Police closed area around Børsen amid fears of collapse 

Police cordoned off an area around the burnt-out old stock exchange Børsen in central Copenhagen on Sunday night, due to fears the damaged section of the building was about to collapse.

The closed area was opened again around 10pm, however.

Stormy weather in Copenhagen last night was the cause of concerns that scaffolding around the building could be toppled, thereby causing the building to fall. But the danger passed as the weather calmed, police said.

Vocabulary: stormskade – storm damage

Politicians set for talks over military service

Negotiations over whether to extend Denmark’s military service obligations to women are set to enter a key stage.

Two of the parties that are in the group that determines military spending are strongly against military service for women. This means that the government – which favours the change – cannot adopt the policy without breaking an existing parliamentary alliance on the area.

The two parties in question – Liberal Alliance and Denmark Democrats – are set to speak with Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen today in an attempt to reach a compromise.

Vocabulary: forligskreds – group of parliamentary parties that have signed formal deal to determine state spending and policy on a given area

Record number diagnosed with diabetes 

A total of 25,557 people were diagnosed with diabetes in Denmark last year, a record number, the diabetes charity Diabetesforeningen said in a press statement.

The increase is primarily attributed to type-2 diabetes diagnoses, with 24,650 type-2 cases compared to 907 of type 1.

Some 360,000 people in Denmark are currently living with diabetes, but that number is expected to reach 467,000 by 2030.

“This is partly because the population of Denmark is getting older and thereby gets more diseases,” Diabetesforeningen CEO Claus Richter said to newswire Ritzau.

“Additionally, not enough people are aware how much of a difference diet and exercise make in relation to preventing diabetes,” he said.

US troops to mount exercise on Danish Baltic island

US troops are planning to take part in a military exercise on the island of Bornholm next month, marking the third time in three years US soldiers have trained on Danish soil.

Denmark’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, revealed the planned exercise, which will take place between May 1st and May 7th in a briefing to the Danish parliament’s defence committee.

As part of the exercise, US troops will ship an unnamed weapons system to Bornholm Airport, and then set it up in a military exercise area, but would not then fire any shots or missiles. 

“The exercise has a military training aspect, but also sends a signal about the solidarity of the alliance, about American commitment to security in Europe and in our own immediate area,” Lund Poulsen said in the briefing.