Oslo  - High metal prices have fuelled interest in breaking up a Russian cruiser that sank off northern Norway in 2004, reports said Tuesday.

"We have been approached by some eight, nine serious Norwegian and foreign companies that want to break up the ship," Kjetil Aasebo of the Norwegian Coastal Administration told the Aftenposten newspaper.

The Coastal Administration has been put in charge of getting rid of the wreck, and hopes to have selected a bidder by December with the aim of removing the ship by next summer.

Oslo- Norway's state pension fund has dropped its holdings in mining group Rio Tinto over environmental concerns linked to a mine in Indonesia, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

"Exclusion of a company from the fund reflects our unwillingness to run an unacceptable risk of contributing to grossly unethical conduct," Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said.

Oslo - Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon Tuesday presented the newly created Kavli prizes to seven scientists for their discoveries in astrophysics, neuroscience and nanoscience.

The prize categories are each worth 1 million dollars, and were jointly sponsored by the Kavli Foundation set up by US-based Norwegian Fred Kavli, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Maarten Schmidt of the California Institute of Technology shared the astrophysics prize with Donald Lynden-Bell of Britain's Cambridge University for work on quasars.

Oslo - Norway's Princess Mette-Marit has taken up a course in "meaningful leadership and power" at an Oslo business college, the royal court confirmed Thursday.

The institute's director Tom Colbjornsen said the course would be relevant to company culture and also to state leadership past and present.

Mette-Marit, 35, had enrolled for a three-year, part-time course along with 50 fellow students.

Oslo - A Norwegian of Bosnian descent went on trial in Oslo Wednesday, accused of torture and other crimes against Serbian civilians during the Balkans war.

Mirsad Repak, 41, pleaded not guilty to the charges, which date back to 1992 before he fled to Norway and was granted Norwegian nationality.

Charges were brought against him on the basis of information provided by Bosnian authorities.

Repak's lawyer called for the case to be dropped on the grounds that it was based on a section of the penal code that did not come into force until after the crimes were committed.

Defence lawyer Heidi Bache-Wiig said it was not permissible to apply laws in a back-dated manner.

Oslo - Swiss-based Stadler Rail Group was selected Tuesday to deliver new regional trains worth 4 billion kroner (739 million dollars), Norwegian train operator NSB said.

"This is NSB's largest single contract to date and a historic deal," NSB chief executive Einar Enger said in a statement.

The Norwegian train operator was to buy 50 trains consisting of five cars each from the Swiss group, and had an option for a further 100 trains known as Flirt (Fast, Light, Innovative, Regional Train).