[Howell:] Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. It is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following for you this hour. On to North Korea now. A U.S. think tank says satellite images suggest that nation may be preparing for another nuclear test. The report comes as the leader there, Kim Jong-un, leads a rare ruling Workers Party Congress in Pyongyang. CNN's Will Ripley has more on this important political gathering being closely monitored by people around the world.
[Will Ripley, Cnn Correspondent:] Right now we're walking through Pyongyang towards the April 25th House of Culture. This is the venue for the 7th Workers Party Congress. It was also the venue for the previous congress back in 1980. We saw a massive caravan of coaches that we believe are carrying the 3,000 members of North Korea's ruling elite, the Worker's Party who are here, to unanimously show their support for the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. I say unanimously, because here in North Korea, there is no political dissent. It's just not an option. She says, "we all say the Koreans are so fortunate to have such great leaders starting from the late president right up to the martial Kim Jong-un." This is as close as we're allowed to get. More than 100 news organizations invited here. And we can't go inside the congress. It speaks to the fact that the North Korean political system is quite nebulous, it is not transparent to say the least. And they say this event here is to rally support and help him push forward his plan for North Korea, which is a two-pronged approach of developing the country's nuclear program while also growing the North Korean economy. Now, there are some observers on the outside who say you can't have your cake and eat it, too. You can't have a strong economy and also continue to develop nuclear weapons. But Kim Jong-un's government is intent on proving them wrong. And it's part of the reason why you see so much international press here. One thing I've noticed in two years of coming here is how much activity there is. Cars in the streets, people are more well dressed. It seems as if the economy is growing, but you wonder how long it can last given these heightened sanctions and their trickle-down effect in the coming months. Are you worried how the sanctions are going to affect your life? He says, "We've been under heavy sanctions since the end of the Korean War in the '50s. We're not afraid of stronger sanctions because we're used to them and we've survived." Now as we monitor this once in a generation meeting of the Workers Party Congress, we wonder what the supreme leader is going to announce. Will there be a major shift in economic policy? Will there be a fifth nuclear test or news of improvements to the North Korea nuclear arsenal? Many around the world oppose the rise of Kim Jong-un, but here in Pyongyang, you won't hear a single person speak badly about their supreme leader and why would they speak badly about him when he holds absolute power in this country, power that inside this building is only expected to increase perhaps dramatically in the coming days Will Ripley, CNN, Pyongyang, North Korea.
[Howell:] Now in Turkey, a prominent journalist there survived the courthouse assassination just hours before he and a colleague were sentenced to at least five years in prison. You're watching here video of the gunman being apprehended. The journalists were charged after publishing images purporting showing government agents taking arms to Syria. The target of the assassination later spoke about his ordeal and blamed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
[Unidentified Male:] Today we know that the reason for the threats we have been receiving for weeks and the bullets fired from that gun today are due to the fact that we have been shown as targets by the highest office in the state, the presidency. And inevitably we say this, the concern that the instructions given by the highest office of the state has played a role in this ruling will forever remain.
[Howell:] Now the case has drawn fire from rights groups and raised fears about freedom of the press inside Turkey. The two journalists are free pending appeal. France and the United Kingdom are condemning Thursday's deadly airstrike on a refugee camp in Northern Syria. The French foreign ministry is calling for an impartial and independent investigation. More than 2 dozen people were killed when warplanes bombed the camp near Syria's border with Turkey. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports many of the victims, they were women and children.
[Jomana Karadsheh, Cnn Correspondent:] They've escaped those homes but in Syria there's no escaping the violence. The anguished screams of women and children in this makeshift camp in Idlib province near the Turkish border bombed on Thursday. The United Nations says the attack could be a war crime. No one knows who did it or why. Reports say it was unidentified jets that dropped the bombs that claimed the lives of dozens of refugees, many of them women and children. But for these Syrians, trying to pick up what's left of their devastated lives in this camp, they blame the regime and its allies.
[Unidentified Male:] They are all killers. Bashar al- Assad, Iran and Russia, all are killers. See here? There are no young men here. All are women and children. There is not a single one over 12 years old. They are all killers. This is Hassan the Satan, not Hassan Nasrallah.
[Karadsheh:] Syria has denied targeting the camp. On that same day, about 250 kilometers away, it was a surreal scene, a different reality. The Russian orchestra performing in the ancient Roman city of Palmyra, touting the Russian and Syrian victory there recently after pushing ISIS out. The U.S. said there was no justifiable excuse for the attack on the camp in Idlib, which came a week after the bombing of a field hospital in Aleppo that killed 50 people. That attack, an escalating bloodshed in Syria's second largest city, shifted the world's focus back to the conflict; world powers rushed to try and salvage the crumbling cessation of hostilities agreement. An American- and Russian-brokered 48-hour truce between regime and opposition forces in Aleppo went into effect on Thursday. With ISIS and other extremist groups not part of any negotiations, it was during that cease-fire that Al Qaeda's affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, grabbed several towns and villages south of Aleppo from the regime. Dozens of militants and regime forces killed in the fight. For the civilians in Syria, with shaky cease-fires in this complex and grinding war, nowhere is safe Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Amman.
[Howell:] As Jomana mentioned, the U.N. says the attack on the refugee camp may constitute a war crime if, indeed, it's found to have been done deliberately. The secretary-general's office is also warning those responsible will not evade justice.
[U.n. Secretary-general Spokesman:] The secretary-general reiterates his call on the Security Council to send a strong message to all warring parties that there will be serious consequences for grave violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Those responsible for yesterday's seemingly calculated attack against civilians in the camp in Idlib, which could constitute a war crime, must be held accountable.
[Howell:] Moving on to Rome now, Pope Francis campaigned for migrants while calling out Europe over the crisis. He urged E.U. nations to tear down walls while accepting a prize from the union for his efforts on unity. As our Vatican correspondent, Delia Gallagher, reports, the pope borrowed from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to make his point.
[Delia Gallagher, Cnn Vatican Correspondent:] Some tough words from Pope Francis to European leaders who have come here today to give him an award for his efforts at peace and solidarity amongst European countries. At a time when the European Union is facing challenges to its unity and questioning its values, for example, on immigration, Pope Francis challenged leaders, saying, "What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, of democracy and freedom?" And he took to task those countries which he said were considering putting up fences here and there. Let's take a listen to some of what the pope had to say.
[Pope Francis:] The present situation does not permit anyone to stand by and watch other people's struggles. On the contrary, it is a forceful summons to personal and social responsibility. In this sense, our young people have a critical role. They are not the future of our people; they are the present.
[Gallagher:] And taking a page from Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech, Pope Francis said he dreams of a Europe, a Europe in which young people can breathe the pure air, he said, of honesty, can have stable employment and families. "I dream of a Europe," Pope Francis said, "in which being a migrant is not a crime" Delia Gallagher, CNN, Rome.
[Howell:] This is CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, President Obama calls for greater scrutiny of Donald Trump's record. What the U.S. president said about the Republican presumptive nominee next. Plus: wait until you hear from some civic-minded young people who can't vote yet but demand that their voices be heard. Stay with us.