In a statement reported by the BBC, his family said that Carson passed away at his home in Blackpool, Lancashire today surrounded by his relatives. His funeral will be held in Belfast.

Carson’s health was poor in recent years, though he underwent successful surgery for stomach cancer last year.

The Telegraph reports that, until recently, Carson was still performing.

Born in Belfast, the comedian worked as a plasterer and electrician before his entertainment career was launched through his appearances on the Opportunity Knocks show.

Here’s Carson in classic comedic form during an interview with Clive Anderson:

(Video via nofishnochips)

But in case you missed it: here’s that awkward moment when Princess Mary of Denmark turns and glares at the Finnish president’s husband Pentti Arajarvi after his ‘attentions’ during a recent state dinner hosted by Queen Margrethe of Denmark.

Cringe.

(Video via worldmediaus)

The bodies of two men, aged 71 and 51, were discovered on neighbouring farms in Ballycormack, near Bagnalstown.

The first body was discovered by firemen at around 4am, and the second was discovered in a building on a neighbouring farm at around 9am.

Gardaí said this evening that the remains have been removed from both scenes to Naas General Hospital. Post-mortem examinations are due to be carried out at the hospital tomorrow.

The two scenes are still being preserved for a technical examination as gardaí continue to investigate the circumstances of the deaths.

Bodies of two men discovered in farm buildings >

• The bodies of two men have been found on neighbouring farms in Co Carlow. An investigation into the deaths is underway. Gardaí said this evening that Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis has visited both of the scenes.
• The government is to sell off some state assets including parts of Bord Gais to raise €3 billion. The state asset sale plan has been heavily criticised by the opposition of making “no economic sense”.
• Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik have been killed during heavy shelling in Homs, Syria today as government forces continue their violent crackdown.
• At today’s Seanad discussion on media standards, Minister for Communications Pat Rabbit criticised what he termed the descent of media “from excessive deference to corrosive cynicism”. Meanwhile, Independent Senator David Norris claimed that a tabloid editor told him that negative stories about him were ‘payback’ for the senator standing up for victims of invasion of privacy.
• A 26-year-old man has been sentenced to serve at least 35 years in prison for the rape and murder of a heavily pregnant teenager in south Wales last year.

Residents of southern Puerto Aysen, Chile clash with riot police today as they protest the high cost of fuel, poor public education, poor infrastructure, poor health services, low salaries and high unemployment. (AP/PA Images)

• Bank of Ireland says it has received mortgage applications worth €264 million for a fund set up at the start of this year. The bank had announced in December that it would make €1.5 billion in funding available for mortgages in 2012.
• At least 49 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in a train crash in Buenos Aires this morning.
• The EU trade commissioner has called on the European Court of Justice to rule on whether the controversial ACTA legislation is in breach of EU law.
• Users of a chat service linked to the YouPorn website have had their personal information compromised after a third-party service provider failed to secure the data, according to the site.
• In this evening’s column, William Campbell says that we need to get rid of local authorities because of their dismal performance record.
• Get set for Google glasses.
• The winner of today’s caption competition featuring Enda Kenny? God’s Horse with: “Hello hello..is is that the internet…”
• Brit Awards organisers have apologised to Adele for cutting the singer off during one of her acceptance speeches last night – after which she was caught on camera flipping her middle finger to the crowd.
• Have you seen today’s bizarre publicity photo of the day yet?
• Check out the subzero training of these South Korean troops:

(Video via Storyful; video uploaded by diagonaluk)

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Basel 1 – 0 Bayern Munich

As it happened: Manchester City v Porto, Europa League

Rooney ruled out of Ajax game

Luxembourg-based Manwin Holding SARL said the chat site had been disabled and would remain offline until an investigation was carried out.

Manwin spokeswoman Kate Miller stressed that the site was run by an outside company on separate servers and that there was no breach at YouPorn itself.

“YouPorn continues to ensure that all appropriate measures and tools are in place to maintain the security of its infrastructure, and to safeguard the privacy of its users,” she said in a statement.

It remains unclear how many people were potentially affected by the breach. Thousands of leaked email address and password combinations purportedly linked to the chat service were circulating online, but their authenticity could not be confirmed by The Associated Press.

At least some of the addresses appeared to be bogus or inactive.

Manwin runs some of the world’s most-visited pornography websites, and its YouPorn offering is one of the 100 most-popular sites on the planet, according to Web information company Alexa.

Miller said she could not immediately say who ran the chat service, called YP Chat. The site was down today, but a cached version described it as an “affiliate partner program site licensed by YouPorn.”

Earlier this month, a hacker claimed to have broken into a site associated with Manwin-owned pornography maker Brazzers and published a stash of usernames and passwords.

The company said at the time it had taken steps to notify the users involved.

