Icelandic volcano forced airports in Ireland to close for a fourth day

SHANNON, Ireland, May 7 Ash drifting from an Icelandic volcano forced airports in Ireland to close for a fourth day Friday, disrupting plans for thousands of air travelers.Airports in Shannon, Sligo, Knock, Gal way, Donegal and Kerry were temporarily closed because of a huge ash cloud drifting from recent activity in Eyjafjallajoekull volcano, CNN reported.”The restrictions are required as the increased level of recent volcanic activity has created a massive ash cloud stretching 1,000 miles long and 700 miles wide,” the Irish Aviation Authority said.

Northerly winds were keeping most of the ash cloud over the Atlantic Ocean, the IAA statement said, but the size of the cloud has increased and “is encroaching on Irish airspace along the west coast of Ireland.”Airports in Ireland, Northern Ireland and western Scotland were closed earlier this week because of the ash. Last month, ash from the volcanic eruption disrupted European air travel for six days.

Euro control, Europe’s air traffic management agency, said the ash accumulation poses a new navigational obstacle because the cloud is climbing to 35,000 feet into the typical cruising altitude of transatlantic aircraft, The Daily Telegraph reported. Until recently, the ash was below 20,000 feet.Euro control said Thursday it would reroute flights between Europe and North America to avoid flying over the ash cloud off Ireland’s west coast.(UPI)

Sony Corp is bringing baseball to America's living rooms on its PlayStation 3 video game console

Sony Corp is bringing baseball to America’s living rooms on its PlayStation 3 video game console, ratcheting up the competition in the race to become the digital hub of the home.Sony not only ups the ante in its rivalry with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, but also positions itself as something of a challenger to cable companies and satellite television providers that have long been broadcasting sports to viewers in the United States.”This is one of the biggest deals we’re bringing to the PS3, and it won’t be the last one, there’s lots of conversations going on,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Sony, which has an installed base of 12 million PS3 consoles in the United States, will offer games in high-definition through Major League Baseball’s MLB.TV, an Internet subscription service that is already available on computers and smartphones.MLB charges $25 a month, or $120 a year, for a premium subscription.Sony designed a custom interface for the offering, and users can scroll through live-streaming or archived games. The PS3 provides the functionality of a digital video recorder, allowing viewers to pause, fast-forward and rewind, and to jump to a particular inning in any game on the schedule.

However, users will not be able to watch live games of teams in their local market, which are subject to local blackout rules.PS3 users will need to be subscribers to the free PlayStation Network (PSN) to access MLB.TV. PSN has 20 million members in North America.

Sony and Microsoft have been duking it out to control entertainment in the living room beyond games, offering movies, shows and videos through their subscriber networks, PSN and Xbox Live.Both offer streaming movies through Netflix, and have been hunting for deals that can help transform their gaming consoles into one-stop-shops for content.”We’re excited about bringing MLB onto the console this is something you can’t find on any other console,” Dille said.

In Europe, Microsoft has struck deals with Vivendi unit Canal Plus and British pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB to provide content through the console, including soccer matches.Sony’s PS3 has trailed Nintendo’s Wii, the market leader, and the Xbox in the U.S. market, although the PS3 has generated momentum since a price cut to $299 last year.MLB.TV is also available on the Roku set-top box and through media provider Boxee.(Reuters)

74 bison from Yellowstone National Park to go to billionaire Ted Turner's private ranch

bison

BILLINGS, Mont.- The head of Montana’s wildlife agency has given preliminary approval to a plan calling for 74 bison from Yellowstone National Park to go to billionaire Ted Turner’s private ranch.

Officials hope to eventually use the bison to establish new herds on public lands. But conservationists see the move as privatizing Montana wildlife.The bison have been held in federal quarantine for the past several years to make sure they don’t have the animal disease brucellosis.Turner offered to hold them for five years – the duration of the quarantine program – in exchange for keeping 90 percent of their offspring. That could amount to about 190 animals to offset his costs.The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the quarantine in Corwin Springs, Mont., also opposes the move.Bison, or buffalo, once numbered in the millions across North America but were driven to near extinction.

Turner Enterprises general manager Russell Miller said Ted Turner stepped in after Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer asked if he would consider submitting a proposal for the animals.Turner wanted to help the state after prior efforts to relocate the Yellowstone bison had failed, Miller said.”I see this as a perfect blend between conservation for the public good and privatization to recoup the costs,” Miller said.It would cost about $480,000 to tend to the animals over the five years, he said.Ken McDonald with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks said the animals could be moved to Turner’s sprawling Flying D Ranch by late February.An environmental study must be done first, then the department would open the plan to comment for 30 days.Officials recommended the moved last month. Final approval must be given by Fish Wildlife and Parks chief Joe Maurier.

Turner already owns about 50,000 bison, most domesticated, on ranches throughout the West. His restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill serves buffalo burgers, although Miller has said the Yellowstone bison are prized for their pure genetics, not their meat.The animals would be kept on a 12,000-acre parcel within the billionaire’s 113,000-acre ranch south of Bozeman.State officials were initially reluctant to put the animals on private land. But McDonald said the bison faced possible slaughter if no home was found.”They need to get moved out of that facility,” he said.Fourteen more of the animals would be shipped to Guernsey State Park in southeastern Wyoming and kept on about 1,500 acres, said state park administrator Dominic Bravo. He said their offspring could be distributed to other state parks or interested public landowners.”For us, the opportunity to have Yellowstone’s pure genetics would be great,” Bravo said. He said the herd would likely double in size over the next five years.The bison have been tested extensively for brucellosis, a disease carried by many of Yellowstone’s wildlife that can be transmitted to cattle and cause premature abortions.Fears over the disease helped sink an earlier attempt to move the quarantined animals to Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation.(AP)