Taken from today's Aftenposten, Norway's national daily.

The 'Kursk' collided with another submarine?

The submarine 'Kursk' probably sank because of contact with a foreign body. What this object was is still not known, but it could have been another submarine, according to the Russian accident investigation commission.

The vice-chairman of the commission, Deputy Prime Minister Ilja Klebanov, held a press conference on Saturday evening dealing with the findings of the commission. The commission think that in all probability the 'Kursk' sank because it collided with another object. This would have happened at a depth of 16 - 18 metres. This collision led to a powerful explosion, after which the 'Kursk' started to sink. Two minutes after it hit the sea-floor, there was another explosion.

One theory is that the 'Kursk' hit another submarine, either a Russian one, or one from another country. British submarines are often patrolling these waters. On Saturday, the British ruled out any involvement of one of their submarines in the accident.

The collision would have happened at 11.40 local time, last Saturday, when contact with the submarine was lost. The 'Kursk' was located five hours later.

The two explosions were so powerful, that the 'Kursk' was severely damaged, and Klebanov believes that at least half of the crew died instantly.

Another theory the commission are working on, is that the submarine hit a Second World War mine .
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Further to that piece, there is another article in the 'delivered' version of the paper that has Vladimir Zjirinovskij, blaming the Norwegians for sinking it. Hear this:

"A Norwegian submarine has, on a mission for the United States, been following the Russian Navy manouveres in the Barents Sea. The 'Kursk' probably fired a warning torpedo at the Norwegians, who shot back seriously damaging the 'Kursk'

"A planned blowing up of a Russian submarine. What we have here is a direct military confrontation between the armed forces of NATO and Russia", said Zjirinovskij.

He also related the background to this incident: "The American Government is unhappy with the change of direction within Russian foreign policy; contact with North Korea, better relations with Libya, and Moscow's wish to lift the sanctions against Iraq", claims the the ultra nationalist politician."

Curiouser and curiouser.

B.