Mullah Krekar arrested in Iran (Aftenposten)

The Kurdish guerrilla leader, Mullah Krekar, has been arrested and deported from Iran. There are strong indications that he is on his way to Norway. Mullah Krekar’s arrest was confirmed late last night by acting spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Kåre Eltervåg. "We know that he has been arrested in Iran and that he was deported yesterday. That is all I can say at the moment," was Mr Eltervåg’s terse comment. He declined to comment on information received by Aftenposten that Mullah Krekar had been handed over to the Norwegian authorities.

Christian Democrat leader wants deputy to resign (Vårt Land)

Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, chairman of the Christian Democratic Party, wants to dump one of the party’s deputy leaders. Ms Svarstad Haugland, who is also Minister for Cultural Affairs, wants either Einar Steensnæs or Odd Anders With to step down as deputy leader or resign from the Government. At a strategy conference last weekend she explained that in her opinion the entire party leadership should not also be part of the Government. "I hope that after the Christian Democrats’ annual conference next year we will have a party leadership whose entire membership is not also in the Government," said Ms Svarstad Haugland to the party newspaper, Folkets Fremtid. According to the party chairman’s adviser, Gudmund Løyning, Ms Svarstad Haugland herself has no plans to step down, either as chairman of the party or as a government minister.

Conservatives and Progress Party together would have majority (Aftenposten)

The Conservative Party and the Progress Party would have a combined majority in the Storting if the results of Opinion’s September poll had been those of a general election. The two parties would together have had 88 of the Storting’s 165 seats. This is a situation we have not even come close to since the Progress Party had the support of more than 30 per cent of the voters in opinion polls carried out in the autumn of 2000. The Progress Party continues to surge ahead and is now firmly ensconced as the country’s most popular party, with the backing of 27.4 per cent of the electorate. The Conservatives gain two percentage points to end on 21.1 per cent. The difficulties facing Jens Stoltenberg’s efforts to rebuild the Labour Party are illustrated by a further 2.9 point slide. Labour now has the support of 18.5 per cent of the voters.

War on terrorism’s roots (Aftenposten)

The day after the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the USA, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik emphasized the global war on terrorism when he addressed the UN General Assembly. He underlined that terrorism must be combated with all available means, but reminded his listeners at the same time that the war must be conducted in such a way that human rights and other key moral values were not violated. In addition, Mr Bondevik said that a successful battle against terrorism also demanded a successful battle against its causes – including poverty. He insisted that investing in development was the same as investing in peace.

Giske leading the deputy leader race (Dagsavisen)

Trond Giske is the most popular candidate for Labour’s vacant deputy leader slot, with Karita Bekkemellem Orheim in second place, according to a poll carried out by Omnijet on behalf of Dagsavisen. 25.3 per cent of those polled say they think Trond Giske should be the Labour Party’s new deputy leader. This gives the controversial MP from South Trøndelag a substantial lead over his competitors in the race for the deputy leadership. Karita Bekkemellem Orheim ends in second place, with the backing of 15.4 per cent of those polled. 12.5 per cent prefer Bjarne Håkon Hanssen, while Sylvia Brustad and Dag Terje Andersen trail in at the back of the field.

Giske appologises for anti-Karita campaign (Dagbladet)

Trond Giske has apologised and asked his supporters not to make any further derogatory remarks about Karita Bekkemellem Orheim. She is one of his leading opponents in the battle for the Labour Party’s vacant deputy leader slot. Dagbladet reported yesterday that the previously rock-solid support for Trond Giske in the Labour Party’s youth wing (AUF) was starting to crumble. Internal wrangling in the AUF and the demand that the new deputy leader be a woman has undercut Mr Giske’s chances of winning the deputy leadership. In yesterday’s edition, Dagbladet quoted the acerbic comments of key Giske supporters, who dismissed Ms Bekkemellem Orheim as Jens Stoltenberg’s poodle, adding that she often had the prettiest frock at official banquets.

Call for Norway to pay more attention to northern flank (Klassekampen)

Has Norway’s foreign policy emphasis on peace-keeping initiatives after the end of the Cold War supplanted its focus on the northern region? Willy Østreng, head of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, thinks so. The Norwegian authorities are afraid that the intensification of Russian oil production in the country’s northern region will pose a threat to the environment in the Barents Sea. Northern Russia contains substantial oil reserves. Technological developments and global warming, which has caused the polar icecap to shrink, mean those oil resources are becoming more accessible. "Russia has a pressing need to increase its revenues, and we must expect a major push to extract more oil in the north," said Mr Østreng. The area changed its status after the Cold War, and Norway’s foreign policy focus was switched to peace processes in distant countries," said Mr Østreng, who believes we must now return our attention to our own northern flank.

Worth Noting

• The Norwegian Federation of Fish and Aquaculture (FHL) has demanded that a commission under the leadership of the Secretary of State be set up to evaluate the implications for the industry of the controversial import duty case regarding the proof of origin of fish being exported. According to a press release issued by the FHL, the disagreement between the fishing industry and customs authorities over how the regulations governing this issue in the EEA Agreement should be interpreted is damaging both the Norwegian fishing industry and its EU customers.
  (NTB)
• According to a report compiled by the Office of the Auditor General, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) is not able to document the results of its environment-focused development aid projects. NORAD accepts the criticism and is changing its routines. "It is important for us to point out that it is the way the results of our environment-focused development aid are reported which has been criticized, not the way the environment itself has been handled," said Morten Svelle, head of NORAD’s Asia office.
  (NTB)
• Hammerfest District Court yesterday ordered Socialist Left Party MP, Heidi Sørensen, to pay a NOK 2,500 fine for having taken part in an illegal demonstration against the development of the Snow White gas field off the coast of northern Norway. Ms Sørensen has said she will not appeal. She was initially given a NOK 10,000 penalty by the police, but refused to accept the fine.
  (Aftenposten)
• Keiko’s sojourn in Skålvikfjorden will soon be over. The team of scientists who look after him want to send him north for a family reunion. This was confirmed by Keiko’s vet, Lanny Cornell from San Diego. "We will be moving him somewhere he can meet more of his kind," said the killer whale expert.
  (Verdens Gang)

Today’s comment from Dagbladet

President George W Bush yesterday backed away from the US unilateralism that his vice president, Dick Chaney, has so far been an exponent of. When the US president spoke to the UN General Assembly yesterday he asked the UN to act in accordance with the many resolutions which have been adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council since 1991. The most important resolutions have also been accepted by Iraq and state that UN weapons inspectors must be allowed without any let or hindrance to check whether Saddam Hussein’s regime is developing weapons of mass destruction. President Bush said yesterday that Saddam Hussein has defied every resolution. He demanded that Iraq abide both by previous resolutions and the one to emerge from the Security Council discussions that the USA has now taken the initiative for. It was just this process which Vice President Dick Cheney fairly provocatively called a "waste of time". President Bush has listened to the advice of heavyweights from the administration of the last President Bush, and perhaps also to UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, and has realized that a US attack on Iraq without a UN mandate would be a violation of international law. This is good news. The US about face paves the way for the international community to arrive at a broader agreement on the regime in Baghdad. Norway is a member of the Security Council until the end of the year, and will participate directly in discussions on the Iraq resolution, which will be one of the most important the Council has ever had to deal with. The President’s demand that Iraq stick to its post-Gulf War agreements is not unreasonable. We expect the Norwegian government to help make sure that the objective of the resolution is not to give the hawks in the Bush administration the legitimacy they need to launch an attack, but to resolve the Iraq crisis without resorting to war.