a

Norway: Stomach virus hits passengers on board one of the ships that plies the coast of the country

Scores of passengers on board one of the ships that plies the coast to northern Norway have been struck by what officials are calling a stomach virus.

Passengers got sick on board the Hurtigruten vessel Midnattsol. PHOTO: HURTIGRUTEN The newest member of the Hurtigruten fleet, meanwhile, was christened by Crown Princess Mette-Marit over the weekend. PHOTO: HANS O. TORGERSEN

Illness first broke out on board the vessel Midnattsol when it sailed from Trondheim four days ago. On Saturday, around 50 of the 600 passengers on board were reported to be suffering from diarrhea and vomiting.

“There are now 100 persons on board who are sick,” Ragnar Norum of the Coastal Voyage line known as Hurtigruten told news bureau NTB on Monday morning.

Food and health authorities evaluated the situation on board the ship, but were initially unable to pinpoint the cause of the illness, believed to be an airborne virus.

Cleaning routines have been sharpened, officials said, especially hygiene in lavatories and bathrooms. The stomach ailment is said to last around 24 hours.

The fleet of Coastal Voyage vessels is entering its high season in Norway. The Midnattsol was due to arrive in Kirkenes on Monday, with 200 new passengers coming on board before the vessel turns and starts its voyage south to Bergen again.

Torkild Torkildsen of Hurtigruten told Aftenposten.no that since the virus is airborne, it wasn’t tied to the food on board.

“It’s such a tight community on board that infections can spread quickly,” he said. “It’s gone from person to person.”

News of the on-board illness comes just as the Hurtigruten line was introducing the newest member of its fleet. The Fram, christened by Crown Princess Mette-Marit on Saturday and designed for Arctic waters, will offer new cruises to Greenland and itineraries from the North Pole to the South Pole.

By Nina Birgelund

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press International, api, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenpostenEng

Norway: Former US President Bill Clinton touring the country giving lectures

Former US President Bill Clinton is back on the paid lecture circuit in Norway this week, and doing a bit of sightseeing on the side.

Bill Clinton spoke in Tromsøhallen Sunday night. PHOTO: JAN-MORTEN BJØRNBAKK

Clinton is making three paid speaking appearances and started his tour in the northern city of Tromsø on Sunday. His remarks centered on the fight against HIV/AIDS and climate change, and he praised Norwegian government officials for setting ambitious goals to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

He noted that Norway is lucky to have a strong economy and oil wealth, but should nonetheless be admired for its commitment to environmental issues.

Emission cuts will require major technological advances, Clinton said, and he urged Norway to share them with the rest of the world, not least China and India. He said he hoped his fellow Americans would soon “see the light” on environmental challenges like the Norwegians have done.

Clinton didn’t get to see much of the midnight sun, however, because of rain and cloudy skies. He spent time on Monday, though, strolling around Tromsø, visiting its Arctic Cathedral and tasting local seafood, with a large security force around him.

Clinton will speak on Tuesday in Bergen and Wednesday in Oslo, where he’ll be joined by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Jan Egeland, the former UN official and Norwegian diplomat, will host the event. Hans Blix, former UN weapons inspector, will also speak at the event at Oslo Spektrum, where tickets have cost thousands of kroner.

Clinton has been in Oslo twice since he left the White House, also as a paid speaker.

By Nina Berglund

Lifted and published by African Press International, api, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 +47 6300 2525 source.aftenpostenEng

Norway: Norwegians think they should earn more than foreigners

Norwegians think they should earn more than foreigners working in the country, according to a startling new survey. The survey, conducted by research firm InFact for personnel bureau Proffice, reveals that a majority of Norwegians think it’s fine if a Norwegian earns NOK 150 per hour while a foreign guest workers earns NOK 100 for doing the same job.

“This is quite surprising,” said Per Bergerud, managing director of Proffice. “It’s completely unacceptable, for example, if a worker from Poland earns less than a Norwegian just because he’s Polish.”

Only three out of 10 respondents to the survey, however, agreed with Bergerud. Fully 10 percent of executives responding also claimed that just NOK 60 (about USD 10) an hour was an acceptable rate of pay for a guest workers in Norway.

The survey indicates no small dose of hypocrisy on the part of the Norwegian respondents, especially all those who are members of labour unions that constantly fight against so-called “social dumping.” Norway’s strong labour movement has consistently tried to fend off cheaper labour from abroad by insisting that everyone be paid equally.

Only 30 percent of those responding to the survey agreed, however, that social dumping was problematic.

Some of the respondents claimed Norwegians do a better job than foreigners. About 45 percent believed there was no difference.