ITALIAN DIVERS have found eight more bodies on the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia, including the remains of a five-year-old girl who had been missing since the boat crashed last month.

Dayana Arlotti was travelling on the cruise ship with her father and his girlfriend. His girlfriend survived the incident, but he remains listed among the missing passengers.

Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said that the bodies were found on Deck 4 amid difficult operating conditions, and three – a woman, a man, and a child – were recovered within hours of being sighted. It did not identify the child’s remains, but only one child’s name was on the list of the missing.

The agency also said that five of the bodies discovered today could not be removed from the ship due to worsening weather.

The operation to remove fuel from the ship continues and there have been no signs of any serious pollution resulting from the incident.

Around 4,200 passengers and crew were on board the luxury liner when it struck rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio, tearing a hole in the hull which caused the ship to list and capsize.

The cause of the Costa Concordia crash is still being investigated by Italian authorities and the ship’s captain remains under house arrest.

- Additional reporting by the AP

Watch: Footage shows nighttime Costa Concordia evacuation >

In pictures: the capsized Costa Concordia >

Last night he gave a speech at the London School of Economics and Political Science in which he warned that we are moving towards an intellectual and democratic crisis.

But in his visit to the Stratford site today, Higgins was a bit more cheery and very impressed with what was before him. The London Olympics get under way on 27 July.

His tour guide was the chair of the Games’ organising committee Lord Sebastian Coe. Also in attendance were Higgins’ wife Sabina, Irish Paralympic athlete Michael McKillop and rower Sarah Caffrey:

Click here to view slideshow »

All photos: Chris Radburn/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Read: President warns of democratic and intellectual crises

Cherie Blair’s solicitor has confirmed that the prominent barrister has launched a claim, the Guardian reports. The claim is “in relation to the unlawful interception of her voicemails.”

The solicitor declined to comment further.

Blair is taking action against News Group Newspapers, a subsidiary of News Corp which published the now-defunct News of The World, as well the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire who has been heavily implicated in the ongoing phone hacking scandal.

The case could prove uncomfortable for Blair’s husband, Tony, the Telegraph points out.

The former PM is the godfather of News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch’s two daughters by his third wife Wendi and was present when they were baptised on the banks of the Jordan river.

Murdoch and his media empire’s support of Blair when he was premier was considered key to his 10 years in government between 1997 and 2007.

News Group settled legal claims over hacking with various public figures including Blair’s former deputy prime minister John Prescott and actor Jude Law last month.

In November, Tony Blair’s former press secretary Alastair Campbell told the Leveson inquiry into media ethics in the UK that he suspected Mrs Blair’s friend Carole Caplin of tipping off newspapers about her diary and her pregnancy.

However he went on to say that since the phone hacking scandal emerged, he had changed his mind. The BBC reports that Campbell’s subsequent apology to Caplin and his evidence at Leveson may have influenced the latest legal move.

It remains unknown as to how news of Mrs Blair’s pregnancy in 1999 was first reported by the Daily Mirror newspaper. She later gave birth to the couple’s fourth child, Leo, in 2000.

Politicians, celebs and sports stars among those to settle hacking claims

Tony Blair ‘is godfather’ to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter

The 50-year-old manager, had been thought to be a forerunner to fill the vacancy left by Mick McCarthy’s sacking last week.

Today, the former scout signed an improved deal which will keep him at the Madejski Stadium until the summer of 2015.

McDermott, whose parents are Irish, has guided Reading into the Championship play-off places. They are currently five points shy of second place which would secure automatic promotion to the Premier League.

On the club’s website, Reading chairman, John Madejski spoke in glowing terms of his ever-improving manager:

“I am absolutely delighted that Brian is signing and this is a very, very important day for our club.” Madejski added, “Everybody knows how highly we rate him and he has more than repaid the faith we showed when we appointed him. He is a top manager.”

“In the space of two years he has not only taken us to the play-off final and to two quarter finals of the FA Cup, he has done so in a manner befitting Reading Football Club.”

The new deal forces Wolves chairman, Steve Morgan, to look elsewhere for a man to succeed McCarthy who was sacked last week.

Having been rebuffed by Alan Curbishley and now McDermott, former Sunderland boss, Steve Bruce appears to be the most likely candidate to replace the former Ireland boss in the Molineux hot seat.

Minute by minute: Manchester City v Porto, Europa League

Previews: All you need to know about tonight’s European ties

Addressing the Joint Committee on Investigations, Oversight and Petitions, an expert panel comprised of Dr Jane Suiter (UCC), Prof Michael Marsh (TCD), Dr Teresa Reidy (UCD) and Richard Colwell (Red C) today presented the results of their study into the reasons behind voter behaviour in rejecting the motion.

The proposal to extend the power of Oireachtas committees to hold inquiries was defeated (53.3 per cent voted ‘no’). A second referendum held that day – on amending the constitution to allow for the reduction of judges’ salaries – passed with 79.7 per cent voting ‘yes’.

