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When your society has inhabited a small, remote island for countless generations and boasts a population of only 300,000, the odds of having sex with a relative are significant. Luckily, Icelanders now have a handy tool to avoid family-sex. Íslendingabók—meaning "book of Icelanders"—is an online incest avoidance search engine. Plug in your name and that of a potential mate, and the site searches a genealogical database to see how closely you're related. It's likely that you'll have some overlap many generations back—in which case you're probably safe from mutant children. But if you share great-grandparents, you might want to reconsider...

A chef at a Stockholm restaurant rushed out of his kitchen on Thursday afternoon and threw a meat cleaver at a departing thief as his restaurant was robbed for the second time in a week. The robbery took place at 2pm at a restaurant in Hässelby Villastad in west Stockholm. Two masked robbers held staff at knifepoint and forced them to hand over all the cash in the till. "Apparently the chef's meat cleaver struck one of the robbers in the back, but they were able to disappear from the scene. The same restaurant was robbed a week ago and...

Icelandic singer partners with financial services firm to launch sustainable investment fund. The quirky singer and actress Bjork is hunting for investors to inject capital into her economically troubled country, whose financial system collapsed in October. Nominated for 13 Grammy awards, an Oscar and two Golden Globe awards, she has become a venture capitalist, teaming up with Reykjavik-based Audur Capital to raise money to invest in sustainable businesses in Iceland. Fundraising won't commence until January, but Bjork's involvement in the project has triggered such interest that the fund, which carries the 43-year-old singer's name, is expected to raise as much...

SHANGHAI — China says it will be stricter on foreign performers after Icelandic singer Bjork shouted “Tibet! Tibet!” at the end of her concert in Shanghai this week. A statement by China's Culture Ministry said Bjork's outburst “broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings.” Bjork's exclamation came after a passionate performance of her song “Declare Independence” on Sunday. The statement, posted on the Culture Ministry's website, also said there is no country that admits that Tibet is an independent country. Bjork has performed the song to support other independence movements in the past, dedicating it to Kosovo while performing...

Bjork upstages Harrison Ford with Vaseline and a whaling ship By Hugh Davies in Venice(Filed: 03/09/2005)The crazy world of Bjork proved to be so outrageous at the Venice Film Festival yesterday that she upstaged an appearance by Harrison Ford holding the hand of Calista Flockhart. The Hollywood stars, a romantic item for some years now, were in Italy for the unveiling of Fragile, a horror film featuring the former Ally McBeal actress.However, they were virtually ignored by the paparazzi, while the Icelandic singer took the event by storm with her new movie, a 135-minute epic shot in Japan in...

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - In a country without an army, where even the police officers carry no weapons, the news of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, in late October reverberated with the force of a sudden gunshot. It was not just that three Icelandic peacekeepers had been wounded in a suicide bombing in an area known as being dangerous to foreigners. What was almost more disturbing were the television images beamed back from the scene, showing the peacekeepers armed and dressed in full military gear, apparently in contradiction of their strictly civilian status. Advertisement The incident touched off an unusual round...

REYKJAVIK, Iceland--The mother of pop singer Bjork has ended her hunger strike against a plan to develop the Icelandic highlands. Hildur Runa Hauks-dottir said Tuesday that she began eating again on Sunday evening. She began her fast Oct. 7 to try to persuade Pittsburgh-based Alcoa to pull out of the plan to build an aluminum smelter and hydroelectric plant in the wilderness area. Environmentalists say the $3 billion project will ruin the area above Vatnajokull glacier. Alcoa spokesman Wade Hughes has said the firm has a good track record on conservation. Hauksdottir, 56, said she quit because she was satisfied...