Metro Herald, December 19, 2013 by Metro Herald

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Your Metro Herald packed with news, sport and features

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

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Woman dies as tree crushes car

STRONG winds and heavy rain wreaked havoc across the country yesterday, with a falling tree claiming the life of a young woman in Co Westmeath and Cork’s Kent Station shut for a time after a large section of roof collapsed. In Mullingar, a 23-year-old woman died when her car was hit by a tree on the Ballymahon Road at around 4pm. The woman, who was the sole occupant of the car, was rushed to the Midland Regional Hospital but later died from her injuries. A passenger was injured in Cork when a section of platform shelter at the city’s railway collapsed. The station was shut and diversions put in place when the roof canopy at platforms one and two fell on a train not in service at Kent station. Services between Dublin and Cork were operating to and from Mallow only, however a full service is expected today. A passenger caught up in the incident at around 3pm was hurt but does not have life-threatening injuries. Two other passengers were treated at the scene but did not need hospital treatment. ‘While there were high winds and rain in the area

by joanne ahern

at the time, the cause of the incident is not yet known,’ an Irish Rail spokesman said. In Co Limerick, five people were injured after winds blew slates and planks of timber from buildings in the town of Kilmallock. In Galway, the city council announced a storm surge warning. Roads were closed and cars were left under water in the coastal area of Salthill. More than 15,000 homes in the midlands, west and southwest were without electricity due to the adverse weather. Dublin seemed to escape the worst, although there were reports of trees blocking roads and spot flooding. Met Éireann forecast gusts of up to 150kph to batter parts of the country overnight, with heavy rain turning to sleet and snow. Winds of 48kph are forecast today, which will be cold with some rain.

Forecast gusts of 150kph overnight

Devastation: The damage after the roof collapsed at Kent Station, Cork, main, and, right, vehicles were ruined in Salthill, Galway, when a car park flooded PICTURES: TWITTER

Keep Dublin tidy – Please recycle this Metro Herald when you are finished with it

METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

Thursday 19/12/13 How to contact us

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Today is...

Look For An Evergreen Day... Surrounded as we are by Christmas trees, it may not be that difficult to spot an evergreen, but why not keep an eye out and see if you can recognise other semperviridis today?

From the archives (2008):

14 Minutes, the

average time of a call to the Samaritans, who dealt with 381,128 calls, 13,081 emails, 9,853 texts and 7,911 face-to-face contacts up to October Ireland’s rate of newsprint recycling is now up to 79%. Keep reading, keep recycling – thank you.

Peacock keeps an eye on brand

A peacock with an eye for fashion was caught on CCTV window shopping at a clothes shop – called Peacocks. A number of the birds live in a park in Dunfermline, Scotland, but often wander out into the town’s High Street to the shop.

Today’s birthdays

Syd Little, comedian (Little & Large), 71; Jennifer Beals, actress, 50; Beatrice Dalle, actress, 49; Jake Gyllenhaal, actor (pictured), 33; Gary Cahill, footballer, 28.

CLOCkwORD The solutions from 1 to 12 are all six-letter words ending with the letter Y in the centre. Moving clockwise from 1, the letters in the outer circle will spell out the name of a movie musical director. 1. Various 2. Cheap, tacky 3. Large bird cage 4. Clerk 5. Probable 6. Represent 7. Annual

8. Inflatable boat 9. Turn to bone 10. Sleeping attire 11. Speech of praise 12. Close Yesterday’s solution: Graham Norton

Weather Weather Today

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Showers will become confined to the north and west, still some wintry ones on higher ground. A slight frost will form in sheltered areas. Temperatures between 1°C to 3°C in persistent westerly winds.

EUROPE today

Tomorrow Starting dry in many areas with some sunshine in the east, but rain will spread countrywide during the day with some heavy falls of rain expected. Temperatures between 8°C to 11°C in strengthening southwesterly winds.

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Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

Dizzying: Dare you enjoy the straight-down view?

Into the unknown: A journalist, wearing slippers to protect the glass floor, stands in the Step Into The Void installation at the Aiguille du Midi mountain peak above Chamonix, in the French Alps

Dizzying steps into the void

IT takes a room with a view to a whole new level. Perched 1,000m above a precarious drop, this glass box provides a dizzying view of the French Alps. Journalists were given an early look at the stomach-churning attraction called Step Into The Void. One had to wear slippers to avoid damaging the glass-bottomed cube, which sits on the Aiguille du Midi mountain in Chamonix. The mountain is 3,842m high, although the drop seen through the floor is a mere quarter of that. The cube took three years to build as part of a â&#x201A;Ź2.15million revamp of the scenic spot. It can reportedly withstand winds of more than 210Kph and maximum temperatures of 60C. The cube, which was inspired by the popular Skywalk attraction at the Grand Canyon in America, is only accessible by a 20-minute cable car ride.

by DANIEL BINNS The five transparent sides, each with three layers of glass, are attached to a metallic support structure which spans from the original viewing terrace. Construction has been sponsored by Compagnie du Mont Blanc, which manages transport in the mountains. The Void opens to the public on Sunday.

Easy does it: Looking down on the 1,000m drop

Cliff hanger: The glass structure juts out of the Aiguille du Midi mountain pictures: reuters

Betterr make m tracks. Last posting date to Ireland.

METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

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Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

Former bankers charged in €7bn Anglo fraud case

Bid for transfer to jail in Northern Ireland: Michaella McCollum

Our Michaella is innocent, sister insists

PICTURES: PA

by sARAH sTAck

Three former bankers were yesterday charged with conspiracy to defraud linked to €7billion of deposit transfers allegedly made to prop up Anglo Irish Bank’s books. Denis Casey and Peter Fitzpatrick, former senior executives at Irish Life and Permanent (IL&P), and former Anglo executive John Bowe deny transferring €7.2bn between Anglo, IL&P and Irish Life Assurance between March 1 and September 30, 2008, for the purpose of misleading existing and prospective depositors and investors that the bank had received larger deposits. Bowe, former director of capital markets at the former Anglo Irish Bank, faces a second charge of false accounting under the theft and fraud act. Judge Patricia McNamara remanded all three on bail to reappear in court on March 12 next year. The pensions and life assurance division of IL&P was sold in February for €1.3bn to Canadian investment and insurance giant, Great-West Lifeco. Anglo was nationalised in 2009, later rebranded as the Irish Bank resolution Corporation and then liquidated this year.

Accused: John Bowe, Peter Fitzpatrick and Denis Casey leaving court yesterday

THE family of one of two women sentenced to almost seven years in jail for trying to smuggle €1.8million of cocaine out of Peru has insisted she is innocent. The mother and sister of Michaella McCollum, 20, from Tyrone, plan a legal bid to get her to serve her term of six years and eight months in Northern Ireland. McCollum and co-accused Melissa Reid, from Glasgow, faced up to 15 years but did a plea deal. McCollum’s sister Samantha told ITV’s Daybreak: ‘Michaella has never been in trouble before so this is a very big shock to us and we will all support her.’ The women, who worked on the Spanish island of Ibiza this summer, had claimed they were kidnapped by a Colombian gang at gunpoint and forced to carry 24lb of cocaine in their luggage.

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METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

€619m in health cuts an ‘austerity charter’ by bRiAn HuTTOn

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A HUGE €619million in cutbacks will wreak chaos on the public health service next year, lengthening waiting lists and damaging care, doctors claim. Launching its 2014 plan, the Health Service Executive admitted it has yet to decide how to fill a €108m hole in cutbacks, while director general Tony O’Brien said it was facing a ‘significant challenge’ in delivering the same level of frontline services with a reduced budget. But Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin warned that services ‘have already been cut to the bone and the knife is still being wielded’. Describing the plan as an ‘austerity charter’, the Irish Medical Organisation’s president Matthew Sadlier called on the Government ‘to take responsibility for the provision of a safe and effective health service’.

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The thin red line services and what to do with our criminals

have noticed that the red line Luas does not have a night service and the green one does. Why is it that the people who use the red line have to suffer? I got a reply saying in 2010 that there was a low turnout for the red line. But this is 2013. Many people are asking the same question. So anyone out there. Do you feel the same? Regular red line user ■ To the blonde woman who gets on the Luas each morning at Spencer Dock and gets off at Smithfield, you are possibly the most selfish person I’ve ever encountered. You practically kick people out of the way in your high stilettos so that you can get to a ‘double seat’, and then what do you do? You sit on the outside seat and put your fancy designer bags on the inside seat, so people who get on at later stops have to stand, or face the embarrassment of asking you to move your bags, and you pretend each time not to hear them. Shame on you, I hope you read this and wise up and treat the other passengers with a bit of respect. Sinéad

and a social conscience! I did kind of kick her junkie ass a bit myself. Maybe we could start a crime fighting duo? Dismayed Girl (aka Hit-Girl) ■ I used to sing the praises of Iarnród Éireann over the improved Maynooth line but now due to cost saving they have reduced carriages and once again we are being squashed like cattle on to trains. already I have seen two people faint and it will not get better. I (along with others) will be getting the bus in future. James

■ Ms Clued In, the Dear Dolly letters are made up to provoke, probably by the same person who writes the answers. also, there’s no such word as “amn’t”. Steve

■ Jh, while I agree with some points you make about the level of criminal behaviour on the streets of our city and how to combat it so ordinary people can go about their day without fear, there are some aspects of your argument that seem a little right wing. Jail for life for being a thug? We don’t really want to go down the ‘three strikes and you are out’ route, do we? Some people are born into crime in that they grow up seeing nothing but criminal activity around them, and it is hard to break that cycle. Then again, some people are just scum, and it should be up to those handing down sentences to recognise when enough is enough and somebody does not deserve to be part of society. Both Sides Now

■ aww, thanks Superwoman, nice to know there are some people left in the world with a bit of courage

■ So the nation is broke? Don’t make me laugh! an article in Metro herald tells us we are the second

Quick pic

Has Nemi TREnDing #justinbieber broken her funny bone?

