The lawsuit filed Tuesday in US District Court in Seattle accuses the alliance of violating Washington state laws barring discrimination. The alliance organizes the annual Gay Softball World Series. Beth Allen, the alliance's attorney, said the lawsuit is unwarranted and that the three plaintiffs "were not discriminated against in any unlawful manner." In any case, Allen said, the alliance is a private organization and, as such, can determine its membership based on its goals.

The three plaintiffs - Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles and Jon Russ - played on a team called D2 that qualified for the 2008 Gay Softball World Series, which is organized by the alliance. The alliance's rules say that each World Series team can have no more than two heterosexual players. According to the lawsuit, a competing team accused D2 of violating that rule. Each of the three plaintiffs was called into a conference room in front of more than 25 people, and was asked "personal and intrusive questions" about his sexual attractions and desires, purportedly to determine if the player was heterosexual or gay, the lawsuit alleges.

The men are asking for $75,000 each for emotional distress. They're also seeking to invalidate the alliance's findings on the men's sexual orientations and to reinstate D2's second-place World Series finish. The men also are asking the court to toss out the alliance's rule limiting the number of straight players on each team. Hypothetically, that could mean a team of all-straight people could form, but "it would be extremely unlikely for that to happen," Rowen said.

The alliance was formed in 1977 and now includes more than 680 teams in 37 leagues across the US and Canada, according to its website.

But scientists have said regulators had few options beyond a ban on flights. Earlier, officials said air traffic in Europe would be back to "almost 100%" on Thursday, although an alert led Qantas to cancel a flight from London. Tens of thousands of people remain stranded around the world as airlines restart services after the unprecedented travel chaos.

Six days after the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland triggered the first airspace closures, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said airlines had lost $1.7 billion (1.1 billion pounds). "For an industry that lost $9.4 billion last year and was forecast to lose a further $2.8 billion in 2010, this crisis is devastating," Iata chief Giovanni Bisignani said. "Airspace was being closed based on theoretical models, not on facts."

Mr Bisignani said the situation had been exacerbated by "poor decision-making" from governments and called on them to compensate airlines, something which the European Commission has said it is considering. Some airlines are also demanding changes to EU passenger compensation rules, which require them to provide accommodation for those prevented from flying. Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of the low-cost carrier Ryanair, said it was "absurd" that his firm had to spend thousands of euros on someone whose ticket might have cost only a few euros.

In measures more stringent than Wall Street and the City had expected, the fund called for the introduction of a twin-track approach to the three-year banking crisis that would both force firms to pay for any future support packages and raise new taxes on their profits and remuneration. The report, prepared by the Washington-based institution for the G20 group of developed and developing nations, was seized upon by Gordon Brown as evidence that his push for an international crackdown on the banking sector was gaining support.

Leaked in advance of the fund's meeting this weekend, the blueprint emerged as the investment bank Goldman Sachs released better than expected first quarter revenues and admitted its bonus and pay pool had reached $5.5 billion (3.3 billion pounds) in the first three months of 2010. The anticipated study called for a financial stability contribution (FSC), which should be paid by all financial institutions, not just banks, and used to bail out weak and failing firms. It would initially be paid at a flat rate but eventually be tailored to suit institutions' size and riskiness.

Military operations in Afghanistan were intrinsic for the UK's security said 57%, but about a third disagreed. The survey was released ahead of the second of the televised party leaders' election debates, on foreign affairs. Some 58% of those polled thought the UK's best interests were served by maintaining a special relationship with the US, ahead of other strategic partners.

On security priorities for the next government, just over 80% believed tackling terrorism would remain the most pressing task. Both Labour and the Conservatives have said they would renew the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent missile system, a stance backed by 53%.

That proportion agreed that Trident's security and political benefits clearly outweighed its diplomatic and economic costs, but more than a third disagreed. BBC News defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt says all three main political parties have committed to holding a strategic defence review - which will need to decide just what the UK's role should be - after the election.

A new ash cloud heading towards the country has forced all London airports to stay closed. Others in England, including Manchester, are set to open from 1pm, but this is not certain. Scottish airports have reopened this morning with a flight from Glasgow to Stornoway taking off at 7.15am.

BA had intended to resume flights from London airports today but last night it had to cancel those plans. A spokesman for the air traffic control service Nats said: 'The volcano eruption in Iceland has strengthened and a new ash cloud is spreading south and east towards the UK. This demonstrates the dynamic and rapidly changing conditions in which we are working.' The Met Office itself said strong high-altitude winds were blowing the new cloud towards the UK more quickly than the one which followed the first eruption.

Last night the Met Office was accused of unnecessarily triggering the six-day closure of British airspace which has cost passengers, airlines and the economy more than 1.5 billion pounds. Critics said the agency used a scientific model based on 'probability' rather than fact to forecast the spread of the ash cloud.

