Swedish News:

SD leader banned from Nobel banquet. Swedish nuclear power most non-functional in Europe. Buy 'Lisbeth Salander’s' apartment. Use of cannabis increasing. Sophie Calle – this year’s Hasselblad Award Winner. Josef Fares awarded.  

  • SD leader banned from Nobel banquet
    The leader of the nationalistic Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson, won’t have to look for an invitation to the annual Nobel dinner this year. He won’t find one. The decision might seem controversial, but though the Nobel banquet is broadcast on television and has an aura of official ceremony, it is formally a private party, which means the Nobel foundation has the right to choose whom to invite. Critics fear, however, that it will increase the "underground feeling" that surrounds SD and thereby might be a favor to the party. Said Jimmie Åkesson to daily Aftonbladet: “I believe it is very controversial to make such a clear political point and then refer to Alfred Nobel. This seems to be a political decision.” The Sweden Democrats entered the Swedish parliament for the first time after the September election this year, giving them 20 of the 349 seats.

  • Swedish nuclear power most non-functional in Europe
    Sweden is the country in Europe where nuclear power is most often out of order. This is shown in statistics from the UN agency IAEA. Because of all the problems, the Swedish nuclear power plants could only supply 63 percent of its capacity in 2009, compared with Finland where 95 percent of the capacity was delivered. For a very large part of 2009, four of the ten reactors in Sweden were standing still. Over the last twelve months, the Swedish nuclear industry has filed 211 error reports.

  • Buy 'Lisbeth Salander’s' apartment
    Well, almost. Actress Noomi Rapace, best known for her interpretation of Lisbeth Salander in the Millenium films, is divorcing her husband Ola Rapace, and the couple is selling their luxurious, 5-room apartment in the center of Stockholm for 6 million SEK ($892,499.37). The apartment, which is in a building built during the turn of the century, has been described as “magnificent.” Noomi Rapace is busy these days shooting “Sherlock Holmes 2” in London with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. The couple has a son, 7-year-old Lev.

  • Use of cannabis increasing
    The use of cannabis has increased in the 15 largest municipalities in Sweden, according to a study made by The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Drugs. Also alcohol abuse and addiction to tranquilizers and hypnotics has become more common in Sweden. At the same time there is a decline in the use of heroin and ecstasy.

  • Sophie Calle – this year’s Hasselblad Award Winner
    French artist Sophie Calle from Paris has been selected as the 30th winner of the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. The prize, consisting of SEK 1,000,000 ($150,325.65) a diploma and a gold medal were presented to Sophie Calle on Saturday 30 October 2010 at a ceremony at the Göteborg City Theatre. In conjunction with the ceremony an exhibit of the award winner's work, Sophie Calle - 2010 Hasselblad Award Winner opened at the Hasselblad Center at the Göteborg Museum of Art. Throughout her more than 30-year long career, Calle has become famous for art work where she pursues strangers, or has a private detective shadow her, or filming her own mother dying. “nobody knows anything about me,” Calle says. “What I have experienced 20 other people could talk about too. I don’t want to become too personal. If you do, then it won’t work as art anymore.” And taking great photos is not what she’s about either: “I’ve never been concerned with that. For me it’s more about the idea. Even a bad photo can belong in a piece of work, if it’s the one that best illustrates what I want to say.” The Foundation's citation: "For more than three decades, French artist Sophie Calle has been questioning and challenging the relationship between text and photography, private and public personae, truth and fiction, in a groundbreaking, utterly original way. (---) Her contribution to the understanding of the medium of photography has inspired younger generations of artists." The Hasselblad Award is an international photography prize, awarded for the first time in 1980. It has been presented annually since then, with the exception of the year of Erna Hasselblad’s death 1983. Victor Hasselblad (1906-1978) was a Swedish inventor and photographer who invented the Hasselblad medium format camera. The Hasselblad camera was NASA’s official “space camera”, used by the astronauts on their moonwalk.

  • Josef Fares awarded
    Swedish-Lebanese film director Josef Fares has been awarded Best Director at Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar for his film “Farsan” (“Balls”). In the film Fares let his own father, Jan Fares, play the lead and “Farsan” is a comedy about love, relations and manliness. The award money is $100 000. The Tribeca Film Festival was founded by, among others, Robert de Niro, and The Doha Tribeca Film Festival is a co-operation between the Tribeca Film Festival and the Film Institute in Doha.