Georgia 'pulls out of S Ossetia'
 Russia has expanded the conflict with air strikes against targets in Georgia |
Georgia says its forces have withdrawn from the separatist enclave of South Ossetia, and that Russian troops are now in control of the regional capital.
An interior ministry spokesman told the BBC it was not a military defeat but a necessary step to protect civilians from a "humanitarian catastrophe".
Georgia says Russia has brought an additional 10,000 soldiers across its frontiers, readying for a raid.
Earlier, Russian jets bombed a military airfield close to the Georgian capital.
There was no independent confirmation of the attack, although the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, who is in Tbilisi, said he had heard a loud explosion about the same time.
That raised the total for Sony's Hancock to $107.3 million since it opened on Tuesday night to get a jump on the holiday.
It was a familiar place for Smith, one of Hollywood's most-consistent draws. Hancock is his fifth movie to open at number 1. The others were Men in Black and its sequel, Independence Day and Wild Wild West.
"Will Smith, Mom, apple pie and the Fourth of July. It doesn't get any better," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "People just so relate to him and the characters that he plays. They totally embraced it as something different, something fresh."
The previous weekend's top flick, the Disney-Pixar animated tale WALL-E, slipped to second place with $33.4 million. Its 10-day total is $128.1 million.
Overall business slipped for the first time in a month. The top 12 movies pulled in $158.7 million, down 4 per cent weekend last year, when Transformers opened at No 1 with $70.5 million, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
Revenues this summer are at $2.22 billion, about 2 percent ahead of Hollywood's record pace in 2007, when summer revenues topped $4 billion for the first time.
Hancock co-stars Jason Bateman as a public-relations man who tries to give an image-makeover to Smith's cranky character. Charlize Theron plays Bateman's wife, who has her own reasons for wanting the superhero to stay out of her life.
It was the second-best opening weekend for Smith, following last December's I Am Legend at $77.2 million, and was his eighth-straight movie to open at No. 1.
Hancock did not get great reviews, but it doesn't matter. A guy like Will Smith is arguably the most-bankable star in the world," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "He's utterly likable and he's real, and that permeates from the screen to the audience."
Overseas, Hancock pulled in an additional $78 million in 50 other countries.
Tommy shows off Pam pictures
Lee, who reunited with Anderson again earlier this month, shows his pals personal photos of the Baywatch beauty but only if they are nice to him, reports contactmusic.com.
"Tommy is as proud to be Pam's man as he was when they first got together. Pam is 41 but she still looks every inch the Playboy bunny she was and Tommy has the proof. If you're really nice to him he'll even show you"
Nothing to hide about Sania: Shahid
Shahid is far from needled about questions related to his personal life. "Sania is my favourite tennis player. I have met her and talked to her. I have nothing to hide about my relationship with her. She can be as good a friend as many other actresses in the film industry. What else can I say?" says Shahid.
While reports in the media may claim that Shahid and Sania are inseperable and were even seen spending hours together on the sets of Vishal Bharadwaj's Kaminay, the Bollywood star insists it is his recent reticence that has fueled speculations.
"I have always been a very private person. I don't like talking about myself. I am not as accessible to the media on every issue as I used to be earlier. Maybe that is why people write what they want to write about me. But that is how I want to live my life now. If today I am romantically linked to so many women, I think it is only because I have become such a private person," he says.
In fact tinsel town seems unable to make up its mind about Shahid's current love interest.
Besides Sania who has been paired with the teen heartthrob after they were spotted at Bangalore's Windsor Sheraton last year, Kismat Konnection co-star Vidya Balan and Amrita Rao are being touted as the other possible candidates to fill the gap left by Kareena Kapoor's unceremonious exit.
The two split after four-and-a-half years of a torrid affair.
Shahid himself admits that his single status could be the reason why gossip mills have gone into an overdrive. "Sure, that could be true," he says.
Sania has chosen to remain silent on the issue and her family too has refused any comments on the relationship between the tennis star and Shahid.
Crude oil fell sharply on Thursday following two days of declines, dragged down further by a massive sell-off of natural gas.
The slide accelerated amid growing concerns about the weakening U.S. economy.
Light,sweet crude for August delivery was down $4.08 at $130.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have fallen about $14 in just the past three days.
"This market is acting much different than it has during this entire bull run," said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Florida-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com. "I think it's because the fundamentals are finally turning from extremely bullish to slightly bearish. But slightly bearish is enough to tip the market."
Natural gas futures for August delivery fell as much as 8.2 percent in the day, the biggest one-day drop in nearly a year. Natural gas fell 13.8 percent on Aug. 20, 2007, according to Nathan Golz, researcher at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis.
Prices for the key heating, cooking and power generation fuel have tumbled more than 20 percent since their peak before the Fourth of July, and are now trading at their lowest point since April.
The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 104 billion cubic feet to more 2.31 trillion cubic feet for the week ending July 11. That is despite the fact that supplies are 2.1 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Oil prices fell more than $10 over the previous two days on growing concerns that inflation and other economic concerns could reduce demand for crude. A surprisingly large gain in oil and refined fuel inventories in the U.S. prolonged the sell-off, because it suggested more supplies were heading into storage rather than consumers' fuel tanks.
The price for a barrel of oil briefly dipped below $130.
Reports of a pre-dawn explosion that damaged an oil pipeline in Nigeria's restive south — the sort of threat to supply that has helped fuel crude's recent rally — did little to prop up prices on Thursday.
A Nigerian military official said the blast on a pipeline owned by Agip, a subsidiary of the Italian energy giant Eni SpA, "affected output," although he did not say by how much.
Col. Chris Musa, head of the Bayelsa State military, also did not say how severe the damage was, and declined to comment on what might have caused the explosion or whether it had resulted in any casualties.
The company said a sudden drop in pressure led it to halt production on pipelines carrying 47,000 gallons of oil a day.
Attacks on oil industry infrastructure in the past two years have slashed oil output by almost a quarter in Nigeria, Africa's top crude producer.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell 6.62 cents to $3.7748 a gallon, while gasoline futures slipped fell 9.92 cents to $3.1802.
''I believe countries could, under the presentation of fulfilling international obligations, carry out peaceful cooperation in peaceful (use of) nuclear energy and I hope the relevant issues can be resolved through negotiations between relevant parties,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters in Beijing.
Liu's remarks came close on the heels of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Japan early this month.
After the talks, India had voiced confidence that there would be no ''difficulty'' from the Chinese side when the matter comes up before the NSG.
China, one of the five recognised nuclear powers, is a key member the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), whose approval is needed for India to secure international cooperation for nuclear commerce.
''We have taken note that the US and India are making further contact on this (nuclear) issue,'' Liu said.
The spokesman was responding to a query if China is planning to raise any objections when India's case comes up before the IAEA.
With the G-8 countries on board over the deal after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meetings with leaders of the rich nations in Japan recently, India had stated that it does not expect any problem in the IAEA and NSG over securing their approvals and exemptions required to take the deal forward.
