Killer tomatoes fight tumors.
Tomato genes can be used in genetic treatments of brain tumors, indicates Swedish research by Jure Piskur from Lund University. By injecting a particular tomato gene into the patient's cancer cells in combination with AZT - a medicine used to combat HIV - cancer cells die, even though the tumor itself remains. Because they kill cancer cells, they delay the disease's advance. Currently research on this Swedish discovery is underway in Finland. Sound too good to be true this close to April 1? Here's the link to the original article (of 03-26-2010): http://tinyurl.com/y9yjnrn

$29.7 million from a $9 lottery ticket.
The biggest lottery win ever recorded in Sweden, some $29,764,644 (SEK 214,595,901) was won by a middle aged Helsingborg man on Saturday, March 27, but he didn't know about it until he and his wife came home from vacation two days later. According to the lottery operators, Svenska Spel, after they checked the notice in the mail and their ticket, the couple lay dazed on the kitchen floor for a while before they were able to telephone the company and claim their fantastic winnings. The winner, who is withholding his identity, had pegged seven digits correctly and also set on an extra payout "Joker" to total an investment of about nine dollars ($9.00). The correct line was 7-10-16-23-26-27-35, the exact same weekly combination that he had played for six years. Three of the top ten high payoffs in the lottery have gone to people in the Helsingborg area. The second highest winning, for SEK 134,703,155 ($18,682,484), was claimed in 2008 by a lucky Saltsjöbaden player.

Swedish films at Tribeca Film Festival.
Established in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, and Craig Hatkoff, the Tribeca Film Festival is a response to the September 11 attacks and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan. This year, two Swedish films will be shown at the prestigious festival. Tarik Saleh’s “Metropia”, an animated sci-fi film that takes a futuristic look at a terrifying Europe where the world is running out of oil, features actors Vincent Gallo and Juliette Lewis. “Metropia” has already been seen at a number of foreign film festivals, including the ones in Venice, Montreal, and San Francisco. “Mormors öga” (Grandmother’s eye) by Jonathan Lewald is a black-and-white silent film that consists of one constant motion from distance to up close, all the way into the eye of an elderly lady. For more information: www.tribecafilm.com

Sture Linnér has died.
Writer, professor and former UN-diplomat Sture Linnér has passed away at 92 years. “No man is an island”, is an autobiographical book Linnér wrote a couple of years ago, and the quote came from a poem by the poet John Donne, a poem that in part reads: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is less…” And now that Linnér is no more, it’s clear that Swedish culture, too, has been diminished, and is less. Linnér was born in Solna and studied at Uppsala University. In 1943, he participated in the Red Cross delegation to Greece, where he met his wife to be. During a brief stint in Munich, Linnér met the siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, and participated in their intellectual resistance group The White Rose. Handpicked for a job with the UN by UN’s Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. During the 1980’s Linnér focused his work on trying to re-establish the ancient library of Alexandria in Egypt, and he published a number of books about Greek culture and history. In 2008, Sture Linnér was given the Serafimer Medal by the king for his extraordinary work, both domestic and international.

Happy Birthday Maria!
Maria Eriksson is the oldest living person in Sweden. Last weekend she turned 110 years old, which means she has lived through a whole century, the 20th century. On celebrating her 110th birthday, Maria said: “It’s a bit nerve-racking.” She had her birthday party at Tallgården, a nursing home in Enköping where she celebrated with her nieces and nephews and their children. Maria was adamant that she didn’t want any gifts, only smörgåstårta. “I don’t want anyone to buy me anything. Today I am the one who is treating.” Maria was born 1900 grew up on a farm in Sigtuna with her parents and her five brothers. “I had a good time as a young girl. I had to work hard, but that’s how it was. There wasn’t much choice back then.” She married Axel, who passed away 40 years ago, but the couple had no children. Her family is proud over Maria being the oldest living person in Sweden, but Maria doesn’t think much of it. She said: “I don’t want to be extreme. I never thought it would be like this. It’s so lonely. If I didn’t have my nieces and nephews, I wouldn’t know what to do.” The birthday girl is brisk and alert, but complains about not seeing and hearing very well. “I feel fine, but I don’t hear everything people say to me. I also wish I could see better, so I could have a good look at my nieces and nephews.”

Bags fit for a princess – or two.
They aren’t much different from other women, princesses Victoria and Madeleine: They both like beautiful bags. What’s different of course is that Victoria and Madeleine have a much bigger budget to play around with, and together they spend hundreds of thousands of Swedish crowns on bags – on everyday bags as well as pretty party clutches.