“Twilight” sendoff starts with huge $341 million worldwide

(Reuters) – The “Twilight” vampire saga‘s final chapter debuted with a massive $ 341 million in global movie ticket sales as devoted fans bid farewell to blood-sucking spouses Bella and Edward and one of Hollywood‘s biggest franchises.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ earned an estimated $ 141 million in the United States and Canada over the weekend, falling slightly short of a record for the supernatural romance series about a human-vampire-werewolf love triangle.

The total, which includes sales from late night Thursday through Sunday, ranked as the eight biggest domestic film debut of all time. Late-night Thursday screenings comprised $ 30.4 million of the $ 141 million total.

Fan fever for the fifth “Twilight” movie raged high around the world. “Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ rang up sales of $ 199.6 million from Thursday to Sunday at theaters in 61 countries for a worldwide total of $ 341 million, distributor Summit Entertainment said on Sunday.

The earlier “Twilight” films pulled in a combined $ 2.5 billion at global box offices over a four-year run. The success lifted tiny studio Summit Entertainment into Hollywood‘s big leagues and paved the way for its $ 412 million acquisition in January by Lions Gate Entertainment.

“New Moon” scored the biggest debut of the series, grossing $ 142.8 million over its first three days in 2009.

The movies based on a series of best-selling young adult books by Stephenie Meyer ignited a pop culture infatuation with blood-sucking vampires and werewolves. The films star Kristen Stewart as human-turned-vampire Bella Swan, Robert Pattinson as her vampire love Edward Cullen, and Taylor Lautner as werewolf Jacob Black, who competes for Bella’s affection.

Summit spent $ 120 million to produce “Breaking Dawn – Part 2,” which concludes the tale with newly turned vampire Bella and husband Edward in a high-stakes battle to protect their half-human, half-vampire daughter from an ancient vampire clan. The couple enlist the extended Cullen family in their fight.

Fans of the series, mostly teen girls nicknamed “Twi-hards,” embraced the final film, which includes a surprise twist that was not in the final book. Audiences polled by CinemaScore awarded the movie an “A” grade, with an “A+” from filmgoers under age 25, according to Summit. Critics were less supportive. Fifty-one percent of reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website were positive.

Summit Entertainment‘s president of domestic distribution Richie Fay said though the vast majority of the audience was female, he expected more male viewers than for previous “Twilight” films.

“The male audience has increased a good bit, and the ratings among males are higher I think in part to the action in the film,” he said.

Author Meyer has not ruled out the possibility of more stories in the vampire-werewolf universe but said she has closed the chapter on the Cullens.

Hollywood is eager to fill the void after the success of “Twilight” highlighted the power of young adult stories on the big screen. Studios are bringing at least four new films based on popular young adult novels to theaters next year as well as the sequel to the newest teen movie sensation, “The Hunger Games.

The “Twilight” excitement eclipsed all other movies over the weekend. Last week’s winner, James Bond movie “Skyfall” finished in second place with $ 41.5 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters.

“Skyfall” is now the highest-grossing Bond movie to date with a global total of over $ 669 million, surpassing the $ 599 million taken in by “Casino Royale” in 2006.

“Skyfall” also propelled distributer Sony Pictures Entertainment to a record year, pushing its worldwide box office total over the $ 4 billion mark.

Historical drama “Lincoln” expanded from a limited opening a week ago and landed in third place with $ 21 million. The movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president near the end of his life as he battles to ban slavery and end the Civil War. The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg and has earned critical praise and awards-season buzz.

In fourth place, Walt Disney Co animated movie “Wreck-It Ralph,” about a videogame character who destroys everything in his path, pulled in $ 18.3 million. Denzel Washington drama “Flight” earned $ 8.6 million and the No. 5 spot.

Elsewhere, romantic comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” brought in $ 458,000 at 16 locations, or an average of $ 28,625 per theater. The film stars Bradley Cooper as a bipolar former teacher just released from a mental institution and Jennifer Lawrence as a young widow he encounters as he tries to put his life back together.

“Silver Linings” won over critics who say it may earn a spot in the Oscar race. The Weinstein Co, the private company that released the movie, will expand the film nationwide beginning on Wednesday, November 21.

