Free Republic

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...