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<The President is watched by Amos Wako, the Attorney General, as he puts his hand on the legal historical document.

President Mwai Kibaki Thursday evening at State House Nairobi assented to the National Accord and Reconciliation Bill, 2008.

The National Accord and Reconciliation Act, 2008 is an Act of Parliament to give effect to the Agreement on the Principles of Partnership of the Coalition Government, to foster national accord and reconciliation and provide for the formation of a coalition Government and the establishment of the offices of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers among other provisions.

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African Press International (API)

Children of divorced Norwegians don’t perform as well in school as do children of married Norwegians, according to a new study by the social research agency NOVA.

The teenagers themselves think constant moving between divorced parents’ homes distracts from school work. PHOTO: ROLF ØHMAN

“Either it’s better to grow up in a family with a strong and institutionalized relationship between the parents, or it has to do with who chooses to marry in the first place,” researcher Jon Lauglo, who coordinated the study, told newspaper Aftenposten.

The study of grades given over a year to classes of 16-year-olds showed that the children of married parents achieved higher grades (an average of 4.07 in the Norwegian grading system) than those of parents who lived together but weren’t married (3.88), and quite a bit higher than children of parents who didn’t live together (3.66).

Of the students included in the research, 58.7 percent had married parents, 4.5 percent had parents who lived together but weren’t married, and 38.8 percent had parents who did not live together.

“I have to move all the time between mama and papa, and I’m always forgetting schoolbooks at each place the whole time,” said 18-year-old Christine Lie. Her parents are divorced, and she thinks it has affected her schoolwork.

Lie and other students her age interviewed by Aftenposten said that having to move between divorced parents’ homes also makes it harder for each parent to follow up on their children’s schoolwork.

Julia Furuholmen has little doubt she has reaped the benefits of having parents who are married. “I get a lot of help with homework,” she said. “If my father is working, then my mother is around to help,” she said.

The leader of Norway’s association of single parents, Stig Rusten, also thinks divorce can lead to economic problems within families, and notes that divorced parents can also tend to lack higher education themselves. Others believe the schools need to be aware of students’ living situations, and perhaps offer more help to those without two parents at home.

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China mobilized troops to quell protests over the country’s occupation of Tibet.

PHOTO: DAVID GRAY/REUTERS
The Norwegian government claims it has directed criticism against China after Chinese authorities put down protests in Tibet over the weekend, but says it doubts a boycott of the Olympics would have any positive effect.

Raymond Johansen, state secretary in Norway’s foreign ministry, doesn’t support a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing. PHOTO: CARL MARTIN NORDBY Protesting monks met resistance from Chinese troops. PHOTO: REUTERS Athlete Andreas Thorkildsen doesn’t want to get involved in politics. PHOTO: ERIK BERGLUND Author and adventurer Ragnar Kvam Jr is among those calling for an Olympic boycott, because of China’s ongoing human rights abuses. PHOTO: JAN TOMAS ESPEDAL

“We have delivered our criticism to the Chinese, and we are deeply worried over the situation in Tibet,” Raymond Johansen of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry told newspaper Aftenposten on Tuesday.

Johansen stressed, however, that there are some “positive” things happening in China in the area of human rights. He therefore has little faith that attempts to isolate China or boycott the upcoming Olympics would do much good.

A Chinese deputy foreign minister has told Norway’s ambassador in Beijing that peace has been restored in Tibet. Norwegian officials want to see that for themselves, however, and have asked for permission to travel to Lhasa.

Ambassador Svein O Sæther also asked for a clarification of China’s reaction to demonstrations against China’s rule in Tibet. While China prefers to refer to its presence in Tibet as part of a “peaceful liberation” of the area, most Tibetans and the rest of the world view it as an occupation. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for his efforts to peacefully challenge the Chinese authorities.

The Chinese authorities have claimed 13 persons were killed during the protests, while Tibetans have claimed more than 80 were killed. Norway, along with a host of other countries, wants that difference explained.

Johansen said, however, that Norway “is against a boycott” of the upcoming Olympics. “I see nothing positive emerging from a boycott,” he said, noting that China plays a dynamic role in the world economy and that the country is taking part in international peacekeeping efforts, for example.

No Norwegian athletes have as yet said they intend to boycott the Olympics. Javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen told newspaper VG on Tuesday that he intends to compete, claiming he’s an athlete, not a politician.

“Shall we stop going to the US because they invaded Iraq?” Thorkildsen asked rhetorically. “Shall I drop the Golden League event in Berlin because the Germans started World War II? No matter where you travel, you’ll find bad things.”

Others disagree. Author Ragnar Kvam Jr made a call for Norway’s King Harald V to drop the Olympics, like Prince Charles of Great Britain has done, because of the Chinese officials’ lack of respect for human rights.

China, Kvam wrote in a recent commentary in Aftenposten, isn’t just a country that has occupied Tibet for nearly 50 years. It also, he claimed, is a country where freedom of expression is denied, where executions take place daily, where prisoners are tortured and where farmers and residents have been forced to relocate to make way for new Olympic facilities.

