Submitted by Mike Grenville on Thu, 22 Jan 2004 17:40

"We have given birth" says Queen of Norway in a Royal text message announcement

The Queen of Norway has given birth to a baby girl with the press notified of the happy event by SMS from the royal family.

The announcement of the birth of the new heir was made first to the prime minister and "speaker of the parliament" (President of the Storting) - the next announcement was on the royal web site.

Notification of press conferences and anything of urgency is made by the royal family using SMS as their preferred method of communication.

Her name? Ingrid Alexandra: Ingrid is an old Nordic queen name. Alexander from king Olav's original name - before his father became king of Norway in 1905. This is more a "European" royal name. Both names have also been used in the mothers family. The crown prince Haakon is at the moment also regent - as his father is in recovery after cancer surgery. The minister of Telecommunication's oldest daughter is also called Ingrid.

www.kongehuset.no