Stockholm  - Pop stars, ponies, Pavarotti, ice hockey players and the late pope have all been guests at the Ericsson Globe, a Stockholm landmark building that has just turned 20.

From afar, the white building resembles a giant golf ball. Special flood lighting can, however, change the outer colour.

Since the official opening in February 1989, the arena has been the venue for the world ice hockey championships in 1989 and 1995, the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest and the late Pope John Paul II celebrated mass there in June 1989.

Stockholm - Sweden on Monday urged better "quality control" of multilateral aid channeled through the United Nations and other agencies.

Despite being a generous international donor of aid, the centre- right government in Stockholm warned that tighter controls were needed - and even hinted of possible funding cuts if improvement were not made.

Stockholm  - Despite some public grumbling about who should foot the bill for Swedish Crown Princess Victoria's pending wedding, the monarchy remains popular in Sweden, a poll said Monday.

Three out of four Swedes support the monarchy and want to see Victoria, 31, become queen, the poll commissioned by Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter said.

In all, 74 per cent of the 1,025 people polled wanted to keep the monarchy, 19 per cent wanted to do away with it while the remaining 7 per cent were undecided.

Stockholm  - Swedish banking group Swedbank Monday said it was to withhold its planned dividend for 2008, citing "a continued deterioration of macroeconomic conditions" in several markets including the neighbouring Baltics.

A month ago, the bank's board had proposed a dividend of 2.9 billion kronor (315 million dollars) for the financial year 2008. The dividend was to be halved to 4.50 kronor per share.

Stockholm  - The Swedish Academy, the body that awards the Nobel Literature Prize, on Friday named author and literary critic Lotta Lotass as one of its members.

Elected by secret ballot, Lotass was to succeed long-serving member Sten Rudholm who died in November at age 90.

Lotass, born 1964, lives in the west-coast city of Gothenburg. She made her literary debut in 2000 and two years later published her doctoral dissertation on Swedish author Stig Dagerman (1923-1954).

Malmo/Stockholm - Swedish police officers Friday greatly outnumbered demonstrators as play got underway at the arena hosting the Davis Cup tie between Sweden and Israel.

The tie in the southern city of Malmo is been played behind closed doors. The first match featured Sweden's Thomas Johansson against Israel's Harel Levi.

It has been classified as a high-risk event over potential protests by groups wanting to protest against the recent Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza.