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“The outcome of the past period was in favor of the resisting powers in the region,” he said, adding that reinforcing ties among regional countries was the “only way” for an independent decision. His words seemed a quick and an indirect reply to U.S. desires, only one day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told U.S. lawmakers that the Obama administration is urging Syria to move away from its “deeply troubling” relationship with Tehran. Instead, Syria decided to strengthen its ties to Iran. Prior to the press conference, foreign ministers of Syria and Iran, Walid al-Muallim and Manouchehr Mottaki, signed an agreement to abolish visa requirements between the countries. Under the agreement, citizens of both countries can stay in the country without a visa for 90 days and can enter and leave the country without a visa for six months. “I am really surprised how they talk about stability in the Middle East, peace and other beautiful principles and they call two countries, any two countries and not necessarily Syria and Iran, to keep distance,” Assad continued. “We need to further reinforce relations if the true objective is stability. We do not want others to give us lessons on our region, our history. We can determine how things should go and we know our interests… (but) we thank them for their advices.” the Syrian leader told reporters. Iran’s president said the superpowers can no longer dictate and order other countries from oversees. “(The Americans) want to dominate the region but they feel Iran and Syria are preventing that,” Ahmadinejad said. “We tell them that instead of interfering in the region’s affairs, to pack their things and leave.” “Syria and Iran will stay together. We will remain so until the end and there will be no distance between us,” he commented, calling on the “Zionist entity not to repeat the mistakes of the past one more time as that would mean its doomed end.” Ahmadinejad was expected to see in the Syrian capital Lebanon’s Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Palestinian Hamas Movement leader Khaled Meshaal amid rising tension between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Syria’s foreign minister Walid Mouallem publicly blamed Israel last week for “spreading an atmosphere of war,” and warned that Damascus would not hesitate to strike deep into Israeli territory if provoked. He said plainly that a conflict would be “all-out,” regardless of whether “it hits southern Lebanon or Syria.” His remarks were a response to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s own comments a few days earlier that the absence of a peace agreement with Syria could trigger a new Middle East war. Nasrallah recently stated that Israel cannot afford an unwinnable war and blithely threatened an eye for an eye with the Jewish state. Bubbling accusations that Israel’s Mossad spy agency was behind the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mahbouh last month in Dubai have more spiraled regional anger. Muallem, in the same press conference he gave with his Austrian counterpart, said his country was determined to help Iran and the West engage in a “constructive” dialogue over Tehran’s contested nuclear program. Western governments suspect that the nuclear program in Iran — which earlier this month started higher grade uranium enrichment — is cover for a drive to produce a bomb. Iran, which has already been slapped with three sets of U.N. sanctions over its uranium enrichment, denies it has any such ambition and insists the atomic program is solely for peaceful purposes. Damascus has been Tehran’s major regional ally for the past three decades. Assad visited Tehran last August, and Ahmadinejad paid a visit to Syria last May. Syria also plays a key role for any brokering of peace between Israel and the Palestinians and controls a long border with Iraq that used to be the main point of entry for foreign Iraqi insurgents. Under President Obama, the United States started talking to Syria’s government, in contrast to a policy of isolation under former President George W. Bush. The U.S. road to dealing with Iran’s policy on Iraq, its nuclear program and much else may now be passing through Damascus. Syria, in turn, argues that Washington should make every effort to force Israel to accept the Arab peace initiative. Damascus wants to regain the strategic Golan Heights, an enclave Israel captured during the 1967 Mideast War. It has offered peace in exchange. Last week, William Burns, America’s most senior foreign service officer, held talks in Damascus with the country’s head of state, and Robert Ford, the current deputy chief of mission in Iraq, received an ambassadorial nomination to represent U.S. interests in Syria. Such steps will formally reopen diplomatic relations between the two countries, which had been suspended in 2005. Last week, eight years after being lumped into the axis of evil and five years since the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the U.S. State Department lifted an advisory that warned travelers about visiting Syria in hopes of warming relations. After the press conference, both leaders went hand-in-hand to celebrate the birthday of the prophet Mohammed in a mosque in Damascus.

