Obama Warns Syria Over Weapons 'Game Changer'

Syria: Evidence Is No Smoking Gun

Updated: 2:39pm UK, Friday 26 April 2013

By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

Vital questions remain unanswered over the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Like the scale of casualties. Who fired the weapons? Who gave the orders?

To get that kind of information the Syrian government would need to allow in international inspectors and that isn't going to happen.

If chemical weapons have been deployed by government forces President Bashar al Assad won't cooperate in arranging a noose for his own neck.

If there is to be conclusive proof of the crossing of a "red line" Mr Assad would have to carry out an atrocity akin to the actions of Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in Halabja in 1988, where chemical weapons were used to kill at least 5,000.

It's estimated a further 7,000 were injured or suffered long-term illnesses. The nerve agents tabun, sarin and VX, as well as mustard gas, were believed to have been used at Halabja.

But Mr Assad is far too clever to carry out an attack like Halabja. He knows such an undeniable use of chemical weapons would leave the international community with no choice but to make good on its threats.

It would leave the Russians with no option but to finally and publicly turn their backs on him. For now having the Russians sitting on the diplomatic fence renders the United Nations Security Council impotent. Russia has the power of veto enabling it to block meaningful sanctions and actions against Syria.

The UN says it has a  fact-finding team on stand-by in Cyprus ready to go into Syria within 24 hours. They may well have a long wait.

The UN team has been given permission to investigate claims of chemical weapons use in Syria's second city of Aleppo but they say they will not go in unless they are given permission for a country-wide investigation. That's something the Syrians have refused.

The British Government is keeping up diplomatic pressure to try to get investigators and evidence-gatherers into Syria. But just like all other aspects of diplomacy in Syria right now there's a lot of "keeping up pressure" but little progress.

David Cameron knows only too well the consequences of rushing to conclusions without proof. Anyone remember the fruitless hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Astonishingly, the US Republican Senator John McCain said "it's pretty obvious that red line has been crossed".  Sorry Mr McCain but where is the evidence of a smoking gun?

US President Barack Obama is being much more cautious. With America now out of Iraq and heading towards the finishing line in Afghanistan he doesn't want to rush into another war in another Muslim country.

And keeping Americans safe isn't all about the Middle East. The despot who cried wolf in North Korea - otherwise known as Kim Yong Un - hasn't entirely gone away.

North Korea's new young leader has been threatening to launch a war against America. It seems like a cry for attention rather than a promise.

But just in case Mr Kim means business it wouldn't be ideal to have American troops deployed to north-east Asia and Syria just as quickly as they had got out of Iraq and Afghanistan - which leads us to the conclusion that we are no nearer military intervention in Syria than we were before this latest round of intelligence claims.

So whatever Mr McCain says this is not a game-changing moment. Expect more deaths, more refugees, more atrocities and more heart-rending stories of despair from Syria.

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9/11 Plane Part Found Between NYC Buildings

A part from one of the commercial planes that was flown into the Twin Towers on 9/11 has been found between two buildings, police say.

New York Police Department Spokesman Paul Browne said the piece of landing gear, discovered on Wednesday wedged between a mosque site and another lower Manhattan building, has a clearly legible Boeing identification number.

The twisted and rusted equipment features cables, levers and giant bolts. It measures 5ft high, 3ft wide and 1.5ft deep.

"The odds of this being wedged between there is amazing. It had to have fallen just the right way to make it into that space," Browne said.

The part was found wedged in this narrow crevice

He added that other wreckage has been found nearby in the years since the terrorist attack.

The part was found by surveyors who had been hired to inspect the site of a planned Islamic community centre at 51 Park Place, about three blocks from ground zero.

The surveyors spotted the debris as they looked down between the buildings from the roof, quickly called 911, and the scene was secured and police documented the findings with photographs, Mr Browne said.

The National Transportation Safety Board and police will work to determine whether the wreckage belongs to American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the North Tower, or to United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower. Both planes were Boeings.

A plane can be seen before it flies into one of the Twin Towers on 9/11

Police are awaiting a determination from a medical examiner on whether to sift the soil around the building to search for human remains.

The medical examiner's office is in the middle of a 10-week sifting operation as it attempts to identify additional human remains in debris unearthed at the World Trade Center site during construction of a new skyscraper.

If the landing gear's origin is authenticated, it would mean it sat undisturbed for nearly a dozen years.

Patricia Riley, the sister of 9/11 victim Lorraine Riley, called the discovery "very strange."

"Twelve years later we are still finding remnants of the attack on our country," she said.

The ruins of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attack

"For years to come we'll continue to find things that we didn't see before. Hopefully, they'll serve as a reminder that we have to stay vigilant."

More than 2,750 people were killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked the two commercial passenger planes and flew them into the upper floors of the Twin Towers, then the tallest buildings in the world.

