Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Decimates Box Office
July 15, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had an opening five days that dreams are made of.
The fifth installment of the series once again proved that audiences are not tired of seeing Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione, and Rupert Grint as Ron, with the total U.S. take since Wednesday coming in at an estimated $140 million; $77.4 million coming in over the weekend. The movie’s Wednesday gross of $44.2 mill broke the all-time record for the day.
Overseas, the numbers were equally strong. $190.3 mill was the overseas take from Wednesday to Sunday, bringing the total worldwide box office to date to $330 mill.
Tranformers was no slouch either, coming in number two with $36,000,000 in the U.S. with a total of $223,000,000 to date. Rounding out the top five were Ratatouille ($18m), Live Free Or Die Hard ($10.9m), and License To Wed ($7.4m).
Source: Variety
UN Inspectors Arrive In North Korea To Confirm Nuclear Reactor Shutdown
July 14, 2007
United Nations nuclear inspectors, after years of being banned from North Korea, have arrived in the North to verify the shutdown of Pyongyang’s main nuclear facility. The shutdown appears to be imminent. The inspectors’ visit coincides with the arrival in the North of a preliminary shipment of fuel oil from South Korea, and comes just days before six-nation negotiations on Pyongyang’s overall nuclear programs are due to resume. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.
The inspectors’ assignment is to verify Pyongyang’s shutting down of the reactor. The shutdown is part of a broad agreement aimed at eventually ending North Korea’s nuclear programs completely.
A U.S. official was quoted in Tokyo Saturday as saying the shutdown could come within the next several days.
A South Korean ship arrived in North Korea earlier Saturday, just ahead of the inspectors’ departure, to deliver 6,200 tons of heavy fuel oil. Pyongyang had said it would not begin the shutdown until it received at least part of the 50,000 tons of energy aid it was promised under a February agreement with the South Korea, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia.
This is first time the North has allowed U.N. inspectors into the country since expelling them in late 2002, after Washington accused Pyongyang of having a secret uranium enrichment program.
IAEA officials have expressed optimism that North Korea will now go through with its promise to shut the reactor and allow the U.N. team to do its job.
Adel Tolba, the group leader, spoke to reporters Saturday before the team left Beijing.
“We are in [on] the road to Yongbyon facilities,” said Tolba. “We will have our equipment with us. We will resume our work when we arrive.”
North Korea is believed to have used the Yongbyon reactor to produce enough plutonium for five or more nuclear bombs, and the country set off alarm bells when it successfully tested one bomb in October last year.
The plutonium-based program, which Pyongyang acknowledges, is separate from the uranium enrichment program that Washington alleges Pyongyang is carrying out secretly.
The stop-and-start six-nation negotiations aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear programs completely are set to resume Wednesday in Beijing after months of inactivity.
In the February agreement, North Korea agreed in principle to provide full details of those programs, and eventually to abandon them in return for donations of fuel oil, food and fertilizer, security guarantees, and eventual normalized diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Japan.
The chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, told reporters in Tokyo that the shutdown of the reactor is expected no later than Monday.
“We understood [it would be] this weekend,” he said. “I don’t know whether it’s Saturday, Sunday or Monday. I do know it’s very soon.”
He has said he would like to Pyongyang provide the details of its nuclear programs “within months,” and permanently dismantle the Yongbyon reactor by the end of the year.
Source: VOA
Two Republican Senators Urge Bush To Make Contingency Plans For Iraq
July 14, 2007
Two influential Senate Republicans are calling on President Bush to seek a new war authorization for U.S. military operations in Iraq. They are also urging him to draft contingency plans in Iraq and report them to Congress by October. Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.
The former chairmen of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee, Republican Senators John Warner of Virginia and Richard Lugar of Indiana, respectively, offered their proposals in an amendment to a defense policy bill.
The amendment calls on President Bush to seek a new rationale for the war authorization by September, when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, is to brief Congress on Iraq.
In remarks prepared for delivery next week, when the measure is to be debated, Lugar argues that many of the conditions and motivations that existed when Congress authorized the use of force against Iraq nearly five years ago no longer exist, or are irrelevant to the current situation.
The amendment also calls on the president to present Congress with contingency plans in Iraq by October 16. The measure says those plans, which would include a downsizing of U.S. combat forces, should begin by the end of the year.
Senator Lugar first proposed such a plan last month, when he publicly broke with President Bush on Iraq strategy in a speech on the Senate floor:
“Our security interests call for a downsizing and re-deployment of U.S. military forces to more sustainable positions in Iraq or the Middle East,” he said. “Numerous locations for temporary or permanent military bases have been suggested, including Kuwait or other nearby states, the Kurdish territories, or defensible locations in Iraq outside of urban areas.”
Senator Warner, too, has expressed concern about the president’s strategy in Iraq, but he withheld proposing the amendment until after the Bush administration sent Congress an interim report on Iraq.
That report, released Thursday, says the Iraqi government has made progress on just eight of 18 political, military and economic benchmarks.
The Warner-Lugar amendment is one of several expected to be debated next week.
Another is one that calls for a U.S. combat troop withdrawal to begin 120 days after passage, and be completed by next April. Some troops would remain in Iraq to train Iraqi forces and fight terrorism.
The House of Representatives passed a similar measure Thursday, but prospects for Senate passage appear dim.
Supporters, who are overwhelmingly Democrats, say the measure would force Iraqis to make the compromises necessary to establish a unity government.
“It is clear that there is now a state of chaos in Iraq, and it is up to the Iraqi people to make themselves safe. We cannot do it. It is time that they took care of their own country,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.
But Republican opponents say setting an arbitrary deadline for a troop pullout before stability is restored to Iraq would only spur more violence.
“If we leave Iraq before the Iraqis can maintain peace and stability, the kind of genocide and killing and terrorism that would ensue would be almost incalculable,” Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl replied.
Republican Senate leaders are vowing to prevent the troop withdrawal proposal from coming to a vote. Supporters must get the 60 votes necessary in the 100-member chamber to overcome any effort to halt the legislation, and it appears they do not have the votes.
At the White House, spokesman Tony Snow says congressional efforts to set troop withdrawal deadlines amount to political posturing:
“A lot of this is trying to lay the groundwork for an election, keep throwing up resolutions and saying, you know, so and so voted against bringing our troops home,” he said. “It is a political play.”
President Bush is staunchly opposed to setting troop withdrawal deadlines.
Source: VOA