Movers and/or shakers

BBC3 published a list of cultural movers and/or shakers this week. J K Rowling did very well, some bimbette actresses did well. Missing in action: anyone from the theatre, anyone literary other than J K (what about Zadie Smith?), and anyone from the BBC. Yes, Radio 1 is a busted flush, but one can't deny that Terry Wogan and Jim Moir shape tastes. However, no spot for the BBC3 controller is just about right.

Picked up a copy of the tabloid compact Indy today. And it's like going back to October 1990, when the short-lived Sunday Correspondent spent nine glorious weeks publishing in the tabloid format. Carefully laidout double spreads, intelligent content that is - perhaps - published at better length in the smaller format, and small enough to read on the dinner table without plonking a plate of chips over half the paper. I very much like. Shame it's taken a decade and a half to catch on.

Also bit the bullet and bought a standalone DAB radio. At last, I get to wake up to 6 Music or Xfm or any of the other exclusive stations.

Another Poiree Day

Fourth (count 'em!) gold for Liv Grete Poiree in the worlds - today, the Mass Start. 12 and a half km of fast and furious action began as it meant to go on. Going down the hill away from the stadium area, Uschi Disl was amongst half a dozen competitors to fall on the skiddy slope, where racers regularly touch 90 kph. It'll be on Question of Sport ere long, and that'll be all the coverage the BBC gives to this sport for another year. Poiree missed two targets on her third shoot to keep the race alive, but she wins by almost a minute and a half from Sandrine Bailly, with German Simone Denkinger surviving a fall to finish third, over two minutes off the pace. Simone Denkinger and Gro Istad-Kristiansen finished fourth and fifth, with Natalia Guseva a very creditable seventh.

La Norge, dix points

Attention fans of The Darkness! Your favourite band may have come a rubbish nowhere in the UK Eurosong entry, but their Norwegian equivalent, Wig Wam, have made the finals there. Cheesy cod-metal a-hoy! Also there... Rebecca from Hobbit Idol, another track from the bloke who wrote Bert Bills' "Come Undone", but still no entry for Ephemera. How does any country expect to win when they don't enter their best performers?

...Not a problem for Germany...

as the host country wins the men's relay at the World Biathlon championships. Two errors was all the side suffered, and that accuracy led them to the win. Norway was far faster on the snow, but had 10 missed shots and two penalty loops to trail the Germans by 15.7 seconds at the finish, and defending World Cup champ Ole Einar Bjorndalen only has the one chance left to win gold here. France shot well, skied less well, to finish 33 seconds adrift. Belarus and Russia rounded out the top five, with Sweden finishing almost two minutes further down. The British side withdrew after being lapped on only the second skiier - Marc Walker had a nightmare, missing five of his first eight shots.

Bang

Raphael Poiree won his second gold of the world champs in the 20km individual, missing only one of his 20 targets. Pole Tomasz Sikora was 55.5 seconds behind Poiree, with Ole Einar Bjoerndalen a further five seconds behind, following the Norwegian's two errors. Dmitry Pozdnjakov of Kazakhstan was the only man who made all 20 targets, but was slow on his skis and finished in 41st position. Ricco Gross finished fourth, with Russian Sergeis Konovalov and Rozhkov fifth and sixth. Of the favourites, Sven Fischer came in 23rd, and Harvard Hanevold 38th, both around 5 minutes off the winner. Marc Walker had a good finish, 51st and seven minutes from the win - well, it's good for a Brit.

In the women's relay, it's Norway all the way. Again. Linda Tjoerhom, Gro Marit Istad-Kristiansen, Gunn Margit Andreassen and Liv Grete Poiree won the gold a minute ahead of Russia, and Germany ten seconds further down. Belarus and France also did well, while Red China and Italy proved to be far less than the sum of their parts.

