Scuppering Brexit would be 'catastrophic', May warns MPs

Yahoo – AFP, Joe JACKSON, January 13, 2019

Theresa May, who is fighting to save her agreement negotiated with the EU, told
lawmakers they must not let down Brexit-backers in a crunch parliamentary vote
Tuesday (AFP Photo/Ben STANSALL)

London (AFP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday warned MPs ready to reject her EU divorce deal next week that failing to deliver Brexit would be a "catastrophic and unforgivable breach of trust in our democracy".

May is fighting doggedly to save her withdrawal agreement -- forged during 18 months of gruelling negotiations with European leaders -- from a crushing defeat in parliament on Tuesday.

The embattled leader said some voters in Britain's 2016 referendum on EU membership had trusted politicians "for the first time in decades" and lawmakers must not let them down by now scuppering Brexit.

"Doing so would be a catastrophic and unforgivable breach of trust in our democracy," May wrote in the Sunday Express newspaper.

"So my message to parliament this weekend is simple: it is time to forget the games and do what is right for our country."

Britain is set to leave the European Union on March 29 but, with less than 11 weeks left, has yet to finalise the terms of its departure.

May's deal agrees a 21-month transition period under current terms while the future relationship with the bloc is negotiated, but it has drawn steadfast opposition from both Brexiteers and Remainers.

The prime minister has said rejecting it will throw Britain into "uncharted territory" and put the country at risk of crashing out without an agreement, or even no Brexit at all.

'No confidence in the government'

The opposition Labour Party, which favours remaining in a permanent customs union with the EU, has suggested it will seek a no-confidence vote in the government if MPs throw out the plan.

The Observer newspaper reported Sunday that its lawmakers have been told it could be tabled "within hours" of that on Tuesday, with the confidence vote to be held the following day.

If the government lose a no-confidence motion, there will be a period of 14 days in which parties can seek to find an alternative working majority in parliament.

If they fail to do so, a general election would be called.

"We will table a motion of no confidence in the government at a time of our choosing, but it's going to be soon, don't worry about it," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the BBC on Sunday.

Corbyn conceded if the party won power, parliament would likely need to delay Brexit beyond March 29 so it could renegotiate the withdrawal agreement.

'A very British coup'

The prime minister already postponed a House of Commons vote on her plan in December to avoid defeat -- and MPs look set to reject it again on Tuesday.

Lawmakers who believe it either leaves Britain too close or too distant from the bloc, fired ominous warning shots this week, voting to force the prime minister to quickly set out an alternative plan for Brexit if she loses the vote.

It was her second setback in 24 hours after MPs also voted to deny the government certain taxation powers in a no-deal scenario -- in a bid to avoid such an outcome.

The Sunday Times said a group of senior cross-party backbench rebels are now plotting to change House of Commons rules to enable them to override government business if the deal falls.

Described as "a very British coup", the plan would see May lose control of parliamentary business to MPs, threatening her ability to govern, the newspaper said.

It said Downing Street was "extremely concerned" about the possibility, which could see lawmakers then delay Brexit through new legislation.

Conservative MP Nick Boles, who favours a Norway-style relationship which would keep Britain in the EU's single market, told the paper he was exploring tactics in the Commons to rule out a no-deal scenario.

"We have a mechanism which will give parliament control of the Brexit negotiations and ensure we do not leave the EU without a deal on March 29," he said.

"I am working on ways to achieve that outcome," Boles said, indicating he would publish the plan on Tuesday.

Ballon D'Or host apologises as 'twerk' request causes storm

Yahoo – AFP, 4 December 2018

Norwegian forward Ada Hegerberg (R) stands alongside French DJ and
producer Martin Solveig (L) after receiving the 2018 women's Ballon d'Or award

French DJ Martin Solveig apologised and said he was taken aback by the stormy reaction online after he asked the inaugural women's Ballon D'Or winner Ada Hegerberg whether she could "twerk" live on stage.

