World scrabble Chairman lauds Nigeria on Akpabio Classics -

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Godswill Akpabio International Scrabble Classics has been adjudged as the best Scrabble competition in the world, so says the Chairman of the World English Language Scrabble Players Association ( WESPA ) Mr Elie Dangoor.

In a Goodwill message addressed to the President of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation Chief Toke Aka and sent to the organizers of the Classics which enters its 7th year this Wednesday   in Uyo, Mr Elie Dangoor described the Classics as “prestigious”

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Check out Photos of The World's Largest Living Cat (Liger)

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With a name like Hercules, you know he's got to be big.But at 922 pounds, big is an understatement for the world's largest living cat, according to the 2014 Guinness Book of World Records.Hercules is a liger -- the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a tigress -- who lives at the Myrtle Beach Safari wildlife preserve in South Carolina. He is 131 inches long, and measures 49 inches tall at the shoulder. Ligers, which do not exist in the wild, can grow to twice the size of their parents and weigh about a hundred times more than the average house cat.

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On Point: Russia says West acting in Muslim world like 'monkey with a grenade'

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Western countries are behaving in the Islamic world like a "monkey with a grenade," a Russian deputy prime minister said on Tuesday, as the United States and its allies mull the use of force against Syria.
"The West behaves towards the Islamic world like a monkey with a grenade," Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is known for his sharp tongue, wrote on Twitter.
Voice of Russia, AFP

Meet the World’s Oldest Mother, Who Gave Birth at Almost 70 (PHOTOS)

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When Rajo Devi Lohan made headlines around the world by becoming the world's oldest first-time mother, critics said she was putting her health at risk and condemning her daughter to the agony of losing her parents at a young age.

She gave birth, following controversial IVF treatment, at the age of 69, then nearly died from complications with the delivery.  But now, five years later, the 74-year-old says having her daughter, Naveen, has made her stronger and helped her live longer.

Following her bout of ill health, the frail mother believes her desire of seeing her little one marry is giving her the strength to fight on and live to see the special day.

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Nollywood Actor Markets Nigeria To The World

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Deji Adenuga, remember him? He’s the suave A-list actor and husband of delectable broadcaster, Yemi Adenuga. For many years, he straddled both the stage and the screen, bringing immense delight to many homes through his acting.

Then, with neither a warning nor a farewell, Adenuga disappeared, simply vanishing from the cinemas and the home videos. His fans were left with nothing but the old films he had been involved in before his sudden departure, even as they wondered what actually happened to their beloved entertainer.

“Well, I relocated, like people would say, to join my family in Ireland. That was in 2006,” the actor told the reporter recently at a chance meeting in Lagos on his way back to Dublin.

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'World's biggest cocaine dealer' deported to Italy

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An Italian mafia capo alleged to be the biggest cocaine trafficker in the world will be deported to Italy on Saturday, a day after being arrested in a Colombian shopping mall, prosecutors said.

Roberto Pannunzi was detained in Bogota with a fake Venezuelan identity card in a joint operation by Colombian police together with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

"He is the biggest cocaine importer in the world," said Nicola Gratteri, deputy chief prosecutor in Reggio Calabria in southern Italy.

"He is the only one who can organise purchases and sales of cocaine shipments of 3,000 kilos (6,600 pounds) and up," he said.

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World Bank Approves ₦48,000,000,000 ($300,000,000) To Boost Farming In Nigeria

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The World Bank, yesterday, said it has approved credit facilities of $300 million for Nigeria to boost farming output and food security.  A $200 million loan will go to small-holder farmers organised in clusters in six of the country’s 36 states for producers of rice, cassava, sorghum and other staples, the World Bank said.

Another $100 million will be used to improve crop yields, promote market access and better management.  Nigeria is the world’s second-largest importer of rice and sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest wheat and sugar buyer. President Goodluck Jonathan’s government plans to stop rice imports, now costing 1 billion naira a day ($6.2 million), by 2015.

