Elmo puppeteer Clash resigns following new sex claims

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind the “Sesame Street” character Elmo, resigned on Tuesday following new allegations that he had sex with an underage boy, adding to an ongoing controversy involving one of America’s most popular children’s brands.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Cecil Singleton is seeking more than $ 5 million in damages from Clash. Singleton claims he met the then-32-year-old puppeteer in 1993 in a gay chat room when he was 15.

It added that on numerous occasions over a period of years Clash engaged in sexual activity with Singleton.

The news came just a week after another man recanted his claims that Clash had sex with him when he was 16 years old.

Clash, 52, said he was leaving Sesame Workshop, the company behind the television show, after nearly 30 years with a very heavy heart.

“I have loved every day of my 28 years working for this exceptional organization. Personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work Sesame Street is doing and I cannot allow it to go on any longer,” he said in a statement issued by his publicist, Risa B. Heller.

“I am deeply sorry to be leaving and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately,” he added.

The New York-based Sesame Workshop said it was a sad day for “Sesame Street,” which premiered in 1969 and has been educating and entertaining children for decades with characters such as Elmo, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster.

“Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding Kevin’s personal life has become a distraction that none of us wants, and he has concluded that he can no longer be effective in his job and has resigned from Sesame Street,” the company said in a statement.

A representative declined further comment.

The unnamed 23-year-old man who first accused Clash recanted his claims last week, saying the relationship was consensual. His lawyers were not immediately available to comment on the lawsuit.

Clash had denied the allegations and acknowledged a past relationship with his first accuser. He added the pair were both consenting adults at the time.

“I am a gay man. I have never been ashamed of this or tried to hide it,” Clash said at the time.

Sesame Workshop said the first allegations involving Clash came to its attention in June when the earlier accuser contacted the company by email.

The Elmo character debuted on “Sesame Street” in 1979. While Clash was the third performer to animate the child-like shaggy red monster, Sesame Workshop credits him with turning Elmo into the international sensation he became.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Cynthia Osterman)

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Ex-hedge fund trader charged in $276M insider ploy

NEW YORK (AP) — A former hedge fund portfolio manager was arrested Tuesday in what prosecutors called perhaps the most lucrative insider trading scheme of all time — an arrangement to obtain secret, advance results of tests on an experimental Alzheimer’s drug that netted more than $ 276 million for his fund and others.

The case also led authorities to investigate the activities of one of the nation’s wealthiest hedge fund managers, billionaire Steven A. Cohen.

The portfolio manager, Mathew Martoma, was accused in U.S. District Court in Manhattan of using the information to advise other investment professionals to buy shares in the companies developing the drug, then later to dump those investments and place financial bets against the companies when the tests returned disappointing results.

“The charges unsealed today describe cheating coming and going,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference. The scheme unfolded “on a scale that has no historical precedent.”

Martoma’s trades helped reap a hefty profit from 2006 through July 2008, while he worked for CR Intrinsic Investors LLC of Stamford, Conn., an affiliate of SAC Capital Advisors, a firm owned by Cohen.

Cohen is not referred to by name in court papers but is frequently alluded to for his dealings with the defendant in the weeks leading up to an announcement about the drug trial.

The government has been scrutinizing SAC since at least November 2010, when the FBI subpoenaed SAC and other influential hedge funds. Martoma is the fourth person associated with SAC Capital to be arrested on insider trading charges in the last four years.

SAC spokesman Jonathan Gasthalter said the company and Cohen “are confident that they have acted appropriately and will continue to cooperate with the government’s inquiry.”

The FBI said the scheme developed after Martoma met a doctor in Manhattan involved in an Alzheimer’s drug trial in October 2006. According to a criminal complaint, he later obtained confidential information related to the final results of a drug trial.

Martoma’s attorney, Charles Stillman, called his client “an exceptional portfolio manager who succeeded through hard work and the dogged pursuit of information in the public domain. What happened today is only the beginning of a process that we are confident will lead to Mr. Martoma’s full exoneration.”

