Christmas Day again? Blimey. Not that we’re complaining, mind. It is one of the cosiest, tastiest, laziest and not-being-frowned-upon-for-having-beer-before-lunch-iest days of the year for many people. Cheers! Read the full story

Sweden’s Crown Princess and her husband have announced that they are expecting their first child. Read the full story

Well, it’s that time of year again. The time of year for forgetting about the cold and darkness by eating and drinking one’s own body weight every day with the people who matter the most. Merry Christmas from IceNews! Read the full story

It’s Christmas Day once more and the Nordic countries have been celebrating since early yesterday evening. Read the full story

IceNews would like to wish readers a very merry Christmas and a happy and successful New Year.

We would also like to thank you for your support over 2008 – a year that has seen immense changes in the economy, and in many other areas of Northern life. Read the full story

Like something out of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, three Norwegian teenagers stole two cars from outside a house in Figgjo, and headed through Scandinavia on the joy ride of their lives. After one of the cars, a Renault Laguna ran of out fuel the two boys and one girl piled into the Volvo and drove around for hours until returning to Algard, where they learned the police were looking for them. Read the full story

New figures from a survey on global wellbeing has ranked the people of Denmark as the happiest among 97 nations. This is based on prosperity, democratic stability and contentment.

Conducted by the University of Michigan, the survey included all developed countries and notable developing nations including rich and poor alike. Surprisingly there wasn’t a direct correlation between wealth of a nation and it’s ‘happiness’, with the United States ranking only 16th.

Denmark shared the top 10 with another Scandinavian country, Iceland, along with Canada, Puerto Rico and perhaps surprisingly, Colombia. Ireland (both Northern and the Republic), Switzerland, the Netherlands and Austria also joined them. Mainland Britain, on the other hand, was only ranked 21st.

“I strongly suspect there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness,” said Ronald Inglehart, who is a political scientist at the University’s Institute for Social Research.

“There is also a correlation between democracy and peace. Democracies are less likely to fight each other than non-democracies.”

Not surprisingly, Zimbabwe – which is currently in the news for its deepening political meltdown, came 97th and last. It suffers hyper inflation of more than 1 million percent and has an average life expectancy of 34 and 37 for women and men respectively.

Other countries whose nationals can be considered really miserable include; Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Albania, Ukraine, Georgia, Iraq, Bulgaria and Russia, among them some of the most despotically or disastrously-led countries in the world.

Respondents were asked two questions to gauge their happiness:

# Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?

# All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?

“Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives,” Inglehart adds.