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Wed, 10 March 10:00
FEWER than half of Denmark’s schools ban pupils from smoking and many are allowed to smoke outside the school grounds during breaks, found a Danish Cancer Society study. Nationwide, 46 per cent of schools imposed a smoking ban but 74 per cent of schools in or around Copenhagen had none. “That’s just not good enough,” objected a Society spokesman, who said older pupils should be role models for the youngest.
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Wed, 10 March 09:58
THROUGHOUT Denmark’s coldest winter for 14 years the country’s icebreakers lay idle as tugs cleared frozen harbours for modern ships that are in any case bigger and stronger than in the past. The icebreakers have not been used since 1996 and with all political parties agreeing that they are a waste of taxpayers’ money, a unanimous parliamentary vote to decommission the vessels is expected soon.
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Wed, 10 March 09:56
A CARER at a sheltered housing complex in Torsby (Sweden), irritated by an incontinent resident, disguised himself as the Grim Reaper, threatening to cut off his penis if he continued wetting the bed. The incident, only one of other episodes that allegedly occurred at the home, was reported to the local health authority although the police were not notified. The staff member has since been given notice.
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Mon, 08 March 13:04
A MAN convicted of drunken driving in Alvsbyn (Northern Sweden) asked the government to pardon him, claiming that he was too fat to go to prison. The 60-year-old, who is 5’9” tall, weighs 208 kilos and is receiving hospital treatment for obesity, said he could no longer walk and was in such bad health that he could not make the journey to prison.
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Wed, 03 March 13:01
A 26-YEAR-OLD man complained to police in southern Sweden about some hashish he had bought, asking for it to be tested for LSD. A recreational user of the drug for 10 years he claimed that the latest supply had made him edgy, convincing him that his girlfriend resembled a dolphin and that his television was talking to him. Police later declined to confirm whether or not the supplier would face charges.
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Wed, 03 March 13:00
A baby was bitten on the face as he slept in his pram in the courtyard of a central Copenhagen apartment block last week. His parents called the emergency services when they saw the bite marks and as the child was rushed to hospital for treatment neighbours commented that there had been problems with rats this winter. Vermin seeking shelter from the cold were becoming bolder said one, “but to come so close is frightening.”
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Mon, 01 March 11:14
LAKRITS the cat disappeared in 2001, shortly after his owners moved to Stockholm from the countryside. “He hated being cooped up in an apartment,” said Vera Dettmann, who was amazed but overjoyed when an animal shelter contacted her to say they had found her cat, identified by a tattoo in his ear. Lakrits – his name means Liquorice in English – is now back home, resigned to city life after nine years on the road.
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Mon, 01 March 11:12
DENMARK - SNOWPLOUGH drivers in Denmark were responsible for destroying 154 of the 1,250 emergency “orange phones” lining the country’s motorways while removing snow this winter. The drivers – either too enthusiastic or too slapdash – knocked the phones over as they pushed this winter’s huge snowfalls onto the hard shoulders, costing the Road Directorate an estimated 124,000 euros in repairs.
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Mon, 22 February 11:47
THE European Investment Bank approved a loan 400-million euro loan to Saab Automobile enabling the purchase of the company by the Dutch company, Spyker Cars. The only hitch encountered so far is over Saab’s name change to Saab Spyker Automobiles, for which Spyker must first reach an agreement with Sweden-based aircraft manufacturers, Saab AB, before the Saab trademark can be incorporated.
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Mon, 22 February 11:46
THE Danish Forest and Nature Agency opened an investigation after it received reports from several people in southern Jutland claiming to have seen a wolf since the beginning of December. The last wolf to be positively identified in Denmark was shot in 1813 and experts believe that the present sightings are more likely to be a runaway sled dog.
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Mon, 15 February 11:15
DENMARK - Falck, the organisation providing Denmark’s emergency services, has been called in to help feed the country’s swans, ducks and geese during 2010’s unusually hard winter. As Falck sent out teams to drill holes in frozen lakes and scatter bird seed, spokesman Thomas Teimann say he could not remember the last time it had been necessary to feed the birds: “It’s not something we usually do,” he explained.
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Fri, 12 February 11:13
CLIMBING the social ladder is easiest in Scandinavia or Australia, said the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report “Intergenerational Social Mobility”. Investigators said that weak social mobility produced lack of equal opportunities and curbed economic growth, and also found the link between parental income and their children’s was less pronounced in Denmark, Norway and Australia than in Britain, the United States or France.
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Fri, 12 February 11:11
THE Swedish army said it could not take disciplinary action against 18 soldiers who visited a German brothel while on joint manoeuvres because they were off duty and not wearing uniform. Nor could they be prosecuted because paying prostitutes is not illegal in Germany although the army’s legal service said it would back legislation penalising Swedish soldiers buying sexual favours in countries where this was allowed.
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Fri, 12 February 11:09
THE Norwegian ski-jumper Bjorn Einar Romoren will have to compete in the Vancouver Winter Olympics with a broken little finger. He punched a wall in frustration at a disappointing jump in the World Cup competition in Willingen (Germany) last week but although he had to undergo surgery on the finger, he said the fracture posed no problems for his Olympic performance.
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Thu, 11 February 18:42
A 59-YEAR-OLD man was arrested in Marsta (Stockholm) after he pushed 19 mice through his ex-wife’s letterbox, knowing she was terrified of them. Waking to find the mice scurrying round her apartment she rang the police who charged her ex with animal welfare offences and threatening behaviour. His demands for the return of the mice were refused on the grounds that he had treated them too badly.
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Fri, 05 February 11:42
THE children of Khalid Skah, a former Olympic gold medallist, insisted last week that they were not kidnapped by Norwegian diplomats from their former home in Rabat (Morocco) as their father now claims. Tarik, aged 13 and his 16-year-old sister Selma told the Norwegian news channel TV2 Nyhetskanalen that they ran away in July 2009 after Skah became increasingly strict and kept them locked in their rooms. “We weren’t allowed to live a normal life, we weren’t allowed to go to school,” said Selma, while her brother was adamant that it was their own choice to flee.
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Fri, 05 February 11:40
MANY Filipino au pairs living with Danish families had to pay intermediaries and agencies thousands of kroner to get into Denmark, said the government’s Centre against Human Trafficking. Most of the girls owed money even before they arrived and the Centre found this often prompted them to “work in the black” and obliged them to remain illegally in order to pay off their debts.
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Fri, 05 February 11:38
PASSENGERS at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport found with undeclared money now lose up to 75 per cent of it in tax under regulations introduced a year ago. The Danish tax authority Skat – sometimes using specially trained sniffer dogs – said it detected 129 cases of passengers not complying with the new rules in 2009, involving a total of 47 million kroner (6.2 million euros) in cash and goods.
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Fri, 05 February 11:36
A COMPANY which planned to use the Norwegian cruise ship Norwegian Star as a floating hotel at the Vancouver winter Olympics had to announce last week that the trip was cancelled and refunds would be issued. Slow sales and escalating costs were blamed for the change of plan although prices were cut from an initial original $1,300 per night to just $275.
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Fri, 05 February 11:34
WILDLIFE experts in Sweden complained that traps set by pheasant hunters for foxes, badgers, hawks and other predators caused unnecessary suffering because they were too small and not checked daily.Traps for capturing lynxes were unnecessarily primitive, they said, with animals often horrifically scratched as they tried to escape, while splinters found in their stomachs revealed that they had tried to chew their way out.
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Fri, 05 February 11:14
JOINING Harry Potter author J K Rowling, tennis champion Kim Clijsters, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel and Oprah Winfrey, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden has been awarded a rare honour: a Barbie doll made in her image. Rosa Zeegers, senior vice-president of Barbie International said all the were “true role models for girls, embodying the essence and values of Barbie.”
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Fri, 29 January 13:34
ON January 24, General Motors chief Ed Whitacre declared that advanced talks with Dutch car manufacturer over a bid for Saab had “so far proved inconclusive”and GM would proceed with plans to wind down its Saab operation. With the American company itself undergoing rigorous restructuring since its bailout by the American and Canadian governments this looked like the end of the road for Saab. But only 24 hours later the American giant announced what it termed “a binding agreement” to sell the division to Spyker and, barring last minute setbacks, Saab will continue production as Saab Spyker Automobiles.
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Fri, 29 January 13:31
BJORN ULVAEUS and Frida Lyngstad, members of Abba, the Swedish group which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, said last week that they had never realised that the UK gave them the dreaded “nul points” for Waterloo. “All these years and I thought the Brits were our best friends,” joked Ulvaeus at last week’s launch of the Abba World exhibition in London.
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Fri, 29 January 13:29
A 22-YEAR-OLD Dane alleged to have deliberately run down a member of the AK81 motorcycle gang – a Hell’s Angels support group - was arrested in Egypt after police there received information from their Danish counterparts. The suspect, a member of a gang battling with Copenhagen’s motorcycle gangs for control of the drugs trade, was returned to Denmark where police sources say he will be charged with attempted murder.
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Fri, 29 January 13:28
PRESIDENTS Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Jens Stoltenberg announced in Madrid that Spain will supply the techology for the Norwegian army’s new communications satellite, a 300-million euro project venture which government sources said would create 1000 new jobs for Spanish workers. The two politicians also pledged to work together on an ambitious global agreement over measures for controlling climate change.
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Bonus 
Stars 
