Lufthansa says will scrub 150 flights

The leading German airline, Lufthansa, expects to cancel about 150 flights Wednesday due to ash pouring out of an Icelandic volcano, a spokesman told AFP. He also noted that airports in the northern ports of Bremen and Hamburg were closed "and will probably reopen only in the afternoon." On Tuesday, German air safety experts said they would shut down airports in northern Germany from from 5:00 am (0300 GMT) owing to the threat ash is said to pose to airplane engines. But according the the European Commission, the cloud emitted by Iceland's Grimsvoetn volcano was not expected to force widespread closures of European airspace. The most active volcano in Iceland began an eruption on Saturday that is its most violent in at least a century. Barely a year after a similar eruption forced the biggest closure of European airspace since World War II, ash-laden clouds caused flights in and out of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland to be cancelled Tuesday. Poland and Scandinavian countries are also expected to be affected.