Stockholm - Swedish steel maker SSAB said Monday it was shed 1,300 jobs in Sweden, more than a tenth of its current workforce, citing "the severe downturn in the steel market" for transportation, building and infrastructure.

"Demand for steel has fallen sharply in the autumn and we must adapt our costs to the new conditions," SSAB chief executive Olof Faxander said.

The company said it hoped to save 1 billion kronor (120 million dollars). About 200 of the jobs to be cut would impact consultants or contracted firms.

Stockholm - Volvo Cars, the Swedish carmaker owned by US giant Ford, is to shed some 2,700 jobs mainly in its home base, the company said Monday.

The announcement was made after unions and management concluded talks. The outcome suggested that 1,000 fewer jobs were to be cut than initially signalled.

Volvo Cars chief executive Stephen Odell said that while he regretted the measures he was "satisfied with the fact that our cost reduction program has been successful and it has enabled us to stay with a lower number of redundancies."

Stockholm- Winners of the 2008 Right Livelihood Awards, often called the Alternative Nobel Prize, said Monday the awards would help efforts to give women a voice in war-torn Somalia and help female rape victims in conflicts ranging from the Balkans to the Congo.

Asha Hagi of Somalia and Swiss-born Monika Hauser, founder of German-based Medica Mondiale, shared the 2008 award with Amy Goodman of the United States, who founded the daily grassroots global TV/radio news hour Democracy Now, and Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan of India, and their organization Land for the Tillers' Freedom (LAFTI).

Ostersund, Sweden - Emil Hegle Svendsen dominated a biathlon World Cup sprint race on Saturday while fellow-Norwegian star Ole Einar Bjoerndalen missed the podium by a fraction.

The two-time 2008 world champion Svendsen missed one of 10 targets in the shooting range and won the 10-kilometres race in 25 minutes 42.3 seconds. It was the seventh career win for the 23-year-old.

Tomasz Sikora of Poland trailed by 12.7 seconds in second place, also with one penalty loop. Simon Fourcade of France was third, 28.1 seconds off the pace after hitting all targets.

Ostersund, Sweden  - Helena Jonsson of Sweden won her first individual biathlon World Cup event by clinching the women's 15km before a home crowd in Ostersund on Thursday.

Jonsson, 24, made no errors on the shooting range on her way to victory in 45 minutes 05.1 seconds in the first women's World Cup event of the season.

Three-time Olympic winner Kati Wilhelm of Germany had to be content with second place, 39.7 seconds behind after one shooting error.

Russia's Yekaterina Yuryeva was third, 1:10.3 behind Jonsson with one shooting error, ahead of last season's champion Magdalena Neuner of Germany, who was 5.1 seconds further back after one error.