17,000 flights were expected to be canceled on Friday due to the dangers posed for a second day by volcanic ash from Iceland

A huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano spread out across Europe on Friday causing air travel chaos on a scale not seen since the September 11 attacks.About 17,000 flights were expected to be canceled on Friday due to the dangers posed for a second day by volcanic ash from Iceland, aviation officials said. Airports in Britain, France, Germany, and across Europe were closed until at least Saturday.”I would think Europe was probably experiencing its greatest disruption to air travel since 9/11,” said a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, Britain’s aviation regulator.”In terms of closure of airspace, this is worse than after 9/11. The disruption is probably larger than anything we’ve probably seen.”

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York, U.S. airspace was closed for three days and European airlines were forced to halt all transatlantic services.

Vulcanologists say the ash could cause problems to air traffic for up to 6 months if the eruption continues, but even if it is short-lived the financial impact on airlines could be significant.The fallout hit airlines’ shares on Friday with Lufthansa, British Airways, Air Berlin, Air France-KLM, Iberia and Ryanair down between 0.8 and 2.2 percent.The International Air Transport Association said only days ago that airlines were just coming out of recession.

“LIMITED COMMERCIAL SIGNIFICANCE”

The flight cancellations would cost carriers such as British Airways and Lufthansa about 10 million pounds ($16.04 million) a day, transport analyst Douglas McNeill said.

“To lose that sum of money isn’t a very pleasant experience but it’s of limited commercial significance as well,” he told BBC TV. “A couple of days like this won’t matter too much. If it goes on for weeks, that’s a different story.”The volcano began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, hurling a plume of ash 6 to 11 km (4 to 7 miles) into the atmosphere.Officials said it was still spewing magma and although the eruption could abate in the coming days, ash would continue drifting into the skies of Europe.

Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of glass and pulverized rock that can damage engines and airframes.

In 1982 a British Airways jumbo jet lost power in all its engines when it flew into an ash cloud over Indonesia, gliding toward the ground before it was able to restart its engines.The incident prompted the aviation industry to rethink the way it prepared for ash clouds.

Of the 28,000 flights that usually travel through European airspace on an average day, European aviation control agency Eurocontrol said it expected only 11,000 to operate on Friday while only about a third of transatlantic flights were arriving.The British Meteorological Office showed the cloud drifting south and west over Europe. Eurocontrol warned problems would continue for at least another 24 hours and an aviation expert at the World Meteorological Organization said it was impossible to say when flights would resume.”We can only predict the time that flights will resume after the eruption has stopped, but for as long as the eruption is still going on and still leading to a significant eruption, we cannot say,” said Scylla Sillayo, a senior official in the WMO’s aeronautical meteorology unit.

AIRSPACE CLOSED

Britain’s air traffic control body said all English airspace would be closed until 8 p.m. EDT on Friday although certain flights from Northern Ireland and Scottish airports were being allowed to take off until 1800 GMT.”When the experts give us the all-clear we’ll get the operation back up and running,” Paul Haskins, head of safety at National Air Traffic Service, told BBC radio.

There were no flights from London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, which handles some 180,000 passengers a day, while officials at Germany’s Frankfurt airport, Europe’s second busiest, said flights would be suspended from 2 a.m. EDT.Around 2,000 people slept overnight at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, a spokeswoman said, adding they did not expect airspace in the Netherlands to reopen soon.

Eurocontrol said airspace was closed over Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, the north of the Czech Republic, northern France including all Paris airports, and at airports in northern Germany, Austria and parts of Poland.

Polish officials said if the disruption continued, it might force a delay in Sunday’s funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife who were killed in a plane crash last Saturday.Airlines across Asia and the Middle East have also canceled or delayed flights to most European destinations.

