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Norwegian intelligence services announced on Tuesday that they have arrested three men suspected of wanting to support or join a radical group in Syria. "There are strong reasons to believe that two of the arrested people have acted as foreign fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)," the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) said in a statement. The three men were Norwegian citizens residing in the Oslo region and have denied all accusations, PST spokeswoman Siv Alsen told AFP after the questioning. The identity of the suspects was not revealed, but one of them is of...

This "rap" music video captures the enthusiasm and energy of young children performing in honor of Constitution Day in Norway - 200th anniversary was May 17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iXoOqaeRXc8 Sorry - I don't have a translation... There was a sizable celebration in the Ballard district of Seattle where many Norwegians settled long ago. Maybe there are celebrations like this in the US... for the 4th of July? I wish. What I found fascinating - on Facebook pages of my many relatives in Norway were dozens and dozens of greetings from friends, often saying "Congratulations on the Day" or "Celebrate the Day"

Obama camp angry, embarrassed over 2009 Nobel Prize: official The Associated Press Posted: May 15, 2014 5:24 PM ET Last Updated: May 15, 2014 5:24 PM ET A senior Norwegian diplomat says his country's former ambassador to the United States was given a verbal lashing by Barack Obama's chief of staff when the president was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Morten Wetland said Thursday the ambassador, Wegger Stroemmen, was approached by Rahm Emanuel, now Chicago's mayor, who accused Norway of "fawning" to the newly elected U.S. leader. Wetland, the Norwegian ambassador to the United Nations at the time,...

Given Canada’s proximity to the United States, we tend to take our peace and security for granted. This comfortable distance from most of the world’s violence has led us to underestimate how useful Canada might be in defusing threats elsewhere using energy as leverage. Canadians might have a general sense that oil in particular matters to world affairs; but given that Canada has never been a superpower, it has never been responsible for the wider world order to ensure that oil (or natural gas) flows to countries that need it. Given recent developments at home and abroad, that blissful unawareness...

(Reuters) - Norway's energy boom is tailing off years ahead of expectations, exposing an economy unprepared for life after oil and threatening the long-term viability of the world's most generous welfare model. High spending within the sector has pushed up wages and other costs to unsustainable levels, not just for the oil and gas industry but for all sectors, and that is now acting as a drag on further energy investment. Norwegian firms outside oil have struggled to pick up the slack in what has been, for at least a decade, almost a single-track economy. :snip: "In Norway, job security...

Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) chief Alana Bjørnland suggests that Ukraine crisis has led to increase of Russian intelligence activities in Norway against the petroleum sector and policy makers. In an interview with TV2, the chief of the PST warns against Russian spies in Norway. She also adds that it’s not only Russian intelligence which is active in Norway, there are other states that need information. But she avoids naming other countries than Russia. - I do not want to comment specifically on the country except for Russia, which is also a player in crisis in Ukraine. PST boss told...

Archaeologists believe the remains of burned oak uncovered at the site of the first Sainsbury's in the Highlands to be evidence of an ancient "rest stop". The supermarket and a filling station are being constructed on the outskirts of Nairn, at a cost of about £20m. Headland Archaeologists investigated the site ahead of building work. They radiocarbon-dated the hearth to the Mesolithic period, which started as the last Ice Age ended about 12,000 years ago. ...the archaeologists said the fire appeared to have been made to provide heat and not cooking, because no food waste was found... "The dating of...

An enormous underwater landslide 60,000 years ago produced the longest flow of sand and mud yet found on Earth. The landslide off the coast of north-west Africa dumped 225 billion metric tonnes of sediment into the ocean in a matter of hours or days. The flow travelled 1,500km (932 miles) - the distance from London to Rome - before depositing its sediment. The work, by a British team of researchers has been published in the academic journal Nature. The massive surge put down the same amount of sediment that comes out of all the world's rivers combined over a period...

Friday, 7 September, 2001, 18:28 GMT 19:28 UK Giant wave hit ancient Scotland By BBC News Online's Helen Briggs A giant wave flooded Scotland about 7,000 years ago, a scientist revealed on Friday. The tsunami left a trail of destruction along what is now the eastern coast of the country. It looks as if those people were happily sitting in their camp when this wave from the sea hit the camp Professor David Smith, Coventry University Scientists believe a landslide on the ocean floor off Storegga, south-west Norway, triggered the wave. Speaking at the British Association Festival of Science in ...

