Nuclear projects in Russia largely unsuccessful (Aftenposten)

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry is strongly critical of the nuclear projects Norway is engaged in in Russia, which have cost the tax payer NOK 500 million so far. Only a few of the 111 projects have been successful. According to a report by the Office of the Auditor General, the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority has too many conflicting roles, including responsibility for project approval, project management and day-to-day consultancy. State Secretary at the Foreign Ministry Espen Barth Eide has said he now intends to get the projects back on track.

Progress Party’s fate will be decided this weekend (Dagsavisen)

The Progress Party is staging a number of meetings this weekend to select candidates for the general elections this autumn. The results will tell Carl I. Hagen whether the party rank and file support his vision of transforming the Progress Party into a respectable government coalition candidate without solo players. "We will get a feel for how many members of the various local branches want to contribute to building a centralized and well-run party and how many don’t," says Mr Hagen.

Progress Party rebels face humiliation (Verdens Gang)

There can no longer be any doubt that the Progress Party leadership does not want Vidar Kleppe, Øystein Hedstrøm, Jan Simonsen and Fridtjof Frank Gundersen in the Storting next year. Nevertheless the party’s leaders are prepared for the four county selection committee meetings being held this weekend to defy Carl I. Hagen on this issue. If the four "bad boys" are selected they will be the subject of a ruthless campaign of humiliation. None of them will be given a position in the parliamentary party organization or in the Storting’s various committees. The four will be totally ignored by Mr Hagen and the large group of Hagen supporters in the parliamentary party. According to sources VG has spoken to, they will be "politically dead".

Harlem to ease police firearms restrictions (NTB)

Justice Minister Hanne Harlem is to make some minor changes to the current restrictions on the police use of firearms. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Ms Harlem informed the police of this move at a meeting with Oslo’s Chief Constable, Anstein Gjengedal, and Director General of Police Ingelin Killengreen. The subject under discussion was the recent upsurge of gang violence and other criminal activity carried out by gangs in Oslo. "There will still be a threshold for the police use of firearms," says Ms Harlem.

Norway ranks low on new technology (Dagens Næringsliv)

Norway is at the bottom of the pile when it comes to the new economy. Technology, media and telecoms companies account for just 20 per cent of the total market value of companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. In Sweden the figure is 42 per cent and in Finland a massive 85 per cent. Trade and Industry Minister Grete Knudsen says it is high time for a change of pace and a switch away from Norway’s traditional dependence on raw materials exports.

Spend oil revenues on foreign acquisitions (Aftenposten)

Jens Ulltveit-Moe, president of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry, says that part of the Government Petroleum Fund, which currently stands at NOK 600 billion, should be used to acquire banks and businesses abroad. The strategy is open to a far higher level of risk than the fund’s current investment policy. "Almost 60 per cent of all acquisitions fail," he admits. But enormous profits can be made too. Last year Norwegian companies invested around NOK 70 billion in foreign acquisitions. Telenor alone accounted for half that amount. Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen does not reject out of hand the idea of using some of Norway’s oil wealth to buy up foreign companies. "Our basic premise is that investments made by the Petroleum Fund should have a low level of risk. In other words, the Fund should not make strategic investments. But I think it is important to have evaluated the pros and cons of such a strategy," he says.

Worth Noting

• 42 generals and admirals have signed a letter of protest which will be delivered to the Storting today. They are warning against the proposed defence cuts. (Aftenposten)
• Norwegian men top the country’s murder statistics. More murders are committed by Norwegian men under the influence of alcohol and suffering from some emotional crisis than by non-Norwegian male gang members in Oslo. (Nationen)
• Petroleum and Energy Minister Olav Akselsen would get considerably more for his Statoil shares if he announced that the Government was planning to reduce its shareholding by more than a third, say many of his advisors. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Government is planning to increase the Civil List (the annual payments made to the various members of the royal family) following revelations that additional sums had been secretly transferred to the Palace from the national budget. The Government has called for a full review of all the payments made to the Palace. (NTB)
• Store Norske Spitsbergen Kullkompani, which operates coal mines on Svalbard, is selling off assets, borrowing money and extracting as much coal as possible to prove that Svea Nord on Svalbard can be the world’s most profitable coal mine. The ambitious but controversial mining project depends on high sales volumes to reach its goal. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Last summer the philosopher and writer Ane Næss donated his collection of books to the mountaineering museum at Turtagrø Hotel. In the early hours of yesterday morning the hotel, built in 1888, burned to the ground. Photographs, paintings and letters documenting Norwegian mountaineering history were destroyed. (Aftenposten)
• To make the previously announced wolf hunt in Østerdalen, eastern Norway, easier to justify the Norwegian authorities tried to persuade Sweden to alter the agreed definition of a wolf family group. They did not succeed. If the currently applicable definition is used, there are only four such family groups in the area. The planned cull may therefore not be carried out after all. (Dagbladet)
• More than one in three of those who called the help line on forced marriages was a boy. While girls in a crisis can seek sanctuary at a women’s refuge, there is no corresponding escape route for boys. (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

It is something of a milestone that Pakistan and Norway have decided to sign a cooperation agreement on the prevention of forced marriages. It is true that forced marriages are illegal both in Norway and Pakistan, but it is quite another matter that the authorities in two countries with such different cultures take the problem seriously and decide to fight the problem together. For it is no small problem, as the figures from the Oslo Red Cross International Centre prove. The Centre runs a help line for those faced with the possibility of a forced marriage. In less than a year 305 people have called with 258 of the calls referring to specific cases. If these figures are so large, we can only guess at the real scale of the problem. We have no illusions that there will be a sudden end to forced marriages because of the bilateral agreement and the creation of an advisory panel. However, it is important that this basic human right has been confirmed.