Eurovision's most successful country will not be competing in the contest on Saturday after former Westlife star Nicky Byrne failed to qualify.
The Irish singer performed his song Sunlight in Thursday night's semi-final in Stockholm, Sweden, as he tried to secure one of the last 10 places in the final.
But despite Byrne saying he "gave it my all", he will not be joining the UK contestants Joe and Jake who have an automatic place among the 26 finalists.
Byrne tweeted: " Amazing Time Amazing Support / I gave it my all, I'm sorry I didn't get us there./ I pass on the torch to someone else now next year."
Ireland has won Eurovision a total of seven times.
Successful countries were Latvia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Australia, Ukraine, Serbia, Poland, Israel, Lithuania and Belgium
But other hopefuls going home disappointed were Denmark, Switzerland, Belarus, Macedonia, Slovenia, Norway and Albania.
The UK's place in the final is assured because they are one of the "big five" - the countries that founded the competition.
Ireland's Eurovision fortunes have waned over the past few years, especially since the introduction of the weeknight semi-final rounds.
Ireland's Eurovision fortunes have waned over the past few years, especially since the introduction of the weeknight semi-final rounds.
In 2007, Ireland came last for the first time ever, scoring just five points for Dervish's They Can't Stop The Spring.
Ryan Dolan also finished last in 2013 with Only Love Survives, which was the last time the country made it through to the final
As they prepare to take their place among the Eurovision finalists, Joe and Jake tweeted: "Bring on Saturday".
Graham Norton is expected to pay tribute to former host Sir Terry Wogan, who died earlier this year, when he helms the British broadcast of the contest.
In a Eurovision first, US singer Justin Timberlake will add some global superstar power to the finale.
Friday, May 13, 2016
Twitter Suspends Azealia Banks Over Zayn Rant
Twitter has suspended US rapper Azealia Banks after she directed racially charged tweets at former One Direction star Zayn Malik.
The account of @AzealiaBanks returned a message saying that it was suspended, with a link to the website's conditions on "abusive tweets and behaviour".
On Tuesday, the 24-year-old New York rapper posted tweets accusing Malik of copying her style on his latest music video.
She used epithets related to Muslims in the messages, which she has since deleted, targeting the 23-year-old.
"When your entire extended family has been obliterated by good ol the U.S of A will you still be trying to act like a white boy pretending to be black?" Banks said in one tweet.
Malik declined to take the bait.
"My @'s too good for you," tweeted the singer, who is partially of Pakistani origin and was brought up in Bradford, England.
Malik, who has chosen to go by his first name as a solo artist, has taken on an R&B sound since leaving One Direction with his songs featuring lyrics about sex and relationships.
In a fresh tweet on Wednesday, Banks reiterated her accusations about Malik's music and cast her remarks about Muslims as a gesture of solidarity.
"He felt as if he was too good to acknowledge me yet not too good to copy my creativity," she wrote.
"I had to remind him that we're both in the same boat in this industry and people of colour."
Banks won wide acclaim for her single 212 but has become better known for her Twitter outbursts, with her pledge in March to quit the platform proving short-lived.
She notably engaged in a long-running feud with the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, whom she accused of exploiting black culture.
Banks also provoked outrage in December 2014 when she appeared to cast doubt on Bill Cosby's sex assault accusers.
The rapper tweeted: "them b****** frontin' like they wasn't trying to get some of that pudding pop!!!!"
Even non-famous Twitter users have not escaped Banks' ire.
"One day your hemmroids (sic) are going to burst and you'll bleed to death b****," she responded to one person who accused her of homophobia.
A London music festival, Rinse/Born & Bred Festival, has also removed Banks from its line-up next month.
The account of @AzealiaBanks returned a message saying that it was suspended, with a link to the website's conditions on "abusive tweets and behaviour".
On Tuesday, the 24-year-old New York rapper posted tweets accusing Malik of copying her style on his latest music video.
She used epithets related to Muslims in the messages, which she has since deleted, targeting the 23-year-old.
"When your entire extended family has been obliterated by good ol the U.S of A will you still be trying to act like a white boy pretending to be black?" Banks said in one tweet.
Malik declined to take the bait.
"My @'s too good for you," tweeted the singer, who is partially of Pakistani origin and was brought up in Bradford, England.
Malik, who has chosen to go by his first name as a solo artist, has taken on an R&B sound since leaving One Direction with his songs featuring lyrics about sex and relationships.
In a fresh tweet on Wednesday, Banks reiterated her accusations about Malik's music and cast her remarks about Muslims as a gesture of solidarity.
"He felt as if he was too good to acknowledge me yet not too good to copy my creativity," she wrote.
"I had to remind him that we're both in the same boat in this industry and people of colour."
Banks won wide acclaim for her single 212 but has become better known for her Twitter outbursts, with her pledge in March to quit the platform proving short-lived.
She notably engaged in a long-running feud with the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, whom she accused of exploiting black culture.
