Scotland flights cancelled over volcanic ash cloud risk
Aer Lingus and Ryanair have cancelled a number of flights to and from Scotland today due to the risk posed by a fresh outbreak of volcanic ash from Iceland.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) this morning said there will be no closures in Irish airspace, however, based on the latest data from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London.
Although all Irish airports remain open, the IAA said some services may be affected by restrictions imposed by other European service providers, and it advised passengers to regularly check airline websites.
Aer Lingus last night cancelled 12 flights to and from Scotland today.
The cancellations were announced in spite of earlier assurances by the IAA that no flight disruptions were likely for at least 48 hours following the volcanic eruption at Grimsvötn in southeastern Iceland.
Aer Lingus said that it had no choice but to cancel its services to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen because forecasters were predicting that ash from the eruption on Saturday would encroach on Scottish airspace throughout today. It said none of its other flights were affected.
Ryanair has cancelled flights to and from Glasgow Prestwick, Edinburgh and Aberdeen until at least 1pm today.
The company said the move came on advice from the IAA, and that it "strongly objected" to the cancellations as it believed there is "no basis" for them.
Last night Ryanair said it did not expect any airspace closures or disruption to its schedules, although it advised intending passengers to check its website for updates.
The British government said today the ash would not lead to the total shutdown of airspace despite the cancellation of dozens of flights to and from Scotland.
Scientists have described the eruption as the largest at the volcano for 100 years but said disruption on the same scale as that which followed the eruption at Eyjafjallajökull last year was unlikely.
Before Aer Lingus announced the cancellations, the aviation authority had warned that there was a risk some ash cloud could reach parts of northern Europe by today. While it did not expect any flight cancellations today or tomorrow, it stressed that the situation was “fluid” and said that things could change later in the week.
“We don’t believe there will be any kind of disruption in the next 48 hours,” said Martin Towey, the authority’s senior aviation executive.
The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London said the ash would reach Ireland by 6am today and warned airlines across Europe to prepare for possible disruption to flight schedules by the end of the week.
“This is a very different situation to last April,” a spokesman for the centre said. “The weather is much more changeable and there’s a lot more uncertainty. There’s no risk of the ash moving across the UK in the next day or so. But there is a possibility that we’ll see some volcanic ash towards the end of the week.”
The EU Commission said the eruption of the Grimsvötn volcano could affect Irish and British airspace but said it was too early to tell whether the airspace over other European countries might be affected.
The unexpected threat to air travel was reflected in the decision of the White House to bring forward President Barack Obama’s departure from Ireland to Britain last night to avoid the ash plume.
As European regulators scrambled yesterday to avoid any repeat of the disruption last year which led to the cancellation of 100,000 flights in the wake of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, the commission said the authorities were in a better position than a year ago to deal with the challenge.
“Volcanos don’t obey any rules and this is a situation that is evolving by the hour. What is clear however is that one year on, lessons have been learnt,” said transport commissioner Slim Kallas.
“As the situation evolves, this may still prove to be a very challenging week for passengers and the aviation sector, but there are new tools in place that allow for a more precise risk assessment to avoid, in so far as possible, closure of European airspace whilst ensuring safety.”
Thanks to a new approach adopted during the Eyjafjallajökull crisis to the assessment of the risk from volcanic eruptions, it is open to airlines themselves to decide if they fly in ash-contaminated areas on the basis of a safety risk assessment from national supervisors.
Although the commission says this is a “much more precise” way of avoiding the closure of airspace while ensuring safety, the spokeswoman for Mr Kallas said there was a clear possibility that Irish airspace could be affected.
The risk was also stressed by the Eurocontrol, the umbrella organisation for European flight control bodies. Regulators, airlines and airports held an emergency meeting yesterday to assess the threat from Grimsvötn.
Obama begins UK state visit
US president Barack Obama arrived in Britain last night for a three-day state visit, declaring the relationship between the two countries as “an essential relationship for us and for the world”.
The US leader flew into Stansted airport from Ireland ahead of schedule last night to avoid the possibility of disruption to air travel from the ash cloud from an erupting Icelandic volcano.
He had been due to fly from Ireland on board Air Force One this morning to be greeted at the Essex airport by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
But the decision was taken to bring forward the visit after the announcement of cancellations to some UK commercial flights due to the ash billowing from the Grimsvotn volcano - with more disruption expected in the days to come.
The state visit - only the third by a US president to the United Kingdom in 100 years - comes at a time of close co-operation between Britain and America on issues ranging from Libya to Afghanistan, counter-terrorism and the Middle East peace process.
This strong partnership was reflected in a joint article written by Mr Obama and British prime minister David Cameron for the London Times , in which they declare: “Ours is not just a special relationship, it is an essential relationship - for us and for the world.”
After his early arrival, Mr Obama was spending the night in the US ambassador’s residence in London, Winfield House in Regent’s Park.