President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" Over Snowden

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"One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
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Saudi Arabia Changes Weekend To Be In Line With The Rest Of The World

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Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud changed the kingdom’s official work week to Sunday through Thursday, citing “lost economic opportunities” from being out of synch with the rest of the world on the Saudi weekend.

The switch from Saudi Arabia’s Saturday-to-Wednesday work week, and Thursday-Friday weekend, was announced on Sunday in a royal decree carried on state print and broadcast media. The change overrides years of objections from religious conservatives that Saudi Arabia, home of the most important two sites of Islam, should keep a weekend distinct from that of the West.

“We will be copying the Jews and the Christians,” prominent Saudi businessman Abdul Rahman Al Jeraisy said in 2007, when the king’s Shura advisory council considered the change.

R.I.P: World's 'oldest woman' dies in China: family

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A woman who Chinese officials said was 127 years old - although international authorities never recognised the claim - has died, relatives said on Tuesday.

Official documents said that Luo Meizhen was born in 1885, which would make her the oldest person ever to have lived, but she died at the weekend after months of illness, her son Huang Youhe told AFP.

"She was 127 when she died, it wasn't unexpected," her grandson Huang Heyuan said.Luo's declared birth date means she may have been the oldest person in the world when she died, ahead of Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who records say is 116.

But Luo's claim met with little recognition internationally because China did not have a reliable birth certification system until decades after she was born.

Nigeria's Cocoa Set To Beat World History

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The cocoa industry in Nigeria is re-positioning to compete favourably in the world market. This is disclosed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, at the 23rd partnership forum organised by the World Cocoa Foundation in Washington, DC.

At the forum, titled “Meeting Tomorrow's Demand: Productivity, Quality, and Farmers'Livelihoods,” Dr. Adesina told the stakeholders how Nigeria, is “creating a sustainable vehicle built on a public-private partnership platform to coordinate the complete cocoa sector which will be public sector-enabled but private sector-driven with all stakeholders playing active role.”

To demonstrate the commitment of Nigeria in developing the cocoa industry, the minister disclosed the plans on rehabilitation of “200,000 hectares over the next four years via an aggressive plan developed in partnership with private sector to supply employment for skilled professionals called ‘Professional Cocoa Doctors and Grafters'over the next fi ve years who'd have the ability to deploy their skills to earn a significant living and rehabilitate at the least 200,000 hectares of cocoa farms in Nigeria.”

58 arrested in anti-Islam protests rallies in UK

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Rival demonstrations have been taking place in London after the killing of a British Soldier. The British National Party held a demonstration in Westminster. Unite Against Facism took part in a counter protest outside the Houses of Parliament. VoR's Juliet Spare reports. (VIDEO)


The Metroplotan Police banned the British National Party from marching near the scene of soldier Lee Rigby’s killing in Woolwich, London amid fears of violent clashes with anti-fascist groups. In London, the BNP supporters staged a standoff while the Unite Against Fascism group were kept apart by the police, who have arrested 58 people in a series of scuffles. Far-right groups and their opponents scuffled in London on Saturday as protesters attacking Islam gathered in cities and towns all over Britain.
The English Defence League held rallies in Sheffield, Cambridge and Colchester.

Dollar may lose status as the world’s currency

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Though the US dollar continues to reign as the foreign reserve currency of choice, a new International Monetary Fund analysis shows that the currency has slumped to a 15-year low, heightening concerns that it may lose that status.

While the dollar currently constitutes 62 percent of the $6 trillion in foreign holdings by the world’s central banks, when a historical view is taken into account, Dick Bove, vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets says the dollar’s actual percentage of total money supply worldwide has gone from 90 percent in 1952 to about 15 percent today.
Bove, like many other analysts, believes that the rise of the Chinese currency, the yuan, is at the expense of the US dollar’s dominance as a safe haven.

