A young IceNews reader in the United States has been participating in a competition to design a ‘City for the Future’ with her school. Amanda Miller and her friends at Kutztown Area Middle School in Kutztown, Pennsylvania have set their futuristic city, Vetnibörg, in southwest Iceland in the year 2203. Read the full story

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just confirmed that it will extend the requested USD 2.1 billion loan to Iceland, according to MBL.is. Read the full story

A meeting of the board of the International Monetary fund (IMF) on the subject of Iceland’s loan request is scheduled today.

The meeting in Washington DC will go ahead at 15.00, which is 20.00 GMT in Reykjavik and London. The board’s decision on the loan application is expected before midnight GMT, if the meeting goes as planned. Read the full story

Iceland’s loan from the International Monetary Fund will be completed this Wednesday, the head of the IMF said on Saturday in Washington, Bloomberg reported. Read the full story

The ruling labour party has erupted into a bitter row over the re-zoning of a downtown site on which the new US embassy was to be relocated.

The party’s members within the city government want to rescind an earlier agreement to re-zone an unused site at Huseby for the construction of the new embassy, while members within the state government insist they stick to the original plan.

The Foreign Ministry waded into the argument this week to support the US Embassy, and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called in on Oslo Labour officials on Friday, asking for an explanation.

The City Government might be reacting to strong opposition from local residents who feel it will destroy the last bit of open space in the area and create traffic jams and possible terrorist targets in the area.

The active group, known as Huseby Skogen, have been urging the Americans to accept another site less than a kilometre away, located on a former military command centre just behind the royal guards’ compound. But embassy officials have rejected that and other suggested sites.

Politicians at the national level have been getting involved apparently under pressure from the Americans who are eager to press on and avoid a lengthy court decision.

“This wouldn’t have been an issue now, without the Americans,” said Ivar Christians, deputy leader of Oslo Labour.

Icelandair has shifted its focus on North Atlantic flights. The route changes will be that: flights to Toronto will be added as a new destination, the Baltimore/Washington operation will be terminated, there will be more added capacity to London and there will be up to five daily flights to Copenhagen.

“Our schedule for 2008 will be similar to our 2007 schedule but we are changing our North Atlantic operations by moving to Toronto in Canada from Baltimore/Washington. We have expanded considerably over the past few years, so the focus in 2008 is on making adjustments to our network,” said Jon Karl Olafsson, the former CEO of Icelandair.

Olafsson added, “We have a strong focus on serving our domestic Icelandic market and visitors to Iceland and we are fine-tuning the Icelandair network and our capacity in order to increase its profitability.”

More information can be found on the Icelandair web site.