Free Republic

Iceland was not amongst the countries invited to take part in a conference on the world’s oceans, due to the continued practice of whale hunting. RÚV reports that the conference – Our Ocean – is hosted by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Many countries around the world have been invited to take part in the two-day conference, where subjects such as pollution and sustainability in our world’s oceans will be discussed. Iceland, despite having sought to participate, has not been invited to take part in the conference, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says this because of whale hunting....

Today is 17th June, Iceland’s national day. It is a public holiday and one of the biggest festival days of the year. There are many official and unofficial events in practically every city, town and tiny village across Iceland. A parade featuring a brass band, the scouts and police in ceremonial uniform are widespread; as are speeches by local officials and a reading by Fjallkonan – the mountain woman. The mountain woman wears an ornate version of the Icelandic national costume, with gold trimmings. Symbolically, she is the spirit of the nation. In Reykjavík, the ceremony takes place on Austurvöllur...

Iceland just elected the parties which plunged them into crisis only five years ago. Is it casino capitalism all over again, or just a slap in the face of the EU? In terms of redemptive electoral stories, the return of the Independence Party in Iceland is quite significant, albeit that they will come back to government with only a few percentage points more votes than they polled at their nadir in the depths of the Icelandic crisis in 2009. However the biggest winner was Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, the leader of the Progressive Party, who propelled his party to hold 19 seats...

The representatives of the petition on kjosum.is, where President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is urged not to sign the new Icesave legislation and send it to a national referendum, delivered almost 37,600 signatures to Bessastadir, the presidential residence, today at 11 am. One of the petition’s organizers, Hallur Hallsson, told ruv.is that the signatures were run against the National Registry database by the company Creditinfo, which resulted in 186 names being crossed off the list. Hallsson said the methodology of the collection and the processing of the data would be explained to the president. The petition was closed to...

A young Russian woman acclaimed as 'Norwegian of the Year' who wrote a book about life as an illegal immigrant in Norway, is being thrown out of the country. The decision to deport Madina Salamova, 25, has sparked a nationwide debate about Norway's immigration laws, triggered public protests, and put the country's centre-left government on the defensive. The girl, who is better known under her literary pseudonym 'Maria Amelie', moved to Norway in 2003 with her parents after neighbouring Finland rejected their asylum claim. Norway rejected their claim too but the family somehow evaded deportation and, despite having no papers...

How can buzzy fuel cell startup Bloom Energy move from its current early stage — a handful of customers and still high costs — to lower-cost mass market manufacturing? If you’re Bloom Energy backer Kleiner Perkins, you look to hire a commercialization expert with a long history in the fuel cell biz. Kleiner Perkins has hired Operating Partner Jan van Dokkum who will be tasked specifically with assisting greentech ventures toward commercialization (hat tip VentureWire and more in The Daily Startup). Kleiner describes van Dokkum on its web site as having “many years of experience in building organizations to achieve...

Breaking News: A volcano just erupted in southern part of Iceland, under the glacier Eyjafjallajökull. They are starting to clear farms in the lowlands below the glacier, and ash has started to fall in the area. There has not been though much earth tremors following this. Farmers in the area are seeing fire in the glacier and the stench is reportedly very strong. These are the most affected areas, the red is in most danger of beeing flooded with toxic water at high speed: http://mbl.is/frimg/5/25/525555.jpg The greatest danger following this is that the volcanic eruption will melt the glacier and...

Better late than never — a bang-bang pulse-pounder predicated on the Bush administration's deliberate fabrication of WMDs in Iraq. Paul Greengrass' expertly assembled Green Zone has evidently been parked for some time on Universal's shelf. Had the movie been released during the 2008 election season, it might have been something more than entertainment. Still, Green Zone, which could have more accurately been titled Told You So, Jerk-Off!, does gain some coincidental topicality for opening just days after the Iraqi elections and the release of Karl Rove's new book, Courage and Consequence, even if the zeitgeist has moved on, with the...

What are the real problems are that are facing the US and what is the Obama - Concress - House axis going to do about them if the Democrats win big on all fronts? Just the opposite of what the US needs to do to fix its main problems, it seems to me as a simple foreigner with huge interest in freedom and its greates bulwark, the US. That is IMHO, instead of reducing spending, lowering and simplifying taxes (especially corporate) and most importantly reducing the depts of the US, that includes the huge future liabilities of the US state...

November 4th 2008 the American people will choose a new president. The president of the United States of America is the most powerful person in the world. We would like to know who would be the next president of the United States of America - if the world could vote! In the presidential election in 2004 122,267,553 people voted. 6,500,000,000 people did not. http://iftheworldcouldvote.com/ ------------------------------ Vanity begins here: Sadly Obama has huge lead according to this well unscientific but interesting survey of world opinion. But like they say, of course only Americans should be able to vote as USA is...

