COUPLE ALLEGEDLY LOCKED UP KIDS 4,5 AND 6 FOR MONTHS WITH VERY LITTLE FOOD

Prosecutors say three young children in rural Pennsylvania are lucky to be alive after police recently rescued them from a locked room in their home where they’d allegedly been kept for three months — wasting away — with no heat and little food.

“The door to the room was locked from the outside and the paint on the wall was peeled off at the height of the kids,” Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico tells PEOPLE. “We theorize they’d been peeling it off in order to eat it.”

“This is a horrific case that almost led to the death of three children,” Marsico says.

The children — ages 4, 5 and 6 — were taken from the home of Brandi and Joshua Weyant in Halifax Township, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 16 and rushed to a nearby hospital.

Two of the siblings were days away from death, authorities say.

The Weyants are being held in jail on $1 million bail and are charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy, false imprisonment, unlawful restraint and child endangerment.

The couple’s court-appointed attorney did not return phone calls from PEOPLE.

All three of the children were severely malnourished, underweight and, according to the court documents, their skin was covered with urine, feces, animal hair and dirt.

“They were allowed to essentially waste away in a locked room without any nourishment while, at the same time, animals in the house were well fed,” says Marsico, who adds that the couple is looking at “years in prison” if convicted of the charges against them.

Authorities first became aware of the situation at the couple’s home after a social services worker visited the residence on Dec. 15 to check in on an occupant in the house. Marsico says that when the worker spotted one of the children, they immediately sensed something was wrong and the police were contacted.

Brandi, 38, allegedly blamed the abuse on her husband, according to court documents. She told investigators that no one besides she and Joshua had seen the children since this summer, the documents allege — explaining that “she couldn’t leave the house with them ” once they “began to look as they do now.”

Brandi also allegedly told caseworkers that she didn’t believe any of the children are “biologically” related to her or her husband, even though they have their last name.

“Police are currently trying to determine who the parents are,” Marsico says.

When questioned by investigators, Joshua, 33, allegedly displayed “no emotion of any kind” after being shown photographs of the malnourished kids, according to the criminal complaint, insisting simply that he “didn’t want the children overfed.”

The couple’s next court date has yet to be scheduled. It was not immediately clear if they have entered a plea to their charges.

The children, who are now being cared for by a foster parent who is a nurse, were eventually released from the hospital, but one of them had to be rushed back to the facility in order to receive further treatment.

“They still have a way to go medically, physically and who knows what the developmental impacts will be on them,” Marsico says. “They’re young kids, but they’re old enough to know the hell they were put through.”

-------YAHOO! NEWS

IPOB BLASTS YORUBAS SUPPORTING SECRET TRIAL FOR NNAMDI KANU

NNAMDI KANU ARRIVING COURT

Leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has condemned, in strong terms, those advocating that their leader, Nnamdi Kanu should go under secret trial as ruled by Justice Binta Nyako. Condemning especially some Yoruba who have been using the social media to say that it was meet that Kanu should be tried in camera, IPOB asks if they would have supported a secret trial for the late Yoruba leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

A statement signed by IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, in condemning those supporting secret trial for Nnamdi Kanu to learn from history and stop supporting evil. Here is the full statement of the organisation. 

“The indigenous people of Biafra IPOB worldwide and it’s leadership condemn those Nigerians supporting secret trial for mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case. “To all Yoruba and other Nigerian commentators supporting secret trial of Nnamdi Kanu. Stop your infantile digression and address this simple question. “Was Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s treason trial, mind you not treasonable felony, conducted in public or secret? Another question you must answer is this, was the then Action Group and today’s IPOB the same? Which of the two do you consider more dangerous, in view how the former spread anarchy through major Yoruba towns at the time? I put these questions to you in the hope that you are a student of history. 

“Some of you e-rats who forget that there is a discipline called history. It records major events of our lives and preserves such for posterity. “Chief Obafemi Awolowo was charged, tried in the open and convicted of the more serious charge of treason which is a capital offence. He was dumped in Calabar prison until Ojukwu released him. 

“Yes Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu an Igbo man and leader of Biafra granted pardon to Awolowo and released him to Yoruba people. It wasn’t Hausa Fulani North that released Chief Awolowo, it was a Biafran. “These are verifiable historical facts cleverly hidden by the hegemonic forgot to tell since the release of chief Awolowo, hence all of you e-rats continue to wallow in ignorance till date. 

