Free Republic

The huge fund that's meant to preserve Norway's oil wealth for future generations is pulling out of shares that don't meet the government's ethical standards. Among them is the Wal-Mart discount store chain. Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen doesn't want Norway to invest in Wal-Mart or Freeport. Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen revealed Tuesday that two new stocks will be banned from the country's so-called "oil fund," which now is called the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global and currently is worth about USD 250 billion. It ranks as one of the biggest pension funds in the world. The ministry reported...

Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen has dropped seven companies from the investments list of the State Pension Fund, severing ties between the Petroleum Fund and Boeing. From Jan. 1 the State Pension Fund was established as a superstructure including the massive state petroleum fund and the social security fund. This new fund is divided into two parts, foreign investments previously made via the Petroleum Fund, and domestic investments previously called the Social Security Fund. At an Oslo press conference on Thursday Halvorsen presented the list of companies that will be dropped by the State Pension Fund: BAE Systems Plc, Boeing Co.,...

A politician from Norway's most conservative party wants to spread the wealth created by the country's booming oil industry, by sending all Norwegians on vacations outside the country, armed with NOK 18,000 just waiting to be spent. Gjermund Hagesæter wants to put at least part of Norway's oil wealth directly into the hands of Norwegians. Gjermund Hagesæter of the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) wants to issue a credit card that's already paid up to the tune of NOK 18,000 (about USD 2,700). The money, however, can only be spent outside Norway, in order to keep domestic inflation under control. Hagesæter also...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - While world leaders applaud international unity over Iraq (news - web sites), the country's Kurdish leadership expressed fears Wednesday that they will be sidelined politically by the Shiite Arab majority, whose clerical hierarchy has been cultivated by the Americans. Kurdish anger boiled over after the United States and Britain refused to include an endorsement of the interim constitution in the U.N. resolution approved Tuesday by the Security Council. U.N. diplomats said the decision was made to keep a reference to the interim constitution — officially the Transitional Administrative Law — out of the resolution to appease Iraq's...

WARSAW, The explosion on Tuesday that killed six eastern European soldiers was caused by a mortar attack, not an accidental ammunition explosion as previously believed, the Polish army said on Wednesday. "Beyond all doubt we must say that the death was not caused by inappropriate actions by the sappers," General Piotr Czerwinski, who prepared a report on the attack, told a televised news conference. "It was caused directly by a mortar attack," he added. The explosion killed three Slovaks, two Poles and a Latvian who were disposing of ammunition from the Iraqi army.