La Palma volcano: Canary Islands eruption could last for three months, experts say - Sky News

A volcanic eruption in Spain's Canary Islands could last three months, experts have said.

The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute said on Wednesday that the eruption on the island of La Palma and its aftermath could last for up to 84 days.

Image: Since last Sunday's eruption, powerful rivers of lava have swallowed up 185 buildings

The institute said it had looked at calculations of the length of previous eruptions on the archipelago, which like the latest eruption were followed by heavy lava flows and lasting seismic activity.

This means residents could still be at risk of earthquakes, lava flows, toxic gases, volcanic ash and acid rain.

The institute also reported that Tuesday night saw a strong increase in the number of smaller eruptions that hurl rocks and cinders high into the air from the La Palma volcano.

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Since last Sunday's eruption, powerful rivers of lava, up to six meters high, have swallowed up 185 buildings, mostly homes in the countryside.

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The lava now covers 154 hectares, according to the volcanology institute.

On Tuesday, the lava flows were heading downhill toward the island's more densely populated coast.

Image: Thousands of people have been evacuated since the eruption

Emergency services on the island attempted to divert some of the lava by using front-loaders to clear a path for the molten rock to follow, hoping to steer it away from properties.

However, officials said they did not know if it would work.

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Slow motion footage shows volcano's power

Some 1,000 people were evacuated later in the day from the neighbourhood of Todoque on the shoreline, bringing the total number of evacuated people to around 6,000.

The meeting of lava - which is more than 1,000C - with a body of water, could cause explosions and produce clouds of toxic gas.

Image: Homes have already been destroyed but the eruption's aftermath could last for up to 84 days

Prompt evacuations have helped avoid any casualties from the eruption, though damage to homes, infrastructure and farmland is significant, officials have said.

The volcano has also been spewing out between 8,000 and 10,500 tons of sulfur dioxide - which also affects the lungs - every day, the institute added.

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2021-09-22 10:11:47Z
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Melbourne earthquake: 'Very disturbing event' as buildings damaged after Australia hit by 6.0-magnitude tremor - Sky News

The Australian city of Melbourne has been struck by a 6.0-magnitude earthquake, Geoscience Australia has said.

The quake, which was one of the country's biggest on record, caused some damage to buildings as it hit the country's second-most populous city on Wednesday.

No serious injuries have been reported so far, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Image: A police officer closes an intersection where debris is scattered in the road

The epicentre was near the rural town of Mansfield in Victoria, about 124 miles (200km) northeast of Melbourne with tremors also felt in neighbouring Australian states.

Images and video footage showed rubble blocking one of Melbourne's main streets and damage to some buildings in the city.

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People in northern parts of the city said on social media they had lost power while others said they were evacuated from buildings.

"We have had no reports of serious injuries, or worse, and that is very good news and we hope that good news will continue," said Mr Morrison.

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"It can be a very disturbing event, an earthquake of this nature. They are very rare events in Australia and as a result, I am sure people would have been quite distressed and disturbed."

Image: The quake caused some damage to buildings in Melbourne

The quake sent tremors throughout neighbouring states and was felt as far away as the city of Adelaide, which sits 500 miles (800km) to the west and Sydney, which is 600 miles (900km) to the north.

There were no reports of damage or injuries outside Melbourne.

Image: Emergency Services personnel respond to an area that sustained damage from an earthquake in the Windsor suburb of Melbourne

Quakes are a relatively unusual occurrence in Australia's populated east due to its position in the middle of the Indo-Australian Tectonic Plate, according to Geoscience Australia.

Wednesday's tremor measured higher than the country's deadliest tremor, a 5.6-magnitude earthquake in Newcastle in 1989, which caused 13 deaths.

No tsunami threat was issued for the Australian mainland, islands or territories, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

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2021-09-22 06:22:30Z
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China stocks fall in wake of global tumult over Evergrande - Financial Times

Chinese markets fell on their first day of trading this week after a public holiday as concerns grew in global markets over a possible default by property developer Evergrande on an international bond repayment.

But the losses were not as heavy as feared after the real estate company, which has total liabilities of more than $300bn, said a payment due Thursday for an onshore renminbi-denominated bond had “already been resolved through off-exchange negotiations”.

The benchmark CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed shares recovered from an initial dip of almost 2 per cent to be down 0.6 per cent in afternoon trading. The CSI 300 Real Estate index rose 5 per cent.

