Stockholm

A racist Swedish group that says it objects to spending tax money on visiting foreign athletes claimed yesterday it would unleash a killing spree if the 2004 Olympic Games are awarded to Stockholm. The threat by V.S.B.S. - Swedish initials of a name translating as "We who built Sweden" - was contained in a letter sent to the Associated Press in London. Swedish police declined to immediately comment on the letter. "We will make the 1972 Olympic tragedy in Munich look like a kindergarten tiff" if Sweden is awarded the 2004 Olympics, said the letter, which also included racial slurs and threats against blacks, Italians, Spaniards, Jews and others.

Stockholm today is often said by those in the know to be the most beautiful European capital. We catch a glimpse of the ancestry of some of that beauty in the exhibition "Stockholm 1897" at the American Swedish Historical Museum. The show spotlights photographs of Stockholm commissioned by the city fathers as part of the 1897 World Exhibition, held there to celebrate the emergence of Sweden as a modern industrial state. To outsiders, Stockholm's history is remote. The ancient city began as a fortress on an island.

Sweden's hopes of hosting the Olympics in 2004 received a devastating blow early yesterday when a bomb destroyed sections of the Stockholm stadium left over from the Summer Games of 1912. The blast at the Olympic Stadium, where Jim Thorpe was crowned the world's greatest athlete 85 years ago, was the latest in a series of attacks linked to the city's Olympic bid. Police said no one was hurt in the explosion, which sprayed glass, roof tiles and debris from the press section of the facility - the world's oldest Olympic stadium still in regular use. A police spokesman said investigators had no proof the bombing was connected to Olympics opponents.

By a mere 24 hours, Swedish detectives missed capturing Philadelphia's most notorious fugitive, Ira Einhorn, six weeks ago. Einhorn, wanted on charges of battering his girlfriend, Helen "Holly" Maddux, to death and stashing her remains in a steamer trunk more than 11 years ago, had a furious argument with a Swedish girlfriend Oct. 29, according to police. Then he stalked out of the apartment the couple shared in one of the city's smarter sections, never to return. The very next day, detectives knocked on the door of the fourth-floor apartment at 12 Karlsvigsgatten.

The people of Sweden were introduced to the legend of Ira Einhorn this morning. Einhorn, the Philadelphian who in 1979 was arrested in the murder of his girlfriend, jumped bail and has been a fugitive since, narrowly escaped capture by Stockholm police late in October. The Swedish media just learned about the near miss, and one Stockholm newspaper is publishing a story today on the man who in the 1960s and early '70s threw Philadelphia's first Be-In, ran for mayor on a "planetary transformation" ticket, and taught a well-attended course on psychedelics.

It's time to have a talk about these dirt-cheap fares that make it possible to fly somewhere far away, over a long weekend, at the last minute. They look really good. They don't always work. We've read and heard many travelers' tales about my-wonderful-weekend-anyplace-but-here. That's fine if everything goes according to the itinerary. But the weather works against us. So do crowded skies. And so does that great grab-bag of hassles the airlines deliver with an all-purpose phrase: Equipment problems.

'Rooney who?" is not a question people will be asking much longer. On Tuesday at 7 p.m., David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - the first installment in the U.S. version of Stieg Larsson' s mega-selling Millennium Trilogy - opens in theaters. And there Rooney Mara will be, pale, pierced, and punked-out, hacking into encrypted databases, sleeping with Daniel Craig (and with a woman she picks up at a bar), taking vengeance on a sicko state-appointed guardian . . . if you've read the book (and who hasn't?

STOCKHOLM 'A MIRACLE' AT AIR-SHOW CRASH A newly developed Swedish fighter jet performing low-altitude maneuvers stalled and crashed during an air show yesterday in central Stockholm yesterday, narrowly missing a bridge packed with spectators. Eight people received minor injuries, including the pilot who ejected as the plane crashed in a wooded area of Langholmen Island in Riddarholmsfjarden lake. Hundreds of people were lining the shores of the lake, which cuts into central Stockholm, and a nearby bridge to watch the air show.

Sweden usually issues its stamps about 10 times a year, but in bunches. Next week Sweden Post will issue 12 stamps observing anniversaries and promoting its heritage. A 25-kronor commemorative heralds the 25th year on the throne for King Carl XVI Gustaf. Carl was 27 when he succeeded his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf in 1973. Under a constitutional monarchy, Carl wields little power but still is regarded as an important asset. He spends much of his time as a goodwill ambassador drumming up business abroad.

One of the three sons of murdered Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme learned of his father's death from right-wing students who were celebrating the killing with champagne at a French ski resort, classmates said yesterday. Matthias Palme, 17, flanked by two bodyguards, returned yesterday to Stockholm's Sodra Latin High School for the first time since the murder, they said. He told classmates that he was awakened early March 1 by noisy celebrations at a hotel in the French ski resort of Chamonix, where he was staying with a group of students from Sweden.

