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

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 Kv�rnerbyen housing development.

Police closed the busy V�lerenga 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

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 B�rum, 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

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

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 Gr�nerl�kka 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.

P�l-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

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