Nigerian Music Star Wande Cole Is Leaving Mavin Records for Black Diamond Entertainment

Negotiations are currently on to end Wande Coal's Contract with Mavin records and as you read this he is unofficially no more with them. Insiders say an official statement is coming soon. Well as soon as they settle how the contract should end.

The whisperings started filtering in when Wande Coal‘s record label imprint, Black Diamond Entertainment was part of the introduction for his new video featuring Don Jazzy, “The Kick”

Robber steals $53 million worth of jewels in Cannes, France, police say

An armed robber held up a jewelry exhibition in the French resort city of Cannes on Sunday, stealing jewels worth $53 million (40 million euros), a Nice police official told CNN on the condition of anonymity.
 

The robbery -- the third such heist around the city since May -- took place Sunday morning at the Carlton Hotel, according to Philippe Vique, deputy prosecutor for organized crime in the prosecutor's office for the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. He could not confirm the value of the jewelry.

The robber, whose face was covered by a hat and a scarf, threatened to shoot the exhibitors and guests, Vique said.

Security guards were present but unarmed, he said.

The exhibitor, Leviev Extraordinary Diamonds, confirmed the heist and said it was "relieved that no one was injured in the robbery."

 

Meet: Lamborghini Egoista: A Singular Ride

To mark its 50th anniversary, Lamborghini unveiled an outrageous one-off concept called the Egoista. This single-seat car celebrates Lamborghini’s long-standing appeal to ego through building extreme cars that shout “look at me!”

“This is a car made for one person only, to allow them to have fun and express their personality to the maximum,” says Walter De Silva, the car’s designer and the design head for Volkswagen. (VW owns Audi, which in turn owns Lamborghini.) “It is designed purely for hypersophisticated people who want only the most extreme and special things in the world. It represents hedonism taken to the extreme; it is a car without compromises, in a word: egoista [“selfish”].”

Looking like a road-going fighter jet, the Egoista is powered by a 5.2-liter V-10 that produces 600 hp. The single seat is positioned in the middle of the car; the driver has to use an electronic remote to lift the canopy and then physically remove the steering wheel before sliding down into the seat.

The Egoista, true to its selfish nature, is not for sale, but rather is a gift Lamborghini is giving itself. It will become part of the automaker’s private collection. (www.lamborghini.com)

More captivating photos after the cut....

Ariel Castro agrees to plea deal to avoid death penalty; gets life imprisonment and additional 1000 years

Castro agrees to life plus 1,000 years

The Ohio man accused of raping and holding three women captive in his home for about a decade has agreed to a plea deal that will see him imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole.

Ariel Castro, 53, was arrested in May after one of the women escaped.

He abducted Michelle Knight, 32, Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, from Cleveland streets between 2002-04.

Castro was charged with murder for beating and starving one of the women, who was pregnant, until she miscarried.

In a courtroom in Cleveland, Ohio, Judge Michael Russo repeatedly warned Castro he would never be let out of prison.

"Is that clear?" he asked Castro, who sat clad in an orange jail jumpsuit, his hands cuffed in front of him.

"I do understand that, your honour," Castro, an unemployed school bus driver, replied. "I knew I was pretty much going to get the book thrown at me."  Continue after the cut....

25 of mankind's greatest engineering achievements

Recent months have seen a fair number of impressive construction plans announced, from Norway's intention to create the world's first shipping tunnel to Maldives' plans for a space age underwater hotel to Dubai's plans for the world's biggest shopping mall.

How do these announcements stack up against what's already out there?

We've compiled 25 of what we think are some of the most impressive engineering/construction achievements to date, taking into consideration the era in which they were built and the knowledge and materials that were available to designers.

Many were inspired by the human impulse to travel, and those that weren't can be enjoyed by travelers today.

Engineering can, of course, also include electronics and other micro-feats -- arguably computers and smartphones are among the most successful, popular and influential pieces of engineering ever created -- but we're interested here in big, bold and brave.

Click through the gallery below the cut to see our selection, then let us know if you have additions in the comments section.

African Magic: Boy Flaunts Shrines, Bundles of Dollars And Other Foreign Currencies On His Facebook Page And Calls It Bastard Money

Well can’t confirm if the currencies are fake or original.

His facebook name is ODI DOLLARS........whatever that means only him knows. These are some of the pictures he posted on his facebook page.

It is possible he might deactivate his facebook account once this becomes known.

More pictures when you continue.....

Chiwoniso Maraire: Famous Zimbabwe Singer Dies At Age 37

Chiwoniso was the daughter of famous musician Dumisani Maraire

Chiwoniso's album Ancient Voices made her a star of the World Music scene in the 1990s.
She played the mbira, or thumb piano, which only men were traditionally supposed to play in Zimbabwe.

