From Stockholm,Obama will travel to St. Petersburg for the G20 summit on September 5-6.

<h3>Obama Stops In Sweden Ahead Of G20.</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLyCr4iK8dfbPXYP5NXUkyF78RoQJEccZovrEX60wckwbgsRClBnoA8efw1WTxu8tTHpeHmPLK43X7sJFLP_sX6QoHWYR6sYP7lECHNQS9nb48A4QyUMkCJO8geHFyWkW6XbGtuKgRhio/s1600/BF5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLyCr4iK8dfbPXYP5NXUkyF78RoQJEccZovrEX60wckwbgsRClBnoA8efw1WTxu8tTHpeHmPLK43X7sJFLP_sX6QoHWYR6sYP7lECHNQS9nb48A4QyUMkCJO8geHFyWkW6XbGtuKgRhio/s1600/BF5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />U..S. President Barack Obama is visiting Sweden ahead of a G20 summit this week in Russia.<br /><br />Shortly after arriving in Stockholm on September 4, Obama met with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. He will also meet with other Nordic leaders from Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Norway.<br /><br />The White House hastily added the Sweden visit to Obama's schedule after he scrapped plans to meet one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow ahead of the G20 in response to Russia granting temporary asylum to Edward Snowden. Snowden is the former intelligence agency contractor who has leaked details about secret U.S. government spying programs.<br /><br />From Stockholm, Obama will travel to St. Petersburg for the G20 summit on September 5-6.

From Stockholm,Obama will travel to St. Petersburg for the G20 summit on September 5-6.

Obama Stops In Sweden Ahead Of G20. U..S. President Barack Obama is visiting Sweden ahead of a G20 summit this week in Russia. Shortly after...

Obama to showcase common global goals in brief visit to Sweden.

Syria tensions running high, Obama to showcase common global goals in brief visit to Sweden.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYmHlJiF_jYskviOYsQu7exVcQntwxSmlkqekI5Y43WZvFC4xtSOx-ocKARnbwTJ24bl2UirotsKaN02Q-UNbQ7u7nirGGRJQEu8zXz8GhmM0G9YPV4r0skQc7LerfOxqVMre9yK3PiGc/s1600/x160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYmHlJiF_jYskviOYsQu7exVcQntwxSmlkqekI5Y43WZvFC4xtSOx-ocKARnbwTJ24bl2UirotsKaN02Q-UNbQ7u7nirGGRJQEu8zXz8GhmM0G9YPV4r0skQc7LerfOxqVMre9yK3PiGc/s1600/x160.jpg" /></a></div><br />STOCKHOLM — President Barack Obama is seeking to use a 24-hour visit to this Swedish capital to show a softer side of American diplomacy even as the world’s gaze remains fixed anxiously on Syria.<br /><br />He intends to focus in the Nordic nation on climate change, trade and technology, a trio of issues on which there is broad consensus with European allies. The topics are a marked departure from the thorny, pressing matters he’s facing back home on national security and the economy. He also plans to pay homage to a Holocaust-era hero whose name is commemorated on street signs from Paris to Tel Aviv.<br />The president arrived Wednesday morning in Stockholm after an overnight flight from Washington, where lawmakers are weighing whether to approve Obama’s request for a military strike against Syria. A day later, Obama was scheduled to travel to St. Petersburg, Russia, to meet with foreign leaders at the Group of 20 economic summit.<br /><br />Greeting Obama on a mild, sunny morning at the Stockholm-Arlanda International Airport were Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and leaders of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s center-right coalition government.<br /><br />Sporadic crowds lined the highway as Obama’s motorcade sped from the airport and they thickened in central Stockholm, especially around Obama’s waterfront hotel.<br /><br />Obama’s trip to Sweden will mark the first bilateral visit by a sitting U.S. president to the northern European nation. While in Stockholm, Obama will meet with Reinfeldt and King Carl XVI Gustav and dine with Nordic leaders from Norway, Iceland, Finland and Denmark. He’ll also stop at Sweden’s premier technical university to call attention to Sweden’s goal to phase out fossil fuels by 2050.<br /><br />The White House hastily arranged the Stockholm visit after Obama, incensed when Russia granted asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, scrapped a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The cancellation created a two-day scheduling void when Obama was expecting to be overseas but had nowhere to go. The White House added Sweden to his itinerary.<br /><br />Administration officials previewing Obama’s trip offered little in the way of a specific rationale for the visit, other than to say that the country had extended him a written invitation some time ago. They added that Nordic nations are important partners in development, global security and promotion of democracy.<br /><br />Many of Obama’s global priorities — like energy, global trade and science training — parallel his second-term domestic goals as he seeks to ready the U.S. workforce for a higher-tech economy, increase demand abroad for American products and tackle climate change. But those priorities have at times been overshadowed by global outrage over massive U.S. surveillance programs revealed by Snowden and by Obama’s efforts to persuade nations to take a tougher tack against Syria.<br /><br />A sobering moment was expected Wednesday afternoon when he honors the late Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited for saving at least 20,000 Jews during World War II before being arrested by Soviet forces in 1945 and then mysteriously disappearing. Wallenberg’s family planned to present a letter to Obama asking for help in pressing Russia to shed light on Wallenberg’s fate.<br /><br />Amid tight security, protesters were already gathering in the streets of Stockholm, including a small group from Amnesty International that held a demonstration outside the royal palace to demand that Obama close Guantanamo Bay prison.<br /><br />Thousands of armed police are deployed on city streets, many roads and parks are closed in the downtown area, concrete barriers and steel fences have sprung up in many locations near where Obama will stay.

