weird behaviuor when assigning string

Hi
I have some strange behaviour that im looking for ideas on:

GetCountryCode returns a string from a stored procedure, standard stuff

strCult = Trim(ca.GetCountryCode(Userid))
ci = New CultureInfo(Trim(strCult))
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = ci

if i debug in the environment the output of GetCountryCode is:
"sv-SE
"

Note the carridge return (maybe this is irrelevent)
If I set the same code manually it works:
ci = New CultureInfo("sv-SE")
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = ci

Is there something basic im missing here that I cant see, there are other ways around this but I would be really intrested to know what im doing wrong when assigning this string
Any help appreciated
Andy