Hijackers also took over two other planes that day, crashing one into the Pentagon in Washington DC.

The fourth plane went down in a field in rural Pennsylvania.

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Bangladesh Building Collapse: Five In Custody

Police in Bangladesh have arrested two clothing factory bosses based at the eight-storey building near the capital Dhaka that collapsed killing 340 people.

Two engineers - Imtemam Hossain and Alam Ali - involved in approving the design of the structure have also been detained for questioning.

Junior home minister Shamsul Haque Tuku said police had arrested Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd, and Mahmudur Rahaman Tapash, the company chairman. It is the largest of the five factories in the complex.

Police have filed a case against them for "death due to negligence", after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the owners forced the workers to return to work after cracks appeared in the building.

The wife of Mohammed Sohel Rana - the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building who has not been seen since the tragedy - has also been detained.

Protesters set fire to furniture from a police control room on Saturday

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had asked the factories based in the structure to shut down on Wednesday morning, hours before the building came down.

"After we got the crack reports we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed," said association president Atiqul Islam.

The arrests came after police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of clothing workers who took to the streets on the outskirts of Dhaka to protest over the deaths as clashes also erupted in the southeastern city of Chittagong.

There was no sign of the rescue operation being called off with authorities pledging to continue the search after 19 people were pulled out alive on Saturday - more than three days after the building came down.

With time running out to save workers still trapped in the collapsed building, rescuers have been digging through mangled metal and concrete to find more survivors.

The rescued described hearing a loud crack just before the eight-storey building collapsed, with each level pancaking on top of those below.

The building housed at least four factories producing clothes for leading Western retailers.

High street giant Primark confirmed one of its suppliers occupied the second floor of the building.

A Primark spokesman said: "The company is shocked and deeply saddened by this appalling incident at Savar, near Dhaka, and expresses its condolences to all of those involved."

Elsewhere in Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of workers walked out of their factories in solidarity with their dead colleagues.

Some workers' leaders attacked Western firms, whom they accused of turning "a blind eye" while using Bangladeshis as "money-making machines".

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North Korea: American On Trial In Pyongyang

North Korea has said an American tourist detained for nearly six months will face trial for plotting to overthrow the government, a move that could further increase tensions in the region.

The case involves Kenneth Bae, who was arrested in early November. If convicted, he could face the death penalty, news reports said.

The trial comes amid weeks of heightened rhetoric and tensions pitting Pyongyang against Seoul and Washington.

On Saturday, South Korea pulled out most its workers from a joint industrial complex after Pyongyang rejected its ultimatum to begin talks on restarting the stalled operations.

Seoul said it would pull out all 170 remaining workers from Kaesong

The move plunged into doubt the future of the Kaesong complex - once a rare symbol of cooperation between the North and the South and a crucial source of hard currency for Kim Jong-Un's isolated regime.

Mr Bae, described as a Korean-American tour operator, was arrested in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, according to official state media.

The 44-year-old was among a group of five people.

Young leader Kim Jong-Un has succeeded his father

The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been revealed, but Pyongyang accuses him of seeking to overthrow North Korea's leadership.

"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) with hostility toward it," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

South Korea-US joint drills have angered Pyongyang

"His crimes were proved by evidence. He will soon be taken to the Supreme Court of the DPRK to face judgment."

No timing for the verdict was given.

A number of US citizens of Korean descent have run into trouble in the North over the years.

In one famous case, former President Bill Clinton travelled to the reclusive nation in 2009 to win the release of two Americans.

Friends and colleagues described Bae as a devout Christian from Washington state but based in the Chinese border city of Dalian who travelled frequently to North Korea to feed the country's orphans, the AP news agency reported.

Under North Korea's criminal code, crimes against the state can draw life imprisonment or the death sentence.

Pyongyang is locked in a standoff with the Obama administration over North Korea's drive to build nuclear weapons.

The Kaesong complex was established in 2004

Washington has led the campaign to punish Pyongyang for launching a long-range rocket in December and carrying out a nuclear test, its third, in February.

North Korea says the need to build atomic weapons to defend itself against the US, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Over the past two months the US has been holding joint military drills with South Korea that have included nuclear-capable stealth bombers and fighter jets, angering Pyongyang.

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Russia: Psychiatric Hospital Fire Kills 38

Thirty-eight people are feared dead after a fire tore through a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Moscow.

The blaze broke out in the hospital in the town of Ramenskoye, around 70 miles (120 km) east of Moscow, at around 2.20am local time.

When firefighters arrived at the scene, the entire one-storey building was engulfed in flames, reports said.

There were believed to have been 41 people in the building when the fire broke out - 36 patients, two doctors and three nurses. Only one nurse and two patients are thought to have escaped the building.

Only one nurse and two patients are thought to have survived the blaze

Irina Gumennaya, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee, said at least 29 people were burned alive.

