It is, of course, their unusual attire.

Christoffer Svae is the one given the credit (or blame) for the checkered, clown-like trousers that have brought more publicity to this year’s Olympic curling events than he ever thought possible.

Svae had been given responsibility to acquire their uniforms. Newspaper Dagsavisen reports that the trousers were bought “on impulse” while the team was at training camp in Edmonton just before the Olympics began.

“I thought it was a joke, but I put them on,” team leader Pål Trulsen, who won curling gold in Salt Lake City eight years ago, told Dagsavisen . So did the others and now they have no intention of changing clothes. They’re having too much fun.

“There’s so much security and control everywhere, and everyone is so serious,” Svae said. “Then we come and everyone cheers up.”

He simply thought the still-relatively obscure sport of curling needed to be lightened up, as did the seriousness of Olympic competition. “And if this encourages young people to get interested in curling, all the better,” he told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).

The trousers, which conveniently sport the colors of the Norwegian flag, were an instant hit and have become wildly popular. A Facebook Fan Club has attracted tens of thousands of members, the Norwegian men have popped up on innumerable front pages in North America and the popular US TV show “Today” ran a feature on the Norwegian team that even portrayed their own hosts and hostesses sporting the trousers.

Skip Thomas Ulsrud told newspaper Aftenposten that he’s been amazed by the publicity. “We figured there might be a bit of interest, but that it would be this massive never occurred to us,” Ulsrud said. One Canadian TV show has deemed their attire as the best at the Olympics.

Despite their comic appearance, there’s nothing comical about the performance of Ulsrud (at center in photo) , Svae (right) and Haavard Vad Petersson (left) , all of whom hail from the curling club at Snarøya, just west of Oslo. As of Saturday, they’d only lost one match, their opener against Canada, and were well on their way to a place in the semi-finals, if not Olympic gold again.

“We of course don’t want (the trousers) to detract from the actual sports action,” said Trulsen. “I don’t think they do, because on the ice, no one is really paying attention to that.”

(SEE OUR SPORTS NEWS FOR ONGOING OLYMPIC COVERAGE OF NORWEGIAN ATHLETES.)

Aftenposten indicates they have broad public support.

Six out of 10 Norwegians now want to ban smoking at outdoor bus stops and train stations. Nearly 50 percent want to ban smoking in the designated outdoor smoking areas of restaurants, bars and cafés. Fully 67 percent of those questioned want to raise the legal age for buying tobacco to 20, from 18.

Seventy-two percent of those questioned want to see a total ban on smoking for both teachers and students during school hours, both on and off campus. And 41 percent support a proposal to prohibit the sale of tobacco products in the evening, in line with current bans on the sale of alcohol after certain hours. In most Norwegian townships, for example, shoppers can’t buy beer in local grocery stores after 8pm, even though the store may be open longer. Anti-smoking advocates think similar restrictions should apply to tobacco.

The Aftenposten survey, conducted by research firm Respons, indicates that the general public supports even stricter measures against smoking than most politicians. Bent Høie of the Conservative Party, for example, told Aftenposten that he thinks it would be “completely wrong” to restrict tobacco sales in the evening. “That amounts to plaguing smokers,” he said.

Leading politicians for the Liberal Party and the Progress Party also voiced skepticism over the new anti-smoking proposals. “I don’t smoke myself, but there are clear limits as to how far we can go in laying down prohibitions,” said Per Arne Olsen of the Progress Party. The leader of the Liberals, Trine Skei Grande, agreed, saying she wouldn’t support a measure to ban smoking at outdoor bus stops or on train platforms.

Høie of the Conservatives noted that the strong support for tougher smoking bans “indicates smoking is on the way out.” The leaders of both the Conservative Party, Erna Solberg, and the Progress Party, Siv Jensen, however, have been long-time smokers.

The new proposed smoking bans have been fired up by an organization called Tobakksfritt (Tobacco-free), which is made up of Norway’s medical association (Legeforening) , the nurses’ association (Sykepleierforbundet) , athletics organization Idrettsforbundet , the Norwegian Cancer Association (Kreftforeningen) and the labour organization representing municipal and general employees, Fagforbundet . They have presented their proposals to the Health Ministry, with the goal of seeing them turned into laws.

