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Going to Newcastle on a stag do next weekend and would very much like to see Galway v Wexford on the Saturday night and Cork v Tipp on Sunday. Anywhere in Newcastle?

A man from County Tyrone has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his former girlfriend in New York.
Gary McGurk, 24, faces between 29 and 37 years in prison after admitting killing Michelle Lee, a forensic investigator for the New York Police Department.
Ms Lee was discovered bound and stabbed to death in her apartment in April 2009.
They first met while studying forensics at college in New York.
Queens District Attorney Richard A Brown said it was "a brutal and senseless crime that abruptly cut short the life of a talented young woman with a bright and promising future.
"His guilty plea not only ensures that he will serve a lengthy prison sentence for his actions, but it also spares the victim's family the emotional trauma of having to listen to testimony at trial about the gruesome circumstances surrounding Ms Lee's death."
Mr Brown said Ms Lee would have been proud of her colleagues in the crime laboratory who worked to apprehend her killer.
McGurk, of 48-56 58th Place in Woodside, Queens, pleaded guilty at Queens Supreme Court to first-degree manslaughter and three counts of tampering with physical evidence.
He admitted hitting her in the head and stabbing her in the neck with a knife.
He also admitted tampering with the crime scene by altering the condition and position of her body, tampering with her blood and sending a message to his own phone from her Blackberry before taking it with him as he left the apartment.
Ms Lee's body was found in her third-floor apartment by her roommate.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/cycling/article7131630.ece


Floyd Landis, the American cyclist who was stripped of his 2006 Tour De France victory after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone, has admitted to systematic use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career.

He also claimed that other riders and cycling officials allegedly participated in doping, including Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner. Armstrong, whose stunning recovery from cancer has made him a household name in international cycling, has always denied taking performance enhancing drugs and never failed a drugs test.

Landis sent a number of e-mails to cycling and anti-doping officials over the past few weeks, implicating dozens of other athletes, team management and owners and officials of the sport's national and international governing bodies.

In the e-mails, Landis said that during his career, he and other American cyclists learnt how to conduct blood transfusions, took Erythropoietin, or EPO, the synthetic blood booster and used steroids. Landis said he started using testosterone patches, then progressed to blood transfusions, EPO, and a liquid steroid taken orally.

RELATED LINKS
Landis: It's not about me, it's about the sport
Cost hits £300m to stop cheats prospering
Tour gears up for return of Armstrong
MULTIMEDIA
OWEN SLOT: Cycling facing fight for credibility
Until now, Landis has always vigorously denied using performance enhancing drugs, but he has now decided to come clean. "I want to clear my conscience," Landis said. "I don't want to be part of the problem any more."

Landis said his first use of performance-enhancing drugs was in June 2002, when he was a member of the US Postal Service team. The World Anti-Doping Agency's statute of limitations for doping offences is eight years, which is why Landis has spoken out now.

"Now we've come to the point where the statute of limitations on the things I know is going to run out or start to run out next month," Landis said. "If I don't say something now then it's pointless to ever say it."

In one of the e-mails addressed to Stephen Johnson, the president of USA Cycling, dated April 30,Landis said that Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's longtime team manager, introduced him to the use of steroid patches, blood doping and human growth hormone in 2002 and 2003, his first two years on the US Postal Service team. He alleged that Armstrong helped him understand the way the drugs worked. Both Bruyneel and Armstrong have flatly denied Landis's revelations.

"He and I had lengthy discussions about it on our training rides during which time he also explained to me the evolution of EPO testing and how transfusions were now necessary due to the inconvenience of the new test," Landis said.

In the e-mails, Landis also said he was frustrated about the inability of anti-doping officials to clean up the sport, calling their efforts "a charade".

4hr documentary just started at 9pm, for anyone that is interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW6-jwh9xd0



From Times Online May 5, 2010

Police use Taser on teenager during baseball gameTimes Online 101 Comments
Recommend? (33) A teenage sports fan was subdued by police with a Taser after running onto the field during a Major League baseball game in the US on Monday night, sparking an investigation into whether authorities should use the controversial stun guns during sporting events.

Police in Philadelphia are considering whether officers should get involved when unruly, but non-threatening, fans sprint onto the field during sporting events, after 17-year-old Steve Consalvi was Tasered in full view of spectators.

