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Or someone, somewhere pushing an agenda of some kind.
Particularly when you read the more detailed article, which comes off as a bit contradictory to itself.
There's overcrowding, but there are actually three unused wards. There's a lack of staff, but it is actually a 3-hospital complex with a staff of 17.000.

http://www.thelocal.se/31842/20110204/

Pots and pans sound hospital patient alarms
Published: 4 Feb 11 12:07 CET

An overcrowded hospital in Gothenburg has resorted to giving patients in a children's ward saucepans and spoons to summon assistance in emergency situations, according to a union report.

At Östra Hospital in Gothenburg, ordinary bedside alarms are not available to every patient due to overcrowding. The saucepans and spoons were issued in the children's ward to lift their spirits.
At another department, the staff shopped at hardware chain Clas Ohlsson to buy bells for their patients, the Swedish Association of Health Professionals (Vårdförbundet) reported on Friday.

The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) found that hospital overcrowding is common at all nine of western Sweden's hospitals with emergency departments.
"We have long ago passed the limit of what is acceptable. This is a huge problem," a shocked Maria Tenggren of the union, who also works at Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska University Hospital, said in a statement.

At Sahlgrenska/SU Östra, Alingsås and Mölndal, the supply of hospital beds is so scarce that it creates a risk for patient safety, the board wrote in its report.
"We have for years nagged about the problem of overcrowding, but nothing happens," said Tenggren.

She noted that there are currently three empty wards that are ready to open if the overcrowding becomes too much to handle and that the hospital has an action plan in place.
"However, with all the restrictions and reservations that exist, the opening of these extra spaces is rare. It looks great on paper, but it means nothing in practice," said Tenggren.

In addition, the board's inspection showed that at Östra Hospital, patients were relocated to wards where staff did not have the necessary skills to care for them. In addition, they often lacked oxygen and suction equipment, as well as bells.
The staff at the hospital in Mölndal could not adjust to the addition demand for care needed and had personnel who lacked the skills to care for relocated patients.

Mats Tullberg, the chief physician at SU, told newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP) on Friday that overcrowding is a major concern and that the relocation of patients to other departments was not a good sign.
"At most, we had about 80 patients waiting," he told GP.

And those patient numbers sound a lot like the numbers in Ireland or Canada.

I have heard a lot of people say that Assange has a big ego, is a narcissist etc. But when I actually listen to him speak he strikes me as a level headed guy.

Why do so many people think he has a big ego?

From the picture that emerges in the media, Assange is generally good before a camera (not always), and can charm people. However, people who know him, even his friends, generally recognize that he can be dismissive, abrasive, and is encumbered with an ego at least equal to his substantial programming talents. He tends to berate, insult, and drive people away. If he was better with his people skills and treated people with consideration (after he gets what he wants from them), he probably wouldn't have two sets of sexual assault charges lodged against him by women who apparently threw themselves at him for a fling, not a long term relationship.

Unpublished Iraq War Logs Trigger Internal WikiLeaks Revolt

Domscheit-Berg announced his resignation in an interview with Der Spiegel. By then, a key WikiLeaks programmer had resigned as well, sources say. The coder was responsible for building the software tool WikiLeaks’ volunteers were using to perform a painstaking, line-by-line harm-minimization review of the Iraq logs.

Then Snorrason, the Icelandic university student, resigned after he challenged Assange on his decision to suspend Domscheit-Berg and was bluntly rebuked.

“I am the heart and soul of this organization, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organizer, financier and all the rest,” Assange wrote Snorrason. “If you have a problem with me, piss off.”

“I believe that Julian has in fact pushed the capable people away,” Snorrason said in an interview with Wired.com. “His behavior is not of the sort that will keep independent-minded people interested.”

Narcissism?

Assange: 'I'm the only victim' in rape scandal

"The only victim here is me," stressed the 39-year-old Australian spokesman of the whistleblower website notorious for having recently published nearly 77,000 classified US military documents about Afghanistan.

I'd love that. Assume you get sick time on top of that.

Things are really miserable here. Unions overplayed their hands in the 60's and 70's and the wealthy have successfully brainwashed the masses so they get 40% of the income and own over 70% of the country's wealth and yet the nimrods keep voting for them.

