| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 65.1 | Tax supported churches | RAJA::MINOW | Martin Minow, DECtalk Engineering | Fri Mar 14 1986 16:14 | 8 |
| There is a slight unclarity in .0 that deserves fuller explanation.
Although the state church is "tax supported", the tax is applied only
to members of the church. It is not accessed to persons who have
left the church -- except for a pittance that supports the civil
registry.
Martin.
|
| 65.2 | Conservative Party leader resigns | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Thu Jun 05 1986 12:42 | 34 |
| Associated Press Wed 04-JUN-1986 20:03 Sweden-Politics
Conservative Leader Resigns
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Ulf Adelsohn on Wednesday announced his
resignation as leader of the Conservative Party after five years in the
position and last year's failed election efforts to bring his party to
power.
The former Stockholm financial commissioner told a news conference he
was "better as an executive than as an opinionmaker" and had found that
work in the political opposition produces "few concrete results."
Adelsohn led his party's failed attempt in last September's elections
to unseat Social Democratic Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was
assassinated Feb. 28 in Stockholm. The conservatives hold 76 seats in
the 349-seat Parliament.
Adelsohn told reporters he had planned to stay at the head of his party
for only a limited time when he took office five years ago. He said,
"This is a good point in time" to move on, citing the death of his main
political adversary, Palme, and the resignation last December of
Thorbjoern Faelldin as leader of the Center Party, another
non-socialist faction in Parliament.
Rejecting criticism of his leadership qualities, Adelsohn noted that
under his term as chairman the Conservative Party had scored its two
best election results since World War II.
Adelsohn has been both admired and criticized for his flamboyant ways.
For example, critics doubted his political judgment when he appeared
dancing in a grass skirt during a visit to the Philippines. He will
stay on as party leader until an extraordinary party assembly in late
summer. He declined to mention any possible successor.
|
| 65.3 | Another incident | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Thu Jun 19 1986 09:54 | 62 |
| Associated Press Thu 19-JUN-1986 03:12 Newell-Shooting
No New Leads In Case, Report Ambassador's Security Tightened
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The two men spotted with raised rifles near an
outdoor cocktail party attended by the U.S. and Mexican ambassadors
were at large today, and police said they had no new clues about who or
where they were.
The pair was discovered Tuesday night by a Swedish policeman assigned
to guard U.S. Ambassador Gregory J. Newell. The guard fired three shots
at the men when they pointed their weapons at him, but the prowlers
fled into a forest without returning fire. "No new leads have turned up
during the night," duty officer Ingvar Ekelund of the Nacka suburb
police told The Associated Press today.
Ekelund said three men had been detained for questioning Wednesday
after tips from the public. He said two were released while one was
booked for a theft unrelated to the case. None of the three were
suspected of any involvement in the incident, he said.
Newell and Mexican ambassador Andres Rozental were attending a dinner
party at the mansion of Swedish industrialist Bo Ax:son Johnson in
Varmdo, a secluded area of villas, summer houses and woods by the water
in Nacka just east of Stockholm. Investigators have speculated the
intruders may have been planning an attack on either of the diplomats.
The U.S. Embassy in Stockholm would not comment on any element of the
incident and referred all questions to police. In Washington, State
Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said security at the American Embassy
was stepped up after the incident. Police continued to guard the
mansion and patrol the area today, Ekelund said.
Attacks on public figures are extremely rare in Sweden, but on Feb. 28,
an unidentified assailant gunned down Prime Minister Olof Palme, 59, on
a Stockholm street. The assassin has not been found. Swedish television
Wednesday night said Stockholm-based diplomats had felt uneasy about
their security since the Palme slaying.
Superintendent Curt Holm, head of the Stockholm police bodyguard squad,
was quoted by the Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter as saying that "we
are not so trigger-happy here that we open fire without reason." "If a
person takes aim with a rifle against a policemen, the officer shoots
to put the person out of action," Holm was quoted as saying.
Newell, 36, became ambassador to Sweden in December. He worked for
President Reagan's re-election campaign in 1984 and was one of several
assistant secretaries of state in the Reagan administration.
The ambassador ordered a review of security measures for American
personnel and facilities in Sweden after the April 7 bombing of the
Stockholm office of Northwest Orient, a U.S. airline. The attack caused
minor damage but no injuries. No group claimed responsibility. Police
said at the time the bombing might have been linked to a Palestinian
terrorist group led by Sabry al-Banna, who is known by the codename Abu
Nidal.
