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The deputy speaker of the Swedish parliament caused an outrage by suggesting that Jews living in Sweden should ditch their identity if they wish to be considered Swedes. The claim by Bjorn Soder, of the Sweden Democrats party, was made in an interview with a Swedish newspaper, according to the International Business Times. In the interview, Soder said that "most Jewish people in Sweden left behind" their racial identity in order to assimilate. He further said that it would be a problem if there were too many people in Sweden “who belong to other nations” and had non-Swedish identities. Paying...

Stockholm (AFP) - With an assertive Russia next door, Sweden has started to beef up its military after a decade of downsizing, but a credible deterrent may take years to achieve, analysts warn. In one of Sweden's most dramatic steps since the end of the Cold War, it has brought back the option of using reservists to boost its military force, making no attempt to hide the fact that the main motivation behind the move is Russia. Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist went on TV this week to argue the move was necessary against the backdrop of Russia's rearmament and its...

Moscow (AFP) - Russia's defence ministry on Sunday denied a report by Swedish military that a Russian military plane nearly collided this week with a passenger plane over Sweden. Russia's defence ministry did not deny that its plane was in the area at the time of the incident on Friday, but said that it was at a safe distance of more than 70 kilometres (43 miles) from the flight path of the passenger jet. The incident happened amid growing concern in the Baltic region over signs of more assertive Russian behaviour, including Russian planes skirting or violating the national airspace...

In Ireland, taking the name of Israel means becoming a war criminal. A popular Dublin restaurant, The Exchequer, no longer stocks Israeli goods. In the Irish town of Kinvara, retailers, restaurants and pharmacies operate a boycott of Israeli goods. The leading Irish supermarket chain SuperValu removed the Israeli carrots from its shelves. And I have mentioned just a few examples of the new Irish anti-Semitism. It is the same everywhere in Europe: Israel is disappearing from European shelves. Practically and symbolically. The material cancellation of Israeli goods from Europe's shelves anticipates Israel's physical suppression. The French city of Lille suspended...

“Notorious piracy website The Pirate Bay was taken offline yesterday, as part of a raid by Swedish authorities,” Electronista reports. “The server raid in Stockholm, which took place yesterday morning, is said to be performed as part of a large operation to protect intellectual property, with several servers and other computers seized for further examination by the police.” “Yesterday’s event joins copious others in the history of The Pirate Bay where authorities have attempted to reduce piracy,” Electronista reports. “It also occurs just over a month after co-founder Fredrik Neij was arrested in Thailand, after fleeing Sweden following his 2009...

Police in Sweden carried out a raid in Stockholm today, seizing servers, computers, and other equipment. At the same time The Pirate Bay and several other torrent-related sites disappeared offline. Although no official statement has been made, TF sources confirm action against TPB. For many years The Pirate Bay has been sailing by the seat of its pants so any downtime is met with concern from its millions of users. This morning, for the first time in months, The Pirate Bay disappeared offline. A number of concerned users emailed TF for information but at that point technical issues seemed the...

The left-of-center government of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has been forced to call new elections less than three months after taking office.  Unable to pass a budget through the Rikstag (parliament), Lofven faced a choice of either resigning or calling snap elections, slated for March 22, 2015.  Although the budget was the trigger, most observers believe that immigration policy is at the root of the fall.  David Crouch of the U.K. Guardian explains: Sweden’s far right plunged the country into unprecedented political upheaval on Wednesday by forcing the government to gamble on fresh elections in the spring after the...

Sweden's left-of-centre Prime Minister Stefan Lofven says he will call snap elections after his minority government lost a budget vote less than three months after coming to power. He said a new poll would take place on 22 March. ... The Sweden Democrats became the country's third largest party, with 13% of the vote, and is demanding a reversal in Sweden's liberal immigration laws, which party spokesman Mattias Karlsson has condemned as an "extreme immigration policy". Sweden has offered permanent residence to all Syrians fleeing the conflict and has the highest rate of asylum applications per capita of any EU...

Sweden's minority, center-left government teetered on the brink of collapse on Tuesday after just two months in office when a far-right party announced it would vote against the 2015 budget, effectively dooming it to defeat. The anti-immigration Sweden Democrat party, which holds the balance of power in parliament, said it would support an alternative budget proposed by the center-right Alliance opposition bloc, leaving the government isolated.

DAVIS (CBS13) — A UC Davis economics professorhas determined there is no American Dream. Gregory Clark is sharing his research as a hard truth with no hope—whether or not you can get ahead in America is as predictable as any formula. In fact, he says, the formulas for social mobility in the United States show there’s nothing to dream about. “America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England, Or pre-industrial Sweden,” he said. “That’s the most difficult part of talking about social mobility is because it is shattering people s dreams.” Clark crunched the numbers in the...