As thousands of baseball fans watched in shock, a police officer used his stun gun on the high school student after he jumped onto the field and ran around in circles in the outfield during the match between the Philadelphia Phillies and St Louis.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey examined video of the arrest and felt the officer acted within department guidelines, which allow officers to use Tasers to arrest fleeing suspects, according to a police spokesman.
The department's internal affairs unit is now investigating the incident and the police department is reviewing whether its officers should be on the field wrangling runaway fans who do not threaten anyone.

"Should we be on the field at all? I think that's what's being looked at," said police spokesman Lt Frank Vanore. "I'm not sure we should be chasing people around the field."

Mr Consalvi, a high school senior, leapt onto the field at the start of the eighth inning during Monday night's game and proceeded to run around in the outfield, waving a white towel and dodging security officers.

The police officer chased him for about 30 seconds before the stun gun probe hit the teenager, who stumbled forward and slid face-first on the grass. He stayed motionless on the ground for about 30 seconds before standing up and walking off the field.

"From the preliminary look at it, it appears that the officer was within the policy," said Lt Vanore, adding that he did not know what may have transpired before the video started. "He was attempting to make an arrest and the male was attempting to flee."

Police said the teenager was later charged with defiant trespass, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Mr Consalvi's mother, Amy Ziegler, apologised for his actions and said he regrets running onto the field.

"It was stupid. It was just absolutely stupid," she told a local radio station.

The Phillies baseball team said it was in talks with the police department about whether using the stun gun was appropriate.

There have been previous instances in other cities of police using stun guns on unruly fans in the stands, however Lt Vanore said it was the first time he knew of that a Philadelphia officer had used a Taser on a fan on the field.

Pat Courtney, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said security issues are dealt with at the team level.

"MLB is reserving comment until the Philadelphia Police Department has completed their investigation and discussions with the Phillies," he said in a statement.

Just heard he was found dead In his apartment

O hAílpín says inter-county players should be paid
By Daragh Ó Conchúir
Thursday, April 29, 2010

CORK'S hurling All Star Seán Óg O hAilpín is adamant inter-county GAA players should be paid for performing at the highest level and for "entertaining hundreds of thousands of people".

Speaking in an interview for the Irish language newspaper, Foinse, O hAilpín made no bones about his wish for a structure that would facilitate the payment of players.

He said he would be in favour of establishing a central fund, similar to that proposed by Tadhg Kennelly last year, with a cut of the funding generated by media rights, sponsorship and gate receipts being funnelled into it.

"I would like to see the day that players get paid," said the former All-Ireland winning captain.

"The market in Ireland is very small and there are only five or six games during the year that are sold out. Maybe it would be worthwhile looking at some system relying on gate receipts or maybe even to establish a central fund for players. I'm definitely in favour of paying the players. They have to get something."

The Na Piarsaigh stalwart added that he will never become a media pundit after his retirement, having dabbled in it earlier in his career with TG4, because he claimed criticising sportspeople who are preparing professionally while receiving no money would not be in his nature.

"I think about what I'll do when I finish hurling. I certainly have no interest in becoming a media pundit. I have a problem giving out about players, especially when they're not being paid. They have to go back to their work, their homes, their families after every game. I understand that completely."

O hAilpín admits that he has always wanted to be a professional sportsman and that he is jealous of his younger brothers, Setanta and Aisake, for having that opportunity with Aussie Rules club Carlton Blues, even if he has lived another dream by representing Cork instead.

"I would give my right hand to have that chance (in the AFL). Setanta has carved out a career there and is making his living from it. I wanted to be a professional when I was a young boy but that's life.

"I got something else instead that was brilliant. I got the chance to play for Cork at the highest level."

Interestingly, although Eoin Cadogan is currently juggling the two codes at senior level, O hAilpín, doesn't think it is sustainable in the long term.

He knows what he's talking about, having done it himself, playing in both All-Ireland finals in 1999. He eventually packed up the football and considers it to have been a wise decision.

"We train four or five times a week. If you're training like that for hurling and then if your football manager is asking you to train another four or five times, there aren't enough days in the week.

"You could be marking Henry Shefflin against Kilkenny next Sunday — a player who puts his whole time into hurling training. Then the following week, against Kerry, you could be playing against Colm Cooper who is putting 100% into the football. They might be two Irish sports but the skills involved are completely different. As soon as I gave up football (for Cork), my hurling improved. You can't do it these days."


