Glum summer for travel agencies
Warm temperatures and sunny skies in July were an unpleasant experience for travel agencies, who say they were forced to sell package holidays at bargain-basement prices in order to fill airplanes. Travel agencies said most of the trips they sell take place in July, and that they may not be able to make up the unexpected revenue erosion over the next six months. “August is going to be a challenge for us,” Jan Vendelbo, the managing director of Spies travel agency, said. – EPN.dk
Herring bone of contention
The government in Copenhagen finds itself in the uncomfortable position of being required to impose an EU ban on herring and mackerel imports from the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory under the Danish crown, after the EU Wednesday night passed the boycott on the North Atlantic island group. The sanction comes in reaction to Faroese fishermen catching three times their permitted quota of herring. Danish officials said they hope to broker a compromise before the ban goes into effect. Eurosecptics are calling on the government to place the kingdom's interests ahead of EU politics.
Anything to declare?
Six high-ranking officials of Skat, the tax authority, risk losing their jobs in the wake of massive criticism of the agency’s alleged abuse of power earlier this year. All six officials have been asked to submit statements to state lawyers explaining their roles in the heavy-handed tactics used to pressure suspected tax cheats. Tax lawyers said such a request was “unprecedented”. – DR News
Families feel uninformed about relatives’ cancer
Half of all relatives of people suffering from cancer say they feel that hospitals do not provide them with enough information about the illness, a study from Copenhagen’s Bispebjerg Hospital finds. The authors of the report said informed family members were better able to help cancer suffers to get through their illness. – Jyllands-Posten
Symbolic laws send bad signal
Creating laws as a way to capitalise on public sentiment leads to bad policy, say two law professors. So-called symbolic laws, such as the 2008 law that made it illegal to carry most types of knives, wind up confusing people or are simply unnecessary, the two said. “Laws weren’t intended to send signals,” Lars Bo Langsted of Aalborg University said. – Berlingske
Tour de surprise
Danish cyclist Magnus Cort surprised the field – and himself – by winning the first stage of the Denmark Rundt race yesterday. “This is beyond my wildest dreams,” he said after the stage. The 20-year-old, riding for Team Cult Energy, was in a breakaway for much of the day and was able to hold on to claim victory in the five-day tour of Denmark.
