Stockholm - Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on Monday joined the list of diplomats due to travel to Georgia in efforts to end fighting between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Bildt, who currently holds the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the 47-nation Council of Europe, wrote on his personal blog that he was travelling Monday to Georgia with Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis.

Stockholm - Saab Automobile posted a loss for 2007, but the group owned by US automotive giant General Motors reduced its losses compared to 2006, Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri reported Wednesday.

The Swedish-based carmaker sold some 125,000 cars in 2007, roughly 7,800 fewer cars than in 2006, the report said.

Saab Automobile's loss for 2007 was 2.2 billion kronor (360 million kronor) compared to a loss of 2.9 billion kronor in 2006, the daily reported, citing the group's annual report filed in Sweden.

Stockholm - Proceedings opened Wednesday in a Swedish court against a German woman suspected of beating two young children to death and injuring their mother.

Prosecutor Frieda Gummesson said the woman had used a hammer or similar tool to repeatedly hit the children, aged one and three, and their mother, who survived the attack with injuries.

The motive for the March 17 attack in the small town of Arboga appeared to be that the German woman refused to accept her former partner had begun a new relationship with the mother of the children, the prosecutor said.

The student, who denies the charges, was dressed in a blue shirt. In addition to her Swedish lawyer, Per-Ingvar Ekblad, the 32-year-old woman is accompanied by her German lawyer.

Stockholm - Swedish state-owned energy group Vattenfall posted higher operating profits for the second-quarter of 2008, boosted by its operations in the Nordic region, the group said Wednesday.

Operating profit before tax and interest was 6.3 billion kronor (1 billion dollars), up 11 per cent on the corresponding business period in 2007.

Second-quarter turnover increased by 9.9 per cent to 35.4 billion kronor.

Vattenfall Chief Executive Lars G Josefsson said the group's Nordic Business unit contributed to the increased operating profit.

Higher electricity prices on the local electricity market in the Nordic region contributed to the profits.

Stockholm - A man wanted by Interpol over allegedly abducting his six-year-old Swedish daughter arrived Tuesday in Sweden after being deported from Cambodia, police and local media said.

The girl, Alicia Elfversson, arrived Friday in Sweden with her mother and aunt who for the past year have been looking for the girl.

Alicia was reported missing on June 4, 2007, after her father, Torgier Nordbo, picked her up for a routine visit to see relatives in Norway.

Nordbo, who has business interests in Thailand, was later tracked to Cambodia. The 47-year-old was detained last week by Cambodian police.

Stockholm - The Swedish weather service SMHI on Monday warned of more local thunder storms and lightning in parts of central Sweden, the day after two people were killed by lightning.

Two people who suffered severe burns and have yet to be identified were found Sunday in the province of Dalarna, north-west of Stockholm.

Police believed they had sought shelter during a thunder storm when the temporary shelter was hit by lightning.

Falun, the main city in Dalarna, registered the unusually high temperature of 33 degrees Celsius on Sunday.