Ojukwu and Awolowo (right)

“This is IPOB! We deconstruct our enemies with facts and figures that is why Nnamdi Kanu’s court case is a blessed opportunity for we Biafrans to lay bare before the world and human conscience everything wrong with the contraption called Nigeria and why it should not be one. “Some of you who are internet rats in support of secret trial must know that the godfather of Yoruba politics Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a convicted felon and that is a tag Nnamdi Kanu can never be associated with. “If Chief Awolowo that committed treason was tried in the public with full media attendance, how much more Nnamdi Kanu answering to the lesser charge of treasonable felony. 

“This is why white people assert with some degree of accuracy that black people cannot reason. This hypocritical attitude of some of you social commentators is indicative of the underlying pathological hatred you people have towards Igbo, which is largely driven by envy. “Our question to those who claim to be social media practitioners is this, would you have supported a secret trial for your Chief Obafemi Awolowo? “Within your predictable answer lies the reason why Nnamdi Kanu and his supporters don’t want anything to do with Nigeria. 

“You are vindictive, spiteful race of envious and cowards you are. Then why are you in support of secret trial for Kanu? Do you now see how terrible you saboteurs are as human beings? No wonder Hausa Fulani took Kwara State nobody say anything. May Chukwu Okike Abiama have mercy on you,” the organisation declares.


-----VANGUARD

TRANSGENDER BLACK MAN SLASHED WITH A KNIFE AFTER GIVING UP HIS TRAIN SEAT TO HIS HISPANIC FEMALE ATTACKER

A trans-gendered black man was slashed multiple times on a subway train Christmas Day after he offered his seat to a woman who refused to sit next to him because he was black, police said.

The 44-year-old victim was headed home on a northbound 4 train in Harlem on Sunday night when two female cousins entered the train car and one took a seat next to the victim, sources said.

The victim then slid over and offered his seat to 30-year-old Stephanie Pazmino, the cousin who was left standing, so that she can sit down next to her relative, according to cops.

“I don’t want your seat,” snapped Pazmino, who then turned to her cousin and stated in Spanish, “I don’t want to sit next to a black person,” sources said.

A verbal dispute then ensued between the victim and Pazmino, who is Hispanic, and the victim got up from his seat and sat across from the two cousins.

As the train pulled into the 125th Street station around 11 p.m., Pazmino walked up to the victim and slashed him several times in the left side of his face and stabbed him in his left arm, cops said.

A good Samaritan on the train then intervened and escorted the bleeding victim off the train and onto the platform.

Police showed up and arrested Pazmino, who was charged with assault as a hate crime, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon, cops said.

Paramedics rushed the victim to Harlem Hospital, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Cops recovered the knife at the scene.

Police interviewed Pazmino’s cousin, who confirmed the account.

-----NEW YORK POST

SUICIDE BOMBER ATTACKS MARKET IN MAIDUGURI NORTHEAST NIGERIA

 A suicide bomber attacked a cattle market on Monday in Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit in the seven-year insurgency waged by Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

The police said the female bomber, who struck the Kasuwan Shanu market in the central district of Kasuwa, was the only person killed in the blast at about 08:40 a.m. (0740 GMT).

In a statement, police said a second woman who had a bomb was "lynched by an irate mob in the vicinity". Security forces later detonated her device.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack but it bears the hallmarks of Boko Haram and comes days after President Muhammadu Buhari said the jihadist group's key camp in its last remaining enclave had fallen.

Buhari said the fall of the camp in the group's Sambisa forest base after an offensive by Nigeria's army in the former colonial game reserve marked the "final crushing of Boko Haram".

Despite having been pushed back to the forest by the army in recent months, the group still stages bombings in the northeast and in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon. A suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber killed two people in Cameroon on Sunday.

The Islamist militant group has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic state governed by a harsh interpretation of sharia law in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation.

----REUTERS

CHRISTMAS BANNED IN NORTH KOREA- LEADER KIM JONG-UN WANTS HIS GRANDMA WORSHIPED INSTEAD

KIM JONG-UN

North Korea’s tubby tyrant Kim Jong Un wants the few Christians in the hermit state to spread cheer only to celebrate his grandma, Kim Jong-suk — not the birth of Jesus.

Jong-suk — who was born on Christmas Eve in 1919 — was an anti-Japanese guerrilla and Communist activist, wife of North Korea’s first dictator, Kim Il Sung, and former leader Kim Jong Il’s mother.