Just over 8,000 years ago a huge landslide occurred off the coast of Norway, known as the Storegga Slide. The event created a catastrophic tsunami, with waves almost half as high as the Statue of Liberty, that battered Britain and other land masses. And now the most accurate computer model ever made of the tsunami suggests that it wiped out the remaining inhabitants of a set of low-lying landmass known as Doggerland off the coast of the UK. A new model by researchers at Imperial College London has revealed the devastating effects of a tsunami caused by a landslide off...

A badger in Norway got hit so hard in a car collision that it became wedged into the grille. But when the driver levered it out with a stick, to his amazement the animal scampered away into the nearby woods. Reindeer herd closes Norway highway (12 Mar 14) VIDEO: Reindeer swirl as herd splits up (26 Feb 14) Reindeer get reflectors to stop car crashes (08 Jan 14) "I was very surprised that it was alive," Borgar Kristensen, 50, told The Local on Wednesday. "After four or five minutes, the animal went down the road. It was not badly injured."...

A policeman whose off-duty police dog mauled a seven-year-old girl in Norway last year is refusing to have the dog put down and has even brought it back home, leaving the girl and her family terrified. Seven-year.old Naomi Funkner was brutally attacked by a neighbour's police dog last September, leaving her with scars all over her body and long-term disabilities , Norway's VG newspaper reported on Sunday. However, the owner of the dog is refusing to have it put down, despite pressure from his own police force, claiming tests have shown that the dog is not a dangerous animal. "I...

Norway's human rights record came in for sharp criticism during a UN hearing on Monday, with Saudi Arabia and Russia weighing in to highlight the country's shortcomings. Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries accused Norway of doing too little to protect its Muslim minority, with Saudi Arabia calling for all criticism of religions or their prophets to be made illegal. Meanwhile, Russia accused the country of allowing extremist groups to "operate freely" and of moving too quickly to separate children from their parents. Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende was in Geneva on Monday to respond to criticisms from no fewer...

OSLO, Norway, April 16 (UPI) -- The United States can help allay European energy security fears by making more liquefied natural gas available, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said from Oslo. Hoeven met with Norwegian leaders to address energy security fears in the region. He said that, while Norway has a key role to play as one of the top oil and gas suppliers in the region, it can't solve the problem alone." The only real, long-term solution is to make additional liquefied natural gas supplies available, and this means the United States has a strong role to play as a world...

Canadian police confirmed an arrest has been made in the Netherlands in the case of a Canadian teenager who was blackmailed to expose herself in front of a webcam. The 15-year-old later committed suicide after detailing her harassment on a YouTube video watched by millions around the world. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Insp. Paulette Freill said Thursday a suspect was arrested in the Netherlands and charged with extortion, luring and criminal harassment and possession of child pornography for the purpose of distribution. Police did not release the name of the 35-year-old man and declined to release specifics of the case...

This one-minute video shows skulls dating from the 4th century AD, excavated near Omsk, Siberia by Russian archeologists. They show a prominent deformation which they said was created by skull clamping or binding of newborns crania. Archeologists deem these too strange to be publicly displayed in the city museum. From the front the skulls look like that of a normal human, but when turned to the side it's clear that this is not the case. The skulls are grossly elongated. Scholars at the Omsk Museum of History and Culture have no conclusive answer as to the origins of these skulls,...

CBS/ReutersMarch 5, 2014, 11:01 AM Vladimir Putin nominated for Nobel Peace Prize OSLO -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize but the conflict in Ukraine is also likely to be on the Nobel committee's agenda. A record 278 candidates, including 47 organizations, received nominations for the 2014 prize, said the Norwegian Nobel Institute's director, Geir Lundestad. Committee members who met on Tuesday added their own proposals with a focus on recent turmoil around the globe. "Part of the purpose of the committee's first meeting is to take into account recent events, and committee...

The Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys has captured a remarkable image of a spiral in space. No, not a spiral galaxy, (and not another Norway Spiral!) but the formation of an unusual pre-planetary nebula in one of the most perfect geometrical spirals ever seen. The nebula, called IRAS 23166+1655, is forming around the star LL Pegasi (also known as AFGL 3068) in the constellation of Pegasus. The image shows what appears to be a thin spiral pattern of amazing precision winding around the star, which is itself hidden behind thick dust. Mark Morris from UCLA and an international...

http://news.discovery.com/space/hubble-spots-ghostly-space-spiral.html

A mysterious light display appearing over Norway last night has left thousands of residents in the north of the country baffled. Witnesses from Trøndelag to Finnmark compared the amazing sight to anything from a Russian rocket to a meteor or a shock wave - although no one appears to have mentioned UFOs yet. The phenomenon began when what appeared to be a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain. It stopped mid-air, then began to circulate.