■ There was a small article in Wednesday’s Metro herald about enda Kenny assuring us we won’t ‘make the mistakes of the past’. But we already are. I started looking at stopping renting and buying a house again after I gave up years ago in the face of estate agents playing me off against others to raise prices above what they were worth. What was I met with this time? Same thing. Inflated, unreasonable house prices and the same estate agents trying to tell me I have to up my bid beyond asking price to match an offer by ‘another interested party’. I wonder where this will lead, eh? Rent asunder

■ When exactly did Nemi stop even trying to be funny? I mean, I’m not sure it was ever actually that funny but at least at some stage in the past it tried. Now it seems to just consist of single pane images with some lame attempt at moralising. On the other hand, it must be said that Pearls Before Swine has been relatively decent lately. Damian

yEH big RiDE

● To the knight in shining armour/gold xmas wrapping paper. Thank you for slipping me your monthly Luas ticket to avoid me getting a fine after misplacing mine. You made my week with your gesture, a Christmas miracle!

● To the Nordie girl with the long brown hair who gets off the Luas every morning at Dundrum, keep up the good work because you’re a real stunner.

● A big thank you to all book shop staff at Christmas. You have the patience of saints.

Biblio Phil

RAnDOM AcTs Of kinDnEss

Send your photos to pictures@ metroherald.ie with ‘Quick pic’ as the subject and we will print the best each day in the paper

highest car users in europe. Cyprus is ahead of us – they also are supposed to be broke. Is it any wonder, then, that people are broke? Maybe if they decided (like me) to walk and use public transport, their finances might improve. I would not go back to driving again. We have a decent public transport service, why not use it more? Traffic delays, pollution, not to mention road accidents and a trimmer figure, so why not? Pedestrian senior citizen

gOOD On yA Emma, Sandyford

SANTA CLAWS: Reader Mandy Iremonger sent us this picture of her cat Dita not exactly feline the festive spirit in her new Christmas jumper and hat

Mr J Runaway

● To the guy in Top Man on Grafton Street on Tuesday evening. You said: too many shoes for one person. You are gorgeous. Get in touch.

The one in the black coat

yOuR RusH-HOuR cRusH

● Christmas comes early: Justin Bieber announces he’s retiring from music.

@KylieRodier

● Word on the block is Justin Bieber is retiring after his next album. I can hear the hearts breaking as I speak.

■ Why has Nemi become a minimalist cartoon criticising society? I blame Grim. She was funnier before she met that hunky fireman. Cyan admirer ■ My pilot, if a big fat, man in a red suit tries to climb in the spare room window next Tuesday night and pull you under the tree, DONT PANIC..!! It’s just Santa, all I’ve asked him for is you back :( Missing you so much **

@thefamousco

● Hands up who’d like to have retired at 19?

@scratch_suppers

● I’m not gonna believe that Justin Bieber has retired purely because I don’t want to feel disappointed if he makes a ‘comeback’.

@GlennHolmstrom

● What’s with this whole Justin Bieber retiring lol. He’s like ten?

@amandacorrine4

● The Justin Bieber retiring rumour is actually ridiculous be quiet.

@fffiOnwilliams

@metrohnews #metromailbox

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

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10 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

wholly

Lostprophets rocker thursday Watkins is jailed for ‘depraved’ sex abuse

From gift giving after super-long mass to improper behaviour at the office party, kEN ROgAN looks at our annual festive traditions

n the beginning was the word, free grin of Dick Van Dyke’s face, smiling like a man who never went and the word was with God and the word was: No presents to Funderland. Have a drink. It’s Christmas. Let me get you some before mass. Well, maybe one – but then mass. And not your orange juice and champagne, which we call ‘Buck’s Fizz’ but which, in basic mass either, we’re talking a world without lies, would be super-long singing mass with that called ‘breakfast alcohol’. extra-thick instructions booklet. There are only more drinking Purgatory. If only they’d stop opportunities than there are daylight singing and praying, and are we there yet? Are we the yet? And then hours over Christmas so what are you waiting for? Kick things off YES! We’re FREE! FREE FROM with your office party tomorrow GOD!! night. And here’s some advice – I’m pretty sure that’s the effect forget annoying articles that warn Christianity is going for, they’ve you about the do’s and don’ts of been nailing it every Christmas office parties as though your brain since the invention of fun. Mass is fell out. Go mad. Make that move to Christmas what Brussels sprouts on your office romance, why don’t are to sausage stuffing – because you? What have you got to lose you can’t just have an amazing day except everything? Why else do you without some sort of penalty. think it’s so exciting? And when that What’s that called, Catholic guilt? doesn’t work out, drown your No wonder they’re doing so well. sorrows in 12 pubs on Saturday. Anyway, free from mass you What you shouldn’t do this jump in the car for the short Christmas is make too many plans, journey home, which is still long because you have less time enough to hear Fairytale than you think. There’s Of New York, twice. so much that you This song perfectly want to do that it’s captures the There’s one day for easy to lapse into paralysis of wishing alcohol addiction the people you have Christmas away and Irishness to love, the next one before you even (and in no way get there. And the are they the same for the people you more you try to thing). How chose to… hold on to the time, insanely apt then the faster it slips like that it is Ireland’s sand through your Christmas anthem, quivering, desperate even if the chorus is a bit fingers. of a head scratcher. Does the What you should do, and what NYPD even have a choir? Why you will do, is spend time with would they sing about Galway people you love – but far more Bay? And shouldn’t this all be the importantly, who love you. There’s fault of the English somehow? one day for the people you have to Anyway, eight-year-old me hops love, the next one for the people out of the car, calls mum a maggot, you chose to. And two days to sister a (steady), and then wallows in a pool of wrapping paper and my recover. There will be fights, but that’s okay. own greed. As much as I hate Christmas is a time of forgiveness capitalism and all, getting stuff is and reconciliation. A time where fantastic, emotionally speaking, so people from both sides of the Roy I’m not sure we can park this at the Keane schism can come together door of the free market economy. and say: you’re wrong – but let’s We’re naturally greedy creatures – nature is greedy. As children we are not lose sleep over ove this, or any other matter, taught to control or hide matter for that fact. our greed, and a fa And so, as the curtain falls on good thing too, it’s f Wholly Thursday for unseemly to behold. 2013, and as we Later in life, we approach the shortest day learn to hide our of the year, I leave disappointment with the lea you with the parting words of Shakespeare’s gifts we get. Sure, we say Shak Midsummer Night’s thanks, but ut really we mean Night’ Dream: If we Shadows have offended, ‘what IS this crap?! You’re of think but this and all is mended… supposed to KNOW W ME!’ Merry Jesus-birthday Anyway you’re re too old for everybody! presents now w – too old for the gurning, irony@kenrogan

Disgraced: Ian Watkins was jailed for a series of child sex crimes, which he described as ‘Mega lolz’ to a fan Picture: WNS

“

n AN obsessed fan who let paedophile rocker Ian Watkins attempt to rape her baby was guilty of the greatest betrayal a mother could commit, she was told by a judge yesterday. The woman, who was just 16 when she began a sex-crazed affair with the Lostprophets singer, was jailed for 14 years.

by NicOLE LE MARiE PAEDOPHILE rock star Ian Watkins was told yesterday he had ‘plumbed new depths of depravity’ as he was jailed for a series of child sex offences. The former Lostprophets singer shook in the dock as he was sentenced to 35 years and told he would have to serve at least twothirds before being eligible for parole. Judge Mr Justice Royce said he had dealt with many horrific abuse cases but Watkins’ offences – including plotting to rape two babies with two ‘infatuated’ mothers – ‘broke new ground’. He said: ‘Any decent person looking at and listening to the material here will experience shock, revulsion, anger and incredulity. What you did plumbs new depths of depravity. You achieved fame and success as the lead singer of the Lostprophets – you had fawning fans and that gave you power. ‘You knew you could use that power to induce young female fans to help satisfy your apparently insatiable lust and to take part in the sexual abuse of their young children.’ ‘You spoke of not knowing to what extremes you would have gone but for your arrest,’ he said. ‘It is difficult to imagine anything much worse.’ On Watkins’ abuse of an 11-month-old child with the youngster’s mother, he said: ‘The planning and graphic detail are bad enough, the videoing of what you are both doing is an aggravating factor, the enjoyment both of you can be seen to derive from what you are doing is incomprehensible.’ Among the 13 offences Watkins, 36, from Pontypridd, south Wales, confessed to were the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13, and one of possessing a pornographic image involving an animal. Watkins claimed he could not remember his crimes because he was addicted to drugs.

‘Your infant would have trusted you implicitly. You totally betrayed that trust. Could there be a greater betrayal?’ Mr Justice Royce told her. The singer filmed their sex sessions and injected her with heroin. The second woman, who obeyed Watkins’ instructions to abuse her child, was given 17 years.

Attacker sentenced Ten years’ jail for 15 years after crime €29m drugs role A HEROIN addict has been sentenced to three years in prison with the final two years suspended for a syringe robbery carried out 15 years ago. Darren Byrne, 33, of St Peter’s Place, Arklow, failed to show up for sentencing in 1998 and Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the bench warrant issued for his arrest went missing possibly as a result of the Pulse Garda computer system coming on board at the time. The warrant was recently uncovered by gardaí in Arklow. He had pleaded guilty to carrying out a robbery in Dalkey and to attempted robbery in Bray on March 15, 1998, during which he used an uncovered syringe to threaten his victims.

A FATHER of four has been jailed for ten years for his role in a €29million cocaine operation. Abraham Shodiya, 44, originally from Nigeria, with an address on Carnlough Road, Cabra, was convicted after an 11-day trial last month. Det Gda Eoin Roche of the Garda National Drugs Unit said Shodiya was arrested with almost 43kg of cocaine in wheelie bins on a trailer attached to a vehicle at the Maldron Hotel in Kiltipper, Dublin. Another 378kg of the drug was seized at a warehouse at a business park in Ballycoolin. Judge Desmond Hogan dismissed claims Shodiya was the ‘right-hand man’ of entrepreneur Gareth Hopkins, 34, jailed for 13 years earlier this year.

