Warsaw - Former Polish leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski went on trial Friday charged with communist-era crimes in the 1981 martial-law crackdown aimed at breaking the Solidarity trade union.

Prosecutors allege that by imposing martial law, Jaruzelski, 84, led a "criminal armed organization" with the aim of depriving Poles of their freedom, the PAP news agency reported.

Seven other former communist party and military officials are also in the dock at the Warsaw trial, launched after much legal wrangling.

Stockholm- The Swedish carmaker Volvo is to shed a further 900 jobs in its Swedish home base, the company said Friday, citing weaker sales in Europe and the United States.

The economic downturn in Europe and the US had impacted "the premium car market" where sales were "deteriorating even more rapidly than in the volume market," Volvo Cars said in a statement.

Stockholm- The planned opening of a museum dedicated to former Swedish group ABBA next year has been cancelled, organizers said Friday, citing difficulties with the renovation of a 100-year-old former customs building housing it.

"It's better to make this decision at an early stage, even though it's a sad message," museum co-founder Ulf Westman said.

Westman and his wife, Ewa Wigenheim-Westman, had aimed to open the museum next June 4. No new date was set.

Stockholm  - Swedish public broadcaster SVT screened footage Thursday of US Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain leaving North Vietnam after his release from a prisoner-of-war camp.

Swedish writer Erik Eriksson, who covered the Vietnam War as a freelance and for SVT, made the discovery when researching a book on his wartime experience and compiling a 30-minute DVD that would be sold with the book.

Stockholm - The fifth anniversary of the death of former Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh was marked with a low-key ceremony and a seminar Thursday.

Lindh, 46, was fatally stabbed during a visit to a department store in central Stockholm on September 10, 2003, and died early the next day.

Swedish opposition leader Mona Sahlin and other members of the Social Democratic party laid flowers on Lindh's grave.

Stockholm - A US diplomat Wednesday urged Sweden to "take the lead" in efforts within Europe to reduce dependence on energy supplies from Russia.

Stockholm should also "carefully consider" plans by a consortium to build an underwater Baltic Sea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, the US ambassador to Sweden, Michael M Wood, said in an op-ed article in the Svenska Dagbladet daily.