BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Police shootings

One has happened in Iceland, where police shot dead a man who was firing a shotgun in his apartment in the early hours of yesterday morning (local time). It is the first time someone has been killed in an armed police operation in Iceland. Tear gas canisters were fired through the windows in an attempt to subdue the 59-year-old, who lived in the east of the capital, Reykjavik. When this failed he was shot after firing at police entering the building. Between 15 and 20 officers took part, with back-up provided by special forces. The tear gas was used when the man, who has not been named, failed to respond to police attempts to contact him and continued shooting. When they entered the apartment, two members of the special forces were injured by shotgun fire - one in the face, the other in the hand. This is unusual coming from a country like Iceland, and so is this: when it comes to luxury hotel rooms, down is becoming the new up. Instead of penthouse suites, the most exclusive accommodation in the house may soon be at the very bottom, six metres or more beneath the surface of the sea. The idea of sleeping with the fish some distance beneath the waves may sound dangerous but the technology needed to build underwater rooms is well-established and proven. So says Robert Bursiewicz, a project manager at Deep Ocean Technology, a Polish company that is planning an underwater hotel called Water Discus. It can be towed to a suitable location and placed on supports on the sea bed. It is made up of an underwater disc containing 22 bedrooms with sea views, connected by lift and stairs to a similar disc above the surface containing other hotel facilities. "Nowadays it is possible to build submarines which go deeper than 500m (1,640ft) below the sea surface, so building an underwater hotel is not a problem," Mr Bursiewicz says. Now, that technology is being used in a new way. In fact, it should be far less of a technical challenge to build an underwater hotel than a submarine, because hotels are unlikely to be placed more than 15 metres below the surface. That is because the water acts like a filter for sunlight, and below that depth, most colours apart from blue are washed out. And that means rooms need to be in relatively shallow water for the most spectacular and colourful views of marine life. Also, there is the chance that somebody might break a window at the bottom and flood the whole hotel. So don't risk it.