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Iceland volcano erupts after weeks of quake activity

Iceland volcano erupts after weeks of quake activity
The night sky is illuminated caused by the eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland seen from the capital city of Reykjavik, Monday Dec. 18, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 19 December 2023
Reuters
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Iceland volcano erupts after weeks of quake activity

Iceland volcano erupts after weeks of quake activity
  • Reykjanes is a volcanic and seismic hot-spot southwest of the capital Reykjavik
Updated 19 December 2023
Reuters
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OSLO: The Reykjanes volcano in southwest Iceland erupted on Monday, spewing lava and smoke into the air, after weeks of intense earthquake activity, the country’s Meteorological Office said.
Fearing a significant outbreak on the Reykjanes peninsula, authorities last month evacuated the nearly 4,000 inhabitants of the fishing town of Grindavik and closed the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.
“Warning: Eruption has started north of Grindavik by Hagafell,” the Met Office said on its website.
Images and a livestream broadcast by Reuters showed molten rock spewing like fountains from fissures in the ground, their bright-yellow and orange colors set in sharp contrast against the dark night sky.
Icelandic police said they had raised their alert level as a result of the outbreak and the country’s civil defense warned the public not to approach the area while emergency personnel assessed the situation.
A coast guard helicopter was going to be in the air shortly to confirm the exact location and size of the eruption, the Met Office said.
Reykjavik’s international airport, which is located nearby, remained open.
“At the moment, there are no disruptions to arrivals or departures at Keflavík Airport,” it said on its website.
The Reykjanes peninsula in recent years saw several eruptions in unpopulated areas, but the latest outbreak could pose a risk to the Grindavik town, authorities have said.
The area had seen thousands of earthquakes in the last two months but the magnitudes had declined in recent week, leading some experts to think risk of an eruption had abated.
Reykjanes is a volcanic and seismic hot-spot southwest of the capital Reykjavik. In March 2021, lava fountains erupted spectacularly from a 500-750-meter-long (1,640-2,460-foot-long) fissure in the ground in the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system.

Topics: Iceland volcano Reykjavik Reykjanes

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The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says
Updated 3 sec ago
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The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says
Updated 3 sec ago
News of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start
No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.

DUBAI: The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.
Afghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond.
News of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.
A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.
The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023.
“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.”
Polio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchronized campaign” focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere.
During a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.
But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes.
Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20 percent in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said.
Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.
Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchronized manner.
“Afghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,” said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. “People from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers.”
There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press.
The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease and technical mistakes in the vaccination strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.
The oral vaccine has also inadvertently seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.
This was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory’s first case in more than 25 years.

French researcher Vinatier pleads guilty to foreign agent law violations in Russian court

French researcher Vinatier pleads guilty to foreign agent law violations in Russian court
Updated 23 min 51 sec ago
Reuters
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French researcher Vinatier pleads guilty to foreign agent law violations in Russian court

French researcher Vinatier pleads guilty to foreign agent law violations in Russian court
  • The Moscow district court where Vinatier is being tried has agreed to consider his case under a special regime
Updated 23 min 51 sec ago
Reuters

MOSCOW: Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher on trial in Russia for non-compliance with Russia’s foreign agent laws, pleaded guilty on Monday, Russian news agencies said.
State news agency RIA said the Moscow district court where Vinatier is being tried has agreed to consider his case under a special regime, which guarantees a lighter sentence.

Topics: Russia Laurent Vinatier court French

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Sweden says willing to lead NATO presence in Finland

Sweden says willing to lead NATO presence in Finland
Updated 58 min 51 sec ago
AFP
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Sweden says willing to lead NATO presence in Finland

Sweden says willing to lead NATO presence in Finland
  • The two Nordic nations dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied for NATO membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
  • The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force
Updated 58 min 51 sec ago
AFP

STOCKHOLM: Sweden is ready to manage a future NATO land force in neighboring Finland, which shares a border with Russia, the two newest members of the military alliance announced on Monday.
The two Nordic nations dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied for NATO membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Finland become a member in 2023 and Sweden this year.
NATO said in July that a so-called Forward Land Forces (FLF) presence should be developed in Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.
“This kind of military presence in a NATO country requires a framework nation which plays an important role in the implementation of the concept,” Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen told a press conference.
The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force.
“The Swedish government has the ambition to take the role as a framework nation for a forward land force in Finland,” Hakkanen’s Swedish counterpart Pal Jonson told reporters.
Jonson stressed the process was still in an “early stage” and details would be worked out inside NATO.
There would also be further consultations with the Swedish parliament, he said.
Hakkanen said details about the actual force would be clarified through planning with other NATO members, adding that the number of troops and their exact location had not yet been decided.
NATO says it currently has eight such forward presences, or “multinational battlegroups,” in Eastern Europe — in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Topics: NATO Sweden Finland