She died of suspected pneumonia, just a year after the death of her ex-husband, Andy Brown, also a prominent musician. The pair leave two children.

Continue after the cut to see another photos and listen to her music...

Jason Sudeikis confirms he's leaving 'Saturday Night Live'

The Devil, Joe Biden, and the last remaining A-Hole are officially exiting SNL.

In a Late Show interview that will air on CBS tonight, Jason Sudeikis confirmed what most fans of the show had already assumed: that after 10 years, his time on NBC’s sketch show is finally coming to an end.

“A person can go as long as they want — I mean, Lorne’s been kicking butt at it for 33 out of the 38 years,” Sudeikis told David Letterman. “But me, yeah, no — I’m definitely done.”

“Really? You’re leaving?” Letterman asked. Continue after the cut...

China starts work on world's tallest building

L-R: Sky City (proposed), China; Burj Khalifa, Dubai; Abraj Al Bait Towers, Saudi Arabia

Dubai's 828-meter Burj Khalifa has less than a year left as the world's tallest building.

China's projected 838-meter (2,749 feet) Sky City broke ground in Changsha in central China on July 20.

Astonishingly, the construction company behind it expects to top out in April 2014 -- a build time of just 10 months.

It took five years to build the Burj Khalifa.

Shanghai's skyscraper-laden skyline inspires awe. And, sometimes, envy.

Fast construction claims from Broad Group, the Changsha-based construction company in charge of the build, have elicited strong reactions from China's "netizens," as well as experts.

"The speed is horrifying, how can that be possible?" said one user on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service.

Another criticized the liveability of the homes within, calling the project a "giant stack of trailer homes."

But the building would appear to herald a new age in Chinese construction, one in which tall, fast builds become common.

It's already difficult to keep track of China's tallest building announcements.

China's race for the sky

Other projects under construction in China include:

• Shanghai Tower, Shanghai (632 meters, completion in 2014)

• Goldin Finance 117, Tianjin (597 meters, completion in 2015)

• Ping An Finance Center, Shenzhen (660 meters, completion in 2016)

• Greenland Center, Wuhan (636 meters, completion in 2017)

• Golden Rooster Tower, Suzhou (700 meters, yet to be confirmed)

 

Ten months from now and this site will be the cause of a lot of neck ache.

More than 10 cities in China are planning to build something taller than the 541-meter (1,775 feet) One World Trade Center, the United States' tallest building due to open early 2014 in New York City, according to the "2012 China Skyscraper Report" by Chinese architecture website motiancity.com.

 

The site, which defines "skyscrapers" as buildings taller than 152 meters (498 feet), also reports that China currently has 470 skyscrapers, 332 under construction and 516 planned but unconfirmed.

That means by 2022 China could have a total of 1,318 buildings higher than 152 meters, more than twice than expected in the United States.

Last year, real estate data company Emporis reported that half of the 10 tallest buildings under construction worldwide are in China.

Sky City will cost RMB 9 billion ($1.46 billion) to build.

According to Broad Group CEO Yue Zhang, the building is meant to save on energy and land.

The group says the 202-story, 1.05 million-square-meter building will keep at least 2,000 cars off of Changsha city streets by creating an environment no one needs to leave.

The tower will house more than 30,000 people alongside a shopping mall, school, hospital, office areas, roof garden, amusement park, sports facilities, organic farm and a 10-kilometer "walking street" that will run from the first to the 170th floor.

"Residents don't need to step out of the building, they can do everything within it," said Zhang.

Safety concerns

Some are worried the building could be vulnerable to safety hazards, due to the unconventional construction technique devised by Broad Group.

 

That "fast-building technology" allowed the group to put up a 30-story tower in 15 days in 2011, and a 15-story hotel within six days a year earlier.

Zhi Yin, head of Beijing Tsinghua Urban Planning Academy, told Xinhua, China's government-sanctioned media body, that Sky City would be "either a marvel or a hoax."

According to Yin, Broad Group's Sky City is an experiment, he claims, that still needs a practical test.

Yin Lu, an architect from Baojia Group, expressed concerns to Xinhua about subsidence when the building gets higher.

Broad Group emphasized that relevant authorities have approved the building as safe.

Super-fast construction method

The construction technique is simple, according to the company.

Some 20,000 workers in BSB's offsite factory produce thousands of prefabricated steel-and-concrete blocks, 60 square meters in size, over four months.

These blocks are transported to the location, hoisted and packed into position to make up the final structure over two months, at a rate of three stories a day.

Another four months are needed to complete the internal construction.

Broad Group has applied this method to more than 30 of their buildings.

There remains a certain amount of skepticism about the feasibility of the project from Chinese public and experts.

The world should know the truth early next year.

Source: CNN.com