Johnson, 68, is a member of one of Sweden's richest families and heads
Nordstjernan, a diversified company with interests in shipping,
construction, steel and retail sales. Kaj Lindgren, a company
spokesman, said he believed the dinner party continued after the shots
were fired.
|
| 65.4 | Newell, update | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Jun 20 1986 11:33 | 51 |
| Associated Press Thu 19-JUN-1986 14:39 Newell-Shooting
U.S. Ambassador Celebrates Midsummer Feast Under Heavy Guard
By DICK SODERLUND
Associated Press Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Police said Thursday they were skeptical of an
anonymous caller's claim that two men who raised rifles near an outdoor
cocktail party attended by the U.S. and Mexican ambassadors belonged to
a West German terrorist group. The two men were discovered Tuesday
night by a Swedish policeman assigned to guard U.S. Ambassador Gregory
J. Newell. The guard fired three shots at the men, who fled into a
forest without returning fire. Police said the two remained at large.
"No new leads have turned up," said Ingvar Ekelund, duty officer at the
Nacka suburb police.
Newell, 36, was under heavy security guard Thursday in central Sweden,
where he was celebrating the Swedish Midsummer Festival with his
family. The police gave no details about the security arrangements but
a spokesman said, "We are not leaving anything to chance."
An international news agency in London said it received an anonymous
telephone call Wednesday night claiming the intruders were members of
West Germany's leftist Baader-Meinhof urban guerrillas. The same office
received an anonymous call after the Feb. 28 slaying of Swedish Prime
Minister Olof Palme claiming his assassin also was a Baader-Meinhof
activist.
Palme's assailant has not been found, but investigators said they did
not believe the Baader-Meinhof gang was responsible for killing Palme.
Police were also skeptical about linking the group to this week's
incident.
"There is nothing so far in our investigation to support the terrorist
theory, though we are not excluding it," said Rune Rytters, a police
superintendent who heads the local investigation. "We have received
several interesting tips we are following up and also made some finds
when scouring the ground outside the house where the incident occurred,
but it is too early to say yet if they are connected with the
intruders," Rytters said.
Esbjorn Esbjornson, head of the Interpol bureau of the Swedish National
Police Board, also said he was skeptical of the anonymous caller's
claim. He also said police knew of no direct threats against Newell.
The Baader-Meinhof gang, founded in 1968, grew out of radical student
circles and opposed U.S. business and military interests in Europe. Its
name came from two of its founding members, Andreas Baader and Ulrike
Meinhof, who later committed suicide in prison.
|
| 65.5 | Great Courage | ZEPPO::BANCROFT | | Wed Jul 02 1986 14:11 | 3 |
| If Swedish police are armed with pistols, the gentleman who fired
the three rounds at two men with rifles showed courage. A 9mm pistol
against - say - a 7.62 AK47 at 100 metres, is virtual suicide.
|
| 65.6 | Vandalism of Palme's grave | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Oct 13 1986 10:22 | 26 |
| Associated Press Fri 10-OCT-1986 20:31 Sweden-Palme Grave
Palme's Grave Desecrated by Vandals
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Unknown vandals desecrated the grave of slain
Prime Minister Olof Palme, slashing ropes, uprooting flowers and
smashing vases, police said Friday. The vandalism in the churchyard of
Adolf Fredrik Church in downtown Stockholm was discovered early Friday,
but could have happened at any time after 5 p.m. Thursday, acting
district commander Lennart Nilsson said.
The ropes surrounding the burial site were cut. Wreaths, flowers and
vases on the grave were crushed and scattered across the churchyard. A
rose and other flowers planted on the grave were dug up and destroyed.
Nilsson said police did not have any clues to the identity or number of
people involved. By Friday afternoon, the gravesite had been restored.
No one has been charged with Palme's Feb. 28 assassination, and no
suspects are in custody. Police recently have declined to discuss the
case.
The grave, only 100 yards from the spot where Palme was shot as he
walked along the street with his wife, was guarded around the clock by
police from the March 14 funeral until August. "Then it seemed so quiet
that we withdrew them. But from tonight there will be new guards,"
Nilsson said.
|
| 65.7 | One year afterward | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Mar 02 1987 10:06 | 66 |
| Associated Press Sat 28-FEB-1987 11:11 Sweden-Palme
Swedes Mark First Anniversary of Palme's Slaying with Roses, March
By LARS FOYEN
Associated Press Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Swedes stood in line in 14-degree weather to
lay red roses at the site where Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot from
behind one year ago Saturday in an unsolved assassination.
