Norway

Striptease is an art and should therefore be exempt from value-added tax (VAT), a Norwegian court has ruled. The Diamond Go Go Bar in Oslo took the Norwegian state to court after it tried to impose VAT on entry fees to the club. The club’s owner did, however, agree to pay VAT on the cloakroom’s revenues.

Donor countries have pledged to give ,5-billion over the next two years to cover Sudan’s humanitarian and reconstruction needs, organisers of a 60-nation conference said on Tuesday. Before the Oslo meeting, organisers had hoped for promises totalling ,6-billion from the conference.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday called for -billion in immediate aid to help southern Sudan recover from Africa’s longest civil war. ”In the south, we will run out of food for two million people in a matter of weeks,” Annan told delegates from 60 countries at a donors’ meeting in Oslo.

A Norwegian family’s swimming pool wasn’t just bolted down, it was in the ground. But that didn’t stop a band of determined thieves. When the Nicolaysen family visited their mountain cabin over the weekend, they discovered a big hole in the yard in place of the swimming pool that had been installed 20 years ago.

The motto of the Norwegian Rock’n’Roll Federation could well be ”Turn it up!” but the group fears increasing numbers of members might respond to that request with an uncomprehending ”What?”. The group plans to distribute 100 000 earplugs at rock concerts, so fans can enjoy the loud music and still hear what’s said after the show.

A Norwegian court on Thursday awarded a young couple 356 000 kroner (about R330 000) in damages after the stench of their Italian leather sofa made them physically ill and forced them to move out of their apartment. They claim the smell was so overpowering that it made them nauseous, and caused vomiting, headaches and nose-bleeds.

A Norwegian man with an illegal collection of exotic animals was rushed to the hospital twice in one day after being bitten by two different poisonous snakes, police said. The man in his thirties was bitten by a rattlesnake on Monday night, said police in Asker, near Oslo, after earlier being bitten by a Malaysian palm viper.

After putting up with pangs of conscience for 24 years, a Norwegian finally settled a hotel bill he skipped out on in 1980. The Clarion Hotel Ernst in the southern town of Kristiansand received a handwritten anonymous letter of apology with a 500 kroner note (about R490) attached, hotel director Kay Johnsen said by telephone on Thursday.

Confronting a grocery store with its promise to pay shoppers a bonus if they find any products with expired freshness dates, two enterprising teens turned a 7 000 kroner ( 030) profit by loading up shopping carts with out-of-date beer they weren’t old enough to buy.

Police fired shots and foiled an armed robbery of a cash transport in downtown Oslo early on Monday, as the dramatic showdown was captured on video by a crew filming a pornographic movie nearby. ”We heard a lot of noise outside, and went to check,” porn star Thomas ”Rocco” Hansen said on national radio.

Edvard Munch’s famous paintings The Scream and Madonna were stolen from an art museum on Sunday while stunned museum-goers watched armed men threatening the staff at gunpoint as they took the art works to a waiting car, police said. Museum visitors panicked and thought they were being attacked by terrorists.

A major exercise focused on cleaning up ocean oil spills is bound to be popular with the wildlife of a Norwegian fjord. Instead of creating a mess of sticky crude, the experts are dumping popcorn. When popcorn absorbs water it forms an emulsion that is very similar to spilled oil, and mimics the effect of ocean currents on oil.

Opera Software is developing a new internet browser that allows users to talk to their computer, the company announced on Tuesday. The new browser incorporates IBM’s ViaVoice technology, enabling the computer to ask what the user wants and ”listen” to the request. Opera declined to give a launch date.

The final list of hopefuls for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize totals 194 candidates, making it the longest to date in the history of the prestigious award, the Nobel Institute announced on Tuesday. The list of candidates includes names such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United States President George Bush.

Imbalances in international trade need to be addressed if African farmers are to become globally competitive, President Thabo Mbeki said on Monday.