“Said & Done” (Sport, last week, page 6) was wrong to describe Sacha Gaydamak, former owner of Portsmouth FC, as “son of billionaire convicted arms trafficker Arcady”. Mr Gaydamak was cleared of charges relating to arms dealing by the French Supreme Court on 29 April 2011. We apologise for this error. Link Report an error
“The 10-year revolution that has put food at the heart of our national conversation” (In Focus, 16 October, page 32) was wrong to claim that before the “British food renaissance” of the past decade food writers such as Jane Grigson only “found an outlet in women’s magazines or specialist books”. Paul Levy, our award-winning food [...]
In “Tories take donations from firm behind 200% loans” (News, last week, page 11), we noted that one man “nearly bought a £ 7,000 car from ACF that would have ended up costing him £ 325 a month over 60 months, a total cost of £ 19,500, equivalent to an interest rate of almost 200%.” [...]
A profile of the Icelandic billionaire Thor Bjorgolfsson referred to his plan for a super yacht known as Project Mars, as a play on his thunder god name. To clarify: Thor is the hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder. His nearest Roman equivalent is the thunderbolt-wielding Jupiter, rather than Mars, the Roman god of war (“Icelandic [...]
“Ecuador asks: how much is the rainforest worth?” (News Review, last week) said a new oil field had been found in Yasuni national park “close to the Brazilian border”. Ecuador and Brazil do not share a border. The park borders Peru. Link Report an error
Stories – 15 May 2009 and 8 May 2010 – concerning the expenses and allowances of Shahid Malik when he was an MP incorrectly stated that he had paid a discounted rent on his constituency home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and that his expenses claims were the highest of any MP. Mr Malik was later [...]
“Secret tapes, Coulson’s exit and the riddle of the story that won’t go away” (In Focus, 23 January) reported claims from sources that, owing to a “growing drink problem”, former News of the World journalist Ray Chapman “started secretly taping conversations with his colleagues and editors” and that these tapes might assist in confirming allegations [...]
Apologies to those disappointed last week that we had apparently spoiled their TV viewing by claiming that Christine Hamilton would fail to get through to the final of Celebrity Masterchef (“Scene of the Week, New Review). This was a simple misunderstanding. We had no foreknowledge of the programme’s progress and are happy to report that [...]
The Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen was listed under the heading “New Scandinavian crime writers” (Books, 18 July) but neither Finland nor Estonia is in Scandinavia. Link Report an error
Contrary to “There’s no excuse for stumbling across porn now” (Comment, last week), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is not “setting up a porn-only internet domain”. Rather, a private company, ICM Registry, is applying to Icann, a regulatory body, for permission to operate a domain with the .xxx suffix. Further, the piece [...]
In “The Stones and the true story of Exile On Main St” (Review, last week), we said Robert Greenfield in his book subtitled “A season in hell with the Rolling Stones” had aired a rumour “which he did not confirm or refute” that Anita Pallenberg had encouraged the teenage daughter of an employee to inject [...]
We accidentally misrepresented gambling addiction counsellor Liz Karter last week when we quoted her saying: “I think there is a great demonic force out there leading women quite deliberately into trouble.” A bad telephone line led us to miss a vital negative. She actually said: “I think there isn’t a demonic force. . .” (“Britain’s [...]
We described “a point on the Ataturk bridge (in Istanbul) where you can have one foot in Europe, the other in Asia. . .”, but the bridge spans the Golden Horn, not the Bosphorous. And we took 1,000 years off Aya Sofya, the Church of the Divine Wisdom, which was built in the 6th, not [...]
“Orient Express prepares for its final departure” (News, last week) was illustrated incorrectly with a publicity photograph of the private Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which, as the story was careful to point out, is unaffected by the scrapping of the Strasbourg-Vienna service. We apologise for the error. Link Report an error
In “Seven days: A good week for. . . Judge Mohammed Ilyas Khan” (25 May 2008), we said that Judge Khan’s cleaner had tried to blackmail him. In fact, she was never convicted of blackmailing Judge Khan. She appealed against her conviction for blackmail (involving a Judge J) and theft (involving Judge Khan). All charges [...]
In "Putting the boot in over BBC’s web footage" (Business, last week), we described John Nolan as "boss" of ITN. He is, in fact, a member of its press office. Apologies. Link Report an error
An editing error in "Why France is in thrall to the Tour it can’t win" (World, last week) resulted in us naming French cyclist Brice Feillu as the "hero of Friday" who is "determined to wear the yellow jersey all the way to Paris. . ." but, as the winner of the first mountain stage, [...]
In “The arrogant eagle that won’t pull in its wings” (Business, 3 May), we incorrectly suggested that Sheikha Mouza Bint Nasser al-Misnad is the name of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani’s wife (he is the head of Qatar Holding), and that she had met Dijana Jenkins (wife of Roger Jenkins of Barclays Bank). [...]
“The world’s No 1 bestseller” ( Observer Magazine, last week) said James Patterson “outsells JK Rowling, John Grisham and Dan Brown put together”. Patterson has sold 150 million books, but JK Rowling alone has sold 400 million. Our report on more bloodshed in the world of literary criticism (“Endangered species under further threat”, Books, last [...]
In “The entourage” section of “UK clears its decks for the Obama show” (News, last week), we said representatives of “the Immigration and Naturalisation Service” (INS) and “the US Information Agency” (USIA) would accompany President Obama on his European tour. The USIA was closed in October 1999 when its information functions were incorporated into the [...]
“Cameron faces backlash for supporting supertax” (News, last week) described Jan Peter Balkenende as “the Norwegian prime minister”. He is actually the prime minister of the Netherlands. Link Report an error
In “The beauty Q & A” ( Observer Woman, last week), we suggested using an iPulse system (the Boots Smooth Skin Intense Pulsed Light Hair Reduction System) to remove facial hair, but Boots stresses that this product is designed for use on body hair only, not on the face. Readers are advised to call 0845 [...]
In “The famous faces that fooled Stanford clients” (News, 22 February) we wrote: “Randy Shain, vice-president of First Advantage Investigative Services in the US, said one of his clients had decided not to invest in [Sir Allen] Stanford’s empire after he found allegations of money laundering dating back to a 1996 lawsuit, settled out of [...]
“Food cravings triggered by specific sports” (News, last week) reported on research into exercise and eating patterns by Dr David Stensel of Loughborough University. Dr Stensel has asked us to make it clear that this research is incomplete and unverifiable at this stage. The piece also referred to a book by Dr Stensel entitled Influence [...]
The provincial capital of Newfoundland was described as “St John” in our travel special section on Bonavista, Newfoundland (Observer Magazine, last week) but it is actually St John’s. St John is in New Brunswick, 657 miles to the south west. Be careful if you are booking flights to one of these towns. Link Report an [...]
