Farewell ... Sir Alex Ferguson steps down as manager of Manchester United. Source: Tim Hales / AP
After 26 years, 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League crowns, Sir Alex Ferguson has stepped down as manager of Manchester United.
The 71-year-old has been at United since November 1986 and is the most successful manager in the history of English football.
See how the world has reacted to the news of Fergie's retirement.
US actor Robert Downey Jr arrives for the UK premiere of Iron Man 3, at a central London cinema, Thursday, April 18, 2013. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES – "Iron Man 3" was the heavy-lifter at theaters with a colossal overseas debut that overshadowed a gang of mercenary bodybuilders in a sleepy pre-summer weekend at the domestic box office.
The Marvel Studios superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch next Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets, distributor Disney reported Sunday.
That topped the $185.1 million start for Marvel's "The Avengers," which opened in 39 markets over the same weekend last year a week ahead of its record-breaking domestic debut of $207.4 million.
"You don't know that you could ever repeat the kind of experience we had a year ago, and here the Marvel team brought together another incredible movie," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney. "We've had this as a pattern for Marvel films to kind of let momentum internationally help signal to the domestic audience that the film is coming, something big is coming."
Director Michael Bay's true-crime tale "Pain & Gain" muscled into first-place domestically with a $20 million debut.
The Paramount release starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie knocked off Tom Cruise's sci-fi adventure "Oblivion" after a week in the No. 1 spot. Universal's "Oblivion" slipped to second-place with $17.4 million, raising its domestic total to $64.7 million.
Lionsgate's all-star nuptial comedy "The Big Wedding" tanked at No. 4 with just $7.5 million. The ensemble cast includes Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon and Katherine Heigl, but the movie was almost universally trashed by critics and held little interest for audiences.
Paramount, which distributed the earlier "Iron Man" movies and still has a financial stake in the comic-book flicks after Disney bought Marvel, had a small-scale success with "Pain & Gain."
A passion project for Bay, who has made Paramount a fortune with his "Transformers" franchise, "Pain & Gain" was shot for a modest $26 million, spare change compared to the director's usual budgets.
The movie has the director taking a breather from his usual sci-fi action spectacles for a story based on a kidnapping-extortion caper carried out by bodybuilders in the 1990s. Yet "Pain & Gain" still has Bay's usual visual flair, and the reviews generally were better than what he's used to.
"With that kind of budget, to open to $20 million the first weekend is a very strong opening," said Don Harris, Paramount's head of distribution. "You see what a director really in his prime, at the top of his game, can do with a small budget, what he can make a movie look like."
"Oblivion" was down a fairly steep 53 percent from the movie's $37.1 million domestic debut the previous weekend.
Overseas, "Oblivion" took in $12.8 million to lift its international haul to $134.1 million and worldwide total to just under $200 million.
Hollywood's domestic downturn continued, with revenues totaling $90 million, off 18.5 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Think Like a Man" led with $17.6 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
Receipts have trailed 2012's for most of the year, with 2013 domestic ticket sales running at $2.9 billion, nearly 12 percent behind last year's.
That pattern could continue as Hollywood opens its summer season domestically this coming weekend. Despite a huge haul expected for "Iron Man 3," the film will be competing against that gigantic start over the same weekend last year for "The Avengers," the only movie to open with more than $200 million domestically.
"Iron Man 2" debuted with $128.1 million over the first weekend in May 2010. Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian has been pegging the "Iron Man 3" potential at $125 million-plus, though the mammoth international start could fire up domestic prospects even higher.
"This ups the ante in a big way for "Iron Man 3," Dergarabedian said. "It just raises the profile of the film. It raises expectations. But to expect something in the realm of $207.4 million? Well, the fact that we're even talking about it is really amazing."
Said Disney's Hollis: "I wouldn't even want to get ahead of ourselves on something like that. But to say we're encouraged by the results this weekend would be a gross understatement."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Pain & Gain," $20 million.
2. "Oblivion," $17.4 million ($12.8 million international).