Sony Corp’s movie studio distributed “Skyfall.” “Lincoln” was produced by Dreamworks and released by Walt Disney Co. “Flight” was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jackie Frank)

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Nintendo’s Wii U: First Impressions

GamePad

The Wii U GamePad has a 6.2-inch touchscreen.

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: Meet the Super Fan Who Waited in Line for a Month for a Wii U [VIDEO]]

Nintendo‘s newest console has only been available for one day, but that’s still enough time for early-bird consumers to get their hands on the Wii U, and test out its features and games.

We spent the last 24 hours playing with the Wii U, and have organized our early thoughts on the system. Read on if you’re on the fence about buying one.

[More from Mashable: Toys ‘R’ Us Says Wii U Pre-Order Shipments May Be Delayed]

Out of the Box

Setting up the Wii U is easy, but installing the software is more of a process. Nintendo issued a day-one patch to activate features such as MiiVerse, the company’s social features; this means users will spend between one to three hours (depending on connection speed) downloading and installing a patch that bricks their system. Not a great way to greet consumers excited to play your games. But there’s a chance that servers won’t be as busy in the coming weeks, so download times may improve. Each game I inserted had its own patch too, which users have to install on the second playthrough.

After getting through the patch, user still face an involved setup. They have to create their Mii avatar before they start playing, and create a Nintendo Network ID for network play. Users must also set up the GamePad’s universal remote functionality, which is thankfully the easiest part of the process. They only have to pick their TV manufacturer (the Wii U knows what to do next). The GamePad controls volume, input source and channels.

Look and Feel

The GamePad is the Wii U’s main portal, so users need it to access all the relevant menus (the console shows a different menu from the television); here, users can launch applications by touch. The default view includes apps such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video Services and YouTube; but only Netflix is available now, which seems a bit like false advertising. Loading other options, such as the Nintendo eShop, requires pressing the Home button on the controller, which is unintuitive at first. But soon, the button quickly becomes a handy way to navigate to other parts of the Wii U, like the upcoming Nintendo TVii.

The most troublesome thing about the console is that everything moved slowly; launching games and apps took a long time. I felt like I spent awhile looking at a spinning blue circle.

Wii U games definitely take advantage of the console’s ability to support high-definition graphics. Cartoony games, such as Scribblenauts Unlimited or Nintendo Land look beautiful. For games such as ZombiU, which are supposed to appear more realistic, users might be disappointed. This system is supposed to be the next-generation of gaming consoles — meant to outshine the Xbox 360 — but I can’t say it achieves that.

The GamePad

Pre-launch, Nintendo has spent much of its time crowing about the features of the GamePad, a hybrid touch screen and controller that’s central to the Wii U. The first thing I noticed is its large size; but after spending a few hours with the GamePad, I’ve concluded that it won’t weigh you down like an iPad, yet is substantial enough that it doesn’t feel like a toy (though the glossy finish makes it look like one.)

Unfortunately, the GamePad takes some getting used to as an actual controller, especially for games that require more than simple controls or the gyroscope. My biggest complaint is that Nintendo bucked all gaming-controller tradition by swapping the position of the right analog stick and the four letter buttons. Anyone who has played any other modern console (including Nintendo’s own GameCube) knows instinctively that the analog stick goes below the buttons; but Nintendo flipped them on both the GamePad and the Pro Controller. If the company is only targeting non-gamers, they won’t notice; but this will be a difficult change for many others. Despite this drawback, the buttons, and especially triggers, feel good.

The GamePad is mostly dominated by the 6.2-inch touch screen with a passable resolution: 854 x 480. The most appealing feature of the Wii U — that users can play games or watch movies entirely on the GamePad — may be spoiled for some looking for HD crispness. Still, I watched a whole episode of Portlandia from Netflix on the GamePad, and also spent time playing New Super Mario Bros. U with the television off. Being able to isolate your gameplay to a smaller screen is very novel, and one of my favorite parts of the system.

Games

Nintendo’s Wii U has a better launch lineup coming out, compared to other consoles — but only a few titles stick out. Almost everyone I talked to in line at the Nintendo World store during the Wii U launch wanted New Super Mario Bros. U or ZombiU, both of which are fun titles. Nintendo Land, which is a pack-in if users purchase the Deluxe model, is going to be a huge hit at parties; from what I’ve seen so far, it has some engrossing minigames. I haven’t cracked open Scribblenauts Unlimited yet, but in demos it looks like a very promising title that would go well with a touch screen.

