NORWAY: Transport Minister on the carpet - Tunnel danger raises alarm

Politicians were demanding an explanation after a large piece of concrete fell from the roof of a tunnel that was under repairs for an earlier collapse.

The Hanekleiv Tunnel, near Sande on the E-18 Highway through Vestfold, was the scene of structural collapse on Monday. PHOTO: JON HAUGE

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Two construction workers were injured when the five-ton section of concrete fell inside the already-troubled Hanekleiv Tunnel in Vestfold County on Monday. All work inside the tunnel has been stopped and officials were huddling in crisis meetings on Tuesday.

Opposition politicians were demanding answers about Norwegian tunnel safety from Transport Minister Liv Signe Navarsete, and about safety procedures around the repair work itself.

Norway is known for its tunnels all over the country, but they’re all under probe after a string of accidents and near-accidents during the past year.

The accidents indicate the tunnels aren’t the engineering marvels they’re built up to be, with several characterized as unsafe.

Christmas collapse
Fairly new tunnels along the heavily trafficked E-18 highway south of Oslo have been closed for months after 200 cubic meters of rocks and earth showered down onto the roadway of the Hanekleiv Tunnel on Christmas Day last year.

Officials admitted then that it was sheer luck no one was injured or killed in the collapse inside the 1.7 kilometer-long tunnel. An investigation into the collapse led to the closure and subsequent reinforcement work being done on six other tunnels along the route.

The E-18 highway is one of the busiest in Norway, especially during the summer season when thousands of Oslo residents flock to their holiday homes along the southern coast.

Highway officials have been under pressure to secure the tunnels and get them re-opened before the summer traffic season begins in a few weeks. They denied suggestions, however, that the pressure led to Monday’s new collapse.

“We’re looking at this as purely an accident,” said road director Olav Søfteland, who otherwise declined comment.

Ironic praise
Project leader Tore Gomo of the state highway department (Statens vegvesen) said that although tunnel repairs have been conducted around the clock, he doesn’t think Monday’s accident has anything to do with time pressure.

Gomo claimed the state and contractor Veidekke have stressed health and safety issues during the tunnel repairs.

Norway’s tunnels, ironically enough, were widely praised in an article in the new June issue of the US-travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler. The writer marveled at Norway’s tunnel design, but clearly wasn’t aware of the controversy surrounding them during the past six months.

By Nina Berglund

Lifted by Korir and published by African Press iAftenposten English Web Desk
Nina Berglund/NTB

Norway: Glowing article shokes Osloranians, raising eyebrows

A flattering article on Norway in the latest issue of a well-regarded travel magazine has delighted tourism industry officials, but left some Oslo residents bemused by the glowing description of their city.

PHOTO: CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER The article on Norway in the June issue of Condé Nast Traveler’s US edition is positively glowing. PHOTO: CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER

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The magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, teased the story on its cover, calling Norway “Europe’s Little Secret.” Its author marvelled over some heated sidewalks in Oslo, raved about the country’s tunnels, and was clearly impressed that the state was spending the equivalent of USD 300 million to build a bridge that will link two small towns across “a magnificent fjord.”

Blissfully unaware, it seems, that heated sidewalks have been around for years and are mostly found only downtown, that the country’s tunnels are riddled with safety concerns and several have been closed, and that constant budget contraints in urban areas make city dwellers question why so much can be spent on a bridge to benefit so few, in the name of district (and to some degree, pork-barrel) politics.

The article tried to answer its own theoretical question: “What happens when one of the most left-leaning countries in Europe unexpectedly strikes it rich?” It raved about the money being spent on the new Opera House under construction in Oslo (launched long before oil prices skyrocketed), complained a bit about high prices (long a product of high taxes and precious little economy of scale) and gushed about how Norwegians build things of beauty meant to last for a long time.

The Norwegians themselves were subject to vast generalizations, with those seen eating at a trendy waterfront restaurant described as “all… fit, tall and fashionably dressed” with “impossibly high cheekbones” and mostly blond.

The author frequented some of the best (and most expensive) restaurants and hotels on offer in a country already known for being expensive. Dinner even just for two at restaurants like “Bagatelle” in Oslo and “Engř Gĺrd” on the island of Tjřme (where the queen has a summer home) can easily cost nearly a week’s pay for most Norwegians not on an expense account. The author visited a posh spa, and was even invited to drink some bubbly with Queen Sonja and ride on her private boat.

This all clearly made a favourable impression, which resulted in the favourable article, which ironically appeared just as Norway’s foreign minister was clamouring for means to boost Norway’s reputation overseas. He may not need to clamour any more.

‘Fantastic’
“Oh, so fantastic,” was the first reaction from information director Hilde Charlotte Solheim in NHO Reiseliv, the travel industry branch of Norway’s main employers’ organization.

Solheim described the value of the article to consumer website Forbruker.no as “invaluable.” She noted that Norway “has little money to use on paid-advertising aimed at the American market,” so the overwhelmingly positive article in a magazine like Condé Nast Traveler is “incredibly important.”

Harald Hansen of the state marketing and promotional agency Innovasjon Norge agreed, and is convinced more tourists will travel to Norway as a result of the article.

Solheim also was thrilled that Queen Sonja would devote so much time to Condé Nast’s reporter, and she praised the queen’s efforts to promote Norwegian tourism. “She’s made a fantastic contribution that has impressed many,” Solheim said.

The magazine among them. Forbruker.no, owned by newspaper Aftenposten, described Condé Nast’s article as “a long tribute to Norway.” It didn’t bother to take issue with its description of Oslo as “exquisitely clean and safe,” even though the paper has written volumes on the city’s littering, tagging and crime problems.

Maybe because every now and then, even the modest Norwegians allow themselves to bask in the glow of such praise, deserved or not.

