Iceland formally recognized the Palestinian state at a ceremony in Reykjavik, becoming one of the first Western European countries to do so

"This is the day I formally submit to you the declaration of Palestine independence in accordance with the will of the Icelandic parliament," Icelandic Foreign Minister Oessur Skarphedinsson said, addressing his Palestinian counterpart Riyad Maliki at a news conference.

Iceland and France are looking into the possibility of taking French trees endangered by global warming and planting them in Iceland to safeguard them for the future, officials said.

"The main emphasis (in the collaboration) is on research and finding ways to ensure the protection and preservation of the DNA... of the trees in Iceland," Adalsteinn Sigurgeirsson of the Icelandic Forestry Service told Agence France Presse.

A Chinese tycoon is trying to buy a huge tract of land in Iceland for a $100 million eco-tourism project that will include a golf course, the Financial Times said Tuesday.

Huang Nubo, a real estate investor and former government official, has sealed a provisional deal to acquire 300 square kilometers (about 200 square miles) of Icelandic territory, the newspaper said.

From gigantic whale penises to speck-sized field mouse testicles and lampshades made from bull scrotums, Iceland's small Phallological Museum has it all -- and recently put its first human member on display.

"This is the biggest one," founder and curator Sigurdur Hjartarson told AFP, patting an enormous plastic canister. Inside was a liquid-immersed grayish-white mass as wide as a small tree trunk and as tall as a man.

Iceland's volcanoes gained notoriety last year for their ash-spewing ability to ground airlines and make a mess. But they also pay their dues, drawing tourists eager to see the source of the chaos.

"People are really interested. They want to stand in the crater of the volcano that made them lose their flight," laughs Arsaell Hauksson, in his 30s. He runs a campground at the base of the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier that encompasses the notorious Eyjafjoell volcano, whose eruption in April 2010 stranded more than eight million travelers.

A designer who shot to fame with a line of perfume inspired by last year's flight-halting Eyjafjoell volcano said Monday she would launch a new fragrance drawn from last week's eruption on Iceland.

After launching "EFJ Eyjafjallajoekull," a women's perfume made from melt water from the glacier sitting on top of the Eyjafjoell volcano that erupted in April last year, Sigrun Lilja Gudjonsdottir said she would soon launch the "VJK Vatnajoekull," a fragrance for men named after the glacier that straddles Grimsvoetn.

The European Union's transport chief said Tuesday he did not expect the Icelandic volcano ash cloud to provoke a widespread closure of European airspace like a similar event last year.

Although airlines cancelled more than 250 flights as the cloud blew over Britain, Siim Kallas noted that this time the volcano, weather and European response are different than in April 2010, when an eruption caused chaos.

Iceland closed its main international airport Sunday as a volcanic eruption sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles (20 kilometers) into the air.

Airport and air traffic control operator ISAVIA said Keflavik airport was closed at 0830 GMT (4:30 a.m. EDT), and no flights were taking off or landing.

The whistleblower website WikiLeaks was back on line Friday with a new Swiss address -- wikileaks.ch -- six hours after its previous domain name -- wikileaks.org -- was shut down.

"WikiLeaks moves to Switzerland," the group declared on Twitter, although an Internet trace of the new domain name suggested that the site itself is still hosted in Sweden and in France.