Some non-exclusive titles on other consoles are also appealing. I’m looking forward to digging in to Epic Mickey 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. While the system had 24 launch titles, many more are expected to debut in the coming months.

I plan to spend Thanksgiving week exploring the Wii U, and will write a more detailed report on whether it’s the right console for gamers, families or casual users.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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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.

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Decreased Sexual Interest Most Common Complaint Among Women With Breast Cancer

FIRST PERSON | Research presented at the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Connections: Advancing Care Through Science conference discloses that decreased sexual interest is the most common complaint among women with breast cancer. 13.8 million women are breast cancer survivors in the United States. The research reported on results from 896 women.

The Oncology Nurse Advisor reports the research presented at the conference included information taken from the American Cancer Society Study of Cancer Survivors II. The study showed that among the 896 women included in the ONS research, 21.1 percent of them reported a decrease in sexual interest. This does not surprise me. As a one-year cancer survivor and someone still undergoing treatment, I can relate to the study.

Breast cancer is not sexy

Despite the media and marketing industry’s attempt to objectify breast cancer as something sexy, with stupid terms like “save second base” or “I love boobies,” those of us who are fighting cancer don’t see it as sexy.

I lost my left breast to breast cancer. Chemo put me into early menopause and made my hair fall out. My body image has changed forever — I will never look the same as I did before cancer. Scars tell the tale of my battle and most days I still feel like crap. Do I think about sex? Yes, but I miss the way it used to be. What I am dealing with now is something drug-induced and artificial.

Doctors don’t tell

My oncologist did not discuss all of the issues I would face with chemotherapy-induced menopause. I expected hot flashes and the end of my cycle. That was just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more symptoms that coincide with chemo-induced menopause — too many to discuss in this article and many are too personal for me to talk about in print.

Dealing with a radically different body image, scarring, feeling awful — both emotionally and physically — takes its toll on sex drive. Women like me do think about sex. We want to get back what chemo and surgery has taken away. I do believe that the research is correct on this. What surprises me is that only 21.1 percent of the women in the study said that they had a decrease in sexual interest. I thought the number would be much higher.

Lynda Altman was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2011. She writes a series for Yahoo! Shine called “My Battle With Breast Cancer.”

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Israel says prefers diplomacy but ready to invade Gaza

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire.

Mediator Egypt said a deal for a truce to end the fighting could be close. The leader of Hamas said it was up to Israel to end the new conflict it had started. Israel says its strikes are to halt Palestinian rocket attacks.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, touring the region in hopes of helping broker a peace arrived in Cairo, where he met Egypt's foreign minister in preparation for talks with the new, Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, on Tuesday. He also plans to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Israeli attacks on the sixth day of fighting raised the number of Palestinian dead to 101, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said, listing 24 children among them. Hospital officials in Gaza said more than half of those killed were non-combatants. Three Israeli civilians died on Thursday in a rocket strike.

Militants in the Gaza Strip fired 110 rockets at southern Israel on Monday, causing no casualties, police said.

For the second straight day, Israeli missiles blasted a tower block in the city of Gaza housing international media. Two people were killed there, one of them an Islamic Jihad militant.

Khaled Meshaal, exiled leader of Hamas, said a truce was possible but the Islamist group, in charge of the Gaza Strip since 2007, would not accept Israeli demands and wanted Israel to halt its strikes first and lift its blockade of the enclave.

"Whoever started the war must end it," he told a news conference in Cairo, adding that Netanyahu, who faces an election in January, had asked for a truce, an assertion a senior Israeli official described as untrue.

Meshaal said Netanyahu feared the domestic consequences of a "land war" of the kind Israel launched four years ago: "He can do it, but he knows that it will not be a picnic and that it could be his political death and cost him the elections."

For Israel, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon has said that "if there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."

Yaalon also said Israel wanted an end to Gaza guerrilla activity in the neighboring Egyptian Sinai peninsula.

Although 84 percent of Israelis supported the current Gaza assault, according to a poll by Israel's Haaretz newspaper, only 30 percent wanted an invasion, while 19 percent wanted their government to work on securing a truce soon.

DIPLOMACY "PREFERRED"

"Israel is prepared and has taken steps, and is ready for a ground incursion which will deal severely with the Hamas military machine," a senior official close to Netanyahu told Reuters.

