Oslo- Norwegian Parliament Speaker Thorbjorn Jagland was Thursday elected new chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that selects the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The veteran Social Democrat has also held the posts of prime minister and foreign minister but last year said he was leaving Norwegian politics.

Jagland, 58, succeeded Ole Danbolt Mjos who left the Nobel Committee. The committee is elected by parliament, and each member sits for six years.

Liberec, Czech Republic - Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway was unstoppable on the home stretch again as he won a second cross-country skiing world title in 24 hours, in the team sprint together with Johan Kjoelstad.

Hattestad passed Finland's Sami Jauhojaervi who also had to bow to German Axel Teichmann in a photo-finish as Norway won from Germany and Finland on the first partly sunny day of the championships.

There was more luck for Finland in the women's race as Virpi Kuitunen and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen destroyed the opposition to give Kuitunen her fifth world title overall and Saarinen her second in Liberec and third in total.

Oslo  - Norwegian defence forces said Monday they would take part in a search for the plane of famed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who went missing in
1928.

Amundsen (1872-1928) became a national hero in Norway after leading an expedition to the geographic South Pole in 1911, beating Britain's Robert F Scott in an epic race.

The Norwegian joined in a search for Italian airship Italia piloted and designed by Umberto Nobile that was reported missing in May 1928 after flying over the North Pole.

Oslo - Norway will not go ahead with plans to allow women police officers to wear the hijab - the Muslim headscarf - as part of their uniform, the justice minister said Friday.

Knut Storberget and his ministry has come under fire after the recent proposal to change regulations for police uniforms to allow religious headwear to be used was announced.

"Today we have decided not to go ahead with the proposed changes," Storberget told reporters.

Oslo - Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor Friday said it would appeal a Russian court ruling to hold it liable for some 1.7 billion dollars in damages.

The case centred on Telenor's stake in Russian mobile phone operator Vimpelcom and the latest ruling was made by a court in Omsk, Siberia.

British Virgin Islands-based group Farimex Products claimed that Telenor's nominees on the Vimpelcom board delayed the group's 2005 acquisition of Ukrainian mobile operator Ukrainian Radio Systems (URS), a claim Telenor said it refuted.

Oslo  - The global financial crisis affected Norwegian aluminium and power generation group Norsk Hydro that Wednesday posted a loss for fourth-quarter 2008.

The group reported a loss before financial items and tax (EBIT) of 3.1 billion kroner (444 million dollars) and underlying earnings before EBIT dropped to 868 million kroner, including inventory write- downs of 700 million kroner.

Fourth-quarter turnover was 21.36 billion kroner, down 1 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2007.