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BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT CAPTURED


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Tonight in Watertown, Mass., Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, was captured. He was found hiding in the backyard of a resident. Tsarnaev was apprehended just outside the area where police had been conducting door-to-door searches all day.

The Boston Police Commissioner, Edward Davis, said at a news conference Friday night, “A man had gone out of his house after being inside the house all day, abiding by our request to stay inside.  He walked outside and saw blood on a boat in the backyard. He then opened the tarp on the top of the boat, and looked in and saw a man covered with blood. He retreated and called us.”

Mr. Davis stated, “Over the course of the next hour or so we exchanged gunfire with the suspect, who was inside the boat, and ultimately the hostage rescue team of the F.B.I. made an entry into the boat and removed the suspect, who was still alive.” He said the suspect was in “serious condition” and had apparently been wounded in the gunfight that left his brother dead.

Yesterday, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, were involved in a carjacking after shooting and killing a campus police officer at MIT, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). A short time later, the brothers were involved in a gun battle in Watertown with police. A transit police officer was critically wounded in the shootout along with Tamerlan Tsarnaev whom was fatally wounded. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ran over his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as he sped away and escaped the scene according to officials.

Read More: NY Times
Timeline: The Hunt for the Boston Bombing Suspects

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FERTILIZER PLANT EXPLODES IN TEXAS LEAVING AT LEAST 15 DEAD

A blast at the West Fertilizer Plant, Texas, has left at least 15 dead, and 160+ injured. The blast was likened to a nuclear bomb exploding and has flattened up to 75 homes.

The plant was around 20 miles north of Waco, and the blast was felt in Dallas 65 miles away. The Mayor of  West said, “We’ve got a lot of people who are hurt, and there’s a lot of people, I’m sure, who aren’t gonna be here tomorrow. We’re going to search for everybody. We’re going to make sure everybody’s accounted for. That’s the most important thing right now.”

Firefighters responded quickly to the blast, however, reports say there are now four firefighters missing in the wreckage.

The chemicals used to make fertilizers are also used in explosives, and has been responsible for disasters in the past, like the AZF plant in Toulouse in 2001.

The blast comes two days before the 20th anniversary of the Waco fire in 1993, where David Koresh and his sect were holed up in a siege with the FBI. About 82 members of the sect and four federal agents died at Waco.

Read More: The Telegraph

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SANDY HOOK VICTIMS SEATED NEAR EXPLOSIONS AT BOSTON MARATHON

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The deadly blasts at the Boston Marathon opened not-so-old wounds for the siblings of last year’s Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims. Their family members had VIP seats near the site where the first of the twin explosions occurred.
A statement posted on the group’s Facebook page informed that the members of the Newtown Strong team which ran in the marathon were safe, because “all runners completed the race before the explosions happened.”
The team featured the mother of a girl who survived the Sandy Hook shooting.

via Compound tragedy: Boston Marathon blasts mar memorial for Sandy Hook victims — RT USA.

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EIGHT YEAR OLD BOY ALSO KILLED AT THE BOSTON MARATHON ATTACK

As more details emerge of the Boston Marathon attack, authorities have said an eight year old boy, Martin Richard, was killed in the blasts. His mother and sister were also seriously injured.

The bombs exploded 4 hours into the marathon, turning the carnival atmosphere into one of terror. Bostonians had turned out on their public holiday to mark Patriots Day, which remembers the first battles of the American War of Independence.

Spectators were cheering as runners finished the race. The final mile had been dedicated to the victims of the Sandy Hooke Elementary School shooting, and some of the families were sitting near the finish line.

There are early reports coming out of Fox News that the FBI are searching an apartment in a suburb of Boston, with speculation that those responsible could have links to the Pakistani Taliban.

Read More: The Telegraph
Fox News

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TWO KILLED AFTER EXPLOSIONS AT BOSTON MARATHON


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Two people have been killed and at least 100 injured after two explosions occured at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Some of those injured have lost limbs in the blasts. A third explosion was reported outside the JFK library in the city.

The explosions happened at 2:45pm local time, two hours after the first of the 27,000 competitors crossed the finish line.

Authorities say they knew of no security threats prior to the marathon, and are investigating the attack. Washington DC and New York have been placed on high alert.

Read More CNN

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EXPLOSIONS REPORTED AT SITE OF BOSTON MARATHON

A series of explosions erupted near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday. The Boston Police Department confirmed that they were looking into an explosion, but had no further comment.
The explosions at the Boston Marathon went off more than four hours after the start of the men’s race, which meant that there were still several thousand runners yet to finish the race.
The Associated Press reported that the authorities were helping injured runners leave the scene and bloody spectators were being carried to a medical tent that was being used for runners.

via Explosions Reported at Site of Boston Marathon – NYTimes.com.

