An operation to replace a clogged valve in Norway's King Harald V heart began at the Nation Hospital in Oslo early Friday and was expected to take several hours, the royal palace announced. Doctors had been monitoring the valve since at least 1991, and on March 17 announced that it was time to go ahead with what they called a routine operation on the popular 68-year-old figurehead monarch. A palace statement said no other information would be given until the operation is over. The king is expected to need about two months to recover, and his son, Crown Prince Haakon, 31, will act in his father's place during that period.
