<b>You would need a heart of stone not to smile at the sight of tens of thousands of gay men screaming at middle-aged ladies singing Eurovision ditties, says James Savage.</b>
<b>Stockholm will turn itself into Europe’s semi-official gay capital at the end of this month, as the Europride festival hits town. Visitors will find a city that does gay in its own, understated way, James Savage reports.</b>
Russian telecom operators have drawn up plans to re-route data and call traffic to avoid Swedish eavesdropping, following the passing of Sweden's new law giving spying agency FRA increased powers to intercept communications.
<b>International bookstores such as Amazon might have made it easy and cheap to get English books wherever in the world you are, but sometimes there’s no substitute for browsing the shelves and taking your book home with you. And while Sweden’s numerous English-language bookstores are rarely the cheapest options, they can be great places to broaden your literary horizons, to find books by Swedish authors in translation and to learn about local history and culture. Here are some top tips:</b>
<b>With a large majority Sweden's nine million people living south of Stockholm, Norrland - the northern two-thirds of Sweden - is often described as the continent's last wilderness. And while the winters are harsh and dark, the summer sees the land of the midnight sun live up to its name. Norrland's cultural history is also fascinating: the indigenous Sami people have a distinctive language and culture, which is now flourishing after centuries of discouragement - or downright suppression - by the state. </b>
<b>James Savage looks how Sweden's papers reacted to a controversial acquittal in the case of a man who shot a teenage boy dead in southern Sweden last year.</b>
The international credit crisis has pushed the US dollar and the British pound to new lows against the Swedish krona. The pound was on Wednesday threatening to fall below the 12 kronor mark for the second time in a week, and the dollar was hovering just a fraction above a historically low level of 6 kronor.
A Stockholm art gallery is being accused of holding on to a painting looted by the Nazis despite demands from its original owners for it to be returned.
Swedish consumers fed up with persistent telesales calls will soon have the law on their side, after the government accounced plans to ban pushy sales methods.
Sweden and the Czech Republic, which are due to hold the European Union's rotating presidency in 2009, voiced concern on Tuesday about power-sharing arrangements under the bloc's new Lisbon treaty.
Sweden's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, has joined world political leaders in condemning the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Swedes watch more television than ever before, according to a new survey, indicating increased time spent on the internet not damaging Swedish appetites for TV.
Consumer confidence in Sweden fell drastically in December, according to a new report by the National Institute for Economic Research (Konjunkturinstitutet).
The launch of the most expensive Scandinavian film production of all time was something of a family occasion, as the father-and-son stars of crusader drama Arn - the Knight Templar - turned up for the World Premiere in Stockholm.
Foreigners living in Sweden who are unable to get Swedish ID cards should have cards issued by the police, a government inquiry has proposed. But the new system will not be up and running until January 2009, meaning people who currently do not have ID will have to wait another year.