Oh sing me a song for Eurosong

Not only is February the start of Birthday Season, it's the start of Eurosong Season. I'm very impressed by the Estonian entry; that country could easily have won in 99, 00, 02, and 03, and the one time they entered a sub-par song, it actually won. Lithuania has yet to trouble the top half of the scoreboard in the ten years since their debut, but this year it looks like they'll be entering Amberlife. Who, I hear you cry? The biggest singing sensation in the country, it's like Britain entering Will and Gareth, or Latvia sending Prata Vetra, or Russia being represented by Tatu. So third place it is, then.

Favourite of the ones I've heard so far (and I've not tracked down Belarus yet) is the Finnish entry, and one thing's for certain: Terry should send a postcard to Richard and Judy, coz they're the only reason he's staying away from the Baltic this year, and he'll be back on the chilly body next year. Though we've not heard anything from the always reliable Latvians, or the perpetual nearly-men of Sweden.

Meantime, in Cyprus, they're getting their songs written by Peter Andre...

Victory for Russia

...in the women's 15k at the biathlon world champs. Olga Pyleva came through to head the field, 41 seconds ahead of her compatriot Albina Akhatova who had a stellar performance. Olena Petrova of the Ukraine came in third, a further minute back, with French women Sandrine Bailly and Sylvie Beccart finishing fourth and fifth. Liv Grete Poiree was fastest over the snow, but five missed shots meant she could only finish the day eighth, behind Martina Glagow and Christelle Gros.

Cricket weekly

The venues and schedule for September's Champions' Trophy are confirmed. England starts against Zimbabwe at Edgbaston on September 10, followed by Sri Lanka . Winners of that group will play the winners of Australia's group, which also includes New Zealand (that's at Theoval on Sept 16.) India and Pakistan will meet at Edgie on the 19th, winners to play South Africa or the Windies (Theoval, 18th). Semis on the 21st and 22nd, respectively, leading to the final on the 25th.

A very sensible rain rule allows games to continue on the second day, rather than force a restart (as happened in the last CT, forcing the final to finish drawn) or just give up after the first day (as at last year's WC, allowing Zimbabwe to sneak into the second phase.) I've no details yet regarding domestic television or radio coverage.

Just one sauce

The Indy has found the source for That 45 Minute claim. Here's the report:

The "reliable source" who provided MI6 with the information that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes was an Iraqi exile who had left the country several years previously. That fact alone should have prevented the intelligence being used in the Government's September 2002 dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

The 45-minute claim, repeated four times in the dossier, is at the centre of the dispute over Britain's case for war in Iraq. The "reliable source" obtained the information at second hand from a serving officer in the Iraqi army, with the rank either of full colonel or brigadier.

The Iraqi exile was in Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991, but later fled, possibly to Scandinavia. He did not make contact with British intelligence until he was outside Iraq; last summer Tony Blair and the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, both told Parliament he was not a defector but "an established and reliable source". Mr Straw added he had been "reporting to us secretly for some years".

Said to have "military knowledge", the source maintained contacts with serving officers in Saddam Hussein's armed forces. But the fact that he was not in Iraq meant that the information he provided, especially on such an important point as whether Saddam had active plans to use chemical and biological weapons, did not meet normal standards for assessing intelligence, especially as it was unsupported by documentary evidence. There was no definite information on whether chemical or biological warheads were with front-line units, which would have made it feasible that they could be used within 45 minutes, or back in secure bases which would make it impossible.

The fact that the information was "single source", and was included in the dossier at a late stage, first emerged after the BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan reported what he had been told by the weapons scientist David Kelly, setting off a furore which led to Dr Kelly's suicide and the Hutton inquiry into his death.

Not until the inquiry did the public learn that the original information passed on by the Iraqi exile referred only to battlefield weapons. "It related to munitions, which we had interpreted to mean battlefield mortar shells or small calibre weaponry, quite different from missiles," John Scarlett, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and author of the dossier, told Lord Hutton.

Evidence at the inquiry showed, however, that Mr Scarlett never used the word "munitions" in drafts of the dossier, allowing the claim to become inflated to one of WMD. Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6, told the inquiry that the original information was "a piece of well-sourced intelligence", though he admitted that the way it was "misinterpreted" could mean that it had been given undue prominence.

