QUITO Ecuador's economy ministry said on Wednesday that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a $500 million loan

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Iceland is bracing itself for a volcanic eruption that will arrive within “hours or days”, experts have warned. Around 3,000 residents have evacuated the southwestern town of Grindavik close to the Fagradalsfjall volcanic system in the Reykjanes region. Over the past 48 hours, Iceland has faced a seismic swarm as 1,485 earthquakes have hit the country. In addition, a magma tunnel is forming underground beneath the town, which South Iceland’s Volcano and Natural Hazards group believe could be 12km long. The UK foreign office has updated its travel advice, warning that a volcanic eruption is increasingly likely, but it has not warned against travel with flights still touching down at Keflavik International Airport. The Icelandic Meteorological Office said on Saturday there was a “considerable” risk of an eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula because of the size of the underground magma intrusion and the rate at which it was moving. Iceland is highly susceptible to natural disasters as it lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge – a divergent plate boundary where the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate are moving away from each other, leading to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. “I don’t think it’s long before an eruption, hours or a few days. The chance of an eruption has increased significantly,” Thorvaldur Thordarson, professor of volcanology at the University of Iceland, told state broadcaster RUV. Páll Einarsson, professor emeritus in geophysics, told RUV: “Considering the intensity, it must be considered probable that there will be an eruption from this magma tunnel, but it is impossible to say where and how long that fissure will be.” Despite the imminent threat of a volcanic eruption, the UK Foreign Office has not warned against travel to the region. Its official warning reads: “Earthquakes and indications of volcanic activity have increased above normal levels on the Reykjanes peninsula, southwest of Reykjavik. “The Icelandic authorities continue to monitor the area closely, particularly the area northwest of Mt Thorbjörn near the Svartsengi power plant and the Blue Lagoon. On 10 November, a Civil Protection Alert was declared after an intense swarm of earthquakes.” The Reykjanes region has in recent years seen several eruptions in unpopulated areas, but the current outbreak is believed to pose an immediate risk to the town, authorities said. On Thursday, increased seismic activity prompted the closure of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of the country’s main tourist attractions. Reykjanes is a volcanic and seismic hot spot southwest of the capital Reykjavik. In March 2021, lava fountains erupted spectacularly from a fissure in the ground measuring between 500-750 metres long in the region’s Fagradalsfjall volcanic system. Volcanic activity in the area continued for six months that year, prompting thousands of Icelanders and tourists to visit the scene. In August 2022, a three-week eruption happened in the same area, followed by another in July of this year. The Fagradalsfjall system, which is around 6km wide and 19km long, had remained inactive for more than 6,000 years prior to the recent eruptions. Read More Iceland evacuates town and raises aviation alert as concerns rise a volcano may erupt Mapped: Iceland earthquake locations revealed as volcano eruption alert issued Iceland earthquakes: Your rights if you are on holiday there or are planning to go Iceland volcano eruption could happen ‘within hours’ as Grindavik evacuate - live Earthquakes in Iceland prompt fears of volcano eruption Iceland's Blue Lagoon spa closes temporarily as earthquakes put area on alert for volcanic eruption

Social media influencer Alix Earle and Miami Dolphins player Braxton Berrios celebrated their inaugural Thanksgiving together in New Jersey

A US Marine rapid response force is headed to the waters off the coast of Israel and the Pentagon is preparing American troops for a potential deployment to the country, escalating the US' show of force in the region as it works to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from widening any further.

Elon Musk has been told Taiwan is “not for sale” by the island’s foreign minister after the tech mogul said Taiwan was an integral part of China. Speaking to the All-In Summit in Los Angeles uploaded to YouTube this week, Musk attracted criticism when he said: “Their [Beijing’s] policy has been to reunite Taiwan with China. From their standpoint, maybe it is analogous to Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China mostly because … the US Pacific Fleet has stopped any sort of reunification effort by force,” he said. Taiwan foreign minister Joseph Wu, posted on Twitter/X in response, saying that he hoped Musk could ask China to “open @X to its people“. China blocks X, along with other major western social media like Facebook. "Perhaps he thinks banning it is a good policy, like turning off @Starlink to thwart Ukraine’s counterstrike against Russia,” Wu added, referring to Musk’s refusing a Ukrainian request to activate his Starlink satellite network in Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol last year to aid an attack on Russia’s fleet there. “Listen up, Taiwan is not part of the PRC & certainly not for sale!” Wu said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China. This is not the first time Musk has annoyed Taiwan, which Xi Jinping wants to annex, claiming it is a province of China. Last October, he suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by handing over some control of Taiwan to Beijing. Meanwhile, this week has seen the largest scale Chinese military activity near Taiwan since major drills in April. On Thursday Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 68 aircraft and 10 ships around Taiwan in the previous 24 hours, including 40 aerial crossings of the median line, prompting rumours of suspected military exercises, which have not been announced by China. Meanwhile, on Wednesday Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, accused the US and Taiwan of collusion to strengthen Taiwan’s defense capabilities. Maybe Musk should stay out of international relations and stick to Twitter/X. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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.

Major League Baseball had a night of offense not seen in 129 years, with 12 teams scoring double-digit runs

The accident in Bangladesh has also injured at least 50 other people.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says he never heard of Jeffrey Epstein until his 2019 arrest

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan's government is seen targeting a fiscal deficit of 7.7% of GDP for the 2023-24 fiscal year, a

An outsider candidate for Argentina’s presidency is gaining traction by tapping into voter anger at rampant inflation. With