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An 18-year-old male was ordered held in custody on Monday for at least four weeks, after he stabbed and killed a 17-year-old friend on a playground in suburban Bærum Sunday afternoon. Shocked witnesses included small children. The stabbing shocked witnesses on Sunday. The stabbing victim was just 17 years old. Watan Faramarzi, age 17, died from a single stab wound in the chest. The stabbing occurred after the two friends reportedly had quarreled at a party the night before. They agreed to meet on the playground in a housing complex in Rykkinn, to settle their differences. The meeting ended with...

Sadly enough, this is what life looks like here in grim old Thule: "State environmental protection officials plan to forbid all new development of large shopping centers located outside established retail districts within Norway's cities and towns. The goal is to discourage driving...

Rape by gangs of immigrants is an assertion of dominance, and in that sense it is a political act. It says, “We are in charge here, and we do as we please with non-Muslims. No one may stop us; we operate with impunity.” There’s been a lot of talk here recently about the increased incidence of rapes, many of them committed by Muslim immigrants, in both Europe and Australia. We’ve highlighted the situation in Sweden, Norway, and Britain. Now it’s time to look at Belgium as well. If the Belgium government fails to prove such assertions wrong, then immigrant-dominated areas...

Are the ices of the Arctic north about to melt away for good? Rami Abdelrahman gets the views of a range of Swedish researchers. Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria is one of a number of Scandinavian royals making for the Arctic archipelago on the Swedish ice-breaker Oden this weekend to participate in an event to coincide with and promote International Polar Year. But will there even be a need for such ice-breaking vessels in years to come? Many commentators would have us believe that glaciers and ocean ice are about to go the way of the dodo. Upon their arrival at...

June 13, 2008 Report From Norway: Why They Don't Have an Energy Crisis and We Do Newt Gingrich I am writing to you this week from Norway, where Callista and I have witnessed extraordinary natural beauty - and some things America could learn about creating a more sensible balance between protecting the environment and finding more domestic sources of energy. You see, Norway, unlike the United States, has successfully avoided the "everywhere versus nowhere" trap when it comes to drilling offshore for oil and gas. The "everywhere versus nowhere" trap results when aggressive energy developers demand the unconstrained right to...

Four Lion Cubs Born In Norway At the Kristiansand Dyrepark (Zoo) the lioness Sera is the proud mother of four cubs born on Saturday morning, the first ever lion birth in Norway. First reports had the number at three, but on Sunday a fourth came into view.

OSLO, Norway, June 12 (UPI) -- Norwegian lawmakers said that, despite opposition from conservative critics, they have approved a law allowing same-sex couples to marry. The new law, which was approved by a two-thirds majority vote Wednesday, also makes the adoption process easier for same-sex couples and makes lesbian couples eligible for state-funded fertility drugs, Aftenposten reported. "I am extremely pleased that we managed to get this last stage passed. Now we have to tackle the prejudice which still exists in society," Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said. Conservative opponents argue the law compromises the institution of marriage and could...

Norway's parliament on Wednesday adopted a new marriage law that allows homosexuals to marry and adopt children and permits lesbians to be artificially inseminated. After a heated debate, the members of parliament adopted the text by a vote of 84 to 41. The three centre-left coalition parties in power and two opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, voted largely in favour of the law, while the Christian Democrats and the far-right Progress Party voted against it. Norway thus became the sixth country in the world to grant homosexuals the right to marry on an equal footing with heterosexuals, according...

OSLO (Reuters) - Police in Norway have arrested a Gambian-born man and charged him and his wife with subjecting five of their six daughters to genital mutilation, officials said on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT The practice, also known as female circumcision, is outlawed in Norway and arouses horror among many people in the West but is a rite of passage for young women in many countries, predominantly in Africa. The youngest of the five mutilated girls, all born in Norway, is five years old, police officials said. The others are aged seven, 10, 13 and 14 and live in Gambia, national broadcaster...

