Free Republic

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...

Two out of three charged with rape in Norway's capital are immigrants with a non-western background according to a police study. The number of rape cases is also rising steadily.The study is the first where the crime statistics have been analyzed according to ethnic origin. Of the 111 charged with rape in Oslo last year, 72 were of non-western ethnic origin, 25 are classified as Norwegian or western and 14 are listed as unknown. Police Inspector Gunnar Larsen of Oslo's Vice, Robbery and Violent crime division says the statistics are surprising - the rising number of rape cases and the...

Two out of three charged with rape in Norway's capital are immigrants with a non-western background according to a police study. The number of rape cases is also rising steadily.The study is the first where the crime statistics have been analyzed according to ethnic origin. Of the 111 charged with rape in Oslo last year, 72 were of non-western ethnic origin, 25 are classified as Norwegian or western and 14 are listed as unknown. Rape charges in the capital are spiraling upwards, 40 percent higher from 1999 to 2000 and up 13 percent so far this year.

Celebrity Pentecostal preacher Runar Søgaard is under protection by Swedish police after receiving death threats. A high-profile sermon where Sögaard called the prophet Mohammed "a confused pedophile" has triggered fears of religious war. Søgaard, 37, enjoys celebrity status in Sweden after his marriage to recording star and Eurovision song contest winner Carola, even though they are now divorced. "Even if I see Runar while he has major police protection I will shoot him to death," a radical Islamist told Swedish newspaper Expressen. Persons connected to the Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam claim to have received a fatwa, a decree from a...

Insane must payNorway's Supreme Court has ruled that even those judged as insane when committing a crime must be held financially accountable for their acts, reversing common legal practice.Up until now insanity has acted as a protection against compensation claims for non-economic damages to victims of violence or their survivors, newspaper VG reports.On Tuesday the Supreme Court overturned an appeals court decision and ordered a 36-year-old to pay NOK 50,000 (USD 7,600) in compensation despite being assessed as insane at the time of the crime."A dramatic change. The Supreme Court is now saying that consideration of the victim is more...

In 2003 an asylum seeker was prepared to carry out a suicide mission on a domestic Norwegian flight. This Kato Air flight nearly ended in disaster when an asylum seeker invaded the cockpit swinging an axe. Police revealed the man's intentions. When they intervened, the refugee's bags were packed and plans were found, along with a farewell note to his family. The PST (Norwegian Police Security Service) believe the man was capable of taking down a commuter plane in the northern Norway network. In the autumn of 2004 a Kato Air flight in Bodø narrowly avoided a crash after an...

OSLO, Norway, Sep. 28 (UPI) -- Basim Ghozlan, director of the Islamic Association in Norway, has defended suicide bombing under certain circumstances. "If the war is legal, seen from an Islamic viewpoint, and if one has does not have the possibility to harm the enemy with other means than offering one's own life, then this is legal," Ghozlan said in reply on the Web site www.islam.no to a boy's question about suicide bombing, radio station Kanal 24 reported.