Entertainers canceling events in Paris

 The Foo Fighters, Natalie Portman, U2 and other entertainers have canceled events in Paris following deadly terrorist attacks in the city.

The Foo Fighters canceled the remaining dates of their European tour, including a planned show in Paris on Monday. Film distributor Mars said Saturday it had canceled promotional appearances for the film "Jane Got a Gun" starring Portman.

The Oscar-winning actress was scheduled to appear at the film's premiere and junket interviews on Monday in Paris.

"Because of the events (Friday) night, we are canceling TV appearances, junket and preview appearances with Natalie Portman Nov. 15-16," the film distributor said in a statement Saturday.

A Sunday photo call for the film "Bridge of Spies" - where Steven Spielberg, Mark Rylance and Amy Ryan were scheduled to appear - was canceled by the film's distributor, Twentieth Century Fox.

U2 postponed its Saturday night concert in Paris, which was to be aired by HBO. The Foo Fighters were scheduled to play at the Accor Hotels Arena in Paris on Monday. The Dave Grohl-led band canceled Friday night's show in Casalecchio Di Reno, Italy, as well as concerts in Turin, Italy; Lyon, France; and Barcelona, Spain.

"It is with profound sadness and heartfelt concern for everyone in Paris that we have been forced to announce the cancellation of the rest of our tour. In light of this senseless violence, the closing of borders, and international mourning, we can't continue right now," the band said in a statement released Saturday.

"There is no other way to say it. This is crazy and it sucks. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was hurt or who lost a loved one."

At least 129 people were killed Friday at suicide bombings near France's national stadium, shootings at Paris cafes and a hostage-taking inside the concert theater Bataclan, where the American rock band Eagles of Death Metal was scheduled to perform.

The terrorism-themed movie "Made in France" had a Nov. 18 release date but it was being postponed. The French film's poster shows an automatic rifle on top of the Eiffel Tower.

The Grammy-winning U.S. rock band Deftones were also scheduled to play at the venue on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

"Thank for all your inquiries on our well being. Band/Crew all safe and accounted for at this time. Prayers for those affected in these tragic events," Deftones wrote on its Facebook page on Friday.

U2 said they will perform their show "at an appropriate time."

"We watched in disbelief and shock at the unfolding events in Paris and our hearts go out to all the victims and their families across the city tonight," the band said in a statement released Friday. "We are devastated at the loss of life at the Eagles of Death Metal concert and our thoughts and prayers are with the band and their fans. And we hope and pray that all of our fans in Paris are safe."

After Paris Attacks, Brands Show Support on Social

When tragic events like Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris unfold, marketers face a challenge: Should they show their support for victims on social media, and if so, how do they do so in an authentic way? 

This weekend, many major brands—including Amazon, Google and Uber—swiftly took to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms to show their solidarity with France, often using the #PrayforParis hashtag. The rush to join the discussion didn't sit well with some consumers: 

Still, Steven Heller, author of a number of books on design, told Fast Company that sharing supportive images is important: "We need symbols to express what [we] cannot say." They also offer brands a subtle way to join the conversation—to say something without sounding off. While many companies used the viral "Peace for Paris" sketch, others created their own images. 

Uber, for example, added the image of the French flag to the cars in its app:

Amazon had its own spin, putting the flag front and center on its homepage:

Airbnb, like many companies, made the French flag part of its logo while also offering help to those stranded in Paris: 

Google, Skype, Verizon and Sprintall made international calls free for consumers:

And, given Paris's place in the fashion world, many fashion brands were among those showing solidarity: 

But even as many brands worked to be sensitive and add relevant points to the cultural conversation, some posts, like 50 Cent's, read as insincere because they used branded hashtags:

ISIS Threatens U.S

After the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday, there have been a series of developments ranging from a pummeling attack by the French on ISIS in Syria to President Obama declaring ISIS as the “face of evil” on Monday.

