- STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Anna Lindh,
Sweden's popular Foreign Minister who was stabbed repeatedly while shopping
in an exclusive department store, died today, doctors and government officials
said.
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- Lindh, who was attacked yesterday, was operated on at
Karolinska Hospital for most of the night.
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- She suffered severe internal bleeding and liver and stomach
injuries.
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- Lindh was stabbed in the stomach, chest and arm, and
police were searching for a man wearing a camouflage jacket who fled the
store.
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- The death shocked a nation that has long prided itself
on the accessibility of its politicians.
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- Like many officials, she did not use a bodyguard.
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- Police said they did not believe the attack was politically
motivated, but it stirred memories of the unsolved murder of Prime Minister
Olof Palme, who was killed while walking home from a downtown movie theater
with his wife in 1986.
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- "It's with great sadness that I have the information
that Anna Lindh died," Prime Minister Goeran Persson said. "It
feels strange and it's difficult to understand."
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- Lindh, 46, died just before 5:30am. (1330 AEST), Persson
said.
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- The attack cast a pall over Sweden's referendum to decide
whether to adopt the euro as the country's currency. Campaigning on the
issue was postponed for at least a day. It was not known if Sunday's referendum
vote would be delayed.
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- Jan Larssen, a government spokesman, said the "issue
had been raised" but added it would be a "very big, complicated
project to move an election day".
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- Lindh, who was No. 3 in the government and a leading
supporter of the European Union's common currency, was often touted as
a possible successor to Persson.
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- Lindh was head of the Foreign Ministry since 1998, serving
as environmental minister before that. She was a member of the Riksdag,
or parliament, from 1982-1985. She was married and has two children.
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- "For some people, this may bring back all the terrible
memories of years back when prime minister Olof Palme was killed,"
Green Party leader Per Eriksson said. "This may very well lead to
Swedish politicians having to have bodyguards from now on."
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- Only Persson and Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf have personal
security details, Lars Danielsson, a senior government aide, said.
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- Politicians in Scandinavia are often seen walking along
the street or riding subways without police protection. In neighbouring
Denmark, Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller often goes grocery shopping
without police protection.
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- Lindh was shopping at the upscale Nordiska Kompaniet
department store, blocks away from the parliament building, when she was
stabbed just before 4pm yesterday, shopper Hanna Sundberg told The Associated
Press.
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- Sundberg said she saw a man chase Lindh up an escalator.
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- "She fell on the floor and the man was stabbing
her in the stomach," she said. "When he ran away, he threw the
knife away."
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- Sundberg ran to Lindh and the politician told her: "God,
he has stabbed me in the stomach!" Then, Sundberg said she saw blood.
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- An AP reporter saw Lindh rushed from the building on
a stretcher by three paramedics, with police surrounding her. The foreign
minister appeared barely conscious, breathing heavily into an oxygen mask
as paramedics loaded her into an ambulance.
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- Police were analyzing the store's security videotapes
to learn more about the assault.
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- Copyright 2003 News Limited.
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- http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7234462%255E1702,00.html
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