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'Feminist porn' movie Dirty Diaries, which received 350,000 kronor ($59,000) in public funding, is to premiere this Thursday in Stockholm. The collection of 12 short pornographic films, all shot on mobile phones, is the brainchild of feminist documentary filmmaker, Mia Engberg. All of the filmmakers are either female or identify as female (one of the filmmakers was born male), and the films are underpinned by the 10-point manifesto (See movie website) of the Dirty Diaries project (intriguingly, point 4 is missing). The project received 350,000 kronor in production support from the Swedish Film Institute, which has attracted criticism from some...

The international community, with more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, does not have an exit strategy and will stay committed for the long term, Sweden's foreign minister said Tuesday. "There is no time line, it is clear that no one has an exit strategy, because we have a transition strategy," Carl Bildt, whose country is currently president of the European Union, told AFP. "It is vital that Afghans have the confidence that we will stay," he said. The emphasis of the foreign presence was shifting, he said, from military action against Taliban-liked insurgents, to training Afghan security forces and helping...

2009-08-19 200 Years Since Sweden Loses Finland2009 ManeuversExactly 200 years have passed since the last military battle was fought on Swedish soil - bloody clashes between Sweden and Russia. The outcome? A defeated Sweden cut in two – loosing its Finnish eastern half, and fearing attacks from European rivals wiping Sweden off the map. The battles were fierce and numerous -– with field artillery and ship's cannons booming from the shorelines and islands of the southern archipelago up through Finland and to the Swedish northeastern coast - above Umeå – to the small northern towns of Ratar and Sävar where...

Art student Anna Odell has been fined by Stockholm District Court after acting out a faked suicide attempt as part of an art project. Odell had denied the charges of false alarm, violent resistance and fraudulent practice, date back to January 21st 2009 when she was detained by police on Stockholm's Liljeholmen bridge following what at first appeared to be an attempt to commit suicide. She was then taken to the psychiatric ward at St. Göran's Hospital for treatment, only to reveal the following day that the whole episode had been faked as a part of her final art exam...

Sweden's fervent defence of free speech has sparked a diplomatic storm with Israel over the government's refusal to condemn an article accusing Israeli soldiers of smuggling dead Palestinians' organs. The row is likely to overshadow a visit to Israel by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt next month, right in the midst of Sweden's presidency of the rotating European Union, a key player in the Middle East peace process. Many ordinary Swedes back the government's stance of not condemning the piece by Aftonbladet, the country's top-selling daily, according to a survey released on Wednesday. In an online poll answered by 24,000...

Sweden is a country of about 9.1 million people on the Scandinavian Peninsula of Northern Europe. Geographically, it is slightly larger than California. It is by any measure a first world country, with a labor force working primarily in industry or the service area, a GDP per capita of about $31,600 and an unemployment rate of 5.6 percent.1 For much of the 20th century, Sweden had a single-payer system of health care in which the government paid almost all health care costs. Like other nations with a single-payer system, Sweden has had to deal with the problem of ever-growing health...

The crisis over the Swedish newspaper article claiming IDF soldiers killed Palestinians and snatched their organs refuses to fade away, with Sweden's Foreign Minister denying a report that his country would work together with Italy to pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism at an upcoming informal meeting of European foreign ministers. Monday's Haaretz quoted Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini as saying that he and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt agreed to work to pass a resolution saying that the EU, under the Swedish Presidency, strongly condemned anti-Semitism and would work against its manifestations in Europe. Frattini, according to the paper, said...

Quite contrary to the received wisdom concerning Islam's advance on Scandinavian soil, recent birth statistics from Stockholm, sole Scandinavian city boasting more than two million inhabitants, indicate that Muslim immigrants of Stockholm fail to keep up with native Swedes in this domain. According to today's edition of the free daily newspaper of City Stockholm, the inhabitants of Sweden's capital have lately been catching up with the rest of Sweden in terms of breeding, which actually is something rather unique. For a long time, Stockholm has been way behind the rest of the nation in this regard (- during the last...

For a world first, the announcement came with remarkably little fanfare. But last month, the Swedish Riksbank entered uncharted territory when it became the world’s first central bank to introduce negative interest rates on bank deposits. Even at the deepest point of Japan’s financial crisis, the country’s central bank shied away from such a measure, which is designed to encourage commercial banks to boost lending. But, as they contemplate their exit strategies after the extraordinary measures of the past two years, central bankers will be monitoring the Swedish experiment closely. Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, has hinted he...

