Month: December 2016

Former French budget minister Jerome Cahuzac will on Thursday learn the verdict in his stormy tax fraud trial in which he was accused of hiding millions abroad while leading a crackdown on tax dodgers at home.
The 64-year-old former rising star in the Socialist Party was also accused of under-declaring the value of his fortune when he took up his ministerial post in 2012 with a remit that included cracking down on tax evasion.
Prosecutors have called for a three-year jail term and a two-year sentence for his co-defendant and ex-wife, dermatologist Patricia Menard.
The pair, who ran a hair transplant clinic with a client list featuring members of Paris’s high society, have already paid back taxes and penalties totalling some 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million).
In closing arguments in the trial in September, Cahuzac’s defence lawyer Jean Veil noted his client had already made financial amends and said he had “no desire to see my taxes going towards maintaining Jerome Cahuzac” in jail.
But prosecutor Jean-Marc Toublanc said Cahuzac’s family life “was rooted in fraud for 20 years”.
Cahuzac, a trained plastic surgeon, told the court that he stashed funds offshore to maintain his family’s standard of living — which included buying apartments for the children in London and Paris and paying for holidays in Mauritius.
The story of the fraud, allegedly perpetrated between 1992 and 2013, reads like a cross between a cheap airport novel and an international financial crime manual.
In one episode, Cahuzac, using the codename “Birdie”, allegedly received two cash payments of 10,000 euros on the streets of Paris.
The couple used a Royal Bank of Scotland account in the Isle of Man, an offshore financial centre in the Irish Sea, to channel cheques from English hair transplant clients.
As their marriage began to falter, Menard also opened an account in Switzerland.
Menard’s lawyer Sebastien Schapira said the money was “that of fraud, but initially it was that of her work, earned day after day, hour after hour, hair by hair”.
He described Menard as “naive”, an unwitting accomplice who was “swept up” in the fraud before confessing to it in December 2013.
She testified that the couple had become locked in a “spiral” of wrongdoing.
“I’m extremely ashamed of having done all that,” she said.
The scandal was the first of a series that have tarnished Francois Hollande’s presidency and prompted him to order his ministers to disclose their personal wealth, a first in France, where the wealth of public officials had long been considered a private matter.
Cahuzac initially denied the allegations and sued the Mediapart news website that broke the story in 2012.
Footage of the minister lying to parliament was repeated in an endless loop on French media after he finally confessed in April 2013, “consumed by remorse”, to holding a Swiss bank account.
But by the end of the trial, Cahuzac had repeatedly admitted his “inexcusable wrongdoing”.

The United States’ first Somali American Muslim legislator says she was harassed with “hateful” and “Islamophobic” language by her cab driver while visiting Washington.
Ilhan Omar — a former refugee who wears the hijab — was elected in November to the legislature of the midwestern state of Minnesota. She said the “taunts and threats” occurred after she left policy discussions at the White House and headed to her hotel.
“I got in a cab and became subjected to the most hateful, derogatory, Islamophobic, sexist taunts and threats I have ever experienced,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
“The cab driver called me ISIS and threatened to remove my hijab.”
Omar said she rushed to leave the vehicle and wrote on Facebook that she planned to report the incident once she returned to Minneapolis, as the driver knew where she was staying in Washington.
“I am still shaken by this incident and can’t wrap my head around how bold beings are becoming in displaying their hate towards Muslims,” Omar wrote.
The lawmaker’s victory was notable in a campaign season that saw Republican Donald Trump disparage Muslim immigrants and refugees before going on to win the White House.
The FBI last month reported that hate crimes against Muslims in the US surged 67 percent in 2015 — to the highest level since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
The bureau’s Uniform Crime Report documented 257 anti-Muslim hate crimes, up from 154 in 2014.
Trump railed against Muslims and immigrants during the presidential race. In its final week the real estate magnate had targeted the Somali community in the state, where he ultimately lost to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton 45 to 47 percent.
Nearly a third of Somali refugees resettled in the United States live in Minnesota. They number around 25,000 according to 2010 data, the latest available.

Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh has ruthlessly pursued opponents real and imaginary, and implied more than once that he would kill anyone who defied him.
His magnanimous concession speech and promise of a swift handover to president-elect Adama Barrow after 22 years in power has therefore left many scratching their heads a week after the election.
Opposition figures and analysts believe he may have been caught out by his own fawning entourage, who reassured him so frequently he would win that the counter possibility never occurred to him.
After an unprecedented two-week opposition campaign, Jammeh rumbled into Banjul’s cricket ground in a 4X4 and predicted his best score ever on December 1, election day.
“By the grace of the almighty Allah, there will be the biggest landslide in the history of my elections,” said Jammeh, wearing his usual white robes and sunglasses, a Koran in one hand.
The collision of his arrogance, changes to election rules and an opposition organised and united for the first time ever meant that, by the time Jammeh worked out what had happened by nightfall, it was too late.
Gambia observer Jim Wormington of Human Rights Watch told AFP that Jammeh relied on the same tactics that had delivered four previous electoral victories, without accounting for the work done by the opposition to build support.
“Jammeh believed… his domination of state media, mobilising of local officials in support of his candidacy, muzzling of independent journalists and imprisonment of key opposition figures, would once again guarantee victory,” Wormington told AFP.
But several factors had changed since Jammeh’s 2011 re-election with more than 70 percent of the vote.
Analyst Mathias Hounkpe of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) said on-the-spot counting used for the first time in a presidential election may have made it difficult to fix the polls in his favour.
“The announcement of results at the polling station level could have allowed the margin of fraud to be reduced in comparison with the past,” Hounkpe said.
This did not prevent a central polling error that was only corrected on Monday that showed Barrow had won by just over 19,000 votes, a slimmer margin than first thought.
Essentially, Barrow’s opposition coalition may not have had a fair fight, but they had a free one, according to Wormington.
“Gambians — on election day itself — were able to vote freely for the candidate of their choice,” he said.
Allegations of electoral fraud in previous years may be moot anyway, according to some observers.
One western diplomat based in the region said it was “unlikely the result would have been different if rigging had happened” in previous elections, as the opposition vote was split and the parties weak.
Alieu Momar Njie, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, was watching the votes being counted on election night when state broadcaster GRTS informed him that its scheduled coverage would stop.
“When (Jammeh) found out he had lost the election he informed the television managing director who put on hold the announcement of the results because he was going to concede defeat through the television,” Njie said.
The Gambia’s GRTS channel was switched to Koranic recitals to await Jammeh’s announcement, but he decided not to appear, leaving confusion over the result and a vacuum of information that quickly filled with rumours.
An internet shutdown and the blocking of text messages only fed the sense of a conspiracy building.
Very few people know exactly what happened between then and Njie’s announcement late Friday morning that Jammeh would concede.
Media in neighbouring Senegal has said Jammeh was persuaded by senior military figures to respect the result, while others have said he was given an ultimatum to accept or lose their support.
Regardless, the military did not stop the result being delivered, if later than planned, and Jammeh conceded defeat later Friday.
OSIWA’s Hounkpe noted that Jammeh’s relaxed demeanour in his televised concession speech “didn’t give the impression that something was about to happen to him”.
By then, according to one Gambian diplomat working in another west African nation and with close links to the president, Barrow had guaranteed Jammeh his safety.
The president was asked to tell his soldiers to “stay calm” in return, the diplomat told AFP.
Barrow told AFP on the morning after the vote he was “certain” of victory, and by afternoon he was the president-elect.
The coalition’s first big test will be managing an outpouring of anger at Jammeh, a man who repressed so many for so long, but who still enjoys significant support.
For the moment, calls for prosecution have been delicately sidestepped by the most senior members of Barrow’s team, as they oversee a delicate transition period.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, fans had to wait years between “Star Wars” movies — but the space saga is back with the most hotly-anticipated spin-off in cinema history.
Just 12 months after “The Force Awakens” shattered numerous box office records, Lucasfilm is unleashing “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” as an early Christmas gift for its millions of devotees.
With just over a week to go before its December 16 US release, excitement is building for the eighth installment in George Lucas’s sci-fi saga, which recorded the second-highest first day of domestic pre-sales ever (behind “The Force Awakens”).
The job of building on Lucas’s legacy falls to British filmmaker Gareth Edwards, who recalled the nerve-jangling moment when the legendary director called him to deliver his verdict on the film after a preview screening.
“I don’t want to put words into his mouth but I can honestly say that I can die happy now,” Edwards said as he relived last week’s telephone conversation with Lucas, one of the most financially successful filmmakers in history.
Edwards — addressing the world’s media at Industrial Light and Magic, Lucasfilm’s special effects studio in San Francisco — described how it was the one green light he could not live without.
“To be honest — and no offense to anyone here — it was the most important review to me, what George thought of it. You know, you guys are important too, but come on — he’s kind of God,” he told a room of critics.
“Rogue One” is part of an attempt to revitalize the franchise since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, when it was still reeling from grim reviews for the much-maligned 1999-2005 prequel trilogy.
The idea was to bring out a sequel trilogy with a movie every other year — starting with “The Force Awakens” in 2015 — and intersperse those releases with an “anthology trilogy” of one-off, standalone movies in the even years.
The 41-year-old Edwards — who most recently made “Godzilla” (2014) after dazzling critics with his directorial debut, lo-fi creature feature “Monsters” (2010) — is among a new wave of “auteurs” handpicked to ensure the strategy succeeds.
J.J. Abrams got off to a good start with “The Force Awakens,” which made $2 billion to become 2015’s biggest release, not to mention the most successful Disney motion picture and the third-highest grossing movie of all time.
Analysts expect “Rogue One” to open at up to $150 million, a bit behind the $248 million debut weekend for “The Force Awakens,” but still among the top releases this year.
Set just before “A New Hope” — the original 1977 film — it stars Felicity Jones as rebel Jyn Erso opposite rebel intelligence officer Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna.
Jyn — a delinquent with a string of convictions for forgery, assault and theft — is recruited by the Rebel Alliance for a mission to destroy a planet-sized weapon of mass destruction that would later become known as the Death Star.
“I’d never done that kind of thing before so it was very new, the whole physical preparation side of acting,” said Jones, who was nominated for an Oscar for 2014 Stephen Hawking biopic “The Theory of Everything.”
“I’m used to lots of talking in corsets so it was really nice to be running around with a blaster and a baton to bash Stormtroopers with.”
Critics treated to a 28-minute preview at Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch near San Francisco over the weekend noted that “Rogue One” eschews the “space opera” aesthetic of its predecessors in favor of the grittier look of a war film.
“We essentially got a license to be different on this movie and take a risk,” said Edwards, who believes his installment — filmed in Britain, Iceland, Jordan and the Maldives — is closest in tone to “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980).
To set out the raw look of the movie, the crew took real combat photographs from Vietnam and World War II and Photoshopped in rebel weapons and garb, with X-Wing fighters spliced into the background.
“The studio loved it, everyone loved it, and they said, ‘Go and make that,’ and that’s kind of what we went and did,” Edwards said.
It’s not all doom and gloom, of course, and much of the film’s lighter moments come from Alan Tudyk, who had the unenviable task of having to follow much-loved characters C3PO, R2D2 and BB-8 into the “Star Wars” robot family.
The actor wore stilts and a full-body motion-capture jumpsuit to play K-2SO, an Imperial enforcer droid with attitude that has had its memory wiped by the rebels.
“The first month we couldn’t look at him because he just looked ridiculous,” said Luna.
“It was the tightest pajamas ever. On his stilts, you were always the height of his balls. It was quite intimidating.”

