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Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of May 3, 2016

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Polar bear spotted near town gets ticket to far northeast
A polar bear that wandered near Longyearbyen last Friday has been released  at Ringertzøya in Nordaustlandet, according to The Governor of Svalbard. The three-year-old male, which weighs about 240 kilograms and has been previous tagged by researchers, was not involved in any close encounters with people before laying down on the ice across the bay from Longyearbyen early during the afternoon. Scores of onlookers watched from town as experts from the Norwegian Polar Institute tranquilized the bear a couple of hours later from one the governor’s rescue helicopters and then flew the animal to the northeast portion of the archipelago.

May Day gets low local labor turnout despite big concerns  
Longyearbyen might be facing one of its worst workers’ crises ever, but turnout for this year’s May Day parade was relatively light as about 35 people participated in the march from Svalbard Church to the center of town on Sunday. “This is among the smallest processions we’ve had here on May 1, but it may be due to the good weather and that people are out on tour,” said Robert Hermansen, former administrative director of Store Norske and a participant in the parade for the past 20 years. Local participants in the worldwide labor holiday focused on securing coal mine jobs in Svalbard, ensuring work for all, and protecting wages and benefits against cutbacks. Reductions in worker protections have been a heightened concern of labor leaders in Norway since a coalition lead by the Conservative Party took over the country’s leadership after the 2013 parliamentary election.

Dog gets free from owners, attacks and injures reindeer
A dog got loose and attacked and injured a reindeer last week in Adventdalen, although it’s not known how severely, according to The Governor of Svalbard. Police are investigating the incident as a possible criminal case.

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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