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OSLO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Worms squirming on a fishhook feel no pain -- nor do lobsters and crabs cooked in boiling water, a scientific study funded by the Norwegian government has found."The common earthworm has a very simple nervous system -- it can be cut in two and continue with its business," Professor Wenche Farstad, who chaired the panel that drew up the report, said on Monday.Norway might have considered banning the use of live worms as fish bait if the study had found they felt pain, but Farstad said "It seems to be only reflex curling when put...

New 'Kon-Tiki' expedition postponedNorwegian organizers of a new expedition in a replica of the late explorer Thor Heyerdahl's famed "Kon-Tiki" raft were supposed to cast off from Peru this spring. Now they're aiming for the spring of 2006 instead.The group of adventurers, which included a grandson of Heyerdahl, had high hopes for their so-called "Tangaroa Expedition," named after a Polynesian god of the sea. They planned to set off April 28, on a 101-day voyage across the Pacific.The tsunamis that hit Asia on December 26, however, doused those plans. Important sponsors decided to redirect funding grants to tsunami victims instead...

Bush most mentioned person in NorwayUS President George W. Bush was the most mentioned in the Norwegian press, appearing 15,269 times. There is only one woman among the top 20.According to an analysis made by the media survey company, Retriever Norway, based on 500 Norwegian news sources, the American president is the most mentioned person in the press in Norway, reported the Norwegian news bureau.Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is number two on the list, mentioned about 9,700 times. Bondevik is followed by the leader of the Conservative Party, Erna Solberg, the only woman in the top twenty names mentioned....

The Sami People's Day celebrated SundayFebruary 6th is celebrated as the indigenous Sami People's Day in Norway and other Scandinavian countries.In Oslo, Bishop Gunnar Staalsett has for the first time invited to a Sami/Norwegian service at the Oslo Cathedral.Oslo is the city in Norway with the largest Sami population. It is therefore a grat pleasure to have the Sami language and culture be expressed at the Sunday service at the Cathedral on this day, Staalsett says.The Nordic Sami Council decided in 1992 to celebrate a joint Sami National Day, and the first was celebrated on February 6th 1993.It marks the...

Rats spark garbage feudTwo Norwegian rats that allegedly hitched a ride across the border on a garbage truck to Kiruna have sparked expense claims and disposal problems on both sides of the Norway-Sweden border.All export of combustible trash from northern Norway to an incineration plant in Kiruna, Sweden has ceased and Norwegian trash is banned until the rat problem is solved.None of the Norwegian trash exporters is willing to take the blame for having transported the vermin."I think the rats had a Tromsø accent," said the director of Hålogaland Ressursselskap in Narvik. The response was predictable."The rats surely have a...

Latest Poll: Labour remains in the leadThe Labour Party is still Norway's largest political party, despite a 1.5 point drop in voters' support in TNS Gallup's poll for January, made for VG and TV2.The poll shows a gain for the Prime Minister's Christian People's Party by 1.5 point to 7 per cent. Coalition partner, the Conservative Party, is up 1 point to 19 per cent, and the right wing Progress Party is also one up to 20 per cent.TNS Gallup's results for January:Labour Party 30.5 (-1.5)Progress Party 20.0 (+1.0)Conservatives 19,0 (+1.0)Socialist Left 14.5 (-1.0)Christian People 7.0 (+1.5)Agrarians 5.0 ( --...

Compulsive gambler suesA Norwegian man has taken state-owned Norsk Tipping (Norwegian Betting) to court after losing NOK 11.4 million (USD 1.78 million) on various games of chance.The case against the state-lottery and betting body goes to trial next week in Hedemark municipal court. According to magazine Kapital, the man has been diagnosed as a pathological gambler.The betting took place from December 2001 until October 2002, using funds from a corporation that the man owned. Seven of the 11.4 million came from winnings.The man's attorney told newspaper Hamar Arbeiderbladet that there will be several points crucial to the trial, including the...

Spanking stepfather acquittedA 36-year-old Stavanger man has been acquitted of assault and battery after spanking his two stepsons. The court ruled that the action fell within the bounds of a parent's right to punish.The boys were aged seven and nine in the winter of 2002/2003 when they received spankings on four separate occasions. The boys were hit hard three times across the buttocks with a flat hand while they lay on their stomachs across their stepfather's knee, newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reports.The 36-year-old handed out the punishment because the boys had been unruly for some time and had hit schoolmates. The...

No takers for smuggler's taleA Pole caught carrying five kilos (11 lbs) of amphetamines at the Norwegian border failed to convince a court that he had been summoned to Norway to donate sperm.The man was stopped at Svinesund on the Swedish-Norwegian border during a spot customs check of a passenger bus last May, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports. Customs officials found five kilos of amphetamines in his luggage and his fingerprints on the packaging the drugs were in.The man's story was that he had come to Norway to donate sperm to a Norwegian couple that he had met via the Internet....