Debate over the construction and locations of new museums in Oslo has been going on for months, if not years. Ambitious plans are on the drawing board, for example, to move the National Gallery’s collections to a location next to the Nobel Peace Center in Vika, to move the Munch Museum to the waterfront redevelopment area at Bjørvika and move the Stenersen Museum’s collection into the new Munch Museum.

Perhaps the most heated debate, however, is that revolving around Norway’s national treasure: The Viking ships that were unearthed in the late 1800s and have been housed on Oslo’s Bygdøy Peninsula since 1936.

The building now housing the Viking ships is Norway’s most popular museum, with more than 400,000 visiting annually. It’s located just next to the outdoor Folk Museum, and not far from the Maritime Museum, the building housing the polar ship Fram and the Kon-Tiki Museum. Officials at the Folk Museum don’t want to lose their famous neighbours, while Thor Heyerdahl Jr, son of the Kon-Tiki’s legendary skipper, told newspaper Aftenposten that the Kon-Tiki Museum will move south to the city of Larvik (Heyerdahl’s home town) if the Viking ships are moved.Technically, though, the Viking ships are part of the collections of Norway’s Museum of Culture and History, which now is housed in a building downtown from 1904 that’s overdue for renovation. It only has around 67,000 visitors a year and its leader, Egil Mikkelsen, wants to build a new, expanded museum that would house both the downtown collections and the Viking ships, at a new location near the waterfront at Bjørvika on Oslo’s east side.

The Museum of Culture and History in turn is part of the University of Oslo. That’s why Tora Aasland of the Socialist Left party has some serious decision making to do, because she’s Norway’s cabinet minister in charge of research and higher education.

She’s now caught in a power struggle between several strong forces, with some fellow ministers and Norway’s Riksantikvar (Jørn Holme, the country’s head of cultural preservation) among those wanting the Viking ships to stay berthed at Bygdøy, and Mikkelsen, university officials and Oslo city politicians among those favoring the new site.

Advocates of the current Bygdøy location say a new, bigger museum could be built adjacent to the current Viking Ships Museum, with one proposal calling for it to be fashioned like a Viking burial mound. Others are skeptical, and want a more spacious, modern structure at Bjørvika.

It remains unclear whether the Viking ships can even tolerate a move, although two studies say they can. Aasland said she needs more time to settle the debate, admitting “it was a bit stupid” of her to initially claim a decision would be made in February.

An analysis of traffic impact from an expanded museum at Bygdøy is due by May. The city doesn’t want to lose the Kon-Tiki Museum, but remains firmly committed to Bjørvika. Aasland is acutely aware of the fight she faces, but claims that “it’s positive” so many forces are engaged in the lively debate.

Newspaper Aftenposten reports that fresh figures obtained from the Information Council for Road Traffic (Opplysningsrådet for Veitrafikken, OFV) shows that Norwegian drivers can only drive at an average speed of 65 kilometers per hour (kph) between the country’s large cities.

That’s down from 67.9 kph in 2008, and places Norway at the bottom of the list of 12 European countries surveyed.

Last year Norway placed next to the bottom, and Albania was slowest. But road improvements in Albania have helped speed traffic up in the impoverished country, with average speeds rising from 64.6 kph in 2008 to 68.1 kph in 2009.The speed reduction in Norway can be blamed on calculation methods, posted speed limits or road conditions, “but regardless, the actual development here defies transport policy goals,” Vilrid Femoen of OFV told Aftenposten .

Road building and maintenance are matters of public debate in Norway. Motorists are often frustrated and politicians claim they aim to improve roads, making them safer and faster. They continue to opt, however, for an expensive piecemeal approach to road building, and even heavily trafficked stretches with high accident rates can go neglected for years. Many of Norway’s highways, notes Femoen, are only narrow two-lane roads, lacking even a center line.

“A lot could be improved simply by widening roads and dividing them with a yellow line to prevent passing,” she said.

Politicians also blame the poor roads on difficult mountain territory and fjords that need to be crossed, but Switzerland, for example, also has had to cope with mountains and has much better roads.