"We would prefer to see a diplomatic solution that would guarantee the peace for Israel's population in the south. If that is possible, then a ground operation would no longer be required. If diplomacy fails, we may well have no alternative but to send in ground forces," he added.

Egypt, where Mursi has his roots in the Muslim Brotherhood seen as mentors to Hamas, is acting as a mediator in the biggest test yet of Cairo's 1979 peace treaty with Israel since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

"I think we are close, but the nature of this kind of negotiation, (means) it is very difficult to predict," Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, who visited Gaza on Friday in a show of support for its people, said in an interview in Cairo for the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

Egypt has been hosting leaders of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction.

Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had also been to Cairo for truce talks. A spokesman for Netanyahu's government declined comment on the matter.

Egypt's foreign minister, who met U.N. chief Ban on Monday, is expected to visit Gaza on Tuesday with a delegation of Arab ministers.

THOUSANDS MOURN FAMILY

Thousands turned out on Gaza's streets to mourn four children and five women, among 11 people killed in an Israeli strike that flattened a three-storey home the previous day.

The bodies were wrapped in Palestinian and Hamas flags. Echoes of explosions mixed with cries of grief and defiant chants of "God is greatest".

The deaths of the 11 in an air strike drew more international calls for an end to six days of hostilities and could test Western support for an offensive Israel billed as self-defense after years of cross-border rocket attacks.

Israel said it was investigating its air strike that brought the home crashing down on the al-Dalu family, where the dead spanned four generations. Some Israeli newspapers said the wrong house may have been mistakenly targeted.

In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of the coastal enclave, tanks, artillery and infantry have massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border and military convoys moved on roads in the area.

Israel has also authorized the call-up of 75,000 military reservists, so far mobilizing around half that number.

The Gaza fighting adds to worries of world powers watching an already combustible region, where several Arab autocrats have been toppled in popular revolts for the past two years and a civil war in Syria threatens to spread beyond its borders.

In the absence of any prospect of permanent peace between Israel and Islamist factions such as Hamas, mediated deals for each to hold fire unilaterally have been the only formula for stemming bloodshed in the past.

Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and force Hamas to stop rocket fire that has hit Israeli border towns for years.

Hamas and other groups in Gaza are sworn enemies of the Jewish state which they refuse to recognize and seek to eradicate, claiming all Israeli territory as rightfully theirs.

Hamas won legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories in 2006. A year later, after the collapse of a unity government under President Mahmoud Abbas, the Islamist group seized Gaza in a brief civil war with Abbas's forces.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Dan Williams and Peter Graff; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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“Last Resort,” “666 Park Avenue” Dropped by ABC

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – ABC’s freshman submarine drama “Last Resort” has been sunk, and the network has shuttered “666 Park Avenue” while it’s at it.

The network has declined to pick up its freshman drama “Last Resort,” which starred Ande Braugher as a submarine commander whose crew is declared rogue enemies after he ignores a suspicious order.

Likewise, freshman drama “666 Park Avenue,” which starred Terry O’Quinn and Vanessa Williams, will also not go forward. That drama centered around a young couple who manage a New York City apartment building that’s plagued by supernatural occurrences.

Though the network says it will air the remaining episodes of both series, they have not been picked up for additional episodes.

“Last Resort,” which aired Thursdays at 8 p.m., dipped to a 1.3 rating/4 share in the advertiser-cherished 18-49 demographic, tying the lowest performance in the series’ short existence.

“666 Park Avenue,” which aired Sundays at 10 p.m., drew a 1.3/3 for its final airing, which also tied a series low.

Earlier Friday, CBS canceled its freshman comedy “Partners.”

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Who Are the ‘Anti-Israel’ Press Behind Rupert Murdoch’s Twitter Attack?

Rupert Murdoch can apologize (as he sort of did) about his “Jewish-owned press” tweet, but he still can’t take it back. And because that tweet is out there, the big question now—after “Why is he still on there?” and “Wow, that’s really offensive, right?”—is which press, exactly, he was referring to. Here’s the tweet that Murdoch sent out on Saturday night: 

Why Is Jewish owned press so consistently anti- Israel in every crisis?

