France accuses Spanish sports of doping - again

France's version of Spitting Image has Rafa Nadal stopping at a petrol station but instead of having the tank filled with petrol, he a reaches for a bottle of something bought elsewhere, then takes the petrol cap off and proceeds to pee in his fuel tank. The car takes off at an incredible speed. Further down the road, he is stopped by the gendarmerie, who say, "Speeding! Cut the contact!", to which Nadal answers, "What for? What the hell?" After that appears a subtitle and a voice over that says, "Les sportifs espagnols. Ils ne gagnent pas par hasard." That is: "Spanish sports people. They don't win by chance." Among other complaints from the Spanish sports fraternity (which is fed up with France forever accusing it of doping - see the latest on cyclist Alberto Contador) Spain's Tennis Federation (RTFE) announced via Twitter that it would be suing CanalPlus France for using its logo without permission. The Federation's president says, "That's enough!"

Dramatic footage of Gibraltar fire

We found this thanks to Brian Reyes, of The Gibraltar Chronicle. It was filmed by a passenger on the cruise ship Independence of the Seas. which returned to the Rock yesterday on her way home but was moored close to the tanks that exploded on May 31st. Shot by Richard Nightingale, who was on the cruise with his wife Angela, the film shows two men struggling to escape, just metres away on the roof of the adjacent tank, one of whom is the Spanish worker who sustained 70% burns to his body and is now in a critical condition in a hospital in Seville. Read the whole story on The Gibraltar Chronicle.

Google's YouTube planning pay-per-view video service

(Source: Financial Times) Google’s YouTube video site is in negotiations with Hollywood’s leading movie studios to launch a global pay-per-view video service by the end of 2010, putting it head-to-head with Apple in the race to dominate the digital distribution of film and television content. Google has been pitching to the studios on the international appeal of a streaming, on-demand movie service pegged to the world’s most popular search engine and YouTube, according to several people with knowledge of the situation. Google will use its search technology and YouTube to direct viewers to the new service, which is likely to launch first in the US, with other countries added over time.