Norway

In "Lilyhammer," whose eight parts debut Monday as an exclusive Netflix stream, Steven Van Zandt retrieves his Silvio wig from the "Sopranos" costume box to play Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano, a New York mobster who retreats into witness protection in Lillehammer, Norway. He remembers the town from broadcasts of the 1994 Winter Olympics as a place of "clean air, fresh white snow, gorgeous broads" and figures it will be the last place anyone would think to look for him. You know how that will go. To say that this is the first original series from the video rental giant is not to say that it originated with the company.

Five schools in Norway have cried "Uncle" in the face of the force that is Justin Bieber. "Believe" it or not, they're moving midterms up a week so as not to conflict with the pop star's scheduled shows in Oslo on April 16 and 17, the original testing dates.  "[L]ove this. 'Schools in Norway move midterms so students can attend Justin Bieber concert,'" Bieber tweeted Wednesday, forwarding a story link to his more than 37 million followers.  PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times The schools involved are in the Aspelund region, which is a good eight hours' drive from Oslo, according to the Wall Street Journal -- meaning students with tickets would have to skip school to make the shows.

"Equal pay now! Equal pay now!" The chant echoed up to my hotel window in Oslo, as strikers and their supporters marched past the Norwegian parliament. How could this be? Are there strikes even in paradise? By most comparative measures, Norway is something close to a paradise on Earth. It is one of the world's richest countries. It is also one of the most equal. It has a welfare state that is the envy of social democrats everywhere. Mothers get 10 months' maternity leave with full pay. Last year, the country led the world in the United Nations' well-respected "human development index," which combines measures of life expectancy, literacy and standard of living.

A new motion simulator-based dark ride that tells the story of Norse gods and mythical monsters with 3-D scenes and special effects is set to debut at a Norwegian theme park this summer. Photos : Thor's Hammer dark ride at Norway's Tusenfryd Drawing on Nordic mythology, the $8.5-million Thor's Hammer dark ride will open in May at Tusenfryd, a Parques Reunidos theme park located in Oslo, Norway. Code-named Prosjekt Mjolner, the new four-minute dark ride will feature interactive elements, fire and wind special effects and 3-D computer-generated imagery projected on 10 movie screens.

The theme park industry will take a deep breath in 2013 after the launch of several landmark attractions and with more groundbreaking projects on the horizon. The last few years have seen several theme park additions that have altered the industry landscape and set attendance records -- from Cars Land at Disney California Adventure to Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure. The future promises even more theme park innovation in the form of Shanghai Disneyland in China and Avatar Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida.

Biola University student Taylor Remington was in Norway this summer interning with the Nordic Harvest Mission. During an excursion to the Lofoten island north of the Arctic Circle, he came across this group of sea gulls nesting against a warehouse. Drawn closer by their squawking, the Tustin resident snapped this photo of the birds and their chicks. He used a Nikon D40 to capture this scene. View past photos we've featured . To upload your own, visit our reader travel photo gallery . When you upload your photo, tell us where it was taken and when.

Regarding "Cruising Norway's Highway 1" (May 14): We took the trip from Kirkenes to Bergen, Norway, and our experience was similar to the one described in the article. The elevator was broken, too, making it necessary to take the stairs to our fourth-floor room. However, the scenery was spectacular, the hotels excellent. JACK and DOROTHY COSTA Oceanside

Norway's national news agency says police are investigating whether a second suspect was involved in a shooting spree on an island where 84 people were killed. Police have arrested one man on preliminary charges in the massacre and a bombing in Oslo hours earlier. NTB is reporting Saturday that witnesses told police two people were involved in the shooting on Utoya island. The agency says police are looking into it. The agency says that the second man apparently wasn't disguised in police uniform.

A new motion simulator-based dark ride that tells the story of Norse gods and mythical monsters with 3-D scenes and special effects is set to debut at a Norwegian theme park this summer. Photos : Thor's Hammer dark ride at Norway's Tusenfryd Drawing on Nordic mythology, the $8.5-million Thor's Hammer dark ride will open in May at Tusenfryd, a Parques Reunidos theme park located in Oslo, Norway. Code-named Prosjekt Mjolner, the new four-minute dark ride will feature interactive elements, fire and wind special effects and 3-D computer-generated imagery projected on 10 movie screens.

