Happy Birthday Morfar!
”Grattis på födelsedagen Morfar!” is Princess Leonore’s greetings to her morfar, King Carl XVI Gustaf, via mom Princess Madeleine’s Facebook page. April 30 is the day: The Swedish king celebrates his 68th birthday, and he does it per tradition at Stockholm Palace. Leonore's greeting came during the night in New York — perhaps the king got it with his breakfast eggs. The baby princess is dressed in a pretty blue dress with a whole bunch of fancy balloons nearby. The Navy Band will play for the king as he receives the Royal Guard. After a salute has been fired, children get to present him with flowers. The next royal celebration will take place on June 8, when Leonore is set to be baptized in the Drottningholm Palace Church.

Volvo to study Chinese drivers
How do the Chinese drive? That’s the question Volvo Personvagnar wants an answer for in a study conducted in Beijing and Shanghai. ”We want it to be just as safe to drive our cars — no matter what market you’re in,” says John-Fredrik Grönvall, who is responsible for the field data collection in Volvo Car Corporation’s Accident Research Center. He realizes that’s a tough goal, considering the situation in China’s biggest cities. Accident statistics are high for dead and injured victims. The traffic in China is different from that in Europe, but how so? ”Many people don’t have much experience driving and violate the safety rules,” says Grönvall. Forty regular car commuters will now be studied through technical devices. How do they pass other cars? What do they do at intersections? How close to the car in front of them do they drive? And so on. ”We have to find the trick in order for our cars to work at their market also,” Grönvall concludes.

Pfizer not giving up on AstraZeneca
In January, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer again tried to woo Swedish-British AstraZeneca, and now they’re at it again. But U.S.-based Pfizer said AstraZeneca declined to comment when contacted last weekend. However, if a transaction is executed, Pfizer said the resulting company would be incorporated in Britain but headquartered in New York, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. "Pfizer is currently considering its options with respect to AstraZeneca," the company said in a statement. "Pfizer believes the strategic, business and financial rationale for a transaction is compelling." The proposal floated in January would have paid AstraZeneca owners $76.62 per share, a premium of around 30 percent over the company's stock price at the time. At that price, the deal would have been worth around $98.6 billion. A deal of that scale would represent the biggest foreign takeover of a British company. It would also be the second biggest pharmaceutical deal after Pfizer's $112 billion purchase of Warner Lambert in 2000.