Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday
Sweden blocks Nord Stream pipe access, Turning Torso lights extinguished, entangled photons and Swedbank trial: find out what's going on in Sweden with The Local's roundup.
Sweden denies Nord Stream permission to examine pipeline
Nord Stream, the company which operates the gas pipeline which has been leaking since a suspected sabotage attack, has said it cannot examine the pipeline as it has not been given permission by the Swedish and Danish authorities.
"As of today, Nord Stream AG is unable to inspect the damaged sections of the gas pipeline due to the lack of earlier requested necessary permits," the company, which is 51 percent owned by the Russian gas giant Gazprom, wrote in a statement.
"In particular, " it added, "according to the Swedish authorities, a ban on shipping, anchoring, diving, using of underwater vehicles, geophysical mapping, etc. has been introduced to conduct a state investigation around the damage sites in the Baltic Sea."
"According to information received from the Danish authorities, the processing time of the Nord Stream AG request for the survey may take more than 20 working days."
Swedish prosecutors this week imposed a ban on all marine traffic, submarines and drones on the entire region around the leaks, with some commentators questioning the legality of the ban. The prosecutors say they have made the decision because police are carrying out an investigation.
Swedish vocab: tillstånd – permission
Malmö to switch off Turning Torso lights
The lights that transform Malmö's Turning Torso skyscraper into a beacon at night are to be extinguished, after the building's owner, the property giant HSB, decided this would help save energy over the coming winter.
The apartment building is the second tallest tower in Scandinavia after Gothenburg's Karlatornet, and at night it can normally be seen lighting up the night sky from more than 30km outside the city.
Swedish vocab: belysningen – the illuminations
Three physicists win Sweden’s Nobel prize for ‘experiments with entangled photons’
A trio of physicists on Tuesday won the Nobel Prize for discoveries in the field of quantum mechanics that have paved the way for quantum computers, networks and secure encrypted communication.
Alain Aspect from France, John Clauser of the United States and Austria’s Anton Zeilinger were honoured “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science,” the jury said.
Each scientist “conducted ground-breaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated,” the committee said, adding that the “results have cleared the
way for new technology based upon quantum information.”
Swedish vocab: ljuspartiklar – photons
Former chief of Swedish bank goes on trial for fraud
Former chief executive of Swedish bank Swedbank, Birgitte Bonnesen, went on trial in Stockholm on Tuesday to answer fraud and market manipulation charges, three years after a money laundering scandal implicating her bank erupted.
In early 2019, Swedish public service broadcaster SVT alleged in an investigative documentary that at least 40 billion kronor (equivalent at the time to 3.9 billion euros, $4.4 billion) of suspicious and high risk transactions had been channelled to Baltic countries, notably Estonia, from Swedbank accounts.
The revelations, which saw the bank’s share price crumble, rendered Bonnesen’s position untenable and she was fired.
Sweden’s financial regulator the following year fined the bank some 360 million euros and warned it to follow anti-money-laundering laws. The aggravated fraud charge, brought in January, carries a jail term of up to six years.
According to prosecutor Thomas Langrot, Bonnesen “intentionally or by aggravated negligence … passed on false information about the bank’s measures to prevent, detect, block and signal suspicions about money-laundering in (its) operations.”
Swedish vocab: grovt svindleri – aggravated fraud
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Sweden denies Nord Stream permission to examine pipeline
Nord Stream, the company which operates the gas pipeline which has been leaking since a suspected sabotage attack, has said it cannot examine the pipeline as it has not been given permission by the Swedish and Danish authorities.
"As of today, Nord Stream AG is unable to inspect the damaged sections of the gas pipeline due to the lack of earlier requested necessary permits," the company, which is 51 percent owned by the Russian gas giant Gazprom, wrote in a statement.
"In particular, " it added, "according to the Swedish authorities, a ban on shipping, anchoring, diving, using of underwater vehicles, geophysical mapping, etc. has been introduced to conduct a state investigation around the damage sites in the Baltic Sea."
"According to information received from the Danish authorities, the processing time of the Nord Stream AG request for the survey may take more than 20 working days."
Swedish prosecutors this week imposed a ban on all marine traffic, submarines and drones on the entire region around the leaks, with some commentators questioning the legality of the ban. The prosecutors say they have made the decision because police are carrying out an investigation.
Swedish vocab: tillstånd – permission
Malmö to switch off Turning Torso lights
The lights that transform Malmö's Turning Torso skyscraper into a beacon at night are to be extinguished, after the building's owner, the property giant HSB, decided this would help save energy over the coming winter.
The apartment building is the second tallest tower in Scandinavia after Gothenburg's Karlatornet, and at night it can normally be seen lighting up the night sky from more than 30km outside the city.
Swedish vocab: belysningen – the illuminations
Three physicists win Sweden’s Nobel prize for ‘experiments with entangled photons’
A trio of physicists on Tuesday won the Nobel Prize for discoveries in the field of quantum mechanics that have paved the way for quantum computers, networks and secure encrypted communication.
Alain Aspect from France, John Clauser of the United States and Austria’s Anton Zeilinger were honoured “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science,” the jury said.
Each scientist “conducted ground-breaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated,” the committee said, adding that the “results have cleared the
way for new technology based upon quantum information.”
Swedish vocab: ljuspartiklar – photons
Former chief of Swedish bank goes on trial for fraud
Former chief executive of Swedish bank Swedbank, Birgitte Bonnesen, went on trial in Stockholm on Tuesday to answer fraud and market manipulation charges, three years after a money laundering scandal implicating her bank erupted.
In early 2019, Swedish public service broadcaster SVT alleged in an investigative documentary that at least 40 billion kronor (equivalent at the time to 3.9 billion euros, $4.4 billion) of suspicious and high risk transactions had been channelled to Baltic countries, notably Estonia, from Swedbank accounts.
The revelations, which saw the bank’s share price crumble, rendered Bonnesen’s position untenable and she was fired.
Sweden’s financial regulator the following year fined the bank some 360 million euros and warned it to follow anti-money-laundering laws. The aggravated fraud charge, brought in January, carries a jail term of up to six years.
According to prosecutor Thomas Langrot, Bonnesen “intentionally or by aggravated negligence … passed on false information about the bank’s measures to prevent, detect, block and signal suspicions about money-laundering in (its) operations.”
Swedish vocab: grovt svindleri – aggravated fraud
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