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) November 18, 2012

After an avalanche of Twitter blowback, Murdoch soon faux-apologized…

“,Jewish owned press” have been sternly criticised, suggesting link to Jewish reporters.Don’t see this, but apologise unreservedly.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) November 18, 2012

…”don’t see this” being Murdochian for faux-apology.

RELATED: Rupert Murdoch Brightens Every Newsroom He Enters

As the initial round of shock wears off (The Daily Beast’s Peter Beinart eloquently wrote about how stupid and offensive this tweet was), journalists and editors are now actually trying to make some kind of sense of which outlet or outlets Murdoch may have gotten all drunk-uncle-at-Thanksgiving over. So, with the help of journalists on the case, here’s our best attempt at “Murdoch Whispering“: 

RELATED: How U.K. Tabloids Are Getting Around Prince Harry’s Nudity Warning

He Is Talking About The New York Times Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell put it succinctly: 

FWIW Murdoch was probably referring to the NYT with that weird tweet.

— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) November 18, 2012

And it was shared be Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith:

Wolff also assumes, as I did, that Murdoch’s Jewish-owned press meant the Times guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/…

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) November 19, 2012

The reason Smith, Hounshell, and The Guardian‘s Michael Wolff all think it’s a Times-centered attack isn’t just because of an anti-Semitic slam against the Sulzbergers (more on this in a tiny bit) but because of Murdoch’s various “wars” and his rivalry with The New York Times. Back in 2010, as Vanity Fair pointed out, Murdoch was warring with executive editor Bill Keller, and he was seen tweeting dissing the well-liked Times‘s public editor, Margaret Sullivan, not too long ago: 

Amusing fuss over NYT public editor.We see all two million daily subscribers as our very public editors.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) November 8, 2012

So maybe this tweet was another pot shot, albeit with more anti-Semitic tone. But as Wolff points out, being Jewish-owned doesn’t even apply to The Times anymore, which kinda makes it even more anti-Semitic if he was just going by the Sulzberger surname:

To describe the Times this way is both quizzical, and we can assume, pointed. Because, as it happens, the Times isn’t, per se, “Jewish”. True, the Sulzbergers, who control the company, were once a prominent Jewish family. But the Times’ chairman and publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, is half-Jewish (on his father’s side) and was raised as an Episcopalian. Murdoch knows this full well. So what he is saying is something more like “Jewish-tainted press”, which, all in all, seems more, not less, antisemitic.

He Was Talking About CNN and the AP If you go to the New York Times report on the whole thing that might be referring to The Times, they point to CNN and the AP. “In an earlier message he had said, “CNN and AP bias to point of embarrassment,” writes The Times‘s Amy Chozick.

RELATED: New York Times Devours Gothamist

He Was Channeling Wendi’s Broken English and Trolling His ‘Minders’ “Curiously, Murdoch’s wife Wendi often uses the word ‘Jewish’in an atonal context – ‘You Jewish, right? I know you Jewish!’– that makes Murdoch’s minders jump.  He may even become more retrograde to bedevil his minders.” wrote Wolff. Based on a life experience which includes very blunt Asian relatives and a large extended family, there is a definite possibility that Wendi might not know how harsh  ”You Jewish, right?” comes off. It’s hard to say the same for Rupert.

RELATED: The Vatican Gets Trendy: Puts Newspaper Online, Plans a Paywall

He Wasn’t Talking About Mother Jones‘s Adam Weinstein: 

*I* don’t own any media. You laid me off in 2008. RT @rupertmurdoch: Why Is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?

— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) November 18, 2012

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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.

___

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

Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Questions of Blame Linger 34 Years After Jonestown

From the age of 13, Leslie Wagner Wilson had been indoctrinated in the California-based Peoples Temple, led by the charismatic Jim Jones, whose mission was to foster racial harmony and help the poor.

But on Nov. 18, 1978, she and a handful of church members fought their way through thick jungle in the South American country of Guyana, escaping a utopian society gone wrong where followers were starved, beaten and held prisoner in the Jonestown compound.

She walked 30 miles to safety with her 3-year-old son, Jakari, strapped to her back and a smaller group of defectors. But just hours later, the mother, sister and brother and husband she left behind were dead.

“I was so scared,” said Wagner, now 55. “We exchanged phone numbers in case we died. I was prepared to die. I never thought I would see my 21st birthday.”