Many of the patients were on sedatives and most of them did not wake up, Yuri Deshekvykh of the emergency situations ministry told RIA Novosti.

Some of the windows of the building were barred and people were unable to get to fire exits.

The blaze is thought to have been started by an electrical short-circuit.

Emergency services said the patients ranged in age from 20 to 76.

Health Ministry officials said it took firefighters an hour to get to the hospital because a local ferry across the river was closed and they were forced to make a detour.

Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyev told state television the fire alarm appeared to have worked, but the fire spread too quickly after igniting in a wooden annex.

Dmitry Pestov, deputy head of the Moscow region, added: "Fire safety watchdogs constantly check all (public) institutions and issue recommendations.

"As far as I know, all the recommendations had been followed. There are different versions, including arson and a short circuit. They will be checked."

Fires at state institutions in Russia such as hospitals, drug treatment centres and homes for the elderly have caused numerous casualties in recent years and raised questions about safety measures and conditions.

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Boston Bombs: Carjack Victim Recounts Ordeal

The driver of a Mercedes SUV carjacked by the Boston bombers, as they evaded police last week, has spoken publicly about his ordeal for the first time.

The victim - a 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur - was interviewed by the Boston Globe newspaper.

He was identified only as Danny and told the paper he did not want his real name to be used.

"I don't want to be a famous person talking on the TV," he said. "I don't feel like a hero. I was trying to save myself."

His nightmare encounter with the Tsarnaev brothers began at around 11pm last Thursday with the older of the two, Tamerlan, rapping on the car window. 

As Danny opened it, the armed man reached inside and warned: "Don't be stupid". 

Boston bomb suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev (L) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Tamerlan, 26, told him he was responsible for the marathon bombings and that he had just killed a police officer in Cambridge.

He climbed into the Mercedes and ordered him to drive to another neighbourhood, where they met up with his brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar.

Throughout the harrowing 90-minute journey, Danny said the Tsarnaev brothers talked about the bombings but also mundane things like iPhones, girls, and whether people listened to compact discs anymore.

He said they also talked about going to New York, but he was unable to make out what they were intending to do.

US intelligence sources now believe the brothers could have been planning an atrocity in Times Square.

"Death is so close to me," Danny recalled thinking. "I have a lot of dreams that haven't come true yet."

He thought of trying to escape more than once, but his best chance came when they were forced to pull into a service station to get fuel.

"I was thinking I must do two things: unfasten my seatbelt and open the door and jump out as quick as I can,"  Danny said.

"If I didn't make it, he would kill me right out, he would kill me right away."

He seized the moment and managed to make it to the safety of another service station.

He spent the rest of the night filling in police and FBI agents with as much detail as he could remember.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the boat in a Boston back garden

That included the key fact that the SUV the Tsarnaev brothers had taken off in was equipped with two trackers. One was in Danny's iPhone and the other was part of a Mercedes two-way satellite device.

The car was soon cornered in the Watertown district. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police.

His younger brother escaped but was found hours later hiding in a boat in a nearby street.

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Syria Chemical Weapons 'May Have Been Used'

David Cameron has said there is growing evidence of the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al Assad's regime, condemning reported attacks as a "war crime".

However, he said that the latest developments did not mean that Britain would send troops in to Syria but urged for more pressure to be put on the Assad regime.

His comments came as footage emerged of victims of an apparent sarin attack in the city of Aleppo.

The video, which was taken in a hospital and shows men and women frothing at the mouth and twitching from the effects of the nerve agent, was posted online just over a week ago.

The images were recorded at the medical facility in Afrin, about an hour's drive from the city of Aleppo, where the alleged sarin attacks by the Bashar al Assad regime were carried out.

Dr Kawa Hassan, an orthopaedic surgeon who treated the first casualties, told Anthony Lloyd, a journalist for The Times who travelled to the medical facility: "We received an initial five casualties, then a second group.

The US says the Assad regime is likely to be behind any chemical weapon use

"Many were foaming at the mouth and their pupils were dilated. Then some of my medical staff started to become affected, too. We gave them all atropine. For most, it had an immediate positive effect."

Mr Cameron told BBC Breakfast: "It is very disturbing what we are seeing. It's limited evidence but there's growing evidence that we have seen too of the use of chemical weapons, probably by the regime.

"It is extremely serious, this is a war crime, and we should take it very seriously."

He said that it was now essential to gather further evidence and for Britain to work with the international community to put pressure on the Assad regime.

He added: "But this is extremely serious, and I think what President Obama said was absolutely right - that this should form for the international community a red line for us to do more.

Vials of sarin found in Iraq in 2004

Syrian officials denied the government has used chemical weapons against rebel forces.

Sharif Shehadeh called the US claims "lies" and likened them to false accusations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel announced during a trip to Abu Dhabi yesterday that evidence of chemical weapons use had been found.

