'Purge' Surges to the Top; 'Internship' Settles for Fourth Place
Universal. The studio claimed the top two movies, including surprise smash The Purge. The sci-fi thriller about a future when crime is permitted one night per year had been expected to debut on top of the chart and to sell modestly well, anywhere from $18 to $25 million, but no one expected it to earn an estimated $36.4 million. Credit the intriguing premise (which had the social media world buzzing for weeks in advance), the scares-on-a-shoestring ingenuity of producer Jason Blum (one of the masterminds behind the Paranormal Activity franchise and last fall's horror hit Sinister), and star Ethan Hawke (who also starred in Sinister). Made for an absurdly cheap $3 million, The Purge already looks like the best return-on-investment movie of the year.
In second place, Universal's Fast & Furious 6 lost a modest 44 percent of last weekend's business to earn another estimated $19.8 million, for a three-weekend total of $202.9 million. Also holding up well was the Number Three movie, Summit's magician caper Now You See Me, which saw just 34 percent of last weekend's sales vanish, for a take this weekend estimated at $19.5 million and a two-week haul of $61.4 million.
In fifth place, 20th Century Fox's cartoon Epic held on with an estimated $12.1 million, down just 27 percent from last week, for a three-week total of $84.2 million. And in sixth place, Star Trek Into Darkness earned an estimated $11.7 million, off just 30 percent from a week ago, and enough to cross the $200 million mark after 25 days.
Source-Rolling Stones
AEG exec feared Michael Jackson would sabotage his comeback tour
AEG Live executives feared Michael Jackson would sabotage his comeback concerts five days before his death, the company's CEO testified Thursday.
Randy Phillips refused to advance money to help Jackson pay his staff because he believed the singer was "in an anticipatory breach" of his contract because he had missed rehearsals, he testified.
Phillips testified in the sixth week of the trial to decide whether the concert promoter is liable in Jackson's death for the negligent hiring, retention or supervision of Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
The lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother and children contends that Phillips and other AEG Live executives pressured Jackson to attend rehearsals despite his deteriorating health and ignored red flags that should have warned them about the dangers posed by Murray.
Jackson lawyers questioned Phillips about his e-mail exchanges with Michael Kane -- Jackson's business manager -- when Kane asked for an advance, which was provided for in Jackson's contract with AEG Live for his "This Is It" tour.
Phillips said he was concerned that because Jackson had missed so many rehearsals, the show would not be ready for its debut in London on July 13, 2009.
"This is why it is impossible to advance any $$$," Phillips wrote to Kane on June 20, 2009. "He may, unfortunately, be in an anticipatory breach at this point."
"And I thought it couldn't get worse," Kane replied.
"It could," Phillips said. "(Show director) Kenny Ortega could quit."
Phillips' testimony that he believed Jackson was contractually obligated to attend rehearsals contradicted AEG Live Co-CEO Paul Gongware's previous testimony that Jackson was not required to rehearse.
Phillips acknowledged that by June 20, 2009, he was worried the production would not be ready on time Kane, in an e-mail to Phillips, offered to help motivate Jackson to get to rehearsals. "Would a financial coming to Jesus speech help or add to his pressure?" Kane asked.
"It would help," Phillips replied. "At this point, we need to break through. I'm going to call his doctor to discuss."
Later that day, Phillips and other AEG Live executives met with Murray and Jackson at the singer's home. The Jackson lawyers contend at that meeting they put Murray in charge of having Jackson at rehearsals.
AEG Live lawyers claim the company executives had no way of knowing that Murray was giving Jackson nightly infusions of the surgical anesthetic propofol to treat his insomnia.
The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that Jackson died from an overdose of propofol on June 25, 2009.
Paris Jackson: Judge orders inquiry
A judge overseeing the guardianship of Michael Jackson's children has ordered an inquiry into Paris Jackson's wellbeing after she attempted to kill herself earlier this week.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff asked an investigator to look into the 15-year-old's health and welfare.
A lawyer for Katherine Jackson, Paris's grandmother, said he was "completely supportive" of the court order.
He declined to comment further on her current health status.
Judge Beckloff issued a similar inquiry into the welfare of the Jackson children last year after Mrs Jackson, their guardian at the time, was out of communication with them for several days.
That led to TJ Jackson, the late singer's nephew, being appointed co-guardian to Paris, Prince and Blanket.
A lawyer for Jackson's estate said it would assist the guardians however necessary to help Paris.
