The parliamentary committee set up to investigate the Icelandic banking collapse will release its report tomorrow on Althingi’s first day back from Easter. It will be made public immediately. Read the full story

Iceland’s long anticipated parliamentary report into the banking collapse will be handed over and made public on Althingi’s first day back after Easter: Monday 12 April. Read the full story

The long-awaited report by the Icelandic parliament’s financial investigation committee is currently being printed. Read the full story

The long awaited ‘Black Report’ into Iceland’s economic crisis is set to be delayed once again due to the long responses received from implicated parties. Read the full story

After conducting standard food safety inspections at restaurants in the Swedish city of Halmstad, it was discovered that nearly 90 per cent of establishments that serve pizza failed to meet the minimum levels of hygiene. The Hallands-Posten reported that just nine of the 70 restaurants in town that serve pizza made the grade. Read the full story

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicts that the rate of unemployment in Iceland will reach 9.9 percent over the next year, meaning a still bigger increase from current levels. On the other hand, the organisation predicts that inflation will drop to 2.4 percent annually in 2010, whereas current 12 month inflation June-June is at 12.2 percent according to Statistics Iceland. Read the full story

Press release from the Prime Minister of Iceland

Mr Speaker, fellow Icelanders.

It can have escaped no one that our country is passing through a deep economic downturn. Within a very brief period, the government has had to act responsibly and determinedly, to keep the wheels of business and industry turning and to reinforce the security net for the nation’s households and families. Read the full story

Two weeks ago a strong earthquake was felt in Iceland, causing some property damage, but thankfully no deaths. According to a report by Risk Management Solutions, the quake caused only light to moderate property damage and resulted in some injuries.

RMS said: “According to preliminary reports from the USGS, the epicentre was around 30 miles (50 kilometres) east southeast of Reykjavik. The USGS indicates that there was strong to very strong shaking in the epicentre region, with the potential of light to moderate damage.

“Selfoss is the largest town in the epicentre region with a population of around 6,000. Damage reports suggest that there has been considerable content damage to homes in Hveragerdi, Selfoss, Thorlakshofn, Eyrarbakki and Stokkseyri.”

RMS is a London-based company. Neena Saith, the catastrophe response manager for the firm, said: “Preliminary reports suggest that structural damage seems to be fairly light, mainly consisting of cracked walls, although one farm house appears to have collapsed. Some residents were injured during the earthquake, but no fatalities have been reported.

“The last significant earthquakes in this region were in 2000 when a magnitude 6.5 and magnitude 6.1 struck southern Iceland. Both these events occurred in slightly less populated areas than the May 29 earthquake and insured losses of USD 15 million and USD 9 million respectively were reported.”

RMS is continuing to monitor the situation, paying particular attention in the aftermath to how the earthquake will impact the insurance industry.

A new index created by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies has ranked 140 countries around the world in terms of their peacefulness in the hopes of promoting a more scientific approach to achieving global peace. Scandinavian countries did well in the rankings, with Iceland scoring first place.

“Peace building is tough,” said Rick Barton of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. He said that ‘peace building’ could be facilitated by using the Global Peace Index (GPI) as a tool for understanding contributing factors to peace, including both political and cultural elements.

The GPI uses 24 indicators to rank 98 per cent of the world’s population. The GPI takes into account art exports, military expenditure, prison population, political instability, internal conflict, human rights adherence, displaced persons, UN deployments and the potential for terrorist acts.

According to Barton, the results are intended to “help countries, businesses, and international organisations move towards peace.”

Iceland led the rankings while Iraq came in last place. Clyde McConaghy, president and CEO of GPI, explained the findings. He said the “profile of a peaceful nation – and this is characteristic of the top quartile of the countries [in the Index] – is the country tends to have a well-functioning government, low violence within its borders, low corruption, and good relations with its neighbours.”

Of the top 20 countries on the list, 16 are democracies in western or central Europe and the majority belong to the European Union. Denmark came in second place and the United States, with its high levels of military spending and troops abroad, was ranked 97 out of 140 countries.