By Nina Berglund

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenposteneng

Norway: A fire in a gas cylinder near a construction site in Oslo Tuesday morning spurred local evacuations

A fire in a gas cylinder near a construction site in Oslo Tuesday morning spurred local evacuations and the closure of one of the area’s busiest tunnels.

The fire broke out near the construction site of a new housing complex. PHOTO: FRED GJESTAD

The fire started in the Lodalen area east of downtown, which is the construction site of the Kvćrnerbyen housing development.

Police closed the busy Vĺlerenga Tunnel, the opening of which runs adjacent to the site, and traffic had to be diverted over narrow city streets at Galgeberg.

Vidar Hjulsad of the Oslo Police District told Aftenposten.no that the fire in the gas cylinder itself wasn’t so dramatic, but if the cylinder ignited others, “this could be really bad.”

Police also evacuated everyone within 300 meters of the fire for fear of explosion, and air traffic was prohibited over the area.

Attempts were made to cool down the cylinders, and police sharpshooters were called in to try firing at them, to empty them before they could ignite.

They succeeded, and the drama was over after a few hours.

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.AftenpostenEng

G-8 meeting gets underway

The foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan were to meet with their Group of Eight counterparts Wednesday amid concern that acrimony between the two Asian neighbors is helping the Taliban inflict mounting losses on NATO troops and Afghan civilians.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country holds the G-8 presidency, helped broker the meeting with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Kasuri, during a trip to both countries this month.

Other officials on hand included U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.AP

Norway: A suspected killer pleads not guilty

An Iranian man charged with stabbing his wife to death outside a crisis center in Drammen last autumn pleaded not guilty when his trial started on Tuesday. The 44-year-old man also said in court that he was certain his wife had cheated on him, and he blamed her brother for being a bad influence on her. The brother, he claimed, had become “too European,” and gave the dead woman “inappropriate advice.”

The 39-year-old mother of three was stabbed more than 20 times outside the Betzy Crisis Center in Drammen last year. She’d been moved there from another crisis center in Bćrum, just west of Oslo, for her own protection after she left her husband, but he tracked her down.

“I asked her if she would come back home with me,” her husband said. “I told her the children weren’t doing well without her. She said that she would come back.”

He waited for her outside the center until she emerged with a girlfriend. He’s charged with stabbing her in broad daylight after he approached her, but he testified that he doesn’t remember much about what happened that day last October.

He claimed he didn’t stab her more than 20 times. “I don’t think it was more than four or five times,” he said in court.

The murder is the first outside a crisis center in Norway ever.

By Nina Berglund

Lifted and published by African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenposteneng

Norway: A chase that resulted in arrest

The rural area around Oslo’s airport at Gardermoen was the scene early Wednesday of a wild car chase, a car hijacking and a police raid on a farm house, where the two suspects leading the chase had sought refuge.

Police arrested the two men after they gave themselves up. PHOTO: FRED GJESTAD Armed police cordoned off the area around the farm house, and closed Highway 35 adjacent to the airport. PHOTO: FRED C. GJESTAD

The drama began around 5am, when police in Oslo spotted a stolen truck. They started following the truck north on the E6 highway and that ultimately led to a high-speed car chase.

The truck pulled into the Shell gas station at Skedsmovollen and its driver apparently tried to scare off police by crashing into the structures over the gas pumps and tearing down its live electrical wiring.

A police helicopter was called in and the chase continued through the countryside, with more police cars joining in. It was interrupted, however, when the truck’s tires were punctured by a mat of spikes that the police had spread over the road.

But then the driver of the truck jumped out and was immediately picked up by an another man, who came driving by in a stolen car. The chase resumed until that car also was halted by a spike mat.

The two occupants then jumped out, stopped a car passing by and forced its driver to hand over the keys. They then drove to a farm in Nannestad, near the airport’s runways, where they tried to barricade themselves in a house on the property.

A female occupant of the house and several children were inside and they reportedly hid while police surrounded the house. The two men eventually turned themselves in, just before 8am.

The armed police action closed Highway 35, the main link to the airport from the west. A crisis team was called in to provide support for the woman and children in the house, and the owner of the car that was hijacked.

It remained unclear who the two men are, but reports emerged that they have police records and were suspected of vehicle theft.

By Nina Berglund

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN) / African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenposten.eng

Norway: Rape suspect chooses to confess

A 30-year-old man taken into custody earlier this month has admitted to the rape of a 48-year-old woman in Oslo’s Grünerlřkka district on May 4.

The rape was characterized as especially brutal, and it left the victim badly beaten.

Police arrested the 30-year-old suspect about a week after the rape occurred, and also have tied him to a series of other rapes in Oslo during the past several months.

Pĺl-Fredrik Hjort Kraby of the Oslo Police District said the suspect, originally from Somalia, has admitted to the charges that he beat and raped the woman in Nordre Gate.

The suspect still hasn’t been charged with at least two other rapes that were similar in nature to the one on May 4th.

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN)/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.AftenpostenEng

Norway: Jobless rate remains low

Figures released Wednesday indicate that Norway continues to experience record low unemployment. The unemployment rate remained at 2.7 percent in March, the same as in February. That’s slightly down from 2.8 percent in December, according to state statistics bureau SSB.

After adjustments for seasonal variations, the figures showed 13,000 more people were employed in Norway in March.

The number of people registered as unemployed by state labour agency NAV declined by 3,000 from December 2006 to March 2007. Its figures showed an unemployment rate of just 2 percent, lower than SSB’s rate because it only reflects those registered as unemployed while SSB’s figures include non-registered as well.

Lifted and published by Korir, African Press in Norway (APN/ African Press International (API) africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.AftenpostenEng Desk/NTB