Names and faces

Angelina Jolie arrives at the 20th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards at the Hollywood Palladium on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Angelina Jolie arrives at the 20th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards at the Hollywood Palladium on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

Actress Angelina Jolie, the special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency, appealed Sunday for urgent funding to assist more than 3 million displaced Iraqis and Syrians living in dire conditions in northern Iraq. Visiting Iraq for the fifth time, Jolie said that the slow pace of funding this year to help people displaced by the conflicts in Syria and Iraq has triggered a humanitarian crisis that will lead to catastrophe if not addressed. The refugee agency said it received only 53 percent of the $337 million required to fund its response to internal displacement in Iraq and Syria during 2014. “We are being tested here as an international community and so far, for all the immense efforts and good intentions, the international community is failing,” she told journalists at a camp for the displaced in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk. “The people I met today need to know that we will be with them. Giving them the support they need to survive for every day they remain displaced. And above all, they need to know that one day they will be able to go home.” The civil war in Syria, now entering its fourth year, prompted millions to flee their homes to neighboring countries and abroad as the fighting showed no sign of easing. The fighting intensified and later spilled into Iraq as the militant Islamic State rose up and seized about one-third of both Iraq and Syria. “Millions of people are internally displaced and over 5 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Syria alone,” Jolie said. “They are paying the price for our collective failure to end the conflict which has allowed extremists to take hold.” More than 3.8 million Syrians have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, according to the refugee agency, while another 7.6 million Syrians are displaced inside the country. At least 1.8 million Iraqis were also displaced last year by violence triggered by the Sunni militant onslaught.

Birdman received a welcome lift on its flight to the Oscars after winning the Producers Guild of America’s highest film award Saturday night at a ceremony in Los Angeles. The win delivers needed momentum to Alejandro Inarritu’s showbiz romp after following its upset loss to The Grand Budapest Hotel in the Golden Globes’ comedy category earlier this month. It’s now neck and neck in the Oscar race with Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, which won in the Globes drama category. Many of the guild’s 6,700 members are also Oscar voters, and for the past seven years, the guild’s choices for its top trophy went on to win the best-picture prize at the Academy Awards.

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