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Tag: Las Vegas

  • Team Nigeria begins Scrabble World Championship on bright and strong footing

    Team Nigeria begins Scrabble World Championship on bright and strong footing

    The colourful Team Nigeria started her quest to defend the team title and also reclaim the individual crown at the World Scrabble Championship holding in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on a positive note on Saturday with four players in the top 20 at the end of Championship Day 1.
    The four players currently leading the Team Nigeria challenge in Las Vegas are former African Champion, Nsikak Etim, former World Champion, Wellington Jighere, current national Green Jacket holder and West African Champion Eta Karo and Bright Idahosa.
    Nigeria is occupying the second spot in the team event with 26 wins behind host USA on 28, Canada on 23 while Australia is fourth with 22 wins among the 29 countries in attendance at the competition.
    Nsikak Etim is the highest ranked Nigeria in the individual event at number 3 with 7 wins and a cumulative points of plus 662 from 8 rounds of games just like Wellington Jighere who is occupying the fourth spot on the table with 7 wins but with a lower cumulative points of 573.
    In 14th position, Eta Karo with 6 wins and plus 370 cumulative points and Bright Idahosa, 18th with 6 wins and plus 221 cumulative points are the other Nigerian touch bearers in the top 20 after the close of play on Day 1.
    Home boy, Will Anderson is leading the table with 8 with and a plus 888 cumulative points ahead of England’s Harshan Lamabadusuriya who is yet to drop a game just like Anderson but has 569 cumulative points.
    This group of Nigerians with 5 wins, Emmanuel Ofidi, Olawale Fashina, Oshivere Avwenegha, Olatunde Oduwole, Ojiru Onota, Prince Osahon Omosefe and Tuoyo Mayuku are separated by cumulative points.
    Recently crown third Governor Duoye Diri national championship and current African Champion, Enoch Nwali had a slow start at the World Championship losing his first four games before he regained his groove to win 3 out of the next 4 games.
    Christian Mensah at number 20 with 5 victories and plus 564 cumulative points is the highest ranked Ghanaian at the championship, George Addo-Quaye, Victor Amartey and Charles Haizel Tachie-Menson a regular face in the Nigeria Scrabble circuit are holding the green gold and red Ghanaian flag with a black star high in Las Vegas while Patrick Mulemena Mpundu, Lubunda Ngala and Justin Chansa are the bullets from Zambia with 4, 3 and 2 wins each.
    One of three South Africa’s representatives at the World Championship Steven Gruzd is on 4 wins at number 69.
    Sierra Leone’s duo of Yusuf Koroma and Emmanuel King with 4 wins each sitting close to each other at number 76 and 77. Another member of Team Sierra Leone, Ibrahim Deen Swaray is also on 4 wins.
    Wenwa Akinyi at the 89 spot with 3 wins and a plus 81 cumulative is the Harambe Star from Kenya, Denis Owor and Chris Ntege are the Cranes from the Pearl of Africa, Uganda that are finding it difficult to fly in Nevada with just 2 wins in 8 games.
    Hilario Serrano of Philippines is first from the rear at the competition.
    Nigeria is being represented at the World Championship by 18 players, the highest by any African country and second only to host United States of America.
    A good number of Nigerians are also participating in the championship under different country’s flags.
    These are the countries in attendance:
    Australia, Canada, England, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Scotland, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States of America and Zambia.
  • Nigeria Scrabble Federation to invite players for World Championship

