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AN EXPLOSIVE DEVICE found by a busy subway station in the Norwegian capital forced police to evacuate late night bars and restaurants, but officials said the device was neutralised and a suspect arrested.
Police Chief Vidar Pedersen confirmed that the device found last night, initially described as “bomb-like,” was an explosive. The police Twitter account said it had been defused or neutralised.
Police would not give any details about the suspect, or further information about the device.
Pedersen said the device was found on the street just outside the Groenland underground station, and police swept through the area to remove people from bars and restaurants.
“Every restaurant was being closed,” said 23-year-old Malin Myrvold, who witnessed the scene from a fourth-storey window. “You could see cops in heavy armor going in every store and restaurant.
“We were trying to see what was going on. The police were screaming at us to get back inside and stay where we were,” she added by telephone.
Norway was put on high alert after neighboring Sweden suffered a truck attack in the capital that killed four people and injured 15. The suspect in Friday’s attack, a 39-year-old native of Uzbekistan, has been arrested. It was unclear whether he was also a Swedish citizen or resident or even how long he’d been in the country.
The Norwegian incident happened less than a mile from the government buildings that were damaged in a deadly bomb attack carried out by right wing extremist Anders Breivik in 2011. That bomb and a subsequent gun massacre killed a total of 77 people.
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I was referred for counselling last April, still waiting. I’ve managed to get myself off opioids after taking them for four years, almost off the anti depressants after twenty years. I asked for help, you wouldn’t want to hold your breath, there is no point the medical council threatening doctors to act unless the necessary supports are available
@Ken Adams: well done for getting off opioids not an easy ride but a sensible one. I agree the services are bismal for thos seeking addiction services.
@Ken Adams: You are one of the strongest people in the population to do that alone. Great things are in your future Ken. You can achieve anything after climbing over that adversity.
Sure, there are a lot of people addicted to these medications but there are also a LOT of genuine patients out there who actually need them and some of you are suggesting “meditation” please do one. Have you ever tried to meditate your way through a traumatic flashback? This doesn’t work. It is simply not feasible. Can we please have medical marijuana and then we will talk.
@2shy: I agree, people shouting about meditation, it really doesn’t work for everyone. Having C-PTSD, I can’t even close my eyes during the day, the risk of dissociation is too high.
And yes sometimes especially at terrible anniversaries I have to be prescribed benzos for a small period of time. My doctor wouldn’t give them to me if she taught my symptoms were minor.
@ʎɥʇɹɐƆɔW ˙ſ: stay strong. I applaud your courage. I practice meditation, and mindfulness, gratitude, exercise etc etc etc. I still need a xanax every now and then to get me past certain moments.
I would hope that the baby isn’t thrown out with the bathwater here so to speak. These medications are dangerously addictive but they have their place. I’m so careful with my usage for fear of becoming addicted but I’d choose addiction over suffering that trauma over and over in my mind.
Stoic Savage said it first. People demand benzodiazepines. Many people will change doctors to get them. Yes, mindfulness works, but requires discipline and patience. Certain antidepressants work as well to help sleep but have side effects and don’t feel as pleasant. Blood pressure medication will help with panic episodes with the same concerns- side effects and less pleasant. People like the effects of benzodiazepines, a pint in a pill. It’s the quick fix that creates a monster.
@Rathminder: 5HTP is one of the best natural anti anxiety tablets with minimal side effects..
To take them away you must replace with something else , ie meditation , psychotherapy . But that’s not available readily , there’s very little support . So mostly GP s and patients are doing the best they can .
Prescribe meditation and mindfulness. It’s free and natural. Can be done any time, anywhere once you get the hang of it.
Can be useful in certain cases over a short period. Difficult for GP’s in certain cases.
Ive been taking them for years and they never affected zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Ruining lives
@STOIC SAVAGE: Patients are demanding the benzodiazepines.
@Chin Feeyin: stop the press… Addicts are demanding what they’re addicted to… Who’d have thought
@Alan Wright: Thay wont be able to sell them for their Smack.
@Derek Moean: judgemental and lazy stereotype
Are doctors prescribing these meds for fun or is there a hidden epidemic of anxiety / depression / chronic fatigue / pain etc that is driving demand.
There is a newly defined immune disease that fits the bill : Mast Cell Activation Syndrome ICD10 D89.40.
Studies by University of Bonn have estimated prevalence in Western countries in the 15-20% range. Here is a video with many refs.
Doctors in Ireland have no training on this disease, it is too new. In medical school GPs get 5 minutes on Mast Cells and are told they don’t go wrong by themselves except for rare Mastocytosis and very rare and extremely fatal Mast Cell Leukemia
@Gavin Tobin: Illness is being driven by man made chemicals like isocyanates, hydrocarbons, hydrocarbon exhausts, artificial fragrances, sulphite preservatives, glutamic acid flavors enhancers, colorants and many more.
Problem is simple. What we eat, drink and breath is making us sick at an unimaginable scale and it is staring us in the face.
@Gavin Tobin:
Some – perhaps – but not all.
If you want something on an imaginable scale go back 100 years to the ‘Spanish Flue or try another old mass killer – TB .
People are living longer and healthier on the whole than any time past.
@Michael Kavanagh: What you say is true but longivity has peaked for example in the USA and is now on the decline. Will this happen elsewhere?