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

12 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

World

digest

Tiger star wins libel action Two share €465m jackpot

CHiNA: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi has won damages from a US website that falsely claimed she was paid to have sex with top Chinese officials. The 34-year-old was accused of earning at least €72million by dissident website Boxun News.

and finally...

AMERiCA: Two people have won a share in a €465million jackpot, the second-largest prize in US lottery history. Demand for tickets was high after 22 rollovers without a winner. ‘We were selling 25,000 tickets a minute,’ a Mega Millions spokesman said. The tickets were sold in San Jose, California and Atlanta, Georgia.

inn-justice served on a tray Walking Dead creator sues

FRANCE: A pub landlord faces a €9,000 fine for ‘hiring an illegal worker’ after a customer brought her own tray back to the bar. Maryka Le Floch and her husband were jailed for a day after a social security inspector saw the incident at Chez Mamm Kounifl in Locmiquélic, Brittany, in June 2012. A tribunal is set for next month.

AMERiCA: The creator of hit TV series The Walking Dead is suing cable network AMC for ‘tens of millions of dollars’ in a row over profits. Frank Darabont was fired from the zombie show (pictured) after the first series. He has filed a lawsuit in New York.

NEpAL: A World Wildlife Fund team fixes a GPS device to this sedated snow leopard to monitor its progress back in the wild

CZECH REpubLiC: It’s usually bikini-clad female volleyball players who are lusted after by fans. But the male Brno side drew a record crowd after posting a video of themselves, parading naked to Benny Hill music. The other team had the last laugh, however, winning 3-2.

Angry Saatchi ‘using trial to hurt Nigella’ by NiCOLE LE MARiE

Freezing at the poles A member of China’s national pole dancing team performs at a park after the first snows of the season fell on Tianjin in the north of the country Picture: reuters

Turkey tops league protesters’ relief at for jailed journalists Russian amnesty bill TURKEY has jailed more journalists than any other country for the second consecutive year, followed closely by Iran and China, according to a media watchdog. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in its annual prison census that the three countries accounted for more than half of the 211 journalists behind bars. Other countries on the list of the top ten worst jailers of journalists were Eritrea, Vietnam, Syria, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uzbekistan. CPJ’s Joel Simon said: ‘Jailing journalists for their work is the hallmark of an intolerant, repressive society.’ He said it is ‘frankly shocking’ to see Turkey in the top spot for the second year and to see the number of journalists behind bars rise in countries like Egypt and Vietnam.

RUSSIA’S parliament has passed an amnesty bill that includes crew members of a Greenpeace ship and jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk band. The State Duma voted 446-0 in favour of the bill, which mainly concerns first-time offenders, juveniles and women with small children. The move has been viewed as the Kremlin’s attempt to soothe criticism of Russia’s human rights records ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year. The amnesty was extended to suspects of hooliganism, which means prosecutors are now free to drop charges against the 30 people aboard the Greenpeace ship who were held after an oil rig protest in Russia’s Arctic in September. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, the jailed members of the Pussy Riot band serving two years for hooliganism after an impromptu protest at Moscow’s main cathedral, are also eligible for release.

CHARLES SAATCHI is using the fraud trial of his two former aides simply to attack his ex-wife Nigella Lawson, a court head yesterday. The multi-millionaire’s ‘anger’ at ‘losing control’ of the TV chef has led him to put Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo in the dock as a cover for a very public character assassination of Ms Lawson, the counsel for Elisabetta Grillo told jurors. Anthony Metzer QC asked: ‘Could it be Mr Saatchi was using this to attack Ms Lawson by proxy? By turning on one of her most trusted and loved people? ‘As his relationship with Ms Lawson started to unravel and he lost control of her, he looked for a place to put his hurt and anger.’ Mr Metzer claimed his client had been caught in the ‘collateral cross-fire’. He added that Mr Saatchi did not conduct a full investigation of his staff’s activities after the fraud allegations first surfaced because he knew Elisabetta

was ‘a soft underbelly for attacking Ms Lawson’. Mr Metzer went on to claim the TV chef’s evidence about her drug use was a ‘careClaims: Saatchi fully rehearsed speech’. ‘It came from a woman who found herself between a rock and a hard place – excuse the pun,’ he added. Meanwhile, Karina Arden, defending Francesca Grillo, told Isleworth crown court in London it was ‘inconceivable’ Ms Lawson was unaware of her PA’s overseas trips, or that Francesca could have ‘got away with it’ because of how closely monitored her account was. The Grillos deny defrauding their former employees of £685,000 (€820,000) Jurors are due to be sent out to consider their verdict today.

Deadly new strain of bird flu ‘could cause more outbreaks’ A NEW strain of bird flu has killed a person for the first time, authorities in China have confirmed. The H10N8 virus had not been found in people until a 73-year-old died after being in contact with live poultry. The World Health Organisation has said it would not be surprising if more people became infected. Spokesman Timothy

O’Leary said: ‘It’s worrisome when a disease jumps from animals to humans. The case is being investigated and there’s no evidence of human-tohuman transmission yet.’ This is the second time a new strain of bird flu has emerged in China this year. In March, 45 people died and 140 were infected after there was an outbreak of the H7N9 virus.

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

14 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

Buffett tops ‘gainers’ list, lion a day earning €26million

by DANIEL BINNS

YOU might think having a few billion in the bank would be enough for you to retire to your own private island. But these super-wealthy tycoons just can’t seem to help but keep piling up mountains of money. And when it comes to topping up the bank balance nobody does it better than Warren Buffett, who made €26million every day this year. The investor topped the Wealth-X ‘gainers’ list for 2013, having scooped up €9.3billion since January to bring his estimated net worth to €43.1billion. A Wealth-X spokesman said: ‘The individuals on the top ten list collectively gained €74billion in 2013 – an average of €7.4billion each. ‘On average, they made €21million per day in 2013 and increased their wealth by 41.6 per cent.’

Top 10 gainers of 2013 (€bn): nk e Ra Nam / 1 Warren Buffett 2 Bill Gates 3 Sheldon Adelson 4 Jeff Bezos 5 Mark Zuckerberg 6 Masayoshi Son 7 Sergey Brin 8 Larry Page 9 Lui Chee Woo 10 Carl Icahn

Among the other big earners to make the top ten were Google co-founder Larry Page, Facebook inventor Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Microsoft founder Bill Gates took

13 20 ain G

th th or or 13 W 13 t W c 20 Net 20 e n N De Ja

9.3 8.4 8.3 8.3 7.7 7.5 6.7 6.7 6.0 5.3

43.1 53.0 25.8 25.1 18.0 13.9 21.9 21.8 14.3 16.1

33.8 44.6 17.5 16.8 10.3 6.4 15.2 15.1 8.3 10.8

second place after adding a mere €8.4billion to his fortune, now estimated to be €53billion. List-topper Mr Buffett amassed his huge wealth through investments such as food

manufacturer Heinz, which he snapped up earlier this year. But the 83-year-old is an advocate of higher taxes for the rich and has donated €8billion of shares in his company to

Bitcoin value plunge after Chinese ban

THE VALUE of web currency Bitcoin has fallen after the biggest exchange in China said it was not accepting yuan deposits. BTC China’s announcement comes two weeks after the central bank said banks were barred from handling Bitcoins. Account holders can, however, still top up their accounts using Bitcoins and withdraw yuan. The price of Bitcoins sank to 2,503 yuan (€300) from a high of 3,755 yuan (€451). Authorities are concerned Bitcoin could pose a viable alternative to China’s tightly controlled yuan.

good causes – with plans to give away more. ‘If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent,’ he said.

Great Train Robber Biggs dies aged 84

give the gift of

Wanted: Ronnie Biggs pictured in Brazil in 1992. He avoided justice for 40 years before his return to serve out his sentence

HOPE

this christmas

Picture: rex

The Regency Hotel

GREAT Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, who went on the run after one of the most notorious robberies in British criminal history, has died at 84. Biggs was being cared for at a nursing home in north London after being released from prison on compassionate grounds in 2009. A high-profile life in Rio de Janeiro saw Biggs revel in worldwide infamy following his escape from prison in 1965. ‘[Do] I have any regrets about being one of the train robbers? No,’ he once said. ‘I am one of the few witnesses to what was the crime of the century.’ But for many his celebrity status sat uneasily with the violence meted out to the driver of the Glasgow to Euston night mail train held up on August 8, 1963 at a Buckinghamshire village, during which used banknotes worth £2.6million, about €55million today, were seized by the gang. Jack Mills, then 57, was coshed with an iron bar and never recovered from his injuries.

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60 seconds Star Wars brought a huge heart and sense of humour into a world, which blew my mind

You’ve just published a new book, S. What’s it about?

You didn’t write the book so what was your involvement with it?

I had the idea several years ago. I knew it would be a love story and include pieces of ephemera. The British author Dennis Wheatley wrote mysteries that included packets of evidence about the murder investigation and the reader would have to open these envelopes to get more details about the story. That stuck with me because we had one of those when I was growing up. I was introduced to the author Doug Dorst, I pitched him the idea and he said he’d love the opportunity to work on it. It was a chance for him to work on something very special.

Rail rescue guide dog hailed tried to stop Mr Williams from falling from the platform. Then the dog jumped down and tried to rouse Mr Williams. The train driver was alerted and he slowed as Mr Williams and Orlando lay in the trench between the rails. Mr Williams was taken to hospital where he is expected to recover, with Orlando at his bedside.

Funding for Irish computing IRISH researchers have been awarded more than €250,000 in EU funding to help improve ways in which Ireland can utilise multicore computing. National College of Ireland’s Cloud Competency Centre is working as part of the ‘ParaPhrase’ project, an international research programme that has received €7.6 million from the EU.

