STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - 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.

Sweden's defence minister said on Thursday the Nordic country had agreed to donate its biggest aid package to Ukraine so far, worth 13.5 billion Swedish crowns ($1.23 billion).

An Iraqi man who carried out several Quran burnings in Sweden has been killed in a shooting near Stockholm, authorities said Thursday. Salwan Momika, 38, staged several burnings and desecrations of Islam's holy book in Sweden in 2023.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said in 2023 that Sweden had gone into “battle-array for war on the Muslim world” by supporting “the criminal”, and that “all Islamic scholars agree that those who desecrate the Koran deserved the most severe punishment”.

Sweden can send criminals to serve their sentences in prisons abroad, a government-appointed commission said on Wednesday, as the country struggles to handle an influx of new inmates arising from a wave of gang crime.

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.

The Nordic country will double the amount of Stridsbåt 90 combat boats it’s donating from Swedish armed forces stocks to 32 boats, among other things.

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.

Police were flying their own drone at the same time, tracked the man's aircraft back to him, and the rest is history

Salwan Momika, known for burning the Qur'an, was murdered in Sweden, prompting a murder investigation amid rising tensions.- Watch Video on English Oneindia