However, I can't see how your level of benefits are sustainable either. Sweden may just be the next Greece. Britain pulled it off for over 30 years before everything fell apart.

Of course, here we are going into debt on top of being miserable. At least there, you are sharing in the fun before the tap runs dry.

One benefit of your labor laws is an artificial constraint on labor which lowers the unemployment rate. I also hear that as a people, you are happier. The wealthy do not get quite as wealthy but are still happy.

Of course, your income tax rate is 57% this year... our top rate is 39% but almost no one pays that.

And the cool news is that as of 2011, you no longer have the world's highest tax burden!
http://www.thelocal.se/10402/20080311/
Based on figures taken from the tax authorities in both countries, Danes now have a tax burden of 48.4 percent, compared to 47.8 percent for Swedes.

I'd prefer to pay 5% higher taxes and to have better benefits- but we tried that back in the 60's and 70's and a bunch of boomers basically set up communes and took a decade long vacation at the states expense. Different cultures I guess.

No. It seems like nobody knows why they're there, which makes it somewhat logical to conclude that it really is because "the US doesn't like them".

It's apparently not because they've committed any crimes:
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=254

That particular one was released though, after "only" having been detained without charges for over 900 days.

Interpol issues alert for WikiLeaks' Assange

Sweden's International Public Prosecution Office in Gothenburg issued an arrest warrant for the secretive activist on November 18, citing "probable cause of suspected rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion....

Some of Assange's supporters have accused unnamed forces of framing him for the alleged sexual assaults on two Swedish women in Sweden in August, in order to undermine his campaign to publicise secret documents.

The elusive activist's lawyers have not taken this tack, however, arguing instead that the prosecutor should not need to arrest him simply to question him, as he had proposed several dates and times for questioning.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks' crusade has continued, with this week's dump of the first of around a quarter of a million secret US State Department cables online and a barrage of leaks in world newspapers....

Many countries around the world, including the United States, have denounced the theft and exposure of the cables as a criminal act that undermines global stability and diplomatic practice."

In reality, once we found that out we put a stop to it. Since the US apparently lied to us, we had to find it out ourselves:

Confirmation that the planes were transporting prisoners came in April 2006 after a daring “surveillance operation” was ordered by Swedish security service Säpo and carried out without the knowledge of the Americans.

On Säpo’s orders, Swedish military intelligence agents dressed up as airport service personnel and boarded the plane. The agents reported back that the plane was carrying prisoners.

[---]

no more secret American prisoner transports have landed in Sweden since 2006

http://www.thelocal.se/30626/20101205/

(This story verified by Wikileaks cable releases)

Interpol can only be activated against individuals that are international criminals - their crimes spawn country boundaries.

Assange is a citizen of Australia. He went to Sweden. While in Sweden he allegedly committed acts against two citizens of Sweden that could be criminal acts. The citizens of Sweden complained to the Swedish police. The possible criminal acts were brought to the attention of the Swedish prosecutors who had some disagreements about how serious this matter was, and various legal actions took place. While the Swedish prosecutors were sorting things out, Assange - citizen of Australia who was only visiting Sweden, left Sweden for the UK. Eventually the Swedish prosecutors got things sorted out, and had a warrant from a Swedish court to detain Assange on, "probable cause suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion". Assange lost an appeal to the Swedish Supreme Court, so the warrant continued in effect, and the Interpol notice was made since Assange was no longer in Sweden, and refused to return. He is currently in the UK, under "house arrest", and fighting extradition back to Sweden.

In short: Assange is from country A, allegedly committed a crime in country S, and left for country B before the issue was settled in country S. That leaves him an international fugitive from justice. Interpol deals with that.

Interpol can only be activated against individuals that are international criminals - their crimes spawn country boundaries.