Every nation could be described as a manifestation of a unique trait of character and most countries furthermore nurture, give emphasize to and celebrate this national identity of theirs. Some examples of such key national characters (please DO comment if you feel inclined to); USA: Liberty Italy: Creativity France: Refinement India: Spirituality Germany: Self-discipline Finland: "Sisu" (a Finnish term meaning "To have guts") Britain: Elevatedness Denmark: "Hygge" (a Danish word meaning "Good-naturedness", of mind as well as of deed) Spain: Passion China: Cultivation Russia: Chaos - just joking, I would actually say "Heart" (in the sense of having a big...

Huge halibut hooked in Norway Last Updated: 8:50PM BST 28/05/2008   A halibut thought to be the largest ever line-caught fish has been hooked by an angler in Norway. BNPS  The 31st fish has smashed the line caught record by 24 lb The 31st creature - which measures 8ft1in long - was landed by proud fisherman Soren Bec following a titanic struggle. The monster catch is believed to have beaten the previous record for a line-caught fish by 24lbs. Although halibut of up to 2.5metres (8ft2in) have been spotted in Norweigian waters, it is unusual for the fish to...

Although “Viking” literally means “pirate,” recent research has indicated that the Vikings were also traders to the fishmongers of Europe. Stereotypically, these Norsemen are usually pictured wearing a horned helmet but in a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE this week, Jørgen Dissing and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, investigated what went under the helmet; the scientists were able to extract authentic DNA from ancient Viking skeletons, avoiding many of the problems of contamination faced by past researchers. Analysis of DNA from the remains of ancient humans provides valuable insights into such important questions as the origin...

Oslo police recently released its 2007 Rape Report. The report shows a marked increase in Somali rapists, generally on account of gang rapes. At least ten women were attacked and molested by a gang of Somali men at Sofienberg park in Oslo on Saturday evening. Last year a record-high 161 rapes and 35 rape attempts were reported in Oslo. Over 70% of the rapists were non-Norwegian [ed. ethnically, a majority had Norwegian citizenship]. Lawyer Abid Raja visited a cafe in Grønland in Oslo for Norwegian broadcaster P4. There he met three young men (ages 26, 30 and 35), from Somalia...

The technological and economical development of Scandinavia (including Finland) is today more groundbreking than anywhere else in the world. The investments being made in relation to population size is mind-boggling. Despite a mere population of 25 million inhabitants, the combined GDP of the Scandinavian countries today ridicules that of a Russia often viewed to be a "reborn" super power "on the go" (combined Scandinavian GDP is actually 125% that of of Russia - and the gap is widening!!) But, let's focus on telecommunications here; Five bidders have paid €226 million ($346 million) for fourth generation (4G), super-fast mobile telephony licences,...

My hobby is Secrets. I am fascinated by secrets — the bigger the secret, the better I like it. Over the years, I have spent many hours and lots of money digging through mildewed stacks of forgotten government documents in libraries, reading reams of self-published zines and newsletters and pamphlets by crazy, semi-literate po' buckra, and going from link to link on the Tubes trying to glean tidbits of verifiable (or at the very least entertaining) information from various websites, all in an effort to discover the hidden truths that I crave. To this end I spent several years doing...

Think is a Norwegian company specializing in small electric vehicles. Its new concept, called Ox, looks to be a much more mainstream vehicle than any of the minicars the company sells overseas. Roughly the size of a Scion xB, the front-wheel-drive Ox MPV will have a 60-kW electric motor and a range of 124 miles on a full charge. It can be charged via a normal household outlet. Charging the car to 80% will take just an hour using a special charger, while a full charge will take 12 hours. The company is planning to use either sodium or...

Yes there is. Read on and you'll find out about it. Capitalist paradise exists here on Earth. However, it comes with a price tag called "competence". Most of the world lacks this "competence" and will have a hard time aquiring it, because it is a matter of spirit, a spirit that I'm convinced most parts of the world ever will fail to aquire. In my opinion, Scandinavia leads the world in true Capitalist endeavour (check out how many multinationals we possess in realation to population size). The explanation for this tradition of entrepreneurship is not Scandinavian "Socialism". Sooner, it is...

