A sporting goods chain is paying the families of three people shot to death by a South Carolina serial killer $2.5 million after the store sold guns to a straw buyer for the killer

Residents from a small Icelandic town under threat from volcanic eruption have described ‘apocalyptic’ existence as they fear for their future. Last Friday, thousands of Grindavik residents were ordered to leave as the town was rocked by hundreds of earthquakes. The small fishing town is 34 miles from Reykjavík and is home to the famous tourist attraction the Blue Lagoon. Many have been unable to return to the ‘danger zone’ to collect their belongings, as earthquakes continue to strike the town. Grindavik resident Andrea Ævarsdóttir, 46, told The Independent: “Everything just seems so unreal, I feel like I’m in a dystopian movie. I’m just waiting to wake up from this nightmare.” The mother was getting ready to go into Reykjavík to celebrate her son Björgvin Hrafnar’s 16th birthday when their house started to shake on Friday. “Some of them [the earthquakes] were like a big truck had driven past your house, the bigger ones were like the same truck had hit your house,” she said. “Everything was shaking so bad, the floors were going up and down.” The family planned on staying overnight at her mother’s home, but they were alerted en route that they were going to be evacuated so only had their overnight bags and had left their cats behind. Ms Ævarsdóttir made the difficult call to return home to get her cats and medication but was stopped at a checkpoint on the main road Grindavikurvegur. Fortunately, the mother was granted special permission to return to collect her tablets and three pets before heading back. Like other Grindavik residents, Ms Ævarsdóttir was allowed to return home on Monday to collect her belongings but had to obey a 10-minute time limit. She is now living with her 16 and 14-year-old sons in her mother’s cramped two-bedroom apartment. Describing the surreality and sadness of leaving her home, she said: “I was crying non-stop when we got to Grindavik, we were allowed to drive into town. “We had ten minutes, you don’t have the mental capacity to think, I was in panic mode, I just grabbed what I could see. “I grabbed all of the clothes I could think of but I left one of the packed suitcases behind.” The children do not yet have to return to school as they recover from the shock, but it remains unclear where they will go, explained the mother. The distraught mother works as the director of a local and public school library and explained the families ‘entire existence is in Grindavik’. Her home of eight and a half years is still standing but some have fallen to the ground due to the strong quakes. “It was really hard to see the state of some of the houses and streets. My house seemed fine but this area is really unstable.” Now the mother has to decide whether she wants to eventually move back to the town, if it isn’t destroyed by the volcanic eruption. She says residents have accustomed to living with earthquakes, but living on an active volcano fissure is a different story. “I love living in Grindavik, it’s a really nice close-knit town but now comes the fear if we get to move back, do we want to move back?” she said. “This area is really unstable. Do we want to experience evacuation again?” Siggeir Ævarsson, 38, is another Grindavik resident who does not know if he will be able to return to his family home. The teacher had planned to meet his brother and sister-in-law but after the earthquakes stuck on Friday his brother-in-law urged them to come sooner. “I’ve seen a lot Earthquakes but this is something I’ve never felt before. “The sources were 2km away from our house. Things were falling down from shelves, I was standing in the kitchen I thought, can I even put pans on the stove.” Alongside his wife and youngest daughter,Þorgeir Úlfar,14, they grabbed their two cats and left. The 38-year-old says he and his wife, Soffía Sveinsdóttir, 39, have been fortunate as his sister-in-law has a spacious house with spare rooms. Mr Ævarsson was allowed to return on Sunday and was able to fill two cars with their items. “It was like going into an apocalyptic movie. The town was empty and lifeless. There were cracks everywhere. “It was very weird to walk into the house, it looked exactly the same the lights were still on. “Other houses are cracking in two, my house was fine, but a few metres up the road they are ruined.” As a born-and-bred Grindavikian, the father–of-two is trying to remain positive and “not think about lava flowing through his home”. “I’m trying to think of this as extension of a holiday, I’m watching movies, drinking beer.” Read More Iceland residents describe ‘apocalyptic’ scenes as they flee volcano threat Iceland eruption likely scientists warn as ‘biggest bulldozer’ deployed - live Biggest volcanic eruptions in the last 10 years as Iceland town faces devastation Is it safe to travel to Iceland? Your rights if you have a holiday booked Huge cracks appear on roads in Iceland’s volcano-threatened town Iceland earthquake: Town could be obliterated if volcanic eruption strikes

Matthew Perry was the only child when it came to John Bennett Perry and Suzanne Perry, but had five siblings after their split

