Calvin Harris denies Rita Ora claims over Call My Name - BBC News
Calvin Harris says claims from Rita Ora that she was offered Cheryl's number one single Call My Name first is "disrespectful".
The track was originally written by Harris and sold more than 152,000 copies to launch it to number one in the Official Top 40 chart.
But Harris took to Twitter to rebuff Ora's claims, saying: "For the record, Call My Name was never given to Rita Ora to sing...she made that up, don't know why?"
Rita Ora's comments have now been removed from Twitter.
When asked by someone on Twitter what proof he had, the I'm Not Alone singer also tweeted: "Coz I did that song."
"I was setting the record straight as you didn't at the time," he later added. "It was a disrespectful comment to make, that's all."
Rita then tweeted: "I hate beef and fighting.. So I love u all @calvinharris call me I'll explain what actually happened they twisted it and congratulations. X"
This is not the first time the 28-year-old has taken to a social network to defend his material.
He accused R&B singer Chris Brown of theft after the star used his music in his single Yeah x3.
Brown later apologised and credited half the track to Harris.
Poor ticket sales cancel The Voice UK Live tour - BBC News
The 11-date tour for The Voice UK Live has been cancelled due to a lack of ticket sales.
The gigs were due to feature eight of the show's finalists.
The Voice UK Live tour was to begin at the Bournemouth International Centre on 12 September and was then due to visit venues in Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, London, Glasgow and Sheffield.
Organisers say fans with tickets for the cancelled dates can get a refund.
A number of ticket outlets had only cited five dates as being axed earlier today (18 June), but organisers have confirmed that none of the scheduled dates will be going ahead.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: "Unfortunately, The Voice UK Live has been cancelled due to lack of ticket sales.
"Customers are advised to contact their point of purchase for ticket refunds."
The news comes as the show was criticised for failing to attract viewers.
Episodes of The Voice consistently attracted average audiences of more than 10 million in April, but the ratings had dropped to 4.5 million later in the series.
More than seven million people tuned in to watch 28-year-old Leanne Mitchell, from Lowestoft in Suffolk, be crowned the show's first winner.
Her single, a cover of Whitney Houston's Run To You, failed to make it into the top 40 of the Official Chart.
UPDATE 1-Greek bank bad loans seen at 30 bln eur- banker - Reuters UK
(Adds quotes, cenbank comment, background)
* Central bank to release Blackrock findings in near future
* Estimated 30 bln euro loan impairments next 3 years
* Amount includes 18 bln eur provisions already booked
ATHENS, June 19 (Reuters) - Greek banks stand to lose 30 billion euros from impaired loans in the next three years according to stress simulations of their loan books by Blackrock Solutions, Greece's former IMF representative said on Tuesday.
Greek banks have been battered by the country's severe debt crisis and a protracted, deep recession which has caused an increase in non-performing loans as unemployment has hit record highs near 23 percent.
Blackrock was hired by the Bank of Greece, the country's central bank, to conduct an independent diagnostic study on bank loan books under stress conditions to assess loan quality going forward and help determine provisioning needs.
"The expected losses (for Greek banks) from impaired loans were set by Blackrock, based on stress scenarios, at 30 billion euros in the next three years," Panagiotis Roumeliotis, non-executive vice chairman at Piraeus Bank, said in a speech to a risk conference.
Roumeliotis said the figure he mentioned in his speech included sums already set aside by banks as buffers for bad loans.
"Banks have already booked provisions, about 18 billion euros. These are included in the 30 billion euro estimate," Roumeliotis, who was appointed Greece's representative to the IMF in February 2010 and joined Piraeus in December 2011, told Reuters.
The Bank of Greece declined to comment and said the Blackrock findings would be released soon.
"The Bank of Greece will release the Blackrock report in the near future in cooperation with the (EU/ECB/IMF) troika," an official at the central bank said.
The ratio of non-performming loans on Greek banks' loan books reached 15.9 percent at the end-December 2011, the central bank has said.
