Oslo - Police were Friday investigating an attack on a refugee centre in south-eastern Norway where some 20 refugees were assaulted, police and local media reported.

Hospitals said Friday that the injured refugees were in stable condition.

The attack took place Thursday evening and several reports attributed the attack to rivalry between Chechen nationals and refugees of Kurdish background.

Ole Morten Lyng of the Valer refugee centre said the attack was conducted by some 40 to 50 Chechen nationals.

The assailants arrived in several vehicles, scaled the refugee centre's perimeter fence and used baseball bats and iron bars to beat refugees, he told broadcaster NRK. Some refugees were also stabbed.

Oslo - Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor Wednesday posted an increase in pre-tax profit and sales for the second quarter of 2008.

Pre-tax profit was 5.2 billion kroner (1 billion dollars), compared to 3.8 billion kroner for the corresponding business period of
2007.

Second-quarter sales were 23.8 billion kroner, up from 23.1

billion kroner from a year ago, the group said.

The sums included earnings from its company Kyivstar in Ukraine, where Telenor has been engaged in protracted measures to get audited financial information about the operator.

Oslo - Norwegian aluminium and power generation group Norsk Hydro on Tuesday posted lower second quarter earnings, citing that a weak US dollar and higher production costs failed to offset higher aluminum prices.

In line with a recent profit warning the group said earnings before interest and tax dropped 44 per cent to 1.6 billion kroner (315 million dollars), compared to 2.88 billion kroner for the corresponding business period 2007.

Hydro posted turnover of 23.98 billion kroner in the second quarter, down 4 per cent from the second quarter 2007.

Oslo - A blind dog has grabbed headlines in Norway after it was reported Thursday that she i

Oslo - Norwegian aluminium group Norsk Hydro's share price fell 10 per cent Monday after the group said it expected a drop in second-quarter earnings.

Oslo - A meditation and healing centre co-owned by Norwegian Princess Martha Louise has yet to turn a profit a year after it was launched, reports said Monday.

According to the online finance site NA24 the Astarte Education centre posted a loss of some 61,000 kroner (12,000 dollars) after tax for the first six-month period it was in operation.

In a joint statement, the princess and board chairman Elisabeth Samnoy, who each own half of the centre, said they were pleased with how the centre has developed and expected a positive result for full- year 2008.