
Iceland ranks 11th on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2012, up from 13th place in 2011.

Iceland’s Nordic neighbors Denmark and Finland rank in first place along with New Zealand. Sweden is in fourth place and Norway in seventh.
The index ranks countries and territories on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be, assigning a score from 0-100, with 0 for those countries or territories which are perceived to be highly corrupt. The 2012 index includes 176 countries.
Before the banking collapse in Iceland in 2008, the country ranked close to the top; it placed first in 2005 but had dropped to sixth by 2007.
Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan are ranked at the bottom of the list.
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Click here to learn about our custom made photo book Iceland 2012 with the best pictures of the year.
Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson attended an annual consultative meeting last weekend with colleagues from the Nordic and several African countries, as announced in a press release from the Minstry of Foreign Affairs.
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From many salmon rivers anglers are reporting great opening days. Reykjavík Citizen of the year caught the first salmn in Ellidaár in Reykjavík this morning.
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The Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved new names for nine craters on Mercury including one for Icelandic littereture Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness.
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A petition urging the government to reconsider a proposed bill, in which the terms of the law requiring fishing companies to pay a tariff for their use of Iceland’s fishing resources are to be changed, has been signed by more than 11,000 people.
The 2013 June-July issue of Iceland Review is out. Themed ‘We Are Young’ the magazine celebrates the arrival of summer by interviewing young energetic Icelanders who excel in art, sports, business and politics—and Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, the youngest PM in the republic’s history and the world’s youngest ruling state leader. Click here to take a look at a selection of the current issue and here to subscribe to the magazine.
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The road to Höfn, a 1,690-person harbor town by the fjord Hornafjörður, is lined with reindeer. Whole herds of the wild horned animals rest peacefully on withered pastures, grace next to sheep and horses and bounce along the road. Soon, Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier and the region’s biggest attraction, comes into view. Looming over Höfn, its outlet glaciers flow down from the mountains on which the bright white icecap rests.
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Sin Fang will celebrate the release of his third album with a release concert in Iðnó on June 12. Flowers was released in February by Morr Music and has been well received by music enthusiasts and critics alike. The concert will be supported by Vök, this year’s winners of the Icelandic Music Experiments.
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