A political crisis erupted in Sweden Tuesday when the extreme-right Sweden Democrats, the country's third largest party, vowed to block the new leftist-green government's budget, a move that could trigger new elections. "The Sweden Democrats will work towards taking down every government and every budget proposal that supports increased immigration at today's levels," the populist party's acting leader Mattias Karlsson said in a press conference. The party -- which holds the balance of power in parliament -- said its decision was in reaction to the minority government's pro-immigration policies. It pledged instead to support a rival budget proposal from the...

A stray dog that followed an extreme adventure team on a gruelling trek through the Ecuadorian jungle has been introduced to his new family. Arthur formed an unbreakable bond with a group of Swedish athletes during the final stages of a 430-mile adventure race and has now been adopted by one of the team. The canine adventurer refused to leave their sides after one of the team threw him a meatball as they sat down for dinner.

Intrigue over how German-made 12th century blade, adorned in Sweden, reached Siberia... An exciting new theory has now emerged that it could have belonged to Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and came from the royal armoury as a gift at the time of the conquest of Siberia. The hypothesis, twinning an infamous Russian ruler and a revered battle hero, could turn it into one of the most interesting archaeological finds in Siberian history, though for now much remains uncertain. What Siberian experts are sure about is that the beautifully engraved weapon was originally made in central Europe, and most likely in...

In the wake of the horrific terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue this Tuesday, the rabbi of the Jewish community in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, has received deaths threats to burn down his synagogue—with him inside of it. Rabbi Hillel Ḥayyim Lavery-Yisraëli made aliyah (immigration) to Israel at the age of 19 from Canada. After graduating the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, he has served as Gothenburg’s rabbi since 2012. The married father of four serves in the city’s Great Synagogue, which was built in 1865 and is the oldest in the country, and which has now...

A recent study published by Swiss Credit shows that the Scandinavian countries are the countries of Europe where most social inequality is determined. The increase in inequality is one of 15 worldwide major risks identified during the last forum of Davos. Henry Milner is researcher invited to the department of political sciences has the university of Montreal, where he is linked to the research pulpit of the canada in electoral studies. In 2004-2005, i ran the pulpit in Canadian studies to the Sorbonne. He is notably admitted for his expertise on the Scandinavian countries and runs a summer school on...

BRUSSELS - Europe’s new foreign relations chief has denied the EU is in talks on Israel sanctions, despite a leaked paper on the issue. Federica Mogherini, who chaired her first foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday (17 November), told press the leaked paper is a “technical working hypothesis” which “member states requested” when her predecessor was in office. She added: “It is not at the heart of today’s discussions on how to start a positive process with the Israelis and Palestinians. There’s currently no question of sanctioning anybody. The question is rather how to motivate people to … restart...

Oddly enough Swedish ambulance workers didn’t need body armor or have to worry about machete attacks before the place became so very diversified. (via Religion of Peace) “‘- There have been so many incidents. There has been everything from shootings to people with machetes and people smashing ambulances or trying to attack the ambulance staff. We are not safe to the extent we have previously been,’ says Henrik Johansson, president of the Ambulance Association to Dagens Medicin.He explains that the organisation wants that the alarm center and ambulances should have access to the same information that police have on people...

The king of Sweden on Saturday congratulated the people of the “State of Palestine” on their “National Day” in a letter. It marked the first time a European monarch officially hailed the Palestinians’ unilateral declaration of independence in 1988. “On the occasion of the National Day of the State of Palestine I wish to convey to your Excellency my best wishes for your health and happiness and for the prosperity of the people of the State of Palestine,” Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden wrote in a letter to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and chairman of the...

The situation in the gang-controlled no-go zones of Sweden is deteriorating rapidly. Cars are torched practically every day in the ghettos, and Sweden holds the unflattering world record for the highest number of school fires. Despite being a small country of less than 10 million citizens, a 2012 study showed an average of one school being burned per day in Sweden.

As military tensions with Russia continue to run high, northern European nations pledged to boost cooperation against Moscow. Defense ministers from 8 countries met in Oslo for talks. Norwegen Russland Kampfflugzeug Su-34 Eight northern European nations have pledged closer cooperation in an effort to counter a recent increase in Russian military activity in the region. The defense ministers from the Baltic and Nordic states, as well as Britain are holding military talks in the Norwegian capital of Oslo Thursday and Friday. They agreed to improve intelligence sharing and broaden cross-border air force training in the Nordic territories. The meeting comes...