Today they Obamas will view the royal picture gallery before a wreath-laying visit to Westminster Abbey and a state banquet in the evening. The couple will stay as guests of the Queen at Buckingham Palace tonight and tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be devoted to politics, with talks between Mr Obama and Mr Cameron at 10 Downing Street, followed by an address to both Houses of Parliament, in which the president is expected to say that the US has no closer ally in the world than Britain.
In their joint Times article, Mr Obama and Mr Cameron put the transatlantic partnership at the heart of the drive for global stability and prosperity.
“When the United States and Britain stand together, our people and people around the world can become more secure and more prosperous,” they wrote.
“And that is the key to our relationship. Yes, it is founded on a deep emotional connection, by sentiment and ties of people and culture. But the reason it thrives, the reason why this is such a natural partnership, is because it advances our common interests and shared values."
Mr Obama is due to travel on to France on Thursday morning for the G8 summit of leading industrialised nations in Deauville, also being attended by Mr Cameron.
All parties got what they wanted despite brevity of visit
The good nature and overall warmth of Obama’s one-day trip was great for Ireland, for the US and possibly for his future re-election
BOTH SIDES got what they wanted. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle manifestly had a good time. The images of smiling Irish eyes, the US leader kissing babies, meeting his cousins and downing a pint of Guinness were sure to warm Irish-American hearts.
If there was something disproportionate, it was the amount of importance attached to it; enormous for Ireland, positive but fleeting for the US. For a day, Ireland was the centre of the universe. President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Enda Kenny were elevated to the rank of world leaders hosting the world leader. Irish spirits soared. Bord Fáilte got the best free advertising.
At Buckingham Palace today, Dublin and Moneygall will be a happy memory for Obama. For the White House, his day in Ireland was a feelgood fun-fest, a lark. US ambassador Dan Rooney, who had been pressing him to visit Ireland for years, said last month he wanted Obama to have a good time, a moment of relaxation, to steel himself for the hard work to follow.
The admiration for little Ireland “punching above its weight” as the president put it, for its courage, and the talent of its writers, was genuine. America’s friendship with Ireland has never faltered. The rest of this week – convincing other Europeans they are not unloved and neglected, and must stay the course in Afghanistan – will be more of a challenge. As Mr Obama said on St Patrick’s Day in 2010, “In recent years, it’s become cool to be Irish.” US officials look scandalised if one is so cynical as to suggest the president was in re-election mode. But yesterday’s visit might sway a vote or two, a campaign contributor, among those tens of millions of Irish Americans.
There was another, unstated advantage in reminding America Obama is also of white, European extraction. By producing his long-form birth certificate last month and disposing of Osama bin Laden, Obama put paid – at least temporarily – to the “birther” conspiracy theory. His Irish roots are another nail in that coffin.
According to a new biography of Stanley Anne Dunham, Obama’s mother felt hurt he chose to identify so completely with the African-American community, when he’d been raised by her (white) side of the family. By making the pilgrimage to Moneygall, Obama acknowledged his Caucasian roots. Obama has an almost Irish love of symbolism. Not by chance, the Irish Embassy in Washington gave US journalists a copy of the speeches made during John F Kennedy’s historic visit in June 1963.
The image of a young, handsome and popular American leader speaking to Irish crowds in thrall had resonance. Just as Kennedy boasted in New Ross of returning 115 years after his ancestors left Co Wexford, Obama has retraced the journey made by Fulmouth Kearney 166 years ago.
Every gesture seemed pregnant with meaning. Of the three Irish children who rang the Peace Bell at the Áras, one was of African origin, one a Traveller. The frame for the bell was carved from two trees, one from the North, the other from the Republic. The president shoved earth on to the roots of an Irish oak that will be moved to a permanent place near a tree planted by John F Kennedy.
Although Mr Obama didn’t make it to Glasnevin Cemetery, he paid ample homage to Daniel O’Connell and Frederick Douglass, “America’s Black O’Connell”, in his speech.
He greatly admires Douglass, who like him was 6ft 4in tall. Both had one black parent, one white, and both were abandoned by their fathers. Both revolutionised the way the US views African Americans.
A resin copy of a statue of Douglass was moved into Farmleigh for the meeting between Kenny and Obama. The sculptor, Andrew Edwards, modelled the statue’s outstretched hand after the hand of Obama. The Irish and American leaders were photographed standing beside Frederick Douglass. Don Mullan and Kristin Leary, who campaigned for Obama to commemorate Douglass on the visit, also got what they wanted.
International News
Taliban and Pakistan reject speculation Mullah Omar is dead
Kabul, Afghanistan The Afghan Taliban forcefully denied reports Monday that their leader is dead, dismissing them as "claims and rumors" from the "Kabul stooge regime's intelligence directorate."
Mullah Mohammed Omar "is alive and well and is leading the Mujahideen in all aspects while living safely with reliance on Allah," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
His statement came after suggestions that Omar might have been killed recently.
A spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said Monday that Omar has disappeared in the past five days.