Banks also provoked outrage in December 2014 when she appeared to cast doubt on Bill Cosby's sex assault accusers.
The rapper tweeted: "them b****** frontin' like they wasn't trying to get some of that pudding pop!!!!"
Even non-famous Twitter users have not escaped Banks' ire.
"One day your hemmroids (sic) are going to burst and you'll bleed to death b****," she responded to one person who accused her of homophobia.
A London music festival, Rinse/Born & Bred Festival, has also removed Banks from its line-up next month.
Chelsea Clinton Husband's Hedge Fund 'To Shut'
A hedge fund portfolio run by Hillary Clinton's son-in-law is reportedly to close after it lost nearly 90% of its value.
Chelsea Clinton's husband Marc Mezvinsky, 38, launched Eaglevale Hellenic Opportunity in July 2014 with two former Goldman Sachs colleagues.
The Manhattan firm raised $25m from investors to buy Greek bank stocks and government debt.
But sources with direct knowledge of the matter told the New York Times that investors were informed last month the fund would shut.
A number of investors were longtime Clinton supporters, according to financial documents obtained by the newspaper.
Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein was also among investors and he allowed Eaglevale to use his name in marketing.
In letters to investors in 2014, Mr Mezvinsky expressed confidence that Greece would soon be on the path to a "sustainable recovery".
But by early last year the Hellenic fund had lost about 40% of its value as its big bet on Greek stocks turned sour.
Mr Mezvinsky, a Stanford University graduate, worked at Goldman for eight years before leaving to join a private equity firm.
He married Chelsea Clinton in July 2010; they have a daughter, Charlotte, and are expecting their second child.
His financial misadventure may renew critics' claims that his mother-in-law, a Democratic White House candidate, is too close to Wall Street.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
'Chinese helicopter': Singlish OED entry baffles Singaporeans
As a native speaker of Singlish, I was proud to hear 19 Singaporean terms have made it to the Oxford English Dictionary.
"Ang moh" (local term for a Caucasian), chilli crab (our national dish) and "sotong" (another local term referring to a squid, but also used to describe ignorance) were just a handful of the words chosen for this year's update.
But what the heck is a "Chinese helicopter"?
"A Singaporean whose schooling was conducted in Mandarin Chinese and who has limited knowledge of English," the OED's official definition reads.
What talking you?
But like me, many of my fellow countrymen have been baffled by the appearance of the word.
"This is the first time I've come across the term," said Joseph Lim, 29, on Facebook.
"If there was no definition provided, I would have thought it was a sexual term."
Other Singaporeans, like Twitter user Chew Yiheng agreed. "Is that word even Singlish? I feel suaku", he said, referring to the local term for a country bumpkin, someone not well-informed.
OED definition of Singlish
An informal variety of English spoken in Singapore, incorporating elements of Chinese and Malay.
Dr Danica Salazar, a consultant editor with the Oxford English Dictionary said the inclusion of these new words shows that "people do not need to speak English like Americans or the British in order for their English to be correct".
"These words have become part of the English language and they show something about the culture of Hong Kong and Singapore," she told BBC News.
"English is such a global language and this should be celebrated."
But Belmont Lay, the founding editor at local news portal Mothership, said the Oxford Dictionary was "having a go at Singaporeans".
"Chinese Helicopter reflects Singapore's Anglophone bias. I think it's great that the term was included but....why are they legitimising our creole English?"
The inclusion of "Chinese helicopter" was also being discussed on local radio on Friday.
Teacher David Tan said he knew where the term came from: it's actually an in-joke from Singapore's military service tradition.
"We are not talking about importing Chinese-type of tomahawk helicopter here," he said in a comment in response to a post on our BBC News Facebookpage.
"The term 'Chinese Helicopter' was coined due to a mispronunciation of the word 'educated'," he explained.
"During the early days, Singaporean men who were educated in Chinese schools had difficulty understanding English instructions in the army. Hence when a man would say 'educated', [it sounded like "helicated"] and became helicopter."
Wah, you so 'powderful'
There are other terms in the Singlish vocabulary which carry knowing mispronunciations, used to mock others.
Take for example, the usage of the word "powerful".
A Singaporean would swap it for the word "powderful" in a verbal battle.
When someone uses bad English, a normal speaker would reply sarcastically: "Wow, your English is so powerful".
But a true Singlish speaker would retaliate: "Wah, your English very powderful ah?"
So there you have it, win already lah!
Cambodian Media Must Now Call Their Country’s Leader ‘Lord Prime Minister’
(PHNOM PENH, Cambodia) — For years, some Cambodian media have referred to the country’s longtime leader simply as Prime Minister Hun Sen. Authorities warned Thursday that has to stop.
IMF: UK Economy Could Suffer From Brexit
The IMF will today hit out at Britain's possible exit from the European Union in a report of its annual assessment of the UK economy.
The report will be presented by Managing Director Christine Lagarde at the Treasury this morning alongside Chancellor George Osborne.
