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From the BBC:

Derry star Paddy Bradley to retire at end of season 

Paddy Bradley celebrates after scoring a goal against Armagh last month
Derry forward Paddy Bradley will quit inter-county football at the end of this year's championship campaign.

The 29-year-old former All Star made his decision in the wake of Derry's exit from the Ulster SFC at the hands of Armagh in Celtic Park.

"I honestly feel I have given good service to the country over 11 years and I have given my all every time I played for the county," said Bradley.

"But I want to go out with a bang - I believe we are a match for anyone."

The loss of the Glenullin clubman will be a major blow for the Oak Leafers, who are preparing for the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers.

"I really believe that at the top of our game, we could beat a Cork or a Kerry," added Bradley.

"We tend to play well in Croke Park in the big open spaces, but it's getting through the packed defences that you have to get past there that trips us up."

Bradley has failed to win the Ulster SFC title with Derry since making his championship debut against Cavan in 2000.

"People will blame Mickey Moran, Paddy Crozier or Damian Cassidy or they will blame myself or Enda Muldoon or Fergal Doherty or any of the players," he said.

"But I can tell you every one of us players and managers have worked very hard to try to bring success to Derry."

A woman has been taken to hospital with minor injuries following an explosion near the home of a police officer in east Belfast.

The Ambulance Service were called to Kingsdale Park in the Kings Road area of the city on Friday at 0730 BST.

An Ambulance Service spokesperson said the woman suffered slight redness to her arm and ringing in her ears.

Some reports say the explosion happened in the vicinity of a car. Police have cordoned off the area.

People in the area reported hearing a "loud bang" around 0700 BST.

The Northern Ireland widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan has spoken of her disbelief after receiving a letter from O2 demanding his phone be returned.

Amanda Binnie said she received the letter from the mobile phone company just two days after she buried her husband, Sean.

Mrs Binnie said the letter said she would have to pay £100 unless the handset was returned within 14 days.

"I can't explain how I feel about this I'm very, very annoyed," she said.

Cpl Binnie, 22, who served with the Black Watch 3rd battalion, was killed on a patrol in Helmand province last month.

Mrs Binnie said she had bought the phone contract for her husband as a gift on Valentine's Day so he could stay in contact with her when he was in Afghanistan.

"The phone is very valuable to me because it has the last messages I sent to him and the last messages he had sent to me," she said.



Cpl Binnie was buried at Roselawn Cemetary with full military honours
"There are pictures from our honeymoon and our wedding on the phone, so it is very valuable to me.

"It's not the fact that I don't want to pay the £100, it's just that I think it is very cold and selfish of them to do this two days after his funeral."

"I don't even have the phone, I don't have any of his belongings they are in Afghanistan.

"It takes a while for them to be brought back and there is not a chance I could have the phone for them in 14 days."

Mrs Binnie said that in the days after Cpl Binnie's death, her brother had contacted O2 on her behalf to explain that he had been killed in action.

She said the company agreed to freeze the contract until a death certificate could be produced to verify his death.

"My brother wrote letters to them explaining what had happened," she said.

"He attached a newspaper headline telling them what he had done, but it wasn't good enough for them, they still said they wanted the phone back."

When contacted by the BBC, O2 issued a statement saying they wanted to apologise to Mrs Binnie.

"On hearing of her case, and due to the tragic circumstances involved, we can assure her that the phone contract will be cancelled and any outstanding charges will be waived," it said.

02 are bastards, Banks are Worse.

Share the stories and shame them!!

www.gaamanager.com

Check it out. Sign up to show your expertise. And to all youse southern green eyed brigade no you can not put in all 20 tyrone players!!!

Eoghan's fans make the wrong call  

By Natasha Sayee
BBC News  



Fans dialled Mona Henry's number instead of Eoghan Quigg's
Imagine receiving around 60 telephone calls a day from adoring fans, people telling you you're great.

Sounds good? Well, it's dreadful, according to a Magherafelt woman, especially because they are not her fans.

Somehow her mobile number ended up on the internet alongside claims that it was a direct line to X-Factor star Eoghan Quigg.

At the height of Eoghan mania, the young Dungiven star was besieged by fans on a trip home just before Christmas.

And a few days later many of them must have thought that all their Christmases had come at once when Eoghan's mobile phone number ended up on the internet.

The only thing was, it wasn't actually his number.

The mobile phone belongs to Mona Henry - and she said she is fed up taking his calls

And even as she was speaking to the BBC - another fan rang.

Apparently the X-Factor star is still ex-directory.

Horrible to happen, but his actual number is 07515742588!! swear!!

Sideline kick:

Did you hear about the Bank of Ireland? I'll say no more 

He works there says they are in major diffs.

Withdraw, withdraw, withdraw!!!

On Luis Garcia:
"They (Liverpool) should put Garcia where he belongs - in the
dustbin."

On Djibril Cisse:
"here we have Cisse, right wing, attempts to put in a cross,BANG...hits the full back, again BANG hits the full back, BANG...offthe full back again, and once more, BANG...smacks the full back
again....
Millions of euro and he
can't clear the first man, I mean...what's he trying to do to the full
back here, Kill him??"

On Harry Kewell:
"Kewell should have been yanked off the pitch at half time and put in
a hot bath, a boiling hot bath."
"Fat and a clown. A fat clown for all to see."

