A bikini-clad Swedish police officer has been praised for tackling a suspected thief while she was off-duty sunbathing with friends in Stockholm. Mikaela Kellner told the Aftonbladet daily that she and a fellow officer pursued the man when they realised he had taken one of their mobile phones. She told the paper that she would have intervened "even if she were naked". A photo of the incident on Ms Kellner's Instagram page has attracted more than 9,000 likes in less than two days. The incident is said to have taken place in Stockholm's Ralambshov Park on Wednesday, where the off-duty policewoman was sunbathing with friends.

In 1661, Stockholms Banco, the precursor to the Swedish central bank, issued Europe’s first banknotes, on thick watermarked paper bearing the bank’s seal and eight handwritten signatures. Last year – as Britain did last week – Sweden launched a new series of notes, cheery affairs featuring 20th-century Swedish cultural giants such as Astrid Lindgren, the creator of Pippi Longstocking, Greta Garbo and filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. But like its Nordic neighbours Norway, Denmark and Finland, Sweden is fast becoming an almost entirely cashless society.

The Swedish Government is drafting a law that could lead to fines for listed companies which fail to allot at least 40% of their board seats to women, Industry Minister Mikael Damberg said. If approved, the law will enter the statute books next year, and enforcement begin in 2019, Damberg said. It would allow for fines of between 250,000 and five million kronor (€26,200-€520,000) depending on the size of the company.

During the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, Col. Ernst von Vegesack, a Swedish nobleman and the commander of the 20th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment a unit composed of German immigrants , sat prominently on horseback, while the unit’s banner, emblazoned with the words “Bahn Frei,” German for “clear the way,” streamed high over a ridge near the Dunker Church.

The WikiLeaks founder avoided extradition to Sweden by seeking asylum in the Ecuador's Embassy in London, where he has remained since June 2012.

Government to tackle ‘throwaway culture’ by cutting VAT on fixing everything from bicycles to washing machines

Sweden is often regarded as a model European state, but it has become one of the continent's biggest exporters of jihadists, per head of population.

The students at the Swedish elementary school Söndrumsskolan got a public message from the school principal saying that all use of the swedish flag is prohibited. – We want to make sure the students do not offend anyone using the flag, principal Hans Åkerman told Nyheter Idag.

Days after being awarded the literature prize, Bob Dylan has yet to get in touch with the Swedish Academy, or indicate whether he will attend the celebrations. The Swedish Academy says it has given up trying to reach Bob Dylan, days after it awarded him the Nobel prize in literature. “Right now we are doing nothing. I have called and sent emails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is certainly enough,” the academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, told state radio SR on Monday.

A Swedish city is considering giving jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq free housing, a driver’s license, and tax benefits to ease their reintegration, but social media users have slammed the proposal, saying it ignores the terrorists’ victims. The support for extremists was proposed by Anna Sjöstrand, a municipal coordinator against violent extremism in the city of Lund in southern Sweden. “There may be criticism, but [I think] that you should get the same help as others who seek help from us.

A graveyard free of any religious symbols has been opened in Sweden to cater to the country’s growing number of atheists.  Josef Erdem, a teacher from Borlänge in central Sweden, first proposed the idea because he wanted people to “decide for themselves what their graves should look like”. He said he had grown up in Kurdistan and as a result his worldview had been shaped by having friends from all walks of life. 

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Violence erupted in Stockholm on Saturday as neo-Nazis took to the capital’s streets following Donald Trump’s election victory.  As many as 600 far-right demonstrators from Sweden’s Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) marched towards Sweden’s parliament in the historic district of Gamla Stan, in the biggest march in the group’s history.  Five people were arrested and two were injured after violence broke out between the demonstrators and anti-fascist protest groups. 

Scientists have found what is said to be the submerged remnants of an ancient Stone Age community off the coasts of Southern Sweden, according to a new report in the journal Quaternary International. Researchers were able to recover a 9,000-year-old pick axe made from elk antlers, and eight fish traps crafted from braided hazel rods. …

Sweden’s recycling is so revolutionary, the country has to import rubbish from other countries to keep its recycling plants going. Sweden is so good at recycling that, for several years, it has imported rubbish from other countries to keep its recycling plants going. Less than 1 per cent of Swedish household waste was sent to landfill last year or any year since 2011.

Russia's ambassador to Sweden told a Swedish television audience not to worry about an invasion. "We respect the integrity of Sweden, and we have no plans whatsoever to invade Sweden, so the Swedish population can sleep easy," Viktor Tatarintsev, Russian ambassador to Sweden said Wednesday evening on Sweden's SVT television network, in response to an interviewer's question about Crimea.

An unexpected migrant-propelled baby boom in Sweden has forced the authorities to send expectant mothers to Finland to give birth as the nation faces shortage of facilities to care for prematurely born babies.

Five Afghan teenagers have been convicted of gang-raping a boy in Sweden - but none of them will be deported because their homeland is 'too dangerous', it has emerged. The victim, who is under 15, was filmed during the attack, which happened in woodland in Uppsala, south east Sweden. He was beaten and dragged out to the forest at knife-point before being subjected to an ordeal lasting more than an hour, prosecutors say.

Russia has coordinated a campaign over the past two years to influence Sweden’s decision making by using disinformation, Russia has coordinated a campaign over the past two years to influence Sweden’s decision making by using disinformation, propaganda and false documents, according to a report by researchers at The Swedish Institute of International Affairs. One of the main tools for spreading false information was the Swedish language version of the state-funded news website, Sputnik News, one of the reports co-authors Sebastian Åsberg told Radio Sweden.

The humble fruit sticker may seem an unlikely cause for environmental concern but removing it from produce could create huge savings in plastic, energy and CO2 emissions. In response to consumer demand for less packaging, Dutch fruit and veg supplier Nature & More and Swedish supermarket ICA have joined forces to run a trial to replace sticky labels on organic avocados and sweet potatoes with a laser mark.