With poor Albania now even surpassing wealthy Norway, state highway officials also point to geographic challenges in Norway, along with political choices. A good highway system in Norway has never been a high political priority.

SAS’ biggest shareholders include the governments of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, plus a Wallenberg family foundation. SAS on Tuesday asked all shareholders, public and private, to come up with SEK 5 billion in fresh capital through a new stock issue.

The funds are necessary, after SAS reported another stunning fourth-quarter loss of SEK 1.52 billion. The loss was nearly half that reported in the fourth quarter of 2008, but nonetheless much larger than expected and comes despite a major cost-cutting program and the elimination of thousands of jobs already.

SAS shares took a new dive on the news, falling more than 16 percent. SAS’ dismal financial report also included news that passenger counts were down around 14 percent in the fourth quarter as well.

SAS has suffered for years from its traditional role as a state-controlled carrier that’s had to deal with myriad labour unions and expensive employee contracts. It has struggled to meet the new world of deregulation and, not least, the emergence of new cut-rate carriers that were unburdened by bureaucracy, multiple layers of management and labour unions that ensured good wages and working conditions for workers. Competitors like RyanAir and Norwegian Air were able to offer low fares that SAS couldn’t match without incurring huge losses. At the same time, the global finance crisis has cut severely into business travel, which long has been SAS’ most important market.Many of SAS’ unions now claim they support SAS management efforts to keep the airline aloft. An additional 650 jobs are likely to be slashed in yet another round of cost-cutting, which already has seen the elimination of the three national units that ran flights within each of the Scandinavian countries. SAS is now managed from Stockholm, with Mats G Jansson at the controls.

His future hung in the balance on Tuesday, with some analysts speculating that he may be sacrificed as well, or give up. The highly respected Swedish businessman took over in January 2007 but hasn’t been able to turn SAS around yet.

Norway’s government minister in charge of business and industry, Trond Giske, announced Tuesday morning that the Norwegian government is willing to take part in a new share issue, by providing NOK 575 million (about USD 100 million) in new capital if the Parliament agrees. The Swedish government is committing SEK 1 billion.

The Norwegian government pumped NOK 800 million into SAS just a year ago, after its heavy fourth-quarter loss in 2008. “But we are setting clear demands on SAS, in return for our participation,” Giske said in a prepared statement. “We have demanded major cost cuts and that the company refinance loans due this year.”

If those demands are met, Giske said the state “believes SAS can be competitive.” So does his Swedish counterpart, Maud Olofsson.

“When the company, employees, creditors and owners contribute together, SAS can be a competitive company,” she said on Tuesday.

Not all politicians are as willing to hand over more taxpayer money to SAS. A spokesman for the Progress Party, Norway’s most conservative, said the state shouldn’t serve as an ongoing source of cash for the airline.

Bondevik, who now heads a peace institute in Oslo, told newspaper Aftenposten on Monday that the Christian Democrats (Kristelig Folkeparti, KrF) “must not shove (Hansen) out of the party, that would be wrong.”

Instead, Bondevik urged party faithful “to take good care” of a talented young politician like Hansen, whoshook up the party’s most conservative factionswhen she suggested reforms aimed at reviving voter support. KrF, once an influential political party, won only 5.5 percent of the vote in last fall’s election, and has slipped even further since.

Hansen’s proposed reforms include tolerance for gay marriage, membership in the European Union, reconsideration of the party’s unwavering support for Israel and its insistence that party leaders declare themselves Christian. Her reforms have been warmly welcomed in some quarters. One professor and political expert noted the irony, for example, that KrF’s insistence on the Christian declaration means the Norwegian party that’s Israel’s biggest backer excludes people of the Jewish faith. “That’s crazy,” Professor Frank Aarebrot told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv .

But the party’s Christian fundamentalists maintain that Hansen is assaulting the party’s very foundation. Some have said she should leave the party, while others question her own Christianity.

“That’s serious and I think we need an end to that,” Bondevik told Aftenposten . “I know her well, and can ensure that there’s no need for such thoughts.”

Bondevik stayed mum when the political controversy broke out around Hansen. He has steadfastly stayed out of internal party politics since retiring several years ago, leaving issues and decisions up to current party leaders. He hasn’t wanted to take on the role of a “party elder” keen to retain influence.