Martoma was arrested at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., and made an initial appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he was released on $ 5 million bail on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. He was scheduled to return to court Monday in Manhattan.

The defendant will have great incentive to cooperate with the government because the size of the gains would add years, if not decades, to any potential sentence upon conviction, said John Sylvia, co-chairman of the securities litigation practice at the Mintz Levin law firm in Boston.

He said it was clear from reading the court papers that Cohen was referenced frequently and was a likely target of investigators, though they might not be able to build a sufficient case against him.

“There’s little doubt as to where the government’s sights are,” Sylvia said. “I don’t think it takes Sherlock Holmes to figure it out.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil papers in the case against CR Intrinsic Investors, Mathew Martoma and Dr. Sidney Gilman. The civil complaint said the illegal money was earned in July 2008, when various hedge funds traded ahead of a negative public announcement involving the clinical trial results of an Alzheimer drug being jointly developed by Elan Corp. and Wyeth, both pharmaceutical companies.

The SEC complaint said that Martoma carried out the scheme with Gilman, an 80-year-old professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School who served as chairman of a safety committee overseeing the clinical trial. Gilman was selected by Elan and Wyeth to present the final clinical trial results at a July 29, 2008, medical conference.

Messages left with the University of Michigan Medical School were not immediately returned.

Gilman’s lawyer, Marc Mukasey, said his client is cooperating with the SEC and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and has entered into a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.

A copy of the agreement released by federal prosecutors Tuesday showed that Gilman will forfeit nearly $ 187,000 that he received from Elan for consulting work in 2007 and 2008 and from an expert networking firm for consultations between 2006 and 2009 with Martoma’s hedge fund.

Bharara said Martoma gained from “cultivating and corrupting” Gilman, eventually receiving $ 9 million in bonus pay for the year when the trades were made.

Martoma met with the doctor about 42 times, beginning in the summer of 2006, and eventually convinced him to start talking about the drug trial, prosecutors said.

The SEC said leaks by Martoma caused hedge fund portfolios managed by CR Intrinsic and by an affiliated investment adviser to liquidate more than $ 700 million in holdings in Elan and Wyeth.

The massive repositioning, the SEC said, allowed CR Intrinsic and various hedge funds to reap huge illicit profits and avoid steep losses.

“By cultivating and corrupting a doctor with access to secret drug data, Mathew Martoma and his hedge fund benefited from what might be the most lucrative inside tip of all time,” Bharara said.

The prosecutor said the doctor sent him a draft of the 24-page presentation he planned to make at a conference announcing the results.

That is when Martoma “had to do a spectacular about-face because he understood that — with these negative results looming — the hedge fund’s massive $ 700 million stake had become a terrible bet,” Bharara said. “And so, just like that, overnight, Martoma went from bull to bear as he tried to dig his hedge fund out of a massive hole.”

The news caused Elan’s stock price to plunge by more than 40 percent. The price of Wyeth fell about 12 percent.

The bets against the drug developers brought additional profits totaling $ 76.2 million. That is roughly the same amount that prosecutors said former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam made in illegal profits before he was arrested. The one-time billionaire is serving an 11-year prison sentence in what was once considered the biggest insider trading case in U.S. history.

A year later, a hedge fund employee recommended that Martoma be terminated, and he was let go in 2010, Bharara said.

___

AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner in Washington contributed to this report.

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HP’s Financial Mess Is Making Everyone Sorry

You know who’s probably having the best day ever? Try Mark Hurd, the guy who had to resign as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) in August 2010 under a cloud of HR shadiness.

