Europe Iceland Efling's negotiating committee unanimously approved three further strike actions; if these are approved by union members, another 1.700 workers will go on strike by the end of the month in the hospitality, cleaning, insurance industry
Europe Iceland More than 500 refugees have arrived since the beginning of the year and an unexpectedly high percentage of them are deaf or hard of hearing, especially among Ukrainian; Icelandic Red Cross says it is hard to find Ukrainian sign language interpreters
Europe Iceland The country yesterday commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Eldfell eruption of 1973, which took place on Heimaey, the largest and only inhabited island of the Westman Islands
Europe Iceland Last year Icelandair carried 3,7 million passengers, compared to 1,5 million in 2021, a 150% increase, reaching 91% of pre-Covid 2019 capacity
Europe Iceland The New Year’s Eve swim in the frozen sea held in Nauthólsvík saw over hundred people participated, all in fancy dresses, at about -2°C reports the Reykjavík Sea Swimming Association
Europe Iceland With data collected between 2010 and 2022, the Medical Journal of Iceland published a report on firework-related injuries in the countr; during this period, 248 people were sent to hospital for firework-related injuries, aging from 9 months to 79 years
Europe Iceland Following the Justice Minister's declaration of a 'war on organised crime' after the recent knife attacks in a Reykjavík nightclub, the police will receive funding of 500 million Icelandic kroner ($3,5 million) to set up special investigation teams
Europe Iceland Around 300.000 tourists are expected to arrive in Ísafjörður next summer via cruise ships, a number of tourists equal to ten times the population of the city
Europe Iceland Icelanders read or listen to an average of 2,4 books per month and almost one third of the population reads pages of a book every day or more often, according to the results of a survey on the nation's attitude to reading
Europe Iceland In 2022, blood was taken from 4.141 mares to produce the hormone eCG/PMSG, a total of around 24.000 times in 90 establishments; the amount of blood collected was a quarter less than in 2021 due to a decrease of breeders performing transfusions
Europe Iceland Hrafnhildur Ólöf Ólafsdóttir, nurse and head of Reykjavík's working group on homelessness, said that after the increase in use of homeless shelters in the last 2 years, the system is no longer able to cope with the high demand
Europe Iceland Arctic Circle and Icelandair have signed a cooperation agreement to promote Iceland as an international centre for northern and environmental issues
Europe Iceland The increase in tattoos has been 9% since 2018 and now 29% of Icelanders have a tattoo, while it was 20% in 2018, according to a recent Gallup survey; women are more likely to have tattoos than men, almost 33% on 24%