This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, April 29, 2010


Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.ie/sport/gaa/o-hailpin-says-inter-county-players-should-be-paid-118452.html#ixzz0mTfAiwnh

Polish President Lech Kaczynski 'in plane crash'

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and scores of others are believed to have been killed in a plane crash in Russia.
Officials in the Smolensk region said no-one had survived after the plane apparently hit trees as it came in for landing in thick fog.
Several other government figures, including the army chief of staff, were also thought to have been on board.
They were in Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when the Soviets killed thousands of Poles.
The BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw says the crash is a catastrophe for the Polish people.
He says Prime Minister Donald Tusk was reportedly in tears when he was told.
Plane 'hit trees'
The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT).
Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said it had been flying from Moscow to Smolensk, but had no details on the identities of those killed.
Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived.
"As it was preparing for landing, the Polish president's aircraft did not make it to the landing strip," he said.
"According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces. There are no survivors in that crash.
"We are clarifying how many people there were in the [Polish] delegation. According to preliminary reports, 85 members of the delegation and the crew."
Russian investigators said there were a total of 132 people on the plane.
Controversial figure
The president was flying in a Tupolev 154, a plane that was designed in the 1960s and capable of carrying more than 100 passengers.
Our correspondent says there had been calls for Polish leaders to upgrade their planes.
As well as the president and his wife, Maria, a number of senior officials were also said to be on the passenger list.
They included the army chief of staff Gen Franciszek Gagor, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek and deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.
Mr Kaczynski has been a controversial figure in Polish politics, advocating a right-wing Catholic agenda.
He has opposed rapid free-market reforms and favoured retaining social welfare programmes.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article7078981.ece


Brendan "darkie" Hughes, a former commander of the IRA in Belfast, has claimed posthumously that Gerry Adams ordered the killing and burial of Jean McConville, the mother-of-10 shot dead by the IRA in 1972. He also suggested that Adams gave the order for the Provisional IRA to hang one of its own members in Long Kesh in June 1973 after the 22-year-old cracked under police questioning.

Hughes also boasted that he personally ran a personation campaign for Adams's election as MP in west Belfast in 1987, and again in the council elections of 1989, stealing a "massive" number of votes.

The claims were made in a series of interviews Hughes gave to a researcher for Boston College in 2001 and 2002. He agreed to speak on condition that the material would not be published until after his death.

"I find it so difficult to come to terms [with] the fact that this man has turned his back on everything that we ever did," Hughes said in an interview before he died in 2008.


"I never carried out a major [IRA] operation without the okay or the order from Gerry [Adams]. And for him to sit in his plush office in Westminster or Stormont or wherever and deny it, I mean it's like Hitler denying that there was ever a Holocaust."

Hughes's interviews are contained in a new book, Voices From The Grave by journalist Ed Moloney, which is serialised exclusively in today's Sunday Times.

Adams, the Sinn Fein president, has denied any involvement in the killing of McConville and being a member of the IRA. Asked last month if he was aware that the widowed Belfast woman was to be murdered and her body dumped, he said "No".

Hughes revealed that he was deeply involved in the affair, one of the most high-profile killings of the Troubles. He said his unit found an army transmitter in McConville's flat in Divis. Her family insists that the widow was not an informer, and that she was shot for going to the assistance of an injured soldier.

"She was an informer; she had a transmitter in her house. The British supplied the transmitter [to watch] the movements of IRA volunteers around Divis Flats at that time," Hughes said. "I sent a squad over to the house to check it out and there was a transmitter. We retrieved [it], arrested her, took her away, interrogated her, and she told [us] what she was doing."

Hughes said he wasn't "on the scene at the time", but insisted that his unit took possession of the transmitter and, because she was a woman, released McConville with a warning. He claimed that within a few weeks another army transmitter had been put in McConville's flat.

"She was still co-operating with the British . . . getting paid by the British to pass on information. The squad was brought into operation then," he said. "And she was arrested again and taken away."

Hughes said he knew McConville was to be "executed" but didn't know whether she was to be "disappeared" or her body left on the street. He claimed Ivor Bell, another IRA leader, argued for the body to be dumped in public, but was over-ruled.

"There was only one man who gave the order for that woman to be executed," he said. "That man is now the head of Sinn Fein. I did not give the order to execute that woman — he did. And yet he went to see [McConville's] kids to promise an investigation into her death.

"[Bell] argued, 'if you are going to kill her, put her on the street. What's the sense of killing her and burying her if no-one knows what she was killed for?' "

Asked if Adams had rejected this logic, Hughes replied: "He rejected it." And ordered her to be disappeared, the interviewer asked. "To be buried. She was an informer."