3. "42," $10.7 million.
4. "The Big Wedding," $7.5 million.
5. "The Croods," $6.6 million ($13.1 million international).
6. "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," $3.6 million ($10.2 million international).
7. "Scary Movie 5," $3.5 million.
8. "Olympus Has Fallen," $2.8 million.
9. "The Place Beyond the Pines," $2.7 million.
10. "Jurassic Park" in 3-D, $2.3 million ($410,000 international).
The world is better off without Saddam Hussein ruling Iraq, and the alternative to what we did wasn’t to do nothing. While the extensive investigation by the Iraq Survey Group did not find the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons that U.S. (and British and French and other) intelligence services expected we would find, it did confirm that Saddam hadn’t given up on his pursuit of weapons. He fully intended to restart the programs, through which he had produced chemical and biological weapons and pursued nuclear weapons in the past, as soon as sanctions were lifted.
As a strictly military matter, if the war in Iraq had actually ended when we got to Baghdad, it would have been counted an historic victory, akin to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s daring amphibious landing at Inchon in the rear of the invading North Korean army in 1950 during the Korean War.
Also like Inchon, however, the arrival of coalition forces in Baghdad turned out to be not the end but more nearly the beginning of the real war. In the case of Korea, it was China’s entry into the war. In the case of Iraq it was the insurgency, although many saw it as simply “post-conflict” chaos, a result of our having “broken” Iraq.
The principal reason why the war in Iraq proved so difficult and lasted so long is that it took so long to develop a counterinsurgency strategy.
The principal reason why the war in Iraq proved so difficult and lasted so long is that it took so long to develop a counterinsurgency strategy. The essence of such a strategy is that protecting the population must be the primary focus of the effort, not just killing or capturing the enemy. Because confronting insurgents is so dangerous, particularly for unarmed civilians, U.S. forces need to attend to the security of the population if they want to gain their cooperation and obtain essential intelligence.
Eventually, in 2007, the U.S. did implement a counter-insurgency strategy which became known as “the surge.” While a counter-insurgency strategy required more troops – roughly 30,000 to reach a peak of 170,000, the surge wasn’t primarily about adding more troops. The new strategy was primarily about using those forces in a different way.
If it is surprising that it took the U.S. four years to begin to pursue a counter-insurgency strategy, it is even more surprising that the new strategy produced such dramatic results so quickly. And it did so despite the growth in the insurgency and despite the sectarian violence that had begun to spin out of control after the Samarra mosque bombing in February 2006.
Such a rapid reversal is almost unprecedented in the history of guerilla warfare and probably several different factors help to explain it. But the speed with which things turned around in Iraq, even after reaching such a low point, gives an idea of how different things might have been if the U.S. had been pursuing a counter-insurgency strategy from the outset. Those four years of delay cost lives and treasure and lost opportunities.
No matter how much we wish to avoid it, we may have to confront insurgents again someday. If so, we should not have to relearn the lessons acquired at such cost from our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Paul Wolfowitz, now an American Enterprise Institute scholar, was U.S. deputy secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2005.
Serena Williams with a trophy given to her by the WTA Tour for reclaiming the world No.1 ranking. Source:AFP
Sam Stosur was eliminated at the Qatar Open on Friday as Serena Williams became the oldest woman to claim the world No.1 ranking.
The Australian was beaten 6-2 6-4 in her quarter-final by Maria Sharapova, a two-time champion in Doha.
The day, though, belonged to Williams, who was in tears after her historic 3-6 6-3 7-5 victory over Petra Kvitova.
Williams, 31, will take over from Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka as the world's best player on Monday, returning to the top spot for the first time in over two years.
Chris Evert at 30 was the previous oldest world No.1.
Williams was 4-1 down before reeling off six of the last seven games, taking the match with an ace down the middle.
Her relieved smile, heavenward gesture and tears in her moment of triumph gave lie to her earlier statement that the number one position no longer mattered.
