Free Republic

Norwegians lack faith in judicial systemAround 25 percent of all Norwegian men say they have little or very little confidence in the country's judicial system. An overwhelming majority also think the sentences handed out to criminals are too lenient.A survey done by research firm InFact for newspaper VG showed that 20 percent of women questioned nationwide also said they had very little faith in the system.The largest amount of skeptics are in Trøndelag, where nearly 35 percent expressed a lack of confidence.A whopping 82.7 percent of all women questioned said they think the sentences handed down in murder cases should...

Police raid recovers stolen Munch artdEight young men and a woman were in custody on Tuesday, suspected of stealing two lithographs and a watercolour by famed Norwegian artist Edvard Munch from a luxury hotel just 20 hours earlier. The stolen artwork was also in the hands of police, seized after a dramatic raid in Oslo Monday night.Quick police action and tips from neighbors led to the raid on a flat in Oslo's Kampen district. Several of the nine persons arrested have police records, mostly involving robberies of mobile telephones and local stores.Police stressed to newspaper Aftenposten that none of those...

Another military tank runs amokLast week, a military tank rolled over a private car driven by a couple leaving a ski center in Nord-Trøndelag. On Monday morning a family was rudely awakened when another armoured tank rammed into the wall of their house in the same area.The family home at Høylandet in Nord-Trøndelag was damaged when the CV-90 tank, driving through the neighbourhood in connection with a NATO exercise, encountered a patch of ice.A military spokesman said the tank went into reverse when it began to slip on the ice, but then hit the house at aroung 5:30 a.m.The NATO...

Moose rings twiceIt was too early to be the postman, and a family in Buvikåsen found instead that their unexpected visitor was from the animal kingdom.The family had barely risen from their beds when they heard the doorbell chime on a frosty morning during the winter holidays last week.The man of the house, which is on the edge of a forest, tried to spot who their unexpected visitor could be, but the view of the front door was blocked by a veranda roof - but he could hear heavy breathing from the entrance stairs, newspaper Trønderbladet reports.At this point the...

No national reaction to nose-blowingNorway's national soccer coach Åge Hareide has no intention of dropping controversial striker John Carew, who is now the focus of an investigation in Turkey, accused of blowing his nose on an opposing player.Carew has admitted to blowing, but not aiming. He has also claimed that photographs of the incident are manipulated, and display an unnatural amount of material being expelled toward an opponent, 19-year-old Turk Aytar Ac.Crew, currently at top Turkish club Besiktas, faces punitive action from the football federation there, where the incident has become a full-blown scandal.For the time being Norwegian football officials...

Oslo most expensiveNorway's capital has done it again, winning the dubious honor of being the most expensive city in the world, according to the latest report from Swiss bank UBS.The annual UBS Prices and Earnings survey ranks Oslo, Copenhagen and Tokyo as the three most expensive cities, but London would have pushed Oslo down to the number two spot if rents had been factored into the equation.Earnings are also top in the Scandinavian region to compensate for high costs, but with taxes and social security contributions also hefty in Scandinavia, Oslo and Copenhagen have moved down in the overall ranking...

Customer frustration led to death threatsA 19-year old from Mandal was so frustrated by a lack of customer support from communications giant Telenor that he finally sent in death threats to try and get a response.The man pled guilty in Kristiansand municipal court to the charges and received a NOK 5,000 (USD 800) fine and a 21-day suspended jail sentence, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.The man's problems began when he contacted the former telecoms monopoly by e-mail after having Internet problems in late 2003 and early 2004. But after failing to get a reply he eventually lost his temper and began...

HAIA, Norway (March 1, 2005) -- The depth of the snow near the field training area during Exercise Battle Griffin stands nearly 2 meters. The temperature is a crisp, steady, 12 degrees Fahrenheit - brrrrr!Although the sun is lengthening its daily routine in and around central Norway, dangerous conditions are extreme. Teams have been out testing the snow and electronic transmitters have been issued to all land force participants in case of an avalanche.In these conditions, just getting to the training ranges is a success.The Marines of Marine Air Ground Task Force 25 assembled near the city of Trondheim in...

Windsurfers appeal to crown princeSome avid windsurfers, sure they have a kindred spirit in Norway's crown prince, hope he can help them overturn a ban on the sport in some protected areas off the Norwegian coast. They claim Crown Prince Haakon himself has violated the ban."I've surfed with (Crown Prince Haakon) several times, and I know that he loves the waves," surfer Thomas Olsen told newspaper Østlandsposten."Norwegians are outdoorsy people, but (here) we're not allowed to use the outdoors," Olsen claimed. "I hope the crown prince will meet me to talk about this."Another avid windsurfer, Markus Allen, says the surfers...

Frozen lakes not always safeIt's winter holiday week in Norway, with most schools out of session and thousands flocking outdoors to enjoy winter sports. Experts warn, however, that unusual winter conditions mean the ice on frozen lakes may not be safe.A lack of snow in the Oslo area has prompted many to turn to ice skating and even ice fishing, to get a taste of the great outdoors. They may be taking a risk.The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Administration (NVE) reports that a lengthy period of mild weather last month means that lakes even at an altitude of 500...

