Reykjavik's mayor puts comedian days behind

During the crisis Iceland was held up as one of the best examples of what was so wrong with the bubble that was created and sold to any and all. The party in power during this debacle was summarily dismissed by the people. However, a mere few years later, and given the apparent abhorrence with all things European, the Icelandic people have just ousted the incumbent pro-Europe party in favor of the Independence and Progressive parties that governed during the crisis.

Reykjavik, Iceland (cc photo by ezioman)

It didn’t take long for a political scandal to rock the new mayor of Laval, Que. He’s under pressure to explain himself after he and almost every sitting municipal politician in the city was linked to illegal political financing by a corruption-inquiry witness. Alexandre Duplessis has only been in office a few months after replacing the last mayor – Gilles Vaillancourt, who has since been arrested and charged with gangsterism.

Knut, the once-cuddly polar bear at the Berlin Zoo, became a global sensation.

Knut the polar bear, who became a global media sensation as a cub after being rejected by his mother and reared by hand, died suddenly for unexplained reasons, the Berlin Zoo said."Everyone is just in shock here," said Claudia Bienek, a spokeswoman for the zoo in the German capital.Knut, who shot to fame as a highly photogenic, snow-white cub in 2007, was aged just four years and three months, well below the average life expectancy for polar bears of around 35.