Seven were taken to the hospital in Selfoss with minor injuries after two buses collided on Suðurlandsvegur near Hella this morning.

The CEO of Skeljungur in Iceland says high taxes are the main reason why fuel prices are currently the third highest in the world.

The number of births decreased slightly between years at Landspítali National Hospital. Last year, 3,057 births were registered there, but in 2023 there were 3,166.

A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck last night north-northeast of Bárðarbunga and is the biggest earthquake in Iceland so far this year.

The torpedo bomb that got caught in the fishing gear of a trawler was pulled out into Eyjafjörður this evening and placed in a place where it will be destroyed by publication. This is stated in a statement by the Icelandic Coast Guard.

The Akureyri Fishing Company's fish processing plant was evacuated shortly after noon today due to a torpedo bomb that entered the fishing gear of the trawler Björg EA. The bomb landed in the last part of the fishing trip. Björg EA arrived in Akureyri this morning, according to a post on the Samherji website.

There was great joy in Gufunesbær in Grafarvogur last night as residents bid farewell to Christmas.

In October, Gudni Albert Einarsson, CEO of Klofningur ehf., sponsored the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation, an eye care hospital in Calabar, Nigeria, for approximately $15,000, which is about 255,000 Nigerian naira.

The Independence Party chairman Bjarni Benediktsson has no intention of running for chairman at the Independence Party’s next national convention. He also intends to resign from his parliamentary seat.

Today, the sixth of January is the last day of Christmas. The day is often called the Thirteenth and many places hold bonfires and various entertainments for the occasion.

The amount that accumulates due to the large number of horses in the capital area, along with stricter regulations regarding landfills, is the main reason that horsemen in several municipalities in the capital area are now required to take horse manure for disposal at Sorpa.

Horsemen in the capital region are furious over the local authorities' decision to ban the spreading of horse manure in open areas and to use them for fertilizing. Now the manure must be returned to the waste disposal company Sorpa, which charges a collection fee of almost 26 krónur per kilo.

The Met Office's water level gauge at the Flói Irrigation Dam near Brúnastaðir in Flóahreppur showed last night that the water level had exceeded the height of the dam and was therefore starting to overflow.

Two earthquakes, one of magnitude 2.4 and the other 1.8, occurred in the Bárðarbunga caldera at 11:00 this morning.

Water from the Hvítá River in Árnessýsla, near the farm of Brúnastaðir in Flói, is now overflowing the river bank and finding its way into an irrigation canal that lies there. The mouth of the canal is blocked by ice and the floodgate in it is closed. Therefore, water flows into the canal at the river's overflow. This has been happening for over an hour. The progress is rapid.

A total of 14 people were awarded the Icelandic Order of the Falcon at Bessastaðir yesterday.

The people of Hafnarfjörður and nearby areas didn't let the extreme cold stop them from taking to the sea and swimming in a cabin on the first day of the year. The company Trefjar provided a cabin that was hoisted onto the bank at Langeyrarmalir and invited the sea swimmers to warm up after their swim.

Iceland Monitor wishes you all a happy new year and thanks you for your support over the past year.

Radio host Kristín Sif Björgvinsdóttir went for a New Year's Eve swim in the Mývatn region in -22 degrees below zero Celcius.

"It's absolutely freezing outside. People are more or less staying inside unless they have to do something special," says Sigurlína Tryggvadóttir, a farmer in Svartárkot in Bárðardalur, in an interview with mbl.is.

There will be fourteen New Year's Eve bonfires in the capital area today and tonight. The weather forecast is good for the evening and people are encouraged to wear protective glasses.

A magnitude 3.8 earthquake struck Bárðarbunga at around 4:30 yesterday. Increased activity at the volcano in recent months suggests it prepares for an eruption.

There is a risk that Hellisheiði will be impassable this evening and night due to severe weather that is expected to pass there.

More than four thousand people made their way to Mt Bláfjöll skiing resort yesterday, as the unexpectedly calm and mild weather yesterday was ideal for a ski trip. “It was a fantastic day,” said Einar Bjarnason, the ski resort’s operations manager, in an interview with Morgunblaðið. He said that yesterday had been the busiest day of the winter.

A driver was stuck on Klettsháls in the southern Westfjords for two to three hours last night. Rescue teams were sent to the scene, but at first, it was believed that the driver was on Dynjandisheiði.

Hafdís Guðrún Hilmarsdóttir, a running enthusiast, made her 300th trip up Esja yesterday. In an interview with mbl.is, she says there was no particular goal to achieve this number of trips this year.

The major changes that have taken place in the country's highest offices this year are newsworthy for many reasons, not least the fact that women now hold the positions of prime minister, president and bishop.

“We have shown how new mutations come much more often from the father than from the mother,” says Kári Stefánsson, CEO of DeCode Genetics.

More than 80,500 foreign citizens were registered as residents of Iceland on December 1, according to the National Register of Iceland. This means that about a fifth of the population is of foreign origin.

A bus with over 20 passengers on board went off the road on Þingvellir Road near Úlfljótsvatn last night and was stuck and got nowhere.

Residents of the capital area can expect considerable cold this weekend, with frosts that can drop to 13 to 18 degrees.

As the church bells ring in Christmas at six o’clock today, on Christmas Eve, Ástbjörn Egilsson is at work in Reykjavík Cathedral as he has done at this time every year since 1999. “It’s wonderful to be in church on Christmas Eve, as it is on all days,” he says. “It’s a good community and it gets even better on big holidays like Christmas and Easter.”

A swim on Christmas Eve is a rich tradition for many.

A large crowd attended the Peace March in downtown Reykjavík last night. Peace activists gathered at Hlemm to the music of the Hamrahlíð High School choir and marched down Laugavegur to Austurvöllur, where an outdoor meeting was held.