Overlooking this “has to do with money,” Kvam wrote, just like when then-Crown Prince Harald attended the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito in 1989. At that time, Japan had emerged as a major world economic player, so Japanese actions in WWII were overlooked. Just as Chinese actions are today.

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A 54-year-old Norwegian man remained in police custody on Monday, charged with having killed his 25-year-old wife from Lithuania. They had married just two weeks ago. The Norwegian has admitted beating his young, new wife, but denies having killed her.

Police believe he strangled her, and then hung up her body in a doorway to make her death look like a suicide.

The victim, Jurgita Simkute, came from a small town in Lithuania and left a young daughter at home when she came to Norway. Now, reported newspaper Aftenposten, her family has had to borrow money to cover expenses of transporting her body back to Lithuania.

Her new Norwegian husband has a police record and reportedly had been drinking before Simkute was killed.

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A memorial service for Martine Vik Magnussen was held Tuesday at the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in London.

PHOTO: PER ANNAR HOLM

The wealthy father of the man sought for questioning in the death of a Norwegian student in London has hired a top attorney on his son’s behalf. At the same time, his family in Yemen has distanced itself from knowledge of his involvement.

Police guarded the scene where Martine Vik Magnussen’s body was found over the weekend. Mourners have placed flowers at the site, and London police have helped keep candles lit after being blown out in the wind. PHOTO: PER ANNAR HOLM Martine Vik Magnussen, found dead on Sunday, was 23 years old and a student in London since last year. PHOTO: HANDOUT

Farouk Abdulhak, who London police now say is age 21 and not 26 as earlier reported, is the son of one of Yemen’s wealthiest men, 69-year-old Shaher Abdulhak, who deals in everything from distribution of soft drinks to ownership of hotels and oil firms.

His son, however, grew up in London and lived in the building where the body of 23-year-old Martine Vik Magnussen was found on Sunday. The two were together when she was last seen at a trendy London nightclub late Thursday night.

Now Abdulhak is wanted for questioning in Magnussen’s death, but London police believe he fled to Yemen, which has no extradition treaty with Great Britain.

A police spokeswoman said Tuesday night that investigators believe Abdulhak can contribute “important information” to the murder investigation launched on Monday.

His father told the London newspaper Daily Mail that he won’t comment on where his son is, but says he has hired a top London law firm who are experts on extradition.

A spokesman for the family told the Yemen Observer that the family is aware of press reports about Magnussen’s death and are worried about Farouk Abdulhak, and was awaiting further information.

The spokesman said, however, that the family didn’t want to be connected with such a crime. Calling all loss of life “tragic,” the spokesman expressed condolences to Magnussen’s family and friends regardless of the cause of her death.

Magnussen’s parents, themselves an affluent family from suburban Oslo, released a statement claiming their late daughter was “a ray of sunshine” in the lives of those around her. They expressed distress over British press reports describing Magnussen as a party girl, claiming they didn’t know her as such.

A memorial service was held for Magnussen at the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in London on Tuesday, the pastor of which is acting as the family’s spokesman. He said the Magnussens were aware their daughter knew Farouk Abdulhak, but claimed they were merely friends.

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A young Norwegian woman found murdered in London over the weekend was probably strangled, according to a preliminary autopsy report. Police have launched an international search for the man she partied with at a nightclub, the son of a wealthy Egyptian businessman.

Martine Vik Magnussen has been described as a thoughtful and charming young woman who hoped to base a career on business and fashion. PHOTO: PRIVATE Regent’s College in London, where Vik Magnussen started studying last year. PHOTO: CHARLOTTE WIIG Friends sent out messages on mobile phones over the weekend, first as they tried to locate the missing Vik Magnussen, and then to report her death.

Martine Vik Magnussen, age 23, is believed to have left the trendy Maddox nightclub with the 26-year-old man, who police fear already has fled to Yemen. Her body was found in the cellar of a London apartment building where the Egyptian is believed to have lived.

Vik Magnussen, herself the daughter of an affluent couple living on the suburban island of Nesøya outside Oslo, had often partied with the wealthy 26-year-old. “He took Martine to parties and clubs in London,” one of her friends told newspaper VG. “He was a popular man who knew a lot of people.”

He was at the Maddox nightclub, which also attracts celibrities like Madonna and Amy Winehouse, on Thursday night along with Vik Magnussen and several other students from Regents College. Friends of hers who left the club at around 3am Friday have said Vik Magnussen stayed and planned to continue partying with the 26-year-old.

She never came home to the flat she shared with three friends. They say they desperately tried to contact the 26-year-old, to ask whether he knew where Vik Magnussen was, but he didn’t respond. By that time, he may already have fled the country, and Interpol reportedly has been called in to help find him.

Police confirmed during the night that Vik Magnussen’s body showed signs of serious injury to the throat area. A more detailed autopsy report is expected.

