Government changes tack over war babies (Dagsavisen)

The Government has changed its strategy over Norway’s so-called war babies, children whose fathers were members of the German occupying forces during the Second World War. The war babies are seeking compensation from the state for terrible treatment they received. However, the Government is now demanding that the Oslo City Court reject their legal suits on the grounds that "the cases are of no legal interest". In other words the Government is saying that the war babies’ claims of abuse are simply nonsense, and that it would be a waste of the judiciary’s time to pursue the matter through the courts. The Attorney General therefore believes that none of the gruesome stories told by the war babies of being beaten, spitted at, sent to Coventry, subjected to psychological terror, having their rights denied and receiving inhuman treatment after being forcibly sent to state-run children’s homes is of any legal interest to the courts.

LO will never accept cut in sick pay (Verdens Gang)

On Wednesday employer and employee organizations came to a wide-ranging settlement to reduce the level of sick leave in Norway. Today, Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) says that her organization will never accept any cut in sick pay benefits. Wednesday’s agreement means that the various parties are committed to reducing the level of sick leave by 20 per cent over the next four years, without a cut in today’s sick pay scheme. Most people have interpreted the agreement to mean that if the target is not met stronger measures will be needed, and the sick pay scheme could be cut. "The agreement doesn’t say a word about watering down the sick pay scheme if we do not reach our target of a 20 per cent reduction. If it had, we would never have agreed to it," said Ms Valla.

Progress Party threatens to block change of government (Dagbladet)

Carl I. Hagen is demanding to be elected President of the Storting and has asked Siv Jensen to stand by to take over as the Progress Party’s leading figure. The Progress Party is now ready to block a change of government if the Conservatives, Christian Democrats and Liberals do not let Mr Hagen have the Presidency. Even though the Conservatives, Christian Democrats and Liberals have more or less completed their negotiations to form a new government there are still a number of hurdles to jump before they can take office. First, they have to get past Carl I. Hagen. The coalition does not command a majority in the Storting, and could be totally dependent on the Progress Party to get into office. It is Dagbladet’s understanding that Jens Stoltenberg is likely to wait for clarification from the Storting before he informs the King of his government’s decision to resign.

10% of employees account for 80% of sick leave (Aftenposten)

Ten per cent of employees – most of them poorly educated – account for 80 per cent of the sick leave taken in Norway, according to a survey of the working environment. "The total level of sick leave will not fall before we do something about the jobs which people with a poor education have. It is the stresses and strains of these jobs and the opportunities to influence the employee’s own work situation which must be improved," said Aslaug Mikkelsen, head of research at Rogaland Research.

Norwegian Animal Health Authority to stop new fish farm licences (Klassekampen)

The fish farming industry spreads too much disease, says the Norwegian Animal Health Authority. For this reason the Authority wants to stop the 40 new fish farming licences which are due to be granted this year. If the Authority wins backing for its view, it could mean the loss of NOK 500 million for those local authorities in remote districts which lose out on new fish farms.

Amnesty fears violence against Norwegian Muslims (Dagsavisen)

Petter Eide, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Norway, has called for meetings with Norwegian police and Muslim leaders. He fears that in Norway too there are people who want to attack Muslims. "Antiterrorist activities and antiracism go hand in hand. We must at all costs avoid having many years of progress in the development of a multicultural society being wiped out," said Mr Eide.

Worth Noting

1. Public transport in the Oslo region is among the worst in Europe in terms of the number of departures, price and quality. (Dagsavisen)
2. Stein Erik Hagen is predicting a major price hike for food products in the near future. He is concerned about the revenues from his Hakon group of supermarket chains. (Verdens Gang)
3. By reading the Norwegian Board of Health’s mailing lists you can find the names of doctors who have lost their jobs, nurses who are medication abusers and parents who are seeking narcotic medicines for their children. The Data Inspectorate has never heard of a worse case, according to the newspaper, Telemarksavisen. (Dagsavisen)
4. Norwegian fighter pilots currently on stand-by could be ordered to shoot down hijacked civilian passenger planes if necessary. The new orders are unique, and only the Defence Minister, the Chief of Defence Staff and the commanding officers for North and South Norway are authorized to give the command to shoot down a civilian plane, said Brigadier Kjell Grandhagen, spokesman for the Headquarters Defence Command Norway in an interview with NRK.
5. Eight-year-olds who have been at school for three years are poorer readers than eight-year-olds were when they had only been at school for two years. (Aftenposten)
6. Humanitarian organizations are supporting the Immigration Directorate’s fight against criminals, but believe they should not be allowed to live among other asylum seekers in the way planned by the authorities. (Aftenposten)
7. With shipping magnate Wilhelm Wilhelmsen as its largest shareholder, the company, Genova, is working to develop a vaccine which can increase the weight of farmed fish by 50 per cent. Due to Norwegian restrictions, the company has chosen to collaborate with a Cuban laboratory. (Aftenposten)
8. The Socialist Left Party’s parliamentary group has failed to reach an agreement on the party’s stance on the USA’s war preparations and Norway’s role in them. On Monday the group is due to debate the issue in its widest form. (Klassekampen)
9. The number of heroin seizures in rural Norway has risen almost five-fold since 1991. Last year the police made more individual seizures of the deadly drug outside urban areas than ever before. (Nationen)

Today’s comment from Dagsavisen

What’s new in the latest Simonsen scandal? Not much, really. That Jan Simonsen has extremely bad taste when it comes to friends and restaurants is nothing new. What is new, however, is that Mr Simonsen has helped his friend, the manager of the gay club, "Enka", in Oslo – a man convicted in Germany of being an accessory to prostitution – to obtain a liquor licence. This confirms Mr Simonsen’s generally poor judgement. But is it criminal, and is it a good enough reason to be thrown unceremoniously out of the party? It is a politically criminal act, and will probably get him thrown out of the Progress Party. We all know that it does not take much to be given your marching orders from that party. But it would undoubtedly not qualify as criminal in legal terms. The leader of the committee which grants liquor licences on behalf of the Oslo City Council, Mr Simonsen’s fellow Progress Party member Arve Lønnum, claims that you can be both a rapist and a killer, and still be given a liquor licence, just as long as you send in your VAT returns on time and otherwise do not break the Sale of Alcoholic Beverages Act. In other words, "Enka" would have got its liquor licence no matter what Mr Simonsen’s friend had done. This is what it has come to in the Conservative-led capital city. There is a culture gap between Oslo and Stavanger.

Council of State

Special adviser Sverre Stub has been appointed Ambassador to Amman.