Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth organised Aussie reunion months ago: ‘They’re past the friend zone’

MILEY Cyrus and her ex Liam Hemsworth reportedly organised their Australian reunion months ago and are “well beyond the friend zone.”

The pair, who were first spotted canoodling at Byron Bay Falls Music Festival for New Year’s celebration, also dined at the Treehouse on Belongil on a romantic date.

Instagram was littered with pictures of Cyrus hanging out with Hemsworth’s sister-in-law Elsa Pataky, who is married to Chris Hemsworth, Confidential revealed yesterday.

Cricket record: Pranav Dhanawade hits 1,009 in school match

An Indian teenager scored more than 1,000 runs in a single innings to set a new world record in school cricket.

Fifteen-year-old Pranav Dhanawade broke the previous record of 628 set by Arthur Collins in 1899 on Monday.

But he continued his innings in the HT Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament and reached 1,009 runs.

He smashed 59 sixes and 127 fours in 395 minutes before his KC Gandhi School declared the innings at 1,465 against Arya Gurukul School on Tuesday.

Image captionThe record-breaking scorecard

In pictures: Indian schoolboy's 1,009 not out

Mumbai school cricket is highly competitive and has produced cricketers like legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar and current Indian opener Rohit Sharma.

"I was not thinking of a record," Dhanawade told BBC Hindi."it was not in my mind at all but as soon as I got close to the feat it was clear to me that I could achieve it."

Dhanawade said his father, an auto-rickshaw driver, had pushed him to play and was partly responsible for his success. He said he was ready for international cricket, but intended to first play in the under-19 state team.

Unbelievable feat

Dhanawade's innings propelled him to the top of the trends on Twitter in India, where reactions to his innings have ranged from praise to shock and disbelief.

Image copyrightTwitter

Image copyrightTwitter

Image copyrightTwitter

Image copyrightTwitter

Former Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher debuts his new hair on WGN Morning News

CHICAGO -- One of the all-time greatest Chicago Bears players, Brian Urlacher stopped by WGN Morning News Tuesday to share some big news -- HE HAS HAIR!

"I wore a hat everywhere I went for a year," Urlacher said about keeping his new hair a secret.

After a close friend had the RESTORE procedure, he said he was intrigued. While he was happy being bald, he hadn't seen himself with hair since college and was curious. The best part? He learned he could always shave his head again if he didn't like how the hair looked.

He said the procedure only took one day, and he was in and out -- no cuts or anything like that, he explained. Basically they removed one hair at a time from the back of his head, and moved it to the front (where he needed it.)

He joked that there is so much now that he can do with his hair: "My showers take longer. I gotta leave a couple extra minutes to comb it in the morning. Put gel in it sometimes now. It's great!"

Screw football -- Brian Urlacher is now giving hope to bald guys everywhere. We salute you!

Asia Subdued as Crude Oil Flounders, Global Woes Support Dollar and Yen

Tokyo: Asian stocks were subdued early on Wednesday as floundering crude oil prices continued to dampen risk sentiment, while the dollar and yen drew support from anxiety over global growth and geopolitical risk stemming from Iran-Saudi tensions. 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged down 0.1 percent. Wall Street shares closed Tuesday on very modest gains and failed to provide Asia with much impetus. 

Australian shares lost 0.7 percent and South Korea's KOSPI dipped 0.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei bucked the trend and rose 0.2 percent. 

Risk markets are now waiting to see how Chinese equities will fare later in the session. Shanghai shares stabilised somewhat on Tuesday, following an arresting 7 percent plunge at the week's start that spooked stocks worldwide. 

Both the dollar and yen attracted bids amid the risk aversion that gripped financial markets globally from the start of 2016. 

The euro stood little changed at $1.0752 after shedding 0.8 percent overnight, when it a one-month low of $1.0711. 

The common currency was steady at 128.045 yen following an overnight drop of 1 percent. It dipped as far as 127.535 on Tuesday, its lowest since late April. 

Kathy Lien, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, wrote that the U.S. and Japanese currencies were being bought because "China is in trouble, U.S. data has been disappointing, Japan refuses to increase stimulus and oil prices continue to fall, but everyone's greatest fear is that stocks have finally peaked". 

The yen had a slight edge over the greenback. The dollar traded at 119.14 after slipping 0.3 percent overnight. It had hit a 2-1/2-month low of 118.705 earlier this week. 

In commodities, crude oil prices struggled near 11-year lows, with the market giving more attention to the stronger dollar and swelling U.S. inventories rather than growing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

Relations between the two major oil producers collapsed in acrimony this week after Saudi Arabia's executed a Shi'ite cleric, setting off a storm of protests in Tehran. 

U.S. crude nudged up to $36.28 a barrel but was still down 2 percent on the week and near a seven-year low of $33.98 hit late last month. 

Oil-linked currencies like the Canadian dollar sank deeper on shaky crude prices. Canada's loonie fell to a 12-year low of C$1.402 to the dollar overnight.

Gold recovers from biggest dip in 5 months after Fed rate rise

LONDON: Gold rose on Friday, recovering from its biggest daily loss in five months as stocks and the dollar retreated, but remained near multi-year lows after the Federal Reservelifted US interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

The metal has recovered some lost ground after bottoming out on Thursday at $1,047.25 an ounce, within a few dollars of a near six-year low reached on December 3.

