Guatemala's Fuego volcano belched burning lava and black ash into the sky early Saturday, leading the government to issue an airplane advisory and close sections of highway.

The volcano, about 25 miles southwest of the capital, erupted about 2:45 a.m. (0745 GMT), spewing a column of ash up to 16,400 feet above the crater and launching burning red lava nearly 1,300 feet high.

A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday to force the Obama administration to finalize new rules regulating the containment and disposal of coal ash, a power plant byproduct activists say threatens public health.

Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Integrity Project, and several other groups want the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize coal ash standards the agency proposed after a massive and expensive 2008 spill.

A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday to force the Obama administration to finalize new rules regulating the containment and disposal of coal ash, a power plant byproduct activists say threatens public health.

Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Integrity Project, and several other groups want the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize coal ash standards the agency proposed after a massive and expensive 2008 spill.

The manufacturing unit of the State-run National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) now faces a serious threat of being closed down on account of the company's inability to manage massive amounts of fly ash.

In a letter addressed to B.L. Bagra, NALCO's chairman-cum-MD, the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) said it will be forced to close down its 1,200 mw-capacity Captive Power Plant, critical for running a smelter unit at Angul in Odisha, unless the company takes up the disposal of fly ash on a war footing.

The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled the first-ever standards to slash mercury emissions from coal-fired plants, a move aimed at protecting public health that critics say will kill jobs as plants shut down.

Facing fierce opposition from industry groups and lawmakers from coal-intensive states, the Environmental Protection Agency said the benefits of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, will greatly outweigh the costs.

A team of scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite to confirm major reductions in the levels of a key air pollutant generated by coal power plants in the eastern United States.

The pollutant, sulphur dioxide, contributes to the formation of acid rain and can cause serious health problems.

JHARSUGUDA: The ash slurry pipe of Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) Limited at Banharpali in the district breached and ash spilled in the Hirakud dam reservoir on Wednesday night. OPGC transports its ash through pipes to the ash pond from its thermal power plant. The pipe is supported by an iron structure which passes through the reservoir.

A volcano that has been erupting for several days in Alaska's Aleutian Islands may be preparing for a more explosive event, scientists said on Wednesday.

Cleveland Volcano, a 5,676-foot peak located on Chuginadak Island, about 940 miles southwest of Anchorage, has been in low-level eruption since the end of July, the Alaska Volcano Observatory said.

"An eruption for us is any time that magma is coming up from the surface in the ground," said John Power, scientist in charge at the observatory, a joint federal-state operation. "This is very much happening here."

A volatile volcano in central Indonesia unleashed its most powerful eruption in days Sunday, spewing hot ash and smoke high into the air and sending panicked villagers racing back to crowded government shelters.