MIRROR UK - X Factor final show from Wembley flops with fans as Simon Cowell plans shake up, Dec 12, 2011

Simon Cowell (pic: ITV)
THE X Factor’s first show at Wembley Arena flopped on Saturday night – with 3.5 million fewer viewers than last year.
To make matters worse for ITV, the showcase event was beaten in the ratings by Strictly Come Dancing’s semi-finals.
Despite guest appearances from Leona Lewis, JLS and One Direction, the Saturday show pulled in an average of 10.6 million with a peak of 11.8 million – a huge drop compared with the same night in 2010."

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MIRROR UK - Little Mix fans' anger at X Factor final text vote 'ban' Dec 12, 2011

"Teenage X Factor fans were furious at the weekend after being ‘banned’ from supporting Little Mix because bosses ruled out text voting.
They were unable to send their usual 35p messages and were instead told to call vote lines that cost up to £1 on mobiles.
Jhopkins786 wrote on Twitter: “Same old X Factor taking the p*** no text votes so that counts out the little mix demographic straight away.”
But a show spokesman defended the ­decision to axe text voting for the season finale yesterday."

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MIRROR UK - Little Mix sent special good luck message from Spice Girl Geri Halliwell before X Factor final, Dec 12, 2011

"LITTLE Mix put on a performance with a pinch of added Spice last night and made history by becoming the first band to win The X Factor.
The girl group were sent bouquets of flowers by Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and went on to wow viewers and beat Marcus Collins in the final.
Emotional band member Jesy Nelson, 20, said: “This feels amazing, I am so happy.
“I think we’ve won because girls can relate to us and don’t feel scared or threatened by us with is great."
 

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MIRROR UK - Little Mix win X factor 2011: celebrity tweets, Dec 12, 2011

"Simon Cowell's wish came true when Little Mix were crowned winners of the X Factor 2011, seeing off competition from runner-up Marcus Collins.
The music supremo revealed he wanted a group to win the X Factor in a tweet to judge Tulisa.
Cowell posted: "I was really hoping a group would win this year. @OfficialTulisa has done a great job. These girls could be stars."
He also joked to fellow US X Factor judge Paula Abdul: "Congratulations to @LIttleMixOffic. And Paula as you can see, groups can win this show!"
Little Mix have made history by becoming the first group to win the illustrious music competition with chart-toppers One Direction and JLS failing in previous years."

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MIRROR UK - Marcus Collins sings Last Christmas while Little Mix take on Silent Night as they battle to become X Factor winner in 2011 final, Dec 12, 2011

"Marcus Collins and Little Mix each chose (or were told) to perform Christmas numbers as their seconds songs during tonight’s X Factor final.
Marcus Collins opted to dance along to Last Christmas by Wham!, while Little Mix stripped it back to perform Silent Night. We don’t know who sang that originally – Jesus?
Wearing a tweed suit, Marcus went for the mum vote as he hit George Michael’s high notes with ease."

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MIRROR UK - Little Mix won because they were the best not because they wear trainers, Dec 12, 2011

"Little Mix won! Little Mix bloody WON. They’re a girlband and I’m not screaming and doing a little jump on my sofa because they made it past week one, but because they WON. If we ignore the ridiculousness of the winners’ single saying ‘Little Mix – Cannonball’ on it, this is every different type of awesome.
It also has a lot of implications. Number one being that there are some really rich people out there, because though I don’t understand betting, something called ‘outside odds’ was being given 12 weeks ago, which means if you did have faith (their mums? Tulisa?) in the idea of a girlband making it all the way, your Monday morning just got a lot better. You’ll be cruising past William Hill on the way to work and getting a really nice lunch. Possibly something with lobster."

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MIRROR uk - Sarah Harding admits she was ‘such a mess’ when she decided to go to rehab following Tom Crane split, Dec 12, 2011

"Sarah Harding has spoken about her decision to go to rehab for the first time, revealing that it was her Girls Aloud bandmates who helped her realise she needed help to sort out her heavy drinking.
The blonde singer – known for her partying ways – said she cried "hysterically" as she headed to a clinic in the US.
Harding said her drinking went out of control as her relationship with ex-fiance Tom Crane disintegrated and she tried to "numb" the pain."

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FIJI LIVE - Jolie hailed for Balkan war film debut, Dec 11, 2011

"Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has won praise for her directing debut -- a powerful story of love amid the atrocities of the Bosnian war -- from both film critics and victims' relatives.
The Hollywood "A" lister is used to being feted for her performances in films ranging from "Girl, Interrupted" -- which won her the best supporting actress Academy Award in 2000 -- to the "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" movies.
But she has also been an ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees since 2001, and has drawn on that experience in the making of "In the Land of Blood and Honey," due out in the United States later this month."

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FIJI LIVE - Bale says his Chinese film not propaganda, Dec 11, 2011

"Oscar winning actor Christian Bale defended Sunday the upcoming Nanjing Massacre film "The Flowers of War," by China's most famous director, Zhang Yimou, as more than an anti-Japanese propaganda film.
In the film, Bale plays an American drifter who becomes the unwitting protector of a group of Chinese schoolgirls and prostitutes trying to escape the Japanese army's brutal sacking of China's wartime capital.
The Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese troops killed tens of thousands of Chinese civilians, is an episode from history that Japan has never acknowledged to China's satisfaction.