His comments were backed by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, who said the Syrian regime had carried out two small-scale chemical weapons attacks.

Mr Kerry made the claim as he left a Congressional hearing, but did not give further details.

The White House said forces loyal to Assad probably used sarin gas against rebel fighters on a "small scale", but emphasised more assessments were needed.

Victims of the alleged attacks in Aleppo were treated at an Afrin hospital

Barack Obama has repeatedly said that any use of chemical weapons would be cross a "red line", triggering possible military action.

He is expected to discuss the matter when he meets King Abdullah II of Jordan later today.

The latest disclosures by those in his administration have led to calls for tough action including enforcing a no fly zone and creating safe zones inside the country.

Speaking yesterday, a White House official said if it was determined that line had been crossed, the US would consult with its allies on the next step - and "all options are on the table".

The official said the Assad regime is believed to have chemical weapons, and any use of them in the country would probably have been carried out by government forces.

Miguel E Rodriguez, assistant to the president and director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, revealed the claims in a letter to senators John McCain and Carl Levin.

The aftermath of an airstrike in Aleppo earlier this month

"Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin," he said.

A senior defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press the letter was not an "automatic trigger" for policy decisions on the use of military force.

Senator McCain told Sky News: "The problem is that the president has consistently said that's a red line, so the question is, will the president act in a way that I have advocated for a long time?

"(This involves) providing a safe zone for the Syrian resistance, provide proper weapons and have operational capability to secure these chemical weapon caches."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced earlier this month that he had a team of 15 inspectors on stand-by in Cyprus ready to go and investigate allegations of chemical weapons us.

Today his spokesman Martin Nesirky said: "The Secretary-General has consistently urged the Syrian authorities to provide full and unfettered access to the team. He renews this urgent call today.

"The fact-finding team is on stand-by and ready to deploy in 24-48 hours."

Sarin is a colourless and odourless liquid, and is an extremely potent nerve agent.

It is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the UN, and the production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993.

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Boston Bomb Suspect Moved To Prison

Boston bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved to a Massachusetts prison, the US Marshals Service has confirmed.

The 19-year-old is now at the Federal Medical Centre in Devens - 40 miles (65km) northwest of Boston - which provides long-term medical care for inmates.

US Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade released the following statement: "The US Marshals Service confirms that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been transported from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre and is now confined at the Bureau of Prisons facility FMC Devens at Ft Devens, Massachusetts."

The younger Tsarnaev brother is recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway, days after the bombing which killed three and wounded 264.

The ethnic Chechen has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and could face the death penalty if convicted in a US federal court.

Before being moved from hospital, he reportedly told investigators that he and his brother Tamerlan, 26, had discussed going to New York to detonate their remaining explosives.

An injured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev just after his capture

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told journalists at a briefing that the two suspects had a pressure cooker bomb and five pipe bombs they intended to set off in Times Square.

Police Commissioner Kelly said: "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev revealed he and his brother decided spontaneously on Times Square as a target and they would drive to Times Square that same night.

"They discussed this while driving around in an SUV they had hijacked after they shot and killed an MIT police officer in Cambridge.

"That plan fell apart when they realised the vehicle they hijacked was low on gas and ordered the driver to stop at a gas station when the driver used the opportunity to escape and called police.

"Up till that point the brothers had at their disposal six improvised explosive devices.

Dzhokhar graduating from Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School in Boston

"One was a pressure cooker bomb similar to the two that exploded the marathon. The other five were pipe bombs. We knew Dzhokhar was pictured in Times Square with friends on or before April 18, 2012, and he was in the city again in 2012.

"We don't know if those visits were related in any way to the brother's spontaneous decision to target Times Square."

A senior US law enforcement source told Sky News the brothers' plan to attack New York was "aspirational at best". He said it was "just talk, there were no real plans, research on, or attempts to get to New York".

The news came just hours after their mother launched an impassioned attack on US authorities over the death of her older son.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said she regretted moving to the United States and claimed "America took my kids away from me".

An emotional Mrs Tsarnaeva said she was told her she could not see her remaining son.

Mrs Tsarnaeva being questioned by reporters in Dagestan

She said she had been told he had a "really bad wound to his right neck" which meant he could not eat and was being fed by a tube.

Reports in the US have claimed the teenager suffered a self-inflicted throat injury during a shootout and subsequent stand-off with the police.

According to US officials, he said his older brother, who died in a gunfight with police, recruited him to take part in the attacks only recently.

However, both Mrs Tsarnaeva and her husband, Anzor Tsarnaev, said there was no way their sons were responsible for the attack which killed three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and injured more than 180 others.

Tamerlan during a boxing match in 2009

She said her sons were victims of a conspiracy and had been framed. She claimed she had seen a video of Tamerlan being arrested and was later shown pictures of him alive.

