Tag Archives: Norway

Hundreds of U.S. Marines land in Norway, irking Russia

OSLO (Reuters) – Some 300 U.S. Marines landed in Norway on Monday for a six-month deployment, the first time since World War Two that foreign troops have been allowed to be stationed there, in a deployment which has irked Norway’s Arctic neighbor Russia.

Officials played down any link between the operation and NATO concerns over Russia, but the deployment coincides with the U.S. sending several thousand troops to Poland to beef up its Eastern European allies worried about Moscow’s assertiveness.

Soldiers from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina landed a little after 10 am CET at a snow-covered Vaernes airport near Trondheim, Norway’s third-largest city, where temperatures were reaching -2 degrees Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit).

U.S. troops are to stay in Norway for a year, with the current batch of Marines being replaced after their six-month tour is complete.

A spokesman for the Norwegian Home Guards, who will host the Marines at the Vaernes military base, about 1,500 km (900 miles) from the Russian border, said the U.S. troops will learn about winter warfare.

“For the first four weeks they will have basic winter training, learn how to cope with skis and to survive in the Arctic environment,” said Rune Haarstad, a Home Guard spokesman. “It has nothing to do with Russia or the current situation.”

In March the Marines will take part in the Joint Viking exercises, which will also include British troops, he added.

The Russian Embassy in Oslo did not immediately reply to a request for comment by Reuters on Monday. It questioned the need for such a move when it was announced in October.

“Taking into account multiple statements of Norwegian officials about the absence of threat from Russia to Norway we would like to understand for what purposes is Norway so … willing to increase its military potential, in particular through stationing of American forces in Vaernes?” it told Reuters at the time.

A spokeswoman for Norwegian Ministry of Defence also said the arrival of U.S. Marines had nothing to do with concerns about Russia.

However, in a 2014 interview with Reuters, Norway’s Defence Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said Russia’s annexation of Crimea showed that it had the ability and will to use military means to achieve political goals.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik, Gwladys Fouche and Dominic Evans)

Freak lightning storm kills 323 reindeer in Norway

Dead wild reindeer are seen on Hardangervidda in Norway, after lightning struck the central mountain plateau and killed more than 300 of them,

OSLO (Reuters) – A freak lightning storm has killed 323 reindeer in a remote mountainous area of Norway, officials said on Monday.

Dead animals were found lying on top of each other, many with their antlers entangled, after the thunderstorm on the Hardanger plateau in southern Norway on Friday.

“We’ve never had anything like this with lightning,” Kjartan Knutsen of Norway’s nature surveillance agency said, adding there were sometimes isolated cases of sheep or reindeer struck down.

Reindeer tend to group together when in danger. It was unclear whether the herd had been killed by a single lightning bolt or several.

Hardanger was extremely wet on Friday, helping conduct lightning.

“The high moisture in both the ground and the air was probably an explanation for why so many animals died,” Olav Strand, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institue for Nature Research, wrote in a statement.

Experts flew in by helicopter to take samples of the dead reindeer, amid a rising stench of decay, as part of a project to monitor elk and deer for diseases. Five of the 323 animals were found alive but badly injured and were shot by wildlife officials.

It was unclear what would happen to the bodies. One option is to leave them to decay.

“It’s part of the natural ecology, this is far from where people live,” Knutsen said. Hardanger has about 12,000 reindeer and hunters are allowed to shoot 2,000 a year for their meat.

(Reporting by Alister Doyle; editing by Andrew Roche)

To deter refugees, Norway readies fence on ex cold war border

Two migrants on bicycles cross the border between Norway and Russia in Storskog near Kirkenes in Northern Norway

By Alister Doyle

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway is putting up a steel fence at a remote Arctic border post with Russia after an influx of migrants last year, sparking an outcry from refugees’ rights groups and fears that cross- border ties with the former Cold War adversary will be harmed.

The government says a new gate and a fence, about 200 meters (660 feet) long and 3.5 meters high stretching from the Storskog border point, is needed to tighten security at a northern outpost of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone.

For decades, the Nordics have enjoyed the image of being a reliable haven for asylum seekers.

But the erection of the fence, at a spot where 5,500 migrants mainly from Syria crossed into Norway last year, reflects a wider shift in public attitudes against refugees.

This is seen too in Sweden, Norway’s neighbor, which was once touted as a “humanitarian superpower”, but is setting up border controls this year and has toughened asylum rules.

Refugee groups and some opposition politicians say Norway’s fence will deter people fleeing persecution and is an unwelcome echo of the Cold War in a region where relations have generally flourished since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The fence will be erected in the coming weeks, before winter frosts set in, to make it harder to slip into Norway via a forest. Workers have so far done some preparatory work, clearing away old wooden barriers put up to control reindeer herds.

“The gate and the fence are responsible measures,” Deputy Justice Minister Ove Vanebo told Reuters, defending the move.

Both Moscow and Oslo have cracked down on the Arctic route, one that a few refugees found less risky than crossing the Mediterranean by boat, since last year’s inflow of migrants.