For the group’s research, 1,005 people adults around Ireland were interviewed using random digit dialling, of which half were contacted via mobile and the other half on a landline. It also used four focus groups comprised of ten people.

Speaking on behalf of the panel, Marsh said that almost half of the ‘yes’ voters questioned (42 per cent) said they couldn’t recall the arguments made for the motion, while the same percentage of ‘no’ voters couldn’t remember the arguments against.

At the same time, large numbers of voters were apparently uncertain about who was making any arguments for (50 per cent of the voters questions) or against (57 per cent) the motion.

The panel’s report, which was prepared for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, said that “overall, the numbers of people unable to explain why they voted ‘no’ beyond saying they did not know what the referendum was about is remarkable, and would seem to reflect poorly on the effectiveness of the campaign itself.”

Marsh said that while there is a tendency in many countries to use a referendum to vote against the government, the fact that the second referendum being put to the electorate that day had passed made it difficult to ascertain if this was a significant factor in the ‘no’ vote. The issue of judges pay may simply have been a more straightforward one for the public, he said.

He said that the group’s research had concluded that this was a very rushed referendum in terms of allowing the Referendum Commission adequate time to do its work in informing the public. This was also true for other bodies who felt they wanted to inform the public.

However, another factor was the lack of both direct and indirect information from political parties to the public.

“Parties running elections are aware of all the sorts of ways in which you can make your appeal to voters, both direct and indirect. But some of this, it seems to me, we forget in referendums,” Marsh said.

He said that a referendum needs a “diversity campaign” to appeal to more voters, rather than relying on “one solid lump of literature” delivered into your letterbox.

Although the research showed that people were in favour of the Oireachtas inquiries move in principle, there was very little awareness among the public of the debate “and in that context, it’s not surprising that they voted no”.

Marsh said that there was a possibility that the excitement of the #Áras11 election detracted attention from the referendums and that the panel had heard anecdotally of voters who were totally unaware of the Oireachtas inquiries referendum before they turned up at their polling station.

Obama – the country’s first black head of state – said the National Museum of African American History and Culture “has been a long time coming.”

“It was on this ground long ago that lives were once traded, where hundreds of thousands once marched for jobs and for freedom,” Obama said. “It was here that the pillars of democracy were built, often by black hands.”

The 19th museum in the Smithsonian Institution will tell the history of black life, art, and culture and explore stories that have sometimes been left out. There will also be a court for quiet reflection, Museum Director Lonnie Bunch said.

“We will have stories that will make you smile and stories that will make you cry,” he told The Associated Press. “In a positive sense, this will be an emotional roller coaster, so you want to give people chances to reflect and to think about what this means to them.”

Here’s Obama’s speech, courtesy of Associated Press:

The museum is scheduled to open in 2015. Congress pledged to provide half the $500 million construction cost, and about $100 million has been raised in private funds including gifts from Wal-Mart, American Express, Boeing, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and celebrities such as Quincy Jones and Oprah Winfrey.

The future museum already has a gallery at the Smithsonian’s American history museum with rotating exhibits. The newest one explores Thomas Jefferson’s lifelong ownership of slaves and his conflict and advocacy against slavery, while looking at the lives of six slave families who lived on his Monticello plantation in Virginia.

Telling such stories has been taboo at many museums in the past. Bunch said that by presenting a fuller view of history and dealing directly with difficult issues like race, the Smithsonian can present a fuller view of history and what it means to be an American.

The staff is working to collect more material on popular culture and music, earlier materials from military history from World War I and earlier and artifacts to tell stories from the 19th century, including slavery and post-Civil War Reconstruction.

Watch: Barack Obama sings blues classic with Mick Jagger and BB King>

The celebrate the launch he took part in a photo call with Kingsley Aikins, the chairman of the Business Advisory Board and Alan Foy, Chief Executive of Blueface, who were all smiles as Enda picked up the phone.

But what we want to know is who do you think he was talking to and what was he saying?Answers in the comments below. Best one makes the Daily Fix later tonight:

He said that “we’ve gone from excessive deference to corrosive cynicism”. He said that there was once an air of deference towards institutions like the Church or Government but;

The age of deference is over now.

Rabbitte said that the incessant promotion of “cynical” discourse about politics went on in the boom years too and he found it to be “destructive of both politics and journalism”. He acknowledged that journalism had come under pressure from reduced resources and the immediacy of internet publishing but derided what he said had led to a decline in specialist journalists and an increase in “mildly reworked press releases” and “copy and paste journalism” in all media.

He also suggested that while “some” online media outlets were signed up to the Press Council, the rise of online media might lead to the establishment of a code to which outlets can sign up to if they wish to adhere to guidelines.