Every player in the world’s top 99 bar pregnant Victoria Azarenka has confirmed for the Australian Open, including Roger Federer and Serena Williams as they return from injury, organisers said Thursday.
The all-star field for the opening Grand Slam of 2017 at Melbourne Park will see Andy Murray and Angelique Kerber start as top seeds in a sign of the changing of the guard in world tennis.
It will also be notable for six-time tournament champion Williams, who is attempting to claim her 23rd major singles title to surpass Steffi Graf and set a new record for the Open Era.
On the men’s side, world number two Novak Djokovic will be aiming to hoist the trophy for a record seventh time.
“We have an exceptionally strong field for Australian Open 2017, and it’s exciting to welcome two new world number ones, and two new top seeds in Angie (Kerber) and Andy (Murray),” said tournament director Craig Tiley.
American powerhouse Williams has been out of action since September due to a shoulder injury that hindered her throughout the year.
She has signed on for the Auckland Classic in early January, along with sister Venus, as a warm-up for the Australian Open later that month.
Fellow former world number one Federer has also been sidelined for knee rehabilitation after undergoing the first operation of his career on a torn meniscus in February.
He is set to play the Hopman Cup in Perth ahead of the Australian Open and renew his rivalry in Melbourne with Rafael Nadal, who is also working to regain full fitness and is set to kick-off his year at the Brisbane International.
“We have been in regular contact with Roger and Rafa and both are ready and excited for the Aussie summer, with Roger heading to Perth and Rafa to Brisbane for the first time,” said Tiley.
“Like all the players, they can’t wait to get to Melbourne and start the year off well.”
The only player from the top 99 missing is two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka, who announced in July she was pregnant with the baby due towards the end of the year.

Katinka Hosszu and Park Tae-Hwan piled up more individual gold at the Short Course Swimming World Championships on Wednesday as US women asserted themselves with a world record relay win.
Hungary’s Hosszu, a treble gold medalist at the Rio Olympics, captured her second and third gold medals of the championships in Windsor, Canada, with convincing wins in the 200m butterfly and 100m backstroke.
South Korea’s Park, who fought to swim in Rio after serving a drugs ban but came away from the Olympics empty-handed, added 200m freestyle gold to the 400m free title he won on Tuesday.
The second night of action at the WFCU Centre opened with the United States’ scintillating 4x50m medley relay win in a record-shattering 1min 43.27sec.
Alexandra De Loof, Rio Olympic gold medalist Lilly King, Kelsi Worrell and Katrina Konopka set the first world record of the championships, erasing the previous record of 1:44.04 set by Denmark at the 2014 short course worlds in Doha.
They nabbed America’s second gold of the meet, after Worrell led the women’s 4x100m free relay to gold on Tuesday.
Italy were a distant second in 1:45.38 and Denmark third in 1:45.98.
King returned to win individual gold in the 50m breaststroke in 28.92sec — getting the better of world record-holder Alia Atkinson of Jamaica (29.11) with fellow American Molly Hannis third in 29.58.
Hosszu nabbed her second gold of the championships in the 200m fly, pulling away for a decisive victory over Worrell in 2:02.15.
Worrell’s American record of 2:02.89 gave her silver less than 15 minutes after her swim in the US relay triumph and China’s Zhang Yufei earned bronze in 2:05.10.
Hosszu, winner of the 400m medley on Tuesday, topped the podium again in the 100m backstroke.
Her time of 55.54 didn’t approach the world record she set at the 2014 worlds, but put her seven-tenths of a second in front of Canadian Kylie Masse (56.24), with Britain’s Georgia Davies third in 56.45.
Davies edged long course world champion Emily Seebohm of Australia for bronze.
Park produced a championship record of 1:41.03 — breaking the mark of 1:41.08 set by Ryan Lochte in 2010 — to win the 200m free.
South African Chad le Clos stormed from last place at the midway mark to take silver in 1:41.65 and 400m free silver medalist Aleksandr Krasnykh of Russia was third in 1:41.95.
Mitch Larkin, shut out of the medals in the 100m backstroke in Rio, retained his short course world crown in the event — to go with the long course world gold he captured in 2015.
Larkin, equal sixth at the 50m mark, stormed home to win in 49.65sec — edging Russian Andrei Shabasov at the wall by four-hundredths of a second.
China’s Xu Jiayu took bronze in 50.02.
There was a measure of redemption after Rio disappointment for Germany’s Marco Koch, who pulled away in the closing meters to seize gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
Koch, a 2015 long course world champion who was seventh in the 200m breast in Rio, won in 56.77.
Russia’s Vladimir Morozov took silver in 57.00 and Italy’s Fabio Scozzoli won a fierce battle for bronze in 57.04 – one one-hundredth of a second in front of Brazil’s Felipe Franca Silva.
Russia won an entertaining mixed 4x50m freestyle relay in 1:29.73, with the Netherlands second in 1:29.82 and Canada third in 1:29.83.

He’s not yet finished picking, but President-elect Donald Trump already has named three retired generals to top posts, raising questions as to why there will be so much military brass in cabinet-level jobs.
Trump on Wednesday named retired four-star Marine general John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees several critical areas including immigration and border control — signature issues for Trump.
If confirmed by the Senate, Kelly would join retired Marine general James Mattis as defense secretary and retired Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn as national security adviser. Mattis also needs Senate approval.
While the men bring broad depth of knowledge to the cabinet and considerable expertise, some worry their numbers threaten a cornerstone of American democracy — that civilians control the military and the government.
“If you have a significant number of (former military members) in your cabinet, you begin to bring into some question whether you actually are maintaining full civil control of a nation,” David Barno, a retired general who once led the US war effort in Afghanistan, told AFP.
Yet another retired general, David Petraeus, has been floated as a possible pick for secretary of state, and retired admiral Michael Rogers has been rumored to be in the running for director of national intelligence.
“One more three or four-star general given a senior appointment, and we can start referring to a Trump junta rather than a Trump administration,” retired Army lieutenant colonel and military scholar Andrew Bacevich told Time magazine.
Trump was outspoken during his campaign against the generals currently serving under President Barack Obama’s administration, boasting he knew more about the Islamic State group than they did, and claiming the White House had reduced the four-stars to “rubble.”
One possible reason Trump is drawing so deeply from the military well now is because officers typically keep their political views private, meaning few generals were openly critical of Trump’s divisive campaign, while a slew of experienced lawmakers and civilians sharply disagreed with him.
Trump also was likely wowed by the breadth of experience he had seen in the generals, Barno said.
He “is very impressed by the seriousness and the experience and the gravitas that a number of retired generals have brought into interviews with him,” he said.
“They are very different kinds of people from many of the people he has surrounded himself with for the other parts of his career, to include through most of his campaign.”
Timothy Hagle, who teaches political science at the University of Iowa, said the generals have qualities Trump appreciates: an ability to be “straight talking, very blunt” and to “focus on the mission regardless” of political leanings.
A major concern about a military-heavy cabinet is that Trump might begin to see all world problems through a military prism without giving sufficient voice to other forms of influence, such as diplomacy.
But retired major general Charles Dunlap, who formerly was a top Air Force lawyer and who now teaches at Duke University, said the opposite was often true — military members who understand the horrors of war are less likely to be hawkish than civilian leaders.
“Retired generals don’t clamor for war; they are typically the voices urging that all other avenues be exhausted before turning to force,” Dunlap said in an opinion piece published on Vox.com.
How hawkish the new Trump administration will be remains to be seen, but the incoming president has already upset China by taking a call from Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen, breaking with decades of tradition.
And Mattis, who is highly regarded by politicians of many stripes, is outspoken on Iran and has publicly called it the “single most belligerent actor in the Middle East.”
Having retired in 2013, Mattis needs a special waiver to serve, as US law bans uniformed military officers from being secretary of defense for seven years after leaving active duty.
Barno, now based at American University, echoed Dunlap’s view that more retired generals don’t necessarily equate to more foreign military interventions.
“The military leaders that (Trump) has selected will bring a very sober voice about the risks of using military power,” he said.
“So I think the military people will bring a cautionary note to a number of these campaigns, in some cases more than some civilian leaders might in the past.”

Matteo Renzi bowed out as Italian prime minister with a combination of jokes, regrets and a strong hint that he wants to lead his party into an early election battle.
Political consultations on forming a caretaker government were set to begin Thursday at 6 pm (1700 GMT), after Renzi formally submitted his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella following a crushing referendum defeat.
Before handing back the keys to his Palazzo Chigi residence, the 41-year-old chaired a meeting of the executive of his Democratic Party (PD).
“We are not afraid of anything or anybody, if other parties want to go to the polls …. the PD is not afraid of democracy or elections,” Renzi said, in reference to opposition clamour for a nationwide vote due in early 2018 to be brought forward by up to a year.
Ironically, Renzi’s rule came to an end with his government winning a vote of confidence in the Senate, the parliamentary chamber he tried to emasculate with a referendum in which he suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday.
The confidence vote curtailed prolonged discussion on the approval of Italy’s 2017 budget — an unfinished task which had prompted Mattarella to ask Renzi to delay his departure for a few days.
“Budget law approved. Formal resignation at 1900. Thanks to everyone and viva l’Italia!” (“long live Italy!”) he tweeted. This being Italy, 1900 (7 pm) came and went, and Renzi had still not resigned.
Later Wednesday, the Moody’s ratings agency downgraded its outlook for Italy’s sovereign debt to negative from stable, saying the failure of the constitutional referendum slowed reform progress and left Italy more exposed to “unforeseen shocks”.
After the talks at his party headquarters, Renzi said he assumed full responsibility for the referendum but gave no indication he was considering stepping down from the PD leadership.
He said he would be spending Thursday, a public holiday, celebrating his grandmother’s 86th birthday. “We have to thank the elderly,” he said in a reference to pensioners supporting him in the referendum debate.
“And hopefully tomorrow I will have more luck in the Playstation battle with my sons than I have had here,” he added.
Renzi’s speech sounded at times like the launch of an election campaign, with the former Florence mayor boasting of how he had left Italy with “fewer taxes and more rights” and pointedly playing up his leadership in the aftermath of a series of devastating earthquakes between August and October.
The fallout from the referendum remains unclear however with the PD beset by internal divisions that were painfully exposed by the vote.
As secretary general, Renzi controls the party apparatus, which he used to stage the coup that deposed his predecessor Enrico Letta in February 2014.
The opposition meanwhile insists the referendum was a vote of no confidence in the centre-left coalition.
“Either we have immediate elections or we take to the streets,” Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right Northern League, warned Wednesday.
“We cannot make a mockery of the 32 million people who voted on Sunday.”
Polls taken before the referendum suggested that the PD remains well-placed to emerge from an election with the largest share of the vote, despite the upward trend in backing for the populist Five Star Movement.
Led by comedian Beppe Grillo, Five Star is skilled at pitching an eclectic message to all shades of opinion — from libertarian leftists and ultra-environmentalists to anti-euro and anti-immigration eurosceptics.
The last year has seen the movement emerge decisively as Italy’s biggest opposition force, largely at the expense of 80-year-old former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, with around 30 percent of voters likely to back it.
Backing for the Northern League has been largely stable at around 15 percent of voter intentions, and Five Star’s hopes of power are seen as being restricted by its reluctance to countenance alliances with other parties.
The major obstacle to holding an election in two months’ time is that parliament must first revise the rules by which it will be held.
As things stand, two different electoral laws apply to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, which hold equal powers under the “perfect bicameral” principle upheld by the referendum.
A new system for the Chamber of Deputies, under which the party getting the most votes would be guaranteed a majority of the seats, was approved earlier this year. But all the parties had agreed to revise it before the referendum.
The Senate meanwhile is elected by a proportional system unlikely to give any one party or coalition a majority. Elections under two different systems would be a recipe for political paralysis, most observers agree.
Crucially, reports say Mattarella shares that view.

