Swedish News:

Cold record and continued freeze in Sweden. Best restaurants in Stockholm. New medication for alcoholism? 'Merry Christmas!' Swedes may remain Swedes.  

• Cold record and continued freeze in Sweden
  Cold weather once again visits Sweden. Early on Tuesday, a new yearly record was set with -41.9˚ Celsius (- 43,42˚ F) in the small village Naimakka in northern Sweden. The average temperature in the north is almost 20 degrees lower than normal for the season. The cause is a powerful high pressure that creates cold and clear weather. The freeze is expected to last the whole week. In Stockholm, the cold continues to create problems for local traffic.

• Best restaurants in Stockholm
  Dagens Nyheter gives out annual awards, the so-called Gulddraken awards, to the best restaurants in Stockholm. Some of the best of the best in 2010 according to DN were: Nobis Hotel (in the category “The Year’s Best Innovator”), Operakällaren (in the category “The Year’s Best High-End Restaurant”), Råkultur (in the category “The Year’s Best Budget Restaurant”), 19 Glas (in the category “The Year’s Best Bar”), and Petite France (in the category “The Year’s Best Café”).
  www.nobishotel.se
  www.operakällaren.se
  www.rakultur.se
  www.19glas.com
  www.petitefrance.se

• New medication for alcoholism?
  A new medication for alcoholism can be reality in the future. The treatment affects the brain, and received good results when tested on rats according to a clinical study at Sahlgrenska Academy in Göteborg. The study, however, had to be interrupted. “It started as a clinical study with some partners, but during the process they were bought up by a large pharmaceutical company, which meant the study was put to rest,” says Helga Höifödt Lidö, doctor in Neuropharmacology. Höifödt Lidö is eager to have the treatment tested on humans. “We really think it will have a good effect, the results when we experimented on animals were remarkable.” Among the rats tested, 85% showed positive results. The treatment available today for alcoholism works only for a minority of patients.

• 'Merry Christmas!'
  Posten (the Swedish postal service) just found 300 undelivered Christmas cards, which should arrive at their addressees any day now. The cards have one thing in common: wrong zip code, and were put aside to be sorted manually. In the stress surrounding Christmas, somebody forgot about them until now. Peter Brännström, production manager at Posten, says that the delayed Christmas cards will reach their destination along with a little gift as consolation.

• Swedes may remain Swedes
  Nordstjernan reported earlier about the 28,000 Swedish border commuters who were “threatened” to have to become Norwegians. Have no fear – it won’t happen! Norwegian Minister of Finance, Sigbjørn Johnsen, has issued a press release saying that the Swedes may remain Swedish. The report that the Swedish commuters might have to change nationality met with strong reactions, as the Swedes were afraid of losing their access to Swedish social benefits and emergency health care. “Norway is trying to catch people who are trying to utilize Norwegian social security numbers in order to create a false identity,” says Ewa Björling, Swedish Minister of Trade. “We understand that. But it would have had absurd consequences for those Swedes who work legally in Norway, but have their families in Sweden.”