Stockholm  - The outlook for the Swedish economy in 2009 is bleak, although predictions are difficult to make, Swedish central bank governor Stefan Ingves said Wednesday.

The Swedish central bank's assessment is that the "the global financial crisis will continue to impact the Swedish economy despite sizeable countermeasures," Ingves said in an op-ed piece in the Dagens Nyheter daily.

The Swedish gross domestic product was expected to fall in 2009.

Washington, Dec 31 : In a new study, which involved analyses of deposits of pollen grains, it has been determined that Sweden may have been virtually free of ice for long periods during the latest ice age, which suggests that the glaciation might have started some 20,000 years later than was previously assumed.

The study is part of a new doctoral dissertation at Stockholm University in Sweden.

Stockholm - Two of Sweden's 10 nuclear reactors that have been offline since October were Tuesday granted permission to restart operations, the nuclear watchdog said.

The reactors were taken offline after cracks were detected in some control rods. Faulty rods have now been replaced.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said the two plants were to be allowed to go back online until scheduled maintenance work next year.

The agency said it would closely monitor efforts by the operators to determine the cause of the cracks in the control rods used to control the nuclear fission process.

Stockholm  - A 76-year-old Swedish man said he was "lucky" to have survived a kick from a moose cow in the northern town of Gallivare, reports said Sunday.

"It was pure luck that the hoof just grazed my chest, it it had impacted fully I would have been crushed to death," Mauritz Henriksson told the Expressen newspaper.

The seasoned moose hunter said he had been walking his four elk hounds on Saturday evening when they started to bark furiously.

Two of the dogs pulled free and raced off, after apparently picking up the scent of a moose in a neighbour's yard.

Stockholm  - The global financial crisis has made efforts to agree on a new global treaty on climate change more challenging, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said in an interview published Sunday.

"A lot of the political energy that existed a few years ago has disappeared," Reinfeldt told the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet.

The financial crisis means that "there are fewer shoulders to push the process. Many use estimates that aim to make their own country do less," Reinfeldt said.

Sweden in July 2009 takes on the rotating presidency of the European Union, one of the players in upcoming talks on a global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.

Stockholm  - A highly inebriated man shot and injured two female customers and a security guard at the Cosmopol casino in the Swedish capital Stockholm, police reported Thursday.

The man had been denied entry to the casino shortly before midnight because he looked drunk. He then pulled out a pistol, fired numerous shots in the direction of the entrance and fled.

The two women, aged 47 and 28, received injuries to the arms and legs, while the guard was shot in the stomach. All three were taken to hospital.