The Glo/CAF African Player of the Year Award 2014 will today
Thursday January 9th at Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos and one of its
nominees, Super
Eagles and Chelsea midfielder, John Mikel Obi, will be specially
flown into Lagos for the ceremony in a jet
provided by his club, Chelsea.
“I
am coming for the CAF awards, I will be flown in and out of Nigeria by
the Chelsea jet. I will arrive on the awards day and return immediately
after,” Mikel told MTNFootball.com “It is an honour to be selected and
nominated for the award. I am looking forward to winning it for my
country.” He also said
Mikel is up against Cote d'Ivoire and Man City player Yaya Toure and
Cote d'Ivoire and Galatasaray player, Didier Drogba. Yaya Toure won it
last year..you think Mikel deserves to win it this year?
It's revealed in a new interview that Tupac Shakur was eying a role in "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" before he died. Death Row Records' former Chief Engineer Rick Clifford spilled to 2Pac-Forum that the late rapper auditioned for Jedi.
"It's sad because 'Pac found out that I worked for Brian Austin Green, who was on '90210',
then he found out I was in some movies. So we always talked about his
film career and stuff," Clifford said. "He was telling me that he was
supposed to read for George Lucas and them."
"They wanted him to be a Jedi. Yes, I'm serious - Samuel L. [Jackson]
got Tupac's part," Clifford went on, before recalling a conversation
with the MC, "Yeah, he called me 'Old Man, keep your fingers crossed, I
got three movies coming up. One of them I gotta read for George Lucas.' "
It's unclear when Shakur did the audition,
but "The Phantom Menace" wasn't released until 1999 but started its
filming around June 1997, less than a year after the rapper passed away
on September 13, 1996 after he was shot multiple times in a drive-by
shooting. Samuel L. Jackson eventually played Mace Windu, a Jedi Master of the High Council,
in the fourth "Star Wars" movie. Shakur once shared screen with Jackson
in 1992's crime drama "Juice". His last movie, "Gang Related", was
released in 1997.
A Broadway musical inspired by
his work has been in the works. Titled after one of his songs, "Holler
If Ya Hear Me", it is set to premiere at the Palace Theater on May 26.
His songs like "Me Against the World", "California Love", and "Keep Ya
Head Up" will be featured in the $8 million-budgeted play along with the
title track.
Director Kenny Leon says the stage musical won't be biopic but will
explore an anti-violence, "unconditional love story" featuring the MC's
music. Producer explains it will tell the story of "friendship, family,
revenge, change and hope" as people struggle against challenges in their
lives. Shakur's mother is involved in the production.
His family is also supporting an official biopic, "Tupac", which is expected to start production in Atlanta in February. No cast has been announced, but the late rapper was previously portrayed by Anthony Mackie in "Notorious", a movie released in 2009 about another late rap icon Notorious B.I.G..
Customs and Border Protection officers foiled a smuggling attempt at
the U.S.-Mexico border when they discovered a woman contorted and hidden
inside a suitcase.
Officials released a
photo this week showing the woman tucked into a ball and laying inside
the luggage in the back of a vehicle.
The woman, a Thai
national named Pornkamol Mongkolsermsak, was charged with re-entry after
deportation, CBP spokesman Victor Brabble said.
She was discovered on
December 30, when inspectors at the border referred the driver of a
Honda SUV for a secondary inspection, CBP said in a statement.
When officers inspected
the vehicle, they opened up the suitcase and found the 48-year-old woman
hidden underneath some clothing.
Authorities did not release the name of the 56-year-old Phoenix man who was driving the SUV.
The case has been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBP said.
Disgusted Venezuelans berated the government on social media and in
street protests Wednesday, while Maduro summoned the country’s governors
and big-city mayors to an emergency security meeting in this capital
city.
“This is a blow to all of us,” he said on state television.
“I share the pain, sadness and condolences that the nation feels,” he
added, warning that authorities would deal with the killers with “an
iron hand.”
Security, like almost everything else in Venezuela, is
heavily politicized. Although the government says crime is falling, an
independent group, the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, said killings
rose to 24,763 last year, leaving the oil-rich nation (population 30
million) with one of the world’s highest homicide rates.