However, as the ash plume drifted south over Europe, Irish officials said most of the airspace over Ireland had reopened.The air problems have proved a boon for rail companies. All 58 Eurostar trains between Britain and Europe were operating full, carrying some 46,500 passengers, and a spokeswoman said they would consider adding services if problems persisted.(Reuters)

Maria Sharapova won the tournament with Memphis Open

Memphis  Maria Sharapova redeem the bad performance in the Australian Open last month won the tournament with Memphis Open. This was Sharapova’s first title this year.Playing against players qualifying from Sweden, Sofia Arvidsson, at the Racquet Club of Memphis, Sunday (21/2/2010) WIT, Sharapova needed just 66 minutes to win 6-2, 6-1.The tournament in Memphis is the prime Sharapova tournament after disappointing results in Australia where he lost in the first round of compatriot Maria Kirilenko.

“Coming here, I just want to play and I play five times and I became champion. So, I’m obviously happy,” Sharapova delighted after action reported.”I feel my game has been consistent throughout this week and has acted correctly when facing opponents. This is a good week,” said the first seed.

This result also catapulted Sharapova of 16 world rankings to 13th at the WTA rankings updated rankings announced on Monday (22 / 2) tomorrow.

Sharapova never been knocked out of 100 of the world with 126 in the rankings after a shoulder injury suffered in February 2009. But after recovering, slowly rising and Sharapova finished last year ranked 14th.

“Little by little I went to the top of the game. The more games, more confident I can. From there, everything will return to his place and my instinct would be back,” Sharapova closed.

RAMALLAH, West Bank Israel to build 700 apartments in east Jerusalem

Israel 700 apartments

RAMALLAH, West Bank  Israel announced Monday it is building nearly 700 new apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to set up the capital of a future state. The U.S., Palestinians and the European Union condemned the plan, a fresh setback to American efforts to restart Mideast peace talks.The Palestinians have said they will not resume talks without an Israeli settlement freeze, and criticized what they said was another show of bad faith by Israel.”With each individual action it undertakes on the ground, Israel is saying no to meaningful negotiations,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, who is trying to find a formula for reviving negotiations, is due in Israel and the West Bank in the second week of January.White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the U.S. “opposes new Israeli construction in east Jerusalem” and that neither side should take steps that pre-empt the outcome of talks. He urged both sides to restart negotiations without preconditions.

Sweden, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, said Israel’s latest plans “prevent the creation of an atmosphere conducive to resuming negotiations on a two-state solution.”Israel insists the Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem are not settlements, but part of its own capital, a view disputed by the international community.The plan announced Monday takes the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into new political territory, by initiating construction for Jews in east Jerusalem. Up to now, the government has been saying it was endorsing plans already in the pipeline. Israel’s Housing Ministry confirmed that the new construction bids are Netanyahu’s first in east Jerusalem.

A partition of Jerusalem – with Jewish neighborhoods going to Israel and Arab neighborhoods to a future Palestine – would likely be part of any peace deal. Palestinians say that with each expansion of Jewish areas, the Arab portion of the city is shrinking and partition becomes more difficult.Netanyahu said he was willing to get back to talks immediately, telling a group of Israeli ambassadors: “Israel wants peace.”

Israeli-Palestinian talks broke off a year ago. After coming to power nine months ago, Netanyahu withdrew key promises made to the Palestinians by his predecessor, including a willingness, in principle, to discuss the future of Jerusalem.About 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and another 180,000 in east Jerusalem, areas claimed by the Palestinians for their state. Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu agreed to slow new housing construction in the West Bank, though construction of more than 3,000 houses there continues.

The Israeli leader refuses to stop building in east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed. He says he will not cede any part of the city.Successive Israeli governments have put up sprawling Jewish neighborhoods around east Jerusalem, and Monday’s decision would build in three of them: Pisgat Zeev, Har Homa and Neve Yaakov.

