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By Todd Cunningham Scarlett Johansson‘s “Lucy” pummeled “Hercules” and Dwayne Johnson in a box-office battle of the action heroes and sexes, taking in a muscular $44 million over the weekend. The Rock’s “Hercules” did better than expected and wound up with $29 million, to beat out two-time reigning champ “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” which finished third with $16.4 million. And one of Philip Seymour Hoffman‘s final films, “A Most Wanted Man,” cracked the top ten in its limited debut. But this weekend belonged to “Lucy,” written, directed and produced by Luc Besson. The thriller about a woman who gains extraordinary brainpower after a drug implanted in her body seeps into her system beat analysts’ projections by at least $10 million, and exceeded its production budget in its first three days for Besson’s EuropaCorp and distributor Universal. See photos: The Evolution of Scarlett Johansson: From ‘Ghost World’ to Super Smart Girl “Lucy” marks Johansson’s top opening as the lead in a

Health experts fear other passengers could now be carrying the virus It lays dormant in victims for up to three weeks - and 90 per cent die of it Comes after Dr Kent Brantly, who went to fight the disease, was infected By NICK FAGGE An outbreak of Ebola could spread worldwide after an infected plane passenger introduced the deadly virus to Nigeria, health experts warned last night. Previous outbreaks were confined to forests and rural areas, but this one has already spread across four countries in West Africa, killing 672 – the disease’s biggest death toll. The news came as it emerged that an American doctor working for a charity in Liberia had become infected. Dr Kent Brantly, 33, from Texas, had moved to the country for the Samaritan’s Purse organisation with his children and wife, Amber, to help contain the disease. More than 1,000 others have been infected by the virus, which can go unnoticed for three weeks and kills 90 per cent of victims. The outbreak started in

By EDITH M. LEDERER UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has called for "an immediate and unconditional humanitarian cease-fire" in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas. The council adopted the presidential statement at an emergency meeting just after midnight on Monday as Muslims started celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. The call for a cease-fire follows new attacks launched by Israel and Hamas despite going back and forth over proposals for another temporary halt to nearly three weeks of fighting. The statement agreed to by all 15 council members urges Israel and Hamas "to accept and fully implement the humanitarian cease-fire into the Eid period and beyond."

By By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer The space rock that wiped out most of the dinosaurs may have had a colossal case of bad timing. If the impact had occurred a few million years earlier or later, more of the majestic beasts may have survived, scientists say. A global team of researchers examined the evidence for different extinction scenarios and concluded that an asteroid or comet almost certainly triggered the abrupt annihilation of all dinosaurs, except for birds, some 66 million years ago. But a period of low diversity among herbivorous dinosaurs, at least in North America, may have set the stage for the massive die-off, according to a study published today (July 28) in the journal Biological Reviews. [Wipe Out: History's Most Mysterious Extinctions] "The dinosaur extinction is one of the great mysteries in all of science," said study co-author Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. "A group of us decided to come toget

By  DEB RIECHMANN WASHINGTON (AP) — Stepping up pressure on Moscow, the U.S. on Sunday released satellite images it says show that rockets have been fired from Russia into neighboring eastern Ukraine and that heavy artillery for separatists has crossed the border. The four-page memo is part of the Obama administration's push to hold Russia accountable for its activities in neighboring Ukraine, and the release could help to persuade the United States' European allies to apply harsher sanctions on Russia. The timing of the memo also could be aimed at dissuading Russia from further military posturing. The Pentagon said just days ago that the movement of Russian heavy-caliber artillery systems across its border into Ukraine was "imminent." Moscow has angrily denied allegations of Russia's involvement in eastern Ukraine. Russia's foreign ministry over the weekend accused the U.S. of conducting "an unrelenting campaign of slander against Russia, ever mo

By PHILIP ELLIOTT WASHINGTON (AP) — Every Palestinian civilian's death costs Israel in its fight for world opinion, but the Jewish state must not cede its security for the sake of public relations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he pressed his nation's case on America's Sunday news programs. Making his case to an American audience, Netanyahu said Palestinians are trying to shape global opinion with images of piled-up, slain civilians. "We're telling the civilians to leave, Hamas is telling them to stay," Netanyahu said in satellite interviews from Israel. "Why is it telling them to stay? Because it wants to pile up their own dead bodies." He added, "They not only want to kill our people, they want to sacrifice their own people." A Palestinian official countered that Israel's actions are unjustified. "The Israeli aggression on Gaza does not bring peace to Israel," said Mohammad Shtayyeh, minister o

