Acceptance speeches at the 2017 Golden Globe awards used to attack and pillory the US president-elect.

by Al Jazeera

US actors turned the 2017 Golden Globe Awards into a scathing attack on Donald Trump, with several of the evening’s winners using their acceptance speech to deride the president-elect.

The Golden Globes, organised by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, were handed out on Sunday in Beverly Hills, honouring the best of film and television.

Meryl Streep, who received a lifetime achievement award, said she had been heartbroken by Trump’s imitation of a disabled reporter during his campaign.

“There was one performance this year that stunned me,” Streep, 67, said.

“It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter.”

The three-time Oscar winner was referring to a 2015 incident at a South Carolina rally when Trump flailed his arms and slurred in his speech in an apparent mocking of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a physical disability.

Trump in a series of tweets on Monday repeated his denial that he ever imitated the reporter.

“It kind of broke my heart when I saw it and I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life,” Streep said.

“This instinct to humiliate when it’s modelled by someone in the public platform by someone powerful it filters down into everybody’s life. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence.”

While Streep did not name Trump directly, she used almost the entire speech to criticise his behaviour and policies, while calling for Hollywood to stand strong against any attacks and to support a free press through organisations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The audience sat in stunned silence for much of it.

Streep earned a cheer from the crowd when she said that, “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners”.

“If you kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not art,” she said.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, made a tough stance on immigration a cornerstone of his campaign. Hollywood actors and studio executives were mostly behind his Democratic party rival Hillary Clinton.

Streep ended her speech with a nod to her long-time friend, Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, who died last month after a heart attack.

“As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, ‘Take your broken heart and make it into art’,” Streep said, her voice cracking with emotion.

The Committee to Protect Journalists tweeted to the actress: “Thank you Meryl Streep for your generosity & support of our mission to protect journalists and press freedom around the world.”

‘Honouring popular vote’

The evening was presented by late night television host Jimmy Fallon, who fired off a fusillade of jokes, several aimed at Trump.

Fallon saluted the Globes as “one of the few places where America still honours the popular vote”, referring to the fact that Clinton got more votes in total than Trump.

Then, noting that Game of Thrones was among this year’s nominated series, he said some fans had wondered how that show would have unfolded had the childish, villainous King Joffrey survived, and not died, a while back.

“Well, in 12 days,” Fallon cracked, “we’re gonna find out”.

Perhaps he summed things up best by pointing to the notably bleak nominated film Manchester by the Sea – “the only thing from 2016”, he said, “that was more depressing than 2016”.

A bit later, Hugh Laurie, winning best supporting actor in a limited series for The Night Manager, kept the mordant party going with his acceptance remarks.

He began by voicing thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his win at “the last-ever Golden Globes”.

“I don’t mean to be gloomy,” he went on, “it’s just that it has the words ‘Hollywood,’ ‘foreign’ and ‘press’ in the title.” Cheers rang out.

“I also think that, to some Republicans, even the word ‘association’ is slightly sketchy.”

Paul Verhoeven’s Elle won best foreign language film and its star, Isabelle Huppert, was crowned best actress in a drama. The French actress vowed: “Do not expect cinema to put up walls and borders.”

Esteban Santiago, who served in Iraq and was discharged last year, identified as Fort Lauderdale gunman who killed five.

Witnesses said the attacker shot his victims without a word and kept shooting until he ran out of ammunition [AP]

A US army veteran who complained that the government was controlling his mind drew a gun from his checked luggage on arrival at the Fort Lauderdale airport and opened fire in the baggage claim area on Friday, killing five people and wounding eight, authorities said.

The gunman was identified as 26-year-old Esteban Santiago of Anchorage, Alaska, who served in Iraq but was demoted and discharged last year for unsatisfactory performance. His brother said he had been receiving psychological treatment recently.

He was taken into custody after throwing his empty weapon down and lying spread-eagle on the ground, one witness said.

“People started kind of screaming and trying to get out of any door they could or hide under the chairs,” the witness, Mark Lea, told MSNBC. “He just kind of continued coming in, just randomly shooting at people, no rhyme or reason to it.”