So far this year, no one has sought asylum via the northern frontier, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration.

“I can’t see a need for a fence. There are too many fences going up in Europe today,” said Rune Rafaelsen, the mayor of the Soer-Varanger region which includes the border, told Reuters, pointing to barbed wire in nations such as Hungary.

Russia still maintains a fence the length of the 196 km frontier with NATO member Norway, sometimes several kilometers back from the dividing line. It has not complained about the Norwegian plans to build a fence.

But Rafaelsen, of the opposition Labour Party, said the region had made great progress in improving civilian ties since an Iron Curtain divided Norway from the Soviet Union and he, and others, saw the plans for a fence as a backward step.

“We’ve an obligation to be a country people can flee to,” said Linn Landro, of the Refugees Welcome group in Norway. “The fence sends a very negative signal, including to Russia because it says that ‘we don’t trust you’.”

Norwegians and Russians in the region can visit visa-free for short trips. About 250,000 people crossed the border last year, a decline from recent years but to be compared with just 5,000 a year in the Cold War.

Norway’s border Commissioner Roger Jakobsen said a weak rouble has made Norway more costly for Russians, road repairs have made crossings harder and ties have cooled after Norway and other Western nations imposed sanctions after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014.

He doubted the fence would be a new deterrent and said there had been no complaints from Russia. “We shouldn’t make a storm in a teacup out of it,” he said.

(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Richard Balmforth)

1968 Norwegian Prophecy Seems Right On Track

By Kami Klein

On a recent taping, Pastor Jim and Lori Bakker welcomed Rabbi Jonathan Cahn to the show where he shared a prophecy that was written down in 1968 and given by a 90 year old woman in Norway.  The evangelist Emanuel Minos had been giving services where she lived and had the opportunity to meet her.  At the time, he thought the prophecy to be so incomprehensible that he put it in a drawer.  Thirty years later in 1998 he brought it out and it was published in Norway.  The prophecy has created much interest yet again with the events happening now all over the world.  

Rabbi shared portions of this prophecy on the show.  The following is the complete vision that was given along with a few notes by Emanuel Minos that are included next to some statements.

Please keep in mind that this vision from God was given to a 90 year old woman in 1968.   

 

~THE VISION~

“I saw the time just before the coming of Jesus and the outbreak of the Third World War. I saw the events with my natural eyes. I saw the world like a kind of a globe and saw Europe, land by land. I saw Scandinavia. I saw Norway. I saw certain things that would take place just before the return of Jesus, and just before the last calamity happens, a calamity the likes of which we have never before experienced.

She mentioned four waves:

  1. “First before Jesus comes and before the Third World War breaks out there will ‘détente’ like we have never had before. There will be peace between the superpowers in the east and the west, and there will be a long peace. (Remember, that this was in 1968 when the cold war was at its highest. -E. Minos) In this period of peace there will be disarmament in many countries, also in Norway and we are not prepared when it (the war) comes. The Third World War will begin in a way no one would have anticipated – and from an unexpected place.
  1. “A lukewarmness without parallel will take hold of the Christians, a falling away from true, living Christianity. Christians will not be open for penetrating preaching. They will not, like in earlier times, want to hear of sin and grace, law and gospel, repentance and restoration. There will come a substitute instead: prosperity (happiness) Christianity.

“The important thing will be to have success, to be something; to have material things, things that God never promised us in this way. Churches and prayer houses will be emptier and emptier. Instead of the preaching we have been used to for generations -like, to take your cross up and follow Jesus, – entertainment, art and culture will invade the churches where there should have been gatherings for repentance and revival. This will increase markedly just before the return of Jesus.

  1. “There will be a moral disintegration that old Norway has never experienced the likes of. People will live together like married without being married. (I do not believe the concept ‘co-habitor’? existed in 1968 – E. Minos.) Much uncleanness before marriage, and much infidelity in marriage will become the natural (the common), and it will be justified from every angle. It will even enter Christian circles and we pet it – even sin against nature. Just before Jesus return there will be TV- programs like we have never experienced. (TV had just arrived in Norway in 1968. -E. Minos)

“TV will be filled with such horrible violence that it teaches people to murder and destroy each other, and it will be unsafe in our streets. People will copy what they see. There will not be only one ‘station’ on TV, it will be filled with ‘stations.’ (She did not know the word ‘channel’ which we use today. Therefore she called them stations. -E. Minos.) TV will be just like the radio where we have many ‘stations,’ and it will be filled with violence. People will use it for entertainment. We will see terrible scenes of murder and destruction one of the other, and this will spread in society. Sex scenes will also be shown on the screen, the most intimate things that takes place in a marriage.” (I protested and said, we have a paragraph that forbids this kind of thing. -E. Minos.) There the old woman said: “It will happen, and you will see it. All we have had before will be broken down, and the most indecent things will pass before our eyes.”

