Empoli are desperate to keep hold of teen sensation Assane Diousse amid growing interest from Tottenham.The 17-year-old has broken into the Italian club’s first-team this year and has caught the eye with some impressive performances.AC Milan contacted Empoli on deadline day, while Tottenham are said to have also expressed an interest in the midfielder.However, according to TMW, Empoli are determined to hold onto Diousse and have no plans to sell him.The Serie A side are aware the Senegalese star will eventually move to one of Europe’s top clubs, but they believe for now he should remain with them to develop. Assane Diousse 1 read more

1 Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland When the January transfer window opens Liverpool fans would love to see their goalkeeper options strengthened.And Jack Butland appears to be the player they want.The England ace has been fantastic in a great Stoke team this season and won admirers from rivals.Against Man United on Boxing Day, Liverpool supporters were impressed by his performance as he kept another clean sheet and made a great save to deny Marouane Fellaini in the Potters’ 2-0 win.Have a look at a selection of tweets from Reds supporters. read more

Chelsea and Liverpool target Carlos Bacca is happy at AC Milan, according to the striker’s agent.The Colombia international has been in fine form this season and has 15 goals in all competitions.The 29-year-old only moved to the San Siro last summer, but there is already talk he could be off at the end of the season.Chelsea and Liverpool have both been linked with moves for Bacca, while Carlo Ancelotti reportedly wants to sign him for Bayern Munich when he takes over in the summer.However, the striker’s agent, Sergio Barila, claims that his client is very happy in Milan right now.“It’s nice that so many clubs in Europe are following him,” Barila told MilanNews.“It’s normal when these teams are looking for a great striker for next season. Bacca is one of the best strikers in the world, but he has a contract with Milan.“He’s very happy with the Rossoneri, he’s concentrated on the Coppa Italia final and the last few games of the season.” 1 Carlos Bacca [left] in action for AC Milan read more

AD Quality Auto 360p 720p 1080p Top articles1/5READ MOREStriving toward a more perfect me: Doug McIntyre “There’s no place like it, unless it’s heaven,” said Lynn, now 81.Despite a career that spanned more than a half-century and saw her starring opposite such luminaries as Bette Davis and Natalie Wood, Lynn remains best known for her turn as Deputy Barney Fife’s steady girl.The daughter of a trained singer, she began acting on radio and fine-tuning her lyric soprano voice in supper clubs at age 14 in her native Kansas City, Mo. At 18, Lynn signed up for the USO Camp Shows and entertained troops in the China-Burma-India theater in the final months of World War II.After the war, she was “discovered” in a Broadway production of “Park Avenue.” Over the next decade, she played a series of daughters: Loretta Young’s in “Mother is a Freshman”; Fred MacMurray’s and Maureen O’Hara’s in “Father was a Fullback”; Clifton Webb’s oldest in “Cheaper by the Dozen.”She was on hiatus from DisneyZZTO’s “Texas John Slaughter” TV show when she got the call to read for the part of Don Knotts’ girlfriend. DisneyZZTO dropped the Western series, but Barney turned out to be a steady date. When Knotts left the show in 1966 to pursue a film career, producers offered to give Thelma Lou a hairdressing salon and another story line.But without Barney, she says, “I didn’t think Thelma Lou made much sense.”The series’ producers apparently didn’t think so, either. Lynn appeared in the 1986 two-hour reunion special, “Return to Mayberry,” in which Thelma Lou and Barney finally got hitched.Lynn went on to play a series of small parts – including Griffith’s secretary in five episodes of “Matlock.” In 1990, she played a nun in the short-lived police series “Shades of LA,” her last dramatic role.Since 2001, Lynn has been coming to the Mayberry Days festival in Mount Airy. Lynn loved the place, but it wasn’t until last year that the thought of staying crossed her mind.“That view is what really took me,” she says. “I kept thinking of all those trees and those mountains.”Earlier this year, the actress traded her three-bedroom, two-bath Spanish-style home in West Hollywood for four rooms in the RidgeCrest retirement community.She has maid service once a week and can have meals brought up to her suite for $2. And she has something she never had in her Hollywood home: air conditioning.Upon her arrival in Hollywood nearly 60 years ago, a studio publicist sat down to interview Lynn. Asked why she wanted to be an actor, Lynn replied, “I want everybody to love me.”For now, she just hopes she’s not a disappointment to Mount Airy.“I’m not Thelma Lou,” she says. “It’s just old me and that’s it. Plain old Betty.”160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. Please try again.subscribeCongratulations! You’re all set! On the drive home from LAX, there was a billboard along La Cienega Boulevard that always gave Betty Lynn a chuckle: “This Ain’t Mayberry!” it declared.As if she needed a reminder of that fact, the West Hollywood home where Lynn had lived since 1950 was broken into twice last year.So the actress who played Thelma Lou on “The Andy Griffith Show” from 1961 to ’66 moved more than 2,100 miles to Mount Airy, N.C. – Griffith’s hometown and one of the inspirations for the fictional Mayberry.She figures this picturesque town in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains is about as close to Mayberry as she’s going to get. read more

