Norway owns shares in British nuclear energy producer (Verdens Gang)

Over the past three years Norway has invested NOK 65 million of the Government Petroleum Fund in Britain’s largest nuclear power company, British Energy. VG can today reveal that we also own shares in German and Italian nuclear energy producers. Together with the investments made in the Japanese nuclear energy industry which VG reported on Saturday, Norway owns shares in the very companies which ensure that the British nuclear waste treatment facility at Sellafield remains operative. At least 13 companies are involved.

Christian Democrats challenge leadership over environment (Dagbladet)

Kjell Magne Bondevik’s fellow Christian Democrats in the north of the country believe that developing the Snow White oil and gas field cannot be justified before safety measures have been implemented to protect the Barents Sea from an environmental disaster. Future exploration, production and transport of oil and gas off the northern coast is worrying leading northern Christian Democrats. The party’s Troms branch is calling for at least two per cent of Norway’s oil and gas revenues to be spent on environmental surveillance in the Barents Sea. "Safety measures must be in place before the Snow White development is started, and that requires substantial amounts of money," said Mariam Rapp, whose views won the backing of the Troms branch’s annual meeting at the weekend.

Ombudsman calls for supervision of police cells (Dagbladet)

For several years the Storting’s Ombudsman for Public Administration, Arne Fliflet, has been working for the establishment of a scheme to provide independent supervision of the country’s police cells. The Ombudsman asked the Ministry of Justice as long ago as 1997 to review the way police cells are supervised following the death of a sick man while in police custody in Hamar. Last Friday night a 19-year-old youth died in a Hamar police cell after being arrested for drunkenness, and Mr Fiflet expressed his frustration at not having been heard earlier. "What happened in Hamar bears out my concerns. I consider this an extremely serious case. This death could perhaps have been avoided. The Ministry should have done something about the weaknesses of today’s system. Something must be done," said Mr Fiflet.

Doctors duped in sick pal scam (Aftenposten)

Today practically anyone can cheat the sickness benefit system. The trick is to get a sick friend to go to the doctor claiming to be you. No one checks the patient’s identity. The National Insurance Administration suspects a number of benefit claimants have used this sick pal scam, and are considering asking doctors to demand proof of identity from their patients. The Norwegian Medical Association is unhappy with the new controls. "It could spoil the relationship between doctor and patient if the doctor is forced to carry out such identity checks," said Hans Kristian Bakke, president of the Norwegian Medical Association.

Oil bonuses of NOK 40,000 – 50,000 (Dagens Næringsliv)

This year employees working for foreign oil companies operating in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea will receive bonuses averaging NOK 40,000-50,000. Several of the foreign oil companies have started to finalize the size of their employees’ bonuses. Bonuses are based on the achievement of targets for last year, and are slightly lower than the record sums paid out in the bonanza year of 2000.

Call for electronic tagging of violent men (Dagsavisen)

Electronic tagging of violent partners could be necessary to protect victims of abuse, according to Inga Marte Thorkildsen, legal and women’s affairs spokesperson for the Socialist Left Party. The Storting will today debate measures to prevent violence against women. Ms Thorkildsen believes Justice Minister Odd Einar Dørum (Lib) is focusing too strongly on the women who are the victims of violence. She is demanding more attention be paid to the perpetrators.

House prices could double by 2008 (Dagens Næringsliv)

The Norwegian Builders’ Association (BNL) expects house prices to double in several Norwegian counties. The largest price rises are expected in Oslo, Akershus, South Trøndelag and Troms. The BNL forecasts the price per square metre for an apartment in Oslo will exceed NOK 40,000 in 2008. The BNL is the third largest member of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) and represents around 3,000 companies within the industry. For years the BNL has been pointing out that too few homes are being built in Norway. The forecasts for the period 2002-2008 assume that economic growth will continue in line with that achieved from 1994 to 2000.

VG a global giant (Aftenposten)

Record circulation figures have made Verdens Gang a global giant among newspapers – at least in relation to the size of the population. According to the latest official circulation figures, an average of 400,000 copies sold each weekday is now within sight. This was confirmed by VG’s chief executive Aslak Ona – though he declined to give any deadline for when that figure will be reached.

Worth Noting

• The Norwegian authorities are considering setting up a blacklist of people convicted of corruption. The aim is clear – businessmen who have broken the rules will not be given the opportunity of providing goods or services to the public administration. (Aftenposten)
• The Government’s proposal to allow shops to remain open 24 hours a day is causing problems for this year’s wage negotiations. The Norwegian Union of Commercial and Office Employees has responded by demanding that employees should be paid twice the going rate for working after 9 pm. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• In just a few years Statkraft has invested a dizzying NOK 25 billion to acquire Norwegian power utilities and another NOK 10-15 billion abroad. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Norway’s energy experts are predicting a crisis for the electricity industry and even rationing. "In the next few years we will be extremely vulnerable to a power crisis in Norway. The situation could be more dramatic than most people think," said Petter Støa. (Dagbladet)
• Today there are more elderly people waiting for a place in a nursing home than there were four years ago when the wide-ranging action plan for the care of the elderly was initiated. Coverage has got worse despite the fact that more sheltered accommodation and new nursing homes have been built, reports NRK. (NTB)
• Nils Butenschøn, head of the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, is damning in his criticism of the Government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation. He believes the authorities have gone too far and is calling for the law to differentiate between international terrorism and political opposition. (Klassekampen)
• The Oslo Stock Exchange has exonerated Opticom of failing to ensure fair and equal treatment of all shareholders. However, the company was criticized for carrying out a share issue at the same time as it announced a major agreement with chip manufacturer Intel. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The large-scale import of qualified workers who are currently unemployed in Germany would help solve the acute problems faced by the Norwegian construction industry. Construction work in the German capital has almost ground to a halt, and 48 per cent of construction workers are unemployed, according to bricklayer Lutz Hoffmann. (Aftenposten)
• A majority of the Storting’s Justice Committee is in favour of the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime’s request to use covert surveillance techniques in the fight against terrorism. (Aftenposten)
• 216 firearms were reported lost or stolen last year. Most of them were civilian firearms which disappeared from the south eastern part of the country. (Nationen)

Today’s comment from Verdens Gang

Organized crime and international terrorism have become such a serious threat to society that it once again raises the issue of how to give the police more effective methods of investigation. There is fairly widespread acceptance of the police being allowed to check suspects’ phone records in connection with crimes punishable with at least ten years’ imprisonment. The same should also apply to checks on data communication traffic and the electronic tagging of people and objects. We also feel it is necessary to allow the police to obtain court orders permitting secret searches and the seizure of evidence, and to introduce regulations allowing witnesses to give evidence anonymously. There is no doubt that these measures represent a weakening of the rights of the individual under Norwegian law. However, all in all they amount to a strengthening of the rule of law because they protect the individual citizen and society as a whole against a substantial threat. Covert surveillance, including the use of concealed cameras and bugging devices, would be a further restriction on the rights of the individual. VG’s leader writers were for many years completely opposed to such surveillance methods, but the growth of organized crime and the danger of terrorism has led us to review our position. The arguments against covert surveillance techniques are obvious, but the arguments in favour – to combat an increasing threat to the safety of the individual and of society at large – are gaining weight all the time. It would be irresponsible not to continuously reappraise the necessity for covert surveillance.