The attacks have led to several key developments for France and the U.S. Here are 5:

1. French President Francois Hollande extending State of Emergency

On Monday, French President Hollande will propose extending the country’s state of emergency to three months, he told Parliament.

To get the extension past 12 days, he’ll need parliamentary approval. In the aftermath of the attacks, Hollande declared war on ISIS and backed it up with pummeling airstrikes on Saturday at ISIS compounds in Raqqa, Syria.

“France is at war,” he said to Parliament on Monday.

2. Attack Suspect Salah Abdeslam was stopped and later released

A key suspect in the Paris attacked was stopped at the Belgium-France border, questioned and finally released.

The 26-year-old Belgian man, Salah Adbeslam, is one of the three brothers linked to the attacks. NBC News reported his name was on rental documents for a Belgian-registered black Volkswagen Polo found outside the Bataclan concert hall where most of the 130 victims were killed on Friday.

He had an international warrant for his arrest but the information about him was not relayed in time to officials at the border.

French police have put out his information to the public in a request for help as they try to capture him.

3. President Obama stays the course, refuses to put American boots on the ground in Syria 

Speaking at the G20 international conference in Turkey on Monday, President Obama declared ISIS as “the face of evil” but didn’t say he would alter U.S. military policy against the “barbaric” terrorist group to include sending ground troops into Syria to fight ISIS.

“What I do not do is take actions, either because it’s going to work politically or it’s going to somehow in the abstract make America look tough, or make me look tough,” the president said.

“We play into the ISIL narrative when we act as if they are a state and we use routine tactics used to fight a state that is not a state,” Obama said. “That’s not what is going on here. These are killers with fantasies of glory.” He reiterated that the U.S. hasn’t underestimated ISIS and that when he said the U.S. is “containing” ISIS, he was referring to ISIS holding less territory in Syria and Iraq.

Predictably, he is getting hammered by Republican political pundits and of course, presidential candidates like Jeb Bush.

4. ISIS threatens to attack Washington, D.C

On Monday, ISIS warned countries helping France’s strike against them would suffer the same fate as the European country. The terror group also threatened to target the capital of America, Washington, D.C.

“We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington,” a man wearing fatigues and a turban said.

The video aired footage of the aftermath of the Paris attacks. President Obama and security officials have said there are no credible threats of an ISIS attack on America.

5. After Paris attacks, more U.S. States refuse to accept Syrian refugees

Amid the heightened security in the U.S. following the Paris attacks, several states have announced they won’t accept any Syrian refugees for fear of ISIS penetrating the evacuees.

Michigan and Alabama were the first states to announce they’d be opting out; Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Indiana have also said no.

“Michigan is a welcoming state and we are proud of our rich history of immigration,” Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said. “But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents.”

Paris Attacks 'Organized' in Belgium

As heavily-armed police today raced around Brussels chasing leads related to the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, terrorism experts and analysts told ABC News the chaos in the normally-buttoned downed capital was proof that Belgium can no longer afford to be slow-footed in the small nation’s fight against the outsized presence of radical Islam.

“There has been a serious jihadi issue there for many, many years,” said Daniel Benjamin, who oversaw State Department counter-terror efforts during President Obama’s first term. “A number of European countries have underestimated the threat and have been in denial about the dangers they faced… The Belgians especially were in denial.”

Today French President Francois Hollande said that the suicide terror attacks that claimed more than 120 lives in Paris had been “organized” in Belgium, and over the weekend two men were arrested in the Molenbeek district of Brussels and charged with terrorism-related offenses. Officials said Brussels is also home to at least two of the suicide bombers. One of them, as well as a man more recently identified as the suspected “mastermind” of the attack, was from Molenbeek.

The purported mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was previously linked to smaller terror plots in Europe, including foiled European train and church attacks earlier this year. After a gun-battle with police in another Belgian suburb that killed two officers in January, he told an ISIS magazine he was able to escape into Syria. He’s believed to still be there, where one French official said he’s considered a “high-profile terrorism figure.”

