Sweden will fast-track new legislation to allow police to use electronic surveillance tools against minors after dozens of gang-related bombings in the capital Stockholm in January, the prime minister said on Thursday.

While that success has been welcomed, it has put a strain on the prison system. In 2023, the latest year for which records are available, Swedish courts handed down prison sentences totalling just under 200,000 months, a 25% increase from the previous year and a doubling compared with 2014.

Swedish shoppers drove retail sales to their highest monthly gain since before the pandemic, adding to signs of recovery in household spending and bolstering the central bank’s view of no further easing.

Salwan Momika caused widespread anger when he staged multiple Koran burnings in 2023. He was due to receive a verdict in a criminal trial in connection with the burnings today.

Sweden wants to bring forward a new law that will allow authorities to secretly wiretap children under the age of 15 as the Nordic country grapples with a spate of bombings linked to criminal gangs.

Swedish authorities boarded a vessel suspected of being involved in an earlier underwater sabotage of cables in the Baltic Sea on Monday.

An Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam campaigner was shot dead in Sweden hours before he was due to receive a court verdict following a trial over burning the Koran, and five people were arrested over the shooting on Thursday.

An Iraqi man who carried out several Quran burnings in Sweden has died, a judge in Stockholm said Thursday. Swedish media reported that he was killed in a shooting in a nearby city.

"The investigation is still in its early stages, with extensive evidence collection underway, including forensic analysis and interrogations," the statement reads

The Foreign Office has issued a warning over the threat of terrorism for UK tourists in Sweden. The FCDO has updated its safety and security guidance for the European Union country in Scandinavia

Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant in Sweden, set off enormous protests when he burned a Quran in 2023. He had been scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.