The North Iceland tourism marketing office has weighed in to the debate about Chinese investor Huang Nubo’s controversial plans to buy a huge plot of land at Grimsstadir a Fjollum and build a luxury hotel, spa and golf resort. Read the full story

A Swedish politician who produced a poster of the Muslim prophet Mohammed standing naked next to his nine year-old wife has been found not guilty of aggravating an ethnic group. Read the full story

Dirty Diaries, a montage of 12 pornographic films by Swedish feminist documentary maker Mia Engberg, was released last week, sparking considerable public debate. Read the full story

After lengthy squabbles with local officials, the daughter of Denmark’s wealthiest man was granted permission to open the nation’s largest public hunting ground. Lego heiress Sofie Kirk Kristiansen will create a 1,400-hectare public forest in the middle of Jutland where hunters will be welcome to stalk their prey. But many groups are still voicing their anger over the decision.
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STATEMENTFROM THE PRESIDENT OF ICELAND:
Following a misleading report of an interview with the President of Iceland Olafur Ragnar Grimsson in the Financial Times Deutschland the President wants to emphasise that in his discussion with the reporter, he pointed out that there was a clear and strong will to honour the commitments of Read the full story

Norway’s controversial Princess Martha Louise has given birth to her third daughter, named Emma Tallulah Behn. Like her previous daughter, Emma Tallulah was born at the princess’ home in Lommedalen, west of Oslo.

Martha Louise and her husband Ari Behn have provided plenty of controversy in Norway over the past few years. The princess’ vocal support of home birthing has angered certain facets of the country’s medical community. Her second daughter, Leah Isadora, was also born at home in 2005.

Norway’s newest royal brings the tally to five grandchildren for King Harald and Queen Sonja. However, none of Martha Louise’s daughters have a royal title since the princess relinquished her title “Royal Highness” in 2002 when she chose to marry a commoner, Ari Behn.

Princess Martha Louise has bucked royal family traditions on many occasions, and continues to raise eyebrows with her public statements and actions. Having once Read the full story

Finland’s plans to build the world’s first next-generation pressurised water reactor has hit a rough patch as the initial estimated price tag has now doubled to nearly 4.5 billion euro. Areva, the French nuclear construction company building the power plant, announced that the final costs for the reactor will be 50 percent higher than originally estimated, according to Les Echos, a business newspaper.

The reasons for the increase in building costs at the power plant in Olkiluoto Read the full story

In the face of a showdown with the European Courts over its immigration policies, Denmark has received welcome support from 10 EU member states despite the fact that Danish law openly violates the rules recently established by the European Union.

The support comes at a crucial time as Denmark is challenging a recent ECJ ruling stating that anyone who has already secured legal residency in any EU member country can reside in any other EU member country along with their immediate family. Denmark’s immigration laws are stricter than the EU’s, but apparently the UK, Ireland, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands have similar inclinations to the Danish position.

The EC ruling focused on the “free movement” laws pertaining to all EU residents. But several EU member states condemned the ECJ ruling, suggesting that not every EU member state sees immigration policy in such liberal terms.

Michael Aastrup Jensen, EU spokesman for the Danish government’s Liberal Party, welcomed the support. “It’s good news. Now we have the possibility to take the issue up at the highest levels of the EU,” he said. “If the EC can trump the national parliament on this sensitive issue, then it’s a ticking time bomb that no EU country would dare let tick away.”

Last week, Finland’s Minister of Defence, Jyri Hakamies, spoke out in public, voicing his support for Finland and Sweden’s accession into NATO. The speech, according to the Finnish news agency, STT, earned him criticism from the Centre Party secretary Jarmo Korhonen, but the Finnish Europe minister, Astrid Thors, says that blasting the defence minister for his opinions was unacceptable.

According to Ms. Thors, Mr Hakamies expressed in his speech a sense of powerful cooperation from Nordic countries, making Mr. Korhonen’s criticism “alien in a government where a good atmosphere of trust prevails”.

“In order to clarify security policy though we need people to shed light on why the so-called NATO option is important,” Ms Thors said. “It is most regrettable that certain political quarters are now in the process of excluding that option for a very long time indeed without allowing room for debate.”

In an interview with the Finnish Broadcasting Company last Sunday, Mr. Korhonen, said that the speech by the defence minister was not in line with the government’s stance on NATO.

“The only occasion in which new government programmes are drafted is government negotiations, but even that would require the toppling of the government,” Mr Korhonen said in the interview.