Obama to showcase common global goals in brief visit to Sweden.

Syria tensions running high, Obama to showcase common global goals in brief visit to Sweden. STOCKHOLM — President Barack Obama is seeking t...

U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Sweden Wednesday for a two-day

Syria looms over Obama's Sweden visit.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One before his departure, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013" height="480" src="http://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/TWCRoadRunner/_2013-09-04T05-41-45_c19d6ed0dcea449983dd2c1b876665c8-62759d3bd03f601d3c0f6a706700abd3?wid=642&hei=482&bgc=000000&" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One before his departure, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013 at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Obama is traveling to Sweden and later to the G-20 Summit in St. Peterburg, Russia. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (The Associated Press)</td></tr></tbody></table>STOCKHOLM: US President Barack Obama arrived in Sweden Wednesday for a two-day visit likely to revolve around Syria, despite the host nation's effort to draw attention to a broader agenda.<br /><br />Obama stepped off Air Force One at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport fresh from efforts in Washington to secure bipartisan support for military strikes against Syria to punish the regime for what the US says was the use of sarin gas on a Damascus suburb.<br /><br />His Europe trip will also take him to the G20 summit in Russia after making important political headway at home when top Republican leaders firmly backed his plan to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a chemical weapons attack.<br /><br />A White House official said early Wednesday that Obama would hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of France and China on the sidelines of the G20.<br /><br />While no official bilateral meeting was planned with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the official said: "We would expect the two presidents to have an opportunity to speak on the margins of the various meetings of the G20."<br /><br />As the US president prepared to leave for Europe, he emphasised that the action he had in mind over Syria would be less open-ended than moves undertaken in the Middle East under his predecessor, George W. Bush.<br /><br />"It is limited. It does not involve boots on the ground. This is not Iraq and this is not Afghanistan," Obama said Tuesday in Washington.<br /><br />Meanwhile Sweden prepared for what will only be the second visit by an incumbent US president, after Bush in 2001, with the Scandinavian country's government saying it looked forward to discussing "various current issues".<br /><br />"No doubt Syria will be such an issue, but perhaps more so the free trade negotiations between the US and the EU," Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in a statement.<br /><br />There is good reason for Sweden to avoid a visit completely overshadowed by Syria as the issue is almost bound to bring out deep-seated differences on the best way to address the Middle Eastern regime's alleged use of chemical weapons.<br /><br />"We need to come up with a forceful response," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told Swedish television early Wednesday. "We hope that the (UN) Security Council can agree on this."<br /><br />Late last week, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said he opposed "military solutions of a conflict which in my opinion should be resolved through political and diplomatic efforts."

U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Sweden Wednesday for a two-day

Syria looms over Obama's Sweden visit. President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One before his departure, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2...

Australia, Sweden sign agreement on submarine design, technology

<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFUF18dnkPitdR6efVjog3Cnmrqoma_6VUffjjSvpd9W9hyRn5Dx_W3h23EGFdy11tj-LMJefYTt0_tsh0V-rwjYVg6sGLmX45CciP1eOrhEnE47FBwaeNdaw4rvOlqL0f8MPBvXBgaFmR/s1600/%2540publimetroworld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFUF18dnkPitdR6efVjog3Cnmrqoma_6VUffjjSvpd9W9hyRn5Dx_W3h23EGFdy11tj-LMJefYTt0_tsh0V-rwjYVg6sGLmX45CciP1eOrhEnE47FBwaeNdaw4rvOlqL0f8MPBvXBgaFmR/s1600/%2540publimetroworld.jpg" /></a>CANBERRA, May 16 - Australia and Sweden have achieved a "significant milestone agreement" relating to Intellectual Property rights for submarine design and technology, Defence Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement on Thursday.<br /><br />According to the joint statement with Sweden's Minister for Defence Karin Enstrom, this followed extensive negotiations between Australia's Defence Materiel Organisation and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration.<br /><br />"This agreement gives effect to Australia's rights to use and disclose Swedish Intellectual Property rights for complex submarine design and technology," Minister Smith said Thursday.<br /><br />"Defence materiel cooperation has been a key feature of the Sweden-Australia relationship, most notably in the area of submarine technology where our collaboration over the construction and support of the Collins submarines has spanned two decades, and more recently, with the vital 'sense and warn' capability provided to protect our troops in Afghanistan," he added.<br /><br />In 1987, Australia ordered six submarines of the Collins Class designed by Swedish firm Kockums AB. The submarines were built in Adelaide and will be in service for another 20 years.<br /><br />Australia is now planning for their replacement with 12 new boats with the recent 2013 Defence White Paper settling on two options - an evolution of Collins or a completely new design.<br /><br />Smith said the government announced last year it would engage Kockums to undertake initial design studies for the evolved Collins. But before that could occur, Australia needed to reach an agreement with Sweden on use of Collins and other Swedish technology for the Future Submarine Program.<br /><div><br /></div>