The awards co-host in Paris provoked a torrent of complaints about sexism with his question about the sexually suggestive dance, which received a blunt "No" from the unamused Norwegian striker.

The incident was a major talking point despite Hegerberg's achievement in becoming the first winner of the women's Ballon D'Or, an award which has been handed to male footballers since 1956.

Solveig, a musician and radio host, apologised in person to Hegerberg and said he was "astonished" at the reaction.

"Guys I'm a little bit amazed, astonished by what I'm reading on the internet," he said in a video posted on Twitter.

"Of course I didn't want to offend anyone... This was a joke, probably a bad one and I want to apologise for the one I may have offended."

As footage of the incident went viral, British tennis player Andy Murray led the backlash when he thundered: "Why do women still have to put up with that shit?"

"What questions did they ask (Kylian) Mbappe and (Luka) Modric?" he posted on Instagram, referring to the winners of the best young player and the men's Ballon D'Or.

"I'd imagine something to do with football.

"And to everyone who thinks people are overreacting and it was just a joke... it wasn't. I've been involved in sport my whole life and the level of sexism is unreal."

Hegerberg, 23, whose goals propelled Lyon to a record fifth Champions League title and their 12th consecutive domestic crown, played down the controversy and said it hadn't marred her evening.

"I didn't feel it was like that at all to be honest and I am sad if people thought about the situation like that," Hegerberg said after the show.

She added: "He came to see me after and apologised. The Ballon d'Or is the most important thing."

Before the ceremony, Hegerberg told The Guardian that she found it "really frustrating" that sport remains "such a man's world".

"Sometimes it's really frustrating, I must say. Sometimes you have episodes or situations where you feel like, damn, we're in such a man's world," she said in an interview.

"But at the same time I've never looked at myself different from men's football. I've always felt the same -- I work hard to try to achieve my dreams, like every other girl out there."

Factfile on #AdaHegerberg, the winner of the first women's #BallonDor https://t.co/v3H3tqeMU4 pic.twitter.com/9jKgwgDDEO

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 4, 2018

Norway apologises to mistreated war-time 'German girls'

Yahoo – AFP, October 17, 2018

Many women involved with German soldiers in occupied Norway were expelled
or punished by the state after liberation in 1945 (AFP Photo/STR)

Oslo (AFP) - Norway on Wednesday officially apologised for the "shameful treatment" of Norwegian women targeted for reprisals for their intimate relations with German soldiers during the country's war-time occupation.

Between 30,000 to 50,000 Norwegians, commonly labelled the "German girls", were involved with occupying troops during World War II, according to estimates from Norway's Centre for Holocaust and Minorities Studies.

As well as public humiliation, many of the woman were subject to reprisals by officials after the 1945 liberation from Nazi occupation, including illegal arrests and detentions, job dismissals and even being expelled and stripped of their nationality.

"Young Norwegian girls and woman who had relations with German soldiers or were suspected of having them, were victims of shameful treatment," Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg said.

"Today, in the name of the government, I want to offer my apologies," the premier said at an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN's universal declaration of human rights.

"For many, this was just a teenage love, for some, the love of their lives with an enemy soldier or an innocent flirt that left its mark for the rest of their lives."

During the war, more than 300,000 German soldiers occupied Norway, a neutral country the Nazis invaded on April 9, 1940. Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi SS chief, considered Norwegians "goddesses" and encouraged his troops to have relations with local women.

The first "Lebensborn" reproduction centre outside Germany was set up in Norway in 1941 as part of the Nazi Aryan race ideology.

In 2000, Olso formally apologised to the estimated 10,000 to 12,000 children born to Norwegian mothers and German soldiers, who also suffered reprisals.

Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg has apologised to women who suffered reprisals 

after having relations with German soldiers during the country's war-time occupation 

(AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

People in the street

More than 70 years after the end of WWII, very few of the women remain alive and the official apology is unlikely to open the way for financial reparations for their families.

