CNN 2009-04-24

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Good morning from the CNN Center here in Atlanta, I'm Melissa Long. It's Thursday, April 23rd. And here's a look at some of the stories making news.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says what's happening in Pakistan right now is a mortal threat to the US. She says Pakistan, a nuclear state, could fall into terrorists' hands. The Pakistani government agreed to let militants¹ take over a part of the country in a peace deal. But now the Taliban is expanding. Its latest land grab is just about 60 miles from the capital. Pakistan has sent troops into the area where Taliban now holds.

A jury convicting a Colorado man in what could be the state's first hate crime prosecution² involving a transgendered person. Allen Andrade was accused of beating Angie Zapata to death. Andrade says he snapped when he found out his date was biologically male. But prosecutor³ said Andrade was already, he already knew that and killed Zapata because he disliked gay people.

Three vials of a potentially dangerous virus are missing from an army lab in Maryland. They contain samples of a virus that sickens horses and people who usually get this get-flu-like symptoms, but it can be deadly. The army now investigating of course, but it thinks the vials may be among samples safely destroyed several years ago.

And you may feel you are immune to computer viruses if you own a Mac. But be aware of the first harmful program to specifically target Apple computers. “iBotnet” has affected⁴ a few thousand Macs. Experts say it represents a major shift. They predict we're gonna see more of this as Macs become more and more popular.

And the Big Apple has a beef with salt. New York City’s Health Department is meeting with food makers⁵ and restaurants to get them to cut sodium⁶ in foods. The food industry says it hopes this would be voluntary and that change would have to come gradually.

You're up-to-date. Those are the headlines at this hour. Do stay with CNN and CNN.com for more on these stories or other news that develops today.