Word: norwegians
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Garcia has been dealing with a far-reaching corruption scandal that began Oct. 5, with the release of a secretly taped audio of two men talking about how they could grease the wheels for a Norwegian company to get oil and gas concessions in country. Garcia and his Cabinet chief, Jorge del Castillo, hastily called a press conference as soon as the audio was played on a local news show, trying to put distance between themselves and the men on the tape, who are also members of ruling APRA party...
...week ago, Garcia reached outside his party and picked a left-leaning governor as the new Cabinet chief. But the scandal has not faded. Congress has appointed a special committee to investigate 17 oil and gas exploration contracts awarded in September, including the five given the Norwegian company in a consortium with Peru's state-owned oil company, as well as 36 others handed out in the past two years. The head of the committee, Rep. Daniel Abugattas, said he expects to find a pattern of deceit. "The government has been giving away our natural resources to the lowest bidders...
...awarding former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian prize committee is returning to its original mandate of honoring those who help in the resolution of conventional armed conflicts. For the past several years, the committee has opted for nontraditional honorees, from Al Gore for his work on climate change to the microcredit guru Muhammad Yunus for his work in extending small loans to the world's poor. The choice of Ahtisaari, a lifelong diplomat whose work over 30 years on three continents has helped bring an end to fighting and saved thousands of lives...
...Nations' special envoy to the former Serbian province, he drew up a plan for its independence. That plan was ultimately vetoed by Russia in the U.N. Security Council. But many of its recommendations for power-sharing and administration are currently being implemented by the new government in Pristina. The Norwegian committee's decision to honor Ahtisaari is, in fact, a clear indication of support for Kosovo, which remains in a kind of legal limbo, thanks to the refusal of Serbia, Russia and other countries to recognize its unilateral declaration of independence earlier this year...
Upon being informed of the prize, which includes a gold medal and $1.42 million, Ahtisaari told Norwegian TV that he was "very pleased and grateful." In previous interviews he has said the attention generated by such an award would help sustain the work of his nongovernmental organization, the Crisis Management Initiative. The career of this northern diplomat has not always produced the hoped-for outcome or held the spotlight. But it demonstrates the value of a cool and steady hand in turbulent times...