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Huge plumes of ash and smoke were filmed erupting from Mount Etna, Sicily on 27 December as skiers used the slopes below.

Scientists at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia said volcanic activity at the site, which frequently erupts, had intensified, with craters continuously emitting ash.

In response, scientists issued a red Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation, its highest level, though authorities said flights would continue to operate normally at a nearby airport unless ashfall increased.

The annual food fight festival ”Els Enfarinats” has left the Spanish town of Ibi covered in flour and egg shells.

Every year participants wear military-style costumes and stage a fake coup using eggs, flour and firecrackers.

The eggers go around asking for “taxes” – donations to charity – from local people and if you don’t pay you could end up getting splatted.

The festival, held in the province of Alicante, is more than 200 years old and takes place on the 28 December each year to coincide with the Day of the Innocents – Spain’s equivalent of April Fools’ Day.

Video edited by Zahra Fatima and Jack Burgess

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has received a medical procedure to treat his chronic hiccups, his medical team has said.

Saturday’s treatment “went well”, according to one of his doctors. Another, Claudio Birolini, added that the procedure – which he stressed was not a surgery – lasted for “about an hour”.

The far-right former leader is currently serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after he lost the Latin American nation’s 2022 presidential election to left-wing opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

This latest procedure comes after the 70-year-old successfully underwent surgery for a double hernia earlier this week, after being granted permission to be transferred to hospital.

Ahead of the surgery, Bolsonaro also endorsed his son Flávio to run against Lula in Brazil’s 2026 presidential election. His statement – a handwritten letter – was read out by the younger Bolsonaro outside the hospital.

Following the successful surgery, his medical team deemed it necessary to treat his recurrent hiccups, which he had been suffering from for months.

“It’s been nine months of struggle and anguish with daily hiccups,” Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle, said on Saturday.

She explained in a social media post that her husband’s procedure had “blocked” one of his phrenic nerves.

The phrenic nerves contract and expand the diaphragm, which allows the lungs to inhale and exhale. Hiccups are caused by the involuntary spasming of the diaphragm, typically as a result of an irritated phrenic nerve.

His doctors later confirmed they had treated the right phrenic nerve and had scheduled to work on the left nerve on Monday.

Once discharged from hospital, the former president will return to a cell in the federal police headquarters to continue serving his sentence.

Bolsonaro was found guilty of the coup plot in September. He was placed under house arrest pending appeals, but was taken into police custody last month after being deemed a “concrete flight risk”.

Court officials said he had attempted to break his ankle monitor and planned to use a rally outside his house as cover for an escape attempt. Bolsonaro insisted he had no intention of fleeing.

Also on Saturday, Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the house arrest of 10 officials for participating in his coup attempt. All of them had served in his government.