Swedish News:

Goteborg's changing skyline. Pippi has gold in her suitcase. Cold case of vanishing Swedish student closer to solution. 

  • A California Cold case of a vanishing Swedish student closer to solution. Image source: coldcasepedia.com

  • Gothenburg's changing skyline
    Starting next year, Gothenburg's skyline might look very different from the way it looks today. Intensive planning is underway to build new public spaces, buildings and skyscrapers in an effort to create meeting places, homes and commercial interests. “This is an area which has huge potential to develop a stock of residential, commercial and office space. Today there is no housing and there could be up to 1,500 new homes and the creation of 8,000 jobs,” said city manager Katja Ketola. The project coincides with the plans for urban development and renewal along with the new Göta älvbron, Götaleden, and Western Link. Up to 30 skyscrapers, with building to commence in 2016, may be expected. The plans also include various street paths, green areas, and easy access to the railway and waterfront.

  • The Pippi Longstocking brand continues to be a gold mine. Illustration by Ingrid Vang Nyman. Courtesy of Saltkråkan AB.

  • Pippi has gold in her suitcase
    The Pippi Langstrump (Pippi Longstocking) brand, created by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, has been well managed in the 70 years since the red headed, unnaturally strong girl and her monkey Mr. Nilsson were introduced to the world of children’s literature. The overall profit of the company is approximately SEK 200 million ($23,840,400). Pippi Longstocking is a gold mine: “She is the main character in many ways, including financially,” says Saltkråkans CEO Olle Nyman, grandson of Astrid Lindgren. Unlike Pippi who was very generous, “Pippi's brand has been relatively controlled and limited,” according to brand expert Niklas Turner Olovzon. It is therefore keeping its value a long time, and Lindgrens beneficiaries could each stand to get SEK 9.5 million ($1,132,400) in dividends.

  • Kungstorget in Gothenburg. Photo: Lisa Mikulski

  • Cold case of vanishing Swedish student closer to solution
    The U.S. Department of Justice has matched seven bones discovered in a canyon in Fremont five years ago to Elisabeth Martinsson, 21, who disappeared from Marin County, California in 1982. Martinsson was an exchange student from Uddevalla, Sweden who went to the College of Marin and lived with a family in nearby Greenbrae when she disappeared on Jan. 17, 1982, coroner's officials said. Federal officials used dental records to identify the remains in November, Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. Patricia Wilson, an investigator in the coroner's division, told the Marin Independent-Journal.