Hundreds of Swedes grieved openly on Sveavagen, the main Stockholm
thoroughfare where Palme was killed while strolling home unguarded with
his wife, Lisbet, after a late movie. "It's so sad. I still can't
believe it's true," said Sven Andersson, a 63-year-old Stockholm man
who placed a rose among hundreds in a vase flanked by the red and
yellow flags of Palme's Social Democratic Party.
Palme, 59, was a four-term prime minister, an international champion of
disarmament and Third World causes and leader of the party for 17
years. The ceremonies marking the first anniversary of his death were
low-key. No foreign dignitaries were invited and no extraordinary
security precautions were in evidence. Observances included an evening
torchlight march passing the murder site, a memorial concert and a
church service.
The theme of the memorial program was "For Peace Against Violence and
Racism." The Stockholm ceremonies were the largest of more than 100
held across Sweden. The Social Democrats said they were marking the
anniversary by "pursuing Palme's legacy" rather than "looking back with
pain." "We want the gatherings to stress his efforts for peace and
disarmament, for a free and open society, and his struggle against
violence," said party secretary Bo Toresson.
At Adolf Fredrik churchyard, two blocks up Sveavagen from the murder
site, party officials placed a wreath on Palme's grave in a silent noon
ceremony.
"On this tragic anniversary there is reason for America to remember a
man who was leader of both a nation and a cause," Sen. Edward Kennedy
said in a letter published in the Stockholm daily Aftonbladet. Two of
the Massachusetts Democrat's brothers, President John F. Kennedy and
Sen. Robert Kennedy, were killed by assassins' bullets.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India, whose mother, Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi, was assassinated in 1984, called Palme a man who "worked
for a world in peace," in another letter in Aftonbladet.
Police "have no clue today as to who the murderer is," said Stockholm
Police Superintendent Inge Reneborg, who leads detectives on the case.
The killer vanished into the night before dozens of witnesses. Open
feuding between police and prosecutors culminated on Feb. 5 with the
removal of Stockholm Police Commissioner Hans Holmer, who had led the
investigation.
Swedish newspapers have speculated that the murder was the act of a
lunatic, a renegade policeman or a group of Kurdish immigrants. "It is
bad enough, the murder still remaining unsolved. All of us are
tormented by this," said Foreign Minister Sten Andersson. "And the
uneasiness is aggravated by the previous setbacks and conflicts in the
police investigation, by all manner of conjecture, gossip and calumny."
Andersson also conveyed a message from Palme's widow, who did not take
part in any of the official arrangements. "I know that many people's
thoughts are with me today, and I am sustained by their kind concern,"
she said.
|
| 65.8 | The disadvantaged have a champion in Bengt Lindqvist | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Sep 08 1987 11:30 | 45 |
| The following is taken from a write-up in the August 31, 1987 issue of
the Christian Science Monitor by staff writer William Echiksom.
Bengt Lindqvist is leading the difficult fight to maintain, and even
extend, Sweden's social benefits. His commitment is heightened because
he is blind.
"Obviously my own disability has influenced my attitude on the subject
of justice," the 51-year old minister in charge of health and social
affairs said in an interview. "We have a tradition of taking care of
all our citizens, and I see no reason take a step back."
Until his appointment in 1985, his Social Democratic Party felt
defensive about its welfare-state policies. Polls showed many Swedes
wanted a less all-persuasive and more sensitive government, and
Lindqvist helped the Social Democrats appear more sensitive.
"He was an important symbol," argues Olof Dahlberg, a journalist at the
Stockholm daily, Dagens Nyheter. "His mere presence gave the
handicapped and the disadvantaged a big boost, and his personality
helped calm the welfare debate."
While his former boss, slain Social Democratic prime minister Olof
Palme, was viewed by some as harsh and divisive, Lindqvist is seen by
most observers as calm and reassuring, with a warm, attractive
personality.
"Lindqvist's appointment was a brilliant move by Palme," says Mats
Svegfors, an editor at Svenska Dagbladet, another Stockholm daily.
"Unlike the past generation of Social Democratic leaders, he is
flexible and give a caring image."
Social programs for the handicapped helped him realize his full
potential, Lindqvist said during the Monitor interview, and he wanted
other handicapped Swedes to have the same opportunity.
To achieve these goals, Lindqvist said that high taxes and high
government spending are a necessity. But he does not fear a popular tax
revolt or conservative revolution in Sweden. He said Swedes share a
common desire to help each other.
"People here are willing to pay high taxes because everyone benefits
from the system," Lindqvist concluded. "We have developed a spirit of
cooperation in this country that creates an atmosphere where we try to
solve things together."
|