Abbas insists on a total settlement construction freeze, including east Jerusalem, and also wants assurances that the pre-1967 war borders would serve as the basis for talks that would pick up where they left off under Netanyahu’s more moderate predecessor, Ehud Olmert.In those talks, Olmert and Abbas accepted the principle of swapping land – meaning Israel would retain some West Bank land to incorporate large Jewish settlements but compensate the Palestinians with Israeli land. However, the Palestinians did not accept the offer because they felt Israel wanted to hold on to too much land, and Netanyahu withdrew it.

Mitchell has been sounding out Israel about possible compromise, in hopes of getting the talks restarted, according to an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and former Israeli lawmaker Yossi Beilin.Beilin said Netanyahu has not accepted the idea of basing the talks on the borders before the 1967 war, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. Beilin, an architect of Israeli-Palestinian peace accords in the 1990s, remains in touch with government officials.

An Abbas aide said Mitchell is also talking to Israeli officials about possible goodwill gestures, such as releasing more Palestinian prisoners and expanding West Bank areas under full or partial Palestinian control. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the content of the meetings.

G.M. to Decide Saab’s Fate Next Week

DETROIT  General Motors said it could decide next week to close its Saab Automobile unit after the Swedish company that planned to buy the brand backed out.It was the third time in less than two months that a sale of a G.M. brand has been called off, reflecting the difficulty of selling underperforming divisions in the midst of a global sales slump.G.M. said on Tuesday that its board planned to determine next week what to do with Saab. Closing the brand, as G.M. initially planned to do if it could not find a buyer, is a strong possibility, two people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the board had not made its decision.

The other options for G.M. are to seek another buyer or keep Saab, though both those steps are considered less likely.

When Penske Automotive terminated its deal to buy Saturn in September, G.M. immediately announced that the brand and its dealerships would close.Koenigsegg, which agreed to buy Saab in June, issued a statement attributing its decision to G.M.’s moving too slowly.“The time factor has always been critical for our strategy to breathe new life into the company,” Koenigsegg said. “Unfortunately, delays in closing this acquisition have resulted in risks and uncertainties that prevent us from successfully implementing the new Saab business plan.”Officials at G.M, who were caught off-guard by the deal’s collapse, denied responsibility. “We negotiated in good faith and we met all our timing obligations under the agreement,” a G.M. spokeswoman, Renee Rashid-Merem, said.

“We’re obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase,” G.M.’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, said in a statement.Three weeks ago, G.M. backed out of a deal to sell its European operations, Adam Opel, to a Canadian parts supplier and Russian bank.It has a tentative deal to sell Hummer to a Chinese industrial machinery manufacturer, but the Chinese government has not given its approval.Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Company spent nearly a year shopping around its Swedish brand, Volvo, before entering into exclusive talks with the Chinese carmaker Geely last month.

John Casesa, an auto analyst with the firm Casesa Shapiro Group, said the collapse of the Saab and Saturn deals was more a symptom of the state of the automobile industry than of any missteps by G.M.“Saab is a weak brand in a market where there are no buyers,” Mr. Casesa said. “Car companies are in no mood to buy anything and financial sponsors aren’t able to buy anything. Saab wouldn’t be an easy sale in a good market.”Saab, which filed for bankruptcy protection in Sweden in February, has been a perennial money-loser and is among G.M.’s smallest brands, with sales of 93,000 vehicles worldwide last year.

It is on pace to sell fewer than 10,000 vehicles in the United States this year.Closing Saab would cost G.M. considerably less than it is spending to shut down Saturn, analysts said, and failing to sell Saab is not expected to affect G.M.’s post-bankruptcy recovery.G.M. paid $600 million for half of Saab in 1990 and $125 million for the rest in 2000. Terms of the deal with Koenigsegg have not been revealed, but it was contingent on $600 million of financing from the European Investment Bank and Swedish government guarantees.Joran Hagglund, the Swedish secretary of state for industry, said on Tuesday that it was too early to know if it was the end of the line for Saab, but he said that there was no chance of the government stepping in.David Jolly contributed reporting from Paris.