Stockholm  - US car giant Ford is in touch with "a number" of prospective buyers over its loss-making Swedish subsidiary Volvo Cars, reports said Wednesday.

London-based Ford spokesman John Gardiner told the online edition of Goteborgs-Posten he could confirm that Ford is in discussions about the future of Volvo.

Gardiner told Swedish radio news that Ford had contacted its employees in the west coast city of Gothenburg about the discussions.

Stockholm  - A website, recently at the centre of a trial in Sweden over alleged illegal file sharing, was Wednesday reported to be launching a potentially controversial service aimed at make people online more anonymous.

The service, known as IPREDator, is available on the Pirate Bay website and allows users to use a special virtual private network (VPN), thereby making their web activity practically untraceable.

Users could sign up for a VPN, currently in a test version, for 5 euros (6.7 dollars) a month.

Stockholm - The inventor of a toilet system credited with improving sanitation across India and converting the waste into energy was on Wednesday named the winner of the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize.

The award, worth 150,000 dollars, was created in 1990 to recognize achievements in water science, water management, water action or awareness building.

Stockholm - Although US giant General Motors aims to sell its Swedish subsidiary Saab, the two groups have agreed to cooperate in future, financial daily Dagens Industri reported Wednesday.

Saab last month filed for bankruptcy protection while it attempts to reorganize its business. That move came after GM said it planned to shed the brand as part of its restructuring efforts.

Stockholm - A Palestinian reading promotion group was Tuesday named winner of the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a literary prize created in honour of the Swedish creator of numerous popular fiction characters including Pippi Longstocking.

The Tamer Institute for Community Education became the second reading promotion group to win the award that is considered one of the largest literary awards for children and young people, worth 5 million kronor (621,000 dollars).

Stockholm - Swedish heavy vehicle maker Volvo on Tuesday reported a 51 per cent drop in year-on-year truck deliveries for February.

In all, the group delivered 10,863 vehicles.

The decline impacted all markets except Africa, where deliveries were higher than a year ago, the group said.

In Europe, demand remained low, and deliveries fell 68 per cent. However, the drop was 90 per cent in Eastern Europe.

The Volvo group does not include the Ford-owned car division.