Twenty airports in the north of Spain, including international hub Barcelona, have been closed as the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud spreads south, the country’s airport authority said today.

Two mountain climbers died today in an avalanche in the Pyrenees in north-east Spain.

Spanish police arrested 15 people today suspected of recruiting people for Iraq’s insurgency, including possible suicide attacks, breaking up a cell in close contact with al-Qaida and terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, officials said.

Spanish police today said they had arrested 14 people on suspicion of recruiting and indoctrinating fighters for Iraq’s insurgency.

Police in Spain have broken up a pedophile ring suspected of abusing children as young as 11 months old and distributing images of the abuse on the internet, officials said today.