Aktivität des Vulkans Eyjafjalla verstärkt: Aschewolke dringt weiter nach Süden – Herausforderung für Meteorologen
Bild: NZZ Online
NZZ ONLINE: Der Eyjafjalla spuckt weiter grosse Mengen von Asche aus. Regen – und damit ein «Auswaschen» der Luft – ist nicht in Sicht. Die Meteorologen stehen vor einem Problem: Es gibt nur wenige Messdaten zur Beurteilung der Lage.

Die Aktivität des isländischen Vulkans Eyjafjallajökull hat nach Angaben eines Geologen an Intensität zugenommen. Eine Aschewolke stieg nach Angaben von Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson von der Universität von Island 8,5 Kilometer weit in die Höhe. Der Wind habe die Sicht am Vulkan verbessert, so dass sich Wissenschaftler am Samstag erstmals aus der Luft ein Bild von der aktuellen Lage machen könnten.

Wenn festgestellt werden könne, wie viel Eis geschmolzen sei, könnten bessere Prognosen darüber erstellt werden, wie lange der Ausbruch anhalten werde, sagte Gudmundsson. So lange noch ausreichend Eis vorhanden sei, könnten sich weitere Aschewolken bilden. Der Flugverkehr würde damit noch längere Zeit behindert. >>> ddp/afp/Reuters/sda | Samstag, 17. April 2010

NZZ ONLINE: Vulkan auf Island soll noch tagelang spucken: Klebrige Aschewolke gefährdet Flugzeuge in ganz Nordeuropa >>> Alois Feusi | Donnerstag, 15. April 2010

NZZ ONLINE: Aschewolke über Europa wird nicht so schnell verschwinden: Isländischer Vulkan vermutlich noch mehrere Tage aktiv >>> sda/Reuters | Freitag, 16. April 2010

Travel Plans Go Up in Smoke

Iceland's New Poor Line Up for Food
THE TELEGRAPH: "I don't tell my children where I get the food, I'm too ashamed," said Iris Aegisdottir, an Icelander who has been going to a food bank every week for a year to feed her three children.

Protesters outside the Icelandic parliament in Reykjavik demand that the government do more to improve conditions for the recently poor. Photograph: The Telegraph
The crisis that brought down Iceland's economy in late 2008 threw thousands of formerly well-off families into poverty, forcing people like Iris to turn to charity to survive.

Each week, up to 550 families queue up at a small white brick warehouse in Reykjavik to receive free food from the Icelandic Aid to Families organisation, three times more than before the crisis.

Rutur Jonsson, a 65-year-old retired mechanical engineer, and his fellow volunteers spend their days distributing milk, bread, eggs and canned food donated by businesses and individuals or bought in bulk at the supermarket.

"I have time to spend on others and that's the best thing I think I can do," he said as he pre-packed grocery bags full of produce.

In a small, close-knit country of just 317,000 people, where everyone knows everyone, the stigma of accepting a hand-out is hard to live down and of the dozens of people waiting outside the food bank in the snow on a dreary March afternoon, Iris is the only one willing to talk.

"It was very difficult for me to come here in the beginning. But now I try not to care so much anymore," said the weary-looking 41 year-old, who lost her job in a pharmacy last summer, as she wrung her hands nervously.

The contrast is brutal with the ostentatious wealth that was on display across the island just two years ago, as a hyperactive banking sector flooded the small, formerly fishing-based economy with fast cash.

Back then, the biggest worry for many Icelanders was who had the nicest SUV, or the most opulent flat.

But today visible signs of poverty are quickly multiplying in the Nordic island nation, despite its generous welfare state, as the middle class is increasingly hit by unemployment, which is up from one to nine per cent in about a year, and a large number of defaults on mortgages. >>> Marc Preel, in Reykjavik for AFP | Thursday, April 08, 2010

Read more on Iceland >>>

Hundreds Flee As Volcano Erupts In Iceland
YAHOO! NEWS UK / SKY NEWS: A volcano has erupted in the south of Iceland forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes.

The Eyjafjallajokull glacier, the island's fifth largest, started to spew smoke and lava from several craters along a rift popular with hikers.

Police declared a state of emergency and sent rescue teams to evacuate about 500 people living near the site.
No injuries or damage to property have been reported.

Three Red Cross care centres were opened in nearby villages to help the evacuees. >>> | Sunday, March 21, 2010

Iceland Votes on Bailout


NZZ ONLINE: Isländer stimmen über Milliarden-Zahlungen ab: Nein zum Abkommen mit Grossbritannien und den Niederlanden erwartet >>> sda/dpa | Samstag, 06. März 2010

David Miliband Defies the Prime Minister by Assuring Iceland Its £2.3bn Debt Repayment Vote Will Not Affect EU Bid
MAIL ONLINE: David Miliband has assured Iceland that its president's decision to veto the repayment of billions of pounds owed to Britain will not affect its bid to join the EU.

