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China joins Arctic 'coldrush club'

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - May. 15 (News Report) - Several countries gain permanent observer status on the Arctic Council but there is dissent over the EU.

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China cozies up to Iceland in race for Arctic resources

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - Apr. 15 (News Analysis) - China has been paying a lot of attention to Iceland, a country with a population 5,000 times smaller than its own, as an effort to stretch its influence into the Arctic Sea. ...

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Hot Money Blues

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Mar. 25 (Opinion) - It will mark the end of an era for Cyprus, which has in effect spent the past decade advertising itself as a place where wealthy individuals who want to avoid taxes and scrutiny can safely park their money, no questions asked. But it may also mark at least the beginning of the end for something much bigger: the era when unrestricted movement of capital was taken as a desirable norm around the world.

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China Knocks on Iceland's Door

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Einar Benediktsson, Thomas R. Pickering - Mar. 12 (Opinion) - As polar ice recedes, Iceland has become a strategic gateway to energy sources and new trade routes — and Beijing is showing its interest.

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Thawing Permafrost May Be “Huge Factor” in Global Warming

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Inter Press Service - By Stephen Leahy - Feb. 17 (News Report) - Thawing permafrost is emitting more climate-heating carbon faster than previously realised. Scientists have now learned that when the ancient carbon locked in the ice thaws and is exposed to sunlight, it turns into carbon dioxide 40 percent faster. “This really changes the trajectory of the debate”

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Can Iceland lead the way towards a ban on violent online pornography?

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Tracy McVeigh - Feb. 17 (Opinion) - The country prides itself on its progressive attitudes, but anti-censorship campaigners say move is a backward step Small, volcanic, with a proud Viking heritage and run by an openly gay prime minister, Iceland is now considering becoming the first democracy in the western world to try to ban online pornography. A nationwide consultation has found wide support for the move from police and lawyers working in the field of sexual violence, along with health and education professionals, according to Halla Gunnarsdóttir, adviser to the interior minister Ögmundur Jónasson. Ministers are now looking at the results. "We are a progressive, liberal society when it comes to nudity, to sexual relations, so our approach is not anti-sex but anti-violence. This is about children and gender equality, not about limiting free speech," she said. "Research shows that the average age of children who see online porn is 11 in Iceland and we are concerned about that and about the increasingly violent nature of ...

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Whale oil to fuel whaling ships is a gruesome idea

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Philip Hoare - Feb. 11 (News Analysis) - It is a fantastically surreal propostion. An Icelandic whaler, Kristján Loftsson, is powering his whaling ships using "biofuel" composed of 80% diesel – and 20% whale oil. Loftsson claims the oil is additionally friendly to the environment as it is rendered out of whale blubber using heat from Iceland's volcanic vents. The story might seem a bizarre development even in the Alice in Wonderland world of modern whaling, where Japanese whaling fleets claim to be conducting "scientific research" and the US, while striking a vehemently anti-whaling stance, nonetheless supports aboriginal hunting of bowhead whales that might otherwise live as long as 200 years.

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Expanded Visa Law Would Give U.S. World’s Tired, Poor Technologists: View

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:13:00 -0800

Bloomberg - Dec. 01 - Congress works. Or so it seemed for a day this week when the House of Representatives voted 389 to 15 to ease restrictions on the entry of highly skilled immigrants to the U.S. The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011 was sponsored by conser

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Icelandic MP fights US demand for her Twitter account details

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Dominic Rushe - Jan. 08 (News) - A member of parliament in Iceland who is also a former WikiLeaks volunteer says the US justice department has ordered Twitter to hand over her private messages.

