Europe resumes some air travel
Europe began to emerge from a volcanic cloud on Monday, allowing limited air traffic to resume and giving hope to millions of travelers stranded around the world when ash choked the jet age to a halt.
Even then, however, the eruption from the Icelandic volcano that caused the five days of aviation chaos was said to be strengthening and sending more ash toward Britain, which could make it unlikely that London airports would reopen on Tuesday. Read more
Europe Airlines call for flight resumption
The International Air Transport Association [IATA] has urged governments to rethink decisions to close large swathes of European airspace because of the Icelandic volcano’s ash cloud.
Diego Lopez Garrido, the Spanish secretary of state for European affairs, said half of the flights planned in Europe could take place on Monday.
“We are far enough into this crisis to express our dissatisfaction on how governments have managed it, with no risk assessment, no consultation and no leadership,” said Giovanni Bisignani, the IATA director general and chief executive. “This crisis is costing airlines at least $200 million a day in lost revenues and the European economy has already suffered billions of dollars in lost business. Read more
Air Travel Remains Suspended
The indefinite cancellation of flights over European airspace has started driving desperate travellers to take unimaginable routes that are currently the only option to attend a funeral, wedding or an all-important meeting.Since Saturday night, travel agents have been receiving SOS messages from stuck passengers to somehow get a seat on any plane to Athens, Moscow, Istanbul or Tashkent so that they can then take combinations of rail-road-and-sea routes to mainland Europe. Read more
KATE Middleton has given her first interview
Like most royal interviews, it is innocuous and designed to promote a cause close to the interviewee’s heart but when that wedding announcement is finally made, expect features writers to hark back to this landmark event for some crumbs of background information on this woman about whom we know so little.
Kate Middleton and her siblings, Pippa, 26, and James, 22, have also given interviews in which they talk about their memories of early parties they attended. Kate, 28, recalls wearing her favourite spotty clown dungarees, eating bowls of jelly and playing games of musical statues.
Katla volcano can also be cause of worry with Eyjafjallajokull
Researchers are not sure for how long Eyjafjallajokull, the Iceland volcano will continue its eruption. Since people can’t travel by air, there has been a mad rush to book train tickets now.Eyjafjallajokull glacier went on for six months at a stretch. That eruption also caused a glacial lake to outburst, thus resulting in a flood. Researchers are also worried about the Katla volcano which is situated almost 16 kms away from Eyjafjallajokull.It has been observed that both the volcanoes erupted together in 1612 and again from 1821 to 1823.
Eyjafjallajokull volcano ash cloud: dust falls across UK
The World Health Organization (WHO) today has declared that people with breathing problems might be more vulnerable to these ash particles if they come down to the ground.It is raising fears over the danger posed to people with breathing difficulties.
Dust has been detected as far south as Swindon and Brize Norton, with a thin layer also found at monitoring stations near Peterborough, Leeds and Stoke on Trent.
Hopes that flights would resume have been dashed after the “worsening” volcanic ash cloud led to a further ban on UK flights until at least 1am on Sunday.
A geologist has commented that it might go on for even a month.
NASA has collaborated with other agencies for using satellite monitoring to detect the movement and force of the volcanic ash.
Volcanic ash grounds flights for third day
Large parts of Europe enforced no-fly rulings for a third day on Saturday because of a huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano that has caused the worst air travel chaos since the Sept. 11 attacks. Severe disruption of European air traffic was expected on Saturday, aviation officials said. Airports in Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands remained closed and flights were set to be grounded in Hungary and parts of Romania.
The plume that floated through the upper atmosphere, where it could wreak havoc on jet engines and airframes, was costing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars and has thrown travel plans into disarray on both sides of the Atlantic.
Britain holds first televised election debates
British voters fixed their eyes on television screens across the country for the first US-style political debate on Thursday — a historic event billed as an exciting prelude to one of the closest elections in years. Read more
Britain to hold national election on May 6: Official
Britain’s first national election in five years will take place on May 6, Prime Minister Gordon Brown planned to announce Tuesday, launching a monthlong campaign that could end in his ouster and the return of the opposition Conservative Party to power for the first time in 13 years. Read more
Russia removes two timezones
The Russian government has decided to remove two of its eleven timezones, in the country’s first step towards time reform, first started by president Dmitry Medvedev last November.
The affected regions were Chukotka and Kamchatka, the easternmost provinces of Russia; and Samara and Udmurtia, which are now on Moscow time. Each of these regions was moved back an hour. Kemerovo was also moved back an hour, but this did not eliminate a time zone. Read more