Assange is a citizen of Australia. He went to Sweden. While in Sweden he allegedly committed acts against two citizens of Sweden that could be criminal acts. The citizens of Sweden complained to the Swedish police. The possible criminal acts were brought to the attention of the Swedish prosecutors who had some disagreements about how serious this matter was, and various legal actions took place. While the Swedish prosecutors were sorting things out, Assange - citizen of Australia who was only visiting Sweden, left Sweden for the UK. Eventually the Swedish prosecutors got things sorted out, and had a warrant from a Swedish court to detain Assange on, "probable cause suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion". Assange lost an appeal to the Swedish Supreme Court, so the warrant continued in effect, and the Interpol notice was made since Assange was no longer in Sweden, and refused to return. He is currently in the UK, under "house arrest", and fighting extradition back to Sweden.

In short: Assange is from country A, allegedly committed a crime in country S, and left for country B before the issue was settled in country S. That leaves him an international fugitive from justice. Interpol deals with that.

Renewed rape suspicions for WikiLeaks' Assange

"There is reason to believe that a crime has been committed. Considering information available at present, my judgement is that the classification of the crime is rape," director of prosecutions Marianne Ny said in a statement.

"The basis for further considerations is not sufficient at the moment. More investigations are necessary before a final decision can be made (concerning possible charges)," she added.

A Swedish duty prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Assange on August 20th over rape allegations. But chief prosecutor Eva Finne abruptly withdrew it the next day, saying new information had come to light.

Then last week Finne said there was no reason to believe a crime had been committed, adding however that she had enough evidence to keep looking into a molestation allegation from another woman against Assange.

The lawyer for Assange's alleged victims, Claes Borgstroem, lodged an appeal against Finne's decision to a special department in the public prosecutions office....

Ny, head of the department that oversees prosecution of sex crimes in particular, overturned Finne's decision on the rape claim, and also said the investigation into the molestation claim would be extended.

"Based on the information available, the crimes in question come under the heading of sexual coercion and sexual molestation," she said.

Ny told AFP that overturning another prosecutor's decision was "not an ordinary (procedure), but not so out of the ordinary either."

yet, fscking american media still talks of 'rape'. when you look into legalese of that rape in swedish law, it comes up as something that more than half of american males would be charged with, every few months in their lives.

yet, whore of an 'opinionated entertainment' (in their own legalese) channels like fox and whatnot still fool the gullible with talk of 'rape'.

I guess the Swedish media got it wrong too, eh?

The Stockholm district court on Thursday ordered an arrest warrant for Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, for questioning on "probable cause of suspected rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion" in Sweden in August - Sweden issues global warrant for Assange

Thank goodness you're there to set things straight.

Still wrapping my head around "sex by surprise"

No need, the matter appears as if it could be more substantial than that.

Interpol, based in Lyon in eastern France, later said it had received an arrest warrant for the extradition of Assange.

The Stockholm district court on Thursday ordered an arrest warrant for Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, for questioning on "probable cause of suspected rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion" in Sweden in August. Sweden issues global warrant for Assange

The heat wave in Russia this past summer was unprecedented. A Russian scientists stated it had been at least 1000 years since such a heat wave has occurred there.

... your point being? Let's see what NOAA has to say about that heat wave:

Despite this strong evidence for a warming planet, greenhouse gas forcing fails to explain the 2010 heat wave over western Russia. The natural process of atmospheric blocking, and the climate impacts induced by such blocking, are the principal cause for this heat wave. It is not known whether, or to what extent, greenhouse gas emissions may affect the frequency or intensity of blocking during summer. It is important to note that observations reveal no trend in a daily frequency of July blocking over the period since 1948, nor is there an appreciable trend in the absolute values of upper tropospheric summertime heights over western Russia for the period since 1900.

The indications are that the current blocking event is intrinsic to the natural variability of summer climate in this region, a region which has a climatological vulnerability to blocking and associated heat waves (e.g., 1960, 1972, 1988)

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/csi/moscow2010/

As far as the cold over Europe and the US it is not record setting.

You might want to revise that.

