Police have taken a helicopter to the hamlet of Nutaarmiut, about 90km from Upernavik in west central Greenland.

“We have been informed by a citizen that three people have been shot and killed in Nutaarmiut and two people are said to be injured,” Claus Risbjerg of the Greenland Central Police Authority said in a Politken report.

Nutaarmiut is home to around 55 people and is one of many small hunting communities in the country that does not have a permanent police presence.

“We have no information on who did this. We have a helicopter due to land up there soon with police, a doctor and nurses. When we have our people on the scene, we will have further information,” Risbjerg said.

The trawler was called Hallgrímur SI-77 and was en-route for scrapping in Norway when it sank in severe weather. The rescued sailor is in good physical health, but says he had to watch helplessly as two of his friends disappeared into the sea.

Watch and extended emotional interview with the survivor, Eiríkur Ingi Jóhannesson, with English subtitles, here.

The search for the missing three men was called off in bad weather and the three lost men, all in their fifties, are presumed dead.

The rescued man, in his thirties, probably survived because of his floatation suit, Vísir.is reports. One of his crew mates also put on a floatation suit; but that suit leaked and the four men slowly drifted apart.

Jan Lillebø, who was in charge of the rescue operation, told NTB that the search was called off due to the weather. There were hurricane force winds at the location and 15 metre high waves.

Two of the lost three men, who have been named as Gísli Garðarsson, Einar G. Gunnarsson and Magnús Þórarin Daníelsson, come from the Suðurnes region of southwest Iceland.

(Photo: Jón Sigurður Eyjólfsson // from Vísir.is)

The Westfjords police would not confirm whether a man or a woman had confessed; but mbl.is reported that it was a man. The dog’s body was found in Þingeyri harbour on the 8th December deliberately shackled to two car wheels. The air in the tyres meant they floated and the body was easily discovered.

The police now say their investigation is complete with the confession and the case will proceed to prosecutors an on to court.

The police cited the Icelandic law on the ownership of pets and working animals: “Only vets may put pets to death, except in emergency situations when a vet cannot be reached and the animal’s disease or injury is causing unbearable pain or is terminal”.

Older news on the story here and here.

Officials say piles of dead herring, weighing in excess of 20 tonnes, have covered a beach near the northern Norwegian city of Kvaenes, Nordreisa. This event has prompted various scientific explanations as well as speculation from 2012 doomsday enthusiasts.

44 year-old Jan-Petter Jorgensen, who discovered the stinky deposit while walking his dog, Molly, still wonders what caused the mass death among the fish. He said to the Daily Mail, “People say that something similar happened in the 1980s. Maybe the fish have been caught in a deprived oxygen environment and then died of fresh water?”.

Meanwhile, experts have come up with several theories. Some say that the small fish may have got caught up in tidal waters after larger predatory fish had chased them towards the coast. Other theories suggest that they were trapped by recent storms or that they were adversely affected by freshwater from a river delta after being trapped in shallow areas by currents.

The marine mystery comes at a time when a number of events have riled 2012 doomsday predictors, including 200 birds that fell from the sky in the US state of Arkansas on New Year’s Eve, and the discovery of 25 dead horses below a cliff just outside of Glenn Innes, New England, last month.

Mikko Eschner, 37, was charged with manslaughter and given eleven-and-a-half years after a 25 year-old woman’s body was found dumped in a holdall bag in Jyväskylä in January.

Jari Porrassalmi, his accomplice, was given five years and six months for aggravated assault, battery and attempted manslaughter. Escher’s wife will also serve a four-month suspended sentence for neglect and involuntary manslaughter after she failed to act during the Lahti woman’s prolonged and brutal beating in an apartment in the Pupuhuhta district.

The court concluded that Porrassalmi, 20, had beaten the women in December 2010 and Eschner had finally killed her with drugs the following month. The younger man then packed the body with ice and left it in a hockey bag on the side of road where it was later found by a passer-by.

The killing was thought to be in revenge for the woman ratting out a member of a criminal gang to the police. Around 10 people are thought to have come to the house while the woman was dying, with three of those also found guilty for failing to get help.

Escher was on parole for a previous homicide when the killing took place, so will serve his full sentence, according to Helsingin Sanomat. The prosecution was pushing for murder convictions, however, and will appeal the verdict.

Dýrafjörður, taken from Þingeyri

Police in the Westfjords of Iceland are investigating the brutal ‘murder’ of a dog in the town of Þingeyri. Suspect(s) have been interviewed and townspeople are still in shock.

The police are not yet willing to reveal any details in the case and appear to have little information to go on.