JJ ABRAMS, 47, is the writer/director/producer behind TV shows such as Lost and Alias, the recent Star Trek films and the forthcoming Star Wars sequels. It’s an unusual experience. It’s a slip case that contains what looks like an old library book called The Ship Of Theseus. You open that and discover it has been annotated; two people have written back and forth to each other in the margins. You learn the author of the book is at the centre of a controversy and these two people are investigating his identity and a potentially more dangerous intrigue. Within the book are pieces of ephemera: postcards, maps, letters, artefacts of this investigation.

A GUIDE dog has been hailed a lifesaver after leaping on to the tracks at a Manhattan underground station when his blind owner lost consciousness and fell in front of an oncoming train. Cecil Williams, 61, and black labradorretriever Orlando escaped serious injury when the train passed over them. Orlando began barking frantically and

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

The project involves partners from eight countries including two from Ireland – the Cloud Competency Centre at NCI and Queen’s University Belfast. Dr Horacio Gonzalez-Velez, head of the centre at NCI, said: ‘This work will help us to efficiently program thousands of processor cores to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues.’

You’ve said you wrote some dodgy screenplays at university – what were they about?

In fairness, I don’t think I’ve stopped writing dodgy screenplays. When I was in college I wrote around ten screenplays. Some were about young people going through crazy adventures. Some were more offbeat – there was always an odd love story at the core of it. It was the beginning of wanting to try to figure out how to write a screenplay. There’s never a moment you go from being an amateur writer doing the best you can to being a professional writer who does great – you’re always doing the same thing but if you’re lucky at some point, you make a living from it. I don’t feel any different when I sit down to write something today than I did back in college. It still starts with: ‘What if I did this?’

Would you want to revisit any of those screenplays?

There was one about insomniacs in love that I think I should take a look at to make sure it’s as bad as I remember.

You’ve worked on Star Trek and now Star Wars. Are people in their thirties and forties too reluctant to let go of things they liked as children? Is it healthy?

I’m not sure there’s any difference in this generation as opposed to others – whether it’s sports or novels or TV re-runs, you can always find instances where people have been reading or doing the same thing they enjoyed as kids. With some reboots, it’s more a case of studios finding it easier to sell certain things that have a pre-existing audience. I’m desperate to continue to tell stories that aren’t based on something that pre-exists but I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of something like Star Trek. I never got into it as a kid and then getting to work on it as an adult I discovered the heart, the comedy, pathos, excitement and adventure of that world many years after my friends did. It’s an incredible honour.

What are your favourite aspects of the original Star Wars films?

The first Star Wars film felt incredibly authentic, it was wildly fun, you could feel it – it had wonderful characters and relationships and was incredibly inventive and moving. The first Star Wars movie was so brilliant in its construction, execution, casting, design. I’d never seen anything like it. It brought a huge heart and sense of humour into a world, which blew my mind. I saw it at 11 and remember being completely rocked.

How are you dealing with the fan expectation surrounding the new films you’re working on? Just by working hard with people who are incredibly good at their jobs.

You visited the set of Downton Abbey. What do you like about it?

It’s absolute soap opera done triple-A plus. The characters go places you never expect and the rules of that society allow for wonderful storytelling because there is behaviour that’s forbidden, which barely exists any more. It’s cleverly written and brilliantly cast. It lets you enjoy what is, at the core, a pulpy family drama but done with such respect and regard for the characters, you feel they’re all alive. And think of how many there are – I thought we had a lot of characters on Lost but it’s amazing they’re able to spin that many plates and make you feel for them all.

Would it benefit from added lens flare?

That’s the only thing it’s lacking – an enormous amount of lights directed into the camera. That would improve the show at least ten times.

Andrew Williams

S (Canongate) is out now.

DNA shows ‘inbreeding was rife’ among Neanderthals AFTER a hard day’s hunting, gathered around the cave fire – there were few ways for Neanderthals to pass the long nights. But their families became a little too close, a study has shown. DNA from a woman’s 50,000year-old toe bone found in Siberia shows she was highly inbred. Her parents were either halfsiblings who shared the same mother, or an uncle and niece, an aunt and nephew or grandparent and grandchild.

Prof Chris Stringer, an expert in human origins at London’s Natural History Museum, said the inbreeding discovered from the woman’s DNA must have

Families became a little too close gone on ‘for a number of generations’. The findings, published in the journal Nature, come from the most complete blueprint of a Neanderthal genetic code yet.

Up to 2.1 per cent of the genomes of modern non-African people can be traced to Neanderthals, whose social structure could have contributed to their demise 30,000 years ago. But the international study also identified a list of 87 significantly different genes in modern humans. Study leader Dr Svante Paabo said: ‘I believe [the blueprint] hides some of the things that made the enormous expansion of human populations and human culture and technology in the last 100,000 years possible.’

16 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

Singer claims he’s ‘quitting’ but PRs race to deny it is true

Biebs ‘retires’ – Justin time for Christmas

Silly stunt: Justin Bieber sparked worldwide rejoicing after telling a radio station he was going to retire... at the age of 19 Picture: PA

JUSTIN BIEBER’S detractors thought Christmas had come early when he announced his retirement. ‘[After] the new album, I’m actually retiring, man. I’m retiring,’ he told an LA radio host, sparking panic among Beliebers. He went on: ‘I’m just gonna take some time. I think I’m probably going to quit music.’ The station then released several tweets, including: ‘I want to grow as an artist and I’m taking a step out, I want my music to mature.’ Some on Twitter were delighted. One poster said: ‘Justin Bieber has

by AnDREi HARMswORTH retired! Christmas has come early!’ And @LesTunes wrote: ‘This is just teasing us into thinking that the pain will stop.’ But friends of the pop brat raced to insisted the star was just pulling everyone’s leg. The 19-year-old Canadian’s stunner adds to a long line of headlines from a year filled with tantrums and desperate attempts to shake off his squeaky clean image. The full interview on Power 106FM may clarify things later.

Broadband access less Luas sets record than Europe average with 30million IRELAND still lags behind its European neighbours in terms of access to broadband services. Figures released by Eurostat show that only 67 per cent of Irish households have access to broadband compared to the EU average of 76 per cent. Despite Ireland’s ongoing success in attracting investment from Google and Facebook, the country lags behind its Nordic counterparts for internet access. The study found that while internet access in general in Ireland was three per cent higher than the EU average, it was still at least ten per cent less than most nearby EU countries. Meanwhile, figures from ComReg show that average broadband speeds in Ireland have increased, with 42 per cent of users having access to speeds of 10Mbps or greater.

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

Adapted by James Maxwell

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woman, 71, ‘harassed’ into driveway repairs TWO MEN have avoided jail after they conned a 71-year-old into giving them money while claiming to fix her driveway. Rose O’Keeffe was ‘intimidated and harassed’ by the two men and a juvenile who came to her house in Tallaght in 2011. Willie McGinley, 30, of Kilmachutchin Close, Clondalkin, and Simon Doherty, 41, of Old Castle Park, Bawnogue, pleaded guilty to making demands for €370 with menaces. Judge Patricia Ryan sentenced both men to two years in prison, suspended on condition of good behaviour. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the men wouldn’t take no for an answer when Doherty told Ms O’Keeffe he would clean and fill her driveway for €400. The youth told the woman to go to the bank and upon her return, they demanded more money. They left when Ms O’Keeffe handed over €370.

trips this year

AS THE Luas prepares to celebrate its tenth anniversary, the tram service’s operator Transdev has announced it carried 30million passengers this year, up by almost 600,000 passengers from the 29.4million record in 2012. Railway Procurement Agency acting CEO Rory O’Connor said it was ‘hugely encouraging’ to see Luas doing so well. Also happy at the news was Tipperary native Rachel Williams, named as the 30millionth passenger as she travelled on the Red Line near Heuston on Tuesday. The 19-year-old trainee nurse was presented with an annual travel card for both lines by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar. Meanwhile, the EU has agreed to fund a €1.4million upgrade of the Dart signalling system which has not been updated since the service was first run in 1984. The move has been welcomed by Iarnród Éireann’s Barry Kenny, who said the planned upgrade of Dublin’s signalling system was a prerequisite for the development of the Dart Underground. ‘This is very positive sign for us. When the Government reviews the funding for the project in 2015, they will do so knowing that the EU is behind the project’, which could see Dublin’s rail capacity more than triple, he added.

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

18 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

★

★★ ★ ★

Stars of 2013 shock by tearing off clothes... and covering up! I

t has been the year that celebs pushed the raunch factor to the max, with former Disney stars baring all and pop babes sharing intimate Instagram pics. Dubbed ‘overtly sexualised’ and ‘pornographic’ by annie Lennox, we look back at the sauciest of 2013. Rihanna proved she’s the queen of controversy with Instagram uploads of herself in underwear – or nothing at all. however, the 25-year-old Bajan was fully dressed when she caused the biggest upset in October by doing a ‘sexy photoshoot’ outside a mosque in abu Dhabi. she was ejected from the area despite being clad head to toe in black. Nicki Minaj gave RiRi a run for her money in september when she ‘accidentally’ flashed a nipple when stepping out in a loose-fitting jacket. It led talk show host Ellen DeGeneres to mock the 31-year-old superbass singer by copying her style on halloween. Northern Ireland’s Jamie Dornan was the surprise replacement for actor Charlie hunnam after being cast

No inhibitions: Jamie Dornan will bare all as Christian Grey. RiRi doesn’t need a movie to strip off, although she still landed in trouble for this shot outside a mosque. Nicki Minaj gave the paps more than they bargained for, right PICTUREs: INF/CalvINKlEIN

In a year of sauciness, SEAMUS DUFF rounds up the raunchiest moments when celebs let their standards – and clothing – slip

in the film adaptation of Fifty shades Of Grey. and he’s vowed to go full frontal in the movie. Britney spears was forced to flash some flesh in september during the unveiling of the first single from her eighth studio album – Work Bitch. the video for the song arrived the following month with Brit vamping it up in the Nevada desert wielding a whip and showcasing a new dominatrix image. however, the 32-year-old mother of two moaned: ‘I cut out half the video because I am a mother and because, you know, I have children, and it’s just hard to play sexy mom while you’re being a pop star as well.’ In a year of headline-grabbing antics, 21-year-old Miley Cyrus took the biscuit in september when she stripped off and rode a piece of construction equipment in the video for Wrecking Ball.

the video – directed by photographer terry Richardson – has clocked up more than 400million views on Youtube and spawned countless parodies across the internet. shy is a word that isn’t in Lady Gaga’s dictionary and, in the run-up to the 27-year-old’s third album release, she tried everything to garner column inches. In august the singer stripped off for an art project with Marina abramovic which saw her creeping around a garden fully naked. Earlier that same month, she posed nude on a ‘binary chair’ to promote her album. But it was in October that fans were left stunned at London’s G-a-Y when the singer stripped everything off during one of her songs. aussie pop rapper Iggy azalea left her mark on music in 2013 with her big beat tunes and rapid lyrics. the 23-year-old sang about giving sex acts in exchange for Louboutins in her debut single Work in March. But it was in september that the singer turned up the sex factor when her nipples could be seen through a string top in the Change Your Life video.

