Around 200 women dressed in their traditional Norwegian bunads were back in battle mode on Tuesday, assembling in front of the Parliament in Oslo to demand a halt to closure and consolidation of maternity wards at small hospitals around the country. They met some resistance, though, from a clinic chief who thinks bigger facilities can […]
MP accuses China of ‘manipulation’
May 14, 2019
UPDATED: “It’s clear China has manipulated us,” declared a Member of Parliament to Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Tuesday afternoon. MP Petter Eide was responding to NRK’s report about how the Chinese Embassy in Oslo managed to prevent Amnesty International from mounting a protest when China’s third most-powerful man visits the Norwegian Parliament on Wednesday. Eide […]
Equinor caught in new carbon conflict
May 13, 2019
They got rid of “state” and “oil” in their corporate name, and even sold off their retail gasoline (petrol) stations to Circle K of Canada. Executives of the former Statoil, now Equinor, however, can’t shake off ongoing conflicts over the carbon emissions its business generates, despite stricter goals for its own oil and gas production. […]
Australians fight Equinor in Oslo
May 13, 2019
Australia is known for its famed Opera House in Sydney, so perhaps it was only natural for Australians angry with Norway’s state oil company Equinor to mount a protest with Oslo’s own Opera House in the background. Hundreds of demonstrators swam and paddled in the Oslo Fjord on Sunday to demonstrate against the Norwegian oil […]
Security to be high on 17th of May
May 13, 2019
Norwegian police in small towns as well as the country’s cities will be armed, many for the first time, when Norway celebrates its Constitution Day on the 17th of May. Researchers are unsure whether Norwegians will feel safer or be offended by the sight of guns, even in discreet holsters. “I think it’s fine,” one […]
US law firm sues after cruise drama
May 10, 2019
An American law firm is mounting a class-action suit against Norwegian shipowner Torstein Hagen’s Viking Ocean cruise line and all its affiliated companies. It claims the cruise line knowingly and intentionally sailed right into a severe storm off the country’s northwest coast earlier this year, putting passengers in danger. Norway’s state accident investigations board (Havarikomisjonen) […]
Jails to get more psychiatric units
May 10, 2019
The Norwegian government has agreed to build new psychiatric units for troubled inmates at the country’s high-security Ila Prison just outside Oslo. Plans were announced after Norway had to answer for its treatment of such inmates during a meeting at the UN in Geneva. “The government’s goal is that all mentally ill inmates will be […]
Glacier ice cube project cracks up
May 10, 2019
Politicians in the northern Norwegian community of Meløy have apparently listened to critics of a controversial project to sell exclusive ice cubes carved out of the glacier Svartisen. Meløy’s local council turned down the project on Friday, by a vote of 18 to 2. “We had two choices,” Meløy Mayor Sigurd Stormo of the Labour […]
Strike hit SAS and its customers hard
May 9, 2019
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), all but grounded by a recent pilots’ strike, is reporting double-digit declines in traffic and passengers for the month of April, with heavy losses expected as well. Customers, meanwhile, have filed a record number of complaints and most still haven’t received compensation for disrupted travel. The recent week-long strike by SAS’ pilots […]
Customers win their claim against DNB
May 9, 2019
It’s been the biggest class action lawsuit ever filed in Norway, and it was against Norway’s biggest bank, DNB. Now around 180,000 DNB customers have won their claim that the bank charged fees that were far too high, and their victory was being hailed Thursday as a victory for all consumers in Norway and even […]
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