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Akershus	Aust-Agder	Buskerud	Finnmark	Hedmark
Hordaland	Møre og Romsdal	Nordland	Nord-Trøndelag	Oppland
Oslo	Østfold	Rogaland	Sogn og Fjordane	Sør-Trøndelag
Telemark	Troms	Vest-Agder	Vestfold

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Map of Aust-Agder

Aust-Agder is a county (fylke) in Norway, bordering Telemark, Rogaland and Vest-Agder. In 2002 there were 102,945 inhabitants, which is 2.2% of the total population in Norway. Its area is 9,212 km². The county administration is in Arendal. The county, which is located at the Skagerrak coast, extends from Gjernestangen at Risør to Kvåsefjorden at Lillesand. The inner parts of the area includes Setesdalsheiene and Austheiene. About 77% of the inhabitants live at the coast, where the main built area is. Tourism is important, as Arendal and the other coastal towns are popular attractions. The county includes the islands of Tromøy, Justøya and Sandøya. The interior of the county encompasses the traditional district of Setesdalen, through which the Otra river flows to the coast.

Tobacco Morris takes Norway to court

[Norwaynews] [10.03.2010, 09:40am, Wed. GMT]

The world's larges tobacco company Phillip Morris International (PMI) is taking the Norwegian state to court. PMI wants the Norwegian ban on displaying tobacco products in stores lifted, Dagens Næringsliv reports. There is no scientific evidence that the ban has any health effect, says PMI communication director Anne Edwards to the newspaper. She points to Iceland, which introduced the ban against the display of tobacco in stores in 2001.

Aust-Agder

Every autumn cloud has a silver lining, according to forecast

[Norwaynews] [31.08.2007, 12:10am, Fri. GMT]

This summer may have been unusually cool and wet, but the autumn will at least be warmer than usual, meteorologists say.
Even by Norwegian standards, this summer has been cool, wet and cloudy. Figures from Statistics Norway show that the month of July was the wettest in 67 years, and that the duration of sunshine in the entire month was as low as 115 hours, less than half the average for July. However, a new forecast suggests that it is indeed true that every cloud has a silver lining. The autumn will in fact be warmer than usual, according to the forecast from the European weather centre in Reading, UK.

Dress code startles students

[Norwaynews] [30.08.2007, 11:21pm, Thu. GMT]

Norway is a country known for its liberal ways, and school dress codes were phased out years ago. One school in Oslo, however, is attempting to set some standards, after seeing too much underwear and cleavage. Young men, it seems, are proud of their designer underpants and like wearing so-called "sag" trousers that let the world see them. Now young men wearing sag trousers at Bjørnsletta School in Oslo face getting some unflattering comments from school officials, like: "Don't you know how to pull up your pants?" Principal Siv Lande has had enough of the revealing dress popular among her young charges.

Aid program in Ethiopia may be reduced

[Norwaynews] [30.08.2007, 11:46am, Thu. GMT]

Important aid projects in Ethiopia may be reduced, after six diplomats at the Norwegian embassy in Addis Ababa have been asked to leave, Minister of International Development Erik Solheim says. He says it is still uncertain which projects will be affected, and how large the cuts will be. Solheim says that Norwegian authorities wish for a continuing dialogue with Ethiopian auhorities on how the aid program is to be continued. The reason for the cuts is that the remaining embassy staff of three will not be able to administer the work previously done by nine persons.

Sand from Sahara blows over northern island

[Norwaynews] [30.08.2007, 11:47pm, Thu. GMT]

Some dust from the deserts of the Sahara has been spotted in the air over an island off the northern part of Norway. The Sahara sand particles were discovered over the island known as Andøya last week. Officials said it was "quite special" to see desert sand as far north as Norway. "Dust clouds follow the winds from Africa, and these were observed about 2,000 to 2,500 meters over Andøya," Michael Gausa of the island's atmospheric observatory Alomar told Aftenposten.no. Such dust clouds rarely extend further north than Central Europe. Researchers at the Andøya observatory were alerted to the clouds by colleagues farther south.

Golfer snares local victory

[Norwaynews] [30.08.2007, 10:52pm, Thu. GMT]

She was favoured to win and she didn't disappoint: Suzann Pettersen won the SAS Masters tournament on home turf after dominating play all weekend. Pettersen out-classed her competitors in the Ladies European Tour event, winning by nine strokes and setting a few course records along the way. The tournament played out at the Losby Golf Club, northeast of downtown Oslo, and Pettersen promised she'd return next year to defend her title.

Swedish IT company SYSteam AB acquires stake in Indian partner ION Solutions

[Norwaynews] [26.08.2007, 10:25am, Sun. GMT]

Swedish IT company SYSteam AB, part of the Norway's ErgoGroup, said on Monday (20 August) that it has agreed to take a 10% stake in its Indian partner ION Solutions. The investment is part of SYSteam's strategy to add offshoring to its service offering and the agreement allows SYSteam to increase its holding in ION Solutions at a later date. No financial details were disclosed.

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