In the days leading up to Friday’s violence, the Belgian cell purportedly procured the rental cars used in the attack and may have supplied the weapons and explosive vests. At least one of those involved escaped back over the France-Belgium border after the attack and is now the subject of a massive manhunt, European officials said. He was thought to have been surrounded by police in Molenbeek, but the police raid revealed he wasn’t there after all.

"We're talking about a network," the Molenbeek’s mayor, Francoise Schepmans, said in a Reuters report Sunday, referring to individuals arrested there.

Before the Paris massacre last week, the Belgian capital and often the specific district of Molenbeek repeatedly have found themselves playing a supporting role in past plots. After 12 people were killed by three gunmen in the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January, authorities raided locations in Molenbeek and other Belgian cities in during an investigation purportedly unrelated to the shootings that nevertheless “concerning several people who [Belgian authorities thought] are an operational cell” made of people who had been in Syria. Other reports said one of the Charlie Hebdo gunmen got his weapons in Molenbeek.

The young man who attempted to open fire on a French train earlier this year reportedly stayed for a time in Molenbeek before the attack. And greater Brussels was the site of an attack on a Jewish museum in May 2014 that claimed four lives.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel expressed deep concerns this weekend about the scope of the problem facing his country.

“Almost every time, there is a link to Molenbeek,” Michel said. “We have to clean up that terrorism in Molenbeek . That’s the main issue here.”

Residents and politicians of the small district are becoming exasperated with its reputation, according to Germany’s Der Spiegel.

“They don’t all come from here,” district Mayor Schepmans told the paper. “Most of the time, they are just traveling through.”

Security experts told ABC News that the jihadists in the most recent attack took advantage of an intelligence and security apparatus in Belgium that was slow to recognize and respond to the threat, and remains poorly equipped to monitor those plotting future attacks.

Belgium has served as a European pipeline for extremists looking to join ranks with ISIS. About six percent of Belgium’s population is Muslim, but conditions in the country have produced the largest number, per capita, of foreign fighters traveling to Syria or Iraq to join ISIS and other extremist groups.

A 2014 estimate by a Belgian researcher who tracks extremist activity there put a conservative estimate of the number of Belgian foreign fighters at 400, but indicated that number could actually be twice as high.

The potential for ISIS sympathizers in Brussels to pose a danger to the rest of Europe has been a longstanding concern of the U.S., Benjamin said.

“My impression is that Belgian authorities have been taking the threat more seriously as time has gone by,” Benjamin said. “But I don’t believe they have the capacities of the British or the French.”

Howard Gutman, a veteran Washington lawyer who served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium until 2013, said the Belgians began updating their laws over the past decade to enhance their ability to monitor extremists.

But they have continued to struggle to keep pace with the growing ranks of disaffected young Muslims who fled Syria after President Assad used chemical weapons in recent years.

"There are probably 500 prime targets, which would require 5,000 agents to keep proper tabs. My best guess is that the Belgian [elite security] force probably totals about 200," Gutman told ABC News. "So they cannot watch even a fraction of the high risk threats."

Gutman said helping Belgium reach out to the large population of young Muslims was a high priority during his time in the Embassy.

"We had significant success," he said. "I visited every major mosque and Muslim community centers and established relations with the imam and in the community including in Molenbeek. For many of these visits, I was the only Western and non-Muslim visitor they had ever had."

Shortly before the attacks, Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon appeared at a conference sponsored by the news web site Politico dealing with extremism. The news site quoted Jambon saying that his country was getting a better handle on the problem in most Belgian cities, but said the exception was Brussels. He blamed a fragmented police force.

“Brussels is a relatively small city, 1.2 million,” Jambon told Politico. “And yet we have six police departments. Nineteen different municipalities. New York is a city of 11 million. How many police departments do they have? One.”