It comes hours after the Bank of England surprised many by firmly indicating it has concerns about the economic consequences of a vote to leave the EU.
Leave campaigners hit back against the Bank's Governor Mark Carney, including Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg and member of the Treasury Select Committee, who called for Governor Carney to be fired.
Mr Rees-Mogg told Sky News: "Mark Carney has intervened speculatively in a political matter.
"It's the responsibility of the Monetary Policy Committee to be independent and he's decided to make a deeply political choice in a referendum which is the concern of the British people and therefore he should be fired."
After a day in which the official Vote Leave campaign had threatened "consequences" for broadcaster ITV for inviting UKIP leader Nigel Farage to a TV discussion, one Government source told Sky News: "The Leave campaign has been reduced to frankly unhinged demands for the Governor to be sacked and ITV to be closed down".
Governor Carney warned that growth could be materially lower, and prices and unemployment higher if Britain votes to leave.
The Bank's Inflation Report warned of a "perhaps sharp" slide in sterling after a Leave vote and funding problems in government and corporate bond markets, and for bank funding.
The Bank also calculated that the referendum was already impacting on growth, downgrading Q2 growth to 0.3%, its lowest rate since 2012.
The report, the combined calculation of nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee, including four independent economists, estimated that one half of the 9% fall in the pound since November was attributable to the Brexit referendum.
Speaking to Sky News the Governor justified his intervention, saying that to "suppress" the Bank's calculation would have been the real form of political interference.
Ex-Chancellor and Leave campaigner Lord Lamont argued the Governor should merely have communicated the Bank stood ready to deal with any consequences and that Governor Carney could now be blamed for any "pause" in the economy if Britain votes to leave.
Polls have shown Governor Carney is highly influential with voters of every age, demographic and from every region.
ComRes found he was more influential on British voters than the Queen, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and US President Barack Obama.
The Treasury is expected to release its own assessment of the short-term economic impact of a Leave vote in the coming days.
RAF Jets Scrambled To Intercept Russian Planes
RAF Typhoons were scrambled from a base in Estonia to intercept three Russian military transport planes which were approaching Baltic countries.
It was the first time that British fighter jets have responded to Russian aircraft "aggression" since the Typhoons were deployed in late April on a four-month policing mission in the region.
They were said to have carried out "textbook intercepts" of the AN-26 'Curl', AN-12 'Cub' and IL-76 'Candid' planes that were not transmitting a recognised identification code and were unresponsive.
Photographs released by the Ministry of Defence showed the Typhoons shadowing the aircraft.
Four UK jets are currently based at Amari airbase in Estonia, where they have joined the NATO Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission until the end of August.
They, as well as Portuguese F-16s based in Lithuania, are on stand-by 24/7 to provide security in the airspace over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and respond quickly to any aggression directed from Russia, or others.
One of the RAF pilots involved in the mission said: "The scramble went exactly as planned.
"We launched our Typhoon aircraft quickly and then using our advanced sensors and mission systems, combined with support from our battlespace managers on the ground, carried out textbook intercepts of the three aircraft."
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "This is another example of just how important the UK's contribution to the Baltic Air Policing Mission is.
"We were able to instantly respond to this act of Russian aggression - demonstration of our commitment to NATO's collective defence."
It is the third year that UK jets have taken part in the BAP mission.
Last time, Typhoon fighters were scrambled 17 times, and intercepted over 40 Russian aircraft.
During one launch last July, the Typhoons intercepted 10 separate Russian aircraft, including eight fighters.
It was the first time that British fighter jets have responded to Russian aircraft "aggression" since the Typhoons were deployed in late April on a four-month policing mission in the region.
They were said to have carried out "textbook intercepts" of the AN-26 'Curl', AN-12 'Cub' and IL-76 'Candid' planes that were not transmitting a recognised identification code and were unresponsive.
Photographs released by the Ministry of Defence showed the Typhoons shadowing the aircraft.
Four UK jets are currently based at Amari airbase in Estonia, where they have joined the NATO Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission until the end of August.
They, as well as Portuguese F-16s based in Lithuania, are on stand-by 24/7 to provide security in the airspace over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and respond quickly to any aggression directed from Russia, or others.
One of the RAF pilots involved in the mission said: "The scramble went exactly as planned.
"We launched our Typhoon aircraft quickly and then using our advanced sensors and mission systems, combined with support from our battlespace managers on the ground, carried out textbook intercepts of the three aircraft."
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "This is another example of just how important the UK's contribution to the Baltic Air Policing Mission is.
"We were able to instantly respond to this act of Russian aggression - demonstration of our commitment to NATO's collective defence."
It is the third year that UK jets have taken part in the BAP mission.
Last time, Typhoon fighters were scrambled 17 times, and intercepted over 40 Russian aircraft.
During one launch last July, the Typhoons intercepted 10 separate Russian aircraft, including eight fighters.
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