Anders Behring Breivik to give Oslo bombing testimony

Anders Behring Breivik, who has admitted killing 77 people in Norway in two attacks last July, is to be cross-examined about the bomb he set off outside a government building in Oslo.

Eight people were killed and 209 injured by the blast.

On Wednesday, prosecutors questioned Breivik about the extremist network he claimed to belong to. They believe the network does not exist.

Breivik told the court he wanted to be acquitted or executed, not imprisoned.

He said he considered a lengthy jail sentence "a pathetic punishment". Norway does not have the death penalty.

After he set off the bomb in Oslo, Breivik killed 69 people at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoeya island.

The court is seeking to determine whether Breivik is sane. If so, he will be jailed for at least 21 years, although that sentence can be extended by the courts.

If he is deemed insane, he will be committed to a psychiatric institution.

'Embellished'

Under cross-examination on Wednesday, Breivik admitted he had embellished his descriptions of the so-called Knights Templar network in the 1,500-page manifesto he published online before he carried out the attacks.

However, he rejected the prosecution's suggestion that the network did not exist.

He told the court there were two more terror cells at large in Norway and there would be more attacks soon.

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, at the trial in Oslo, says the prosecution tied him in knots, revealing glaring inconsistencies in his testimony.

Survivor Bjorn Ihler, who was on Utoeya island when Breivik went on his shooting spree, said it was getting "easier and easier" to see him in the dock.

"All the things he did and said disarms him in so many ways... he gets less and less dangerous in my mind," Mr Ihler said.

Breivik has said he carried out the attacks to defend "ethnic Norwegians" from rising multiculturalism.

After Wednesday's court sitting, his lawyer told reporters they had asked him to stop making a far-right salute when he arrived in court.

Breivik's evidence is scheduled to last five days, concluding on Monday.