Blancer.com Tutorials and projects
Freelance Projects, Design and Programming Tutorials
world news,online new,us news,uk news
Barack Obama and David Cameron hail the US-UK relationship as “essential for us and for the world” as the president arrives in London for a state visit.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The problems with the Fukushima nuclear plant have raised questions over Tepco’s future Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has said there have been new partial meltdowns in fuel rods at its damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
The company said that the fuel rods are in its Number 2 and Number 3 reactors.
Tepco has been trying to contain radiation that started leaking from the plant when it was hit by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.
The company said that it planned to stick to its timetable of getting the plant under control by January.
“Based on our analysis, we have reached the conclusion that a certain amount of nuclear fuel has melted down,” Ken Matsuda, a Tepco spokesman told the BBC.
Tepco had said earlier this month that rods at its Number 1 reactor had also melted down.
The company has been trying to cool the reactors and get the unstable fuel rods back under control.
Last week, the president of Tepco, Masataka Shimizu, resigned. He will be replaced by managing director Toshio Nishizawa.
The announcement came on the same day the company reported an annual loss of 1.25tn yen ($15.3bn; £9.4bn).
Tepco’s loss is a record for a non-financial firm in Japan.
The company’s share price has fallen more than 80% since the earthquake.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca Hardwick died after years of abuse A report into police actions over a Leicestershire mother who killed herself and her disabled daughter after years of abuse is due to be published.
Fiona Pilkington and Francecca Hardwick died in a burning car in October 2007.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation began after it emerged Ms Pilkington had called police 33 times about attacks and taunts.
The case has lead to a review of the way police forces deal with targeted anti-social behaviour.
Single mother Ms Pilkington’s home in Barwell, Leicestershire, was the focus of attacks by groups of up to 16 youngsters, with stones, eggs and flour thrown at the property.
The 38-year-old killed herself and her 18-year-old daughter by pouring petrol over their car in a lay-by on the A47 in Earl Shilton.
Incidents were reported over a 10-year period but the family only received eight visits from officers, the 2009 inquest heard.
Leicestershire Police admitted many of Ms Pilkington’s calls were not linked and were classified as anti-social behaviour rather than crime.
The inquest jury returned verdicts of suicide and unlawful killing, and said the response of the police and two local councils had contributed to the deaths.
The force, along with the county council and Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, are facing legal action from the family.
The case of their deaths has been raised in the House of Commons several times.
Earlier this month Home Office Minister James Brokenshire insisted that making changes to policing so such a case would never be repeated was a priority for the government.
In January eight police forces began a pilot project to identify and protect victims of repeated anti-social behaviour more quickly.
It is focused on creating more effective call-handling and improving information-sharing between the police and other agencies like social services.
Leicestershire Police said changes had already been made in the force in the years since Ms Pilkington and her daughter died.
The IPCC report is due to be published at 1000 BST.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Hyundai has performed well in the US market Hyundai, South Korea’s top carmaker, has warned of a severe production disruption, because of a shortage of engine parts.
A strike at parts supplier Yoosung Enterprise has affected production, and it could get worse on Tuesday.
“Our production may be seriously affected starting today,” a Hyundai spokeswoman told BBC News.
Yoosung manufactures piston rings, which are key components in car engines.
Hyundai has already suspended production of diesel engines at its Ulsan plant and has warned a shortage of parts could also force it to stop production of petrol or gasoline engines.
Hyundai said the supply disruption could also hit its subsiduary car manufacturer Kia Motors.
Yoosung also supplies parts to the Korean units of General Motors and Renault.
The supplier halted production last week, after employees clashed with management over wages.
Hyundai said its engine inventory would start to dry up on May 24.
The disruption comes as South Korean carmakers are poised to take market share from their Japanese rivals, which are suffering from parts shortages of their own.
Hyundai reported record profits in the final three months of last year, due in part to strong overseas sales in China and the US.
Analysts had been expecting the carmaker, the fifth-biggest in the world, to continue to perform well in 2011.
A serious disruption could force the experts to revise those forecasts.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond warns of disruption ahead
Hundreds of passengers face UK flight cancellations because of drifting ash from an Icelandic volcanic eruption.
BA, KLM, Aer Lingus and Easyjet are among the airlines that have suspended services in and out of Scotland for the coming hours.
But Ryanair has objected to an order from Irish officials to ground its morning flights to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen on safety grounds.
It said it would be complaining about the “unnecessary cancellations”.
A statement on Ryanair’s website read: “Ryanair strongly object to this decision and believe that there is no basis for these flight cancellations and will be meeting with the [Irish Aviation Authority] on Tuesday morning to have this restriction on Ryanair flights removed as a matter of urgency.”
The cancellations come just over a year after another volcanic eruption in Iceland caused widespread disruption across Europe, including the closure of UK airspace.
The transport secretary said the UK was “better” prepared than it had been last year.
Philip Hammond told BBC Two’s Newsnight there were now “much more robust systems” in place to “minimise the disruptive effect” and there was now a better understanding of the risk from ash clouds.
But he added travellers had got to learn to live with such disruption caused by volcanic activity in Iceland following an “unusually quiet period” in the last 20 years.
He added: “What we can’t promise is that there won’t be disruption when there is a major natural event like this.”
The Grimsvotn volcano in Vatnajokull National Park began erupting on Saturday.
Iceland’s airspace has been closed for a period as a result but experts say this eruption is on a different scale to the one last year and ash particles are larger and, as a result, fall to the ground more quickly.
However, the threat of disruption saw US President Barack Obama arrive in the UK from the Republic of Ireland on Monday night, a day ahead of his scheduled arrival for his state visit.
A number of airlines are choosing not to fly through Scottish airspace on Tuesday:
British Airways is not operating any flights between London and Scotland until 1400 BSTKLM cancelled flights to and from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as some to NewcastleEasyJet cancelled flights to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen scheduled for between 0500 and 0900 BSTRyanair said it has been advised by the Irish Aviation Authority not to operate flights from Glasgow Prestwick, Edinburgh or Aberdeen until at least 1300 BST but believed that “there is no basis for these flight cancellations”Flybe cancelled flights to and from Aberdeen and InvernessGlasgow-based Loganair has cancelled 36 flights. Only inter-island routes in Orkney are unaffectedEastern Airways will not be operating any services in or out of Scottish airspace
Since last year, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has graded ash levels as low, medium or high, and airlines are notified if levels reach medium or high.
All British aircraft can fly in medium-density ash but the airlines need to consider whether to fly, according to risk assessments.
A CAA spokesman said the current cloud could “potentially” cause serious disruption as charts showed that the density levels were higher than medium below 35,000ft.
But he said procedures were “totally different” compared with last year.
He added: “If an airline has done a risk assessment as to how it will fly safely in medium or high ash levels, and has liaised with aircraft manufacturers and engine makers, then they will be able to fly if the CAA considers it acceptable.
“No UK airline has applied to fly in high-density ash, but a number have applied for, and been given, permission for flying in medium ash.”
The Met Office says changing wind patterns make it hard to predict whether the ash cloud will spread because weather systems are changing so rapidly.
It forecast that the plume could hit parts of Scotland between 0100 and 0700 BST before moving on to Northern Ireland and other northern areas of the UK later in the day.
During last April’s six-day shutdown only a handful of flights took off or landed in the UK.
Thousands of Britons found themselves stranded overseas, forcing many to make long and expensive journeys home by land. Airlines estimated the shutdown cost them $1.7bn (£1.1bn).
The Foreign Office is advising passengers to remain in regular contact with their travel agent or airline for the latest news on the status of flights and bookings.
Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Nato planes have launched a series of air attacks on Libya’s capital Tripoli, with correspondents saying they appear the largest so far of the campaign.
Some of the strikes appear to have targeted Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound.
They came after France announced it and the UK would also deploy attack helicopters to escalate strike power.
Nato is enforcing a UN resolution to protect civilians, following the uprising against Col Gaddafi’s rule.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Crew from the International Space Station have started their journey back to Earth after undocking from the station and halting for photo opportunities.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Vuvuzelas came to global prominence in the 2010 World Cup Vuvuzelas – the horns used by football fans celebrating last year’s World Cup – not only cause noise pollution but may also spread diseases, say experts.
