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Woman caught lying after shootingA woman who appeared to have been shot in the foot finally had to admit to just that on Tuesday. She'd earlier told police that a door-to-door salesman was to blame, which in turn prompted them to mount an armed manhunt.The bizarre incident occurred in Sotra, outside Bergen, Wednesday night, and alarmed an entire neighbourhood.It all began Wednesday afternoon when the woman was found injured in her own home by a member of her family. She was bleeding from a wound in her foot.The woman said it was a gunshot wound, and that she'd been shot...

Police crack drug smuggling ringSix men aged 21 to 44 were in police custody Monday, charged with smuggling amphetamines to Norway. They allegedly hid the drugs inside the batteries of their cars.Police think they''ve cracked a drug smuggling operation that involved the so-called Polish Mafia. The Polish defendants are believed to have worked with Norwegian counterparts in regularly supplying up to 10 kilos of pills hidden in the specially built car batteries.The drugs were then delivered to an obscure pizza restaurant in Fetsund, a small town east of Oslo. Police claim the pizza restaurant functioned as a sort of base...

OSLO, Norway - A 79-year-old Norwegian might have gotten away with a quick but drunken drive to the gas station to buy tobacco, except for one thing. He drove off behind the wheel of someone else's car, the local Internet newspaper Vesteraalen Online reported Thursday.A court this week handed the man, whose name was not released, a three week suspended jail sentence and a $2,125 fine and revoked his driver's license for three years.In the incident, which occurred last year, the Norwegian arrived at a gas station in an aging Opel from the 1980s. When he left in a different...

Crackdown on tax-dodging taxisOslo tax authorities have several nasty surprises for taxi drivers and owners not registering all of their income. The biggest shock is a bill for NOK 12 million (USD 1.97 million) in back taxes for the worst offender.The case is just one involving 500 taxi owners and 2,500 drivers being investigated for tax evasion, newspaper VG reports.According to VG, 37 of the 500 owner investigations are now finished and 35 can expect a bill of NOK 1 million each.Oslo authorities are also investigating possible social security frauds involving taxi drivers who are suspected of receiving payments while...

King Harald faces new operationNorway's King Harald will undergo heart surgery right after next week's Easter holiday, to correct a defective valve. Crown Prince Haakon will take over his father's duties as regent while the monarch is on sick leave.The 68-year-old King Harald is expected to be off work for at least two months, but palace officials hoped he would be able to resume his duties as quickly as possible. The royal family is in the midst of a busy program of public appearances tied to Norway's centennial celebrations.King Harald underwent surgery for bladder cancer in December 2003 and was...

HAUGESUND, Norway -- An unusual aircraft took off recently from an airport in Norway.Tor Anderson built a flying lawnmower from instructions and drawings he received from the United States.Anderson said he worked on the contraption for two weeks before its maiden flight at Haugesund Airport.The lawnmower took off and circled before landing.

Iditarod victory may be Sørlie's lastRobert Sørlie is a national hero after winning the famed Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska, but the victory may be his last.Next year he plans to back his nephew Bjørnar Andersen, who made an impressive debut this time around.Sørlie, who won after nine days, 18 hours and 39 minutes racing through the desolate Alaskan landscape, said he absolutely won't be a musher himself next year. "Team Norway" will instead concentrate on promoting Andersen, while Kjetil Backen, part of the team's support staff, will also participate in the race.Sørlie isn't sure whether he'll be a...

Nightmare carpenters con pensionerA 69-year-old woman who thought she was hiring professional carpenters to do some construction got a band of criminals led by an Estonian pimp.Ragna Hjelle's nightmare began when she found an ad in the newspaper for a carpentry firm. She wanted professional help to finish the renovation of a basement apartment that she had begun with her partner Jonas, who passed away suddenly last year.Hjelle called the number in the ad and "a friendly Norwegian" paid her a visit, newspaper Bergens Tidende reports. "He had some able lads that could help me at a reasonable price," Hjelle...

New EU vote can topple governmentConservative Party leader Erna Solberg has mentioned a date for a new vote on European Union membership by Norway, a stance that would force Christian Democrats to leave the minority coalition government.The Christian Democratic Party (Kr.F) opposes EU membership and acting Kr.F parliamentary leader Einar Steensnæs told newspaper Nationen that this would split the current coalition.Solberg said last week that the Conservatives want an EU application in the next term, and mentioned 2007 as still relevant date."A completely clear qualification from the Kr.F for the existing government is that if one of the parties should...

Students upset state exam effortsA group of student activists opposed to international standard testing launched another effort this week to foil a national mathematics examination. They almost succeeded, with the help of the Internet.The activists got hold of the math exam Monday and put it out on the Internet, thus enabling a sneak peak at what 10th graders were supposed to see for the first time in class on Tuesday.State officials immediately said the test would be administered anyway.The student activists tried to foil the examination attempt because they want state authorities to postpone the national math exam until next...

