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The Irish Examiner did an interesting series this week past on Irish Regional Airports. This follows on comments from Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary that only Kerry and Donegal airports out of all our regional airports have a commercial future. I’d imagine comments like this one went down well in Farranfore and Carrickfinn. You can catch the write-up on Kerry Airpot on Kerry News Blog by clicking here.

The series also included Shannon and Cork airports and how they are likely to be both fighting for the coveted number 2 spot for passenger numbers behind Dublin Airport, which is ever unlikely to be surpassed as the number 1 airport in the country. The series can be found in the Irish Examiner Archives.

It has emerged that the Chinese authorities will not allow foreign reporters to have complete access to the Internet during the Beijing Olympics. Journalists say the development reverses an earlier pledge to remove China’s censorship firewall during the games, which begin on Friday week.

A spokesman for the Chinese organising committee said sites linked to the banned Falungong spiritual movement and other unspecified ones would remain blocked for foreign reporters covering the Games. The head of the International Olympic Committee’s press commission, Kevan Gosper, told reporters that he would take the matter up with the Chinese authorities.

Power failures at UEFA’s International Broadcast Centre in Vienna interrupted coverage of last night’s semi-final match between Germany and Turkey. The BBC, one of many broadcasters affected by the loss of the UEFA host broadcaster’s feed, put up a BBC One fault caption and switched to Radio 5 Live audio during two outages: one for seven minutes at 57:15 into the match, and a second that started in the 76th minute prevented viewers from seeing Germany’s Miroslav Klose score a goal.

“All countries across the world receiving the feed lost pictures and sound,” said a BBC spokesperson. “We had people ringing up to ask what had happened, but it was more reaction than complaints.” RTÉs Bill O’Herlihy also stated that it was happening all across Europe

“The television signal in the International Broadcast Centre for the Germany-Turkey game has been interrupted several times in the second half due to technical reasons which are currently being investigated, in particular to evaluate the impact of the violent electrical storm over Vienna at that time,” said UEFA.

Saturdays Lotto draw looks set to be almost €18m after there was no winner of last night’s €17m jackpot.

The winning numbers were 9, 25, 26, 31, 33, 41. The bonus was 42.

There was no winner of the €350,000 Lotto plus one either. The numbers were 14, 15, 17, 35, 36, and 45, bonus 33.

There was also no winner of the €250,000 Lotto plus two draw . The numbers were 3, 9, 12, 18, 27, and 34. The bonus was 36.

Ryanairs transatlantic spin-off will offer “beds and blowjobs” to premium class customers, airline boss Michael O’Leary told a stunned audience this week. His comments came on a whistlestop tour of three German airports, in response to questions about plans for a longhaul airline.

The airline will fly people in economy class across the Atlantic for €10, while those in premium class will pay €4,000 to €5,000 for “beds and blow jobs,” Mr O’Leary said. His local spokeswoman then began to choke on her glass of water while the Ryanair man added “surely you have a word for blowjobs in German,”according to local press reports.

An airline spokesman yesterday confirmed Mr O’Leary’s comments. “The spokeswoman mentioned in the article was Anja Seugling, sales and marketing manager for Germany, Switzerland and Austria,” he added. “We confirmed at the press conference yesterday that the proposed Transatlantic Service will have a very low-cost economy cabin with seats priced from €10 one way, and a very high quality business class, providing better service than BA or Virgin.

“The working title for the business class service is ‘Beds and Blowjobs’.”

An Bord Pleanála has given the green light to the first application it has received under its new fast-track planning process. The application for the re-opening of 7km of railway line between Clonsilla and Dunboyne was dealt with within the 18-week time limit specified under law. There had been 34 objections to the proposal, including one from An Taisce. Ed - isnt there always!

Under proposals being brought before the Cabinet in the next few months, every home and business across the country is to get a new six-character postcode to bring Ireland into line with the rest of the EU. Dublin postcodes will be based around the existing format with Dublin 4 becoming DO4 123, with the last three digits representing a specific house or business.

Meanwhile it is expected the rest of the country will roughly follow the existing car licence plate system, with addresses in Sligo starting with SO and those in Galway with GAL. It is argued that a new national postcode system will improve efficiency by overcoming problems associated with incorrect addresses on mail, although An Post says it is managing just fine without it.

However, it will be a major benefit for marketing companies. It will also help emergency services pin-point specific addresses more quickly. “Postcodes are a much bigger piece of infrastructure than just An Post. It has implications for every business, resident, county council, road.

“We don’t need it for processing, but we will be at the heart of it and will play our part . . . Our system is state of the art and has the capacity to run all different types of coding. We can certainly cater for it if and when it is introduced, and it looks increasingly like it’s just a matter of setting a date,” she added.

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan is finalising the postcode plans and is expected to bring them to Government before the summer.

Microsoft said today that it has offered to buy struggling Internet firm Yahoo for $44.6  billion in cash and stock.

Microsoft said it had proposed $31 a share to Yahoo’s  board of directors.

The offer represents a 62% premium above the closing price of Yahoo stock yesterday, it said.

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