Scandinavian airline operator SAS announced Wednesday it had reached wage agreements with its pilots and cabin crew that it said would help the company cut costs by about $1.7 billion by 2005.
The SAS board also formally approved previously announced plans to split its largest carrier, Scandinavian Airlines System, into three wholly owned subsidiaries to operate flights in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Read More (The State)

A senior official in the Mozambican Education Ministry has denied that the Ministry failed to account properly for Swedish aid money - but the Swedish authorities are demanding that the money be repaid.
According to a report in the respected Norwegian magazine "Development Today",dated 15 March, the Ministry has already agreed in principle to refund 1.7 million Swedish crowns used for scholarships.
Read More (allAfrica.com)

In his college days chairing a right-wing Stockholm student political association, Carl-Magnus Stenberg could not have guessed that his future would lie with the former Soviet Union.
The only revolution Stenberg has joined is the technological revolution, and today he is the chief operating officer and acting CEO of the telecommunications company Tele2 Russia.
Read More (The Moscow Times)

Harald Sandberg, Swedish ambassador to Korea: Sweden Still Playing Peacekeeper Here
An Interview with The Kroea Times.

The man who confessed to stabbing Sweden's popular foreign minister, Anna Lindh, in a Stockholm department store was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday.

The Guardian
International Herald Tribune
Los Angeles Times

The Invest in Sweden Agency announced the U.S. and other countries can use Sweden’s nationwide 3G wireless network to test 3G-related technologies, products and services.
The agency is touting Sweden’s 3G Test Market program as a way for international companies to prepare for 3G by using the country’s network to develop, test and refine business models, management and deployment strategies.
Read More (RCR wireless news)

Hundreds of demonstrators clashed with Swedish police when they encroached on a pro-Israel rally held in Stockholm on Sunday night, Israel Radio reported.
According to the report, police forces, on horseback and with attack dogs, were mobilized in large numbers ahead of the rally.
Read More (Haaretz.com)

Swedish Match, the international tobacco group, has dismissed Lennart Sunden, its chief executive, saying the board had lost confidence in him.
Read More (Financial Times)

Sweden plans to allow the release of results of its elections for the European Parliament soon after polls close on June 13th.
Other EU members will not be reporting on the results until the last voters in Italy and Slovakia have cast their ballots. Polls close in those countries at 11:00 PM Finnish time.
Sweden's decision is based on the country's own interpretation of EU regulations.
Read More (Helsingin Sanomat)

One of Sweden's leading universities announced Wednesday it had received a $240,000 grant from the Pentagon to fund stem cell research related to Parkinson's disease.
The embryonic stem cell lines to be used are among those approved by the U.S. government for research supported by federal grants, Lund University researcher Patrik Brundin told The Associated Press.
Read More (ajc.com)

Sweden's social services should pay for personal computers and internet subscriptions for those who cannot afford it, according to a proposal.
Read more (BBC News)

The Swedish competition authority Konkurrensverket announced on Tuesday (16 March) that it was suing eight Volvo and Renault car dealers in southern Sweden for a total of SEK157.5m.
Konkurrensverket said that it suspected the dealers of illegally cooperating in determining prices and discounts on new and used cars.
Read More (StockHouse USA)

The Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson has condemned Thursday´s devastating bomb explosions in Madrid. In a statement Persson says he feels "sorrow and anger over the terrible attacks which have happened in Madrid."
He added that "that his thoughts are with the victims and their families."

The powerful explosions ripped through three busy Madrid train stations just three days
before general elections. At least about 200 people have been killed, and more than 1.400 have been wounded.

Volvo has presented the "YCC" - "Your Concept Car" - at the Geneva Motorshow 2004. The Concept Car has been developed by an all female team at Volvo. The vehicle is targeted at, as Volvo says, "the most demanding premium customer: the independent, professional woman".

The idea of a new concept car came from Marti Barletta, an American expert on female consumer patterns. She claimed: "If you meet the expectations of women, you exceed the expectations of men". In June 2002, Camilla Palmertz and a small group of colleagues were invited to present their idea to Hans-Olov Olsson, President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation. He greeted it with enthusiasm.
Women form an increasingly important customer group for Volvo Cars. In the United States, 54 per cent of all Volvo buyers are women and the percentage of female customers in Europe is growing steadily too.
The car sports a number of firsts for Volvo including gull-wing doors, high visibility giving visual access to all four corners of the car, optimized for storage space (fold-down seats in the back), automatic parking system and more. Most surprising perhaps - the hood doesn't open!
You can see the YCC at the Motorshow in Geneva or on web: in swedish or english. (Photos copyrighted 2004 Volvo Car Corporation)

A family removed a tree from their garden and found a treasure: 280 silver coins from the early 11th century.
The coins, most of them from Germany, were discovered several weeks ago on the Swedish island of Gotland, archaeologist Leif Zerpe of the Gotland county museum said Monday.
Read More (The State)

The United Nations spying row widened when its former weapons inspector, Hans Blix, told the Guardian he suspected both his UN office and his home in New York were bugged in the run-up to the Iraq war.
Read More (Guardian Unlimited)

Scandinavian Airlines has laid out its plan to open direct flights on the air route from Copenhagen to China's eastern metropolis in March in a bid to bite into the fast-growing tourism industry in the region.
Read More (People's Daily)

Foreign minister of Sweden Laila Freivalds arrives on a visit in Moscow on Monday evening, reported the Swedish embassy in the Russian capital.
Russian acting foreign minister Igor Ivanov will discuss with the Swedish foreign minister the further deepening of partnership between Russia and the European Union and problems of bilateral cooperation on Tuesday. The visit will end after this discussion.