National News

The Government will spend NOK 508 million on the transport sector over the next ten years, according to the new National Transport Plan, which was presented to Parliament on Friday.

The Ninth European Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organization (ILO) will be opened in Oslo on Monday.

The unemployment rate in Norway in January was 3.6 per cent of the total labour force, according to Statistics Norway, an increase by 0.3 points from the previous survey.

Monday is Second Day Easter in Norway, and the last day of the long Easter holiday, but already on Sunday it became clear that the Norwegian Red Cross had carried out a record number of missions.

Minister of Defense Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen asks the Attorney General to investigate the Intelligence Section of the Norwegian Defense, which is accused of collecting and storing information about journalists.

Norwegian woman (31) and her Israeli Palestinian companion have been been kidnapped by beduins in the Sinai desert. Negotiations for their release are underway.

“The terror attack against the gas production facility at In Amenas in January shocked us all. Five Norwegian citizens lost their lives. The assault was the largest ever mounted against Norwegian interests in peacetime. We have therefore conducted a thorough review of the way Norwegian authorities handled the crisis,” says Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

The police is at present able to confiscate only around three per cent of all the heroin that is being smuggled into Norway. Last year, the police and customs confiscated 45 kilos of Heroin in Norway.

“Irresponsible and illegal trade in arms costs many lives and causes great suffering every year. When the international negotiations on an international arms trade treaty start up again in New York, Norway will be at the forefront of efforts to ensure a strong and robust agreement,” said Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

A two-day international conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, hosted by the Norwegian government, opens in Oslo today, Monday.

The head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), Marie Benedicte Bjørndal, says that the national security situation in Norway is not satisfactory.

47-year-old Rwandan man, accused of participating in the Rwanda genocide in 1994, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison by an Oslo court, for mass murders he was involved in during the genocide.