Free Republic

- Doctors Without Borders confirms that one of our organization’s Norwegian field workers in Sierra Leone has tested positive and has been diagnosed with bleeding fever ebola, confirms Anne Cecilie Kalteborn in MSF’s Norway branch to Norwegian media VG. The Norwegian health worker is tonight being flown with an ambulance flight from the capital Sierra Leone. She will probably land in Norway Monday night or Tuesday night. - We are working to transport our colleague home as soon as possible, says Kaltebotn. The woman, who has been working for MSF in Sierra Leone’s second city Bo, has according to VG’s...

Norway, surprisingly, now ranks second among foreign U.S. commercial real estate buyers, topped only by Canada. The sovereign fund that manages the country’s substantial oil wealth made a play for Blackstone Group’s 1095 Sixth Avenue just last week, in a deal that is expected to fetch up to $2.25 billion. The move followed the Norges Bank Investment Management’s purchase of a 45 percent interest in 601 Lexington for $1.5 billion. In total, the country has spent over $3.2 billion on U.S. real estate so far this year, according to data from research firm Real Capital Analytics cited by Bloomberg News....

Centrally placed sources told the Norwegian television and radio station NRK that militants who probably sympathize with the Islamic State this summer planned to kill a whole family with knives, film it and publish it as a warning….

A Tuesday test of the Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile on Littoral Combat Ship USS Coronado (LCS-4) was deemed a success and could pave the way to expand the weapons portfolio of LCS and the follow on Small Surface Combatant (SSC). “We view this successful missile test as a possible future warfighting capability for the LCS program,” said Naval Surface Forces commander, Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden in a Tuesday statement. “This allows for the integration of weapons and sensors like the Kongsberg NSM technology as part of the LCS warfare suite.” The missile was fired from a launcher positioned on Coronado’s...

THE narrow victory of the left-leaning Social Democratic Party in Sweden’s elections last Sunday marked a broad shift in its politics. But a new coalition government is unlikely to reconsider one of the country’s most challenging policies: its response to the Syrian civil war. Sweden has taken an open-door approach to people fleeing the conflict, accepting more Syrians than any other European country. Never mind that Sweden has double-digit youth unemployment. That there have been riots in immigrant neighborhoods in Stockholm...Or that the Swedish Migration Board, which handles asylum seekers, needs a drastic budget increase — almost $7 billion —...

Snowden has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and several have argued that he should get it this year. Currently, he has been granted asylum in Russia, but the United States wants him to be arrested and extradited. Dagbladet has asked Conservative Party (Høyre) politician Tetzschner whether the Norwegian police may arrest a person coming to the country to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The parliamentary representative believes Norwegian police can and should arrest Snowden. - In principle, we care principle of equality. In addition, Norway honor the agreements we have signed, which also ensures extradition to Norway, he...

Researchers based in Norway believe that in around 10 years time cargo ships will have the technology to sail the seas without the need of a captain or crew. Marintek, part of the SINTEF group based in Norway, is one of a number of partners working on developing systems which can operate without the need for humans. The "Seatonomy" project is looking to have ships sailing without human crews in the next 10 to 20 years. The 12 million kroner ($1.9 million) research investment by SINTEF could actually improve ship safety as human error causes more than 75 percent of...

August 23, 2014 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - In 1200 A.D., a Swedish man named Frederik Ugarph found a hard wood statue only about six inches (15 cm) high of a little person wearing a conical hat in what is now Trondheim, Norway. The statue was standing on a pedestal engraved with the words: “NISSE Riktig Storrelse.” That means, “Gnome, actual height.” Owned and housed today by the Oliv family in Uppsala, Norway, X-ray tests indicate the wooden statue is more than 2,000 years old, perhaps carved from a tree that is no longer known. Another historic account of a “miniature person”...

For now Muslim settlers are flying to Iraq or Syria from European countries like to Norway to join ISIS. Eventually they won’t have to fly anywhere.The struggle for the Islamic State will be right in their own backyards. A Muslim terrorist group, Ansar al-Sunna, is threatening that if a section of the nation’s capitol isn’t transformed into a sharia-complaint Muslim nation, an attack rivaling 9/11 will be launched upon the Scandinavian nation.“We do not want to be a part of Norwegian society. And we do not consider it necessary either to move away from Norway, because we were born and...

Norwegian officials say they think Islamist terrorists could strike the country within a few days, but they do not know what the plot is. The Police Security Service "recently received information that individuals affiliated with an extreme Islamist group in Syria may have the intention of carrying out a terrorist action in Norway," the service said in a statement Thursday. A preliminary investigation strengthened the credibility of the information, the statement said. "We also have information indicating that a terrorist action against Norway is planned to be carried out shortly -- probably in a few days.

