Free Republic

Icelanders richer than Norwegians? Icelanders are richer than Norwegians when Norway's Oil fund and Iceland's pension funds are compared reports the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, RÚV. According to the analyst department of Íslandsbanki, if the value of Norway's oil assets would be divided between the nation, each Norwegian would receive ISK 2.6 million. Icelanders on the other hand would receive ISK 3.8 million if the net assets of the Icelandic pension funds are divided between the nation - almost twice the amount that Norway's oil fund would pay each Norwegian. Norwegians plan to use the oil fund to pay out...

A group of people from Iceland have taken out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times apologising to Iraqis for the invasion of their country. More than 4,000 Icelanders paid for the ad, which demands that Iceland be immediately removed from the list of invaders in the so-called coalition of the willing. Iceland has no military and has contributed only its government's verbal support for the US-led invasion in 2003. A recent Gallup poll indicates that four out of five Icelanders want their country to remove its support, but the Government has ruled out any policy change.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - An Idaho lab has released conclusive results showing 36 mortar shells recently unearthed in southern Iraq contained no chemical warfare agent, the Danish army said Sunday. Initial examinations by Danish and British troops had indicated a blister agent was in the shells, which apparently date to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The shells were found north of Basra on Jan. 9. But tests by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho came back negative, the Danish Army Operational Command said in a statement. The results confirmed earlier findings by a U.S.-led...

Icelanders add a leaf to Viking mystery tale Legend that begins in Newfoundland ends with a 'fantasy' discovery in field By ALANNA MITCHELL EARTH SCIENCES REPORTER Saturday, November 30, 2002 GLAUMBAER, ICELAND -- Here on this remote northern edge of Iceland, buried under a thousand years of volcanic ash and drifting soil, the second half of one of Canada's most ancient human mysteries finally is being dug up. It is, they say, the home of Snorri Thorfinnson, famed in Viking lore as the first European born in the New World and a key family member in Eric the Red's legendary...