Healthy, wealthy and sadA new study finds that Norwegians, despite their beautiful natural surroundings, oil fortune and having the country ranked as the best place in the world to live, are the saddest people in the Nordic region."We have everything and that is basically all we have. The meaning of life is to do difficult things," professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen told newspaper Dagsavisen. That is his explanation for Norway, regularly rated the best place in the world to live and one of the planet's richest nations, only finishing 14th in a study of world happiness."We don't have what is needed...

Easy access to alcohol unpopularThe populist Progress Party has had surprisingly little public support for their efforts to bring wine and spirits out of the clutches of the state liquor monopoly Vinmonopolet and in to normal shops.Only 16 percent of those quizzed in a survey carried out by TNS Gallup for TV 2 favored the Progress Party suggestion, and just 31 percent favored making just wine more accessible.Despite the ongoing investigation into the possible bribery of several Vinmonopolet managers, Norwegians appear to have great faith in the monopoly as an institution.Only one in five respondents said that they felt the...

Sentenced for clumsy approachA 38-year-old man from Arendal has been given convicted after giving his 15-year-old sister-in-law a quick kiss on the mouth and grazing her breast with his hand.The clumsy sexual approach ended in a 14-day suspended sentence and a NOK 5,000 (USD 788) bill for court costs, newspaper Agderposten reports.To be sentenced the prosecution had to establish that the accused had carried out a "sexual action", something which has no clear-cut legal definition.Circuit judge Kari Johanne Bjørnøy ruled that such an action need not aim to satisfy a sexual drive or achieve a sexual sensation, and that the...

History textbook confuses studentsA publisher has agreed to amend a high school textbook that teachers said confused students into equating Norway's government under Nazi occupation and its post-war return to democracy.History teachers at Asker Upper Secondary School protested after finding that a textbook covering Norwegian history after 1850 made complex and controversial comparisons between occupied and post-war Norway.The text argued that "both put great weight on ideology and modern propaganda" and that their methods led to both forms of government being controversial."The book erases the separation between democracy and dictatorship. This can be dangerous in a time where one knows...

1905 – A Peaceful SeparationOn June 7, 1905, the members of the Norwegian government held an emergency meeting with the members of parliament (Storting) with regard to the union between Sweden and Norway. Prime Minister Christian Michelsen, who had formed his national coalition government in March, declared that his government would resign. Because Swedish King Oscar II exercised power over Norway through the government, he lost his power when the government resigned.After it resigned, the Storting responded by adopting a declaration that conferred new powers upon the government and authorized it as the Government of Norway “to exercise, until further...

Bored Boy Triggers Terror Alert in Norway The Associated Press OSLO, Norway A bored 12-year-old boy passing time by trying out his new balaclava triggered a terrorism alert at a southern Norway airport.Glen Tommy Hvorup was waiting in a car for a delayed passenger at the Sandefjord Airport, about 60 miles south of Oslo, when he got fidgety, the local newspaper reported Monday.(more)

Fewer businesses bust after smoking banThe grim forecasts of widespread bankruptcies in the pub, bar and restaurant sector after Norway's introduction of a total ban on smoking in workplaces proved mistaken, at least so far.The smoking ban was in place for seven months in 2004 and the number of bankruptcies in the risky industry declined.In 2003, 386 businesses in the sector went bust. In 2004 this declined slightly to 372, with 338 restaurants and 34 bars closing their doors.The indoor smoking ban was set to be the toughest in the world, but Dagfinn Høybråten, then Health Minister, decided not to...

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...

26. Januar 2005 Veterinarian dispute hardens The conflict between Norway's veterinarians and the Department of Agriculture has worsened, after Tuesday's negotiations failed to reach an agreement on a new emergency duty rota. The Department is now trying to get veterinarians to do night duty outside a union agreement. As of January 1st there is no longer a veterinarian emergency on-call service, and there have been cases where farm animals have died outside office hours, because a veterenary has not been available, NRK reports. The Department is now trying to get veterinarians to agree to a voluntary emergency call service, outside...

Much to Treasure from Royal Norwegian Visit A Royal visit brings with it much to cherish and to treasure. The visit by His Majesty King Harald V and Her Majesty Queen Sonja to Singapore brings with it much rewards for both countries and their peoples. Singapore and Norway share much similar interests and concerns, especially in the maritime field and in oil and gas. With the recent visit of Their Majesties, the areas of joint interests and concerns will no doubt be expanded broadly into other fields such as tourism and possibly even renewable energy.