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press news agency that Santiago had walked into the FBI office in Anchorage in November to say that the US government was controlling his mind and making him watch videos by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

Agents questioned an agitated and disjointed-sounding Santiago and then called the police, who took him for a mental health evaluation, according to the official, who was not authorised to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said Santiago did not appear intent on hurting anyone. Authorities said the motive for the attack was under investigation.

One witness said the attacker shot his victims without a word and kept shooting until he ran out of ammunition for his handgun, sending panicked travellers running out of the terminal and spilling onto the tarmac, baggage in hand.

“The guy must have been standing over me at one point. I could smell the gunpowder,” Bruce Hogan, a witness, said. Hogan said a woman next to him tried to get up and was shot in the head.

President Barack Obama was briefed by his Homeland Security adviser, the White House said. President-elect Donald Trump said that it is a “disgraceful situation that’s happening in our country and throughout the world” and that it was too soon to say whether it was a “terrorist” attack.

The airport was shut down, with incoming flights diverted and outgoing flights held on the ground.

It is legal for airline passengers to travel with guns and ammunition as long as the firearms are put in a checked bag – not a carry-on – and are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container. Guns must be declared to the airline at check-in.

Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale after taking off from Anchorage aboard a Delta flight Thursday night, checking only one piece of luggage – his gun, said Jesse Davis, police chief at the Anchorage airport.

At Fort Lauderdale, “after he claimed his bag, he went into the bathroom and loaded the gun and started shooting. We don’t know why,” said Chip LaMarca, a Broward County commissioner who was briefed by investigators.

Santiago’s brother, Bryan, told AP that his brother had been receiving psychological treatment in Alaska. He said Santiago’s girlfriend alerted the family to the situation in recent months. Bryan Santiago said that he did not know what his brother was being treated for and that they never talked about it.

He said Esteban Santiago was born in New Jersey and moved to Puerto Rico when he was two. He was sent to Iraq in 2010 and spent a year there, according to Puerto Rico National Guard spokesman Major Paul Dahlen. He later joined the Alaska National Guard.

The Pentagon said Santiago had gone absent several times during his stint with the Alaska National Guard and was demoted – from specialist to private first class – and given a general discharge, which is lower than an honourable discharge.

The attack is likely to raise questions of whether aviation safety officials need to change the rules.

The attack also exposed another weak point in airport security: While travellers have to take off their shoes, put their carry-on luggage through X-ray machines and pass through metal detectors to reach the gates, many other sections of airports, such as ticket counters and baggage claim areas, are more lightly secured and more vulnerable to attack.

In 2013, a gunman with a grudge against the Transportation Security Administration shot and killed one of the agency’s screeners and wounded three others during a rampage at Los Angeles International Airport.

Last November, an airline worker was shot and killed near an employee car park at Oklahoma City’s airport, and in 2015 a machete-wielding man was shot dead after he attacked federal security officers at the New Orleans airport.

Gunfire heard in Daloa city hours after demobilised soldiers took control of Bouake, the nation’s second-largest city.

Ivory Coast descended into civil war after a disputed 2010 election [File: Legnan Koula/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Gunfire has erupted at a military camp in the western Ivory Coast town of Daloa, a resident and an army source said, hours after demobilised soldiers took control of Bouake, the West African nation’s second-largest city.

Unrest was also erupted in the city of Korhogo, according to The Associated Press news agency.

Former soldiers seized weapons from police stations overnight on Thursday and took up positions at entry points into Bouake, military sources said.

The city was the seat of a rebellion that controlled the northern half of the country from 2002 until Ivory Coast was reunited following a civil war in 2011.

“It’s a mutiny by former fighters integrated into the army who are demanding bonuses of 5 million CFA francs [$8,000] each plus a house,” a soldier who asked to remain anonymous told AFP news agency.

Heavy shooting was heard at about 2am before later easing, residents said, and sporadic gunfire continued into the late morning.

“The city is under the control of former [soldiers],” an army officer told Reuters news agency.

“There are many of them at the north and south entrances to the city. We are on alert and await instructions from the hierarchy.”

