Norway pledges funds for maternal health care

Norwegian officials announced they’d be donating USD 80 million (around NOK 500 million) to a new US-initiated international program aimed at improving maternal health care in Africa. The funding was awarded during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s weekend visit to Norway. The money will be used to help fund one of Clinton’s new priorities, [...]

Sun shone on more friendly US talks

The weather seemed to cooperate as much as the two main players involved, when foreign policy leaders for the US and Norway wound up two days of meetings in the northern Norwegian city of Tromsø over the weekend. Talks of their much-vaunted friendship and partnership turned to how they’d jointly handle the future of sensitive [...]

Clinton dodges striking workers

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received a warm welcome to Oslo on Friday despite unseasonably cold weather and a strike by state workers outside Norway’s foreign ministry. As Clinton began a hectic two-day official visit, both she and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre faced the disruption with smiles, with Clinton claiming it was “fantastic [...]

Aung San Suu Kyi bound for Oslo

Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will finally be able to deliver her Nobel Peace Prize address in Oslo after winning the prize in absentia 21 years ago. She now feels able to make her first trip outside her native Burma (now Myanmar) in more than two decades, and her destination is Norway before she [...]

Norway lifts sanctions against Burma

The Norwegian government has decided to lift economic sanctions against Burma, also known as Myanmar. All limits that have been placed on foreign aid, financing and visas will now be removed, announced Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre over the weekend. “We’re doing this to send a positive signal to those behind the reforms of the [...]

Støre drops controversial book plans

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has been in hot water during the past two weeks over some alleged conflicts of interest. Now he’s decided to drop a ministry-financed book project that featured himself, after realizing it violated government purchasing and competition rules. Støre told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that he wasn’t dropping the project because of [...]

Norwegian held in Egypt returns home

A Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party (Høyre) who faced charges of carrying out illegal political operations in Egypt was finally allowed to leave the troubled country and arrived home in Norway over the weekend. Christian Angell was allowed to fly out of Egypt along with more than 40 other pro-democracy activists, many from the [...]

Foreign Ministry shuffles posts

Norway’s diplomatic presence overseas is facing more changes because “the world is changing, and we see a clear shift in the power balance to new regions and countries, especially in Asia,” Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said this week. Støre said it was “important” for Norway to alter its diplomatic presence in relation to the [...]

State visit ended with diplomatic spat

A recent state visit to Norway ended on a sour note, when South Africa’s foreign minister refused to submit to routine security controls at Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen. After a loud verbal quarrel with airport security personnel, she ended up chartering a private jet, which allowed her to avoid having her purse examined. Maite [...]

Norwegian shot dead in Philippines

UPDATED: An 18-year-old Norwegian man was shot dead in Quezon City, the Philippines, in the early hours of the morning on Sunday July 31. The young man, later named as Mikael Troy Johansen Rasay from Oslo, was with a group of fellow Norwegian travellers when he was shot at 05:45 local time, before being pronounced [...]

Diplomats trained in black metal

The Norwegian foreign ministry has begun training aspiring diplomats in “TNBM – True Norwegian Black Metal” – after foreign service missions reported a rise in enquiries about the musical genre from around the world. Indeed, the popularity and scale of the black metal phenomenon were demonstrated recently as one of the style’s foremost proponents, Dimmu [...]

Peres criticizes Norway on Hamas

Israeli President Shimon Peres has criticized the Norwegian government’s refusal to classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, claiming that the country has “suddenly changed its standpoint” on such issues. “I do not understand Norway’s position, and I say that as a friend of Norway,” Peres told Norwegian TV channel, TV2. “If they shoot, if they [...]

Norway welcomes bin Laden death

Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre has hailed the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden as “a pleasing breakthrough in the fight against terror,” while Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg warned that “the fight against terrorism is not over.” Speaking to news agency NTB, Støre said, “I praise the American action that led to the [...]

Government ends Syria deportations

The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (Utlendingsdirektoratet, UDI) has stopped deportations of failed asylum seekers to Syria in light of the civil turmoil and violence in the country. On Wednesday, UDI said they were continuing deportations based on “individual evaluations” of cases, but would monitor the situation closely. Forced returns have now been stopped, and those [...]

Syrian asylum seekers still sent back

Unsuccessful Syrian applicants for asylum in Norway are still being sent back to their homeland despite the recent government violence against the civilian population and pro-democracy protests there. Denmark has already temporarily stopped the return of asylum seekers back to Syria – but the Norwegian Immigration Appeals Board (Utlendingsnemnda, UNE) will not do the same. [...]

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