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“Superbad” Does Super Well

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The teen comedy from Sony, the misadventures of two high school buddies trying to score booze, took in $31.2 million to debut as the weekend’s No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“Superbad” knocked off the previous weekend’s top flick, New Line’s “Rush Hour 3,” which slipped to second place with $21.8 million, raising its total to $88.2 million.

The Warner Bros. sci-fi tale “The Invasion,” starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in an update of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” opened a weak No. 5 with $6 million.

“Superbad” maintains the pattern of producer Judd Apatow’s earlier hits, “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” which he directed. Apatow and his collaborators, including “Knocked Up” star and “Superbad” co-writer and co-star Seth Rogen, have a knack for packaging crude, R-rated humor with clever, authentic dialogue far smarter than what’s normally seen in summer comedies.

Shot on a modest $20 million budget, “Superbad” had a slightly better debut than “Knocked Up,” which opened in June with $30.7 million and went on become a $100 million hit.

“I think a genuinely funny movie always has a shot at doing well, because so few movies are really funny,” Apatow told The Associated Press as he headed to the “Knocked Up” premiere Sunday at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland.

“Superbad,” co-written by Rogen and his high school best friend Evan Goldberg, stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as pals on a quest for 서울출장샵 alcohol to impress the foxy host of a party. Rogen co-stars as an inept cop who ends up carousing with the teens, while Christopher Mintz-Plasse proves a scene-stealer as Hill and Cera’s super-geeky friend.

Though centering on high schoolers, “Superbad” drew in older crowds, with 40 percent of the audience over 30, said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony.

“The Apatow comedy machine itself is a brand now, and it’s a brand that has created movies that appeal to older audiences who now follow whatever he does, even in the teen genre, which is very unusual,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Overall Hollywood revenues rose with the top 12 movies taking in $110.5 million, up 21 percent from the same weekend last year, when “Snakes on a Plane” opened at No. 1 with $15.2 million. Movie attendance is running 5 percent ahead of last summer’s, according to Media By Numbers.

The Weinstein Co. release “The Last Legion,” featuring Ben Kingsley in an action tale set in ancient Rome, tanked with just $2.6 million, finishing at No. 12.

In narrower release, MGM’s comedy “Death at a Funeral,” a tale of outrageous goings-on at a British patriarch’s farewell, opened solidly with $1.3 million.

Warner Independent’s “The 11th Hour,” a global-crisis documentary on ecological issues co-written, co-produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, debuted well in four theaters with $56,000.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “Superbad,” $31.2 million.

2. “Rush Hour 3,” $21.8 million.

3. “The Bourne Ultimatum,” $19 million.

4. “The Simpsons Movie,” $6.7 million.

5. “The Invasion,” $6 million.

6. “Stardust,” $5.2 million.

7. “Hairspray,” $4.3 million.

8. “Underdog,” $3.6 million.

9. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” $3.54 million.

10. “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” $3.5 million.By DAVID GERMAIN

Robert De Niro Turns 64 — Twice

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De Niro first turned 64 on Friday in Melbourne, Australia, where he attended the grand opening of his latest Nobu restaurant. Then he caught a private jet over the international date line and 대구출장샵 had another birthday Friday in Hawaii.

While many his age are thinking about retirement, the Hollywood star seems as busy as ever with his film career and Japanese restaurant chain, which is quickly expanding internationally.

“I have time,” he said on his birthday, sitting in one of the private rooms at his swank Nobu Waikiki restaurant, which opened in May.

The Nobu chain was a result of De Niro meeting Nobuyuki Matsuhisa at the chef’s first U.S. restaurant in Los Angeles more than 20 years ago.

