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A new opinion poll by Sifo looking at regional accents reveals that Swedes are particularly attracted to how people speak in the western city of Gothenburg. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

German experts are carefully taking apart a complete Celtic grave in the hope of finding out more about the Celt's way of life, 2,600 years ago, in their Danube heartland. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Fredrik Reinfeldt, his wife Filippa and their three children live at Sagerska House on Strömgatan in Stockholm but at a press conference on Friday, the Prime Minister said that the living quarters at the house, which was built in the 1800's, is in urgent need of repair, and was not fit for a family; being cold, poorly ventlilated with leaks from the ceiling and with some windows that cannot be opened from the inside. "Unfortunately when I have been baking bread I have been forced to call the fire brigade," Reinfeldt said. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

"On Saturday evening it is time to light a fire, make some noise, and scare away the wild animals, ghosts and monsters. It is finally the spring celebration of Walpurgis night, known here as Valborg." - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Nokia to cut 4,000 jobs as part of reorganisation via BBC - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Spyker Cars, the Dutch owner of Sweden's Saab, has said that production will remain on hold indefinitely while it searches for a solution to funding problems in order to pay suppliers. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Presenter, 85, crosses Atlantic on raft for WaterAid - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

One Swedish couple's honeymoon this winter unexpectedly turned into a tour of world disasters. Stockholmer Stefan Svanström, along with his wife Erika and their baby daughter departed for their honeymoon in early December. They didn't get far before a snowstorm stranded them in Munich, reports the tabloid Expressen. Eventually, the couple made it to Bali, but it was during the middle of the monsoon rains. After, they headed to Australia, just in time for forest fires in Perth and flooding in Brisbane. When they got to Cairns to see the barrier reef, a powerful cyclone swept through and they had to be evacuated. Next on their list was New Zealand, but as they were on their way, a deadly earthquake shook Christchurch. Finally, the family made it to Tokyo. Two days later, the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since measurements have been taken, struck. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman landed the honour of adorning the new 200 kronor note, while the hot favourite children's author Astrid Lindgren will in the future be the face on the 20 kronor note, replacing the popular Selma Lagerlöf. Former United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld will feature on the 1,000 kronor note, opera singer Birgit Nilsson on the 500 kronor, film star Greta Garbo on the 100 kronor and musician Evert Taube on the 50 kronor note. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

The boys were snowboarding off-piste and crashed into the bear's hibernation cave, waking the mother up and scaring her off from her cubs. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

A Russian boy has answered a message in a bottle from a German child nearly a quarter of a century after it was dropped from a ship into the Baltic. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Australian illustrator and author Shaun Tan has been named the recipient of the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children's literature. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Local police and flying clubs searched the skies above the airport, with no result. Gardemoen’s head of information says the object might have been some kind of glider, a hang glider or a mini-plane. He doesn’t think it was an alien UFO. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

A painting by Anders Zorn, one of Sweden's most prized painters, has fallen foul of Facebook's zero tolerance policy for its depiction of a naked woman in a loft, local newspaper Sydsvenskan reports. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

"Cuckoos' egg forgery skills are increasingly being put to the test, as host birds evolve better defences, say scientists." - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

"Three-dimensional printing from digital designs will transform manufacturing and allow more people to start making things" - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

"A laser can act as a "tractor beam", drawing small objects back toward the laser's source, scientists have said." - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

"A British judge has approved extradition to Sweden of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face allegations of rape and sexual assualt in Stockholm last August." - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Australia's ambassador in Stockholm has written an appeal to Sweden's justice minister for assurances that Julian Assange, an Australian national, will be treated fairly should the WikiLeaks founder be extradited to Sweden. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Photos, Right to Left: 5th Feb; 13th Feb; 14th Feb - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

"A class of grade eight students in southern Sweden was asked to write essays about their sexual fantasies and experiences for a school assignment." - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

