It seems it’s now mobile phone maker Nokia’s turn to trim its workforce in a bid to control costs and maintain profitability. The Finnish mobile phone giant is offering a voluntary resignation package along with other voluntary options to encourage its employees to quit in what Nokia calls a “challenging market environment.” Read the full story

The Finnish ministry of finance stated on its website that it expects the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) to drop by more than two percent in 2009. Higher costs for financing building deals and a stagnant housing market caused a sharp decline in the construction industry at the end of 2008, causing Finland’s GDP to noticeably slow down. Read the full story

As reported unofficially last week, Sweden’s government has now confirmed it has decided to bail out its crippled auto industry by providing emergency loans and credit guarantees worth 25 billion crowns (US$3.1 billion) to Volvo and Saab. Both of the top Swedish carmakers are actually owned Read the full story

A bomb was found yesterday afternoon on the site of an Icelandic-owned factory in the town of Dobele in Latvia. The bomb was most likely from the Second World War, MBL.is reports. Read the full story

Around 30,000 people attended the Nattura outdoor concert in Reykjavik on Saturday evening.

The event was organised by the performing musicians: Bjork, Sigur Ros, Olof Arnalds and Ghostdigital.

People converged on Reykjavik from all over Iceland, and all over the world for the event designed to highlight the plight of the Icelandic countryside at the hands of aluminium companies and the huge hydro electric and geothermal power stations needed to power their smelters.

Today, event organisers including Bjork, the members of Sigur Ros and Einar Orn Benediktsson of the Sugarcubes (who played with Ghostdigital on Saturday) have been named ‘Special Friends of the UN’ for their localised message which is also “relevant to the entire planet”.

Police reported no major incidents with the large crowd, and attendees are reported to have left swiftly and peacefully – no doubt because of the chilly temperatures.

The sun shone throughout the performance, but chilly winds brought temperatures well below those on an average June evening.

In addition to the 30,000 fans in the Laugardalur Park, 2.5 million people watched the event live on the National Geographic website, according to visir.is. National Geographic will feature concert highlights on their website for the next week. The concert was also broadcast live on mbl.is, the website of Iceland’s biggest pay-per-copy newspaper, Morgunbladid.

Ground was broken at a ceremony marking the beginning of construction for a new aluminium smelter at Helguvik cove in southwest Iceland on Saturday.

Ten dignitaries and special guests armed with spades took part in the ground breaking ceremony, marking the beginning of Iceland’s fourth aluminium smelter. The smelter will be run by Nordural, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US giant, Century Aluminum.

The building commences without Nordural having obtained a licence for the operation of a smelter at Helguvik, or the relevant permits to emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. Opponents of the scheme say the building work is therefore illegal, and being undertaken in the hope that obtaining permission and permits will be easier if the plant is already under construction.

With just two smelters operational in 2003, Iceland already had the world’s highest aluminium production per capita of the population (260,000 tonnes and 300,000 people). Alcoa, Alcan and Nordural currently operate one smelter each. If current plans all come to fruition, the country will increase production to over 1.5 million tonnes per year.

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Founder of environmental activist group Saving Iceland, Olafur Pall Sigurdson, is scheduled to appear in front of the District Court of East Iceland this week, facing charges of property damages. Sigurdson was charged in July 2006 at a protest camp located at Snaefell Mountain.

Sigurdson first filed formal charges against the police. He says that a police vehicle driven by officer Arinbjorn Snorrason accelerated suddenly towards him as he was approaching the vehicle. Sigurdson was hit by the car and seriously injured.

The charges took half a year to process and in the end the State Prosecutor judged that the charge would not progress further. According to Sigurdson, however, the investigation did not take into account the testimony of any of the witnesses present and relied heavily on the statements of the police in the vehicle.

The police filed a counter charge against Sigurdson which will be heard in court almost two years after the incident took place. The police are requesting that compensation be paid for the damage to the vehicle incurred during the incident in addition to punishment for Sigurdson himself.

A spokesperson from Saving Iceland said: “This mix of personal malice and complete lack of respect for the democratic right to protest is typical for the Icelandic police when it comes to SI protestors.”