Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was stuck in New York as volcanic cloud grounded flights to Europe, did the job with the help of an application on the gadget

Volcanic ash cloud: Stranded Norway PM runs country on iPad

Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was stuck in New York as volcanic cloud grounded flights to Europe, did the job with the help of an application on the gadget

Tech that: Jens Stoltenberg works on an iPad in a lounge at Newark airport after his flight was cancelled. Pic/AP

Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister, who was stranded in New York because of Iceland's volcanic ash cloud over the weekend, was using an iPad to run his government remotely, according to his press secretary.


	Flight ban lifted
	Airlines are resuming services at several airports in the UK and northern Europe, with flight restrictions set to be relaxed more widely from last night. Aviation officials are hopeful air traffic will return to normal by Thursday as the Icelandic volcano ash plume, which has paralysed air travel appears to be easing. Airports in England, Scotland, France and Germany are slowly grinding back into action.

Stoltenberg, who had flown to New York to attend President Obama's nuclear summit, was left stranded at Newark Airport, because of the volcanic ash cloud coming from Iceland, preventing most travel in and around Europe.

This did not stop the prime minister continuing with his daily work using Apple's tablet computer device, as photos released by Norwegian government officials show. The photos were released under the title: The prime minister is working at the airport.

Stoltenberg told CNN, "There are good means of communication, I have close contacts with my office all the times, and there are a lot of activities in Norway where we try to reduce the consequences of the volcano."

Excellent device

"It's very normal for a PM to travel abroad so this is not different from the other travels, it just lasts some days more than expected. We have the Internet, the mobile phone. I also use an iPad, which is excellent."
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Stoltenberg has managed to get his hands on the highly popular iPad device, despite Apple's announcement last week that it has had to delay the international launch by a month ufffd due to a "surprisingly strong US demand".

Stoltenberg is now understood to be on his way home after catching a flight to Madrid and finishing the last leg of his journey by car.

April 3
The iPad was launched in US with prices beginning at Rs 22,300

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