Fréttablaðið’s big headline of the day reads, “Lending agencies on the rental market.” They aren’t (perhaps something was lost in translation). However, Iceland’s pension funds, banks, and other lending agencies, which own 2,000 apartments, are looking into the idea of renting them out in a formal rental market facilitated by Iceland’s private (diligent, hardworking, helpful) real estate agencies. Apparently there has never been a real rental market in Iceland. Up until the crash, everyone wanted to buy, buy, buy.
In other front-page news, “Gaddafi’s situation is worsening.” (But, he is not letting anybody rain on his parade, given his latest television appearance, where he appears inside a car holding up an umbrella and says, “I’m not in France or Venezuela. I’m still with all these dogs.”)
Accompanying this article is a photo of some inhabitants of Benghazi, Libya doing a victory dance on top of a tank.
The Icesave referendum will be held within two months, before April 20 to be exact. If the referendum were held today, 58 percent of voters would vote for the deal.
Lastly, Goðafoss (the ship) will be towed tomorrow and Eimskip (owner of Goðafoss) is upset at the Norwegian police for leaking sensitive information. (She didn’t say!).
Moving on to Morgunblaðið, Lárus Blöndal, from the Icesave committee, “Doesn’t expect a retribution case,” from the Brits and the Dutch. Also, Minister of Foreign Affairs Össur Skarphéðinsson says there are some “serious discussions” going on about combining this election with the Constitutional Assembly election.
Like Fréttablaðið, Morgunblaðið’s main photo also features a scene from Libya. In this one, a man is crying out whilst flying the iconic national flag above his head. The caption reads, “Violent actions taken against protestors.”
Otherwise, “Many Lose Their Rights” after companies go bankrupt and change their identification number. (Lame). The “government did not have an independent evaluation performed on (Landsbanki’s) portfolio of assets” (Oops!), “the harbour pilot left (Goðafoss) too early,” (Look what you’ve done!), and a thirty year old man is “sent to rehab instead of prison.”
DV is usually in this news roundup, but it doesn’t print on Tuesdays.
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This is a daily roundup of the news that made it on the front page of Iceland’s newspapers. That is, the two most widely read dailys, Morgunblaðið and Fréttablaðið, and the popular tabloid, DV, which comes out four times per week.
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