live dealer casino games "It took a while but I’m here" Denzel Washington has been baptised and received a minister’s licence just days before his 70th birthday. READ MORE: ‘Gladiator 2’ review: back to Rome for Paul Mescal’s Colosseum-sized sequel The Gladiator 2 and Training Day star will celebrate the milestone on Saturday (December 28), and to mark the occasion he has been baptised at the Kelly Temple Church of God in Christ in Harlem, New York. Taking place at a ceremony on Sunday (December 22), the double Oscar winner was also presented with a minister’s licence, which means he will be eligible to be ordained as a priest in the future. Denzel Washington in ‘Gladiator 2’. CREDIT: Paramount Pictures The event was live-streamed on the church’s Facebook page and saw Washington speak about the importance of his faith. “In one week I turn 70. It took a while but I’m here,” he said to the congregation. “If [God] can do this for me, there’s nothing He can’t do for you. The sky literally is the limit.” The actor’s wife of over 40 years Pauletta also spoke at the ceremony. “46 years later, here I’m still standing next to him as only God will have it,” she said. “So I’m very proud of you. You are the head of our house and you have set a great example for our children, who are now adult children who know the difference because we have shown them the difference.” Washington is currently the subject of awards chatter thanks to his supporting turn in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 , in which he plays the duplicitous former slave Marcus Opellius Macrinus who attempts to scheme his way into political power. He also inadvertently revealed last month that Black Panther 3 is in development , with an unspecified role being set aside for Washington himself. The second film in the series, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , was released in 2022, two years after lead actor Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death . Washington will also star in Spike Lee’s upcoming film Highest 2 Lowest , alongside A$AP Rocky and Ice Spice . Related Topics Denzel Washington

When is Conor McGregor fighting next? Everything we know after UFC star's sexual assault court case verdictBARKHAMSTED – Perhaps no other hamlet in Connecticut can better recapture the aura of a Dickensian Christmas than Riverton, nestled in the northwestern corner of town. Established at the turn of the 19th century, the buildings in the quaint village date to the very period when Charles Dickens was writing his signature story, “A Christmas Carol.” Indeed, every year during the annual Christmas in Riverton celebration – slated for today, Saturday and Sunday – the town re-enacts the classic story of redemption with performances by Riverton Theatre in the Congregational Church, a venerable edifice built in the same year Dickens penned the play. The festival will follow a tried-and-true pattern again this year, starting with a candlelit walk through town tonight from 6 to 8, followed by coffee in the Grange hall. A portion of the proceeds will be gifted to the Tiny Tim Fund. Advance tickets are on sale at Riverton theatre2024.square.site. Businesses will be open to welcome guests, offering holiday shopping from 5 to 9 p.m. Several businesses, including Orchard Hill Baking, the Old Riverton Inn and Riverton General Store, will serve food during the evening. Carolers will rove the streets, setting the mood. The Grange will open its Festival of Trees from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Visitors are invited to bring nonperishable food items or cash donations to support the Community Food Bank, and view trees decorated by community members and organizations. There will be a first performance of “A Christmas Carol,” followed by subsequent presentations Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available at Rivertontheatre2024.square.site. Saturday brings more shopping opportunities at local businesses. Clifford, the Big Red Dog, will roam the village (off-leash, of course), and face painting will be offered at the fire department. Children can decorate ornaments or stockings at the firehouse, where firefighters will be selling fried dough. There will be a gingerbread man, children’s craft workshop, baby goats to pet and a magic show, as well as wagon rides to Santa’s Village. Sunday features a final performance of “A Christmas Carol,” another appearance by the gingerbread man, more chances to stroke baby goats and wagon rides. Holiday shopping continues until 6 p.m. For details and times, visit rivertonct.com. Colebrook children can meet Santa COLEBROOK – The town’s annual Children’s Christmas Party with Santa, sponsored by the Colebrook Center Ladies Auxiliary, is slated for Saturday from 1-3 p.m. at the Colebrook Center Firehouse, 31 Bunnell St. Children through grade 5 are welcome to visit and receive a gift from Santa. Refreshments and light snacks will be provided. Holiday open house Sunday COLEBROOK – Colebrook Historical Society will hold its Holiday Open House and Silent Auction on Sunday from 3-5 p.m. at the Seymour Tavern in the center of town. Music and refreshments will be provided. The event will conclude with the lighting of the trees on the Green. This year’s theme is “Deck the Halls,” and there will be an opportunity to get something special to do just that at the silent auction. Miniature trees, wreaths, ornaments and other holiday treasures will be on display and preliminary bids can be made. Final bidding will take place Dec. 14,, the date of the Colebrook Holiday Fair. Hollywood’s fabulous faces in Norfolk NORFOLK – Robert Dance, author of “Fabulous Faces of Classic Hollywood,” will introduce “All About Eve” (1950), a classic Bette Davis film, tonight at 7 at Norfolk Library, 9 Greenwoods Road East. The screening is the conclusion of a three-film series. Visit norfolklibrary.org or call 860-542-5075, ext. 2, to register. Farmers holiday market NORFOLK – The Farmers and Artisans Holiday Market will take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Battell Chapel. The market will have 32 vendors offering intriguing gifts for the holiday season. Santa Claus is coming to town BARKHAMSTED – Santa and his little elves will come to town Saturday from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at Barkhamsted Elementary School to have breakfast with local families. Santa will be happy to pose with youngsters for photographs. Ticket prices are $8 for adults, $4 for children ages 3 to 12, and free for tots 2 and under.