"Police in Skåne in southern Sweden will shortly begin publishing pictures of criminal suspects on the police website, a practice that may soon be adopted all over the country. ... But the initiative has attracted criticism from numerous quarters. The risk is not just that the police publish pictures of innocent people, but moreover that there are consequences for the ability of convicted criminals to rehabilitate themselves in society, according to professor of criminology at Stockholm University, Jerzy Sarnecki. "

"The Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, initiated a media stir in recent days with an article claiming IDF soldiers were harvesting organs from Palestinians. .... Much of the material in Boström’s article came from a book he published in 2001 Inshallah which was jointly financed by the Swedish Foreign Ministry and various other government-backed organizations. "

The "blood libel" against the Jews is back. Again. In the 12th century, an English monk declared that Jews had murdered a Christian boy to use his blood for ritual purposes, and the blood libel was born. Since then, various versions of this hateful lie have spread around the world, taking new twists over time. Despite a Papal investigation that concluded the blood libel was false, nothing could stop the dissemination of this antisemitic deception. Throughout our history, Jews have been brutalized and murdered for such imagined crimes as using Christian blood in the preparation of Passover matzah, poisoning wells...

"Fire fighters in Gothenburg were attacked with stones on Thursday night as they rushed to tackle the latest in a series of fires with suspected connections to youth gangs that have raged across the city in the last week. The rescue workers were met by stone-throwing youths shortly after midnight as they attempted to put out a fire in a newspaper storage box on Tamburingatan in the Västra Frölunda suburb."

Human rights group Amnesty International has argued that Sweden is taking part in torture after the country handed over its first prisoner in Afghanistan to local authorities, according to a report by Sveriges Radio news programme Ekot. "There is an absolute ban on torture and thus also a ban on handing over prisoners to countries in which there is a risk of torture," Lisa Bergh, Amnesty Sweden's Secretary-General, told Ekot. "It is patently clear that prisoners risk torture if they are handed over to the authorities in Afghanistan," Bergh explained. The prisoner was captured by Swedish forces in July after...

Ida Riedel Palmer, 23, was left disappointed when what was advertised as a free "body jam" dance CD with her breakfast cereal directed her to a hardcore porn website. "I chose the brand of cereal because of the free CD. I was at first disappointed but then worried that maybe I had a virus on my computer. I called my boyfriend to check if he had been using my computer, but he told me he hadn't," Ida Riedel Palmer told The Local on Wednesday. The young woman from Umeå in northern Sweden bought the packet of Nestlé Fitness cereal at...

The Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, has refused to condemn a “blood libel” published by one of Sweden’s leading newspapers, Aftonbladet. The article outrageously claims that Jewish soldiers in Israel killed Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. The writer of the article, Donald Bostrom has acknowledged, according to the New York Times, that “he has no idea whether the accusations are true.” Yet a widely-read Swedish newspaper was prepared to publish this undocumented, and highly volatile accusation, without requiring its author to present any credible evidence. This false accusation is reminiscent of the medieval blood libels that falsely accused...

The editor-in-chief of the Swedish newspaper that printed an article alleging that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to harvest their organs denied accusations on Monday that he was anti-Semitic. "I'm not a Nazi," Jan Helin, the chief editor at the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, wrote in a blog entry on Monday. "I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm the editor-in-chief who has allowed the publication of a culture article because it asked a number of relevant questions." The article set off a media frenzy in Israel, where the article's author has been accused of disseminating "a blood libel" against the Jews. Dozens of demonstrators...

Young men who contract sexually transmitted diseases often view their afflictions as an affirmation of their manhood, a new Swedish study shows.Upon learning they’ve been infected with a sexually transmitted disease, some young people simply see themselves as unlucky, while others undergo a maturation process which leads them to be more careful in their sexual habits, according to midwife and University of Skövde researcher Kina Hammarlund.

The story of Sweden's blood libel against Israel gets uglier. Evidence mounts that Swden actually funded the ‘researchers" who charged the IDF with selling body parts of Palestinians. That Sweden was the focal point for this kind of vicious libel is not surprising. But the more important point is that each month now, it seems, new lines are crossed in what is deemed acceptable commentary on Israel in the world press. The demonization of Israel that is breaking out all over, closely resembles the demonization of Jews in Nazi Germany before World War War 2. It is the path to...

"A street festival held in the Rosengård district of Malmö deteriorated into a fight on Saturday evening as activists were forced out by area residents. The “Reclaim Rosengård” street festival, which was conceived as a protest against the social conditions in Rosengård, didn’t exactly go according to organizers’ plans. The event was supposed to get underway at 8pm on Saturday, but after about 15 minutes the activists who had gathered to participate were pushed out by Rosengård residents. The activists' floats with music were also barred from entering the predominantly immigrant neighbourhood. “There were quite a few who had gathered,...