Mrs Tsarnaeva said she had spoken to her son after the bombings and before he was killed in the police shootout during which he told her "Don't worry mamma" and tried to reassure her he was safe.

Mr Tsarnaev told reporters: "I am going to the United States. I want to say that I am going there to see my son, to bury the older one. I don't have any bad intentions. I don't plan to blow up anything."

Banging the table as he spoke, he said: "I am not angry at anyone. I want to go find out the truth."

Family photographs of brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Mrs Tsarnaeva said she was not sure whether she would accompany her husband. She was charged with shoplifting in the US last summer and is concerned she could be arrested.

They were speaking as it emerged that Tamerlan's name had been included on a database of suspected terrorists by the CIA in 2011, 18 months before the attacks.

He was investigated after Russia's FSB security service raised concerns that he had become a follower of Russian Islam.

Mrs Tsarnaeva said she did not believe that Russia had raised concerns over her son with the US authorities.

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Bangladesh: 'Factories Ignored Evacuation Order'

A building in Bangladesh was ordered to be evacuated a day before it collapsed but clothing factories there continued working and ignored police instructions, officers claim.

The order was made after deep cracks became visible - as the death toll from the tragedy rose to at least 175 and it emerged a Primark supplier was based at the premises.

After the cracks were reported on Tuesday, managers of a bank that also had an office in the building, evacuated their workers and suspended their operations.

But the garment factories continued working, ignoring the instructions of officers, said police spokesman Mostafizur Rahman.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend work starting on Wednesday morning, just hours before the building fell.

"After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed," said Atiqul Islam, the group's president.

Thousands gathered on the streets where the building collapsed

Survivors say they were made to carry on working in the eight-storey block despite apparent concerns about its safety.

The building, in Savar on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka, housed at least four factories producing clothes for leading Western retailers.

The high street giant Primark has confirmed that one of its suppliers occupied the second floor of the building.

Bosses at the retailer say they were "shocked and saddened" by the collapse.

In a statement released on the company's website, a Primark spokesman said: "The company is shocked and deeply saddened by this appalling incident at Savar, near Dhaka, and expresses its condolences to all of those involved.

Hundreds of factory workers were trapped inside the building

"Primark has been engaged for several years with NGOs and other retailers to review the Bangladeshi industry's approach to factory standards. Primark will push for this review to also include building integrity.

"Meanwhile Primark's ethical trade team is at this moment working to collect information, assess which communities the workers come from, and to provide support where possible."

Army Brigadier General Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said late on Thursday that many people were still trapped in the building.

The disaster came less than five months after a factory fire killed 112 people and underscored the unsafe conditions faced by Bangladesh's garment workers.

Workers said they had hesitated to enter the building on Wednesday morning because it had developed such large cracks a day earlier that it even drew the attention of local news channels.

Just hours later the building came tumbling down.

Tens of thousands of people have gathered at the site, weeping and searching for family members.

Searchers worked through the night to get through the jumbled mess of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to those pinned inside the building.

"I gave them whistles, water, torchlights. I heard them cry. We can't leave them behind this way," said fire official Abul Khayer.

Abdur Rahim, who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager gave assurances that the cracks in the building were no cause for concern, so employees went inside.

"After about an hour or so, the building collapsed suddenly," Mr Rahim said.

The next thing he remembers is regaining consciousness outside.

On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that "the culprits would be punished."

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Tattoo Is Key To Sex Assault Arrest In Mexico

An American fugitive suspected of abducting and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old Los Angeles girl has been tracked down to a small Mexican village.

Tobias Summers, 30, was brought back to the US to face 37 charges, including numerous sexual assaults, after hiding out for nearly a month.

He had checked into a rehabilitation clinic in Las Missiones on the coast between Tijuana and Ensenada.

Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck credited a $25k FBI reward, that was highly publicised south of the border, for a phone tip that led to the arrest on Wednesday.

"Anybody in this city who thinks they can commit that kind of crime and remain free after doing so ... we'll hunt you, we'll find you, you cannot hide," Chief Beck said.

Summers checked into the facility under a false name, but police identified him from a Superman logo tattooed on his chest.

"He was pretty scared," said Alfredo Arenas from the Baja California police. "We had him in custody very fast."

Tobias Summers was named on the FBI's list of most wanted fugitives

The victim's parents discovered she was missing from her bedroom in her Northridge home in the early morning hours of March 27.

She was found about 12 hours later wandering near a Starbucks several miles away.

The FBI said the girl had been taken to several locations and raped by Summers.

Authorities soon arrested Daniel Martinez, 29, as a suspected accomplice and later revealed that Summers was spotted in a video recording as he crossed the border into Mexico at Tecate, east of San Diego.

He has been charged with kidnapping, burglary and nearly three dozen counts of sexual assault.