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Thank God It's Over: The Top 25 Moments of 2010

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - Dec. 28 (Editorial) - With earthquakes in Haiti and western China, floods in Pakistan, a volcanic eruption in Iceland, and wildfires in Russia, the Earth was intent on releasing a lot of pent-up anger in 2010. Tremors and eruptions -- along with the more basic elements of fire and water -- seemed to shape the past year's events even more than traditional foreign policy actors. Meanwhile, Europe struggled to regain its economic footing, China continued to rapidly grow its GDP, Middle East peace talks crumbled, and world leaders misbehaved (we're looking at you, Vladmir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi). But there were bright spots, too: A group of Chilean miners escaped after enduring two months trapped underground and long-suffering Burmese democratic activist Aung San Suu Kyi was released after spending nearly two decades in detention and under house arrest. Here are a few glimpses of 2010's international high- and lowlights.

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Civil War at WikiLeaks

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Philip Shenon - Sep. 03 (News) - The rape charges are the last straw for some organizers of WikiLeaks, who are demanding that Julian Assange, the website’s controversial point man, step aside. Philip Shenon reports.

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Iceland aims to become a legal safe haven for journalists

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Afua Hirsch - Jul. 12 (News Analysis) - Icelandic Modern Media Initiative would offer protection against litigation Umbrellas don?t work in Iceland. When rain sweeps the small, volcanic island, which lies just beneath the Arctic Circle, the water assaults you from all directions. Icelanders equip themselves with hoods and waterproof clothing, shunning the accessories that keep people dry in tamer climates. But when it comes to the media, the concept of an umbrella is becoming increasingly Icelandic. After some terrible blows to Iceland?s image – its most famous recent exports being financial turmoil and volcanic ash – the country has turned its creative energy towards creating a catch-all freedom of expression law, which would protect journalists from all manner of legal threats. ...

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Life in Iceland: Nasty, brutish and short

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Jun. 07 (Review) - FILTHY, damp, cold and exhausting, living in Iceland for most of the past millennium had one redeeming feature: that the long dark winter evenings gave people the chance to read a lot and tell stories. That combination of cultural depth and material backwardness is the central message of Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson’s social history of one of Europe’s

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Lengthy eruption would put economy under a cloud

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Arthur Max - Apr. 21 (News Analysis) - Even as Europe?s dormant airports sputter back to life, prudent travelers and businessmen should ask: What if Iceland?s volcano erupts again? ...

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The volcano crisis and the financial crisis

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

A Fistful of Euros - By P O Neill - Apr. 21 (Opinion) - Are the two crises alike? Consider the similarities. In each, an unexpected event in a forgotten part of the system ends up having global ramifications. The unexpected event occurs in a system that needs constant motion for its effective operation: as long as the securities/passengers can be moved on to the next stage, the system keeps functioning. When one part of it stops working, the rest quickly breaks down. But there’s more. Both the finance and airline industries have to balance the tension between 2 parts of their business: the “utility”, the bit that people and governments view as an essential service (payment systems and getting people from A to B) and the rest of the business model that has grown up around that, and at least in the good times, where the big profits are made. And although both industries have seen a progressive loosening of government oversight in the last 3 decades, it takes just one crisis to show how quickly the leash can be suddenly pulled back. Finally, each crisis does a good job of revealing the hidden assumptions: we buy pieces of paper because we’re confident we’re able to sell them, and we get on a plane to somewhere because we’re confident we’ll be able to get back. Each industry built up its “illusion of liquidity”.

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U.S. Airlines See Major Disruption, Some Losses

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

NPR - By Kathy Lohr - Apr. 21 (News) - U.S. airlines are seeing a major disruption because of hundreds of flights canceled due to the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano, but European carriers will face the biggest losses. The airline business has been tough: The recession dramatically slowed traffic; February blizzards forced U.S. airlines to cancel thousands of flights; and now the fallout from the volcano stopped all traffic in and out of northern Europe for days. But there is some good news. "For U.S. carriers, it'll be a relatively short-term hit," said Michael Boyd, president of Boyd Group International, an aviation consulting firm. "We think right now they're down about $80 million in terms of lost revenue, and they're down domestically about 80,000 passengers that would have been flying domestically but aren't because they can't get here."

