The ‘Skara Cannibal’, who killed and ate parts of his girlfriend, and the ‘Vampire Woman’, who stabbed a father of four to death, met in Karsuddens psychiatric facility near Katrineholm and found plenty in common after chatting online.

”We got together on November 13th,” ‘Vampire Woman’ Michelle Gustafsson told Expressen. “’Do you want to be my girlfriend?’ he asked on MSN. Then we decided to get engaged, which we did on December 9th,” she added.

Both of the inmates made headlines in Sweden for their highly unusual crimes. Gustafsson claimed she did not remember murdering a father of four in Stockholm in 2010, but wrote on her personal blog about killing people and posed for pictures with a bloody mouth and weapons.

Isakin Jonsson, the ‘Skara Cannibal’, was convicted in 2011 for stabbing his girlfriend to death, cutting off her head and then eating parts of her body. He showed no remorse during his trial and could not explain why he had killed her.

“That’s something I also wonder about. I trust the doctors. There was no motive whatsoever. We were a couple with a future together. I’ve never felt this way with a girl before,” Expressen reported him saying during the trial. However, he apparently told the newspaper later that he only ate his ex to secure psychiatric treatment instead of jail time.

Speaking about his new romance, Jonsson said, “I love Michelle. I have never met anyone like her. I’d like to lead a non-criminal life.”

The engagement may be a long one, as both inmates are serving non-fixed sentences, but the uncertainty has not prevented the couple from planning their future. “We want to get to live together, keep dogs and spend time on our hobbies, piercing and tattoos,” Gustafsson told Expressen.

We have been putting out a Christmas message since 2008 and every year has been filled with memorable events that have drawn readers to IceNews to find out more. As is the way with news, most of the events have been sad, scary or otherwise pretty serious in some way.

Collapsing banks, volcanoes, the dreaded Icesave – all have dominated our news at some point. This year was no exception and another volcano in Iceland blew its top; but as it didn’t ground planes or kill anyone (thankfully), it was rightly a short-lived story. That despite the fact it was actually ten times bigger than the Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010. The difference was that Grímsvötn produced plane-friendly ash, apparently.

Probably the biggest story we covered this year in any great detail was the disturbing bomb and shooting massacre perpetrated by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. But as Norwegian media have been asked to give victims’ families a break and lay off the coverage over Christmas, we will gladly oblige and say no more about it here.

On a lighter note, the year has been sprinkled with surprising, heart-warming, inspiring or outright weird stories which easily draw attention away from the negative stuff for a time (actually there was plenty more weird than that: here, here, here, here and here, for example).

And that is pretty much what Christmas does as well: it distracts from the negative and pressures us into being happy, sociable and, well, nice. Some people hate that, while others love it. But put it this way: wouldn’t we all rather have fake joy and happiness than the cold reality sometimes? And who knows, if we let ourselves be fooled into believing it, it might just become real.

That, as with every year, is the real wish of this Christmas message: that today and the entire next year will be peaceful, healthy and genuinely enjoyable for all of us. The place to start is on a personal level and the time to start is now!

From all of the IceNews team we wish you a Merry Christmas and a fantastic 2012, wherever you are; and we thank you sincerely for visiting us this year. Please continue to do so!

The research, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found that men in particular enjoy an increased lifespan if they are in a long-lasting union.

Census data from 1971, 1981 and 1991, supplied by 57,000 Brits and 424,000 Finns above the age of 50, were measured against mortality rates between 1991 and 2004.

The results showed that men aged between 50 and 74 who were married for the duration of the study period were the least likely to die. Married women were also found to be more likely to live longer, although the length of the union was not such an important factor.

The positive effects of matrimony decreased for men after they reached the age of 75, but across both sexes, those who had been divorced several times or never wed at all had the greatest mortality rate.

The researchers speculated that people in lasting marriages might live longer due to social support, financial stability and greater incentive to live a healthy lifestyle. However, they also pointed out that people who choose to tie the knot may make more sensible lifestyle choices in the first place.

“For many others, the ash fall from the glacier was a great distress, but it turned out to be a blessing for us,” says Lynali Keller from the Philippines. She and her husband visited Iceland this week on a special pilgrimage and told their story to DV.

