Swedish News.

Fairly calm New Year’s in Sweden. Actor Per Oscarsson presumed dead in fire. Swine flu back – but no mass vaccination planned. 

  • Fairly calm New Year’s in Sweden
    New Year's celebrations in Sweden seem to have gone fairly orderly despite a lot of drunkenness. However, there are police reports of fires in houses and apartments during the evening and night. For example, fireworks caused several small fires in the Stockholm area just before and after midnight.

  • Actor Per Oscarsson presumed dead in fire
    Actor Per Oscarsson, a household name on Swedish theatres and television since the 1950s, is feared to have died together with his wife, Kia Östling, since their house was burned down to the ground on the night before New Year's Eve. Police technicians have begun analysis of the fire debris, and have found remains but have still not analyzed them. Per Oscarsson, aged 83, has acted in over one hundred films, his last part was as Holger Palmgren in “The Girl Who Played With Fire” of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. In 1966 Per Oscarsson took top honors at the Cannes film festival for his part as Pontus in Henning Calsen’s “Hunger”, based on the novel by Knut Hamsun. Both Oscarsson and Östling are believed to have been home when their isolated house near the small town of Skara burned to the ground.

  • Swine flu back – but no mass vaccination planned
    The swine influenza is starting to spread again in Sweden but this time there will be no mass vaccination. The National Board of Health and Welfare encourages all people who are pregnant or over-weight to get a vaccination but is more cautious on a more general level.