Stockholm- Workers in Asia who assemble parts for several leading mobile phone companies suffer under poor working conditions that include being punished for mistakes, Swedish rights agencies said in a report said Wednesday.

Workers in plants in China and the Philippines have to work long hours, sometimes 10-12 hours a day to make ends meet, according to the report compiled jointly by the non-governmental Fair Trade Centre organization, the watchdog Swedwatch, and Church of Sweden Aid.

Stockholm- While fishing with a friend Sunday near Jonkoping, in central Sweden, Joel Lagerkvist felt his hook snag on something very heavy.

"We rowed closer and I started to pull the rod, and then I saw the head of a moose," Joel Lagerkvist was quoted Monday as telling the Expressen tabloid.

Lagerkvist, 24, said he dropped the rod in fright - afraid the animal might attack him and his friend.

The animal was, however, dead. It took a while for the two men to get help, but eventually bystanders and police came to their aid and helped them winch the dead animal ashore.

Stockholm - Sweden is prepared to weather the global economic downtown, Finance Minister Anders Borg said Monday when he presented the centre-right coalition's budget bill.

"This budget is a strong package aimed at softening the downturn in the global economy," Borg told parliament.

"Dark clouds were gathering and cast a shadow over Sweden," Borg added when he presented his third budget since conservative Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt took office in October 2006.

The government is trailing the opposition in opinion polls at half-time in its term. Many details in the budget were released in advance as the government has sought to shore up its support.

Stockholm- An Egyptian national who was handed over to the CIA in 2001 and deported to Egypt in a much-criticized decision is to be awarded damages by the Swedish government, reports said Friday.

Ahmed Agiza's lawyer was quoted as telling the Swedish news agency that her client had accepted the offer of 3 million kronor (450,000 dollars) in compensation.

Agiza was along with Mohammed al-Zari in December 2001 handed over to CIA agents and flown to Egypt where they were suspected of terrorist activities.

Stockholm - A Swedish pilot boat averted a potential accident in the busy waters between Sweden and Denmark when it detected a drifting freighter, reports said Friday.

The Swedish pilot boat was on a routine mission late Thursday in the Oresund straits when the crew detected a Dutch freighter apparently heading for shoals in Swedish waters, the Helsingborgs Dagblad newspaper reported.

Stockholm - Sweden has yet to get its first full-time female rabbi after a selected candidate withdrew her name for the post for personal reasons, reports said Thursday.

Rabbi Chava Koster of the Village Temple in New York, a Reform congregation, was in June unanimously selected as non-Orthodox rabbi by the Jewish Community of Stockholm.

The community has some 4,500 members, and is the largest in the country. An estimated 18,000 to 20,000 Jews live in Sweden.

Koster, 46, had agreed on salary and other employment terms when she withdrew her name, citing "personal reasons," the Dagen newspaper reported.