An officer at the West African nation’s military headquarters in the commercial capital Abidjan said reinforcements had been sent to Bouake.

“The situation remains unstable and serious in Bouake… Some civilians and even active-duty soldiers have started to rally to them,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, monitoring the situation from Dakar, Senegal, said the men taking over Bouake were former soldiers who supported the current government during the civil war that followed a disputed election in 2010.

“These are former soldiers that were part of an ECOWAS force trying to maintain peace in Liberia… Then they returned back to Ivory Coast where there was also a civil war and played a role to maintain peace and order in the country,” he said.

“Now they are saying they weren’t paid for their services. It seems that some negotiations are ongoing.”

Both Laurent Gbagbo, then the incumbent, and his rival Alassane Ouattara claimed victory in the 2010 election and the country quickly descended into turmoil.

Gbagbo was captured in April 2011 by forces loyal to Ouattara and delivered to the International Criminal Court charged with crimes against humanity. Ouattara was sworn in as president a month later.

Residents stayed inside and businesses in Bouake remained closed on Friday morning.

“The city is deserted. Men in balaklavas are patrolling the city on motorcycles or in cars. They aren’t attacking residents… They told us to stay at home,” said Ami Soro, a teacher living in Bouake.

Meanwhile a Daloa resident – speaking by telephone from a cocoa processing factory near the army camp – said the sound of weapons firing was continuing on Friday.

“There is gunfire at the second battalion [base] in Daloa. It’s young demobilised soldiers,” the resident said.

There was no clear sign of a link between the Bouake events and outbreak of shooting in Daloa, but the fact the rebels were also demobilised soldiers could indicate the uprising was spreading.

In November 2014, a strike by former rebels who had joined the army ground the country to a standstill after spreading to Abidjan from Bouake.

The nearly 9,000 strikers, who joined the army between 2009 and 2011, were demanding full payment of back pay and promotions. The government agreed to a financial settlement with the soldiers, who returned to barracks.

US secretary of state outlines vision for peace between Israel and Palestine weeks ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Kerry’s speech came just days after US abstained from a UN vote on settlements [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Israel’s settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank threatens both hope for peace with the Palestinians and Israel’s own future as a democracy, John Kerry has said in a speech.

The US secretary of state sounded the warning on Wednesday in a final plea outlining the outgoing Obama administration’s vision for peace between Israel and Palestine.

“The settler agenda is defining the future in Israel. And their stated purpose is clear: They believe in one state: Greater Israel,” Kerry said.

“If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both, and it won’t ever really be at peace,” he added.

The speech in Washington, DC comes days after the US abstained from a UN vote to halt all Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

By declining to use its veto at the Security Council, the US enabled the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlements policy.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said: “Many question the timing of the US actions with just three weeks until the swearing in of President-elect Donald Trump. Supporters believe it is tough talk that should have come years earlier. Critics argue it shouldn’t have come at all.”

Trump, who had called on the US to veto the UN vote, told reporters that Israel is being treated “very, very unfairly”, maintaining that countries that are “horrible places” never get reprimanded at the Security Council.

He refused to directly answer a question about whether Israel should stop building settlements, saying he is “very, very strong on Israel”.

Settlements built on Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law.

There are close to 600,000 Israeli citizens living in Jewish-only housing settlements across the West Bank, and at least 200,000 in East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli human rights watchdog B’tselem.

Kerry defended the US decision to abstain from the UN vote, saying they voted “in accordance with our [US] values” and conscience.

“No one thinking seriously about peace can ignore the reality of the threat settlements pose to peace,” Kerry said. “The problem goes well beyond just settlements. Trends indicate a comprehensive effort to take West Bank land for Israel and prevent any Palestinian development there.”

Middle East reactions

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was ready to resume peace talks if Israel agreed to freeze settlement construction.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said: “Abbas is fully convinced that just, comprehensive and lasting peace can be achieved, and it’s doable in all core issues on the basis on the Arab Peace Initiative.”

Specific terms of the Saudi-brokered initiative include ending the Israeli occupation, establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders, and solving issues such as “refugees and prisoners on the basis of the relevant international legality resolutions”, said Erekat.