Antagonism between Israel and Sweden over Swedish media accusation that IDF soldiers sold Arab body parts is heating up, in light of evidence that Sweden’s government funded the “research” for the story. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to demand a Swedish government condemnation of the accusations. News of the funding was broken Sunday morning by Maariv/NRG. Maariv’s correspondent in Sweden, Liran Lotker, reports that most of the material in last week’s controversial article is old, having appeared in a book written in 2001 by the author of the article. The book, entitled Inshallah, was funded by various bodies, including...

" 14-year-old girl was raped on Wednesday evening by at least two people in a bush by Grönkullagatan in Helsingborg. The girl, who comes from outside of the city, had arranged on the internet to meet a boy. But when she and a 14-year-old friend came to Helsingborg to meet the boy they were instead met by a gang of five men, all around 18-years-old. According to initial reports the 14-year-old was raped by at least two of the men. Her friend witnessed the attack and called the police."

Swedes are one of the few ethnic groups still allowed to spank the Jews in public:). Worst kind of racists or not, we Swedes know we are superior to all others when it comes to material standard of living, Amen (no, the $ 37, 000 Volvo V70 is not an "average" vehicle in Norway and Switzerland!), therefore we could now begin to foster Israel into a truly PC nation. Israel ought to get a great deal of support form us Westerners, but must accept that free speech is a part of true Civilization. Sweden might have welcomed too many Muslim...

Do Israel Soldiers Eat Palestinian Babies? (photo) An Islamic man in a Nazi-esque Jew mask miming eating dead Palestinian babies during a UK protest. By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem, Israel ---- August 20, 2009 ..... It was reported this week by the Sweden newspaper Aftonbladet that Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. If this is true, could it be that the IDF is now also eating these organs and even possibly selling kidnapped Palestinian babies to some of Israel's finest hotels to be served as "gourmet foods"? Jews and Israelis have been...

(IsraelNN.com) The Swedish government distanced itself Thursday from an ambassador's condemnation of an article accusing Israeli troops of stealing Palestinian Authority Arabs' organs. The Swedish Foreign Ministry clarified that, unlike Ambassador to Israel Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier, it does not view the article as “appalling.” In addition to calling the article “shocking and appalling,” Bonnier said, “freedom of the press and freedom of expression are freedoms which carry a certain responsibility.”

General Motors has agreed the terms of a sale of its loss-making Saab division to Koenigsegg, a Swedish manufacturer of sports cars based near Malmö, employing only 45 people. Augie Fabela, Koenigsegg’s chairman, said that the American carmaker would remain a minority owner in Saab until it became profitable, but added that some finance for the deal had yet to be secured. Koenigsegg is hoping for a SwKr4.3 billion ($778 million) loan to Saab from the European Investment Bank. Koenigsegg also needs to raise a further SwKr3 billion. Carl-Peter Forster, the head of GM Europe, said: “This contract is an...

A Swedish newspaper provoked outrage in Israel and drew condemnation from Sweden's ambassador on Wednesday after it ran a story on transplant organ theft, a report an Israeli official branded anti-Semitic "hate porn". The editor of Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest daily newspaper, hit back hard, at both Israel and at the Swedish envoy for attacking his paper's coverage.

Israel and the Swedish Embassy responded furiously Wednesday to a Swedish newspaper article that suggested Israeli troops killed Palestinians and harvested their organs. The article published Monday in Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest circulation daily, implies a link between those charges and the recent arrest in the U.S. of an American Jew for illicit organ trafficking. Later the reporter told Israel Radio he did not know if the allegations were true Headlined "Our sons are plundered for their organs," the story made news in Israel, where some commentators compared it to medieval libels that Jews killed Christian children for their blood. Daniel...

"Sweden's embassy in Tel Aviv has sharply condemned Sweden's largest circulation newspaper Aftonbladet for publishing an article accusing the Israeli Defence Forces of harvesting the organs of Palestinians. "The article in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet is as shocking and appalling to us Swedes, as it is to Israeli citizens. We share the dismay expressed by Israeli government representatives, media and the Israeli public. This Embassy cannot but clearly distance itself from it," writes Ambassador Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier on the Swedish Embassy website. Aftonbladet's article, 'Våra söner plundras på sina organ' ('They plunder the organs of our sons') has sparked outrage...

A Swedish gay rights organisation has called on the government not to deport any homosexual Iraqi asylum seekers in the light of a shocking new report categorising an extermination campaign against gay men in the Middle Eastern country. The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) has now called on the Swedish government to halt all deportations to Iraq of people who have sought asylum on the basis of sexual orientation or gender. "We urge Sweden to investigate the possibility of evacuating homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people who are at risk of being subjected to 'sexual cleansing',"...

