Stockholm - Threatened Italian author Roberto Saviano and British-Indian author Salman Rushdie have accepted invitations to lecture at the Swedish Academy, the body that selects the Nobel literature prize said Tuesday.

Saviano and Rushdie were to speak November 25 on the theme "Freedom of speech and lawless violence."

The academy extended the invitations last month.

Saviano's book, Gomorra, has angered the mafia, or Camorra, in Naples. He has been forced to live under police protection and in a recent newspaper interview said that he was considering leaving Italy.

Iran's religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 issued a death threat against Rushdie over his novel The Satanic Verses.

Stockholm - Stockholm-based Carnegie Investment Bank AB lost its operating license Monday and has been taken over by the Swedish National Debt Office.

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) on Monday said Carnegie during a long period of time had taken "exceptional risks" by giving large loans to a single client.

Carnegie has been under review by the financial watchdog since it recently disclosed a writedown of 1 billion kronor (126 million dollars) over "an individual credit commitment" in its third-quarter report.

Stockholm  - Stockholm-based Carnegie Investment Bank AB on Monday unveiled plans to issue new shares worth 1.2 billion kronor (151 million dollars).

The announcement came shortly the board of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) was to meet to decide on possible sanctions against Carnegie.

Carnegie has been under review after it disclosed a writedown of 1 billion kronor over "an individual credit commitment" in its recent third-quarter report.

The new issue consisted of two parts of which 400 million kronor was for a new shareholder and the rest to current owners, the investment bank said.

The new issue hinged on Carnegie keeping its licences to operate.

Stockholm - Swedish state-owned energy group Vattenfall said Monday it has bought the Thanet Offshore Wind project off the British coast for 35 million pounds (55 million dollars).

The wind farm off Margate, Kent, was on completion in 2010 estimated to be able to produce some 300 megawatts, or almost three times as much energy as Lillgrund, the group's largest Swedish wind farm.

Completing the wind farm was estimated to cost some 780 million pounds, and would further boost Vattenfall's wind power production, the group said.

Vattenfall said it bought the rights to build Thanet Offshore Wind from CRC Energy Jersey 1 Limited in competition with other energy companies.

Stockholm - Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt held talks Friday with visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Bildt said he welcomed the joint declaration this week by the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to seek a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, referring to the breakaway region claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Stockholm  - Climate issues including how to tackle global warming were to top discussions at a gathering of some 30 religious leaders and policy-makers from various faiths of the world, Swedish Archbishop Anders Wejryd said Friday.

The two-day meeting was to adopt a manifesto that contains "demands and commitments," Wejryd said of the envisaged document to be signed November 28 in Uppsala, north of Stockholm.

"We call on international policy- and decision-makers to take certain steps and we also call upon our own faiths to be active," he said of the tract.