Irish airports reopen

Ireland reopened its western airports today but warned that a 1,000-mile-long cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland was still lurking offshore. The Irish Aviation Authority, which ordered a half-dozen airports shut overnight, quickly reopened them once it became clear that the cloud was staying sufficiently far from Ireland's Atlantic coast — at least until the winds shift once again. "While the northerly winds are keeping the bulk of the cloud out in the Atlantic, the increased size of the cloud continues to pose a risk especially if the winds change," the authority said in a statement. "The res...