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Volcano erupts near Iceland's capital - BBC

A volcano erupted near Iceland’s capital Reykjavik on Friday, shooting lava high into the night sky after thousands of small earthquakes in recent weeks.

The eruption occurred near Fagradalsfjall, a mountain on the Reykjanes Peninsula, around 30 km (19 miles) southwest of the capital.

Some four hours after the initial eruption at 2045 GMT - the first on the peninsula since the 12th century - lava covered about one square kilometer or nearly 200 football fields.

“I can see the glowing red sky from my window,” said Rannveig Gudmundsdottir, resident in the town of Grindavik, only 8 km (5 miles) from the eruption.

“Everyone here is getting into their cars to drive up there,” she said.More than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred on the peninsula in the past four weeks, a huge jump from the 1,000-3,000 earthquakes registered each year since 2014.

The eruption posed no immediate danger to people in Grindavik or to critical infrastructure, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), which classified the eruption as small.

A fissure 500 to 750 meters (547 to 820 yards) long opened at the eruption site, spewing lava fountains up to 100 meters (110 yards) high, Bjarki Friis of the meteorological office said.

Residents in the town of Thorlakshofn, east of the eruption site, were told to stay indoors to avoid exposure to volcanic gases, Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said. The wind was blowing from the west.

Unlike the eruption in 2010 of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which halted approximately 900,000 flights and forced hundreds of Icelanders from their homes, this eruption is not expected to spew much ash or smoke into the atmosphere.

Located between the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates, among the largest on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hot spot as the two plates move in opposite directions.

The source of the eruption is a large body of molten rock, known as magma, which has pushed its way to the surface over the past weeks, instigating the earthquakes.

The number of quakes had slowed down in recent days, however, leading geologists to say that an eruption would be less likely.

Reykjavik’s international Keflavik airport was not closed following the eruption, but each airline had to decide if it wanted to fly or not, IMO said.

Arrivals and departures on the airport’s website showed no disruptions//Reuters

Mount Merapi releases hot cloud on Tuesday (3/9/2021). (ANTARA/HO-BPPTKG/am).

Volume of lava dome in the middle of the crater's peak of Mount Merapi is estimated to reach 950 thousand cubic meters on March 18, 2021, Geological Disaster Technology Research and Development Center (BPPTKG) stated.

"The estimated volume of the dome is 950 thousand cubic meters, with a growth rate of 12,800 cubic meters per day since January 4, 2021," Head of BPPTKG Hanik Humaida noted in a written statement received here on Saturday.

Humaida remarked that the volume of the lava dome in the middle of the Merapi crater is greater than the volume of the lava dome on the southwest side of the mountain that reaches 840 thousand cubic meters, with a growth rate of 12,900 cubic meters per day.

Mount Merapi has two lava domes that both grow. The first lava dome lies on the southwest side of Merapi, above the lava from the eruption that occurred in 1997. The second lava dome was observed by the BPPTKG on February 4, 2021, in the middle of the crater's peak of Merapi.

Humaida explained that on March 12-18, 2021, Mount Merapi emitted searing clouds thrice as far as one kilometer (km) in the southwest direction and spewed lava 211 times as far as 1.2 km in the same direction.The BPPTKG also observed a low-intensity lava flow at the Boyong River on March 12 and 17, 2021.

However, this week's measurement results do not show any significant changes in the characteristic shape of Mount Merapi.

The BPPTKG continued to maintain the status of Mount Merapi at Level III (alert).

Residents are urged to stay vigilant of the potential impact of volcanic lava and hot clouds from Mount Merapi in the south-southwest sector that comprises Kuning, Boyong, Bedog, Krasak, Bebeng, and Putih Rivers.

In the meantime, Mount Merapi's volcanic material can flow as far as three kilometers from the mountain's peak//ANT

Boxes containing AstraZeneca vaccine - Jakarta globe

The Indonesian Health Ministry will begin distributing Covid-19 vaccine developed by UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca on Monday after it was put on a delay amid reports of blood clots in Europe.