“I thought the place was great. I told him, ‘If you ever want to open a restaurant in New York, let me know,’ ” De Niro said. “A year or two later, he called me, said, ‘I’m interested.’ ”

Nobu started as a business partnership in 1994 between De Niro, Matsuhisa, Richie Notar and Hollywood producer Meir Teper. The first restaurant opened in New York. The chain now has locations across the world, from Italy to the Bahamas.

De Niro’s latest film is “Stardust.”

The T-birds and Pink Ladies of “Grease” pretend to be cheerfully anarchic, rebelling against the squareness of the Eisenhower era

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They chose the two leads in the latest Broadway revival of “Grease,” that seemingly indestructible homage to ’50s high school life. And their decision, first announced in March on the NBC reality program “Grease: You’re The One That I Want,” has proven to be a mixed bag, sort of like the new production itself.

But then, this is “Grease,” a musical not exactly ready-made for innovative reinterpretation, despite the best efforts here of director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall. She’s the woman who made recent New York productions of “The Pajama Game” and “Wonderful Town” work.

Yet Marshall’s take on “Grease,” which opened Sunday at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre, moves in fits and starts, slowing down when the music and dancing stop and the sketchy story steps center stage.

The tale could not be more simple. Bad boy Danny Zuko, leader of the T-birds, falls for virginal Sandy Dumbrowski, who aspires for a place in the Pink Ladies, the T-birds’ female counterpart. Sandy eventually learns that vice will get you farther than virtue at Rydell High.

Now, about those television-anointed leads. As Danny, Max Crumm gives a cautious performance, vocally OK but short on swagger and sex appeal. Laura Osnes nicely gets Sandy’s transformation, morphing with enthusiasm from good girl to bad babe. Check out her skintight outfit in the last scene, courtesy of designer Martin Pakledinaz. Osnes also sings well and throws herself into Marshall’s spirited choreography.

So does the rest of the cast, who appear to be running on an inexhaustible supply of energy. That energy gets used to the fullest in Marshall’s choreography, particularly in her witty reworking of the big dance-contest number, “Born to Hand-Jive,” featuring the nimble Natalie Hill as the fabulous Cha-Cha DiGregorio. Marshall keeps the energy spinning from couple to couple, building an enthusiasm that demonstrates why she is one of the best choreographers on Broadway.

Because “Grease” doesn’t get much beyond stereotypes, it’s not easy keeping the secondary characters from descending into caricature. For the most part, the actors keep the clichés at bay.

Dramatic and vocal honors go to Jenny Powers as Rizzo, the quintessential tough girl who refuses to let the other Pink Ladies see her cry. Rizzo’s philosophy is explained in “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” the one song in “Grease” that attempts to define character. Powers makes it work.

Other standouts: Lindsay Mendez, a genial, 대구출장샵 sweet-tempered Jan, and strong-voiced Daniel Everidge, an enthusiastic Roger. Everidge actually turns one of the show’s sillier songs, “Mooning,” into something that is more entertaining than it has any right to be.

As the musical’s authority figures, Susan Blommaert garners a few smiles as the prim teacher Miss Lynch, Jeb Brown oozes insincerity as smarmy disc jockey Vince Fontaine and Stephen R. Buntrock displays a laugh-producing narcissism as the Teen Angel who croons “Beauty School Dropout”

The orchestra, conducted by Kimberly Grigsby, is perched on a catwalk above the stage. Grigsby, who also plays the synthesizer, puts on quite a show herself, particularly after the actors have taken their curtain calls at the end of the musical and she lets the band rock theatergoers out of the Brooks Atkinson.

In the end, the appeal of “Grease” may lie in the universal desire to belong. The T-birds and Pink Ladies of “Grease” pretend to be cheerfully anarchic, rebelling against the squareness of the Eisenhower era. Yet in reality, conformity is all. They just want to be part of the gang, something this revival only fitfully celebrates.AP Arts Review By MICHAEL KUCHWARA AP Drama Critic