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/09/us-life-expectancy-has-been-declining-heres-why.html
MCAS is a chronic disease and somewhat insideous in a population. To be clear many of the theorised 1 in 6 that may already have MCAS are already sick and are already clogging up our health services with cancers, CV disease, mental health issues and more. So if University of Bonn studies are correct MCAS may already dwarf TB & Spanish Flu.
The same should be done with Statins.
@Dave Doyle: Agree 100%
ADs, pain meds & sleeping tablets actually do something for patient’s who likely have something wrong.
Statins are just a con, mass medication of a population for little or no benefit. How did we get to this?
@Gavin Tobin: Statins have a huge evidence base. NNT to prevent 1 CV event in 10 years is 25 for those with lower risk factors, 14 for higher risk factors (primary prevention) and the numbers are better for secondary prevention (NNT 12-34). You’re talking rubbish. Ref: NICE and SIGN guidelines.
@Tom Tom: You are cherry picking NNT of 25 is for patients who ALREADY have heart disease.
“Treating 1,000 middle-aged men… with pravastatin for 5 years will result in 20 fewer nonfatal myocardial infarctions, 7 fewer deaths from cardiovascular causes, and 2 fewer deaths from other causes’: 111 men need to take this drug for 5 years to prevent 1 death; 110 of these men will not benefit. ‘Number needed to treat’ is much easier to explain to patients than relative and absolute risk, and clearly shows also that most patients taking preventive drugs such as statins and antihypertensives (for high blood pressure) will not gain from years or even decades of taking these drugs, and are far more likely to experience side effects than avoid death from a heart attack”
Many of you don’t know that prescribing all sorts of medications like antidepressants etc. is a very good business. GP gets percentage from each prescription. Also it’s a multi billion industry, don’t be so naive please. Only a small percentage of the patients really need those medications. GPs are treating their patients like plastic toys which are broken and needs to be fixed quickly, in reality they don’t care a single bit what is the real problem and only looking at the symptoms which is not always accurate.
@Peter Bond:
1. The best treatment for depression/anxiety of mild to moderate severity is psychology (CBT). However, getting access to primary care psychology is difficult if not impossible in many parts of the country.
2. Some patients refuse to engage with psychology services or to wait the lenght of time required to see a psychologist.
3. Depression is a massive risk factor for suicide. Treating depression (yes with antidepressants) drastically reduces risk of suicide
4. GPs can’t be GPs, social workers, psychologists, life coaches, counsellors etc all at once ( in a 10-15min consult slot). GPs are dependent on these services being made available to them – which they are largely not, or the waiting lists are so long they are of no use
5. We operate in an extremely litigious system. If a patient presents to a GP with depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and the GP doesnt prescribe antidepressants and refers to psychology and the patient completes suicide while on the waiting list. Who will get the blame and be (likely sucessfully) sued? – yes the GP.
GPs operate as best they can within a rotten system with totally inadequate supports.
@Damon16: No the best treatment is finding the underlying cause of the depression/anxiety and eliminating it.
@Peter Bond: GPs do not get “a percentage” or any benefits whatsoever from a prescription. In the unlikely event that your GP is treating you like a plastic toy you are free to change GPs
@Ger Twomey: When I say they get paid from your prescription I know exactly what I am talking about but if you prefer to think the you do, you are free to do so. You may not gonna believe me but I was taught to use that grey substance which majority of the humans have in their heads before making any decisions so i am aware that changing a GP is possible nowadays. You should probably read my comment more attentively.
@Alan Wright: you’ll know them,they’ll be all over 65
Meditation and mindfulness can be self taught. It is naturally in us but we let modern living over ride our instincts for it. The conscious practicing of it is thousands of years old but let’s be honest, popping pills is much easier and I presume free if you’re over 65.
@Thomas Devlin: I’m 65 and have never been on these tablets.
@Charles Coughlan: I’m 26 and ive never taken panadol. We must be genetic freaks ?!
In 1966 the Sunday Independent reported that young suburban mothers and people living in ‘cramped quarters in town’ were resorting to tranquillisers and sleeping pills to help them cope with loneliness. Four years later the Minister for Health, Erskine Childers said ‘one in every 10 people’ went to sleep under the influence of drugs and he told the Mental Health Association of Ireland that there would be an inquiry into the extent to which tranquilliser and sleeping tablets were being prescribed and consumed. Then, in 1972, it was reported that 17 per cent of prescriptions to medical cardholders in the area covered by the Eastern Health Board were for tranquillisers, sleeping pills and anti-depressants. Pharmacists reckoned that the scale of ‘mild drug use’ was somewhere between 50 per cent and 75 per cent of total prescriptions; an increase of around one-third over the previous three years. In 1977, the Irish Psychological Association issued a statement saying the greatest problem being encountered by psychologists was the use of sedatives and tranquillisers and criticised the ‘tendency of the medical profession to load people with drugs’. The following year the Department of Health said the Irish consumed more sleeping pills and sedatives per capita than any other European country and announced that prescription rates would be surveyed. Nearly five years later use of the tranquilliser drug diazepam, commonly known as valium or‘mothers little helpers’, was estimated to have increased by 53 per cent.
See ‘Love’s Betrayal: the Decline of Catholicism and Rise of New Religions in Ireland’, page 194
Not that long ago in Ireland GPs were prescribing antibiotics for the flu which is simply ridiculous, antibiotics do not work on flu. Start educating people first and we might gonna get rid of the majority of the problems.
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