Ash cloud clears European skies of planes
REYKJAVIK, Iceland, April 20 (UPI) -- A new ash cloud spewed from a volcano in Iceland forced Britain to ground flights and operate a nearly flight-free zone Tuesday, aviation officials said.
Stripped-down air services operated in Scotland and Newcastle, but aviation officials scrapped plans to reopen the rest of Britain's airspace as a new ash cloud moved toward the country, The Times of London reported.
"The situation regarding the volcanic eruption in Iceland remains dynamic and the latest information from the Met Office shows that the situation today will continue to be variable," Britain's National Air Traffic Systems said in a statement.
In Iceland, three separate craters continued to rumble near southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull glacier. Observers said wind was expected to shift, blowing the ash to the north, Iceland Review said.
Eurocontrol, Europe's air traffic control agency, said it expected as many as 60 percent of flights to be green-lighted Tuesday, the BBC reported.
While many flights remain grounded, some planes took off from Paris, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Frankfurt, Germany, officials said. Air traffic controllers said more than 10,000 of Europe's 27,500 daily flights were scheduled to fly.
To address the situation created by volcanic ash drifting over Europe from Iceland, the European Union transport ministers created three levels of airspace: a no-fly area, a limited service zone and an open skies area, the BBC reported.
In Spain, where all airports were open, the government offered European countries use of its airports to get passengers moving again.
The International Air Transport Association pegged losses at more than $1 billion since most of Europe's airspace closed last week because of the volcano.
The Airports Council International-Europe said more than 6.8 million passengers have been affected, CNN reported.
Court: Animal cruelty videos protected
WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday overturned a Virginia man's conviction under a federal law banning videos of animal cruelty, saying they were protected speech.
The 8-1 ruling, with Justice Samuel Alito dissenting, said the government lacked the power to ban expressions of animal cruelty when that is done in videotapes and other commercial media, Scotusblog reported.
While noting it previously withdrew "a few historic categories" of speech from First Amendment protection, Chief Justice John Roberts' opinion said "depictions of animal cruelty should not be added to the list."
The decision quashes a 1999 federal law that was an attempt to rein in animal cruelty by forbidding its depiction, a law the court said was overly broad.
Roberts' opinion said it wasn't curbing government's power to punish acts of animal cruelty, but the portrayals of such acts.
"Despite the government's assurance that it will apply (the law) to reach only 'extreme' cruelty, this court will not uphold an unconstitutional statute merely because the government promises to use it responsibly," the majority opinion read. "Nor can the court construe this statutory language to avoid constitutional doubt."
In United States vs. Stevens, Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Va., was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for videos he made about pit bull fighting. Stevens claimed his video and other materials were his effort to provide historical perspective on dog fighting. A federal judge rejected Stevens' First Amendment claim, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the judge's opinion.
"(The) First Amendment's free speech guarantee does not extend only to categories of speech that survive an ad hoc balancing of relative social costs and benefits," Roberts wrote. "The amendment itself reflects a judgment by the American people that the benefits of its restrictions on the government outweigh the costs."
In his dissent, Alito said the court struck down a "valuable statute ... enacted not to suppress speech, but to prevent horrific acts of animal cruelty -- in particular, the creation and commercial exploitation of 'crush videos,' a form of depraved entertainment that has no social value."
Alito said the court's approach has the "practical effect of legalizing the sale of such videos and is thus likely to spur a resumption of their production."
Iraq reports death of al-Qaida leader
BAGHDAD, April 20 (UPI) -- The leader of an al-Qaida terrorist group operating north of Baghdad was killed by U.S. forces, an Iraqi military commander said Tuesday.
Ahmad al-Obaidi, also known as Abu Suhaib, was killed in an operation separate from the deaths of two other al-Qaida leaders -- Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi -- killed in an operation in northern Iraq, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported.
The military official said Obaidi was responsible for al-Qaida operations in the Ninawa, Kirkuk and Salahiddeen regions.
Discovery and crew return to Earth
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., April 20 (UPI) -- Space shuttle Discovery touched down safely and on schedule Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center, ending its 15-day mission to the International Space Station.
The shuttle landed about 9:08 a.m. EDT traveling at slightly more than 200 mph after flying southeastward over a large portion of the United States, crossing over or near Vancouver, Canada, before overflying Helena, Mont., Casper, Wyo., Tulsa, Okla., Montgomery, Ala., and Gainesville, Fla., en route to Cape Canaveral.
Monday's landing attempts in Florida were foiled by unacceptable cloudiness over the space center, but Entry Flight Director Bryan Lunney and his team cleared the shuttle for landing as conditions improved early Tuesday.
The STS-131 crew was awakened at 10:21 p.m. Monday as mission controllers in Houston played "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson for astronauts Alan Poindexter, James Dutton Jr. Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Clayton Anderson and Japanese Space Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki.
The landing marked the end of Discovery's next-to-last mission to the International Space Station, with only three scheduled missions remaining before the space shuttle program ends. Discovery will make the final flight Sept. 16, with space shuttle Atlantis to make its final flight May 14 and Endeavour making its last trip into space July 28.
Columbine HS remembers massacre victims
DENVER, April 20 (UPI) -- The Colorado high school where two teens slaughtered 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves 11 years ago was closed Tuesday to mark the tragedy.
Columbine High School students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered the suburban Denver school, slicing the air with bullets, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and injuring 23 others before committing suicide.
Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis attended the schools' prom last weekend when a king and queen with special needs were crowned king and queen, an act he said exemplifies the school's true spirit, CNN reported.
"This," DeAngelis told KMGH-TV, Denver, "is what Columbine is all about."
Colorado Avalanche winger Milan Hejduk, a rookie in the National Hockey League when the massacre occurred, called the shootings "a brutal thing," the Denver Post reported.
"We'll all remember it forever," Hejduk said.