Due in large part to the incompetence of the management that replaced him, and the board that oversaw it all, shares of the venerable Silicon Valley pioneer have since fallen 75 percent, visiting lows unseen since the mid-1990s. Just days after the firing, in letter sent to the New York Times, Hurd’s friend and soon-to-be-new boss, Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Mr. Ellison, declared: “The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple (AAPL) board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.” Three weeks after his departure from HP, Hurd gave notice of his plans to cash out of more than $ 30 million in company stock.

Today, Hurd and Ellison, both at Oracle (now worth more than six HPs) must be belting out thunderous buhaahahhas. On Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard announced an $ 8.8 billion charge, citing “a willful effort to mislead investors and potential buyers” at Autonomy, the U.K. software company Hurd’s short-lived replacement, Leo Apotheker, agreed to purchase for $ 10.3 billion.

“HP is extremely disappointed to find that some former members of Autonomy’s management team used accounting improprieties, misrepresentations, and disclosure failures to inflate the underlying financial metrics of the company, prior to Autonomy’s acquisition by HP,” Hewlett-Packard said in a statement.

Autonomy aside, HP forecast fiscal first-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates amid a continued decline of its personal computer franchise. As for the fourth quarter: HP registered a net loss of $ 6.85 billion, compared with net income of $ 239 million a year earlier. It’s just the latest in a tragicomic series of largely self-inflicted wounds that have felled the tech giant. So what now? For starters, some freshly served mea culpas.

CEO Meg Whitman took to CNBC to publicly regret voting for the Autonomy deal when she was just a board member.

One investor who should be taking a major bow on HP is short-seller Jim Chanos, who this summer warned HP was the “ultimate value trap.” Looking ahead, it all raises the question: How much more time will shareholders give Meg Whitman and her board to turn around a supertanker that increasingly looks like it’s taking on water?

According to Jefferies (JEF) analyst Peter Misek, despite HP’s seemingly sufficient cash flow, its dividend “could be in serious danger” next year. While the company’s diminished market capitalization of $ 23 billion makes it look ripe for activist agitation or even euthanasia-by-takeover—Oracle, anyone?—directors have already moved to silence an internal agitator in their ranks.

ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall apologized to clients for recommending the stock: “We can no longer recommend investors buy shares of HP at current levels as negative information continues to pour out, the end is not in sight, and we no longer understand what we are ‘playing for.’ … HP has become the ‘quintessential value trap’ as material negative news overrides any small positive developments and forward estimates continue to decline at a rapid rate. We apologize to investors for our extremely poor performance on this attempted ‘value’ play.”

For added measure, Marshall quipped that HP has “more shoes than Imelda Marcos.”

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Turbulence on Cuba-Italy flight leaves 30 bruised

ROME (AP) — An airliner flying from Havana to Milan abruptly plunged some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) when it hit unusually strong turbulence over the Atlantic on Monday, terrifying passengers and leaving some 30 people aboard with bruises and scrapes, airline officials said.

The flight continued to Milan’s Malpensa airport after the plane’s captain determined that it suffered no structural damage and two passengers who are physicians found no serious injuries, Giulio Buzzi, head of the pilots division at Neos Air, told Sky TG24 TV.

The ANSA news agency quoted bruised passenger Edoardo De Lucchi as saying meals were being served when suddenly there was “10 seconds of terror.” He recounted how plates went flying and some passengers not wearing seatbelts bounced about.

Buzzi had said that the drop measured some 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) in a cloudless sky. But Milan daily’s Corriere della Sera’s web site, quoting Neos official Davide Martini, later reported that the plane first bounced up some 500 meters (1,650 feet), then dropped some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) to some 500 meters (1,650 feet) below the original altitude.

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Review: Wii U Filled With Potential

The Nintendo Wii turns six this month, making the video game system past its prime in console years. Nintendo and third-party developers have been slowly grinding Wii titles to a halt as all prepare for its successor, the $ 300 Wii U (say it with us, We-you), to launch today.

