Reykjavik, Iceland
Abandoned by McD’s: Iceland’s economy is now so bad, it can’t even support a McDonald’s. The owner of the country’s three McDonald’s restaurants said this week he was closing them all because the collapse of Iceland’s currency, the krona, had driven up the cost of importing beef and cheese. Jon Ogmundsson said that to stay in business, he would have to charge about $7 for a Big Mac, a price customers “are not willing to pay.” Iceland nearly went bankrupt last year and the krona lost 50 percent of its value against the euro.
London
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Scientology verdict: A French court this week convicted the Church of Scientology and six of its leaders of fraud, but the group will be allowed to continue operating in France. After a six-month trial, the court decided in favor of two women who complained that the church manipulated them into buying vitamins and books. One woman said church members fraudulently extracted $30,000 from her. The court imposed fines of up to $595,000 on the six leaders, but rejected prosecutors’ call for a complete ban on Scientology, which the government views as a commercial enterprise, not a religion. The church, which has about 45,000 followers in France, pledged to appeal the verdict, which a spokesman called “all bark and no bite.”