But now he says he’s making an exception. He wanted to wait until current KrF leader Dagfinn Høybråten returned from a trip to the US and had a chance to comment on the controversy. Høybråten did so on Friday, saying that while he disagreed with Hansen’s proposed reforms, he welcome a debate over them when the time was ripe to reconsider the party’s platform. He even indicated he was proud of Hansen.

“I think Dagfinn tackled the situation well … and refrained from the pressure to slap Hansen’s hand,” Bondevik told Aftenposten .

“It’s incredibly important that there’s room for debate within a political party,” Bondevik stressed. “KrF must have the ambition of becoming larger. And then we must tolerate various standpoints, and that goes both ways.”

This weekend’s Melodi Grand Prix in the Oslo Spektrum arena was shaping up to be the biggest ever. Ticket sales were so brisk that organizers boosted capacity inside the arena to nearly 6,000 seats, up from around 4,000 last year.

Public interest in the event has never been so strong among Norwegians, thanks largely to Alexander Rybak’s victory for Norway at the Eurovision final last spring. The winner of Saturday’s Melodi Grand Prix final will go on to represent Norway at the Eurovision final in May, which, because of Rybak’s victory, will be held in Norway.

Nor has the variety of music at a Melodi Grand Prix been so wide. Artists participating have a limited time to perform what must be a completely new song, and then viewers vote. This year, for the first time ever, a black metal band will take part after winning the first semi-final in early January. Their offering is, to put it mildly, quite different from the ballads and pop tunes belted out by their rivals.Norway is internationally known for its black metal music and some thought characteristically tough black metal fans would oppose the participation by the band “Keep of Kalessin.” Not so – the editor of website heavymetal.no , Yngve M Jacobsen, thinks the band’s presence in Melodi Grand Prix will break down stereotypes and introduce more people to black metal music.

“The band was able to show the average Norwegian that even though they sing rather roughly, it’s possible to present a captivating metal song that folks can objectively like,” Jacobsen told newspaper Aftenposten .

He admits some black metal fans were skeptical, and may still be, “but many have changed their minds after the band actually won. This can only be positive, because more mainstream music festivals and media will embrace Keep of Kalessin and check out other bands within heavy metal.”

Most of the other performers Saturday night are more in line with the pop music traditions of Melodi Grand Prix and Eurovision. Included among them are Maria Haukaas Storeng, who won Melodi Grand Prix two years ago, the boy band A1 and Maria Arredondo, who will sing the latest song by Norwegian songwriter and former winner Rolf Løvland to reach the finals. A few well-known artists failed to reach the finals, like Mira Craig, the daughter of a-ha star Morten Harket and the sister of football star John Carew.

Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) will air the song contest spectacle live from Oslo on Saturday night.

(Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste) told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Thursday that foreign countries are “spying more on us now than during the Cold War.” Janne Kristiansen, who took over the top PST post last fall, and her colleagues in other state security agencies are on guard and consider the spying a major threat.

“There’s a lot of interest in Norway,” Kristiansen told NRK. The nature of the top PST job calls normally calls for secrecy, but Kristiansen clearly wants to warn Norwegian private businesses, politicians and government agencies of the jump in spying activity.

PST information, according to NRK, indicates the spying is mostly directed against political leaders in positions of power, the military and private companies. The spies reportedly want access to high technology, confidential NATO information and background into important decision-making.

Kristiansen, a highly regarded defense attorney before taking on the PST job, wouldn’t say which countries are involved in the spying activity. She noted, however, that “distances have become shorter between countries, and new countries are coming forward.”

Officials at Norway’s national security agency (NSM, Nasjonal sikkerhetsmyndighet) have reported a big jump in dataangrep (computer attacks) on the systems of companies and public institutions. NSM watches Internet traffic closely to try to ward off attacks.

Christophe Birkeland, a division director at NSM, said direct attacks are made to enter computer systems and steal information stored on them. “The biggest threat we face today is the threat tied to spying,” he said. Newspaper Aftenposten has reported nearly 5,000 such attacks in the last year, up 55 percent from the year before.