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NZ HERALD - $21m fraud case: Kiwi arrested, Dec 11, 2011

"A New Zealander alleged to have defrauded Queensland taxpayers of $21 million (A$16m) has been found by police in Brisbane.
Hohepa Morehu-Barlow, 36, is accused of siphoning off funds destined for charities including the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the Cancer Council Queensland and the Cerebral Palsy League during his time as financial manager at Queensland Health.
The fraud is believed to have started two to three years ago, with one sum of A$11 million stolen in the past two weeks."

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ABC Australia - Russians rally to demand new elections, Dec 11, 2011

"Tens of thousands of Russians have taken to the streets demanding an end to Vladimir Putin's rule and a re-run of last weekend's election.
The protesters staged the opposition's biggest protest rally since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
They waved banners such as "The rats should go" and "Swindlers and thieves - give us our elections back" in cities from the Pacific port of Vladivostok in the east to Kaliningrad in the west, nearly 7,400 kilometres away."

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Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Nobel Peace Prize women receive awards, Dec 11, 2011

"Liberia's president, a fellow Liberian and a Yemeni activist received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Saturday for showing how women facing war and oppression can shed the mantle of victimhood and lead the way to peace and democracy.
"You represent one of the most important motive forces for change in today's world: the struggle for human rights in general and the struggle of women for equality and peace in particular," Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said before handing out the prestigious award.
At the lavish ceremony in a colourfully flower-decked Oslo city hall, and with Norway's royal family and other dignitaries in attendance, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot and "peace warrior" Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni Arab Spring activist Tawakkol Karman received their gold medal and diploma."

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LA TIMES - Ron Fletcher dies at 90; opened West Coast's first Pilates studio, Dec 11, 2011

"Ron Fletcher, a former dancer and choreographer who helped popularize the Pilates exercise system when he opened the first West Coast studio in 1972, died Tuesday at his home in Stonewall, Texas. He was 90.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said Kyria Sabin, director of Fletcher Pilates, which trains instructors in the exercise methods Fletcher developed based on the teachings of Joseph and Clara Pilates.

Forty years ago, few people outside of New York, where the Pilates method was first taught, had heard of the unusual fitness regimen, which involved strange-looking machines and movements similar to yoga and calisthenics. Today it is practiced by millions of people around the world, a popularity due in part to the celebrity buzz that surrounded Fletcher's Beverly Hills studio."
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LA TIMES - Bob Burnett dies at 71; member of folk group the Highwaymen, Dec 11, 2011

"The members of the folk group the Highwaymen were freshmen in the same fraternity at Wesleyan University in Connecticut when they came together to perform at a campus party in 1958.
By their senior year, the quintet had a No. 1 single with their haunting version of the African American spiritual "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore," which was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1961.
Although the group had a significant impact on the folk scene in the early 1960s — turning "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "All My Trials" into folk standards — the Highwaymen disbanded in 1964 when Bob Burnett and two other members decided to attend graduate school."  

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Reporter News - Pearl Harbor survivor dies on same date, Dec 11, 2011

"WACO — World War II veteran Frank Curre died Wednesday, exactly 70 years after surviving the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Curre, who served in the Navy, died after battling mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos exposure, for more than a year.
The Waco native was 88 years old.
Curre was a mess cook aboard the USS Tennessee at Pearl Harbor when the naval base was bombarded. Curre later was assigned to the USS Petrof Bay during the war and he participated in attacks at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
"It's like he held on for today, which is his special day," Curre's daughter, Linda Lee, said Wednesday. "He was very much a family man. He taught us family values, patriotism and love for our country."    

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Society's Child - Sott.netPlane Crashes into Philippine Slum Killing 12, Dec 11, 2011

"A four-seater cargo plane crashed into a crowded Philippine slum on Saturday, sparking a fire that killed 12 people including three children and left at least another 20 injured, officials said.
The crash killed the pilot and co-pilot, while the rest of the victims are thought to be residents of the shanty town, said police chief inspector Enrique Sy.
"The plane struck one house but the others also went up in flames. These are informal settlers, packed into rows of houses," Sy told reporters"

The Philippine Star News - 14 killed as plane crashes into slum area, Dec 11, 2011

"MANILA, Philippines - A four-seater cargo plane crashed into a slum area in Parañaque City yesterday, triggering an inferno that left at least 14 people, including two children, dead and scores injured, officials said.
Mayor Florencio Bernabe said rescuers recovered the charred bodies of at least 12 people, including two victims believed to be the pilot and co-pilot of the twin engine Beechcraft light plane.
Bernabe said there were also reports that 20 people have been rushed to different hospitals. Most of the victims were brought to the Parañaque Doctors Hospital and Parañaque Community Hospital along the South Luzon Expressway."

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Fox News - Qaddafi's Son Denies Plot To Sneak Into Mexico, Dec 11, 2011

"CAIRO -- The son of slain Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi "vigorously denies" having plotted to illegally sneak into Mexico to escape his home country after the fall of his father's regime, his lawyer said Friday.
Al-Saadi Qaddafi fled to the neighboring country of Niger in September and the government there has given him refugee status. Mexico claimed on Wednesday that al-Saadi and three relatives also had initiated plans to sneak into Mexico under false names and take clandestine refuge at a Pacific coast resort."

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ONE STEP4ward - Top 5 Best Places to See A Show in the World, Dec 11, 2011

"When movies, bars and restaurants become a little too familiar to fill your evenings with, it’s time to branch out and experience something new. I was in this situation in Bangkok myself recently, so I googled what to do in the evenings – I ended up taking my girlfriend to one of the most awesome shows I’ve ever been to. This sparked my interest and I promised to endeavor to see some more around the world, check out my top 5 places to see a show around the world:"

 

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NOKIA Conversations - BEST Videos in the World, Dec 11, 2011

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