A Norwegian businessman hopes to turn late Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman's former house into an arts centre.

The European Union's Lisbon treaty looked set to emerge from a limbo as the last hurdle to its ratification, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, nodded to a concession.

• Reinfeldt warns Czechs about treaty delays

STOCK MARKET – Strong operating margins posted by SKF, Atlas Copco and Alfa Laval made the Stockholm exchange climb.

Scandinavian countries are the world's top nations in foreign aid projects – with Sweden taking the top spot.

• Access to water key for world's poor

The world's second-biggest truck maker Volvo posted a lighter than expected third-quarter net loss and said the market was looking up.

Sweden's The Pirate Bay has been ordered to remove links to works of members of a music and film copyright protection group.

• The Pirate Bay reopened – from warfare bunker

Sweden's Lutheran Church has decided to allow gay marriages in its places of worship, five months after they became legal.

• Despite new law, no church 'I do' for Swedish gays

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, took on the iconic iPhone on Thursday by suing US rival Apple for infringing patents.

“We need, especially those of us who are Swedish, to be reminded that life actually can be fun and that the unexpected isn’t something to be legislated away”, writes Johan Hakelius, journalist and author.

Sweden's central bank held its key interest rate at a record low of 0.25 percent, while raising its economic growth forecast.

Swedish telecom giant Ericsson plunged on the Stockholm exchange after posting a disappointing third-quarter result.

Sweden is to extend its military presence in Afghanistan.

• Finland withdraws 80 soldiers from Afghanistan

Europe's leading paper maker Stora Enso reported deep third-quarter losses, blaming a slump in newspaper circulation.

• Pricing panic in the Swedish forest
• Finland fiercely protests Russian timber tax

Norway's prosecution service will put on trial a Norwegian of Somali origin on charges of financing Islamist insurgents in Somalia.

Swedish Koenigsegg moved closer to a takeover of Saab Automobile after the European Investment Bank approved a €400 million loan.

• Sweden to guarantee Saab loan • Koenigsegg teams up with Beijing Auto

The International Monetary Fund said it was readying 167.4 million dollars in aid to recession-stricken Iceland.

Leaders for large Swedish companies say that the worst of the economic crisis has passed.

• Stockholm stock exchange on record high

Sweden, the European Union's presidency, spoke out against French and German calls to impose a carbon tax at the EU's borders.

The EU will be unable to get its election observers to Afghanistan on time for the second round presidential vote, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt warned.

• Sweden wants Afghan conference held in Kabul

SEB reported a better-than-expected profit and said it will not apply for prolongation of the government's guarantee programme.