Fresh from sacking their manager, the Spice Girls last night learned their massively hyped new album has scored "unimpressive" first week sales in Britain. SpiceWorld, which shipped 1.4 million copies, twice as many as any other album this year, actually sold less than 200,000 to achieve its number one spot this week. Meanwhile, speculation ran rife as to why, led by Ginger Spice Geri Halliwell, the group sacked 19 Management and Simon Fuller, the man who has masterminded their chart and marketing onslaught.
They dispensed with his services during the MTV Europe Awards in Rotterdam at the weekend. They easily clinched the Best Group award.
A tribute to the vital wartime role of The Man Who Never Was was yesterday included in an English village's Remembrance Day service.
A plaque was installed to the memory of Glyndwr Michael, whose body was used as a decoy to trick the Germans before the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. Mr Michael's identity only became known last year, when top secret intelligence documents were published.
Born in Aberbargoed in the Rhymney Valley, he is said to have committed suicide in London, where he was living rough. He unwittingly helped the war effort when his body was used to create a fictional "Major William Martin, Royal Marines". Papers detailing a supposed invasion of Sardinia were planted on the uniform put on the body, which was shipped to Gibraltar then launched into the sea.
The ruse, celebrated in the film, The Man Who Never Was, succeeded in convincing the Germans that the Allies did not plan to invade southern Italy or Sicily, and as a result the Nazis switched thousands of troops away from the zones.