Matthias Ruete, the European Commission's director general of transport, said the ban should have been restricted to a 20 to 30-mile limit around the volcano. He said: 'The science behind the model we are running is based on certain assumptions where we do not have scientific evidence.'

It also estimated that 1.2 million passengers a day were affected. On Tuesday night, flights started landing in the UK after a six-day shutdown of UK airspace. The decision to lift the ban followed safety tests that showed plane engines could cope in areas of low density ash.

A separate report by the the Centre for Economics and Business Research has estimated the cost to airlines of the disruptions to be 1.08 billion euros ($1.45 billion; 942 million pounds) over the six days. David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, told the BBC that the cost to the UK economy of the flight disruptions was likely to have been more than 100 million pounds a day.

Mr Bisignani also criticised governments for the haste with which they closed airspace, and called on them to provide compensation to the airlines. "Airspace was being closed based on theoretical models, not on facts. Test flights by our members showed that the models were wrong."

"[The crisis] is an extraordinary situation exaggerated by a poor decision-making process by national governments. Governments should help carriers recover the cost of this disruption." Budget airline Easyjet said it had lost 50 million pounds during the flight ban and that it would be seeking government compensation.

But the effects of the crisis have also been felt outside of the travel industry, as tens of thousands of people have been stranded, unable to get to work. Producers of perishable goods, such as food and flowers, have also been hit hard. Carmaker Nissan had to suspend production for a day as it could not import components from the Irish Republic.

Aviation officials lifted the airspace ban on Tuesday night, saying it was now safe for planes to fly. For the first time in almost a week, there have been scenes of joy at UK airports with passengers finally arriving home, many with tales of epic journeys. But the departures and arrivals boards at many airports remain full of cancellations.

Heathrow would normally handle about 1,250 flights on an average Wednesday but there were no departures until 0806BST when an Alitalia flight left for Rome. The first two BA flights have left Heathrow for Tel Aviv and New York.

UK air traffic control body Nats said it had handled 130 flights over England and Wales, and 35 in Scottish airspace, between 0100 BST and 0700 BST on Wednesday. About 75% of European flights are due to operate on Wednesday, according to the air traffic agency Eurocontrol.

Goldman also faces the loss of lucrative British government work - including a host of planned privatisations - after the Prime Minister described the bank as morally bankrupt. Goldman was facing further battles in Europe. In Britain, the Financial Services Authority opened an informal investigation to back up the SEC's inquiry, and Germany said it had asked the SEC for information to help it to build a case over the mis-selling of CDOs to the IKB bank.

Goldman, which will announce its first-quarter results today, has lost $10 billion of its market value since Friday and its shares fell again yesterday, although they rallied before the close. One senior figure in the private equity industry who has instructed Goldman in the past told The Times: "The way Goldman treats clients is a disgrace. This is the thin end of the wedge. People won't want to be associated with this sort of behaviour."

Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's chief executive, admitted in a voicemail to all staff yesterday that the attention that followed the securities fraud charges was "certainly uncomfortable", but that the board and management committee were addressing the charges. The bank also issued a statement again denying the US Securities and Exchange Commission accusations that it or its employees tricked clients into buying bad loans in 2007. Fabrice Tourre, who did the deals over which Goldman has been charged, has been put on paid leave and is at home.

The computer models that guided decisions to impose a no-fly zone across most of Europe in recent days are based on incomplete science and limited data, according to European officials. As a result, they may have over-stated the risks to the public, needlessly grounding flights and damaging businesses. "It is a black box in certain areas," Matthias Ruete, the EU's director-general for mobility and transport, said on Monday, noting that many of the assumptions in the computer models were not backed by scientific evidence.

European authorities were not sure about scientific questions, such as what concentration of ash was hazardous for jet engines, or at what rate ash fell from the sky, Mr Ruete said. "It's one of the elements where, as far as I know, we're not quite clear about it," he admitted. He also noted that early results of the 40-odd test flights conducted over the weekend by European airlines, such as KLM and Air France, suggested that the risk was less than the computer models had indicated.

The acknowledgement that the computer models were flawed is likely to provide ammunition for critics who believe that authorities have shown excessive caution. The closure of much of the airspace over Europe over the past five days is estimated to have cost airlines a total of $200 million a day in lost revenue.

Britain's Met Office, the national weather service, said the vast cloud that has grounded thousands of flights across northern Europe reached Newfoundland on Monday. However, the winds that pushed the ash to the edge of North America are expected to change direction in the next couple of days, preventing the cloud from covering more of Canada and the United States.

Airlines have suffered losses described as being worse than after the 9/11 attacks after aviation officials closed parts of Europe's airspace on fears the ash could paralyze jet engines. "It is just skirting into the Newfoundland area over the next 12 to 18 hours," Bob Syvret, duty forecaster at the Met Office, told Reuters. "It doesn't look as if it is going to get much further west than that, just on the coast and a little further inland."