Juventus don’t care who scores, as long as they win, coach Massimiliano Allegri insisted after Gonzalo Higuain ended his five-week goal drought to help secure a precious 2-0 Champions League win over Dinamo Zagreb.
Juventus, beaten finalists in 2015, will head into the draw for the last 16 seeded as Group H winners after finishing three points ahead of Sevilla.
A slice of luck could be required if they are to avoid meeting the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or any other competition favourite in February.
And Allegri will be hoping Higuain, who had not scored since November 2, has finally found the scoring boots that helped him to a Serie A record of 36 goals for Napoli last season.
Until then, the Juventus coach called for less scrutiny on the under-pressure Argentine: “We needed to score goals tonight… sometimes it happens that a striker doesn’t score for a few games.
“Maybe he was just too used to scoring goals before, but at Juventus it’s important we win, not who scores.”
It was probably the best news Higuain has heard in a while.
After his record move to Juve last summer in a bid to “win titles and trophies”, Higuain has endured a testing first five months in Turin.
He had hit seven goals in Serie A before suffering an injury knock last month that has curtailed his bid to claim the league’s ‘Capocannoniere’ award for the second successive season.
Higuain’s form for Argentina also prompted fans to boo him at a recent World Cup qualifier and on his return to Italy the striker was forced to deny reports he had been given an armed escort by Juventus after receiving death threats.
Despite making his full league return in a 3-1 win over Atalanta last weekend, Higuain failed to get his name on the scoresheet.
His 52nd minute opener on Wednesday was his first goal since hitting a penalty in a 1-1 Champions League draw with Lyon on November 2.
Although happy at ending his famine, Higuain admitted being played in a slightly different position at Juventus has not helped.
“All strikers want to score goals. You can’t always score when you want, so I’m happy I did,” Higuain told Mediaset Premium.
“In the past months I’ve been playing a little outside of the zone that I’m used to playing in.
“But we’re on the right road and we have to continue. Now, we can rest a little and think about the derby.”
Juventus make the short trip across town to league rivals Torino on Sunday looking to protect their four-point Serie A lead on Roma and AC Milan.
Although a crucial fixture for both sets of fans, Allegri underlined how important it is for the Bianconeri when he rested goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
His replacement, Norbert Neto, had little to do as a young and relatively inexperienced Zagreb side spent most of the night defending.
Coach Ivaylo Petev said: “Hats-off to Juventus, they’re a very strong side. We conceded two goals but we have a very young side that doesn’t have a lot of experience at this level.”
Juve fans were also given a timely boost with the return of Argentine playmaker Paulo Dybala.
Dybala has arguably been Juve’s key attacking player for the last two seasons and made his return from a six-week injury lay-off when he replaced Miralem Pjanic for the last 11 minutes, and went on to have three shots on goal.
While Allegri awaits the outcome of the last 16 draw, Dybala said he can’t wait to get his teeth into the opposition.
“I don’t care who we get in the next round,” said Dybala.
“With the kind of players we have, we shouldn’t be afraid of anyone.”

An air strike in Iraq has killed dozens of civilians in an area near the Syrian border still controlled by the Islamic State group, officials said.
The deadly strike came as Iraqi forces battled jihadists deep inside Mosul, edging closer to the River Tigris that divides the city and looking for a breakthrough in the seven-week-old offensive.
The speaker of Iraq’s parliament, Salim al-Juburi condemned the air strike “that targeted a market area for civilians and resulted in the death and injury of dozens of them” in the town of Al-Qaim.
If confirmed, the blunder would be one of the worst cases of civilians being killed in strikes in Iraq since the start of the air campaign against IS in 2014.
Officials in Anbar, the western province in which Al-Qaim is located, said dozens were killed in the afternoon strike, although AFP could not reach sources in the town to confirm the casualty toll.
A spokesman for the provincial council of Anbar claimed the strike was carried out by an Iraqi aircraft in the afternoon.
“The strike hit a market at peak hour, there were retirees queueing up pick up their pension, people collecting salaries and social security payments,” Eid Ammash said.
“Entire families were killed,” he said.
Another officials blamed the strike on the US-led coalition that has carried out thousands of air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
There was no immediate comment from Iraq’s Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against IS and the coalition denied carrying out any strikes in the area at the time.
“We didn’t conduct strikes in the area at the time of the incident,” coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian told AFP.
Meanwhile in east Mosul, the 9th Armoured Division had reached Al-Salam hospital in a push on Tuesday, the farthest the army had penetrated into the city since the start of a broad offensive launched on October 17.
But it quickly found itself surrounded by jihadists and needed support from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service to pull back, commanders said.
“Our forces dealt with the situation at Al-Salam hospital” in southeastern Mosul, Maan Saadi, a CTS commander, told AFP.
“Our mission was to offer support to the 9th Division forces surrounded in the hospital, our units accomplished this mission and opened a passage,” he said.
Saadi said the army was now occupying a position nearly one kilometre (less than a mile) from the hospital, which a 9th Division commander said had been used by IS as a command centre.
The five-storey building towers above the neighbourhood and the jihadists had been using the upper floors and roof as sniper positions for some time, Mosul residents said.
The IS-affiliated Amaq news agency said the jihadists had carried out five suicide car bomb attacks in the area inflicted heavy losses on the army.
CTS has spearheaded the drive into Mosul in the past month, retaking several neighbourhoods in the east of the city.
The army also punched into Mosul in November but its progress has been slower and Iraqi forces barely control half of the eastern side of the city.
Saadi said his forces had retaken two neighbourhoods in eastern Mosul and were aiming to flush out jihadists from two more in the coming days.
“We are now in Al-Taamim which is three kilometres (two miles) from the river, including an open area of about one kilometre where there are no buildings,” he said.
Forces on the southern and northern fronts made quick early gains when Iraq launched its largest military operation in years but progress has been slow in recent days.
One of the main factors hampering Iraqi forces in Mosul is the continued presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, who either want to stay in their homes or are prevented from leaving by IS.
The United Nations on Wednesday put the overall number of people displaced by the offensive at more than 82,000, less than half the number the UN expected before the offensive.
It its latest situation report, the UN spoke of spiralling civilian casualties as Iraqi forces went house to house in east Mosul, attempting to battle jihadists and protect civilians at the same time.
“Partners are rushing to bring trauma care closer to the front lines to give injured civilians the best chance of survival,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
It said work was also under way to repair water and electricity infrastructure in east Mosul, where it described the current water shortage as “critical”.
The conditions for those massing in the camps on the city’s outskirts were hardly better, with the onset of winter bringing freezing temperatures at night.

Mauricio Pochettino insists Tottenham’s 3-1 win over CSKA Moscow was more than an upbeat farewell to the Champions League because the stylish success showed his team have got their swagger back.
Pochettino’s side were already eliminated from the Champions League before their last Group E fixture on Wednesday, but they rounded off a frustrating campaign with a dominant display against the Russian champions.
After a difficult period in which Tottenham suffered injuries to key players and lost their momentum as a result, Pochettino believes his men are back in the groove at a critical point of the season.
“We struggled in the last month and a half. We had some problems, but now we have nearly all the squad fit and we recovered that feeling we lost,” Pochettino said.
“It’s true it was a struggle to compete for a while. We crossed that period that was difficult for us.
“The team has full confidence and trust again. It’s lucky that moment arrived in a very busy moment for us.
“Now we have an important period and we are arriving in good form.”
Pochettino conceded it was frustrating to be the only English club knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage, but he took heart from Tottenham booking a place in the Europa League knockout stages by finishing third in their group.
Dele Alli got their equaliser after Alan Dzagoev’s opener and Harry Kane put Tottenham ahead before an own goal by goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev sealed just their second European win this term.
Despite the potential for problems arising from the Europa League’s gruelling itinerary and far-flung destinations, Pochettino is adamant Tottenham will treat the competition seriously because the winners qualify for the Champions League.
“The Europa League is not a consolation, it is an important competition. It is a trophy that is important in Europe,” he said.
“You can qualify for the Champions League if you win it. The Europa league is a very good competition and why not believe we can win it.”
Pochettino was also relieved Tottenham got their first win at Wembley since February 2008, ending a run of six games without a victory at the stadium that has been their temporary European home and is likely to be their home for the whole of next season while White Hart Lane is redeveloped.
“It’s important to get a good feeling at Wembley. Now we need to look ahead. we have the opportunity to play more games here,” he said.
“Yes we are disappointed we didn’t get through in the Champions League but we were in a similar situation at this stage last season and finished strongly.
“In the Premier League we fight to go to the top and we are in a good position. The gap is not too much.”
CSKA’s failure to wrestle the Europa League spot from Tottenham was a downbeat end to the seven-year reign of boss Leonid Slutsky, who announced earlier in the week that he would resign after Wednesday’s match.
Slutsky, who led CSKA to the Russian title last season, wasn’t in a nostalgic mood and he said: “The only thing I can say is I feel disappointment. I can’t talk about general things, just this game tonight.
“It was very hard. We had lots of missing players. I would say the result is fair against a very tough opponent.”

DR Congo’s independent human rights commission Wednesday blamed both the government and the opposition for the deaths of 46 people, most of them by gunfire, in clashes in Kinshasa in September.
Scores more were hurt in the capital when “non-identified elements in the police” and “protesters using stolen weapons” clashed September 19 and 20 in opposition protests against President Joseph Kabila, a commission report said.
The release of the CNDH report, its first since the commission was set up in July 2015, was hailed by the European Union, a major donor to the vast resource-rich nation.
Democratic Republic of Congo has seen months of trouble ahead of the official end of Kabila’s mandate on December 20, his second term in office.
He is barred from serving again but has never said he plans to step aside and last month cut a power-sharing deal with fringe opposition politician Samy Badibanga as prime minister in a move that effectively extends his term to early 2018.
The CNDH toll for the September protests, which were organised by anti-Kabila coalition Gathering, was slightly lower than the UN toll of 53 dead.
Gathering brings together mainstream opposition parties that back longtime Kabila rival, Etienne Tshisekedi.
There were signs of an easing of political tension in the country this week when Tshisekedi agreed to join mediation talks headed by the country’s bishops, the deputy secretary of Congo’s National Episcopal Conference said.
The talks, which aim to agree on a transition ahead of April 2018 presidential elections, showed “there is goodwill all round,” said Andre Masinganda.
Tshisekedi’s Gathering had snubbed talks involving the authorities up until this week.
The formal talks are set to start “Thursday December 8 2016” at 10am (0900 GMT) in Kinshasa, according to a statement released late Tuesday.
However the UN mission in Congo, MONUSCO, is bracing for violence ahead of December 20, UN Special Representative to DR Congo Maman Sambo Sidikou said in New York on Tuesday.
“MONUSCO has further updated its contingency plans and is further adjusting its posture and deployment to mitigate politically driven violence and to protect civilians,” he said.
Kabila came to power after the murder of his father Laurent-Desire Kabila by a bodyguard in 2001 during the Second Congo War, which ended two years later.
Elected in 2006, he went on to win a second five-year term in a 2011 vote that the opposition decried as rigged.

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane is hoping to avoid a return to Juventus in the Champions League last 16 after the holders blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 against Borussia Dortmund and qualify second from Group F.
A double from Karim Benzema had Real well on course to leapfrog the Germans into top spot, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang halved Dortmund’s deficit before teeing up Marco Reus for the equaliser two minutes from time.
However, that late goal could well benefit Real as they now can’t face the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain in Monday’s draw.
Instead, one of Leicester City, Arsenal, Monaco, Juventus or Napoli will stand in Real’s way come the new year.
“Juventus for two reasons,” said Zidane, who joined Real from the Italian giants for a world record fee in 2001, when asked who he wants to avoid.
“I am very proud of the players and how they played against a great team with good players.
“We needed to be a bit more attentive in the final 10 minutes.
“We have to forget about it and move on. Given what we had done (in the group) until now it was logical that they finished top and us second.”
A draw was enough, though, to extend Real’s unbeaten run in all competitions since April to 34 games — matching a club record.
However, the Frenchman refused to take credit despite inspiring a huge turnaround in fortunes for the Spanish giants since taking his first senior managerial role in January.
“You have to congratulate the players. They are the ones that are on the pitch, that have to fight and run,” he added.
“The fans too because they are always behind the team, they are always cheering.
“And everyone around the club. The idea is to continue what we are doing but there is still a long way to go.”
Reus’s late strike was a huge boost to Dortmund’s chances of progression as they can now face PSG, Benfica, Man City, Sevilla or Porto in the last 16.
And Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel insisted the dramatic nature of the game showed there had been no pact to settle for a mutually beneficial draw.
“We didn’t do some tactical calculation,” said Tuchel.
“We can have no influence in the draw, but against any opponents we will play to our limit to reach the next stage.”
Dortmund looked set to pay for their profligacy in front of goal as they missed a host of clear chances in between Benzema’s two goals with American wonder kid Christian Pulisic and Gonzalo Castro especially culpable.
However, Aubameyang was far more deadly as he slotted home his 18th goal in as many games this season before teeing up substitute Reus, who only missed out on starting due to a cold.
“I wasn’t feeling great the last few days, I wanted to start, but the risk was too high,” said Reus.
“Real had some big chances in the second half, but we hoped for a lucky punch and we got it.
“Auba was world-class with his pass and I was happy to get on the end of it — the goal was 99 percent him and one from me.”