"The people directly affected are no longer with us... but this also touches their families and the children," said Reidar Gabler, son of a Norwegian woman who was expelled in 1945 along with her German husband.

"Even if it comes late, the apology is important for history," he told Norway's Aftenposten newspaper

Historian Kare Olsen said he was unaware of any similar apology in other European countries where women suffered after their involvement with soldiers during German occupation.

Thousands of French women were publicly shorn after the liberation; some were detained or executed in what were mostly extrajudicial reprisals.

"In France, for example, these women were mistreated after the liberation, but it was more by people in the street than by the authorities," Olsen said.

In Denmark, historians estimate the number of woman involved with members of the German occupying forces was around 50,000 but there were no accusations or forced expulsions.

"There is less reason for an official apology than in Norway," said Anette Waring, a professor at the Danish University of Roskilde.

None of the estimated 28 Norwegian men married to German women during the war were expelled or had their nationality taken away from them, according to historian Guri Hjeltnes, the director of the Holocaust and Minorities Studies centre.

"We cannot say women who had personal relations with German soldiers were helping the German war effort," Hjeltnes said. "Their only crime was breaking the unwritten rules."

10 years after massacre, Norway to ban semi-automatic weapons

Yahoo – AFP, 27 February 2018

Police and emergency services search the waters for victims some around Utoeya
 island, some 40 km southwest of Oslo, on July 23, 2011, after a bombing in central
Oslo and a series of shootings on an island just outside the capital

Norway plans to ban semi-automatic firearms as of 2021, a decade after right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik's mass shooting that left 69 people dead, a Norwegian lawmaker said Tuesday.

The minority right-wing government had presented a proposal on the ban last year.

"Today (Tuesday), it has become clear that there is a parliamentary majority in favour of the government's proposal. Semi-automatic weapons will therefore be banned in Norway," Peter Frolich, a Conservative member of parliament's standing committee on judicial affairs, told AFP.

The ban, which would enter into force in 2021, comes amid renewed debate on semi-automatic weapons in the United States, following a school shooting in Florida that claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers on February 14.

The massacre in Norway took place on July 22, 2011, when disguised as a police officer and armed with a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and a Glock pistol, Breivik killed 69 people, most of them teenagers who were attending a Labour Party youth camp.

Just a few hours before the camp attack, he had killed eight people in a bombing outside a government building in Oslo.

In a 2012 report, a commission tasked with drawing conclusions from the attacks had called for a ban on semi-automatic weapons, one of its 31 recommendations.

"This decision is a very good thing, even if it comes belatedly," the head of a victims' support group, Lisbeth Kristine Royneland, said.

The bill allows for several exemptions, in particular for shooting sports.

Frolich attributed the long delay in drafting the proposal to the fact that many hunters in Norway use semi-automatic firearms.

It was not immediately clear how the new law would affect hunters.

Breivik, 39, who now goes by the name Fjotolf Hansen, was sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in prison, which can be extended indefinitely as long as he remains a threat to society.

Dutch grid operator moves forward with North Sea wind plan

DutchNews, March 8, 2017

Illustration: Tennet website

Dutch grid operator Tennet and Denmark’s Energinet have reached agreement on further developing a large renewable European electricity system in the North Sea. 

The plan, first unveiled in June 2016, will play an important part in meeting the 2050 climate goals formulated in the Paris Agreement (COP21), the partners said in a statement on Wednesday. Discussions with other potential partners are ongoing. 

The plan centres on the construction of one or more islands with interconnections to surrounding countries in the middle of the North Sea area of Dogger Bank. 

These hubs would be connection points for wind farms, allowing electricity to be distributed and transmitted over direct current lines to the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Norway and Belgium. 

The Dogger Bank area also has excellent wind conditions and the area is relatively shallow, making it cheaper to build the wind farms and the island, the consortium said. 

‘This project can significantly contribute to a completely renewable supply of electricity in northwest Europe,’ said Tennet CEO Mel Kroon.

