Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has been summoned to testify next month as a witness in a Brazilian corruption case involving the purchase of fighter jets by Brazil, the Stockholm District Court said on Wednesday. Lofven will be asked in a Swedish court about his contacts with Brazil’s former presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva regarding the country’s purchase of Saab Gripen fighters in a deal struck five years ago.
Sweden's Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), an authority operating under the Defense Ministry and tasked with civil protection, public safety, emergency management and civil defense, has instructed local governments to reactivate the Total Defense Strategy civil defense procedures from the Cold War and be prepared for an armed conflict because the security situation in our region has deteriorated.
Sweden has recognized the State of Palestine, the country’s foreign minister has announced, making it the first European Union country to do so. The 130 other nations that already recognize a Palestinian State include Hungary, Slovakia and Poland although these three countries took this step before joining the EU.
Swedish aerospace and defence firm Saab has finalised a 5.4 billion dollars order to sell 36 fighter jets to Brazil, one of the most valuable defence contracts up for grabs in an emerging market. Saab said in a statement the total order value for the NG Gripen jets, to be delivered between 2019 and 2024, was around 39.3 billion Swedish crowns (5.4 billion).
In order to reduce greenhouse gases and to sustain the environment Swedish agricultural authorities are suggesting a tax to tame the appetite for meat. The more meat is consumed the more feed is needed to meet this demand, and with the extensive drought the occurred in the US and feed shortages elsewhere in the world. Could this be a viable solution?
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange currently holed in the Ecuadorean embassy in London said that “Argentina's support is very important, because Argentina has experience with facing the UK”.
Ecuador proposed on Friday transferring Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from its embassy in London where he has taken refuge to that in Sweden where he is a suspect of sex related crimes. However this depends on Britain and there has been no official reaction to the proposal.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that any suggestion of a risk of breach for Julian Assange’s human rights on extradition to Sweden is completely unfounded and recalled that international, EU and UK law fully address the concerns raised by Assange and by the Government of Ecuador.
A judge on Ecuador's highest court has thrown out an extradition request for a former police investigator from Belarus who has been jailed since June, ordering him to be freed immediately.
Britain said it remained committed to reaching a diplomatic solution to the presence of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador's London embassy, after both countries took steps to defuse a row over his action in taking refuge there.