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RIYADH—Saudi Arabia, crimped by low crude prices, approved Monday a long-term blueprint for the kingdom’s economic transformation aimed at reducing its dependence on oil. The multiyear plan, dubbed “Saudi Vision 2030,” was approved by the cabinet, according to Saudi Arabia’s monarch, King Salman. The Saudi cabinet, in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, said the government’s economic council would be in charge of overseeing the vision’s implementation. Saudi officials later Monday were to present a broad overview of the country’s most extensive economic shake-up in decades. The steep drop in oil prices has given new urgency to...

To the casual observer, Saudi Arabia might seem like an emboldened nation that is asserting itself. They’ve been challenging Iran, fighting rebels in Yemen, threatening to invade Syria, and if some rumors are to be believed, they are currently trying to attain nuclear missiles from Pakistan. However, these aren’t the actions of a stable nation that is asserting its dominance in the region. These are the flailing death throes of a nation that is struggling to hang on. Ever since global oil prices started to plummet, Saudi Arabia just hasn’t been the same. That’s no surprise. Since prices fell, other...

The end of Ali al-Naimi's more than two-decade tenure as Saudi Arabia's oil minister signals a new era for crude markets, analysts said on Saturday, and appeared to be a reaffirmation of Saudi policy to let oil set its own pricing. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree that replaced al-Naimi with Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco, as part of a broad reshuffling of the cabinet. The move came as the world's largest oil producer continues to grapple with the fallout from the global bear market in crude oil. Al Naimi was the most watched figure in the...

Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday replaced his veteran oil minister and restructured some big ministries in a major reshuffle apparently intended to support a wide-ranging economic reform programme unveiled last week. The most eye-catching move was the creation of a new Energy, Industry and Natural Resources Ministry under Khaled al-Falih, chairman of the state oil company Aramco. He replaces the 80-year-old oil minister Ali al-Naimi, in charge of energy policy at the world's biggest oil exporter since 1995. But major changes were also made to the economic leadership, with Majed al-Qusaibi named head of the new Commerce and Investment...

again another country moves their troops into Syria without Syrian approval. Norway will send some 60 troops, including special forces soldiers, to train, advise and give operational support to Syrian fighters battling Islamic State militants, the country's prime minister said on Monday. The troops will be based in Jordan. The Norwegian Parliament will need to be consulted if the troops are to operate within Syria, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said. Norway had previously sent 120 soldiers to Iraq to help to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State in northern Iraq. Those troops are still in Iraq. Norway's decision...

Norwegian authorities are offering a "bonus" 10,000 kroner (£1,000) to asylum seekers willing to leave the country voluntarily. The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) says the measure is less expensive than keeping refugees in immigration centres in the country. Launched on Monday, the scheme will run for six weeks, state broadcaster NRK reported UDI saying. The money will be paid to the first 500 asylum seekers to apply on a first-come, first-served basis. “We need to entice more [people] to voluntarily travel back by giving them a bit more money on their way out. This will save us a lot...

Oslo, April 23, 2016 People are leaving the Lutheran Church of Norway in droves after its Synod voted in favor of allowing gay people to be married in Church, reports RIA-Novosti. Nidaros Cathedral of the Church of Norway in Trondheim, Norway    The majority decision came in early April with 88 of 115 Synod members voting for the blessing of same-sex couples. In the resulting document it is noted that the Church should work out a special service which could be used for gay couples. Such a service could be approved already in early 2017. Representatives of the Church of...

Russia honours veteran with medal, vodka By Jonathan Sher, The London Free Press Monday, April 25, 2016 10:05:18 EDT PM When your life is the world of ­diplomacy and your boss is Vladimir Putin, you’re not easily surprised. But the head of the Russian delegation in Toronto was taken aback this month when a 95-year-old Londoner, to be honoured for heroism during the Second World War, not only walked himself into the reception area, but passed up coffee and tea for a vodka. “He was quite surprised I walked in instead of being carried,” Londoner Bob Kennedy said. Kennedy was...

<p>It is the second time in six years the tower has been fired on in error by F-16 jets – no one was injured either time.</p> <p>Two F-16s were taking part in a mock attack on the uninhabited island of Tarva off Norway’s west coast when one of them opened fire with its M61 Vulcan cannon, which is capable of firing up to 100 rounds a second.</p>

Norwegian authorities are set to pay about 10,000 kroner (US$1,200) to asylum seekers willing to leave the country voluntarily. Oslo says the measure is less expensive than keeping refugees in immigration centers in the country. The scheme starts this Monday and will run for six weeks, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (Utlendingsdirektoratet - UDI) said, as cited by broadcaster NRK. The money will be paid to the first 500 asylum seekers who apply for voluntary return to their home countries. “We need to entice more [people] to voluntarily travel back by giving them a bit more money on their way...