Lynali and Marcel Keller, from Switzerland, visited Iceland to visit the distant place which changed both their lives forever: Eyjafjallajokull.

The couple met by chance when they both intended to take photographs of the sunset in Zurich, on an evening when it was predicted to be uniquely beautiful due to the volcanic ash in the atmosphere. “The newspaper said that the sunset would be magnificent in the ash; dramatic colours and a photographer’s dream. I didn’t know anything about that and just wanted to take pictures of the sunset [anyway]. I walked up this hill and there was a group of people gathered there,” Lynali told DV, who then decided late to try and photograph the spectacle. “Unfortunately I didn’t get and good pictures, but Marcel was still there and had taken photos. I waited there for a while and he found me and we started talking,” she says. “He asked if I’d got any pictures of it and I said, ‘no, I missed it; I should have got here sooner.’”

The two amateur photographers got chatting and ended up keeping in contact. They regularly talked about photography, went on a date and ended up as a couple…

Nearly a year-and-a-half later they arrived in Iceland to see where it all began.

(Photo: DV.is // Sigtryggur Ari)

RSPB conservationist Martin Scott, who has followed Elvis’s quest for a mate, told STV that the bird arrived on the Isle of Lewis on 11th February this year. “He’s maybe trying to cash in on Valentine’s Day, because he’s just arrived in the Hebrides for the ninth year running in search of a mate, who as yet, eludes him,” said Scott.

“You’d have to give him full marks for effort,” he continued. “I just hope that this year he gets lucky in love. To have snowy owls breeding in the Hebrides would be fantastic.”

Britain has not seen a pair of breeding snowy owls since 1975 when a couple famously hooked up in Shetland. It was also thought that Elvis had got lucky in North Lewis in 2008, but hopes were dashed when bird watchers identified his new-found snowy associate as a male.

“We think he hatched in Greenland and took a flight looking for a mate before discovering he was half way across the Atlantic, and just kept going,” said Scott. “He’s been here on his own ever since.

“At his age he’ll be hormonal. We see him sitting on exactly the same fence posts and rocks, but we’ve not had a resident female for years. I’ve even seen him sidle up to a white plastic bag. It seemed as though he thought it was a mate as it was the only other white object in the big open brown moorland. It was quite sad,” he added.

“We are monitoring his movements but in reality all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that he will find another wandering bird, and that this time it will be female.”

The survey was conducted by Kolbeinn Holmar Stefansson, a University of Iceland sociologist, and by Thora Kristin Thorsdottir, who is studying for a sociology doctorate at Manchester University.

The pair’s results show that single, childless men spend an average of 12 hours a week doing housework and other household chores, while females in the same position spend just nine hours a week. Despite this, the men studied spend an average of 56 hours a week in paid employment and the women spend just 42 hours working.

The roles are reversed, however, when people move in with their partners. Women in full-time employment, in a relationship and with children at home spend an average of 14 hours a week on household chores, while men in the same situation spend four hours less on housework. Just like with single people, it is also the men who spend longer each week in paid employment.

Stefansson and Thorsdottir believe there are two explanations for the fact that women and men spend such differing amounts of time on the chores.

One explanation is that gender stereotypes often mean that when a heterosexual couple move in together, the woman takes on the majority of the housework — whether deliberately or not.

The other explanation is that although single men may spend longer on the housework, it does not necessarily mean that they do more of it. It could simply be that women are better at housework, and therefore quicker at it, Visir.is reports.

Thorsdottir says that couples’ division of labour is often decided without discussion during the romantic “honeymoon” period when they first move in together. At this time partners are eager to please each other and often take on old fashioned gender roles for romantic reasons. However, the fact that the division of labour is rarely formally discussed means that couples often get stuck in a rut, Thorsdottir warns.

The Christmas and New Year period is also the time we begin to reflect on the year gone by; and what a year it has been!

It has been a year full of incredible events in the Nordic countries – some very sad, some surprising and others full of hope.

Iceland’s volcanic eruptions were a stand-out event for people in Iceland and air travellers the world over. The potential to have ruined the tourist season sparked the Inspired by Iceland campaign which saved the day and helped turn the volcanoes into a tourist attraction.

