Explosive eruptions shook two huge volcanos in Central and South America today, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes and disrupting air traffic as ash drifted over wide regions.

A strike threat by airline catering workers at Dublin Airport has been averted, it emerged tonight.

The photographs of the bruised and bloodied faces of Saddam Hussein’s sons were all some Arabs needed to be convinced the two were killed by the US army, and the reactions ranged from anger to satisfaction.

A row over a meal on a passenger jet escalated into what the pilot took to be a bomb threat, forcing him to make an unscheduled stop in the United Arab Emirates.