In what American media were describing as a major blow to Mr Gingrich's hopes, his campaign manager and press spokesman are among those said to have left his team.

Mr Gingrich, who's a former speaker of the House of Representatives, is believed to

be determined to

stay in the race.

The government of Malawi has stopped paying a special allowance to civil servants with HIV because it says they are spending the money on beer and prostitutes. An official accused them of further spreading the disease. The 40,000 government employees will, instead, be given a monthly supply of nutritional food.

International flights to and from Argentina and Uruguay have been disrupted again by a huge ash cloud caused by an

ongoing

volcanic eruption in southern Chile. Danny Aeberhard has more details.

Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, named after its fair breezes, is hoping the winds change. The vast cloud of fine grey ash from Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano continues to cause

havoc

there. The city's main international and domestic airports, the biggest airport in the country, have been forced to close. Both had already seen flight cancellations earlier this week. Several other smaller Argentine airports, mainly in Patagonia, remain closed too. And many flights in and out of the Uruguayan capital Montevideo have also been cancelled, affecting thousands more travellers.

The price of crude oil has risen strongly for a second day after the exporters' group Opec didn't reach an agreement to increase production. Brent crude oil, one of the main benchmarks, climbed by more than $3 a barrel from its price before the Opec decision to more than $119. The biggest Opec producer Saudi Arabia tried to convince the group to increase production, but when it