Oslo - A member of Norway's ruling Labour Party said Thursday she would not seek re-election to parliament next year after disclosures that she routinely placed calls to clairvoyants and fortune tellers at taxpayer expense.

Saera Khan, elected to the legislature in 2005, said in a statement late Wednesday she "regretted" that she had not disclosed the calls. She added that she had provided compensation for phone expenses that were over the average for a Norwegian member of parliament.

Oslo- A Norwegian literature festival has cancelled an invitation to controversial British historian David Irving, organizers said Thursday.

Irving, who in 2006 was sentenced in Austria for denying the Holocaust, was invited to the Norwegian Festival of Literature at the end of May 2009.

The invitation generated a lot of criticism and on Thursday, the festival's artistic director, Stig Saeterbakken, resigned.

Oslo, Copenhagen - Norway's central bank said Wednesday it will hold a meeting on interest rates earlier than planned, citing the ongoing financial turmoil.

Meanwhile, Denmark's central bank on Wednesday said it would keep its key rates unchanged "for the time being." This comes a day after the lending rate and the rate of interest for certificates were raised from 4.6 per cent to 5.0 per cent.

Oslo  - Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store arrived Tuesday in Afghanistan on his first visit since a suicide attack in mid-January forced him to cut short his visit.

The suicide attack on a hotel in Kabul that claimed eight lives including that of a Norwegian newspaper reporter.

Oslo- Two executives of energy group Statoil Hydro resigned with immediate effect Tuesday after a probe was published into payments made in connection with a 1999 oil deal in Libya.

The probe was launched a year ago when energy giants Statoil and Norsk Hydro merged their energy operations.

The payments were made to a consultancy company in connection with the deal, and came to light during the merger talks.

Oslo - Microsoft said Tuesday its main development centre for search engine technology was to be based in Norway.

Chief executive Steve Ballmer made the announcement after a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

In the short-term, Microsoft was to hire 50 developers and researchers, Stoltenberg said.

Microsoft currently has some 300 employees in Norway, mainly employed by FastSearch & Transfer that the US-based giant acquired earlier this year.