    Nigeria Scrabble Federation to invite players for World Championship

    The Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), has concluded plans to hold it qualifiers for the forthcoming World Scrabble Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA in July.
    The Federation is likely to invite about thirty players for the qualifiers.
    The Technical Director, of Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), John Curtis, in a press statement made available to journalists, on Tuesday, said the top twenty players in the NSF ranking along with three top female players as well as three wild cards will make the list.
    Curtis, explained that, the yet to named host city for the Qualifiers may likely be giving additional slots of players. The cut off date for selecting the top 20 NSF ranked players is the 22nd of this month.
    Note, that for a player to make the cut, he or she must have played at least 40 NSF rated games between the 1st and 22nd of January, 2023.
    At the end of the three-day Qualifiers, the best ten players will be selected to represent Team Nigeria at the 4th edition of the World Championship, in America from the 22nd-26th of July this year.
    We understand that the NSF holds the right for the final selection of Team Nigeria to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA as well as any other international Championships.
    The Technical Director, stated that the trials will last for three days and it’s ten games per day and each player has twenty five minutes per game instead of the usual twenty minutes.
    Invited players for the Qualifiers must have an international passport valid till the 30th of March 2024 and must submit the a clean, clear and legible photocopy of the data page of their passport to the NSF on 25th of January.
    Invited players are expected to arrive for the Qualifiers on the 25th of this month, while the trials begins the next day by 8am. The Qualifiers will carry ranking points as it’s an NSF rated event.
    The President of Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF), Engineer Toke Aka, told journalists that the very best at the end of the grueling trials will be selected based on an indebt summary, analysis, player by player projection, word power and dexterity as well as game strength, coupled with their experience on the board.
    “We are going to the World Championship with our top ten who are the best hands in the game. We are not just going to Las Vegas for the individual title, we are also heading there to defend our team title too.” The Hydro-Engineer said.
    We also gathered that inclusion of any female player in the final team selection will not be coloured by their gender, but the female player or players must merit it.
    Current African Champion, Enoch Tochukwu Nwali, came fifth at the last World Championship in Goa, India in 2019.
    In 2015, Delta State born, current national number one and recently crowded King of the Jungle, Wellington Jighere, became the first African player to win the World Championship crown. He did that in Australia.

  • El-Classico: Real Madrid to play Barcelona in Las Vegas

    The rivalry between the Spanish teams will continue in the pre season as Real Madrid and Barcelona trade tackles in the North America.

    Barcelona will play a pre-season El Clasico against Real Madrid in the United States next month, the two clubs announced on Friday.

    The much talked about pre-season el-classico is billed to hold in Las Vegas on July 23 as a form of preparation against next season.

    The 65,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas will host the game on July 23.

    Madrid will then take on Club America in San Francisco three days later, before playing Juventus in Los Angeles on July 30.

    Barcelona take on Inter Miami on July 19 and Juventus on July 26 in Dallas. Xavi’s men will finish their US tour against the New York Red Bulls on July 30.

  • Anxiety for 5 Nigerian artistes as Grammy Awards holds April 3 in Las Vegas

    Anxiety for 5 Nigerian artistes as Grammy Awards holds April 3 in Las Vegas

    The popular Grammy awards show will now hold on the 3rd of April 2022 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas USA.

    The awards which was initially billed for January 31st 2022 was postponed due to the ravaging corona virus pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant.

    The Recording Academy on November 23, 2021 released its 86 categories nomination list for the Show initially slated for Los Angeles’ STAPLES Center.

    Five Nigerian artistes, including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Femi Kuti, Made and Tems made the list.

    According to the organisers, there have been some major changes behind the scenes at the Recording Academy to ensure that the Grammy Awards rules and guidelines are transparent and equitable.

    They emphasized the changes go into effect immediately for the 64th Grammy Awards.

    Two brand-new categories will be introduced at the 2022 GRAMMYs Awards show: Best Global Music Performance (Global Music Field) and Best Música Urbana Album (Latin Music Field). This brings the total current number of Grammy Award categories to 86.

    This year, the Recording Academy eliminated nominations review committees in general and genre fields. This change means that nominations in all of the Grammy Awards general and genre fields will now be determined by a majority, peer-to-peer vote of Recording Academy voting members.

    Previously, many of the categories within these fields used highly skilled music peers who represented and voted within their genre communities for the final selection of nominees.

    With this change, the results of Grammy nominations and winners are placed back in the hands of the entire Recording Academy voting membership body, giving further validation to the peer-recognized process.

    Starting this year, Grammy Award Voters may now vote in 10 specific genre field categories within no more than three fields; this is a reduction from 15 specific genre field categories previously. This significant change ensures music creators are voting in the categories in which they are most knowledgeable and qualified.

    Starting in 2021, six existing craft fields will be consolidated into two fields: Presentation Field and Production Field. This change allows the Grammy Awards to better reflect the overlapping peer groups within the voter membership body.