Summers has a criminal record dating to 2002 that includes arrests for robbery, battery and car theft.

He was also allegedly active in a San Fernando Valley white supremacist gang.

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Boston Bombing Suspect On Terror List In 2011

The name of the dead Boston bombing suspect was placed on a federal government terrorist database 18 months before the marathon attack, according to US officials.

Sources close to the investigation said that the Russian-born Chechen brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been radicalised through jihadist materials on the internet.

According to the US officials Tamerlan was added by the CIA to a classified database of known and suspected terrorists - the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, known as Tide.

The 26-year-old amateur boxer, who according to his aunt had become a devout Muslim in recent years, had been investigated following a request from Russia's security service, the FSB, which had concerns he had become a follower of radical Islam.

Family photographs of brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev

In March 2011, about six months earlier, the FBI had separately investigated Tamerlan, also at Russia's request, but the FBI found no ties to terrorism, officials said.                 

However, the spelling the FBI used in its investigation was not the same as the spelling used by the CIA.

His six-month trip to Russia in January 2012 triggered no alerts because the FBI had closed its case and Tamerlan was not considered a risk.                 

According to the officials Dzhokhar, 19, who is being questioned in hospital but unable to speak due to a reportedly self-inflicted throat injury, has told investigators his brother had only recently recruited him to be part of the attack.

Dzhokhar said his brother recruited him for the attacks only recently

The revelations will intensify concerns about failings of the security services in both investigating and identifying Tamerlan as a terrorist threat.

Shortly after the attacks which killed three, including an eight-year-old boy and injured more than 180, US officials said the intelligence community had no information about threats to the marathon before the April 15 explosions.

Tamerlan, whom authorities have described as the driving force behind the plot, was killed in a shoot-out with police.

The moment of the first explosion

US officials are expected to brief the Senate on the investigation today but the latest disclosures are expected to prompt an inquiry into security failures.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said in his annual question and answer session today that the bombings illustrated the need for Russia and the US to work more closely on security matters.

He said: "If we truly join our efforts, we will not allow these strikes and suffer such losses."

Officials said Wednesday that Dzhokhar acknowledged to the FBI his role in the attacks but did so before he was advised of his constitutional rights to keep quiet and seek a lawyer.

Anzor Tsarnaev, father of the bomb suspects, plans to travel to the US

It is unclear whether those statements would be admissible in a criminal trial and, if not, whether prosecutors even need them to win a conviction.

Authorities have said Dzhokhar exchanged gunfire with them for more than an hour Friday night before they captured him inside a boat in a suburban Boston backyard.

Dzhokhar has told the FBI that he and his brother were angry about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the killing of Muslims there, officials said.

Memorial for murdered MIT officer Sean Collier

How much of those conversations will end up in court is unclear. The FBI normally tells suspects they have the right to remain silent before questioning them so all their statements can be used against them.

Investigators have found pieces of remote-control equipment among the debris from the bombing and were analysing them, officials said.

One official described the detonator as "close-controlled," meaning it had to be triggered within several blocks of the bombs, which had been placed in bags and left by the marathon finish line.

Floral tributes at the site of the first explosion

They also recovered a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used by Tamerlan from the site of a Thursday night gun battle that injured a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer.

US investigators had travelled to the predominantly Muslim provence of Dagestan in Russia to speak to the Tamerlan and Dzhokhar's parents Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva.

Anzor Tsarnaev has told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the family wants to take Tamerlan's body back to Russia.

Mr Tsarnaev, who described his youngest son as a "true angel", has said that his sons were framed and that they would not have been involved in the attacks.

He and his wife plan to travel to the US.

Investigators are looking into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who spent six months in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian forces in the area for years.

The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighbouring Chechnya but had lived in the US for about a decade.

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Boston Suspects' Mother: 'US Took My Kids'

The mother of the Boston bombing suspects says she doesn't believe her sons carried out the marathon attacks.

Speaking at a press conference, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, said that she regretted moving to the US and claimed that "America took my kids away from me."

An emotional Mrs Tsarnaeva said American authorities had told her that she could not see her 19-year-old son Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in hospital where US officials have said he is being questioned by investigators.

However, she said that Dzhokhar's lawyers had said that investigators had not started to question her son because he was not well enough.

She said she had been told he had a "really bad wound to his right neck" which meant he could not eat and was being fed by a tube.

Reports in the US have claimed the teenager suffered a self-inflicted throat injury during a shoot-out and subsequent stand-off with police.

According to US officials he has said that his brother, Tamerlan, 26, who died in gunfight with police, recruited him to take part in the attacks only recently.

The brothers' father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told reporters he would be travelling to the US. He said: "I am going to the United States. I want to say that I am going there to see my son, to bury the older one. I don't have any bad intentions. I don't plan to blow up anything."