Lutfullah Mashal said he "hopes" Omar is dead but cannot confirm it.
"So far, we cannot confirm the death or killing of Mullah Omar officially. But we can confirm that he has been disappeared from his hideout in Quetta, Baluchistan" in Pakistan, he said.
"Our sources and senior Taliban members confirm that they can't contact him," Mashal said, adding that Omar had been living in Quetta for 10 years.
Taliban spokesman Mujahid said they "strongly reject these false claims of the enemy" and urged "our fellow countrymen, Mujahideen and the rest of the Muslims not to believe these intelligence lies and false reports."
Pakistan's Interior Rehman Malik also denied that Omar was dead, saying in a news conference that the claims were "baseless."
An official with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force told CNN there was no indication the rumor was true.
A former top Pakistani intelligence official called the reports "nonsense" and "disinformation," but then said he had no idea whether the Taliban leader is alive or dead.
"How should I know? I'm not concerned with it," Gen. Hamid Gul said on IBN television.
The original news report suggesting Monday that Omar was dead, by Afghanistan's TOLOnews, quoted NDS spokesman Meshal as saying that Gul was moving him when he was killed.
"Am I supposed to be transporting him from Quetta to Waziristan? It's nonsense," he said by telephone from Islamabad.
Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency is thought to have had strong links with the Afghan Taliban over the years.
Omar was a rural Islamic cleric when became a leader of a group of students -- or "taliban" -- who took over Afghanistan in the early 1990s and established a hard-line Islamic fundamentalist regime that gave shelter to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network.
U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden on May 2 in Pakistan, nearly a decade after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The United States led an invasion of Afghanistan soon after the attacks, toppling Omar's Taliban and sending bin Laden into hiding.
The reclusive Omar refused to be photographed or filmed and rarely traveled. He infrequently gave interviews and was thought to have met only two non-Muslims in recent years.
Nonetheless what Omar said passed as law when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, and to challenge him was unknown.
The "commander of the faithful," as he had become known, created the Taliban in the early 1990s and was their spiritual guide.
Those who had met him said he cast an imposing figure -- bearded with a black turban and one eye stitched shut; the result of a wound sustained during a gunfight with Soviet troops during their occupation of Afghanistan.
In the wake of the Soviet withdrawal, Omar created the Taliban to overcome what he saw as Afghanistan's descent into a lawlessness landscape dominated by warlords.
His recruits came from the Islamic schools within Afghanistan and in the Afghan refugee camps across the border in Pakistan. Driven largely by faith, they swept across the country.
Before the final assault on Kabul in 1996, Omar entered Kandahar's grand mosque and took out a rarely seen holy cloth thought once to have been carried by the Prophet Mohammed.
Waving it from a rooftop he received an ecstatic response from his Taliban foot soldiers.
Inspired by religious fervor, they moved on to take Kabul within a matter of days, bolstering Omar's belief in his spiritual destiny.
With most of the country under Taliban control, he set himself the goal of transforming Afghanistan into the purest Islamic state in the world, declaring himself Amir-ul-Momineen, or head of the Muslims.
While many ordinary Afghans disagreed with his hardline interpretation of Islam, others were willing to endure the Taliban's excesses in exchange for the relative peace they brought to the territory they controlled.
In building the perfect Islamic state, though, he had little regard for the concerns of the outside world.
Public executions and amputations were common and the Taliban's treatment of women attracted much international condemnation.
In 2001, he rejected pressure from around the world -- including from many Muslim countries -- not to go ahead with plans to demolish two ancient statues of the Buddha carved into cliffs near the town of Bamiyan.
The statues, described by many as world-class cultural relics, were blown to bits.
Mullah Omar dismissed the global outcry, saying the statues' destruction was merely "breaking stones."
Omar vanished after a U.S.-led coalition booted the Taliban and its leaders from power in Afghanistan in December 2001 for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 terror attacks.
His appearance remained a mystery to many, and that presented a challenge to those on his trail, according to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"If I come across him tomorrow in the streets of Kabul or Kandahar or Herat or Mazar in Afghanistan, I would not recognize him," Karzai told CNN in 2003. "How would you arrest someone that you don't know how he looks?"
The Taliban, citing ultra-orthodox views of Islam, outlawed photographs of people, saying making any image of a human being was forbidden by the Quran.
But intelligence agencies argued that another key purpose of that move was this: If the leaders of the Taliban could keep anyone from taking their pictures, it would be very hard to track them down or prove they were the men in charge during the Taliban's most brutal and repressive days.
The U.S. government offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his capture. Many in the U.S. intelligence community believed he was holed up in or near Quetta, a city of 1 million people that is the capital of Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan. Pakistan has consistently dismissed those claims.
Occasionally, the elusive leader would release a written message to reiterate that the Taliban had not given up its fight to regain control of Afghanistan from American and NATO troops.
The battle "is forging ahead like a powerful flood" and "is approaching the edge of victory," said one such online message in 2009.