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Sunday, May 14

Editor's Note: The CNN Wire is a running log of the latest news from CNN World Headquarters, reported by CNN's correspondents and producers, and The CNN Wire editors. "Posted" times are Eastern Daylight.

Mortar attacks wound 4 British soldiers; 4 teachers killed near Baquba

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Four British soldiers were wounded in a mortar attack on a military outpost in southern Iraq Monday, a British military source in Basra said.

The mortar barrage hit Camp Naji in Amara around 4:20 a.m. (8:20 p.m. EDT Sunday).

One of the soldiers was airlifted to a military hospital for treatment. The other three soldiers received minor wounds, the source said.

Amara is located about 190 miles (305 km) southeast of Baghdad.

North of the Iraqi capital, four teachers were killed by gunmen near Balad Ruz, an official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center told CNN.

The teachers were traveling to work in a minibus when the gunmen stopped their vehicle around 8:10 a.m. Monday, the official said.

The gunmen forced the seven teachers and the minibus driver from the vehicle and shot four of the teachers.

The other three teachers and the driver were allowed to leave, the official said.

Balad Ruz is northeast of Baquba, or about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad. (posted 3:15 a.m.)

Heavy rains cause flooding in Mass., N.H.

(CNN) -- The governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire called out National Guard troops to help residents of some towns evacuate as heavy rains washed away roads and threatened to break through a New Hampshire dam.

"We've had mandatory and voluntary evacuations, and a number of shelters have been set up across the state," New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said. "We're particularly watching the Manchester-Nashua area as the Merrimack River continues to rise." A mandatory evacuation order was issued some residents of the town of Milton, where a dam appeared ready to give way.

Downstream in Massachusetts, Gov. Mitt Romney activated the National Guard to help rescue people from flooded cars in Peabody, about 20 miles north of Boston. Residents of other towns faced flooding from backed-up sewers as rain overwhelmed drainage systems and flooded basements, Gov. Mitt Romney said. (Posted 9:10 p.m.)

Brazil inmate uprisings spread to 64 prisons

SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNN) -- A criminal gang in Brazil launched a wave of attacks against police stations in greater Sao Paulo and uprisings in 64 jails across Sao Paulo state this weekend, resulting in at least 52 deaths, authorities said.

According to the Sao Paulo state government, the dead include 35 security personnel -- police and prison guards -- three civilians, and 14 suspected gang members. Enio Lucciola, press spokesman for the Sao Paulo State Public Safety Department. Lucciola said the attacks are "obviously the work of the PCC," the Primeiro Comando da Capital, or the First Capital Command -- a gang that has grown into a major criminal enterprise since its establishment in the 1990s.

The rebellions are under way in prisons for that are effectively controlled by the gangs that reside within. The violence apparently stemmed from a government plan to isolate PCC leaders in a new maximum-security facility deep in the interior of Sao Paulo state. (Posted 6:05 p.m.)

Mexico concerned about possible Guard troops on U.S. border

MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- President Vicente Fox raised concerns about the possible deployment of U.S. troops to the border with Mexico during a phone call to President Bush on Sunday, Fox's office said.

In the half-hour call, Fox told Bush he was worried about any possible U.S. move to "militarize" the roughly 2,000-mile border, one of the longest unfortified frontiers in the world. Bush told Fox that the United States "considers Mexico an ally and a friend," a statement from Fox's office announced.

"What was being analyzed was the administrative and logistical support by the National Guard, not by the Army, to police the border," the Mexican leader's office quoted Bush as saying.

Bush plans a Monday night address from the Oval Office on immigration, which has been the subject of heated debate both among his Republican allies in Congress and across party lines. Pentagon officials say one plan under discussion is for the federal government to foot the bill for activating several thousand additional National Guard troops to augment border control efforts in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. (Posted 5:45 p.m.)

Brzezinski calls for direct talks with Iran

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The national security adviser under President Carter said Sunday that the United States should open direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program, and dismissed the current negotiations as "absurd."

"You know, it's really ironic," Zbigniew Brzezinski told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

"We're not negotiating with Iran, but we are negotiating. Who are we negotiating with? We're negotiating with the negotiators with Iran. And it's an absurd situation."

Brzezinski noted that, in the case of North Korea, the United States is one of six countries that participates in direct talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program.

