Nicholas Hughes, the son of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, has killed himself. His death was 46 years after his mother committed suicide and almost 40 years to the day after his stepmother, Assia Wevill, did the same. He was 47.

Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupted four times overnight, sending an ash plume more than nine miles into the air, but the state's largest city has likely been spared from any ash fall.

Or: it's a dog's life. Michelle Williams plays meek drifter Wendy, who's making her way up to Alaska in the vague hope of a job, her only company a goldenish retriever, Lucy.

As this delightful but often discomfiting book shows, "it has been the bear's fate to serve as a yardstick for humans". Moving with a brisk tread between actual bear behaviour and the myths and tales that partner it, Brunner reminds us - with dry wit and great illustrations - that we get bears wrong. Above all, they're just not that into us.

America's largest women's rights organisation delivered a snub to Sarah Palin's history-making candidacy yesterday by endorsing Barack Obama and Joe Biden's bid for power.

Of the many disclosures about the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, since John McCain selected her as his running mate, one of the most intriguing surrounds the birth of her youngest child, Trig.

Sarah Palin bolstered her reputation as a reformer – and got one of her biggest cheers in her Republican convention speech last week – when she said she had sold the governor's official jet on eBay as her first act on taking office in Alaska.