Iceland has declared a state of emergency and more than 3000 residents have been urged to evacuate the small, coastal town of Grindavík as the country's authorities anticipate the imminent eruption of a volcano in its south-western peninsula.

Scientists monitoring the situation, including those at Iceland's Met Office, observed changes to the situation on Sunday that could indicate "magma is moving closer to the surface," and concluded on Monday that "the greatest area of magma upwelling" is in an area 3.5 kilometres north-east of Grindavík.

So, what do we know about this potential eruption, what are its risks, how could it affect travel and why is Iceland, an island of just 103,000 square kilometres, home to so much seismic activity?

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What happens if the volcano erupts?

Iceland is facing events that its 360,000 residents "have not experienced before, at least not since the eruption in Vestmannaeyjar," the country's Civil Protection Agency said on Friday, referencing a 1973 eruption that began without warning and destroyed 400 homes.

A 15-kilometre-long magma corridor now stretches from just north-west of Grindavík into the Atlantic Ocean, according to the Civil Protection Agency, which used models built from data collected in the area on Saturday.

Magma is a mixture of molten and semi-molten rock beneath the surface of the Earth that can cause an eruption when it finds its way to the surface, becoming lava.

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If the magma erupts beneath the sea, it will be more explosive than if it erupts on land, experts say, though an eruption on land would be a greater threat to Grindavík itself.

"It could become explosive if the magma interacts with sea water," Michele Paulatto, a research fellow at Imperial College London, said in a statement.

"If it erupts undersea, it could cause a Surtseyan eruption similar to the one that happened in 1963, also in Iceland, and created the island of Surtsey.

"That particular eruption lasted several years, so this is a possibility."

Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at University College London, said in a statement that there "is no reason, currently, to think that this eruption will be especially big", though he noted that "it is notoriously hard to forecast how big an eruption will be".

"The evacuated town of Grindavík is very close to the position of the new fracture, and its survival is far from assured," he added.

"Everything depends upon where magma eventually reaches the surface, but the situation doesn't look good for the residents of the town."

There is still a possibility that the magma will not come to the surface at all.

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As Dave McGarvie, a volcanologist at the University of Lancaster in the UK, pointed out in a statement, "not all dikes breach the surface to form eruptions … perhaps only one in every three or four".

He added: "The best-case scenario is that this happens to the 15km-long dike that has just formed, and that it simply cools and solidifies – and does not erupt."

However, some effects of the seismic activity are already apparent.

Roads have been damaged as a result of earthquakes in the area, with the Icelandic road administration sharing photos on social media of crumbling tarmac, broken sidewalks and gaping cracks in the road.

After scientists said they couldn't rule out the magma tunnel reaching Grindavík, the Civil Protection Agency evacuated the town on Friday night, though some residents were allowed back to one area on Sunday under police escort to retrieve pets and essential items.

The famous Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa about seven kilometres north of Grindavík that draws tourists to its steaming water, closed on Thursday as a precaution.

"Toxic fumes are a real concern, the main being sulfur dioxide which can be corrosive and cause breathing problems," Paulatto added.

"It's not something we need to worry about in the UK, but the local population and tourists can be affected depending on the prevailing wind direction."

Is Reykjavík safe from the volcano?

Grindavík is about 70 kilometres south-west of Iceland's capital city, Reykjavík.

Authorities have not issued an evacuation order for Reykjavik, suggesting they believe it wouldn't be affected by an eruption.

However, Iceland's only international airport, Keflavík, is less than 20 miles from Grindavík.

Will it cause travel disruption?

Experts don't expect a volcanic eruption to cause the same level of chaos as that seen in 2010 when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, since it is unlikely to involve the glacial ice that led to a huge ash cloud.

About 100,000 flights were cancelled, affecting two million people, as a result of the ash spewed out by the 2010 eruption, which threatened to stall aircraft engines and cause electrical failure.

"Eyjafjallajökull involved an eruption through or next to glacial ice that melted and provided water that made the eruption more explosive than it would otherwise have been, hence the high eruption plume and very wide ash dispersal," Lionel Wilson, Emeritus Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Lancaster University, said in a statement.

