Italy - Sweden's Jessica Lindell-Vikarby claimed her first World Cup victory Monday as the favourites slipped up in a women's super-g on Monday.

The 24-year-old posted 1 minute 25.13 seconds on Cortina's Tofane piste for a comfortable 0.81-second lead over 19-year-old Austrian Anna Fenninger.

Third was Switzerland's Andrea Dettling, 0.87 seconds behind, who with Fenninger enjoyed a first podium finish.

Lindell-Vikarby's best previous finish was a third place in a super-g at Lake Louise, Canada on December 2, 2007.

Stockholm - Drinking moderate amounts of coffee may protect people from dementia in later life, according to a study by Finnish and Swedish researchers.

Coffee drinkers ran a lower risk of dementia in middle age and Alzheimer's disease later in life compared to those who drank little or no coffee.

The researchers at the University of Kuopio, Finland, and Karolinska Institutet of Stockholm, Sweden, studied 1,409 individuals aged 65 to 79 who were members of a group surveyed in 1972, 1977, 1982 or 1987 and who completed a re-examination in 1998.

Stockholm  - Sweden inched closer to adopting same-sex marriage Wednesday with proposed legislation presented to parliament by three of the four parties in the ruling centre-right coalition.

"People in a steady relationship have the need, regardless of sexual orientation, to manifest their feelings and wish to live together," the proposal said.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's conservative Moderate Party, the Liberal Party and the Centre Party were likely to get support from the opposition.

Arjeplog, Sweden - They do things differently in Arjeplog. In most parts of northwest Sweden, the landscape is shrouded in an eerie silence from late autumn onwards, but when the days are very short and the nights bitterly cold, this remote settlement near the Arctic Circle suddenly comes to life.

Keeping a high pedigree and good looking dog has become a style statement these days. This is quite evident when we see world celebrities like socialite Paris Hilton and pop diva Britney Spears, who are often photographed carrying "handbag dogs."

However, a new study has suggested that pedigree dogs might look extremely cute and attractive, but when it comes to brains, they are extremely stupid as now they are being bred for looks and not for brains.

Stockholm - Over half of all Swedish girls aged 15 to 18 who access chat rooms and so-called communities on the internet have received unwanted sexual invitations or have been sexually harassed, Svenska Dagbladet reported Tuesday.

The Stockholm daily published the statistics drawn from the annual Youth Barometer, a national survey of 12,000 youths aged between 15 and 24.