaviour had been, compared with other inmates, Dr Rosenqvist said: “Exemplary.”

The situation has been complicated further because the Norwegian Board of Forensic Psychiatry – the watchdog assessing all legal psychiatric reports – passed the first but not the second report on Breivik.

The board unanimously accepted the first report which concluded Breivik suffered from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attacks.

It asked for clarifications to several points in the second report, which concluded Breivik was not psychotic.

When the authors of that report responded, the board still did not give the report an all-clear.

Professor of psychiatry at the University of Oslo, Svenn Torgersen, believes the fact that the board of forensic psychiatry backs one and not the other report could be a tipping point for when the court decides on Breivik’s sanity.

Mr Torgersen too cannot remember a situation where a court has had to relate to two conflicting psychiatric reports.

He said: “It is very unusual to have two reports, you can have two people in one team who disagree, but not two reports.”

‘Psychopath’

Breivik himself has asked the court to find him sane.

He wants his extreme-right anti-Islam ideology to be taken seriously, rather than being portrayed as the works of a madman.

“He is a man who has an agenda, which is to talk about his political ambitions and aims.” said forensic psychiatrist Henning Vaerhoey.

“He is as I see it a person with a personality disorder, in more common terms a psychopath.

“He is not psychotic, not at all. He’s accountable, that’s for sure.”

So far Mr Husby and Ms Soerheim have been the only psychiatrists who have been arguing Breivik is insane – both in their report and now in court. Defending that stance, they have said it was important that they could observe Breivik soon after his terror attacks.

This could be a key point for the court when it decides which way to go when passing its sentence, said psychologist Paal Groendahl.

“I’ve not registered any clear psychotic symptoms as he has appeared in court, but that is not a valid conclusion with regard to his accountability – because he might have been psychotic at the time of the crime.

“And that is the main task for the forensic experts, they should document whether he was or wasn’t psychotic at the time of the crime.

“This is not at the time of the crime, this is months afterwards and he may now have changed his behaviour.”

Anders Breivik will be sentenced on 20 July or 24 August.

If the court finds him to be sane, he will most likely be sentenced to 21 years in prison, with the possibility of further detention if he is still considered a threat to society.

If he is found to have been psychotic at the time of his crimes, he will be committed to a closed psychiatric institution.

Here’s my interview for the BBC website with one of the Utoya survivors who faced his would-be killer Anders Breivik in court:

Lars Groennestad, now a 20-year-old chemistry student, is one of several witnesses who were wounded by Anders Behring Breivik but survived to confront the killer in court.

When Breivik shot Mr Groennestad, the bullet punctured one of his lungs and narrowly missed his spine. On Monday, the student testified in court while the man who tried to kill him sat a few metres away. He spoke to the BBC’s Lars Bevanger afterwards.

How would you describe the experience?

It [the court room] looks so much bigger on TV. That was strange, sitting so close to the prosecuted. And then having all these questions thrown at you by the court. Strange – that’s the word I would use.

Because you haven’t seen him since that day on the island?

No, I haven’t been paying any attention to the news or been to the courtroom. I have three exams next week at university level, so I have to focus. So I’ve chosen to focus on school and just take things as they come.

Does it matter to you whether the court finds him sane or insane?

No, not really. Because I know that if he’s found not accountable he’ll be sent to psychiatric care for the rest of his life. But if he’s found accountable I guess he would be in prison for the rest of his life as well.

The extent of the medical care he’ll receive is the biggest difference. So for me it doesn’t matter, because from what little law I know, I think he’ll be locked away for the rest of his life.

Some survivors say they don’t want to give Breivik any more of their time, how do you feel about him now?

In the beginning I had to go to a psychologist once a week; I had physiotherapy three times a week; I had weekly appointments with my doctor and then controls at the hospital. And I spent so much time on getting better.

Some nights I was sleep-deprived because I read the news and I read about him, so I’ve used a lot of energy on this man. and I’m just so happy because I’ve now done my duty, I’ve testified, I’ve done what I can do to get him in jail and now I’m hopefully just done with the whole thing.

I know there’s going to be a lot of things in the media and so on, but I’m done with my part and I can just go back to be normal.

Will you ever go back to Utoeya?

Yes, I hope so. But only time will tell. We’ll see.

At the end of the second week of the ten-week trial of Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik in Oslo, there is little sign of anger and a desire for revenge from the first of many survivors to take to the witness box. Outside the court house people have began leaving roses in an echo of last year’s response to the senseless killing, when virtually all of Oslo turned into a sea of flowers. Here is my second report for Inside Europe on Detusche Welle Radio: