Falun, Sweden - Claudia Nystad and Axel Teichmann won the prologue races for Germany at the cross-country skiing World Cup finals on Friday.

Nystad won the women's freestyle race over 2.5 kilometres in 7 minutes 12.5 seconds from Sweden's Charlotte Kalla (2.7 seconds behind) and two-time world champion Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland (3.0 seconds).

Stockholm - All three thriller novels by the late Swedish writer and journalist Stieg Larsson are to be released as feature films for cinema, it was announced Friday.

Swedish public broadcaster SVT said it had "given careful consideration" and would not oppose the release of two films on cinema this autumn.

Initially, SVT - one of the co-producers - had planned that only the other two films in the series were to be released on DVD, and SVT was to broadcast six 90-minute installments.

Stockholm - Mobile telephone maker Sony Ericsson on Friday said it expected to post a loss for first-quarter 2009, citing "weak consumer demand."

The joint venture formed 2001 between Japan's Sony and Sweden's Ericsson also cited "de-stocking in the retail and distribution channels" as factors contributing to the loss.

The group said it expected its gross margin to decline both year-on-year and sequentially.

Stockholm - The Swedish government pledged 84 million kronor (10 million dollars) in humanitarian aid for Zimbabwe on Thursday, but said it wants to see more reforms in place before it resumes direct aid to the government.

"Sweden is prepared to give more humanitarian aid but a stronger involvement in the country hinges on reforms taking immediate effect and that they have an impact," International Development Cooperation Minister Gunilla Carlsson said.

Stockholm  - Timing is of the essence - a lesson several big Swedish banking groups as well as private and government-run pension funds and corporations have learned in recent days.

And proposing large bonus payments to top management is simply not on amid daily reports of layoffs and financial turmoil.

Yet the proposals have been made - and in some case executed - to the surprise and anger of critics.

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