Free Republic

New royal heir on the wayStaff at Norway's Royal Palace announced Monday that Crown Princess Mette-Marit is pregnant with a new royal heir. The child will be third in line to take over as reigning monarch.Crown Princess Mette-Marit has bowed out of several events during recent weeks, claiming illness, just as the royal program has been in one of its busiest phases ever.[Fred: because of the Norway centennial celebrations this year; Norway became independent of Sweden in 1905]That's left Crown Prince Haakon and his mother, Queen Sonja, handling the brunt of the royal duties as King Harald recovers from heart...

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...

Next year, Norway will be celebrating the 2005 centennial of the dissolution with Sweden in 1905. To mark the 100th anniversary of independence, the Norwegian American Foundation has commissioned the Royal Norwegian Mint to issue a commemorative silver medal.The silver medal comes in a philatelic-numismatic cover / first-edition letter with accompanying stamps and will be offered as a commemorative medal to the Norwegian American community.The medal features a portrait of HRH Crown Princess Märtha, designed by Ingrid Austlid Riise in close cooperation with Kirsten Kokkin. The reverse side will depict a portrait of the three regents of the period: King...

Viking ship cracking upEperts are worried about one of Norway's national treasures. Archaeologists have discovered cracks in the hull of he famed Oseberg Viking ship, which may halt plans to move the vessel to a new museum.The archaeologists have been carefully going over the nearly 1,200-year-old ship, and are concerned about what they see, reports newspaper Aftenposten.Removal of the vessel's top deck has revealed some exciting new details, like graffiti from the Viking age and details of the ship's rigging. But it's also exposed cracks that make archaeologists worry the ship won't tolerate any move to new quarters.There have been...

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...

Norway's giant dairy cooperative TINE was raided Wednesday by competition investigators bearing warrants.The near-monopolist dairy producers have been in the media spotlight after accusations of unfair business practices and trying to smother competition.TINE's offices were ransacked by authorities and documents confiscated, radio station P4 reported. The discount grocery chain REMA 1000 was also visited by the authority. REMA recently revoked a new policy of only stocking TINE products and dropping competitor Synnove Finden's cheeses.TINE communications director Bjørg Bruset confirmed that the NCA (Norwegian Competition Authority) had paid them a visit and left with computer data, printed documents and notebooks."We put...

Odd world record for BergenNorway's rainy city of Bergen holds a bizarre world record, with more wrists broken there than anywhere else.Each year about 1,500 people break their wrist in Bergen, the highest figure in the world. Experts guess that the unstable winter climate is to blame, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.Professor of orthopedics Leiv Hove believes that local authorities must should much of the blame for so many citizens tumbling on slippery sidewalks. He said it is time to take care of pedestrians, and not just motorists."It is embarrassing to be a world leader in a statistic like this. Oslo...

Costs high for Libyan deportationThey didn't want to go back to Libya, to put it mildly. It took 36 Norwegian police guards to escort 19 Libyans out of the country, after their attempts to win asylum in Norway were turned down.The Norwegian immigration agency also chartered a jet to transport the Libyans back home, because it wasn't considered safe to take them on board a regularly scheduled carrier.The would-be Libyan refugees, all of them men, were denied asylum after Libya started cooperating with western nations. Libya now willingly provides travel documents for the return of its own citizens who are...

Angry moose attack dogsled, after another runs wild in clothing storeTwo moose charged a dogsled led by 12 huskies over the weekend. The attack came just a day after another moose broke into a children's clothing store in Lillehammer.The two incidents were the latest in a string of unusual moose behaviour in Norway. The country has a large moose population, but the huge animals are generally shy and stay away from people and populated areas.All the more reason why Reidar Stenmark was stunned when two "well-grown moose calves" stormed out of a forest in Nordland on Sunday and attacked a...

Queen Sonja visits the Antarctic Queen Sonja landed on the new Norwegian airfield in the Antarctic just after midnight, following a nine-hour flight from South Africa, Aftenposten reports.Later Saturday the Queen opened the new permanent Norwegian research station in Queen Maud's Land.Norwegian authorities have decided to show a stronger presence on the Antarctic continent, by establishing a permanent polar research station in Norway's Queen Maud's Land. A new, large airfield has been built on the glacier, and an extensive research programme has also been established.This is the first Norwegian royal visit to the Antarctic, and Queen Sonja will spend two...

