Obama cancels Poland trip due to volcanic ash

U.S. President Barack Obama has canceled plans to travel to Poland for the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski, said the White House on Saturday.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs made that announcement, citing that the hazardous flying conditions posed by the ash cloud from the erupting volcano in Iceland.

The decision means that Obama will join the hundreds of thousands of travelers around the world stranded by the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

The president has been scheduled to leave Washington on Saturday night for Sunday's state funeral of Kaczynski in Krakow, Poland. The Polish president, his wife and 94 others died in a plane crash last Saturday in western Russia.

The White House decision came amid a global bottleneck in international air travel. Reports on Saturday indicated that nations around Europe were forced to shut down airports.

Source: Xinhua