WATCH: Wii U Video Review

The latest Nintendo comes with a shiny new console and a shiny new GamePad tablet controller. (They may actually be a little too shiny, as the system and controller easily pick up smudges and fingerprints.) A mess of long cords also come with the system, including the Wii U’s power cord, the GamePad’s charger, the HDMI cord and the motion sensor’s long, thin cord.

The box is packed with contents, but also high expectations.

The Console
The GamePad controller, which we will get to in a second, is one of the biggest changes to the system, but there are a lot of other changes inside the actual console. With an IBM multi-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon graphics chip, a Nintendo console is capable for the first time of pushing along full HD, 1080p games on your HDTV. It connects to your HDTV via that aforementioned HDMI cord, which is kindly included in the box.

At least for a brief period we have a Nintendo with better internal organs than the Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation, though not many expect that to last.

Of note, the graphics processor on the Wii U is far more advanced than its competition, but the computer processor has been hinted to be a little less powerful than both rivals. This means stronger graphics, but potential processing issues when more moving items are presented on screen.

The GamePad
Back to the main event — the Wii U’s GamePad controller. Nintendo’s latest toy takes the best aspects of the company’s top-selling handheld, the Nintendo DS, and has supersized them, putting a larger, 6.2-inch touchscreen in your hands. But that’s not all that is found in the controller. It also has a front-facing camera, stylus, dual analog sticks, an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

At 1.1 pounds the controller is easy to hold and very light. And while it is a bit wide, it is durable enough to avoid much damage when in the hands of an enraged 7-year-old. Yes, I slammed it on a carpeted floor a few times and it withstood the abuse.

There is only one GamePad included in the box and you can expect there to be fighting over it. At the moment, Nintendo isn’t selling GamePads separately, but that’s intentional; there are no games that support dual GamePad experiences at the moment.

Nintendo calls its one-pad approach “asymmetric gameplay,” where the person using the GamePad has a different role in how games are played, equivalent to being “it” in tag or the dungeon master in “Dungeons & Dragons.” For this role, what they see on the controller’s screen is sometimes completely different than what others see on the TV.

For instance, in “Nintendo Land‘s Animal Crossing: Sweet Day,” the person with the GamePad controls two characters while the person with the extra non-GamePad controller controls just one. The person using the GamePad sees their characters on the touchscreen, while the non-GamePad player sees theirs on the TV.

Nintendo is releasing a Pro controller with the Wii U for an extra $ 50. The controller looks very similar to the Xbox 360 controller, and while we do wish it was included for the $ 300 price, you don’t have to buy that controller if you want to add more players. That’s because your original Wii games and Wiimote controllers will work with the new system.

Nintendo sold 97 million Wii consoles in six years and plenty of Nintendo fans have stashes of iconic white wands sitting around the house. All those still in love with motion controls can rest easy, this move means all your past, present and future arm flailing will endure.

Word to the wise: if you haven’t already purchased WiiMotion Plus add-on accessories for your old Wiimotes, now is the time, they’re crucial for games like Zelda Battle Quest in “Nintendo Land.”

Since the Gamepad is wireless, it can be used when away from the TV, but not too far away. You can play a game on it while in another room in the house, but it needs to be in close proximity to the console. You’ll want to make sure you’re in close proximity to the charger, too. All that technology inside the Gamepad takes a hit on battery life; after four hours of continuous gameplay it begins to warn you of its need for juice.

The Games
In 2006, the Wii launched with “Wii Sports,” a game included in the box and built to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. “Wii Sports” was big on simplicity, utilizing just a few buttons and bit of stick waving, making it the ultimate casual gaming experience.

Today’s Wii U’s launch is complimented by “Nintendo Land,” a world that contains 12 mini-games in one. (It comes in the box with the $ 350 Deluxe Wii U version and costs $ 60 on its own.) Some games take advantage of the stylus while others require a mix of the analog sticks, motion capabilities, and the actual touchscreen. The variety is a great showcase but lacks the level of simplicity that made “Wii Sports” an instant hit.