The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have stated there was no evidence of a link between the vaccine and the reported blood clots.

Health Ministry spokeswoman Siti Nadia Tarmizi said the vaccine will be distributed across the country after the Drug and Food Supervisory Agency (BPOM) lifted the suspension on Friday.

“As the implementer of the national vaccination drive, we will start distributing AstraZeneca vaccine across Indonesia on Monday,” Siti said in a video conference in Jakarta.

She expressed confidence that all 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in stock will be administered before they expire in late May.

“We are currently able to administer up to 250,000 doses of vaccine per day,” she said.

Speaking separately, BPOM spokeswoman Lucia Rizka Andalusia said the agency has consulted with the WHO and health authorities in other countries about the safety of AstraZeneca vaccine, following reports of blood clots after they vaccine was administered.

She pointed to EMA’s conclusion on Thursday that “the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread threat of Covid-19 continue to outweigh the risk of side effects”.

The EMA also stated that AstraZeneca vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots in those who receive it.

“The EMA also underlines that there is no quality issue related to specific batches of AstraZeneca vaccine,” she said.

Lucia said Indonesia received AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in South Korea through multilateral scheme Covax.

AstraZeneca is the second Covid-19 vaccine to be used in Indonesia, which has administered more than 7 million doses of vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech as of Friday.

More than 2 million Indonesian citizens have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and nearly 5 million have received at least a single dose of Sinovac vaccine since the campaign began on January 13//JG

Myanmar garment workers urge global brands to denounce coup - yahoo

As international sanctions were dropped in the mid-2010s when Myanmar began shifting toward democracy after decades of military rule and started to set some labor standards, Western brands looking to diversify their sourcing were attracted to the country's cheap labor. 

Broad sanctions now would cripple that burgeoning clothing industry, which has been growing rapidly in recent years before the coronavirus pandemic cut orders and eliminated jobs.

Comprehensive sanctions could wreck the livelihoods of more than 600,000 garment workers, but some union leaders say they would rather see massive layoffs than endure military oppression.

The garment industry plays a key role in Myanmar’s economy, particularly the export sector. Roughly a third of Myanmar's total merchandising exports come from textiles and apparel, worth US$4.59 billion in 2018. That's up from 9 per cent, or US$900 million, in 2012 as international sanctions were dropped, according to the latest data from the European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar.

Myanmar’s apparel exports mostly go to the European Union, Japan and South Korea because of favourable trade agreements. The US accounts for 5.5 per cent of Myanmar's exports, with clothing, footwear and luggage representing the bulk of that, according to garment trade expert Sheng Lu.

But Myanmar still accounts for a tiny share — less than 0.1 per cent — in US and European Union fashion companies’ total sourcing networks. And there are plenty of other alternatives for brands.

Despite this, many are taking a wait-and-see stance when it comes to any long-term decisions. Experts note it’s not easy to shift products to a different country, nor is it easy to return to Myanmar once companies leave. 

Furthermore, some argue Western companies play a role in reducing poverty by giving workers in Myanmar opportunities to earn an income while also helping to improve labor standards there.

Factory working conditions were already poor before the February coup, but the labor unions had made some inroads and gave workers hope. And while the National League for Democracy, the party that was ousted in the takeover, wasn’t proactively protecting unions, it didn’t persecute or crack down on them, says Andrew Tillett-Saks, a labour organiser in Southeast Asia who previously was based in Myanmar.

Nearly 70 per cent of the garment factories in Myanmar are owned by foreigners, according to the European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar, and a good chunk of them are Chinese-owned. International brands using the factories don’t directly hire the workers, often depending on a web of contractors and sub-contractors to produce goods for them.

But companies have “an enormous amount of influence in the industry", Tillett-Saks said. “They hold all the power over the supplier."//CNA