"This should not happen… so they will just be dealing with weakly explosive lava fountains feeding lava flows."

What about previous eruptions in 2014 and 2021?

Iceland is accustomed to volcanic eruptions, though they often occur in the wilderness, away from populated areas.

The Bárðarbunga volcanic system situated in the center of the country erupted in 2014, producing lava that covered 84 square kilometres of highland that didn't damage any communities.

The Fagradalsfjall volcanic system erupted in 2021 for the first time in more than 6000 years.

It also didn't threaten populated areas and even become a tourist attraction as people flocked to witness a volcanic eruption.

Why are there so many volcanoes in Iceland?

Iceland sits on a tectonic plate boundary that continually splits apart, pushing North America and Eurasia away from each other along the line of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

A powerful mantle plume, an area that is hotter than the surrounding magma, sits below it, which melts and thins the Earth's crust.

These conditions have made Iceland home to 32 active volcanoes.

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A frantic effort is under way in northern India to rescue dozens of workers trapped after a mountain tunnel they were helping to construct collapsed, leaving them confined behind a pile of rubble with little oxygen and water.

As many as 40 men were working in the tunnel, part of an ambitious Himalayan highway project in town of Uttarkashi, when part of the passageway leading to the entrance gave way on Sunday, authorities said.

"We are in touch with the men inside. All of them are alright and we are communicating with them," Uttarkashi superintendent of police, Arpan Yaduvanshi, told CNN on Monday.

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"We are all working hard to get them all out."

Rescuers have been supplying oxygen and water to the men through the debris, Yaduvanshi added.

Photos and video from the scene showed a large machine excavating debris from the dark tunnel as dozens of rescue officials gathered by the entrance. State and national disaster officials have come together to assist with the operation, alongside local police officials.

Uttarkashi Circle Officer Anuj Kumar said workers have removed about 20 metres of debris and have another 40 metres to go.

"It would take approximately another day or so to clear it up," he said.

The tunnel is part of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's Char Dham Highway project, a multimillion-dollar infrastructure plan to improve connectivity in the state of Uttarakhand and better access to important pilgrimage locations.

Uttarakhand, a mountainous and picturesque state on India's border with China, is often referred to as "Devbhumi" or "Land of the Gods" owing to its rich cultural heritage and the abundance of Hindu religious sites.

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The Char Dham Highway project is expected to be nearly 1000 kilometres long, improving access to the state from India's capital New Delhi.

Sunday's collapse isn't the first construction disaster in recent months to make headlines in India, a country that has been rapidly transforming its infrastructure and spending billions to upgrade its transport network.

In August, more than a dozen workers were killed after a bridge under construction collapsed in the northeastern state of Mizoram.

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In June, a four-lane concrete bridge that was being built across the River Ganges in the eastern state of Bihar collapsed for the second time in just over a year, raising questions about the quality of its construction.

Last October, a recently repaired suspension bridge gave way in the town of Morbi in Gujarat, killing 135 people.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has made a shock return to high office, becoming foreign secretary in a major shakeup of the Conservative government that also saw the firing of divisive Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Cameron, who led the government between 2010 and 2016, was appointed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a cabinet reshuffle in which he sacked Braverman, a divisive figure who drew anger for accusing police of being too lenient with pro-Palestinian protesters.

She was replaced by James Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary.

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Cameron's appointment came as a surprise to seasoned politics-watchers. It's rare for a non-lawmaker to take a senior government post, and it has been decades since a former prime minister held a cabinet job.

The government said Cameron will be appointed to parliament's unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords. The last foreign secretary to serve in the Lords, rather than the elected House of Commons, was Peter Carrington, who was part of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s.

Cameron said Britain was "facing a daunting set of international challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East."

"While I have been out of front-line politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience — as Conservative leader for 11 years and prime minister for six — will assist me in helping the prime minister to meet these vital challenges," he said in a statement.