Marijuana allegedly put the drug-sniffing dogs on Snoop Dogg's tail at the Oslo, Norway, airport Thursday, but what was in his wallet ultimately cost him more than that wayward weed. Snoop, real name Calvin Broadus, was allegedly carrying about eight grams of pot as he entered the country, according to Norwegian media reports, via the Associated Press. The bigger problem, or at least the more expensive one, came from the amount of allegedly undeclared cash Snoop was hauling with him as he embarked on a seven-stop jaunt through Europe before hitting Canada and the U.S. for shows.  The rapartisten (that's Norwegian for "rap artist" -- are you impressed?

The "Dude Perfect" of kicking footballs -- Havard Rugland of Norway -- is trying to get a job in the NFL without having played the American version of football. Rugland is known as "Kickalicious" since his video of trick kicks went viral last year. Rugland, who has been working out in La Jolla with former NFL kicker Michael Husted, makes an amazing array of kicks through the uprights from incredible distances and angles, not to mention trick kicks into garbage cans, baskets, into a boat on a lake, etc. The biggest problem with the video is that he takes a big run at the ball during lengthy kicks and is often holding the ball or having a friend toss it into the air. He's rarely taking a two- or three-step approach and kicking the ball off the ground, which is necessary in the NFL. At 6-foot-2 and 245 pounds, though, he has plenty of power in his leg to attract the attention of Husted and NFL personnel.

Ride enthusiasts are already drooling over a multi-launch roller coaster coming to a Swedish amusement park that promises six inversions and a series of near-miss encounters with other rides dotting a wooded hillside terrain. Photos: Projekt Helix megacoaster at Liseberg Dubbed Projekt Helix, the $30-million coaster is set to debut in spring 2014 at the Liseberg amusement park located outside Gothenburg, about equidistant between Oslo, Norway, and Copenhagen, Denmark, along Sweden's west coast.

Edvard Munch would be 150 this year, and his most famous (and famously lampooned) artwork, "The Scream," has inspired an offbeat tourism campaign. Visitnorway hopes to make the world's longest "scream" film in honor of the artist's milestone birthday. The tourism agency has produced a few minutes of screams (exhilarating, exciting, blood-curdling, take your pick) and encourages folks from around the world to add their voice via webcam or video to the existing film. Folks can scream anywhere, any place, any time, and post their entry on the tourism website to become part of the film.

The theme park industry will take a deep breath in 2013 after the launch of several landmark attractions and with more groundbreaking projects on the horizon. The last few years have seen several theme park additions that have altered the industry landscape and set attendance records -- from Cars Land at Disney California Adventure to Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure. The future promises even more theme park innovation in the form of Shanghai Disneyland in China and Avatar Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida.

On Friday, a Norwegian court ruled that Anders Behring Breivik, who mowed down 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in Oslo in July 2011, was sane. It was a verdict that many had waited for, one ensuring that the cold and loveless man who carried out the country's worst bloodbath since World War II would be held responsible for his actions and not dismissed as a helpless victim of his sick mind. It was also the verdict that Breivik himself wanted. He loathed the idea of incarceration in a mental facility, a fate he called "worse than death," and insisted during the 10-week trial that his fertilizer bomb and machine gun were necessary instruments to stop what he viewed as a creeping Muslim takeover of Europe.

Rivals Netflix and HBO will soon go head-to-head in Scandinavia. The two companies announced within hours of each other late Tuesday and early Wednesday that they plan to launch in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Netflix said it would debut by the end of 2012. HBO did not provide a specific date. Netflix has been aggressive about expanding into international markets. The service launched in Canada in late 2010, in Latin America one year later, and in Britain and Ireland this year.

The death toll in an avalanche that buried members of a Norwegian ski patrol during a NATO war game rose to 13 today, Norwegian radio reported, and hopes of finding three missing soldiers faded.

The Norwegian government today announced its support for economic sanctions against Libya, giving the strongest endorsement yet of the plan from any European nation but stopping short of agreeing to apply them. Foreign Ministry spokesman Per Paust stressed that Norway is not likely to actually apply the U.S.-proposed sanctions except in concert with its European neighbors. The endorsement was nevertheless the strongest statement yet in favor of the sanctions from any European nation.

James Holmes, the alleged shooter in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre, was lucky to be living in the U.S.A. People who want to kill people find guns are very handy and, thanks to America's gun lobby, they can buy them easily in this country, along with all the ammunition needed to get the job done. If the alleged gunman had been living in Norway, a place with much stricter gun regulations, he would have had to work harder to amass an arsenal. Still, there is the inconvenient fact for liberals that Norway's tougher laws did not deter right-wing racist Anders Breivik from gunning down 69 young people at a leftist youth camp last summer.