BBC News with Julie Candler
President Obama has described Monday’s deadly bomb attack on the Boston Marathon as a cowardly act of terror. But he said it remained unclear whether those responsible were foreign, domestic or if it was the work of malevolent individual. The two bombs are reported to have been relatively small, but they killed three people and injured more than 170. Paul Adams reports from Boston.
The centre of Boston is still a crime scene: streets closed off, large numbers of police and National Guard on duty. The city’s flags are flying at half mast as they are across the country. The authorities have appealed to the public to come forward with information and photographs and it’s clear that many people already have. What’s less clear is how much of a picture investigators have already built up. It’s been reported that the two bombs were made from pressure cookers packed with ball bearings, nails and metal shards. But this hasn’t been confirmed.
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake has shaken southeastern Iran. The quake was centered on the sparsely populated province of Sistan and Baluchestan. Officials there say no death have been reported so far. But across the border, Pakistani army officers say more than 30 people were killed. Caroline Hawley reports.
This was a massive earthquake, stronger than the one that struck Haiti in 2010. But its epicenter was in a remote area of mountains and desert close to Iran’s border with Pakistan and so far at least the casualty toll appears to be relatively low. Iranian state television announced that the earthquake had been felt throughout the Gulf such was its power with some skyscrapers in Dubai being evacuated.
Thousands of genetic tests carried out across the European Union have found that almost 5% of processed beef products on sale have been contaminated with horsemeat. Laboratories also find that only one in 200 samples contain traces of horse drug bute. The EU Commission for Health Tonio Borg said food safety had not been compromised.
“The incidents of the presence of bute in the horsemeat were extremely low, less than 0.5%. And also the fraudulent link within the percentage was an original 4.6%. Still this has been a serious violation of the labeling in this nation and we intend to impose and to propose new measures.”
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed alarm on the deteriorating security situation in the Central African Republic. There’s been further violence in the capital Bangui where members of the Seleka Movement which seized power last month have clashed with elements loyal to the former President Francois Bozize.
American Airlines has grounded all its flights in the US after a computer malfunction. The airline said a problem had occurred in its reservation system. The flights will be grounded until Tuesday afternoon. Queues are already building up at airports.
World News from the BBC
Venezuela’s attorney general says violent clashes at opposition protests over disputed presidential elections have left at least seven people dead. The country’s president-elect Nicolas Maduro said the opposition was responsible. Irene Casella reports from Caracas.
Nicolas Maduro who was proclaimed the president on Monday after a narrow victory blamed the deaths and violence on opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. Mr. Maduro said the pattern of violence was similar to that of the coup attempt in 2002 when Hugo Chavez was deposed for two days. Mr. Capriles has not accepted the results of Sunday’s election. He asked supporters to carry out peaceful protests by banning pots and pans around the country.
Police in Pakistan say a bomb targeting an election campaign rally in the northwestern city of Peshawar has killed at least eight people. The bomb exploded as senior members of the Awami National Party which opposes the Taliban were arriving for a meeting. Attempts by the former president General Pervez Musharraf to stand in the poll have been dented by the rejection of his candidature by election tribunals. His lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri said Mr. Musharraf would appeal arguing that the decision was undemocratic.
“They are trying to establish that dictatorship or democracy is a frame of mind. A man in uniform can be democrat and a man in the shirt while can be a dictator. And they’ve also had dictatorship judicially.
Prosecutors in Italy have ordered the seizure of assets worth more than two billion dollars from the Japanese Bank Nomura. They have also opened a criminal investigation into two of the bank’s former senior executives. The measures are part of a probe into allegations that Nomura helped managers of the Italian bank BMPS hide huge losses. In the statement the Japanese bank said it would vigorously contest any suggestions of wrongdoing.