Following Rabbitte’s speech, several senators gave their take on the need for regulation of media – and the concerns and challenges facing the industry. Independent Senator David Norris gave the most forceful contribution to the Seanad, saying that he felt media had bullied public figures. He also claimed that a tabloid editor told him that stories published about him at the time of his presidential run were “payback time” for his defence of “victims of invasion of privacy”. Read more of that contribution here.

In a response to Norris, the minister said that while the points he raised about bullying were “very serious”, he could not accept “that we have sunk to the standards in this country such as we have seen in the neighbouring island (as evidenced in the Leveson Inquiry)”.

He also claimed that the Press Council had been working well and had only been in place for four years so needed more of a chance. When it was first established, a Privacy Act had been mooted to operate alongside the Council but that suggestion was rejected. Since then, the approach had been one of ‘suck-it-and-see’ and let it work as a “non-statutory Press Council”.

Some of the senators making statements yesterday had other questions for the Minister to consider:

• Paschal Mooney (FF) asked if the future of investigative journalism needed to be looked at, claiming that investigative journalism was under severe threat because of some mistakes made but that it should be at the core of democracy.
• Michael Mullins (FG) asked if the family of the deceased Brother Gerard Dillon, against whom allegations were also made in the Mission to Prey Prime Time Investigates programme, should not be allowed to have their complaint to the BAI allowed. It had been returned because it had not been made within the statutory 30-day limit.
• Aideen Hayden (Lab) wondered if the Government would consider reporting a ‘Buy Irish’ campaign to ensure people would buy Irish newspapers – she had praised the Irish press for not publishing salacious stories about politicians’ private lives as the press in some other countries do.
• Fidelma Healy Eames (FG) asked if the Government is going to legislate on social media as while its positive effect was clear in the “Twitter revolutions” in Moldova and during the Arab Spring, there was an issue between the boundary of freedom of speech and privacy and safety. She was also interested in whether the Press Ombudsman had remit over regional press.
• John Whelan (Lab), a journalist and regional newspaper editor for 30 years, claimed that the Press Ombudsman “really has no powers” and that he had himself been subject to a story of misinformation. He said that it should be the case that the taxpayer and the Government be entitled “to ask what bang are we getting for our buck” from the State broadcaster. He also had strong words about political spin doctors coming on radio and TV programmes “masquerading” as independent commentators.
• Trevor O Clochartaigh (SF) was concerned about the meshing of the wealthy and the media in Ireland and that journalists have a “duty to highlight issues which would not otherwise be in the public domain”. He was concerned about “inaccurate pillorying” of the public sector in “certain Sunday publications”.
• Paul Coghlan (FG), who declared that he is a small shareholder in a radio station in Kerry, asked if perhaps smaller county broadcaster should also be in line for State funding in order to ensure a “level playing pitch”.
• Susan O’Keefe (Lab), a former BBC investigative journalist, also wondered if part of the licence fee could be given to local radio stations, “many of which perform within a public broadcasting remit”. She also asked if the code of fairness and impartiality which is being explored at the moment would be effective.
• Ronan Mullen (Ind) asked Pat Rabbitte if his perception of the Press Council as a “reasonable success” was based on any particular process of assessment within the Department. He also asked if such assessment would be enough to determine what should happen with proposed privacy legislation.
• John Crown (Ind) said that on the issue of “hypothetical intrusiveness” by the media, as far as he was concerned, they didn’t intrude enough in some areas which are of critical importance such as in the area of his own ‘day job’, the provision of cancer services. He said a free press is “one of the most important things that we have” and that there should be ways to enforce the responsibility of the media to expose wrongdoing.

David Norris: Tabloid editor told me that stories about me were “payback”>

The lender announced in December that it would make €1.5billion in funding available for mortgages in 2012, with the possibility of expanding the fund if demand was high.

A spokesperson said at the time that the fund would be a “further support” to Budget measures aimed at helping first-time buyers.

“To date in the first weeks of 2012, we have received applications to the value of €264m from potential first time buyers and movers,” Bank of Ireland mortgages head Jonathan Byrne said today.

He insisted that even though overall lending is low, the bank is showing “support and commitment to the Irish mortgage market”.

Bank of Ireland now accounts for just over 50 per cent of all new mortgage lending by value, the institution said in a statement.

More: BoI plays down report on mortgage rate hikes>

A spokesman for the IRFU told TheJournal.ie today that just over 1,500 people had applied for a refund after the 11 February clash at the Stade de France was postponed moments before kick off due to a frozen pitch.

The deadline for a refund for tickets bought through the IRFU passed yesterday with others who bought tickets through ticket and travel agencies told to contact those agencies for a refund.

Some 6,000 Irish fans were thought to have travelled for the original game, the second in Ireland’s Six Nations calendar, with 4,100 tickets allocated through the IRFU.

