Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional varieties; some Norwegian and Swedish dialects, in particular, are very close. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as some extinct languages, constitute the North Germanic languages. Faroese and Icelandic are not mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them. While the two Germanic languages with the greatest numbers of speakers, English and German, have close similarities with Norwegian, neither is mutually intelligible with it. Norwegian is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age.
Bokmål is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there is no nationwide standard or agreement on the pronunciation of Bokmål.
Nynorsk is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language parallel to the Dano-Norwegian written language (Riksmål). Nynorsk became the name in 1929, and it is after a series of reforms still a variation which is closer to Landsmål, whereas Bokmål is closer to Riksmål and Danish.
Thomas Seltzer is a musician in the band Turbonegro, a television talk show host and documentary creator, and an author.
REMA 1000 is a multinational no-frills soft-discount grocery chain owned entirely by the Reitan Group (Reitangruppen). REMA is a short for Reitan Mat, referring to Odd Reitan. 1000 refers to offering a selection of only one thousand different products.
Reitangruppen is a Norwegian conglomerate comprising five business areas: REMA 1000, Reitan Convenience, Reitan Eiendom, Uno-X Energi, and Reitan Kapital.
A Norwegian passport is the passport issued to nationals of Norway for the purpose of international travel. Beside serving as proof of Norwegian citizenship, they facilitate the process of securing assistance from Norwegian consular officials abroad.
The Ringerike Line is a proposed 40-kilometre (25 mi) extension of the Bergen Line from Jong, Sandvika to Hønefoss, Norway. In 2022, the project was postponed; the government has no commitment to any timeframe.
Ferde AS is a Norwegian toll company owned by Agder, Rogaland and Vestland counties. The company was created on 5 October 2016 is headquartered in Bergen. The company was called Sørvest Bomvegselskap AS until 1 January 2018. All toll roads in Norway have a toll road operator responsible for the financing of the road project. The right to demand payment of toll charges is granted when a toll charge agreement is entered into with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Urban East Norwegian, also known as Standard East Norwegian, is a Norwegian dialect spoken in Oslo and its surrounding metropolitan area. In Eastern Norway, Urban East Norwegian is generally accepted as the de facto spoken standard of Bokmål.
Framtiden i våre hender is an idealistic organization in Norway that advocates green consumption and resource justice. The Norwegian name literally translates to The Future in Our Hands.
Road tolling to finance bridges, tunnels and roads has a long history in Norway. The cities Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim introduced toll rings between 1986 and 1991 as a means to discourage urban traffic and to finance infrastructure projects around those cities. Today toll rings circumscribe Oslo, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Haugesund, Bergen, Askøy, Bodø, Harstad, Grenland, Førde and Trondheim. Besides toll rings, road tolls are installed to finance certain road projects, and often also on the existing road to discourage people from using it. Some tolls use congestion pricing and/or environmentally differentiated toll rates.
Viken is a county under disestablishment in Eastern Norway that was established on 1 January 2020 by the merger of Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold with the addition of three other municipalities. Viken was controversial from the onset, with an approval rating of about 20% in the region, and the merger was resisted by all the three counties. Viken has been compared to gerrymandering. The county executive of Viken determined in 2019, before the merger had taken effect, that the county's disestablishment is its main political goal, and the formal process to dissolve Viken was initiated by the county executive in right after the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election in which parties seeking to reverse the merger won a majority. The political platform of the government of Jonas Gahr Støre states that the government will dissolve Viken and re-establish Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold based on a request from the county itself. On 22 February 2022, the regional assembly of Viken approved the formal request to disestablish the county, which will come into effect on 1 January 2024.
The Bærum mosque shooting or Al-Noor Islamic Centre shooting occurred on 10 August 2019 at the Al-Noor Islamic Centre mosque in Bærum, Norway, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of the capital city Oslo. A gunman broke in through a locked door and opened fire inside the centre, hitting no one. He was subdued by three men after a scuffle and turned over to police. The stepsister of the suspect was later found dead in their family home. Norwegian authorities indicted him for terrorism and murder.
Nordre Follo is a municipality in the Oslo region in Viken county. Norway. The area was part of Akershus County from the Middle Ages to 2020. Nordre Follo was established on 1 January 2020 by the merging of Ski and Oppegård municipalities.
On 13 October 2021, a man attacked eight people with various weapons – including a bow and arrow – at locations in Kongsberg, Buskerud, Norway, a town about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southwest of the capital city Oslo. Five people were killed, and three others were injured. The accused, identified as Espen Andersen Bråthen, a 37-year-old Danish citizen born in Norway and with a history of mental illness, was taken into custody on the same day and charged with murder. Although he pleaded guilty, in June 2022, a court determined his mental illness meant he could not be held criminally responsible for his actions, and he was sentenced to psychiatric confinement.
The Alliance – Alternative for Norway is a political party in Norway. It was founded on 22 November 2016 and registered in the Party Register by Hans Jørgen Lysglimt Johansen on 5 January 2017.
On 31 August 2019, an Airbus AS350 helicopter operated by a contracted Helitrans pilot from Sweden crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta, Norway, during a sightseeing tour, killing all six people on board. The tour was offered by a local music festival, Høstsprell, who had been providing the service for seven years. The helicopter, registered as LN‑OFU, had recently been delivered and had undergone security checks hours before takeoff.
