Reykjavik - Iceland on Tuesday said it was considering asking the European Court of Human Rights to probe the British government's use of anti-terrorist legislation to freeze Icelandic bank assets last autumn.

Britain made the move to force the Icelandic banks into administration in an effort to protect British bank deposits as the Icelandic banks faced collapse. But Iceland has maintained that the action - coming at a particularly serious point of the credit crunch - made matters worse for the North Atlantic nation's banks.

Reykjavik - One of Iceland's most prominent financiers became the target - literally - of peoples' anger over the collapse of Iceland's banks Glitnir and Landsbanki when he was hit in the face with a snowball, the DV newspaper reported Thursday. The paper said that prominent businessman and financier Jonsgeir Johannesson, 40, was emerging from a joint supervisory board meeting of the two failed banks when three young men hurled snowballs at him. One of the snowballs struck him in the face.

Reykjavik  - Unemployment in Iceland climbed to 5.4 per cent in December, reports said Wednesday.

Daily Morgunbladid reported that the unemployment rate in November was at 3.3 per cent in November. In December 2007 unemployment was 0.8 per cent.

The North Atlantic nation of some 320,000 people was severely hit by the global credit crunch and its three main banks collapsed, triggering a slowdown in the economy.

The construction sector has been severely impacted and engineers are looking for employment abroad, according to the report.

Brussels - The European Union is ready to look at a bid from Iceland to join the bloc, the EU's top enlargement official said in Brussels on Thursday.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, is "mentally prepared" for a membership proposal from Iceland early in 2009, and negotiations could be swift because the island state already has such close ties with Europe, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said.

Reykjavik - Polar bears that drift ashore on Iceland should be shot and not offered a safe haven, a commission recommended Tuesday.

The commission was appointed this summer after two polar bears landed on the northern coast of Iceland apparently after being swept to sea on ice floes from Greenland, several hundred kilometres away.

Both polar bears were shot, but the move sparked protests from some conservationists and animal rights groups in the North Atlantic nation.

Reykjavik  - What began Monday as a celebration of Iceland's 90th birthday since its independence from Denmark in 1918 turned into protests by several hundred people who stormed to the central bank in anger over the government's handling of the financial crisis.

The protests were a continuation of demonstrations over the weekend that drew several thousand people despite freezing conditions.

Monday's protestors pushed into the Central Bank foyer, loudly demanding the resignation of Central Bank chief David Oddsson. Over the weekend, angry Icelanders demanded that Prime Minister Geir Haarde step down. Similar calls for the two men to step down have punctuated recent weeks.