Oslo  - A Norwegian insurance company Tuesday posted a reward for information securing the safe return of a painting by German master Lucas Carnach, the elder, stolen over weekend, reports said.

According to some estimates the painting was worth at least 15 million kroner (2.1 million dollars) while the reward was 500,000 kroner.

The over 400-year-old painting was stolen from Larvik Church, some 105 kilometres southwest of Oslo. The congregation has owned it for over 300 years.

Kvitfjell, Norway  - A men's super-g World Cup race scheduled for Sunday has been called off due to adverse weather conditions, race organizers said.

Kvitfjell, Norway - Klaus Kroell edged Austrian team-mate Michael Walchhofer in the men's World Cup downhill in Kvitfjell on Saturday to set up an exciting finale for the discipline's title.

It was a first downhill victory for 28-year-old Kroell whose only previous World Cup win was a super-g in Kitzbuehel, Austria on January 23.

Walchhofer, who was also second in Friday's downhill in Kvitfjell, now needs to finish no lower than 10th in the season-ender in Are, Sweden on Wednesday to make sure of the downhill crystal globe.

Kvitfjell, Norway - Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Canada claimed his first career victory in the alpine skiing World Cup on Friday when he dominated a downhill.

Oslo  - Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu has asked to be removed from a list of nominees for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, reports said Tuesday.

In a letter to the five-member Nobel Committee, the former nuclear technician who was jailed for leaking details of Israel's nuclear programme to a British newspaper in
1986, said he wanted to be removed from the list of candidates.

Oslo - Search operations continued Tuesday for a Norwegian fishing boat and its 68-year-old owner reported missing off north- western Norway, rescue officials and local media reported.

There were fears the fishing boat may have collided with another vessel, off Andoya island that is part of the Vesteralen archipelago.

A Russian freighter, identified as Mekhanik Tyulenev, was believed to have been in the vicinity of the fishing boat Monday morning.