The spokesman said today that “nowhere near 4,100″ are going to the rescheduled game on Sunday, 4 March.

“Only a few hundred applied for tickets,” he said today. “We wouldn’t be of the expectation that there would be many making a second trip.”

We’re ready to put our bodies on the line, insists O’Connell

The 19-year-old’s remains were discovered by firemen at her home in Newport on 5 February. A post-mortem later showed that she had died from a stab wound. She was eight months pregnant and the unborn infant also died.

Carl Whant, 27, of Bettws, Newport was today sentenced to serve a minimum of 35 years in prison after being convicted of rape, murder, child destruction and arson.

The BBC reports that Newport Crown Court heard that Whant assaulted Grender at her home before setting fire to the premises and returning to a party he was attending with Grender’s boyfriend.

Reading a statement outside the court, Grender’s uncle said that for her parents to see their grandchild for the first time in a morgue “was the most heartbreaking thing we have ever had to do”. He said that the family remains in “total disbelief” over what had happened.

Responding to today’s statement, David Wooler of the Crown Prosecution Service in Wales said that a review of the initial evidence against Whant had shown “the truly horrific nature of the crimes committed”. He said the CPS felt it was extremely important to being separate charges over the death of the unborn child, a girl whom Grender had named Kelsey-May.

“Carl Whant was therefore also charged with the offence of child destruction… This is an offence which prohibits wilful acts causing the death of any child capable of being born alive – and given the advanced stage of Nikitta Grender’s pregnancy, Kelsey-May certainly fit that description,” Wooler said in a statement.

A PACKED TRAIN slammed into the end of the line in a Buenos Aires’ railway station today, killing 49 people and injuring hundreds of morning commuters in Argentina’s worst train accident in decades.

Federal Police Commissioner Nestor Rodriguez says the dead include 48 adults and one child.

At least 550 people were injured, and emergency workers were slowly extracting dozens of people who were trapped inside the first car, said Alberto Crescenti, the city’s emergency medical director. Rescuers carved open the roof and set up a pulley system to ease them out one by one.

The commuter train came in too fast and hit the barrier at the end of the platform at about 26 kph, smashing the front of the engine and crunching the leading cars behind it; one car penetrated nearly 20 feet into the next, Argentina’s transportation secretary, JP Schiavi told reporters at the station.

The conductors’ union chief, Omar Maturano, told Radio 10 that the train might have come in as fast as 30 kph.

‘Windows exploded’

The first car, where passengers make space for bicycles, was the most damaged in the crash. Survivors told the TeleNoticias channel that many people were injured in a jumble of metal and glass.

Passengers said windows exploded as the tops of train cars separated from their floors. The trains are usually packed with people standing between the seats, and passengers were thrown into each other and to the floor by the force of the hard stop.

Many of those on board suffered bruises, and many with lesser injuries were waiting for attention on the Once station’s platforms as helicopters and more than a dozen ambulances took the most seriously injured to nearby hospitals.

“This machine left the shop yesterday and the brakes worked well. From what we know, it braked without problems at previous stations. At this point I don’t want to speculate about the causes,” Ruben Sobrero, union chief on the Sarmiento line, told Radio La Red.

The motorman has been hospitalised and the union hasn’t been able to speak with him yet, Sobrero added.

1. #STATE ASSETS: The government has announced plans to sell-off State assets in the hope of raising some €3 billion in proceeds, a third of which will go towards creating jobs. The Taoiseach Enda Kenny said today that it was unlikely any State body would be sold off this year as the opposition criticised the proposals.

2. #CARLOW: The bodies of two men have been discovered at neighbouring farms in Carlow. Firefighters responded to reports of a fire at Ballycormack at around 4am where they found the body of a man in his 70s. A few hours later the body of a man in his 6os was found on a second farm nearby.

3. #SYRIA: The doyen of foreign correspondents Marie Colvin has died in Syria. The Sunday Times journalist died in heavy shelling in the Baba Amr district of Homs, a city under siege by pro-Bashar Assad forces. A French photographer Remi Ochlik also died in the attack as did dozens of other residents of the city.

4. #MEDIA: Senator David Norris has said that a tabloid editor told him that stories published about him were “payback time” during a debate on media standards in Ireland in the Seanad today. The former presidential candidate made the allegation in a blistering speech that included criticism of the Press Council and the government for a lack of regulation of media in Ireland.

5. #TERMINATOR VISION: Google is planning to launch a pair of electronic glasses that would project information directly in front of your eyes. The goggles would work in much the same away as a smart phone but would include motion and location sensors. The price? Well reportedly as low as $250.

The survey by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy found that men were much more likely to feel self-conscious about seeking help over personal problems.

Older people were also more likely to keep personal difficulties to themselves. Forty-nine per cent of over-65s said they would talk problems over with a friend or family member, while the figure for adults overall was 70 per cent.

