Airlines on alert as eruption begins

Airlines on alert as eruption begins

REYKJAVIK, Iceland

Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano burst forth with a small eruption Saturday under the ice of Europe’s largest glacier, scientists said, prompting the country to close airspace over the area.

Thousands of small earthquakes have rattled the volcano, located deep beneath the Vatnajokull glacier, in the last week. Icelandic Meteorological Office vulcanologist Melissa Pfeffer said Saturday that seismic data indicated that an eruption had begun, with magma from the volcano melting ice within the glacier’s Dyngjujokull icecap.

Officials say 6.4 quake rocks Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked the region around Valparaiso, Chile, on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage from the strong quake that occurred at 7:32 p.m., but electricity and telephone service was interrupted in some areas. Three aftershocks were registered in the area shortly thereafter.

Zoo celebrates panda’s 1st birthday

WASHINGTON

The National Zoo in Washington threw a party Saturday in honor of the first birthday of panda cub Bao Bao. To celebrate, the cub got a cake made from frozen fruit juice and other treats such as pears and apples. Bao Bao is only the second panda born at the zoo to survive to her first birthday.

The cub’s only sibling, brother Tai Shan, was born in 2005 and returned to China in 2010. Panda keeper Nicole MacCorkle says Bao Bao has been a different baby from her brother, including a little more stand-offish with keepers.

In the past year, she has grown from a wriggling pink newborn a little bigger than a stick of butter to a 44-pound black-and-white bundle whose favorite activity is sleeping in a tree.

Sierra Leone: Illegal to hide Ebola patients

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has passed a new law imposing possible jail time for anyone caught hiding an Ebola patient — a common practice that the World Health Organization believes has contributed to a major underestimation of the current outbreak.

The new law, passed Friday, imposes prison terms of up to two years for violators, said lawmaker Ansumana Jaiah Kaikai. It now goes for presidential approval.

A total of 2,615 infections and 1,427 deaths have been recorded in the Ebola outbreak now hitting West Africa, according to figures released Friday by the World Health Organization.

Aid trucks return to Russia from Ukraine

DONETSK, Russia

Hundreds of Russian aid trucks returned home from rebel-held eastern Ukraine on Saturday, highlighting a dire need for long-term assistance to the region where homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by months of fighting.

Ahead of a much-anticipated meeting Tuesday between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks in Kiev with Ukrainian officials and expressed hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict that has claimed more than 2,000 lives.

Russia unilaterally sent hundreds of aid trucks into Ukraine through a rebel-held border point Friday, saying it had lost patience with Ukraine’s delaying tactics, a move that Ukraine promptly described as an invasion.

By midafternoon Saturday, all the vehicles had returned to Russia, Paul Picard of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe told reporters in the Russian town of Donetsk.

Associated Press