If anything, the Wii U’s sampling of gameplay varieties will get you excited thinking what might be possible with the new hardware. Drawing with the stylus on your GamePad and seeing the end result on a TV screen is extremely satisfying. A possible “Mario Paint” meets “Draw Something” could be gigantic. My colleague Joanna Stern couldn’t get enough of flicking stars on the touch screen in “Takamaru’s Ninja Castle,” I could see a full game centered around that mechanic doing very well.

At launch, there are almost two-dozen titles with various degrees of GamePad integration, spanning almost every genre. It feels like there should be more that directly take advantage of the touchscreen, however. We will be reviewing these over the course of the week, but I will say the $ 60 New Super Mario Bros. U seems like a must-have, just to experience Mario in HD for the first time.

The Social and Media Capabilities
With the Wii U comes a broadening of the Nintendo Network, the structure that has allowed Nintendo 3DS players to compete with each other online. On the Nintendo Network, video chat is now available through the GamePad‘s front-facing camera.

Mii avatars are being more integrated than ever into games, you can expect to be the star of the game more often and to see your Miis interacting with those of your friends, sharing screenshots, messages and accomplishments.

Even with more social networking and revamped cooperative play, the focus of this system is bringing back single players and defining Nintendo as a brand for both social gatherings and “me time,” hence the “U” in Wii U. More “hardcore” single player games will be in the mix as well, reflected at launch with “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2″ and “Batman: Arkham City” availability.

Like the competing consoles, Nintendo is also making moves to bring media capabilities to the console with YouTube, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant Video integration. Nintendo has also announced TVii, an interface that integrates with those Internet video services and your cable box, but it has been delayed until December.

The Bottom Line
On paper, the Wii U sounds like a simple win. Take Nintendo’s best-selling handheld, their best-selling system (Wii), the graphics of their competitors and mash that up with latest developments in tablet technology. And in many ways it is, combining the best of the last five years in an incredibly unique and well-designed package. That said, there’s a ways to go in terms of games that take advantage of the touchscreen, the GamePad’s battery life, and we really do wish another controller was included in the box.

Wii U has major potential and if Nintendo plays their cards right, the system can become a major player, especially once the media capabilities and game options are fully stocked. The second-generation Wii might not be as game-changing as the orginal, but it certainly is a lot of fun to play with.

Joanna Stern contributed to this review.

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Aussie rockers AC/DC’s music to be sold on iTunes

NEW YORK (Reuters) – AC/DC‘S entire catalogue, including 20 studio and live albums and three compilations will be available on iTunes for the first time worldwide, Columbia Records and Apple said on Monday.

Until now the Australian heavy metal group that was formed by two brothers, Angus and Malcolm Young, in 1973, had refused to put their music on Apple Inc’s online music store.

“AC/DC’s thunderous and primal rock and roll has excited fans for generations with their raw and rebellious brand of music, which also resonates with millions of new fans discovering AC/DC everyday,” Columbia Records and Apple, said in a statement announcing the deal.

“Their growing legion of fans will now experience the intensity of AC/DC’s music in a way that has never been heard before,” they added.

The group’s 1976 debut album “High Voltage,” its classic “Back In Black” and 2008′s “Black Ice” are among the albums available on iTunes.

All the of music has been mastered for iTunes and fans can download entire albums or individual songs.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Paul Casciato)

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Unemployment may increase chances of heart attacks

CHICAGO (AP) — Unemployment hurts more than your wallet — it may damage your heart. That’s according to a study linking joblessness with heart attacks in older workers.

The increased odds weren’t huge, although multiple job losses posed as big a threat as smoking, high blood pressure and other conditions that are bad for the heart.

The researchers analyzed data on more than 13,000 men and women aged 51 to 75 taking part in an ongoing health and retirement survey partly sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. Since 1992, participants have been interviewed every two years about their employment and health.