Dr. Batman to the rescueNorwegian naming laws relaxed a bit on January 1, 2003 but it is still a rarity when someone adopts Batman as their legal name.Medical student Anders Mjelle, 22, is studying to become a pediatrician, and prefers Batman to more supernaturally powerful heroes like Spiderman or Superman, newspaper Nordlys reports.Mjelle, now Anders Batman Mjelle, told the paper that the idea came to him while he was practicing his signature during a prescription class."It just wasn't as cool as doctor signatures usually are. So I tried signing with the name to my old hero of heroes, Batman. That...

Canine war hero gets Scottish statueBamse, a Norwegian St. Bernard that symbolized national freedom and resistance during WWII, will be memorialized in a life-sized bronze statue in the Scottish city of Montrose.Bamse, which means teddy bear, sailed to Britain on the Royal Norwegian Navy (KNM) minesweeper Thorodd in 1940, part of the flotilla that carried King Haakon VII into safety, newspaper The Scotsman reports.The dog became a favorite with locals as well as Norwegian troops fighting to liberate Norway from abroad. The mascot of the Royal Norwegian Navy, Bamse regularly sailed at the front gun tower of the ship when...

Socialist Left continue fallThe Socialist Left Party (SV) dropped nearly three percent points on a new political poll but the 'red-green' alliance remains an increasingly realistic government alternative as Norway warms up for national elections later this year.The Labor Party (Ap) rose 1.4 percent points to 30.8 percent in the Opinion poll carried out for Aftenposten and NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting). SV fell 2.9 percent points to 12.9 percent, the biggest loser in the February poll.Recent discussion of a red-green alliance of Labor, SV, and the agrarian Center Party (Sp) have cost the SV support, but the possible coalition remains strong...

Terror alarm to be tested in OsloA noiseless terror alarm will be tested in an Oslo subway station. The surveillance system will be able to detect chemical agents and radioactive radiation released by terrorists.Alarm systems such as this in crowded areas is one of several measures considered by the authorities, says director Finn Moerch Andersen of the Directorate for National Security to NRK.He adds that such an alarm will function only in addition to other measures.The Al Qaida has twice over the past few years encouraged followers to attack Norwegian interests. Last year the Security Service of the Norwegian police...

Airport security nabs moonshineA man in central Norway tucked five liters of home-brewed alcohol into his suitcase and checked it on board a flight from Trondheim. Airport security officials confiscated the canister, claiming it could have blown up the plane.The incident occurred last week, when the man, in his 30s, checked in for a flight to northern Norway. The web site for local newpaper Adresseavisen said the home brew was removed, but the man was allowed to continue his journey.The alcohol, according to Arne Hofstad of the Nord-Trøndelag Police District, "can be compared to gasoline, only it burns even better."...

Environmentalists protest lynx killingWith recent international outcry about culling Norway's tiny wolf population still ringing, more controversy is certain to erupt after hunters began thinning the country's dwindling lynx population.At least 26 lynx have been shot in the first eight days since hunting began on Feb. 1. Norway's parliament has approved a measure to increase the lynx population by 50 percent.The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Norway has not only criticized the number of lynx allowed taken in this year's hunt but also the way the shooting has been organized. WWF Norway reports that three lynx were shot in Trysil/Engerdal...

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...

The European Union can and must see Russia as a “big Norway,” Mikhail Krotov, secretary-general of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), told RBC on Monday.Russia was a country rich in natural resources and capable of cooperating with the EU “in a special regime, in the light of its interests,” he said.Norway, outside the EU on reasons of principle, had built a “special relationship” with the overcrowded EU, poor in natural resources, Krotov said, noting that “Russians should learn from Norwegians.”

Teenagers attacked police after partyFour teenagers in northern Norway are charged with assaulting two police officers, both physically and verbally, after a party in a private home last weekend. The police were trying to help ambulance personnel get two injured girls to a hospital.The incident occurred in Fauske, Nordland County, around midnight on Friday. The police had been called out to assist an ambulance team that earlier had been called to help two girls hurt at the party.Police wouldn't comment on the nature of the girls' injuries, or on how they were inflicted. They would say, however, that they were...

Orchard owner plucks out new nameAn ambitious young man seeking a tourism-related future around an apple orchard in Sogn applied to change his name to "Eplet," which means "the apple" in Norwegian. He was prepared to defend his choice, but it wasn't necessary.Instead, it only took Trond Henrik Lie-Andreassen around three hours at the local registry office in Sogndal to complete the name-change formalities, reported newspaper VG."If the authorities put up a challenge, I was ready to argue that lots of Norwegians are named Gran, (which means 'fir,' as in the tree, in Norwegian)," Lie-Andreassen said.Lie-Andreassen, age 29, recently moved...

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...

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.