The comments by the Foreign Secretary directly contradict those of Gordon Brown who has threatened serious consequences if the money does not enter Treasury coffers.

On Tuesday, Iceland's president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson called a referendum on a law to return £2.3billion owed to Britain to cover the bail-out of more than 200,000 savers in the collapsed online bank Icesave.

Icelandic voters are expected to reject the scheme.

Today Iceland's foreign minister said he had been assured by Mr Miliband that a presidential rejection of the so-called Icesave bill would not torpedo Iceland's EU bid. >>> Daniel Martin | Friday, Januar 08, 2010

Britain Threatens to Freeze Iceland Out of EU as Loan Payback Vetoed
TIMES ONLINE: Britain warned Iceland that it would be frozen out of the European Union after its President abruptly vetoed the repayment of a £3.6 billion loan.

The Treasury expected Reykjavik to rubberstamp the terms of repayment for the loan extended by Britain and the Netherlands at the height of the financial crisis. The loan meant that 400,000 savers with deposits in Icesave did not lose their money.

President Ólafur Grimsson stunned the world’s financial community by refusing to sign the repayment schedule into law. Instead, he said that the matter would be decided in a referendum among Iceland’s 243,000 voters.

The decision threatened to bring down the Icelandic Government, took its financial system to the brink of collapse and sparked the worst row with Britain since the Cod Wars of the 1970s. Fitch, the international rating agency, downgraded Iceland’s credit rating to junk status.

Lord Myners, the financial services minister, said that if the decision was allowed to stand Iceland would be frozen out of the international financial system and would not be able to join the European Union. >>> Suzy Jagger and Jill Sherman | Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Iceland: Hook, Line and Sunk
Watch Journeyman Pictures video here

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Iceland to Be Fast-tracked into the EU
Plan for cash-strapped state to become member by 2011
Iceland will be put on a fast track to joining the European Union to rescue the small Arctic state from financial collapse amid rising expectations that it will apply for membership within months, senior policy-makers in Brussels and Reykjavik have told the Guardian.

The European commission is preparing itself for a membership bid, depending on the outcome of a snap general election expected in May. An application would be viewed very favourably in Brussels and the negotiations, which normally take many years, would be fast-forwarded to make Iceland the EU's 29th member in record time, probably in 2011.

Olli Rehn, the European commissioner in charge of enlargement, said: "The EU prefers two countries joining at the same time rather than individually. If Iceland applies shortly and the negotiations are rapid, Croatia and Iceland could join the EU in parallel. On Iceland, I hope I will be busier. It is one of the oldest democracies in the world and its strategic and economic positions would be an asset to the EU."

Rehn's support for swift Icelandic membership was echoed by senior European diplomats in Brussels. "We would like to see Iceland join the EU," said one. The current and next holders of the EU presidency, the Czechs and then the Swedes, are also strong supporters of EU enlargement and will deploy their agenda-setting powers to help Iceland. >>> Ian Traynor in Brussels, additional reporting by Valur Gunnarsson in Reykjavik | Friday, January 30, 2009

Listen to audio: Iceland into EU: 'A society that has hit the rails and the currency has been wrecked' – Ian Traynor on fast-tracking Iceland into the EU and the euro >>>

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Iceland Set to Appoint World's First Lesbian Prime Minister
Photo of Johanna Sigurdottir, the world’s first lesbian prime minister, courtesy of Mail Online
MAIL Online: Iceland is set to appoint the world's first openly gay woman as interim prime minister - a former flight attendant who rose through the political ranks to become a cabinet minister.

Johanna Sigurdardottir, the island nation's 66-year-old social affairs minister, is the pick of the Social Democratic Alliance Party to lead an interim government.

Iceland's conservative-led government failed on Monday, after the country's banks collapsed under the weight of huge debts amassed during years of rapid economic growth. The country's currency has plummeted, while inflation and unemployment are soaring.

Sigurdardottir's appointment is expected to be confirmed within days by the new ruling coalition of the Alliance party and the Left-Green movement. She would lead Iceland until general elections, expected in May.

'She is a senior parliamentarian, she is respected and loved by all of Iceland,' said Environment Minister Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir, a fellow Alliance party member.

But conservative critics say her leftist political leanings are not going to help fix the economy.

'Johanna is a very good woman - but she likes public spending, she is a tax raiser,' said Geir Haarde, who quit as prime minister Monday, partly for health reasons.

Sigurdardottir faces the difficult task of repairing the nation's shattered economy and rebuilding public trust in government. Icelanders are deeply angry at their government for not reining in the country's banks and leading the once-prosperous nation into an economic nightmare. >>> | Daily Mail Reporter | Wednesday, January 28, 2009

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