It seems that both problems were somehow solved by a reboot, and not
restating gnus for 8 hours. Weird!

Sorry for the noise.

Sharon.
-- 
A taste of linux = http://www.sharons.org.uk
my git repo = https://bitbucket.org/boudiccas/dots
TGmeds = http://www.tgmeds.org.uk
Debian testing, fluxbox 1.3.5, emacs 24.3.93.1