He wasn’t along on the trip, but the president of Norway’s Parliament, Thorbjørn Jagland, now thinks the parliament’s foreign affairs committee should not have visited Iran last month.

It’s not often they’re in agreement, but Thorbjørn Jagland of the Labour Party (left), Inge Lønning of the Conservatives (center) and Carl I Hagen of the Progress Party are all unhappy that a parliamentary delegation visited Iran last month. PHOTO: JON HAUGE

Related stories:

Norway blasts stoning in Iran – 10.07.2007

Norwegian ambassador denies praising Iran – 19.06.2007

Jagland’s criticism is surprising, not least because the committee is headed by a fellow Labour Party politician, Olav Akselsen. Jagland also criticized Norway’s foreign policy towards Iran, even though that’s guided by another Labour Party politician, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Jagland, a former foreign minister himself, didn’t name any names in his critical commentary in Thursday’s edition of newspaper Aftenposten, but he strongly suggested that Norway’s policy towards Iran hasn’t been well thought out.

Politicians in Norway “haven’t consciously sat down and discussed our policies towards Iran,” Jagland claimed.

He noted that Norwegian politicians opposed stoning in meetings in Iran, but then it took place anyway. That, Jagland said, “shows that we haven’t had any effective influence.”

Jagland claimed he did not support the foreign affairs committee’s application for funding for its trip to Iran last month, and worries that Norway’s “strong economic interests in Iran” (mostly through state oil company Statoil’s business in Iran) make its foreign policy towards Iran “problematic.” Jagland noted that he also opposed the previous government’s decision to send a trade delegation to Iran, right when the EU and the US were pressuring the Iranians to halt their nuclear development program.

He stressed that he’s not in favor of isolating Iran, but believes the international community needs to “stand together” in an effort to hinder Iran’s “destructive” path.

Members of Parliament from Norway’s Progress Party were the only politicians to boycott the trip to Iran, to protest Iran’s policies. Jagland admitted he agrees with the stand taken by the Progress Party, which usually is his own party’s arch rival .

Jagland’s criticism of Norway’s relations with Iran is also shared by Inge Lønning of the Conservatives. He told Aftenposten, though, that he thinks Statoil’s activities in Iran are much more problemactic than last month’s visit by the foreign affairs committee.

By Nina Berglund

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenposteneng

Norway’s Foreign Ministry called in the Iranian ambassador on Tuesday, to strongly protest Iran’s execution by stoning of a man convicted of adultery.

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre called the stoning “inhumane and barbaric.” PHOTO: HÅKON MOSVOLD LARSEN/SCANPIX Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre met Iran’s foreign minister in Oslo just this past spring. PHOTO: Cornelius Poppe / SCANPIX

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said he was “deeply upset” by what he called an “inhumane and barbaric method of punishment.”

Støre, who’s supposed to be on summer holiday, said he was deeply worried that the executed man’s female companion Mokarrameh Ebrahimi will suffer the same fate. Støre vowed to work with other countries to pressure Iran into blocking her stoning.

Norway’s embassy in Iran has been ordered to help ensure that international representatives be allowed to visit Ebrahimi in jail.

Norway has long condemned stoning and already had lodged protests with Iranian officials. The Parliament’s foreign relations committee threatened to cancel a long-planned visit to Iran late last month if the threatened stoning took place. It didn’t, and the Norwegian parliamentarians proceeded with the visit to a country where state oil company Statoil does business.

It remained unclear whether the Norwegian Foreign Ministry’s strong criticism of the stoning would have any consequences on Statoil’s business activities in Iran.

Iranian officials ended up allowing the stoning, admitting it took place in a rare confirmation on Tuesday. An Iranian judiciary spokesman said Jafar Kiani was stoned to death last Thursday in Aghchekand village, 200 kilometers west of the capital.

Death sentences are carried out in Iran after they are upheld by the Supreme Court. Under Iran’s Islamic law, adultery is punishable by stoning.

The judiciary spokesman didn’t detail how the stoning was carried out, but a male convict is usually buried up to his waist, while a female criminal is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried. Those carrying out the verdict start throwing stones and rocks at the convict until he or she dies.

International human rights groups have long condemned stoning as “cruel and barbaric” punishment. The UN human rights chief Louise Arbour condemned the execution. The UN noted that the execution was carried out despite Iran’s own moratorium on execution by stoning which had been in effect since 2002.

ByNina Berglund/AP

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenposteneng

It’s been a bad week for several lofty policies championed by the Norwegian government. It seems there’s a widening gap between what the politicians say, and what actually happens in practice.

Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, head of the Socialist Left party, can’t always seem to practice what she preaches. PHOTO: HÅKON MOSVOLD LARSEN / SCANPIX Bahrain is one of the places where the state pension has invested. PHOTO: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

The latest example emerged Friday, when newspaper Aftenposten carried a front-page story about the state pension fund’s investments in international tax havens.

Norway’s center-left government coalition has made an issue of battling offshore tax havens. Both Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen and the minister in charge of foreign aid, Erik Solheim, have harshly criticized companies, both Norwegian- and foreign-owned, that avoid taxes by registering themselves in countries with low or non-existent tax obligations.

At the same time, however, the state’s massive pension fund that’s fueled by Norway’s oil revenues has been investing billions in companies that are registered in tax havens. This includes companies “based” in places like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Cyprus.

Anti-corruption officials are also concerned about such investments, because tax havens generally shroud ownership and many operations in secrecy. “Then it’s easier for criminals to hide their money here,” Jan Borgen of Transparency Norge told Verdensmagasinet X, which compiled a rundown of the state pension fund’s overseas investments in firms based in tax havens.

Finance Minister Halvorsen has characterized Norwegians who invest in tax havens as a “provocation against Norwegian taxpayers.” She’s not demanding, though, that the state pension fund blacklist tax haven investments.

She admitted that conducting international business, especially from a self-professed ethical standpoint, creates “ethical dilemmas.” She invited Transparency International to take up this dilemma when work begins on new sets of investment guidelines. Solheim declined comment.

Another similar dilemma arose earlier this week, when the foreign ministry harshly criticized Iran for its stoning of a man convicted of adultery. At the same time, however, Norway continues to do business with Iran through its ownership stake in state oil company Statoil.

Environmental activists also blasted government hypocrisy on national radio this week, when they called for the closure of coal mining in the sensitive Arctic territory of Svalbard.

High coal prices mean the state is earning record amounts on the coal it ships to foreign power plants, which are exactly the type of polluting facilities that the Norwegian government criticizes. That means the state is actually supplying the coal that feeds the plants that create the pollution the Norwegian politicians don’t like.

“There is a lack of consistency, when the government says one thing and state funds do something else,” said Borgen, in response to the pension fund dilemma. Opposition politician Hans Olav Syversen of the Christian Democrats agreed.

“We must have rules that are possible to put in practice, but I absolutely urge tighter rules in this area,” Syversen said.

By Nina Berglund

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenposteneng

Archaeologists monitoring some digging by the City of Oslo’s waterworks department made a sensational discovery this week.

Gunhild Høvik Hansen spotted the special coin while digging herself. PHOTO: ANNE-STINE JOHNSBRÅTEN The discovery was made while archaeologists were monitoring replacement of new waterlines in the oldest part of Oslo. PHOTO: ANNE-STINE JOHNSBRÅTEN

The archaeologists have been following excavations done by city workers who are replacing underground water pipes in the oldest part of Oslo, called Gamlebyen.

That’s the neighbourhood east of today’s downtown area where Oslo’s first known settlements were established more than a thousand years ago. It’s also where there are ruins of churches and homes from the Middle Ages.

Gunhild Høvik Hansen of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning, NIKU) said she was doing some digging herself when suddenly something caught her attention amidst all the sand and dirt.

“I thought that this must be something very exciting,” she told newspaper Aften.

She plucked out what experts agree is a silver coin that’s at least 900 years old. The thin and worn coin weighs no more than two grams, with a diameter of about one-and-a-half centimetres.

It remains unclear where the coin came from, possibly Germany or England.

Svein Gullbekk of the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Kulturhistorikk museum) said coins have been found that date from 1200-1400, and even 1000, but nothing from the 1100s.

“This is exciting,” he exclaimed. “There weren’t very many coins in Norway during the 1100s.”

By Jørgen Svarstad and  Nina Berglund

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenposteneng

Kenya was formed by the rotational leadership. Every Province was to rule for five years term. When Jomo Kenyatta became the first President, he changed that agreement, and made Kenya to be a Kikuyu property. Moi followed suit. Now Kibaki has been the worst President in Kenya’s History. May God bless him.

We want another Province to lead Kenyans. Central Province and Rift Valley Province have played their role, and should give way to Nyanza Province this time.

Western, Coast, Eastern, and North Eastern Provinces should also get the Presidency if the Kenya constitution which was violated can be followed. That is the only unity one can say. Otherwise let us talk about Federal Government (Majimbosm) so that we can avoid confrontation in leadership.

By Peter L.Akhonya,
Cincinnati, Ohio,
USA.

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525