Stockholm  - Five Swedish editors-in-chief Friday launched a joint petition demanding the release of a jailed Swedish-Eritrean journalist held in Eritrea.

"Dawit Isaak has today been jailed for 2,742 days. Without charge and without any sentence," the editors said in their appeal.

Stockholm  - Swedish clothes retailing company Hennes & Mauritz's (H&M) first quarter pre-tax profits declined 12 per cent, the group said Thursday, citing some effects due to the economic recession.

The group posted a pre-tax profit of 3.55 billion kronor (438 million dollars) for the period December 2008 to February 2009, compared to 4.05 billion kronor for the first quarter in the previous financial year.

Sales, excluding value added tax (VAT), increased 18 per cent to 23.3 billion kronor, the group said.

Stockholm  - US car giant Ford is in touch with "a number" of prospective buyers over its loss-making Swedish subsidiary Volvo Cars, reports said Wednesday.

London-based Ford spokesman John Gardiner told the online edition of Goteborgs-Posten he could confirm that Ford is in discussions about the future of Volvo.

Gardiner told Swedish radio news that Ford had contacted its employees in the west coast city of Gothenburg about the discussions.

Stockholm  - A website, recently at the centre of a trial in Sweden over alleged illegal file sharing, was Wednesday reported to be launching a potentially controversial service aimed at make people online more anonymous.

The service, known as IPREDator, is available on the Pirate Bay website and allows users to use a special virtual private network (VPN), thereby making their web activity practically untraceable.

Users could sign up for a VPN, currently in a test version, for 5 euros (6.7 dollars) a month.

Stockholm - The inventor of a toilet system credited with improving sanitation across India and converting the waste into energy was on Wednesday named the winner of the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize.

The award, worth 150,000 dollars, was created in 1990 to recognize achievements in water science, water management, water action or awareness building.

Stockholm - Although US giant General Motors aims to sell its Swedish subsidiary Saab, the two groups have agreed to cooperate in future, financial daily Dagens Industri reported Wednesday.

Saab last month filed for bankruptcy protection while it attempts to reorganize its business. That move came after GM said it planned to shed the brand as part of its restructuring efforts.