Banging the table as he spoke, he said: "I am not angry at anyone. I want to go find out the truth."

Mrs Tsarnaeva said that she was not sure whether she would accompany her husband. She was charged with shoplifting in the US last summer and is concerned she could be arrested.

They were speaking as it emerged that Tamerlan's name had been included on a database of suspected terrorists by the CIA in 2011, 18 months before the attacks.

He was investigated after the Russian security service, the FSB, raised concerns that he had become a follower of Russian Islam.

Mrs Tsarnaeva said that she didn't believe that Russia had raised concerns over her son with the US authorities.

She said she had spoken to her son after the bombings and before he was killed in the police shoot-out.

She said he had told her: "Don't worry mamma" and tried to reassure her because "he always knows I worry about whatever has happened."

The press conference came as Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his annual question-and-answer session and said that the Boston bombings showed the need for closer cooperation between Moscow and Washington.

He said: "We always have said that we shouldn't limit ourselves to declarations about terrorism being a common threat and engage in closer cooperation.

"Now these two criminals have proven the correctness of our thesis."

He said also criticised the West for refusing to declare Chechen militants terrorists and offering them political assistance in the past.

He said: "I always felt indignation when our Western partners and Western media were referring to terrorists who conducted brutal and bloody crimes on the territory of Russia as rebels."

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Boston Bomb Suspects 'Had Religious Motive'

The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by a radical brand of Islam, but they do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups, US officials have said.

Authorities have interrogated and charged the surviving brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with crimes that could bring the death penalty.

The 19-year-old remains in a serious condition with a gunshot wound to his throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway.

His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died on Friday after a fierce gun battle with police.

Tsarnaev was charged in his hospital bed with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

He was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people a week ago.

Tamerlan is seen here with little brother Dzhokhar and their sisters

The brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the US for about a decade, practised Islam.

Two US officials said preliminary evidence from the younger man's interrogation suggests the brothers were motivated by religious extremism but were apparently not involved with Islamic terrorist organisations.

Dzhokhar is said to have communicated with his interrogators in writing due to his injuries.

They said they were still trying to verify what they were told by Tsarnaev and were looking at such things as his phone and online communications and his associations with others.

In the criminal complaint outlining the allegations, investigators said Tsarnaev and his brother each placed a backpack containing a bomb in the crowd near the finish line of the marathon.

The FBI said surveillance-camera footage showed Dzhokhar manipulating his mobile phone and lifting it to his ear just moments before the two blasts.

A silent tribute was held in Boston on Monday

After the first explosion, a block away from Dzhokhar "virtually every head turns to the east ... and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm", the complaint says.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev "virtually alone of the individuals in front of the restaurant, appears calm".

He then quickly walked away, leaving a backpack on the ground; about 10 seconds later, a bomb blew up at the spot where he had been standing, the FBI said.

The FBI did not say whether he was using his mobile phone to detonate one or both of the bombs or whether he was talking to someone.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying two foreign nationals arrested on Saturday in the Boston area on immigration violations are from Kazakhstan and may have known the two marathon bombing suspects.

The foreign ministry said US authorities came across them while searching for "possible links and contacts" to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Their names have not been released.

The aftermath of the Boston Marathon blasts

On Monday, Boston residents observed a moment of silence exactly a week after the first of two bombs went off near the marathon finish line.

A private funeral was also held for Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant worker who was among the dead.

Later in the day, a memorial service was held at Boston University for another victim, Lu Lingzi, 23, a graduate student from China.

The youngest person to die was eight-year-old Martin Richard, while police officer Sean Collier was killed during a confrontation with the suspects in the early hours of Friday.

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Libya: French Embassy In Tripoli Attacked

The French embassy in Libya has been damaged after a car bomb attack in the capital of Tripoli.

Officials have confirmed that two security guards were injured in the attack.

"There was an attack on the embassy. We think it was a booby-trapped car," a Libyan official said.

The blast happened at 7am in an upmarket residential area of the city

"There was a lot of damage and there are two guards wounded."

The blast destroyed a security wall and severely damaged the building when the blast occurred at about 7am local time.

The French mission is located in a two-storey villa in the uptown Gargaresh area of Tripoli.

Journalist William Crisp, at the scene, told Sky News: "The engine block of the car landed quite a way from the embassy so it was quite a strong blast.

The unprecedented attack occurred in Tripoli

"The attack was in a sleepy, wealthy part of town. It was a middle-class neighbourhood."

The motive for the attack, the first assault launched on an embassy in the Libyan capital, was not immediately clear.

A French source confirmed an attack against the embassy and said one guard was seriously wounded and another lightly hurt.

Buildings opposite the embassy were also damaged in the attack and two cars parked near the embassy were destroyed.

The bomb appeared to have been detonated directly outside the embassy

Libyan foreign minister Mohammed Abdel Aziz condemned the attack on the embassy, calling it a "terrorist act".

