REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – Iceland’s biggest IT company CCP is what the island needs to leave its economic crisis behind. It is global, growing and employs hundreds but its tale is also one of frustration that echoes concerns about the country’s future.

For CEO Hilmar Petursson, Iceland’s lauded recovery model that included a sharp currency fall coupled with capital controls may have pulled a $13 billion economy back from the brink after a 2008 bank crash. But it is now a drag on firms like his.

REYKJAVIK, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Iceland’s biggest IT company
CCP is what the island needs to leave its economic crisis
behind. It is global, growing and employs hundreds but its tale
is also one of frustration that echoes concerns about the
country’s future.

For CEO Hilmar Petursson, Iceland’s lauded recovery model
that included a sharp currency fall coupled with capital
controls may have pulled a $13 billion economy back from the
brink after a 2008 bank crash. But it is now a drag on firms
like his.

STOCKHOLM, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Sweden’s decision to stay out
of an EU banking union has raised concerns that one of Europe’s
most dynamic economies will be pushed further to the side as
euro zone countries forge closer ties.

Situated at Europe’s northern edge and having rejected the
euro in a 2003 referendum, Sweden is already a marginal player
whose currency is seen as a safe haven from troubles elsewhere
in the region.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A new museum devoted to ABBA may attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Swedish capital but that does not mean the four members of the super group will ever reunite, at least on stage, former ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus said.

The museum, a permanent exhibition within a hall of fame of Swedish pop music, opens in May next year. It will feature memorabilia like stage costumes worn by the singers, and visitors will also be able to sing along to ABBA songs alongside life size holograms of the group.

STOCKHOLM, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Sweden held its annual Nobel
awards ceremony on Monday attended by laureates, royals and the
Who’s Who of Swedish society with little evidence of the
cost-cutting forced upon it by a downturn in the global economy.

More than 1,200 glittering guests – women in elegant gowns
and men in white tie and tails – gingerly made their way over
slippery snow and ice to the Nobel dinner in Stockholm City Hall
to dine, chat and hear Nobel literature winner Mo Yan and other
laureates speak at Sweden’s most prestigious social event.

STOCKHOLM, Dec 10 (Reuters) – With more than 1,200 guests
and 40 chefs, Sweden holds its annual Nobel awards ceremony on
Monday hoping a year of cost-cutting will not be noticed by the
laureates, royals or the Who’s Who of Sweden attending the
lavish dinner.

The ceremony tops a week of events in Stockholm for the
winners of the literature, physics, chemistry, medicine and
economics prizes that see Sweden briefly enjoying the kind of
extravagance usually associated with previous centuries.

STOCKHOLM, Dec 6 (Reuters) – A flustered Mo Yan, the Chinese
winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature, steered clear of
human rights issues and refused on Thursday to back a petition
by fellow laureates for jailed compatriot and Nobel Peace Prize
winner Liu Xiaobo.

A group of 134 Nobel laureates including the Dalai Lama,
wrote to Chinese Communist Party chief and president-in-waiting
Xi Jinping urging him to release Liu, who won the prize two
years ago. They also want Xi to free Liu’s wife.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The Nobel Foundation will cut more costs and try to boost returns from its investments after the global downturn forced it to reduce its prize money by 20 percent this year.

The Nobel Foundation, one of the world’s most prestigious institutions, made waves earlier this year when it cut its prizes to 8 million crowns ($1.2 million) after a decade of costs over-running its income from investments.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark may have slipped into recession in the third quarter and could struggle to meet growth forecasts as the euro zone crisis smothers consumer confidence, Finance Minister Bjarne Corydon said on Thursday.

In an interview with Reuters, Corydon said economic growth this year risked falling short of the government’s 0.9 percent forecast, but predicted a rebound in 2013, when he saw expansion of around 1.7 percent.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A far-right party has taken third place in Swedish opinion polls, helped by concerns over immigration and rising unemployment, and may now hold the balance of power after the next national election in 2014.

Nordic populist parties are showing resilience despite scandals among right-wing activists in Sweden and mass killings by anti-Islamist Anders Behring Breivik last year.