Many pay homage to the “Sacred Mother of the Revolution,” who died under mysterious circumstances in 1949, by visiting her tomb.

The daffy dictator is so obsessed with banning Christmas that he even flipped out in 2014 when he found out that South Korea planned to erect a huge Christmas tree along the border. Amid threats of all-out war, the tree was never put up.

Despite his hatred for Christmas trees, they can be found in the capital of Pyongyang — especially in upscale shops and restaurants — but are largely stripped of religious symbols.

Pyongyang used to have more Christians than any other city in Korea — and even had a seated Catholic bishop. All that changed by the early 1950s, when authorities clamped down on all Christian activities in the country.

Human rights groups estimate that between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians are locked up in prisons that have been compared to concentration camps simply for their faith.

-----NEW YORK POST

OPENLY GAY MUSIC ICON, GEORGE MICHAEL DIES AT 53

GEORGE MICHAEL

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter George Michael — who went from squeaky-clean pop hits with Wham! to a successful solo career marred by sex and drug scandals — died Sunday. He was 53.

His death came 32 years after Michael and former singing partner Andrew Ridgeley released the yuletide hit “Last Christmas,” which since then has repeatedly run up the charts in the UK.

Over the decades, Michael has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide — and become an icon for gay rights after coming out in 1998.

“It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period,” said a statement from Michael’s management, which identified heart failure as the cause of death.

An ambulance was called to a property in the village of Goring, about 50 miles west of London, around 8:45 a.m. EST, according to the BBC.

Cops don’t consider Michael’s death suspicious, the BBC reported.

WHAM! - Michael and Andrew in 1984

Michael, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in 1963, shot to fame as part of 1980s music duo Wham!, which scored a No. 1 hit with “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” The song’s video featured Michael dancing in outfits that included blue-and-white short shorts, a long-sleeve pink T-shirt and yellow, fingerless gloves.

“Heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend Yog,” Former Wham! band mate Andrew Ridgeley tweeted following Michael’s death. “Me, his loved ones, his friends, the world of music, the world at large. 4ever loved. A xx.”

Shortly before Wham! split, Michael started his solo career and quickly rose to megastardom with the single “Careless Whisper” — which reached No. 1 on the charts in more than 20 countries.

His first album, “Faith,” landed the heartthrob a 1988 Grammy for Album of the Year, just a year after he and soul legend Aretha Franklin shared a Grammy for the duet “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).”

But his image took repeated hits, including a scandal over his bust for “engaging in a lewd act” in a Beverly Hills men’s room in 1998, which led him to reveal he was gay.

George shows off boyfriend Fadi Fawaz in 2012

Michael’s admission helped boost his popularity, and he also used his arrest as fodder for a song, “Outside,” and accompanying video poking fun at himself.

He was one of the first music stars to come out, and became a patron of Elton John’s AIDS charity. In 2011 he tweeted, “I HAVE NEVER AND WILL NEVER APOLOGISE FOR MY SEX LIFE! GAY SEX IS NATURAL, GAY SEX IS GOOD! NOT EVERYBODY DOES IT, BUT…..HA HA!” in a coy reference to the lyrics in his song “I Want Your Sex.”

Elton John said he is "in deep shock". Elton, who famously collaborated with George for the 1992 hit, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", posted a tribute to his longtime friend on Instagram.

"I am in deep shock. I have lost a beloved friend - the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist. My heart goes out to his family and all of his fans. @GeorgeMichael #RIP."

George Michael with Elton John (right)

After his late-’90s problems, his trouble would continued in London in 2006, when cops found him slumped over the steering wheel of his car near the famed Hyde Park Corner in the city’s West End. He was arrested again a couple years later for possessing crack cocaine while reportedly cruising for sex in London’s Hampstead Heath park.

In a 2009 interview with the Guardian — during which he repeatedly rolled joints — Michael denied being a drug addict, but admitted: “I’m surprised that I’ve survived my own dysfunction, really.”

In 2010, he spent two months in the slammer after crashing his Range Rover into a photo-printing shop in North London while high on pot and anti-anxiety medication.

He later cheated death from pneumonia, spending weeks in intensive care after complaining of chest pains just two hours before a scheduled concert in Vienna, Austria, on Nov. 21, 2011.

In a 2014 interview, Michael told the Scottish Sun newspaper that his brush with death from pneumonia had led him to quit smoking pot, saying, “I decided to change my lie and I haven’t touched it for well over a year and a half.”