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Nearly 25% of Iceland's voters petition for veto of Icesave bill

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Wikinews - By Jonathan-Alexandr Ledbury-Romanov, Brian McNeil - Jan. 03 (News Report) - Nearly a quarter of Iceland's voters have signed a petition calling for President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson to veto the bill passed last week to pay €3.8 billion to the United Kingdom and The Netherlands to compensate depositors impacted when the Icesave online bank collapsed in 2008.

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Icelandic government passes Icesave deal; €12,000 debt per citizen

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wikinews - By Brian McNeil - Dec. 31 (News Report) - The Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and her coalition government narrowly escaped a commitment to resign as a €3.8 billion bill to repay British and Dutch savers following the collapse of Icesave online banking passed. The vote margin was only three votes.

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Wall Street on the Tundra

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Michael Lewis - Mar. 05 (Special Report) - Iceland’s de facto bankruptcy—its currency (the krona) is kaput, its debt is 850 percent of G.D.P., its people are hoarding food and cash and blowing up their new Range Rovers for the insurance—resulted from a stunning collective madness. What led a tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, to decide, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial power? In Reykjavík, where men are men, and the women seem to have completely given up on them, the author follows the peculiarly Icelandic logic behind the meltdown.

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Energy: Boiling Point

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Time - By Krista Mahr - Dec. 04 (Special Report) - Steam has long powered Icelandic dreams. Pockets of underground water heated by the earth's core may not be particularly glamorous, but tiny Iceland has spent decades figuring out useful ways to harness its heat and power, employing it for everything from baking bread to turning turbines. Geothermal power now provides cheap, clean heat to more than 90% of Icelandic homes, and generates 30% of the nation's electricity, a slice worth roughly $120 million. In recent years, as Icelanders became smitten with the idea that their ambitious banks could create a global financial center in the far north Atlantic, geothermal power got pushed out of the spotlight. But now, with the krona down 44% against the dollar compared to a year ago and most of Iceland's banks close to bankruptcy, this nation of 313,000 is taking another look at the incredible resource boiling away underfoot.

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Iceland gets its IMF loan, Turkey awaits its own

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

International Herald Tribune - By David Jolly - Nov. 20 (News Report) - Nordic countries followed up on the $2.1 billion loan to Iceland approved by the International Monetary Fund with additional funding of $2.5 billion. The finance ministers of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden said in a joint statement that the funds would help Iceland stabilize its economy and exchange rate, and reduce its public debt over the medium term.

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One Hot Island: Iceland's Renewable Geothermal Power

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Christopher Mims - Oct. 20 (Special Report) - By financing thermal and electric power plants throughout the country, as well as the infrastructure required to deliver hot water to homes, the Icelandic government not only eliminated the country's dependence on fossil fuels for heating and electricity, but also jump-started an entire industry, according to Alexander Richter, Director of Sustainable Energy, Global Research and Communication at Glitnir Bank.

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In Flailing Iceland, Disbelief and Regret

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Eric Pfanner - Oct. 09 (News Report) - What it means for Iceland so far, people here say, is that the days when the economy seemed capable of gravity-defying feats are gone. So are the days when Icelandic investors went on an international buying spree, adding some of the biggest names of the British and American retail industries to their portfolios.

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Iceland suspends stock trading, creates new bank

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

biz.yahoo.com - By Jane Wardell - Oct. 09 (News Report) - Iceland suspended trading on its stock exchange for two days and took control of the country's largest bank -- the third to be placed under its protective umbrella -- on Thursday as it grappled with a banking crisis that is threatening to engulf the entire country.

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In Iceland, Frozen Accounts, Boiling Assets

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Time - Jun. 10 (Special Report) - Even as Iceland's finances collapse, it still reaps dividends from the geothermal heat boiling under its frozen landscapes

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