'This is a serious crime that you have been found guilty of,' Judge Victoria Valentine told the convicted teen killer

President Joe Biden is staking his reelection bid on the political and financial muscle of the Democratic National Committee

A mysterious new set of stars has been detected by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, which could shed new light on dark matter. Dark matter remains one of the most hotly debated elements in our solar system, and the new objects could change the way it is studied. Scientists believe the huge, newly-discovered stars are powered by illusive dark matter and shared their findings in the journal PNAS. “Discovering a new type of star is pretty interesting all by itself, but discovering it’s dark matter that’s powering this – that would be huge,” said study co-author Katherine Freese from The University of Texas in Austin. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The dark stars, known as JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0 and JADES-GS-z11-0 – were first identified as galaxies last December. It’s thought that they existed about 320-400 million years after the Big Bang, making them some of the earliest objects ever seen. The nature of dark matter continues to fascinate and mystify the scientific community. It’s believed that it could be formed by a new type of undiscovered particle, and the theorised component of the universe does not absorb, reflect or emit light. It’s also thought that suspected dark stars like these could explain a potential anomaly surrounding the number of large galaxies in the early universe. Currently, there are too many to fit the predictions of the theories surrounding the origins and the future of the universe. “It’s more likely that something within the standard model [of cosmology] needs tuning, because proposing something entirely new, as we did, is always less probable,” Dr Freese said. “But if some of these objects that look like early galaxies are actually dark stars, the simulations of galaxy formation agree better with observations,” she explained. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Donald Trump's civil fraud is ongoing at the Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, October 4

A mother has been arrested after allegedly abandoning her young child on the side of a California street. Early Tuesday morning — in the middle of the night at 2.50am — a person walking in Larchmont Village in Central Los Angeles found a 3-year-old girl alone inside a stroller. The youngster, found on the 100 block of North Larchmont Boulevard, was taken to hospital to be examined. She was found to be in good health. The police searched the stroller and found an identification card belonging to Targie Alexandre, 24. After this, police were able to locate the father of the child, but Ms Alexandre’s location was unknown. "We’ve had a lot of resources devoted to this over the past day, from officers, detectives, we’ve had our bloodhounds out there," said Lt. Brian Churchill of the Los Angeles Police Department. "We’ve had no luck finding the mother so we’re asking for the public’s help right now." However, Ms Alexandre was arrested on Wednesday night after police were waiting for her at her workplace, police said. She has been charged with a felony of child endangerment and is being held on $105,000 bail. The felony punishment for child endangerment is up to six years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Earlier this year, a Georgia woman was arrested for the 2019 abandonment of her newborn baby after it was found alive in a plastic bag. The mother, Karima Jiwani, was charged with criminal intent to commit murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, aggravated assault and reckless abandonment. Read More Mother of ‘Baby India’, left to die in a plastic bag in Georgia woods four years ago, is finally arrested Man sentenced for abandoning baby after MLB pitcher Dennis Eckersley's daughter gave birth in woods Family suspect murder after getting alerts from dead LA woman’s Apple products

Hundreds who attended call for the release of more than 100 hostages taken during the attack on Israel.

Before the altercation involving her team member, Laura Linney was spotted at the Christian Siriano runway show

Rishi Sunak was pictured standing next to the tallest MP in Parliament and the jokes were hilariously predictable. Standing at 170cm (5ft 6 inches tall), Sunak is 5cm shorter than the average man in the UK, according to the Office of National Statistics. So, when Sunak was pictured standing alongside Conservative MP, Daniel Kawczynski, who is reportedly 6ft 9 inches tall, the height difference inspired plenty of comment. Kawczynski explained in an Instagram post that he met the Prime Minister to discuss the running of the health service in his constituency. He wrote: “Yesterday I met the PM and raised again my concerns over the management of Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Trust. “Despite securing £312 million for modernisation of A&E Services 6 years ago construction has not started as a result of the appalling behaviour of Telford Council.” The picture shared alongside the caption showed Kawczynski completely dwarfing Sunak who stood to his left. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter On Instagram, one user sarcastically asked: “Bring your child to work day is it?” Another person joked: “‘Honey I shrunk the PM’.” “Did you also discuss what route you'd be taking to Mordor?” another asked. Other people could not believe the image was real, with some having made the assumption it had been edited. “Saw this photo on Twitter and assumed it was photoshopped,” wrote one Instagram user. Another argued: “If you raised your concerns they are probably too high for Rishi to see them.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Somalia’s maritime police force has intensified patrols in the Red Sea following a failed pirate hijacking of a ship in the Gulf of Aden earlier this week