Months before his death, he appeared overweight and unrecognizable, judging by the last known pictures.

The shocking images of Michael showed him with a bloated face and heavy frame.

Last known picture of George Michael showing his weight problems

BLACK CHRISTMAS FOR RUSSIA AS RUSSIAN PLANE WITH 92 PEOPLE ON BOARD CRASHES INTO THE BLACK SEA

Rescuers at the crash site recovers a body

A Russian plane headed to an air base in Syria with 92 people aboard, including members of the world-famous Russian army choir, crashed into the Black Sea on Sunday minutes after taking off from the city of Sochi, Russia's Defense Ministry said. There appeared to be no survivors.

President Vladimir Putin went on television to declare a nationwide day of mourning Monday.

By Sunday afternoon, rescue teams had already recovered several bodies from the site of the crash of the Tu-154, which belonged to the Defense Ministry and was taking the Alexandrov Ensemble to a New Year's concert at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia. Ships, helicopters, drones and divers searched the area for more victims.

A total of 84 passengers and eight crew members were on the plane when it disappeared from radars two minutes after taking off in good weather. Emergency crews found fragments about 1.5 kilometers (less than one mile) from shore. There was no immediate word on the cause.

"We will conduct a thorough investigation into the reasons and will do everything to support the victims' families," Putin said in a televised statement.

Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense affairs committee at the upper house of Russian parliament, said the crash could have been caused by a technical malfunction or a crew error, but he believes it could not have been terrorism because the plane was operated by the military.

"I totally exclude" the idea of an attack bringing down the plane, he said in remarks carried by state RIA Novosti news agency.

The passenger list released by the Defense Ministry included 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, among them its leader, Valery Khalilov. The ensemble, often referred to as the Red Army choir, is the official choir of the Russian military and also includes a band and a dance company.

The choir sang "Get Lucky" at the opening of the 2014 Winter Olympics Russia hosted in Sochi, becoming an instant online sensation.

"Losing such a great collective all at once is a great tragedy," Moscow city's culture department head Alexander Kibovsky said, according to RIA Novosti.

The military has repeatedly flown groups of Russian singers and artists to perform at Hemeimeem, which serves as the main hub for the Russian air campaign in Syria conducted since September 2015. New Year's is the main holiday for most Russians, and the Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7 is also widely celebrated.

Also on board was Yelizaveta Glinka, a Russian doctor who has won wide acclaim for her charity work that included missions to war zones in eastern Ukraine and Syria. Her foundation said that Glinka was accompanying a shipment of medicines for a hospital in Syria.

Putin presented Glinka with an award earlier this month.

"We never feel sure that we will come back alive," she said at the Kremlin award ceremony. "But we are sure that kindness, compassion and charity are stronger than any weapon."

Nine Russian journalists from three Russian television stations were also among the passengers.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was personally coordinating the rescue efforts, and Putin has received official reports on the incident.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described the crash as a "terrible tragedy."

The Tu-154 is a Soviet-built three-engine airliner designed in the late 1960s. More than 1,000 have been built, and they have been used extensively by carriers in Russia and worldwide.

In recent years, Russian airlines have replaced their Tu-154s with more modern planes, but the military and some other government agencies in Russia have continued to use them.

While noisy and fuel-guzzling by modern standards, the plane has been popular with crews that appreciate its maneuverability and ruggedness.

"It's an excellent plane, which has proven its reliability during decades of service," veteran pilot Oleg Smirnov said in televised remarks.

The plane that crashed was built in 1983, and underwent repairs in 2014, according to the Defense Ministry.

In April 2010, a Tu-154 carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others crashed while trying to land at a sporadically used military airport in Smolensk in western Russia, killing everyone on board. Investigations by both Polish and Russian experts blamed pilot error in bad weather conditions, but Polish authorities have launched a new probe.

WHY I SLEPT WITH A MARRIED MAN AND WHAT I LEARNT- TRUE LIFE EXPERIENCES

Ask any heartbroken partner from a relationship split apart due to infidelity: Affairs can be bad news. That being said, they’re also quite complicated, yet often blamed on the evil “home-wrecking” woman, who surely must be out to steal someone’s man and cause as much damage as possible. While indeed some women who sleep with married men end up catching feelings and wanting to have a “normal” relationship, it's not always done with cruel intentions. “The forbidden and the taboo is one of the biggest turn-ons for people. They’re not trying to steal him, or take him, but it’s appealing that he is unavailable,” says Dr. Michael Aaron, a kink-friendly therapist and author of Modern Sexuality. “She’s thinking that being with this guy is ideal because he’s not going to want more from her because he’s already is married.”

