A man was shot dead in his car at around 21.00 on Tuesday 31st January, while a nearby police station was badly damaged in a fire bombing in the early hours of the next morning.

The two incidents are not thought to be connected, but officials believe the attack on the police station could be a response to the more robust crime fighting measures recently introduced in the troubled district. Despite a focus on searching for illegal weapons, last week’s murder marks the eighth in the area since May.

“The entire Swedish police force stands behind Malmö. We have received reinforcements and continue to work under previous guidelines,” Hans Nordin of the Skåne Police told news agency TT.

Börje Sjöholm of the Malmö police added that they are searching for clues on the two most recent incidents, but that they need help from the community. “It’s important that those who know anything dare to come forward. We protect our witnesses,” he said.

Two people have already been fatally shot in Malmö since the start of the year, leading to questions about whether the additional policing has only led to more violence. Nordin admitted that they are disappointed, but insisted that the initiative still has potential.

“No, it’s no failure. But it is very embarrassing that another murder has occurred, and very irritating that we couldn’t do anything to prevent it,” Nordin told TT.

Malmö Mayor Ilmar Reeplau also expressed his frustration over the matter. Speaking to the Sydsvenskan newspaper after the latest events, he said, “It’s bloody awful. We have had a massive police operation on Malmö’s streets, but the violence is only continuing. The Swedish law system is being ignored and is not respected any longer.”

The buildings will be assembled in an area by the sea shore in the village and the project is the biggest project by the heritage preservation company Minjavernd outside of the capital region. The project involves rebuilding and/or renovating all the main buildings associated with serving the French fishermen whose presence still lingers strongly in local culture today. The centrepiece of the new heritage ‘village’ will be the French Hospital.

The ‘village’ within a village will become a tourist attraction, organisers hope — and they hope to help by opening a museum about Fáskrúðsfjörður’s French ties, as well as a hotel, RÚV reports.

The French Hospital was built in 1903 and later moved to Hafnarnes, outside of the village. The building has stood on that site for several decades and was in a considerable state of disrepair when it was taken apart and returned to the village for renovation.

The planned opening of the new project is spring 2014 and the planned cost is in the region of ISK 580 million (EUR 3.57 million).

The man, who was described as being in a strange state, took himself to the police station yesterday and told officers about an incident which had taken place at his home in Hafnarfjörður.

His explanation was extremely unclear so police decided to visit the house. Once there they discovered a woman in her thirties, already dead at the scene and with visible injuries.

The woman was in the man’s home as an invited guest and they had known one another for some time, Vísir.is reports. Police officers took a blade from the scene as evidence. The man in custody was previously known to the police.

The investigation into the apparent murder is at a very early stage and not a lot of information is yet available, according to the police press release.

The video was taken of what looks like a giant, icy swimming snake in the Jökulsá í Fljótsdal river, which runs in to Lagarfljót. The unexplained creature, or phenomenon, appears to be swimming upstream, against the current.

The Lagarfjóts Worm, or Lagarfljótsormurinn, is possibly the best-known of Iceland’s many rumoured monsters and sightings have been regularly recorded since the year 1345.

The story goes that the worm was once just a little heath worm which was put onto a golden ring, as that was rumoured to make the gold grow. When the owner of the ring came back later, she discovered with shock that the worm had grown enourmous, but the ring was still the same size as before. In frustration she threw both the worm and the ring into the lake, where the worm continued to grow bigger still.

Whether the amateur video by Hjörtur Kjerúlf is of the legendary monster must be left to the viewer to decide. Cynics are claiming that some old netting ended up in the river and froze; giving the impression of swimming as the water flows past.

See the video on the RÚV here.

The general rule in Iceland when pension funds lose money is either that lower pension payments to members will follow in the future, or that  higher employee contributions are demanded in the present to close the gap; but there are exceptions, as the LSR case demonstrates.

RÚV reports that LSR is a state-guaranteed pension fund, meaning that if it loses money the taxpayer will bear the cost of replacing it. According to a report into the pension funds, LSR lost around ISK 100 billion (EUR 621.3 million) in the financial crash and the State has not helped the situation – having not always paid its employer’s contribution to the fund as it should.

The pension fund has a massive shortfall, according to economist Ólafur Ísleifsson in a new article for a political studies magazine. He declares that the bill will fall on the Icelandic public to pay back, and a parliamentary answer from the Minister of Finance backs this up: LSR needs around ISK 7.8 billion (EUR 48.4 million) per year for the next 40 years in order to get back up to zero.

There are many indications that LSR’s losses could have been much smaller if its managers had been more careful, the research report into the pension funds states.

The ‘Skara Cannibal’, who killed and ate parts of his girlfriend, and the ‘Vampire Woman’, who stabbed a father of four to death, met in Karsuddens psychiatric facility near Katrineholm and found plenty in common after chatting online.

”We got together on November 13th,” ‘Vampire Woman’ Michelle Gustafsson told Expressen. “’Do you want to be my girlfriend?’ he asked on MSN. Then we decided to get engaged, which we did on December 9th,” she added.

Both of the inmates made headlines in Sweden for their highly unusual crimes. Gustafsson claimed she did not remember murdering a father of four in Stockholm in 2010, but wrote on her personal blog about killing people and posed for pictures with a bloody mouth and weapons.

