Stockholm - Sweden's centre-right government has failed to agree on new legislation allowing same-sex couples the right to marry, but will press ahead with legislation to that effect, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Wednesday.

Opposition from the Christian Democrats, one of the four parties in Reinfeldt's four-party coalition, has forced the other three parties to go it alone and seek support from the opposition.

Reinfeldt said his conservative Moderate Party, the Liberal Party and Centre Party would present a bill on same-sex marriage with an amendment stating it would take effect as of May 2009.

Stockholm - The SAS Group, the operator of the joint carrier
Scandinavian Airlines, on Wednesday posted a pre-tax loss for third-
quarter 2008, citing high fuel costs, the economic downturn and a
goodwill writedown in its Spanish-based carrier.

SAS chief executive Mats Jansson said the group needed to implement
more belt-tightening measures saying the "crisis in the air travel
industry strikes indiscriminately."

He noted the recent bankruptcy of low-cost rival Sterling Airlines, one of some 30 carriers to fold so far this year.

The SAS Group posted a third-quarter pre-tax loss of 1.78 billion
kronor (231 million dollars) compared to a pre-tax profit of 457
million kronor in the corresponding business period of 2007.

Stockholm - The SAS Group, the operator of the joint carrier Scandinavian Airlines, on Wednesday posted a pre-tax loss for third- quarter 2008, citing high fuel costs, the economic downturn and a goodwill writedown in its Spanish-based carrier.

The SAS Group posted a third-quarter pre-tax loss of 1.78 billion kronor (231 million dollars) compared to a pre-tax profit of 457 million kronor in the corresponding business period of 2007.

Third-quarter sales were 16.36 billion kronor, slightly up year- on-year.

As 1.5-billion people around the world shift from Daylight Saving Time to normal standard time, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine by two Swedish doctors - Imre Janszky (Karolinska Institute) and Rickard Ljung (National Board of Health and Welfare) on the relation between sleep and heart attacks, an extra hour of sleep time will reduce the likelihood of heart attack.

Stockholm  - A Syrian-Lebanese singer was due to appear at a remand custody

Stockholm - Swedbank, one of four major Swedish banking groups, Tuesday confirmed it planned to sign on to a stability plan approved last week.

The application to join the guarantee programme was to be filed shortly, the group said.

The guarantee fund is worth 1.5 trillion kronor (201 billion dollars) and banks would have to comply with restrictions concerning bonus payments and other benefits to top executives.

The scheme is initially scheduled to run until April 2009.