DV first reported on the case after the black dog’s body was found in Þingeyri harbour on Thursday. The dog’s feet had been bound together and he had been tied to two car wheels, which floated due to the air in the tyres. It seems the criminal(s) had no aversion to the body being discovered.

Many residents of the town of Þingeyri are very upset at the highly unusual and particularly heartless killing and a memorial service was held at the harbourside on Saturday. Floating candles were released into the sea.

According to DV sources the Westfjords police instantly came up with at least one suspect and took a statement from the individual or individuals right away on Thursday evening after the crime was reported.

Despite the media buzz around the event, police are keeping tight lipped and little more is known at this stage.

The bodies of the 72 year-old former surgeon, his 68 year-old wife and a 60 year-old nurse, all from Savonlinna, southeast Finland, were found near the city of João Pessoa on Friday 2nd December.

The couple were in the process of selling their house but had run into difficulties, according to reports. “Differences in income are great, and it has led to a situation in which they did not have a caretaker for the house in the summer,” a former colleague of the man told Helsingin Sanomat.

All valuables were left with the bodies, suggesting that the motive for the killings was not robbery. According to Helsingin Sanomat, they may be connected to the financial arrangements of the impending sale.

A local man is thought to have been struggling to find the money for the purchase, but the couple apparently told a friend earlier in the year that they thought the buyer to be a trustworthy person.

The National Bureau of Investigation and the Finnish Embassy will now receive reports from the local police about the progress of the investigation.

The husband of Anu Vehviläinen, the former Centre Party Minister of Transport, shot himself with his service gun at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) get-together in Joensuu on Friday 25th November.

It is thought that only 10 people were at the party when the officer retrieved his weapon from his locker and discharged it. Local police have confirmed that no outsiders were involved, but say they still have no explanation for the suicide.

In a brief statement, Anu Vehviläinen, who has been married to the officer since 1998 and has one son with him, said the incident came as a complete surprise. “We are concentrating on getting through this crisis. I ask that the media respect the grief of our family,” she added.

In November 1999, another police Christmas party in Helsinki ended in tragedy when an officer fell from the roof and died. There are currently no guidelines about whether alcohol can be consumed in a police station.

In an interview with Stöð 2 television it was revealed that an important Game of Thrones character who did not die in the second book (called A Clash of Kings) will die in the second season of the television programme.

Icelandic media have been very interested in the Game of Thrones film shoot in their country; which is not surprising given the global phenomenon the series has become. After Stöð 2 aired its programme on the shoot, it quickly found its way onto the internet and interviews with producers were, unsurprisingly, in English. the videos quickly generated plenty of gossip; especially on the communications site Reddit.com. Game of Thrones fans are eagerly awaiting season two, which is currently being filmed in Iceland.

Some fans believe that Jeor Mormont will be the unexpected character to die; because that would eliminate the need to create Craster House as a film set. Yet others believe it will be Daenerys who will die; because that would simplify the production of the whole series.

Who will die has yet to be revealed, and it is still clear how serious the producers are about keeping secrets — and how much they are enjoying doing so. Keeping fans guessing is the best way to maintain interest, they believe. Snippets like those revealed to Icelandic television this week are part of the game.

Vísir.is photographs from the Game of Thrones film shoot can be seen by clicking here.

The right-wing extremist, who slaughtered 77 people in a bombing and a subsequent shooting spree earlier this year, said in the “best case” scenario the death toll would have reached 700.

The 32 year-old saw Utøya Island, where he opened fire at a Labour Party youth camp, as “a weapon of mass destruction as the youths could be frightened into jumping in the water and drowning,” according to ABC Nyheter. The new information also suggests that the island massacre was Breivik’s ‘plan B’, as he apparently only went there after hearing that his earlier car bombing had failed to topple government buildings in Oslo.

In addition, the documents describe the precision with which the killer selected his ammunition. He claims his Glock 17 gun was loaded with alternating rounds of Full Metal Jacket bullets, which can pierce bulletproof vests, and Soft Point and Sliver Tip varmint bullets, which explode on impact. Notes made by police during the interview suggest Breivik thought, “he would have defeated those wearing bulletproof vests before he got to Utøya where the targets were without them”, and that he picked the ammunition based on weight, precision and penetrating effect.

Speaking to Dagbladet, one of the Utøya survivors, Mathias Eckhoff, described his injuries. “I was hit in the groin, thigh, and ankle,” he said. “He used bullets that divided when they hit. The entry wound was normal, but the hospital told me the internal injuries were more extensive than ordinary bullets would have caused.”

This is a second wave of leaks from the secret documents, which were only meant to been seen by police and lawyers. Last week, the media reported that Breivik had planned to kill the country’s former Prime Minister, the foreign minister and the head of the Labour Youth Movement.