December is on course to be the coldest since records began in 1910, the BBC weather centre has said. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12078425

Coldest December in Sweden in 110 years - http://www.thelocal.se/31072/20101226/

In Berlin gab es Anfang Dezember den absoluten Kälterekord, "seit 100 Jahren war es hier nicht so kalt wie in der ersten Dezember-Dekade", so Globig. Das gelte auch für andere Regionen Deutschlands. - http://wetter.t-online.de/winter-extrem-neue-kleine-eiszeit-ist-jetzt-moeglich-/id_43699628/index

Chicagoans shivered through the coldest December open in 27 years - http://blog.chicagoweathercenter.com/2010/12/chicago-books-its-coldest-december-open-in-27-years-highs-nearly-30-degrees-below-a-year-ago.html

Sometimes I wonder if it's really the global warming advocates who seem to ignore science, at least when it's science and data that don't fit their agenda.

I doubt the charges would stick anyway.

The problem is just whatever our government is stupid enough to let US decide what will happen.

Earlier I would had supposed no, but considering all their misstakes in recent times I don't know what to believe:
* TPB raid
* FRA law
* IPRED
* Since the terrorist attack in Stockholm less than a week ago they are considering letting the police use FRA for intelligence and "looking for terrorists."
* 200 terrorists within the country, who's labeled them? US?
* US allied even beneath parliament level so neither the parliament or people would complain.
* Assange mess
* Asked the US to send people from the Afghanistan government to speak for Swedes about all the amazing stuff we do for their citizens.
* Asked by the US to but preassure on Iran (or something such.)
* WTF are we doing in Afghanistan in the first place?

Not weird they called Carl Bildt a medium sized dog, whatever that's supposed to mean. Clearly there's a lot of ass licking going on on Swedens part.

Why put us to shame with all this filth?

I am highly critical of the release of the cables. It contained very little information for the damage done. I think the decision to release those cables was because they could release them and not due to the insight they provided. My impression is that ego and publicity had a lot to do with it.

CU, Martin

On the contrary, the cables contain plenty of evidence of government wrongdoing, although not necessarily by the US government. As a Swede, it is very interesting to know that the us embassy reports that my government prefers to share information about Swedish citizens using a "strong but informal agreement" instead of having a formal agreement, as such an agreement would have to be discussed by the parliament. If the cable is correct, my government is probably violating the Swedish "grundlag", which can loosely be translated as the constitution of Sweden. See http://www.thelocal.se/30654/20101206/

Googling different combinations of "ambassador", "spying" and other words finds more than a dozen cases of US, Soviet, and EU ambassadors found to be doing espionage.

I'm not sure why this is at all surprising. Embassies are frequently used as hubs for spy rings. That's why countries are so picky about letting them in. Again, I'd post links, but you could enter the term "embassy spies" into Google, and it would give you links, from all sorts of different nations.

I would be very surprised if say, the Chinese, weren't using their embassies to collect similar kinds of data, like biometrics.

(Hey look! They are spying from their embassies... http://www.thelocal.se/20212/20090622/ )

http://www.thelocal.se/19376/20090511/

Discussions of rape nowadays use examples of women who are asleep, or have taken drugs or drunk too much alcohol, in order to argue that they cannot properly consent to sex. If they feel taken advantage of the next day, they may call what happened rape. The Daphne project’s Sweden researchers propose that those accused of rape ought to have to ‘prove consent’, but attempts to legislate and document seduction and desire are unlikely to succeed.

I'm sure someone who speaks the language can provide some case law, but I'm sure you'd demand to see the original documents.

PS Obama was born in Hawaii. True story.

Sorry, but your information is outdated. They are no longer with PRQ. Admittedly, that news is from only two days ago.

...the first place to test Internet speeds up to one gigabit per second

I think not. Peter Lothberg's Mom has had 40 Gbps for over 3 years now.

No, the quote was used in the wrong context. He was not referring to his laptop/data but his calendar which was in the stolen backpack that was returned by the thief (backpack with calendar, other documents etc) a few hours later. Then, a week later he also got the USB with his work for which we simply know that it was not backed up well...
Way to go Telegraph. Read this instead: http://www.thelocal.se/29636/20101015/

Why are we still discussing the "rape" when both the girls denied that he raped them. They may proceed with charges of harassment/molestation which are a different thing altogether. Those charges mean very different things than they do in the US. If I remember correctly what they are currently alleging (or last I read) was that he didn't use a condom when they asked him to, or he took it off after he put it on without telling them or something to that effect. http://www.thelocal.se/28504/20100821 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11049316 http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article7651572.ab

INTERPOL is not a Swedish organization, as you must know. You might as well have listed the US definition of rape. Here is something that actually has to do with Sweden:

http://www.thelocal.se/19376/20090511/

Doesn't go into detail, but it does mention that the Swedish definition of rape is broader than in other countries. That's what I found on the first page of Googling for "rape definition sweden". If you really care about the matter you can probably find something more specific.

