Jón brought the case after the Data Protection Authority requested information from the Central Bank of Iceland about how personal information on currency purchases was being dealt with; including how the information was processed, who had access to the information, how securely it was held and how long it would be held for.

In a Fréttablaðið interview in October, Jón said: “The Data Protection Authority allowed the Central Bank of Iceland to look at international transfers by credit card made by everyone in Iceland. That was done with no sort of minimum or provisos. I believe that that is a breach of my rights to permit unreasonable prying into my personal affairs.”

He added that he did not want “Big Brother” sticking its nose into all his business and said he would start proceedings against the governor of the Central Bank and other people to draw attention to the matter.

It is now clear that that will not happen — but it is clear, on the other hand, that Jón has to pay ISK 100,000 (EUR 617) to the Data Protection Authority in legal fees.

Sunday’s election saw Niinistö claim 62.6 percent of the vote, leaving him streets ahead of his rival Pekka Haavisto, who secured 37.4 for the Green League.

Niinistö won a majority in all but one of the 15 electoral districts, with Haavisto only winning Åland with a 60-40 split in his favour. Niinistö’s largest lead was in Vaasa (72.3 percent), while the closest battle was in the capital where he scraped a majority of just 50.3 percent.

Haavisto conceded defeat after 80 percent of the votes had been counted, but said he was satisfied with his campaign. “From the summer’s five percent it is a good rise. Over a million people gave me their backing,” he said, according to YLE.

With a voter turnout of just 68.9 percent, it was the lowest for a presidential election in Finland since 1950. Although 36 percent of voters cast advanced ballots, the relatively poor turnout is thought to be due to the bitterly cold weather sweeping the country and Europe as a whole.

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.

He made his comments as a keynote speaker at the Social Democratic Party’s European Movement conference, alongside Styrmir Gunnarsson, former editor of Morgunblaðið.

Styrmir said that for his part he does not feel there is a battle in progress for Iceland’s natural resources. He says that fears around land control by foreigners probably stems from the Cold War when Icelanders were nervous of foreign military bases being built in their country.

“I was no bloody teenager when I spent four years of my life negotiating the European Economic Area contract,” Jón Baldvin retorted. He said that arguments against Icelandic EEA membership were much the same in his time as arguments against EU membership are now: “That the fishing grounds would fill with the Spanish fleet, Portuguese workers would flood the Icelandic market and that German millionaires would buy everything in the country,” Jón Baldvin said.

Styrmir said that nobody has done more to transfer natural resources to the rich than the left-wing government which allowed the individual transferable quota system. He said that at the time nobody said anything about the important fact that resources were being placed in the hands of the few. The changes created a slew of fisheries millionaires in Iceland.

The dispute is thought to surround Blod, sved og T-Shirts (Blood, Sweat and T-shirts), a programme which followed a group of young Danes as they struggled to survive while working in clothes factories in India.

Confirming reports of the ban to Jyllands-Posten newspaper, the Indian Embassy in Copenhagen said, “We had a very bad experience with DR, so they are excluded. All other Danish journalists are welcome.”

In a similar vain to documentaries produced by the BBC, Blod, sved og T-Shirts showed the group arguing with employers in order to receive their pay, living in squalid conditions and struggling a buy even a few pieces a fruit each day.

Although the BBC has not been banned from reporting in the country, the un-named source at the embassy suggested that the DR ban is unlikely to end soon.”It will take some time. At the moment, we have not decided to let them back in,” he told Jyllands-Posten.

According to the conservative Danish foreign affairs spokesman Stig Møller, the move is undemocratic and violates an agreement between the two countries. “We must protest. It must be made clear to India that they do not have the right to impede the freedom of the press,” he said.

“They have a right to be dissatisfied, but they should either refute DR’s claims or report them to the Pressenævnet [Danish press council],” he added.

“They haven’t kept their word to apologise,” says Heiðar Ásberg Atlason, the defence lawyer for Friðjón Þórðarson, who is suing the Icelandic state over allegations of money laundering.

Friðjón was arrested in November 2008 on suspicion of widespread embezzlement and breaches of the law on money laundering. The State demanded he be held in custody, but a judge disagreed and granted bail.

