Free Republic

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Sweden's highest court on Tuesday acquitted a Pentecostal pastor accused of hate speech for having denounced homosexuality as a "cancerous tumor" in a sermon. Ake Green's contentious sermon in 2003 was protected by freedom of speech and religion under the European Convention on Human Rights, the Supreme Court said in a 16-page ruling. Green, 64, became the first clergyman convicted under Sweden's hate crimes legislation, when a lower court found him guilty of inciting hatred against homosexuals. An appeals court overturned the ruling earlier this year, but Sweden's chief prosecutor appealed the acquittal to the Supreme...

The 43 year old Malmö police officer who sent an e-mail containing racist statements to council leader Ilmar Reepalu was freed on Tuesday by Malmö district court. According to the court, the policeman was not guilty of persecution of a minority group. In his email to Reepalu he referred to "criminals called Mohammed from Rosengård" and urged the council leader to withdraw the "massive subsidies to all the bloody foreigners in Malmö". The prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence or fine for the policeman. The personnel department of the National Police Board had already decided that he would be dismissed...

Offering aid to the US (translation from Swedish) Yesterday the US sent out a request for foreign aid in regard to the disaster area in and around New Orleans. The Swedish Rescue Services Agency (civilian emergency rescue authority - own remark) has been in contact with its Euroepean corresponding authorities and the OFDA (Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance), the american equivalent. - It is about securing tolerable living conditions for the survivors, says Kjell Larsson. The agency has sent an offer of assistance through the Swedish Embassy in Washington. It consist, among other things, of water purification equipment, prefabricated houses...

Swedish pastor convicted of hate crimes after branding homosexuals a ”cancer” in a sermon had his conviction overturned by an appeals court on Friday. The court ruled that Åke Green was protected by the country’s free speech laws and that his inflammatory speech against homosexuals during a 2003 sermon, in which he said gays were more likely than others to rape children and animals, was not a crime. Green was convicted in June 2004 and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Fathers in Sweden are discriminated against while mothers cash in on child benefit says Berit Andnor, Swedish Minister for Social Affairs. And now it’s high time to rewrite the rules. As reported in Thursday’s newspapers, Andnor has asked the Swedish Social Insurance Office (Försäkringskassan) to investigate a change in the child benefit system and a report is expected in March this year. "It’s important that all legislation is equal between the sexes," she told Swedish news agency TT. "It’s a matter of principle." Sweden’s child benefit legislation dates from 1947 at a time when, according to Andnor, "one assumed that...

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia Oct. 3, 2004 — Slovenia's Prime Minister Anton Rop conceded defeat after preliminary results showed the center-right opposition winning Sunday's parliamentary elections, putting it in power for the first time since the country's 1991 independence. Janez Jansa's Slovene Democratic Party held 29 percent of the vote six percentage points ahead of Rop's Liberal Democratic Party with just over half the vote counted. Some 1.6 million voters were eligible to cast ballots in 3,400 polling stations across the country. "A much needed political change has come to Slovenia and we have the program and the people to carry out...

A SWEDISH Lutheran pastor, who faked telephone text messages from God to get his nanny-lover to murder his wife and try to kill the husband of a second mistress, has been sentenced to life in jail. The case has fascinated Sweden with its intoxicating mix of sex, death and the workings of an obscure religious sect. The court found Helge Fossmo, 32, a Pentecostal minister in the town of Knutby, north of Stockholm, guilty of inciting Sara Svensson, his children's 27-year-old nanny, to kill his second wife and his next-door neighbour, Mr Daniel Linde. He was having an affair with...

LAHORE: Through a deal thought to cost around Rs 156.6 billion, the Pakistan Airforce (PAF) is trying to induct 60 state-of-the-art jetfighters, Gripen (JAS-39), with the manufacturers, Gripen International - the conglomeration of Saab AB and BAE Systems. These air-superiority combat aircrafts, come at a price-tag of $45 million (Rs 2.61 billion), and are considered the best overall bet in that category. The final delivery of planes to PAF, is expected within three years. The PAF and Saab Scania have already negotiated the deal. However, a final agreement between the Pakistan government and Gripen International is expected to be signed...