Bras, tanks and guns: Norway's women join the draft

Yahoo – AFP, Pierre-Henry Deshayes, August 25, 2016

Norwegian women have been able to volunteer for military service for almost 40 years

They sweat together, they sleep together: in the name of gender equality, Norway has introduced compulsory military service for women, even bunking them in mixed dorms with their brothers-in-arms.

The military's gender balance is not entirely equal yet, but almost a third of the Norwegian army conscripts born in 1997 were women this summer.

At the Setermoen army base just above the Arctic Circle, new recruits in an armoured battalion are learning to handle assault rifles for use on combat missions. Here and there, long ponytails stick out behind the recruits' caps.

"It gives me a bigger recruitment pool to choose from," the battalion's chief, Lieutenant Colonel Pal Berglund, says of the new gender equal draft.

"I'm still looking for the same competence I always have. And for me it's obvious that this competence is also present within a large part of the female population of Norway."

Norwegian women have been able to volunteer for military service for almost 40 years now, helping to gradually feminise the armed forces. The military welcomed its first female helicopter pilot, female jet fighter pilot and female submarine commander already in the early 1990s.

Norway's military bunks women in mixed dorms with their male counterparts

Unisex dorms

But in 2013, at a time when the prime minister was none other than current NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a virtually unanimous parliament passed a law applying military conscription to both sexes.

The Scandinavian country -- where four of the last five defence ministers have been women -- has thus become the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization member and European country to draft both men and women, joining a tiny group of countries around the world, including Israel.

"In operations, it's an advantage having females. They have access to parts of the population that men don't have, for instance for intelligence gathering," says Berglund.

The army needs less than 10,000 new recruits each year, far fewer than the 60,000 who are liable to be called up. That means that only the most motivated will actually be asked to serve, in a country where military service is often seen as a personal accomplishment highly valued on the job market.

"It enables you to cut the umbilical cord. It's good that girls and boys get the same opportunities," says new conscript Marianne Westum.

"I'm aiming to become much more independent, to learn to work as a team member, to make friends from other walks of life. Basically to become more grown-up."

The 18-year-old shares living quarters with another woman and four men. Camouflage gear and a military-issued flask are neatly organised in a metal cupboard, only a bra and handbag indicating the presence of a woman.

Is it not tempting fate to throw young men and women together in unisex bunks?

"We see that exposure to each other increases tolerance, acceptance and understanding toward each other," insists Nina Hellum, a researcher at the Norwegian Research Defence Establishment.

A 2014 study showed that unisex dormitories helped combat sexual harassment 

because of "de-genderisation"

'De-genderisation'

"You don't shit in your own nest. You don't want to have sex and fraternise with anyone in your room for example or in your small unit because that makes it quite awkward."

A 2014 study showed that unisex dormitories helped combat sexual harassment thanks to a phenomenom of "de-genderisation". Sharing living quarters makes both the men and women pay more attention to their behaviour, and thus they're able to develop a camaraderie, an almost sibling-like relationship, the study's authors claimed.

"In the beginning we were a little shy. We didn't really know how to behave around the girls. But once the initial awkwardness had passed, we relaxed and the girls were soon just like us," says a young male recruit, Kasper Sjavag.

Being mixed together with the guys "means that when it comes to performance, I really push my limits and can get used to working harder to keep up," says Kasper's female roommate, Gine Grimsbu.

"From a social aspect, the guys treat us well and they're respectful. There are a few who aren't used to being with girls but I think it'll be fine."

A recent survey conducted by the Norwegian army showed that an overwhelming majority of female soldiers are in favour of unisex dorms. But 18 percent still said they had been subjected to inappropriate comments or behaviour.