Norway's minister of migration and integration has sparked outrage after floating in the Mediterranean Sea in an orange survival suit to experience being rescued from a refugee's "perspective." Sylvi Listhaug, a Progress Party member known for her hard-line stance on immigration, travelled to the Greek island of Lesbos to familiarise herself with the rescue work carried out by Norwegian vessel Peter Henry von Koss.

Some child brides are living with older husbands in asylum centers in Scandinavia, triggering a furor about lapses in protection for girls in nations that ban child marriage. Authorities have let girls stay with their partners, believing it is less traumatic for them than forced separation after fleeing wars. These issues have caused unease in Scandinavia, where authorities risk complicity in child abuse. "Minors seeking asylum are in a difficult situation where they have left their homeland, family and friends, and the partner they have traveled with can be the only person they know and trust in Norway," said Heidi...

Mass murderer of children gets a computer, a Playstation, and his own kitchen—but that’s not enough for the Norway court that called his prison conditions “degrading.” A Norway court just ruled that the prison where mass-murderer Anders Breivik is being held violated his human rights—but the perks he enjoys at the Scandinavian lock-up are downright plush. On Wednesday, an Oslo district court awarded Breivik—who killed 77 people in a 2011 shooting spree, including 69 children at the Utoya summer camp—with 331,000 kroner (roughly $40,600) and a promise for improved living conditions. Ruling from a makeshift courtroom in the prison gym,...

Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has won part of a human rights case against the Norwegian state. The court upheld his claim that some of his treatment amounted to "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". After the judgement, Breivik's lawyer, Oystein Storrvik, called for his solitary confinement to be repealed. Breivik, a right-wing extremist, killed dozens of young centre-left political activists in an attack on the island of Utoya in July 2011. SNIP In her ruling, judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic said the right not to be subjected to inhuman treatment represented "a fundamental value in a democratic society" and...

Oslo, Norway (CNN) — Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has won part of his lawsuit against the state over his solitary confinement in a high-security prison, a court announced Wednesday. The Oslo district court found the 37-year-old's treatment in prison violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, prohibiting "inhuman or degrading treatment," and ruled that his conditions must be eased. The court also ordered the government to pay legal costs of 331,000 kroner ($40,600) for the right-wing extremist, who killed 77 people in a shooting rampage and bombing attack in 2011.

A new discovery has revived an old theory about ocean water gobbling up ships in the Bermuda Triangle—if, that is, the Bermuda Triangle even exists. Researchers from the Arctic University of Norway say they’ve spotted large craters apparently created by methane buildups off Norway’s coast, Atlas Obscura reports. “Multiple giant craters exist on the sea floor in an area in the west-central Barents Sea … and are probably a cause of enormous blowouts of gas,” they tell the Sunday Times. “The crater area is likely to represent one of the largest hotspots for shallow marine methane release in the Arctic.”...

Norway's Lutheran Church voted on Monday in favor of allowing same-sex marriage, becoming the latest of a small but growing number of churches worldwide to do so. Last year the French Protestant Church allowed gay marriage blessings, while the U.S. Presbyterian Church approved a change in the wording of its constitution to include same-sex marriage. In a vote at the annual conference of the Norwegian Lutheran Church on Monday 88 delegates out of 115 in total backed same-sex marriage. "Finally we can celebrate love independently of whom one falls in love with," said Gard Sandaker-Nilsen, leader of the Open Public...

Norway's Lutheran Church voted on Monday in favor of allowing same-sex marriage, becoming the latest of a small but growing number of churches worldwide to do so. Last year the French Protestant Church allowed gay marriage blessings, while the U.S. Presbyterian Church approved a change in the wording of its constitution to include same-sex marriage.

<p>A leftist Norwegian politician who was raped by a Somali refugee five years ago says he feels guilty that his rapist, after serving his time, will now be deported.</p> <p>Nordal Hauken, who describes himself as a 'young Socialist Left Party member, feminist and anti-racist', was attacked in his own home.</p>

A far-left politician in Norway who was violently sodomized by a Somali refugee is explaining away the crime and begging that his assailant not be deported. Self-hatred is at the root of much political correctness, but rarely has self-abasement reached this level. Jonah Bennett reports for the Daily Caller News Foundation: Leftist Norway politican Karsten Nordal Hauken was brutally sodomized by a Somali and felt so incredibly guilty in the aftermath he subsequently begged authorities not to deport the man. Hauken has finally come out to tell the public his story of his rape and forgiveness, Norway’s public broadcasting channel...