The Swedish Government pumps another billion Swedish Crowns (136 million USD) into the loss-making Scandinavian Airlines System SAS to save it from going bust. The same amount was added last spring.

The Swedish Government owns one fifth of SAS, but only a few months ago, the Minister of Trade and Enterprise Maud Olofsson said that the company should not count on any more tax money to cover its losses.

The difference this time around, according to Olofsson, is a proper savings plan presented by the board of the company, which includes important commitments both from banks in terms of capital, and in terms of trade unions accepting pay cuts.

The Swedish Defence confirms that a number of people have been taken in for questioning in Afghanistan, in connection with the shooting which killed two Swedish officers and their interpreter on Sunday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Swedish tabloid Expressen reported that three men have been arrested in Afghanistan, suspected of collaborating with the man who fired the deadly shot.

Cecilia Malmström has been given the green light to become Sweden’s next EU commissioner. On Tuesday, the European Parliament approved the next European Commission, backing the new EU executive by a vote of 488 in favour and 237 against, with 72 abstentions. The decision clears the way for the 27-member body, responsible for proposing and enforcing laws across the EU, to take office nearly four months after originally scheduled.

February is when more parents than any other month stay at home to nurse their ill children, according to the nations social insurance office, Försäkringskassan.

"It is the same situation every year. During January and February - with February at the top - parents stay at home twice or three times as often as during the rest of the year," Niklas Löfgren, insurance developer at Försäkringskassan, tells the news agency TT.

Crime novels continue to do well in Sweden, with Camilla Läckberg's latest novel reaching to top of the list of best selling books in 2009.

The seventh book in her crime series set in the west coast town of Fjällbacka is called Fyrvaktaren (The Lighthouse-keeper) and was released in Swedish in September last year. So far it has sold 240,000 copies, according to Swedish Television news.

The EU's Safer Internet Day 2010 taking place on Tuesday had the theme "Think before you post." The message is aimed squarely at children and young adults, promoting a safer use of online technology and mobile phones. 

At "Digital Tourist" day in Stockholm, an event organised by the Swedish Media Council as part of the safety campaign, the aim was on getting adults to take an interest in their children's lives on social chatrooms.  

The number of refugees repatriated from Sweden to their homelands is increasing. Most of the asylum seekers being sent home are from Iraq.

Migration Minister Tobias Billström declared 2009 as the year of repatriation.

The immigration authorities say more and more rejected asylum seekers are leaving country voluntarily. But this has been questioned by groups working with refugees.

”They say they have no choice” (2:11)

Swedish banking group Swedbank has presented losses higher than expected in the fourth quarter of 2009. According to the figures that were presented in Stockholm on Tuesday, Swedbank made a 224 million dollar operating loss in the quarter, weighed down by charges that mostly related to real estate. But the bank’s CEO Michael Wolf said a brighter global economy might allow Swedbank to swing to a profit this year despite the losses in the crisis-hit Baltic region.

Nursing staff will have to face harder consequences in the future if they fail to do their job properly. On Tuesday Social Minister Göran Hägglund presented his reform plans to the Council of Legislation, a judicial non-parliamentary body that pronounces on the legal validity of legislative proposals. Speaking to Swedish Radio news, Hägglund pointed out that 3,000 people die and 100,000 suffer from injuries in the Swedish nursing system every year.

A new report shows that even if Swedes are smoking less, cigarette smuggling is on the rise.

Research conducted by The Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs (SoRAD) (Interdisciplinary research centre, Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stockholm) reports a 200 percent sales increase of smuggled cigarettes between 2007 and 2008, writes TT news agency Tuesday.

Threats against ministers, members of parliament or other politicians hardly lead to indictments, a survey carried out by the Swedish Security Police shows. Last year the Security Police followed up 26 cases in which a severe threat was suspected, but none of them finally led to an indictment.

According to a survey compiled by TV4 news half of Sweden's County Councils have now partially or fully denied employees access to social media Facebook during working hours. The ever increasing popularity and use of such sites as Facebook at work has led to many of Sweden's county councils to take drastic measures limiting or completely forbidding Facebook during work hours, including coffee and lunch breaks.

Stockholm Cathedral, one of the capital's biggest tourist attractions, is undergoing a massive make-over.

While closed to the public, the Cathedral's priceless artefacts are being renovated by a team of experts, while the church as a whole is being spruced up, all to be ready in time for this Summer's big event, the Royal wedding.