Hughes accused the Sinn Fein leader of getting into a position where he had to deny all of his IRA past. "It . . . appears that way

The Times and Sunday Times newspapers will start charging to access their websites in June, owner News International (NI) has announced.
Users will pay £1 for a day's access and £2 for a week's subscription.
The move opens a new front in the battle for readership and will be watched closely by the industry.
NI chief executive Rebekah Brooks said it was "a crucial step towards making the business of news an economically exciting proposition".
Both titles will launch new websites in early May, separating their digital presence for the first time and replacing the existing, combined site, Times Online.
The two new sites will be available for a free trial period to registered customers. And payment will give customers access to both sites.
With newspaper sales in decline, companies have been searching for a business model that will make money from their websites.
But with so much news content available for free on the internet, NI's decision to charge is seen by many people as a high risk strategy.
Ms Brooks said the decision to charge came "at a defining moment for journalism... We are proud of our journalism and unashamed to say that we believe it has value.
"This is just the start. The Times and The Sunday Times are the first of our four titles in the UK to move to this new approach. We will continue to develop our digital products and to invest and innovate for our customers."

Anyone know when the second episode is on? A very good show, he is a hardy bucko.

The body of a former truck driver's assistant who won $17m in a lottery in 2006 has been found buried under a concrete slab in a backyard in Florida.
Abraham Shakespeare, who was barely literate, went missing nine months ago after complaining of being exploited by hangers-on who tried to take his money.
His body was found on Friday behind a home belonging to the boyfriend of a woman who befriended him in 2007.
Police believe he was murdered, but have not yet arrested anyone.
Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives used fingerprints to identify Mr Shakespeare's body, which they found covered by a concrete slab in a backyard in Plant City.
Police do not yet know how he died, but they believe the woman, named Dorice Donegan "Dee-Dee" Moore, may be able to shed light on what happened.
'Better off broke'
A tip-off led detectives to the grave behind the home of Ms Moore's boyfriend Shar Krasniqi.
Mr Shakespeare bought the winning ticket at a store in the town of Frostproof but his brother, Robert Brown, said he often wished he had never won.
"'I'd have been better off broke.' He said that to me all the time," Mr Brown said.
Samuel Jones, a childhood friend of Mr Shakespeare's, said: "He really didn't understand it at all. It was moving so fast. It changed his life in a bad way."
Mr Jones said his friend would tell him: "I thought all these people were my friends, but then I realised all they want is just money."
Among the new acquaintances was Ms Moore.
Property records show her company, American Medical Professionals, bought his home for $655,000 a year ago.
Not long afterward, detectives said, she helped him open a company and gave herself the ability to sign for money.
She withdrew $1m and later told detectives Mr Shakespeare gave her the cash as a gift. She bought a Hummer, a Corvette and a truck, and went on holiday.
Mr Jones said his friend lived a humble life, and just before he bought the winning ticket he joined a church and was baptised.
"When he won the lottery, he forgot about being saved," Mr Jones said.
Mr Shakespeare's friends and family said when he went missing, they had hoped he was on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean.

As the search function isn't working to find the "Computer help" thread I started this thread.

I got a new BT homehub from BT this week as part of a new deal with them. The signal keeps dropping and I get the "Internet cannot display the webpage", when I check the Intel Pro Set/ Wireless balloon it says "Authentication process to connect to the network hasn't been started". Anyone any ideas? I have put the wireless key etc in the other day. I haven't the heart to do battle with BT tonight.

Edit - Last night for a while I wasn't getting the "Authentication process etc etc etc", it was saying I was connected and things were going fine.

Five people have been taken hostage in a post office in the US by a man in a wheelchair claiming to be carrying explosives, say reports.
Local media reports say grenades have been found in the man's vehicle parked outside the post office in Wytheville.
The town mayor of Wytheville, Trent Crewe, told the Associated Press news agency the man had fired shots from the building but no injuries were reported.
Police are at the scene and people have been told to evacuate the area.
Local businesswoman Susan Holman told the Wytheville Enterprise newspaper police had warned the man had "enough explosives to take out the whole block".
Police have cordoned off the scene and advised people to evacuate homes and businesses in the immediate area.
"It's completely surrounded by police in every direction," said town manager Wayne Sutherland, speaking from his office nearby.
"All I can see is blue lights," he told AP.
A police hostage negotiator was reported to have been speaking to the man.
Pete Rendina, spokesman for the US Postal Inspection Service, said the man, who was missing part of his leg, had made no demands other than a request for a pizza.
Three employees and two members of the public were believed to be inside the post office.