There are concerns this evening for jobs at three branches of the Ladbrokes betting shop chain in Donegal.The company announced that it was going into examinership putting jobs in their Letterkenny, Ballybofey and Carndonagh outlets in jeopardy.It is understood there could be at least 10 jobs hanging in the balance locally with the restructuring of the chain. LOCAL BETTING SHOP JOBS IN DOUBT AFTER LADBROKES EXAMINERSHIP was last modified: April 21st, 2015 by StephenShare this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Tags:donegalLadbrokes read more

Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham team travel to Stoke on Monday night It’s not over yet, Tottenham fans.Yes, the title is still possible, with Leicester dropping points against West Ham in a 2-2 draw.It was almost perfect, though, as the Hammers came from 1-0 down to take a 2-1 lead only for the Foxes to score a penalty in stoppage time.Tottenham play Stoke on Monday night and can close the gap at the top to five points with victory and fans are already looking ahead to the match at the Britannia. 1 read more

160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. Please try again.subscribeCongratulations! You’re all set! The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will increase its renewable energy resources 3 percent by 2009 under two wind power agreements approved today by the City Council. One agreement between the Southern California Public Power Agency, of which the DWP is a member, and Pebble Springs Wind will provide Los Angeles with enough wind power to serve 32,100 households when a generating facility opens in Oregon in December 2008. The second agreement, with UPC Wind, will provide energy to 39,000 homes when the Utah-based Milford Wind plant opens in two years. “These agreements represent important steps forward in our efforts to meet the mayor’s and LADWP’s policy of obtaining 20 percent renewable energy by 2010 and complying with the provisions of AB 32 to reduce our carbon footprint,” said DWP General Manager H. David Nahai. “Every megawatt of wind or other renewable resource we can provide is one more megawatt that works in harmony with the environment, rather than devastates it.” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants 20 percent of the city’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2010. “These wind power agreements are critical to making Los Angeles the greenest, cleanest big city in America. Cutting our carbon footprint is not just a lofty goal — it’s the great legacy we as a city can leave our children,” Villaraigosa said. read more

