Norway official who spied for the Soviets has died in Moscow

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Arne Treholt, the former Norwegian Foreign Ministry official who was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union in what became Norway’s biggest Cold War espionage scandal has died in his Moscow home. In 1985, Treholt was sentenced to 20 years for giving Norwegian and NATO defense plans along with sensitive political information to his Soviet handlers over a nine-year period. However, he denied being a spy in several books he later wrote and was pardoned in 1992 on health reasons. He left Norway to live in Cyprus and in Moscow. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said Monday it was aware of his death while a newspaper in Norway wrote Sunday that Treholt had died in Moscow after a brief disease.