sweden

Nina Galata displays her smartphone equipped with a card reader to accept donations and payment for Situation Stockholm, a magazine sold by Stockholm's homeless.

Cash Is Definitely Not King For Card-Carrying Swedes

8:08pm March 31, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

In a world moving toward cashless economies, Sweden is leading the way. More than 95 percent of transactions are already digital; some churches now pass a card reader instead of a collection plate.

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People gather at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium in 2013 to show support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of Russia.

World News

He, She Or Hen? Sweden's New Gender-Neutral Pronoun

4:03pm March 27, 2015

by Scott Neuman

The latest edition of the official dictionary of the Swedish language contains a new pronoun among its 13,000 new words — hen, to go along with he (han) and she (hon).

The tiny town of Sundsvall, Sweden, is home to the world's first airport to land passenger planes by remote control. The cameras used to help the air traffic controllers guide airplanes render details as small as cars pulling into the parking lot from mil

World News

In Sweden, Remote-Control Airport Is A Reality

10:35pm February 28, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

Sweden is the first country in the world to use new technology to land passenger airplanes remotely. At an airport in a tiny town, flights are guided by operators sitting miles away.

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Christian Tengblad (right) and his fellow fare dodger are part of the group Planka.nu.

World News

Group Urges Swedes To Evade Subway Fares, And Even Insures Against Fines

2:06pm February 26, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

Fare-dodging in Stockholm's system has become a movement, and the group's members don't try to hide what they're doing — in fact, they advertise it.

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Surströmming, a fermented herring considered to be a famous delicacy in Sweden, is also known as one of the most pungent foods in the world.

Surströmming Revisited: Eating Sweden's Famously Stinky Fish

7:39pm February 19, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

Sweden has the distinction of producing surströmming, one of the foulest-smelling foods in the world. More than a decade ago, NPR's Ari Shapiro tried eating it and failed. It's time for a rematch.

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Icehotel is located 120 miles above the Arctic Circle. The temperature outside is well below zero, but inside the hotel — while still, of course, below freezing — it's much warmer, hovering in the low 20s.

The Arctic Circle's Coolest Accommodations Turn 25 Years Old

10:07am January 30, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

The Icehotel in Sweden, built in winter and vanishing in spring, is the original hotel carved from snow and ice bricks. It's also an art project; sculptors compete for the chance to carve out rooms.

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A soldier from the Swedish army participates in a military exercise at Hagshult Airbase in Sweden in November.

World News

Russian Threats Expose Europe's Military Cutbacks

11:27am January 27, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

A series of military confrontations and growing tensions between Western Europe and Russia show how ill-prepared European countries are after years of cutbacks.

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A year after his cancer diagnosis, Henning Mankell is working on a new novel, and he just directed Shakespeare's Hamlet in his adopted country of Mozambique.

'Wallander' Author Henning Mankell On The Catastrophe Of Cancer

9:11pm January 17, 2015

by Martin Scholz

The famed Swedish author of the Kurt Wallander mystery novels was diagnosed a year ago — "a catastrophe for me," he says; since then, he's talked more about the disease than the drama of forensics.

Anita Ekberg in a 1956 photo taken during rehearsals for a guest appearance on the Frankie Laine Time.

World News

Anita Ekberg, '50s Screen Star And Sex Symbol, Dies At 83

1:01pm January 11, 2015

by Scott Neuman

The Swedish-born actress' most famous role was as Sylvia in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita. She died outside Rome this morning.

Parishioners attend a mid-week prayer service at St. Gabriel Syrian Orthodox Church. Since the Syrian war began three years ago, the town has seen a marked increase in Syrian refugees resettling in Södertalje, straining many city services.

World News

Sweden's Tolerance Is Tested By Tide Of Syrian Immigrants

6:27pm December 05, 2014

by Joanna Kakissis

One-third of the residents in the city of Sodertalje are from the Middle East, many of them recent arrivals from Syria. The influx is testing Sweden's liberal immigration policies.

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