For other women, while they may feel uncomfortable about the man’s marriage, their own intimacy issues draw them to someone unavailable. “You may have an individual who wants deeper intimacy, but for whatever attachment reasons, they may be afraid,” explains Aaron. From enjoying no-strings-attached sex to simply falling for a friend and coworker, three women shared with Cosmopolitan.com why they slept with married men, and what it taught them about themselves.

Paula*, 28, Philadelphia

"I’m a former marketing communications manager turned performer and entertainer. I met 'Mr. Married' about a year and a half ago when my friend asked me to play keyboard in his new band, and the man was the bassist.

I was drawn to him because he was super funny, cool, stylish, sweet, generous, kind, caring, creative, and artistic, not to mention quirky and adventurous. There was obviously chemistry, but I was a little uncomfortable at first about him being married, which continued into our relationship. He assured me that his wife was cool with it and that they had a 'don’t ask don’t tell' relationship. I suggested we tell her multiple times, but he wouldn’t have the courage. Finally, I gave up and believed him when he said she would be ok with it.

When we spent time together, it was mostly in parks outside of the city, or in our practice studio that we shared and played music in for a few months. It was nice that there wasn’t that pressure of being in a fully committed relationship, and that allowed us to let loose sexually. At the same time keeping it under wraps made me feel awful, like he was ashamed of me, or us. I trusted him when he said that their relationship was 'monogamish' so I never felt like I was a home-wrecker per se, but I did carry around guilt about the decision he made to keep it hidden from his wife.

When he eventually told her, it turned out she wasn’t OK with it. The relationship ended awfully. He has told me not to message or contact him again, and I haven’t seen him since. It’s been almost a year now. I still carry a lot of guilt about it all, although I’m currently in a committed monogamous relationship with a man who is not married and am super happy.

Regarding the 'home-wrecker' stereotype, I don’t find it accurate. Situations are a lot more nuanced than they appear to be. Sure, some people in the world don’t have the best intentions, but I do believe they are few and far between. I think these women, myself included, truly believe that they can make this work without anyone getting hurt and they truly do care not only for the husband but also his family. It’s very rarely ill-intentioned."

Sally*, 28, Virginia

"I met this guy on a work trip about three years ago. Our relationship started off with him being my mentor and helping me at work. Very few people knew that he was married. He never wore a wedding ring.

He's very much an alpha male. He was smart, confident, and sure of himself. He's also 10 years older than me, which made me look up to him. At work, he gave me praise on my performances, which made me feel validated in my role and made me feel more competent. He was very traditional, and I felt safe with him. Our relationship went from mentor to friend to lover.

It was after our first kiss he told me that he was married. I couldn't believe it. It was like, With all this time that we spend together, how could you have a wife? Then he started explaining how she was verbally abusive and I felt bad for him. I rationalized his wife away. There were times when I felt like it was wrong and a line was crossed. He brought me to the house he lived in with his wife (she moved out and across the country) and that made me uncomfortable. I saw evidence of the fighting they had (holes in the wall, broken banisters), and I just wanted to take care of him.

His unavailability was a turn-on, the danger of it all. But it was upsetting because we couldn't do normal couple things. I met some of his friends, but he never wanted to meet mine.

It ended when I quickly learned that all the things he accused his wife of doing, he did the same. He was verbally, mentally, and emotionally abusive toward me. He almost backhanded me in the face once during a disagreement, but I blocked him, and then he started crying. He drank entirely too much and when that happened, all he did was pick a fight. He tried to talk me into getting plastic surgery and would say I was 'unhinged' when I got too upset. It took me a while, but I realized that he was the crazy one.

Ultimately I broke up with him and then came back because of his crying and apologizing, only for him to pick an argument with me a week later and say that we were no longer together. I realized that his ego was bruised when I told him I didn't want to be with him, so he made up with me just to break up, so he could have the last word.

After we broke up, he tried to repair things with his wife, and that didn't work, and I think he realized very quickly that no sane woman would deal with his enormous ego for how little he gives in return. I can't stand him, and he's nothing but a constant reminder of all the mistakes I made and how low my self-esteem was at the time to have put up with him for so long."

