The level of foreign prostitution has risen back to those last seen prior to the Norwegian government’s implementation of a ban on purchasing sexual services. The public broadcaster NRK has revealed that statistics compiled by the Oslo Pro Centre show that prostitution figures in Oslo are now comparable to those of two years ago. The ban on sexual service purchasing has been in force for nearly one year. Read the full story

It was announced earlier this afternoon in the Norwegian capital, Oslo that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to US President Barack Obama. Read the full story

A trial is being carried out to test whether it would be viable for Norwegians to safely cast their votes in municipal elections from a computer in their home. The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development is developing the plan, which if successful, would be implemented in the next 2011 municipal elections. Read the full story

After sweeping the streets of Norway’s capital Oslo clean of prostitutes last year, city police were a bit shocked to discover that the pros are back and their numbers are just as high as they were before the clean-up effort. Oslo passed a ban on open prostitution and the purchase of sex services in 2008 in a bid to clean up the image of their city.
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The tiny South American nation of Guyana has received a big boost from Norway as the two countries have agreed to work together to reduce their impact on climate change. A partnership agreement was signed in Oslo between Norway’s Prime Minister and Guyana’s President to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are created by deforestation in Guyana. Read the full story

Biomethane, the gas created from human excrement, will soon be collected and used to power Oslo’s public transportation buses. This free and environmentally-friendly form of fuel will turn a waste disposal issue for Norway’s capital into a solution rather a problem if all goes as planned. Read the full story

Jonas Lundgren, a 30 year-old chef who runs a restaurant in Oslo, just boosted his reputation as a culinary whiz by taking second place in the 2009 Bocuse d’Or cooking competition. Regarded by many foodies as the Olympics of cooking, the Bocuse d’Or is a biannual event held in Lyon, France. Read the full story

Now in its fifth day of operation, a new law in Norway makes it a criminal act to pay for sexual favours both within the country and outside it if you’re a Norwegian citizen. Based partly on a similar law instituted by Sweden in 1999, it is expected to greatly reduce the number of prostitutes currently working the streets of Oslo. Read the full story

The innovative Norwegian car marker Think is seeing production of its environmentally-friendly electric car grinding to a halt just as it was starting to gain momentum. The concept of the compact Think City car is perfectly timed considering ever-increasing global climate worries, but a lack of financing may see the production terminated just two months after it launched its sole model. Read the full story

Oslo was the site of a gathering of representatives from more than 120 countries who came to Norway’s capital to sign a landmark treaty banning the use of cluster munitions. That the US, China and Russia were no-shows wasn’t surprising. But Finland’s fierce opposition to the ban caught many nations off guard. Read the full story