Heiðar told Vísir.is that the police investigation into Friðjón was based on ignorance and that the investigators did not understand the currency markets. As a result the investigation dragged on and remained stuck in the system for over two years. It was eventually dropped without charge.

Heiðar would not say how much money his client is suing the State for, but Friðjón has volunteered to drop his case in exchange for a formal written apology. Such an apology has not been received from the authorities and the case therefore continues for now.

Damage to Friðjón is said to be extensive, according to Heiðar. The charges led to his client losing his job and having his name and reputation trampled in the media. Friðjón was among the first people within the financial sector to be arrested after the banking collapse. Now it appears, however, that he bore no personal criminal responsibility for the crash.

“It is always cheaper to say sorry,” Heiðar says on the attitude of the Icelandic State. The case against the State is due to start on the 5th March.

A section of the street near to the Prime Minister’s office remains cordoned off; although following the controlled explosion reporters have been allowed nearer as the danger level is believed to have dropped.

Bomb disposal teams from the police and the coastguard jointly disposed of the package in a controlled explosion. The package was found at 06.00. At around that time a security guard at the Prime Ministry reports hearing a bang.

Other people nearby also report hearing a loud bang, Vísir.is reports. It appears that pictures or placards with political messages were stuck to the outside of the Prime Ministry this morning just before the bang was heard and before the package was discovered. Similar placards were also put outside the Ministry of the Interior.

Police decided then to search for suspicious objects in other nearby government ministries, but none were found. A cabinet meeting has been allowed to proceed inside the Prime Ministry as police now believe the area to be safe.

UPDATE: The latest news is that the building next to the Prime Ministry where the package was found and destroyed is the Icelandic base of the IMF and that police were not only reacting to a suspicious box, but to a suspicious item inside the suspicious box.

According to RÚV the Presidential couple sailed out of the Argentinian port of Ushuaia yesterday and their trip will take them along the Drake Passage all the way to Antarctica. The party plans to go ashore three times, if weather allows. The trip ends on the 6th February.

The trip includes European and American scientists, the Canadian film director James Cameron, the American journalist Ted Turner and Christiana Figures, the president of the United Nations climate agency.

Al Gore’s climate change organisation, the Climate Reality Project, and National Geographic together organised the expedition.

A press release from Bessastaðir, the Icelandic head of state’s official residence, states that the goal of the expedition is to investigate the fast melting ice and to discuss how the nations of the world can best be encouraged to unite behind realistic and tangible action to fight global warming.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has become known as a strong climate change campaigner among world leaders and regularly gives speeches at environmental conferences.

The Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democrats used her speech at this weekend’s party meeting to urge her party members to stand firmly together. It is of great importance, she said, for the first left-wing government to finish the big projects it has started. “It should be the legacy of this first left-wing government in Iceland that it has finished the tasks it put on the agenda and intended to complete during its term.”

Jóhanna believes that they are all projects which would be forgotten all about if a right-wing party took over government. She said that the new constitution and a new fisheries management system are among the big projects that the current government has to work urgently to complete.

The bus trip, organised by Allt åt Alla (Everything for Everyone), aims to debunk the myth that Sweden is a classless nation by driving through the capital’s most densely populated area, Fisksätra, before taking their passengers to Saltsjöbaden to see how the other half live.

Not all of Saltsjöbaden’s well-to-do residents are happy about being a tourist attraction, however, and one has apparently filed an official complaint with the local police.

Not feeling much sympathy for the well-to-do, Ulla Krogh of Nacka Police told the local newspaper, Näcka-Värmdö Posten, that “Anyone is free to organise something like this”.

Highlights of the tour include a visit to the Grand Hotel, an ogle at the sea views from “Oscar’s” house, which featured in the comedy series Solsidan, and an audience with Rolf, the owner of Sweden’s most expensive home.

On its website, Allt åt Alla describes itself as a “revolutionary organisation” with an aim of developing a hate of the class system in sightseers. The Saltsjöbaden tours are proving popular and selling out quickly, according to the group.