Oslo  - Two Norwegian doctors who spent an 11-day tour of duty at a hospital in Gaza returned home Monday, calling for an immediate halt to the violence and opening of the border posts to Gaza.

Erik Fosse and Mads Gilbert have treated scores of Palestinian patients injured during the Israeli offensive in Gaza that Monday entered day 17, and was estimated to have claimed over 900 lives.

"The situation in Gaza is much worse than we can describe," Gilbert told reporters, saying Gaza was a "huge humanitarian catastrophe." Supplies of food, medicine and other goods are severely stretched.

Oslo- Former Norwegian foreign minister Jan Petersen was Friday named new ambassador to Austria, the government said after its weekly Council of State.

Petersen, 62, was leader of the Conservative Party from 1994 to 2004, and served as foreign minister in the coalition led by Christian Democrat Kjell Magne Bondevik 2001 to 2005.

The veteran politician is currently chairman of the standing committee on defence and member of the foreign affairs committee in parliament.

Oslo - Norwegian police Friday said some 30 protesters, including several minors, were arrested after counter-protesters attacked a pro-Israel rally.

Police said a dozen people were likely to be charged for assaulting police officers or damaging property on Thursday evening.

At least five police officers were injured in the scuffles or by stones, and police also seized firebombs and knives.

The public rally in support of Israel was held outside parliament, and was attended by several hundred people.

Speakers included Siv Jensen, leader of the opposition, populist Progressive Party.

After the rally, there were scuffles and some counter-protesters also fired fireworks at police, who responded with teargas.

Oslo - Exhuming the Norwegian grave of a man who died in 1945 may offer clues to his then claims that he was a missing Austrian archduke, news reports said Thursday.

Norwegian heirs to Dr Hugo Kohler have applied for permission to exhume his grave to retrieve DNA in an attempt to prove his claims that he was really archduke Johan Orth who went missing in 1890, the Norwegian daily Faedrelandsvennen reported.

Knut Harald Saeth, church board chief in the Norwegian town of Kristiansand, granted the permission after consulting the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs.

Oslo- A record number of exploration oil wells were drilled 2008 on the Norwegian continental shelf in the wake of record high oil prices, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said Thursday.

Oil production from the Norwegian continental shelf is continuing to decline but 2008 oil production was almost 4 per cent higher than the agency's previous forecast.

The production increase equalled 70,000 barrels per day.

In 2008, 242.2 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalents were produced, down roughly 12 per cent compared to the record year 2004 but slightly more than in 2007.

Oslo - British singer Amy Winehouse has decided not to pursue an appeal in a Norwegian court against a fine for illegal possession of marijuana, her Norwegian lawyer said Tuesday.

In October 2007, the soul singer, her husband Blake Fielder-Civil and another member of her entourage spent a night in police custody after being fined for a small amount of marijuana found in a hotel room while she was on tour in Bergen, western Norway.

Attorney Ole Kvelstad told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that he had informed the appeals court in Bergen that all three of his clients had decided to drop their appeal.