The Gentile world has tried to "pin" Blood Libels on the Jewish People for 3,500 years. It started in the land of Egypt: "Slaves were we to Pharaoh in Egypt," the Bible recounts. The 10th and final plague hit the firstborn sons of every Egyptian. However, by smearing the blood of a slaughtered lamb on the doorposts of the Jewish homes, the death passed over them. Since that day, the stain of Passover blood seemed to follow the Jews around. ...Sweden has taken the "Blood Libel" concept and transferred it from all the Jews to just the Israeli Jews. Most...

A leading Swedish newspaper reported this week that Israeli soldiers are abducting Palestinians in order to steal their organs, a claim that prompted furious condemnation and accusations of anti-Semitic blood libel from a rival publication. "They plunder the organs of our sons," read the headline in Sweden's largest daily newspaper, the left-leaning Aftonbladet, which devoted a double spread in its cultural section to the article.

"Swedish model Ida Pyk launched her first collection this week featuring shirts with pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy, Osama bin Laden or Swedish politician Maud Olofsson on them. For those who are not that into clothes with politicians or terrorists she designed shirts and tights with cocky texts such as “I was anorexic – but I’m ok now”."

"The number of cases of gonorrhea among women in Sweden for the first six months of 2009 was up 31 percent on the same period last year, according to new figures from the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet). But despite the increase among women, men remain more likely to be infected with the sexually transmitted disease."

The far-right Sweden Democrats have increased their support to a record 5.6 percent, according to a new voter poll published on Thursday. The Pirate Party, fresh from its success in the EU elections, has however fallen 1.3 percentage points and enjoys 2.9 percent support, according to the poll by United Minds and Cint which was published in the Aftonbladet newspaper. Since the previous poll in July the Sweden Democrats have increased their support by 1.5 points. Party leader Jimmie Åkesson is aiming for even higher in the general election to be held next year. "Our goal is to land on...

Dictionary tool Double click on a word to get a translationHunters in the south of Sweden have reported an 'explosion' in the elk population in the wake of winter storm Gudrun that swept through the region in 2005. Man dies in motorbike crash with elk (27 Jul 09)Elk couple on Sunday morning stroll through Gothenburg (28 Jun 09) Agency permits sheep-killing wolf to be shot (13 Jun 09) The National Board of Forestry (Skogsstyrelsen) has reported that the elk population appears to have doubled since 2005, according to a recent inventory by hunters, Sveriges Radio's Ekot news programme reports. "In...

Three Ethiopian exchange students 'vanish' during trip to Houses of Parliament By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 24th July 2009 Three African exchange students have vanished during a trip to the Houses of Parliament. The three Ethiopian men were among a group of nine visitors who were staying with families in Hartlepool as part of a three-month visit to the UK. But at the end of a day's tour in the Houses of Commons and Lords, the trio failed to turn up and organisers Global Xchange were forced to report them missing. Missing: Muluneh Tilahun Abera (left) and Habtamu Debela have not...

Swedish emergency services are to launch an internal investigation after a one-year-old boy who received second degree burns was denied an ambulance, reported Aftonbladet newspaper. The boy had spilled a cup of hot tea on himself on Thursday and was burned on his face, neck and trunk. His mother immediately called SOS Alarm, the agency responsible for handling 112 emergency calls and coordinating rescue work. She was told that they should go to the hospital on their own. The journey to Huddinge Hospital took forty minutes. In Huddinge, the boy's condition was deemed serious and he was taken by ambulance...

A retired Norwegian linguistics professor has described Swedes as "stupid" for not being able to understand Norwegian. Norwegians have no problem with Swedish, the professor points out. Finn-Erik Vinje has caused an escalation in what is promising to become an all out language war, by publishing a post on his blog last week asking, "Why are Swedes so stupid?". The citation, Vinje writes, is taken from a publication written 60 years ago but, he claims, remains a relevant question today. The basis of Vinje's assertion is that Swedish viewers of Himmelbå, a Norwegian television series based on the British production...

"Even moderate alcohol consumption while pregnant can have detrimental effects on the health of the child, a new report from the Swedish National Institute of Public Health has advised."

"More than ten cars were set alight in a series of arson attacks across Malmö on Sunday night. Police were unable to confirm on Monday whether the attacks were linked."

