"Texas Chainsaw" buzzes box office

The bloody "Texas Chainsaw 3D" buzzed past rivals at the weekend box office, generating a chart-topping 23 million dollars in ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian movie theaters.

The film revives a horror franchise that started four decades ago with the original 1974 film about a serial killer named Leatherface. The new movie picks up where that film ended, following a woman who inherits a family home.

The horror flick topped Quentin Tarantino Western "Django Unchained," the second place film from Friday through Sunday with 20 million.

No. 3 movie "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" grabbed 17.5 million, according to studio estimates, bringing Its total domestic sales to nearly 264 million since its Dec. 14 debut.

Rounding out the top four was the musical "Les Miserables," which earned 16 million, bringing its domestic sales to $103.6 million since its Christmas Day release.

A former Canadian diplomat who sheltered Americans during 1979 Tehran hostage crisis died on Sunday (December 30) at the age of 88, his widow said on Saturday (January 5).

John Sheardown played a key role in how six diplomats escaped the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran at the height of Iran's Islamic revolution.

The events were depicted in the Ben Affleck movie "Argo".

The diplomats were smuggled out of Iran in 1979 under the unlikely guise of a fake movie production.