Stockholm  - Sweden has tipped into recession, Statistics Sweden said Friday.

Stockholm - Sweden is prepared to deploy a plane to evacuate European Union nationals injured in terrorist attacks in the Indian financial centre of Mumbai if necessary, the cabinet said Thursday.

Stockholm - Freedom of speech is under threat worldwide Italian author Roberto Saviano and British author Salman Rushdie said late Tuesday at a lecture organized by the Swedish Academy.

Journalists and writers in countries ranging from China to Mexico to Zimbabwe are under threat, they said, reminding the audience of the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Russia.

Saviano and Rushdie were invited to Stockholm by the Swedish Academy that selects the Nobel literature prize winner. Both also shared their own experiences of living under death threats.

Stockholm - Construction group Skanska said Tuesday it was to cut 3,400 jobs from its 20,500-st

Stockholm- A Swedish health agency Monday approved a general vaccination programme for young girls against the human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer.

As of 2010, all girls born 1999 and later are to be offered a vaccine against the HPV virus, the National Board of Health and Welfare said.

"It is good that girls get the protection that the vaccine offers, but it is important to continue to go to screening tests," Anders Tegnell, head of the agency's unit for communicable diseases, said.

Stockholm - Swedish opposition to introducing the joint European currency, the euro, has declined but a majority of voters still favour keeping the Swedish currency, a new survey said Monday.

The poll commissioned by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper showed that 48 per cent opposed replacing the krona with the euro while 44 per cent favoured introducing it.

The survey indicated that 7 per cent were undecided or would abstain from voting.

The November poll indicated that opposition to the euro was strongest in rural areas, among women and supporters of the opposition Left Party, Green Party and the Social Democrats.