Swedish News:

Princess Madeleine helped Elin. Money laundering more common. Call mobility service in Sweden, end up in Senegal. Håkan Juholt – easily moved.  

• Princess Madeleine helped Elin
  We get by with a little help from our friends, don’t we? When Elin Nordegren was feeling low following the break-up with golf pro Tiger Woods, who was there to pull her out if not Princess Madeleine? Princess Madeleine introduced Elin to financier Jamie Dingman at the Red Cross Ball in Florida at the beginning of the year, and now everything’s coming up roses! Jamie has visited Sweden and is said to be deeply in love with Elin. The couple was photographed kissing. Dingman, who keeps a low profile, has previously been linked to actress Bridget Moynahan. Elin and Tiger finalized their divorce in August last year after his sex scandal. They have two children together, 4-year old daughter Sam and 2-year old son Charlie.

• Money laundering more common
  Last year Swedish police received more than 12,000 reports of suspicious money laundering. That’s a 34 percent increase since 2009, according to Finanspolisens (the Swedish white-collar crime unit) annual report. Money laundering, the practice of disguising the origins of illegally obtained money, is not itself illegal in Sweden. However, banks, realtors, car dealers and casinos are required to report suspicions.

• Call mobility service in Sweden, end up in Senegal
  Next year when you order mobile service (transportation service for old and/or disabled persons), chances are you’ll get an operator in Senegal. “Having our service abroad does lower costs,” says Niklas Najafi, Business Unit Director of Mission and Traffic at Samres (travel pool), a company that specializes in transportation services. Why Senegal? “They are a stable democracy in the making,” Najafi says. Out of 500 applicants, 32 were chosen to work as Swedish-speaking operators; all of them had studied English at university level. They are now studying Swedish for nine months—five days a week, five hours a day. According to Najafi, the Senegalese operators will be well paid compared to other salaries in Senegal. Samres has been criticized for hiring foreign people abroad who don’t speak Swedish fluently. But Najafi doesn’t agree with the criticism: “We think we keep a good quality,” he says.

• Håkan Juholt – easily moved
  Håkan Juholt, the new leader for the Social Democrats, is doing his best to profile himself as a friend of culture. In an interview with Svensk Damtidning, he tells the journalist that he is unusually easily moved: “I remember when I was at the movies with one of my sons and saw ‘Tsatsiki, morsan och polisen’ (a Scandinavian film from 1999, directed by Ella Lemhagen). There’s a place in that film when a child suddenly becomes very happy. I really felt that happiness and all of a sudden I found myself sitting there, crying. I was the only one in the movie theater crying…” Juholt’s own cultural leanings leave something to be desired: He claims he cannot draw and he failed the singing test in fifth grade. These days, he says, he tries not to bother his surroundings with song.