CHEAP LIE: John Kerry calls the US drone program "strict, accountable and fair"

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On Sunday, addressing a gathering of students at the University of Addis Ababa, the U.S. Secretary of State called this country's drone program one of the strictest, most accountable and fairest programs never targeting any civilians, or even avoiding firing "when we know there are children or collateral". Lying about the drone program or other aspects of the U.S. policy has become habitual for U.S. officials, but this time the outright lie was so evident that The Washington Post, which first reported of Mr. Kerry's statement late on Sunday, by Monday afternoon removed the story from its website, with the internet link referring the reader to another, completely different story.

World’s Largest Dam To Provide Electricity For 500 Million African Homes

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Work will start in October 2015, on the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo after talks between DR Congo and international officials.

Sunday’s meeting on the proposed Inga dam on the Congo river also involved multilateral lending institutions.

According to a statement, the “foundation stone will be laid in October 2015.”
“With a production of 40,000 megawatts, the Grand Inga project will eventually provide electricity to half the African continent,” it said.

This is less than half of the DR Congo’s total hydropower resources, which the World Bank estimates at 100,000 megawatts.

World Bank estimates suggest that if completed and running at full capacity, the complex could provide energy to up to 500 million African households.

The World’s Richest City (SEE)

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China may soon be the birthplace to half the world’s billionaires but Singapore – the world’s richest city – is where they go to play. Some of the rich and famous who have moved to the tiny Southeast Asian island republic include Indian telecom tycoon Bhupendra Kumar Modi, Chinese movie superstars Gong Li and Jet Li, New Zealand billionaire Richard Chandler, and famed US investor Jim Rogers.

One in six households in Singapore have a net worth of $1m, reflecting the flow of wealth eastwards as the centre of global economic activity shifts to Asia.

YouTube Now charging viewers for Some Programs

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YouTube, the world's largest online video portal, from now on will start charging viewers for some programs. A monthly subscription will be starting at $0.99 a month.
For the new pilot program the Google-owned video portal selected a small group of partners such as Sesame Street, which will make full episodes available on its paid channels, while the Ultimate Fighting Championships will make full fights available. There will also be children’s programs by National Geographic Kids and sports video-lessons by iAmplify.

3 dead, several injured after ship crashes into control tower in Italian port of Genoa

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At least three people have died and several are missing after a ship crashed into a control tower in the Italian port of Genoa, reports say.

Part of the tower was said to have crashed into the water when it was hit by the Jolly Nero container ship.

About 10 people were in the tower at the time of the accident, and some of them are feared to be in the water.

Four people have been taken to hospital, says the Corriere Della Sera newspaper.

The Jolly Nero is almost 240 metres (787 feet) long and weighs over 40,500 tonnes.

It was bound for Messina, Sicily, at the time of the crash, reports say.

The accident is said to have occurred at about 23:00 on Tuesday night (21:00 GMT), when a shift change was taking place in the control tower - meaning more people were inside.

Genoa's prosecutor is investigating the incident, Corriere Della Sera says. The ship has been impounded and the captain is being questioned.

Ọmọ Oódua News From Nigeria, BBC

World Bank To Spend $300m For Mortgage Infrastructure In Nigeria

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The World Bank is to partner Nigeria to develop a sound mortgage financing structure that would deliver affordable houses to Nigerians.

The multilateral institution is to provide financial access and liquidity to the tune of $300 million to kick start the project.

Banks in the country are to partner government to develop a mortgage vehicle that will manage housing development in Nigeria. Government will, however, have a small share. This fact was disclosed by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minster of the Economy Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala.

Firstpost World Nigerian fuel tanker explosion kills at least 36

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LAGOS (Reuters) – At least 36 people were killed when a fuel tanker exploded after crashing into a crowded bus in southern Nigeria, officials said on Saturday. The Federal Road Safety Commisson said the crash happened on Friday on the Benin-Ore road linking the commercial hub of Lagos with southeast Nigeria. Three people were injured.

Traffic accidents are common in Nigeria, where roads are bad and safety standards poor.At least 95 people were killed in July last year in southern Nigeria when a petrol tanker crashed and caught fire as people crowded around it to scoop up the fuel.

(Reporting by Tim Cocks; editing by Andrew Roche)