REYKJAVIK: While New Year’s Eve fireworks are hardly rare, Icelanders take the tradition to breathtaking heights, firing the dazzling incendiary devices from back gardens, streets, hilltops or city parks across their Nordic island.
Iceland’s law provides a brief window, from December 28 to January 6, when buying and shooting off fireworks is allowed, and citizens buy more pyrotechnics in a week than most Europeans do all year -- all in the name of charity.
Each year the nation’s 365,000 inhabitants buy around 600 tonnes of fireworks, more than a kilo and a half (three and a half pounds) per person, according to Statistics Iceland. The bulk of the devices go up on New Year’s Eve, turning the sky above the subarctic island into a glittering canopy from the capital Reykjavik to the smallest village. The group, which controls most of the fireworks trade, has relied on the annual sales to finance its activities for the rest of the year ever since.
Mobsters have moved aggressively into the low-risk, low-key world of white-collar crime
Deby has promised to bolster security, strengthen the rule of law and increase electricity production
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the attack took place near the village of Berezovka
Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offences are punishable by death
The Turkish defence ministry said the PKK militants had been “neutralised” in the Hakurk region
According to Italian broadcaster RAI, the workers suffered from toxic gas poisoning