Two months ago, Jambon released a 12-point plan to strengthen the monitoring of Islamic radicals, expressing confidence in the country’s handle on the problem. But this week, Prime Minister Michel said that those efforts were insufficient.

“There has to be more of a crackdown,” Michel said.

French Police Carry Out 150 Raids, 23 People Arrested

French police investigating the coordinated attacks on Paris carried out more than 150 raids across France overnight, arresting 23 people and placing 104 people under house arrest, according to the French Interior Minister.

It's also been confirmed 31 weapons were discovered. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced early Monday the “administrative searches” happened overnight local time.

The raids come less than 12 hours after French jets began bombing targets in eastern Syria connected to ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks that left at least 129 people dead and 352 wounded.

Seven of the people suspected of carrying out the six separate attacks Friday were killed, but the French national police Sunday released the name and photograph of an eighth suspect, announcing an international manhunt for a man described as "dangerous."

Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national who was born in Brussels, is believed to be the gunman who led the team shooting at people in restaurants and bars. Officials said he is one of three brothers: One of the three, Brahim Abdeslam, died during the attacks and another was detained in Belgium. 

The attacks, carried out at a stadium where the French national soccer team was playing Germany, a concert hall where the U.S. band Eagles of Death Metal was playing, and at restaurants and cafes, were prepared in Belgium and the suspects received help in France, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Sunday. 

Over the weekend, police detained several people in France and Belgium, including two men in Belgium who officials say were directly involved –- indicating authorities believe at least 10 people played a role in the complex assault.

Some of the men under arrest had been tracked to Belgium after being spotted on surveillance tape in a rental car purportedly used in one of the shootings. One car apparently used in the attack was discovered Sunday with "several" Kalashnikov rifles, the Paris prosecutor said.

Two of the deceased gunmen have been identified by French officials: 29-year-old French citizen Omar Ismail Mostefai and another man whose photo appears on a Syrian passport. However, authorities are carefully examining the authenticity of the passport, which shows the man slipped into Europe through Greece, then Serbia and Croatia in early October and then eventually to France, according to European officials.

Two of the suspects who died during the attack were French nationals living in Belgium, officials said Sunday. One of the dead attackers lived in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, where raids took place Saturday, and a second attacker lived in the broader Brussels area, a Federal Prosecutor spokesman told ABC News.

In memory of the victims, the 28 member states of the European Union will join France in a minute of silence Monday at noon Paris time, and President Obama ordered that the U.S. flag fly at half-staff all week.

Public cultural establishments, including museums and theaters, are expected to reopen Monday afternoon in Paris and its surrounding suburbs, said the Minister of Culture and Communication.

Zuma’s ex-wife could be South Africa’s first female president

The race for South Africa’s top job is heating up. Seventeen months into his job as deputy president, it was assumed that Cyril Ramaphosa—a former trade unionist, also one of South Africa’s richest men—would easily slide into the top job in 2019 when president Jacob Zuma steps down.

Ramaphosa, who made a return into politics in 2012 after a 10-year sojourn, has always had presidential ambitions. In 1997, Ramaphosa was considered as a favoured successor for the presidency by Mandela, but this plan was thwarted by a skilful Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s former president, who out maneuvered Ramaphosa in African National Congress’ (ANC) internal politics, eventually becoming president.

Last week, South Africa’s Mail and Guardian reported (paywall) Ramaphosa has finally decided to throw his hat in the ring to contest for ANC president in 2017—a stepping stone for him to become South Africa’s president in 2019.

Despite cementing his standing as South Africa’s “fixer” and diplomat-in-chief in Jacob Zuma’s presidency, Ramaphosa now faces another hurdle that may thwart his chances of emerging as president in 2019: Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the current African Union (AU) chair and ex-wife of president Jacob Zuma.

Jacob Zuma’s “get out of jail card”

At 66, Dlamini-Zuma is a seasoned South African politician. She served in Nelson Mandela’s 1994 cabinet as health minister, eventually landing up as foreign affairs and home affairs minister in Thabo Mbeki’s cabinet. She is renowned for turning around the home affairs portfolio, which was plagued by administrative inefficiencies and corruption.