The head analyst of Norway’s intelligence agency says a group of people is en route from Syria “to carry out an act of terror in the West,” adding that Norway has been “concretely named” as the target.

Associated PressJuly 24, 2014 COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway's intelligence service said Thursday it has received information about an imminent "concrete threat" against Norway from people with links to Islamic fighters in Syria. Benedicte Bjoernland, the head of Norwegian security service PST, said the agency has received "reliable information" from a foreign partner about some kind of attack "within days." "It was unspecific about what the target might be," Bjoernland said, adding PST has no information about how or when such an attack would take place. (snip)

OSLO - An Islamist militant group with ties to Syria may be planning an attack in Norway, possibly within the coming days, Benedicte Bjoernland, the head of the Police Security Service, PST, said on Thursday. "The PST has received information that persons related to an extreme (Islamist) group in Syria may be planning to carry out a terrorist act in Norway," Bjoernland told a news conference.

Alan Dershowitz has called it “the most anti-Semitic and anti-Israel country in Europe today.” Hanne Nabintu Herland, a religious scholar at the nation’s leading university, has criticized it for “refus[ing] to distance itself from Hamas as a terrorist organization.” Its government, as NR’s Jay Nordlinger has noted, was “the first outside the Islamic world to recognize Hamas.” We’re talking, as you might have guessed, about Norway. In the corridors of Norwegian power, Israel-hatred and sympathy for Islamic terrorists have long been the norm. In 2011, Norway’s ambassador to Israel distinguished between Anders Behring Breivik’s murder spree and Hamas atrocities...

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators turned out on the streets of London, Paris, and Oslo on Friday to call for an end to Israeli military strikes on Gaza. Several thousand people crowded the streets outside the Israeli Embassy in west London, waving placards that read "Gaza: End the Siege" and "Freedom for Palestine." The crowds blocked an entire road, and several protesters managed to climb on top of a double-decker bus stuck in traffic, but police said the protest was largely peaceful. Norwegian news website The Local reported that some 3,000 protestors gathered in front of the Norwegian parliament in Oslo...

A French court hit notorious Norwegian heavy metal musician Kristian Vikernes with a fine and six-month suspended prison sentence for blog postings that allegedly glorified war crimes and promoted discrimination against Jews and Muslims. A French court Tuesday slapped a six-month suspended sentence and an €8,000 ($10,000) fine on a Norwegian heavy metal musician accused of inciting racial hatred in his blogs. Kristian Vikernes, 41, was not present in court and neither was his lawyer as the verdict was delivered. He has denied posting racist blogs and said they were written by someone else. Vikernes was arrested in July last...

The National Police Immigration Service (Politiets Utlendingsenhet) has released latest figures showing in the last six months an average of 18 illegal immigrants per day were deported from Norway. This figure is up from 13 deportations for the same period last year. The main reasons for deportations are people not having valid residence visas or being involved in crime. During the first half year this year, 3,167 people were forced out of Norway, 1,237 of whom had criminal convictions, newspaper Dagbladet reports. Kristin Ottesen Kvigne, head of the police immigration service, told the newspaper: "We are at our highest number...

Norway’s Foreign Minister on Friday warned against an escalation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), and also made sure to point a finger at Israel as “an occupying power”. “The events of the last few days clearly show how quickly the current tense situation could spiral out of control. I urge both the Israelis and the Palestinians to exercise restraint,” Foreign Minister Borge Brende said in a statement. “It is important to seize upon the initiative for a ceasefire, which now appears to be coming from the Palestinians. Israel, as the strongest party, has a particular responsibility to show...

FULL TITLE: Were aliens the source of UFOs spotted above Norway in the 1950s? No, says the CIA: ‘That was us’ The CIA has claimed responsibility for various UFO sightings in the 1950s They say lights over Norway can be attributed to their U-2 aircraft The plane began flying in secret from 1955 and remains in operation today It is capable of flying up to 70,000 feet, meaning it was much higher than conventional planes in the 50s and 60s This meant that, when some pilots saw sunlight glint off the planes above them, they reported them as UFOs as...

“I felt as though a vast, endless scream passed through nature,” painter Edvard Munch famously wrote. But he didn't mean it quite as literally as this. 'Scream' tree brings angst to US Christmas (04 Dec 13) Scream loses place as priciest painting (13 Nov 13) Hundreds gather to 'scream' in Munch tribute (15 Aug 13) Munch Museum sees 40 percent surge in visitors (31 Jul 13) "I was just having a walk along the river here, and I just happened to stumble over this stump," Kjell Marius Mathisen, who works with cultural heritage for Oppland county council, told The Local....