Morning Briefing – Thursday, October 24

The Copenhagen Post’s daily round-up of the front pages and other major Danish news stories

Oct 24, 2013

Political drama ahead of Greenland uranium vote
Internal disagreements ahead of today’s planned vote on whether to overturn a ban on mining uranium has led to one of Greenland’s governing parties resigning from the ruling coalition. Despite Partii Inuit stepping down, the two remaining governing coalition parties, Siumut and Atassut, maintain a two-seat majority in the 31-seat legislature. It is uncertain how the changes will affect the outcome of the vote. The government is in favour of repealing the ban, but parliament is evenly divided. – DR Nyhederne

SEE RELATED: Greenland readies to vote to end uranium ban (External link to The Arctic Journal)

No extra school hours, despite promise
A majority of schools are failing to keep a pledge to add extra hours to the school year this year to make up for spring’s national teacher lockout. After the lock-out ended, local councils said they would spend the estimated billion kroner they saved during the 20-days children were not in school, but just nine councils confirmed that the extra spending this school year would benefit all children. A further 26 councils said they would target the additional hours. Eighteen councils said they had no plans to give any students extra hours. Parents and educators said all students deserved to be able to make up the hours they lost last year. Councils that do not plan to add hours defended the move, saying they had already scheduled more than the minimum number of hours. – Jyllands-Posten

Rapid rise in steroid induced heart problems
Heart specialists and anti-doping authorities are teaming up to call for a study into illegal steroid use. Their concern comes as hospitals say they have experienced a dramatic rise in the number of steroid-induced heart problems over the past seven years. Major hospitals say they record on average one new person a month, typically body builders, whose heart has been damaged by steroid use. Some require transplants. – Politiken

Retailer readying for sale
The nation’s largest supermarket group could be on its way to being sold. Dansk Supermarked, which operates the Netto, Føtex and Bilka chains, is currently owned by Maersk, the shipping conglomerate. Professional investors have previously suggested that Maersk should sell off non-core business units and invest the proceeds. Nils Smedegaard Andersen, Mærsk’s managing director, said the company did not have plans to sell its share of Danske Bank even though it was not a core-business, but he said that Dansk Supermarked and other “investments” could be sold off to the right buyer. – Berlingske Business

Editorial Excerpt | No pay raise for local politicians
It’s not surprising that local councillors have more work to do after the 2007 municipal government realignment. Councils have become so big that they are often the largest employer in the council. Should local councillors get paid more for their expanded workload? […] Instead of discussing whether local councillors should be paid more because their workloads have gotten to heavy, we should be discussing whether we need to come up with a new way to govern our councils. – Børsen

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