Diva darlings: Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera went head-to-head in a battle of the Dirrty blondes when they faced off on The Voice USA stage. The once-feuding duo held hands and smiled at each other as they sang Gaga’s track Do What U Want. At the end the pair locked arms and drank, before smashing their glasses and hugging. Gaga gushed on Twitter: ‘@xtina thank you for performing with me, your heart is as big as your voice.’

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

★

Kim Kardashian has denied having her six-month-old daughter’s eyebrows waxed. The reality TV star, 33, was accused by Instagram followers of having baby North professionally groomed after she posted a picture of her and Kanye West’s child. Kim hit back at critics by tweeting: ‘Come on, I’d wait until she’s at least 2½!’ But she quickly added: ‘I’m kidding!!!.’

I won’t dance around ★

in undies, Lorde says Lorde has vowed to let her music do the talking and never resort to stripping off. But the 17-year-old insisted she had no problem with stars such as Miley Cyrus baring all. ‘People like to paint me in a certain way but I’m a hugely sex-positive person and I have nothing against anyone getting naked,’ she said

★

Orlando Bloom hasn’t given up on love – despite his split from supermodel wife Miranda Kerr. The 36-year-old credits his Broadway role as Romeo for keeping romance alive after the end of his threeyear marriage. ‘I’m completely in love with the idea of love,’ he confessed. ‘Maybe I’m all misty about it because I’m playing Romeo. But I really believe in that sort of heart-to-heart connection.’ Meanwhile, Bloom was not daunted by full-frontal scenes in new film Zulu. ‘I got so comfortable with it I could brush up behind someone and go, “Oh, excuse me”,’ he told Elle US.

in an interview with V magazine. ‘For me personally, I just don’t think it really would complement my music in any way or help me tell a story any better. ‘It’s not like I have a problem with dancing around in undies. I think you can use that stuff in a hugely powerful way.’

Rihanna seems to have found a man to kiss under the mistletoe. RiRi was spotted on a low-key date with rapper A$AP Rocky at the private members’ club Soho House in New York. ‘They were playing pool and hanging by the stairwell,’ an insider told the New York Post. ‘They weren’t kissing or anything, but they were looking very friendly.’ The pair, both 25, sparked dating rumours after RiRi got steamy for his video Fashion Killa.

I’m in need of a lift says flagging Abbey Abbey Clancy is worried her size-zero body is letting her down at the final hurdle as she prepares for this weekend’s all-female Strictly Come Dancing final. The football Wag said she and partner Aljaz Skorjanec, 23 (both pictured), have been hampered by her fatigue as they struggle to nail a lift for their performance to Guns

N’ Roses hit Sweet Child O’ Mine. ‘I do feel like that now I know the end is in sight, my body’s failing on me,’ said the 27year-old Mrs Peter Crouch. ‘I’ve got to find that last bit of stamina and channel it into this dance.’ picture: rex

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20 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

Life television What i’m Watching Bernard o’shea Rachel allen’s eveRyday kitchen – chRistmas

I find Rachel preparing food for Christmas quite arousing in a wholesome way, if that’s possible. I’m in the process of writing a Rachel/English dictionary, which will include the following: stoffong – stuffing; torkoy – turkey; monce pieees – mince pies and parchmont paaper – tracing paper.

iReland’s chRistmas lights tv3, 8.30pm As Christmas draws near and decorations are dragged from attics, some of us (secretly) love the excuse to go a little bit mad with the tinsel and lights. However, there are a few who take the seasonal cheer to the extreme, transforming their entire house and garden into a magical winter wonderland. This programme follows some of these festive fanatics, including Mick and Margaret Toner in Dundalk, Mick and Phil Maher in Sallynoggin and Liam Tilley in Bath Avenue (pictured) – who has a collection box at his gate for donations to our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross – and looks at the effort involved in putting up and taking down their lights and the cost of decorations and electricity bills.

the feaR

agging I’m always slagging Jennifer that it’s a spin-off from the Republic Of Telly, but it has been a great year for them. I love the water meter ch in Crumlin – sketch it was gas. Glad it wasn’t me though, I would’ve ran for the hills or into Kimmage.

Room to impRove

film of the day The rocker, rTÉ2, 12.50am The grungy world of rock ‘n’ roll has spawned some ace films but it goes a movie too far with Peter ‘The Full Monty’ Cattaneo’s The Rocker. The focus is Robert ‘Fish’ Fisherman (Rainn Wilson from The US Office, right, clearly trying to carve out a niche as a cut-price Jack Black), who would have drummed his way to superstardom with his band Vesuvius had he not been unceremoniously dumped by them just before their breakthrough moment. Twenty years on, Fish’s life is in the doldrums – only to be reignited again when his tubby nephew announces that he and his school chums need a drummer for their garage band so they can woo the crowds at their prom. Most of the cast – which includes Anchorman’s Christina Applegate and Superbad’s Emma Stone – do a decent job but the script, characterisation and plotting all feel a bit tired – essentially, this is School Of Rock stripped of all charisma.

Would you like to watch an architect charge you huge money to transform your house, but never answer his phone? Well this is the guy for you. I love Dermot Bannon. He just doesn’t care about what you want – he’s right no matter what. It’s a perfect Irish show right now – you don’t have enough money to buy or start a new project, so throw on an aul extension there.

liz & dick LifEtimE, 9pm think of a biographical dramatisation of the life of Elizabeth taylor and Richard Burton and who’s the first person to spring to mind to take the role of ‘Liz’? Why, Lindsay Lohan of course! and joining Lohan to play ‘Dick’ in this soapy account of the fireworks in the on-again off-again romance of two of hollywood’s greatest icons is grant Bowler (right with Lohan), possibly best known as one of the men who dated Wilhelmina in Ugly Betty. this promises to be a hoot.

my favoURite tv chaRacteR

Utopia Utv, 10.35pm

edUcating yoRkshiRe at chRistmas c4, 9pm

Australian-born journalist and filmmaker John Pilger returns to the nation of his birth to draw attention to the inequalities that see the Aboriginal population marginalised and oppressed in their own country. Pilger asks why, when the global community united to end apartheid in South Africa, a similar situation prevails in Australia.

The moment when troubled pupil musharaf – mush to his mates – broke free of his stammer and bade an emotional farewell to his schoolmates at Thornhill community academy has to be one of the TV highlights of the year. So it’s a treat to find out how mush is getting on at college and whether Bailey’s eyebrows have been allowed to grow back.

I love the Viper from the Hardy Bucks. Every lad who has grown up down the country has bumped into him – he’s basically a smalltime narcotics dealer, who thinks he’s an LA gangster. Daragh Reddin

Bernard O’Shea presents My Best Shot, a new comedy dating show – where singles rate each other’s awkward family photos in an attempt to find a life partner – airing tonight on RTÉ2 at 10pm

Zac Frackelton

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD

Now there is a Choi-ce Shoe designer LUCY CHOI on the affordable luxury ethos of her brand By NAOMI MDuDu

t’s a Monday morning when I catch up with shoe designer Lucy Choi in her office in a beautiful Georgian building near Queensway, west London. Having just finished showing her spring/summer 2014 collection to press and buyers, she’s in the midst of completing her autumn/ winter 2014 collection. On the day we meet, she is preparing for yet another event to showcase her wares to her growing band of followers. In just under two years, her shoes have managed to line the floors of key department stores in London and Dublin, including Harvey Nichols and Arnotts. You can also buy them in the Middle East, Canada, Hong Kong and singapore. their charm lies in the fact you’re just as likely to see a hip twenty-something wearing a pair as you would a chic woman in her sixties. Choi puts this wide appeal down to her two muses, Kate Moss and Kate Middleton, who served as the inspiration for the brand’s slogan, Rock’n’Royal. ‘they remind me of the way I dress,’ says Choi. ‘Kate Middleton is very classic and girlie and I can

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relate to that when I go to a wedding or a special event. I want to dress up and look smart. But when I want to go to parties and be a bit naughty, I think of Kate Moss.’ You can see more than a hint of Middleton in Choi’s classic courts and signature kitten heels, while her fur ankle boots were designed with Moss in mind. If Choi’s name doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry. That was her intention. Choi is the niece of Jimmy Choo but she’d rather you didn’t know that. It’s the reason she chose Choi rather than Choo for her brand name. ‘I just didn’t want to have any link to it,’ she says, referring to the company now helmed by her sister, Sandra. ‘He’s my uncle and I’m totally inspired by him but I don’t want to have too much of a link to him. I could have easily used the name but I want people to think: “OK, she’s related to Jimmy Choo but I also like her shoes.”’ Rather than joining the family business as her sister did, Choi rebelled. ‘My uncle did say to me that I should come and help him but I did the opposite,’ she admits. After moving from Hong Kong to the Isle of Wight, she went on to study business rather than art before embarking on a career in sales. ‘I’m quite independent so I don’t like people telling me what to do.’ After nine years, though, Choi was fed up and finally succumbed to the family industry. But she opted to join French Sole instead, helping to turn what was then a small family business with one store into an international brand. ‘I knew I could always fall back on the family business so I thought it was important for me to go and work for someone else and learn from scratch,’ she says. ‘I wanted to learn the hard way. I don’t like things coming too easily. If it’s too easy, you get lazy.’ It was after a decade at French Sole that she had a

“My uncle did say to me that I should come and help him but I did the opposite…

editorial@metroherald.ie to advertise, call 01 7055010

light-bulb moment and began toying with the idea of going it alone. In 2011, she handed in her resignation. ‘It was the right time. I had a good ten years,’ she says. ‘I thought to myself: “Should I stay for another ten years or should I do something totally different and go on my own?” It was a life-changing decision but I was ready and I knew I was ready.’ It was during a six-month break that she came up with the idea for her line. ‘It gave me a chance to sit back and look at the industry in a different way, not just the way French Sole ran its business.’ Regardless of her family link, there’s no denying Choi makes good shoes. She has a knack for getting the balance between comfort and style just right.

ll her shoes are designed in many of the same factories as those used by the luxury brands but Choi’s are available for a fraction of the price. Don’t make the mistake of calling them cheap, though – the ethos of the brand is affordable luxury. ‘Throughout my time working in the shoe world, I always felt there was a gap for affordable shoes,’ she says. ‘I think French Sole did it very well for flats but I thought there was still something missing. We are in a recession so we need affordable luxury for every occasion. Now felt like the perfect time to do this.’ Prices start from around €180 for her classic flats and statement sparkly styles, going up to €330 for kneehigh boots. While she had no doubts the market needed a brand like hers, she wasn’t expecting such a positive response so soon. ‘I’ve just been putting my head down and stressing out. You never expect that.’ There’s still snobbery around pricing in the luxury world, she says, but things are changing. ‘The first to take a risk were Harvey Nichols. They could see there was a gap in the market,’ she says. ‘You will always have people who want to wear Prada shoes but you also have those who are savvier,’ she adds. ‘You can buy a pair that cost €1,000 but if they’re uncomfortable, you can only wear them to the taxi, so what’s the point?’

The Lucy Choi London spring/summer 2014 collection has just arrived in Harvey Nichols and is now available to order. Here are our picks:

CHOI’S CHOICE shoe esseNTIALs FLAT bOOTS

These are my weekend essential. I live in my Vienna flat boots. They look great with skinny jeans and a tailored jacket. Our Sienna overthe-knee boots look great teamed with a fitted dress. Sienna black leather boots, reduced from €330 to €165, Arnotts.

WEDgES

Wedges are really elegant and elongate your legs. They are easier to wear than a stiletto heel, making them another stylish option for work or evening. Tatiana velvet and suede wedges, reduced from €285 to €145, Arnotts

MID HEELS

The mid-heel has had a resurgence in popularity recently. It is the perfect shoe height for wearing at work. Our mid-heels have a 65mm heel, making them high enough to be glamorous but also a comfortable height to wear throughout the day. Louise leopard-print pony hair heels, reduced from €225 to €115, Arnotts

THE STILETTO

My signature shoe is the elegant stiletto heel but with a twist on the classic design. I choose fabulous fabrics and play with textures and trims each season. My best-selling shoe is the Goldstone Leo and the Pippa Gold Sequin has been another sellout this party season. Pippa gold sequin, €285 Gold Snake Black Heel Shoe €290

Farringdon Yellow Sandal €220 Nude Patent Bow Kitten Heel €250

Roland Mouret spring/summer 2014

PIcTures: coLLINs/PhoTocALL

22 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

French classic: Designer Roland Mouret at Brown Thomas for the launch of his spring/summer collection – (above) a’meissa dress in raspberry €1,410, black magnolia dress €2,050; (left) white Dralia dress, €1,525; (far left) ash top, €355, and poplar skirt, €480; Cajeput dress, €1,525; blue zonda dress, €1,015

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD 23

CLObbER bLOggER Style advice from people who know their stuff. This week it’s Cillian O’Connor

caveats no nYE know Christmas hasn’t reveller should even come and ignore. Firstly, it’s gone yet but if probably going to you enjoy your be Baltic (unless festive downtime too you’re jetting off) much to be bothered so even if your with St Stephen’s event requires Day sales, then now’s the time to get you be tuxedoed, your new Year’s Eve look sorted take along quick smart. It’s a well-known fact something that’ll that nYE is the worst night of the keep you from year – from extortionately priced shivering like a fool admission to overpriced drinks, in the smoking area and slightly delayed or or when nearly missed countdowns between to slurred renditions of venues. Both Reiss (above) Auld Lang Syne. But, let’s and Dunnes offer styles that be honest, no matter how look smart but keep the underwhelming your night, chill at bay. Secondly, at least you won’t have to practical footwear is your concede to being the loser friend; you’re likely either who stayed in on nYE going to be stumbling when back in the office. yourself or stumbled There’s no hard and There a couple of upon so let’s all fast rule style-wise stumble safely. These caveats no NYE either, since it all brogues from Lyle & depends on whether reveller should Scott aren’t as you’re ushering in 2014 cumbersome as boots ignore at a dress-code formal but offer a little more ball or just ringing it in support than with a few mates down the traditional brogues. local. Regardless, Finally, a hip flask. Because nYE. there are a couple of

“

Christmas period. Visit pinkbeauty boutique.ie for further details.

On OuR RADAR PUT A RING ON IT Keep it classy with this Sterling silver & freshwater pearl ring, Fields, €69.50

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Supermodel Amber Valletta has been iled as the unveiled e of new face ious H&M’s Conscious tions, taking over collections, from Vanessa Paradis. The sustainable Conscious and Conscious

Exclusive collections will be available in store and online from April 10. They will contain key fashion pieces made from more sustainable materials, such as organic cotton, c Tencel hemp and recycled materials. ma

BRUSH UP

You can never go ttoo far wrong with a decent dec set of make-up brushes, we w like the look of thes these ones from Inglot (pic (pictured, €28)

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Wondervision Eye Set is both beautiful and a bargain. Choose from three luxe eyeshadow palettes, each with six metallic shades, matte-to-metallic and you get a full-sized eyeliner and mascara, too. €39, Arnotts /Boots.ie

Balm. Worth just under €110, it can be yours for half that price. €55, Clarins counters/pharmacies

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Gallet, for making lif so easy. Buy any one of life f most popular their four fragr fragrances, and get the ma matching shower gel and body lotion, free. fr €39.75, Clerys/ pharmacies/M&S

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Benefit’s limitededition Groovy Kinda Love. Inside a pretty, reusable tin, you’ll find four flattering eyeshadows, plus a mini mascara, blusher, primer and 4ml bottle of the hero lip and cheek stain, Benetint. €39.50, Brown Thomas/Clerys/ Benefit Boutique, South William Street

3 Spoil someone from

head to toe with the Clarins Gorgeous Getaways kit: this chic pouch houses five best sellers, including the excellent hand cream, and a 50ml Beauty Flash

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24 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

2013 best fiction

features@metroherald.ie to advertise, call 01 7055010

Take a leaf out of these

Daragh Reddin and Patricia Nicol pick their top fiction titles of 2013 Stoner by John Williams (Vintage)

This reissued 1965 American novel has had everyone from Ian McEwan to Tom Hanks hailing its account of one man’s life as a forgotten masterpiece. Our own late lamented John McGahern trumpeted Stoner in a reissue more than a decade ago but it’s finally become a hit in 2013.

The Gamal by Ciarán Collins (Bloomsbury)

A profound sense of the social and religious fissures in smalltown Ireland and a stylish narrative voice render Walsh’s quirky doorstopper, about a tragedy visited upon a fictional Cork village, one of the year’s best and funniest Irish novels.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (Granta)

With this 832-page murder mystery, set in the gold mines of 19thcentury New Zealand, its 28-year-old author became the youngest ever winner of the Man Booker prize.

Malarky by Anakana Schofield (Oneworld Publications)

A dramatic monologue about a Mayo housewife coming to terms with her son’s homosexuality and the demise of her marriage doesn’t sound like a chuckle-fest but Anakana’s tragicomedy is deeply perspicacious and very, very funny.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown)

The Ocean At The End Of The multiple, often discursive, accounts of an conflagration that changes Lane by Neil Gaiman the lives of a tightknit community. (Headline) An instant classic: both an All The Birds, Singing by Evie unsettlingly gripping, superbly Wyld (Jonathan Cape) rendered feat of bold imagination and a moving examination of the powerlessness of family life.

The Thing About December by Donal Ryan (Lilliput Press) Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday) Donal Ryan proves his Booker-

A young boy visits New York’s Metropolitan Museum and survives a terrorist attack, escaping with a priceless painting in tow. At 784 pages, this is big in girth, as well as ambition: an absorbing epic.

longlisted The Spinning Heart was no fluke. In his sorrowful sophomore effort, Ryan’s antihero is Johnsey Cunliffe, a ‘gom’ who takes us through a bittersweet 12 months in rural Ireland. Impossible to forget.

Harvest by Jim Crace (Picador)

The Maid’s Version by Daniel Woodrell (Sceptre)

A mesmerising and convincingly frightening portrayal of the violent end to a rural community in a forgotten England.

A hair-pricking rural thriller that confirms the talents of a thrilling prose stylist.

Daniel Woodrell’s genre-busting novels offer a singular, elegiac vision of life in his native Ozarks. The Maid’s Version weaves together

On My E-READER CECELIA AHERN The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman

I have a weird connection to this book, which makes me buy it almost every time I see it in a shop. A thief walks into a bank but instead of asking for money, he asks for the object of greatest significance in the possession of each person. Brilliant. Funny. Moving.

This engrossing page-turner explores different lives the captivating heroine might have led had one thing happened differently. The wartime chapters are superb.

An Officer And A Spy by Robert Harris (Hutchinson)

The Dreyfus Affair, brilliantly retold in the imagined voice of the whistleblower Georges Picquart. A heroic, exciting page-turner.

The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

The writing is beautiful and the idea is an absolute gem. The main character realises that through tasting food she can feel what the chef/maker of the food is feeling. This begins when she tastes her mother’s lemon cake, sensing her sadness and her disappointment.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Picador)

From the known facts about the last woman to be executed in Iceland, a young Australian has written a thrillingly accomplished debut with a powerful sense of place.

The Kills by Richard House (Picador)

Yes, it’s 1,024 pages, but its interlinked stories are engrossing and with its multimedia material it is a genuine attempt to embrace new possibilities for the novel form.

The Tenth Of December by George Saunders (Bloomsbury)

A jaw-droppingly good selection of short stories from America’s master storyteller.

Young Skins by Colin Barrett (Stinging Fly)

Dublin’s teeny literary publisher Stinging Fly has hit gold again with this collection of short stories from newcomer Colin Barrett. These seven stories, set in a fictional Mayo town, offer a serrated take on lives lived in the margins.

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (Hodder)

After a 36-year wait, this is a worthy sequel to The Shining: haunted, haunting, moving and genuinely the stuff of nightmares.

The Circle by Dave Eggers (Penguin)

A readable, pointed and timely dystopian satire on the totalitarian possibilities of internet culture.

Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach (Picador)

A female geek agrees to continue a suicidal woman’s life online. An unsettling yet humane exploration of identity, on and offline.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

This is the novel I’m reading now and I adore it. Harold Fry, retired sales rep, decides while walking to the post box to post a letter to an old friend, to instead walk 600 miles to visit her. While doing so, he takes stock of his accomplishments and his life. How To Fall In Love by Cecelia Ahern (HarperCollins) is out now.

puzzles

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD 25

METROSCOPE by Patrick Arundell

NEMI by Lise

Aries Mar 21 – Apr 20

You may notice tensions that could show up as resistance. Even though this is the season of goodwill, it can be hard to fit in with plans others may have for you. At this time, you may have ideas of your own that could take you in another direction. For your forecast, call 15609 114 70

Taurus Apr 21 – May 21

METROKU Easy, Moderate and Challenging. For solutions, visit Metro.co.uk/metroku

As Uranus is now forging ahead, you may have some intuitions that set you thinking about your career or plans. These could be quite different from anything you’re currently involved in yet it may well be worth investigating them further.

For your forecast, call 15609 114 71

Gemini May 22 – Jun 21

Though you can feel full of festive spirit and happy to share your good mood with everyone, you may need to tone it down at work, particularly if you have responsibilities or if colleagues can’t empathize. For your forecast, call 15609 114 72

Cancer Jun 22 – Jul 23

You may feel bubbly and charming yet you might want to hold back when it comes to romance as a way to stay in control. These energies echoes the current Jupiter Saturn connection and might reveal you don’t intend to give away too much. For your forecast, call 15609 114 73

Leo Jul 24 – Aug 23

You maybe looking into issues that aren’t straightforward and feel a need to raise your concerns. However, you could discover it’s not so easy to do. You may find little satisfaction in pursuing this now but the new year may bring you more success.

PEARLs BEFORE swINE

For your forecast, call 15609 114 74

Virgo Aug 24 – Sep 23

You might find a little inspiration very useful, especially if you’ve looked at a certain problem from every angle and can’t seem to find an answer. A Moon Jupiter connection suggests a friend may come to your rescue. For your forecast, call 15609 114 75

Libra Sep 24 – Oct 23

If you’re annoyed by other people’s lack of consideration, having Mars in your sign may be a chance to turn the tables. As it gradually moves closer to a Uranus contact, you might decide that you’ve had enough of forgiving. For your forecast, call 15609 114 76

scorpio Oct 24 – Nov 22

Perhaps the time is right to move ahead on an idea that you’ve been mulling over. Today’s influences may be the catalyst for a decision to have a go. This could be a bit of a challenge and may stretch your abilities

For your forecast, call 15609 114 77

sagittarius Nov 23 – Dec 21

Socializing may highlight your best or your more comic side, particularly where your pals are concerned. You may feel like playing a joke on a friend. However, as the festive fever heats up even more, be prepared for a return gesture.

For your forecast, call 15609 114 78

Capricorn Dec 22 – Jan 20

A friendly invite may be appreciated today, especially if you’re asked out to somewhere rather more glamorous. Indeed, today’s Lunar links can give you an opportunity to shine in a formal situation.

For your forecast, call 15609 114 79

Aquarius Jan 21 – Feb 19

If an opportunity shows up, you may wonder whether to take the safer path or the one that lacks security but can be more fulfilling in the long run. A developing T-square suggests that although you may hesitate, consider your feelings anyway.

For your forecast, call 15609 114 80

Pisces Feb 20 – Mar 20

You may want to explore creative projects, display your talents or indulge your senses. Today is one day when you can feel like making pleasure a priority. For your forecast, call 15609 114 81

DOWN 1 Attire (5) 2 Perform (3) 3 Average (4) 4 Sleeping room (9) 5 Belief (7) 8 Morose (6) 11 Express regret (9) 13 Photographic device (6) 14 Maker (7) 16 Trifling (5) 18 Incite (4) 20 Pig-pen (3)

Yesterday’s Solutions Across: 7 Overstatement; 8 Pretence; 9 Ease; 10 Siesta; 12 Greedy; 14 Infant; 16 Humble; 18 Plot; 20 Navigate; 22 Contemplation. Down: 1 Aversion; 2 Gratis; 3 Stun; 4 Strength; 5 Impede; 6 Onus; 11 Autonomy; 13 Dilation; 15 Astute; 17 Mighty; 19 Loot; 21 Vile.

ENIGMA Any self-respecting scout would not feel properly turned out if this was missing from his neck. (It keeps his neckerchief in check.) WHO AM I? A socialite, I was born in London in 1970. I was once engaged to Sharon Stone’s brother. I have appeared on television’s Shooting Stars and Dancing On Ice, and in 2007, I married construction heir Giorgio Veroni.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE & WHEN? WHO… wrote the novel The History Of Tom Jones? WHAT... Greek letter represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter? WHERE... in Europe is the national assembly known as the Cortes? WHEN... was the Minoan civilization at its height?

SCRIBBLE BOX

ACROSS 6 Advance (7) 7 Body of troops (5) 9 Employ (3) 10 Cancellation (9) 12 Theory (11) 15 Introductory (11) 17 Perilous (9) 19 Fresh (3) 21 Set free (5) 22 Shake (7)

Astrology calls cost 1.27 euros per min from a BT landline. Live Services cost 2.40 euros per minute. Calls from mobiles/other networks may cost more. Callers must be 18 or over to use this service and have the bill payers permission. For entertainment purposes only. All calls are recorded. PhonePayPlus regulated(ComReg in ROI) UK SP: StreamLive Ltd, NR7 0HR, 08700 234 567. ROI SP:Moveda, 1 Courtyard Business Park, Orchard Lane, Blackrock, Co Dublin, 0818 241 398

QuIz

Crossword No. 881 See next edition for solutions

QUIZ ANSWERS: ENIGMA: Woggle. WHO AM I? Tamara Beckwith. WHO, WHAT, WHERE & WHEN? Henry Fielding; Pi; Spain; Bronze Age.

QUICK CROsswORd

For a live one-to-one consultation with one of my gifted psychics, call 15809 113 68 or 1800 719 688 to book using credit card

26 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

Pellegrini: Relentless City must keep on the attack

Jose laughs off ‘mental block’ claim

football capital one cup

CHELSEA boss Jose Mourinho has dismissed claims his team is suffering from a ‘mental block’ after being dumped out of the Capital One Cup by Sunderland. Mourinho’s team crashed to a shock 2-1 extra-time defeat to the Premier League’s bottom side on Wearside, but the Blues manager insisted his team doesn’t have an issue over killing teams off. He said: ‘I don’t think it’s a mental block because we played very well. ‘With a mental block, you don’t play. Every team with mental blocks, they don’t want the ball. ‘This team is very far from a mental block because the team gets the ball and plays and dominates and creates. We don’t have this problem.’

At the double: edin Dzeko scored two goals for City in the 3-1 win at leicester PiCtuRe: aCtion images

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini wants no let up as he targets glory on all fronts with his free-scoring side. Pellegrini now has a first trophy firmly in his sights after City eased into the Capital One Cup semifinals with a 3-1 win at Leicester. The performance may have lacked the fluency of the 6-3 thrashing of Arsenal but it still provided evidence of how the whole squad have adapted to Pellegrini’s attacking philosophy. ‘I said some months ago when I arrived here that I liked my teams to play in an attacking way, to try to score goals everywhere and the most amount we can,’ Pellegrini said.

‘It is important to continue that way and it is important to continue improving in defending and the way the team is playing.’ City are now just a two-legged semi-final away from Wembley and Pellegrini – tasked with winning five trophies in the next five seasons – clearly wants the silverware. However, the Chilean is refusing to get carried away and said City must now focus on Saturday’s Premier League clash at Fulham. ‘It is always important to win every title and the final at Wembley is always a beautiful game,’ he said. ‘But we are not thinking about the final. We must think about Fulham and will have to play a semi-final.’

ODDBALLS

Why Pep’s the wurst Bayern manager ever

uli Hoeness says he persuaded Pep Guardiola to become Bayern munich manager while on a trip to america to sell sausages to aldi. The Bayern president also claimed the secret rendezvous was almost ruined by ex-manchester united manager sir alex Ferguson. Hoeness, who runs his family’s sausage factory, told Bild: ‘it was partly a business trip. i went to Chicago first to visit aldi. i knew that Pep was about to fly to Barcelona for his holidays and that a meeting there Meat and greet: Pep would have been far more

Pat’s the way: evra celebrates terrific strike PiC: aCTion imaGes

ki thing for us is survival KI SUNG-Yueng turned his attention to the fight for survival after firing Sunderland into the Capital One Cup semi-finals. The 24-year-old South Korea international’s first goal in English football dumped Chelsea out of the competition 2-1 at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday. But with the Black Cats bottom of the Premier League, he said: ‘If we can beat Chelsea, we can beat other terms. But we have to get our focus back for Saturday.’

@MetroHSport

dangerous, so we decided i would meet him in the states, where the risk of being spotted was smaller. i wanted to take him out for a meal but that night alex Ferguson was dining in the very same restaurant. it certainly would not have been funny had he seen me and Pep together.’ Guardiola has guided Bayern to a seven-point Bundesliga lead and the Champions league’s last 16, and Hoeness added: ‘What we are seeing now is a consequence of those few hours in new York.’

Can’t boot, can’t score

ArSenAl fringe player emmanuel Frimpong clearly has a lot of time on his hands. The Ghanaian, 21, has designed his own football boots, featuring a garish red, green and yellow

colour combination. They are also emblazoned with his infamous ‘Dench’ slogan, with the words ‘Frimpong is Dench’ and the Ghana flag’s black star. The worst boots ever? Probably.

Two crackers see Moyes’ men storm into semis quARTER-finAL sToke.................................... 0 man uniTeD ........................2 by nick METcALfE MANCHESTER United stormed into the last four of the League Cup last night, as new boss David Moyes moved a step closer to a first trophy for the club in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. United’s hard work and persistence proved the difference at a windswept Britannia, with fabulous goals from Ashley Young and Patrice Evra sending the Reds into the semi-finals. With Wayne Rooney missing for United through injury, Young blasted a chance into the side netting for the visitors as the hosts enjoyed the majority of early possession. The match was halted after 28 minutes due to a hail storm, with referee Mark Clattenburg indicating that he

Delight: Moyes couldn’t see anything. The weather cleared up soon after, and they came back out after a ten-minute break, with Jon Walters flashing a header wide from Geoff Cameron’s fine cross. United gradually re-established domination in the second half, and after 62 minutes Young played a one-two with Javier Hernandez before blasting a terrific effort into the net from 20 yards. Evra added a delightful second goal 12 minutes from time, picking the ball up from Young and curling home.

football capital one cup

Thursday, December 19, 2013 METRO HERALD 27

Misery is hammered home for Tottenham

quARTER-finAL

ToTTenham........................... 1 wesT ham ..............................2 by DAnny GRiffiTHs TOTTENHAM’S miserable week took another turn for the worse last night in the rain at White Hart Lane. Emmanuel Adebayor put Spurs ahead in a frantic derby clash but late goals from Matt Jarvis and Modibo Maiga, scoring for the first time in more than a year, stunned the home fans and fired the Hammers in to the last four. It was a bitter blow for interim boss Tim Sherwood, who has been given two games to prove he can replace Andre Villas-Boas after he was sacked following Sunday’s 5-0 Premier League home defeat to Liverpool. Former Manchester City striker Adebayor was recalled to play next to Jermain Defoe in an attacking 4-4-2

DJoKoVIC has hired six-time grand-slam winner Boris Becker as his head coach for next season in a move which echoes the approach of rival andy murray, who has Ivan Lendl currently mentoring him. The German, the youngest man to win wimbledon when he was 17 in 1985, will be in place for next month’s australian open. since hiring Lendl – an eight-time Grand slam champion – in 2011, murray has won the Us open and wimbledon titles. Becker, who will join a coaching staff, including marian Vajda, miljan amanovic and Gebhard Phil-Gritsch, said: ‘I am proud novak invited me to become his head coach. I will do my best to help him reach his goals, and I am sure we can achieve great things together.’

Swansea and Hull for the mass brawl in their Premier League clash this month. Both clubs had admitted an FA charge of failing to ensure players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion.

Rogers suspended

last won the League Cup – Spurs coming from behind to beat Chelsea in the final

cycLinG australian cyclist michael Rogers has been provisionally suspended by the International Cycling Union after testing positive for clenbuterol. The three-time former world time trial champion had tested positive at the Japan Cup Cycle Road Race in october. The UCI said the provisional suspension would remain in place until his national federation had investigated the case and determined whether he had committed an antidoping violation. Rogers has the right to attend the analysis of his B sample.

Happy Hammer: Maiga ensured there was no winning start for Sherwood, inset

premier league

Battle cry: Reid

TEnnis novak

£20,000 Fines for

2008 Year Tottenham

formation and the move paid off. Gone was the pedestrian 4-2-3-1 policy favoured by AVB as Spurs tore into West Ham from the start. It took them 67 minutes to break down a stubborn Hammers rearguard but when they did it came from the type of flowing move rarely seen under the previous regime. Andros Townsend, later carried off with a bad knee injury, set Defoe free and Adebayor smashed in his cross off the underside of the crossbar. But that only sparked the Hammers into life and Jarvis equalised when he smacked in a fierce finish at the end of a route one attack, before Maiga wrapped up victory with a header. It was the Hammers’ second big win over Spurs this term, following a 3-0 league success over the bitter rivals at the Lane in October.

spORT DiGEsT Becker joins up for Team Novak in 2014

PICTURes: Pa

Baggies have to dig their way out of trouble, says Reid STEVEN REID has warned West Brom they are in a battle to maintain their Premier League status. The Baggies midfielder was speaking after manager Steve Clarke was dismissed on Saturday night following their fourth straight league defeat, a 1-0 loss at Cardiff. Joint assistant head coach Keith Downing is to oversee first-team affairs while the club search for a fulltime boss, the latest speculation linking them to former Liverpool

defender Mauricio Pellegrino. Hull are up next for West Brom at The Hawthorns on Saturday and Reid has urged his team to ease their plight with a much-needed three points. He said: ‘We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We have the biggest few fixtures of our campaign – this period will define our season. ‘With the form we’re in at the minute we need to dig in. ‘We are in a relegation fight with other clubs and we can’t forget that.’

Making a splash: Nocher and Cooper

Get in shape with a swim challenge swiMMinG swim Ireland

announced its inaugural swim For a mile Challenge, where members of the public can avail of a free training programme and free lane space and coaching at five event locations from the start of the year until the competition takes place from march 31 to april 4. Double olympian melanie nocher and Today Fm’s matt Cooper were at the announcement yesterday, made possible through The Coca-Cola Thank You Fund and the Irish sports Council’s women in sport Programme.

28 METRO HERALD Thursday, December 19, 2013

Pellegrini calls for all-out attack from Manchester City

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picture: inpho

Bouncing back: The openside flanker wants an improved display

Suarez: Contract talks

‘Suarez has to be willing to commit’ LiverpooL have been warned they must persuade Luis Suarez to commit to them for the long-term. The reds MD is in talks with the striker’s camp in Barcelona over a new deal, six months after he agitated for a move. And former Liverpool star Dietmar Hamann says the free-scoring striker needs to be wholehearted in his commitment to the club. The German is worried a slump in form could lead to Suarez looking for an escape. ‘What must not happen is we have a situation next summer as we had last summer,’ he said. ‘He could sign a new contract now, take the £200,000 a week, the team finishes outside the top four and you have the same shenanigans. i want him to stay but there needs to be clarity. He has got to understand what it means to commit. ‘if there is a clause that he can go for £60million, £80million and someone pays it, that is obviously fair enough, but you can’t have a situation again like you had last summer.’ Monthly Certified Distribution Oct 28 - Nov 24, 2013: 60,208

jEnnInGs CALLs FOR sHARPEnED MInDs SHAne JenninGS is expecting Leinster to deliver a big performance as they travel to edinburgh tomorrow evening looking to rinse the taste of last weekend’s Heineken Cup defeat by northampton from their mouths. Matt o’Connor will name his side for the pro12 encounter at Murrayfield today, with Jennings eager to banish the ‘demons’ of the Aviva Stadium letdown against an edinburgh side in a rich vein of form having just won on the road at Gloucester. ‘Unfortunately there isn’t a european game this weekend, where you’d want to get some of those demons out of your system,’ the flanker said.

‘people are obviously hurting and hopefully that will help us sharpen the minds this week. We want to be able to bounce back after a disappointing performance. ‘But edinburgh are a good team. everybody seems to think they are a bogey team but they’ve got talent and nobody gives them the credit they deserve. ‘They can play very well, they can put width on the game and they’ve got good back rowers that can carry well out wide. They have a good set-piece and are pretty destructive at the breakdown, so they’ve a lot of areas of their game that are difficult to play against.’ Meanwhile, the erC confirmed the start times for the final rounds of pool matches in the Heineken Cup, with Leinster facing a sharp five-day turnaround between their trip to Castres (Sunday, Jan 12, 12:45pm) and their home finale against the ospreys (Friday, Jan 17, 8pm).

United left hailing Young thunderbolt by jAMEs bOYLAn THE proverbial wet and windy night in Stoke delivered hail, gusts and one hell of a thunderbolt as Manchester United advanced to the Capital One Cup semi-finals. In surreal scenes, referee Mark Clattenburg ordered the players off the pitch when a vicious hail storm bombarded the Britannia Stadium. The action resumed after a tenminute delay but there was another surprise in store as a piledriver from the much-maligned Ashley Young – his first United goal in 18 months – broke the deadlock before Patrice Evra sealed a 2-0 win. Across the Pennines, Sheffield Wednesday’s Championship game with Wigan could not survive the inclement weather and was abandoned after incessant rain made the pitch unplayable, while Crawley’s FA Cup tie at home to Bristol Rovers suffered a similar fate. In the night’s other Capital One Cup quarter-final Tottenham began life after Andre Villas-Boas with a 2-1 defeat at home to West Ham. Emmanuel Adebayor put Spurs 1-0 up but goals from Matt Jarvis and Modibo Maiga in the final ten minutes sent the hosts out.

Cr-ouch: Peter Crouch tries to shield himself from the hail as Jonny Evans ducks for cover

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