THE BEST (AND WORST) OF THE 2012 AMAS

We break down the hottest — and weirdest — performances and moments at the 2012 American Music Awards.

The 40th American Music Awards are over and the show proved to be fairly entertaining with no major wardobe malfunctions or shocking moments to gasp over — sadly, for those of us covering the event. However, there were several, well, awkward moments and a few shining ones that left us all nostalgic and giddy.

Dear Taylor Swift: Please get over your long-lost princess act >>

Take a casual read on to find out some of the best highlights of the 2012 American Music Awards. We've included a video to give you the full visual on what you missed at the AMAs.

Kelly Clarkson is old now?

Kelly Clarkson put on a very creative performance that showcased her greatest hits. (Yes, Kelly Clarkson is releasing her greatest hits album; I'm old). The performance started off with her singing to American Idol-like judges and then moved into a rock 'n' roll pillow fight. Clarkson sounded and looked great, and the audience standing and singing — including a camera pan on Glee's Heather Morris — made me reminisce about all the breakups and life drama Kelly Clarkson pulled me through before Adele.

no doubt returned from a very long break to perform at the 2012 American Music Awards. To much dismay, however, the performance was seriously disappointing. I could barely understand Gwen Stefani (although she looked fantastic!) and her stage presence just felt awkward. Even the weird smiles between the band members read something like, "What are we doing here, guys?" 1990s fail.

The weird Samsung product plug

Envelopes are so old you guys, like archaic. The new way to announce winners of awards is to awkwardly show their names on a smartphone in order to drum up visibility for a product. Geez, I wonder how much it cost Samsung to persuade American Music Awards' producers to go for the idea. I'm not saying envelopes can't be replaced, but presenters just seemed unsure of how to handle to delivery of the winner announcement.

So Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber performed together at the American Music Awards for the last half of his performance. If you watch the above video, keep an eye out around 5:53. It was a bit odd, since she only sang one line and attempted to gyrate on Bieber during her part. Awkward much? Afterward, she was gone. Weird.

Did a heartbroken Justin Bieber serenade Selena Gomez during the AMAs? >>

Justin Bieber's heartfelt acceptance speech

Justin Bieber took home Artist of the Year at the 2012 American Music Awards. Bieber brought his mom on stage and genuinely thanked her as he graciously accepted his award going three for three at the AMAs.

Tell us: What were you favorite moments of the 2012 American Music Awards?

17-Year-Old Girl Finally Speaks Out On How Her Father Has Been Molesting Her Since She Was 14

A brave teenage girl today told of how her father raped her in a sickening attack when she visited him for the weekend. Twisted Robert Hawksworth, 54, plied daughter Emily, then 17, with wine at his Derbyshire home before putting her to bed and then climbing in with her.

The teenager had been sexually abused by Hawksworth since the age of 14, but had remained silent until the rape last year, when she reported the crime to the police.

The 18-year-old, whose parents divorced when she was seven, has now waived her right to anonymity to bravely speak out about her ordeal to help other teenagers in similar situations.

‘When I woke up in the morning I felt sick and I felt like something had happened,’ said Emily, who was a virgin until the horrifying attack. ‘I felt violated.

‘I stayed in bed all day and on the Sunday he kept asking me to go to town with him and make me take the Pill. ‘I refused to take it because I did not want to believe what had happened.’

I was blunt with him and I didn’t want the conversation to be brought up. ‘When I went home on the Sunday night, I wasn’t going to say anything to my mum but as soon as I walked in I burst into tears.

‘She knew something had happened so I told her. She was distraught and rang the police.’

On Wednesday Hawksworth, who denied rape and sexual assault, was caged for nine years after a trial at Derby Crown Court.

Emily said she had not initially reported what had happened because she felt scared. ‘I was young at the time,’ she said. ‘I did not know how to handle it.’ Hawksworth, from Findern, Derbyshire, denied raping his daughter when he was arrested, forcing her to give evidence at his trial.

Jailing him, Judge John Burgess told Hawksworth: ‘She was visiting you as she regularly did for the weekend. ‘During the course of that Friday evening you and she were drinking both wine and cider, alcohol you provided. ‘She became very drunk and was very sick. You tended to her and she was put to bed.

‘During the night you came into her room, removed her underwear and had full sex. ‘She was a virgin until that happened. This was a gross breach of trust and the violation of a vulnerable girl.’

