Stoltenberg won Labour’s national executive committee (Verdens Gang)

The Labour Party’s national executive committee wants peace and quiet so it can discuss politics. This became apparent when the party’s deputy leader Jens Stoltenberg’s speech to the committee meeting on Thursday was received with a lengthy standing ovation. The speech dealt with the political challenges facing the party. The national executive committee listened to Labour chairman Thorbjørn Jagland’s recapitulation of the interpersonal conflict and attacks on his person with no more than polite interest. However, the two leaders had one conclusion in common. They both called for calm in the ranks. After that the doors were firmly shut so that the committee could get on with business undisturbed.

Party parked Jagland (Aftenposten)

Leading Labour Party officials are sick and tired of the bickering and yesterday gave Jens Stoltenberg their full support for the way he has handled Thorbjørn Jagland’s latest attack. "It went the way I had hoped," said Mr Stoltenberg. "The debate was as expected," said Mr Jagland after being on the receiving end of some fierce criticism. "We agreed to look forward and focus on political issues. Everyone must now take responsibility for doing what we agreed on," said Mr Stoltenberg yesterday to telling applause.

Glacial relations between Jagland and Stoltenberg (Dagsavisen)

Relations between Thorbjørn Jagland and Jens Stoltenberg were clearly at sub-zero temperatures when the Labour Party’s national executive committee met yesterday. Mr Jagland was glad to have lanced the party’s festering sores, while Mr Stoltenberg said there was a time for everything. "We must put an end to this kind of backward-looking debate about who is doing what to whom. We must concentrate on the political issues, not reopen old personal wounds," said Mr Stoltenberg, with ill-concealed reference to Thorbjørn Jagland.

Jagland to seek re-election (Dagsavisen)

Labour chairman Thorbjørn Jagland denies that his time in Norwegian politics is drawing to a close. "I will be seeking re-election to the Storting in 2005 – if the county branch wants me to," he said. Nor is he ruling out the possibility of becoming a minister in a future Labour government. Mr Jagland sees a future in which he will concentrate more on foreign policy issues. He is currently chairman of the Storting’s Foreign Affairs Committee, an office he would like to hang on to.

The truth must be told today (Aftenposten)

At 10 o’clock this morning maritime inspector John Ramsøy will open the official inquiry into the collision which caused the deaths of four French fishermen on Sunday night. "I have spoken only briefly to the two Filipinos. The last few days have obviously been dreadful for them, and I have deliberately not asked them anything at all about the accident," he said. The Bow Eagle is currently moored at the entrance to the Port of Rotterdam. Norwegian and French foreign ministry officials have agreed that the legal proceedings following the Bow Eagle accident will be conducted through the Norwegian courts.

Seamen’s action described as ‘irrational’ (Verdens Gang)

No one at Odfjell ASA can explain why the two seamen took no action after the Bow Eagle collided with the French trawler Cistude. The shipping line supports the two Filipino seamen who were on watch when the accident occurred. "Until the question of guilt has been decided, they remain our employees. If it should prove that events happened in the way they have been described in the media, we will naturally take action," said Odfjell’s spokesman, Hans Lund. Mr Lund described the incident as an ‘irrational act’ and said that all the shipping line’s employees were deeply saddened by the accident.

FBI assisted in child porn swoop (Aftenposten)

In the past two days police throughout Norway have taken action against 160 people in connection with child pornography offences. Experienced police officers are shocked by what they have seen of some of the material seized. They have found film and photographs showing children being subjected to serious sexual abuse. Tip offs from both the FBI and Russia put the police on the trail of the biggest child pornography ring ever uncovered in Norway.

Scale of child porn never ceases to shock (Vårt Land)

"I have the impression that both the supply of and demand for child pornography is on the increase. I never cease to be shocked by its scale. What is most frightening is that behind every new picture is a new incidence of abuse," said Elizabeth Skogrand, who leads Save the Children’s battle against child pornography on the internet. "No one who deals in child pornography or the sexual abuse of children should feel safe," said Children and Family Affairs Minster Laila Dåvøy.