"The fact is there are serious differences between the United States and Iran, conflicts over security issues, over financial problems, claims and counterclaims. We need to talk to each other to create a measure of security and to be engaged." (Posted, 2:48 p.m.)

Roadside bomb blast kills two U.S. soldiers

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Two U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in east Baghdad on Sunday at 8 p.m. (noon ET), according to a statement from the U.S. military.

These deaths bring to 2,439 the number of American troops have died since the Iraq war began over three years ago. (Posted, 2:30 p.m.)

As Medicare drug deadline looms, HHS urges signing up

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Operators are standing by to help the estimated 5 million Americans eligible for but not enrolled in Medicare's prescription drug benefit program, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Sunday.

The process can be completed in a phone call to Medicare's customer service line, with information from the Medicare card and pill bottles, Leavitt told CNN.

Seniors who sign up after the midnight Monday deadline face a 1 percent penalty per month unless they are deemed eligible for a low-income benefit program. President Bush has rejected calls to extend the deadline, and Leavitt supported his boss.

"They needed that deadline or they wouldn't sign up," Leavitt said. "In fact, the actuary for the government told us if we didn't have a deadline, 1.6 million people fewer would actually sign up."

About 37 million of the estimated 42 million seniors eligible for the drug benefit have already signed up, Leavitt said. (Posted, 2:05 p.m.)

Hadley: Phone records database would be legal; 'This is not a privacy issue'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- While refusing to confirm or deny a report that the government has compiled the phone records of millions of Americans, President Bush's top security adviser Sunday said the program "is not a privacy issue."

"The Supreme Court has held that the calling records, the information, phone numbers calls, date, duration of call, is not protected by privacy," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

"And there are lawful ways under a variety of statutes and procedures by which this information can be shared with the federal government. So this is not a privacy issue."

"USA Today" reported last Thursday that telephone companies have given records of billions of telephone calls over nearly five years to government authorities to scrutinize for patterns that might lead them to terrorist suspects.

The report has prompted criticism and lawsuits that describe it as an unnecessary and illegal intrusion on Americans' privacy. (Posted, 1:48 p.m.)

Israeli sources say soldiers kill at least 5 militants, including top Islamic Jihad operative

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli forces Sunday surrounded a West Bank house and killed at least five Palestinian militants inside, including a senior operative blamed for nearly every terror attack carried out by Islamic Jihad in the past year -- including last month's Tel Aviv suicide bombing -- Israeli military sources told CNN.

A sixth Palestinian was killed outside the house in the town of Qabatiya, but his identity was not clear.

Palestinian security sources said two of the six killed were civilians.

In a separate incident in nearby Jenin, Palestinian security sources said Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian intelligence officer, Omar Jabbarin, and wounded four other Palestinians.

The IDF confirmed its soldiers shot an armed Palestinian in Jenin, but could not confirm the Palestinian's identity or if he died. (Updated, 3:08 p.m.)

Israeli naval force intercepts 'several hundred' kilos of explosives, heading to Gaza

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An Israeli naval force Sunday intercepted a Palestinian boat carrying military-grade explosives heading for Gaza, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli military began chasing the boat after it ventured into a prohibited area along the southern Gaza coastline, the IDF said.

"As it was being chased, several bags were thrown from the Palestinian boat into the water," the IDF statement said. "Several hundred kilograms of military grade explosives and parts of mines were found on the boat after it was intercepted."

On May 9, the Israeli navy intercepted a Palestinian boat with 500 kg (1100 pounds) of military-grade explosives heading for Gaza. (Posted, 11:30 a.m.)

Frist: National Guard is the only short-term solution to border issue

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist Sunday dismissed concerns about a proposal to use National Guard troops to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it is the only short-term solution to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

"The only thing that we can do to secure our borders right now is to give our states help, and that is best done through the National Guard," said the Tennessee Republican on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

President Bush is to speak to the nation from his Oval Office on Monday night about immigration and border security. Frist could not say whether the president will mention the proposal to bolster border security with National Guard troops.

Under the plan, Pentagon sources said, the federal government will foot the bill for activating several thousand additional National Guard troops to augment security along the U.S.-Mexico border in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The plan has drawn criticism from both parties. (Updated, 11:53 a.m.)