The new analysis has several limitations. The data show periods of unemployment but don’t indicate whether people were fired, laid off, out of work while switching jobs, or had voluntarily left a job. The researchers considered all of these situations “job losses,” but it’s likely the greatest risks for heart attacks were from being fired or laid off, said researcher Matthew Dupre, an assistant professor at Duke University and the lead author. Retirement was not considered unemployment

Sarah Burgard, a University of Michigan researcher who has studied the relationship between job loss and health, called the research solid but said it would be important to know the reason for the unemployment.

“There probably are differences in consequences of job loss when it’s voluntary or more or less expected” and when it comes as a sudden shock, said Burgard, who was not involved in the study.

The analysis appears in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine. An editorial in the journal says the study adds to decades of research linking job loss with health effects and that research should now turn to examining how and why that happens.

Theories include that the stress of losing a job may trigger a heart attack in people with clogged arteries or heart disease; and that the unemployed lose health insurance and access to medical care that can help keep them healthy, Burgard said.

The analysis covers 1992-2010. Participants were mostly in their 50s at the study’s beginning and were asked about their job history, and about employment status and recent heart attacks at subsequent interviews. People who’d had heart attacks before the study began were excluded.

Nearly 70 percent had at least one job loss, or period of unemployment after working at a job, and at least 10 percent had four or more before and/or during the study period.

There were 1,061 heart attacks during the study. Those with at least one job loss were 22 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who never lost a job. Those with at least four job losses had a 60 percent higher risk than those with none. Men and women faced equal risks.

Even though the odds linked with job loss weren’t huge, many participants already faced increased other risks for a heart attack because of obesity, high blood pressure or lack of exercise.

“Any significant additional risk is important,” Dupre said.

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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A Short To-Do List for Intel’s Next CEO

With Paul Otellini heading in May to the nearest 18-hole course, speculation is rampant about who will replace him. That’s a parlor game this post isn’t going to get into (although you can see a good roundup of likely candidates here). But no matter who gets the job, the new chief executive officer of Intel (INTC) has a refreshingly brief and direct list of priorities for the months and years ahead.

Evercore analyst Patrick Wang put it best: “Intel’s new CEO has one task and one task only,” he said. “Succeed in mobile.”

There’s no doubt that Otellini has fulfilled Intel’s primary objective of dominating PCs and laptops. Though Intel’s competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), proved an able (and at times, superior) rival, that marketplace has settled into a fairly stable picture, with Intel continuing to command nearly 80 percent of the processors in notebooks and desktops.

But in mobile, the chipmaker serves less than 1 percent of the market. There, Intel has ceded ground to designs from British chip designer ARM (ARM:LN). ARM chips are made by Samsung (005930:KS), Qualcomm (QCOM), Nvidia (NVDA), and others and are in just about every smartphone and tablet you can think of. Here, Intel has a steep hill to climb. “The new CEO’s job is to grow mobile market share to somewhere north of 25 percent,” says Patrick Moorhead, a former AMD executive and now an industry analyst. According to Moorhead, Intel is not lacking technologically. “After two failed attempts at developing a mobile processor,” he says, “Medfield [Intel's latest mobile processor] shows they can create a competitive mobile product.”

But a manufacturer also has to sell what it makes, and that’s where things can get a little tricky for Intel. For starters, you have Samsung, the dominant manufacturer in mobile. Samsung is also the world’s second-largest semiconductor manufacturer, so it’s going to continue making chips for itself. Apple (AAPL) takes up another big chunk of the mobile and tablet market: Its processors are designed in-house, but manufactured by Samsung.

That leaves Intel with the not-Samsung/not-Apple part of the mobile market to go after. But it’s not even this simple, because that territory is already being fought over by Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Chinese manufacturers such as Fuzhou Rockchip Manufacturing. “Those Chinese manufacturers can do things so cheaply to satisfy domestic Chinese demand, ” says Wang. “Even Qualcomm and Nvidia can’t touch them.”