Los Angeles prosecutors have decided not to file charges against actor Russell Crowe over a scuffle earlier this year with rapper Azealia Banks.
In a court filing on Tuesday, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said the actor appeared justified in throwing the singer out of his Beverly Hills hotel room during an October 15 party after she reportedly became belligerent.
The 25-year-old rapper had filed a police report against the Oscar-winning actor following the incident, claiming he grabbed her by the neck, used a racial slur and spat on her.
But prosecutors said if anyone was to blame for the incident, it appears to be Banks, who witnesses at the party described as either drunk or on drugs.
“Several attendees describe Banks, not Crowe, as the assaultive party,” prosecutors said in a charge evaluation worksheet that explains their decision.
“Witnesses state that prior to being ejected from the hotel room by Crowe, Banks repeatedly used a racial epithet, was verbally aggressive to party attendees and threatened to break a glass to cut the throat of a female guest and/or Crowe,” the filing states.
It adds that Banks had admitted to making insulting statements before the 52-year-old actor threw her out of his suite and that she had no visible injuries when she reported the incident to police.
Prosecutors said it would also be inappropriate to file criminal charges against Crowe for spitting on Banks’ gloved hand.
“It was incidental to preventing more serious threatened violence,” the filing said.
The rapper took to Facebook on Wednesday to express her dismay over the decision.
“Seriously heartbroken over this news of my case against Russell Crowe being thrown out,” she wrote, adding that her attorney had failed to properly represent her.
“One thing I won’t do is let this ruin any parts of me,” she added. “I’ve done enough crying in 2016, and 2017 won’t be the year I allow the media or anyone else to control my narrative.”
The rapper earlier this year was suspended from Twitter after a stream of racist and Islamophobic invective against former One Direction heartthrob Zayn Malik, whom she accused of copying her style.
Banks, who has long been notorious for provocative social media postings, later apologized for her rant.

Mel Gibson and his new movie Hacksaw Ridge have swept the board at the Australian film awards in a return from the wilderness for the “choked up” Oscar-winner.
Gibson returned to his Australian roots to direct his first film in a decade, the true story of a conscientious objector who saved 75 men during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II.
It tells of Desmond Doss who enlists and is determined to save lives on the front line as a medic, but refuses to carry a gun on moral grounds.
Since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Hacksaw Ridge has generated Oscars buzz and was recognised by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts with nine gongs at their annual awards ceremony in Sydney late Wednesday.
They included best film and best director for Gibson, while the movie’s lead and supporting actors, Andrew Garfield and Hugo Weaving, also won.
“All the way up and down it’s a homegrown film,” said an emotional Gibson, who shot it in New South Wales state. “I’m really honoured and choked up I can’t even talk.”
He added: “Filming in Australia was fantastic, it was like the old days.”
Gibson’s family moved to Sydney from New York when he was 12.
He learned his trade at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in the city before making his name with Mad Max in 1979 and Gallipoli two years later, helping propel him into Hollywood.
Further success came with the Lethal Weapon series before Oscar success with Braveheart.
It made Gibson one of the most sought-after names in Hollywood, before being ostracised by Tinseltown after an anti-Semitic tirade captured on tape during a 2006 drunk-driving arrest.
The actor-director has since had to make do with a handful of parts in obscure or poorly received films.
Among other gongs, Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan was given one of the night’s highest honours -? the Longford Lyell Award -? for outstanding contribution to the Australian screen.
Previous winners have included Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, and director Peter Weir.

Brazil’s Supreme Court Wednesday overruled a bid to suspend the powerful Senate speaker from his position as he faces trial for alleged embezzlement, offering some relief to the scandal-hit government.
The court’s judges voted to let Renan Calheiros, 61, remain in his post but stripped him of his status as third in line after the president, on grounds that he faces corruption charges — which he denies.
An earlier ruling by one of the judges, Marco Aurelio Mello, had threatened to disrupt President Michel Temer’s efforts to push a sensitive public spending cap through the legislature.
The full board of judges voted by six to three to overturn that ruling.
They also ruled that Calheiros must be stripped of the constitutional role that would see him become the country’s replacement president in the event that Temer or his number two, the speaker of the lower house, could not perform the task.
Calling the decision “patriotic,” Calheiros said in a statement that “confidence in Brazilian justice and the separation of powers remains immovable.”
Calheiros is considered Temer’s most powerful ally.
Together they led impeachment procedures which ended in Temer’s predecessor, Dilma Rousseff, being removed from office in August.
Now Temer is tasked with lifting Latin America’s biggest economy out of crisis.
Following Wednesday’s ruling, Calheiros will be able to preside over a Senate session next Tuesday, when the decisive vote on Temer’s spending cap is scheduled.
Tens of thousands of protesters rallied on Sunday around the country demanding that Calheiros be sacked.
The court last week ordered Calheiros to face trial on embezzlement charges. He has denied accusations he used public money to make support payments to a woman with whom he had a child.
In a separate case, Calheiros is among numerous top politicians including an ex-president and lawmakers accused of helping steal billions from the state oil firm Petrobras.
Calheiros had tried unsuccessfully last week to push through an urgent reform that would challenge judges’ powers to investigate corruption.
Prosecutors threatened to resign in response, saying the reform would undermine Operation Car Wash, as the Petrobras probe is known.
Temer went from vice president to president this year when he and Calheiros drove proceedings that saw Rousseff impeached for fiddling with government books.
Although Temer has not been formally investigated himself over the Petrobras scandal, it has forced the resignation of several of his ministers.
The political drama deepened last week when corruption suspects appeared to be lining up to make more potentially explosive revelations.
A source close to construction firm Odebrecht told AFP that 77 of its current and former executives had signed a plea deal with investigators in return for lighter sentences.
The 77 include the firm’s jailed boss Marcelo Odebrecht, who was reported earlier this year to have named Temer in testimony to investigators.

President Bashar al-Assad said a victory for his army in Aleppo would be a “huge step” towards ending the country’s five-year civil war, as rebels in Syria’s second city lost more ground.
In an interview with Syrian daily Al-Watan, published Thursday, Assad said defeating the beleaguered rebels in Aleppo would not put an end to Syria’s conflict.
“It’s true that Aleppo will be a win for us, but let’s be realistic — it won’t mean the end of the war in Syria,” Assad said.
“But it will be a huge step towards this end.”
In a blistering three-week offensive, Syrian government forces have seized about 80 percent of east Aleppo, a stronghold for rebel groups since 2012.
Increasingly cornered in a pocket of territory in the city’s southeast, opposition factions on Wednesday called for an “immediate five-day humanitarian ceasefire”.
When asked about the possibility of a truce in Aleppo, Assad said, “it’s practically non-existent, of course”.
“The Americans in particular are insisting on demanding a truce, because their terrorist agents are now in a difficult situation,” Assad told Al-Watan.
US Secretary of State John Kerry held fresh talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Germany Wednesday but no breakthrough emerged on efforts to halt the fighting in the devastated city.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights 19 civilians were killed in the regime bombardment of east Aleppo on Wednesday.
Save the Children Syria Director Sonia Khush said tens of thousands of children in Aleppo have become “sitting targets”.
“It defies belief that after nearly six years of suffering through this war, the international community is still willing to stand by as civilians are bombed with seeming impunity,” she added.
Assad said a rebel loss in Aleppo “will mean the transformation of the course of the war across Syria” and would leave opposition factions and their backers with “no cards left to play”.
Aleppo was once known as the beating heart of culture and commerce in Syria, but the outbreak of violence there four years ago left it divided between rebels in the east and government forces in the west.
In his wide-ranging interview, Assad pledged to fight rebels even beyond Aleppo, because “the war in Syria will not end until after the complete elimination of terrorism”.
“Terrorists are present elsewhere — even if we finish with Aleppo, we will continue our war against them,” he said.
Assad touted local agreements between his government and rebel groups as the best way to resolve Syria’s complex conflict.
Such deals have seen opposition fighters quit a string of towns around Damascus in recent months, often in exchange for an end to regime bombardment.
“It is the only available solution, in parallel with striking the terrorists. Its success has been proven over the past two to three years, and is now speeding up,” Assad told Al-Watan.
He said these agreements had protected Syrian civilians and infrastructure and allowed former rebels to “return to the bosom of the state. What more could we want?”
Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with widespread demonstrations but has since turned into a brutal multi-front war drawing in world powers.
Many Western countries cut ties with Damascus in 2011 and have imposed crippling economic sanctions, but Assad said he remained open to better relations with them.
“We really do want ties with every country in the world, including the West, despite our previous knowledge of their hypocrisy.”

Marco Reus’s dramatic equaliser two minutes from time ensured Borussia Dortmund beat holders Real Madrid to top spot in Champions League Group F with a pulsating 2-2 draw on Wednesday.
With both sides already qualified, a double from Karim Benzema looked to have Real well set to leapfrog Dortmund and secure a home tie in the second leg of their last-16 tie.
However, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reduced the arrears before turning provider for substitute Reus to slide home the leveller.
“Borussia Dortmund games are great, but they are very nerve-racking,” said Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel.
“We made too many wrong decisions, but ultimately it was a great finish to the game for us.”
A point does at least ensure Madrid match a club record 34 games unbeaten in all competitions, while Los Blancos are now also ensured of avoiding the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain in Monday’s draw.
“We gave the game away by missing chances to score the third goal,” said Real coach Zinedine Zidane.
“We tried everything we could to get first place, but in the end we couldn’t achieve it.”
Madrid can now face Leicester City, Monaco, Arsenal, Juventus or Napoli in the next round.
And Zidane has no doubt over who he wants to avoid.
“Juventus, for two reasons,” said the former Juve midfielder.
Zidane kept his promise to go for victory despite the possibility of an easier draw by remaining in second with Casemiro and James Rodriguez coming into the side in only two changes from Saturday’s Clasico.
Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller was busy early on as he parried a Benzema drive before denying Rodriguez twice in quick succession.
Benzema wasn’t to be denied on 28 minutes when he bundled home Dani Carvajal’s low cross at the back post.
Real only went in ahead at the break, though, thanks to a mixture of good goalkeeping from Keylor Navas and wayward finishing from the visitors.
American wonder kid Christian Pulisic wasted a great chance when his weak effort was placed too close to Navas before the Costa Rica international produced a brilliant stop to turn Andre Schuerrle’s free-kick behind.
Another dangerous break moments later saw Gonzalo Castro burst through on goal, but he tried to square for Aubameyang and overhit his pass.
Dortmund were even more profligate at the start of the second period as Ousmane Dembele and Castro fluffed their lines from point-blank range.
Benzema should have got his second of the night when Weidenfeller produced a brilliant save to parry the Frenchman’s volley.
However, Benzema only had seconds to stew on that miss as moments later he bulleted home a header from Rodriguez’s inch-perfect cross.
Just when Madrid looked in control, Dortmund finally took one of their chances when captain Marcel Schmelzer’s run wasn’t tracked and his low cross was gratefully tapped home by Aubameyang for his 19th goal in as many games this season.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s week had been dominated by unwanted headlines off the field surrounding allegations he stored millions of euros from image rights in tax havens.
And there wasn’t much for the Portuguese to shout about as he was held scoreless for a fourth straight Champions League game by more Weidenfeller heroics to turn a rising drive headed for the top corner behind.
Ronaldo then seemed in disbelief as he struck the base of the post with just Weidenfeller to beat.
And that miss proved costly as Aubameyang stormed past Sergio Ramos and produced the perfect cross for Reus to slide home the equaliser.
“Auba was world-class with his pass and I was happy to get on the end of it — the goal was 99 percent him and one from me,” said Reus.

