 their commercial
whaling quota because bad weather spoiled much of the season.
2006 Nov 22, In Norway a court
rejected an appeal by the founder of Ansar al-Islam, a suspected
Islamic terror group in Iraq, and upheld a government order to expel
him as a threat to national security.
2006 Dec 18, Norwegian oil
companies Statoil ASA and Norsk Hydro ASA announced plans to merge
their offshore oil and natural gas units in a nearly $30 billion (23
billion euro) deal they said would create the world's largest
offshore oil operator.
2007 Jan 5, The Norwegian
Directorate of Fisheries warned that some 790,000 salmon and trout
escaped from Norwegian fish farms in 2006, up 10% on the previous
year and a trend that poses a serious threat to wild salmon.
2007 Feb 23, In Norway 46 of 49
nations adopted a declaration calling for a 2008 treaty banning
cluster bombs, saying the weapons kill and maim long after conflicts
end and inflict "unacceptable harm" on civilians, particularly
children. Some key arms makers including the US, Russia, Israel and
China, snubbed the conference of 49 nations. Of those attending,
Poland, Romania and Japan did not approve the final text.
2007 Feb 25, Thieves in Oslo,
Norway, stole a work of art by Jan Christensen called "Relative
Value." It had pasted bills worth $16,300 on a sprawling 7-by-13
2007 Apr 12, A Norwegian oil
rig support vessel carrying 15 people capsized off northern Scotland
and five crew members were missing.
2007 May 9, Police in Brazil
and Norway detained at least 25 people in simultaneous raids on
suspected criminal gangs, seeking evidence of money laundering.
2007 May 21, Norway said it
would make its first transfer of direct aid to the Palestinians' new
government, more than two months after the Nordic country broke with
most Western nations by recognizing the Hamas-led coalition.
2007 Jun 1, The Norwegian
environmental group Bellona warned that a nuclear waste dump in the
Russia Arctic may be in danger of exploding because of corrosion
caused by salt water in enormous storage tanks.
2007 Aug 27, Ethiopia ordered
six Norwegian diplomats to leave the country by Sept. 15, expressing
"dissatisfaction" with Norway's conduct in the Horn of Africa
2007 Aug 28, Ethiopia justified
its decision to expel Norwegian diplomats arguing that Oslo was
interfering in its internal affairs and destabilizing the Horn of
2007 Sep 20, Borse Dubai and
Nasdaq, rivals to take over Nordic market operator OMX, said they
had joined forces to acquire it together in a deal that gives Borse
Dubai 19.99 percent of US-based Nasdaq and 28 percent of the London
2007 Nov 8, Nordic countries
again dominated the World Economic Forum's ranking of gender-equal
countries. New Zealand squeezed into the top five and the US fell to
31st place. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland retained the top
four spots in the 2007 Gender Gap Index released by the Swiss-based
2008 Jan 9, Norway and Sweden
dropped plans to send some 400 troops to the UN peacekeeping force
in Darfur because of opposition by Sudan.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A1)
2008 Feb 10, Norway closed its
embassy in the Afghan capital because of terror threats.
2008 Feb 21, A magnitude-6.2
earthquake, the largest ever recorded on Norwegian territory, hit
off the Arctic Svalbard islands, the national seismic monitoring
center said. No casualties or damage were reported.
2008 Feb 26, A "doomsday" seed
vault, built to protect millions of food crops from climate change,
wars and natural disasters, opened deep within an Arctic mountain in
the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
(AP, 2/26/08)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.71)
2008 Feb 28, Swedish and
Norwegian authorities cracked down on terror financing, arresting
six people in what Swedish investigators said were coordinated raids
in Stockholm and Oslo.
2008 Mar 26, In Norway a
six-story apartment building collapsed in the west coast city of
Aalesund after it was hit by a rock slide, injuring 15 people and
leaving five missing.
2008 Apr 12, King Harald V
opened Norway's $840 million national opera house on the shores of
the Oslo Fjord, kicking of