It sounds like you've missed the latest turn in the sequence of the prosecutor flip flopping. Here's a recap:

    20. August 2010: Duty prosecutor Maria Häljebo Kjellstrand decides it looks like rape
    21. August 2010: Higher ranking prosecutor Eva Finné decides it doesn't
      1. September 2010: Chief prosecutor Marianne Ny decides actually it does look like rape

Source #1: http://www.thelocal.se/28704/20100901/
Source #2: http://www.aklagare.se/In-English/

They've already said they've withdrawn the charge of rape http://www.thelocal.se/28504/20100821, and are now only pursuing him for the molestation charge -- which in and of itself is a charged statement. The sex was said to be consensual and that the molestation charge hinges on weather or not knew the condom broke during intercourse and if it was intentional or not.

So, why does /. continue to perpetuate the assertion that he's being persued with a 'rape' charge?

Swedish rape laws are a bit different than the ones you know about. Much more strict as well. http://www.thelocal.se/19376/20090511/

Apparently while at his mothers house he attempted it, reports are still coming in but they are showing pictures of the ambulance in front of his mother place.

This sucks and doesn't look good for him.

http://www.thelocal.se/28496/20100873/

http://www.thelocal.se/28504/20100821/

The warrant for the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been withdrawn, after chief prosecutor Eva Finné ruled that there were no grounds to suspect that he had committed rape, the Swedish prosecutor's office has confirmed.

Different countries defines "rape" differently.

The figures can however be somewhat distorted as it is often only assault rapes by strangers and aggravated acquaintance rapes that are reported in many of these countries - as was the case in Sweden 40 years ago.

http://www.thelocal.se/19102/20090427/

There's also the question about how many rapes are actually reported.

So how do you explain the larger number of reported rapes in Sweden then?

http://www.thelocal.se/19102/20090427/

"Sweden has the highest incidence of reported rapes in Europe - twice as many as "runner up" the UK, a new study shows."

Why is the link to a private blog instead of the real news article? http://www.thelocal.se/28150/20100803/

http://www.thelocal.se/6076/20070112/

...
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sw.html

Since the 70s or something we've let in lots of immigrants and I think we give the most foreign aid in the world relative population size.

Many of those immigrants end up in suburbs with low employment rates, though as an American you'll most likely be seen as a hero rather than a zero in the job market I assume. Don't know, I'm no employer =P. At least people may assume you've got an education and competence. Education btw is free over here, you even get some money as a student.

Start your visit in Stockholm and travel outward. Here you have some information about working in Sweden, and here you've got ads for Stockholm.

apparently the article was written before word reached torrentfreak about an important development.

teliasonera says it feels so strongly about user privacy that it will take the matter all the way to the swedish supreme court.

"'what we have done today is to announce to the public that we will appeal,' patrik hiselius, the senior adviser of public affairs of the swedish-finnish firm told AFP, adding the company had until june 7th to submit its appeal."

more here

- js.

will be fresh meat for horny inmates after the lack of understanding of online law about what they post.

Very recent example of this is the student who posted his threat of a university massacre to 4chan. The Swedish police got the willing and eager help of moot to track him down and he is now spending time on a a few years paid vacation in Swedish jail.

In other news, a Swedish couple got fined for FAKE sex. It is not known if they would have been fined if they had actually had REAL sex.

will be fresh meat for horny inmates after the lack of understanding of online law about what they post.

Very recent example of this is the student who posted his threat of a university massacre to 4chan. The Swedish police got the willing and eager help of moot to track him down and he is now spending time on a a few years paid vacation in Swedish jail.

In other news, a Swedish couple got fined for FAKE sex. It is not known if they would have been fined if they had actually had REAL sex.

Erm, the press did name and shame the judge, it's been pretty high profile.