In July 2010, a Baltic Sea shipwreck dated between 1800 to 1830 yielded many bottles of what is thought to be the world's oldest champagne. Five of the bottles later proved to be the oldest drinkable beer yet found. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

The link provided by "hogar2010" - third commentator under the article - takes you to the leaked documents. It works at time of writing. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

One of the anti-immigrant party's most prominent names in the area, Arvid Frandsen, was actually born in southern Jylland in Denmark, a region where a particularly rare dialect is spoken. Council chair Christine Melinder of the Moderate Party told the the local Dagens Svenskbladet newspaper back in December that she had never once understood what Frandsen said when taking the floor, and the fellow council members often used the occasions to visit the toilet. Frandsen's dialect is so unique that a Danish interpreter brought in to help translate the Sweden Democrat's comments was also left scratching his head during a December debate, according to the newspaper. The interpreter, who was flown in from southern Denmark to assist Frandsen, took several minutes to work out exactly what point the Sweden Democrat politician wanted to make in the December debate: that all languages besides Swedish should be banned from Swedish schools. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

The phrase "bunga bunga" has become inextricably linked with the private life of Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, and for those who have puzzled over its origins an intriguing new explanation of its meaning has been offered. ... The phrase itself is not new. One of the oldest recorded references dates back to 1910 and another African-themed joke. The infamous Dreadnought hoax was dreamed up by aristocratic joker Horace de Vere Cole, who contacted the British Admiralty pretending to be the Emperor of Abyssinia. He informed officials that he wished to inspect the Home Fleet while on a forthcoming visit to Britain. After enlisting some friends - artists from the Bloomsbury group, including writer Virginia Woolf - to masquerade as his entourage, he turned up at the navy's state-of-the-art ship, the Dreadnought. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

Two of Malawi's most senior judicial officials are arguing over whether a new bill includes a provision that outlaws breaking wind in public. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

How do you do a jig-saw puzzle of 27,000 pieces? In three dimensions? That's the task a handful of archaeologists in Germany have just completed. It took them nine years, with all the pieces laid out in a room the size of a football field. They claim to have enjoyed it. The pieces were the shards of 3,000-year-old sculptures, smashed to smithereens as a result of the British bombing of Berlin in November 1943. The result - 60 fantastical figures of people, scorpions, lions and birds - now stands in a series of rooms in the city's Pergamon Museum. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

"Minister for International Development Cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson, says that it is important that Sweden makes an effort to push for its interpretation of human rights." Like that it's OK to round up Iraqis denied refugee status in Sweden, hold them in police detention, forcefeed them if they go on a hunger strike, restrain them if they try to commit suicide, and forcibly return them to parts of the country where they have a reasonable fear of being killed in armed conflicts. Sweden must stop forced returns to Iraq (17 Jan 2011) http://ua.amnesty.ch/urgent-... European court demands halt to forcible return of Iraqi asylum seekers (5 Nov 2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk... Involuntary returns to Central Iraq contrary to UNHCR guidelines (23 Oct 2009) http://www.unhcr.org/4ae1998... Iraqi government asks Sweden to stop returning Christian refugees to Iraq: "we cannot protect them" (27 Dec 2010)... more... - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

An extensive study of tree growth rings says there could be a link between the rise and fall of past civilisations and sudden shifts in Europe's climate. A team of researchers based their findings on data from 9,000 wooden artifacts from the past 2,500 years. They found that periods of warm, wet summers coincided with prosperity, while political turmoil occurred during times of climate instability. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet

The reclusive Salinger died in January 2010. His son Matthew and widow Colleen O'Neill settled with Cotling in early December. The agreement bars the publication of Colting's book 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye in the US and Canada until The Catcher in the Rye enters the public domain, Publishers Weekly reported on Tuesday. "I'm really pleased with the whole thing, everything always works out for the best. The case is closed, the settlement is done, this time it is finished, which is nice, it took a long time," Colting told The Local on Wednesday. - John Nixon from Bookmarklet