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China to create world’s largest city



Shenzhen-chinese-megacity-Paula-Bronstein-Getty-Images--main.jpgA city twice the size of .Wales and 26 times the size of London. In China it's not just possible, it's being planned


Construction in Shenzhen is underway for the creation of China's 42 million people mega city that will challenge Shanghai and Beijing as China's economic engine..
It would be a city bigger than Wales, but it’s perfectly in line with China’s building mantra: go big or go home.

Planners are proposing to merge nine cities around the Pearl River Delta in southern China, from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong, reports The Telegraph.

Called the "Turn The Pearl River Delta Into One" plan, the proposal will create a 16,000 square mile area “that is 26 times larger geographically than Greater London, or twice the size of Wales,” according to the paper.

•More on CNNGo: China announces high-speed rail link to Singapore via Vietnam
China is creating its first mega city, which will challenge the dominance of China’s current main urban areas of Beijing/Tianjin and Shanghai.

The goal of the new city will be to integrate China’s manufacturing base, which will include the cities of Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing.

Together, according to the Telegraph, they account for nearly a tenth of the Chinese economy.

The new zone will be created over the next six years, and will connect the current cities’ transport, energy, water and telecommunications networks.

The area will also have an express rail line to Hong Kong.

If you’re having a difficult time imagining this, think of it as China’s version of Tokyo.

•More on CNNGo: New Jetstar route links Hanghzhou to Singapore
"The idea is that when the cities are integrated, the residents can travel around freely and use the health care and other facilities in the different areas," said Ma Xiangming, the chief planner at the Guangdong Rural and Urban Planning Institute and a senior consultant on the project.

This is not the only massive urbanization plan going on in the country. By 2025 China will have 221 mega cities with more than 1 million residents, and eight cities each with a population of more than 10 million.
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Inspired by Bollywood musicals and Brazilian soap operas, the Nigerian film industry is now the second largest in the world

Die-hard fans have known for some time that the Nigerian film industry is truly unique, but even they may be surprised to discover just how big – and lucrative – it has become..

A new festival, Nollywood Now, takes place in London from 6-12 October and is the first major event to celebrate the second largest film industry in the world. Its chief aim is to draw wider attention to the success and popularity the films enjoy across Europe, and particularly the UK.

Nollywood makes about 2,400 films per year, putting it ahead of the US, but behind India, according to a Unesco report last year. Nigerian film-makers tend to operate in a fast and furious manner; shoots rarely last longer than two weeks, cheap digital equipment is almost always used and the average budget is about $15,000 (£9,664). The finished products often bypass cinemas altogether and are instead sold directly to the “man on the street” for about $1.50 (£1). Most films shift between 25,000 and 50,000 copies globally – although a blockbuster can easily sell up to 200,000.

So, what exactly is it about the films that resonates so much with their audience? For all of their populist appeal, Nigerian films are very rooted in local concerns, according to Nollywood Now’s creative director, Phoenix Fry: “Many of the films have looked at how traditional beliefs co-exist with Islam and Christianity, Nigeria‘s main religions,” he says. “There are some superb sequences using quite simple video effects to transform aunties into demons, or show evil animal spirits being driven out from the possessed.”

This view is shared by Nigerian director and producer, Ade Adepegba, whose feature film Water Has No Enemy, explores corruption in his native country: “Nigerians are the largest group of Africans living in the UK, and the majority of them live in London,” he says. “Nigerian films still hold their strongest appeal to first generation immigrants who feel a deep attachment to their homeland. So, at the moment nostalgia is the main reason for the appeal of Nollywood.”
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Shoprite Silverbird Galleria Step Aside !

SPAR, the world’s largest supermarket chain now has an outlet in Lekki, underscoring the growth in foreign investors’ confidence in the Nigerian economy.
Speaking at the official commissioning of the departmental store, the grand patron of Spar Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo said he is very happy over the partnership of Spar and park and shop, adding that despite the situation of all manner of meltdowns in the country, that investors still have the hope and courage to invest largely in Nigeria, which is good for the economy of the country.
“I did not hesitate to accept the invitation when they brought it to my house because it is great to encourage investors especially in a situation where there is all manner of meltdowns, we have hope and courage to invest, it is also good for the economy of our country.
Those apostles of doom, who do not believe in Nigeria, an occasion like this should prove to them that there are more good things than bad in Nigeria. We should encourage anybody who wishes to invest in Nigeria, either Nigerian or foreigners” he stated.
He urged Nigerians to also try and produce things that the store will sell and not just buying from them, adding that he prays that when the supermarket is in full swing, that everything in the store will be made in Nigeria products.
The Chairman of Park & Shop, Asiwaju Solomon Onafowokan, said it is a dream come true for the directors of Artee Group to have the privilege of bringing Spar, the world’s largest supermarket chain to Nigeria for the conducive shopping delight of their various customers.
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Nigeria is expected to make history on October 1, when its caterers build and unveil the world’s largest cake. The 65,000kg cake, will be unveiled at the National Stadium, Abuja, is expected to beat the current Guinness World Records.

