Latest: The president of Catalonia arranged and then hastily cancelled an official address today amid speculation that he might back off a full independence bid by calling a snap election.

American gunships and tanks pounded militia positions near two shrines in the centre of the Iraqi holy city of Karbala today,

Bomb-making chemicals discovered by police in a truck driven by a suspected member of the Basque separatist group ETA were intended to explode in Madrid and would have caused a “massacre”, Spanish justice minister Jose Maria Michavila said today.

A Spanish policeman was killed and three colleagues injured today when a booby trapped sign for Basque terror group Eta exploded as they began to inspect it.