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Click on the picture to watch this audio slideshow about bird watching at Óshólmar, an area at the mouth of Eyjafjardará river just outside Akureyri in north Iceland, the largest Icelandic town outside the capital region. Not many tourists know about this attraction, which is perfect for a walk in the sun.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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Representatives of the Icelandic government, Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir, Finance Minister Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, Minister of Social Affairs Árni Páll Árnason, Minister of Justice Ragna Árnadóttir and Minister of Economic Affairs Gylfi Magnússon, announced various new resources to solve the debt problems of households at a press conference in the Culture House yesterday.
From the Grafarholt neighborhood in Reykjavík. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
These resources include that during forced sale of properties the market price will be subtracted from the claim and people will be able to continue to live in their homes for 12 months afterwards, in spite of the forced sale, ruv.is reports.
Moderate debt adjustments will be exempt from taxation, while extensive write-offs will be taxed. Furthermore, the weight of the indexation will be reduced.
A lease purchasing scheme will be established at the state-run Housing Financing Fund in regard to properties that have come into its ownership and property benefits will replace interest and rental benefits.
With these new resources, the government believes that the debt problem of households has been tackled.
Elín Björg Jónsdóttir, chairperson of the Federation of State and Municipal Employees (BSRB), said the government’s actions are a step in the right direction.
Although the freezing of mortgages and postponement of forced auctions were necessary steps earlier on in the process, future solutions had to be found for homeowners.
Jónsdóttir said it is important to evaluate the success of these new resources so that debt problems won’t pile up again, which jeopardize the pillars of society.
Click here to read about earlier resources to tackle household debt.
A skeleton from a person who suffered from the Paget’s disease of bone was unearthed this week during an archeological excavation project at Skriduklaustur in east Iceland, where a monastery was once operated.
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The human being will be on display for the first time in its natural environment in the Reykjavík Family Park and Zoo next weekend. Visitors can observe three men and one woman in a cage after 10 am on Saturday and Sunday.
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The formal Videy island swim took place yesterday and there were three participants, two men and one woman, Thórdís Hrönn Pálsdóttir, who is the first woman to participate in the Videy swim since 1959.
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The Environment Agency intends to investigate whether the Heath Protection Authority handled the situation in Eskifjördur, east Iceland, in the correct manner when contaminated water from a trawler was carried into the town’s drinking water system.
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The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book Puffins as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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REVIEWS
Hendrikka Waage is an accomplished jewellery designer whose first children’s book Rikka and Her Magic Ring in Iceland, takes readers on an enchanted and educational journey through the country. It’s beautifully illustrated and a good lesson in geography, but the plot could have been better thought through and the moral of the story is a bit too prominent.
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On the third day of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption we drove from Skógar to Hvolsvöllur in total darkness, a distance of 18 kilometers. It was frightening, the darkness being so impenetrable that we could hardly see out the windows of the car. We could see faint lights from the farm standing right next to the highway.
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Ásmundur Sveinsson is among the foremost Icelandic sculptors. The current exhibition in the Ásmundur Sveinsson Museum in Reykjavík is entitled “I choose women who thrive…” and features women as symbols in the sculptor’s art. The works in the exhibition are selected from his entire career.
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