By GEETIKA RUDRA A man was killed and his daughter critically injured today when they were hit by a plane making an emergency landing on a Florida beach, officials said. "One man is deceased, and a young girl, possibly around the age of 10 is very critically injured," Sarasota County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Wendy Rose told ABC News. Ommy Irizarry, 36, and his daughter, Oceana Irizarry, 9, were walking along the beach in Sarasota County, Fla., when a small plane made an emergency crash landing along the shore, killing the man on impact, Rose said. The little girl was transported via helicopter to to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she was in critical condition. Neither the pilot, identified as Karl Kokomoor, 57, of Englewood, Fla., nor the passenger on the plane, David Theen, 60, also of Englewood, were injured in the landing, Rose said. "The pilot radioed that he was not going to be able to make it back to the airport, and he was

By Adel ZAANOUN, John DAVISON Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - The bodies of dozens of Palestinians were pulled from the ruins of bombed-out homes in Gaza Saturday during a brief truce that top diplomats meeting in Paris urged Israel and Hamas to extend. US Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile met with counterparts from Europe and the Middle East in Paris, who urged that the ceasefire be extended. "We all call on parties to extend the humanitarian ceasefire," France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters after meeting Kerry and counterparts from Britain, Germany, Italy, Qatar and Turkey, as well as an EU representative. On the ground in Gaza, ambulances sped along roads to neighbourhoods that have been too dangerous to enter for days. Just over halfway through the truce, they had already found the bodies of 85 people in the rubble, pushing the death toll to 985 Palestinians killed in the coastal enclave since the conflict began on July 8

By KARIN LAUB and IAN DEITCH JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel-Hamas fighting looked headed for escalation after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry failed Friday to broker a weeklong truce as a first step toward a broader deal and Israel's defense minister warned Israel might soon expand its Gaza ground operation "significantly." Hours after the U.S.-led efforts stalled, the two sides agreed to a 12-hour humanitarian cease-fire to begin Saturday. However, the temporary lull was unlikely to change the trajectory of the current hostilities amid ominous signs that the Gaza war is spilling over into the West Bank. In a "Day of Rage," Palestinians across the territory, which had been relatively calm for years, staged protests against Israel's Gaza operation and the rising casualty toll there. In the West Bank, at least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, hospital officials said. The latest diplomatic setbacks, after several days of high-level diplomacy in

By MATTHEW LEE WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States shut down its embassy in Libya on Saturday and evacuated its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under U.S. military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said. The withdrawal underscored the Obama administration's concern about the heightened risk to American diplomats abroad, particularly in Libya where memories of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in the eastern city of Benghazi are still vivid and the political uproar over it remain fresh ahead of a new congressional investigation into the incident. "Securing our facilities and ensuring the safety of our personnel are top department priorities, and we did not make this decision lightly," Harf said. "Security has to come first. Regrettably, we had to take this step because the location of our embassy is in very close proximity to intense fighting and ongoing

Nigeria could cut the number of polio cases to zero next year and be declared free of the disease in 2018 even though a national eradication campaign has had to contend with an insurgency in the north, Bill Gates told Reuters. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports the global initiative to wipe out polio, which includes a campaign in Nigeria, one of three nations where the crippling virus is still endemic. The other two are Pakistan and Afghanistan. “We have got all the challenges up in northern Nigeria, the violence from Boko Haram, and the distraction of an upcoming election,” Gates said in a telephone interview, referring to an Islamist rebel group that has in the past targeted vaccination workers, and to Nigeria’s national vote next year. “Despite all that, we’ve got by far the lowest numbers of cases ever,” he said. “We hope by the end of next year we’d be at zero.” He added that if there were no more cases for three years after that, Nigeria could be certified clear in 2

Super Eagles midfielder, John Mikel Obi, is expected to join the rest of the Chelsea squad for pre-season training on Monday. Mikel, along with Nigerian compatriot Victor Moses, were given extended breaks after their World Cup exertions, and are now set to report for club duty, according to John Shittu. “Mikel has been on break resting. But he is going to Austria on Monday to meet up with the rest of the team,” Shittu, who looks after Mikel’s affairs, told KickOffNigeria.com. “I don’t know where people got the information that he was left out of the squad. He played at the World Cup, and he got a break from the club. “It’s the same thing with some of the other players who got to the same stage.” Regarding Mikel’s immediate future, Shittu said the player will stay at Chelsea. “For now, he is not going anywhere. He will fight for his place. But this is football, and anything can happen at any time.” THE NATION NEWSPAPER