Hawksworth split up with Emily’s mother in 2001 after he subjected her to an ‘extremely abusive’ relationship, the court heard. Today Emily’s mother Karen Atalay, 53, described her daughter’s ordeal as ‘terrible and heart-breaking’.

She said: ‘I felt quite guilty. I felt it was my fault. ‘My marriage to him [Robert] was extremely abusive but I was too frightened to tell anybody anything. ‘I’m relieved that at last we have some justice. ‘We have all found it very hard to lead a normal life. ‘I think we have got through the worst but we are just trying to come to terms with what has happened.

‘Emily, who burnt all photographs and gifts given to her by Hawksworth, is having her surname changed by deed poll in a bid to wipe away any trace of her father.

Source: Dailymail

Wow!! Lady Gaga Seductively Showing Off That BOOTY! 11.18.12 | No Comments

In Lady Gaga’s latest visual for “Cake”, she shows us something we all love.. check the picture she shared with her followers in the gallery!

MISSOURI MAN ARRESTED FOR PLOTTING A 'TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN' THEATER SHOOTING

A 23-year-old man from Missouri was arrested on Thursday after confessing he had plans to shoot up a local screening of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 and Walmart store.

Blaec Lammers of Bolivar, Mo -- a small rural community 130 miles southeast of Kansas City --was charged with three felonies in the alleged shooting plot: first-degree assault, making a terroristic threat and armed criminal action. He was thrown into Polk County jail on $500,000 bond.

Lammers' own mother contacted authorities. She became suspicious her son "may have intentions of shooting people" during the opening weekend of the final Twilight film, a police statement read, after Lammers had recently purchased two assault rifles and 400 rounds of ammunition. The weapons were similar to the ones used by James Holmes, the psychotic gunman who opened fire on a Aurora, Colo. movie theater during a Dark Knight showing this past July. Twelve people were killed and several others were injured in that attack.

Lammers, who has a history of mental illness and was "off of his medication," told police that he had purchased tickets for a Sunday Twilight screening in Bolivar and planned to shoot the people inside the theater. He then planned to move to a Walmart store nearby where he would "just start shooting people at random." If he ran out of bullets, Lammers planned to "just break the glass where the ammunition is being stored and get some more and keep shooting until police arrived," a statement from police read.

The two firearms Lammers had bought earlier in the week appeared to have been purchased legally.

Rihanna Goes Pant-less in Paris for Day 4 of Her 777 Tour

 

there's no slowing down Rihanna!

After the third day of her 777 tour in Stockholm, she may have hit up Stockholm's after party at 4:30 a.m., but that doesn't mean Ri-Ri wasn't prepared for Paris.

The French capital stop marked the fourth day of her tour in which Rihanna once again switched up her style. After making a big impression on Stockholm by going bra-less, in Paris she opted for only an oversized shirt and, yes, no bottoms!

Get all the details on Rihanna's Stockholm performance!

The singer paired the look with long black stiletto boots, telling the crowd on arrival: "I couldn't wait to get here, honestly, I couldn't wait to get to Paris. I love you guys, you have the best energy in the world.

And she wasn't kidding—Paris proved to match Rihanna's wattage as the crowd never stopped singing, often picking up the lyrics where Rihanna left off with one fan even opening an umbrella during Rihanna's "Umbrella." Ri-Ri reciprocated the love, giving a shout out to Rihanna Navy.

However, all wasn't smooth sailing for the singer. At one point, she appeared to have an earpiece problem, yanking it out and angrily motioning backstage while one of her techs tried to run out and hand her a new piece, which she pushed away.

Another issue Rihanna may have run into? Paris' strict noise ordinances.

Speaking of her no bottoms look—check out these other styles of Rihanna's!

The City of Light limits how loud and late a performance can be, requiring Rihanna to finish her peformance by 10:30 p.m. Yet, despite starting her set at 9:40, she played straight through until quiting time, opting to skip her acoustic set, telling the crowd: "It's something we haven't done yet, but we're going to skip a section."

However, her Parisian fans got a surprise with the performance of her hit "Stay."

And, as she has after each show, the singer exited the stage on the shoulders of her security guard, while she reaches out to fans and poses for photos.

Talk about a performer!