Related Articles:

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Dutch to extend military service to girls, even though it stopped in 1997

Female defence ministers pledge to break Europe's old boys' network

Ine Eriksen Søreide (Norway), Karin Enström (Sweden), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert

(Netherlands) and Ursula von der Leyen (Germany). Photograph: Twitter

Government hits target on women in top jobs
Pay gap between men and women is getting smaller: research
Seven in 10 Dutch support abortion rights: survey


"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

"The Energy of the Future" (2) - Dec 7, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The New 'Message' from Space

Let me tell you what the message is that is being communicated: Unlock to 44 percent! This is the message: The Human race has passed the marker and is ready for the next step in evolution. I am talking about the old soul. You are the ones who will be first to get this message. It is you, and some of your "old soul" children, who are starting to feel and accept this!

Let me tell you in this lesson today that the first thing that this unlocking will begin to create is what we're going to call Akashic acuity. You're going to start remembering, and it's about time. Can you celebrate this? It's about time that when you're born you don't start from scratch, in the dark, and doing everything all over again. Instead, you remember!

I want to talk to some individuals who are listening to this and are in this room. Have your grandchildren had the audacity to tell you who they used to be? Don't raise your hand; I know you're here. They feel it, and they know it, and out of the mouths of these babes come the most profound information that this planet has ever heard! They knew who they were! Some will point their fingers at you and say, “Don't you remember? I was your mum in another life.” That's a bit disconcerting, isn't it?  …”

Dutch jail popular with Norwegian prisoners: less work, more phone time

DutchNews, February 29, 2016

Photo: China Crisis Wikimedia Commons

The Dutch jail rented by the Norwegian prison authorities is so popular there is a waiting list for a place, its director Karl Hillesland has told broadcaster RTV Drenthe. 

The Norgerhaven jail in the prison village of Veenhuizen has been rented by the Norwegians since September last year and all 241 places are now occupied. Prisoners have to consent to being sent to the Netherlands to serve their sentences and a special promotional film has been used to tempt them, RTV Drenthe said. 

Among the differences with the Norwegian regime: the prisoners get more time outside and work less. They also get more telephone time with their families and can keep contact via Skype. 

Around 20% of the prisoners are Norwegian and the rest mainly from eastern Europe and northern Africa. 

Prison personnel, who are Dutch, are also happy with the behaviour of their charges and describe the Norwegians as being better mannered than their Dutch counterparts.

Deal 

The controversial three-year deal with Norway was signed by former junior justice minister Fred Teeven last year. Norway has a shortage of prison cells and the Netherlands a surplus. 

The deal also guaranteed 239 full-time jobs in Veenhuizen, which has two other prisons and a secure hostel for young refugees. 

Norgerhaven is not the first Dutch jail to be used by foreign prisoners. The Willem II prison in Tilburg is currently housing several hundred Belgians. According to the Dagblad van het Noorden, Norway is paying the Netherlands €25.5m a year to rent the prison.

Related Articles:

Hundreds of Norwegian criminals to be sent to Dutch prisons

Belgian prisoners to live in Dutch jails

Dutch detention monitoring needs more independence: UN

Dutch are ‘considering’ accepting two Guantanamo prisoners: NRC

US again asks the Netherlands to accept Guantanamo prisoners

Pope Francis offers US help in closing Guantanamo

European Parliament backs Juncker's refugee plans

European lawmakers have backed European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's proposals for coping with a massive influx of migrants. The vast majority of the people on the move have been heading for Germany.

Deutsche Welle, 10 Sep 2015

Members of the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to support Juncker's proposals, with 432 voting in favor of the non-binding resolution and just 142 against, with 57 abstentions.

A statement posted on the European Parliament's website said the lawmakers backed the Commission's proposal to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers from Italy, Greece and Hungary. This came a day after it backed an emergency proposal for relocating 40,000 asylum seekers.

It also said that a majority of lawmakers believed that the bloc's "Dublin rules," which determine in which member state any given migrant is required to register, should be amended through a "fair, compulsory allocation key" taking into account "the integration prospects and the specific cases and needs of asylum seekers themselves."

The MEPs also expressed support for the idea of drawing up a common EU list of safe countries of origin and a compulsory resettlement plan under which members states would be required to take in refugees from third countries.

