paring to fly even though members of his crew were drunk.
2005 Aug 17, Norwegian
officials said 3 unarmed Polish researchers stranded on a remote
Arctic island were rescued by helicopter as polar bears were closing
in on them. The escape took place on an island in Norway's Svalbard
archipelago, about 650 miles from the North Pole.
2005 Sep 12, Norwegians lined
up at polling stations in what promised to be a close race between a
governing center-right coalition advocating lower taxes and a
left-leaning opposition that wants to spend more of the Nordic
nation's oil wealth on the welfare system. Jens Stoltenberg, head of
the Labor Party, and 2 allied parties won 87 of the parliament’s 169
(AP, 9/12/05)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.51)
2005 Sep 13, Norway's PM Kjell
Magne Bondevik, who presided over four years of unprecedented
prosperity fueled by high oil prices, said he will resign after a
left-wing opposition bloc won parliamentary elections.
2005 Sep, Henrik Syse (39),
professor of philosophy, began work as in-house ethicist for
Norway’s Petroleum Fund. His books included “Paths to a Good Life:
Philosophical Reflections on Everyday Ethics."
(WSJ, 12/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 10, In Norway Chief UN
nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei accepted the 2005 Nobel Peace
Prize, sharing the award with his International Atomic Energy Agency
for efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. The other
Nobel Prizes were awarded in Sweden.
2006 Jan 1, Norway passed
legislation requiring every publicly traded company in Norway to
have 40% women on its board by Jan 1 2008.
2006 Jan 11, The British weekly
New Scientist said Norway is to build a "doomsday vault" in a
mountain close to the North Pole that will house a vast seed bank to
ensure food supplies in the event of catastrophic climate change,
nuclear war or rising sea levels.
2006 Jan 31, In the Economist
Intelligence Unit's biannual survey Oslo was reported to have
overtaken Tokyo as the world's most expensive city. Tokyo had held
the top spot for 14 years. Of 17 US cities featured in the survey,
the most expensive were New York (27th), Chicago and Los Angeles
(tied for 35th), and San Francisco (40th).
2006 Feb 6, Royal Caribbean
Intl. announced that it has ordered the world’s largest and most
expense cruise ship. The $1.24 billion ship, capable of holding
6,400 passengers, will be built by Norway’s Aker Yards.
(SFC, 2/7/06, p.C1)
2006 Feb 10, The editor of a
small Christian newspaper in Norway apologized for offending Muslims
by reprinting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in January.
2006 Feb 18, In Italy Kjetil
Andre Aamodt of Norway outwaited the weather and outran the field to
successfully defend the men's super-G title for his record eighth
Olympic Alpine medal. American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter
speedskating in Turin, becoming the first black athlete to win an
individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
(AP, 2/18/06)(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Mar 9, A fuel oil spill
from a chemical plant in southeastern Norway threatened hundreds of
birds in a salt water nature preserve, while snow and ice hampered a
cleanup operation. Nearly 200 barrels leaked during the transfer of
fuel oil from a ship on March 4, but because of ice in the harbor
area the oil was not visible and was not discovered before the ice
broke up on March 8.
2006 May 2, In Norway 3 key
suspects were convicted in the theft of the Edvard Munch
masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" and sentenced to between
four and eight years in prison. The works were snatched by masked
gunmen from the Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004. They are still
2006 Jun 2, Norwegian rig owner
Fred. Olsen Energy ASA said 8 foreign workers on an oil rig
operating off Nigeria were kidnapped overnight. The workers, six
British, one American and one Canadian, were aboard the drilling rig
Bulford Dolphin when it was attacked during the night.
2006 Jun 19, In Norway the
prime ministers of 5 nations gathered at the northern island of
Svalbard to lay the cornerstone for the Svalbard Int’l. Seed Vault.
The site will hold millions of seed varieties to 