A short burst on the instrument creates a spittle shower similar to a sneeze, travelling at a four million droplets a second, a PLoS One journal study shows.
In crowded venues one person blowing a vuvuzela could infect many others with airborne illness like the flu or TB.
Organisers are considering whether to allow them at the 2012 London Olympics.
Critics say they are anti-social and unsafe because of their potential to generate a din louder than a plane taking off.
“People with infections must be advised against blowing their vuvuzelas close to other people”
Dr Ruth McNerney Study author
Dr Ruth McNerney, who carried out the latest work at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said a “vuvuzela blowing etiquette” may be needed rather than a ban.
“Just as with coughs or sneezes, action should be taken to prevent disease transmission, and people with infections must be advised against blowing their vuvuzelas close to other people,” she said.
Her team investigated the vuvuzela hazard using a laser device to measure how many droplets were produced by eight volunteers using the horns.
On average, 658,000 lung particles, or aerosols, per litre of air were expelled from the instruments.
The droplets shot into the air at the rate of four million per second.
In comparison, when the volunteers were asked to shout, they produced only 3,700 particles per litre at a rate of 7,000 per second.
“When attending a sporting event and surrounded by vuvuzela players, a spectator could expect to inhale large numbers of respiratory aerosols over the course of the event,” Dr McNerney warned.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Fever was one of the 10 common problems parents sought help for Rising numbers of parents are bypassing GPs and taking children to hospitals’ A&E departments for non-emergency treatment, researchers say.
Attendance for 10 common medical problems, including fever and rash, rose 42% in a decade at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, they said.
Difficulty accessing out-of-hours GP care may be to blame, they told the Emergency Medical Journal.
The government said it was developing a strategy for out-of-hours care.
It said it wanted to deliver high quality, urgent care services around the clock.
During the past 10 years, the way the NHS provides care for common medical problems at night and at weekends has changed.
GPs are no longer obliged to provide out-of-hours care and advice to worried parents, with large private companies now generally contracted to provide this instead.
“We need to have more integrated care rather than the confusing, expensive system we have currently”
John Heyworth President of the College of Emergency Medicine
John Heyworth, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, says this has caused some confusion for patients and, in some instances, has made it harder for them to access care.
“Parents have found in the last few years that accessing primary care is more difficult than previously.”
He said more and more patients were turning to A&E departments.
“We’ve been recognising this. Attendances are going up by between eight and nine per cent a year.”
In the study spanning a decade, the number of patients attending the children’s emergency department at Queen’s remained similar, but the number attending with common medical problems had risen by 42%.
A total of 39,394 children were seen in 2007-8, of whom 14,724 had medical problems. This compared with 38,982 children seen overall in 1997, of whom 10,369 had medical problems.
Dr Heyworth said the findings highlighted the shortcomings in the way services were currently organised.
He said: “We need to have more integrated care rather than the confusing, expensive system we have currently.
“It is very patchy and the public are frankly getting a raw deal.”
The college is calling for GP services to be co-located next to A&E departments to deal with people who need to see a GP.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Our vision is to replace the ad-hoc, uncoordinated system that has developed over more than a decade, and has been characterised by poor quality and too much variation
Meanwhile, a study in the same journal reveals most UK hospital A&E departments are ill-equipped to treat children with serious head injuries.
A confidential enquiry found 87% of hospitals in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands and Isle of Man could not care for a critically ill child on site.
The authors say transferring these sick children some miles to other hospitals could harm their survival chances as treatment delays can prove fatal.
Around 210,000 children with head injuries attend hospital every year, and around 34,500 are admitted. A few children with serious head injuries will require emergency surgery and intensive care.
But the way services are currently organised – with centralised intensive care services – means some patients need to be transferred to get the care they need.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Japanese pupils are the best behaved in the world, according to an international study Teenagers’ classroom behaviour is getting better rather than worse, according to a global study that places Japan at the top of the league.
