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The radio quasar 3C 454.3 underwent an exceptional optical outburst lasting more than 1 year and culminating in spring 2005. The maximum brightness detected was R = 12.0, which represents the most luminous quasar state thus far observed (M_B ~ -31.4). In order to follow the emission behaviour of the source in detail, a large multiwavelength campaign was organized by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT). Continuous optical, near-IR and radio monitoring was performed in several bands. ToO pointings by the Chandra and INTEGRAL satellites provided additional information at high energies in May 2005. The historical radio and optical light curves show different behaviours. Until about 2001.0 only moderate variability was present in the optical regime, while prominent and long-lasting radio outbursts were visible at the various radio frequencies, with higher-frequency variations preceding the lower-frequency ones. After that date, the optical activity increased and the radio flux is less variable. This suggests that the optical and radio emissions come from two separate and misaligned jet regions, with the inner optical one acquiring a smaller viewing angle during the 2004-2005 outburst. Moreover, the colour-index behaviour (generally redder-when-brighter) during the outburst suggests the presence of a luminous accretion disc. A huge mm outburst followed the optical one, peaking in June-July 2005. The high-frequency (37-43 GHz) radio flux started to increase in early 2005 and reached a maximum at the end of our observing period (end of September 2005). VLBA observations at 43 GHz during the summer confirm the, 7 pages, 4 figures, to be published in A&A

Some intra-day variable, compact extra-galactic radio sources show brightness temperatures severely exceeding 10^{12} K, the limit set by catastrophic inverse-Compton (IC) cooling in sources of incoherent synchrotron radiation. The violation of the IC limit, possible under non-stationary conditions, would lead to IC avalanches in the soft-gamma-ray energy band during transient periods. For the first time, broadband signatures of possible IC catastrophes were searched for in S5 0716+71. A multifrequency observing campaign targetting S5 0716+71 was carried out in November 2003 under the framework of the European Network for the Investigation of Galactic nuclei through Multifrequency Analysis (ENIGMA) together with a campaign by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT), involving a pointing by the soft-gamma-ray satellite INTEGRAL, optical, near-infrared, sub-millimeter, millimeter, radio, and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) monitoring. S5 0716+71 was very bright at radio frequencies and in a rather faint optical state during the INTEGRAL pointing; significant inter-day and low intra-day variability was recorded in the radio regime, while typical fast variability features were observed in the optical band. No correlation was found between the radio and optical emission. The source was not detected by INTEGRAL, neither by the X-ray monitor JEM-X nor by the gamma-ray imager ISGRI, but upper limits to the source emission in the 3-200 keV energy band were estimated. A brightness temperature Tb>2.1x10^{14} K was inferred from the radio variability, but no corresponding signatures of IC avalanches were recorded at higher energies. The absence of IC-catastrophe signatures provides either a lower limit delta>8 to the Doppler factor affecting the radio emission or strong constraints for modelling of the Compton catastrophes in S5 0716+71., 15 pages, 3 EPS figures, 3 tables, to appear in A&A