The Hutton inquiry into the events surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the expert on Iraqi weapons, heard evidence from Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, Mr Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, and Mr John Scarlett, the chairman of the joint intelligence committee, who said that on 4 September the committee heard that an intelligence source indicated that in Iraq ‘from forward deployed storage sites, chemical and biological munitions could be with military units and ready for firing within 45 minutes’. On one day alone the inquiry released 9,000 pages of evidence on the Internet. A virus called Sobig.F alarmed email users but failed to cause the destruction feared. The West Coast line from Euston to Scotland was closed all week near Milton Keynes for engineering works. Sir Wilfred Thesiger, the traveller, died, aged 93. The Office for National Statistics said that 10,132 deaths were registered in Britain in the week of hot weather up to 15 August, about 1,000 more than the average for the past five years.
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