A report from economic forum the OECD found there was less disruption in classes in 2009 compared with the results of a previous study in 2000.
Pupils in the UK were better behaved than the international average.
But Asian countries and regions dominated the top places in this good-behaviour league.
The OECD has produced an analysis of behaviour statistics gathered as part of its international PISA study, which compares the performance of education systems.
It looked at the level of classroom disruption in terms of how much teachers had to wait for 15-year-old pupils to “quieten down” during lessons.
Source: OECD
The study found that despite widespread concerns about bad behaviour, teenagers were less likely to be noisy and disruptive than a similar international analysis in 2000.
“Popular belief has it that every successive crop of students is less disciplined than the one before it, and that teachers are losing control over their classes. But popular belief has it wrong,” says the OECD report.
“Between 2000 and 2009, discipline in school did not deteriorate – in fact, in most countries it improved.”
But there were wide differences between the 38 countries and regional school systems ranked in the study.
Asian countries and regions account for seven out of the top 10 places. The other three in the top 10 are eastern European.
With two Chinese school systems in the top four – Shanghai and Hong Kong – it reflects the emergence of China as an up-and-coming education superpower.
In the PISA study’s measurement of literacy skills, published in December, Shanghai was the top-rated school system in the world.
In this behaviour study, the UK is in equal 28th place, with a score that puts pupil behaviour above the average – behind the US and Germany but ahead of countries such as France and Italy.
This international education league table is also unusual in putting the Scandinavian countries at the lower end.
Finland, usually at the top of global school rankings, is in the bottom three, with only Argentina and Greece identified as having more classroom disruption.
But the overall trend is upward, with less disruption, argues the report.
“The bottom line,” says the study, is that the research provides “no evidence to support the notion that discipline in school is a growing problem”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Roger Harrabin
Gas is a natural by-product of shale rock A Commons committee has urged ministers to support plans for controversial shale gas drilling in the UK.
The energy select committee said environmental problems associated with it in the US could be overcome by tight regulation and good industry practice.
But the MPs said the UK government would need to be vigilant to ensure the technology did not pollute water or produce excessive greenhouse emissions.
Environmentalists said MPs should have called for a moratorium on shale gas.
Campaigners want a moratorium until research into allegations about the technology is complete.
Shale gas is significant to the UK in two ways. First, the massive expansion of shale gas in the US and also possibly in China may depress global gas prices and cause countries to favour gas over coal.
Some experts see this as a double-edged sword – low energy prices are a benefit, but might divert investment from the renewables and nuclear essential for the low-carbon future planned by the government.
The second issue over shale gas is one of energy security. The British Geological Survey estimates that onshore shale gas can supply 1.5 years of the UK’s total gas needs.
The MPs say this is a useful but not major contribution – and they recommend that the government should encourage the development of offshore shale gas, where reserves may be far higher, albeit more costly to recover.
Test drilling for shale gas is currently underway in Lancashire near Blackpool. The company, Cuadrilla, believes that onshore deposits of shale gas in the UK may have been underestimated.
Critics fear this is industry hype, but Cuadrilla says the shale gas seam near Blackpool is so thick that it may not need the horizontal fracking (rock fracturing) characteristic of so many deposits in the US. Cuadrilla says vertical fracking may be achievable in Lancashire.
It is the fracking process – creating tiny explosions to shatter hard shale rocks and release gas 10,000 feet underground – that has caused so much controversy in the US. Some householders claim that shale gas leaking into their drinking supply causes tap water to ignite.
Some communities see shale gas as a route to local riches, as well as energy independence The MPs said this looks a case of inadequate regulation. Tim Yeo MP, chairman of the committee, said: “We can’t see any evidence that UK water supplies might be at risk from shale gas – if it is done properly,” he told BBC News.
“The regulatory agencies have to keep their vigilance and monitor drilling closely – but the area where the fracking is being done is well below the water table so there really should not be an issue.”
The other focus of environmental concern over shale gas is greenhouse gas emissions. A study at Cornell University warned that methane leaks from wells could be so high that in some cases the atmospheric warming effect of shale gas drilling might outweigh that of coal. The MPs dismiss this fear, pointing once again to the need for good practice and regulation to prevent leaks.