Everyone who follows Intel knows it remains the company to beat when it comes to technology and manufacturing ability. The company’s new CEO can rest assured that those parts of the company are where they need to be. But the mobile market is so competitive, with so many new players, that having a great product is only half the battle.

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Rebels in Congo reach door of Goma

GOMA, Congo (AP) — A Rwandan-backed rebel group advanced to within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time that rebels have come this close since 2008.

Congolese army spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said the fighting has been going on since 6 a.m. Sunday and the front line has moved to just a few kilometers (miles) outside the city. After more than nine hours of violent clashes the two sides took a break, with M23 rebels establishing a checkpoint just 100 meters (yards) away from one held by the military in the village of Munigi, exactly 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) outside the Goma city line.

Contacted by telephone on the front line, M23 rebel spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama said the group will spend the night in Goma.

“We are about to take the town. We will spend the night in Goma tonight,” said Kazarama. “We are confident that we can take Goma and then our next step will be to take Bukavu,” he said mentioning the capital of the next province to the south.

The M23 rebel group is made up of soldiers from a now-defunct rebel army, the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, a group made-up primarily of fighters from the Tutsi ethnic group, the ethnicity that was targeted in Rwanda‘s 1994 genocide. In 2008, the CNDP led by Rwandan commando Gen. Laurent Nkunda marched his soldiers to the doorstep of Goma, abruptly stopping just before taking the city.

In the negotiations that followed and which culminated in a March 23, 2009 peace deal, the CNDP agreed to disband and their fighters joined the national army of Congo. They did not pick up their arms again until this spring, when hundreds of ex-CNDP fighters defected from the army in April, claiming that the Congolese government had failed to uphold their end of the 2009 agreement.

Reports, including one by the United Nations Group of Experts, have shown that M23 is actively being backed by Rwanda and the new rebellion is likely linked to the fight to control Congo’s rich mineral wealth.

The latest fighting broke out Thursday and led to the deaths of 151 rebels and two soldiers. On Saturday U.N. attack helicopters targeted M23 positions in eastern Congo.

Also on Saturday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had called Rwandan President Paul Kagame “to request that he use his influence on the M23 to help calm the situation and restrain M23 from continuing their attack,” according to peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous who spoke at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Saturday.

North Kivu governor Julien Paluku said Saturday that the Congolese army had earlier retreated from Kibumba, which is 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Goma, after thousands of Rwandans, who he says were backing the rebels, attacked early Saturday.

“Rwandan forces bombarded our positions in Kibumba since early this morning and an estimated 3,500 crossed the border to attack us,” he said Saturday.

In downtown Goma, panicked residents had come out to try to get more information on what was happening. A 45-year-old mother of five said that she has nowhere to go.

“I don’t really know what is happening, I’ve seen soldiers and tanks in the streets and that scares me,” said Imaculee Kahindo. Asked if she planned to leave the city, she said: “What can we do? I will probably hide in my house with my children.”

Hamuli, the spokesman for the Congolese army, denied reports that soldiers were fleeing.

In 2008 as Nkunda’s CNDP rebels amassed at the gates of Goma, reporters inside the city were able to see Congolese soldiers running in the opposite direction, after having abandoned their posts. The Congolese army is notoriously dysfunctional with soldiers paid only small amounts, making it difficult to secure their loyalties during heavy fighting.

“We are fighting 3 kilometers from Goma, just past the airport. And our troops are strong enough to resist the rebels,” said Hamuli. “We won’t let the M23 march into our town,” he said. Asked if his troops were fleeing, he added: “These are false rumors. We are not going anywhere.”

U.N. peacekeeping chief Ladsous said that the rebels were very well-equipped, including with night vision equipment allowing them to fight at night.

Reports by United Nations experts have accused Rwanda, as well as Uganda, of supporting the rebels. Both countries strongly deny any involvement and Uganda said if the charges continue it will pull its peacekeeping troops out of Somalia, where they are playing an important role in pushing out the Islamist extremist rebels.