One in seven over-65s have attended counselling or psychotherapy, compared to one in four adults overall.

Among women, 30 per cent have visited a counsellor or psychotherapist at least once. Among men the figure was 19 per cent.

A spokesperson for Age Action Ireland encouraged older people to share any difficulties they may be going through.

“Anxiety and stress experienced among older people may be caused by uncertainty over the future, stress due to enforced retirement, loss because of bereavement,” Eamon Timmins said.

“So please, if you’re going through a rough patch, let someone know. Talk to a relative, friend, GP, nurse or counsellor. Don’t go though it alone.”

Infographic: Why you should get more sleep>

Booted off the reality competition in America, the then 13-year-old went on to have what was an unsettling – but understandable (again, she was 13 and her Mom had promised her that it wouldn’t happen) – meltdown right there on stage.

Now a much more mature 14-year-old, Crow has emerged from the X Factor dream/journey/nightmare with a television deal. According to the Hollywood Reporter, kids channel Nickelodeon has signed her up for a musical comedy pilot, as well as a five-episode arc in the network’s popular Fred: The Show.

Simon Cowell’s label Syco has also signed the teenager and plans for an album are in place.

So then, all good things come to those…who break down in front of millions on live television?

If you have it in you to watch it again, here is the excruciating elimination that even stunned Simon Cowell into giving out free hugs:

United manager Alex Ferguson revealed that the striker is still suffering from a throat infection which he has had since last week’s first leg in Amsterdam, which United won 2-0.

Rooney missed training to rest up over the weekend and, although he reported to the club today, Ferguson has decided to leave him out of his plans for tomorrow night.

“Wayne is out tomorrow. He has a really bad throat,” Ferguson said (Daily Mail). ’There were traces of it in Amsterdam and we gave him some medication but it got worse.”

Rooney, who has scored 17 league goals this season, will hopefully be available for their next Premier League match against Norwich this Sunday, Ferguson added.

Either Lokomotiv Moscow or Athletic Bilbao await United in the Europa League last 16 should they progress tomorrow.

Previews: All you need to know about tonight’s European ties

Anfield Cat back on the streets after escaping from foster home

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Full-time: Manchester City 4 (6) Porto 0 (1)

Previews: All you need to know about tonight’s European ties

Sacrifice: What these sportsmen ought to give up for Lent

A number of different training activities are being held today, and the disused Aldwych Tube station in Surrey Street staged a mock terrorist attack on an underground rail station.

The Metropolitan Police said that the test was carried out as though an attack occurred in August during the city’s hosting of the Games. It said that today’s exercise would focus on the tactical response on the ground.

“We need to be confident that we have the right people in the right places, that we understand how others operate and that we are talking to each other at the right levels and in the right way,” said Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison.

“This is part of series of exercises which we have run in the lead up to the Games, but this is the first with such a significant response from the emergency services on the ground.”

Click here to view slideshow »

The tabby, who became known as the ‘ Anfield Cat’ and later ‘Shankly’, made headlines when he bounded onto the field 11 minutes into the Premier League game earlier this month.

It subsequently emerged that he was a homeless cat who had been wandering the streets around the Anfield ground for week previously and had been nicknamed ‘Kenny‘ after Reds boss Kenny Dalglish.

He was taken into a rescue centre in the Liverpool suburb of Formby where he has been receiving treatment and was renamed ‘Shankly’ after legendary Reds boss Bill Shankly.

However he has now escaped from his new foster home in the seaside town of Crosby, according to local reports. The Formby Times says that ‘Shanks’ somewhow managed to escape through a sealed cap flap at the home in which he had been staying.

“We believe it likely that Shanks’ homing instincts will lead him in the direction of Anfield and we would urge residents in the area to keep an eye out for him around his old stomping ground,” Helen Stanbury from Freshfields Animal Rescue Centre told local radio station Juice FM.

She went on to say: “The important thing from our point of view is that he’s not neutered and because of the scabs on his neck, he wasn’t micro chipped either so you know at the moment he’s probably going to be out there impregnating more cats.”

The cat also has a parody Twitter account, @AnfieldCat, which now has over 60,000 followers.

The account tweeted earlier this week:  ”I can confirm, I have escaped from alCATraz and have started my pilgrimage to Wembley,” referring to Liverpool’s Carling Cup Final date with Cardiff at Wembley this Sunday.

Anfield Cat – renamed ‘Shankly’ – needs a new home

Watch: Cat interrupts Liverpool’s draw with Tottenham at Anfield

Sources at the company told the New York Times that the gadget would feature a tiny screen sitting just in front of a user’s eye, and working on the firm’s Android operating system.

They will use a 3G connection in the same way as a smartphone, and include motion and location sensors, the sources said, adding that they would be priced at $250 to $600 and go on sale later this year.

According to technology blog 9to5Google, users will navigate the operating system by tilting their heads in a way “almost indistinguishable” to others around.

It’s thought the device could provide an “augmented reality” service with real-time information, search results, social media and maps layered over a user’s vision behind the glasses.

We can only imagine the view will look something like this:

(Video: FEDERALGUAZU060)

More: Google plays down planning application for Dublin retail store>

Manchester City (2) v Porto (1), 5pm, ESPN & Setanta

Current Europa League champions Porto head to the Etihad Stadium knowing they need a win if they are to have any hope of remaining in the competition.

City took a 2-1 advantage away from Portugal last week thanks to Sergio Aguero’s late strike and have an excellent record at home, meaning Vitor Pereira’s side, who haven’t won a game in 15 visits to England, face an enormous challenge.

“Our biggest strength will be our collective play. I do not believe in magic touches, nor in pulling rabbits out of hats,” Pereira said on Eurosport.

“We will try to have the ball to create chances and also defend the way we normally do, with aggressive transitions. It is by being consistent throughout the match that we want to win the tie.”

Roberto Mancini has no new injury worries this evening. Yaya Toure returned to the team in the first leg as did Mario Balotelli, but Carlos Tevez, who apologised to the club today, and Owen Hargreaves are not registered to play in this competition.

Manchester City 8/13 Draw 14/5 Porto 9/2

Champions League, Last 16

Marseille v Inter Milan, 7.45pm, ITV1 & Setanta

Two sides with dramatically different fortunes domestically meet in the Velodrome this evening.

Marseille are currently third behind Paris Saint-Germain and Montpellier in Ligue Un and have strung together a run of 14 games without defeat in all competitions, which stretches back to November.

Italian giants Internazionale, meanwhile, lie 24 points adrift of their Milan rivals, who top Serie A. Claudio Ranieri’s team have been beaten by Bologna, Novara, Lecce and Napoli in recent weeks and worringly have only scored in one of their last six games.

Diego Forlan has just a single goal to his name in 11 appearances since joining from Atletico Madrid last year but is eager to add a couple more tonight.

This competition is the most important in the world and I’m looking forward to playing in it again,” the former Manchester United and Villarreal striker, who missed the group stages, told UEFA.com.

The Uruguayan international faces a battle to retain his starting spot however, as Diego Milito has recovered after missing the 3-0 defeat to Bologna last Friday with the flu.

Dejan Stankovic has done the same while Walter Samuel is back from being sidelined with a thigh strain.

For the home side, French frontman Loic Remy, who has 16 goals this season, is the most notable absentee and his Brazilian team-mate Brandao could start in attack.

Former Liverpool youngster Alou Diarra is a doubt after picking up a knock last weekend and Stephane Mbia is also touch and go.

Marseille 10/11 Draw 9/4 Inter Milan 10/3

FC Basel v Bayern Munich, 7.45pm, RTE 2 & Sky Sports 2

Bayern Munich are in Swtizerland for their first leg tie with FC Basel.

Basel manager Heiko Vogel pulled off a major shock by knocking Manchester United out of the group stages and the 36-year-old, who managed youth teams at Bayern for nine years, has praised this side for reaching the knockout stages.

“It’s special that there is Swiss involvement in the last 16, the fact I started my training career with Bayern makes it even more interesting,” Vogel said on Eurosport.

“We have a small chance and we want to take it as we did against Manchester (United).”

Their brightest star is playmaker Xherdan Shaqiri, who is a young man tipped for big things in the game. The 22-year-old has agreed to join tonight’s opponents in a €12m deal this summer but insists he won’t have split loyalties.

Munich topped a tough group to progress and are unbeaten against Swiss opposition in Europe. They will be without Bastian Schweinsteiger as the midfielder has suffered ankle ligament damage, while Diego Contento, Breno and Daniel van Buyten are absent at the back.

Basel, meanwhile, have Scott Chipperfield and Philip Degen sidelined.

Basel 5/1 Draw 11/4 Bayern Munich 8/13

Caption time: what’s George Hamilton saying to his new friend in Basle?

Who’s next? Meet the men who could take over from Tony McGahan

The former Presidential candidate was speaking as part of the Seanad discussion on media standards which is currently ongoing. Senator Norris said that the editor said the articles were “payback time for what I had done in standing up for victims of invasion privacy” and specifically because of his focus on Ireland’s defamation law.

Norris called a speech by Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte as “pretty limp” and said that the debate in the Seanad should include discussion of what he described as “bullying” by the media of public figures. He also claimed that “bullying happens inside every single newspaper” and that he had proof of it but that those people who supplied him with the information were afraid to stand up against their “editorial masters”.