After months of quiet diplomacy, the Norwegian government has given up on efforts to send former terrorist-group leader Mullah Krekar back to his homeland. Krekar, who has been under an expulsion order after being determined a threat to Norway's national security, initially came to Norway as a refugee from Iraq in the early 1990s. It later emerged that he was the head of guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam and he repeatedly violated the terms of his asylum by travelling back to northern Iraq to lead guerrilla activities. Krekar is the only person in Norway ever to have been sentenced to deportation...

Angela Merkel shows she's keeping abreast of foreign affairs on a State visit last night - and teaching our Home Secretary Jacqui Smith a lesson into the bargain. Germany's Chancellor revealed her impressive decolletage while chatting to Norway's prime minister Jens Stoltenberg at the opening of Olso Opera House. And to his credit, Mr Stoltenberg maintained crucial, and diplomatic, eye contact with his guest at the inauguration of the cultural landmark.

The US Federal Reserve is examining the Nordic bank nationalisations of the 1990s as a possible interim solution to the US financial crisis. The Fed has been criticised for its rescue of Bear Stearns, which critics say has degenerated into a taxpayer gift to rich bankers. A senior official at one of the Scandinavian central banks told The Daily Telegraph that Fed strategists had stepped up contacts to learn how Norway, Sweden and Finland managed their traumatic crisis from 1991 to 1993, which brought the region's economy to its knees. It is understood that Fed vice-chairman Don Kohn remains very...

Politicians and human rights groups want to go on board US-registered planes that are believed to be carrying terror suspects when they land in Norway for refueling. Planes believed to be chartered by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have landed at the Sola Airport outside Stavanger as many as 15 times since 2003, reports local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad. It's also believed that the planes, officially owned by Aviation Specialties Inc of the US, have landed for refueling at airports in Bergen and Evenes as well. A report to the European Parliament in 2006 claimed that Aviation Specialties is a...

Stalin's last army: hordes of gigantic crabs on their way to invade Europe - By Julius Strauss in Kirkenes, Northern Norway Millions of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway's coast, devouring everything in their path.The monster crabs, which can weigh up to 25lb and have a claw-span of more than three feet, are proving so resilient that scientists fear they could end up as far south as Gibraltar. Energised by a mysterious population explosion a decade ago, whole armies of the crustaceans - known as the...

AN Arab billionaire's son listed as a Facebook friend of a murdered socialite has been named by police as a prime suspect in the blonde's death. Yemen born Farooq Abdulhak, 26, was allegedly the last person to see Martine Vik Magnussen alive after leaving the exclusive Maddox Club with her early Friday morning. The Norwegian socialite's body was found two days later, partially buried under a pile of rubble in the basement of an exclusive London apartment building where Mr Abdulhak was reportedly living. The Daily Mail reported that Magnussen was believed to have been strangled, although investigators told the...

Norway's state treasury is set to overflow, local analysts claim. Some think the price of North Sea crude oil will hit USD 130 a barrel, pumping even more "petrokroner" into the state budget and giving politicians few excuses to limit its use. Norway's oil and gas industry is hotter than ever, but many Norwegians complain that government services are nonetheless declining. Some grades of crude oil hit USD 111 a barrel this week, before easing on Friday. The North Sea Brent crude that's been pumping up Norway's economy for years was being traded at just over USD 107 a barrel...

LONDON (AFP) - Eight British soldiers have been forced to return home from Norway after they reportedly stripped naked and urinated on each other in a bar during an Arctic training exercise, the defence ministry confirmed Tuesday. "It's being taken extremely seriously," a spokesman for the defence ministry in London said. He continued: "We can confirm that eight soldiers from 59 Commando Regiment Royal Engineers were arrested by the Norwegian police following inappropriate behaviour. "All eight soldiers have been released, having paid a fine. The soldiers were in Norway on exercises and have now returned to the UK. "The unit...

