The present wheat crisis reminded me of the first time I met Professor Cary Fowler. It was over supper at one of the three restaurants on the Arctic island of Svalbard and we were debating if we dared try the whale steak. Neither of us was brave enough, choosing instead beefburger and chips. Over dinner, the professor, the world's authority on crops, explained why he had spent the past 20 years badgering governments about the need for a single safe storage place for all the seeds on the planet which give us our food.

Coppell's side pitched into relegation struggle after sixth successive League defeat while Bolton ease their worries

Tales of boardroom greed apppear to have been greatly overdone, at least where part-time directors are concerned. Most non-executive directors are motivated by the desire to make a difference, according to a survey of FTSE 100 company secretaries by the executive search firm Whitehead Mann.

The 2007 Cheltenham Festival has suddenly found its emotional register. At Leopardstown last Sunday, a vintage performance from Hardy Eustace demonstrated conclusively that he retains the prowess, after that vulnerable hiatus last year, to win a third Smurfit Champion Hurdle at the age of 10. Yet the bookmakers, and many pundits, still have the effrontery to favour the young pretender who measures himself against a far weaker field at Sandown today.

A new form of reality television may await the unsuspecting people of France - televised weekly cabinet meetings.

Salford carried Wigan's Super League misery into the Challenge Cup with three tries in the third quarter of a thrillingly intense tie, knocking them out of the competition they used to monopolise. Scores from Sean Rutgerson, Stuart Littler and Aaron Moule, all in the space of 14 minutes, decided the game after a first half which was pointless but passionate.

Ups and downs of a slave to suburban style

Sir: You report on the public mourning for President Franjo Tudjman (13 December). He may have been beloved by many in Croatia, but he was also despised by many. In August I spent a month in Croatia with my mother's family, and the stories they told me weren't about a man they loved.

THE ACTOR and scientologist John Travolta has cut short a visit to Paris apparently because he feared he might be called to give evidence in the trial of seven French members of the Church of Scientology in Marseilles.

Iain Banks's first novel, The Wasp Factory, was almost a guidebook to grotesque sadism; his other "literary" novels, involving serial killers, random violence, dismemberment and assorted bizarre screwballs, offer similar extreme takes on the world.

LIFE IN the America of politics, money, the media and the baby- boom generation was on indefinite hold yesterday, in anticipation of the truth that no one wanted to accept. The male line of JFK had ended; there would be no JFK III.

Main claim

Talk at the Oscars later this month will be less about prizes and more about the end of celebrity perks. The days of the private jet and French chef for the dog may be over, says Jake Roberts

WILLIAM HAGUE'S colleagues hit back last night at Labour claims of hypocrisy after it emerged that the Conservative leader was flying to North America on a private jet lent by a businessman.