| Sweden - the best place in the world for mothers and children: Sweden tops the list of the best place in the world for mothers. The charity organisation, Save the Children, has compared the standard of living for mothers in 146 countries in the world and found Sweden to be the best place. Norway and Iceland follow Sweden in that order. Niger, Chad and Yemen are the countries with the worst conditions for mothers. In these countries, more than one child in six die before they reach the age of five and a third of the children are malnourished. Mothers' Index is calculated annually by Save the Children and documents the conditions for mothers and children in the countries of the world. |
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| Swedish security police does not adequately control asylum seekers: This year's annual report of Säpo, Sweden's security police, has revealed that only a tiny percent of asylum seekers are controlled by the security |
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Swedish security has no time to check thoroughly on asylum seekers |
| police. Ony 0.3 per cent of all asylem seekers were thoroughly checked last year. Säpo said it gave priority last year to ensuring that opponents of regimes who are seeking refuge in Sweden are not followed by the governments of the lands they had fled from. It revealed that rightwing extremists were mostly responsible for the increase in violence last year. Säpo deployed 120 bodyguards last year. Of 36,200 asylum seekers last year, Säpo checked 1,200 (3 percent) with a thorough check on only 121 (0.3 per cent). 26,400 people applied for Swedish citizenship last year but Säpo was able to check on only 2,000, (8 per cent) with 1,364 (5 per cent) checked thoroughly. 16 applicants (0.06 per cent) were refused citizenship. |
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| Afris holds annual meeting: The African Council in Sweden (AFRIS) held its annual meeting at Kista at the weekend. Member associations sent representatives and the council welcomed a new member from Cameroon. The meeting decided that AFRIS should have its own web site to disseminate news about the acitivities of the council and its member organistions. The highlight of the meeting was an interesting presentation on medicinal use by people with |
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Apotekaren, Amadou Jallow, talked about medicinal use among carriers of the AIDS virus |
| HIV/AIDS by well-known pharmacist and researcher, the Gambian born Ahmadou Jallow. He traced the history of research on AIDS medicine, explained the various medicines now available and talked about the problems and possibilites available for carriers of the virus in the immigrant community in Sweden. The meeting ended with a small party in which food from various member countries was served. |
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| Folkpartiet calls for compulsory course before citizenship: Folkpartiet wants all those who want Swedish citizenship to undergo compulsory studies that will teach them about the Swedish society, a citizen's rights and responsibilities as well as "the values on which the Swedish society is built". The course shall be free. The proposals are part of the party's deliberations around social integration. In another development, Mona Sahlin, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, has suggessted that new refugees into Sweden should not be allowed to choose their communities of residence for the first two years of their stay. A newly arrived refugee should be made to stay in an assigned commune for at least two years to get the chance of acquiring adequate education and language skills. She said the situation whereby one commune, Södertäjle, alone takes more refugees from Iraq than the whole of North America is indefensible. |
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| Swedish men most equal in domestic work: A study of the division of domestic labour between men and women put Swedish men as the most equal in Europe. But men's work load has not really increased. It is the women's work load that has decreased. The study showed that Swedish men between the |
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Swedish men like to change diapers, cook, clean and do the dishes at home |
| ages of 20 and 64 who are in a relationship take as much responsibility at home for child care, cooking and cleaning as the women. Sweden is closely followed by Norway and Finland. Italy and Spain are the countries where equality between the sexes at home is least. In the 1990s, Swedish women spent between 40 and 50 minutes less per day on domestic work whereas the time spent by men has not changed. |