Australia, Sweden sign agreement on submarine design, technology

CANBERRA, May 16 - Australia and Sweden have achieved a "significant milestone agreement" relating to Intellectual Property rights...

Full-figure mannequins spark controversy

<div class="abs">A photo of fuller-figured mannequins reportedly on display in a store in Sweden has sparked Internet debate about obesity. </div><div class="abs"> </div><section><div class="first" data-class="float1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicubH_eh09W8FjtEKRf59i7omlaplxmRb6BesOJdix59z6h8DJlOmPQmGCZGpOKvaDxRPFfWHmoANdcTCgpykiFw55duSrKTey9wo6-HNIXWzquroPh5EALfNv24pWI87Q6tikCT8stX6-/s1600/maniquin.jpg" width="640" /></div><br /></div>Should store mannequins look like average women or should they conform to contemporary ideals?<br />That question is swirling around the Web in the wake of a photograph of fuller-figured mannequins modeling lingerie in a store in Sweden. "For comparison, most mannequins in the U.S. are between a svelte size 4 or 6—a departure from the <a data-id="yui_3_8_1_1_1363370116575_518" href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AupY1LOPiqvZw5UwwfDmpjhlbqU5;_ylu=X3oDMTFnaWFnZWRzBG1pdANCbG9nUG9zdEJvZHkEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTM0bzJwaGRyBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDMTA4NTA5YTctOGI3OS0zYzcyLWE2ZjgtYzdhOTM4NWNkOGM5BHBzdGNhdAN3ZWxsLWJlaW5nfHBob3RvcwRwdANzdG9yeXBhZ2U-;_ylv=0/SIG=1435qc8m1/EXP=1364579716/**http%3A//abcnews.go.com/Health/fat-mannequin-stirs-reddit-debate-obesity-overweight-consumers/story%3Fid=17820634">average</a> American woman who is a size 14," <a href="http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/swedish-mannequins-cause-a-controversy--192108535.html" target="_blank">Yahoo Shine</a> reported.<br />A photograph of the mannequin was shared by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=510240455685022&set=a.204542062921531.45848.184599864915751&type=1&theater" target="_blank">Women's Rights News</a> on Facebook with the caption: "Store mannequins in Sweden. They look like real women. The US should invest in some of these." As of Friday afternoon, more than 54,000 people had "liked" the photograph, more than 16,500 had shared it and more than 2,800 had left comments. The image has since showed up on other <a href="http://imgur.com/gallery/UOwgN5L" target="_blank">social sharing</a> sites.<br />Some of the comments were positive, like one from <a data-class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100003933246156" data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856075}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][0]" href="https://www.facebook.com/Nathalie.L.Negron">Nathalie Negron</a>: "<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856075}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2]"><span data-class="UFICommentBody" data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856075}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0"><span data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856075}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[0]">I love these! Healthy, but curvy. It is about time the media and society loved curves again. Marilyn Monroe was a size 14 and the world loved her. Power to real women with curves! Love it!"</span></span></span><br /><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span data-class="UFICommentBody"><span>Others, however, took jabs at the models for representing overweight women and endorsing obesity. <a data-class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1439133104" data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][0]" href="https://www.facebook.com/kareem.golmez">Kareem Golmez</a><span data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][1]"> began his comment with "</span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2]"><span data-class="UFICommentBody" data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0"><span data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[0]"><span data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[0].[0]">Its got to stop, When will fat girls stop misidentifying themselves as curvy/thick/voluptuous. Who told these pigs they look good? I wouldn't mind so much if they went back to their traditional Muumuu outfits instead of the tight jeans/spandex they're </span></span><span data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[3]"><span data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[3].0"><span data-id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment510240455685022_1856402}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[3].0.[0]">now wearing."</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />Internet buzz suggested the mannequins were from an H&M store in Sweden, but a spokesperson for the company told Shine that the image was not taken at H&M. "At this time, we are not using this type of mannequin, but we do not rule of the possibility of doing so in the future." </section>

Full-figure mannequins spark controversy

A photo of fuller-figured mannequins reportedly on display in a store in Sweden has sparked Internet debate about obesity.   Should store ma...