Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands also scored well in Social Progress Index, which takes focus off economic output New Zealand has come first in a global index that ranks countries by social and environmental performance rather than economic output in a drive to make social progress a priority for politicians and businesses. The Social Progress Index (SPI) , published on Thursday, rates 132...
The Swedish football season began in tragedy when a Djurgarden fan died from his injuries after he was beaten up in Helsingborg . The following day hundreds of people gathered at the spot where he was assaulted to pay their respects and protest against the rise in football violence in Sweden...
The Swedish phenomenon on her new album, the music industry's sexual double standards and her ideal festival experience The Observer's A-Z of festivals 2014 in pictures Ed Vulliamy: my life in festivals Win a pair of tickets to the festival of your choice this summer It suits Lykke Li to be interviewed in a photographic studio. White walls and bright lights contrast with the 28-year-old singer's uniformly...
Swedish digital music service Spotify is reportedly talking to investment banks about an initial public offering in the US The Swedish digital music service Spotify could be preparing for a stock market flotation in the autumn. The Stockholm-based streaming service, which was launched in 2008 and is partly owned by the major record labels, is reportedly talking to investment banks about an initial...
Fan of Asterix? Tintin? The Moomins? Pippi Longstocking? Cornelia Funke? Fairy tales? Then you are a fan of translated fiction – that is books that were originally written in another language – even if you might not even know it! Join our discussion on brilliant books that were originally written in a language other than English Send your suggestions of the best translated books to childrens.books@theguardian.com...
Last October a boat went down off the Italian island of Lampedusa, killing 366 migrants on board. What happened next? This is the story of Fanus, a survivor and one of thousands of people who flee Eritrea every year in search of asylum At 2am on 3 October last year , an overcrowded fishing boat drifted less than half a mile off the Italian island of Lampedusa. For the 518 people packed...
In his latest update since discovering he has cancer in his neck and lung, the Wallander author explains why every person with the disease needs someone to lean on It is now two months since I was diagnosed with cancer. I am already well into the second series of chemotherapy treatment. Thus far I have been spared any noticeable side-effects. The fact that a battle is taking place...
Avant-electro act serve as a house band for a production, entitled Europa Europa, conceived by the Swedish art collective Ful Sean Michaels ...
In this week's podcast we look at the latest in crime fiction, and ask why – despite being one of the most popular genres all over the world – it is still not taken seriously as literature. Tom Rob Smith was the first crime writer to make it on to the Booker longlist, with his 2007 novel Child 44. He talks about his latest novel, The Farm, set in what is currently the genre's most popular destination:...
Scandinavian countries are some of the world's happiest places to live. How is this impacting their social sector? "We have a word for social entrepreneurs in Sweden. They're called 'Stipsters' – it means a startup hipster," says Johan Wendt, the entrepreneur behind world-leading Scandinavian social enterprise Mattecentrum . Recently highlighted in Channel 4's series Scandimania as being the happiest...
Hardline group claims responsibility for death of radio journalist in Kabul and accuses him of spying for UK government A Taliban splinter group linked to the kidnapping of a New York Times journalist six years ago has claimed responsibility for killing a British-Swedish reporter in Kabul . The Fidai Mahaz group said it had killed the radio journalist Nils Horner, 51, and accused him of being a spy...
Academic who drafted plan for support from former slaving nations says ‘Our aim is to open a dialogue with European states’ Ed Pilkington ...
s 52% and Finland's 47% – it's almost instinctive to recite the reasons why this is actually a good thing. We claim to be the most equal country in the world, so it can't be that we actually have high rates of rape or harassment or domestic violence. Rather, it must be a sign of all the things we are doing right. And on some levels, that is probably the case. We do OK when it comes to factors that...
One in three women across the EU report having experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse since the age of 15, according to a major survey Ami Sedghi ...
One in three women report physical or sexual abuse since age of 15, with largest number of victims in Denmark Violence against women is "an extensive human rights abuse" across Europe with one in three women reporting some form of physical or sexual abuse since the age of 15 and 8% suffering abuse in the last 12 months, according to the largest survey of its kind on the issue, published on Wednesday....
s technique is controversial because he is accepting wombs donated by living women, who are relatives or friends of his patients. Elsewhere, wombs from dead donors have been used. Dr Richard Smith, head of the UK charity Womb Transplant UK, which is trying to raise money to carry out transplants here, has said that large chunks of blood vessels had to be removed from the donor as well as the uterus...
s files on former PM's murder tracks down former girlfriend of suspect Sweden's national obsession with the unsolved 1986 murder of its then-prime minister Olof Palme – renewed this week by a revelation that novelist Stieg Larsson helped police with the investigation – has taken yet another twist after it emerged that a key suspect no longer has an alibi for the night in question. Palme, a populist,...
Police called to handle angry crowds after mistake resulted in email invitation sent to every job seeker in Stockholm Police dispersed an angry crowd of job-seekers outside an employment office in Stockholm on Wednesday after it accidentally called 61,000 people for a recruitment event instead of 1,000. Staff at the job centre alerted police after several thousand people showed up to the event where...
s career always blurred fact and fiction to some extent. But now it has emerged that the late bestselling thriller writer was probably also the man who tipped off Swedish police about a suspect in the country's most infamous murder. Larsson, who died aged 50 in 2004, before his Millennium trilogy of novels had even been published, let alone sold tens of millions of copies and been turned into successful...
s plan to rebrand the Tories as the "Workers' party" has shocked a lot of people in Britain, but it comes – like many of his ideas – from the Swedish rightwing party the Moderates, and in that context makes perfect sense. The Moderates are not a conservative party; they don't think things were better in the old days. If you're a Swede who is fearful and suspicious of the future you vote for the Social...