…Appoints Oyeyemi as new Corps Marshal, Abubakar as National Planning Minister It was a day of excitement reigned in Nigeria’s avi­ation industry as Presi­dent Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday swore in Mr. Osita Chidoka as new Min­ister for Aviation. Chidoka, until his appoint­ment was the Corps Marshal/Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). He takes over from Ms. Stella Oduah, the erstwhile minister who was relieved of her appointment about five months ago, a period seen as too long to run a ministry without a substantive minister and for which many analysts and industry workers noted had created stagnation in the industry. Meanwhile, the new Min­ister of National Planning and Deputy Chairman of the Na­tional Planning Commission is Dr. Suleman Abubakar, a former lecturer at the Univer­sity of Abuja, while Deputy Corps Marshal, Boboye Oy­eyemi is new Corp Marshal of FRSC. Jonathan stated that the new ministers were being brought in at injury time to bring their experie

Former Head of State and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Bu­hari (retd) has said that yes­terday’s bomb blast at Kawo, which missed him narrowly, was an assassination attempt on his life. In a statement person­ally signed by him and made available to newsmen in Ka­duna yesterday,  Buhari , who was the 2011 presidential candidate of the defunct Con­gress for Progressive Change (CPC), said the vehicle carry­ing the explosives made sev­eral unsuccessful attempts to overtake his security car, but was blocked by the security aides attached to him. He said when they got to the market area in Kawo, the suicide bomber took advan­tage of the slow pace at which his (Buhari) convoy was mov­ing and attempted to ram into his car, a move that detonated the explosives, and destroyed all his three cars. His words: “I was person­ally involved in a targeted bomb attack today at about 2:30pm on my way to Daura. “The unfortunate event, clearly an assassination at

Over 90 killed, scores injured, vehicles damaged •24-hour curfew imposed Former Head of State, General Muham­madu Buhari, yester­day escaped death, as his vehicle was hit in the twin bomb blasts in Kaduna. Also, popular Islamic schol­ar, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, es­caped death by the whiskers in the incident. In the bomb attacks, over 90 persons were killed, while scores were injured. Vehicles and other property were also destroyed. General Buhari was said to be on his way to Daura, his hometown in Katsina State, to celebrate the Sallah festiv­ity there, when his convoy ran into the bomb blast on Kawo Road, Kaduna. One of the vehicles in Bu­hari’s convoy that ran into the blast was badly damaged. The former Head of State was immediately moved into an­other vehicle and driven away. Three of his aides sustained various degrees of injuries in the blast. Speaking to Reuters on the bomb blasts, Buhari’s son, Musa, alleged that his father was the target of the attack. The first bomb blast, ac­c

Few days after West Brom unveiled Super Eagles attacker Brown Ideye another Nigerian player, Ogenyi Onazi is set to land it big in the English pre­miership. Onazi who had a good World Cup outing for Nigeria until he suffered a career threatening injury in the round of 16 game against France is now on the ra­dar of Southampton. News coming out of Europe as reported by Italian tabloid Gazzetta dello Sport dis­closed that the Saints have set their sights on Onazi as they seek to rebuild their squad. The young Nigerian has been in Italy since 2011 but could be set to move elsewhere after re­portedly attracting interest from a number of English and Ger­man clubs. The Southampton interest is coming at a time when Onazi himself stated that he has fully recovered from the ankle in­jury he copped in the Nigeria, France Brazil 2014 clash. The 21-year old player who is a product of a Lagos based ama­teur league side My Peoples FC says he is now ready for the new season. Southampton boss, Ronald

Sequel to the influx of about one million fake phones valued at N2.7 billion and obvious gap in the IT market, Point Technology Ltd (Pointek) has restated its commitment to address the challenges in the industry with affordable products and quality services. The Managing Director/CEO of Pointek, Emeka Ogu­chi, who stated this at a press briefing ahead of the grand opening ceremony of its cor­porate head office in Ikeja, warned that the country’s tech­nology risked being ruined with the uncontrolled influx of fake phones and accessories. He also lamented that the health hazards of sub-standard devices and fake phones are significant, while assuring its customers of quality products and services in all of its outlets. “There are serious gaps in the market; the services are poor, most retail floors are not convenient and people are des­perate to come into the busi­ness to make money by build­ing stores everywhere but don’t care about the consumers. THE SUN

Zenith Bank Plc yester­day announced a prof­it before tax of N57.85 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2014, up by 7 per cent from N54.08 billion recorded in the correspond­ing period last year. The bank announced the figures in a statement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Details of the fi­nancial statement showed that profit after tax for the period under review was N47.45 bil­lion, which represents about 4 per cent increase from N45.42 billion it posted for the same period in 2013. The Zenith Bank half-year result showed all-round im­provements in key indicators, with gross earnings surging by 7.8 per cent from N171.02 bil­lion in 2013 to N184.43 billion. Also within the period, Ni­geria’s biggest bank by Tier-1 capital grew its assets by 15.2 per cent from N2.78 trillion to N3.20 trillion. It recorded about 7.43 per cent increase in sharehold­ers’ funds, which rose from N458.31 billion as at the end of June last year to N492.38 billion. The bank with a large net

