Talks continued in child welfare case

Norwegian authorities confirmed that negotiations were continuing to find a solution in a child welfare case that’s sparked international media attention, but said no agreement had been reached or affirmed by the court involved. The case involves two small children, both citizens of India, who were taken from their parents’ home in Stavanger and placed [...]

Salvation Army received record-high donations

It paid off for members of Frelsesarmeen (the Salvation Army) to stand for hours on cold winter streets, ringing their bells and hoping for donations to their annual Christmas fund-raising campaign. In Oslo, donations were up 40 percent in December, and Norwegians gave generously elsewhere around the country as well. The record sums tossed into [...]

Støre involved in child welfare case

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has taken the unusual move of involving himself in a child welfare case involving a family from India, after it sparked international media coverage over the weekend and allegations of cultural prejudice. Both Støre and officials at Noway’s child protection agency Barnevernet insist no prejudice or misunderstandings are involved. The [...]

Broke immigrants told to go home

Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrøm had a message over the weekend for hopeful immigrants from southern Europe who’ve been arriving in Norway in search of jobs: “Go home.” Bjurstrøm worries they won’t find jobs, and won’t be eligible for any help, either. “If there’s no work for them, then there is no work,” Bjurstrøm told both [...]

State auditor scolds ministries

State Auditor Jørgen Kosmo was chiding several ministries, including the Finance Ministry, on Tuesday for what he and his team of inspectors called some “deficient documentation and internal control.” Kosmo said the lack of information made it difficult to audit various budget posts, and he seeks more transparency. The criticism is contained in the annual [...]

No warm welcome for tax collectors

Norwegian specialists in tax collection can’t expect a warm welcome if and when they arrive in Greece as part of an EU-backed reform program. EU advisers are highly unpopular, with the Norwegians only marginally less unwelcome than the Germans, according to a Greek economics professor. “The Greeks feel that they’ll lose some of their independence,” [...]

Sparks fly again over at-home day care

Norway’s controversial at-home alternative to state-subsidized day care centers, called kontantstøtte (literally, cash support), has sparked more debate after the country’s left-center government announced some major changes in the program this week. The program basically pays parents who opt to stay home to care for their children, instead of placing the children in state-funded day [...]

Concerns rise over poverty in Norway

Norway is widely praised and even envied for its solid economy and social affluence, but new numbers from state statistics bureau SSB show more children living in families with income low enough to be considered below the relative local poverty level. Opposition politicians claim the left-center government has not succeeded in reducing poverty even as [...]

Day care ‘not harmful’ for infants

The vast majority of Norwegian parents place their children in state-supported day care centers as soon as their maternity and paternity leave runs out, but many have worried about the effects of day care outside the home for those as young as one year. A new study suggests they have no need for a bad [...]

Compensation for LSD treatment

A 67-year-old woman is believed to have become the first Norwegian to receive compensation for the ongoing ill effects she has suffered for nearly 40 years after being treated with the hallucinogenic drug LSD in the 1960s. Newspaper Aftenposten reported that Gerd Knutsen has received NOK 200,000 (USD 36,000) after health officials determined there is [...]

Debate flies over aid for beggars

Last week police and city officials were actively breaking up illegal and unsanitary camps set up in downtown Oslo by mostly Romanian beggars who have arrived in the Norwegian capital. That set off criticism from church officials and some politicians who think the beggars instead need sympathy and help. And that has set off loud [...]

Workers lacking despite immigration

Shortages in the Norwegian labour force have increased 20 percent in the last year, with Norwegian industry now lacking at least 61,000 workers, according to a survey of 14,300 companies by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (Den norske arbeids- og velferdsforvaltningen, NAV). Meanwhile, economic immigration to the country – and the debate about its [...]

Even more reason to wave their flag

Norway’s relatively high standard of living, built up over the past few decades with oil and gas revenues, has once again resulted in an international index that ranks Norwegians as among the most satisfied citizens in the world. They have, it seems, more reason than ever to wave their flag. Norway has long topped United [...]

Top politicians to debate welfare state

Top international politicians, including some government leaders, were to meet in Oslo later this week for a conference aimed  at preserving social welfare states in the midst of severe economic problems following the finance crisis. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and Labour Party leader Ed Miliband of Great Britain [...]

Adecco nursing home scandal grows

One of Norway’s biggest private nursing home companies, Adecco Helse, has been rocked by revelations that employees at one of its flagship homes have in some cases worked 84 hours a week without overtime pay, as well as slept in beds in the nursing home’s cellar. The city of Oslo fired them from one of [...]

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