Today, on the 34th anniversary, Wilson said it’s important to remember the California-based Peoples Temple Jonestown massacre, especially the survivors who have wrestled with their consciences for decades.

PHOTOS: Jonestown Massacre Anniversary

Nine members of her family were among the 918 Americans who died that day, 909 of them ordered by Jones to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in the largest ritual suicide in history.

Her husband, Joe Wilson, was one of Jones’ top lieutenants who helped assassinate congressman Leo Ryan and his press crew when they tried to free church members who were being held against their will.

After arriving back in the United States, Wilson said she “went through hell” — three failed marriages, drug use and suicidal thoughts she describes in her 2009 book, “Slavery of Faith.”

“I was like Humpty Dumpty, but you couldn’t put me back together again,” she said.

Survivors, many of them African-American like Wilson, say they felt guilt and shame and faced the most agonizing question surrounding the nation’s single largest loss of life until 9/11: Was it suicide or murder?

Full Coverage: Jonestown Massacre

In the now-famous “death tape,” supporters clapped and babies cried as Jones instructed families to kill the elderly first, then the youngest in protest against capitalism and racism. Mothers poisoned 246 children before taking their own lives.

“We really can’t understand the Peoples Temple without looking at the historical time period when it arose,” said Rebecca Moore, a professor of religious studies at San Diego State University.

“With the liberation movements of the ’60s and ’70s, the collapse of the black-power movement, the Peoples Temple was the main institution in the San Francisco Bay area that promoted a message of integration and racial equality.”

Moore lost her two sisters and her nephew, the son of Jim Jones. “They were hardcore believers,” she said of her siblings.

Jim Jones, who was white, came from a “wrong side of the tracks,” poor background in Indiana where in the 1950s he became known as a charismatic preacher with an affinity for African-Americans.

“A number of survivors, including those who defected, believe to this day he had paranormal abilities,” said Moore, who met him years later. “He could heal them and read their minds.”

In the 1960s, Jones moved to San Francisco, where at the height of the Peoples Temple there were about 5,000 members.

WATCH: A Look Back at Jonestown Massacre

“They wanted my parents to join,” she said. “Like most outsiders, we didn’t have any idea what was happening outside closed doors.”

Jones ingratiated himself with celebrities and politicians, mobilizing voters to help elect Mayor George Moscone in 1975 and becoming chairman of the city’s housing authority.

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Medics: Israel strike intended for militants kills 11 Gaza civilians

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli missile flattened a two-story house in a residential neighborhood of Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 11 civilians, mostly women and children, Palestinian medical officials said, as Israel expanded a military offensive to target homes of wanted militants.

The attack, which Israel said targeted a militant, was the single deadliest incident of the five-day-old Israeli operation and hiked a toll Sunday that was already the highest number of civilians killed in one day, according to Gaza medics. The bloodshed is likely to raise international pressure for a cease-fire, with Egypt taking the leading role in mediating between Israel and Hamas.

President Barack Obama said he had been in touch with the leaders of Israel, Egypt, and Turkey in an effort to halt the fighting. "We're going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours," he said.

Obama cautioned against a potential Israeli ground invasion into Gaza, warning it could only deepen its death toll. At the same time, he blamed Palestinian militants for starting the round of fighting by raining rockets onto Israel, and he defended Israel's right to defend itself.

"Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said in Thailand at the start of a three-nation tour in Asia.

An Israeli envoy arrived in Cairo on Sunday and held talks with Egyptian officials on a ceasefire, according to Egyptian security officials and Nabil Shaath, a top aide of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who was in the Egyptian capital.

But Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers remain far apart on any terms for a halt in the bloodshed, which has killed 70 Palestinians — including 36 civilians, according to Gaza health officials — and three Israeli civilians.

Hamas is linking a truce deal to a complete lifting of the border blockade on Gaza imposed since Islamists seized the territory by force. Hamas also seeks Israeli guarantees to halt targeted killings of its leaders and military commanders. Israeli officials reject such demands. They say they are not interested in a "timeout," and want firm guarantees that militant rocket fire into Israel will finally end. Past ceasefires have been short lived.

As the offensive moved forward, Israel found itself at a crossroads — on the cusp of launching a ground offensive into Gaza to strike an even tougher blow against Hamas, or pursuing Egyptian-led truce efforts.

