using $myposts to fetch posts from a specific catagory

Hey All,
I’ve been trying to set up a page template that will include a sidebar displaying post information from a certain category.

I can display the posts fine, but I cannot make it only use the categories(that I set when I publish the post).

Here is what I have so far:

<?php
         global $post;
         $myposts = get_posts('numberposts=5&offset=news&category=news');
         foreach($myposts as $post) :
           setup_postdata($post);
         ?>

         <div class="excerpt">
             <div class="excerpttitle">
                <?php the_title();?>
             </div>
             <div class="thumbnail">
                    <?php the_post_thumbnail( 'thumbnail' ); ?>
             </div>
             <div class="excerpttext">
                    <p><?php the_excerpt(); ?></p>
             </div>
             <span class="readmore"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">Read More</a></span>
         </div>
         <?php endforeach; ?>