SRI Radio Sweden

We enter the competitive world of Free newspapers, 1.5 million readers in Stockholm alone, but are they any good? We meet more winners of the Anna Lindh Memorial prize including a young Swedish woman who`s converted to Islam and who wears a head scarf: And it`s day two of our journey through the Swedish alphabet.

Visiting Sweden, the former secretary general of the United Nations calls for environmental justice for the developing world, killer slugs from Spain devoure Swedish flowers and crops, a boom in foreign tourists visiting Stockholm and Swedish music with a Brazilian flavor.

How do you define a city? Who is in and outside a city? And does it matter? One Swedish researcher thinks so. And we`ll look at a very Swedish phenomenon that has listeners glued to their radios all summer.

A new survey reveals that Swedish kids have a nice relaxed childhood compared to other European youngsters, but that all changes when they hit 15. Find out why. Climate change in the Arctic is threatening indigenous species, such as the Arctic Fox. And foreign students` free rides at Swedish Universities could be reaching the end of the road.

We report on Swedish police and other European colleagues breaking up an international trafficking ring, look at urban development defining just what a modern city is, and then visit Stockholm`s Maritime Museum -- where the 70th birthday celebrations range from pirates and model ships to an exhibition about gay life on Swedish cruise liners in the 1950`s. And we’ll hear some new Swedish jazz - telling us just how dance-loving cowboys do the waltz.

Sweden’s soccer dreams went up in smoke. We look at Sweden’s role in the ongoing EU dilemma. And why do the police feel they need to be more visible? That and more!

Big Brother faced a compromise as Swedish lawmakers voted on new email and phone monitoring legislation. If you’re a fan of mystery novels and crime scene television series - our reporter has a reality check for you as we report on the Stockholm Criminology Prize. And a hip Swedish songbird blasts off into Madonna’s world.

As Sweden`s politicians debate the proposed controversial Surveillance Law, we ask whether Swedes see it as a threat to personal integrity. More police on the streets, Sweden`s boys and girls in Blue adopt a higher profile, but will it cut crime. And Swedish Brain researchers say they`ve solved the mystery of whether you`re born gay or not,

Today`s program reports on the Swedish prime minister`s comments on the Irish referendum rejecting the European Union`s Lisbon Treaty, the Stockholm Criminology Award, a dialogue between Sweden and the Islamic world and a famous Swedish musician and composer who died in a diving accident.

Radio Sweden Friday The US Envoy to Sweden speaks out on the candidates of the 2008 presidential race. A Viking village is being rebuilt with old tools.

In today`s program: a slap at the Swedish center-right government for failing to prepare for a national disaster, and a Swede visiting from Hollywood - a winner of his 2nd Oscar for film sounds, a Swedish governmental commission calling for more Swedish language training as well as legal and social education for Moslem religious leaders working in this Scandinavian country and new Swedish jazz -- the Sound of Splendor in search of a mystical friend.