By midnight, October 1, a select group of Nigerian caterers and bakers will begin work on a 65ton cake. By noon, the fruit cake, decorated in green and white colours will be unveiled by President Goodluck Jonathan. Mr. Jonathan will cut the 6ft high cake and Nigerians will have the opportunity to have a share of the ‘national cake’ literally..

The cake, which will be 100ft long and 6ft high, will require the services of at least 2000 persons, and is expected to beat the records of the current world’s largest cake, a 58ton cake which was baked in 1989.

One meal one nation

The organiser of the World’s largest cake project, Victor Oluwafemi, says he has tagged the project, ‘one meal one nation’, in line with the philosophy behind the project.

“The project is a private endeavour which myself and my team thought of. We wanted to do something significant for the 50th anniversary project. We wanted something that would give every Nigerian an opportunity to partake in the celebrations. We knew that the average Nigerian would not have the opportunity to eat the cake that will be presented in the villa,” Mr. Oluwafemi said to NEXT in Abuja.

Mr. Oluwafemi’s team of three spoke enthusiastically of the measures that they are taking to ensure that the cake gets to as many Nigerians as possible. First, every state in the country will receive one ton of the cake and the small team also expects that every tribe in the country will be represented in the Abuja Stadium on October 1, and will have the opportunity to have a bite of the cake.

“This project is supposed to turn the national cake that we always talk about to reality. It will give Nigerians an actual cake to feed on,” Paul Sambo, the team’s head of Strategic business said.

Likening the project to the national pride that comes from winning a football match, the team says that the project was designed to boost the emotions of Nigerians despite the current national challenges.

“This project does not gainsay the fact that the nation has problems up till today. But we need inspiration in order to move forward as a nation. This project was designed with a leadership bias, a leader inspires his people no matter what and that is what we hope to do,” Joseph Yakwo, the third member and the operations officer of the project said.

Making the records book

If the team’s cake must to enter the Guinness World Records, Mr. Oluwafemi and his team will have to start and finish the cake within 24 hours; the team plans to do so in 8.

“We are going to bake the cake in about 8 hours. The cake is going to be baked, cooled and iced on the same day,” Mr. Yakwo said.

The team says that it has been in touch with the officials of the Guinness World Records and that a Guinness adjudicator will arrive from New York to inspect the project from start to finish.

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UN's Ban Ki-Moon calls Aral Sea 'shocking disaster'

The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest saline body of water, it has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s, after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects. By 2004, the sea had shrunk to 25% of its original surface area, and a nearly fivefold increase in salinity had killed most of its natural flora and fauna. By 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into three separate lakes, two of which are too salty to support fish. The once prosperous fishing industry has been virtually destroyed, and former fishing towns along the original shores have become ship graveyards. With this collapse has come unemployment and economic hardship



NUKUS, Uzbekistan – The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the planet's most shocking environmental disasters, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday as he urged Central Asian leaders to step up efforts to solve the problem.

Once the world's fourth-largest lake, the sea has shrunk by 90 percent since the rivers that feed it were largely diverted in a Soviet project to boost cotton production in the arid region.

The shrunken sea has ruined the once-robust fishing economy and left fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wastelands, leaning over as if they dropped from the air. The sea's evaporation has left layers of highly salted sand, which winds can carry as far away as Scandinavia and Japan, and which plague local people with health troubles.

Ban toured the sea by helicopter as part of a visit to the five countries of former Soviet Central Asia. His trip included a touchdown in Muynak, Uzbekistan, a town once on the shore where a pier stretches eerily over gray desert and camels stand near the hulks of stranded ships.

"On the pier, I wasn't seeing anything, I could see only a graveyard of ships," Ban told reporters after arriving in Nukus, the nearest sizable city and capital of the autonomous Karakalpak region.

"It is clearly one of the worst disasters, environmental disasters of the world. I was so shocked," he said.

The Aral Sea catastrophe is one of Ban's top concerns on his six-day trip through the region and he is calling on the countries' leaders to set aside rivalries to cooperate on repairing some of the damage.

"I urge all the leaders ... to sit down together and try to find the solutions," he said, promising United Nations support.

However, cooperation is hampered by disagreements over who has rights to scarce water and how it should be used.

