Sweden

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Four people were seriously hurt in an explosion and fire on Tuesday in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, and police are investigating whether an explosive device was placed at the scene.

At least 16 were taken to hospital after the early morning blast set ablaze an apartment bloc in a central residential area. Fire fighters pulled people from the building while other residents used tied sheets to lower themselves from balconies as grey smoke billowed out of stairwells and windows.

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) - Due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's Nobel Prize laureates will receive their awards in their home countries for the second year running, the Nobel Foundation said here on Thursday.

The traditional banquet will be canceled, but the award ceremony will be held at Stockholm's City Hall on Dec. 10 in the presence of a local audience. The event will be broadcast on TV and on the Nobel Foundation's social media channels.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Sweden's Social Democrats will pick a new leader in November to replace Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, needing to find a flag-bearer who can convince voters the party can stop a tide of gang violence and restore the welfare state after the pandemic.

Lofven, who leads a minority government, will step down less than a year ahead of a election due in September 2022. Polls so far show an even split between a broadly leftish grouping and a right-wing opposition alliance of parties including the far-right, populist Sweden Democrats.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven of the Social Democrats party said unexpectedly on Sunday he would resign later this year ahead of general elections in September 2022.

"I have informed the party's executive committee and the nomination committee's chairman that I want to leave the role as party leader at the party congress in November and thereafter also retire as prime minister," Lofven said in an annual summer speech.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The trial of an Iranian citizen accused of committing grave war crimes and murder during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s started Tuesday in Stockholm.

The trial of Hamid Noury comes just days after hard-line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took office as the highest-ranking civilian leader in the Islamic Republic.

STOCKHOLM, July 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Sweden and Estonia opened a fresh investigation into the 1994 sinking of the ferry MS Estonia in the Baltic Sea and the loss of 852 lives, accident authorities said.

Only 137 people survived the disaster of the Tallinn to Stockholm ferry which went down in the early hours of Sept 28, 1994.

Finland joined both countries in agreeing in 1995 to designate the wreck a final resting place and make it illegal to disturb the site.

STOCKHOLM, June 29 (Reuters) - Swedish caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on Tuesday he would be willing to return to head a government that did not yet have backing for a budget, potentially making it easier for the parliament speaker to ask him to form a new administration.

Lofven resigned after losing a no-confidence vote last week, handing the speaker the job of finding a new prime minister candidate who can pass a vote in parliament.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s Social Democratic prime minister since 2014, has asked the country’s parliament speaker to find a new government.

Lofven became the first Swedish leader ever to lose a confidence vote in parliament a week ago. He didn’t call for an early election as the Swedish Constitution allows him to. He is formally stepping down but will continue in a caretaker role until a new government can be formed.

STOCKHOLM, June 24 (Reuters) - Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Lofven is Swedish voter's most trusted leader, a poll showed on Thursday, despite a crisis that saw parliament pass a vote of no-confidence in him at the start of the week.

The Novus poll showed 38% of Swedes have confidence in Lofven, ahead of his most likely rival for the post of prime minister, centre-right Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson, who was backed by 35% of voters.

STOCKHOLM, June 20 (Reuters) - Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Sunday appeared to have failed to stave off a no-confidence vote on Monday he is likely to lose after the Left Party dismissed his compromise for a new system of setting apartment rents.

Lofven earlier on Sunday offered a compromise that would mean counterparts in the housing market would work to reach an agreement for a new rent-setting model for new production, which has been the norm in Sweden.