The Defense Ministry’s own security agency reports being attacked every day. “We have indications that foreign powers are behind these attacks,” Major Ivar Kjærem told NRK.

Stoltenberg’s panel of eight experts came up with their prescription for reducing sick leave, boosting productivity and cutting costs. The panel included the heads of the Norwegian doctors’ and nurses’ associations, top union leaders, researchers and a director of employers’ organization NHO.

They agreed on a variety of methods for getting sick Norwegian back to work and keeping them on the job. Their main recommendation involves greater use of gradert (incremental) sick leave and less use of 100 percent sick leave. The idea is that even those with an illness or injury may be able to work on a reduced scale, with doctors, employers and patients working together to find a solution.

The experts also suggested changes in how employers and the state share the cost of covering sick pay. At present, employers cover the cost of a worker’s first 16 days off the job, and then the state picks up the tab. The panel proposed reducing that to 10 days, but in turn employers would be required to cover the cost of a certain percentage of the sick employee’s pay. That would provide an incentive for employers to stay in better touch with workers on long-term sick leave, and follow up on ways of getting them back to work.The report was formally turned over to Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrøm and most politicians and others involved said they needed more time to read it before commenting on its details. Initial reaction, though, seemed positive that the reform sought by Stoltenberg could become reality. Patients themselves were unlikely to lose sick leave benefits.

The report coincided with news reports, meanwhile, that even government ministers have had trouble adhering to sick leave rules when on sick leave themselves. Newspaper Aftenposten reported that ministers haven’t always seen to it that their own sick leave has been registered.

The Defense Ministry saw a need to send out an e-mail regarding “deficient registration of sick leave” and notice of “new routines” to ensure that sick leave is properly recorded.

Justice Minister Knut Storberget, former Transport Minister Liv Signe Navarsete and current Transport Minister Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa all had relatively lengthy sick leaves last year. Even Stoltenberg himself suffered a cold last week, and his wife has been on sick leave after an accident in their new home.

It wasn’t immediately clear which ministers had failed to file proper reports. “I don’t know anything about this,” Stoltenberg told Aftenposten . An e-mail from his communications chief later claimed that doctors’ authorizations of sick leave “are registered in the same way as for all other employees,” but that the Office of the Prime Minister maintains its own overview of sick leave for “political leaders” since those costs aren’t covered by state welfare agency NAV.

Poulsson was a highly decorated member of the Norwegian Resistance, whose 90th birthday celebration in 2008 attracted a visit from King Harald and Queen Sonja.

“As a resistance fighter he was one of the greats,” Arnfinn Moland of the Norwegian Resistance Museum told newspaper Aftenposten on Wednesday. “Now there are only two left of those assigned to Kompani Linge (Norwegian Independent Company 1).”

As part of the Kompani Linge, Poulsson was dropped by parachute in October 1942 onto the Hardanger Plateau along with Haugland (who died in December) and other members of Operation Grouse. Their mission was to sabotage the industrial plant at Vemork that the Germans had taken over and where they were believed to be developing heavy water for an atomic bomb.

Their initial attempt ended in catastrophe, with several of the planes carrying British soldiers crashing and forcing Grouse members to remain in hiding on the mountain plateau through one of the hardest winters in memory. Poulsson, from nearby Tinn, recounted the ordeal in a book republished just three years ago, describing in detail the hunger, cold and sheer waiting they had to endure until reinforcements were sent in February 1943.

They finally managed to break into the Vemork plant, and the sabotage succeeded. Poulsson escaped to Sweden and then to London, and went on to head another branch of the resistance, Milorg D16, until the war ended.

He continued a military career and served among other posts as head of the Danish-Norwegian UN forces in Gaza. He headed the Norwegian King’s Guards from 1961-1965 was promoted to colonel in 1968 and led the third infantry regiment from 1980-1982. He was also an avid hunter, and told a military journalist in 2006 that he was a “good hunting comrade” of King Harald’s.

In addition to his numerous Norwegian service medals he was decorated with the British Distinguished Service Order. He had retired to a home in Kongsberg.

Funeral services were scheduled for Monday February 15 at Uranienborg Church in Oslo, at 1pm.