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As soon as Norwegian couple Jan and Lene Robertsen learned their preborn daughter Olivia had Down syndrome, they were offered an abortion. According to Verdinytt, the Robertsens were happy to be expecting a baby and were having a routine check-up when an ultrasound detected a heart defect typically associated with Down syndrome. The couple chose to undergo an amniocentesis so they could get an official diagnosis and then prepare for their child’s needs at and after birth. Just a few days later, they received the diagnosis. “She has Down syndrome,” the doctor said, and then immediately added, “If you sign...

Two Olympic gold medalist ski jumpers have been suspended over their alleged involvement in manipulating ski suits to make them more aerodynamic. Three staff members embroiled in the cheating scandal - including the head coach - have also been stood down from their jobs. SNIP It has emerged that team officials manipulated pre-approved and microchipped suits to increase their size and improve aerodynamics to help athletes fly further. It was revealed in footage secretly filmed from behind a curtain then sent by a whistleblower to international media. A FIS official said the illegal alterations were only confirmed by tearing apart...

Three more Norwegian ski jumpers were suspended on Thursday in a widening cheating scandal that has shocked the sport. World championships medalists Robin Pederson and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal were provisionally suspended along with Robert Johansson over suspicion of illegal manipulation of jump suits, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation said. They follow the suspensions on Wednesday of Olympic gold medalists Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang in a scandal that came to light after Norway team officials manipulated suits to improve aerodynamics and help athletes fly farther. FIS said it was asked to seize all jump suits used by Norway...

OSLO, Norway (AP) – A Norwegian student in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia and Iran while working as a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, authorities in Norway have said. The man, who has not been identified, was ordered to be held in custody for four weeks. He runs a security company jointly with a dual national of Norway and an unspecified eastern European country, according to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. Oslo police said Friday they would review the company’s operating license. Norway’s domestic intelligence agency, PST, said Thursday night that the man was...

Cruise-goers and industry stakeholders have endured a waiting game since cruising stopped in March of last year, with restart dates being pushed back further and further amid COVID-19. On Wednesday, the world’s second-busiest cruise port announced when it believes cruising will finally be able to resume. At a January 27 port authority meeting, Port Canaveral commissioners approved a revised budget, which assumes that passenger cruise-ship operations won’t resume until at least July. Several major cruise lines at the Florida port have already voluntarily canceled their sailings for the next few months—Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean have postponed sailing until May,...

ROME — Norway’s University of Bergen has launched a study of the role played by white paint in extending white supremacy around the globe. The university has received a $1.2 million government grant for its research project “How Norway Made the World Whiter” (NorWhite) to investigate “how white paint has contributed to white supremacy around the world.” The project studies the Norwegian innovation of the white pigment titanium dioxide to show “how Norway has played a globally leading role in establishing white as a superior color.”

A man in Norway is sparking outrage on social media after he was sympathetically interviewed about his decision to begin identifying as a disabled woman. On October 28, Good Morning Norway (God Morgen Norge, GMN) aired an interview with Jørund Viktoria Alme, 53, an able-bodied male who now identifies as a disabled woman. In the interview, Alme stated that he had always wished he had been born a woman who was paralyzed from the waist down. Alme, a senior credit analyst for Handelsbanken in Oslo, has received positive coverage in Norwegian media since he first announced his trans-disability publicly on...

Wed, October 12, 2022 at 2:50 PM·1 min read Cruise stocks soar to pace the S&P 500, as Norwegian is upgraded to buy In this article: ^GSPC -0.33% CUK +10.05% RCL +11.48% NCLH +11.61% Shares of cruise operators were the top-3 gainers in the S&P 500 (SPX) in afternoon trading Wednesday, with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH) getting bullish backing from UBS on the back of upbeat bookings data. UBS analyst Robin Farley raised Norwegian’s rating to buy, after being at neutral since before the pandemic. Farley said the company’s “significant improvement” in bookings in the company’s third-quarter preview...

Norwegian Sun also known as the ICEBERG SHIP. It is in trouble as I speak. https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9218131 It sat in Seattle for close to week after the incident 10 days or so ago. Sailed yesterday on an 8 day trip. Only 24 hours out and enroute back. Says Victoria BC now

What happened Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE:NCLH) took a tumble on Thursday after the cruise line operator announced plans to sell as much as $2.1 billion worth of senior secured notes due in 2027, senior unsecured notes due in 2029, and exchangeable senior notes due in 2027 -- none of which terms investors need to pay close attention to. Just think of them all as debt. The company will use the cash raised from the sale of these notes to roll over debt that it sold previously, such that the net result of all this activity should be...