UPPSALA, Sweden (Reuters) - A nanny, a clergyman, mobile phone messages from God and murder are the keys to a complicated crime which has captivated Sweden since the start of the year. A trial in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, has revealed a bizarre story of sex and death in the secluded Knutby congregation, which belongs to Sweden's Pentecostal movement. The case dominates media headlines and Swedes, living in one of the world's most secular and liberal countries, have been shocked to find out what went on in the sect-like community. "The story has all the classic elements of a drama:...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi leaders got their way over U.S. opposition on Tuesday to have tribal chief Ghazi Yawar appointed president after Washington's choice stepped aside in a face-saving arrangement between occupiers and occupied. As they met, a massive explosion nearby at the offices of a Kurdish political party just outside the U.S. Green Zone headquarters killed 25 people, police at the scene said. It was not clear what caused the blast. Widespread violence poses the greatest challenge to the interim government's efforts to organize Iraq's first free elections in the new year. After two days of bitter confrontation over...

The way to convey bad news! A mother enters her daughter's bedroom and sees a letter on the wall over the bed. With the worst premonition, she reads it, with trembling hands: It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm telling you that I eloped with my new boyfriend. I found real passion and he is so nice, with all his piercings and tattoos and his big motorcycle. But is not only that Mom, I'm pregnant and Ahmed said that we will be very happy in his trailer in the woods. He wants to have many more children with...

Around 50 retired US diplomats have written to US President George Bush to complain about America's policy towards the Middle East. The letter is similar to one written by 52 former British diplomats to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last week. The former US diplomats complained that President Bush's approach is losing the US "credibility, prestige and friends". They criticised what they say is Washington's unabashed support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The American diplomats said they were deeply concerned by Mr Bush's endorsement last month of Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. 'Great danger' They were...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sweden's prime minister told President Bush Wednesday that the United States must either release or bring charges against a Swedish prisoner held for two years at Guantanamo Bay in the war on terrorism. The fate of Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali was the first subject Bush and Prime Minister Goeran Persson discussed in their White House meeting. Persson is "very concerned about the prisoner" and "I told him we want to work closely with our friends," Bush told reporters after the two leaders met. "We have done so with other countries and we will do so with Sweden." A delegation...

Tony Blair's approach to Iraq and the Middle East was savaged last night by 52 senior diplomats, who questioned his support for America's "doomed" policy in the region. Their unprecedented onslaught came as the Government confirmed it was discussing sending more troops to Iraq to fill the gap left by Spain's withdrawal. The former ambassadors, high commissioners and governors called on Mr Blair to stop supporting President George W Bush's policies unless he could persuade the US to rethink its approach. The diplomats, among them former ambassadors to Iraq, Israel and the UN, told Mr Blair they had "watched with...

The Swedish Queen will be making her american TV debut. The segment will be on at 08.30 am. Would love to hear some comments on her performance.

Hungarian police say a detained Palestinian has told them he planned to bomb the Holocaust Museum in Budapest. Police denied any link with the current visit to Hungary by the Israeli President, Moshe Katsav. Mr Katsav arrived in Hungary on Tuesday for a three-day visit, during which he is scheduled to inaugurate the new Holocaust Museum. Two Syrians were also detained for questioning as police carried out house searches in Budapest. "There is no connection whatsoever between the Israeli president's visit and the particular police action taken today," said police chief Laszlo Salgo. Earlier, a senior official in Mr Katsav's...

A US air strike has killed dozens of people inside a mosque during heavy fighting in the Iraqi city of Falluja, witnesses say. Some reports speak of more than 40 dead in the mainly Sunni Muslim city, but that figure has not yet been confirmed. snip. Other developments: Eight Iraqis are killed in clashes with US troops during a demonstration near the northern city of Kirkuk, police say. A US military helicopter is hit by small arms fire near the central town Baquba. The Americans say there are no reports of injuries. Four Iraqis are reported to have been killed...

This is what makes the Internet great! Tag along as Elena drives her motorcycle through the Chernobyl area and with her camera documents Chernobyl in 2004. Wow! http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/

The man who admitted knifing Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in a Stockholm department store has been jailed for life for murder. Mijailo Mijailovic had denied murder, insisting he carried out the attack because of "voices in his head". But psychiatric tests ruled he was sane when he carried out the attack last September. A court in Stockholm ruled on Tuesday that he was guilty of murder not manslaughter. He will serve at least 10 years before his sentence can be reviewed. Mijailovic had confessed to repeatedly stabbing the popular minister while she was out shopping, but insisted he did...

Fourteen British soldiers were wounded, three seriously, and some set on fire when a demonstration turned violent yesterday in Basra, southern Iraq. At least one explosive device was detonated and a number of petrol bombs were thrown during the protest by people who had failed to obtain work with the police and security forces. Witnesses reported that some chanted the name of the Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, assassinated by Israel. They said: "We are all sons of Yassin." British troops face an increasingly violent stone-throwing crowd. Petrol bombs were also thrown A military spokesman in Basra said stones were...