s on a plain carved by Norway's
Jostedal Glacier at Fjaerland Fjord.
2009 Mar 26, The MT Bow Asir, a
Norwegian tanker with a crew of 27, was hijacked 250 miles east of
the south coast of Somalia.
(AP, 3/27/09)(WSJ, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 17, In Norway a $225
million fund to provide low-price anti-malaria medicine around the
world was launched in Oslo to fight a disease that kills 2,000
children a day.
2009 Apr 17, In Afghanistan two
earthquakes shook eastern Nangarhar province, collapsing mud-brick
homes on top of villagers while they slept and killing at least 21
people. Two suicide bombers on foot tried to attack the office of
the minister of refugees in southern Nimroz province. Guards shot
and killed one bomber at the scene of the attempted attack. While
fleeing the 2nd bomber detonated his explosives, killing 3
civilians. A Norwegian intelligence officer serving with the
nation's peacekeeping force was killed by a roadside bomb near the
northern city of Maymana.
2009 Apr 22, A group of
Norwegian lawyers filed a complaint accusing 10 Israelis of war
crimes in Gaza under the country's new universal jurisdiction law.
2009 May 16, Norway’s
fiddle-wielding Alexander Rybak (23), dubbed 'Alexander the Great'
by Norwegian media, won a landslide victory in the Eurovision Song
Contest in Moscow for his song "Fairytale," gaining the most points
in Eurovision's 53-year history.
2009 May 25, Haakon Lie
(b.1905), a pioneer of Norway's welfare state and one of the
country's most influential politicians, died in Oslo. His several
books included "Slik jeg ser det naa" ("As I See it Now"), which was
published last year.
2009 May, In CongoDRC 2 former
Norwegian soldiers (Tjostolv Moland and Joshua French) allegedly
murdered their driver and attempted to murder a witness. The motive
behind the killing was unknown. On Sep 8 they were convicted of
espionage and murder. In 2010 a military judge threw out the ruling
and ordered a new case. In August, 2013, Tjostolv Moland (32), died
in prison. An autopsy report said he had hanged 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, Grameen