"The estate will work with Paris's guardians to provide whatever is required for her best interests,'' Howard Weitzman said in a statement.
"We are totally and completely supportive of Paris as her wellbeing is our foremost concern."
Judge Beckloff's order requires an investigator to prepare a report that only the judge will be allowed to review.
He did not include instructions on how the review should occur or when the report was due.
Authorities were dispatched to the Jackson family home on Thursday in response to a report of a possible overdose.
Lawyer Perry Sanders said Paris was "physically fine" and was getting "appropriate medical attention".
Two guards are killed and nine inmates escape in Mexico jailbreak
At least two guards have been killed and nine prisoners have escaped during a jailbreak in southern Mexico, officials say.
A prison warden and a prisoner were also injured when a group of men stormed the prison and opened fire.
The attack happened in the early hours of Sunday in the town of La Union, in the south-western state of Guerrero.
Correspondents say jailbreaks are common in Mexico's overcrowded prisons, which house inmates from rival gangs.
Guerrero's Public Security Secretariat said a "group of men armed with rifles and guns" stormed the building at 05:00 local time (10:00 GMT), killing the guards and freeing the inmates.
In a statement, it said that federal and state police were using helicopters to find the escaped prisoners.
It added that the whereabouts of the prison's director, Manuel Chavarria, was unknown; local media say he fled the attack.
Guerrero is one of the states most affected by fighting between organised criminal groups and by a military offensive against drug cartels that has left an estimated 70,000 people dead nationwide in the past six years.
No digital proof needed to investigate emails, say Trinidad police
Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams said opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley does not necessarily need to provide digital proof in relation to the emails he presented in the Trinidad and Tobago parliament last month, purporting to show that government officials conspired to cause harm to a journalist, bribe the DPP into accepting a position as a judge and seeking to get the assistance of Chief Justice Ivor Archie to help them accomplish their plan.
Information technology expert Mark Lindersay told the Trinidad Express that Rowley may need to furnish investigators with digital proof of his claims so the contents can be properly traced back to the alleged sources potentially incriminated in the matter. Lindersay also indicated that anyone can create what looks like email exchanges between several persons.
Williams, who is himself an attorney-at-law, agreed that anyone with the required technical knowledge can design what looks like an email exchange between parties; but explained that, in spite of this, while it would have been more useful for the opposition leader to provide the electronic proof of his claims, he does not necessarily have to do so.
The acting commissioner said once they find reasonable suspicion that a criminal offence was committed then they will consider one or two avenues to obtain the devices used in the alleged e-mail exchanges; that is either through a warrant or a court order that will lawfully allow the investigators to seize the devices that may have been used to communicate what is said to be intentions of a criminal nature between email addresses purporting to belong to Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, Works and Infrastructure and Local Government Minister Suruj Rattan Rambachan and advisor to the prime minister Captain Gary Griffith.
All the parties named in the email exchanges admitted that the email addresses belonged to them, but denied any involvement in such an exchange.
The government showed discrepancies in the email content presented by Rowley, which included inconsistent dates and invalid email addresses.
Persad-Bissessar wrote to Williams and asked for an immediate investigation into the claims.
Williams said that Rowley, being the individual purporting to have the incriminating emails, is an integral part of what is now an ongoing investigation.
New government installed in Curacao
A new government was installed in Curacao on Friday, when Governor Adel van der Pluijm-Vrede swore in ten new ministers who will serve the rest of the coalition’s four year term.
As anticipated, Ivar Asjes is Curacao’s new prime minister. Asjes is the former president of parliament during the previous Schotte administration.
The new ministers are:
Prime Minister/General Affairs: Ivar Asjes
Health, Environment and Nature: Ben Whiteman
Education, Science, Culture and Sports: Rubia Bitorina
Social Development, Labour and Welfare: Jeanne Francisca
Government Policy, Planning and Services: Etienne van der Horst
Justice: Nelson Navarro
Economic Development: Stanley Palm
Finance: Jose Jardim
Traffic, Transport and Urban Planning: Earl Balborda
Minister Plenipotentiary: Marvelyne Wiels
Source-Curacao Chronicle
TWINS DIE IN CRASH
Twin sisters Khadijah and Khertima Taylor were among three persons killed in a car crash on Sunday.
The 18-year-old sisters and four friends were returning home from a nightclub in San Fernando.
