Swedish army 'bust up'

The Swedish armed forces have been hit by a major equipment problem, according to reports. Flimsy military brassieres are unable to stand up to the strains imposed when female Swedish troops perform "rigorous exercises", routinely bursting open or even catching fire - so forcing busty young conscripts to hurriedly strip off in the field.

The women complained that the bras’ fasteners have a tendency to come undone when the women performed rigorous exercise, forcing the female soldiers to take off all of their equipment in order to refasten the brassieres.

Female soldiers are taking their argument to the top brass, saying this has been a problem for 20 years and that 2,000 female soldiers will enter the Swedish military next year.

The Swedish Conscription Council, a rights group representing the country's 500-odd women soldiers, said the poor quality of the standard-issue sports bras was unacceptable.

"Our opinion is that the Swedish Armed Forces should have ordered good, flame-proof underwear," Paulina Rehbinder, a union spokeswoman, told The Local, Sweden's English-language newspaper.

Sweden has allowed women conscripts since 1980. Four to five per cent of Sweden's armed forces are women.

Illegal immigrant hits the jackpot on Swedish lottery

In 2003, Eritrean man Tesfaldet Tesloy arrived in Sweden to start a new life with his brother, who had lived in the country for some 20 years. In 2006 he was informed by the Swedish authorities that his application for permanent residence was rejected and that by law he would be scheduled for deportation.

Attempts to deport Tesloy back to Eritrea were met with resistance from his home country who stated clearly that they did not want him back. Swedish law stipulates that such illegal immigrants cannot be rightfully deported if there is refusal by their nation of origin, something which Swedish officials claim is an ongoing problem which they can do little about. Other nations such as Iran and Cuba also refuse repatriation, which leaves the individual in a legal wilderness.

Lacking official identification required to work legally in the country, Tesloy was facing a life in limbo until he bought a lottery scratch card. On Saturday night Tesloy appeared live on Swedish national television to collect his prize, a tax-free windfall of EUR 118,000, or 1,118,000 Swedish Kroner.

While Tesloy does not have the necessary documentation to work, a ‘personnumer’ or Swedish identity number, he has managed to open a bank account in his name, thereby meeting the criteria for receiving the winnings as laid down by Svenska Spel, the county’s gaming authority which oversees the scratch card lottery Triss.

Stockholm police were consulted by the television and lottery officials to ascertain if it was legal to proceed with the prize presentation, who gave the go ahead, claiming the National Lottery had deemed the win entirely legal. Officials added that the difficulties in attempting to send Tesloy back to Eritrea, where they felt nobody cared about him, would likely see little chance of changes to the current situation.

NASA censors Swedish pupil's naked astronaut query

On Sunday night, students from Sätraskolan, a school in southern Stockholm, had the chance to interview Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, who is on a space mission to the International Space Station (ISS). But NASA thought some of the questions were a bit too risque.

When fourteen-year-old Zhiwar Naeimiakbar wondered if you can survive in space “without clothes” if you have access to air, it appeared the American space agency might not approve his question.

NASA explained they would not run the question if it included the words "without clothes" ("utan kläder") and instead changed it to "without a spacesuit."

Naeimiakbar was thrilled to have his question answered.

“It feels unbelievable. Sure, you talk on the telephone with your best friends, but this here was a totally different feeling, even if it was just for a few minutes, a few seconds, it felt wonderful,” he said.

Seven-year-old Cawo Ali asked Fuglesang how it felt to come back to earth after a period of weightlessness.

"It feels heavy, I can tell you. Your legs are heavy on the first day and your balance is slightly off," wrote the Swedish astronaut, who returns to planet earth on Friday night, Swedish time.

At 5:40 am on Monday, Fuglesang and his colleague Danny Olivas wrapped up the mission's third and final space walk. Fuglesang became the first astronaut from a country other than the US or Russia to complete more than three space walks.

Käppala school on Lidingö outside of the Swedish capital will also meet Fuglesang. One of the school's eighth grade classes participated in a competition and were drawn as a winner during a broadcast on Swedish Television (SVT).

Swedish Customs and Culture - Food

No one visiting Sweden in August can fail to notice how shop window displays from variations on the theme of crayfish.

Nowhere is the crayfish so ardently worshipped as in Sweden. Eating of crayfish has expanded into a ritual meal surrounded by all manner of accessories, preferably with an authentic full moon thrown in. The decorations consist mostly of colored paper lanterns in the form of smiling moon-faces suspended over the table.

A hundred years ago, the catching of crayfish was forbidden except for a couple of months every autumn. At one time the lakes of central Sweden teemed with this black gold, which was exported to the high-class restaurants of Paris, London and Berlin, but over-fishing was threatening to annihilate them.

In 1907 the Swedish crayfish enthusiasts were struck by a disaster: the “crayfish plague” which was a lethal parasitic mould, which eliminated rare crayfish from most of Sweden’s fishing waters. The Swedes imported crayfish, first from Turkey and then from Spain and today from the US. making Sweden the world’s biggest crayfish importer.

Eating crayfish the Swedish way is not easy, but the experience of a crayfish party can very well modify the myth of Swedish uprightness.