Borussia Dortmund set a new Champions League scoring record in a 2-2 draw against Real Madrid on Wednesday while FC Porto and Sevilla claimed the two remaining last-16 spots.
Dortmund made sure of top spot in Group F after fighting back from 2-0 down against defending champions Madrid, leaving the Spanish giants with theoretically a tougher draw to make the quarter-finals.
Marco Reus was the star of the late show at the Santiago Bernabeu, hitting the equaliser two minutes from time.
A double from Karim Benzema looked to have Real well set to leapfrog the Germans and secure a home game in the second leg of their last-16 tie.
However, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reduced the arrears before substitute Reus slid in to turn Aubameyang’s dangerous low cross high into the net.
Dortmund scored 21 goals in their group campaign, the most for any team in a group stage in the history of the tournament.
“Real had some big chances in the second half, but we hoped for a lucky punch and we got it,” said Reus.
“‘Auba’ was world-class with his pass and I was happy to get on the end of it — the goal was 99 percent him and one from me.”
Real coach Zinedine Zidane said his team should have killed off the game.
“We gave the game away by missing chances to score the third goal,” said Zidane.
Sevilla made the last 16 for the first time in seven years after soaking up the pressure to draw 0-0 away to Lyon.
Lyon — who lost 1-0 in Seville in September and trailed the Spaniards by three points — needed to win by two clear goals to go through.
But they could not find a way through, with Corentin Tolisso and Mathieu Valbuena both hitting the woodwork.
“I am satisfied because we have put in enormous efforts to qualify against very important opponents,” said Sevilla coach Jorge Sampaoli.
Table-topping Juventus defeated Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 with Gonzalo Higuain and Daniele Rugani on target. The Croatians finished their campaign having failed to score a single goal.
Leicester City, who had already made sure of top spot in Group G in their debut season in the competition, suffered their first loss of the campaign, 5-0 at Porto who went through as runners-up.
Porto, the 1987 and 2004 European champions, opened the scoring after just six minutes when Andre Silva headed in a corner from Jesus Corona.
Corona hit a spectacular second goal with a left-footed volley from a cross by Yacine Brahimi after being left unmarked in the area. Brahimi made it 3-0 with a cheeky backheel before the interval.
Silva added a fourth from the penalty spot on 64 minutes after Danny Drinkwater had hauled down the striker in the penalty area with Diogo Jota making it 5-0, the biggest Champions League defeat for an English club.
“We can lose, but I want us to show our character and our strength. We didn’t do that well enough tonight,” said Leicester coach Claudio Ranieri.
FC Copenhagen had harboured hopes of pipping Porto for second place but despite a 2-0 win at pointless Club Brugge, they had to settle for a Europa League place.
In Group E, Bayer Leverkusen, already assured of second spot, downed Monaco 3-0 but the win wasn’t enough to overhaul the table-topping French side.
Tottenham Hotspur, meanwhile, came back from a goal down to defeat CSKA Moscow 3-1 and claim a Europa League place.
Alan Dzagoev put the Russians ahead after 33 minutes, but the lead lasted just five minutes until Dele Alli levelled from a Christian Eriksen cross to ensure that CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev’s miserable Champions League record of failing to keep a clean sheet stretched to 39 games.
Harry Kane and an Akinfeev own-goal gave Spurs the three points.
England star Kane admitted that Tottenham need to improve their home form if they are to progress in future European adventures.
“You are playing the best teams in Europe so you can’t rely on away results which we have done this season,” said Kane.

Oscar-nominated Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were lauded as a modern-day “Fred and Ginger” as they sunk their hands and feet into the cement at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theater Wednesday.
The pair have appeared together on the big screen three times, most recently in acclaimed musical “La La Land,” which is tipped to score big at the Academy Awards in February.
“No one can quite put their finger on what makes chemistry happen between two actors,” said Vanity Fair West Coast editor Krista Smith, introducing the pair.
“Yet it is exactly what has created some of the greatest cinematic legends of all time. Ryan and Emma are that modern day Bogart and Bacall, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Hepburn and Tracy, Myrna Loy and Dick Powell.”
The imprint ceremony, a Hollywood tradition going back decades, came ahead of Friday’s release of “La La Land,” which casts the pair as an aspiring actress and a struggling jazz musician who fall in love.
“I moved to LA when I was 15 and came here, and my hands are an exact match for Jane Russell’s so if you’re looking for a Jane Russell hand double I’m your girl,” said Stone, who was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for Birdman (2014).
“This is an incredible experience and making this movie was an incredible experience, so what a place to get to commemorate that.”
Stone and Gosling appeared together in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” (2011) and “Gangster Squad” (2013) — but were almost overlooked for “La La Land.”
Director Damien Chazelle, whose film “Whiplash” (2014) took home three Oscars out of five nominations, has revealed that Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Emma Watson were considered to play the leads.
“I’m still I guess not completely convinced that we’re not going to be arrested for vandalism. But I’m going to take your word for it that we’re allowed to do this,” said Gosling, who was nominated for a best actor Oscar for “Half Nelson” (2006).
“We had an opportunity to shoot in most of Los Angeles’s most iconic locations except for this. So this is the final piece to the puzzle, a beautiful way to end this experience.”
“La La Land” opens on December 9 in New York and Los Angeles before getting a wide release a week later.

Gonzalo Higuain hit a slick, second-half goal and Daniele Rugani added a late second as dominant Juventus laboured to a 2-0 Champions League win over Dinamo Zagreb that secured top spot in Group H on Wednesday.
With qualification for the last 16 already secure, Juventus welcomed the Croats looking for a repeat of their 4-0 romp in Zagreb in a bid to beat Sevilla to first place.
The Italian champions had fans on their toes throughout a one-sided encounter in chilly Turin as they completed their mission, but largely flattered to deceive before Higuain broke the deadlock with a clinical strike seven minutes after the restart.
It gave Juve a spur, and when Rugani was left alone at a corner he rose above the Dinamo defence to beat Dominik Livakovic down low.
Coach Massimiliano Allegri claimed Juve could have scored more, but explained: “It was important to win this game but when you get a team playing with so many men behind the ball it’s hard to find space.
“Once Higuain scored, it became a lot easier for us.
“In Seville, we secured our qualification and tonight we’ve wrapped up top spot.”
Juve’s fourth win in the campaign left the Italians, beaten finalists in 2015, on 14 points, three ahead of Sevilla after their scoreless draw in Lyon.
Zagreb coach Ivaylo Petev said: “Hats-off to Juventus, they’re a very strong side. We conceded two goals but we have a very young side that doesn’t have a lot of experience at this level. But I’m happy with my players.”
Juventus have been ravaged by injury, the loss of Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini leaving the hosts shorn of their feared ‘BBC’ defence.
Days before the city derby against Torino on Sunday, Allegri added extra spice when he decided to rest goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon for Norbert Neto.
Juventus were flying from kick-off, Mario Mandzukic setting up Miralem Pjanic with a deft flick from a long ball in midfield.
The Bosnian found Higuain to his right but despite forcing Livakovic down low, the Argentine’s drive was blocked.
It was an early warning, but Juve were wasteful throughout the remainder of the first half that saw Neto threatened only once, when the Brazilian reacting well to a snap header from close range.
The pace of Juan Cuadrado and creativity of Pjanic proved all too much for Ivaylo Petev’s side, and they had to dig deep in defence to keep Juve at bay.
Dinamo full-back Leonardo Sigali twice came to the rescue, to thwart Mandzukic then Higuain, and Livakovic was forced down low to collect Pjanic’s downward header.
Minutes later, the ‘keeper had full-back Gordon Schildenfeld to thank for clearing a loose ball yards from goal as Higuain hovered.
A Pjanic free kick from 35 yards forced Livakovic to parry down low and Higuain was out of position when Livakovic spilled Mandzukic’s angled drive.
Juve resumed in positive fashion, Higuain sweeping the ball past Livakovic in clinical fashion after Mario Lemina’s fancy footwork left the Dinamo defence in tatters seven minutes after the restart.
But again, Juventus got stagefright when it came to adding to their tally.
Several promising counter-attacks broke down one after the other, Cuadrado at fault more than once for failing to release the final ball while Higuain and Pjanic found themselves in space.
Pjanic fired in a great cross for Mandzukic but before he could tap home Livakovic came bravely out to smother.
Redemption came in the 73rd minute when Rugani rose to send a bullet header past Livakovic down low.
Juve striker Paulo Dybala made his return from a six-week injury lay-off when he replaced Dybala for the last 10 minutes.
But despite three shots towards goal, the Argentine was to be denied a fairytale return to action.

Milan’s La Scala opened its 2016-17 season Wednesday with a performance of Madame Butterfly in its original version for the first time since the famous opera’s controversial 1904 premiere.
Adapted from a play by David Belasco, composer Giacomo Puccini’s first version of the Japanese tragedy was presented at La Scala on February 17, 1904.
The premiere was a fiasco, with the audience booing and hissing throughout and fights even breaking out in the stalls.
It was “very controversial,” said La Scala’s CEO and artistic director, Alexander Pereira.
“The time was not ready for an opera where a woman kills herself in front of the audience by committing harakiri,” he explained.
Chastened by the reaction of the public and ferocious press criticism, Puccini withdrew the work after a single performance.
After a substantial rewrite that included reorganising it into three acts instead of two, Puccini put the new production on in Brescia, northern Italy, three months later.
The new version was a triumph and Madame Butterfly went on to conquer the world, establishing itself as one of the best-known and popular operas, a status it retains to this day.
Over a hundred years later the work was enthusiastically received by its modern audience on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s opening, traditionally one of the key dates on Italy’s social calendar, was to be followed by a gala dinner attended by, amongst other notables, Spain’s former monarch, King Juan Carlos, and four citizens from Italy’s earthquake-devastated areas.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella and a number of government ministers cancelled because of the ongoing political crisis in Rome.
Pereira said it would be fascinating for opera buffs to hear Madame Butterfly “in the version that Puccini originally intended”.
The production was conducted by Riccardo Chailly and has been staged by Alvis Hermanis with Uruguayan soprano Maria Jose Siri in the title role of young geisha Cio-Cio-San and American tenor Bryan Hymel playing Lieutenant Pinkerton.
The performance was broadcast live by Italy’s Rai public television and was available on radio around the world, with simultaneous projections also scheduled in theatres, museums and even prisons in the Milan area.
The performance kicked off a season which will focus on Italy’s opera tradition, with nine homegrown works to be put on.
Highlights include performances of Verdi’s “Don Carlos”, “Falstaff” and “La Traviata”, Puccini’s “La Boheme” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.”

A decree on training for Roman Catholic priests published on Wednesday stresses the obligation of sexual abstinence, as well as barring gays and those who support “gay culture” from holy orders.
“The Church, while deeply respecting the people concerned, cannot admit to a seminary or into holy orders those who practise homosexuality, show deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support what is called gay culture,” said the document.
The new comprehensive guide to the training of Catholic clergy, which runs to about 100 pages, was approved by Pope Francis and published by the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official journal.
It updates a previous version dating back 30 years. But the barring of people who present homosexual tendencies was already stipulated by the Catholic Church in 2005.
The new decree does however allow an exemption for “homosexual tendencies which may only be the expression of a transitory problem, such as for example that of adolescence which is not yet complete”.
The document also says it would be “seriously imprudent to admit (to holy orders) a seminarian who had not reached a mature, settled and free emotional state, chaste and faithful in celibacy,” while saying that future priests also need to understand “the feminine reality”.
The document broaches several other issues including the digital revolution.
“One must be prudent in the face of inevitable risks of frequenting the digital world, including different forms of dependency which can be treated with adequate spiritual and psychological means,” it notes.
At the same time it recommends that “social media form part of daily seminary life,” because they offer “new possibilities of interpersonal relations (and) to meet other people,” added the document by the Vatican, which has come to use social media widely.

Borussia Dortmund set a new record of 21 goals in the group stages of the Champions League in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Real Madrid.
Karim Benzema’s double put Madrid 2-0 up before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Marco Reus netted for Dortmund.
The point was enough to see the Germans finish top of the group ahead of Real.
Their double in Madrid means Dortmund better the 20 goals Manchester United (1998/99), Barcelona (2011/12) and Real Madrid (2013/14) had previously scored in the group stages.
Dortmund also helped set the record for the highest amount of goals in a single Champions League game when they routed Legia Warsaw 8-4 two weeks ago.
Aubameyang is Dortmund’s top scorer in Europe this season with four goals.
Having scored their magic 21st two minutes from time, Reus credited his goal to Aubameyang, who put in a superb cross for the Germany winger to sprint onto.
“‘Auba’ was world-class with his pass and I was happy to get on the end of it — the goal was 99 percent him and one from me,” said Reus.