Police said the driver, Anthony Balkissoon, was driving his white Mazda 3 car along the San Fernando bypass road when he lost control at around 4a.m.
The car flipped several times and landed between the pillars of a concrete bridge near the Cross Crossing interchange.
The twins, of Jack Street, Marabella, died at the scene.
Kafiya Gill, 19, died at the San Fernando General Hospital. The driver, 20-year-old Balkissoon, and two others are listed in critical condition.
The Taylors were Sixth Form pupils at the St Joseph Convent, San Fernando. Gill, of Pleasantville, was University of the West Indies graduate. Relatives said she began working at the South West Regional Health Authority a month ago.
Balkissoon lives at Concord Road, located within Petrotrin's refinery compound at Pointe-a-Pierre.
Police are investigating whether speed and alcohol contributed to the crash.
Source- Trinidad Express
BVI called to Tax evasion Summit in UK
The BVI is among 10 British overseas territories that have been called to a tax evasion summit in the United Kingdom as UK Prime Minister David Cameron vows to curb the ‘scourge of tax evasion’.
Premier Dr. D. Orlando Smith, who is currently in the UK on other business, has repeatedly denied reports in the international press that the BVI is among tax havens where mega-rich people hide billions from the UK taxman.
Director of the BVI International Financial Centre, Elise Donavon turned down a request for an interview regarding the meeting scheduled for June 15 in the United Kingdom.
She was however quick to point out that Premier Smith was invited to the meeting, and not ‘summoned’ as was being reported in the overseas press.
Other British overseas territories that have been called to the tax evasion summit are Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar.
“There is said to be disagreement in Whitehall about how much pressure to put on the islands, fearing excessive demands from London could lead to them refusing to co-operate,” reported one British newspaper, The Daily Mail.
“Mr. Cameron is examining the idea of getting the tax havens to sign up to an OECD convention on the sharing of information on tax between countries, which is seen as a key to tackling evasion.”
The UK Prime Minister wrote to the BVI and its other overseas territories last month, warning them that he had made ‘fighting the scourge of tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance’ a priority for the G8 summit.
Britain will host the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17 and 18.
Dominican Republic among countries lagging in immunization
Dominican Republic is among the Latin American countries lagging in immunization, according to the president of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (SLIPE), Dr. Jose Brea.
The country shares the list with Nicaragua, Honduras, Bolivia, Paraguay and Haiti.
Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are the countries with the best immunization programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, the expert said.
North and South Korea agree to government-level meeting
Officials from North and South Korea have agreed to hold the first high-level meeting since 2007, the South Korean Yonhap news agency says.
It follows hours of preliminary talks in the truce village of Panmunjom aimed at rebuilding trust between the two Koreas.
The talks are due to take place in Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday, Yonhap adds.
The meeting comes after months of rising tension between both sides.
The new South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, has said she wants to build trust after a period of intense hostility under the previous administration in Seoul.
A South Korean spokesman told reporters that the talks in Panmunjom, where the armistice agreement ending fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War was signed, had gone smoothly and "without any argument".
Joint commercial zone
The Unification Ministry in Seoul said the two sides had reached a partial understanding on outstanding issues.
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae will lead South Korea's delegation to the meeting later this week and has asked the North to send the head of the United Front Department of the ruling Workers' Party, Kim Yang-gon.
Meanwhile, North Korea's Central News Agency said the main point of discussion would be restoring suspended commercial links, particularly the Kaesong joint commercial zone which was shut down by the North in April as tensions escalated.
Other issues up for discussion are the reunion of separated families and their relatives and other humanitarian issues.
Ties between the two Koreas deteriorated earlier this year in the wake of the North's nuclear test on 12 February.
Pyongyang withdrew its workers from the Kaesong in April, apparently angered by tightened UN sanctions after the nuclear test and annual South Korea-US military drills.
The Kaesong commercial zone, seen as a symbol of North-South co-operation, had run successfully just inside North Korea for more than eight years.
Around 53,000 North Korean workers are employed at the Kaesong factory complex by more than 120 South Korean factories.
The zone is a key source of revenue for the North and the biggest contributor to inter-Korean trade.
Last Thursday, the North offered talks with the South on the resumption of operations and said it would reconnect a Red Cross hotline if Seoul - which had been seeking such talks - agreed.
The talks in Panmunjom closely follow a summit in California between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Both leaders agreed that North Korea had to denuclearise and that neither country would accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said on Saturday.
China is seen as a key ally of Pyongyang.