Americas

 

Rescue teams were picking through the devastation in the small Texas town of West, near Waco, after a massive explosion at a fertiliser company flattened the surrounding neighbourhood. Initial estimates put the death toll at between five and 15, with at least 160 injured. Among the missing were three to four volunteer firefighters who were responding to a blaze at the facility when the explosion happened on Wednesday night.Waco police Sergeant William Patrick Swanton said in a morning press conference that the emergency response was still in its search and rescue phase, but that eventually it would have to become one of recovery.

Venezuela's attorney general said Tuesday that seven people had been killed and 61 injured in post-presidential election clashes between police, supporters of newly elected President Nicolas Maduro and challenger Henrique Capriles, who has demanded a recount.

Venezuela's President-elect Nicolas Maduro says he will not allow the opposition to go ahead with a rally planned for Wednesday in Caracas.

Mr Maduro blamed the opposition for violent clashes after he was proclaimed winner of Sunday's disputed poll.

The attorney general said seven people had died in the violence.

But opposition leader Henrique Capriles said the government was responsible for the violence as it sought to avoid a vote recount.

In addition to the seven who died, Attorney General Luisa Ortega said more than 60 people were injured and 139 arrested during violent clashes at opposition protests.

She said some offices had been set on fire and public property destroyed.

Mr Maduro said the government would not be blackmailed, and he called on Venezuelans to remain peaceful.

For his part, Mr Capriles accused the government of orchestrating the violence to avoid a recount, something which he has been demanding.

Mr Capriles also earlier repeated his call for peaceful demonstrations.

He has said he will not accept the election results until all the votes are counted again, and he has called Mr Maduro "illegitimate."

US President Barack Obama has condemned the bombings at the Boston Marathon as a "terrorist act".

He said the attack had been a "heinous and cowardly act", but said it was not yet known who carried out the attack and why.

The FBI has said there are "no known additional threats" beyond the two bombs which went off.

Three people were killed, including an eight-year-old boy, and more than 150 injured by the bombs.

Doctors treating the wounded have said a number of people have had pellets and "nail-like" fragments removed from their bodies.

"Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terrorism", said Mr Obama, who in his first briefing on Monday had refrained from referring to terror attacks.

He stressed that it was not yet known whether an organisation - either domestic or foreign - or a "malevolent individual" was responsible, nor what the motive might have been.

"Everything else at this point is speculation," he said.

"It will take time... but we will find whoever harmed our citizens and we will bring them to justice," he said.

The president praised the emergency services and members of the public who responded to the blasts, and said: "The American people refuse to be terrorised."
Two devices

The first of the explosions went off close to the marathon finish line at about at 14:50 local time (18:50 GMT) on Monday.

Seconds later, as rescuers were rushing to help the injured, another explosion went off nearby.

There had been reports that other suspected devices were found in the area, but speaking in Boston on Tuesday, the governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, said it was "important to clarify that two, and only two, explosive devices were found yesterday".

Mr Patrick said all other suspect parcels had been examined and found not to be bombs.

Richard DesLauriers, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, told reporters there was no longer any "known imminent physical threat" in the city.

He said the FBI was "not aware of any threat information prior to the marathon".

Police had received "voluminous tips" from the public since the bombings, he said, urging people to co-operate with investigators.

"We will go to the ends of the Earth to identify the subject or subjects who are responsible for this despicable crime, and we will do everything we can to bring them to justice," he said.

Timothy Alban of the Massachusetts State Police appealed to members of the public to send in any footage they had from the day.

"There have to be hundreds if not thousands of photographs or videos or observations that were made down at that finish line yesterday. And they're sitting out there amongst everyone that's watching this event this morning," he said.

"You might not think it's significant but it might have some value to this investigation."

Officials have not confirmed how the devices were made, but doctors treating the wounded have said their injuries indicate that the bombs contained metal shards and other shrapnel.

George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, where many of the wounded are being treated, said some people had arrived with more than 40 shrapnel wounds.

"Many of them have severe wounds, mostly in the lower part of their bodies, wounds related to the blast effect of the bomb, as well as small metallic fragments that entered their body - pellets, shrapnel, nails," he said.

He said the bombs had probably contained "multiple metallic fragments", and that the hospital had carried out four amputations.
Child killed

Details of those killed have been officially released, but eight-year-old Martin Richard, from Boston, has been named as one of those who died.

His mother and sister were also injured as they waited for his father to finish the race.

The annual Boston Marathon this year had a field of about 23,000 runners and was watched by hundreds of thousands of spectators.

It is held on Patriots' Day, a Massachusetts state holiday which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution in 1775.

Sunday's London Marathon - the next major international marathon - is to go ahead, with police saying they have well-rehearsed security plans.

But organisers have said they will hold a 30-second silence at the start as a mark for respect for those killed and injured in Boston.
 

Venezuela's acting President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of the election to succeed his late mentor Hugo Chavez on Sunday by a razor-thin margin over an opponent that voiced fears of vote manipulation, AFP reports.

A woman who claims that former president Fernando Lugo fathered her son charged Friday that the laboratory being used in the paternity case belongs to one of his political allies, AFP reports.

Rights activists across the United States held a series of protests on Thursday demanding the closure of Guantanamo Bay as a hunger-strike at the jail entered a third month, AFP reports.

Tens of thousands of immigrants and activists rallied nationwide Wednesday in a coordinated set of protests aimed at pressing Congress to approve immigration measures that would grant 11 million immigrants living here illegally a path toward citizenship.