Tony, you lied. Go. Now.

Don't. Just don't.

Six (and only six) good reasons not to send large files through email. 1) We won't be able to download email forever. 2) We'll have to call our resident geek. 3) Our resident geek will do something magical and unblock the email. 4) Our resident geek will tell us who is to blame. 5) We won't do anything. 6) The culprit never knows the damage he causes, and does it all again.

Sunday is chart day

Week three at the top for Katie Melua, but all hell breaks loose beneath her. Snow Patrol's Final Score is new at number 2, with the Lostprophets' Start Something one place lower. Joss Stone holds at 4, with Incubus's A Crow Left Of The Murder in at 5. Most of last week's biggies slip somewhat, but Norah Jones holds up - she's still at 10 and has a new album out tomorrow. There's no end to Jamie Cullum's popularity, his album moves back up a place to 15, as does Lemar two places lower. Daniel B'dingdangdong is up three at 21, while Sarah McLachlan has her biggest UK album yet, with Afterglow making a debut at 23. The Coral's album slips 6-16, but that's no surprise, as it's a limited release.

Lower down, Goldfrapp climbs 30-25, Marques Houston (who?) is in at 39, and Nelly Furtardo re-enters at 40. If the Sex Pistols' ...Bollocks was eligible, it would be #38. Another big slump for Gary Jules, he's gone 6-21-36, while Ali Griffin has left the 40 after just three weeks. Sparky's down 3 at 35.

On the singles side, no change as LMC holds off Kelis for the top slot. Week thirteen (count 'em!) and still Outkast's Hey Ya climbs, now hitting a new peak at number 3. With the single knocked off the top of the Billboard Hot 100, there's just a chance that the chaps could be charting higher in the UK than in the US soon. Michelle McManus slips to 4, and the Boogie Pimps go back up one to 5. The pisspoor Blazing Squad have the highest new entry at 6, and there are climbs for 2 Play (9-7), Sean Paul (10-9), Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne (14-11), Willy Oung (22-17) and the Sugababes (32-30). Last week I mentioned how Katie Melua was dropping down one place a week. She's not doing that anymore; this week, Closest Thing To Crazy moves back up a jaw-dropping ten places to 15. Coupled with non movers for Andrews and Jules (12), Franz Ferdinand (13), and a single place slip for Maroon 5 (17-18), it's a good week for great songs.

Other recommended new entries: Funeral For A Friend's Escape Artists Never Die (19), Von Bondies' C'Mon C'Mon (21), Stranglers' Big Thing Coming (31) - their first top 40 hit since 96 Tears at the start of 1990, Brand New's Sic Transit Gloria Glory Fades (37), Simple Kid's Truck On (38). Also: top 40 places for Junior Jack, Obie Trice, Basement Jaxx, and Benny Benassi.

Outside the 40, new entries for Plumb, Chicane, and John Squire come very close; Leann Rimes is a little less near the hallowed circles. Re-entries for lots of Shady and Aftermath records following a discount in many record stores.

More coverage than Eurosport

Viewers to Eurosport won't have seen Liv Grete Poiree's win in the 10k pursuit race today. Completely unchallenged on the first two loops, she missed one on the third and three on the final shoot, cutting her lead to a substantial 21.3 seconds. Martina Glagow came second, with Anna Bogali over a minute off the pace in third. A great performance by Gro Istad-Kristiansen, starting 16th but passing nine competitors to finish seventh; only Glagow was faster on the snow. Loser of the day: Nathalie Santer, falling from 10th to 53rd, losing five and a half minutes to the winner.

In the men's race, Ricco Gross comes from second start to pip Raphael Poiree by 13.3 seconds, both men missing two targets. One Einar Bjorndalen finished third, with big gains for compatriot Halvard Hanevold (18th to 5th, the fastest man on the snow) and Tomasz Sikora of Poland (17th to 6th).

Viewers to Eurosport saw nothing of this, the channel preferred to show football from Tunisia and Italy. Gits.

older writing...