"The Israeli military is prepared to significantly expand the operation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

At the same time, Gaza militants continued their barrage of rocket fire at Israel, firing more than 100, including two at Tel Aviv. More than 10 Israelis were injured by shrapnel, two moderately, according to police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. Israel's "Iron Dome" rocket-defense system shot down at least 30 rockets, including the ones aimed at Tel Aviv.

Israel's announcement Sunday that it was widening its campaign to target homes of militants appeared to mark a new and risky phase of the operation, given the likelihood of civilian casualties in the densely populated territory of 1.5 million Palestinians. Israel launched the offensive Wednesday in a bid to end months of intensifying rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The day's deadliest strike hit the home of the Daloo family in Gaza City, reducing the structure to rubble.

Frantic rescuers pulled the bodies of several children from the ruins of the house, including a toddler and a 5-year-old, as survivors and bystanders screamed in grief. Later, the bodies of the children were laid out in the morgue of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.

Among the 11 dead were four small children and five women, including an 80-year-old, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.

Israeli military spokesman Brig Gen. Yoav Mordechai told Channel 2 TV that the Israeli navy had targeted the building and killed a "global jihad" militant.

"The targets are exact," Mordechai said. "Every (Israeli) missile has an address."

He said the army would continue its operation "as if there were no (cease-fire) talks in Egypt."

The presence of a militant in the house could not be verified. Al-Kidra said the two adult men killed in the strike were civilians.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that "the Israeli people will pay the price" for the killing of civilians. One of the rocket attacks targeting Tel Aviv came soon after the strike on the Daloo home.

More than a dozen homes of Hamas commanders or families linked to Hamas were struck on Sunday. Though most were empty — their inhabitants having fled to shelter — at least three still had families in them. Al-Kidra said 19 of the 24 people killed Sunday were civilians, mostly women and children.

Israeli Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon said civilian casualties are inevitable.

"You can't avoid collateral damage if they position the rockets in densely populated areas, in mosques, school yards. We shouldn't be blamed for the outcome," he said.

Israel also struck two high-rise buildings housing media outlets, damaging the top floor offices of the Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, and a Lebanese-based broadcaster, Al Quds TV, seen as sympathetic to the Islamists. Six Palestinian journalists were wounded, including one who lost a leg, a Gaza press association said.

Foreign broadcasters, including British, German and Italian TV outlets, also had offices in the high-rises.

Two missiles made a direct hit on Al Aqsa TV's 15th floor offices, said Bassem Madhoun, an employee of Dubai TV, which has offices in the same building.

Building windows were blown out and glass shards and debris were scattered on the street below. Some of the journalists who had been inside the building at the time took cover in the entrance hallway.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said the strikes targeted Hamas communications equipment on the buildings' rooftops. She accused the group of using journalists as "human shields," and urged journalists to stay clear of Hamas bases and facilities.

The repeated militant rocket fire on Tel Aviv and a volley fired Friday toward Jerusalem have significantly escalated the hostilities by widening the militants' rocket range and putting 3.5 million Israelis, or half the country's population, within reach. The attempt to strike Jerusalem also has symbolic resonance because both Israel and the Palestinians claim the holy city for a capital.

Israeli radio stations repeatedly interrupted their broadcasts to air "Code Red" alerts warning of impending rocket strikes. In the southern city of Ashkelon, rocket fire damaged a residential building, punching a hole in the ceiling and riddling the facade with shrapnel.

With fighting showing no signs of slowing, international attempts to broker a ceasefire continued.

Nabil Shaath, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who was in Cairo, confirmed that the Israeli envoy had arrived in Egypt for talks, saying there are "serious attempts to reach a ceasefire." There was no immediate Israeli confirmation.

Hamas' prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, spoke to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. He told the Egyptian leader he supports such efforts, provided Hamas receives "guarantees that will prevent any future aggression" by Israel, his office said in a statement.

Morsi over the weekend hosted talks with Hamas' supreme leader, as well as leaders from Hamas allies Turkey and Qatar. He also held contacts with Western leaders.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius visited Israel on Sunday to offer his country's help toward forging an "immediate ceasefire," the French government said.

Meeting with Fabius, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman thanked him for "France's efforts to prevent casualties" but said "the moment that all the terror organizations announce a ceasefire, we can consider all the ideas that French foreign minister and other friends are raising."

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Aron Heller contributed reporting from Beersheba.

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