HONOLULU – Last year set records for the growth of genetically engineered crops, as more farmers in Europe and the developing world embraced biotechnology, an industry-supported group reported Wednesday. Yet anti-biotech activists and other observers still complain that the industry isn’t helping alleviate world hunger as it has long promised. None of the commercially available genetically engineered crops last year was nutritionally enhanced. Much of the output is for animal feed. Some 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries grew engineered crops on 222 million acres last year, an 11 percent increase over 2004, according to a report released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. Nearly 8 million of those people were considered subsistence farmers, the report concluded. So far, no one has introduced crops with added nutrients and other attributes that could fight hunger in the developing world, as the biotech industry often promises. What’s more, few biotech versions of crops such as rice that are widely consumed in poor countries have been distributed on a large scale. The four most popular biotech crops are soy, corn, cotton and canola. “While the acreage continues to grow, it’s driven by technology that was developed 10 years ago,” said Greg Jaffe, biotech director for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. “It would be nice to see others in the food chain aside from farmers benefit.” Clive James, author of the report and founder of the group behind the study, said he expects more diverse biotech crops to hit the market in the next three to five years, including drought-tolerant corn and rice engineered to resist pests. “Rice is the most important food crop in the world,” he said, noting that Iran recently approved commercialization of biotech rice, grown on about 100,000 acres. Some 250 million farmers grow rice, and it’s a staple for more than 1.3 billion of the world’s poorest people. China could disrupt the global market if it decides to commercialize genetically engineered rice. The country is experimenting, but Chinese government officials have given mixed signals when – or if – the world’s most populous country plans to grow biotech rice on a larger scale. The three biggest biotech crop producers in 2004 were the United States, Argentina and Brazil, which struck a deal last year with biotech behemoth Monsanto Inc. to officially allow genetically modified soy to be grown there. Nearly all the soy grown in the U.S. and Argentina is genetically engineered. Soy is a key ingredient in many packaged foods. The 124 million acres grown in the U.S. in 2005 represents a 5 percent increase over 2004. Soy and corn were the dominant crops, and the United States accounted for 55 percent of all biotech crops grown last year. James said most of the growth was spurred by Monsanto and other biotech companies’ research and marketing efforts rather than governments and nonprofit entities. The continued growth of biotech crops comes as the United States and the European Union await a resolution by the World Trade Organization over most of Europe’s de facto ban on genetically engineered U.S. crops. Many Europeans are so skeptical of genetically engineered crops that analysts say even a WTO ruling in favor of the U.S. will not significantly open the biotech market there. So farmers dependent on the European market, including many in Africa and even in the United States, will continue to shun biotechnology, James conceded during the teleconference. Still, he argued that genetically modified plants will help alleviate poverty in developing nations by improving crop yields and cutting expenses through less use of pesticides. “Biotechnology has helped alleviate 7.7 million subsistence farmers from abject poverty,” James said. “It’s a contribution, not a solution to the alleviation of poverty.” 160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. Please try again.subscribeCongratulations! You’re all set! AD Quality Auto 360p 720p 1080p Top articles1/5READ MOREGift Box shows no rust in San Antonio Stakes win at Santa Anita The report was paid for by two philanthropic groups, the Rockefeller Foundation and Italy’s Fondazione Bussolera Branca. In 1996, the first year genetically modified crops were commercially available, about 4.3 million acres was under biotechnology cultivation. Now genetically engineered crops are grown throughout the Americas, China and India. Last year the technology began to be used in Iran. “The technology has been very important for us,” said Jose Manuel Pomar, who joined a conference call announcing the report and said his 250 acres of corn in Spain was saved from a deadly pest because of biotechnology. Many papaya farmers in Hawaii, which supplies 90 percent of the United States’ supply, credit biotechnology with saving the industry from a ruinous virus 10 years ago. However, opponents note that no new or innovative genetically engineered crops have been introduced in the past decade. Much of the worldwide growth last year was attributed to soybeans genetically engineered to resist weed killer and corn spliced with bacteria genes to resist bugs, traits that directly benefit farmers, not consumers. read more

COMPETITION: Management at The Mount Errigal Hotel are giving ONE lucky family the chance to win a FREE family pass to meet and greet the cast of FROZEN!All you have to do is answer the following to be in with a chance of winning. What season does Olaf sing about in Frozen?Send your answers to carolynne@themounterrigalhotel.comThe Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny is proud to host Sing-a-long-a Frozen on Tuesday  December 29th as part of a national tour.It the first time the show tour and management are delighted  that  the  mount Errigal  is only one of three  venues  that  will host Sing-a-long-a Frozen, when the unique, interactive screening of the worldwide phenomenon Frozen rolls into town as part of a nationwide UK tour. Singalonga Productions are delighted to announce that Disney’s Frozen is the new Singalonga must see! A screening of Disney’s Frozen with lyrics on screen to help you sing along with Elsa and Anna.The evening is introduced by a live host who will show you how to use your interactive prop bag and then just sit back and ‘Let it Go’! YOU the audience can be the stars!Remember to dress up as your favourite character and be a Snow Queen for the day or Olaf the snowman, the coolest iceman ever!Disney’s Frozen has taken the world by “snowstorm” and has become the biggest animated film in the world and fifth biggest film of all time.In this heart-warming tale, fearless optimist Anna sets off on an epic journey, teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff and his loyal reindeer Sven, to find her sister Elsa whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter.Encountering Everest-like conditions, mystical trolls and a hilarious snowman named Olaf, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom. The Academy Award winning song “Let it Go”, which has now sold over 250,000 copies in the UK, will feature as part of Sing-a-long-a-Frozen, along with the rest of the platinum certified soundtrack making this sing-a-long one not to be missed.Sooooo ‘do you wanna build a snowman…..?’• TOUR DATES:Sing-a-long-a Frozen 12 noon at The  Mount Errigal  hotel Letterkenny ) on Tuesday 29th December 2015, Tickets  on Sale : Saturday 14th March 2015.WIN FREE TICKETS TO MEET THE CAST OF FROZEN AT THE MOUNT ERRIGAL HOTEL was last modified: December 28th, 2015 by Mark ForkerShare this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Tags:BusinessFeaturesnews read more