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| MORGAN Freeman has become the latest Hollywood celebrity to donate to help
re-elect Barack Obama, giving $US1 million ($A968,000) to a campaign group
backing the US president, his spokesman says.
The Oscar-winning actor gave the money to Priorities USA Action, a so-called
super-PAC independent of the official campaign, and praised Obama for his
achievements in office since winning the White House race four years ago. "President Obama has done a remarkable job in historically difficult circumstances," Freeman said, according to his spokesman Stan Rosenfeld. "He ended combat operations in Iraq, put in place sensible reforms of Wall Street, saved the auto industry and protected the health care of every American," he continued. "He has led our nation to be more tolerant and placed impressive, accomplished women on the Supreme Court," added Freeman, who won an Oscar for best supporting actor in 2005 for his role in Million Dollar Baby. Bill Burton, the head of Priorities USA Action and former Obama White House deputy press secretary, thanked Freeman for his "generosity" in a tweet linking to stories about the donation. Other donors to Priorities US Action have included Dreamworks Animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave $US2 million last year, and director Steven Spielberg who donated $US100,000, according to the opensecrets.org website. US comedian Bill Maher announced in February that he had donated $US1 million to the Obama-backing super-PAC. Freeman sparked lively debate, and drew criticism, when he said in a recent radio interview that Obama is not the United States' first black president. "America's first black president hasn't arisen yet. He's not America's first black president. He's America's first mixed-race president," he told National Public Radio. Obama's father was Kenyan and his mother white American. Morgan is famous for movies including 1989's Driving Miss Daisy, 2009's Invictus - in which he played Nelson Mandela - and the recent Dark Knight movies. The African American actor also played a fictional US president in 1998 disaster movie Deep Impact, about a leader scrambling to prevent a comet from slamming into the Earth. |
Thousands of protesters clash with police in Chicago: Chaos in the Windy City as 45 activists arrested and one cop stabbed after demonstrators target NATO
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Thousands of demonstrators upset with the war in Afghanistan, climate change and the erosion of union rights have raised the intensity of a march in downtown Chicago on Sunday as world leaders assembled for a NATO summit. The protest, one of the city's largest in years, turned violent at the end of an anti-NATO march, where demonstrators confronted Chicago police, pushing against a line of officers several blocks from the lakefront convention center where President Obama hosted a gathering of world leaders. Authorities were seen making arrests one by one and leading individual demonstrators away in handcuffs. After a clash near McCormick Place, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at a news conference that the protests resulted in 45 people being arrested and four officers suffering injuries - one from a stab wound in the leg. Scroll down for video Clash: Demonstrators try to flee the police as they are move in on them
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