Flood of DNA litigation expected (Dagsavisen)

The Children and Family Affairs Ministry is expecting a rush of requests for DNA tests from men who doubt the paternity of children alleged to be theirs, so that a new paternity ruling can be sought from the courts. The new Children’s Act comes into force on 1 April, and will be applicable retrospectively in all paternity cases. Under the new law, mothers will no longer be able to refuse to let their children be DNA-tested in paternity cases. Those who have groundlessly paid child support will be refunded the amount they have paid out, without interest.

Growing number of drivers affected by Rohypnol (Aftenposten)

The number of people who drive after taking the tranquilizer Rohypnol has increased fourfold in the past five years. This means that substance abuse is about to overtake drink-driving on the road traffic authorities’ statistics. Most of those who drive while under the influence are men in their late twenties. "We have reliable figures up until the end of November 2002, but the final number of positive Rohypnol tests will be around 2,000. Around 4,000 drivers have taken tranquilizers or narcotic substances," said Asbjørn Christophersen, head of the National Institute of Public Health’s Forensic Toxicology Division.

Police call for politicians to take action against drugs (Aftenposten)

"The Government should say that in the next three to five years the battle against drugs will be the most important issue in Norwegian politics. Give it the priority and the necessary funding across all the various government ministries. I am convinced that a great deal could be done with an extra NOK 1 billion, if all the money that is all ready in the system is used more effectively. We have to start using non-traditional investigative techniques such as covert surveillance and telephone bugging, use of collateral information, entrapment and the infiltration of criminal gangs," said Arne Johannessen, head of the Police Union. If Mr Johannessen is to get his way it would require changes in both the law and various regulations. Police in Norway do not have the right to use entrapment or information gathered during the investigation of one crime as evidence in relation to other offences.

Electricity prices reach new heights (Aftenposten)

The cold start to the year has pushed electricity prices to record levels. Yesterday, the going rate for electricity was a massive 72.64 ører per kWh. "This is the highest price for the day we have ever had," said Hans Randen of the electricity exchange Nord Pool. And prices continued to rise yesterday. Never before has Norwegian electricity been so expensive, and prices could rise even higher. The high price of electricity is costing people with even a moderate level of consumption several thousand kroner extra.

Union economist fears 100,000 could be out of work (Dagbladet)

Stein Reegård, chief economist at the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), is not ruling out a situation in which 100,000 people could be out of a job by the end of the year. "Unemployment will continue to rise. I am afraid that in a few years we will look back on 2002 as just as black a chapter in our economic history as when we were struggling with the after-effects of the 1980s’ yuppie culture. A 15-20 per cent loss of competitiveness in just one year is extremely damaging for industry. We must stabilize the economic conditions under which industry operates. Funding for measures to assist the unemployed must be increased in the revised national budget this spring. The Government is simply not on the ball when it comes to monetary and exchange rate policy," said Mr Reegård.

Bankruptcies resulted in 17,000 job losses (Aftenposten)

4,125 companies, with a total of 17,000 employees, went into liquidation last year. The business sector has not seen comparable figures since the early 1990s. According to Creditinform’s chief financial analyst Tore Widding, a large part of the reason for this is that the banks and finance institutions have become more cautious about lending money. The rise in the number of bankruptcies has been particularly great among companies supplying IT and consulting services. The trend is that a larger number of big firms are going to the wall.

Expert says Christian Democrats should be worried (Vårt Land)

According to political commentator Bernt Aardal, large contingents of the Christian Democratic Party’s traditional voters are sitting on the fence in frustration – a trend that should worry the party leadership more than the loss of voters to the Progress Party. Mr Aardal has pointed out that after the slump in support for the Centre Party, the Christian Democratic Party has had the most loyal voters. "For the Christian Democrats it must be more worrying that the party now has the support of only half the number of voters who backed it in 2001, and that almost a third are sitting on the fence," he said. Mr Aardal believes this trend is due to the fact that the Christian Democratic party faithful do not feel that they can identify with the Government’s political agenda.

