Investigators probing the Spanish rail disaster are focusing on the key question of why the train was going so fast.

Two home-made explosive devices went off today outside the childhood home of Manuel Fraga, the last surviving member of the regime of General Francisco Franco, a Spanish official said.

The parents of missing Madeleine McCann yesterday welcomed new information which suggests their daughter may be in America.

Despairing fishermen have continued battling to defend Europe’s richest shellfish beds from a major fuel oil spill.