SwedishNews

Lars Gunnar Björklund dies. Kamprad – fifth richest. Topless Rapace. Sweden appeals to Denmark: Don’t legalize cannabis. 

  • Lars Gunnar Björklund dies
    Beloved sports commentator Lars Gunnar Björklund has passed away. He was 75 years old and died. "He was alert and died peacefully after many nice chats with good friends. There was lots of love there,” says his son Daniel Björklund. Björklund suffered a stroke back in 2003, which impaired his vision. It is mostly as a sports commentator that Lars-Gunnar Björklund will be remembered. He is famous for having started Tipsextra in 1969. Tipsextra was an enormous success on TV. To show foreign leagues soccer on Swedish TV was something completely new back then. A few years later, in 1971, Björklund was the recipient of the Stora journalistpriset (a journalist award). “He was an amazing person in every way. Very warm, generous and giving. And almost embarrassingly unselfish. He was a role model in his way of being,” his son says. “For us he was an amazing father figure, he was always around to answer questions. For his grandchildren he was a grandfather in whose lap they’d sit listening to stories. He was probably one of the worlds greatest story tellers.” Björklund also created the first sports editorial staff for TV in Göteborg, and he recruited journalists like Arne Hegerfors, Bosse Gentzel, Christer Ulfbåge, Ingvar Oldsberg, and Fredrik Belfrage. “He kept his good spirits up till the very last moment. He was himself until the end,” his son concludes.

  • Kamprad fifth richest
    Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad is still richest in Switzerland (where he resides) and he's also the fifth richest person in the world. This according to the magazine Bilan, which every year lists the 300 richest people. This year, the 86-year old Swede came in on the fifth spot. The editors of Bilan, calculated that Kamprad’s wealth rose with one billion Swiss francs ($1,078,167,115) during 2012. Meanwhile, Kamprad doesn’t keep the same average growth rate, 9%, as the other 137 billionaires in Switzerland. Bilan has 14 nationalities on their list, 168 of the 300 are Swiss nationals.

  • Topless Rapace
    Look at the girl with the dragon tattoo! She's in Rolling Stones's new music video, sporting not a tattoo but a naked chest. Rapace appears in the promo for the band's latest single “Doom & Gloom.” In it she is seen being chased by zombies, setting fire to bank notes and flashing her bare breasts to cars passing by as she dances by the side of a road. The video was directed by Swede Jonas Åkerlund and shot in Paris. Watch the video on youtube here: The Rolling Stones - Doom And Gloom
    Music and lyrics only: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPFGWVKXxm0

  • Sweden appeals to Denmark: Don't legalize cannabis
    Swedish politicians are appealing to Denmark not to legalize cannabis. Copenhagen's Lord Mayor Frank Jensen wants to legalize pot while also accusing Sweden of passivity over the issue. Now 20 Skåne politicians request an appeal in a letter. Jensen tells Sweden not to use Denmark as an excuse, and in an article published in Danish daily Politikken, says “prohibition politics aren’t working.” He also shares his ideas with the Swedish paper Sydsvenskan where he accuses Swedish politicians of pointing fingers at Denmark while not doing anything about the problem. “Look at the Swedish society,” Jensen says. “Look and see if cannabis is not a problem among Swedish youth. Look at yourself instead of using Denmark as an excuse not to do anything.” Now 20 regional and local politicians in Skåne have written to Jensen sharing their concern over his ideas. With their letter they mark their dissociation from his ideas over loose drug standards in the Öresund region. “If Denmark changes their drug politics, it will have immediate consequences for us here in Sweden,” they write. The letter is signed by the commissioners in 19 municipalities and Anders Åkesson, representative of Miljöpartiet (the Swedish Green Party).