Why do you think the pirate party has two members of the European parliament when Sweden only gets a total of 12 members? The Swedish people were so outraged they were willing to place their vote on it.

At least have a clue about what you're talking about before making such ignorant assumptions please. Really, it'd only take a quick Google search to find out that your suggestion that this hasn't been discussed in mainstream media - national and international is false.

Oh, and stop misrepresenting the link you posted- it's the corruption perceptions index, not the corruption index. Perception and reality are not always the same thing so please don't try and sell them as so. Here, enjoy some facts:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/retrial-threatened-as-judge-denies-conflict-of-interest-in-pirate-bay-trial-1673261.html

http://www.thelocal.se/22602/20091012/

Perhaps the most damning though, is this:

http://torrentfreak.com//images/pirate_mpa.pdf

The letter was followed by a police raid against The Pirate Bay, after which eventually no criminal charges were brought and equipment eventually returned to them.

Bear in mind also, that the judgement against the pirate bay folks was even known by the MPAA and so forth and leaked to them before the judge had formally announced the decision in court, where the decision is supposed to be announced also.

I'm sorry if it hurts your false illusion of Sweden as a nation that's immune from corruption. If anything though, it should illustrate to you how bad corruption is internationally, the fact that even some of the better countries in the world are still corrupt to the core, it's an illustration of the sad state of affairs today.

1. 1. Flog Windscale/Sellafield to Vattenfall in exchange for the entire Swedish electricity grid
2. 2. ???
3. 3. Profit!

On second thought.. No don't d---NO CARRIER

I know bribery is accepted practice in the US but here in the EU it is still frowned upon.
I'm sure it is frowned upon, (except in Spain, apparently, see third link), but the EU is hardly the place for a square deal:

• http://archive.corporateeurope.org/cunningbully/index.html
• http://www.euractiv.com/en/enterprise-jobs/commission-warns-bribery-opel-rescue/article-185759
• http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4560
• http://euobserver.com/9/27352
• http://www.thelocal.se/16974/20090116/
• http://blog.brusselssunshine.eu/2009/09/unnamed-french-eu-lobbying-firm-accused.html
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2907087.stm
• http://www.neurope.eu/articles/84689.php

And I could go on. I don't know where you're dreaming up this bizarre notions about the US (I assume you are another US-hating EU idiot, so I won't question it) but bribery is not an accepted practice, politicians are caught up bribery scandals here all the time; the latest being this Jefferson guy: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5AD01Z20091114, as he was just sentenced to 13 years I would hardly call what he did "accepted". You just sort of make up what life is like here based on your own twisted notions of hell and slums and what life must be like wherever you AREN'T, don't you? The moral is, don't write checks with your mouth your EU can't cash.

There is a story further down the page: http://www.thelocal.se/23202/20091111/

A Swede was caught and fined for speeding on the autobahn.

As Americans, we sometimes willfully ignore facts, as most Americans believe the Autobahn to be this magical road where speed limits don't exist and every can drive as fast as they want.

Our perspective is very narrow and insular, and that is one of our greatest weaknesses. Our willingness to quickly grab ahold of any negative story about China, Iran, or other "enemy" of ours is precisely the result of this lack of perspective.

So when we see a new site that is offering up movies for free, we are quick to cheer. We are quick to glom on to any sort of thing that we find even somewhat pleasing without fully understanding all the consequences. How will the movie companies make money from this type of site? Who is actually paying for the movies you see?

Yes, the commercials are played before the movie now, but as that becomes unprofitable where are they going to start putting them? What are we going to lose down the road?

We all want free access to premium content. Is the price worth it?

I believe you're confusing Jesus with Sigbritt.

No big deal? No big deal??? Where the hell else am I supposed to go to look at pictures of hot Swedish women hitting the nightclub scene (in a way that's at least a little SFW) if I can't get to http://www.thelocal.se/?

Sweden is a major arms exporter, selling weapons worth of 1.4 billion USD in 2008. So no, they're not any more "peaceful and civilized" as most others.

When my grandmother judge shops to get one of its flunkes to preside over the case, then I'll listen to your argument.