It showed the cloud jutting south from the volcano in Iceland, covering much of northern Europe and then spreading west over the Atlantic and east over Russia. Estimating the density of the cloud at its extremities is difficult and warnings for aviation in North America would be a matter for US and Canadian officials, Syvret added.

Last week, two Finnish Air Force F-18 fighter-bombers suffered similar damage while flying through the ash plume that has paralyzed air traffic over much of Europe. Both landed safely, but their jet engines will require expensive overhauls. Volcanic ash tends to stick to a jet engine's interior parts, such as the turbines, where it melts to form a glassy coating. This restricts air flow and heats up the engine, leading to engine failure.

Scottish airports are still expected to reopen from 0700 BST, but Nats said it would report again at 0300. A further update will be made at 0900 BST on Tuesday. Nats said more airspace over England was expected to become available from 1300 BST although not as far south as London's main airports.

In a statement, Nats said: "The volcano eruption in Iceland has strengthened and a new ash cloud is spreading south and east towards the UK. This demonstrates the dynamic and rapidly changing conditions in which we are working." It said it expected the situation to change overnight, and pointed out it was working closely with the Met Office and the UK's safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority.

Roads and communications are sparse in the area, and casualty reports take time to reach authorities. The quake was felt in Kabul as well as the neighboring countries of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Baghlani said three districts of scattered mud-walled villages were affected, with more than 300 homes damaged and dozens of head of livestock killed. Landslides sparked by the quake had blocked roads, making even more arduous what was already an eight-hour drive along winding mountain trails from the provincial capital of Aybak.

The Hindu Kush region is capable of producing large earthquakes along faultlines where India slammed against the Asian continent millions of years ago. In 1998, a pair of quakes measuring 5.9 and 6.6 struck along Afghanistan's border with Tajikistan, killing more than 6,000 people. A 5.3 quake that hit Baghlan province next to Samangan in 2002 killed about 1,000 people.

Airports and airlines are questioning the need for curbs said to be costing airlines $200 million (130 million pounds) a day. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has criticised European governments' response. "We must move away from this blanket closure and find ways to flexibly open air space, step by step," IATA head Giovanni Bisignani told a news briefing in Paris.

The enormous shroud of fine mineral dust particles now stretches from the Arctic Circle in the north to the French Mediterranean coast in the south, and from Spain into Russia. Airspace remains closed, or partially closed, in more than 20 countries. Sixty-three thousand flights have been cancelled in the four days since the clampdown began. And the prospect of a return to normal air travel remains far from clear.

In another development, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans working in agriculture, the country's largest export sector, face economic uncertainty because of the flight bans. Refrigerated stores at Nairobi airport and on farms are now completely full, and a huge amount of fresh flowers and vegetables destined for the European market is in danger of perishing, the BBC's East Africa correspondent, Will Ross, reports

The ships HMS Ark Royal, HMS Ocean and HMS Albion have been pressed into action and are heading for Spain and unspecified Channel ports. Flight restrictions were extended to at least 0100 BST Tuesday. Travel agents' association Abta said its "rough estimate" was that 150,000 Britons are currently stranded abroad. HMS Albion was deployed to Spain to return members of the 3 Rifles regiment to the UK, as they remain stranded on their way back from Afghanistan. Gordon Brown has spoken to the Spanish premier about the feasibility of some Britons being flown into Spain before a journey by sea to the UK.

Arriving for the Cobra meeting, the Cabinet Office Minister Tessa Jowell said the government will "take advice from [national air traffic control service] Nats and no-one else". She also confirmed that Transport Secretary Lord Adonis is in hourly contact with individual airlines and denied the government had been slow to act over the crisis. "At every airport where there are likely to be UK citizens trying to return home there have been consular staff," she said.

Cabinet ministers met to discuss plans to deal with the situation on Sunday, with Business Secretary Lord Mandelson saying afterwards: "We will mobilise all possible means to get people home." Security minister Lord West, a former head of the Royal Navy, said: "We clearly have a reasonable lift capacity within the Royal Navy for lifting people... we are finding exactly what ships are available, what would be able to move, what's the best port to go to." Other ideas included requisitioning merchant ships, he said.

Dr Guy Gratton, head of the Facility of Airborne Atmospheric Measurement, a joint body belonging to the Met Office and the Natural Environment Research Council, said the test had discovered "a very complex set of ash plumes" with "six distinct layers". "Those layers are around four or five times more dense than we saw on our last flight on Friday, so it's still quite a complex mixture of clear air and very worrying, but invisible volcanic ash at all sorts of heights," he said. Our correspondent said this showed the issue was not whether the cloud was real and dangerous, but whether its extent could be accurately mapped.