Hope*, 26, Boston

Six years after graduating high school, I had an affair with my former gym teacher. In high school, all of the girls drooled over him; he was this tall, buff guy, with bright blue eyes and the ex-NFL look. The idea that I was a student and the age difference and taboo made me want it even more. When I was 17, I remember fantasizing that we'd hook up in his office after field hockey practice. We all knew he was married, and there were rumors that he was having his first child with his wife right around the time I graduated. Still, I flirted and felt that little fire when we made eye contact, but I thought nothing of it since I was about to head off to college. When I was 18, he was only 30 to 32, so he was prime age of sexiness.

Years later, I was living in Boston and decided to LinkedIn-friend him. I was shocked when I got a message back from him saying, 'Thanks for the request ;) looking good.' We went back and forth via LinkedIn messaging, and he escalated things to asking me if I'd 'come by my old high school during school hours wearing my old field hockey skirt.' It was this dreamy, unreal situation. This was the man who used to give me a B+ for not running fast enough in gym class.

He met my friends and I (who also went to high school with us) out at a Chinese restaurant. Ballsy. I remember getting into his car with car seats in the back. He acted like he was this single guy completely unashamed of running around the city with a former student.

The affair lasted for about four months. We had sex a couple of times. It was incredibly built up from what I thought it'd be. He was smaller, and nothing felt full inside of me. He turned out to be a huge freak in bed, but I'd still take random sex with a guy my own age. The actual physical part of it was far less gratifying than the fantasy. This guy has a wife who is a fitness model and two kids. He especially got off on the twisted idea of having sex in his bed at home, going so far as to sneak me in when his wife was out training. He'd talk to me about wanting to see me out in a restaurant when he was with his wife, and meet me in the bathroom. At first, I felt evil and uncomfortable. I was an accessory, and I acted like one - I was young and at the time didn’t really know better. I could have said no, but I was in the pits of my own life, so to have some guy falling over me who my high school friends and I once fantasized over was like being on top of the crowd. I lacked the grounding to realize this six years later, when many people moved on past high school. They forgot this gym teacher we all revolved around, and the idea became pathetic.

I didn't like the guy he became: mushy, clingy, and desperately trying to evade his current married life and invade mine. I got so turned off by that desire he had to be 'cool' and 'sexy.' It detracted from the hot, steamy feeling of having an affair with a confident, mysterious married man. He’s a washed-up gym teacher who is awful to his wife and two sons. I can do better."

*Names have been changed.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity

-------YAHOO! LIFESTYLE

SNUB OF THE YEAR: WIZ KID SNUBS EVA ALLORDIA'S BOYFRIEND CEASAR AT THE HEADIES (VIDEO)

Wiz Kid arriving the Headies

In the video below, Wiz Kid completely snubbed Ceaser, Eva Allordia's boyfriend who was sitting beside her and had stood up to hug him. Wiz Kid who had just arrived late to the event went to Eva, his fellow artiste and hugged her while oblivious of her man who was left smiling sheepishly.

A video posted by MojyShow Media (@mojyshowmedia) on Dec 22, 2016 at 8:36pm PST

STILL ON THE HEADIES: NIGERIANS REACT

Here are some the reaction of Nigerians to The Headies which held last night in Lagos.

This year's headies is like nigeria's crackers biscuit the one in the yellow packet...dryness at its peak!😔😔😔#headies2016

— RACHAEL (@berrykonedo) December 22, 2016

After headies 2015 I knew the credibility of the Headies is to be question, I thought headies needs time to restructure for a come back.

— Victor Ejechi (@VsixEjechi) December 23, 2016

The show wasn't that bad afterall...
Highlights of the night:
2Baba's performance
Wizkid's entry
Falz as Bobrisky #Headies #Headies2016

— Patua's Haberdashery (@arapatua) December 23, 2016

Headies can't spell again.!!! I give up #headies2016 #Headies 😿😿😿 pic.twitter.com/3dEAs2WXQb

— A (@234_niggs) December 23, 2016

Next #headies should be done virtually whilst winners receive their prizes via jumia. We enjoyed it better online #headies2016

— IG: LILY_CHILY (@Lily_chily1) December 23, 2016

#headies2016: The Headies shouldn't even rent any venue next year. Let them just deliver the awards to the winners via Konga!!!

