The prime minister of Greenland, Kuupik Kleist, visited Copenhagen last week to talk about the country’s future as an oil and gas nation

The prime minister of Greenland met the press after a meeting in parliament, where he discussed security in the Arctic region - a topic especially relevant to both Greenland and Denmark after British oil firm Cairn Energy found hydrocarbons off the coast of the island.

Greenland, the world’s largest island, has a population of 56,452 and is part of the Danish realm, which consists of Denmark, the Faeroe Islands and Greenland.

Danish-owned ship forced to evacuate 118 passengers after hitting a rock in the Arctic

The Danish-owned cruise ship Clipper Adventurer was evacuated after it hit a rock in Canadian waters in the Arctic.

The 35-year-old cruise ship, owned by Danish shipping firm Clipper, hit a rock in the Nunavuts Coronation Gulf in the Arctic Canadian region on Friday, after which 118 passengers had to be evacuated onto an ice breaker belonging to the Canadian coast guard.

Defence of Bosnian former leader allegedly hampered by missing documents

Documents that war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, the former president of Bosnia-Herzegovina, requested for his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia were not delivered to The Hague by Denmark’s Defence Ministry as required, reports Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper.

In addition, the newspaper alleges the ministry has given false information to the tribunal in the ICTY case against the former Bosnian-Serb politician. In response to the request from the ICTY, the Defence Ministry stated it did not have documents relevant to Karadzic’s defence.

Nordic neighbours overtake Denmark on Newsweek list

According to a survey conducted by Newsweek, Denmark has been overtaken by all of its Nordic neighbours and is now the tenth best country in the world.

Finland came first, followed by Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Luxembourg and Norway, with the US eleventh.

Director takes on new identity after threats to his life

The former managing director of ROJ TV, Manouchehr Zonoozi - who has been living under police protection after going public about the Kurdish TV station’s close links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the spring – has now been moved to a new secret location following fresh threats to his life, reports Berlingske Tidende.

Danes to follow British troops in leaving Helmand province

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has for the first time put a date on when Danish troops should be pulled out of Afghanistan.

Whilst in London meeting the newly elected British Prime Minister David Cameron, Rasmussen told Jyllands-Posten that they shared the wish to have just a small amount of troops, and no battle troops, in Afghanistan by 2014-2015.

Military will help fight piracy across the continent

Gitte Lillelund Bech, the minister of defence, has revealed that Danish soldiers could soon be heading to the African east and west coasts to help prevent the development of more piracy, as has been an issue in Somalia.

The navy’s warships have over the past two years been involved in the hunt for Somali pirates off the coast of Africa, but Bech at the weekend said that this is not a long term solution, and that there needs to be taken steps to prevent piracy in other countries.

Young woman’s father does not believe she is voluntarily staying in Turkey

A 20-year-old Danish woman of Turkish descent said yesterday that she has not been kidnapped by her relatives as her parents in Denmark claim.

Sibel Bilgin travelled to Turkey to visit family members but was reported missing by her parents last Wednesday. Her father told police she telephoned during the weekend claiming she was being held against her will by her uncle and cousins in the Turkish city of Denizli.

Rocket fire at Kabul's airport forces diversion of Lene Espersen's plane

Foreign Minister Lene Espersen was today expected to present an offer to moderate Taleban insurgents of 30 million kroner if they agreed to stop fighting immediately.

At an international conference today in Kabul where Western leaders are meeting with Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, Espersen had planned to announce that over the next few years Denmark is willing to pay 30 million kroner into a ‘reintegration fund’ from which money would be channelled toward projects benefiting former Taleban fighters.

Visit to family in Turkey turned into kidnapping for a young Danish woman

A 20-year-old Randers woman who was reported missing on Wednesday after visiting her family in Turkey is being kept there against her will by family members, according to her father.

Sibel Bilgin was doing chores with her mother and aunt in her parents’ hometown of Denizli when she disappeared, leaving behind a shoe.

Afghan military has ‘considerable potential’, Danish commander in Helmand says

Danish soldiers are continuing to train their Afghan counterparts to prepare them to take over military control of the country – a move that will take place in 2014, according to commander of Army forces in the Helmand province.

The handover is one of several issues to be discussed at a major conference in Kabul on Tuesday featuring the top officials from the coalition countries and Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary general.

Thousands of Danish  citizens who migrated to Sweden in search of cheaper housing are returning home

According to the latest figures from Statistics Denmark and the Øresund Data Bank, thousands of citizens are deciding to sell up in Sweden and return to Denmark, reversing trends which saw more and more commuters from Copenhagen move to the other side of the Øresund Strait.  Last year nearly 3,000 people moved west, a rise of 16 percent compared to 2008. Of this number over half were people born in Denmark.

The cause of the migration appears to be the fall in house prices in the Danish capital. When house prices peaked in Copenhagen in 2006 they were 35 percent more expensive than Malmö and the surrounding area, but by the end of 2009 that gap had shrunk to just 14 percent.  An average family house in the Copenhagen area cost 2.8 million kroner at the end of 2009 compared to 3.5 million in 2006, according to Statistics Denmark.  Prices have also fallen in Malmö – where the average cost of a house peaked at 2.2 million kroner in 2007 – but not as dramatically as in Copenhagen.

German Environment Minister reportedly ready to approve Danish plan

A new Environment Ministry proposal will likely require Danish consumers to pay a deposit on cans and bottles bought in Germany.

Unlike a previous Danish plan, the most recent proposal, which the German Environment Ministry is said to have given its initial approval to, has the support of Danish retailers and environmental authorities.

Currently, Danish shoppers are attracted to warehouse style stores on the German side of the border, where, in addition to being exempt from paying the German deposit, they are charged just 19 percent in VAT, compared with 25 percent in Denmark.

Major European survey reveals that Danish employees are least likely to shirk work

After carrying out a major survey based on interviews with 7,500 employees in ten European countries, US insurance giant Aon discovered that Danish workers were the least likely to pretend to be sick.

Container still burning after two days, but efforts to keep it in check appear to have worked

A fire on board a Maersk container ship anchored off the Malaysian coast has been contained, the company reports.

A company spokesperson said, however, that they were not certain when the fire, now in its second day, would be put out entirely.

Maersk spokesman Michael Christian Storgaard said the ship’s crew and crews from nearby ships were working to cool containers surrounding the fire in order to prevent it from spreading.

Cambodian authorities have dropped paedophile charges against a Danish man who had allegedly confessed to the crime

A 61-year-old Danish man accused of being a paedophile has been released by Cambodian police after authorities decided to drop the charges against him.

The man’s lawyer Michael Juul Eriksen confirmed his client’s release from Banteay Meanchey Prison near the city of Poipet, located in the northwest part of Cambodia near the Thai border. The man had been held in custody at the prison for the past eight months, and police told media he had already confessed to the crime.

Denmark has the highest prices for food and non-alcoholic drinks in the European Union, according to the latest survey from Eurostat

In the overall price index, Denmark was nearly 40 percent above the average for the 27 states in the EU in 2009, giving it the highest price level for food and non-alcoholic beverages in the union.

Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, Germany and France were between 10 and 30 percent above the average while former Communist states such as Bulgaria, Romania and Poland registered the lowest price levels at between 30 and 40 percent below the average.

The head of government ally the Danish People’s Party slams the lack of collaboration between the government parties

Pia Kjærsgaard, the leader of the right-wing Danish People’s Party (DF), has described the leadership styles of the Liberal prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Conservative Party leader Lene Espersen as ‘unprofessional’.

Speaking to a reporter from the daily newspaper Fyens Stiftstidende, she said: ‘The annoying thing is of course that it isn’t governmental policy that’s the problem. It’s their style and leadership that’s all over the place.’

National intelligence agency sends three agents to the Indonesian capital Jakarta after terror plans are uncovered

The national intelligence agency PET is treating the plot to blow up the Danish embassy in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, which was uncovered on Wednesday, as seriously as it did the actual bombing of the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2008.

Three agents have been sent to Jakarta to investigate the plot that was uncovered when an Indonesian anti-terror team arrested the country’s top terrorist suspect Abullah Sonata.

According to the Indonesian authorities, Sonata planned to bomb the Danish embassy in revenge for allowing the Mohammed cartoons to be printed in 2005. Sonata is suspected of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombing that killed over 200 people - most of whom were foreign tourists.

The three-man PET team have been tasked with assisting the Indonesian authorities in their investigations and increasing security at the Danish embassy.

A leading terror suspect is arrested and another killed after Indonesian police catch wind of attacks

Indonesian police say three people have been arrested for planning terror attacks on targets that included the Danish Embassy in Jakarta.

Details of the plots were intercepted by police wiretaps on the suspects, which included Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, Abdullah Sunata.