5
2010 Nov 4, The UN named
oil-rich Norway as the country with the best quality of life, while
Asia has made the biggest strides in recent decades. Australia, New
Zealand, the United States and Ireland followed at the top of the
standings. Zimbabwe came in last among the 169 nations ranked,
behind Mozambique, Burundi, Niger and Democratic Republic of Congo.
2010 Nov 18, The Norwegian
Nobel Committee Russia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Morocco, Iraq and China
have declined to attend the December 10 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony
for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. 16 more countries had not
replied by the committee's extended deadline. An award spokesman
said the Nobel Peace Prize may not be handed out this year because
no one from imprisoned Liu Xiaobo's family is likely to attend the
2010 Dec 7, In Norway Nobel
officials said China and 18 other countries have declined to attend
this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese
dissident Liu Xiaobo, as China unleashed a new barrage deriding the
2010 Dec 10, Dignitaries in
Norway celebrated this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, imprisoned
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, with an empty chair. Xiaobo,
derided by Beijing as a political farce, dedicated it from his
prison cell to the "lost souls" of the 1989 Tiananmen Square
(AP, 12/10/10)(Reuters, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 10, Serbia reversed
its boycott of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo after facing sharp criticism from the
EU and human rights activists at home.
2011 Jan 18, Negotiators from
the Philippines government and communist rebels agreed to resume
peace talks after informal meetings in Norway.
2011 Feb 15, In Norway
Stolt-Nielsen, founder of the Stolt-Nielsen shipping group, wrote
the following in the financial newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv: "When
(piracy) implies a great risk of being caught and hanged, and the
cost of losing ships and weapons becomes too big, it will decrease
and eventually disappear."
2011 Mar 11, Norway rejected
oil drilling in ecologically sensitive waters just above the Arctic
circle, partly because of worries over a disaster like the Gulf of
Mexico oil spill.
2011 Apr 1, Norway announced an
oil find some 120 miles north of its mainland in the Barents Sea.
The Skrugard find was believed to contain some 500 million barrels
(SFC, 5/2/11, p.D2)(http://tinyurl.com/44ljesw)
2011 Apr 25, In Libya Norwegian
F-16s flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah
compound, in what a press official from Gaddafi's government said
was a NATO attempt on the Libyan leader's life. Refugees fleeing the
Western Mountains told of heavy bombardment by Muammar Gaddafi's
forces as they try to dislodge rebels in remote Berber towns.
(AP, 4/25/11)(Reuters, 4/25/11)(Econ, 4/30/11,
2011 May 4, The Chinese Embassy
in Oslo said Sino-Norwegian relations are "in difficulty" because
the peace prize was given to "a Chinese criminal ... and the
Norwegian government supported this wrong decision." Norwegian
salmon exporters were having their fish held up for days or even
weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors, devastating its freshness.
2011 Jul 22, In Norway a
powerful bomb tore open several Oslo buildings, including the prime
minister's office. Police confirmed the explosion was caused by a
bomb. A suspect in police custody, a blonde blue-eyed Norwegian with
reported Christian fundamentalist, anti-Muslim views, was suspected
in both the shootings at Utoya island and the massive explosion.
Anders Behring Breivik (32), suspected in the bomb and shooting
attacks that killed 77 people, including 69 on Utoya, had bought six
tons of fertilizer weeks before the massacres. A manifesto he
published online ranted against Muslim immigration to Europe and
vowed revenge on "indigenous Europeans," whom he accused of
betraying their heritage.
(AP, 7/23/11)(AP, 7/24/11)(AP, 7/26/11)(AP,
2011 Jul 26, In Norway the
defense lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik says the terror suspect
claims he is part of an organization with several cells in Western
countries and his attacks in Norway we