Mikory's ABBA-blog:

British tabloids have published a gossip story about the UK's Security Minister Alan West having an secret love affair. Now they have pointed out Frida as the woman involved. Naturally Frida was very upset as the reporters came to her in Switzerland for a comment. You can read what she said below....

The anti-terror chief, the girl from ABBA, and his secret love affair
By GLEN OWEN published in The Mail on Sunday
Fresh indignity was heaped on Gordon Brown last night after one of the female singers from ABBA was bizarrely dragged into a Government sex scandal.
In the latest blow to the Prime Minister's authority, senior sources told The Mail on Sunday that Admiral Sir Alan West, the Security Minister appointed personally by Mr Brown to lead the War on Terror, had admitted to an extramarital affair.
   The confirmation came after intense speculation about Sir Alan's private life had been sweeping Westminster.
Insiders indicated that there was a crisis in his 34-year marriage to Rosie, an artist with whom he has three children.
   Speculation was fuelled by the fact that the 59-year-old former First Sea Lord had formed an implausible but genuine friendship with Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 62, the dark-haired singer from the Seventies Swedish supergroup.
   And yesterday, with the rumour mill in full flow, high-level sources were forced into action to clarify the situation.
   The Mail on Sunday was told that Sir Alan had indeed been having an affair - but emphatically not with the ABBA star.
   The admiral disclosed his infidelity "some years ago" during a routine security vetting procedure.
   The sources refused to give further details of the affair, including whether it was still ongoing.
   The episode was immediately characterised by political observers as a "Whitehall farce", adding to the series of embarrassments engulfing the Government.
   It appeared yesterday that Sir Alan's confession to infidelity had become fused in the minds of Westminster insiders with their astonishment at his friendship with ABBA's Frida, as she is known to millions of fans.
   He is believed to have met her at a charity function in London in the spring of 2006.

Yesterday, in answer to questions about their friendship, the admiral said: "All I'm going to say is I'm not having an affair with her, you know.
   "I know her, and I've known her for a couple of years. So I'm sorry, but I'm not going to go there at all."
   Asked how they met, he added: "Sorry, but I'm not going to go there. I'm not trying to be difficult but I just don't like talking about my private life.
   "I have a job to do which I'm trying to do very hard for the Government, and that seems to me to be the right focus."
   He refused to make any further comment. A Home Office spokesman also refused to comment.
   Frida told The Mail on Sunday: "I feel awfully sorry about Rosie and the family. It is very sad. I feel totally sorry. There is no relationship, absolutely not.
   "I am innocent. Alan is innocent. We are friends. There is no relationship."
   It is the latest in a series of setbacks for Mr Brown's embattled Government and is bound to draw comparisons with the decline of John Major's scandal-hit administration in the Nineties.
   Initially, Major did well after succeeding Margaret Thatcher, but he lost by a landslide to Tony Blair in 1997 after the economy hit trouble, he was pilloried for his weakness and a number of Ministers were embroiled in sexual and financial scandals.
   In similar fashion, after succeeding Tony Blair in June, Mr Brown soared ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls. But since then, his ratings have been on the slide.
   In the space of just weeks, he has been criticised for his handling of the collapse of the Northern Rock bank and the loss of child-benefit records, and has become entangled in the "Donorgate" affair which erupted when The Mail on Sunday revealed secret donations to Labour of more than £600,000 by wealthy businessman David Abrahams.
   Sir Alan was appointed by Mr Brown in June as part of the Prime Minister's personal plan to assemble a "Government of all the talents", known as "Goats" for short.
   Mr Brown announced that he was creating a life peerage for Sir Alan and appointing him as a Home Office Minister with responsibility for advising him on the terror threat to the UK.
   But the Goats have been hit by a series of controversies: Sir Digby Jones, the former director of the Confederation of British Industry, became a Trade Minister, then immediately embarrassed Mr Brown by failing to pledge his wholehearted support for Labour.
   Then 54-year-old former diplomat Lord Malloch-Brown, appointed a Foreign Office Minister, attracted adverse publicity by demanding a grace-and-favour flat in Admiralty Arch and infuriating his 42-yearold boss, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, by describing himself as "the older figure, the wise eminence behind the young Foreign Secretary".
   And last month Sir Alan himself embarrassed the Prime Minister by questioning in a radio interview Mr Brown's desire to hold terrorist subjects for longer than 28 days.
   One hour later, after a visit to Downing Street, he changed his stance, saying he was convinced by the PM's argument.
   He tried to explain away the fudge by describing himself as just "a simple sailor".
   Although there is no suggestion of impropriety over his relationship with Ms Lyngstad, eyebrows were raised last night over the wisdom of the Government's terror chief conducting a friendship with the thrice-married pop star, who is a tax exile in Switzerland.
   Sir Alan, who declared during an interview in the summer that he "admired" ABBA, is believed to have first met the singer at a royal gala for the anti-drug abuse charity Mentor, held at the Natural History Museum in London in May 2006. He had retired as head of the Navy three months earlier.
   It was one of a number of parties he attended that year, apparently demob-happy.
   Some of them were not particularly high-minded: in March he was pictured at the Oldie of the Year Awards, a famously raffish affair, with his arms round Carol Thatcher and Sandra Howard, and sporting a comedy naval eyepatch.
   And in April he was snapped, eyepatch again in place, with his arms around author Kathy Lette at the launch of her book How To Kill Your Husband.
   Appropriately, Lette had placed a dagger in the top of her stockings.
   In contrast, Sir Alan's naval career was marked by heroism and rapid promotion.
   In 1982, aged just 34, he was the commanding officer of the frigate HMS Ardent when it was sunk by Argentinian forces during the Falklands War.
   His bravery in being the last to leave the sinking ship earned him the Distinguished Service Cross.
   A blip on his seemingly relentless ascent of the career ladder came in 1986 when he dropped classified documents about naval cutbacks while out walking his dog - the contents of which were then revealed in The Mail on Sunday.
   But by 1997 he had risen to become Chief of Defence Intelligence, and by 2002 he was First Sea Lord and Aide-De-Camp to the Queen.
   His friend Frida amassed a multimillion-pound fortune during her ten-year career singing with Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog.
   But the members of the Eurovision-winning band had tortured romances: Frida left her first husband, Ragnar