In his response to the speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Kerry’s words were a “great disappointment”.

“If the US is true to its word, it should now come out and say we will not allow any more resolutions in the Security Council on Israel, period,” he added.

The conflict was not about settlements but about “Israel’s very right to exist”, he said.

In his speech, Kerry insisted that Israel and a future Palestinian state should exist on the territory they held before the 1967 war, which could be achieved through “equivalent swaps” of land only by mutual consent.

Kerry said a fair and realistic solution must be found for the Palestinian refugee issue “with international assistance that includes compensation and options in assistance in finding permanent homes and acknowledgment of suffering”.

There are approximately five million registered Palestinian refugees, many living in camps across the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the neighbouring Arab countries, according to the UN refugee agency.

“Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,” said Kerry.

“They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state, or they can separate into two states.”

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Jerusalem, said Kerry’s speech was more of a “massive defence of the US administration’s actions in not vetoing the UN resolution” than a “blueprint for the future”.

Kerry has made it “clear to all where he and Obama stand on the dangers of the two-state solution falling apart”, he said.

Veteran Sri Lankan politician Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, who served twice as Prime Minister, passed away after a brief illness on Tuesday.

The 83-year-old leader, ailing for sometime now, breathed his last on Tuesday morning, his family said. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a leading private hospital on December 21.

Wickremanayake served twice as the Island nation’s Premier, first from 2000 to 2001 and then from 2005 to 2010. He was appointed Prime Minister by former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on November 21, 2005. Wickremanayake has also held many key ministerial positions since 1970.

It was Wickremanayake who paved the way for Mr. Rajapaksa to emerge as the next leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). He resigned from his position as the leader of the main opposition in 2002 to make way for Mr. Rajapaksa to become the leader of the opposition.

In his previous stint as Prime Minister, Wickremanayake succeeded Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who resigned at the age of 84.

A host of political leaders, cutting across party lines, paid tributes to Wickremanayake.

“Veteran Politician Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was loved by his people for many decades. My condolences are with his loved ones and followers,” President Maithripala Sirisena tweeted.

Mr. Rajapaksa said in a tweet, “Deeply saddened by the death of former Sri Lankan PM & veteran politician Ratnasiri Wickremanayake. My condolences to his family”.

Wickremanayake entered politics in 1960, winning the Horana seat in the March General Election as a member of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna.

In 1970, he was appointed Deputy Minister, Justice, and went on to be the general secretary of the SLFP in 1977.

In the 1994 general election, he won the Kalutara District seat and was appointed the Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs and Plantation Industries and the Leader of the House in President Chandrika Kumaranatunge’s Cabinet.

Wickremanayake’s son Vidura Wickremanayake is a member of the parliament.

(PTI)

Michael’s manager says the singer’s death in Oxfordshire, England on Sunday was caused by heart failure.

File photo dated 13/07/85 of George Michael of Wham performing at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in London: PA/PA Wire

by Al Jazeera

British singer George Michael, who became one of the pop idols of the 1980s with Wham! and then forged a career as a successful solo artist, has died at his home in England aged 53.

Michael’s manager, Michael Lippman, said on Sunday that the cause of death was heart failure.

Before Lippmann’s announcement, police had issued a statement calling Michael’s death at his home in Goring, Oxfordshire “unexplained but not suspicious”. A post-mortem would be undertaken in due course, the police said.

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on June 25, 1963 in London to Greek Cypriot immigrant parents, Michael once played music on the London underground train system before finding fame with Wham!.

With a school friend, Andrew Ridgeley, he formed Wham! in 1981, a partnership that would produce some of the most memorable pop songs and dance-floor favourites of the 1980s.

“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,” his publicist said in a statement.

“The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage,” the statement said.

Michael sold more than 100 million albums in his career.

He was due to release a documentary in 2017 after a period of living as a virtual recluse in which he hit the headlines for a series of bizarre incidents linked to drugs.

Earlier this month, it was also announced that producer and songwriter Naughty Boy, whose real name is Shahid Khan, was working with Michael on a new album for next year.

Following years of speculation over his sexuality, Michael came out as gay in 1998 after being arrested for committing a “lewd act” in the public toilet of a Los Angeles park.

