Former STV G.M. to create Pan-African television

After a seven year stint as General Manager of Spectrum Television, Cameroon, from 2003 to 2007, Senegalese Macta Silla had been tipped to take over the reins of the Senegalese national broadcasting station. However this will certainly not be the case as he recently announced in Libreville, Gabon that he was going to launch a Pan-African television and radio station that will broadcast from Gabon. He made this announcement on the sidelines of the New York Africa Forum being held in the Gabonese capital Libreville. He stated that the goal is to "create and offer, from Gabon initially and later from elsewhere in Africa, a platform that will be both a catalyst and a relay that projects the positive strides being accomplished in Africa. Our staff will have to work in a bid to enable  Africa and Africans articulate their views and perspectives about our continent and contemporary society."

                              Before serving as General Manager of Spectrum Television in Cameroon, he had worked at international broadcasting houses like TV5 and national stations like Senegal's RTS from where he was surprisingly shown the door in 2002 by Senegal's then Head of State Abdoulaye Wade. With over 32 years working in the world of television, Mr Macta Silla has by this latest venture taken on a challenge which going by his professional credentials he can, and Africa hopes, overcome brilliantly. It is worth noting that he is additionally an University scholar with expertise in Law, Letters and English Literature.

Wimbledon 2014 prize money increased

Players taking part in this year's Wimbledon Tennis Championship will notice a considerable increase in their take home package as the overall prize fund has increased by 10.8% to £ 25m. Unlike last year's winners, the 2014 winners in men and women's singles will take home £1.76 m.  First round losers will earn £ 27,000 unlike £11,500 in 2011. This increase is expected to mainly favour early losers who fail to go beyond the third round. Wimbledon Chairman Philip Brook stated that emphasis has been laid on the large group of players who need help the most and that his organisation is trying to stay competitive on the world with regards to what is happening at other Grand Slams.

           It is worth stating that this latest development represents a steady trend of prize money increase at Wimbledon. In 2013 the total prize money increased by 40%  to stand at £22.6m, representing an increase of £6.5m as compared to 2012.  This increase it must be noted in cross-cutting as it equally includes the other categories like doubles.

            Some former players and observers have welcomed this increase given that it will players  cater for the growing expenses of  top level tennis.

World's tallest building accolade set to change owner

In the today's world of the grand, grandiose and extravagantly grandiose, Saudi Arabia is set to become the host country of the world's tallest building if construction work on the 1 km tall Kingdom Tower is completed by its 2018 due date  in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. According to Saudi media reports, the super skyscraper is estimated to cost 1.23 billion USD, have 200 floors. 5.7 million square feet of concrete and  80,000 tons of steel will estimately be used to build it.

                Upon completion the Kingdom Tower will leapfrog the Burj Khalifa -826 metres- in Dubai and claim a long list of accolades amongst which is the coverted world's tallest building tag. Other iconic megaskycrapers that are now set to stand in the shadow of this new engineering fit include the World Financial Centre in Shanghai - 492 metres-, the ICC in Hong Kong -484 metres, Dubai Towers - 437 metres and  the Freedom in New York City-417 metres. The celebrated Eiffel Tower utterly pales in comparison, standing at just 324 metres.

             Co-designed by the same architect who came up with the Burj Khalifa, this latest gargantuan testament to human ingenuity will have 58 lifts to choose from, each travelling at 10 metres per second, a Four Seasons hotel, luxury apartments, A-grade office space and the world highest observatory.
             The construction project is said to be funded by Bin Laden Group, founded by Osama Bin Laden's father. It is spearheaded by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal who has been quoted as saying the tower is meant to "send a message of strength" about Saudi Arabia stability and foster the latter's " presence in the international arena"