— Marcus (@TayoElujulo) December 23, 2016

#Headies need to plead with egbon olamide....headies was so ordinary without him today #ybnl

— Aremu James Oladayo (@oluwaD_1) December 23, 2016

When you switch to HipTV to watch The Headies and your dad thinks you have spoilt the TV #Headies2016 pic.twitter.com/LeF8SLbPth

— Anderson (@LazyWrita) December 22, 2016

THE HEADIES 2016: THE MOST LACK-LUSTRE EDITION YET

The Hip Hop World Organization owned by young Nigerian entrepreneur Mr. Ayo Animashaun are the organisers of the Headies, an annual music award ceremony which seeks to reward and encourage talents in the industry. The Headies which started off originally as The Hip Hop World Awards in 2006  and later got a name change, prides itself to be "Nigeria's Grammies" .And it seems to have been holding its own in this regard as it remains the "biggest music award event" in Africa perhaps. This is despite the dwindling economic fortunes of the country and the attendant obvious reduction of sponsorship.

The Headies which held this year's edition last night has had its fair share of problems, hiccups and controversies as is expected for any emerging business (its just 10 years old). However, by now a great deal of improvements were expected to be seen by many in terms of organization, delivery and credibility. But many have expressed their displeasure at what went down yesterday at the event. There was still lack of adequate coordination between awards and performances leading to long awkward breaks.

The much expected improvements which the organizers traditionally promise every year are still not there. Instead there seem to be a downward trend raising fears among music lovers and artistes who are always looking forward to this event as to what the future holds.

The stage in a previous edition

The event was almost marred by the conspicuous absence of most of the notable players in the industry perhaps as a fallout of the "credibility questions" raised by a disgruntled artiste on stage last year who used some abusive language on a fellow artiste and the organizers, dropped the microphone on the floor and stomped off the stage. The angry musician/producer Olamide was vexed that his protege Lil Kesh did not win the 'Next Rated Award" which comes with a brand new car prize and is considered the "juiciest" category. The award instead went to Don Jazzy"s (another producer's) artiste Reekado Banks.

So it was with keen interest that observers, fans and artistes were watching to see what will happen in this category especially after the organisers had earlier announced they had disqualified one of the most favoured-to-win nominees, Tekno Miles for not "participating in pre-event activities".

2016 EDITION'S HOSTS

With the "disqualification" of Tekno the next in line should have been Humblesmith another nominee whose hit single "Osinachi" has been featuring prominently in the Nigerian airwaves. But it was not to be as the organisers instead went for a relatively unheard and unknown Mr. Eazi! That surely was one of the numerous low points of the evening.

Perhaps the only high points were the two occassions Dare Art Alade came out to speak while receiving his awards (Recording of the Year and Best RNB Single) for the song "Pray for Me" and when Phyno came out for his Song of the Year award for the song "Fada, Fada" though he spoilt the hype with his "no speech" gesture after walking all the way to the stage to receive the award.

In all last night's edition of the Headies has gone down as the most lack-lustre edition and it is our hope and prayer that this past one will remain the worst Headies ever and that subsequent editions of the "Nigerian Grammies" will only get better and better.

BREAKING: BERLIN TRUCK ATTACK SUSPECT SHOT DEAD BY POLICE IN ITALY

The suspect

The Tunisian man suspected of carrying out the Berlin truck attack was shot dead by police in Milan on Friday, Italy confirmed.

Anis Amri, 24, was accused of killing 12 people and wounding dozens more in Monday's assault on a Christmas market, which has been claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Italy's interior minister Marco Minniti told a press conference in Rome that Amri had been fatally shot after firing at police who had stopped his car for a routine identity check around 3:00 am (0200 GMT).

Identity checks had established "without a shadow of doubt" that the dead man was Amri, the minister said.

Amri had been missing since escaping after Monday's attack in central Berlin. He had links to Italy, having arrived in the country from his native Tunisia in 2011.

Shortly after his arrival in Italy he was sentenced to a four-year prison term for starting a fire in a refugee centre. He was released in 2015 and made his way to Germany.

German police said Amri steered the 40-tonne truck in the attack after finding his identity papers and fingerprints inside the cab, next to the body of its registered Polish driver who was killed with a gunshot to the head.

A Europe-wide wanted notice had offered a 100,000-euro ($104,000) reward for information leading to Amri's arrest.

In Tunisia, a brother of the fugitive had appealed to him to surrender and said: "If my brother is behind the attack, I say to him 'You dishonour us'."

- 'Systemic failure' -

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday she was "proud of how calmly most people reacted" to the country's deadliest attack in years.

But her assuring message failed to dampen criticism of what many politicians and newspapers slammed as glaring security failures leading up to Monday's attack.

