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Britain’s two busiest airports are to close shortly as a volcanic ash cloud drifts further south, threatening major disruption to many thousands of people.

A no-fly zone imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority will shut Heathrow, Gatwick and London City airports from 0100 BST until at least 0700 BST.

Flights will also be grounded in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Restrictions will be lifted in northern England, allowing Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds Bradford airports to re-open.

Prestwick Airport will also no longer be within the no-fly zone from 0100 BST, although a spokeswoman said it would not be receiving any flights for another 12 hours.

According to air traffic authority Nats, other airports facing closure on Monday morning include Farnborough, Shoreham, Biggin Hill, all airfields in Northern Ireland, Scottish Western Isles, Oban, Campbeltown, Caernarfon and Aberdeen.

It said Cardiff would remain open but operations may be limited due its proximity to the no-fly zone.

Flights in and out of Dublin, in the Irish Republic, are also grounded until at least noon.

The Department of Transport has warned restrictions are likely across different parts of the UK until at least Tuesday.

Travellers are being advised to check with their airline before leaving home.

Ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has caused disruption to thousands of flights since April.

Are your travel plans likely to be affected by the latest disruptions? Will you make alternative travel plans? You can send us your comments Click here to add comments..

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Flights are grounded at Heathrow and Gatwick due to a volcanic ash cloud, but some midland and northern airports re-open.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Turkish officials say they believe a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme is close, as PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to join talks in Tehran.

Mr Erdogan will try to persuade Iranian leaders to allow their nuclear material to be sent abroad for processing.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is also at the talks.

The West, worried that Iran is trying to build a bomb, has warned of stiffer sanctions if the mediation fails. Iran denies having a weapons programme.

The Turkish foreign ministry said a formal announcement on the new deal could be made on Monday.

Last-chance meeting

Last year, Western powers proposed that Iran transfer its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, who would process it into a form usable in a research reactor before returning it.

The deal was an attempt to allow Iran the benefits of nuclear energy without the concern of it having weapons capabilities. But Tehran rejected the idea.

The current talks with Brazil and Turkey, two non-nuclear states on friendly terms with Tehran, are an attempt to resurrect that plan but reportedly with Turkey as the country where the uranium would be sent.

"We thought that we should also go there, in case the exchange takes place in Turkey," said Mr Erdogan.

"I guarantee that we will find the opportunity to overcome these problems, God willing."

Both Russia and the US say the talks represent Iran’s last chance to avoid harsher sanctions.

Mr Lula arrived earlier and held talks first with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and then with spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

After the meetings, Mr Lula said the level of hope of reaching an agreement "has increased".

The BBC’s Iran correspondent Jon Leyne, reporting from London, says the country has given mixed messages about a fuel-swap deal.

He says officials have suggested they are still open to the idea, but have then imposed conditions that the West would not accept.

Iran has been mounting a big diplomatic effort to prevent new UN sanctions; the foreign minister has travelled to all 15 members of the security council.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

American heavy rock singer Ronnie James Dio, who replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath, has died at the age of 67, his wife has said.

Dio had been suffering from stomach cancer.

Before joining Black Sabbath he sang in Rainbow – formed when Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple – and later in Heaven & Hell and Dio.

Dio’s wife Wendy said on her husband’s website: "Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever."

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Airports across much of the UK are to close between 1300 and 1900 BST as volcanic ash drifts across Europe, the air traffic authority Nats has said.

In England, East Midlands, Manchester, Liverpool, Doncaster, Humberside and Carlisle airports will be hit by the Civil Aviation Authority’s no-fly zone.

Airports in Northern Ireland, Prestwick near Glasgow, those on Scottish islands and the Isle of Man are also affected.

London airports are unaffected, while Dublin remains open on Sunday.

Planes have been grounded in other parts of the Irish Republic. Travellers are being advised to check with their airline before leaving home.

The UK no-fly zones are set out by the Civil Aviation Authority using Met Office data. Forecasts suggest the ash cloud could extend further over the UK during Monday and Tuesday.

Nats’ Jonathan Astill said: "Unfortunately, yet again, a mixture of volcanic activity and weather systems have conspired to bring a cloud of ash down towards the UK."

The cloud is expected to lie over the London area by Tuesday, but is likely to have drifted out of UK airspace by Wednesday, forecasters predict.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the situation was "fluid" but passenger safety was the top priority.

Prof Brian Golding, head of forecasting research at the Met Office, said the cloud stemmed from an eruption on Thursday.

"The volcano has now dropped back in height. It did that yesterday, so the ash coming towards us for the future isn’t quite so deep as it was on Thursday.

Airline fined

"It isn’t going to turn into a huge area and it’s being blown eastwards, between south-east and east. "

Ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has caused disruption to thousands of flights since April.

Meanwhile, Italy has fined Irish airline Ryanair 3m euros (£2.5m) for failing to help some passengers after cancelling their flights during the crisis.

Ministers agreed on Saturday that the five-day forecasts, rather than 18-hour ones, would be made available on the Met Office website.

The Met Office said its charts would be updated every six hours but that the wind was expected to change direction in the middle of next week, taking ash away from the UK.

Scottish transport minister Stewart Stevenson called upon airlines to be "consistent" to "avoid unnecessary and unhelpful confusion".

He said he had written to BA chief executive Willie Walsh after the airline cancelled three flights to Scotland on Friday. BA said the flights were cancelled as a "precaution".

Molten glass

BA is facing industrial action in the coming days, potentially adding to travel disruption.

Meanwhile, Network Rail said it was boosting services to and from Scotland, and to Irish Sea ports, with engineering works postponed where necessary.

Dr Dougal Jerram, a volcanologist from Durham University, warned the last big eruption of Eyjafjallajokull – in the 1820s – went on for about two years, and its current eruption could last "several months".

But he said the continued eruptions would not necessarily cause more problems to air travel, as a number of factors – explosive eruptions, a concentrated plume and certain weather patterns – needed to be in place at the same time to create "the perfect storm".

In April, airspace across Europe was shut down for five days over concerns ash could turn to molten glass in high temperatures, crippling plane engines.

Scientists and engineers have since revised the safe-to-fly threshold, but clouds of volcanic ash have continued to drift over Europe, causing airport closures, flight delays and cancellations.

In the past week, several airports in southern Europe have been forced to close and flights have been re-routed.

Italy’s civil aviation authority fine on Ryanair comes after it said it knew of 178 cases of passengers who did not receive mandatory assistance, such as food – required under EU regulations – between 17 and 22 April. Ryanair called the allegation "complete rubbish".

Are your travel plans likely to be affected by the latest anticipated disruptions? Are you travelling from an airport in the south-east of England between Sunday and Tuesday? Will you make alternative travel plans? Send us your comments Click here to add comments..

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.