Over the past months, debates have been raging in the ANC about the need for a woman president in 2019, and Dlamini-Zuma’s name has enjoyed preference.

In response to these calls, Dlamini-Zuma has been more forthcoming about her presidential ambitions than Ramaphosa.

“In the ruling party you never refuse a responsibility. I have never refused any responsibility that the ANC asked me to do,” she said at a ANC Women’s League conference in August this year.

But the debate about who takes over from president Jacob Zuma is not merely a tussle between Dlamini-Zuma, accomplished woman candidate, and Ramaphosa, a successful businessman.

It is tied to Dlamini-Zuma’s history with the South Africa’s current president, Jacob Zuma. The two were married for 26 years, until 1998, and they have four children together.

While the pair have kept a warm relationship together, it has not always been rosy. When Jacob Zuma defeated former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, in an internal race for the ANC presidency in 2007, Dlamini-Zuma supported Mbeki’s camp over her ex-husband’s bid.

Relations warmed again when Jacob Zuma’s ascended to power. Becoming South Africa’s president allowed him to support and led Dlamini-Zuma’s controversial campaign to become chair of the African Union (AU) in 2012—a move which signalled that Jacob Zuma might have bigger plans for Dlamini-Zuma back home, and that the AU job was in preparation for a takeover in 2019.

As the succession battle builds up, it seems that Jacob Zuma might be throwing his weight behind Dlamini-Zuma again. But for a different reason, beyond the need—and internal desire within the ANC—for a woman president, but also for his own self-interest.

In 2009, Zuma faced 700 charges of corruption and racketeering. These were later aside after Zuma argued that the charges were politically motivated. The drive for Dlamini-Zuma to become president—which has massive support from Zuma and his key allies in the ANC—is in part a strategy to keep the charges dead, long after Zuma has left the seat of power, some believe.

The argument for this is that as his ex-wife, she would not let the charges stand against Zuma, while Ramaphosa would.

“It is now almost common cause, at least outside the ANC, that those who support the president [Jacob Zuma] do not trust Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. They, for reasons that are not always obvious to me, are afraid that Ramaphosa is the kind of chap who would not discourage the reinstatement of corruption charges against Zuma were the gods of some ANC faction to deem this necessary for the cleansing of the spirit of our polity. In more graphic language, Ramaphosa will send Zuma to jail,” writes Aubrey Matshiqi, a South African independent political analyst.

“If you asked me two months ago, I would have said Cyril Ramaphosa is going to be South Africa’s next president,” said Nic Borain, a political analyst who consults for BNP Paribas. “But Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, seems to be gaining ground. She has the support of all major ANC allied bodies—including the ANC youth league, the ANC women’s league, a powerful trifecta of regional ANC leaders and of course, her ex-husband,” says Borain.

Iraq warned of attacks before Paris assault

Senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned members of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group of imminent assaults by the militant organization just one day before last week’s deadly attacks in Pariskilled 129 people.

Iraqi intelligence sent a dispatch saying the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, through bombings or other attacks in the days ahead.

The dispatch said the Iraqis had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication “all the time” and “every day.”

Without commenting specifically on the Iraqi warning, a senior U.S. intelligence official said he was not aware of any threat information sent to Western governments that was specific enough to have thwarted the Paris attacks. Officials from the U.S., French and other Western governments have expressed worries for months about Islamic State-inspired attacks by militants who fought in Syria, the official noted. In recent weeks, the sense of danger had spiked.

Six senior Iraqi officials confirmed the information in the dispatch, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, and four of these intelligence officials said they also warned France specifically of a potential attack. Two officials told the AP that France was warned beforehand of details that French authorities have yet to make public.

