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Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Monday

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Monday
Find out what's going on in Norway on Monday with The Local's short roundup of Norwegian news in English on Monday. Pictured is a bridge in Norway. It isn't the one from the story on one collapsing from the roundup on Monday. Photo by Andrei Ionov on Unsplash

A bridge collapse, Freya euthanised, and the PM says conditions will be imposed on energy exports, plus other news from Norway on Monday.

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Bridge collapses in Gudbrandsdalen

Two drivers have been rescued from their vehicles after the Tretten bridge in Øyer municipality, north of Lillehammer, collapsed on Monday morning. 

A car and a truck were on the bridge, inaugurated in 2018, when it collapsed. 

Operations manager Bård Einar Hoft in the Innlandet police district told broadcaster TV2 that the drivers of the truck and car had been rescued from their vehicles.

Prime Minister: Conditions will be enforced on European energy exports

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will outline conditions for when it will export energy abroad when he meets the German Prime Minister on Monday. 

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Støre, along with the other Prime Ministers of the other Nordic countries, will meet with their German counterpart, Olaf Scholz. 

It is expected that Støre will tell Scholz that Norway may cut energy exports to the continent, newspaper Aftenposten reports. 

"Each country must take responsibility for ensuring that their power system lasts," Støre told the paper. 

"We are responsible for the integrity of the Norwegian power system. That is why we are now saying that we must ensure the level of filling in our water reservoirs," he added. 

Freya euthanised

A walrus nicknamed Freya that attracted crowds while basking in the Oslo fjord was euthanised on Sunday, with Norway officials saying it was the only option but experts slamming an "infinitely sad" decision.

"The decision to euthanise was taken on the basis of a global evaluation of the persistent threat to human security," the head of Norway's Fisheries Directorate, Frank Bakke-Jensen, said in a statement.

"We carefully examined all the possible solutions. Unfortunately, we concluded that we could not guarantee the wellbeing of the animal by any of the means available," he said.

Officials had previously said they were considering euthanasia because repeated appeals to the public to keep their distance from the young female weighing 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) had been in vain, and she was experiencing excessive stress.

SAS take out loan to ease financial woes

Ailing Scandinavian airline SAS, which filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in early July, said Sunday it had secured a 700-million-dollar loan.

The move follows a crippling 15-day pilot strike, also in July, that cost the carrier between $9 and $12 million a day.

The pilots were protesting against salary cuts demanded by management as part of a restructuring plan aimed at ensuring the survival of the company.

SAS said it has entered "into a debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing credit agreement for $700 million with funds managed by Apollo Global Management".

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