Free Republic

In a surprising about-face, Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik has decided to back down on its decision made just last Wednesday to boycott all Israeli goods. Reykjavik Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RUV that the decision is to be withdrawn, saying he was “angry” with himself for supporting the move. […] The decision was to have all city agencies boycott all Israeli goods. It came under harsh criticism by Jewish groups who noted a full boycott of Israeli goods would have to include computers and cell phones. Even Iceland’s Foreign Ministry slammed the move, saying...

The Icelandic capital of Reykjavik has announced that it will boycott all products made in Israel “as long as the occupation of Palestinian territories continues.” The boycott not does limit itself to Judea and Samaria, but instead targets all of Israel. An explanatory memorandum claims that it is merely a symbolic gesture, though, and there is no list of specific Israel companies or products included. Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, an outgoing councilwomen representing the Social Democratic Alliance, introduced the bill. This is expected to be her last major action as part of the city council. …

OK, calm down everyone, nothing to see here. Au contraire in fact, plenty of cuteness here. Not only do they post cute images of themselves with cute kittens, they also aren’t afraid to show their more jovial side like skateboarding down the street and showing off their ‘Hello Kitty’ cuffs. As one viewer in Imgur put it ‘Fudge the police. Seriously, that’s a very attractive police force’ whilst another wants to know ‘Why are their clothes so tight fitting?’

Plans to build a new road in Iceland ran into trouble recently when campaigners warned that it would disturb elves living in its path. Construction work had to be stopped while a solution was found. From his desk at the Icelandic highways department in Reykjavik, Petur Matthiasson smiles at me warmly from behind his glasses, but firmly. "Let's get this straight before we start - I do not believe in elves," he says. I raise my eyebrows slightly and incline my head towards his computer screen which is displaying the plans for a new road in a neighbouring town. There...

The mayor of Reykjavik has called for the Icelandic capital to cut its ties with Moscow over Russia's nationwide ban on homosexual propaganda. Last month, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, signed a law that stigmatises gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality. In response, Jón Gnarr, who was one of Iceland's top comedian's before becoming mayor of the city in 2010, filed a motion in a city council meeting last week to end his city's relationship with Moscow. Since 2007 Reykjavik and Moscow have been "sister cities".

Learning a lesson in Iceland. Ronald Reagan was not always “conservative,” and for this, conservatives love him. The modern conservative mind thinks in a certain box – a good box, not a bad one, but a box, nevertheless. We have an ideology: government can do these specific things, and no more. Tax something and you’ll get less of it, subsidize a thing and you’ll get more of it… etc. We have a host of such pronouncements, and we are usually right. We advocate the limited government of the Constitution, and the free economy of Hayek and Hazlitt, because we believe...

FOR centuries, Icelanders earned a living from the sea, setting out in small boats to haul cod, haddock and herring from the North Atlantic waters. But in recent years these proud descendants of Vikings found new fish to catch, scooping up businesses around the world with the help of light financial regulation and expansive banks. "There was some banker who said we didn't need the fishing industry," said Helgi Mar Sigurgeirsson, the chief engineer of a fishing trawler moored in Reykjavik harbour. "He said we could make money with the banks. I'd like to speak to him now." Fishing is...

People go bankrupt all the time. Companies do, too. But countries? Iceland was on the verge of doing exactly that on Thursday as the government shut down the stock market and seized control of its last major independent bank. That brought trading in the country's currency to a halt, with foreign banks no longer willing to take Icelandic krona, even at fire-sale rates. As the meltdown in the Icelandic financial system quickened, with the government seemingly powerless to do anything about it, analysts said there was probably only one realistic option left: for Iceland to be bailed out by the...

Twenty years ago this very day, President Ronald Reagan destroyed the Soviet Union. On the morning of October 12, 1986, it seemed as if the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were on the brink of sweeping reductions in their nuclear arsenal. President Reagan's refusal to abandon SDI caused the talks to collapse. This locked the Soviets into continuing an arms race that they could not afford, could not win, and could not abandon, dooming their empire to eventual collapse. The results of the SDI program President Reagan refused to abandon could well save our lives from North Korean aggression.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The United States, which has long provided Iceland with its only military force, has decided to withdraw most of its service members and all of its fighter jets and helicopters from the country later this year, the U.S. ambassador said Thursday. Iceland's government, which had recently offered to pay some of the cost of its defense to try to keep U.S. forces here, said it regretted the decision. In an interview with The Associated Press, U.S. Ambassador Carol van Voorst said she and Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under secretary of state, had told Prime Minister Haldor Asgrimsson...