The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate stop to the violence following a two-hour, closed-door emergency meeting. The council said it would add sanctions against M23 rebels and demanded that rebels immediately stop their advance toward the provincial capital of Goma.

“We must stop the M23″ because Goma’s fall “would, inevitably, turn into a humanitarian crisis,” said France‘s U.N. Ambassador, Gerard Araud. He added that U.N. officials would decide in the coming days which M23 leaders to target for additional sanctions.

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Associated Press writer Maria Sanminiatelli at the United Nations and Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

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Singing stars arrive for American Music Awards

Pink on a song with Lauryn Hill? The pop star hopes so.

Pink said on the red carpet of the American Music Awards that she’d like to collaborate with the acclaimed singer-rapper.

Cyndi Lauper said her musical playlist includes Pink, Nicki Minaj and Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Call Me Maybe.” Boy band The Wanted is excited to see “Gangnam Style” star PSY and Colbie Caillat wants to watch No Doubt rock the stage.

The stars walking the red carpet before the AMAs were ready to take their seats as fans. Arrivals included Taylor Swift, 50 Cent, Gloria Estefan, Ludacris, Kelly Rowland, Lady Antebellum, J. Cole, Luke Bryan, the Backstreet Boys and Linkin Park.

“What makes the American Music Awards special is the fans choose the winning artists,” said Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who is nominated for favorite artist alternative rock and will perform at the show.

Carrie Underwood arrived in a magenta dress and Kerry Washington was in a banana Stella McCartney number Sunday. Heidi Klum and Ginnifer Goodwin were also on the scene.

Along with Rihanna, Minaj is the top nominee at Sunday’s American Music Awards, but the rapper-singer isn’t concerned with her four nominations.

“I don’t do music for awards,” the 29-year-old said in an interview. “It’s so crazy because people always have to remind me that I’m nominated for an award when I go to award shows.”

“I know they’re going to come. I’m sitting here looking at my awards right now,” she continued with a laugh. “I never stress it. I think of myself as ‘I’ll have a career long enough to get all those different awards.’”

In the pop/rock category, Minaj is up for favorite female artist and album for “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.” She’s also nominated for favorite artist and album in the hip-hop/rap category, two awards she won last year.

Minaj isn’t up for the night’s top award, though. Rihanna, Maroon 5, Drake, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber will battle it out for artist of the year.

But the American Music Awards are all about performances, and Sunday’s show will be no exception. Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood will perform. Justin Bieber will share the stage with Minaj. Ludacris and Chris Brown will perform with Swizz Beatz. And Stevie Wonder is set to provide the soundtrack for a tribute to the late Dick Clark.

“I’m really going there to perform ‘Freedom,’” Minaj said of her new single. “I’m very, very proud of the record and I’m happy that people are going to get to hear it. I’m performing a hip-hop song on the AMAs, and I think . that’s just a big look for hip-hop.”

Rae Jepsen, Kelly Clarkson and Usher are also among those set to sing during the three-hour program, which is to be broadcast live on ABC.

Other multiple nominees include Usher, Bieber, Drake, Maroon 5 and One Direction, who have three nods each. Perry, Underwood, Brown, Clarkson, Pitbull, fun., Gotye, J. Cole and Luke Bryan are all double nominees.

American Music Awards nominees were selected based on sales and airplay, and fans chose the winners by voting online.

The 40th anniversary show will also include the tribute to Clark, its creator.

“Dick changed the face of music back in the late ’50s,” producer Larry Klein said. “Dick is the one who made rock ‘n’ roll acceptable to come into people’s homes… We’re paying tribute to Dick because of the legacy that he’s left everybody and also the creativity of what he did on this show.”

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Follow (at)APSandy’s American Music Award updates at www.twitter.com/APEntertainment.

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Online:

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards

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