On Rio Ferdinand:
"Ferdinand is a clown. He was a liability for the first goal and he is
always a liability. It was Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink against Rio
Ferdinand of Barclays Bank."
"a tr**p"

On Fabio Cannavarro:
"If Rio Ferdinand is worth £100,000 a week, then this guy is worth
EUR100 million . . . . . a day"

On Liam Brady (After Ireland lost a two goal lead against Holland in
1983):
"He is often looked on as a great player. He is nothing of the kind.
His performance on Wednesday was a disgrace, a monument to conceit
adorned with vanity and self-indulgence, rendered all the more
objectional by the swagger of his gait. He was deemed by many
observers to have had a splendid game."

On Niall Quinn:
"I'm not gonna address the Niall Quinn agenda, Niall Quinn is a creep"
"The man's an idiot, a Mother Theresa"

On Barcelona:
"After watching Watford against Manchester City last night that was
like a bubblebath. It was beautiful."

On Garth Crooks and Sven Goran Eriksson:
"ha, ha, ha, that's the first time you'll see sex between 2 men live
on the BBC"

During the coverage of Euro 2004:
"You need dictatorships and poverty to produce great footballers."

On Christiano Ronaldo:
the way Ronaldo "clicks his heels", is the "most wicked thing in the
game."
"a simple cheat" "Poof ball"

On Mick McCarthy:
"He's one of the biggest whingers in world football... he's a bloody
eejit."

On Kevin Kilbane:
"Kilbane's head is better than his feet. If only he had three heads,
one on the end of each leg."

On John Giles:
"Usually it takes a bottle of Bacardi and a gallon of Coke to get John
out of his seat."

On Michael Carrick:
"Carrick was signed for Spurs a few years back for £3m. That's the
level he is at. He is a nothing player. He is one-paced. He doesn't
have the personality to always get on the ball like a United player
should. "

Before the Liverpool .v. Real Betis game at Anfield when Roy Keane
announced his retirement from football Bill O'Herlihy stated that in
the column about Roy a journalist called him a thug. Dunphy continued
roaring at Bill asking him who's column it was. Bill replied it was on
the back page of the Sunday Times. "Look at it" he told Eamon. Eamon
still pestered him asking who wrote it. Bill replied "I can't remember
his name".
Eamon continued saying:
"I'll tell you who wrote it, Rod Liddle, he's the guy who ran away and
left his wife for a young one".

On about the Fergie V Strachen feud:
Eamon: "Scots they're either nice or they're horrid and these two are
horrid.
Bill: "The Scots wont like that Eamon, thats bordering on racism".
Eamon: "Its not racism its ethnic criticism Bill".

On the stubborn climate which exists in the board room at Real Madrid:

"Bill, Bill... those directors over there are on another planet.
They're on mushrooms or something...THEY'RE ON ACID BILL!!!"

On John Hartson:
'Bill, Hartson is not a 7million pound player....its a disgrace, a
shambles!
This is the state of football today Bill. I have a clip here of why
Hartson is NOT a £7million player....Roll it there Bill!
(literally 1 second in to
the clip) OKAY, HOLD IT THERE BILL!!! (draws a circle around Hartson's
arse) Bill, that is NOT the arse of a £7million player!''

Meant to be flying dublin to edinburgh. cant find my passport and the licence is away getting some, ahem, minor adjustments made.

any other way i can get on that ryanair flight???

 news.uk.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8963452

JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli military has launched an investigation into the shooting of a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian with a rubber-coated bullet which was caught on film, the army said on Monday.

AFP earlier quoted an army spokesman as saying the soldier who fired the shot had been detained. The army denied saying this, but would neither confirm nor deny he had been detained.

The army also declined to provide any details about the inquiry.

The website of Israel's mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported that the soldier had been arrested and said he told military investigators he had been ordered to shoot by his commanding officer.

Footage of the incident, released on Sunday by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, shows a Palestinian demonstrator handcuffed and blindfolded, with an army officer holding his arm.

A soldier next to him appears to take aim at his leg, a shot is fired and the camera darts briefly away before showing the man lying on the ground.

The protester, identified as Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27, was lightly wounded in the incident which took place on July 7 in Nilin, an occupied West Bank village where regular protests are staged against Israel's separation barrier.

The army, which said five border guards, three soldiers and two labourers working on the wall were injured during protests in June, announced the inquiry after the video was shown on Palestinian television.

But Israeli army spokeswoman Avital Leibovich told AFP the film raised several questions and had "missing sequences." She added that the man went home with a wounded toe and without filing a complaint.

The demonstrations in Nilin frequently turn violent, with protestors hurling stones and Israeli troops firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

Israel says the barrier is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating Israel and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but Palestinians say it is a land grab aimed at undermining the viability of a promised state.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding resolution calling for parts of the barrier inside the West Bank to be torn down and for a halt to construction there. Israel has ignored the ruling.

Compared to the attacks in Zimbabwe-how much coverage has this 100 times nore brutal and 100 times more clearcut was this action?
Will be finally hear Israel condemned?
NO-ITS A LOVE IN OF ABSOLUTE BA ST A RDS!!!!

Can anyone tell me how i can book flights to get to corfu???
Is there not one airline that provides this service without having to stop in fuckin England!!
Also, as a back up measure-how do you get to bulgaria?(Not sofia, but the eastern airports where there is actuallty something decent to see!!!)