''I am so sensitive nowadays - I am always crying, but I never thought I would be here again you know,'' said Williams in a reference to the pulmonary embolism from which she suffered in 2011, threatening her life as well as her career.
''When I was down I heard people cheering for me and I don't get that all the time. I never thought I would be number one again.''
Williams, who faces Sharapova in the semi-finals, will be the world No.1 for a 124th career week - a total only bettered by Steffi Graf (377), Martina Navratilova (332), Evert (260), Martina Hingis (209) and Monica Seles (178).
Earlier, Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka defeated Sara Errani 6-2 6-2.
The Belarusian's surprisingly emphatic win over the Italian means she has dropped a mere nine games in three matches.
Azarenka's semi-final will be a sequel to last year's contentious meeting with Agnieszka Radwanska.
The world No.4 from Poland came from 0-3 and 3-5 down in the second set to win 6-2 7-5 against Caroline Wozniacki, the former world No.1 from Denmark.
''She's a great fighter and I'm just happy to get through to the semi-finals again here,'' said Azarenka, who has established an affinity for the sea air, gentle winter sunshine and slowish hard courts in Qatar.
''I came here to practise before the Australia Open, and I shall be back here to do the same in December.''
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Actor Lou Myers, best known for his role as Mr. Gaines on the television series "A Different World," has died.
Tonia McDonald of Myers' nonprofit, Global Business Incubation Inc., says Myers died Tuesday night at Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia. She said he was 77.
McDonald said Wednesday that Myers had been in-and-out of the hospital since before Christmas and collapsed recently. She says an autopsy was planned.
A native of Chesapeake, W.Va., Myers had returned to the state and lived in the Charleston area.
His TV credits included "NYPD Blue," "E.R.," "The Cosby Show," "Touched by an Angel," and more. He also appeared in a number of films, including "Tin Cup," "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," "Wedding Planner" and more.
"A Different World" ran from 1987-93 and originally starred Lisa Bonet from "Cosby" fame.
Serena Williams with a trophy given to her by the WTA Tour for reclaiming the world No.1 ranking. Source:AFP
Sam Stosur was eliminated at the Qatar Open on Friday as Serena Williams became the oldest woman to claim the world No.1 ranking.
The Australian was beaten 6-2 6-4 in her quarter-final by Maria Sharapova, a two-time champion in Doha.
The day, though, belonged to Williams, who was in tears after her historic 3-6 6-3 7-5 victory over Petra Kvitova.
Williams, 31, will take over from Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka as the world's best player on Monday, returning to the top spot for the first time in over two years.
Chris Evert at 30 was the previous oldest world No.1.
Williams was 4-1 down before reeling off six of the last seven games, taking the match with an ace down the middle.
Her relieved smile, heavenward gesture and tears in her moment of triumph gave lie to her earlier statement that the number one position no longer mattered.
''I am so sensitive nowadays - I am always crying, but I never thought I would be here again you know,'' said Williams in a reference to the pulmonary embolism from which she suffered in 2011, threatening her life as well as her career.
''When I was down I heard people cheering for me and I don't get that all the time. I never thought I would be number one again.''
Williams, who faces Sharapova in the semi-finals, will be the world No.1 for a 124th career week - a total only bettered by Steffi Graf (377), Martina Navratilova (332), Evert (260), Martina Hingis (209) and Monica Seles (178).
Earlier, Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka defeated Sara Errani 6-2 6-2.
The Belarusian's surprisingly emphatic win over the Italian means she has dropped a mere nine games in three matches.
Azarenka's semi-final will be a sequel to last year's contentious meeting with Agnieszka Radwanska.
The world No.4 from Poland came from 0-3 and 3-5 down in the second set to win 6-2 7-5 against Caroline Wozniacki, the former world No.1 from Denmark.
''She's a great fighter and I'm just happy to get through to the semi-finals again here,'' said Azarenka, who has established an affinity for the sea air, gentle winter sunshine and slowish hard courts in Qatar.
''I came here to practise before the Australia Open, and I shall be back here to do the same in December.''