Passengers aboard a Norwegian cruise ship are stuck at sea this week after the cruise line decided to cancel the cruise mid-voyage due to COVID-19 concerns. Aimee Focaraccio, who boarded a 10-day cruise on the Norwegian Gem from New York, told USA Today that she was notified on Thursday that the cruise would be canceled due to issues related to COVID-19, but was not provided an early return date.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP/WFLA) – Norwegian Cruise Lines is threatening to skip Florida ports because of the governor’s order banning businesses from requiring customers be vaccinated against COVID-19. Norwegian CEO Frank Del Rio says the executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-Florida) banning what he called ‘vaccine passports’ conflicts with federal guidelines that would let cruise ships sail in U.S. waters if passengers and crew members are vaccinated. Legally, lawyers believe that federal law applies and not state law, but I’m not a lawyer. And we hope that this hasn’t become a legal football or a political football. But at the...

Norwegian Cruise Line Ships Photo Credit: Stepniak / Shutterstock.com Major news from Norwegian Cruise Line as it seems the pressure the line has been applying to the CDC has not worked. The line has now canceled most voyages departing from US ports for a large part of the summer. Some of these cancelations run well into the fall, including as far back as November. It shows the cruise line has very little confidence we will be seeing any cruises departing the US. It also points out the conversations that have been ongoing between the CDC and the cruise lines are...

At least three Norwegian Cruise Line ships will be back in the water with paying passengers by the end of August. The world’s fourth-largest cruise brand on Tuesday said it would resume operations on July 25 with a single vessel, the 2,200-passenger Norwegian Jade, sailing to the Greek Islands out of Piraeus, Greece (the port for Athens). Two more Norwegian ships — the 3,802-passenger Norwegian Joy and 2,394-passenger Norwegian Gem — will begin Caribbean sailings out of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and La Romana, Dominican Republic, on Aug. 7 and Aug. 15, respectively, the line said. Like many cruise lines, Norwegian...

Cruise ship operator Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE: NCLH) sought to take advantage of a rebound in its stock price with a public offering of 47.58 million shares. The cruise operator's ships are still stuck in port, but its stock has quadrupled from its year-ago low point on hopes of returning to the high seas soon. Shares have nearly doubled in the past six months and are up 50% over the past month. Yet because Norwegian priced its offering at $30 a share, an almost 10% discount to where shares had closed the day before, the cruise line stock was...

Norwegian Cruise Line today reported quarterly and full-year financial results for Q4 2020, as well as the full financial year 2020, in addition to providing a business update and how it’s dealing with the current situation on suspending operations including millions lost due to the CDC’s Conditional Sailing Order. Not only has the Conditional Sailing Order taken far longer to materialize than expected, but significant uncertainties also remain regarding specific requirements of the conditional order. It also includes the technical instructions that are still pending for all cruise lines. The fact that Norwegian Cruise line had gone through the effort...

Norwegian Cruise Line and its Regent Seven Seas Cruises brand will be asking all of its crew members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine prior to boarding, the cruise companies' spokespeople told Insider in an email statement. However, one glimmer of hope shines at the end of the no-sail tunnel: the COVID-19 vaccine. "We are exploring all options regarding vaccinations for guests and crew and it is our intention that all crew members be vaccinated before boarding our vessels to begin their duties, subject to availability of the vaccine," Norwegian and Regent Seven Seas' statements read. "We will continue to partner...

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has today announced a cancellation of all of its voyages within all brands. Voyages onboard Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas have all been canceled until December 31st, 2020, at least. The announcement comes just days after the announcement from the CDC to lift the No-Sail-Order. Although the company did not give specific details on the cancellations and the reasoning behind it, CEO Frank Del Rio had stated earlier last month that it would take up to 60 days to prepare the vessels for operations. It could also be expected that the protocols...

A new study from the renowned Imperial College in the U.K. has dramatically revised upward the possible number of Europeans infected with the COVID-19 Coronavirus. It estimates that on March 30, 2020, 15% of Spaniards and 9.8% of Italians were infected. If correct, the actual death rate may be as low as 0.15% – or 25 times smaller than the initial reports. In the U.S., too, the real number of stealth-infected people is almost certainly much higher because the immune system of those who are asymptomatically infected kills the virus in days – and such people will test negative.

Now we know why Denmark cut itself off from Germany and Sweden and launched a massive security operation in September. It wasn’t against an ISIS-style terror attack, but against an Iranian plot to murder Ahwaz activists. The plot caused Copenhagen to close its bridges. Now the full story can be told and it may rock Europe and EU relations with Iran. Denmark’s ambassador is on the way home from Tehran. Iran’s pro-government Fars News is complaining about a bias against Iran, denying Iran had anything to do with the plot. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen described the suspected plot as “totally unacceptable” Here...