Isakin Jonsson, the ‘Skara Cannibal’, was convicted in 2011 for stabbing his girlfriend to death, cutting off her head and then eating parts of her body. He showed no remorse during his trial and could not explain why he had killed her.

“That’s something I also wonder about. I trust the doctors. There was no motive whatsoever. We were a couple with a future together. I’ve never felt this way with a girl before,” Expressen reported him saying during the trial. However, he apparently told the newspaper later that he only ate his ex to secure psychiatric treatment instead of jail time.

Speaking about his new romance, Jonsson said, “I love Michelle. I have never met anyone like her. I’d like to lead a non-criminal life.”

The engagement may be a long one, as both inmates are serving non-fixed sentences, but the uncertainty has not prevented the couple from planning their future. “We want to get to live together, keep dogs and spend time on our hobbies, piercing and tattoos,” Gustafsson told Expressen.

“We have made up two types of stickers for those who want them,” says Guðrún María Guðmundsdóttir, editor and department chief at Já, makers of the Icelandic phone book.

Já commissioned the design of the stickers to put on the phone book’s front cover because it features a prominent picture of a shirtless Egill Einarsson surrounded by the gymnastic girls of the Gerpla club. Two types of sticker are on offer for those wishing to change the look of their phone books. On features the gymnasts from the background and the other is designed to look like Egill has been ripped out of the page.

Guðrún María refused to comment further on the stickers. “They are, however, here and available for everybody who wants them,” she told Vísir. She would not say how many people have contacted Já asking for a solution along the lines of the new stickers.

Egill has been accused of two separate rapes in recent months and the eventual outcome is not yet clear. One of the cases, which is against both him and his girlfriend, was recently sent back from the state prosecutor to the police for further investigation, while the other case is still under initial investigation.

Já’s decision to feature Egill on its 2011 front cover was controversial at the time, even before the crime allegations arose.

The new phone book comes out in May and this year it is Reykjavík’s Borgarleikhúsið theatre which has been awarded the honorary editorship and will design the cover.

The stickers are available at the Já headquarters at Álfheimar.

Staff members at Willy’s supermarket in Vara confronted the pair last Sunday, but were taken by surprise when they suddenly jumped from their chairs and ran for the door.

After the thieves made their speedy getaway leaving one of the wheelchairs behind, a secret compartment packed with stolen coffee was discovered. It is not clear whether the men escaped with other concealed goods.

“We are labelling this as robbery; a very sophisticated attempt,” Ulf Lörstad, spokesman of Vara county, told the Göteborgsposten (GP) newspaper.

Police are confident that the men, believed to be in the thirties, will still be caught thanks to evidence left behind in the form of the jettisoned wheelchair.

“We’ll be making a forensic investigation. Hopefully there will be traces, and if the men are in our register, then it will be hard for them to deny this crime,” Lörstad told the paper.

He added, however, that the unusually large exhibit was complicated to process. “The wheelchair didn’t fit into our response car, so the youngest member of our force was given the task of wheeling it back to the station,” Lörstad said.

Cartographers for the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, last released in September 2011, have admitted they were wrong to omit around 300,000 square kilometres of polar ice from sea surrounding Greenland.

British Publishers HarperCollins originally defended the accuracy of the map, which was released with promotional material about the fast acceleration of global warming. The blunder was exposed by scientists however, who said that the chart contradicted the most recent satellite images.

Publishing editor Jethro Lennox told the Scotsman, “After publication of the 13th edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, it became apparent that we had not represented the permanent ice cover in Greenland fully and clearly.

“In failing to do that, this section of the map did not meet the usual high standards of accuracy and reliability that the atlas strives to uphold. To correct this, we decided to produce a new, more detailed map using the latest information available,” he added.

The updated section, which will be inserted into any remaining copies, was put together after consultation with a number of experts. Liz Morris from the Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University said, “This was a really bad mapping error. If 15 percent of ice was lost, then sea levels would have risen by one metre, and that hasn’t happened.”

(Photo: Anders Peter Amsnæs)

Summer events in Reykjavik draw hundreds of visitors every year to experience Iceland’s great atmosphere and cultural practices.

The Reykjavik Art Festival, taking place May 18th – June 3rd, is Iceland’s premier cultural festival bringing together the best in local and international theatre, dance, music and visual art. The programme offers a variety of curated exhibitions, concerts, dance, theatre, and opera performances across downtown Reykjavik.

The National Day of Iceland has been celebrated on June 17th since 1944. The festivities in Reykjavik include colourful parades, street theatre and music, sideshows, and dancing.

Hotel Odinsve is located just a few minutes walk away from downtown Reykjavik’s main shopping street, Laugavegur, where over 100 bars, restaurants and cafes are situated, alongside numerous boutiques and retailers.

All of its rooms have wooden floors, comfortable beds and high quality duvets and pillows from Kronborg of Denmark.  Each room includes a shower, minibar, complimentary coffee and tea, satellite TV, radio, telephone, and hair dryer.

The hotel holds a range of amenities for its guests, including a restaurant, a coffee shop, a café, a bar lounge, all located on-site – it also boasts free wireless Internet for its customers.

For more information regarding the hotel in downtown Reykjavik, visit http://www.hotelodinsve.is.