Stockholm:

Toddlers should not be allowed to watch screens at all, Sweden told parents on Monday.

Children under the age of two should be kept away from digital media and television completely, the country’s Public Health Agency said.

Kids between the ages of two and five should be limited to a maximum of one hour of screen time a day, it said in new recommendations, while those aged six to 12 should spend no more than an hour or two a day in front of a screen.

Teenagers aged 13 to 18 should be limited to two to three hours per day, the agency said.

“For too long, smartphones and other screens have been allowed to enter every aspect of our children’s lives,” Public Health Minister Jakob Forssmed told reporters.

The minister said that Swedish teens aged 13 to 16 spend six and a half hours a day on average in front of their screens, outside of school hours.

Forssmed said that didn’t leave “a lot of time for communal activities, physical activity or adequate sleep”, and lamented a Swedish “sleep crisis” noting that more than half of 15-year-olds did not get enough sleep.

The health agency also recommended that kids not use screens before going to bed and that phones and tablets be kept out of bedroom at night.

It cited research showing that excessive screen use can lead to poor sleep, depression and body dissatisfaction.

Sweden’s government has previously said it is looking at a ban on smartphones in primary schools.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Activists of radical anti-blasphemy party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan protest against the burning of the Koran in Sweden, in Karachi on January 27, 2023. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday (August 28, 2024) charged two men with inciting ethnic hatred over several protests involving the burning of Korans in 2023, which sparked widespread outrage in Muslim countries.

Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Korans at a slew of protests, and co-protester Salwan Najem were charged with “agitation against an ethnic group” on four occasions in the summer of 2023.

“Both men are prosecuted for having on these four occasions made statements and treated the Koran in a manner intended to express contempt for Muslims because of their faith,” senior prosecutor Anna Hankkio said in a statement.

According to the charge sheet, the duo desecrated the Koran, including burning it, while making derogatory remarks about Muslims – in one case outside a Stockholm Mosque.

“In my opinion, the men’s statements and actions fall under the provisions on agitation against an ethnic or national group and it is important that this matter is tried in court,” the prosecutor added.

Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries were strained by the pair’s protests.

Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, starting fires within the compound on the second occasion.

In August last year, Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of five after the Koran burnings had made the country a “prioritised target”.

The Swedish government condemned the desecrations while noting the country’s constitutionally protected freedom of speech and assembly laws.

Earlier this month, prosecutors charged Swedish-Danish right-wing activist Rasmus Paludan with the same crime over a 2022 protest in the southern city of Malmo, which also included burning the Koran.

In October 2023, a Swedish court convicted a man of inciting ethnic hatred with a 2020 Koran burning, the first time the country’s court system had tried the charge for desecrating Islam’s holy book.

Prosecutors have previously said that under Swedish law, the burning of a Koran can be seen as a critique of the book and the religion, and thus be protected under free speech.

However, depending on the context and statements made at the time, it can also be considered “agitation against an ethnic group.”

Virat Kohli is arguably the most popular cricketer on the planet, and is loved by a billion people in his own country. He even boasts 270 million followers on Instagram. However, one man who does not recognize him is legendary Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Filming a video with YouTube content creator ‘IShowSpeed’, Ibrahimovic could not recognize Virat Kohli, and admitted that he had not heard of him before either. Speed then referred to Kohli as the ‘GOAT’ (Greatest Of All Time) of cricket.

At first, Speed (real name Darren Jason Watkins Jr.) asked Ibrahimovic if he knew Virat Kohli. Hearing a no from Ibrahimovic, Speed proceeded to show him a picture of Kohli. However, much to Speed’s surprise, Ibrahimovic failed to recognize him.

“No. I’ve never seen cricket in my life. Not being disrespectful, but no,” said Ibrahimovic, when Speed showed him Kohli’s picture.

“Is he some kind of big player?” asked Ibrahimovic.

Watch: Zlatan Ibrahimovic fails to recognize Virat Kohli

| WATCH: Speed asks Zlatan Ibrahimovic if he knows Virat Kohli pic.twitter.com/qd5t5w8ZJp

— Speedy HQ (@iShowSpeedHQ) July 9, 2024

“He’s the GOAT,” replies Speed. “He is the GOAT in a different aspect, man. You’ve got to learn the different GOATs in different aspects,” continued the 19-year-old YouTube sensation.

It is not a surprise that Ibrahimovic may not know Kohli, as cricket is not a widely-played sport in Sweden. The country ranks 55th in ICC’s T20I team rankings.

Ibrahimovic – who ranks 15th in the list of most goals scored in football history (561) – retired from football at the age of 41 last year. His last club was Italian giants AC Milan.

American YouTuber Speed, on the other hand, boasts more than 26 million subscribers on YouTube, and is popular for his love for Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. However, Speed is also a fan of Virat Kohli, and recently went to watch India vs Pakistan during the 2024 T20 World Cup at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.

Beirut:

The Islamic State group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a shooting in Brussel’s that killed two Swedes, saying the attack targeted Sweden for its membership in a global coalition battling jihadists.

“An Islamic State fighter carried out an attack against” Swedish nationals on Monday, IS said in a statement issued on the jihadists’ news arm Amaq, adding that, “the attack comes in the context of operations called for by the Islamic State to target nationals of coalition countries”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Stockholm, Sweden:

Sweden’s prime minister summoned the head of the armed forces and the police commissioner in a bid to stem gang violence, he said on Thursday, following a wave of violence that has taken at least 11 lives in September alone.

Two people were killed in separate shootings in Stockholm on Wednesday, and a woman in her 20s, thought to be an innocent bystander, was killed when a bomb tore up a house in Uppsala in the early hours of Thursday.

“This is a difficult time for Sweden. A 25-year-old woman went to bed last night on a completely ordinary evening but never got to wake up,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said during a rare televised address to the nation.