“We have recovered information from our direct sources in the Islamic State terrorist organization about the orders issued by terrorist ‘Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’ directing all members of the organization to implement an international attack that includes all coalition countries, in addition to Iran and the Russian Federation, through bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days. We do not have information on the date and place for implementing these terrorist operations at this time,” the Iraqi dispatch read in part.

Attacks planned well in advance

Among the other warnings cited by Iraqi officials: that the Paris attacks appear to have been planned in Raqqa, Syria — the Islamic State’s de-facto capital — where the attackers were trained specifically for this operation and with the intention of sending them to France.

The officials also said a sleeper cell in France then met with the attackers after their training and helped them to execute the plan.

There were 24 people involved in the operation, they said: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning.

The officials all spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday for the gun and bomb attacks on a stadium, a concert hall and Paris cafes that also wounded 350 people, 99 of them seriously. Seven of the attackers blew themselves up. Police have been searching intensively for accomplices.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, also told journalists in Vienna on Sunday that Iraqi intelligence agencies had obtained information that some countries would be targeted, including France, the United States and Iran, and had shared the intelligence with those countries.

Coalition countries targeted

Officials in the French presidential palace would not comment, and U.S. officials didn’t immediately comment when contacted by The AP.

Every night, the head of French counterintelligence goes to bed asking “why not today?” the French security official said.

The Iraqi government has been sharing intelligence with various coalition nations since they launched their airstrike campaign against the Islamic State group last year. In September, the Iraqi government also announced that it was part of an intelligence-sharing quartet with Russia, Iran and Syria for the purposes of undermining the militant group’s ability to make further battlefield gains.

A third of Iraq and Syria are now part of the self-styled caliphate declared by the Islamic State group last year. A U.S.-led coalition operating in Iraq and Syria is providing aerial support to allied ground forces in both countries, and they are arming and training Iraqi forces. The U.S. said it is also sending as many as 50 special forces to northern Syria.

Russia is also conducting airstrikes in Syria and recently endured a tragedy of its own when a Russian airplane was downed in a suspected bombing in Egypt last month, killing all 224 passengers onboard. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday the attack was likely directed and funded out of Syria.

France has been on edge since January, when Islamic extremists attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had run cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and a kosher grocery. Twenty people died, including the three attackers. The Charlie Hebdo attackers claimed links to extremists in Yemen, while the kosher market attacker claimed ties to the Islamic State group.

At the time, France’s prime minister acknowledged “failings” in intelligence that led to the three-day spree of horror, as criticism mounted that the attacks might have been avoided if officials had been more alert to the deadly peril posed by suspects already on their radar.

Experts noted that several factors may have been behind the failures in January: Security services are drowning in data, overwhelmed by the quantity of people and emails they are expected to track, and hampered by the inability to make pre-emptive arrests in democratic countries. Criticism had focused on the failure to more closely follow the two brothers who carried out the attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper. One had been convicted on terrorism charges and the other was believed to have linked up with al-Qaida forces while in Yemen. Both were on the U.S. no-fly list, according to a senior U.S. official, because of their links to terrorist movements.

Bernard Bajolet, the head of the French spy service, spoke during a public appearance at George Washington University in Washington two weeks ago about the twin threats France was facing, both from its own extremists and “terrorist actions which are planned (and) ordered from outside or only through fighters coming back to our countries.”

General warnings about potential attacks from Iraqi intelligence or other Middle Eastern intelligence services are not uncommon, the official said. The French were already on high alert.

“During the last month we have disrupted a certain number of attacks in our territory,” Bajolet said. “But this doesn’t mean that we will be able all the time to disrupt such attacks.”

Obtaining intelligence about the Islamic State group has been no easy feat given difficulties accessing territory held by the radical Sunni group. Iraqi agencies generally rely on informants inside the group in both Iraq and Syria for information, but that is not always infallible. Last year, reports from Iraqi intelligence officials and the Iraqi government that al-Baghdadi was injured were later denied or contradicted.