His appointment brings back to government a leader brought down by Britain's decision to leave the European Union. Cameron called the 2016 EU membership referendum, confident the country would vote to stay in the bloc. He resigned the day after voters opted to leave.

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Sunak was a strong backer of the winning "leave" side in the referendum. Cameron's return, and Braverman's sacking, are likely to infuriate the Conservative Party's right wing and inflame tensions in the party that Sunak has sought to soothe.

Prominent right-wing lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg said sacking Braverman was "a mistake because Suella understood what the British voter thought and was trying to do something about it".

Sunak had been under growing pressure to fire Braverman — a hard-liner popular with the authoritarian wing of the governing Conservative Party — from one of the most senior jobs in government, responsible for handling immigration and policing.

In a highly unusual attack on the police last week, Braverman said London's police force was ignoring lawbreaking by "pro-Palestinian mobs". She described demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza as "hate marchers".

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On Saturday, far-right protesters scuffled with police and tried to confront a large pro-Palestinian march by hundreds of thousands through the streets of London. Critics accused Braverman of helping to inflame tensions.

Last week Braverman wrote an article for the Times of London in which she said police "play favorites when it comes to protesters" and acted more leniently toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Black Lives Matter supporters than to right-wing protesters or football hooligans.

The article was not approved in advance by the prime minister's office, as would usually be the case.

Braverman said on Monday "it has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary", adding that she would "have more to say in due course".

Braverman, a 43-year-old lawyer, has become a leader of the party's populist wing by advocating ever-tougher curbs on migration and a war on human rights protections, liberal social values and what she has called the "tofu-eating wokerati".

Last month she called migration a "hurricane" that would bring "millions more immigrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable".

As home secretary, Braverman championed the government's stalled plan to send asylum-seekers who arrive in Britain in boats on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

A UK Supreme Court ruling on whether the policy is legal is due on Wednesday.

Critics say Braverman has been building her profile to position herself for a party leadership contest that could come if the Conservatives lose power in an election expected next year.

The bold changes are an attempt by Sunak to reset his faltering government. The Conservatives have been in power for 13 years, but opinion polls for months have put them 15 to 20 points behind Labour amid a stagnating economy, persistently high inflation, an overstretched health care system and a wave of public sector strikes.

Last month Sunak tried to paint his government as a force of change, saying he would break the "30-year status quo" that includes the governments of Cameron and other Conservative predecessors.

"A few weeks ago, Rishi Sunak said David Cameron was part of a failed status quo. Now he's bringing him back as his life raft," said Labour lawmaker Pat McFadden.

"This puts to bed the prime minister's laughable claim to offer change from 13 years of Tory failure."

A young mother was unpacking groceries when a teenage boy holding an axe ran into her house.

Kristy Collins was at home in Townsville with her 18-month-old daughter when the teen made his way in through an open roller door this morning.

"He's turned around and raised an axe at me," she told 9News.

"I wasn't thinking and I just kind of put my hand up to stop it, and with my other hand kind of swiped at him and was just yelling 'get out! Leave!'"

Collins said there was a teenage girl waiting outside her home in a car and when she chased the boy outside the girl threw a knife at her, injuring her leg.

"They were young, 14, 15, 16, in their teenage years I would imagine," Collins said.

A passerby captured the getaway car on dashcam, which police have since confirmed was stolen.

The teenagers are still on the run.

Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

With an eye on stealing cocaine and $50,000 in cash before a fatal stabbing, four co-accused have claimed they only planned to rob a Sydney home and did not contemplate murder.

Spying the cash and drugs during a Tinder date with Luke Lembryk and another woman on August 24, 2019, Lisa Anne Price told a friend of the easy stash months later.

"She was motivated herself, as others were, by the desperate need for cash," said crown prosecutor Kate Radcliffe during opening submissions on Monday.

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In front of a NSW Supreme Court jury, Price's barrister Tom Quilter said his client made a "gross error of judgment" by giving the information to Joseph Nehme who then allegedly planned the robbery.

"There's no question that Lisa Price did something wrong. There's no question that Lisa Price did something criminal," Quilter said.