Beirut: Insurgents’ stunning march across Syria gained speed on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) with news that they had reached the suburbs of the capital Damascus and with the government forced to deny rumours that President Bashar al-Assad had fled the country. The lightning rebel advance suggests that Assad’s government could fall within the next week, US and other Western officials said. A giant portrait of Syrian president Bashar Assad sets on a building, as empty streets seen in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday. Credit: AP Since the rebels’ sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled at a dizzying speed as insurgents seized a string of major cities and rose up in places where the rebellion had long seemed over. The twin threats to the strategically vital city of Homs and the capital, Damascus, now pose an existential danger to the Assad dynasty’s five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran. The rebels’ moves around Damascus, reported by an opposition war monitor and a rebel commander, came after the Syrian army withdrew from much of the southern part of the country, leaving more areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters. If the insurgents capture Homs, they would cut the link between Damascus, Assad’s seat of power, and the coastal region where the president enjoys wide support. The advances in the past week were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organisation by the US and the United Nations. In their push to overthrow Assad’s government, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian army. For the first time in the country’s long-running civil war, the government now has control of only four of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Homs, Latakia and Tartus. People arrive at the Jordanian side of the border as others wait in their cars, after a ban on crossings into Syria, on December 7, 2024 in Jaber, Jordan. Credit: Getty Images The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition”. Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad’s chief international backer, said he feels “sorry for the Syrian people”. In Damascus, people rushed to stock up on supplies. Thousands went to Syria’s border with Lebanon, trying to leave the country. Many shops in the capital were shuttered, a resident told the Associated Press, and those still open had run out of staples such as sugar. Some were selling items at three times the normal price. “The situation is very strange. We are not used to that,” the resident said, insisting on anonymity, fearing retributions. “People are worried whether there will be a battle [in Damascus] or not.” It was the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018 when Syrian troops recaptured the area following a years-long siege. The UN said it was moving non-critical staff outside the country as a precaution. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: Backed by Russia and Iran – both of which are bogged down in separate conflicts. Credit: Saudi Press Agency/AP Assad rumours Syria’s state media denied social media rumours that President Assad had left the country, saying he was performing his duties in Damascus. Assad has had little, if any, help from his allies. Russia is busy with its war in Ukraine and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up Assad’s forces, has been weakened by a yearlong conflict with Israel. Iran has seen its proxies across the region degraded by regular Israeli airstrikes. US President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that the US should avoid engaging militarily in Syria. Pedersen said a date for talks in Geneva on the implementation a UN resolution, adopted in 2015, and calling for a Syrian-led political process, would be announced later. The resolution calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with UN-supervised elections. A Syrian opposition fighter holds a rocket launcher in front of the provincial government office. Credit: AP Foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, along with Pederson, gathered on the sidelines of the Doha Summit on Saturday to discuss the situation. No details were immediately available. The insurgents’ march Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents were in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. Opposition fighters were marching toward the Damascus suburb of Harasta, he added. An insurgent commander, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces had begun the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus. HTS controls much of northwest Syria and in 2017 set up a “salvation government” to run day-to-day affairs in the region. In recent years, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group’s image, cutting ties with al-Qaeda, ditching hardline officials and vowing to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance. Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani. Credit: Al Jazeera Syria’s military, meanwhile, sent large numbers of reinforcements to defend the key central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as insurgents approached its outskirts. The shock offensive began on November 27, during which rebel fighters captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central city of Hama, the country’s fourth-largest city. Opposition activists said insurgents entered Palmyra on Friday, which is home to invaluable archaeological sites, that had been in government hands since being taken from the Islamic State group in 2017. To the south, Syrian troops left much of the province of Quneitra, including the main Baath City, activists said. The Syrian Observatory said government troops had withdrawn from much of the two southern provinces and were sending reinforcements to Homs, where a battle loomed. If the insurgents capture Homs, they would cut the link between Damascus, Assad’s seat of power, and the coastal region where the president enjoys wide support. The Syrian Army said in a statement that it had carried out redeployment and repositioning in Sweida and Daraa after its checkpoints came under attack by “terrorists”. The army said it was setting up a “strong and coherent defensive and security belt in the area”, apparently to defend Damascus from the south. The Syrian government has referred to opposition gunmen as terrorists since conflict broke out in March 2011. Diplomacy in Doha The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey, meeting in Qatar, called for an end to the hostilities. Turkey is a main backer of the rebels. Qatar’s top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticised Assad for failing to take advantage of the lull in fighting in recent years to address the country’s underlying problems. “Assad didn’t seize this opportunity to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people,” he said. Sheikh Mohammed said he was surprised by how quickly the rebels have advanced and said there was a real threat to Syria’s “territorial integrity.” He said the war could “damage and destroy what is left if there is no sense of urgency” to start a political process. AP, Reuters Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter .Stock market today: Wall Street gains ground as it notches a winning week and another Dow record