Now before you say that the court dismissed that claim, notice the last line: "Pirate Bay went on to accuse Judge Eka of commiserating with lawyers for the Motion Picture Association of America and the IFPI." In other words, Fox B says it's OK for Fox A to guard the hen house.

"should the sale go through, music execs know that the original Pirate Bay operators have access to the money."

But from http://www.thelocal.se/20364/20090630/ in the linked /. article:

"...the money would not reach their pockets.

Rather, he said, the money would be used to create a fund to develop other internet projects."

Also surely they cannot intervene to collect the awarded money when there is still an appeal pending.

Well, you can move to the Swedish city of Malmö, where it was just decided to allow women being topless in public swimming pools. See here for more info.

Norwegian girls, Swedish girls. You decide.

I disagree. What is considered "rape" can vary greatly by culture and legal definition. A report that came out not too long ago concluded that Sweden was the rape capital of Europe and had 4 times as many rapes as neighboring Denmark and Finland. As the article I linked pointed out, "In Swedish rape law, the word [rape] can be used for acts called assault or bodily harm in other countries." For example, the German word Vergewaltigung basically only means physical force being used to achieve intercourse, much different from the American definition which can include alcohol, etc. Therefore I think it is advised that you take these numbers with a large grain of salt, especially given that the Japanese definitely have their own problems with unwanted sexual advances, like having women-only railcars to cut down on groping. The statistics on Nation Master also show that Canada has more than twice as many rapes per capital than the US, which causes me to be suspicious of the whole thing in the first place.

In reference to people being horrified by rape more than murder/killing, as I pointed out last time there is NOTHING a women could do to justify someone raping her. Killing is generally sugar-coated in video games to include some kind of necessity for the killing. Even in Manhunt you're basically being forced to kill to win your freedom and you're already desensitized to killing in video games in the first place since you're used to war games, where you have to take out the enemy before they take you out, so the idea of killing someone in a game doesn't seem all too foreign. There's no such thing as "justifiable rape", thus it's important not to confuse societal hang-ups about sex (which are often silly and misguided) with disgust at rape (which is there for a good reason).

http://www.thelocal.se/19928/20090607/

Among voters aged under 30, some 19 percent are believed to have cast a vote for the Pirate Party.

"They are the biggest party among young people, bigger than both the Social Democrats and the Moderates," said politics professor SÃren Holmberg.

As I was just telling my girlfriend, one way or another, it should be the first time the EP gets people who actually understand present day computer technology.

Or the article at The Local.

The Pirate Party was quick to write a spicy retort in the form of a pressrelease: Pirate Party: "Corruption and miscarriage of justice"

Also, more versions in english:
Pirate Bay lawyer calls for retrial
Pirate Bay judge and pro-copyright lobbyist accused of bias

Lawyer Peter Althin, representing the Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde calls for retrial

There have been a series of interesting events surrounding the extended Pirate Bay process. It started with PRQ (the web hotel hosting TPB) being illegally raided, and to add the icing on that cake, the minister in charge acting in violation of the Swedish constitution by directly ordering law enforcement (see New Technology's "Was the Raid a Judicial Scandal?" [in Swedish]). Then the FRA and IPRED bills passed in direct defiance of election promises and popular opinion folding to foreign pressure, as was the trial itself. It is hardly surprising that it turned out that the judge was cherry picked. The judge, Thomas NorstrÃm, argued that "My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest," and he was not swayed in his judgement by involvement with copyright protection groups.

There was great surprise over the April 17th ruling. Even the legal experts that expected a conviction were taken aback by the prison sentence and the size of the compensatory fine.

The current debate on Swedish technical boards is one of conspiracy theories. Swedes are generally relatively hesitant of suggesting conspiracies, but this one reeks of collusion.

The former Chief Prosecutor Sven-Erik Alhem says (in Swedish) that this will hurt the international renown of Swedish courts as well as damage domestic belief in judicial neutrality and safety.

Also interesting is the public statement from the Pirate Party which calls this "Corruption and miscarriage of justice" and "The copyright lobby has really managed to bring corruption to Sweden".

This may turn out to be a huge inconvenience for the copyright organisations and for the ruling coalition.