Greece's 215 billion euro economy is seen contracting for a fifth straight year in 2012. The latest forecasts by the Bank of Greece and the OECD see gross domestic product (GDP) shrinking 5.0-5.3 percent this year. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos)
G-Mac wants Claret Jug but Simpson may skip Open - ESPN.co.uk
Graeme McDowell is hoping to bounce back from his US Open disappointment by winning the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes next month.
McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, fell narrowly short in his bid to win the title for the second time in three years at Olympic Club last weekend - coming up a shot shy as 26-year-old American Webb Simpson claimed his maiden major title.
While disappointed to miss out on victory having held a share of the lead going into the final round, McDowell has taken the positives from the performance and has now set his sights on winning the Claret Jug next month.
"I will probably take a week off now and go to Lytham and prepare," McDowell said. "I fancy a run at that Claret Jug, I do."
He added: "I will take away a large cheque and am probably very close to locking my Ryder Cup place, which is more important to me.
"It has reinforced to me that I can compete and win more major championships. It's been a frustrating five or six weeks for me, but I knew in my heart that my game was better than my results were showing and it was just great to come in this week, prepare, try my best and compete."
The story is different for Simpson, however, who may not tee it up in Blackpool at all. His wife is expecting their second child in August, and the North Carolina native hinted he will not risk being stranded overseas if there is any possibility she could go into labour prematurely.
"I don't know about Lytham," Simpson said. "We met with our doctor before this week, just to see if my wife, Dowd, could come. The next eight weeks are going to be up in the air. We're going to see what we can do.
"It will all be kind of game-time decision for us."
Simpson became the 15th different first-time major winner in a row, indicating the competitive nature of professional golf at the moment. He believes that is an indication of the greater quality of tournament fields, rather than an indictment of the lack of a bona fide dominant superstar - like Tiger Woods, for example - in the game.
"I think the game's changing. My caddie and I were talking this week, the 14-year-old kid [Andy Zhang] was here, Beau Hossler was playing so well. I couldn't imagine playing in even a qualifier for this tournament when I was in high school," he said.
"But I think the Tiger effect of inspiring people to play at a younger age, and I think the access to golf has gotten so much bigger that the game is changing. Even in college, I would have been scared to death to play in a US Open. And these guys are playing like they're trying to win the tournament.
"So I think the game will continue to evolve like that. I'm lucky because I feel like we're playing at a time where golf is at its best."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
MetLife gets Fed extension on capital plans - Reuters
(Reuters) - MetLife Inc received a three-month extension from the U.S. Federal Reserve on its plans to return capital to shareholders, the company said on Tuesday, potentially removing a short-term overhang on its stock.
Its shares rose 3.3 percent in early trading, leading the sector.
MetLife, which has been blocked from raising its dividend or buying back shares twice in the last eight months, said in a regulatory filing the Fed gave it an extension to September 30 from June 12.
After failing a Fed stress test in March, MetLife had been on the hook to submit a new version of its capital plan by this month. Those March tests, which covered 19 banks, considered whether companies would have enough capital if unemployment spiked again and housing prices took another plunge.
Analysts have said MetLife was likely to fail another stress test even with a new capital plan, given that the tests were designed for banks and not insurers. That raised fears the Fed could force it to boost its capital ratios by raising money or retaining earnings.
A Sterne Agee analyst said last week the company was "in limbo" waiting on a Fed decision.
MetLife is unique among big insurers in being regulated by the Fed because of its bank holding company charter. The company is trying to shed the charter, having struck a deal to sell its online deposit-taking operations to General Electric Co.
Some believe with the charter out of the way, MetLife could avoid further Fed stress testing, freeing it to return billions of dollars to investors.
Two weeks ago, Citigroup, which failed the March test along with MetLife, said it would not ask again for permission to raise its dividend or buy back shares this year.
Ally Financial and SunTrust, which also failed the March test, were not immediately available to comment on their intentions for new capital plans.
MetLife shares rose 98 cents to $30.40 in early trading. Between March 13, when it failed the last stress test, and Monday's close, MetLife shares were down 25 percent, against a decline of 5 percent for the sector.
(Reporting By Ben Berkowitz, additional reporting by Rick Rothacker in Charlotte; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Maureen Bavdek)
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