World IN BRIEF : SWEDEN : Crisis Exacerbated by New Resignation

Sweden’s political crisis worsened when Finance Minister Kjell-Olof Feldt, who tried to trim a lavish welfare state with free-market policies, resigned amid efforts to form a new government. Feldt’s announcement in Stockholm followed the resignation Thursday of Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson’s Social Democratic minority government, defeated in Parliament over an economic austerity package. Feldt’s efforts to modernize the economy through free market reforms made him controversial at home and widely respected abroad. He had been in charge of Sweden’s finances since the Social Democrat Party regained power in 1982.