Relief op leads to cruise delay
Inaugural celebrations on a brand new £500m (€569m) cruise ship were put on hold so she could head to Spain to pick up tourists stranded by air delays caused by volcanic ash.
The 122,000-tonne Celebrity Eclipse is due to leave Southampton tonight en route to Bilbao.
The luxury vessel was to be in port before a two-day launch cruise starting on Thursday but the crisis caused by the Iceland volcanic eruption changed plans.
It is thought that tour operators requested the voyage to pick up around 2,000 stranded tourists desperate to get home.
Eclipse, which can carry 2,850 passengers, will make the journey and get back to Southampton late on Friday.
Stuck BBC host airs NY show
DJ Chris Moyles beat the air chaos and returned to the airwaves today by hosting his show from New York.
The motormouth BBC presenter, stuck following a US holiday, hosted the show live from a studio in the Big Apple while his team are in London.
He alerted fans to his absence by simply tweeting the word "stuck!".
He will now present his show from the Sirius studio in the city, where he had spent the second half of a two-week break before becoming stranded.
Moyles said: "It's brilliant. I'm so pleased I can get on the air. I'll have to sleep in the evening, then get up at midnight and be on air 1.30am New York time -- but it'll be worth it and very exciting."
Rail strikes halt back-up plans
Holidaymakers stranded in Spain were hit by further misery after strike action scuppered rail travel plans.
Many trekked north to Barcelona, hoping to catch trains to France and then up through the country towards the UK. But strikes by the French SNCF rail network over pay and conditions ruined their alternative plans.
"We were supposed to be flying back from Alicante last Saturday and were hoping to carry on by train through France but now we have just heard about the strike," said Karen Curley, on holiday with her husband Michael.
"I imagine it is going to cost us at least €1000 to get back from here now."