As #refugeecrisis intensifies, #migrationEU becomes a common challenge. Learn more http://t.co/UE1bqUyRc6 pic.twitter.com/EdiaGYX3Vl

— European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) 10 september 2015

More important than the consensus in Strasbourg though, is how the bloc's 28 national governments react to Juncker's proposals.

EU interior ministers are to meet on Monday to discuss the proposals and several eastern members of the bloc have already expressed their opposition to a compulsory resettlement plan.

The MEPs also called on the EU's foreign policy coordinator, Federica Mogherini to convene an international conference on refugees "with the aim of establishing a common global humanitarian aid strategy." They said that in addition to EU officials, it should include representatives from all of its member states, United Nations agencies, non-governmental agencies, the United States and Arab countries.

The European Union is experiencing an influx of migrants from the south that is unprecedented in the history of the bloc. While Germany alone is expecting to receive around 800,000 migrants by the end of 2015, some European countries have said they are determined to take in as few as possible. While many of the migrants have come from war zones such as Syria, many have also come from the western Balkans, where no major conflict currently exists.

pfd/kms (AFP, AP)

Related Articles:

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Finnish PM: Refugees welcome in spare home

Pope calls for every European parish to take in refugee family

Wealthy Gulf nations face questions over Syria refugees


"Return of the Masters" - Apr 11-12, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Norway hotel tycoon offers 5,000 hotel nights to refugees

Yahoo – AFP, 8 Sep 2015

Hundreds of migrants walk after leaving the transit zone of the Budapest train 

station, on September 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Ferenc Isza)

Oslo (AFP) - A Norwegian billionaire who made his fortune in the hotel business offered on Tuesday 5,000 nights in his hotel chain to refugees who do not have a spot in asylum centres.

"We are offering 5,000 nights to refugees who need it," Petter Stordalen, who owns the Nordic Choice Hotels chain, wrote on Twitter.

The migrant drama unfolding in Europe "concerns absolutely everyone," he told Norwegian news agency NTB, adding that he would also cover the meal costs for the refugees who stay in his establishments.

The Norwegian migration board UDI said it would consider Stordalen's offer if its centres were overflowing.

Norway received 2,313 asylum requests in August, most of them from Syrians, Eritreans and Afghans, the highest number registered in a single month since the 1990s.

According to UDI, the number of asylum requests could reach up to 16,000 for the full year of 2015, compared to 11,480 in 2014.

Related Articles:

Latin American nations offer to take in Syria refugees

Pope calls for every European parish to take in refugee family

Wealthy Gulf nations face questions over Syria refugees


"Return of the Masters" - Apr 11-12, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Syrians take long way round by biking to new life in Arctic

Yahoo – AFP, Pierre-Henry Deshayes, 31 Ag 2015

The Storskog Boris Gleb border crossing between Norway and Russia near the 

Norwegian town of Kirkenes in the far north of the country, pictured on June 6, 

2013 (AFP Photo/Conelius Poppe)

Oslo (AFP) - A group of intrepid Syrian migrants have found a new, albeit long, way into Europe -- through Russia and into Norway's Arctic, some of them cycling across the border.

While thousands of refugees fleeing the war-torn country are risking their lives by boarding overloaded boats to cross the Mediterranean, others have chosen to fly to Moscow before travelling north to Norway, according to Hans Mollebakken, the police chief in the Arctic town of Kirkenes.

Some of them may have also spent some time in Russia.

"About 150 people have crossed the border so far this year, mostly Syrians," he told AFP Monday.

"The numbers have really taken off this year."

Kirkenes is about 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from Damascus as the crow flies. Temperatures in winter can regularly drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius (plus five Fahrenheit).

In 2014, only a dozen asylum seekers entered Norway at the Storskog border crossing, guarding what during the Cold War used to be one of the only borders dividing the USSR and NATO.

It is difficult to find out why the Syrians arriving in Kirkenes chose that route.

