himself.
(AP, 12/4/09)(AFP, 9/8/09)(AP, 4/22/10)(AP,
2009 Jun 8, In Norway Georg
Mueller (58) stepped down as bishop in the western city of
Trondheim. On April 7, 2010, Norway’s Catholic Church said he did so
after admitting he had molested a child years earlier, when he was a
2009 Jun 16, The Norwegian firm
Opera Software unveiled new technology that allows it Opera 10 Web
browser to also function as a file server. A feature called Opera
Unite enables users to push content and establish communications
without the need for a 3rd party.
(SFC, 6/17/09, p.C1)
2009 Jul 19, Warren Titus (94),
founder of the Royal Viking and Seabourn cruise ship lines, died at
a hospice in Marin County, Ca. He helped father the modern cruise
concept as president of Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Co.,
which later morphed into Princess Cruises. He left P.&O. to
start the Royal Viking Line in 1972. After the SF-based Royal Viking
went out of business in 1987, he was called by Atle Brynestad, a
Norwegian millionaire, to start Seabourn Cruise Lines.
(SFC, 7/31/09, p.D5)
2009 Jul 24, A senior Chechen
official held talks in Norway with prominent separatist figure
Akhmed Zakayev, who said they had agreed to seek a political
settlement of rebellion in the south Russian region.
2009 Sep 8, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo two Norwegians were sentenced to death by a court
for murdering a Congolese man in the northeast of the country in
2009 Sep 14, Norway's
left-leaning government faced a splintered opposition in an election
focused on how to manage the Nordic nation's soaring oil wealth and
seal cracks in its welfare system. Jens Stoltenberg's Labor-led
coalition won 86 seats to keep a slim majority in the 169-seat
Parliament after using oil money to shield the welfare state from
the global recession.
(AP, 9/14/09)(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 15, Norway's PM Jens
Stoltenberg (50) said fighting climate change would be a priority in
his 2nd term after his left-leaning government beat a splintered
opposition to win re-election.
2009 Oct 4, Grameenphone,
Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone firm, opened the largest IPO in
Bangladesh history. It aimed to raise $70 million. It was owned by
Telenor, a Norwegian telephone company, and Grameen Telecom, a
non-profit founded by Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer of microfinance.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.88)
2009 Oct 5, A UN agency said
Norway enjoys the world's highest quality of life, while Niger
suffers the lowest, as it released Human Development Index, a
ranking that highlights the wide disparities in well-being between
rich and poor countries.
2009 Nov 12, In Norway thieves
stole a valuable artwork by Edvard Munch from an Oslo art dealer in
downtown Oslo. One or more thieves stole "Historien" (History) from
2009 Nov 12, A Norwegian
freelance journalist kidnapped on Nov 5 in eastern Afghanistan was
released along with his Afghan interpreter. Paal Refsdal was in
Afghanistan filming a documentary for the Norwegian production
(AP, 11/12/09)(SFC, 11/13/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 14, In Moscow Magnus
Carlsen (18) of Norway became the new No. 1 chess player in the
world with a tournament victory over Peter Leko of Hungary.
(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Oct 28, Norway’s central
bank became the first in Europe to tighten, raising its policy rate
to 1.5% from 1.25%.
(Econ, 11/7/09, p.70)
2009 Nov 26, Shirin Ebadi, 2003
Nobel Peace Prize, said that Iranian authorities took her medal
about three weeks ago from a safe-deposit box, claiming she owed
taxes on the $1.3 million she was awarded. Ebadi said that such
prizes are exempt from tax under Iranian law. In Norway, where the
peace prize is awarded, the government said the confiscation of the
gold medal was a shocking first in the history of the 108-year-old
2009 Dec 3, A Congolese court
upheld death sentences for two Norwegians convicted of espionage and
murder, prompting condemnation from Norwegian officials. They had
been convicted in Sep of murdering their driver and attempting to
murder a witness in May 2009.
2009 Dec 10, In Oslo, Norway,
President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize,