Elton John cancels Vegas shows on doctors' orders - BBC News
Sir Elton John has pulled out of three performances of his current Las Vegas residency, after being taken to hospital with a respiratory infection.
The singer was admitted to Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre on Wednesday, but released the same day.
Doctors have advised the 65-year-old star against working while he completes a course of antibiotics.
The remaining 11 concerts of his Million Dollar Piano residency at Caesars Palace take place in October.
"Elton developed a serious respiratory infection last weekend while performing at The Colosseum on Sunday, May 20," said a statement by his publicist, Fran Curtis.
"This week the condition worsened, even with medication and rest, resulting in Elton being hospitalised."
The statement added that the singer underwent "extensive tests" and was recommended to take "complete rest" for "approximately seven days... to cure his respiratory infection and prevent any damage".
Sir Elton added his own apologies: "All I can say to the fans is 'sorry I can't be with you'."
"I love performing the show and I will be thrilled when we return to the Colosseum in October to complete the 11 concerts."
Sir Elton was previously forced to cancel two concerts in February, after he came down with food poisoning.
Gibb dedication
The singer, whose hits include Your Song and Candle in the Wind, began his three-year headlining stint in Las Vegas in September last year.
Earlier this week, he dedicated his track Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me to Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who died at the weekend.
"The Bee Gees were part of my life when I was growing up; they were a huge influence on me as a songwriter," he told the audience. "Travel well Robin - you were amazing. God bless you."
The singer is expected to perform at The Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace on 4 June, before embarking on a tour of Europe in June and July.
He returns to the United States and Canada for a series of concerts in September, before completing the Las Vegas residency.
Autonomy’s problem? Leadership were out of their league, according to HP CEO Whitman - computing.co.uk
[getrss.in: unable to retrieve full-text content]
When HP offered $11bn (£7bn) to buy Autonomy, pretty much everyone said it was overpaying. And when Leo Apotheker, the HP CEO who initiated the purchase, was tossed overboard and replaced by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, she had every opportunity to call a ...Donald on the prowl at Wentworth - ESPN.co.uk
BMW PGA Championship leaderboard
The world No. 1 ranking could be set to change hands yet again on Monday, after Luke Donald put himself firmly in contention at the BMW PGA Championship on Friday as Rory McIlroy missed the cut by eight shots.
McIlroy, the current top-ranked player in the world, had a shocking day after being uncharacteristically off-colour on Thursday - eventually signing for an abject round of 79 that gave him no chance of making the half-way cut.
Donald, meanwhile, took advantage of better scoring conditions in the morning to card his second successive round of 68 to move to eight-under in the defence of his title at Wentworth.
The Englishman will reclaim the world No. 1 spot - which has swapped between the pair five times already this year - if he finishes inside the top eight come Sunday, although he will certainly be targeting the win.
He did not make the best start with a bogey on one, but stormed back with birdies on two, four and five. A bogey on 11 set him back, but the Brit responded in magnificent style with an eagle on 12. Unlike 24 hours previous, Donald found the fairway on the par five, fired an approach to 15 feet and stroked in a swinging right-to-left putt.
Donald is one of the finest greenside bunker players in the game and he demonstrated his talent with a superb sand save on 13. He made another mistake on 14 but again got up and down from a devilish position to make par. A third wayward approach on the trot eventually saw Donald hand a shot back as he failed to roll in a 20-foot par putt.
Coming off the back of the bogey, Donald produced the response of a champion with an exquisite wedge to four feet for a birdie.
"Obviously I'm very pleased with that round," he said afterwards. "This is a tricky course, and the scores are reasonably good.
"I'm feeling very strong on the greens. I feel like something that has been not as consistent for me over the last couple of months, but felt very comfortable on the greens the last two days."
Donald - who shares second place with David Drysdale (70) - is nevertheless four adrift of James Morrison who stormed up the leaderboard with a fabulous round of 64. Morrison served up six birdies and an eagle on 18 to move to 12-under and set the bar high.
"It was fantastic," Morrison told Sky Sports. "I am local to here; it is a special event. The last two years I have played dreadful but I have changed the routine. My putter is back. I am normally a slow starter and my putting has been average, but it is getting better."
Looking ahead to the weekend, Morrison said: "I will just have to stick to my routine. It won't be easy but we will take it how it comes and see how it goes."
McIlroy will not have to worry about his weekend play, however, with a long session on the range likely to be in order.
The Northern Irishman ended with seven bogeys and two double-bogeys in a round where he continually found trouble off the tee, a run of poor scoring that saw him sign for a round of 79 and left him 137th in the 150-man field.
He was not the only high profile player to miss the cut, however, with Graeme McDowell, Martin Laird, Nicolas Colsaerts and two-time winner Anders Hansen (after an eight at the 18th) all out of contention at the Surrey event.
Lee Westwood holed a crucial five-footer at the same hole to ensure he will play on Saturday and Sunday; although at one-over after a round of 75 he will need to go low in his third round if he is to have any chance of improving on last year's play-off defeat.
At the business end of the leaderboard, Peter Lawrie and Alvaro Quiros are both just a shot behind Donald, with Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Branden Grace, Francesco Molinari and Justin Rose among a number of high-profile names at six-under.
World No. 11 Martin Kaymer and world No. 16 Charl Schwartzel are four-under for the tournament, while course designer and local resident Ernie Els still has a chance of forcing his way into a popular challenge for the title, as he sits three-under through 36 holes.
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
Dean: I would have dismissed Tevez - Football
Published: 25 May 2012 - 20:17:09
Referee Mike Dean has revealed he would have sent off Carlos Tevez if he had been afforded a full view of the clash between the Manchester City striker and QPR midfielder Joey Barton on the final day of the Premier League season.
Barton was on Wednesday handed a 12-match ban for his dismissal and violent reaction at the Etihad Stadium on May 13, when City beat QPR 3-2 to win their first league title for 44 years. QPR have since said that Barton, now the subject of an investigation by his club following the incident, would not appeal against that decision.
Later, the Football Association published the full report by the independent regulatory commission into the case. Tevez appeared to strike out at Barton initially, and Dean, via video link, told the regulatory commission that it was a red-card offence which had gone unnoticed.
In the report, which is signed by commission chairman B.M Jones, it is stated that: "Mr Dean was questioned about the 'Tevez' incident for which Mr Barton was dismissed. It was confirmed that neither the referee nor the assistant saw the alleged incident of Mr Tevez striking Mr Barton although Mr Barton immediately made representations to Mr Dean that is what happened, and such comments by Mr Barton can be clearly seen in the video.
"The commission accept that Mr Barton was aggrieved by the action of Mr Tevez and Mr Dean confirmed that had the incident been seen by the officials as shown by the clip supplied by Mr Barton, it would have been an automatic red card.
"The commission find that this does not however excuse the subsequent action by Mr Barton in relation to Messrs Kompany or Aguero."
Barton receives strong criticism in the report for his assault on Aguero, which the commission, which included former Chelsea defender Paul Elliott, said could have caused "serious injury" to the player who went on to score the title-winning goal.
"The commission considered the 'Aguero' incident was a cold and calculated attack from behind Mr Aguero," the report states.
"It was deliberate and the absolute anger etched in Mr Barton's face, is most clearly seen in the videos. It was premeditated and without any provocation and could easily have caused Mr Aguero injury and maybe have put him out of the rest of the game.
"Fortunately he did not suffer any serious injury but he must have been taken very much by surprise and shocked which could have affected his game. The incident was watched by millions of people on television and Mr Barton really had no option other than to admit his guilt and he did so. No great credit can be, or was, given for the admission in this regard."
Related Manchester City News
Eurovision: I was misquoted, Spanish entrant insists - BBC News
Spain's Eurovision entrant has denied reports she was asked not to win by her country's public television channel.
Pastora Soler told the BBC she had been misquoted by a "very bad" journalist.
Her comments followed a widely circulated story that quoted her as saying Spain would struggle to host the event if she were to win this weekend.
Speaking on Friday, she insisted that "Spanish public television want to win and me too".
"We want to win this Eurovision," Soler told the BBC World Service. "If we win, Spain be very happy with us."
It is written in the contest rules that the public broadcaster of the nation that wins must host the following year.
"Spain have a lot of place to have the competition," the singer went on. "It's not a problem for us."
Her remarks followed an earlier interview she gave to ABC Punto Radio in which she said Spain's TVE channel would find it "really difficult" to stage the contest.
"If we were to win, it will be impossible because of the costs," she said, in an interview translated from her native tongue.
During the interview she joked that the broadcaster had asked her not to win, but immediately added that "of course" they had not actually done so.
FavouritePastora Soler will sing her ballad Quedate Conmigo (Stay With Me) at Saturday's final, to be held in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku.
Spain last won the competition in 1969, when it shared a four-way tie with the UK, the Netherlands and France.
Thursday saw 10 more countries named finalists in the second semi-final held ahead of Saturday's main event.
Swedish entrant Loreen, considered by some to be the favourite this year, was among the successful acts to go through.
Lithuania, Malta, Norway and Turkey were among the other nations to join the 26 finalists.
The evening saw eight countries eliminated from the competition, among them Bulgaria, Croatia, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Murray ready to dig deep in France (From York Press) - The Press in York
Murray ready to dig deep in France
5:07pm Friday 25th May 2012 in National Sport News © Press Association 2011
Andy Murray battled through adversity to reach the semi-finals of the French Open 12 months ago, and he is ready to do the same again this year if necessary.
The world number four has been troubled by a back problem and has not made it past the quarter-finals at three clay-court events this season. Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker suggested Murray should consider pulling out of the French Open to allow his back to recover ahead of a hectic period including Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open.
But the Scot, who came through an exhibition match against Ernests Gulbis on Thursday, insisted the thought had not crossed his mind, and said: "I feel fine. I have been here close to a week now. I've had some good practice and feel good."
Murray pulled out of the Masters Series event in Madrid earlier this month because of the back problem and has appeared physically hampered in a number of matches this season.
He added: "Apart from my back, everything's been fine. But everybody picks up niggles at various times of the season, and sometimes you can get them at points of the year that aren't ideal.
"Sometimes they can happen when you're just going into a rest period or when you start training again and no one hears about them.
"I won't be the only one that's got niggles, but hopefully the worst of it's gone now. The next few months are very important to everybody this year. There's a lot of big tournaments coming up.
"One of the goals in that period is to stay injury free, because if I am then I'll hopefully play some good tennis and have some good results."
Last year Murray went into the tournament in fine form on clay but suffered an ankle injury in the third round and then needed a trip to the dentist after chipping a tooth eating a baguette.
Despite his troubles, Murray reached the semi-finals for the first time at Roland Garros before going down to eventual winner Rafael Nadal in three tight sets.
0 Responses to "Elton John cancels Vegas shows on doctors' orders - BBC News"
Post a Comment