World Briefs

U.S. President Barack Obama, seeking to reassure a nation shaken by the mass shooting on an Army post in Texas, said yesterday that the training designed to keep U.S. forces safe abroad prevented further deaths at Fort Hood. Praising the heroism that ended the rampage, the president described the exchange Thursday that left 13 dead and 30 others wounded as a tragedy. In his weekly address, Obama reminded the public of the diversity of those in uniform - designed to calm tensions around the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. "They are Americans of every race, faith and station... [who] share a patriotism like no other," he said. (AP)

Senior Iranian lawmakers rejected yesterday any possibility of Tehran shipping uranium abroad for further enrichment, intensifying pressures on the government to reject the U.N.-backed plan altogether. Prominent conservative lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran won't ship its low enriched uranium abroad in a single batch or in several shipments, a compromise suggested by some government officials, under any circumstances. The UN-brokered plan required Iran to send 1.2 tons (1,100 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium abroad to be processed. (AP)

The engineer accused of fatally shooting one employee and wounding five others at the firm in Orlando, Florida where he once worked is very mentally ill and crumbled under the stress of his divorce, bankruptcy and unemployment, his attorney said yesterday. Jason Rodriguez, 40, was ordered held without bail at the Orange County Jail, where he is under suicide watch following Friday's shooting. (AP)