Oslo (AFP) - Norway has taken exceptional security measures after being informed of a possible imminent "terrorist attack" by militants who have fought in Syria, the country's intelligence chief said Thursday. The move comes as concerns are mounting in Europe about the growing national security threat posed by jihadists returning from war-torn Syria. The domestic intelligence service (PST) "recently received information that a group of extremists from Syria may be planning a terrorist attack in Norway," said PST chief Benedicte Bjoernland, adding it could be a question of days. The threat is "non-specific" but "credible", said Bjoernland. Neither the eventual target, nor the identity of the militants, nor their location are known, she added. The authorities said they were increasing the presence of police in stations and airports, recalling civil servants from their holidays and stepping up airline security. In its annual evaluation presente

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Manchester United made an impressive debut under coach Louis van Gaal on Wednesday night, with Wayne Rooney scoring twice late in the first half of a 7-0 victory over the LA Galaxy. Ashley Young and unsung defender Reece James scored two second-half goals apiece as United opened its summer tour with a surprisingly polished win over MLS' overmatched Galaxy in the Guinness International Champions Cup. Danny Welbeck scored the first goal for Van Gaal, who has had limited work with his new club after leading the Netherlands to a third-place finish at the World Cup earlier this month. United still outclassed the Galaxy in the meeting of David Beckham's two former clubs. Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera also made their United debuts at the historic Rose Bowl. Van Gaal's tenure got off to a start reflecting the confidence of United's veteran coach, who intends to return the 20-time English champions to immediate international prominence after David

Algiers (AFP) - Air Algerie said Thursday it lost contact with one of its passenger aircraft nearly an hour after takeoff from Burkina Faso bound for Algiers. A company source told AFP that the missing aircraft was a DC-9 and that some 110 people of various nationalities are listed as being on board the flight. The source said contact with the flight was lost while it was still in Malian airspace approaching the border with Algeria. "The plane was not far from the Algerian frontier when the crew was asked to make a detour because of poor visibility and to prevent the risk of collision with another aircraft on the Algiers-Bamako route," the source said. "Contact was lost after the change of course." The airline announced that the plane had gone missing in a brief statement carried by national news agency APS. "Air navigation services have lost contact with an Air Algerie plane Thursday flying from Ouagadougou to Algiers, 50 minutes after takeoff," the stat

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. secretary-general on Wednesday said he was "alarmed" to hear that rockets were placed in a U.N.-run school in Gaza and now "have gone missing," and he demanded a full review of such incidents. A statement by the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon expressed the U.N. chief's "outrage and regret" at the placement of weapons at a site run by the global organization. The U.N. says that has happened at least twice so far in the current fighting. "Those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children," U.N. staff and anyone seeking shelter, the statement said. The rockets had been placed at one of the schools run by the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza. Once they were found, "in accordance with standard practice, UNRWA handed them over to the local authorities. Since then, they have gone missing,"

Daniel Bean I Spent a Week with the Republic Wireless WiFi Phone Network I recently got a chance to spend a week using Republic Wireless, a cellphone carrier that offers a WiFi-only plan. As in, your phone can make calls only when it sees a WiFi signal. It ignores cell towers. The big advantage: A WiFi-only plan is a lot cheaper than standard cellular. So as more homes, hangout spots, and full cities get pervasive WiFi capabilities, I couldn’t help but wonder: Is hopping from hotspot to hotspot really a viable way to stay connected? Cellphone tower and wireless router Republic Wireless and other WiFi-first carriers want to move calls and data off of cell towers and onto WiFi hotspots and personal routers. (Carl Lender/Flickr and Thinkstock) How it works Republic offers both WiFi-only and hybrid plans that bundle Sprint’s cellular connectivity. Even its cellular plans are “WiFi-first”: Its phones are programmed to push calls, texts, and data onto hotspot connections whenever available,

By Matt Bai Sometime this summer, probably when as many Americans as possible are tanning on a beach and not paying attention, the White House is expected to release a version of a classified report on torture during the Bush years. Actually, what's likely to become public is only the executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report; the entire thing, five years in the making, clocks in at about 6,700 pages, making it the most exhaustive account yet of what really went on in secret CIA prisons around the world. President Obama has repeatedly said he favors declassifying the report, which the public really ought to see. And should he release the summary in something close to the form in which it was sent to him, then his decision will likely end an unusually public standoff between top senators and the CIA, each of whom accused the other of spying illegally as the report was being compiled and written. If, on the other hand, Obama delays the release much longer,