    Former Minister’s daughter bags Grammy nomination

    In either newly consolidated field, voters would have the ability to choose how many categories they feel qualified to vote in, respecting category vote limits, without being excessively limited by the three-field restriction. This benefits the integrity of the GRAMMY Awards by embracing and utilizing the specializations of the voters, without restricting their choice or contributions due to the field limits imposed by the recent reduction of the number of categories voters may vote in.

    Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl said he didn’t understand how Grammy Award winners were chosen.

    His comments came after he was asked about the 2022 nominations, where only one band in the rock music categories has been around for less than 20 years. In an interview with Variety, he responded by trying to put some context to his own experiences of winning awards.

    “I have to be perfectly honest, I don’t know what the process is,” said Grohl, who’s received 16 Grammys across his career and is nominated for another three this year. “I don’t know the mechanics of how it works. But I will say this: Years ago when we were nominated for a Grammy, we were in the same category as Alabama Shakes. I remembered the Alabama Shakes from years ago when we would come to a festival and see them like midday on the side stage. And then the next year we’d come back to the festival and they were headlining the side stage, and then the next year they’re midday on the main stage, and then the next year they’re headlining. When Alabama Shakes beat us for that Grammy, I was so fucking happy to see that they had made it to that point in the most rewarding way possible and that they had that entire experience leading up to that moment.”

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    He went on to say that he was “not a competitive person” when it came to music. “I think there are a lot of fucking great bands out there that deserve the same sort of recognition that a band like ours does,” he noted. “I don’t understand the optics. I don’t understand the industry, how that works. But I know that there is rock ‘n’ roll out there that’s totally valid and totally worthy of these accolades. It’s just up to some process that I don’t understand to find them. I’m not sure.”

    Grohl said he’s never considered the situation surrounding awards. “All I know is that if I’m in a category with AC/DC,” he said, “I’m just going to fucking give it to AC/DC.”

     

  • American actor, Nigerian girlfriend found dead in their Las Vegas home

    American actor, Nigerian girlfriend found dead in their Las Vegas home

    American actor Gregory Tyree Boyce and his Nigerian girlfriend Natalie Adepoju were found dead in their Las Vegas home.

    No causes of death were given, as both cases are still pending.

    The 30-year-old actor who played Tyler Crowley in Twilight and his girlfriend were pronounced dead on May 13.

    Prior to his death, Gregory was “really focused and handling a lot of business”, according to a source. And though he had moved to Las Vegas to help his mother, the insider reveals Gregory “would commute to LA for acting jobs and to see his daughter.”

    Gregory is survived by his 10-year-old daughter Alaya.

    As for his girlfriend, she leaves behind her baby boy Egypt, her father, two brothers and one sister, and a host of family and friends.

  • Ronaldo will not face charges over alleged rape

    Football star Cristiano Ronaldo will not face charges after being accused of sexual assault, US prosecutors say.

    Kathryn Mayorga, 34, had alleged that the Juventus player raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.
    She reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement with the Portuguese star in 2010, but sought to reopen the case in 2018. He denied the allegations.
    In a statement on Monday, Las Vegas prosecutors said the claims could not “be proven beyond reasonable doubt”.
    The Clark County District Attorney’s office said the victim reported an assault in 2009, but refused to state where it had happened or who the attacker was. As a result police were unable “to conduct any meaningful investigation”.
    In August 2018, Las Vegas police investigated the alleged crime again at the request of the victim.
    But the statement added: “Based upon a review of information at this time, the allegations of sexual assault against Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, no charges will be forthcoming.”
    German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, first published a story about the allegation last year.
    It said that in 2010, she reached an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo involving a $375,000 (£288,000) payment for agreeing never to go public with the allegations.
    Ms Mayorga’s lawyer said she had been inspired to re-open the case by the #MeToo movement.
    Ronaldo has not denied that the two met in Las Vegas in 2009, but said that what happened between them was consensual.
    At the time, Ronaldo was playing for Manchester United, and about to join Real Madrid, where he spent the next nine years.
    Ronaldo moved to Juventus last July. He has won the Ballon d’Or – awarded to the world’s best footballer – in 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
    BBC

  • Buhari condemns Las Vegas shooting, condoles with Trump

    The Federal Government has commiserated with the U.S. Government over shootings that claimed scores of innocent lives at a country music concert in the Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, on Oct. 1.

