6 dead in Somali parliament mortar attack

(CNN) -- Mortar rounds slammed into Somali parliament on Saturday, killing at least six people and injuring 15, sources in Mogadishu told CNN.

The fatalities included a soldier and three school children who were killed when the rounds struck a nearby school, Mogadishu police spokesman Hussein Osman Dhumal said.

The attack was carried out by "those who oppose peace in Somalia, " Dhumal added.

Members of parliament were meeting when the attack occurred, according to Osman Elmiboqore, the deputy speaker of parliament.

"While we concluded our session, the prime minister and the House speaker were leaving from the venue when mortars started landing around the building," he said.

Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke "is safe" and no parliament member was injured, authorities said.

The strike comes one day after the Somali prime minister called for the U.N. arms embargo to be lifted so the government can fight back against the pirates and local militant Islamist groups.

"One of our biggest problems is that al-Shabaab has AK-47s, and the pirates have AK-47s, and the government has AK-47s," the prime minister said in Nairobi, Kenya.

"You can't expect the government to win against such a problem. The only way is to have sufficient capability, and it starts with lifting the arms embargo," Sharmarke said. "You know, we have been handicapped by those sanctions."
The arms embargo on Somalia has been in effect for more than 16 years. Most serviceable weapons and almost all ammunition currently available in the country have been delivered since 1992, in violation of the embargo, according to the U.N. Security Council.

N. Korea says it's reprocessing nuclear fuel rods

(CNN) -- North Korea has begun reprocessing fuel rods, its Foreign Ministry said Saturday, according to state-run media.

A photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency showing the April 9 rocket launch.

"The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the Foreign Ministry statement dated April 14," a ministry spokesman said.

"This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces."

North Korea, angered by the United Nations Security Council's unanimous condemnation of a rocket launch, has threatened to walk away from the six-party talks aimed at disarming the country of nuclear weapons. It has said it will restore its disabled nuclear reactor.

The six-party talks -- involving China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States -- have been aimed at persuading North Korea to scrap its nuclear program.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, Iraq, said the United States and its partners are working to resume the discussions.

Jailed U.S. journalist on hunger strike, father says

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A U.S. journalist jailed in Iran for espionage is on a hunger strike, and plans to keep it up until she is freed, her father told CNN on Saturday.

Roxana Saberi records video in Tehran, Iran, in this photo taken in September 2003.

Roxana Saberi, 31, was sentenced last week to eight years in prison after a one-day trial that was closed to the public. Her father, Reza Saberi, confirmed the hunger strike, saying she started it on Tuesday.

"She was supposed to see her lawyer on Thursday but the lawyer could not get permission from the courts to go see her," Reza Saberi said. "She says she will continue the strike until she is free from prison."

Reza Saberi said he spoke to his daughter in a one-minute call, and "she did not give us the chance to tell her not to do it."

President Obama and other U.S. and international officials have denounced the Iranian court's actions.

Saberi's legal team has said it will appeal her conviction. Judiciary Chief Ayatol

Eliminated contestants discuss 'American Idol'

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Anoop Desai says he was comfortable with his "geeky" image on "American Idol." Lil Rounds says her soulful singing is what made her unique -- that and her name, of course.Desai and Rounds were eliminated from "Idol" on Wednesday. The judges used the save option last week to keep Matt Giraud in the competition, so the contestants with the two lowest vote totals this week were sent packing. Five contestants remain: Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, Matt Giraud, Allison Iraheta and Daniel Gokey.

Judge Simon Cowell described Desai's performance of "Dim All the Lights" on Tuesday's program as "mediocre at best." In an interview with CNN on Friday, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, native said was disappointed about his elimination and felt he had a few more "good weeks" left in him.

"I pride myself on being versatile," Desai said. "Sometimes, you're sort of forced to fit yourself into a niche that the audience or the judges want to see."............news has been take by cnn news.

New cases of swine flu were confirmed in Kansas and California and suspected in New York City. But officials said they didn't know whether the New Yor

New cases of swine flu were confirmed in Kansas and California and suspected in New York City. But officials said they didn't know whether the New York cases were the strain that now has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and likely sickened 1,324 since April 13, according to figures updated late Saturday by Mexico's health secretary.

New Cases of Swine Influenza Confirmed in Kansas, California and Suspected in NYC

New cases of swine flu were confirmed in Kansas and California and suspected in New York City. But officials said they didn't know whether the New York cases were the strain that now has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and likely sickened 1,324 since April 13, according to figures updated late Saturday by Mexico's health secretary.

U.S. to Pakistan: Stop the Taliban, or We Will

America made clear last week that it would attack Taliban forces in their Swat valley stronghold unless the Pakistan government stopped the militants' advance towards Islamabad.
A senior Pakistani official said the Obama administration intervened after Taliban forces expanded from Swat into the adjacent district of Buner, 60 miles from the capital.
The Pakistani Taliban's inroads raised international concern, particularly in Washington, where officials feared that the nuclear-armed country, which is pivotal to the U.S. war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and against Al Qaeda, was rapidly succumbing to Islamist extremists.
"The implicit threat - if you don't do it, we may have to - was always there," said the Pakistani official. He said that under American pressure, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency told the Taliban to withdraw from Buner on Friday.
However, reports Saturday indicated that the Taliban withdrawal was less than total. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people in the district were still at the mercy of armed militants and their restrictive interpretation of Islamic law.
American military and intelligence forces already run limited ground and air operations on Pakistani soil along the border with Afghanistan. But an overt military operation such as that threatened in Swat, away from the border, would mark a major escalation.
The official said last week's outspoken remarks by Hillary Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, were "calculated to ramp up the pressure on Pakistan" to take action. Clinton warned that the terrorists' advance had created a "mortal threat" to world security.
She was one of several American political and military leaders to use unusually strong language about Pakistan's failure to curb the Taliban. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, who visited Pakistan, said he was "extremely concerned" about the developments and that the situation was "definitely worse" than two weeks ago.
General David Petraeus, of US Central Command, which oversees Afghanistan - to which America is about to commit 17,000 more troops - said Al Qaeda and Taliban extremists in Pakistan posed an "ever more serious threat to Pakistan's very existence."...........................news has been taken by foxnews.