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‘Kung Fu Panda’ masters box office

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Jack Black’s Po the panda outgunned Adam Sandler’s Zo the hairdresser.

Black’s cartoon comedy Kung Fu Panda pulled in $60 million in ticket sales to debut as the weekend’s No. 1 movie, while Sandler’s salon romp You Don’t Mess With the Zohan opened in second place with $40 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The movies combined to carry Hollywood to a big weekend. The top 12 films took in $172.4 million, up 32 percent from the same weekend last year when Ocean’s Thirteen led with a $36.1 million opening.

DreamWorks Animation’s Panda and Sony’s Zohan bumped off the previous weekend’s leader, the Warner Bros. chick flick Sex and the City, which slipped to fourth place with $21.3 million.

That was a steep 63 percent decline from its $56.8 million debut, but with a total of $99.3 million Sex and the City was just shy of $100 million hit status after only 10 days.

Paramount’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was No. 3 with $22.8 million, raising its three-week domestic total to $253 million.

Two strong weekends in a row enabled Hollywood to chip away at its box office deficit compared to 2007, a record year for revenues. iReport.com: Your thoughts on this summer’s crop of movies

This month offers the marketplace the opportunity to catch up with last year, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. Last year’s June was not as strong as expected and this year’s may be stronger, so we’re definitely narrowing the gap in terms of revenue and attendance.

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Singh pars his way to Austrian victory

(CNN) — Jeev Milka Singh closed with 18 straight pars to win the rain-shortened Austria Open by one stroke on Sunday.

The Indian had led the tournament, reduced to 54 holes, by four shots going into the final round, and held off the challenge of England’s Simon Wakefield to claim his third European Tour victory.

The 36-year-old carded 71 to finish on 15-under-par total of 198 to make up for two second-placings earlier this season, while Wakefield birdied three of the last four holes to shoot a 68 and be runner-up ahead of a group of five players.

His compatriot Iain Pyman shared third on 12 under after firing a six-under 65 to earlier set the clubhouse lead on 201.

He was joined by Sweden’s Martin Erlandsson (65), Pelle Edberg (65) and Michael Jonzon (67) and Australian Peter Fowler (69).

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell had been in contention but three-putted the 17th hole and then hit his approach into the water on the last to finish in a tie for eighth.

McDowell, who beat Singh in a playoff in the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea in March, ended on 202 along with Denmark’s Soren Hansen (69), England’s Sam Little (67) and Robert Rock (65) and France’s Francois Delamontagne (65).

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Portugal impress in 2-0 win over Turkey

(CNN) — Portugal made a confident opening to their Euro 2008 campaign with an impressive 2-0 win over Turkey in their Group A clash in Geneva on Saturday night.

Portugal’s array of attacking talent, led by Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo, carved out several chances but it was left to defender Pepe to provide a moment of magic to break the deadlock on the hour mark.

The Real Madrid star exchanged passes with Nuno Gomes and finished with the expertise of a striker.

The clincher came in second half injury time as Ronaldo started a slick move which ended with Raul Meireles slotting the ball home from close range.

2004 Euro finalists Portugal also hit the woodwork three times with Ronaldo coming close to a first half opener as his free kick clipped the inside of the post.

Portugal, who also reached the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup under Luiz Felipe Scolari, were largely dominant and controlled possession from the beginning at the 30,000-capacity Stade de Geneve.

Pepe, showing considerable enterprise for a central defender, had a goal disallowed in the 17th minute for being narrowly offside before Ronaldo saw his 35-yard free-kick brilliantly tipped onto the post by Turkey goalkeeper Volkan.

Both sides upped the pace after the interval and Gomes was twice denied by the woodwork, the first with a low shot, the second with a header from a Ronaldo cross.

Pepe’s breakthrough goal left Portugal little opportunity to relax as Turkey pressed for an equalizer and substitute Emre Asik headed wide when in acres of space.

Middlesbrough’s Tuncay Sanli also had a half chance to spoil Portugal’s party towards the end but completely missed his kick.

And the door was firmly closed on Turkey in stoppage time when Ronaldo burst clear on the left, his pass finding Joao Moutinho who set up Meireles to score.

Man of the match Pepe said: I can hardly describe the emotion I felt - but the important thing was we played like a real team and knew sooner or later we’d score a goal.

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Tim Clark takes two-stroke lead at St. Jude

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) — Tim Clark isn’t thinking about how close he has come to winning his first PGA Tour title only to come up short.

The South African’s approach? He will win — eventually.

If Clark plays his final round as he finished up Saturday, that just might happen at the Stanford St. Jude Championship.

On a day that started with six players tied for the lead and 52 within six strokes of the top, Clark broke a logjam at the top by finishing a bogey-free 6-under 64 with three birdies and an eagle on his final five holes. Then he watched as his 5-under 205 total held up for a two-stroke lead.

I feel like I’ve given myself chances to win, said Clark, who has finished second or tied for second six times — most recently at the Colonial. Just going to take the position that it’s going to happen at some stage. I just need to go out and play and see what happens come the end of the week.

Five players have made this tournament their first tour win, the last Dicky Pride in 1994.

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Myanmar: Monsoon season brings more suffering

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A severe shortage of housing has left hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in Myanmar exposed to heavy rain as the monsoon season begins, aid agencies said Saturday.

The U.N. and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said there was an urgent need for tarpaulins to provide temporary shelter to an estimated 1.5 million homeless survivors. Otherwise, the threats of hunger and disease could intensify, they warned.

Exposure to the elements five weeks after a disaster of this magnitude has to be a major concern, spokesman John Sparrow said. People are in a weakened condition. They are sick; they are hungry. Without shelter, their whole situation is seriously exacerbated.

Sparrow estimated that only a quarter of those who needed shelter materials had been reached. Watch refugees talk about the lack of aid

The U.N. estimates that 2.4 million people were affected when Cyclone Nargis hit May 2-3 and that warns that more than 1 million still need help, mostly in the hard-to-reach Irrawaddy Delta.

John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said relatively few of those survivors who were badly affected by the storm had not received any sort of aid. But he said the U.N.’s effort needs to be stepped up because many survivors still needed help and supplies.

I think people are getting to all the main places, although it’s not always as easy as it should be, he said. There’s no evidence of starvation at the moment, although as I say many people are still in significant need of aid.

U.N. officials and aid groups have criticized the regime for hindering access to the delta, saying it has prevented enough food, water and shelter from reaching desperate survivors.

The U.N. also said Saturday that a lack of funding was hindering the aid effort, with only $20 million of the required $50 million received to finance logistic efforts that allow it to extend aid operations into remote regions.

The U.N. has said that access could also be greatly improved if the country’s military junta would accept American offers of support which include the use of military helicopters to ferry aid to remote locations. Watch a report on a man helping feed those affected by Cyclone Nargis

The U.S. military said it was keeping 22 helicopters on standby in case Myanmar’s ruling junta reversed its rejection of such help for cyclone victims, saying the aircraft could reach survivors within three days.

With only seven Myanmar government helicopters reportedly flying, relief supplies are mostly being transported along dirt roads and then by boat. International aid agencies say boats able to navigate the delta’s canals are scarce and efforts to import vehicles had been hampered by government red tape.

Of the 1 million or 1.5 million people in need of relief support, we think that between 450,000 to 750,000 are in emergency need, said Lt. Gen. John Goodman, commander of Marine Forces Pacific and head of the U.S. relief operation for Myanmar.

They could be reached over the course of a three-day period by American helicopters and landing craft, he said from a temporary U.S. staging area at Utapao, Thailand.

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