Controversial royal visit to weapons producer proceeded as planned

Crown Prince Haakon went ahead with his planned visit to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, Texas this week amidst criticism back home in Norway. The visit had been criticized because of Lockheed Martin’s history of making cluster bombs and because it was seen as a “PR coup” for the huge defense contractor. The Royal [...]

King Harald visits the Amazon

Norway’s King Harald made a secret trip across the Atlantic last week to fulfill what he claimed was a long-held dream: Visiting a rainforest in the Amazon and living for a few days with the locals. The trip was arranged by the Norwegian government-backed fund that aims to offset the country’s own carbon emissions by [...]

UD takes blame for ‘royal squeeze’

Norway’s foreign ministry (Utenriksdepartementet, UD) acknowledges what it calls “legitimate criticism” over the crown couple’s visit next week to US defense contractor Lockheed Martin, but thinks it should be directed at UD and not at the royals themselves. The criticism rose on Tuesday, with one candidate for parliament  saying the visit, organized and planned by UD, [...]

Royals catch flak over fighter jets

Norway’s crown couple was rubbing elbows with fellow royals in Amsterdam this week, at the investiture of the new Dutch king, but next week’s travel plans to the US are sparking some controversy at home. Their scheduled visit to US defense contractor Lockheed-Martin, which is selling new fighter jets to Norway, was under fire because [...]

Mette-Marit’s role stirs new debate

By embracing a jet-set lifestyle and fondness for the luxury it offers, Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has shown how Norwegian society in general has become “nouveau riche” at the expense of long-held traditional values. So claims a sociologist and college instructor from Telemark, who was making waves this week for some rather sharp criticism of [...]

Royal Palace evacuated

King Harald and Queen Sonja were among the 82 persons evacuated from the Royal Palace in Oslo on Monday after fire alarms started ringing just before 11am. The king was in the process of meeting with the president of Lithuania when the first alarm went off. “The royal couple and the president were taken to [...]

King favoured, but posted a loss

Norway’s King Harald once again ranks as the most popular member of the royal family, while his son-in-law Ari Behn landed as least popular in a recent public opinion poll. The king’s popularity and activities led to a boost in funding last year, but palace operations still ended up posting a loss. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) [...]

Men sentenced in crown jewels theft

Two men from Peru have received relatively lengthy prison terms by Norwegian standards, after being convicted of stealing the crown jewels from the king of Ashanti in Ghana when he was in Oslo last fall. The Oslo City Court (Oslo Tingrett) sentenced one of the men, aged 44, to prison for a year and six [...]

Facelift approved for palace grounds

The Norwegian Parliament has voted to pay NOK 70 million (USD 12 million) for an upgrading of the grounds around the Royal Palace in Oslo, to improve drainage and prevent the gravel covering the grounds from running down into nearby streets during heavy rains. Members of Parliament agreed that the current ground cover “is not [...]

Monarchy survives vote in Stortinget

NEWS ANALYSIS: Norway’s Parliament (Stortinget) has predictably cast aside the latest effort to convert the country from a constitutional monarchy to a republic. The proposal voted on earlier this week, however, raised some new questions about Norwegian democracy, and signaled some new support for the republican movement. Until now, it’s mostly just been the now-small Socialist [...]

Royals pursue ‘historic’ complaint

Norway’s royal family has filed what’s being called an “historic” complaint against Norwegian magazine Se og Hør, in an effort to clarify whether the magazine violated “good press standards” and invaded the family’s privacy. It’s the first time the royal family collectively has filed a formal complaint over how they’ve been treated in the press. [...]

Peruvians indicted after theft of crown jewels

Two men and a woman from Peru have been indicted in Norway on charges they stole several kilos of gold jewelry belonging to King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II from Ghana, while he was on a visit to Oslo last fall. The king of the Ashanti Empire, in what later became the west African country of Ghana, [...]

Behn ‘complicates’ royal complaint

A stinging complaint launched by Norway’s Royal Palace against celebrity magazine Se og Hør last week seemed to lose some of its credibility this week, when news broke that the king and queen’s own son-in-law, Ari Behn, entertained at a Se og Hør staff luncheon and got paid by the magazine to do so. Behn’s [...]

Royals launch media complaint

Norway’s royal family has launched a major complaint against one of the country’s biggest magazines that’s best known for its coverage of celebrities and the royals themselves. A palace spokeswoman announced that members of the royal family have had enough of what they consider to be unwarranted intrusion into what’s left of their private lives. [...]

Royal Palace to get new gravel

After years of seeing rains wash away the gravel around the grounds of Norway’s Royal Palace, state officials are allotting NOK 70 million to replace it all with a new, more permanent type of gravelly ground cover. The palace grounds are supposed to get their facelift in time for bicentennial celebrations of Norway’s constitution in [...]

Next Page »