What's Your Salary? In Sweden, It's No Secret

Embassy surveillance program may have violated law

(NEWSER) - All five Nordic nations now suspect the US has been using its embassies to spy on their citizens: Iceland has joined Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland in launching a probe into whether American embassies acted illegally by carrying out surveillance of protesters without permission from national authorities, the BBC reports. Top prosecutors in the countries involved believe the embassies may have violated several laws. More»

Fault the Soviets, and other reasons for no medals since 1936

(NEWSER) - Though the Scandinavian nations generally fare well in the Winter Olympics, there’s a gaping hole in their success when it comes to figure skating (no medals since 1936), leading some bloggers to try to figure why. Some theories:

• Blame the Soviets. During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc sunk untold money and energy into high-profile figure skating, writes Scott Beaulier —totally blotting out the Swedes, Finns, Norwegians, Danes, and Icelanders.

Quite a bit—but it likely won't happen

(NEWSER) - Warren Buffett made waves yesterday when he told the federal government to stop "coddling" him and other wealthy Americans and raise taxes on the rich. His plan would roll back the Bush tax cuts on people who earn more than $1 million and on capital gains and dividends income, and would close the loophole that allows a lower tax rate for hedge fund managers. But how much would it actually help? Quite a bit, writes David Kocieniewski in the New York Times : "The tax increase on all three fronts would generate as much as $500 billion in new revenue over the next decade." More»

Let's have some real 'shared sacrifice'

(NEWSER) - Washington keeps talking about “shared sacrifice”—but it's not asking the mega-rich to join in, writes Warren Buffett in the New York Times . “While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks.” It seems that lawmakers “feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species.” The investor offers himself as a case in point: Last year, his taxes amounted to just 17.4% of his taxable income, while everyone else in his office paid an average of 36%. More»

Treasure hunters uncover round disc on the sea floor

(NEWSER) - Finally, a real reason to send conspiracy theory extremists to the bottom of the sea: A team of Swedish treasure hunters have uncovered what they think could be a UFO crash site in the Baltic Sea, reports Gizmodo . The 60-foot disc sits at the end of what appears to be 985-foot-long impact tracks in the Botnia Gulf between Sweden and Finland. More»