Evergrande is due to pay Rmb232m ($35.8m) in interest on the onshore bond maturing in 2025. But the company did not comment on exactly when or how much of that amount it would pay, or whether it would meet an $83.5m payment also due on Thursday for an offshore, dollar-denominated note that matures next year. That bond has traded at about 26 cents on the dollar this week, reflecting expectations of imminent default.

Concern that the company will default on the offshore bond sparked broader tumult in global markets this week, with Wall Street on Monday suffering its worst trading day since May.

Shares rose elsewhere in Asia on Wednesday on hopes that Evergrande might reach a similar arrangement with its international bondholders.

Futures for the S&P 500 swung from a loss to a gain following the onshore bond deal’s announcement, while Tokyo’s benchmark Topix pulled back from a sharper drop to be down 0.7 per cent in what traders called a wave of “cautious relief”.

Analysts attributed the limited falls for Chinese shares to onshore investors having more time to digest developments around Evergrande, with the last-minute reassurance softening concerns of a default.

“The latest announcement just proves Evergrande and the government’s efforts to stabilise the situation and prevent defaults,” said Bruce Pang, head of research at investment bank China Renaissance. He added that Beijing was much more concerned about onshore defaults and could force issuers and domestic bondholders to negotiate an agreement.

“The government has a greater say on developments with onshore bonds — they can streamline arrangements [with bondholders] and work out payments much more easily than with offshore bonds,” Pang said.

Traders said Evergrande was still likely to miss the Thursday deadline for the payment on the offshore bond, but the company might seek to avoid a formal default with offshore bondholders during a 30-day grace period following the payment deadline.

“They probably will negotiate,” said one investor in Chinese debt of the developer, adding that Evergrande could “still try for a soft landing but negotiate . . . [the] same way as they are with the onshore coupon”.

Traders in Tokyo said that despite encouraging headlines from China, shares were unlikely to make greater gains while uncertainty over Evergrande’s fate continued and the fate of coupon payments on the offshore bond remained unknown.

Markets in Hong Kong, where Evergrande shares fell as much as 7 per cent on Tuesday before paring losses to close down 0.5 per cent, were closed for a public holiday. The stock has tumbled almost 85 per cent this year.

Additional reporting by Leo Lewis in Tokyo

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2021-09-22 05:59:05Z
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Evergrande boss Hui Ka Yan rallies his 'iron army' of workers amid debt crisis - The Times

The founder of the Chinese property conglomerate burdened with $300 billion in debt has vowed to lead the company out of its darkest moment as it teeters on the edge of collapse and threatens to send shockwaves through the country’s property and banking sectors.

Hui Ka Yan has written a letter to his employees in response to the crisis. Evergrande, one of the country’s biggest companies, is faced with imminent deadlines to repay debts after it borrowed heavily to finance its rapid expansion. Analysts at S&P Global, the credit ratings agency, expect that a “default is likely” from Evergrande later this week, when it is due to make interest repayments on some of its loans.

“The company is faced with unprecedented, huge difficulties,” Hui

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2021-09-21 23:01:00Z
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La Palma volcano engulfs village minutes after residents flee their homes - BBC News - BBC News

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2021-09-21 21:50:44Z
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Hundreds more evacuated as lava spews from Canary Islands volcano - Al Jazeera English

New fissure opens up on Cumbre Vieja’s slope after earthquake rocks La Palma late on Monday.

A river of lava gushing from an erupting volcano in Spain’s Canary Islands has forced authorities to evacuate hundreds more people on the crisis-hit island of La Palma.

About 500 people were evacuated from the El Paso municipality late Monday and early Tuesday after a new stream of lava started flowing from another crack on the slope of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, according to local officials.

The new fissure opened after what the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute said was a 3.8-magnitude earthquake late on Monday.

The volcano first erupted on Sunday after a week of thousands of small tremors, shooting lava hundreds of metres into the air and sending molten rock tumbling downhill across the island’s countryside.

About 6,000 of the 85,000 people living on La Palma have since been forced to leave their homes.

“The lava on its path to the sea has been a bit capricious and has diverted from its course,” El Paso’s mayor Sergio Rodriguez told state broadcaster TVE.

Experts said that if and when the lava reaches the sea, it could trigger more explosions and clouds of toxic gases.

Marine authorities have set up an exclusion zone spanning 3.7 kilometres (two nautical miles) at sea in the area where the lava is expected to arrive.

The move was taken to “prevent onlookers on boats and prevent the gases from affecting people”, Mariano Hernandez, the president of the island’s council, told the Cadena SER radio station.