WASHINGTON – Two more Iraqis with false Bulgarian passports were detained by Mexican officials in Monterrey – bringing the total to four this month. Wisam Gorgies, a 34-year-old man, and Rana Nazar Peyoz, a 26-year-old woman, reportedly flew from Madrid and landed in Monterrey, according to reports in two Mexican newspapers today. Following questioning, the pair admitted they intended to reach the United States. They were taken to Saltillo in the state of Coahuila, for final determination of their status. Mexican officials said the are investigating "a network that could be made up of Mexicans operating in Greece who are...

The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund's ethical council is considering whether to recommend the fund sell its 107 million kroner ($20 million) of bonds in Israel Electric Corp. because of an alleged participation in a blockade of the Gaza Strip. "Information that the Israeli government is using this company to cut electricity supplies to Gaza, and thereby worsening the situation for civilians there, has made Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen ask the ethics council to investigate the company," ministry spokeswoman Kaja Haldorsen said by e-mail Thursday. Israel Electric wasn't immediately available for comment. The government has banned the 2.08 trillion-krone fund from...

Report: Extremists recruiting in Norway Islamic terror networks tried to recruit young Muslims in Norway to launch attacks in other countries, the head of police intelligence was quoted as saying in an interview published Monday. "We have some worrisome reports of older, manipulative Islamic extremists here in this country trying to motivate young people to join jihad attacks abroad," Joern Holme said, according to the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten. The government responded to the remarks by saying it would speed up passage of a law banning recruitment for terrorist activities. "We have presented a proposal to Parliament about a specific law...

The head of Norway's intelligence and security agency believes young, Norwegian muslims are being targeted by militant extremists to carry out terrorist attacks and holy war overseas. Jørn Holme, chief of The Norwegian Police Security Service (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste PST), confirmed for the first time on Monday that active recruiting efforts are being carried out by older, militant extremists in Norway. Holme refused to go into detail, but he told newspaper Aftenposten that intelligence gathering indicates that the terror challenge in Norway has gone beyond extremists' efforts to gain support for terrorist activity abroad. "We've had reports about older, manipulative Islamic...

Norway's government has praised the country's small Roman Catholic Church for its role in supporting more than 100 000 labour migrants from Poland and other eastern European countries. "We have become increasingly aware of the crucial role the Catholic Church is playing in responding to this challenge," Bjarne Haakon Hansen, the government minister for labour and social inclusion told Oslo's Catholic Bishop Bernt Eidsvig earlier in January, the Vaart Land newspaper reported. Hansen was visiting the headquarters of the Catholic Church at St Olav's Cathedral in Oslo, a few hundred metres from his ministry. The minister in the centre-left coalition government...

'Cave man' causes trouble for nursing home A 54-year-old Norwegian man who once lived in a cave and refuses to wash is now creating a health risk at an Oslo nursing home, claim its operators. A local court has ruled, however, that he can't be forced to keep himself clean. A lawyer for the so-called "cave man" (long known as hulemannen in Oslo) told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Friday that his client was "relieved and very satisfied" by the court ruling in his favour. "He has waited a long time, and can now finally decide over his own body," lawyer...

A coalition that's described as one of Iraq's most powerful insurgent groups is threatening retaliation against Norway if Mullah Krekar is sent back to Iraq. Mullah Krekar, Norway's most troublesom refugee, was back in the news Wednesday evening. Krekar is under an expulsion order after being determined a threat to Norway's national security. He initially came to Norway in the early 1990s as a refugee, but later emerged as the head of guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam and he repeatedly violated the terms of his asylum by traveling back to northern Iraq to lead guerrilla activities. He hasn't been expelled yet,...

US concerned over Norway's $8bn fighter selection programme, Saab's Gripen may be favoured news 15 January 2008 Helsinki: Almost immediately after the Eurofighter consortium distanced itself from the Norwegian fighter replacement programme in December last year, citing alterations in the bidding process as favouring the US JSF-35 programme, it is now the turn of the US to cry foul saying that the process may actually be skewed in favour of the Swedish JAS-39 Gripen-N programme. Post-withdrawal of the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter from the competition, the Lockheed Martin JSF-35 and the Saab JAS-39 Gripen-N fighters are now in contention for the...