Reuters Exclusive: Video shows Nigerian troops shooting captives

 A video obtained by Reuters shows Nigerian troops shooting unarmed captives in broad daylight by the roadside in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the bastion of an Islamist insurgency. Nigeria's military has long been accused of human rights abuses, including summary executions, in the troubled north but there has been no video

proof since the first crackdown on the Islamist sect Boko Haram in 2009.

A spokesman for the army said it was "impossible" for Nigerian troops to do such a thing.

Boko Haram is fighting to carve an Islamic state out of Nigeria, and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks, many of them from the security forces, since beginning the uprising three years ago.

The video was taken by a soldier who said he was present while the shootings took place two weeks ago. The soldier, who requested anonymity, passed it to Reuters on Sunday.

In the grainy footage, a man sits down next to three or four corpses piled together on the roadside. He pleads for his life while soldiers shout at him and a crowd looks on a few metres away. "Please don't fire," the man says in pidgin English.

He tries to stand up and get onto the back of a pick up truck to the left. A Nigerian soldier shouts "come out", and drags him off it, shoving him on the ground.

One of them kicks him in the head. Then he and another soldier aim assault rifles at him. Four gunshots are heard and the man lies still next to the others.

Nigerian army spokesman Colonel Mohammed Yerima said he had not seen the video but that the events must have been staged.

"How can they do that? It is not possible. This is the Boko Haram tactics," He said. "They will do the killing, say it's the military and then Amnesty International and so on will blame us. It's not possible for Nigerian troops to act in this way."

Nigerian forces have repeatedly denied accusations of such abuses, saying the only times they kill suspected militants is during combat. Those captured are questioned or freed, they say.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Michael Posner said on Friday that the United States was seriously concerned by reported abuses committed by Nigerian security forces in their efforts to quell the insurgency.

Such alleged abuses usually occur shortly after members of the security forces have been killed or wounded in an attack by the sect. The killings in this video happened after a bomb attack on a military patrol further up the road, the soldier who provided the footage said.

Another video from the same source, which he said was taken after the executions, shows soldiers piling up about two dozen bodies in two bloody heaps on the ground from the back of a military truck.

The videos could spur renewed calls for Nigeria's security forces to change their approach to the insurgency, which critics say is prompting desperate, angry youths to join Boko Haram and encouraging the northern population to shelter them.

That uprising was sparked by a military crackdown on the sect in which hundreds were killed, including its founder and spiritual leader Mohammed Yusuf, who died in police custody.

President Goodluck Jonathan has been accused of treating the conflict as a security problem that can be solved with force alone, rather than addressing the root causes of the insurgency.

Amnesty International issued a report this month in which it said human rights abuses committed by security forces were fuelling the conflict they were meant to end.

The report said a "significant number" of people accused of links with Boko Haram had been executed after arrest without due process, while hundreds were detained without charge or trial and many of those arrested disappeared or were later found dead.

The Nigerian military rejected that report, including accusations that they execute suspects, as "biased and mischievous."

From UK Prison, James Ibori buys Full Page in Nigerian Newspaper to wish Diepreye Alamieyeseigha a Happy Birthday

Yesterday was the 60th birthday of the former governor of Bayelsa state, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and in a move which has been described as  preposterous by most Nigerians, he received a birthday message from imprisoned former Governor James Onafefe Ibori of Delta State  who is currently serving his jail term in the UK.

To congratulate him, Ibori bought a full-page advert in a Nigerian newspaper.  Ibori’s birthday message to Alamieyeseigha appeared on page 16 of The Nation Newspaper of Saturday 17th November 2012, which is owned by former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State.

Like Ibori, Alamieyeseigha has had a history of corrupt activities. In July 2007, he pleaded guilty to a six- count corruption charge before a Nigerian court and was sentenced to two years in prison on each count. He also once jumped bail in the UK in December 2005 and absconded by allegedly disguising as a woman. He was also charged with money laundering when the London Metropolitan Police found about N253 million in cash in his London home. He is still a wanted man in the UK.

The message described  Alamieyeseigha as the “Gov-General of the Ijaw Nation” and was signed “Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Former Governor of Delta State”. In the four paragraph statement, Ibori sympathized with  Alamieyeseigha over the latter’s ostensible persecution. He encouraged the former Bayelsa governor to seek solace in the purported confidence of Ijaw people in him, and expressed confidence that he would be vindicated in future. He concluded by wishing that Alamieyeseigha would enjoy the “rich and rewarding life” he has succeeded in making for himself.

Does anyone also think this is  preposterous?