Oslo  - Marina Silva, former environment minister of Brazil, was Wednesday named winner of the annual Sophie Prize for her efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest.

The jury cited Silva for "her courage, her creativity and her ability to forge alliances."

She served as environment minister 2003 to 2008 and was credited with helping to reduce the deforestation "to historically low levels."

Oslo - The Norwegian Football Association has extended coach Egil "Drillo" Olsen's current contract through the ongoing World Cup qualifications, reports said Tuesday.

Olsen led Norway to the 1994 and 1998 World Cups, and was praised after Norway upset Germany 1-0 in a recent friendly. The victory ended a year-long winless drought.

The 66-year-old was called in as caretaker after Age Hareide left, but has succeeded in generating a new spirit in the Norwegian team although Norway lost a recent friendly away to South Africa.

Oslo - Russian-born Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov of France was Thursday named winner of the Abel Prize, sometimes known as the "Nobel Prize for mathematics."

Gromov was cited for "his revolutionary contributions to geometry."

The 65-year-old Gromov became a French citizen in 1992 and is a professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques at Bures- sur-Yvette, France.

Oslo  - The Norwegian central bank on Wednesday lowered its lead rate a further 0.50 percentage points to 2.00 per cent, as part of attempts to reduce the impact of the weakened global economy on Norway.

The new cut takes effect Thursday, the central bank said.

Norges Bank deputy governor Jan F Qvigstad said in a statement that "the outlook for the global economy has deteriorated."

Oslo - Remarks by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store further fuelled speculation that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is soon to be chosen for the post of secretary general of NATO.

After a speech Monday evening in Oslo, Store was quoted by the online edition of the Dagsavisen newspaper that the next NATO secretary general understands Norwegian, which "is good for Norway."

Speakers of Norwegian and Danish can understand each other quite easily.