FIRST OFF . . .

Norwegian officials Monday moved to set up an international committee to look into allegations of brutality in Norway’s policy of killing baby seals. The announcement came in the wake of hundreds of protests from Swedish television viewers who were angered after seeing a film about Norwegian seal hunting Saturday night. The film shows seal puppies being clubbed to death and seals apparently being skinned alive. The film, “About Seals and Humans,” also prompted similar outrage when it aired last week on Danish and British television. “We are taking this very seriously and that is why we now, with international expertise, look at the allegations and our methods of controlling the seal population,” Norway’s foreign minister, Thorvald Stoltenbverg, told a news conference in Oslo. Norway’s stand is that it needs to control the population of harp and hooded seals to keep them from invading the coastline and ravaging fish stocks. The hourlong documentary was financed by a Swedish and British TV company and is based on video footage taken by a former Norwegian seal inspector.