In a presentation to Ban before his flyover, Uzbek officials complained that dam projects in Tajikistan will severely reduce the amount of water flowing into Uzbekistan. Impoverished Tajikistan sees the hydroelectric projects as potential key revenue earners.

Competition for water could become increasingly heated as global warming and rising populations further reduce the amount of water available per capita.

Water problems also could brew further dissatisfaction among civilians already troubled by poverty and repressive governments; some observers fear that could feed growing Islamist sentiment in the region.

Ban also is taking on the region's frequently poor human rights conditions.

That is likely to be an especially tense issue when he meets Monday with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has led the country since the 1991 Soviet collapse and imposed severe pressure on opposition and civil rights activists.

The meeting comes less than two weeks after the U.N. Human Rights Committee issued a report criticizing Uzbekistan, including calling for fuller investigation of the brutal suppression of a 2005 uprising in the city of Andijan. Opposition and rights groups claim that hundreds were killed, but authorities insist the reports are exaggerated and angrily reject any criticism.

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naija's film industry is garnering global attention as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, yesterday declared Nollywood the second world film producer.A global cinema survey conducted by the world body's Institute of Statistics and released at the UN head office in New York and UNESCO office in Paris yesterday, India kept the first position, but naija has edged out the United States from the second position. The US is now number 3 after India and naija, according to an Empowered Newswire report.The survey ranks countries based on the number of films produced in a year, and not on the quality or on the turn-over of the films from those countries.Global attention on Nollywood has been mounting in recent times, especially as naija films have become hot commodity among African-Americans in the US and blacks from the Caribbean countries. Only last month, a daily US government bulletin described Nollywood as a rising star in the world of film production, paying tribute to the acumen of naija actors and film producers.Visits of famous naija actors from naija to the US is often a celebrity event with US-based naijas taking autographs from the Nollywood stars.While the Indian film industry is known as Bollywood, the American industry is known as Hollywood and naija's known as Nollywood. Both India and naija coined their industry appellations from Hollywood.The UNESCO survey which tallied 2006 figures revealed that Bollywood produced 1,091 feature-length films in 2006 compared to 872 productions (in video format) from naija's film industry. The United States produced 485 major films. The report quoted naija, US and India as the three heavyweights in global film production.The report actually spotlighted Nollywood further, noting what the UN statement called "the explosive growth of Nollywood" which is now attracting "considerable attention, especially in developing countries looking for alternatives to the U.S. or European models of film production and distribution, which require considerable investment."Said the report, "To begin with, naija filmmakers rely on video instead of film to reduce production costs," adding that naija has virtually no formal cinemas. About 99 per cent of screenings occur in informal settings, such as "home theatre."The UNESCO survey further reveals "another key element of the naija success story: multilingualism. About 56 per cent of Nollywood films are produced in naija's local languages, namely Yoruba (31per cent), Hausa (24 per cent) and Igbo (1 per cent). English remains a prominent language, accounting for 44 per cent, which may contribute to naija's success in exporting its films."The UNESCO findings were collected through a new international survey launched by the UIS in 2007 with financing from the Government of Québec. Overall, the survey yielded data from 99 countries.After the three 'heavyweights', there were eight other countries that produced more than 100 films: Japan (417), China (330), France (203), Germany (174), Spain (150), Italy (116), South Korea (110) and the United Kingdom (104)."Film and video production are shining examples of how cultural industries - as vehicles of identity, values and meanings - can open the door to dialogue and understanding between peoples, but also to economic growth and development. This conviction underpins the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity," the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, said. "And this new data on film and video production provides yet more proof of the need to rethink the place of culture on the international political agenda," he added.Despite its limited coverage, the survey provides a unique perspective on how different countries and regions are transforming traditional approaches to the art and industry of filmmaking, especially in video and digital formats.The survey also revealed considerable linguistic diversity in film production in Spain and Canada. In Spain, almost 69% of films were produced in Spanish, 12% in Catalan, about 9% in English, 4% in Basque, almost 3% in French and 4% in other languages. In Canada, 67% of films were produced in English and 31% in French in 2006.Despite these results, English remains the dominant language in filmmaking globally. In total, 36% of films produced in 2006 were shot in English, according to the survey.US films continue to dominate admissions globally. Although the survey is not exhaustive, a clear trend seems to have emerged when considering the provenance of the top 10 films viewed in diverse countriesAll of the top 10 films seen in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Namibia, Romania, and Slovenia were made in the U.S., according to the survey. There were however some notable exceptions.Bollywood productions were the obvious favourite in India. In France, seven out of the top 10 films were French. And in Japan and Morocco, domestic productions accounted for five out of the 10 most widely viewed films.
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