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama in a statement by his Spokesperson Dr. Tope Elias-Fatile on Tuesday in Abuja described the Sunday shooting as ‘senseless’.

    “This dastardly attack that led to the death of 59 persons and left 527 others injured has been reported as the deadliest shooting by a lone man in modern U.S. history.

    “Truly, it was an act of evil. Nigeria commends the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and others for their swift intervention by curtailing the incident, which would have claimed more lives.

    “Nigerian Government stands with the rest of the world in condemning, in the strongest terms, the killing of innocent people who have been deprived of their fundamental right to life.”

    He reiterated government’s conviction that no cause could justify taking innocent lives.

    He added that “the Federal Government commiserates with the families of the victims and prays that Almighty God grants them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

    “The Nigerian government also prays for the quick recovery of the wounded.

    “During this sober moment of tragedy and horror, Nigeria wishes to re-affirm its continued solidarity with the government and good people of the U.S.”

  • Las Vegas: Trump condemns shooting, calls it ‘an act of pure evil’

    President Donald Trump on Monday called for the nation “to find unity and peace,” in the aftermath of one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history, declaring, “Our unity cannot be shattered by evil, our bonds cannot be broken by violence.”

    Speaking somberly from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Mr. Trump condemned the shooting as an “act of pure evil.” He said he would travel to Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with families of the victims, law enforcement officials and others who responded to the fusillade of gunfire that rained down on a country music festival on Sunday night.

    The president said nothing about the gunman or the circumstances of the attack. He instead saluted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, expressed condolences to the victims, and offered prayers for the recovery of the hundreds wounded.

    “We pray for the day when evil is banished, and the innocent are safe from hatred and from fear,” Mr. Trump said, speaking from a teleprompter.

    Acknowledging the senselessness of the act, the president said the nation was understandably groping for meaning. But he urged people not to give in to despair. “Even the most terrible despair can be illuminated by a single ray of hope,” the president said.

     

    “In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has,” Mr. Trump said. “We call upon the bonds that unite us, our faith, our family, and our shared values. We call upon the bonds of citizenship, the ties of community, and the comfort of our common humanity.”

    Earlier Monday morning, Mr. Trump offered his “warmest condolences” in a Twitter post.

     

     

     

  • [UPDATED] Las Vegas Shooting: 50 killed, more than 200 wounded

    A gunman has killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 200 on Monday after shooting near the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay hotel, police updated a press conference.

    Police said they identified the gunman as Stephen Paddock, 64, a local resident, but had no information yet about his motive.

    The death toll indicates the attack is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

    Sherriff Joe Lombardo said the main suspect started firing an automatic rifle from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel at 10:08 pm (0708 GMT) at a crowd of people watching an outdoor music festival during a performance by country singer Jason Aldean.

    He said the shots continued for more than a minute, with hundreds of people taking cover and trying to escape the scene.

    The perpetrator was shot and killed by police in the hotel room shortly afterwards, Lombardo added.

    Though U.S. authorities believed the perpetrator was a “sole actor,” Lombardo said police were also searching for Mari Lou Danley, identified as an Asian woman who was with the suspect at the time of the attack.

    Lombardo said many off-duty police officers attended the country music festival and that at least two had been killed in the incident.

    He warned that the death toll may rise.

  • JUST IN: Las Vegas shooter kills self – Police

    Police have confirmed the death of the gunman who opened fire on concertgoers on the Las Vegas strip on Monday.

    Police said they believe the gunman who opened fire on concertgoers on the Las Vegas strip killed himself before officers broke into his hotel room.

    “We believe the individual killed himself prior to our entry,” Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told a news conference.

    He said officers found “in excess of 10 rifles” upon entering the 32nd-floor hotel room from which a gunman opened fire at concertgoers below, killing at least 50 and injuring hundreds.

     

    Details later…