Connecting The Dots, News

FRANCE: PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLANDE DEMANDS WORLD’S TAX HAVEN’S BE ERADICATED

The world’s tax havens must be “eradicated” and French banks must declare all of their subsidiaries, declared French President Francois Hollande today.

Presenting a draft law “moralising” french public life, he also has demanded that all 37 ministers disclose their personal wealth and assets by this Monday, following the recent tax fraud scandals by leading government figures in France.

As his popularity since election last year dwindles, President Holland said French banks “will have to publish every year the full list of their subsidiaries in the world, country by country”. “They will also have to explain their business”, he said.

“In other words it won’t be possible for a bank to hide transactions carried out in a tax haven.”  In addition, “a high-level authority will be created to monitor the assets and interests of ministers, members of parliament and top elected officials“, he said.

Mr Hollande said a new national, specialist prosecutor would focus on corruption, with tougher penalties for those found guilty of fraud.

The banking system across Europe is being shaken once again, following recent banking scares in Cyprus, where Russian investors lost billions of Euros deposited in Cypriot banks. The government decided on an immediate tax on all accounts over 100,000 Euros and banks closed for a whole week while they negotiated an EU bailout deal, to prevent a run on their banks.  Some sources claimed Cyprus was a “tax haven” and a “money laundering” center, though today Cyprus announced citizenship rules are to be relaxed in Cyprus to encourage foreign investors who lost 3 million Euros under the Cyprus EU bailout deal last month.

The reaction of the french banks, and the rest of the corporate world, to Francois Hollande’s proposals will make interesting reading over the next few days.

READ MORE……

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PORTUGAL’S ELDER STATESMAN HAS CALLED ON HIS NATION TO DEFAULT

Mario Soares, who led Portugal to democracy in the 1970s after the Salazar dictatorship, has called on the government to default on its debts. The economic pressure on Portugal has been mounting in recent weeks, and the nation is losing patience with the EU imposed austerity. The Portuguese are looking at the death spiral in Greece, caused by their various rounds of bailouts and austerity.

Soares told Portuguese television channel Antena 1, “Portugal will never be able to pay its debts, however much it impoverishes itself. If you can’t pay, the only solution is not to pay. When Argentina was in crisis it didn’t pay. Did anything happen? No, nothing happened”.

Last week Portugal’s top court ruled that the government’s decision to slash pension payments and public sector wages was illegal. The ruling means the government is struggling to find the budget cuts required from elsewhere.

Portugal received an EU/IMF bailout in 2011, and as the crisis deepens again, many think it highly likely they will need another bailout very soon. If Portugal were to default, it would almost certainty mean their expulsion from the eurozone, and may lead other nations to follow their example.

Read More: The Telegraph

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MAN DIES IN FALL ONTO TRACKS IN TIMES SQUARE

A man died on the tracks at the Times Square subway station Friday morning, causing delays.
Police say the man appears to have been electrocuted on the No. 2 line at the Times Square-42nd Street Station just before 7 a.m.The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Northbound No. 2 and 3 train service was running local 14the Street to 72nd Street due to the police investigation.The circumstances of the death are unknown at this time.

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This is the second death this month in the subway.

via Subway delays after man dies in fall onto tracks in Times Square | 7online.com.

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FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER MARGARET THATCHER DIED AGED 87

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died today aged 87, after suffering a stroke. Baroness Thatcher will be remembered as one of Britain’s greatest leaders with a legacy that endures to this day.

Margaret Thatcher was the daughter of a humble greengrocer. Her father was also a town councillor and lay preacher in the Methodist church, his example would play a big role in shaping her political beliefs. Thatcher’s formidable intellect and indomitable character helped her rise to the position of leader of the Conservative Party, a position many would have thought unreachable for a woman.

Baroness Thatcher came to power in the difficult days of 1979, inheriting a nation on the brink of bankruptcy, crippled by years of industrial action and powerful trade unions. Thatcher won many enemies in her battle with the powerful left. She managed to break the power of the trade unions, and release Britain into the free market. She forged a strong relationship with US President Ronald Reagan, with whom she shared many political ideologies. Internationally, Thatcher made Britain once more a force to be listened to. She played a key role in helping see an end to communism in Eastern Europe, and she will always be held with the highest esteem by the residents of the Falkland Islands, for leading Britain in the Falkland’s war, after Argentina invaded the islands in 1982. It was Thatcher’s communist enemies who first called her The Iron Lady, a title she relished.

In recent years Baroness Thatcher’s health began to fail, and doctors advised she no longer give speeches. Her later years were lived in relative isolation in London.

Her own parties divisions over Europe were to bring about her fall from power. As the pro-Europe wing of her party grew in power she was forced to resign. Now, more than 20 years on from her leaving power, her warnings on Europe read more like prophecy than political rhetoric.

Read More: BBC