Updated 3:33 PM

An American woman who calls herself "Jihad Jane" has been charged by US prosecutors with conspiring to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks over his 2007 drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

John Gilligan, a press officer with the Irish Police, has now confirmed the link between "Jihad Jane" and the seven suspects arrested in Ireland yesterday, adding that there may be "a number of connections with people in other jurisdictions."

Jasna Carlén interviews artist Lars Vilks (5:34)

Lars Vilks Controversy - A story that goes back three years

I Keep an Axe in My Living Room - Vilks
Arrests over Alleged Plot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist

On Wednesday several Swedish newspapers showed their support for Lars Vilks and the constitutional right to freedom of expression by publishing his cartoon from three years ago depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

The picture was first published in Vilks' local newspaper Nerike Allehanden in August 2007 and outraged many in the Muslim world. It led to a 100 thousand dollar bounty being put on his head by a leader of a group with links to al-Qaeda in Iraq. The audio threat was posted on the internet.

The sanctity of freedom of speech has been central to reactions streaming in from Sweden’s political elite after an international plot to kill artist Lars Vilks was revealed by Irish and American officials this week.

Justice Minister Beatrice Ask told news agency TT on Wednesday that “we all have to help protect freedom of speech. The government has great responsibility in this work, but so do the media and others as well.”

An Ethiopian man living permanently in Sweden has been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts by a court in New York. According to the Swedish Foreign Ministry, he was captured in the end of November in Nigeria, and was later moved to a United States prison on Saturday.

The demand for operations to treat obesity has increased dramatically in recent years, leading surgeons to ask the government to increase the number of facilities that deal with overweight patients.

Although 1,500 more patients were operated in 2009 compared to the year before, over 15,000 people are still waiting to go under the knife to lose weight.

Swedish Television reports that fish from the occupied Western Sahara is being sold in Omega-3 supplements in Swedish healthfood stores.

Morocco occupied the territory as Spain ended its colony there in 1975. Since then the Polisario Front has been fighting for independence.

The future Sweden will have too few teachers and too many economists, a new report by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education holds. Not enough people are seeking training to become teachers and recreation instructors, at the same time as interest for careers in economics and journalism soars to unsustainable heights.

The Swedish Consumer Agency (KO) is suing the makers of Corona beer for failing to follow Sweden’s tight advertisement laws for alcohol. KO demands that the company Birra Mex pay a fine of 200,000 kronor in compensation, the equivalent of 28,000 US dollars.

Researchers from throughout Sweden have banded together to demand that the government protect the country’s old-growth forests.

The manifest, which was organized by the Protect the Forest organization, has been signed by 170 researchers and thousands of private citizens, including parliamentary ministers.