Fredriksson, with whom she had two children, to marry Benny in 1978 - the same year that Bjorn and Agnetha divorced.
   Benny and Frida were then themselves divorced in 1981.
   A year later, the group went their separate ways. Six years ago they turned down an offer of $1billion to reform for a world tour.
   Since 1992, Frida has been officially known as Her Serene Highness after marrying a German count, Prince Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen. He died of cancer in 1999 and she has not remarried.
   Apart from a couple of moderately successful solo singing projects, Frida, the product of a wartime liaison between her Norwegian mother and a married German soldier, has kept a low profile since the group's demise, devoting herself to work with drug and environment charities.
   She now lives in an apartment in the Swiss mountain resort of Zermatt, where she has a small but close circle of friends. Locals say she likes the tranquillity of her life there.
   Yesterday The Mail on Sunday spoke to her outside her apartment, which enjoys spectacular views of the Matterhorn and the Vispa Valley.
   Dressed casually in a white jacket, snow boots, jeans and a large pair of sunglasses - and sporting a dyed blonde bob in place of her trademark brunette tresses - she walked briskly down the road.
   When asked about her relationship with Sir Alan, Frida said: "It is nothing to do with you. It is my private life. I feel awfully sorry about Rosie and the family.
   "It is very sad. I feel totally sorry. There is no relationship, absolutely not. I am innocent. Alan is innocent. We are friends. There is no relationship."
   When asked to expand on why she felt sorry about Rosie, she shook her hands and replied: "Go away. I will not answer anything else. Do not ask me any more questions. I am innocent."
   Frida, who is Norwegian rather than Swedish like the three other members of ABBA, moved to Switzerland in 1986.
   A spokeswoman for the Official International ABBA Fan Club, which is based in the Netherlands, said: "Since her marriage to her third husband, who was a prince, Anni-Frid has moved in royal circles.
   "He has died but she still moves in these circles and she comes into contact with lots of people who move in high society."

The day of Saint Lucia in Scandinavia is an essential part of Christmas in Scandinavia.

Each year on December 13, Saint Lucia is celebrated widely with candlelight and traditional candle-lit processions. Lucia herself was Christian and died for her faith. The December 13 holiday honors her. The eldest girl in the family portrays St Lucia, puts on a white robe in the morning and is allowed to wear a crown full of candles. She serves her parents Lucia buns and coffee or mulled wine.

In church, women sing the traditional Saint Lucia song which describes how Saint Lucia overcame the darkness and found light. Each of the Scandinavian countries has similar lyrics, in their native tongues.

In Scandinavian history, the night of Saint Lucia was known to be the longest night of the year (winter solstice) which was changed when the Gregorian calendar was reformed.

During a dark winter in Scandinavia, the idea of light overcoming darkness, and the promise of returning sunlight has been welcomed by the locals for hundreds of years. The celebrations and processions on Saint Lucia Day are illuminated by thousands of candles.

In 1979 Benny and Frida visited the Swedish radio the day before Christmas Eve and they performed their own version of "Stilla Natt" (Silent Night). Click HERE to listen to it.

I like to wish all of you a Glad Lucia!