Tens of thousands of bedraggled tourists, including 8 600 Britons, stranded in the Yucatan peninsula for nearly a week after Hurricane Wilma, are finally boarding planes to go home. But reconstruction of the battered Caribbean holiday region will take much longer, say local officials.

”Abu Theeb is a tall, handsome, well-built man with a thin beard and thick eyebrows. His name is a nom de guerre: it means Father of the Wolf. He is a farmer during daylight and a commander of a mujahedin cell, a group of holy warriors, at night.” Ghaith Abdul-Ahad goes behind the lines with Iraqi insurgents.

The White House was on Wednesday struggling to carry on business as usual amid feverish speculation that top officials were facing criminal charges in a potentially crippling political scandal. A special federal prosecutor presented a grand jury with the results so far of his investigation into the leak two years ago of a CIA agent’s identity.

At least 11 people were killed overnight in a fire at a building housing cells for people awaiting expulsion from The Netherlands at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, according to a new toll from the Dutch news agency ANP, quoting the justice ministry. Fifteen other people, including fire officers, were injured and taken to hospital.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime , more than four million of Iran’s 70-million people are addicted to drugs, and the addiction cuts across educational, class, age and economic barriers. Middle-aged professionals and academics are as vulnerable as under-educated, socially deprived teenagers, say experts.