Tottenham rounded off a frustrating Champions League campaign with a 3-1 victory over CSKA Moscow that secured the dubious consolation of a place in the Europa League.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side were already eliminated from the Champions League before Wednesday’s final Group E fixture, but they finished on a high note with their first victory at Wembley at the third attempt.
After falling behind to Alan Dzagoev’s strike, Tottenham equalised through Dele Alli and Harry Kane netted in first half stoppage-time before goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev’s own goal sealed the points.
Tottenham ended third in the group and the north Londoners will enter the Europa League when the knockout stages begin in February.
Playing in the less glamourous of Europe’s club competitions, with its gruelling itinerary and far-flung destinations, might be something of an unwanted burden for Tottenham given the potential to damage their Premier League ambitions.
But the Europa League winners qualify for the Champions League so Pochettino’s men may yet end up taking it seriously.
“I’m happy. The performance was good because it showed we can win here. That was important for us. It can change the bad feeling at Wembley,” Pochettino said.
“Against Chelsea, Swansea and tonight we have played better. We’re starting to show our real quality again.”
Defeats against Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen in their other group matches at Wembley had played a major role in Tottenham’s exit and contributed to a negative feeling about the stadium among players and fans.
But with Tottenham likely to spend the whole of next season as tenants at Wembley while White Hart Lane is redeveloped, Pochettino was keen for his team to make themselves more at home by beating CSKA.
The swathes of empty seats at kick-off suggested many Tottenham supporters had already made up their minds about the Wembley experience.
But the stay-aways missed Tottenham’s only emphatic performance of the tournament.
Early on, Alli headed wide from Christian Eriksen’s cross before Son Heung-Min’s low strike was pushed out by CSKA goalkeeper Akinfeev.
Another flowing Spurs attack saw Kyle Walker feed Kane, whose instinctive first-time pass released Eriksen, only for the Danish winger to shoot straight at Akinfeev.
Alli wasted a good chance to open the scoring when his tame shot from eight yards barely forced Akinfeev to move.
Not for the first time in their strangely lethargic European campaign, Tottenham were punished for a lackadaisical mistake in the 33rd minute.
A high punt towards CSKA’s Zoran Tosic should have been easy for Jan Vertonghen, but the Spurs defender allowed his opponent to win the header and Dzagoev, unchecked by Eric Dier, raced onto the loose ball before firing past Hugo Lloris.
Faced with elimination from Europe, Tottenham found an extra gear and Alli equalised five minutes later when he controlled Eriksen’s cross on the left side of the penalty area and whipped a fine finish into the far corner.
Tottenham had failed to score more than once in each of their past nine Champions League games, but 30 seconds into first half stoppage-time, they ended that dismal sequence.
Eriksen chipped a pass towards Danny Rose and the left-back’s low cross found Kane, who wasted no time dispatching a cool shot past Akinfeev for his seventh goal in his last six appearances.
Having established the lead, Tottenham looked far more composed after the interval and Kane came close to his second goal when he tested Akinfeev with a lunging volley.
Spurs defender Toby Alderweireld, back from a knee injury, came off the bench for his first appearance since October.
And Tottenham wrapped up only their second Champions League win this season in the 77th minute when Alli headed goalwards and Akinfeev saved before accidently nudging the ball into his own net.

Sevilla are through to the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time in seven years after soaking up the pressure to draw 0-0 away to Lyon on Wednesday.
Lyon — who lost 1-0 in Seville in September and trailed the Spaniards by three points — needed to win by two clear goals to go through at Sevilla’s expense from Group H.
But they could not find a way through, with Corentin Tolisso and Mathieu Valbuena both hitting the woodwork in the first half at Parc OL.
A big enough defeat would have seen Sevilla drop down into the Europa League, a competition they have won in each of the last three seasons, but instead it is Lyon who must settle for that consolation.
Sevilla go through in second place behind Juventus, who beat Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 in Turin, and make it four Spanish clubs in the knockout stage with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid already having qualified.
Lyon were hoping to join Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco and make it three French representatives in the last 16 for the first time, and had been boosted by the presence of goalkeeper Anthony Lopes in their starting line-up.
The Portuguese international was taken to hospital after firecrackers were thrown onto the pitch during Lyon’s Ligue 1 game at Metz at the weekend, which was subsequently abandoned.
Lopes reportedly didn’t sleep for two nights after the Metz game and suffered headaches as well as a feeling of pressure inside his ears, but he was passed fit to play.
He was beaten by Vitolo in the 19th minute but there was relief for the hosts as the Spain winger’s effort came back off the far post.
Lopes could also have conceded a penalty when he brought down Vitolo inside the box but Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson waved away Sevilla’s appeals.
Otherwise Lyon dominated the first half on a misty night, setting the tone when a first-time effort by Valbuena had to be turned over by an alert Sergio Rico inside three minutes.
The French club had a huge appeal for a penalty of their own midway through the first period as Valbuena went down under a Mariano challenge that began right on the edge of the box but again the referee gave nothing.
Tolisso headed against the bar from a Rafael cross and Valbuena struck the crossbar with a fine first-time shot after a good run by Tolisso as Sevilla withstood the pressure.
Lyon had more than 20 attempts on goal and the majority of the possession but they lacked the subtlety to break down the opposition defence and clear chances were at a premium in the second half.
Mouctar Diakhaby headed wide from a Nabil Fekir corner and Sevilla held on to ensure a first appearance in the last 16 since 2009/10.

Bayer Leverkusen earned a first Champions League win over Monaco at the sixth attempt on Wednesday, sealing a 3-0 victory with both sides already through to the knock-out stages.
A first-half strike from Vladlen Yurchenko, a well-worked goal by Germany winger Julian Brandt and a late own goal by Monaco goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis sealed the win at the BayArena.
Regardless of the result, Monaco progress as Group E winners, a point ahead of Bayer, who are in the last 16 at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur.
Leverkusen took a deserved lead on the half hour mark thanks to Yurchenko’s superb curling long-range shot from just outside the area.
It was the 22-year-old Ukrainian’s first appearance of the season having suffered a hairline leg fracture in September.
Leverkusen doubled their lead three minutes after the break.
Brandt finished off a flowing move as he floated his shot over De Sanctis after being played into area by Hakan Calhanoglu.
Australian winger Robbie Kruse came off the bench to win a penalty for Leverkusen when he was fouled in the area.
Brazilian left-back Wendell hit the crossbar with the spot kick, but the ball bounced in to the net off De Sanctis on 82 minutes.
It was a bit of luck for Leverkusen, who had failed to convert all four penalties awarded in the Bundesliga this season.
Leverkusen finish the group stages unbeaten with two wins and four draws.
This was the first time French league side Monaco have lost to Leverkusen after three wins and two draws in previous meetings.
The Germans avenged their 1-1 at Monaco in September when they were denied victory when Kamil Glik equalised for the hosts in the 94th-minute.

US Secretary of State John Kerry held fresh talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Germany Wednesday but no breakthrough emerged on efforts to halt the fighting in the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo.
After a meeting lasting about one hour, Kerry said the two talked “about the extraordinarily dire situation in Aleppo and we exchanged some ideas about it and we intend to connect in the morning to see where we are”.
Kerry, who is on a farewell tour in Europe, and Lavrov were in the northern city of Hamburg for a gathering of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that opens Thursday.
Kerry will continue on to Paris to take part in a separate meeting organised by his French, German and Qatari counterparts Saturday on Syria, the State Department said.
The announcement came as the United States, Britain and France led a joint call for an immediate ceasefire to allow aid to reach Aleppo, in an appeal backed by Canada, Germany and Italy.
In Hamburg Lavrov said earlier, as he walked into a hotel to meet Kerry, that he agreed and confirmed “the support of the American proposal of December 2”.
The Russian side had earlier said Kerry’s proposal made in Rome last Friday involves a complete rebel withdrawal from eastern Aleppo, but then accused Washington of backtracking and cancelling talks due to be held in Geneva this week.
Kerry denied any change of plans and Washington itself accused Moscow of stalling after Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council resolution on Monday calling for a seven-day ceasefire.
Kerry, taking part in his last NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, said he would work for a relaunch of peace talks between the Syrian regime and the opposition with the help of President Bashar al-Assad’s ally Russia.
“Russia says Assad is ready to come to the table… and I am in favour of putting that to the test,” Kerry said in Brussels.
Kerry has had repeated meetings on Syria with Lavrov as the situation in Aleppo has deteriorated.
Moscow launched an air war in support of Assad’s forces last year, while Washington has supported rebel forces battling the regime.
Kerry, asked by a journalist before the Hamburg meeting what it would take to bring peace to Aleppo, replied: “common sense”.

A New Zealand lawmaker who has led UN aid efforts worldwide is to be named UN mission chief in South Sudan, one of the world’s toughest peacekeeping jobs, diplomats said Wednesday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent a letter informing the Security Council of his intention to appoint David Shearer as the UN envoy to South Sudan and head of UNMISS, succeeding Ellen Margrethe Loj of Denmark.
Shearer, a 59-year-old member of New Zealand’s parliament, served as UN deputy envoy in Iraq from 2007 to 2009, following UN assignments in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Israel, Rwanda, Liberia and the Balkans.
Council members have until Friday midday to raise objections, but diplomats expect the appointment to be approved.
The United Nations has some 14,000 peacekeepers in South Sudan, where a civil war has been raging since December 2013.
The peacekeepers have come under heavy criticism for failing to protect civilians, including women who were raped by government soldiers in Jubly, not far from the gates of a UN compound in Juba.
Ban last month warned the council that South Sudan faces a “very real risk of mass atrocities” and that peacekeepers would be powerless to stop such a bloodbath.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 2.5 million, but UN diplomats expect the crisis to worsen.
South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011 with strong support from the United States.
The United States is pushing for an arms embargo and sanctions, but Russia and China are opposed to such measures.

British Prime Minister Theresa May secured a symbolic victory on Brexit on Wednesday after MPs agreed not to delay her plans to begin the EU exit talks by the end of March, although she had to promise to give them more details of her negotiating strategy.
The opposition Labour party’s original motion demanded the government publish its “plan” before triggering EU Article 50, which begins the two-year exit process.
This motion had been expected to draw support from dozens of May’s Conservative MPs but the premier fended off a rebellion with a last-minute amendment, accepting the Labour motion on condition that MPs support her timetable for triggering the Brexit talks.
Lawmakers voted 461 in favour of the amendment, backing May’s timeline to trigger the divorce negotiations with Brussels by March 31, 2017.
A total of 89 MPs voted against that amendment, in which May agreed to provide further details on her negotiating strategy before triggering Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, with the results announced in parliament.
A second vote saw 448 lawmakers support the motion in its entirety, with the amendment, while 75 lawmakers voted against.
The House of Commons vote is not binding and the government is still fighting a challenge at the Supreme Court against moves to give parliament the final say on starting the Brexit process.
Following the results MP Hilary Benn, from the opposition Labour Party, said he hoped the vote would prompt the government to give more information on its plans for negotiating Britain’s future outside the European Union.
“When they have said they are going to publish a plan, I expect to see some detail.
“Parliament doesn’t intend to be a bystander, parliament intends to be a participant,” he told BBC News.
Iain Duncan Smith, from the ruling Conservative Party, said the vote was “a very historic moment” which enabled the government to act on Brexit.
“The government now has a blank cheque, and I think that’s a good thing,” he told Sky News.
May has so far refused to give a “running commentary” on her strategy, insisting that revealing her hand prematurely would undermine the negotiations.
Ahead of the vote Labour’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer welcomed the amendment, saying the government had “caved in” and “must now prepare its plan and publish it”.
He called for an outline plan by January, warning that his party would not accept a “late, vague plan” that allowed no time for parliamentary debate.
May has previously said she wants the “best possible deal” for trade with the EU, to create new deals outside the bloc and to control immigration.
Government minister David Lidington said there would be a “statement about our negotiating strategy and objectives” before Article 50 is triggered.
But the approved motion gives ministers considerable leeway to withhold details, by stating “there should be no disclosure of material that could be reasonably judged to damage the UK in any negotiations”.
The amended motion was opposed by one Conservative MP — former chancellor Ken Clarke — and nine Labour MPs. Five of the Liberal Democrats’ nine MPs also voted against the final motion, along with 51 out of the total 54 Scottish National Party lawmakers, among others.
A further challenge for May comes with the Supreme Court case, which could give MPs the chance to block Brexit at a later date by voting against the government, the newspaper added.
The Supreme Court is holding hearings this week over whether the government or parliament should begin the Brexit process, but both sides said the case is not affected by Wednesday’s Commons debate.
The prime minister is appealing a ruling by the lower High Court last month which decided she cannot use her executive power to trigger Article 50 and must first seek authorisation from parliament.
MPs overwhelmingly opposed Brexit during the June referendum on the subject, prompting concerns they might seek to delay Britain’s withdrawal or at least soften the terms of the break.
The court case has reignited strong passions over Brexit, and the claimant leading the challenge against the government, investment fund manager Gina Miller, has received death threats.
Police said Wednesday they had arrested a 55-year-old man on suspicion of racially aggravated malicious communications, as part of an investigation into online threats against an unnamed woman, believed to be Miller.