There are about 80,000 guest workers in Norway, according to state labour authorities. Bergerud estimated that around half are paid less than Norwegians doing the same job.

Lifted and publshed by Korir, African Press International, api, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.AftenpostenEng

Norway’s international image primed for polishing

Norway’s energetic foreign minister thinks he needs to strengthen the country’s international reputation, but first he also wants to find out just how the rest of the world views his homeland.

Norway’s Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, wants to measure and then boost Norway’s reputation overseas. PHOTO: HEIKO JUNGE / SCANPIX Norway’s offshore oil reserves already have placed the country on the world stage. PHOTO: SVEIN ERIK FURULUND Norwegians love to wave their flag, but also can spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what the rest of the world thinks about them. That raises the question of whether Støre’s forum is really necessary. PHOTO: MARIT HOMMEDAL/SCANPIX

The question is whether Norway is viewed as a friendly but uninteresting country, or whether Norway is seen as wealthy and arrogant. While most other countries with any degree of self-assurance probably wouldn’t care, Norway clearly does.

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre himself has emerged in public opinion polls as Norway’s arguably most respected and popular politician. He wants Norway itself to enjoy the same sort of reputation, and secure a place on the world map.

The ambitious Støre is thus setting up a national forum (Nasjonalt omdømmeforum) charged with advising the Foreign Ministry on how Norway’s profile overseas could be improved. The ministry doesn’t only want Norway to be known for high prices, for example.

“A good national reputation has a lot to do with our impact overseas, both culturally, economically and politically,” Støre said, roughly translated, in a press statement Tuesday. He said the forum is charged with contributing to “more debate and dialogue” among public authorities, business, academia and others to pinpoint in which areas “we can coordinate strategies for Norway’s reputation.”

Joining him on the forum are 10 women and seven men, many of them former politicians or well-known names within Norway’s business and cultural life. Included in the fairly high-powered group are attorney Knut Brundtland (son of former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and now a member of several boards of directors including, curiously, the exclusive and high-priced Norwegian “Voss” bottled water), former culture minister Åse Kleveland, Microsoft director Grete Faremo and former cabinet minister Kristin Clemet, who once reportedly claimed that Norway was viewed as small, wealthy and nasty.

Elitist?
The group seems to cut across party lines, with celebrities from both the Labour Party and Conservative camps, and there also are representatives from such “official” Norwegian organs as export agency NORAD, marketing agency Innovation Norway and the international division of trade union federation LO.

They’re all fairly outspoken representatives of Norway’s establishment, bound to share their opinions with Støre. It’s a fairly elite group, however, for someone who’s apparently worried that Norway itself is viewed as, well, elitist by the rest of the world.

Could just listen to his own troops
Støre may find that he could just as well listen to reports from his own embassies and consulates around the world, which are charged with monitoring just about everything said or reported about Norway in their local areas. Even though they’ve lately been struggling with budget cuts, Støre’s own staff members at Norway’s overseas missions are presumably dealing every day with evaluation and promotion of Norway’s image.

He may find that some of his worries about Norway’s image are unfounded. There’s little question that Norway’s oil wealth and its position as the world’s third-largest oil exporter already have placed the country firmly on the world stage.

Why else, for example, would the International Herald Tribune devote a recent front-page story to the investment decisions made by Norway’s pension fund (which is fueled by all the petro-kroner that’s pouring into the country)? Even though the story consistently misspelled the last name of Norway’s finance minister, it was a pretty good indication that Norway can command global attention.

And why else would the US ambassador to Norway bother to protest so loudly when the pension fund dumped its stock in Wal-Mart? Why else is the head of the same fund suddenly being deluged by a steady stream of international financiers and company executives eager to grab a bit of Norway’s vast investment resources?

They wouldn’t take the time if they didn’t recognize the ever-growing importance of Norway’s financial muscle in the world. Maybe the modest and often self-deprecating Norwegians just haven’t noticed themselves that Norway already has emerged as more than “just a little country” in the far north.

Frustration
Støre may well be frustrated that Norway’s ambitious attempts at international peace-making haven’t yielded many results. Norway’s failure to join the European Union, its legendary obstinance at the World Trade Organization and its insistence on killing whales may well have contributed to its image as a wealthy country keen on protecting its own interests at the expense of international cooperation. Few other countries as small as Norway, however, can boast so many top-ranking officials at the United Nations, or match Norway’s amount of charitable donations to the rest of the world.

Judging from the sheer volume of e-mail pouring into Aftenposten’s “News in English” service from readers around the world every day, Støre may not need to worry too much that folks outside Norway aren’t interested in the country. The brisk traffic on this web site, referrals of stories about Norway in English and commentaries from readers from Melbourne to Manchester suggest otherwise.

