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Stockholm (AFP) - Swedish police launched a manhunt Thursday after the third arson attack against a mosque in a week, amid growing tensions over the rise of a far right anti-immigration movement. People saw a man throwing something burning at the building," police in Uppsala said in a statement, adding that the mosque in eastern Sweden did not catch fire and that the suspect had left behind "a text on the door expressing contempt for religion." A police spokesman told Swedish news agency TT that the burning object was a Molotov cocktail and that no one was in the building...

Some 40 asylum-seekers refused to leave the bus when they arrived at their destination in rural northern Sweden, demanding that they be taken back to Malmö or "some big city". When the transport arrived at a housing centre in Grytan south of Östersund the asylum-seekers didn't like the look of what they saw. "I am 75-years-old and come from the Middle East. Then I get sent to a place that looks like this," said a man from Syria to the local Östersunds-Posten daily, pointing to the icy road.

The reported rise in Swedes asking for money in other countries comes as the number of foreign beggars in Sweden continues to rise. As hundreds of thousands of Swedes head for sunshine over the winter holidays, police in Australia have reported a rise in young Scandinavians posing as bogus beggars. Sweden and Romania to discuss begging surge (17 Dec 14) Swedish teen caught stealing beggar's money (19 Jun 14) Stockholm launches 'beggar hotline' (13 Jun 14) Swedish tourists are begging on the streets of Melbourne in order to help fund their trips during the holiday season, with the region’s police...

Woe to anyone in Sweden who dissents from the orthodox view that welcoming large numbers of indigent peoples from such countries as Iraq, Syria, and Somalia is anything but a fine and noble idea. Even to argue that permitting about 1 percent of the existing population to emigrate annually from an alien civilization renders one politically, socially, and even legally beyond the pale. (I know a journalist threatened with arrest for mild dissent on this issue.) Stating that there exists a Swedish culture worth preserving meets with puzzlement. And yet, the realities of immigration are apparent for all to...

The acting party leader of the Sweden Democrats has hit out at Stefan Löfven and the Alliance parties for backing out of next year's planned election, and stated the nationalist party is now the main opposition as a result. In the wake of the announcement, dubbed the 'December agreement' on Saturday morning, Mattias Karlsson has reacted with fury and plans to call for a vote of no confidence in the current Prime Minister. "He doesn't deserve to govern Sweden," Karlsson told the TT news agency. The December agreement was thrashed out over the Christmas period and effectively means a minority...

An arsonist set fire to a mosque in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna on Thursday, injuring five people, police said, an incident which comes amid an intense debate over immigration. The immigration debate has pitted the far right, which wants to cut the number of asylum seekers allowed into Sweden by 90 percent, against mainstream parties intent on preserving the Nordic country's liberal policy.

The risk of being raped in Sweden during one’s lifetime is one out of four (if every raped woman is only raped once), which is probably equal to the risk of being raped in countries in war, such as Iraq or Syria. When it comes to rapes, Islamized Sweden is already in a state of war. Sweden does not publish statistics on immigrant crime. If we want to have a hint about who is committing these tens of thousands of rapes and other types of sexual assaults yearly, we can turn to another Scandinavian country, Sweden’s neighbor Norway, the country...

An arsonist set fire to a mosque in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna on Thursday, injuring five people, police said, according to the BBC. About 15 to 20 people were attending midday prayers in the mosque, located in the ground floor of a residential building, when the fire broke out. Local media footage showed smoke and flames billowing from the windows before firefighters put the blaze out. The incident comes amid a fierce debate in Sweden over immigration policies. The far right wants to cut the number of asylum seekers allowed into Sweden by 90%, while mainstream parties are intent...

Swedish defense officials have said a Russian military aircraft nearly collided south of Sweden with a commercial passenger plane shortly after takeoff from Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 12. Sweden's air force chief, Major General Micael Byden, said the Russian warplane's transponders -- which make the plane detectable to commercial radar -- were shut off. Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist called the incident "serious" and "inappropriate," although he added the Russian plane had not violated Swedish air space. "This is outright dangerous when you turn off the transponder," Hultqvist told Swedish radio. Hultqvist said both Danish and Swedish jet fighters were...

This Brilliant Graphic Shows You Which Country Discovered Every Element In The Periodic Table Alex Heber, Business Insider Australia April 28, 2014 When it comes to discovering elements the United Kingdom is at the top of the table. This periodic table graphic was posted by Google Science Fair on Sunday and shows which nations discovered each element on the periodic table. Leading the charge, the UK has discovered 24 elements, closely followed by the US with 21, Sweden with 20 and Germany with 19. A number of old favorites including gold, mercury and copper are listed as “ancient discovery” and...

There's only one real way to compare military strength, and thankfully the world hasn't had many opportunities lately. Despite the potential powder keg in the South China Sea, standoffs in Ukraine, and proxy wars throughout the Middle East, inter-state warfare between the world's military powers has been all but banished from the global scene (for the time being, at least). For a simpler evaluation of military power, we turned to the Global Firepower Index, a ranking of 106 nations based on more than 50 factors including overall military budget, available manpower, and the amount of equipment each country has in...

A small gold plate belonging to Polish family Sielscy from the Swedish Malmoe turned out to be an archaeological sensation. According to the researchers, it is probably a souvenir from the funeral of the Danish King Harald Bluetooth on the island of Wolin, dated to c. 986 AD. The discovery was made by 11 years old Maja Sielska, who diligently did her school homework about the Middle Ages. While looking through pictures of coins from this period in the textbook and on the Internet, the girl saw a plate with mysterious inscriptions similar to the one she had received from...

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...