The Oslo Police District is snowed under by the sheer number of criminal cases in the capital, and only 21 percent of reported offenses were handled last year. Investigators claim they don't have the time, staffing or resources to cope with their workload. More than 10,000 cases remained in the legal queue in Oslo when 2007 came to a close. "This is unfortunate for the credibility of and confidence in the police," said Oslo district chief public prosecutor Morten Yggeseth. He added that this trend has significance for the country’s security. Oslo Police District Union leader Jan Olav Frantsvold said...

The extraordinary story of a war hero's flight to freedom from the Nazis has been revealed by his daughters, after they retraced his steps and reclaimed the shoes he wore on the epic 200-mile trek. Sven Somme was pursued by 900 German soldiers with sniffer dogs across the mountains of occupied Norway before he reaching safety, having being arrested for spying for the Allies. Sixty years on his daughter Ellie Targett, a radio presenter in Herefordshire, and her sister Yule, who lives in Devon, set out on foot to retrace their father's daring escape, meeting some of the people who...

A Norwegian cruise ship carrying some 300 people lost engine power during an electrical outage and struck an Antarctic glacier, smashing a lifeboat but causing no injuries... The MS Fram hit the ice late Friday near Browns Bluff in the Antarctic... The engine started again and the liner continued to King George Island for an inspection. "We hit a glacier. We have damage to a starboard lifeboat and a little bit forward," ... the ship apparently suffered no serious damage. Hansen said the power outage lasted 40 to 50 minutes and sent the vessel adrift against the glacier, where it...

The Eurofighter consortium has pulled out of tenders in Norway and Denmark for more than 100 fighter jets, complaining that it is “ill at ease” with changes in the procurement process. Eurofighter’s “suspension” of its participation is an embarrassment for Norway and Denmark, but it also reflects the fact that it was losing ground in both tenders, which have become a dogfight between Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and Saab’s Gripen.Norway is due to issue a request for binding information early next month for its next generation of fighters and aims to choose a winner at the end...

The origins of ice-skating have been traced by scientists to the frozen lakes of Finland about 5,000 years ago, when people used skates made from animal bone. Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University have calculated that skating on the primitive blades would have reduced the energy cost of travelling by 10 per cent, suggesting that it emerged as a practical method of transport and not as recreation. Southern Finland has been identified as the most likely home of skating through an analysis of the shape and distribution of lakes in central and northern Europe, which shows that the early Finns would...

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's leftist finance minister said the government was not considering cutting oil production for environmental concerns, although she wanted a debate on how quickly more acreage should be opened up for exploration after 2009. Earlier on Tuesday, Finance Minister Kristen Halvorsen was quoted by Norwegian tabloid VG as saying that a future climate agreement could push up taxes on oil production or, in the worst case scenario, prohibit production. Her spokesman said Halverson, the leader of leftist party with an ambitious climate agenda, did not say that oil output would or should be banned on environmental grounds....

Just as Norwegian delegates to the UN's conference on climate change started heading home from Bali, came news that Norway's own carbon emissions rose 80 percent from 1990 to 2004. Statoil's refinery at Mongstad is the biggest contributor. Environmental group Zero has made a list of the 25 largest generators of emissions in Norway. Not surprisingly, the country's oil and gas industry figures heavily on the list. The Mongstad refinery on Norway's west coast spews out the most carbon, followed by the new gas power plant Naturkraft at Kårstø in Rogaland County. Then comes the Statfjord oil platform in the...

In Norwegian, the headline reads "Playful and good at balancing things on his nose". The article goes on to explain the photo was one of six of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore displayed at a recent Nobel Prize related exhibition in Oslo, Norway.