Støre’s forum is scheduled to meet twice a year.

By Nina Berglund,

 

Attention: (What’s YOUR image of Norway? Does Norway’s foreign minister need to worry about it? Write to us at africanpress@chello.no

Lifted and Published by African Press International, api, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenpostenENG

Norway: Sirens raised no alarm

Horns started blowing all over Oslo at noon on Tuesday, but it was all a mistake. No one reacted anyway.

200 of these sirens started wailing around noon on Tuesday. PHOTO: SIVILFORSVARET

Red-faced civil defense officials had to admit Tuesday afternoon that “someone” made a mistake during some routine testing of the capital’s alarm systems.

“We set off 200 sirens as a result of human error,” district chief Bjørn Ole Steingrimsen of the Oslo and Akershus Civil Defense District told news bureau NTB.

“We were testing a system in downtown Oslo after some maintenance when the wrong code was tapped in,” he said. “That meant that we tested 200 sirens instead of just one.”

The sirens rang for around eight seconds, but there were no reports of worried reactions.

Civil Defense has responsibility for public warnings of preparedness, war or catastrophe. The lack of any public response didn’t worry officials, who claimed the alarm that rang was “just a test-peep.”

By Nina Berglund

Lifted and published by African Press International, api, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenpostenEng

The Ivorian telecommunications sector generated over 1000 billion CFA francs in 2002

Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) The Ivorian telecommunications sector generated over 1000 billion CFA francs in 2002 when a crisis struck the country, APA learnt on Monday.

The revelation was by Michel Loukou Kouadio, the chairman of the Union nationale des entreprises de télécommunication en Côte d’Ivoire (National Union of Telecommunication Companies in Cote d’Ivoire – UNETEL).

Even the crisis rocking Cote d’Ivoire since 19 September 2002 could not frustrate this performance, Kouadio said at the opening of the eighth “National Information and Communication Technologies Days, JNTIC 2007”, which end on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Guillaume Soro chaired the ceremony in the presence of International Telecommunications Union chairman Hamadou Toure of Mali, who is on his maiden official visit in Africa since being elected to lead the UN specialised body.

This year’s edition’s theme is “Connecting youths – what possibilities are offered by the NTIC ?”.

Kouadio said with an estimated national coverage rate of 60 percent, telecoms have allowed 3 million people to communicate during the crisis.

“The telecoms sector is the one that currently has the country’s highest growth rate,” Ivorian New Information and Communication Technologies minister Ahmed Bakayoko reckoned.

He cited four telecoms outfits who made a 305 billion CFA-franc turnover with some 1.5 million subscribers in 2003 to bolster his argument.

Some 4.5 million subscribers were registered this year, accounting for A 200-percent rise and a turnover of 450 billion CFA francs.

Cote d’Ivoire had some 400,000 internet users late last year, the speakers said.

Published by Korir, African Press International, API, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

Togolese Football Association (FTF) chairman Tata Avlessi has said the three players banned from the national team have to apologise before being reintegrated

Lome (Togo) – Togolese Football Association (FTF) chairman Tata Avlessi has said the three players banned from the national team have to apologise before being reintegrated, APA has learnt.

“They must be courageous enough to accept they were wrong and apologise,” Avlessi told a press conference Monday in the Togolese capital.

The Togolese FA on 25 March banned Emmanuel Adébayor (Arsenal, England), Abdel Kader Coubadja (Jazira of Abou Dhabi, Emirates) and Nibombé Daré (Mons, Belgium) until further notice for “indiscipline”.

The players were demanding the payment of an outstanding 30 million CFA francs from their World Cup bonuses, recalling that each player received 50 million CFA francs (101,337 dollars) out of the agreed 80 (162,140 dollars) following FIFA-brokered negotiations.

Avelessi vowed he will have the final say and will not recoil from his decision, warning he was ready to do without the trio when the Sparrow hawks play hosts Sierra Leone on 3 June as part of round four in the CAN 2008 qualifiers.

“We are going to trust the others,” he said, adding however that “the FA doors remain open for any discussion”.

“I do not want to be pressured,” Avlessi said, though he conceded the three are valuable players.

“I am not contesting the talent of Sheyi Adebayor. He is our only star. I think it is rather him who must help Togolese football…but none is indispensable,” the FA boss contended.

A group of football league chairpersons recently demanded that the bans be lifted and mandated Gomido Kpalimé club chairman Winny Dogbatsé to mediate the crisis.

Dogbatsé met the suspended players last week and will proceed to Lome this week as part of the mediation.

Published by Korir, African Press International, API, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa