Thousands of people in northern Norway were left without telephone and internet connections earlier this week after a clumsy moose destroyed a switching station.

A month before the moose hunting season kicks in, a moose in northern Norway launched a pre-emptive attack. PHOTO: PER LØCHEN / SCANPIX

A month before moose-hunting season kicks in, one of the so-called “kings of the forest” launched a coincidental pre-emptive attack, hitting man where it hurts the most and disrupting his tools of communication.

The moose apparently ravaged the outdoor box containing key switching equipment on Tuesday, cutting telecommunications service to thousands of people in the district of Sør-Helgeland.

The accident cut telephone and broadband connections over a wide area, reported Norwegian Broadcasing (NRK).

The switching station was quickly repaired, however, and all the telephone and broadband customers had their connections back by Thursday, according to telecom company Telenor.

By Kristin Solberg

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 Hurricane Dean tore through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique, terrifying residents with powerful winds that ripped roofs from buildings, downed trees and knocked out power.

The eye of Dean, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, passed between St Lucia and Martinique, two eastern Caribbean islands less than 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) apart, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

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The coach of Norway’s national soccer squad fired off a wad of his own verbal abuse this week after a top agent and a talent scout claimed that the quality of Norwegian soccer (football) players has deteriorated in recent years.

Åge Hareide was furious when he heard the criticism from football agents. PHOTO: CORNELIUS POPPE/SCANPIX Agent Per A Flod, shown here with player John Carew five years ago, thinks Norwegian soccer has deteriorated in recent years. PHOTO: SCANPIX

Per A Flod, who’s been the agent for players including John Carew, had said that soccer officials in other countries have told him that they think the quality of Norwegian soccer isn’t as high today as it once was.

“It’s almost impossible to sell Norwegian players to foreign clubs, with the exception of poor clubs in marginal countries,” Flod told newspaper Aftenposten.

He noted that the Norwegian national squad qualified for two World Championships and one European Championship in the 1990s and that Trondheim club Rosenborg made it to the Champions League four times. The squad isn’t matching that performance now.

Football investor and talent scout Terje Liverød agrees. “I don’t know of anyone overseas who’s using any time following the Norwegian (top leagues) the rest of the year,” he said. “There just aren’t enough good players here.”

The comments didn’t sit well at all with Åge Hareide, the current coach of the national squad who formerly coached Rosenborg. “What have they done for Norwegian football? Nothing!” he exclaimed, referring to Flod and Liverød, charging that Liverød, “who’s lived outside the country for years… can’t possibly know enough about Norwegian football. “

Hareide called the men’s comments “disresepectful,” and said he “didn’t give a damn about them, and you can write that.”

Liverød, confronted with Hareide’s reaction, started to laugh. “I think that if Åge thinks about it awhile, he’ll realize what he said was stupid. The level is so low that it’s almost not worth a comment.”

Norway’s national team will play Argentina in the next national match on Wednesday, on home turf at Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo.

By Nina Berglund

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Oslo Mayor Per Ditlev-Simonsen, patriarch of a shipowning family, won’t comment on reports that his family has bank accounts in Switzerland that haven’t been disclosed to tax authorities. The allegations come just weeks before municipal elections next month.

Per Ditlev-Simonsen has been mayor of Oslo since 1995, representing the Conservative Party (Høyre). He said he realizes that it would be of public interest if his family has Swiss bank accounts, but he won’t comment on claims coming from a private estate settlement between his daughter and her ex-husband. PHOTO: BJØRN SIGURDSØN/SCANPIX Cecilie Ditlev-Simonsen has had other challenges in recent months, not least fending off criticism over lucrative options granted to management at Norsk Hydro, the large industrial firm where she’s in charge of communications. PHOTO: ANNE-STINE JOHNSBRÅTEN

Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv reported Friday that the alleged Swiss bank accounts are mentioned in court papers filed in connection with an acrimonious divorce case between the mayor’s daughter, Norsk Hydro communications director Cecilie Ditlev-Simonsen, and his former son-in-law, Endre Rangnes, who’s managing director of EDB Business Partners.

The marriage lasted just over two years, from 2002 to 2004. Dagens Næringsliv reported that Cecilie Ditlev-Simonsen contested her divorce settlement and demanded more money from Rangnes. In Norway, divorce settlements generally involve merely a 50-50 division of assets acquired during the marriage, and alimony payments in the American sense are rare.

Ditlev-Simonsen reportedly felt she deserved a larger slice of the couple’s fortune. Rangnes responded by demanding that her entire fortune be taken into account, and that it included money in Swiss bank accounts used by the Ditlev-Simonsen family.

Family members including Cecilie Ditlev-Simonsen reportedly could access the money by showing up in person at the Zurich branch of Credit Suisse. An Oslo city court is now planning to request evidence of the accounts in Switzerland, and family members including the mayor face being called into court to testify.

Norwegian tax regulations require Norwegians to report all assets worldwide including money in foreign bank accounts. The amount must be included in the calculation of the country’s controversial “fortune tax,” which is a tax levied on the difference between taxpayers’ assets and debts, and which comes in addition to income and other taxes.

Tax authorities are also keen on determining the origins of the money in foreign accounts, in an effort to prevent or expose income tax evasion.

Neither Cecilie Ditlev-Simonsen nor her father, who’s been mayor of Oslo since 1995 for the Conservatives, will comment on whether their family has access to or has taken money out of Swiss accounts, calling it a “private family matter” stemming from a “painful divorce.” Rangnes wouldn’t comment either.

Cecilie Ditlev-Simonsen’s attorney, Anders Brosveet, claimed the allegations of secret Swiss bank accounts are simply part of Rangnes’ tactics in the divorce case.

“We have filed documents in court that prove that the claims made in the divorce case are not true,” Brosveet told Dagens Næringsliv, suggesting that Rangnes was trying to “wear out” Ditlev-Simonsen to prevent her from getting her “fair share” of their former estate.

By Nina Berglund

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Thursday was the first day of school for those who have paid NOK 12,000 in the hopes Princess Martha Louise can help teach them to contact angels. The princess’ so-called “angel school,” meanwhile, has now been charged with snitching its name from another small business.

Inger Middelthon is among those admitted to Princess Martha Louise’s so-called “angel school.” PHOTO: ASTRID HEXBERG Princess Martha Louise, shown here telling stories in an Oslo theater earlier this year, has been the target of controversy for exploiting her royal title to promote her commercial business activities. PHOTO: Terje Bendiksby / SCANPIX

Lillian Festvåg, a physiotherapist and researcher in the state health system, now feels pressured to change the name of her own business, because the name the princess and her partner chose for theirs is so similar, “and I neither can nor want to be associated with angels and princesses.”

Festvåg started her own small business nearly five years ago to handle her public speaking engagements. She registered her business as Astarte Lillian Festvåg with state authorities.

In June, Festvåg received a call from Princess Martha Louise’s business partner Elisabeth Samnøy. “She didn’t mention the princess, only that they wanted to start a school named Astarte,” Festvåg told newspaper Aftenposten. “Samnøy also wanted to buy my domain name (www.astarte.no). I said ‘no’ to this, and urged them to find another name for their operation.’”

Festvåg claims Samnøy wasn’t interested in discussing the matter. When news broke last month that Princess Martha Louise had emerged as a self-professed clairvoyant, and that she and Samnøy were launching Astarte Education to help students “create miracles in their lives with angels,” Festvåg felt defeated.

“It’s now impossible for me to keep my firm and domain names, even though I was first out with them,” Festvåg said. Neither the princess nor Samnøy, which ultimately took the domain and firm name Astarte Education, could be reached for comment on their refusal to negotiate with Festvåg.

‘Excited’ student
Among the princess’ students starting at Astarte Education’s school, meanwhile, is a 65-year-old woman from Lillehammer who told newspaper VG that she and all the others had to sign confidentiality agreements, regarding what they learn about other participants in the course.

Inger Middelthon doesn’t see anything wrong with that, and said she looked forward to begin. She’s a big fan of Princess Martha Louise, and admires how she’s “stood upright” while controversy has swirled around her.

“Martha Louise is strong, warm, brave, has integrity and knows what she’s talking about,” Middelthon told Aftenposten.no. “The criticism against her has been evil and below-the-belt.”

She doesn’t think Martha Louise should give up her royal title, to avoid conflicts of intererest, and she’s delighted she was selected for admission to the princess’ school. “I don’t know how the admissions process functioned, and thought I wouldn’t get in,” she said.

“This is going to be very, very exciting,” Middelthon added. “There are a lot of Norwegians who recognize other dimensions.” She wants to meet them, and share experiences.

By Nina Berglund

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Local election campaigns are in full swing all over Norway, with the various parties vying for voters’ favour. Aftenposten has created a means to help you choose the party that might best suit your views.

All legal residents of Norway can vote in local elections (called valg in Norwegian), even without being a Norwegian citizen, but the array of politicial parties involved can be dizzying. Taking Aftenposten’s so-called “Valgomat test” can help determine which party would best represent your views on a wide variety of issues in Norway.

There are eight major parties hoping to win seats on local township and neighbourhood councils. Voters cast ballots for parties in Norway, not individual candidates, and Aftenposten also has written a rundown that offers brief descriptions of each party.

More than 3.6 million Norwegians are eligible to cast ballots in the September 10 local elections, which occur every four years in Norway. They’re important, because it’s at the local level that the majority of funding is determined for such public services as nursing homes and schools.

There’s an election every two years in Norway, with local and national elections staggered and each occurring four years apart. Only Norwegian citizens, though, are allowed to vote in national elections or the seldom referenda, such as those held on the issue of whether Norway should join the European Union.

That means the political parties this year, with the more accessible local elections looming, are reaching out in force to immigrant groups, students and others in the hopes of winning the support of those eligible to cast ballots on September 10.

Battles at the booths
The various parties campaign vigorously from booths set up in local town squares. In Oslo, the booths traditionally line the capital’s main boulevard, Karl Johans Gate, where voters can pose questions to party members and engage in debates.

Official Norwegian election campaigns, which at four to five weeks are generally much shorter than they are in most countries, also involve direct mail, media advertisements and frequent television debates among party leaders and local party officials.

Around 63,000 party faithful stand on election lists nationwide, hoping their party will get enough votes that they’ll be appointed to city and neighbourhood councils. In Oslo, a coalition of the non-socialist parties led by the Conservatives and the Progress Party hopes to remain in power despite new candidates from the parties for specific offices.

By Nina Berglund

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