I thought he had already "come out"



Former Wales and Lions captain Gareth Thomas has broken one of the major taboos that surround sport by revealing he is gay.
The 35-year-old joins stars like basketball's John Amaechi and hurling's Donal Og Cusack who have come out.
"Just because you are gay, it doesn't mean you fancy every man who walks the planet," Thomas told the Daily Mail.
"I don't want to be known as a gay rugby player. I am a rugby player first and foremost. I am a man."
Cardiff Blues utility back Thomas said he had been through "all sorts of emotions" over the issue, since first knowing he was gay in his late teens.
He revealed that he was "anxious about people's reactions" to him being gay and that he felt he could not have come out earlier in his rugby career.
"It is the toughest, most macho of male sports, and with that comes an image," Thomas said.
"In many ways, it is barbaric, and I could never have come out without first establishing myself and earning respect as a player.
'Time is right'
"Rugby was my passion, my whole life, and I wasn't prepared to risk losing everything I loved."
Thomas went on to win 100 caps for Wales and three for the Lions, and has played for Bridgend and Cardiff and spent three years in France with Toulouse, before returning to south Wales in 2007.
He feels attitudes have changed and the time is right for sport to start accepting openly gay people in the same way other professions have in recent years.
"I just happen to be gay," he added. "It's irrelevant.
"What I choose to do when I close the door at home has nothing to do with what I have achieved in rugby.
"It's pretty tough for me being the only international rugby player prepared to break the taboo.
"Statistically I can't be the only one, but I'm not aware of any other gay player still in the game.
"I'd love for it, in 10 years' time, not to even be an issue in sport, and for people to say: 'So what?'"
Thomas retired from international duty after captaining Wales' exit from the 2007 World Cup.
But he admitted it was on Wales duty at an earlier time when he first broke the news to former Wales caretaker coach Scott Johnson over his sexuality and the break-up of his marriage to his wife Jemma.
"My life seemed to be falling apart," he added. "Jemma and I were splitting up, and I was scared of the future and being single again as a gay man.
Rush of relief
"Somehow, the coach had guessed," said Thomas. "He took me out of the team room to the medical room, locked the door and I told him everything.
"After keeping it secret for so long, I felt a huge rush of relief.
"Scott said: 'Right, I've got to speak now to three or four players in the Welsh team because you need the boys to surround you and support you. You can't cope with this on your own,' and he was right.
"He told two of my team-mates, Stephen Jones and Martyn Williams, and as I sat in the bar waiting for them, I was absolutely terrified, wondering what they were going to say.
"But they came in, patted me on the back and said: 'We don't care. Why didn't you tell us before?'
"Two of my best mates in rugby didn't even blink an eyelid."
But Thomas said one of his lowest points was cheating on Jemma, which drove him to the edge.
"Sometimes I felt so alone and depressed," he added.
"I used to go to the cliffs overlooking the beach near our cottage in St Brides Major and just think about jumping off and ending it all."

Police have now launched a murder inquiry after the death of a 15-month-old girl injured in an assault in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.
The child had been in a critical condition in a Belfast hospital, but died on Friday afternoon.
A 30-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident which happened in Glebe Park.
Police want anyone who saw anything untoward in the area between 1930 and 2030 GMT on Thursday to contact them.
The police are at a house in Glebe Park, which is in the Old Tempo Road area of Enniskillen, and the street has been cordoned off.
The Western Health Trust said it is assisting police with their inquiries.

Give it a bash, kids will love it

http://portablenorthpole.tv/home/

Shamed Tyrone GAA star on bankrupt list

A shamed former County Tyrone GAA star has gone bankrupt, according to the Belfast Gazette, the official newsletter which lists insolvency.
It lists Ger Cavlan, trading as the Bailey Bar, Dungannon, as having a bankruptcy order served on him.
In 2007, he was fined for having a pit-bull after a BBC investigation, but denied being involved in dog-fighting.
A scarred animal was seized from his home. Mr Cavlan said he had been holding it for a friend.
The BBC contacted the Bailey Bar, but there was no answer. Staff at a neighbouring public house said that it had been closed for "a while".

Seems you cannot view any content now without subscribing

Anyone watching this on BBC1 now? Some halfwits on it.