'Rooney who?" is not a question people will be asking much longer. On Tuesday at 7 p.m., David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - the first installment in the U.S. version of Stieg Larsson' s mega-selling Millennium Trilogy - opens in theaters. And there Rooney Mara will be, pale, pierced, and punked-out, hacking into encrypted databases, sleeping with Daniel Craig (and with a woman she picks up at a bar), taking vengeance on a sicko state-appointed guardian . . . if you've read the book (and who hasn't?

On a dark, soundless side street in the bohemian Sodermalm section of Stockholm, our Stieg Larsson tour group members began arriving. "I've read all three Larsson novels and seen all three Swedish movies," a New York woman volunteered. "I've just read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ," I said. "Oh, if you've only read the first book you won't get much out of this tour," she said. "That novel takes place mostly in the Swedish countryside. " Despite the lack of enrichment my tour mate warned me about, I was, at least, the first tour group member to arrive, which gave me a chance to chat with tour leader Karen, a sturdy, affable woman wearing a red scarf and warm layers.

The Minnesota Wild fired coach Todd Richards yesterday after the team missed the playoffs in each of his two seasons and for a third straight season overall. The team's playoff fate, and perhaps that of Richards, was sealed by an eight-game losing streak in March. General manager Chuck Fletcher picked Richards as a first-time NHL head coach - he had been an assistant in the league for only 1 year prior - over several more seasoned candidates. Fletcher refused to second-guess his first major decision on the job or blame Richards for the 12th-place finish in the Western Conference.

Of course, the marjoram-scented pea soup may not precisely replicate the steaming bowls that are still fixtures at eateries all across Stockholm on any given Thursday night. Here at South Philadelphia's stately American Swedish Historical Museum, the peas are yellow and split. In Sweden, they tend to be whole. And the ham speaks, well, with a different accent. But on Saturday morning, the Men's Pea Soup Committee will cook up 16 gallons of what is considered an extremely passable rendition, stirring devotedly away in the museum's basement kitchen in the sprawl of FDR Park.

James Blake defeated Jarkko Nieminen, 6-4, 6-2, yesterday to win the Stockholm (Sweden) Open for the second straight year. The second-seeded American became the first player since Thomas Enqvist in 1996 to defend his title at the Royal Tennis Hall. "I'm really happy that I did get a chance to defend. I've never done it successfully before," Blake said after receiving the winner's trophy from Bjorn Borg. "I'm proud of the accomplishment. I beat some pretty darn good players this week.

The Swedish hockey team was celebrating its 3-2 victory over Finland at its net yesterday when Mats Sundin grabbed Peter Forsberg around the neck with one arm, then tugged at Fredrik Modin with the other to form a three-man huddle. "He said, 'Let's go grab a plane and go home tonight,' " Forsberg said with a laugh. "We wanted to go home to Stockholm. That's what we talked about. " It wasn't the most intense or most physical Olympic gold-medal hockey game ever played. But it was worth celebrating in Stockholm as the Swedes survived a frantic finish after a terrific third period of hockey.

Peter Forsberg says his left groin did not bother him once during these Winter Olympics. The Flyers star says he feels great. The man to thank, he says, is Swedish physical therapist and chiropractor Niclas Lantz. Lantz traveled to Philadelphia and worked on Forsberg for five days with twice-daily massages before the center left for Italy on Feb. 12. "I was administering hard massage treatments to his groin," Lantz said from his home in Stockholm yesterday morning. "These massages are very hard and painful.

"Lilya 4-ever" puts a human life in front of the statistics, the social factors and the double-standard dismissals. Lukas Moodysson's film about a teenage girl who leaves a horrible, post-Soviet existence only to become trapped in a worse one in Stockholm all but virtually lets us live her life. It is no treat. That's not the same thing as saying that "Lilya" is entirely realistic. Moodysson, the Swedish director known for his more comedic character studies "Show Me Love" and "Together," has a strong streak of Christian mysticism in him. For all the bleak, dilapidated social dysfunction that marks Lilya's Estonian hometown and clean, cold consumerism that mocks her dreams in Scandinavia, this is as much a story of divine transcendence through suffering as it is a Bergmanesque inquiry into the silence of God. There's also something loonily Dickensian about the sufferings of young Lilya and her only true friend, a boy two years her junior named Volodya.

U.S. track and field athletes delivered some exceptional performances and one huge disappointment last night in the DN Galan Grand Prix meet in Stockholm, Sweden. Alvin Harrison of Salinas, Calif., a two-time Olympian who won the silver medal in the 400 meters in Sydney two years ago, set a stadium record when he blasted through his one-lap race in 44.57 seconds. His time beat the former stadium standard, 44.64, set by Jerome Young of the United States in 1999. For that effort, and owing to a proud tradition of the Swedish meet, Harrison received a 1-carat diamond with a value estimated at $10,000.

Bertil H. Lantz, 82, of Rosemont, former owner of the Viking Inn restaurant, an Ardmore landmark that for 35 years featured a motorized smorgasbord of revolving Swedish delicacies, died of Parkinson's disease Sunday at Bryn Mawr Terrace Convalescent Center. When Mr. Lantz emigrated from his native Stockholm in 1946, his plans to become an architect were shelved. Instead, he went to work for a relative who owned the Viking Inn restaurant and he eventually used his architectural skills to design something other than buildings.