Liza - New York Times bestseller
Swedish author Liza Marklund tops New York Times list of best sellers, and in taking the lead she removed another Swede, Stieg Larsson. The incredible Swedish double is now a fact: The two top positions of the world’s most prestigious bestselling list are taken by Swedish crime writers. Stieg Larsson has been on top for awhile with his Millenium trilogy, but now Liza Marklund’s new book “The Postcard Killers”, written with crime writer veteran James Patterson, has knocked down Larsson. The plot in “The Postcard Killers” focuses on a murderer who travels European cities, killing young couples at hotels, and the book has been warmly greeted by American readers. James Patterson’s name is an important variable in the success of course: He is the highest paid Writer in the U.S, and brought in 500 million SEK ($67,649,220.661) last year.

Unemployment declining
An increasing number of Swedes are employed, according to new figures from Statistics Sweden. But compared to the same period in the 2006 election year, unemployment in Sweden has increased from 6.5 to 8 %. For July, 98,000 more people have jobs compared to the same month one year ago, when the unemployment number was 7.9 %. The change in unemployment is not statistically significant, but “seasonally adjusted data shows an upward trend in the number of employed persons”, according to Statistics Sweden.

Unveiled woman got more job offers
Swedish Radio’s P3 Nyheter (News) let two women, “Evin Ziadi” and “Emma Svensson”, apply for jobs at the same 200 employers – and the result is a story called “The unfair job market”. Only 8 employers picked “Evin”, while 35 chose “Emma”. The two women, whose identities were entirely made up, were the exact same age and had the same language skills and hobbies. The only difference was the veil Evin wore, and her foreign-sounding name. When P3 confronted the employers as to why Emma was called and not Evin, they could not explain why they chose one and not the other. “We just had to pick one,” one employer said. “I thought Emma seemed more fitting,” said another. According to diskrimineringsombudsmannen, (ombudsman against discrimination), that sort of thinking isn’t enough to motivate why Emma rather than Evin was picked. Ivan Daza, founder of Blatteförmedlingen, believes it is not so much racism behind a choice like this as insecurity. “Maybe they were wondering what the veil was about,” he says. “A veil raises a lot of questions, and not all modern companies understand how to deal with customers in a modern way. They lack the know-how.”

Red-green opposition: Free dental care until age 24
The red-green opposition proposes free dental care for young people up till age 24, said Lars Ohly, party chairman of the Swedish Left Party, in a radio interview. The proposal would cost 300 million SEK ($40,590,139.471). Today Swedes have free dental care until the age of 19. “It’s a problem that the free dental disappears at age 19, as many young people continue studying after age 19 or have very insecure employments,” said Ohly. “That means they are choosing not to pay for their dental health.” The opposition also suggests dental care for the elderly, giving them money to pay for it up to age 75 (instead of age 65 as it is today). That proposal would also cost 300 million SEK. The three parties that the opposition consists of, all have their individual demands on free dental care. The Social Democrats wanted the limit to be 24 years, while the Greens had it set at 25 and the Left Party wants dental care to equal the rest of the Swedish health care system. “In the long run we have to have a system where we treat the entire body the same way, but we will start with the older and the younger people,” said Ohly.