1. Worth Noting

• 1,730 convicted murderers and sex offenders have their DNA profiles on file at the National Bureau of Crime Investigation. The number of DNA profiles registered during the past year has more than doubled. The National Bureau of Crime Investigation wants even more offenders to end up on its files.
  (Dagsavisen)
• The majority of European countries have managed to reduce the number of road deaths by between 20 and 40 per cent in the past ten years. In Norway the figure has remained stable. From 2001 to 2002 the number of road deaths increased by 12 per cent.
  (Aftenposten)
• According to Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor D. Norman (Con), who is responsible for the country’s fireworks legislation, a nationwide ban on fireworks is out of the question. "The pleasure given by fireworks is greater than the negative aspects, and we would need extremely weighty reasons for introducing a total ban," he said. Fire chiefs in Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim, Stavanger, Ålesund and Tromsø agree that there should at least be a ban on fireworks in city-centre areas.
  (Bergens Tidende)
• The record level of unemployment among construction workers should be turned to the advantage of run-down school buildings, according to Kristin Halvorsen, leader of the Socialist Left Party. Unemployment in this sector has increased by a massive 29 per cent.
  (Dagsavisen)
• Fewer Norwegian farm buildings burned down last year compared with the year before. Around NOK 70 million less in insurance compensation had been paid out up to the end of the third quarter. Most farm blazes are caused by faulty electrical systems. However, increased focus on the cause of fires has led to an improvement in the situation.
  (Nationen)
• Do people have their money tucked away in mattresses or safety deposit boxes? Or are the readies circulating in the black economy? According to the Norwegian Central Bank Cash, worth a total of NOK 26 billion – mostly thousand kroner notes – is missing from the market.
  (Aftenposten)
• Travel agents and the major airlines fear they could face a slump in demand for flights from the business sector and the public administration. Some are forecasting a drop of up to ten per cent.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The strong Norwegian currency is making life difficult for the country’s export industry, but Norwegian consumers can rejoice over the fact that the cost of cars, foreign holidays and clothes has fallen.
  (Dagsavisen)
• Throughout the country roads are treacherous with ice. As many as 16 vehicles were involved in yesterday’s biggest multiple pile-up on the super-slippery winter roads.
  (Verdens Gang)
• The Storting will have to stump up further millions in 2003 to pay for royal expenses. The big surprise this year is the bill for a total renovation of the royal farm at Bygdøy – though the final figure is so far being kept a secret. However, VG has reason to believe that, according to unpublished estimates by the Directorate of Public Construction and Property, the cost of the restoration work will total around NOK 50 million.
  (Verdens Gang)

2. Today’s comment from Dagsavisen

When she was a senior executive at the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO), Kristin Clemet opposed the use of quotas to get more women onto the country’s male-dominated boards of directors. As Education Minister, however, she is backing the use of positive discrimination to get more men into school staff-rooms, where women are in the vast majority. We note with pleasure that Ms Clemet is concerned with issues of gender equality. And we give our support to the introduction of a moderate form of positive discrimination in schools, despite the fact that she is using this proposal as an argument for it not being so important to get women elected to company boards or promoted to executive positions. In our opinion, Ms Clemet’s reasoning for the introduction of positive discrimination in schools is just as valid as the arguments in favour of gender quotas for company boards and management positions. The problem is not that there is anything wrong with the male executives and directors themselves; the problem is that there are too few women in such positions of power. And this lack of female role models has an impact on young women just starting out in their careers. The business sector will long continue to waste available competence and will remain narrow and hide-bound at the top if we follow Kristin Clemet’s recipe and wait for women and men to distribute themselves more evenly between careers in the caring professions and in schools and careers in business. If we follow up Ms Clemet’s directive to implement positive discrimination in schools and Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen’s instructions to do the same in private companies, we will see a much faster effect.