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Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires

Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires
Updated 16 September 2024
AFP
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Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires

Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires
  • Nearly 1,600 firefighters were battling 20 fires Monday
  • Further to the south, at least two homes were burned in two villages in the Albergaria-a-Velha area, said mayor Antonio Loureiro
Updated 16 September 2024
AFP

LISBON: Forest fires halted traffic on motorways in the Aveiro region of northern Portugal Monday as homes were engulfed by a string of blazes that broke out over the weekend, local authorities said.
Nearly 1,600 firefighters were battling 20 fires Monday, with the country placed on alert from Saturday to Tuesday evening because of high temperatures and strong winds.
More than 500 have been battling the largest fire near Oliveira de Azemeis, south of the city of Porto, since Sunday.
Further to the south, at least two homes were burned in two villages in the Albergaria-a-Velha area, said mayor Antonio Loureiro.
“We already have houses in flames at the moment,” he told Portuguese news agency Lusa.
Traffic has been halted on three motorways in the area, police said.
Drivers were told not to try to get to Aveiro. “That is the best way to not to put lives at risk,” said mayor Vitor Ribero.
One firefighter died “suddenly” Sunday while taking a break from efforts to contain the fire, the interior ministry said Monday.
Portugal has seen less wildfires than usual so far this year. Some 10,300 hectares (25,500 acres) were lost to the flames by the end of August — a third of what was destroyed last year and seven times less than the average over the last decade.
Lisbon has upped fire prevention funding ten-fold and doubled the budget to fight wildfires since deadly blazes in 2017 claimed hundreds of lives.
Scientists say human-caused fossil fuel emissions are increasing the length, frequency and intensity of global heatwaves, raising the risk of wildfires.
The Iberian peninsula is particularly vulnerable to global warming, with heatwaves and drought exposing the region to blazes.

Topics: Portugal forest fires Aveiro

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Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal

Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal
Updated 16 September 2024
Ellie Aben
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Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal

Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal
  • Manila suspected China carried out small-scale land reclamation activities in Sabina Shoal
  • For months, Philippines-China confrontations have increasingly taken place at the atoll
Updated 16 September 2024
Ellie Aben

MANILA: The Philippines will continue to deploy vessels to Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, its coast guard said on Monday, after the withdrawal of a Philippine ship from the contested area prompted fresh concerns of Chinese land reclamation.

In April, the Philippine Coast Guard deployed one of its largest ships, Teresa Magbanua, to Sabina Shoal to monitor what Manila suspects to be China’s small-scale land reclamation activities in the area.

The ship returned to port in Palawan on Sunday, after months of pressure from Beijing, which claimed that the vessel was “illegally stranded” at the atoll that it asserts as part of its broader claim to nearly the entire South China Sea.

PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the ship’s return was unrelated to China’s demands, citing bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care for the withdrawal.

“We have not lost anything. We can still patrol and maintain our presence in Escoda Shoal,” Tarriela told a press conference on Monday.

“It’s not a defeat … It’s (neither) the coast guard abandoning our post in Escoda Shoal; we are just repositioning our own vessels.”

Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, is a resource-rich atoll within Manila’s exclusive economic zone and close to the Philippine mainland.

For months, confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels have taken place at this location.

One of the more recent collisions damaged the Teresa Magbanua and another one of Manila’s vessels, while other incidents have involved China’s coast guard bombarding Philippine boats with powerful cannons and its crew members flashing high-powered lasers at Filipino troops.

The Philippines “did not surrender anything” by pulling out Teresa Magbanua, Tarriela said.

“We did not surrender … It’s also wrong to say that if we leave the vicinity, they will already reclaim it. Again, the reclamation would take four years. If we leave for one, two or three days, even one week, will they be able to build a runway there?”

Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and international studies lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila, said the ship’s withdrawal is part of “a continuing process of ensuring” that the Philippine presence in Sabina Shoal will remain intact.

“The Philippines is doing what it can based on its limited capacity to ensure the full operationalization of its sovereignty and sovereign rights,” Gill told Arab News.

The PCG had “prevailed” despite the Chinese coast guard’s efforts to “push the Philippines out as fast as possible,” he said.

“I believe that the Philippines would also be sending an alternate ship to ensure that our presence is continued there,” Gill said.

“But more importantly, Manila needs to supplement the efforts of physical presence there with other forms of activities, such as joint maritime drills along the area to make sure that it is free and open and rules-based.”

Topics: Philippines South China Sea South China Sea dispute

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