Norway, which is not a member of the European Union but belongs to the Schengen Area allowing free movement of people, has a right-wing coalition government that includes the populist anti-immigrant Progressive Party.

The oil-rich nation has a relatively restrictive refugee policy, especially when compared to neighbouring Sweden.

Sweden recorded the second biggest number of asylum applications in the EU in 2014 after Germany -- 13 percent of all applicants, although as a proportion in relation to its population size, the country is shouldering the biggest burden in the bloc.

Dark winters a challenge

Because the border is closed to pedestrians, some have cleverly found a loophole by biking into Norway.

"We have some who have crossed by bike in the dead of winter," customs' inspector Goran Stenseth told AFP.

The Storskog Boris Gleb border crossing between Norway and Russia near the
 Norwegiaing into Norway (AFP Photo/Cornelius Poppe)n town of Kirkenes is
 closed to pedestrians, and some migrants have cleverly found a loophole by bik

"The cold, the snow, the darkness... All of this presents a real challenge to these people."

The Kirkenes police have seized around 20 bikes, and issued fines up to 6,000 Norwegian kroner (around 650 euros or $800) to Russians and Norwegians who have made a business out of driving migrants over the border for a fee.

"We don't want these vulnerable people to be exploited," Stenseth said.

"We are trying to figure out if they're being transported as part of an organised trafficking ring but so far there is nothing to indicate that," he said, noting that the Syrians were crossing alone, as families or in small groups.

"Those who arrive here appear to be in good health and happy to arrive in Norway," he said.

Contrary to what may happen in other European countries, the migrants are not turned back at the border. Once they've crossed into Norway, they are immediately transported to Oslo where they are registered for processing.

According to Norwegian immigration authorities, just under 1,000 Syrians have sought asylum in the Scandinavian country since the beginning of the year.

In 2015 more than 300,000 refugees fleeing poverty and conflict in their homeland have crossed the Mediterranean in an attempt to reach Europe. More than 2,500 died during their crossing, according to an official count published on Friday by the UN refugee agency.

Snowden awarded freedom of expression prize in Norway

Yahoo - AFP, 3 June 2015

Former security contractor Edward Snowden, pictured on March 18, 2015
 via a live video call, won a Norwegian prize for freedom of expression Tuesday
 and received yet another invitation to leave his exile and receive the award in
person (AFP Photo/Ole Spata)

Oslo (AFP) - Former security contractor Edward Snowden won a Norwegian prize for freedom of expression Tuesday and received yet another invitation to leave his exile and receive the award in person.

The Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression said the 31-year old fugitive had won the Bjornson Prize -- named after a Norwegian Nobel literature laureate -- "for his work protecting privacy and for shining a critical light on US surveillance of its citizens and others."

Snowden, a former analyst at the US National Security Agency, has lived in exile in Russia since 2013 after revealing mass spying programmes by the United States and its allies.

The US administration has branded him a hacker and a traitor who endangered lives by revealing the extent of the NSA spying program.

The academy requested assurances from the Norwegian government that Snowden would not be extradited to the US if he travelled to Norway to receive the 100,000 kroner ($12,700, 11,500 euros) prize money in person on September 5.

Norway's justice ministry said it was up to immigration authorities, who indicated they would consider any entry request when and if they received one.

A State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, said she would not speculate on whether Washington would ask for Snowden's extradition.

But she warned: "We would advise any government that there's only one place he should travel, and that's back here to the US to face the charges he faces."

She said the charges against Snowden were "very serious," adding that "if he had the courage of his convictions that he claims, he would come face justice here in the US."

News of the award came on the day that US Senate passed landmark legislation limiting the powers of the National Security Agency, where Snowden had worked, in a move he hailed as "historic."

Snowden was awarded Sweden's Right Livelihood Award in 2014 but chose to accept it by video link rather than leaving his exile in Russia.

He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second year in a row. The Nobel will be awarded in Oslo on October 9.