29% fewer heart attacks (Aftenposten)

The nineties was a good decade for Norwegian hearts. From 1991 to 2000 the number of Norwegians under the age of 80 who were admitted to hospital suffering from a heart attack fell by 29 per cent. For the population as a whole the drop was 20 per cent for men and 14 per cent for women. One of the reasons for this improvement is a reduction in the consumption of butter and whole-fat dairy products. Norwegians have adopted more Continental eating habits, with an emphasis on a Mediterranean-style diet which includes fruit, lots of vegetables and olive oil.

Show who’s boss, Foss (Dagsavisen)

The list of civil servants who are refusing to cut indirect taxes and public charges just gets longer. "The Finance Minister now has to show who is the boss," said Siv Jensen (Progress Party), who chairs the Storting’s Finance Committee. Through his political adviser, Kaj-Martin Georgsen, Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss has promised to do exactly that. Indirect taxes and public charges will be simplified, cut or abolished altogether – whether the ministries want to or not.

Norway should demand compensation (Aftenposten)

Norway has contributed billions of kroner to the creation of an infrastructure in the Palestinian controlled areas, much of which has now been bombed to rubble. And according to Socialist Left Party leader Kristin Halvorsen, Norway should think about demanding compensation from Israel for the destruction of Norwegian investments. She believes it is high time Norway uses the channels and means open to the Foreign Minister to put pressure on Israel. Among the measures Ms Halvorsen points to are the UN Security Council, contacts with the USA and the role Norway plays in the Middle East donor countries’ group.

Armed Forces want more hardware from Israel (Dagbladet)

The Norwegian Armed Forces want to buy more military equipment made by Israeli manufacturers. They are just waiting for the green light from the Defence Ministry. But Defence Minister Kristin Krohn Devold said yesterday that she was unaware of the Armed Forces’ plans. The Headquarters Defence Command Norway (FO) was yesterday working to put together a list of previous purchases of military hardware from Israel – at the behest of the Defence Minister. This list will go right back to 1997, and is expected to show numerous purchases from Israel.

Free rein for foreign schools (Nationen)

Norway has committed itself to allowing foreign, for-profit organizations to establish and run both primary and secondary schools in Norway. This happened on the quiet in 1993 under the then Labour government. The commitment could cause problems for the current coalition government led by Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, which is backing the establishment of more private schools. It could make it difficult for the government to say no to for-profit schools, which it is actually opposed to.

Puffed up and tragicomical (Dagens Næringsliv)

Former Kværner CEO, Erik Tønseth, believes his successor Kjell Almskog should admit his own mistakes instead of laying the blame for Kværner’s financial crisis on other people. Mr Tønseth said Mr Almskog should "shut up a bit more". "I think he is puffed up and tragicomical when he spends all his time talking about what other people have done," said Mr Tønseth.

Gold strike on Svalbard (Aftenposten)

In the summer of 2003 the mining company, Store Norske Spitsbergen Kullkompani AS, will begin drilling pilot holes in the search for gold in one of the most promising fields in Scandinavia. The company’s geologists have discovered gold in a vein running just under the surface in an area northeast of New Ålesund. And it is no small find they have made. Some of the samples which have been recovered show a gold content of up to 40 times more than is considered economically viable, for example in South Africa.

Worth Noting

• The Israeli media have followed up the criticism of Terje Rød-Larsen, the UN Special Envoy to the Middle East. They are now pointing the finger of suspicion at Mr Rød-Larsen and his wife, Mona Juul, who is Norway’s Ambassador to Israel, in connection with a peace prize worth USD 100,000 which the couple were awarded by the Simon Peres Centre three years ago. The award was made after the couple’s employer, the Norwegian Foreign Office in Oslo, had provided funds for the same peace centre over a number of years. (Dagsavisen)
• We split up and live by ourselves – at least for a while. The number of single-person households has risen by almost 20 per cent over the past ten years. Divorce and the breakdown of live-in relationships can explain much of this increase. (Dagbladet)
• Director General of Labour Lars Wilhelmsen is asking for a bonus of NOK 60,000 for every redundant civil servant his agency manages to find a job for. "Very interesting," was Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor Norman’s response. (Aftenposten)
• Norway’s new military helicopter is called the NH90 and costs NOK 200-260 million each. NH stands for Nato Helicopter, and the machine has been developed by four European helicopter manufacturers. 14 helicopters have been purchased to operate from Coast Guard ships and the Norwegian Navy’s new frigate, and Norway has an option to purchase a further 10 machines, depending on whether the Armed Forces will in future be responsible for the country’s entire air-sea rescue service or just a part of it. (Verdens Gang)
• During the past few months several Norwegian shipping lines have quietly slipped out of some of the world’s tax havens. But 80 Norwegian ships still sail under the Liberian flag, despite the fact that the country has been placed on an OECD blacklist. (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

Something must be seriously wrong in an industry when government agencies, ranging from the police and customs service to the tax authorities are forced to spend NOK 200 million a year to root out fraud. We are talking about the fishing industry, where swindles are uncovered on a regular basis – from skipper to processor to exporter. Those who harvest the riches of the deep are keen to put as much of that wealth as possible in their own pockets. Profit maximization is a natural part of any business activity, but when it is achieved through an assortment of illegal means, what we are actually talking about is criminal activity. How it has come to this, only the perpetrators themselves can say. The sea is still bountiful, but experience has shown that that wealth can be destroyed by reckless exploitation. The warning bells have been sounded again and again. But still the cheating has continued – cheating which in the end will destroy the economic foundation of both the fishing industry itself and the local communities up and down the coast which are dependent on it. The fishing industry has not shown a sufficient desire to put its own house in order. It blames a complicated regulatory system for the rule-breaking. It may well be that this is a contributory factor – in which case the rules should be changed. But the industry itself should also begin to change its ideas, before there really are no more fish left in the sea.