‘Catastrophe zone’

As of Tuesday morning, the lava has covered 103 hectares (255 acres), according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management service.

🔴Breaking#EMSR546 #ErupciónLaPalma

Night shift for our #RapidMappingTeam

They released at 04:14 UTC a grading map for the #LaPalma eruption using #Sentinel1🇪🇺🛰️ & COSMO-SkyMed radar images

Their maping product shows

166 buildings destroyed 🏘️
Lava flow covers 103 ha 🌋 pic.twitter.com/5gHJLQqCZV

— Copernicus EMS (@CopernicusEMS) September 21, 2021

The lava flow was initially expected to reach the sea on Monday evening, but its speed has reduced in recent hours.

Authorities do not expect it to arrive at the shore before Wednesday at the earliest, the Spanish private news agency Europa Press reported.

Scientists monitoring the lava measured it at more than 1,000C (more than 1,800F), and believe the flows could last for weeks or months.

The volcano has been spewing out between 8,000 and 10,500 tonnes of sulfur dioxide a day, according to the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute.

No fatalities or injuries have been reported to date, but hundreds of homes have been destroyed since Sunday.

Emergency authorities have said residents should not fear for their safety if they follow recommendations.

The head of the Canary Islands regional government, Angel Víctor Torres, said authorities would ask for EU financial aid to help rebuild.

He said the damage amounted to more than 400 million euros ($470 million), which qualifies the archipelago for emergency EU aid, as he described the region as a “catastrophe zone”.

Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are due to visit the affected area on Thursday.

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2021-09-21 13:34:03Z
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Gabby Petito disappearance: FBI search Florida home of missing fiance Brian Laundrie - Sky News

The FBI have searched the home of Brian Laundrie - the fiance of Gabby Petito, whose body was apparently found over the weekend in a Wyoming national park.

Video showed a dozen law enforcement officers, including one wearing an FBI jacket, pulling up to the house in North Port, Florida, on Monday.

According to local media reports, Mr Laundrie's parents were seen getting into a police van while the house, which belongs to them, was searched. The FBI's Tampa office said in a tweet that it was serving a search warrant.

Ms Petito, 22, disappeared after she and Mr Laundrie, 23, left on a cross-country trek in a converted van to visit national parks in July.

They got into a fight along the way, and Mr Laundrie was alone when he returned in the van to his parents' home in North Port on 1 September - making him a "person of interest", police said.

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Image: Ms Petito, 22, vanished while on a cross-country trip in a converted camper van with her boyfriend. Pic: AP

Mr Laundrie and Ms Petito had been living with his parents before making the trek.

It comes after a police search for Mr Laundrie was launched at the weekend. His family reported him missing, with relatives telling officers they had not seen him for three days.

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On Sunday, the FBI announced the discovery of a body on the edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, which the couple had visited.

Image: Police tape blocks off the home of Brian Laundrie's parents in North Port, Florida. Pic: AP

"Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100% that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified," FBI agent Charles Jones said.

"This is an incredibly difficult time for [Petito's] family and friends."

Ms Petito's father Joseph posted on social media an image of a broken heart above a picture of his daughter, with the message: "She touched the world."

A post-mortem examination is set for Tuesday and a lawyer acting as a spokesman for the family asked in a statement that they be given room to grieve.

Mr Jones said investigators were still seeking information from anyone who may have seen Ms Petito or Mr Laundrie.

A weekend search of the Florida nature preserve failed to find Mr Laundrie, North Port police said.

They said in a statement that they "exhausted all avenues in searching the grounds" of the 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County.

Investigators focused on the area Mr Laundrie's parents told police he may have visited.

Ms Petito's family on New York's Long Island have been pleading for the Laundrie family to tell them where their son last saw her.

She and Mr Laundrie were childhood sweethearts who met while growing up on Long Island.

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Police bodycam of Gabby Petito

Video released by police in Moab, Utah, showed that an officer pulled the couple's van over on 12 August after it was seen speeding and hitting a curb near the entrance to Arches National Park. The body-camera video showed an upset Ms Petito.

Mr Laundrie said on the video that the couple had got into a scuffle after he climbed into the van with dirty feet.

He said he did not want to pursue a domestic violence charge against Ms Petito, who officers decided was the aggressor.

Moab police separated the couple for the night, with Mr Laundrie checking into a motel and Ms Petito remaining with the van.

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2021-09-20 20:26:15Z
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