Stockholm  - The 2008 Nobel laureates are being kept busy with lectures, news conferences and receptions in the run-up to Wednesday's award ceremony in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

German researcher Harald zur Hausen of the University of Dusseldorf, awarded for discovering the human papilloma virus which causes cervical cancer, Monday met with students at the German School in Stockholm.

On Sunday, he and co-medicine laureates Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France, who discovered the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, delivered their Nobel lectures.

True to tradition, the award ceremonies are held December 10, the anniversary of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's 1896 death in San Remo, Italy.

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.