He fronted a documentary about HIV to coincide with World Aids Day the year he came out.

LGBT charity Stonewall reacted to the news of his death in a tweet, saying: “R.I.P. George Michael. You inspired many and your music will live on in the hearts of the community. You will be sorely missed.”

Michael’s death comes at the end of a year that has seen the passing of several music superstars, including David Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen. Rick Parfitt, the guitarist of British rock group Status Quo, died on Saturday at 68.

Social Democratic Party, which won recent elections, proposes little-known Sevil Shhaideh to take key post.

If approved by parliament, Shhaideh will become the country’s first Muslim prime minister [File: EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Romania could have its first female prime minister, an economist who is a member of the country’s small Muslim community.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday he would appoint a prime minister designate after Sunday as he needed time to assess a proposal made by the Social Democrat Party (PSD), the winners of a December 11 parliamentary election.

Liviu Dragnea, chairman of the PSD, proposed that Sevil Shhaideh take the post of prime minister. The announcement was a surprise because her name is not widely known in Romania.

Shhaideh, 52, is a party member but did not run as a member of parliament in the election. She was the minister for regional development for six months in 2015, and is currently an official in the regional development ministry.

If approved by parliament, she will also become the country’s first Muslim prime minister.

Dragnea is banned from taking the role because he has a conviction for election fraud.

‘Hard-working and loyal’

On Wednesday, Dragnea called his April 2016 conviction “unjust” and said the law that stops him from being prime minister was “profoundly unconstitutional”. The new parliament could vote to change the 2001 law that bans anyone with a conviction of holding a ministerial post.

Later Wednesday, Dragnea was elected speaker of parliament’s Chamber of Deputies while the former Senate speaker, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, was re-elected.

If voted through, Sevil Shhaideh will be #Romania's first #female, first #Muslim prime-minister. Romania has a historic #Tatar minority.

— Paul Ivan (@paul2ivan) December 21, 2016

Dragnea, who continues as head of the party, is expected to have significant influence over a government headed by Shhaideh.

“If appointed, she would be prime minister, but the political responsibility stays with me first of all,” Dragnea said, praising Shhaideh for her knowledge of public administration and for being hard-working and loyal.

The left-leaning Social Democrats easily won the December 11 parliamentary election, but did not secure a majority and will govern with a minority partner.

Suspect fired shots at worshippers at Zurich Islamic centre before fleeing scene, leaving victims seriously wounded.

Switzerland, a country of some eight million people, reportedly has around 450,000 Muslims [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

A man burst into a Muslim prayer hall in the Swiss city of Zurich and started shooting, wounding at least three men.

A body found a few hundred metres from the scene was that of the shooter who attacked an Islamic centre, police confirmed on Tuesday.

At around 5:30pm on Monday (16:30 GMT), the unidentified attacker entered the Islamic centre where several worshippers were gathered and began firing, Zurich police said in a statement.

He “fired several shots at the worshippers,” police said. “Three men, aged 30, 35 and 56, were injured, some seriously. The suspect then escaped from the mosque in the direction of Central Station,” it said.

Witnesses described the gunman as a man aged about 30 wearing dark clothes and a dark woollen cap, witnesses said.

Search operation

Police have urged witnesses who were in the area around the time of the shooting to come forward. The motive for the shooting was still unclear.

About a dozen people were inside the prayer hall at the time of the attack, the ATS news agency reported, citing a number of people on site, adding a prayer service had been scheduled for 4:45pm (15:45 GMT).

The worshippers were mainly from North Africa, Somalia and Eritrea, ATS reported.

The body was discovered on the river bank, underneath the bridge, and had been draped with a white sheet.

Zurich police said Tuesday on Twitter that “we are working on the assumption that the dead person who was found is the culprit in the shooting at the Islamic Center in Zurich”.

A number of Swiss mosques, including one near Zurich and the main one in Geneva, have, in recent months, been accused in the media of allowing or encouraging the “radicalisation” of their worshippers, especially the younger members of their congregations.

Switzerland, a country of some eight million people, reportedly has some 450,000 Muslims.