Forums: Norwegian Air Shuttle

OSLO (AFP) – A small Norwegian company said Tuesday it had developed a peat moss mixture that could protect parts of the US coast from giant plumes of oil gushing from the wreckage of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The company, Kallak Torvstroefabrikk, says one kilo (2.2 pounds) of its peat moss can absorb the equivalent of five times its weight in oil. "This makes it possible to protect fragile stretches of the coast: a beach, a swamp, a nesting ground for birds," said Ragnar Kallak, who heads up the three-man company some 70 kilometres...

SNIPPET: "The US military targeted a Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan who was behind the kidnapping of a Norwegian journalist in November. The Taliban commander, who is known as Haji Mohammad Dawran Safi or Qari Dawat, was the target of a November 26 airstrike in the eastern province of Kunar. Qari Dawat "is known for attacking innocent civilians in the Kunar region, as well as international forces and bases," the US military noted in a press release on Nov. 27, one day after the strike. Qari Dawat was not named, however. An Afghan Police commander confirmed the airstrike and said...

Scientists in Norway have identified a mutated form of the swine flu virus that is raising concern because it was found in two patients who died of the flu and a third who was severely ill with the disease, officials announced Friday. In a statement, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said the mutation "could possibly make the virus more prone to infect deeper in the airways and thus cause more severe disease," such as pneumonia.

The Norwegian Health authorities are today, Friday, expected to announce that they advice that all Norwegians be vaccinated against the swine flu. So far, nine persons are known to have died from the flu in Norway. It is estimated that 100,000 now have the flu, and in many schools and kindergartens 50 per cent of the children are absent, but it is not certain that all have the H1N1 flu. Already, there are daily long lineups at many vaccination centres around the country, and many GPs report that they are inundated with calls from nervous patients who either have symptoms,...

Norwegian Oyvind Aamot says his first memory in life was speaking Chinese on a train in China at age 27. He didn't realize he was on a train, that he was speaking Chinese or that he was a foreigner. He didn't know what any of these things meant. He also didn't remember who he was, where he came from or anything about his identity or past. "People would point to me and call me a waiguoren (foreigner), and I'd say, 'OK, I'm a waiguoren', but I didn't know what that concept meant," Aamot says in an articulate manner, which doesn't...

Israel's Operation Cast Lead in January has sparked a sharp rise in incidents of violence and anti-Semitic statements in Norway that were directed at Israel and the local Jewish community. In the wake of this experience, some Jews are claiming that anti-Semitism is "a very healthy disease" in the country, and is on the rise.

PARIS (AFP) – Once famous for their numbers, Norwegian lemmings are disappearing, say scientists, who point an accusing finger at global warming. The hamster-like rodents burst forth in massive numbers from their sub-Arctic homes every three to five years in a frantic search for food. The mad dash sometimes causes them to race over clifftops and plummet into the sea, thus giving rise to the theory -- now discounted -- of mass suicide. Since 1994, these periodic population explosions have stopped, prompting researchers to ask why. In a study published on Thursday, investigators say the blame lies not with too...

A Norwegian cruise ship carrying some 300 people lost engine power during an electrical outage and struck an Antarctic glacier, smashing a lifeboat but causing no injuries... The MS Fram hit the ice late Friday near Browns Bluff in the Antarctic... The engine started again and the liner continued to King George Island for an inspection. "We hit a glacier. We have damage to a starboard lifeboat and a little bit forward," ... the ship apparently suffered no serious damage. Hansen said the power outage lasted 40 to 50 minutes and sent the vessel adrift against the glacier, where it...