Public sector gets high marksNorwegians are known for complaining, but a new survey indicates they're generally satisifed with the social services they get for their tax money. Subsidized day care centers get the highest marks, while everything from school dentists to centers for the elderly are clearly popular.Public sector services provided through local townships routinely get plenty of bashing, both directly and through the media. A survey of 15,000 Norwegians nationwide by research firm TNS Gallup, however, found that 77 percent of the services offered got positive evaluations.The survey, which asked Norwegians to rank 43 different services from libraries to...

While waiting for the morning edition of that excellent newspaper in Oslo, the Aftenposten, to pop up on the computer screen, I checked out a "lead" given me by twinself of the Eastern European ping list.There is apparently an ancient Norwegian, a Viking, church right smack in the middle of the Carpathian Mountains of Poland.I have been all over the place, and so am used to finding unusual things in unusual places, but this one seems a gem, a jewel.This church was originally built around 1180, on the shores of Lake Vang in southern Norway (Vangsmjosi), near Mount Grindafjellet. It...

OSLO (Reuters) - First born children in Norway get better education and as adults are more successful in the job market than younger siblings, a Norwegian-U.S. study shows."It is the birth order and not necessarily the size of the family that is important," said economics professor Kjell Salvanes of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. "It is better if you are the first born."Salvanes and two colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) based their study on census data of Norwegians born between 1912 and 1975. The findings will be published in the Quarterly Journal of...

Norway royal's dad weds ex-stripperCrown Princess Mette-Marit's freewheeling father married an ex-stripper half his age at the Norwegian embassy in the Netherlands on Friday, the TV-2 television network reported.Svein O Hoiby, the princess's 68-year-old commoner father, often figures in Norwegian news media for antics that have caused him to be estranged from his daughter.The bridegroom, who has no role in Norway's royal family, met his bride, 34-year-old Norwegian Renathe Barsgaard, when she stripped on stage at a show in October in southern Norway he participated in."It is strange that an old man like me could fall in love with a...

Socialist parties win more voter supportNorway's Labour Party remains the most popular among voters at present, while the Socialist Left is gaining favour. Together, a so-called "Red-Green" coalition now holds more than 50 percent of the vote.That compares to just 27 percent for the three parties now making up Norway's non-socialist coalition government.Labour (Arbeiderpartiet) fell a bit in the latest poll done for newspaper Aftenposten and Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). It still holds 29.7 percent of the vote, however, compared to the 19.2 percent now held by the next-biggest party in parliament, the Progress Party.The Socialist Left (SV) won over more...

ST. PETERSBURG, March 11 (Itar-Tass) -- The famous Russian St. Petersburg-based Baltika brewery is beginning beer shipments to Norway on Friday, its Director for exports Dmitry Kistev told Tass.He said exports to Norway will begin with a batch of 10,000 liters.Kistev said it was difficult to access the Norwegian market because of tough registration requirements and high taxes.Baltika beer will be sold only through the state-run Vinmonopolet retail network.The state monopoly conditioned the sale of Russian beer will begin in May.The Baltika beer will be cheaper than other imported beer.In 2004 the Baltika brewery sold a record of some two...

Germans accuse skiing hooligansBayern police say that a large cow made of synthetic material on display in connection with the skiing world championships in Oberstdorf has been stolen, and "Norwegian cowboys" are suspected.Police said that the 1.4 meter (4'7") high cow was on show at the cross-country skiing stadium for the world championships recently staged in the city.Newspaper Abendzeitung München reported that the defenseless cow was abducted on the last day of the championships.The cow was last seen at the railway station in Oberstdorf in the company of two people the newspaper described as "norwegischer Cowboys" (Norwegian cowboys). Local police...

PM blasts IKEAPrime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is astonished by Swedish furniture giant IKEA's view of women and wants the company to start depicting women building furniture in their assembly instructions.IKEA has about 2,000 products that need diagrammed instructions to assemble, and not one of these sheets shows a woman tackling the problem of putting Swedish flat-packed furniture together.Bondevik calls IKEA's stance "untenable", and was unimpressed by the explanation offered."We have over 200 warehouses around the world and have to take cultural considerations into account. In Muslim countries there is a problem using women in instructions," IKEA's information chief Camilla...

Authorities brace for Avian FluNorway's Directorate for Health and Social Affairs has recommended that stores of influenza medicine be increased as a precaution against a possible pandemic.The World Health Organization (WHO) assesses the Avian Flu outbreak in Southeast Asia as a potential forerunner of a global influenza epidemic due to its high fatality rate and the danger of it mutating to a form even more dangerous to humans.Norway's health authorities said Wednesday that stocks of influenza remedy Tamiflu be increased from 200,000 ten-pill cures to 1.4 million.Authorities also suggested the purchase of 12 million daily doses of the medication amantadine,...

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...