Statoil to cut back along the coast (Aftenposten)

Statoil wants to cut the number of supply bases and production organizations it operates. Hundreds of oil-related jobs in outlying areas will thereby disappear. None of the locations hosting a Statoil organization can feel safe. "We do not have any holy cows," said chief executive Olav Fjell. If Statoil goes ahead with its cuts, there will be trouble in the Storting. "This decision is not simply dependent on ice-cold financial calculations," said Petroleum and Energy Minister Einar Steensnæs.

Politicians get NOK 70,000 pension boost (Dagens Næringsliv)

MPs have cut ordinary people’s pension entitlements. But Kjell Magne Bondevik, Jens Stoltenberg and Kristin Halvorsen do not need to worry about that. MPs follow their own rules. And lucrative they are, too. Retired MPs receive up to NOK 70,000 more in annual pension payments than they would have done under the usual rules. MPs need only 12 years to accumulate full pension rights. There are currently 177 ex-politicians who meet that requirement.

Worth Noting

• Yesterday the Labour Party’s national executive committee turned its back on Thorbjørn Jagland in an attempt to save the party. Jens Stoltenberg was handed the party leadership two and a half months before he is due to be elected to the position. Mr Jagland’s exit was self-inflicted. It is a defeat for him and a sad comment on a party culture which he bears a large measure of responsibility for having created.
  (Aftenposten in a leader)
• At today’s extraordinary meeting of the Labour Party’s selection committee Gerd-Liv Valla will discuss a proposal which could give both Trond Giske and Karita Bekkemellem Orheim a place in the Labour leadership. Mr Valla has confirmed that proposals to extend the leadership team and reduce it to three members will both be discussed.
  (Dagsavisen)
• Labour had the support of 20.1 per cent of the electorate last month. The Progress Party stood at 24.5 and the Conservatives on 20.6. The Christian Democrats fell to 9.7 per cent, while the Socialist Left Party gained 3 percentage points to stand at 16.1 per cent in a poll conducted by AC Nielsen.
  (Dagsavisen)
• One in four seventh-grade pupils (11-12 year-olds) has trouble reading a normal text, according to a recent Norwegian survey. Reading skills have become worse in the past few years.
  (Dagsavisen)
• While Norwegian industry is complaining loudly about hopeless business conditions, more and more foreign companies are investing substantial sums in manufacturing facilities in Norway. One of them is the Finnish company, Helkama, which is investing NOK 70 million in a brand new cooker factory in Ørsta.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Iran has contracted Det Norske Veritas to assist in planning a gas pipeline from Iran to India. This is just one of several contracts recently awarded by Iran to companies within the Norwegian oil industry.
  (Aftenposten)
• Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss does not wish to increase taxes on farmers. This is the message from the Finance Ministry. "The objective is only to simplify things," professes State Secretary Øystein Børmer. But he cannot guarantee that there will be no increase in taxes for farmers this autumn.
  (Nationen)
• The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra’s new conductor, Andre Previn, did not disappoint his audience during his first concert at the Oslo Concert Hall yesterday. Mariss Janson’s successor received a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience.
  (Aftenposten)
• The Norwegian National Opera is adopting new methods to make money. Two ‘opera wines’, with sketches of the new opera house on the labels, have now been launched. NOK 7 from each bottle will go to finance the new opera house.
  (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Vårt Land

It has now been decided that an individual cannot have the status of refugee in Norway and at the same time fight a war in northern Iraq, and that Mullah Krekar can no longer travel around the world using Norwegian travel documents. The strange thing is that the decision was taken at lightning speed after the case had been published in the media. A large number of Kurds could probably have given the Immigration Directorate and the police the necessary information, or they could have made a telephone call to the CIA’s office outside Washington. Out of consideration for Norway’s asylum policy and its standing with the populace it is a good thing that the mullah is now on his way out – at last.