Spot gold was up 0.8 per cent at $1,059.80 an ounce at 1436 GMT, while US gold futures for February delivery were up $9.30 an ounce at $1,058.90.

The rate hike sparked a surge in the dollar and global stocks on Thursday, but led to a 2 per cent slide in gold. Rising rates lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.

Gold has tumbled 11 per cent this year as investors awaited the rate rise. Now that it is out of the way, attention is turning to other factors.

"Next year the macro picture is looking a little less negative for gold and precious," Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said. "It's hard to see, without a significant under-performance in the yen and the euro, how the dollar is going to rally very strongly next year."

"The Fed, from its forecasts, is anticipating four rate rises next year. The markets are saying something different - the Fed funds futures currently suggests there'll be just two rises, in June and December."

In other markets, global stocks fell and the dollar slipped 0.2 per cent, taking pressure off gold.

The metal could revisit $1,000 an ounce for the first time in six years if it breaks below its early December low at $1,045 an ounce, according to technical analysts.

"If we can take the low out, which I don't think is unreasonable, $1,033 is the next stop - that's the high from 2008 - and then $1,006, and the $1,000 figure is really the level you should be talking about," Credit Suisse analyst Christopher Hine said.

"It is achievable (by the end of the year)," he said.

Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares, fell another 4.5 tonnes on Thursday to 630.17 tonnes, the lowest since September 2008. That brings its monthly outflow to 25 tonnes.

Silver was up 1.5 per cent at $13.90 an ounce, while platinum was up 0.8 per cent at $850.20 an ounce and palladium was down 0.5 per cent at $551.24 an ounce.

UPDATE 4-Oil falls to 11-year low, Saudi-Iran row seen making output restraint unlikely

© Reuters. UPDATE 4-Oil falls to 11-year low, Saudi-Iran row seen making output restraint unlikely

* Saudi-Iran split dashes chance of OPEC deal to curb oil glut

* Analysts expect rise in U.S. crude stocks

* Coming up: EIA to publish inventory data at 1530 GMT (Updates with new milestone, changes dateline from SINGAPORE)

By Simon Falush

LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Oil fell to its lowest in more than 11 years on Wednesday, down around 2 percent, as the row between Saudi Arabia and Iran was seen extinguishing any chance of major producers cooperating to cut production in the face of mounting global over supply.

The furore over Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shi'ite cleric has depressed the market as it put an end to speculation that OPEC members could agree on production cuts to lift prices. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N14P2QH

"There are rising stockpiles and the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia make any deal on production unlikely," said Michael Hewson, head of strategy at CMC (NS:CMC) Markets.

Global Brent crude benchmarks LCOc1 were at $35.75 a barrel at 0856 GMT, down 67 cents or 1.9 percent from their previous settlement, their lowest since 2004.

U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 46 cents at $35.51 per barrel after already slipping 79 cents the previous day.

Oil has slumped from above $115 in June 2014 as shale oil from the United States has flooded the market, while falling prices have prompted some producers to maximise output to prevent income falling too rapidly and keep market share.

Adding to this oversupply, Iranian oil exports are widely expected to increase in 2016 as Western sanctions against the country for its alleged nuclear weapons programme are likely to be lifted.

"Shale production and increasing capacity from countries like Russia who need to protect revenue combined with expectations of further Iranian supply mean actual production as well as expectations of future production are rising," Hewson said.

Still, a senior Iranian oil official said the country could moderate oil export increases once the sanctions are lifted to avoid putting prices under further pressure. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N14P2Z1

In the United States, concerns over mounting stock levels persisted, with crude inventories likely to have risen by 439,000 barrels last week, according to a Reuters poll of eight analysts. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N14P1FU

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will publish its closely watched weekly data at 1530 GMT.

Geopolitical tensions boost gold futures to 1-month high

Gold futures jump to 1-month high

Investing.com - Gold prices jumped to a one-month peak on Wednesday, as investors sought refuge after North Korea said it had conducted a successful nuclear test and as tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran continued to mount.

Gold for February delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange tacked on $4.30, or 0.4%, to trade at $1,082.70 a troy ounce as of 09:40 GMT, or 4:40AM ET. It earlier rose to $1,085.10, the most since December 7. On Tuesday, gold inched up $3.20, or 0.3%.

Risk sentiment weakened after North Korea confirmed that it had conducted a nuclear test and said that it won't give up nuclear capability unless U.S. abandons its hostile foreign policy towards the country.

Markets were also jittery amid growing tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, following the execution of a prominent Saudi Shia cleric.

The yellow metal is up 2% so far this week as market players sought refuge amid instability in the Middle East and fresh concerns over global growth.

Also on the Comex, silver futures for March delivery inched up 0.4 cents, or 0.03%, to trade at $13.97 a troy ounce during European morning hours.

Elsewhere in metals trading, copper prices edged lower on Wednesday, after data showed that activity in China's services sector grew at the slowest pace in 17 months in December, the latest indication that the world's second-largest economy may be losing steam.

The Caixin services purchasing managers' index fell to 50.2 last month from November's reading of 51.2, disappointing expectations for an uptick to 52.3.

The report came after a similar survey earlier in the week showing that Chinese manufacturing activity contracted for the tenth straight month in December, and added to fears over the outlook for the world’s number two economy.

The Asian nation is the world’s largest copper consumer, accounting for nearly 45% of world consumption.