Gore Takes Train From Oslo Airport, Luggage Takes Mercedes By Noel Sheppard | December 8, 2007 - 11:41 ET Friday's adoring Associated Press piece concerning Nobel Laureate Al Gore's noble decision to take the train from the Oslo airport rather than the traditional motorcade to his hotel neglected something else besides the huge amount of carbon dioxide being emitted by the Global Warmingist-in-Chief: his luggage! After all, Gore and wife Tipper aren't going to wear the same clothes this entire trip they wore on the plane, right?So, where was all their baggage as the couple took the train?Well, according to...

OSLO, Norway - Former Vice President Al Gore arrived today in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize he shared for the campaign against global warming, and shunned the traditional airport motorcade in favor of climate-friendly public transport. Gore will accept the prize he shared with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital on Monday. Upon arriving in Oslo, Gore urged governments meeting at a climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, "to promptly produce a strong mandate." He said he hoped they would move forward by two years the date for a successor to...

Rumblings on the Norwegian Cruise Line boards alerted Cruise Critic to the fact that there is a norovirus outbreak on Norwegian Pearl, which is en route back to Miami after a nine-night southern Caribbean sailing that started on November 30. The outbreak may cause the ship's next sailing, slated to depart on December 9, to be delayed. At noon (EST) yesterday, member JJSlim posted that he had heard from two people onboard the ship that there was a possible outbreak. Nothing at that time had been posted to the Center for Disease Control’s Web site. Later, member Dogbeau posted from...

The discovery of two massive Viking halls in Borre in Vestfold County gives archeologists reason to reassess the distribution of power in Viking Norway. Vestfold County archeologists presented finds on Wednesday that show there are two great hall buildings underneath the ground about 100 meters from the major burial mounds at Borre.

The 2007 Human Development Report says Iceland now leads annual United Nations Index. Iceland has narrowly passed Norway to take the top spot on the Human Development Index (HDI), according to the 2007/2008 Human Development Report (HDR) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today. Norway had held the number one ranking for the previous six years. This change in ranking is a result of new estimates of life expectancy and updated GDP per capita figures, stress the Report authors. Introduced with the first HDR in 1990, the HDI assesses the state of human development through life expectancy, adult...

Fit for the fight: Competition in the fighter market By Craig Hoyle Competition in the fighter market is as keen as ever, with rivals vying to fill big-ticket programmes. But will US Congress clip the F-22's export wings? The high-profile fighter sector has grabbed many of the headlines during 2007. India at last launched a contest for 126 aircraft, while the subject of stealth - primarily in the form of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, but also through the company's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - has exercised nations including Japan and South Korea, and prompted the US Congress to address...

Credit squeeze spreads to Norwegian towns By David Ibison in Stockholm Published: November 23 2007 22:19 | Last updated: November 23 2007 22:19 Few people in the remote Norwegian town of Narvik, 200km north of the Arctic Circle where the sun has disappeared until January, were likely to have given a lot of thought to the credit squeeze sweeping the global money markets – that is, until it threatened their wages over Christmas. Narvik, along with three other similarly isolated towns of Hemnes, Rana and Hattfjelldal, has become the latest community to discover just how directly even the most remote...

U.S. to Offer Turkey Help on PKK The U.S. is to offer Turkey a package of measures to dissuade Ankara from mounting a large-scale military incursion into Iraq to attack PKK Kurdish guerrillas, who have killed scores of Turkish soldiers in recent weeks. Ahead of a meeting in Washington on Monday between President George W. Bush and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, U.S. officials said Ankara would have to get concrete American help to combat the PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq from where it frequently launches attacks into Turkey. “Erdogan has to go back with the...

A passage where the controversial Hagen calls the prophet Mohammed a warlord, man of violence and abuser of women has, unsurprisingly, caused offense. "That the Islamic council is disappointed and angry and furious is as expected. I had more or less counted on this to happen when I wrote that," Hagen told newspaper Vårt Land. Norway's Islamic Council asked Norwegian Muslims to refrain from reacting to Hagen's book. Hagen's remarks come in connection with the massive trouble linked to the publication of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. Hagen writes that the government's handling of the matter led to freedom of...