On December 9, 2019, Nehme arranged for himself and his associates Bilal Rahim and Viliami Taufahema to break into Lembryk's villa.

A confrontation ensued inside with crown prosecutors alleging that a knife strapped to Nehme's back was used to fatally stab Lembryk.

The trio ran from the home with Taufahema yelling "f—, f—, f—" or words to that effect, the jury heard.

Price, Rahim, Taufahema and a fourth co-accused Sherene Rizk have all been charged with the murder of Lembryk and assault with an intent to rob in company.

They have pleaded not guilty to these charges and are facing a joint trial.

Prosecutors allege they were part of the same joint criminal enterprise with each of them foreseeing that the robbery could lead to grievous bodily harm.

"Each of them contemplated as a possible incident in the execution of carrying out their agreement to rob or steal from the deceased that a violent assault might occur," crown prosecutor Kate Ratcliffe said.

The two women are alleged to have been involved in planning the attack at Rizk's Rockdale home but were not actually present during the break and enter.

Price and Rahim have pleaded not guilty to two further charges of break and enter in company with the intent to steal the property of Lembryk and assault his mother Robyn Bradley.

Taufahema has pleaded guilty to these two offences while Price pleaded guilty to an alternative offence of break and enter with an intent to steal.

Bradley, who is now deceased after a terminal illness, was allegedly pushed over by Taufahema while the trio were fleeing the home, his barrister Tony Evers told the jury.

Rahim's defence counsel Mark Hobart SC said his client was at the "drug ripoff" to provide muscle but claimed there was no real plan about what would happen once they were there.

"Never was there any contemplation that there'd be wounding, never was there any contemplation that there'd be a murder," he said.

Through her barrister Nicole Carroll, Rizk said she was never part of any robbery plot and never agreed to harm Lembryk.

While she admitted strapping a knife to Nehme's body, she claimed she did so because she wanted it out of the house and denied it was the weapon used in the stabbing.

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A cyclist who was carrying an Israeli flag has been attacked on a Melbourne shopping and dining strip in a clash fuelled by escalating local Israel-Palestine tensions.

Video obtained by 9News showed a laughing woman chasing after the cyclist on Chapel Street in South Yarra before she tried to remove the flag from his bicycle about 8pm yesterday.

The footage, captured by a witness, shows the man getting off his pushbike and falling over before he is set upon by two men.

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The dramatic altercation was stopped by onlookers who intervened.

The cyclist, Ronen Martin-Cohen, who was part of an Israeli convoy, told 9News he was ambushed.

"I was pushing to the ground and then they kicked me, mainly in the chest and back," he said.

Police said they were investigating the alleged assault.

A Victoria Police spokesperson said the cyclist had displayed the flag on his bike after attending a rally.

"There is no place in our community for hate-based or discriminatory behaviour and Victoria Police will not tolerate antisemitic or Islamophobic incidents," the spokesperson said.

"We take all reports of threats and or violence seriously, and members of the community are strongly encouraged to report any incidents of concern."

No one involved in the altercation required medical treatment.

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It follows a tense weekend around the country amid escalating violence and Israel-Palestine protests.

Police are also trying to identify the driver of a Toyota Hilux van that mounted a curb on Friday, narrowly missing a man and a woman holding up Israeli flags.

Police have ramped up their presence in areas with increased protest activity, including in St Kilda, Caulfield and Balaclava, where there are high Jewish populations.

Victoria's religious and political leaders are calling for calm.

Dr Dvir Ambramovich from the Anti-Defamation Commission said he was concerned by the tension on Melbourne streets.

"There is an epidemic of antisemitism that is spiralling out of control," he said.

"Let's make sure Melbourne is not torn apart by these tensions."

The tension is not isolated to the Jewish community, with those attending peaceful pro-Palestine protests also facing abuse.

Adel Salman from the Islamic Council of Victoria said the tensions were creating an unsafe environment for Muslims.

"They're being accused of supporting terrorism," he said.

"We don't want any aggression, we don't want any violence and we don't want any hate."