‘Thoughtful and kind’
While British newspaper are describing Vik Magnussen as a “posh beauty” and “young socialite,” her friends describe her as thoughtful and kind, cheerful and a good student. “She loved school and had a fabulous future ahead of her,” one of her closest friends, Hedda Homme, told Aftenposten. Her death, Homme said, “is just incomprehensible.”

Vik Mangussen grew up on the island of Nesøya, west of Oslo in suburban Asker, and attended the private and prestigious Christian school Kristelig Gymnasium in Oslo. Several members of Norway’s royal family also have attended the school.

She initially went on to study medicine in Poland, but wasn’t comfortable there and returned to Norway after half-a-year. She worked in a high-priced clothing store on Oslo’s fashionable street Bygdøy allé before moving early last year to London, where she worked at a Mulberry clothing store before starting business studies at Regent’s College.

“This is just tragic and absurd,” said another friend, Henriette Marie Hansson, who knew Vik Rasmussen since she was three years old. “We’re all in shock.”

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British police have opened a murder investigation after the body of a young Norwegian woman studying in London was found in the garbarge room of a fashionable apartment building. Police confirmed Monday that the woman is a student who disappeared late last week.

Martine Vik Magnussen of Asker was found dead in the cellar of a fashionable London apartment building. PHOTO: PRIVAT

The body was found on Sunday, but police withheld confirmation of its sex or identity. Investigators confirmed to Aftenposten.no Monday afternoon that it was that of Martine Vik Magnussen, a 23-year-old Norwegian student from Asker, west of Oslo.

Magnussen’s parents are in London and were told their daughter had been found dead before police went public with the information.

Magnussen was a student at the prestigious Regents College in London. She was last seen late Thursday night at a trendy nightclub in London’s chic Mayfair district.

She was reported missing Friday after she had failed to return to the flat she shared with others.

The apartment building where she was found on Great Portland Street is just north of Mayfair and not far from the Club Maddox where Magnussen was last seen.

When her friends headed home from the club at around 2:30am, Magnussen stayed, and was believed to have planned to go to a late-night party (called a nachspiel, in Norwegian). She was reportedly accompanied by at least one of three Arab men whom Magnussen and her other friends had partied with earlier.

Police reportedly believe she was killed in a flat in the building on Great Portland Street, and that her body was then taken down to the cellar to hide it. The London newspaper Daily Mail reported that the flat is rented by three men from the Middle East and that they are now at the center of the police investigation.

No cause of death was revealed, pending release of an autopsy report.

Tight Norwegian community
Around 400-500 Norwegians are currently studying in London, according to the Association of Norwegian Students Abroad (ANSA). Magnussen’s death has shocked many.

“Even though there are murders in this city almost daily, you’re really affected when something like this happens in the tight community that we belong to,” said Birgitte Årdal of ANSA London.

Many of the students have traveled out of London during the Easter holiday period, but the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in London was opening its doors to any who felt a need for support.

The church in East London’s Rotherhithe district intended to stay open all night, for any students wanting to drop in. “People are worried and uneasy,” said pastor Torbjørn Holt.

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Catalina Tetlie, age 39 from the Dominican Republic, tries to ignore discrimination.

PHOTO: ROLF ØHMAN

Immigrants, especially those from Africa and Asia, must routinely tackle discrimination in Norway, both on the job and on the street. Some notice that no one sits next to them on the bus, and in some cases ethnic Norwegians hurl insults at them.

Williams Tamba, age 28 from Liberia, says he’s experienced the most discrimination at discos or bars. PHOTO: ROLF ØHMAN

A new study conducted by research firm MMI for the government agency in charge of integration (IMDi) indicates that a considerable portion of non-western immigrants have experienced discrimination based on their ethnic background.

MMI’s survey, reports newspaper Aften, showed that six of 10 African immigrants questioned said they’ve experienced discrimination. Most try to just brush it off.

“When I don’t get enough help at the doctor’s office, or when folks are unpleasant on the bus, I have to wonder whether it’s because of my background,” Catalina Tetlie, originally from the Dominican Republic, told Aften. “Or maybe it happens to everyone. I try to just block it out.”

Williams Tamba from Liberia said he encounters discrimination most often when trying to enter nightclubs or popular bars. Doormen often keep him out, he claims. “They always find a reason not to let me in,” Tamba said.

He’s also experienced discrimination on the job. “When I was working for a building firm, a Norwegian was hired after me,” Tamba told Aften. “He had less experience than I did, and I trained him, but he was paid more than I was.”

Such discrimination is illegal in Norway, but difficult for officials to crack down on. “Nightclubs or discos risk losing their liquor licenses if they discriminate,” Osmund Kaldheim of IMDi. “It’s surprising that we’re still hearing about so many incidents.”

All told, nearly 19 percent of immigrants questioned said they’d faced job discrimination and discriminatory behaviour on public transport. More than 15 percent had experienced discrimination at bars or restaurants.

Many, though, say they’ve never suffered discrimination. Omar Ibrahim Hasji, age 51 from Somalia, has lived in Oslo since 1986 and claims he’s never encountered such trouble. “I have children in school, and it’s never been a problem for them, either,” he said.

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