The number of countries involved in “violent conflicts” is the highest in 30 years, while the number of people killed in conflicts has risen tenfold since 2005, the U.N. secretary-general said Tuesday.
Antonio Guterres added that the number of “violent situations” classifiable as wars, based on the number of casualties, has tripled since 2007.
He also told reporters in Oslo, Norway, that “low-intensity conflicts” rose by 60 percent since 2007. Guterres gave no specific figures.
“Prevention is more necessary than ever,” Guterres said, adding “mediation becomes an absolutely fundamental instrument in our action.”
Guterres, who was attending a meeting on peacemaking, said that on top of regional conflicts, global terrorism was a new type of struggle that “can strike anywhere at any time.”
The annual Oslo Forum panel discussion on peacemaking also was attended by leaders from Somalia, Algeria, Jordan, Oman and Tanzania. The White House envoy for the war against the Islamic State also attended.
The U.N. refugee agency said nearly 69 million people fleeing war, violence and persecution were forcibly displaced last year, a record number.
In its annual Global Trends Report published Tuesday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the continued crises in places like South Sudan and Congo, as well as the exodus of Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar that started last year, raised the overall figure of forced displacements in 2017 to 68.5 million.
Later Tuesday, Guterres met with Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway. The country is lobbying for a seat on the U.N. Security Council for the period 2021-2022.
Among the topics they discussed was the state of the oceans, which Guterres described as “a mess.”
At a news conference with Solberg, Guterres said 80 million tons of plastic were being dumped into the oceans every year.
He said the U.N. would come up with a “battle plan” in September for the oceans, saying there is a “collective responsibility” to do something.
The oceans face threats from plastic garbage, illegal and excessive fishing, rising sea levels that could wipe out small islands, and increasing acidity of ocean water, which is killing marine life.
The State Minister’s visit coincides with the arrival of the Norwegian research vessel Dr. Fridtjof Nansen to Sri Lanka. The research vessel will arrive in Colombo on the 21st of June followed by a 26 days research journey around the island. The research vessel will assist Sri Lanka in mapping her marine resources.
A letter written by Marina Nemat, a Canadian rights activist, writer and chair of the Oslo-based Vigdis Freedom Foundation (VFF) to Turkish journalist Ayşenur Parıldak, who is serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence on charges of membership in a “terrorist” organization, was released by the foundation on Friday.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has admitted that the UN was not equipped to deal with the Sri Lanka war.
When news broke in the Norwegian press in December identifying the buyer of one of Oslo’s most iconic buildings, journalists began calling. They were desperately trying to get a comment from Ivar Tollefsen, the buyer of the building, which was the former U.S. embassy, designed by the same architect who did the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. But he couldn’t be reached that day, nor for the next week. According to a spokesperson, Tollefsen was stuck in bad weather on a mountain face off Gessner Peak in Antarctica, where temperatures drop as low as -22 °F.
Norway’s government may ask the US to extend a Marine Corps deployment in the country, Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide 
On January 15 a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flying from New York’s JFK airport to London Gatwick set a new journey speed record. The aircraft, owned by budget airline Norwegian, completed its 3,470 mile journey in five hours and 13 minutes. In doing so, it became the 
Norway, Belgium and Sweden were among the preferred choices by Indians, over USA, UK, Canada and Australia—this is just an estimate since absolute numbers are not comparable.
The Secretary General defended the rights of migrant and refugee children, but did not single out the US.
“In the past six weeks, nearly two thousand children have been forcibly separated from their parents,”UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in his opening remarks to the 38th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva – the last session before his four-year term expires in August.
Zeid said that the American Association of Pediatrics in the US, had called it a cruel practice of “government-sanctioned child abuse” which may cause “irreparable harm” with “lifelong consequences”.
‘Over the years, Norwegian aid has been spread too thinly, both geographically and thematically. If we are to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and make the best possible use of our aid funds, we must concentrate our efforts,’ said Minister of International Development Nikolai Astrup.
Last Thursday, Oslo announced that it will be requesting an additional 700 U.S. Marines to train in the Scandinavian country near the Russian boarder.
DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas operator focused on the Middle East and North Africa region, announced last night that it had acquired a further 3.74 million shares in London-listed Faroe Petroleum at a price of £1.25 per share representing 1.02 per cent of the outstanding shares in the company.
The Norwegian government has decided to welcome continued USMC rotational training and exercises in Norway, with a volume of up to a total of 700 marines, initially for a period of up to five years, says Minister of Defence Frank Bakke-Jensen.
A pair of Norwegian politicians has nominated US president Donald Trump for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. In a statement released on Thursday, Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a lawmaker, and Per-Willy Amundsen, a former justice minister, said Mr Trump deserved the prize for having “taken a huge and important step in the direction of the disarmament, peace and reconciliation between North and South Korea”.
Photo credit Ragnar Time, 2017.
Tung-Chieh Chuang conducting outdoor in Sweden last year.
National security experts all over Washington spent their winter binge-watching the second season of a popular Norwegian TV series titled Okkupert (or “Occupied”), in which Russia brazenly occupies Norway after a dispute over energy.
Over the last 10 years, NICFI has granted a total of 23.5 billion Norwegian krone (about $2.9 billion) to projects aimed at conserving tropical forests and reducing associated greenhouse gas emissions in several developing countries. Norway even paid three countries directly to protect their forests and draw down emissions: Brazil, in particular, has been a 
It is a scorching hot June day in Gwadar, a port city on the southwestern coast of Balochistan, and more than a dozen eight-year-old children have blocked a road by lying across it. Dressed in traditional shalwar kameez, the kids are protesting against a severe water shortage and long hours without electricity. The traffic is stopped for a while but then the children get up, rub the dust off their clothes and run towards the crowded markets.
Clearing agents, traders, terminal operators, banks and many other government and non-government functionaries are linked in the system and the relevant data is visible on screen to all the stakeholders. Goods Declarations are processed through paperless workflow environment which ensures speedy disposal, decreases dwell time and cost of doing business. Moreover, Risk Management System (RMS) of WeBOC further reduces dwell time, under Green Channel, by marking consignment directly to the port authorities thus, bypassing examination and assessment.
The corridor comprises energy and infrastructure projects, industrial development and the Gwadar port. The port is the linchpin. It is located near the Strait of Hormuz, the passage between the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes. As the principal goal of the corridor is to connect China’s Xinjiang province with the Arabian Sea, no Gwadar port means no CPEC.
According to the agreement between Pakistan and China, 91 per cent of the revenues from the Gwadar port over the next 40 years are to go to the port’s operator, Chinese Overseas Port Holding Company, with the remaining 9 per cent to go to the federal government. No revenues are directly reserved for Balochistan.
One such country is Norway with which Pakistan has very cordial relations. Norway established diplomatic relations with Pakistan since its independence in 1947. Both countries enjoy cordial relations based on commonality of views on a number of important issues. It is encouraging to note that the relations between them are following an upward trend. These relations are reinforced by the presence of a large Pakistani Diaspora in Norway. At present there are 50,000 Pakistanis working in Norway-Norwegian nationals.
Kåre Hanken, Taiwan, 2013
Kåre Hanken with Taipei Century Choir in 2013
May 17, 2013 at Tafong Elementary school in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