David Nussbaum, head of the green group WWF, says this is complacent. WWF is calling for a moratorium on shale gas drilling in the UK until the US Environmental Protection Agency has carried out a major report into the practice – probably next year. They also want to see more studies on the climate effects of shale gas.
He told BBC News: “Shale gas is a controversial source of energy. We’ve got to be very, very cautious before we go gung-ho for shale gas and we believe there has to be very good evidence before we decide this is the way forward.”
The government says existing laws are strong enough to deal with the issues raised – and that bids for licences to extract shale gas (as opposed to prospect for it) will be considered in the normal way.
The new source of energy is proving controversial in Europe, with pro-nuclear France in the process of banning shale gas production and Poland, thought to have by far the biggest reserves in Europe, caught in a major industrial debate about whether to concentrate its efforts on coal or gas.
Some analysts warn that the shale gas phenomenon has provoked an unhelpful war of words between the gas and renewables industries, which complement each other in a way that nuclear power does not.
The argument runs that gas will be needed as a relatively low-cost transition technology, filling in the generation gap when the wind drops. Nuclear power, on the other hand, competes with wind because it produces baseload electricity that needs to be used.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Dr Ellie Owen has been fitting trackers to birds on Colonsay Tiny trackers are being fitted to the backs of seabirds in the UK as part of a Europe-wide effort to better understand their behaviour.
Scientists are tagging birds on the Fair Isle, Orkney and Colonsay in the Hebrides.
The project called Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment (Fame) also includes species on Bardsey Island in Wales and the Isles of Scilly.
The RSPB said Fame used technology similar to car sat nav systems.
Trackers are also being fitted to birds in Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal.
Dr Ellie Owen, a scientist working on a European Union-funded project, said very little was known about the movements of birds as they hunted at sea.
She said: “We know more about the journeys of albatrosses in the Southern Ocean than we do about some of the seabirds around our own shores.
“For example, we know how many kittiwakes there are in the UK, and we know they’ve declined by 30% between 2000 and 2010.
“But we don’t know where these ocean travellers are going to fish for their chicks’ suppers. But now, just when these birds need our help, we’re on the cusp of filling this information void with vitally-important data.”
The tracking devices take a reading every 100 seconds, allowing the scientists to accurately pinpoint birds’ movements between nesting colonies and the areas of sea the birds use to find food.
The RSPB said the technology was accurate to within a few metres.
In the UK, the Fame project has been tagging fulmar, shag, kittiwake, guillemot and razorbill.
Elsewhere, scientists are involved with other seabirds such as gannet, European storm petrel, Madeiran storm petrel and Balearic and Cory’s shearwaters.
Dr Owen, who has fitted trackers to birds on Colonsay, said: “European seabirds face a variety of threats from dwindling food supplies, climate change, entanglement with fishing gear and pollution.
“By recording these birds’ movements we are building a greater understanding of their requirements so we can begin to give these species the protection they need.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Overgrown bourgainvillea now hides India’s “house of horrors” in a wealthy Delhi suburb Delhi’s “house of horrors”, as the Indian media call it, is now hidden behind an overgrown bougainvillea covered in pretty flowers.
But house D5 will forever be remembered as the place where at least 19 young women and children were raped, killed and dismembered.
The two men living there were accused of the dreadful crimes; one of them, Surinder Koli, has since been sentenced to death. He was due to be executed this week, but the date has been put off while India’s president considers a mercy plea.
Its gate is blocked by police barriers, and life in the street outside carries on as normal.
There is a man selling water melons, another herding cattle. Signs on the gates of the neighbouring mansions show that lawyers, doctors and other professionals live there.
The deaths were discovered in December 2006 after body parts and children’s clothing were found blocking the sewer running in front of the house.
Surinder Koli (L) and Monindher Pandher (R) are accused of murdering 19 young women and children Koli worked in D5 as a servant for the owner, Monindher Pandher, who was a businessman. In the five cases which have so far gone to trial, Pandher has been let off due to a lack of evidence, but is still in jail facing other charges. He says he is innocent.
