- El Salvador Congress votes to end ban on metal mining
- Five things to know about Panama Canal, in Trump's sights
- NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
- Haitians massacred for practicing voodoo were abducted, hacked to death: UN
- Inter beat Como to keep in touch with leaders Atalanta
- Mixed day for global stocks as market hopes for 'Santa Claus rally'
- Man Utd boss Amorim questions 'choices' of Rashford's entourage
- Trump's TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app's fate
- Is he serious? Trump stirs unease with Panama, Greenland ploys
- England captain Stokes to miss three months with torn hamstring
- Support grows for Blake Lively over smear campaign claim
- Canada records 50,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2016
- Jordanian, Qatari envoys hold talks with Syria's new leader
- France's second woman premier makes surprise frontline return
- France's Macron announces fourth government of the year
- Netanyahu tells Israel parliament 'some progress' on Gaza hostage deal
- Guatemalan authorities recover minors taken by sect members
- Germany's far-right AfD holds march after Christmas market attack
- European, US markets wobble awaiting Santa rally
- Serie A basement club Monza fire coach Nesta
- Mozambique top court confirms ruling party disputed win
- Biden commutes almost all federal death sentences
- Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony
- NASA solar probe to make its closest ever pass of Sun
- France's new government to be announced Monday evening: Elysee
- London toy 'shop' window where nothing is for sale
- Volkswagen boss hails cost-cutting deal but shares fall
- Accused killer of US insurance CEO pleads not guilty to 'terrorist' murder
- Global stock markets mostly higher
- Not for sale. Greenland shrugs off Trump's new push
- Sweden says China blocked prosecutors' probe of ship linked to cut cables
- Acid complicates search after deadly Brazil bridge collapse
- Norwegian Haugan dazzles in men's World Cup slalom win
- Arsenal's Saka out for 'many weeks' with hamstring injury
- Mali singer Traore child custody case postponed
- France mourns Mayotte victims amid uncertainy over government
- UK economy stagnant in third quarter in fresh setback
- Sweden says China denied request for prosecutors to probe ship linked to cut undersea cables
- African players in Europe: Salah leads Golden Boot race after brace
- Global stock markets edge higher as US inflation eases rate fears
- German far-right AfD to march in city hit by Christmas market attack
- Ireland centre Henshaw signs IRFU contract extension
- Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Hasina's family
- US probes China chip industry on 'anticompetitive' concerns
- Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Clock ticks down on France government nomination
- 'Devastated' Australian tennis star Purcell provisionally suspended for doping
- Mozambique on edge as judges rule on disputed election
- Mobile cinema brings Tunisians big screen experience
- Philippines says to acquire US Typhon missile system
'True national treasure' Maggie Smith dies aged 89
Oscar-winning British actor Maggie Smith, a star of stage and screen for more than seven decades, died in hospital in London on Friday, her sons announced, prompting a flood of tributes.
"It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning," Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens said in a statement.
Smith -- who won a Tony, two Oscars, three Golden Globes and five Baftas -- achieved late-career international fame for her depiction of the acerbic Dowager Countess of Grantham Violet Crawley in the hit television series "Downton Abbey".
The Bafta TV and film academy said in a statement that it was "saddened" to hear of her death, calling her "a legend of British stage and screen".
It gave her a special award and fellowship to acknowledge her acclaimed career, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer said had made her a "true national treasure".
Born in 1934 in Oxford in central England, the daughter of an Oxford professor of pathology, Smith made her stage debut in 1952 with the Oxford University Dramatic Society.
She won a best actress Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and for best supporting actress for her depiction of Desdemona in "Othello" in the same year.
"An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end," her sons, both actors, said.
"She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said, adding their thanks for all the "kind messages and support" they had received.
- 'Formidable talent' -
Famed for her scene-stealing charisma, Smith's long and successful career got started with a string of successes in London's West End and on Broadway in the 1950s.
She famously appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Othello" in 1959.
This led to her joining Olivier's celebrated 1960s National Theatre company where she earned critical acclaim alongside her husband, the actor Robert Stephens.
Smith's marriage to heavy-drinking Stephens, with whom she had her two sons, collapsed in 1973 and they divorced two years later.
She remarried shortly after to the screenwriter Beverley Cross, who died in 1998.
In recent decades, some of her best known films included "Gosford Park" (2001), "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (2012) and "The Lady in the Van" (2015).
Her work on the wildly popular "Downton Abbey" and the "Harry Potter" films also introduced her to a younger generation.
Such was the appeal of "Downton Abbey" she said in 2017 she could no longer go out without being recognised.
"It's ridiculous -- I led a perfectly normal life until Downton Abbey," she told the British Film Institute.
"I would go to theatres, I would go to galleries and things like that on my own. And now I can't," she said.
Actor Hugh Bonneville, who played the son of the dowager duchess in the period drama, said: "Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent.
"She was a true legend of her generation and thankfully will live on in so many magnificent screen performances. My condolences to her boys and wider family."
Smith was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1990 by Queen Elizabeth II.
S.F.Warren--AMWN