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.

Oslo/Stockholm  - Norwegian cross-country ski star Marit Bjoergen and her Swedish rival Charlotte Kalla were considering not competing in the 10-kilometre classic event on Thursday at the world championships in the Czech resort of Liberec.

Bjoergen, 28, told broadcaster NRK on Tuesday that she had recovered from a stomach infection that she came down with over the weekend and on Wednesday would decide definitely if she would compete in the event.

Oslo  - Norwegian energy giant Statoil Hydro's fourth-quarter net income has dropped 67 per cent on the previous year, the group said Tuesday, citing a drop in oil prices.

The stronger US dollar rate also impacted earnings, the state-controlled group said, reporting net income for the quarter of 2.0 billion kroner (291 million dollars) compared to 6.2 billion kroner for the corresponding quarter 2007.

Net operating income increased 22 per cent to 37.8 billion kroner, while turnover was up 3 per cent to 150 billion kroner.

Oslo - The Islamic Council of Norway on Monday distanced itself from remarks attributed to a leading Islamic scholar quoted as saying the Holocaust was a "divine punishment" against the Jews.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born, Qatar-based scholar made the alleged comments in a speech on the Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera in January, prompting widespread condemnation.