“We will hunt the gangs, we will defeat the gangs,” he said.

Kristersson formed a centre-right minority government after last year’s election with support of the populist and anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, ending eight years of Social Democrat-led governments in Sweden.

His coalition won the election partly on a promise to stem growing gang violence, and it has launched a series of initiatives, such as greater powers to police and harsher punishment for gun crimes.

The measures have yet to take effect, but Kristersson blamed former governments for the problems.

“It is an irresponsible immigration policy and a failed integration that has brought us here,” Kristersson said.

Sweden had liberal immigration policies for many decades and took in more immigrants per capita than any other European nation during the 2015 migration crisis. Those policies were reversed by the former Social Democrat-led government, but have been tightened by Kristersson’s government. About 20% of Sweden’s 10.5 million inhabitants were born abroad.

Earlier on Thursday, the opposition Social Democrats, the biggest party in parliament, called on the government to change the law, allowing the military to help stop the gang violence.

“This is not Sweden, this is not how Sweden is supposed to be,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson told a news conference.

Kristersson said he had summoned the national police commissioner and the supreme commander of the armed forces to evaluate the options.

The police estimate that about 30,000 people in Sweden are directly involved with or have ties to gang crime. The violence has also spread from major urban areas to smaller towns where violent crime was previously rare.

Earlier this week, two people were shot dead and two injured when a gunman opened fire at a bar in Sandviken. The 11 shooting deaths this month make September the deadliest month since December 2019.

“The criminal conflicts in Sweden are a serious threat to the safety and security of the country,” National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg said in a statement.

“Innocents are murdered and injured. We are doing everything we can within the police and together with others to stop the development.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Nobel Foundation has withdrawn its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies after the decision to invite them “provoked strong reactions.” File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Nobel Foundation said on Saturday it was reversing its decision to invite Ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel award ceremony in Stockholm, after the move sparked a backlash.

In 2022, the Nobel Foundation, which organises the annual Nobel prize ceremony and banquet in Stockholm, decided not to invite the Russian and Belarusian Ambassadors to the Stockholm award event because of the war in Ukraine.

They made the same decision regarding the Iranian envoy over the country’s crackdown on a wave of protests.

The Swedish foundation however said on Thursday it was returning to its previous practice of inviting Ambassadors from all countries represented in Sweden, sparking a wave of angry reactions.

The foundation said on Saturday that the decision was based on its belief “that it is important and right to reach out as widely as possible with the values and messages that the Nobel Prize stands for.”

It noted however that the strong reactions “completely overshadowed this message”.

“We, therefore, choose to repeat last year’s exception to regular practice — that is, to not invite the Ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm,” the foundation said in a statement.

Also Read: Russia declares Nobel-winning editor Dmitry Muratov to be a foreign agent

Last year, the Norwegian Nobel Institute still invited all Ambassadors to the Peace Prize ceremony it organises in Oslo, and the foundation said this would be the case again.

“As before, all Ambassadors will be invited to the ceremony in Oslo,” it noted.

The decision to once again invite the Russian and Belarusian representatives sparked ire in Sweden and abroad.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook that the foundation should support efforts to isolate Russia and Belarus as “millions of Ukrainians suffer from an unprovoked war and the Russian regime is not punished for its crimes”.

On Saturday, Mr. Nikolenko called the reversal a “victory for humanism.”

“We thank everyone who demanded the restoration of justice. We are convinced that a similar decision should be made regarding the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors to Oslo,” he said in another post to Facebook.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also said on Friday he disagreed with the Foundation’s decision.

“I would not have done it if I were handling invites to an award ceremony and I understand that it upsets many people in both Sweden and Ukraine,” he said in a written statement to AFP.

Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr. Kristersson on Saturday welcomed the new decision.

“The many and strong reactions show that the whole of Sweden unambiguously stand on Ukraine’s side against Russia’s appalling war of aggression,” Mr. Kristersson said.

Several prominent Swedish politicians, including the leaders of the Centre, Green, Left and Liberal parties, had said they would boycott the event over the Russian Ambassador’s presence.

The glitzy event is held each year in Stockholm on December 10 when laureates in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf.

A separate ceremony is held in Oslo on the same day for the Peace Prize laureate.

Stockholm, Sweden:

Sweden’s prime minister said Friday he disagreed with the Nobel Foundation inviting the Russian ambassador to this year’s Nobel banquet, adding to growing criticism of the decision.

“The Nobel Foundation of course decides who they want to invite. But like many others, I was greatly surprised that Russia was being invited,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a written statement to AFP.

“I would not have done it if I were handling invites to an award ceremony and I understand that it upsets many people in both Sweden and Ukraine,” Ulf Kristersson added.

On Thursday, the Nobel Foundation — which organises the annual Nobel prize ceremony and banquet in Stockholm — said it would extend an invitation to all ambassadors of countries which have representation in Sweden or Norway.

In 2022, the Foundation decided not to invite the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors over the war in Ukraine, and the Iranian envoy over the country’s crackdown on a wave of protests.

“It is clear that the world is increasingly divided into spheres, where dialogue between those with differing views is being reduced,” Vidar Helgesen, the executive director of the Nobel Foundation, said in a statement.

“To counter this tendency, we are now broadening our invitations to celebrate and understand the Nobel Prize and the importance of free science, free culture and free, peaceful societies.”

Several prominent Swedish politicians, including the leaders of the Centre, Green and Left parties, have said they would boycott the event due to Russia’s invitation.

The glitzy bash is held each year in Stockholm on December 10 when laureates in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf, followed by a gala banquet for around 1,200 guests.

A separate ceremony is held in Oslo on the same day for the Peace Prize laureate.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)