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho blasted the “rock” hard surface at Chernomorets Stadium ahead of Thursday’s Europa League clash with Ukraine’s Zorya Luhansk, insisting it may take a “miracle” for the game to go-ahead.
United need just a point to reach the knockout stages but with temperatures expected to plunge to minus nine Celsius overnight, Mourinho was furious over the game being scheduled for December.
“The pitch is very hard, very icy,” Mourinho told the Manchester Evening News.
“I think UEFA know the conditions of the pitch and everyone knows that in mid-December the conditions in Ukraine and Eastern Europe are more difficult.
“So if UEFA was worried about it they should change the fixtures and not allow the last fixtures to be played in December.
“I think the stadium is beautiful, new, well taken care of. The pitch is the same. They?re trying — they?re putting some warmth in the top of it but the pitch is very difficult.
“They can?t make miracles so let?s hope everything goes well.”
United star Daley Blind said the pitch was “like a rock”.

Pope Francis on Wednesday compared scandal-obsessed media outlets who smear politicians and spread gossip to people sexually excited by excrement — and described their readers as faeces eaters.
He also lambasted “disinformation,” a subject in the headlines amid debate about the growth of fake online news, and its possible influence on the US presidential election.
“Disinformation is probably the biggest evil a (communications) medium can inflict, because it steers opinions in one direction, omitting part of the truth,” he said in an interview with the Belgium Catholic weekly Tertio.
The Argentine, 79, did not mince his words, saying some in the journalism world suffered from coprophilia — a sexual attraction to faeces — while readers tended to coprophagia, the consumption of excrement.
“I believe the media must be much clearer, more transparent, and not fall — excuse the expression — into coprophilia, which is always wanting to broadcast scandals, ugly things, true though they may be,” he said.
“And as people tend to suffer from coprophagia, it can be very harmful,” he said.
His comments followed widespread debate in the United States and Britain over whether fake news may have played a part in persuading people to vote for Republican candidate Donald Trump and for Brexit.
“Communication mediums have their own temptations, they can be tempted by slander, and therefore used to slander people, to smear them. This above all in the world of politics,” he said.
“They can be used as means of defamation… No-one has a right to do this. It is a sin and it is hurtful,” he said.

Israeli lawmakers voted Wednesday to advance a bill legalising some 4,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank despite international criticism and warnings over its implications.
Fifty-seven members of the parliament, or Knesset, voted to approve the draft legislation in the first of three readings, while 51 were against it.
Supporters of the bill submitted by the party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called it a step towards eventual annexation of most of the West Bank.
Some 400,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank, excluding annexed east Jerusalem, along with 2.6 million Palestinians.
The United States, UN officials and the European Union have warned that continued settlement building is eating away at the possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict.
All Israeli settlements are viewed as illegal under international law and major stumbling blocks to peace efforts as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
Israel differentiates between those it has authorised and those it has not. The bill would legalise nearly 4,000 settler homes built on private Palestinian land.
Key figures in Netanyahu’s coalition, considered the most right-wing in Israeli history, openly oppose a Palestinian state.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the bill’s main backer, has advocated annexing most of the West Bank, like other Israeli religious nationalists who point to the Jewish connection to the land from biblical times.
Netanyahu says he still supports a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but is nonetheless supporting the bill.
He spoke Wednesday with French President Francois Hollande to rule out a proposed meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on the sidelines of a peace conference in Paris later this month.
Netanyahu said however that he was willing to meet Abbas “directly, without preconditions,” his office said in a statement.
“Israel will not participate in an international conference that will not contribute to peace,” it added.
The bill has advanced despite concerns from attorney general Avichai Mandelblit, who has said he will not be able to defend it before the courts and warned it would violate both Israeli and international law.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday: “We hope that it does not become law.
“Enacting this law would be profoundly damaging to the prospects for a two-state solution.
“We’ve also been troubled by comments that we’ve heard by some political figures in Israel that this would be the first step in annexing parts of the West Bank.”
Walid Assaf, the Palestinian minister responsible for monitoring Israeli settlements, has called the bill “the most dangerous law issued by Israel since 1967”.
Israel occupied the West Bank in the Six-Day War of 1967 and subsequently annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.
But while comments by Bennett and others have sparked international condemnation, opinion polls have shown a significant percentage of Israelis support annexation.
A recent survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank says 44 percent of Jewish Israelis support annexing all of the West Bank, while 38 percent are opposed.
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, speaking to EU ambassadors on Wednesday, criticised them for focusing on settlements instead of other global issues.
According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, the bill would legalise some 3,881 housing units.
Most of the homes are in Israeli-approved settlements but were built on Palestinian land. Around 750 are located in outposts which Israel has not yet approved, Peace Now says.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said there are currently around 100 wildcat outposts in the West Bank and the bill would give retrospective Israeli approval to 54 of them.
An agreement to remove one wildcat outpost from the bill has allowed the legislation to move forward.
The outpost known as Amona, home to around 40 families, is under a court order to be evacuated by December 25 since it was built on Palestinian land.
Some members of Netanyahu’s coalition said they could not support the bill if Amona remained part of it because of the court ruling against it.
A solution is still being sought for Amona settlers.

Rescuers scrabbled through the rubble of shattered homes, shops and mosques in search of survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia and killed at least 97 people.
The shallow 6.5-magnitude quake struck Aceh province, one of the areas worst affected by the devastating 2004 tsunami, at dawn as many in the mainly Muslim region on Sumatra island were preparing for morning prayers.
“So far 97 people have been killed and the number keeps growing,” Aceh military chief Tatang Sulaiman told AFP after the army took over responsibility for the search and rescue.
“When we retrieve bodies sometimes there’s five, sometimes 10 corpses.”
More than 1,000 soldiers and about 900 police have been deployed to Pidie Jaya district to set up shelters and evacuation points in the worst-hit areas, he added.
Rescuers used excavators and their bare hands to comb the wreckage for people still missing.
Hundreds of houses and shops were levelled by the quake, leaving countless people homeless and in need of basic supplies like food and water, officials said.
“The electricity is still off. Some places have generators, but there are not many,” local disaster agency head Puteh Manaf told AFP.
“If it rains there will be disease.”
The sole hospital in Pidie Jaya was quickly overwhelmed, with patients treated on the grass out front or sent to neighbouring districts with better facilities.
The district health office chief Said Abdullah said nearly 200 injured had arrived since the quake, but many would not enter the hospital for fear of aftershocks.
“We are treating people outside. We took the beds out because nobody is daring to enter the hospital,” he told AFP.
Another regional hospital had suffered serious damage in the quake, along with schools and other key infrastructure, a national disaster agency spokesman said.
In the hard-hit town of Meureudu, terrified residents rushed outside as their homes buckled and crumbled.
“Everything was destroyed,” said Hasbi Jaya, who pulled his two children unconscious from the rubble of their home.
“It was pitch black because the electricity was out. I looked around and all my neighbours’ homes were completely flattened.”
An AFP correspondent said dazed residents were wandering debris-strewn streets, unable to return to their damaged homes in fear of aftershocks.
Some fled to higher ground for fear of a tsunami although no alert was issued.
A huge undersea earthquake in 2004 triggered a tsunami that engulfed several countries around the Indian Ocean, killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia alone, the vast majority in Aceh.
Indonesian seismologists said the latest earthquake was felt across much of Aceh province, with many aftershocks following the initial tremor.
The US Geological Survey upgraded the magnitude to 6.5 from an initial reading of 6.4 and issued a yellow alert for expected fatalities and damage.
Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.
Aceh lies on the northern tip of Sumatra island, which is particularly prone to quakes.
In June a 6.5-magnitude quake struck off the west of Sumatra, damaging scores of buildings and injuring eight people.

Former Rugby World Cup final referee Craig Joubert has retired from handling 15-a-side matches to take a “dream” World Rugby post, South African Rugby said Wednesday.
The 39-year-old has filled the new position of referee talent development coach and been tasked with identifying and training the next generation of 15-a-side and sevens match officials.
Joubert will also referee on the World Rugby Sevens Series circuit.
“This was not a decision I took lightly given the obvious lure of possibly refereeing the British and Irish Lions in New Zealand next year,” Joubert said in a statement.
“However, the opportunity to make a difference in other peoples’ careers and lives is something which I am excited about. It really is a dream job.”
The highlight of his career was handling the 2011 World Cup final at Eden Park in Auckland that hosts New Zealand won 8-7 against France.
Less memorable for him was awarding a hotly disputed last-minute penalty that enabled Australia to pip Scotland 35-34 in a 2015 World Cup quarter-final in London.
Joubert sprinted off the Twickenham pitch after blowing the final whistle amid Scottish fury.
He refereed 69 Tests, more than 100 Super Rugby matches and 80 South African Currie Cup games.

Retesting of samples from the London 2012 Games is expected to reveal “many more” cases of doping, a senior International Olympic Committee official warned on Wednesday.
The IOC has so far retested more than 1,000 samples from the London and Beijing Olympics, aiming to detect performance-enhancing drugs that were not identifiable four and eight years ago.
Dozens of competitors have been caught doping, among them Olympic champions and other medallists, as the IOC attempts to clean up Olympic competition after one of the worst crises in its history.
“There will be many more (cases) to come (from London) in the coming weeks and months,” warned Richard Budgett, IOC medical director.
“We are still getting positive samples from London, I expect this will continue,” he told reporters in Lausanne, where the IOC is based.
More than 100 new positive test results have been unearthed by the IOC’s reanalysis, it says.
Prime among the countries snared is Russia, whose athletes were banned from the Rio Olympics this summer because of state-sponsored doping.
The IOC initiated the retesting programme last year using improved techniques to catch doping cheats.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern on Wednesday over the arrest of a prominent Egyptian human rights lawyer, warning authorities in Cairo against progressively shutting down freedom of expression.
Egyptian police arrested Azza Soliman, who founded the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, at her home and briefly detained her for questioning on allegations of taking foreign funds to “harm national interests,” according to her lawyer.
“This is the latest manifestation of the progressive closing of space for the public exchange of views in Egypt,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.
“The secretary-general underscores the important role that civil society and NGOs play in assisting governments to meet both developmental and civil objectives,” he added.
The United Nations had raised concern about Cairo’s decision in September to freeze the assets of several prominent rights activists and NGOs, which stoked fears of a crackdown on civil society.
Under Egyptian law, members of rights groups operating without registration or accepting foreign funding without government permission could face lengthy jail sentences.

