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‘Tropic Thunder’ No. 1 for second-straight week

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The action comedy Tropic Thunder weathered a rush of new movies to remain No. 1 for a second-straight weekend with $16.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Paramount-DreamWorks release — starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black as actors caught up in real battle while shooting a war movie — raised its 12-day total to $65.7 million.

Tropic Thunder came in just ahead of Sony’s campus comedy The House Bunny, which debuted in second place with $15.1 million. The House Bunny stars Anna Faris as an ostracized Playboy bunny who becomes den mother to a sorority of campus misfits.

Universal’s Death Race — an update of 1975’s Death Race 2000, with Jason Statham starring as a driver in a kill-or-be-killed auto race of the future — opened at No. 3 with $12.3 million.

The weekend’s other new wide releases, Ice Cube’s sports drama The Longshots and Rainn Wilson’s music comedy The Rocker, opened weakly.

The Longshots — an MGM-Weinstein Co. release starring Ice Cube as a former high school star coaching his niece, the first girl to play Pop Warner football — came in at No. 8 with $4.3 million.

20th Century Fox’s The Rocker, starring Wilson as an over-the-hill heavy-metal drummer who gets a chance at stardom with a high school band, took in $2.8 million to finish at No. 12.

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Karzai sacks commanders over civilian deaths

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai has fired two military commanders in the wake of a U.S. airstrike in western Afghanistan that killed 89 civilians, according to a statement from Karzai’s office.

The firings include Gen. Jalandar Shah, the Afghan army’s corps commander for western Afghanistan, and another commander, Abdul Jabbar.

The U.S.-led coalition has said it was aware of allegations that the engagement in the Shindand District of Herat province Friday may have resulted in civilian casualties.

All allegations of civilian casualties are taken very seriously, the statement said. Coalition forces make every effort to prevent the injury or loss of innocent lives.

An investigation into the reported civilian deaths was underway, according to coalition and Afghan officials.

In an earlier statement, Karzai condemned the reported civilian deaths — many of them children — in Friday’s strike.

The airstrike was called in by Afghan and coalition troops as they embarked on a raid to arrest a Taliban commander in Shindand.

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U.S. beat Spain to win Games basketball gold

(CNN) — The United States won the gold medal in Olympic men’s basketball with a 118-107 victory over Spain in the championship game on Sunday.

Dwyane Wade scored 27 points and Kobe Bryant added 20 as the Americans grabbed their first gold medal in the event since the 2000 Olympics.

But they were made to fight all the way by world champions Spain who had been humiliated by 37 points by the U.S. in pool play.

It is more important and more special than any championship that any of us will ever win, Bryant said.

In a game so void of defense that it felt more like an NBA All-Star game than one with a title at stake, the Americans had too much offense down the stretch.

Bryant converted a clutch four-point play with 3:10 remaining, holding his finger to his lips to quiet the rowdy Spanish crowd behind the basket.

Wade added another 3-pointer that made it 111-104 with just over two minutes left, and Americans could finally relax after some technical fouls on Spain with 26 seconds left.

They celebrated at midcourt when it was over with Born in the USA blaring over the arena’s speakers.

The American team’s last gold came at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Since then, they lost at the world championships at home in Indianapolis in 2002; only managed bronze and had two losses at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and lost in the semifinals at the 2006 world championships in Japan.

Rudy Fernandez scored 22 points and Pau Gasol had 21 for the Spanish who were hoping to win their first Olympic gold.

U.S. players appreciated the game Spain gave them. After the contest they hugged the Spanish players. Bryant had an especially long embrace for Gasol, patting his Los Angeles Lakers teammate on the back.

They did what they were supposed to do, Gasol said. We fought hard all the way.

Argentina won the bronze with an 87-75 victory against Lithuania.

found here.

Fay weakens to tropical depression

(CNN) — Tropical Storm Fay weakened to a depression Saturday night, but heavy winds and flooding could continue for several days, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm had battered the central and upper coast of Florida with heavy rain and severe flooding since making landfall in southwest Florida on Tuesday morning. It has been blamed for 11 Florida deaths and one in Georgia.

By Saturday night, tropical storm warnings along the northeastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico had been discontinued as the depression continued a general westward movement at about 8 mph.

At 11 p.m. ET, Fay was about 60 miles east of Mobile, Alabama. The tropical depression was expected to move over southern Alabama and Mississippi on Sunday and make its way over eastern Louisiana on Monday.

Maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph, but they were expected to gradually weaken, the agency said.

The Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, Louisiana, activated its flood-watch teams Saturday in anticipation of Tropical Storm Fay’s westward movement.

Fay, which hugged Florida’s Gulf Coast on Saturday, had been forecast to make landfall north of Lake Pontchartrain on Sunday afternoon and move west into Baton Rouge on Monday and Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. The lake is north of New Orleans.

Teams will mobilize to their duty stations 8 a.m. Sunday and monitor canals and levees in the city, the Corps said in a statement Saturday.

Col. Alvin Lee, New Orleans District commander, said the actions were precautionary measures for the safety of the public.

We are prepared to close the gates and run the pumps should the need arise.

After Hurricane Katrina flooded most of New Orleans in 2005, the Corps took responsibility for not having built sufficient levees against flooding.

