Norway

Norway's sovereign wealth fund saw a negative return of 2.2 percent in the third quarter, the country's central bank said yesterday, losing the equivalent of nearly $34 billion.

The Norway Government Pension Fund Global lost 374 billion kroner during the three-month period, with its value falling to the equivalent of $1.34 trillion at the end of September.

Norway's black metal music first gained notoriety with murders and church burnings but has now earned its spot in the halls of culture with a new exhibit at Oslo's National Library.

"Bad Vibes" showcases a dark world of music that has a contemplative, almost intellectual side beneath its destructive exterior.

The Norwegian state raked in record oil and gas revenues last year after the war in Ukraine sent energy prices soaring, official figures showed yesterday.

Norway earned 1.5 trillion kroner ($140 billion) in revenues from oil and gas, according to estimates by Statistics Norway (SSB).

Norwegian oil and gas workers normally don't see anything more threatening than North Sea waves crashing against the steel legs of their offshore platforms. But lately they have noticed a more troubling sight: unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead.

Norway leads the way

Norway's left-wing opposition headed by Labour Party leader Jonas Gahr Store won Sept. 13's general election after a campaign dominated by questions about the future of the key oil industry in Western Europe's largest producer.

The left-wing unseated a center-right coalition headed by Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg since 2013.

The Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg has closed the country's border in a bid to halt the further spread of coronavirus variants into Norway.

Ten people were hurt, one of them critically, and 21 people remained unaccounted for after a landslide in southern Norway swept away more than a dozen buildings in the early hours of Wednesday, police said.

Around 700 people have been evacuated from the area so far, police said.

Germany plans to lift a travel ban for European Union member states plus Britain, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland from 15 June provided coronavirus infection levels in those countries allow it to do so, government sources said.

A further condition is that the countries concerned open their borders to holidaymakers, the sources said.

Greece is in 77th place in the latest survey on the state of global happiness that ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.
The World Happiness Report was published on the occasion of World Happiness Day on Friday.
Finland topped the rankings (as it also did in 2018 and 2019).