Val d'Isere, France/Stockholm - Swedish ski star Anja Paerson Friday said she would continue to race at the ongoing alpine skiing world championships in France despite a second failed event.

Paerson, who appeared to suffer from pain in a knee, declined to offer details about her physical condition when interviewed by Swedish radio.

"I'll keep on racing," she said. "So far it is still possible to ski."

Stockholm- As Sweden moves to introduce same-sex marriage legislation, a majority of bishops in the Church of Sweden Friday said the church should no longer handle legal registrations of marriage.

With proposed changes in marriage legislation underway, nine of the 13 bishops said "it makes sense that the state also handles the legal matters (for registration) without involving religious or civil rites."

Stockholm - Swedish banking group SEB on Thursday said fourth-quarter 2008 operating profit declined 12 per cent year-on-year to 4 billion kronor (481 million dollars).

The bank, one of four major groups in Sweden, also said it was to make a 15-billion-kronor rights issue.

Operating income in the quarter increased 27 per cent year-on-year to 12.7 billion kronor, SEB said in its report, released a week earlier than scheduled.

The group, which also has operations in the neighbouring Baltic states and Germany, said its net credit losses were 1.7 billion kronor, mainly over provisions in the Baltic countries.

Stockholm- The Swedish Foreign Ministry expressed "concern" Wedneday over reports that a jailed Swedish-Eritrean journalist has been hospitalized.

"This is a serious humanitarian case," Swedish State Secretary Frank Belfrage told Swedish radio news.

Belfrage said the foreign ministry has not been able to confirm reports suggesting that journalist Dawit Isaak's health had "deteroriated" or that "he had had been moved from one prison to another with perhaps worse conditions."

Efforts were being made to clarify matters, he said.

Stockholm - A Swedish television reporter rejected allegations there was a plot to embarrass Pope Benedict XVI by interviewing a Holocaust denier, news reports said Wednesday.

Swedish television recently aired a documentary on the ultra- conservative Society of Saint Pius X that seeks a restoration of 19th-century Catholicism, and included an interview with British-born Bishop Richard Williamson.

On camera, Williamson denied the existence of gas chambers at the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz as well as the scale of the Holocaust, stating that no more than "200,000 to 300,000" Jews were killed.

Stockholm - The Swedish government Tuesday unveiled a 50- billion-kronor (5.9 billion dollars) package tailored for commercial banks to free up more credits for households and companies.

"It is still difficult for businesses to get credits," Financial Markets Minister Mats Odell said at a joint news conference with Finance Minister Anders Borg.

Banks seeking to issue new shares could also apply for funds from the programme. If the state's stake was above 70 per cent of the new shares, it could decide on restrictions concerning bonus payments and other benefits to executives, the cabinet members said.