Mobile County opened five shelters and called in swift-water rescue teams in anticipation of flooding, said Steve Huffman, spokesman for the county’s emergency management agency. iReport.com: Send your videos, photos from the storm

The storm is actually weakening; that’s not to say we’re not going to have rain, Huffman said. We’re still expecting some flooding because of this. We’ve got everything on standby. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

The hurricane center said isolated areas of eastern Louisiana could get 20 inches of rain. In Florida, rainfall totals by Friday afternoon reached 26.65 inches in Melbourne, 22.83 at Cape Canaveral and 20.75 at Palm Shores.

Fay is expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 6 to 12 inches over the next two days across the western portion of northern Florida, the Florida Panhandle, southwestern Georgia, the southern and central portions of Mississippi and Alabama and eastern Louisiana, the hurricane center said.

Regardless of its exact track, Fay will be moving rather slowly during the next several days, posing a significant heavy rainfall and flood hazard to a very large area, the hurricane center said.

The storm made its sixth landfall Saturday morning — its fourth in Florida — as it moved slowly westward at a 7-mph pace.

It’s making me miserable, said Lauren Bowers, who was at work at the Boston Market restaurant in Tallahassee, Florida, as rain fell in sheets. I’d rather be at home than at work.

Bowers was at Daytona Beach, Florida, this week when Fay struck there. Then the storm swung back, heading west.

I thought I’d be done with it, she said. You just feel soggy.

Eleven deaths in Florida were attributed to Fay. Another death was reported in Cairo, Georgia — about 35 miles north of Tallahassee, Florida — where a teenager playing near a drainage area was swept away in rising waters, the National Weather Service reported.

Fay’s torrential rainfall and powerful winds struck southern and central Florida from the Gulf to the Atlantic this week before turning west and recrossing the state, leaving floodwaters that have caused millions of dollars in damage.

found here.

Fay weakens to tropical depression

(CNN) — Tropical Storm Fay weakened to a depression Saturday night, but heavy winds and flooding could continue for several days, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm had battered the central and upper coast of Florida with heavy rain and severe flooding since making landfall in southwest Florida on Tuesday morning. It has been blamed for 11 Florida deaths and one in Georgia.

By Saturday night, tropical storm warnings along the northeastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico had been discontinued as the depression continued a general westward movement at about 8 mph.

At 11 p.m. ET, Fay was about 60 miles east of Mobile, Alabama. The tropical depression was expected to move over southern Alabama and Mississippi on Sunday and make its way over eastern Louisiana on Monday.

Maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph, but they were expected to gradually weaken, the agency said.

The Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, Louisiana, activated its flood-watch teams Saturday in anticipation of Tropical Storm Fay’s westward movement.

Fay, which hugged Florida’s Gulf Coast on Saturday, had been forecast to make landfall north of Lake Pontchartrain on Sunday afternoon and move west into Baton Rouge on Monday and Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. The lake is north of New Orleans.

Teams will mobilize to their duty stations 8 a.m. Sunday and monitor canals and levees in the city, the Corps said in a statement Saturday.

Col. Alvin Lee, New Orleans District commander, said the actions were precautionary measures for the safety of the public.

We are prepared to close the gates and run the pumps should the need arise.

After Hurricane Katrina flooded most of New Orleans in 2005, the Corps took responsibility for not having built sufficient levees against flooding.

Mobile County opened five shelters and called in swift-water rescue teams in anticipation of flooding, said Steve Huffman, spokesman for the county’s emergency management agency. iReport.com: Send your videos, photos from the storm

The storm is actually weakening; that’s not to say we’re not going to have rain, Huffman said. We’re still expecting some flooding because of this. We’ve got everything on standby. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

The hurricane center said isolated areas of eastern Louisiana could get 20 inches of rain. In Florida, rainfall totals by Friday afternoon reached 26.65 inches in Melbourne, 22.83 at Cape Canaveral and 20.75 at Palm Shores.

Fay is expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 6 to 12 inches over the next two days across the western portion of northern Florida, the Florida Panhandle, southwestern Georgia, the southern and central portions of Mississippi and Alabama and eastern Louisiana, the hurricane center said.

Regardless of its exact track, Fay will be moving rather slowly during the next several days, posing a significant heavy rainfall and flood hazard to a very large area, the hurricane center said.

The storm made its sixth landfall Saturday morning — its fourth in Florida — as it moved slowly westward at a 7-mph pace.

It’s making me miserable, said Lauren Bowers, who was at work at the Boston Market restaurant in Tallahassee, Florida, as rain fell in sheets. I’d rather be at home than at work.

Bowers was at Daytona Beach, Florida, this week when Fay struck there. Then the storm swung back, heading west.

I thought I’d be done with it, she said. You just feel soggy.

Eleven deaths in Florida were attributed to Fay. Another death was reported in Cairo, Georgia — about 35 miles north of Tallahassee, Florida — where a teenager playing near a drainage area was swept away in rising waters, the National Weather Service reported.

Fay’s torrential rainfall and powerful winds struck southern and central Florida from the Gulf to the Atlantic this week before turning west and recrossing the state, leaving floodwaters that have caused millions of dollars in damage.

found here.