The murders caused an outcry because they seemed to exemplify the divisions that still exist in India despite its economic miracle.
The killings took place in a wealthy Delhi suburb but the victims came from families that had migrated from the countryside. The families accused the police of ignoring their pleas for help in tracking down their missing children because they were poor.
They lived in a slum, Nithari, which backed onto the house. The children were allegedly lured to their deaths by Koli, who offered them sweets and chocolate.
He confessed in court to cannibalism and necrophilia.
When the crimes emerged, these details were not known and when I first visited Nithari what struck me most was the community’s anger at the authorities.
Four years on, it is still strong.
“Justice hasn’t yet been done and the truth still hasn’t come out.”
Pappu Lal Father of one of the victims
“We haven’t seen justice yet, they should have let us deal with the two men,” Seema, a tea seller, said.
One of the first girls to disappear was Rachna, an eight year old. Her father Pappu Lal is the caretaker of a house three doors up from D5. Every day he walks past the scene of his child’s murder.
“Yes today we’re still angry. Whenever I think about my child I feel so sorry, I feel like crying. And whenever I see D5 I feel like burning it down,” he said.
“Justice hasn’t yet been done and the truth still hasn’t come out.”
Pappu Lal shares the widely held view in Nithari that the police and courts are covering up a conspiracy.
“We don’t believe that one man can have done it all by himself. Evidence has been destroyed. But we are poor. How can we influence the courts?”
When the children started disappearing, the families asked a local social activist, Ushaa Thakur, to help them with the police.
But she says they were just not interested.
“The police said the girls had just run off with some boy, or gone to some village. They asked me why I was bothering with such matters.”
“India is in a very miserable state. People are just not bothered.”
Ushaa Thakur Local social activist
After the first corpses were discovered the residents became so furious that they attacked the police. A senior officer denied to me at the time that they had ignored the complaints, but later six policemen were suspended.
According to Ushaa Thakur, the case reflects extremely badly on her country.
“India is in a very miserable state. People are just not bothered, and even if they are, they don’t want to waste time on such things, on poor people, on the people who are crying,” she said.
But at least the killings forced politicians and the police to promise to do more about the scandal of India’s missing children.
A recent report found that about 60,000 disappear across the country every year. In the capital the number is five a day. Most are forced into illegal work.
According to Kailash Satyarthi of Global March, a child rights NGO, nothing has yet improved.
“As we all know, the mass memory, the public memory, is very short. For a few months after Nithari there was a lot of hue and cry but then it slowed down,” he told me.
“We have warned the government that children might be taken away and their organs could be sold or they could be killed, and that this could happen with many, many children.”
The Nithari killings were especially gruesome but they highlighted issues that are all too common in India – the inequality, the failings of the police and the sad fate of so many its children.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Philip Hammond: “We know much more about the composition, direction and size of the plume than we did last year”
A volcanic ash cloud from Iceland is expected to reach parts of the UK by the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Met Office has said.
It does not mean there will definitely be airspace closures but makes flight disruption more likely, it said.
The Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland is experiencing its largest eruption in 100 years.
The event comes a year after ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano spread across Europe, causing huge disruption.
The Met Office, which runs Europe’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, earlier said there was more uncertainty over this eruption because weather was much more changeable.
The prediction then was for the possibility of ash reaching the UK towards the end of the week.
Icelandic air traffic control has created a no-fly zone around the volcano, closed Keflavik airport, the country’s main hub, and cancelled all domestic flights.
The Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland has sent a plume of smoke 12 miles into the air The Grimsvotn volcano, which lies beneath the ice of the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in south-east Iceland, began erupting on Saturday.
University of Iceland geophysicist Pall Einarsson said the eruption was on a different scale to the one in Iceland last year.
“It is not likely to be anything on the scale that was produced last year when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted,” he said.
“That was an unusual volcano, an unusual ash size distribution and unusual weather pattern, which all conspired together to make life difficult in Europe.”
The ash particles from this eruption are said to be larger than last year, and as a result fall to the ground more quickly.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Why the Church of Scotland voted to allow gay ministers
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.