Danes Elect Dame

Helle Thorning-Schmidt will be sworn in as Denmark's first female prime minister. Her narrow victory at the polls is being billed as a victory of the center-left over the center-right, which has held power in Denmark for a decade. The center-right coalition had passed some of the most restrictive anti-immigration laws in Europe. No speculation that I saw as to whether a reaction against July's rightwing terrorist mass-murder in nearby Norway might have helped swing the numbers in her favor.

Meanwhile, in Norway, support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Progress Party plummeted in local elctions, sinking from second to third in national prominence. The confessed mass murderer, Anders Behring Breivik had been affiliated with the Progress Party for several years. The ruling Norwegian labor party, which had been targeted for extermination by Breivik, attained its best results in over two decades.

Swedish Suicide Bomber

Four people were arrested yesterday in the Swedish city of Goteborg by a task force specializing in terrorist threats. An art center, crowded with the premier of a new exhibit, was evacuated, and a section of the city cordoned off. Authorities have declined to reveal anything about the suspects. Whether the timing has anything to do with the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is unknown. There was no panic reported.

Last December, Sweden suffered its first suicide bombing. Taymour Abdulwahab, a Swedish National of Iraqi descent blew himself up in a popular Stockholm shopping district to protest the Afghan war and the publication of a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed  with a dog's head. Although reportedly wearing a knapsack full of nails, he suceeded in killing no-one but himself. Apparently the bomb went off prematurely. There's a metaphor in there, somewhere.

The cartoonist, Lars Vilk, described as a "free speech activist," has lived in seclusion and under guard since a $100,000 bounty was placed on his head by an Al Qaeda affiliate.

     

Big-Brained Danes

Scandinavians have the largest brains, says a recent report by Oxford phrenologists. Extra gray matter, along with larger-than-average-eyes, according to their hypothesis, helped Scandinavians to see clearly in the low levels of light at high latitudes. The conclusion was based on a study of 55 human skulls from around the world.

Meanwhile, seven Danes, including a family of five, were released after nine months of captivity in Somalia. A Somali pirate named Hussein claims to have received a $3 million ransom.

The Oxford scientists were quick to point out that larger brain size doesn't necessarily indicate higher intelligence. This would seem to be bourne out by the fact that the newly-freed Danes had been pleasure-boating with their children in the Arabian Sea, a known hunting ground of Somali pirates. How smart is that?

Utoya Massacre Update

Five hundred family members of the Utoya Massacre victims were permitted to visit the island where their loved ones were gunned down in the worst shooting rampage in human history.

The confessed perpetrator, Anders Brievik has been sitting in solitary confinement for most of the two months since. According to judicial ruling, he could be held in isolation until mid-October, and may have to wait until mid November before being permitted visitors and correspondence with the outside world. He is being kept in isolation to prevent contact with possible accomplices, and to prevent him from tampering with evidence. Brievik has complained that this treatment is "sadistic torture." One wonders when in where in history he would have preferred prison to 21st century Norway?

Norwegian police meanwhile have released transcripts of phone conversations that occured between Brievik and police during his drug-fueled killing spree. Apparently "the commander of the Norwegian anti-Communist Resistance Movement" twice called police and offered to surrender. But he went on killing kids for another 28 minutes before they finally arrived.