Conservatives back ban on begging

The leader of Norway’s Conservatives didn’t like it, but Erna Solberg’s party members voted at their annual national meeting over the weekend to promote a ban on begging. Solberg otherwise enjoyed re-election as she rallied her troops in a drive to seize government power next power year. Solberg got her way for the most part [...]

Foreign minister in the hot seat

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has consistently ranked as one of the most highly respected members of the government, sometimes getting higher scores among voters than his boss, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. That made it all the more noteworthy when Støre suddenly was being accused of favouring an old friend when a local shipowner [...]

Oslo keen to launch English schools

Politicians at City Hall in Oslo plan to apply for state permission to open two new international schools in the Norwegian capital where all teaching would be carried out in English. They cite rising demand for a more international education in an increasingly global society. Newspaper Aftenposten reported on Monday that the new English-language schools [...]

Stoltenberg congratulates new French president

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has formally sent his “warmest congratulations” to Francois Hollande after he was elected as the new president of France on Sunday. Hollande beat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy and hails from the same Labour side of politics as Stoltenberg and the coalition he heads in Norway. “My government puts heavy emphasis [...]

Troubled ministry under probe

Norway’s Justice Ministry, badly hit by last summer’s terrorist attacks and suffering from low morale, now has another problem to deal with: Police have been called in to investigate how a long-time bureaucrat allegedly allocated more than NOK 4 million to various organizations through advertising purchases. News broke Thursday that a ministry employee had been [...]

China’s ambassador leaves in a freeze

Relations between Norway and China remain in a deep freeze, and China’s embassy in Oslo no longer has an ambassador in place. There’s been another rash of diplomatic snubs since Tang Guoqiang left Norway earlier this year. Tang’s departure came 16 months after China first blamed the Norwegian government for the awarding of a Nobel [...]

Speculation flies around Telenor CEO

UPDATED: Another top leader at Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor is quitting and the future of Jon Fredrik Baksaas as Telenor’s chief executive seemed far from secure after a week of more drama around the state-controlled company. As political intrigue over Telenor and its ill-fated venture into India reached the highest government levels, a business researcher [...]

Political intrigue swirls around government’s climate report

NEWS ANALYSIS: The gloves have come off during the week that’s followed release of the government’s long-awaited report on how Norwegians are supposed to reduce carbon emissions. Not only has the opposition found bones to pick with the report, the government players behind it have been accused of an unusually high degree of political intrigue [...]

‘A place in my heart’ for children

Norway’s new chief advocate for children was preparing this week for her new job that she’ll take over in June, and clearly looking forward to it. Dr Anne Lindboe, a pediatrician who’s worked extensively with children’s rights and cases of child abuse, is Norway’s fifth barneombud and appointed by King Harald to serve for the [...]

Pressure builds on youngest minister

Inga Marte Thorkildsen is the latest government official to land in trouble for allegedly abusing her political power. Just a month after taking over as cabinet minister in charge of family and equality issues, she’s under harsh criticism for involving herself in a specific case of suspected child abuse while she was still a Member [...]

Jens ready for a ‘different’ May 1st

Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s prime minister from the Labour Party who’s popularly known simply as “Jens,” was heading for Bergen on Tuesday to speak at this year’s May 1st Labour Day celebrations. Both the leader and deputy leader of Bergen’s chapter of Labour youth organization AUF were killed in the terrorist attacks last summer, so Stoltenberg [...]

Farmers want 20 percent pay hike

The powerful organizations representing Norwegian farmers (bondelagene) have delivered a written demand for NOK 2.2 billion (around USD 386 million) worth of subsidies and other forms of economic support. State officials claimed the demand amounts to a pay hike of 20 percent. Leif Forsell of the state agricultural ministry, who’ll be leading the annual spring subsidy [...]

Lukewarm greeting for climate report

NEWS ANALYSIS: After months, even years of delays, Norwegians have now been handed the most comprehensive climate report ever compiled by their government on how they’ll be asked to cut carbon emissions. Environmental activists, opposition politicians and some researchers, however, warned it won’t meet its own ambitious goals, and puts off the tough and expensive [...]

Krekar deportation talks resume

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was in Norway this week for talks with Norwegian officials that included a pending deportation of Mullah Krekar, the Islamic cleric who’s been deemed a threat to Norway’s national security. Norwegian officials were once again unable, however, to extract the guarantee they need that Krekar, a former guerrilla leader in [...]

REC closes remaining plants in Norway

Solar energy company Renewable Energy Corp (REC)  has decided to shut down its two remaining plants at Herøya in Telemark County, throwing another 500 employees out of work. The plants produced components used to make solar cells, but costs hit their competitiveness, especially against Chinese rivals. “We are very sorry that our state authorities have [...]

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