Then there is the relationship between Julian Assange, Wikileaks and Iceland and Sweden. The two Nordic countries are inseparably linked to possibly the biggest global news story of the year.

There was the failed bomb plot in Copenhagen and then the recent successful one in Stockholm. Luckily no members of the public died.

Cairn Energy started drilling for oil off Greenland, the McDonald’s shootings in Finland shocked everyone and Iceland finally seems to have sorted the dreaded Icesave dispute (although it is still way too early to say so for certain).

There is much more, but that is probably enough to be getting on with to remind you how much of a stand-out year 2010 has been.

But for now, on Christmas Day, the most important thing is not to dwell on the news; but rather to relax and to enjoy the company of those around us. On behalf of all the IceNews team, Merry Christmas to you and thanks for reading in 2010!

A 28 year-old Canadian man was briefly arrested but released without charge after no explosives were found on the plane. According to tabloid Aftonbladet, the woman made up the allegations because she was unhappy about the split.

“From what I understood, an ex came forward with the claim in connection with their separation. It was surely not a happy one,” Stockholm police officer Hakan Westing told Aftonbladet. “She had an evil eye on him,” he added.

Stockholm police spokesperson Kjell Lindgren, however, told AFP that he could not confirm if the man was travelling to Pakistan to get married. He said the man would be leaving Sweden on Monday but denied that he had been prevented from flying sooner as no airline would take him.

“That’s not true,” Lindgren said. “I think it’s a misunderstanding. There was no plane, is the information I got. It just didn’t work out with the flights.”

Canadian police are said to be investigating whether the bomb alert they received was a “terrorist hoax.”

Starting Monday May 3 and continuing for two weeks, Arriva, which operates the majority of buses in the Danish capital, has introduced new Singles’ Seats, where flirting, smiling, finding a new partner or simply creating a better atmosphere is encouraged, reports Politiken

While public buses are not traditionally thought of as the most romantic form of transport, Arriva’s new initiative will see two Love Seats especially reserved on around 100 buses in Copenhagen. The customised vehicles will run on the 3A, 150S, 350S, 173E and 4A routes around the capital, marking out a path for those wishing to partake in some alternative sightseeing.

“We want to shake up people’s habits and have a bit of flirting and smiling on buses. Perhaps some people will find love there. Others may just decide to try a bus ride with a chance to flirt with a handsome man,” said Marianne Fearch, Arriva’s Business Developer.

Faerch also said that Arriva may have latched onto a new public trend, suggesting that finding a partner has become a more public affair and the concept of love behind closed doors is outdated. But whether public transport will replace more traditional locations for finding that special someone remains to be seen.

Gender and culture specialist Charlotte Krolokke Ph.D, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, also supported the concept of more open displays of affection. “There has been a move away from the view that love is a private issue and singles are viewed as being on the shelf. Now, they are no longer stigmatised as many people experience being single in a period of their lives, and it has become part of the public culture. There is more openness about it,” Krolokke claimed.

Established in 2004, the cuddle party has won followers in the US, UK, Australia, the Netherlands and Canada with its hands-on approach. Sweden has now leapt softly onto the cuddle-wagon which aims to provide “a playful social event designed for adults to explore communication, boundaries and affection”.

“A cuddle party is a concept where people meet and practice touching within clear boundaries and learn to set limits, this is important in several fields in society. It is about building integrity,” said cuddle party organiser Oskar Palmenfelt in a report by The Local. The appropriately named Palmenfelt did point out that the Swedish version would have subtle differences from its US counterpart.

“A US cuddle party is more a pleasant evening when people cuddling in a non-sexual way. In Sweden we see boundary-setting when practising cuddling as an important skill to be learned and developed,” Palmenfelt explained. A pedagogic method will be employed for Swedish participants who can attend a post-cuddle workshop to discuss personal boundaries and values.

Palmenfelt claimed that establishing such boundaries was essential in today’s modern society which increasingly endeavours to make its members insecure. “It is about learning to build and trust your own personal integrity, drawing limits and also asking for help in everyday situations,” he said.

The cuddle party is not, as many had hoped, orgiastic foreplay. All movements are kept above the table thanks to a dedicated Cuddle Caddy or Cuddle Lifeguard.