Actavis Group has agreed to acquire the human generics business of the US listed pharmaceutical company, Alpharma Inc. (NYSE: ALO). This deal brings together two premier generic pharmaceutical businesses with complementary strengths in Europe and the US.

According to OECD Broadband statistics for June 2005 the average broadband penetration within OECD is 11.8 per hundred inhabitants. South Korea ranks #1 with 25.5, followed by the Netherlands (22.5), Denmark (21.8) and Iceland (21.7).

Iceland ranks #1 of 159 countries included in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2005. Iceland´s CPI 2005 score of 9.7 and CPI 2004 score of 9.5 is the top score overall.

Iceland is one of the countries of the world where doing business is easiest according to the report "Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs", cosponsored by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group.

Iceland moves up 3 places in World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report and ranks #7 of 117 nations compared. All the Nordic countries are ranked among the ten most competitive economies with Finland #1 overall. The USA was ranked second and Sweden third.

Iceland´s expenditure on educational institutions, relative to gross domestic product was, 7.4% in 2002 which puts Iceland in first place among the OECD countries. The USA was second with 7.2% of GDP according to the OECD publication "Education at a Glance, OECD Indicators 2005".

The Nordic Council of Ministers, in collaboration with the Danish Think Tank “Mandag Morgen”, has published a report entitled “The Nordic region as a global winner – on the track of the Nordic competitive model”. Equality, confidence and flexibility are among the Nordic values identified as ideal conditions for competitive ability and growth.