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Map of Finnmark

Finnmark or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway, bordering Troms county to the west, Finland (Lapland) to the south and Russia (Murmansk Oblast) to the east. The county was formerly known as Finmarkens amt or Vardøhus amt. Since 2002, the county has had two official names: Finnmark (Norwegian) or Finnmárkku (Sami language). Finnmark borders the Norwegian Sea (Atlantic Ocean) to the northwest, and to the north and northeast is the Barents Sea (Arctic Ocean). Finnmark is also part of the Sápmi region, which spans four countries, as well as the Barents Region. It is the largest and least populated county of Norway. Situated on top of Europe, where Norway swings eastward, Finnmark has always been an area where east meets west - in nature as well as in culture.

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.

Finnmark

New radar in eastern Finnmark.

[Norwaynews] [25.08.2008, 05:28am, Mon. GMT]

Avinor has already started the building of a new radar close to Kirkenes Airport in eastern Finnmark of Norway. This will improve the control over flight traffic in the region. The radar has two main objects. One is to improve the control over air traffic in Finnmark better and the other is to ease the landings at Høybuktmoen, Kirkenes Airport, says Avinor in a press release. In addition to Kirkenes Airport, there are six smaller airports in Eastern Finnmark near to Russia.

Train chaos to ‘last all winter’

[Norwaynews] [30.08.2007, 11:23pm, Thu. GMT]

Commuters face a long autumn and winter of chaos as Norway’s state railway NSB warns that the acute staff shortage will not be resolved until at least spring next year. For commuters, the staff shortage at Norway’s state railway NSB is already making it difficult to get to work and back home. NSB has been forced to cancel several extra rush-hour train departures in the eastern part of Norway this week, with more cancellations due in the next few days.

Norwegian centre for science opens

[Norwaynews] [26.08.2007, 10:27am, Sun. GMT]

A new 8,500sq m (91,500sq ft) science centre has opened in the Artic community of Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen – the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Raised on 390 steel poles to withstand its harsh Artic environment, the star-shaped, copper-clad Svalbard Science Centre combines a new space for the Svalbard Museum with an expansion of the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), a new space for the Norwegian Polar Institute and a cultural and historical storage area for the Governor of Svalbard. Oslo-based Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS Architects designed the building as an extension to the existing university and research building in order to expand its capacity fourfold. The museum aims to explain the relationship between nature, culture, landscape, technology and the local environment through the social history of human activity in the region over the 400 years, alongside facilities for further scientific research.

Norway's new 'China Strategy' raises a few questions

[Norwaynews] [30.08.2007, 11:49pm, Thu. GMT]

Norway's Foreign Ministry has launched a new strategy aimed at improving relations with China. Some question, however, whether it holds any really concrete measures, and human rights activists are disappointed. Both Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and his colleague in charge of foreign aid, Erik Solheim, as much as admitted on national television Tuesday evening that Norway has had a hard time keeping up with China's mind-boggling economic growth. Norwegians recognize, however, that China has emerged as a global powerhouse, where everyone seems to want a piece of the action.

Baritone from the north sings his way to victory

[Norwaynews] [30.08.2007, 10:56pm, Thu. GMT]

A Norwegian won his own queen's international music competition, for the first time in six years. Audun Iversen from the northern city of Harstad won Queen Sonja's annual International Music Competition in a packed Oslo Concert House, with the queen in attendance. She's backed the annual showcase for years and was the one who announced the 30-year-old baritone as the winner after he'd sung "Die Lustige Witwe" and "Vaterland, du machst bei Tag" from "The Merry Widow" by Franz Lehar.

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