Swedish emergency services are to launch an internal investigation after a one-year-old boy who received second degree burns was denied an ambulance, reported Aftonbladet newspaper. The boy had spilled a cup of hot tea on himself on Thursday and was burned on his face, neck and trunk. His mother immediately called SOS Alarm, the agency responsible for handling 112 emergency calls and coordinating rescue work. She was told that they should go to the hospital on their own. The journey to Huddinge Hospital took forty minutes. In Huddinge, the boy's condition was deemed serious and he was taken by ambulance...

A commercial for Apoliva, an assortment of personal care products for Apotoket, featuring Swedish supermodel Adina Fohlin has made a major splash, although not quite the one that the Swedish pharmacy chain was hoping for. Rather than running out to purchase Apoliva products, viewers are running scared. The 30-second ad spot, set to the haunting tones of a Swedish folk song, depicts a close-up of a rather sullen and emaciated Fohlin standing in the snow, rain and sun. The clip ends with the tagline, “Apoliva – for Swedish conditions”. Drudge photo: Almost 100,000 Swedes, many of whom viewed the clip...

A 32-year-old woman has been found guilty of the rape of another woman by the Gothenburg District Court. Paedophile sees jail term cut to five years (5 Aug 09) Man sentenced to six years for four rapes (5 Aug 09) Tel Aviv players freed in Sweden rape probe (31 Jul 09) The court ordered for the 32-year-old to be cared for at secure psychiatric institution after a psychological evaluation found that she suffers from a serious psychiatric disorder. The 32-year-old attacked the young woman in April at the Redbergsplatsen square, located in the city’s Olskroken district. Having pulled her victim...

A commercial for Apoliva, an assortment of personal care products for Apotoket, featuring Swedish supermodel Adina Fohlin has made a major splash, although not quite the one that the Swedish pharmacy chain was hoping for. Rather than running out to purchase Apoliva products, viewers are running scared. The 30-second ad spot, set to the haunting tones of a Swedish folk song, depicts a close-up of a rather sullen and emaciated Fohlin standing in the snow, rain and sun. The clip ends with the tagline, “Apoliva – for Swedish conditions”. Almost 100,000 Swedes, many of whom viewed the clip on YouTube,...

Two scandalous news stories about Swedish medical care -- both from taking the cheapest way out -- by not doing routine brain scans. Story 1, today: Doctors miss fist-sized brain tumour. "A Swedish woman has reported four physicians to a national body that assesses medical negligence after they missed a brain tumour the size of a fist." The docs told this poor woman that it was just her usual headaches, and gave her pain pills. Story 2. Doctors missed pencil in Swedish boy's brain Published: 17 Dec 08 12:38 CE "Two doctors from Karlskrona in southern Sweden have been reprimanded...

"The Swedish Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen - DO) has launched a probe into a case of alleged discrimination at an adult education centre in Stockholm. Two women claim they were not allowed to attend school because they wear veils that only show the area around the eyes. The Ombudsman has now put forth several questions to the City of Stockholm regarding alleged discrimination at Västerort adult education centre (Västerorts vuxengymnasium) regarding the motivation behind the institution's policy prohibiting burqas and other veils. The women both submitted complaints in January 2009 to DO about Västerorts Vuxengymnasium for ethnic and religious discrimination."

Bamboo-wielding guards at the royal palace in Stockholm have damaged a portrait of the first Bernadotte king while in hot pursuit of a renegade jackdaw, TV4 reports. The jackdaw snuck into the royal cabinet meeting room via an open chimney. Royal guards, who were armed with bamboo sticks, chased the bird into the room as it flew directly at the painting. In their attempts to apprehend the flying fugitive, the guards ripped a hole in Fredric Westin's 1838 portrait of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who reigned as King Karl XIV of Sweden February 5, 1818 until his death on March 8, 1844....

"A prominent Swedish MP has insisted that she is not trying to use the European Union's Lisbon Treaty to impose liberal abortion laws on Catholic countries like Ireland, which will vote on whether to accept the treaty in a referendum this autumn. She just wants a proper debate, she says. Birgitta Ohlsson, chairwoman of the centre-right Liberal Party's women's movement, launched a petition last month calling for abortion to be legalised throughout the European Union. The petition, entitled 'Make Noise for Free Choice' is aimed at Ireland, Poland and Malta, all Catholic countries that ban pregnancy terminations. "From a liberal...

Former US president John F. Kennedy had an affair with a Swedish flight attendant, according to a new book based on interviews with current and former Secret Service agents. According to ex-agent Robert Lutz, President Kennedy took a liking to a Swedish Pan Am Flight attendant who was riding on the press pool airplane which typically follows US presidents while they travel. While Lutz, who was assigned to the press plane, had initially planned to ask the good looking Swede out for dinner, members of the Secret Service detail assigned to President Kennedy told Lutz to back off. “She’s part...