American teenager dies of injuries from last month's bombing in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An American teenager died Sunday from injuries sustained in the April 17 Tel Aviv suicide bombing, a hospital spokeswoman told CNN.

Daniel Wultz, 16, of Weston, Fla., died at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, she said.

Last month, an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber set off a blast in the old central bus station in Tel Aviv, the first successful suicide attack inside Israel since the Hamas-led government assumed power over the Palestinian Authority in early April.

Wultz's death brings the total number of victims killed by the suicide bomber to 11. (Posted, 1:05 p.m.)

In Sao Paulo, attacks against police, rebellions in jails leave 52 dead

SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNN) -- A powerful criminal gang in Brazil launched a wave of attacks against police stations in greater Sao Paulo and uprisings in jails across Sao Paulo state this weekend, authorities said, and the strikes reportedly killed as many as 52 people.

Local media said the attacks began around 6 p.m. Friday. By Sunday morning, there were reports of at least 73 separate attacks, conducted with machine guns and grenades, and they continued to dawn. Uprisings were staged in 22 detention centers.

Enio Lucciola, press spokesman for the Sao Paulo State Public Safety Department, and Nagashi Furukawa, the state prison affairs secretary, briefed reporters in a televised news conference. Lucciola said the attacks are "obviously the work of the PCC," the Primeiro Comando da Capital, or the First Capital Command.

Rebellious prisoners were holding over 174 hostages, including prison employees and visiting families, in the prison revolt, Furukawa said.

The violence apparently stemmed from a government plan to isolate PCC leaders in a new maximum-security facility deep in the interior of Sao Paulo state. The violence began when the transfer of the officials started. (Updated, 10:30 a.m.)

Fighting subsides as forces regroup in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Fighting between transitional government forces and Islamic fighters subsided for a time on Sunday in Somalia, apparently as both sides regrouped to attack again, local journalists reported.

Witnesses said at least 14 people were killed in the latest fighting on Saturday, adding to a death toll that had already topped 130 in recent days. The bodies of four dead fighters -- including a suspected foreigner -- were lying in a street in Mogadishu. People are apparently too afraid to try to retrieve the corpses for fear of being shot by snipers.

Most of those killed have been civilian bystanders. Many were children, officials said. Hundreds of others have been wounded.

Local journalists report that Abdi Qeypdid, a warlord fighting for the coalition forces and a former police chief in the country's capital, has recently been setting up roadblocks and checking all cars coming into and out of Mogadishu as hundreds of people try to flee the violence. The move is an apparent attempt to beef up his forces and slow the supply lines of the Islamist forces. (Posted 5:10 a.m.)

32 killed in latest violence in Iraq; 6 Shiite shrines destroyed

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- A spate of weekend violence, concentrated near the Iraqi capital, has claimed 32 lives -- most of them civilians -- and leveled six Shiite shrines, evidence that sectarian tensions are still strong.

In the single deadliest attack, 14 Iraqi civilians were killed and six others wounded in a suicide car bombing around 10:45 a.m. near the main checkpoint on the road that leads to Baghdad International Airport, according to an Iraqi security source and the U.S. military.

The attackers detonated the vehicles in a parking lot adjacent to Victory Base Complex in western Baghdad, a statement from the Multi-National Division said. The terrorists were targeting Iraqis who had congregated in the parking lot, the military said.

Two British soldiers were among those killed this weekend in a roadside bomb attack just north of the southern city of Basra, according to a British military source. One British soldier was wounded in that attack, the source said.(Updated, 8:35 a.m.)

Prosecutor releases Cheney notes on Wilson's Op Ed piece

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's handwritten notes on a newspaper article show Cheney raised questions about why former Ambassador Joe Wilson was sent to Africa to investigate suspicions that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger.

The New York Times article, a July 6, 2003 Op Ed piece by Wilson, is "at the center of the sequence of events leading" to the alleged criminal conduct of Cheney's then-chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, according to a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald is investigating the leaking to reporters the name of Wilson's wife -- former CIA operative Valerie Plame -- in the days after Wilson's column -- titled "What I Didn't Find in Africa" -- revealed details about his mission to Niger and questioned the White House assertion that Iraq attempted to obtain yellowcake to build nuclear weapons.

Friday's filing, including a photocopy of the page with Cheney's notes, was part of the discovery process in the perjury and obstruction case against Libby. (Posted 9:26 p.m.)

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