Start spreading the news: like Frank Sinatra during his extended swansong, Matteo Renzi is saying farewell with no intention of going anywhere.
The outgoing Italian Prime Minister bowed out Wednesday, three days after his constitutional reform proposals were booed off by voters.
And just like ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’, the ambitious 41-year-old exits the stage with his sights on a comeback.
What is uncertain is whether his party or the electorate want an encore from a performer who fluffed his lines when he gambled on the referendum.
Regrets? He admitted he’d had a few when he first said he was going to quit, in the wee small hours of the morning, on Monday.
But by Wednesday afternoon, when he went to President Sergio Mattarella to tender his resignation, he was signalling they were really too few to mention.
He was leaving Italy as a country with “fewer taxes and more rights,” he said in a farewell speech that sounded like an election campaign launch.
Can Renzi return as king of the hill? That will depend on behind-the-scenes discussions within his divided Democratic Party (PD).
In the short-term at least, Italy’s youngest ever premier will remain top of the party heap.
But some PD barons are frustrated at being excluded from Renzi’s ratpack and with the young leader always wanting to do things his way.
With an election possibly only a little over two months away, Renzi’s sure-footedness and popularity are both under scrutiny.
In Sinatra terms, the pledge to quit if he lost the referendum looks like a case of ‘Fools rush in where wise men never go …’
To Renzi’s critics, it was a sign of the hubris that had come to define his premiership.
Nemesis, when it came, was brutal. Italians massively rejected Renzi’s reform plan.
Most worryingly for PD strategists, the poll breakdown also pointed to young voters being most likely to reject Renzi’s vision and PD support being eroded in its heartlands.
Renzi seemed to succumb to over-confidence after a prodigious rise.
He was just 39 when he took office in February 2014, using his control of the PD apparatus to orchestrate the ditching of his predecessor, Enrico Letta, days after reassuring him he was safe.
With that coup, Renzi had gone from being mayor of Florence to running the country in just three months. He enjoyed an extended honeymoon after settling into Palazzo Chigi, the premier’s official residence in Rome.
Italians seemed to welcome the youthful premier as a breath of fresh air that would blow away the memories of Silvio Berlusconi’s unproductive, often embarrassing, years in office.
Drawing inspiration from Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign, Renzi promised far-reaching change and earned himself a reputation as a workaholic.
His schoolteacher wife Agnese and three children stayed at the family home in Tuscany while Renzi burned the midnight oil in Rome, doing deals to get his reforms through parliament or toiling on the detail of policy initiatives.
But as a sluggish economic recovery failed to gain any real momentum, discontent began to mount and Renzi began to be viewed as part of the problem, not the solution.
It was a turnaround the former Catholic boy scout was not prepared for and even a ringing endorsement from Obama could not lift his flagging fortunes.
Grumbling in his own party culminated in former Prime Minister Massimo d’Alema calling Renzi a Twitter-obsessed “oaf” while the left kept sniping away at what they saw as a dangerously pro-business agenda.
Renzi delivered significant labour market reform, a modest recovery and oversaw Italy granting legal recognition to gay relationships for the first time.
But the recovery was not strong enough to pay any real dividends politically, the labour reforms have yet to turn into significant jobs growth and critics noted that Renzi had mostly side-stepped the battle over legislation on same-sex civil unions, which was diluted in the end.
Renzi has been a full-time activist or politician since he finished legal studies in his native Florence. But for a brief spell in the family advertising business in his early 20s, it is all he has done and all the signs Wednesday were that is what he wants to continue doing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected the possibility of a meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at a France-led peace conference later this month, his office said.
Israeli officials have long opposed the initiative, which would involve an international summit in Paris at the end of December aimed at restarting long-stalled peace efforts with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu told French President Francois Hollande in a Wednesday phone call however that he was willing to meet Abbas “directly, without preconditions,” his office said in a statement.
“Israel will not participate in an international conference that will not contribute to peace,” it added.
The Palestinians strongly support France’s international approach, saying years of negotiations with the Israelis have not ended the occupation.
Netanyahu has spoken out against “international diktats” and repeatedly called for direct negotiations.
Peace efforts have been at a complete standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
A spokesman for Netanyahu repeated Israel’s rejection of the French initiative on Wednesday.
“Peace will be achieved through direct negotiations with our Palestinian neighbours, not through international conferences,” David Keyes said before Netanyahu’s call with Hollande.
“Our position has not changed. Israel will not attend the French conference because it will push peace further away.”

A Pakistani plane carrying 48 people crashed Wednesday in the country’s mountainous north and burst into flames killing everyone on board, authorities said, in one of the deadliest aviation accidents in the nation’s history.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Flight PK661 came down after one of its two turboprop engines failed while travelling from the city of Chitral to Islamabad, the civil aviation authority said.
Rescuers, including hundreds of villagers, pulled the charred remains from the wreckage of the aircraft, parts of which were found hundreds of metres away from the main site in Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
An AFP reporter at the site near the village of Saddha Batolni said part of the plane was still on fire more than five hours after the crash, as rescuers picked up torn human remains with their hands and placed them in bags before they were taken by ambulance to Islamabad for identification.
“The bodies were burnt so badly we could not recognise whether they were women or men,” a villager in his thirties, who declined to give his name, told AFP.
“We put into sacks whatever we could find…and carried them down to the ambulance.”
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Azam Saigol, the airline’s chairman said the plane was an ATR-42 turboprop aircraft, which contacted ground authorities after one engine failed and issued a Mayday call at 4:14 pm (1114 GMT).
It began descending a minute later before disappearing from radar at 4:16 pm.
“This plane was technically sound, and was checked in October,” he said, adding the captain had flown more than 12,000 hours and the aircraft was nine years old.
“Our focus now is to retrieve all the dead bodies,” he added, vowing a full investigation.
A senior rescue official on the site who requested anonymity added: “The villagers told us that the plane was shaky before it crashed. It was about to hit the village but it seems that the pilot managed to drag the plane towards the hills.”
Three foreigners were among the dead, officials said, with Austria’s foreign ministry later confirming two of its nationals were killed and Chinese state media saying one of its nationals was also among the victims.
Among those on board was Junaid Jamshed, a former Pakistani pop star turned evangelical Muslim, according to the Chitral airport manager and a local police official.
Tributes poured in on social media for the former lead singer of the country’s first major pop band, whose popular “Dil Dil Pakistan” became an unofficial national anthem.
“The voice of my youth, the voice of my generation…. #JunaidJamshed you will be sorely missed,” tweeted user Huma A Shah.
Wednesday’s crash was the fourth deadliest on Pakistani soil.
Pakistan’s most recent air disasters involved helicopters, both in 2015.
In May that year a Pakistani military helicopter crashed in a remote northern valley, killing eight people including the Norwegian, Philippine and Indonesian envoys and the wives of the Malaysian and Indonesian envoys.
In August 2015 another army helicopter crashed killing 12 people, all military.
The deadliest air disaster on Pakistani soil was in 2010, when an Airbus 321 operated by private airline Airblue and flying from Karachi crashed into the hills outside Islamabad while about to land, killing all 152 on board.
An official report blamed the accident on a confused captain and a hostile cockpit atmosphere.
But the deadliest accident involving PIA came when an Airbus A300 crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu in 1992 after the plane descended too early, killing 167 people.
Most of the carrier’s fleet, apart from its latest Boeing 777s, were banned from entering the European Union between March and November 2007.
Despite this, PIA has been crash-free for 10 years, and received a 7 out of 7 in its latest rating on the oft-cited AirlineRatings.com, which launched its annual listing in 2013.
French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR meanwhile issued a statement expressing its sympathies for the families of the crash victims.

British Prime Minister Theresa May secured a symbolic victory on Brexit on Wednesday after MPs agreed not to delay her plans to begin exit talks by the end of March, although she had to promise to give them more details of her negotiating strategy.
Lawmakers voted 461 in favour of supporting May’s timeline to trigger Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, which will trigger divorce negotiations with Brussels.
A total of 89 MPs voted against the non-binding motion, with the results announced in parliament.
In an amendment to an opposition motion in parliament, May agreed to provide further details on her negotiating strategy before triggering Article 50.

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi formally resigned Wednesday, a spokesman for the president said, stepping down after a bruising referendum defeat and kicking off a period of political uncertainty in the eurozone’s third largest economy.
President Sergio Mattarella will begin consultations with political parties over forming a caretaker government at 6:00pm (1700 GMT) on Thursday, the spokesman said.

Around 150 Turkish officers have left NATO’s command structure following the attempted military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the alliance’s head of forces in Europe said on Wednesday.
“The Turkish military had a fairly sizeable number of officers that were either detained, some recalled from here, that worked for us here, and some retired from active service,” US General Curtis Scaparrotti told journalists on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels.
In all, there was “about a 50 percent reduction” in the number of Turkish officers, or about 150 individuals, he said.
“I have refilled a little over half of that and there are more officers coming in,” he said.
“It does have an impact because it was largely very senior personnel and you lose a good deal of experience.
“So we are seeing a bit of degradation there and we are also having to build relationships with new leaders, NATO partners. That’s coming along fine but it is going to take some time… it puts an extra load on our remaining people.”
Turkey has carried down a wide-ranging crackdown on its military following the botched coup of July 15.
It has arrested or discharged thousands of army personnel and detained more than a hundred generals and admirals.
On November 18, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said a number of Turkish officers serving in NATO command positions had requested asylum.
Erdogan, two days later, warned NATO against sheltering “terrorist” soldiers “involved in plotting a coup”.
In a high-profile case, eight Turkish officers have sought asylum in Greece, a move that has strained relations between the two neighbours.
On Tuesday, a Greek court ruled that three should be sent back. On Monday, a request to extradite three others was turned down on the grounds that the Turkish authorities had not provided sufficient evidence, and that their personal safety was in jeopardy at home.
Scaparrotti admitted to being “concerned” about the safety of Turkish officers sent back to their homeland.
“Will they (the Turkish regime) follow the rule of law and treat their people appropriately?
“In some cases I really don’t understand what their (the officers) future is at this point.”

Kirk Douglas, whose illustrious career has taken in some of cinema’s landmark roles, turns 100 on Friday — attributing his remarkable longevity to his “wonderful marriage” of more than six decades.
The iconic actor revealed in a special essay to mark the milestone that his second wife Anne, 97, had been his inspiration in rebounding from adversity over the years.
“I was lucky enough to find my soulmate 63 years ago, and I believe our wonderful marriage and our nightly ‘golden hour’ chats have helped me survive all things,” he writes in celebrity magazine Closer Weekly.
The three-time Oscar nominee will celebrate with 200 friends and family at a party in California hosted by his son Michael and daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta Jones.
The star, who was forced to retire because of speech problems after a stroke, has practiced delivering a few words on the day with the help of a speech therapist.
“I am always asked for advice on living a long and healthy life. I don’t have any. I do believe, however, that we have a purpose for being here,” he says.
“I was spared after a helicopter crash and a stroke to do more good in the world before I leave it.”
Douglas, the son of illiterate Russian immigrants, appeared in some of cinema’s most iconic roles, from slave Spartacus and painter Vincent van Gogh to Western legend Doc Holliday.
He was in more than 80 movies but, unlike stars of younger generations, never took a role in a sequel.
Born Issur Danielovitch in poverty in New York to a Jewish parents, Douglas went to the city’s Academy of Dramatic Arts.
“Champion” (1949) earned him the first of three Oscar nominations for best actor, an award that has eluded him but was finally snared by his son Michael for “Wall Street” (1987).
Among his most famous films were 1956 Van Gogh biopic “Lust for Life,” “Gunfight at the OK Corral” (1957), “Spartacus” (1960) and “Seven Days in May” (1964).
Douglas’s first marriage to American actress Diana Webster produced sons Michael and Joel before it ended in divorce in 1951.
Three years later he married Belgian-American Anne Buydens, who once wrote of Douglas: “Living with my husband is like sitting in a beautiful garden right next to a volcano that may erupt at any moment.”
The couple would go on to have two sons, Eric and Peter.
“One hundred years old is certainly a milestone, but the facts are what dad has accomplished in 100 years,” Michael Douglas writes in the Closer Weekly article.
“I think his stamina and tenacity are the qualities that stand out for me,” he continues. “He has taught me always to give it your best shot at whatever you take on. He’s the full package.”
The Douglas family has been touched by its fair share of tragedy and disaster over the years.
Eric, also an actor, died from a lethal combination of alcohol and prescription drugs at the age of just 46 in 2004, after years battling addiction.
Kirk had already been deeply shaken by a mid-air collision between his helicopter and an airplane over California in 1991 that killed two people, prompting him to rediscover his Jewish faith.
His 1996 stroke robbed him of the ability to speak entirely, although he managed to make a partial recovery after months of therapy.
As his health limited his film roles, Douglas and his wife turned increasingly to philanthropy, and have expressed their intention to give most of their fortune to charity on their deaths.
The couple have rebuilt 400 school playgrounds in Los Angeles and were behind the establishment of “Harry’s Haven,” an Alzheimer’s unit named after Kirk’s father at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Home in Woodland Hills, California.
Double Golden Globe winner and lifelong friend Angie Dickinson shared a bedroom scene with the legend in “Cast a Giant Shadow” (1966), which required the pair to be naked.
“You couldn’t ask for more than you get with Kirk,” the 85-year-old actress, an ex-wife of legendary composer Burt Bacharach, told AFP.
“He’s just a perfect man, I must say. Everything he does is perfect.”