Sweden

Victories for Majdic and Kjolstad in nordic sprints

Victories for Majdic and Kjolstad in nordic sprints Sto

Swedish hostage released by leftist rebels in Colombia

Swedish hostage released by leftist rebels in Colombia Stockholm - A Swedish national was in "good spirits" following his release by leftist rebels in Colombia after almost two years in captivity, a Swedish diplomat said Wednesday.

Roland Larsson, 69, was abducted in May 2007 by members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) from his home in the province of Cordoba some 350 kilometres north of the capital, Bogota.

Swedish slaughterhouses face action over scalded pigs

Swedish slaughterhouses face action over scalded pigs Stockholm - Four Swedish slaughterhouses face action by authorities for failing to secure proper protection for pigs going to slaughter, reports said Tuesday.

Several cases where pigs were scalded to death were documented by the National Food Administration in 2008, Swedish radio news reported.

Food group HK Scan that operates or has interests in the four slaughterhouses in question conceded the mistakes. Scan slaughtered some 1.9 million pigs in 2008.

Swede Alshammar breaks butterfly record

Swede Alshammar breaks butterfly recordSydney  - Sweden's Therese Alshammar broke her own world record Tuesday in the 50-metre butterfly at the Australian swimming championships in Sydney.

Alshammar, 31, clocked 25.44 seconds - 0.02 seconds faster than the world record she set in Barcelona in 2007.

"I'm a bit shocked myself, and I'm very happy," Alshammar said. "I've had a great couple of months in Australia."

She has been in Sydney training with local rival Libby Trickett for the past two months.

Italy edge Austria in team event

Are, Sweden  - Italy beat Austria on countback for first place in a team event which ended the alpine skiing World Cup season on Sunday.

Nicole Gius, Daniela Merighetti, Nadia Fanchini, Peter Fill, Werner Heel and Michael Moelgg had 21 points from four rounds each of slalom and super-g skiing. Austria also had 21 points but won only two of the eight rounds to Italy's three.

Switzerland were third with 23 points as only five teams took part in the event.

The winner of each round received one point, the second-placed team two, down to five points for the last-placed finisher Sunday.

Man killed during maintenance work at Swedish nuclear plant

SwedenStockholm  - Maintenance work at one of the reactors at the Oskarhamn nuclear plant in south-eastern Sweden, was halted Sunday after a worker was killed in an accident, plant operator OKG said.

Initial reports suggested the 61-year-old man, was hit early Sunday by a machine part while working in the turbine hall of reactor 3. The man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The reactor, one of three at Oskarshamn, was not in operation due to the maintenance work that began earlier this month.

Pages