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 - China has "completely sealed off Tibet," which could be compared to a "giant prison," an envoy of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, said in Sweden on Monday.

However the spirit of the Tibetan people was "unbroken," Kelsang Gyaltsen told reporters, although they had experienced the "harshest wave of repression since the days of the Cultural Revolution."

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.

Malmo, Sweden/Tel Aviv  - Israeli tennis player Andy Ram has described the protests against his country at the Davis Cup in Sweden as a "sad moment for tennis, sport and for Israel," in an article published by Israel's daily Yediot Achronot on Sunday.

Ram wrote that he had never encountered such hatred and mixing of sport and politics in his entire sporting career.

"These events have changed my view of Sweden completely and I doubt whether I even want to return here," he said.