He was scathing of the “self-regulating” Press Council and said that “every newspaper” had carried editorials calling for other professions to have independent regulators – except their own profession. He also said that he had had to change his phone number three or four times but that “Grub Street” had managed to get his new number with little difficulty. He finished on an angry call for the Government to tackle the Irish media and claimed that there was not one TV, newspaper or broadcasting outlet that had not “villified me, blackguarded me, defamed me and libelled me”.

Senator Norris had become the focus of intense media scrutiny over letters written to the Israeli High Court in 1997 in defence of his former partner, asking for leniency after that partner, Ezra Nawi, was found guilty of having sex with an underage teenager in 1992.

David Norris resigned from the Presidential race for a time before rejoining and finished fifth in the field of seven candidates.

The Seanad statements on media standards; Pat Rabbitte criticises descent of media into “corrosive cynicism”>

Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin said earlier today that parts of Bord Gáis and ESB are to be sold off with the State also considering selling off some assets of the forestry body Coillte and its 25 per cent shareholding in Aer Lingus.

Howlin said that of the €3 billion the government hopes to raise, around €1 billion would be used for the purposes of job creation while the rest would go towards servicing the country’s debt.

But Sinn Féin’s deputy leader and spokesperson for public expenditure and reform, Mary Lou McDonald, said that the decision was “a bad policy decision” in light of the €3 billion the government looks set to pay unsecured bondholders in the now-defunct Anglo Irish Bank next month.

“Both the ESB and Bord Gáis are wealth generating self-financing companies that have invested heavily in first world energy infrastructure across the island and created thousands of good jobs benefiting hundreds of thousands of families over the decades,” she said.

“Fine Gael and Labour’s decision to treat the profitable elements of these companies as a cash cow for bank debt reduction makes no economic sense and reflects the kind of short term policy and political decision making that got us into this economic mess in the first place.”

Meanwhile Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson on public expenditure and reform, Sean Fleming, said that Howlin’s statement that he had secured a concession from the Troika on the use of the proceeds from the sale of State assets was “brazen in the extreme”.

“It was never agreed with the EU-IMF by the last Government that state assets would be sold,” he claimed. “It was never agreed that if assets were to be sold that the proceeds could only pay down the debt.

“The first person to ever agree that the sale of state assets could be used to reduce sovereign debt was Minister Howlin who signed up to this during recent EU-IMF review.

“He is using the small concession that one third of the proceeds can be used for reinvestment to hide that fact that he has agreed that two third of the proceeds will be used to pay down debt.

“The extent to which the Labour Party is misleading the public and hiding from the reality that they have bought into Fine Gael’s privatisation agenda is extraordinary. ”

Both TDs specifically criticised the sale of ESB and Bord Gáis with Fleming saying that the sale would “inevitably” lead to higher prices and job losses at both companies.

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on energy, Martin Ferris, said that the decision to sell off parts of Ireland’s forestry was “a disgrace”.

He said it would be interesting to see who bought up the forests that may be sold given previously expressed interest from a Chinese corporation and following Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to Ireland last week.

Read: Parts of Bord Gais and ESB to be sold off to raise €3bn

Explainer: Which State assets are being considered for sale? >

Previously: Rabbitte, McGrath in war of words over state assets >

YouTube Credit: buzbeto

THERE IS SOMETHING immensely satisfying about a group of amateur players trumping top professionals, no matter what the context.

In 2012, it is difficult to conceive of the American national ice hockey team as anything but one of the world’s greatest. After all, the National Hockey League has become synonymous with the sport, featuring stars who would challenge for a place on any all-time roster.

That wasn’t always the case though. In fact, back in 1980, the team which the US sent to the Winter Olympics was made up of amateurs and college players. When they were paired against the best team in the world, the Soviet Union, in the competition’s semi-finals, it seemed that a valiant defeat was the best possible outcome.

In the context of the Cold War, the game took on a heightened significance. With the 1980 games being staged in New York, America steeled itself for a famous Soviet victory in their own back-yard.

After all, the Russians had won Olympic Gold in 1964. And in 1968 and 1972. And then again in 1976.

Simply put, on the Olympic stage, they were practically unbeatable.

As with most great underdog stories, the favourites took an early lead, Krutov giving the Soviet Union a 1-0 advantage. America equalised. And so the pattern repeated itself until Mark Johnson tied the game at 3-3 mid-way through the final period.

Even when US captain Mike Eruzione gave America a single-goal lead with ten minutes left on the clock, few believed that the United States could pull off the most unlikely of upsets.

The clock kept ticking. The Americans defended as though their lives depended on it. Their nation’s honour did.

And the clock kept ticking, the Soviets panicking with each passing second.

With eleven seconds remaining, and the 8,500-capacity Field House on its feet in anticipation, the stage was set for Al Michaels to deliver some of the most memorable sporting commentary of all time.

Eleven seconds, you’ve got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles?…YES!

This post first appeared here as part of TheScore.ie’s Magnificent Seven series >

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