Helly Hansen hauls in a recordThey used to be best known for rain slickers and storm gear, but Norwegian clothing maker Helly Hansen has since gone international and definitely upscale. The company is now eyeing record sales and has big plans."The younger generation in Norway, and all our customers worldwide, have a completely different image of Helly Hansen than grown-ups do," Hans Gunleiksrud of Helly Hansen told newspaper Aftenposten this week. That suits him just fine.Sales of Helly Hansen's spring collection are up 40 percent in Norway and 23 percent internationally. The company now aims to open a new so-called...

Preserving the buffalos Fate of Texas herd rests with donated bulls By BETSY BLANEY Associated Press CAPROCK CANYONS STATE PARK, Texas The rumble from stampeding bison used to shake the earth as thousands of the majestic animals thundered across these parts centuries ago. That sound has faded almost entirely now, and the fate of one of the last pure herds in North America begun by famed cattleman Charles Goodnight rests with a trio of bulls donated by media tycoon Ted Turner. The herd, once 250 strong, has dwindled to 53, and more than a century of inbreeding threatens it survival....

Norway's wolf claim unsupported Scandinavian wolf researchers say that Norwegian authorities have no scientific basis for their claim that the ongoing cull of five wolves will not threaten Norway's wolf population. Here the first of five wolves was shot in Koppang on Jan. 16. The second wolf shot was a fertile female from a protected zone, shot by mistake. Norway's claim that killing five of its roughly 20 wolves poses no danger is based on an argument that Norway and Sweden have a shared wolf population of a bit over 100 animals. Experts dispute the Norwegian standpoint, forskning.no, the web...

The day after Montana officials voted to consider canceling the state's controversial bison hunt, officials in Wyoming said their state's hunt has attracted comparatively little attention. ‘‘There is no organized campaign,'' John Emmerich, assistant chief of the Wyoming Fish and Game wildlife division, said Friday. ‘‘I think locally some people oppose it.'' An estimated 850 bison live in Grand Teton National Park, even though Emmerich said the goal was for a herd of 400 to 500. So each year, the state issues 90 tags, with the goal of culling 30 to 50 bison from the herd. ‘‘The hunt is to...

If Gov. Brian Schweitzer's new Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission decides to cancel the scheduled bison hunt this year, it would be throwing away a great opportunity to learn from a small hunting experiment. And it most certainly would be acting against the wishes of the Montana Legislature. That was the view of Dan Walker, the outgoing chairman of the commission, when asked what he thought of this week's developments in the on-then-off bison hunt. Approximately 8,500 people had applied for 10 available licenses for a hunt Jan. 15 to Feb. 15 approved last month by Walker's commission. The drawings...

HELENA, Mont. - Montana's first hunt in more than a decade of bison that leave Yellowstone National Park was effectively put on hold Thursday by appointees of a new governor who says he fears a "public relations nightmare" if the hunt proceeds. The Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission postponed a drawing for 10 bison licenses that had been scheduled for Friday, and planned a Monday meeting to decide whether the monthlong hunt, set to begin Jan. 15, should be canceled. Three of the 'yes' votes in the 4-1 decision came from commissioners who had been appointed hours earlier by Democratic...

HELENA, Mont. - Gov. Brian Schweitzer, fearing a "public relations nightmare" for Montana, said Wednesday he wants to cancel a hunt for bison that wander outside Yellowstone National Park. The newly inaugurated Democrat said he hopes to find a way to postpone the season for a year — it's set to start Jan. 15 — by either ordering the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks not to issue licenses, or by filling the Fish and Game Commission with new members who would reverse the decision to approve the hunt. Schweitzer said he is not sure he can legally do the...

Friday, Dec 31, 2004 Bison bone discovery turns B.C. history upside-down PENTICTON (BC Newspaper Group) — The year 2004 ends with a major story in archaeology, revealed by the use of new DNA technology on ancient bison bones scattered around western North America. The findings profoundly affect our understanding of how North America was populated by humans, and could have an impact on aboriginal politics as well. The conventional wisdom, taught to generations in school, speaks of a land bridge connecting Asia with Alaska. This now-submerged bridge was created by lower sea levels in the last ice age, which ended...

Thousands of years before white and Indian hunters drove the buffalo of America's Great Plains to virtual extinction, the ancestors of those lordly animals suffered a similar fate -- but it was major climate change, not hunting, that did them in, says an international research team. Now researchers from five nations say the decline of the ancestral bison -- which lived in a region that now comprises northeastern Siberia, Alaska and Canada's Northwest Territories, a region scientists call Beringia -- began more than 23,000 years before the first wave of humans is believed to have migrated from Siberia to Alaska.

WASHINGTON - Hunters may not be to blame for the decline in bison populations, according to a new study that points the finger at climate change. Scientists had thought bison were hunted to the brink of extinction when people first crossed an ice-free bridge between what's now Alaska and Siberia. Two subspecies of bison now live in North America. Now researchers say bison DNA shows their genetic diversity began to decline more than 20,000 years before humans reached eastern Beringia in what is now North America, according to archeological evidence.Scientists at Oxford University analysed DNA samples from 442 fossils from...