 

  1. “People from poor countries will stream to Europe. (In 1968 there was no such thing as immigration. -E. Minos.) They will also come to Scandinavia – and Norway. There will be so many of them that people will begin to dislike them and become hard with them. They will be treated like the Jews before the Second World War. Then the full measure of our sins will have been reached (I protested at the issue of immigration. I did not understand it at the time. -E. Minos.)

 

The tears streamed from the old woman’s eyes down her cheeks. “I will not see it, but you will. Then suddenly, Jesus will come and the Third World War breaks out. It will be a short war.” (She saw it in the vision.)

“All that I have seen of war before is only child’s play compared to this one, and it will be ended with a nuclear atom bomb. The air will be so polluted that one cannot draw one’s breath. It will cover several continents, America, Japan, Australia and the wealthy nations. The water will be ruined (contaminated?). We can no longer till the soil. The result will be that only a remnant will remain. The remnant in the wealthy countries will try to flee to the poor countries, but they will be as hard on us as we were on them.

“I am so glad that I will not see it, but when the time draws near, you must take courage and tell this. I have received it from God, and nothing of it goes against what the Bible tells.

“The one who has his sin forgiven and has Jesus as Savior and Lord, is safe.”

 

Russia tops agenda for White House visit by Nordic leaders

President Obama and Nordic Leaders

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The leaders of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland will be treated to the pomp of a White House state visit on Friday, a summit where Russia’s military aggression will top the agenda.

President Barack Obama will welcome the leaders for talks focused on pressing global security issues, including the crisis in Syria and Iraq that has led to a flood to migrants in Europe.

Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 alarmed Russia’s Nordic and Baltic neighbors. With NATO considering ways to try to deter further Russian aggression, the White House wants to show support for its northern European allies.

“It is a way of sending a signal that the United States is deeply engaged when it comes to the security of the region, and we will be actively discussing what steps we can collectively take to improve the situation,” said Charles Kupchan, Obama’s senior director for European affairs.

Kupchan declined comment on specific measures the White House hopes to emerge from the summit.

Obama will be limited in what he can promise by the political calendar, given that his second and final term ends next year on Jan. 20. Americans are set to hold presidential elections on Nov. 8.

The visit will culminate in a star-studded state dinner in a tent with a transparent ceiling, with lighting, flowers and ice sculptures evoking the northern lights.

Pop star Demi Lovato, known for her support of liberal causes, will perform after guests enjoy a main course of ahi tuna, tomato tartare, and red wine braised beef short ribs.

Obama is expected to laud the humanitarian and environmental accomplishments of his guest nations, who have been key supporters of an international deal to curb climate change that the White House sees as a key part of Obama’s legacy.

“The president has often said, ‘Why can’t all countries be like the Nordic countries?'” Kupchan said.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton)

Norwegian Youth Camp Attacked by Terrorist Reopens

A Norwegian youth camp where terrorist Anders Behring-Breivik killed 69 people four years ago has reopened.

“It’s good to be home again at Utoya,” the president of the Labor Party youth organization, Mani Hussaini, told a crowd sitting on a hill.

The camp’s organizer told media outlets before the opening they will not allow “that dark day to overshadow the nice and bright” memories of the camp.

The island is owned by the political party and is used every year for youth camps where the students learn about the party’s beliefs and values.  Breivik, who said at his trial he considered the youths at the camp traitors to Norway, took a ferry to the island dressed as a police officer and then began his massacre.

“To have the summer camp here again with all the tents reminds me a lot of walking here together with the friends who are not here anymore,” said Runar Kjellstad Nygaard, 23, who had left the camp just before the murders.

“It was actually the plan to stay and sleep here, but then I dropped it because they warned of bad weather,” he explained.  “I’m very happy for that today, but it is a very strange feeling to sit at home and get text messages from your best friend saying ‘things are happening out here’”.

Memorials have been placed on the island with the names of most of the victims of the attack.  The assault was the worst killing spree in the country since World War Two.  Breivik had also set off a car bomb in a nearby city earlier in the day, killing eight people.

Flash Freeze Kills Thousands Of Fish In Norway

Residents of Lovund off the Norway coast awoke to a shocking site.

A flash freeze of a lake froze thousands of fish at the surface of the water.  Officials cannot estimate the number of fish that were discovered in the solid block of ice covering the lake.

Scientists from Havforskningsinstituttet, a marine research institute, said that the fish may have been chased close to the surface by some kind of predator.  The temperature overnight before the freeze was 18 degrees Fahrenheit but a strong wind is believed to have caused the flash freeze.

This is not the first death of animals from a flash freeze in Norway during the last week.  Last week a moose was flash frozen in Kosmo Lake.

Norwegian Singer Arrested On Terror Charges In France

A musician from Norway who has connections to the mass murder Anders Breivik has been arrested in France on “suspicion he was preparing a major terrorist act.”

Kristian “Varg” Vikernes was called a “threat to society” by the French Interior Ministry. Vikernes is reportedly connected to neo-Nazis and received a manifesto from Breivik, who killed 77 in a bomb and gun attack on Oslo, Norway and a nearby island in July 2011. Continue reading →