Outraged Icelanders launch an online appeal after Britain used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze some of its assets. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is being accused of using anti-terrorism laws unjustifiably to freeze the assets of Icelandic bank Landskanki after what he called the Iceland government's unacceptable failure to guarantee British deposits.

Help us stop the abuse of the anti-terrorism act Gordon Brown unjustifiably used the anti-terrorism act against the people of Iceland, for his own short-term political gain. This has turned a grave situation into a national disaster, affecting families in both Iceland and the United Kingdom. Help us avert greater damage by signing this petition now. On Wednesday October 8th, the British Government invoked anti-terrorist legislation, which was in effect aimed at the people of Iceland. This devastating attack on our society was received with disbelief here in Iceland, where it turned a grave economic situation into a national disaster....

Russia has granted Iceland a EUR 4 billion (USD 6 billion) loan, as Russia’s Ambassador to Iceland Victor I. Tatarintsev announced to Davíd Oddsson, chairman of Iceland’s Central Bank’s board of directors, this morning. The loan will be to three or four years and the interest rates between 30 and 50 points above Libor rates, ruv.is reports. The decision has been confirmed by Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. According to ruv.is, Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde has been investigating the possibility of such a loan from Russia since mid-summer. Experts from the Central Bank of Iceland and Iceland’s Prime...

I think this is the biggest moment in Icelandic sport history." - Iceland President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. It's hard to explain just how monumental was Iceland's win over Spain was in today's men's handball semifinals. Spain--with more than 40 million residents--had probably played stronger than any team in the tournament. Iceland has 300,000 residents, and has never won Summer Olympic gold. And yet Iceland never trailed in a 36-30 win, and breezed into Sunday's final against France. But that's too dry. When we asked Iceland's Sigfus Sigurdsson to explain what the scene would be like back home right now, he...

Labor unions in Iceland declared the signing of wage contracts yesterday historic, because never before have the salaries of those who earn the least increased the most. Monthly wages rose by up to ISK 21,000 (USD 313, EUR 213) yesterday and are scheduled to rise further before the end of 2010. “Such agreements haven’t been reached for decades. This is unique,” president of the Icelandic Confederation of Labor (ASÍ) Grétar Thorsteinsson told Morgunbladid. “Not all of our demands have been met of course, but we have been rather successful.” The government announced yesterday that it will spend ISK 20 billion...

Today is Christmas Eve. Christmas in Iceland officially begins when the bells of Reykjavík Cathedral chime at 6 pm: http://dagskra.ruv.is/streaming/ras1/live/ (listen to it live) By then families will have gathered around the dinner table to have smoked pork and afterwards they open presents. Family members of all ages dress up in their finest clothes, after a long and relaxing Christmas bath, before dinner starts. A smoked pork roast, glazed with sugar and decorated with pineapple according to a Danish tradition, will be on many dinner tables in Iceland. Side dishes include sugar-coated potatoes, green beans, red cabbage and a salad...

Saturday is election day in Iceland where the conservative Independence Party is looking to hold on to its majority in Parliament. The BBC reported from the capital Reykjavik that plans to expand the nation's aluminum industry appear to be a key factor in how voters will treat the Independence Party and its coalition ally, the Progress Party. Polls indicate that while Prime Minister Geir Haarde's Independence Party base remains solid, support for the Progress Party has softened considerably. The erosion could result in Haarde having to launch post-election negotiations on a new coalition with the left-leaning Social Democrats and Left...

Iceland goes to the polls in general election AFP Published: Saturday May 12, 2007 Iceland votes in a general election Saturday with the ruling centre-right Independence Party tipped to win the most seats on the back of its strong economic record. But no single party has won an absolute majority in Iceland since its independence from Denmark in 1944, and the six parties contesting the election are all in the running for coalition places in the next government. Some 220,000 voters of this island nation in the North Atlantic are being called upon to elect the 63 members of the...

Many voters in Iceland would support the governing conservative Independence Party (SSF) in tomorrow’s legislative election, according to a poll by Gallup published in Morgunbladid. 38.4 per cent of respondents would vote for the Independence Party in the ballot. The centre-left Social Alliance (SF) is second with 27.1 per cent, followed by the Left-Green Alliance with 16.5 per cent, the Progressive Party (FSF)—currently a government coalition partner—with 9.8 per cent, the Liberal Party (FF) with 5.3 per cent, and Iceland’s Movement (IF) with 2.9 per cent. In 1991, David Oddsson became prime minister, governing with a centre-right coalition led by...

An economic crisis that threatened to bring 15 years of rapid growth in Iceland to a juddering halt has been averted and the economy is coming back into balance, according to Geir Haarde, prime minister. In an interview ahead of Saturday's parliamentary elections, Mr Haarde stood by the economic record of his right-wing Independence party, which has led a coalition government with the liberal Progressive party since 1995. "We have always been confident that we would come through this economic boom in a very stable way and that seems to be happening," he said. "Real disposable incomes have risen between...