Berlin public broadcaster RBB reported that police filmed Amri heading into a Berlin mosque on Tuesday -- after the attack -- at a time when the investigation was still focussed on a Pakistani suspect who was later released.

Officials earlier revealed that Amri was a rejected asylum seeker with a history of crime, had spent years in an Italian jail and had long been known to German counter-terrorism agencies.

News weekly Der Spiegel reported that in wiretaps, Amri could be heard offering to carry out a suicide operation, but that his words were too vague for an arrest warrant.

Amri had been monitored since March, suspected of planning break-ins to raise cash for automatic weapons to carry out an attack -- but the surveillance was stopped in September because Amri was mostly active as a small-time drug dealer.

Conservative lawmaker Stephan Mayer, a critic of Merkel's liberal stance on refugees, said the case "held up a magnifying glass" to the failings of her migration policy that brought almost 900,000 asylum seekers to Europe's top economy last year.

"It's clear that a lot went wrong... it was a systemic failure," said Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King's College London.

Neumann argued that German security services lacked the manpower to maintain around-the-clock surveillance of the 550 known radical Islamists in Germany.

"Germany's anti-terrorism structure is failing to match the scale of the problem," he told news channel NTV. "Once the dust settles, it will be important to have a fundamental rethink."

While the security debate rages, and is set to intensify in the election year 2017, many Germans were looking ahead to Christmas Eve on Saturday, the country's most important festival.

On Thursday, Berliners flocked to the reopened Breitscheid square Christmas market that was targeted in Monday's carnage.

The government has appealed for people to carry on as normal and not to give in to fear.

Organisers dimmed festive lights and turned down the Christmas jingles as a mark of respect for those killed.

Victims were also honoured with candles, flowers, letters of condolence and signs reading "Love Not Hate".

Among the dead were six Germans, 60-year-old Israeli Dalia Elyakim, and a young Italian woman called Fabrizia Di Lorenzo. Forty-eight others were injured.

On Friday, a memorial concert was planned at the iconic Brandenburg gate under the theme of "Together Berlin".

Germany had until now been spared the jihadist carnage that has struck neighbouring France and Belgium.

But it has suffered a spate of smaller attacks, including two in July that left 20 people injured, both committed by asylum seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group.

Merkel said Germany had "known for a long time that we are in the crosshairs of Islamic terrorism. And yet, when it happens... it is a totally different situation."

--------AFP

BREAKING: FORMER GOVERNOR OF DELTA STATE, NIGERIA JAMES IBORI RELEASED FROM UK PRISON BUT CAN'T LEAVE UK YET

James Ibori

The former governor of Delta State, Nigeria, Chief James Onanefe Ibori has been released from prison in UK. He was released a few minutes past noon today upon a court order. His media aide, Mr. Tony Elumenor confirmed the release to Vanguard Nigeria. Ibori was sentenced by a United Kingdom court to prison for 13 years for money laundering and served out his term midnight yesterday. 

The British Home Office had made an unsuccessful attempt to prevent his release, claiming that Ibori’s assets confiscation hearing was inconclusive.

The presiding Judge, Mrs. Justice May, who heard an emergency appeal filed by Ibori to enforce his rights, rejected the Home Office’s request to continue to detain him.

In her ruling, Justice May ordered his immediate release without conditions attached.

Ibori's mugshot

However, residents of Asaba, Delta State, who are currently celebrating the release of their former Governor may have to wait till well after January 2017 before they can physically embrace their son.

It was gathered that the ex-governor has to report to the Police once a week, hence his inability to return to Nigeria immediately.

He is reported to be currently restricted to his St. John’s Wood residence.

May ordered both parties to return to court in January.

Meanwhile, Ibori has appealed his conviction for money laundering and graft.

It will be recalled that Mr. Ibori was sent to jail for for stealing at least $250 million of public funds within the period he served as governor of the wealthy Delta state.

Mr. Ibori is the last of his friends and family to be jailed for his thefts as governor of the oil-rich Delta state.

His wife, sister and mistress have been convicted of money-laundering in the UK and served various terms in prisons.

His solicitor, Gohil, was also jailed for 10 years for helping syphon the money Mr. Ibori stole.

In addition to the prison terms, the Judge said Ibori’s sentencing was not the end of matter as his property will be confiscated and consequences may arise thereafter.

In 2007, a UK court froze assets allegedly belonging to him worth $35m after he failed to justify buying the property with his annual salary as Delta state governor of  less than $25,000.