"We strongly condemn this act, which we regard as a terrorist act against a brother nation that supported Libya during the revolution" of 2011 that ousted the regime of Moamer Kadhafi, Abdel Aziz told AFP news agency at the scene of the blast.

In Paris, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius condemned the bombing, calling it an "abhorrent act."

In a statement, Mr Fabius said his ministry was "in liaison with the Libyan authorities" and that France will "do everything it can to shed light on the circumstances of this abhorrent act and to quickly identify the perpetrators".

The embassy was daubed in anti-French graffiti in 2011

Mr Fabius is expected to make a visit to the city to discuss the situation with both Libyan officials and French diplomatic staff.

Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor Tim Marshall added: "It is another indication of how things are not doing well in Libya.

"The French would be a target, along with Britain, as they spearheaded regime change from the Gaddafi era."

Two years after the country's civil war, Libya has struggled to maintain security, build a unified army and reign in its militias.

On the anniversary of the September 11 US attacks last year, armed men launched an assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, killing four US citizens including the ambassador to Libya.

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Canada: 'Al Qaeda Train Terror Plot' Foiled

Canadian police have foiled an al Qaeda-backed "major terrorist plot" to attack a passenger train on a railway line between New York and Toronto.

Two people have been arrested and charged with conspiring to carry out the attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group, police revealed at a news conference in Toronto.

The suspects - Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35 - had been under surveillance since August 2012 after authorities were tipped off about one of the men.

They will attend a bail hearing in Toronto today.

The pair were allegedly planning to target and derail a Via Rail passenger train in the Toronto area, and are alleged to have received "direction and guidance" from al Qaeda "elements" in Iran.

Police said there was "no indication that these attacks were state-sponsored" and declined to say where the suspects were from.

They confirmed they were not Canadian citizens but had been in the country "a significant amount of time".

The suspects' plans were "not based on their ethnic origins but on an ideology," police said.

"This is the first known al Qaeda-planned attack that we've experienced in Canada," Superintendent Doug Best said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the claim that the men were backed by Tehran-supported al Qaeda was "ridiculous".

Canadian police hold a news conference to reveal details of the arrests

"This is the most hilarious thing I've heard in my 64 years," he said.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews warned later that the "arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada".

Canadian authorities, the FBI and US Homeland Security police and agents have been involved in a year-long cross-border operation that led to the arrests in Toronto and Montreal.

Assistant Commissioner James Maliza, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said: "Had this plot been carried out it would have resulted in innocent people being killed, or seriously injured."

His colleague Chief Superintendent Jennifer Strachan added: "We are alleging that these two individuals took steps and conducted activities to initiate a terrorist attack.

"They watched trains and railways in the Greater Toronto area. It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent."

Sky's US correspondent Amanda Walker said: "They are really hailing this as a successful operation, something that they have managed to prevent.

"It does seem they have treated this as a very serious and major threat which was certainly well on in the planning.

"But not far enough for the public or railway staff to be in any immediate danger.

"So obviously they had a difficult act here to actually balance the timing of when they made these arrests - getting enough intelligence, enough information, but not taking that up to the point when the public would have been in real danger."

The news comes one week after twin bombings at the Boston Marathon killed three people and wounded 180 - and as Canada's parliament debates a proposal to beef up anti-terror measures.

A US Justice Department official in Washington said there was no connection between the thwarted terrorist plot and last Monday's attacks in Boston.

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Deaths As Iraqi Forces Clash With Protesters

At least 26 people have been killed after Iraqi security forces and Sunni Muslim protesters clashed during an anti-government demonstration, according to military sources.

The shootings occurred after the raid of a demonstration camp near Kirkuk, on Tuesday morning.

Iraq's defence ministry said troops responded only after coming under fire from gunmen in the makeshift camp in a public square in Hawija, 100 miles north of the capital Baghdad.

Demonstrators and local officials gave conflicting accounts of the number of casualties, but the defence ministry said 20 people at the camp and three officers had been killed.

At least three military sources put the toll at six troops and 20 demonstrators killed.

"When the armed forces started ... to enforce the law using units of riot control forces they were confronted with heavy fire," the defence ministry said in a statement.

But protest leaders said they were unarmed when security forces stormed in and started shooting during the early morning raid on the camp.

"When special forces raided the square, we were not prepared and we had no weapons, they crushed some of us in their vehicles," said Ahmed Hawija, a student who had been taking part in the demonstrations.

The clashes were the bloodiest since thousands of Sunni Muslims began weekly protests in December in several Iraqi provinces.

Some 13 gunmen died carrying out subsequent revenge attacks on army positions, high-ranking army officers said.

The demonstrators have demanded an end to perceived marginalisation of their minority sect by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.

A Sunni member of the Iraqi cabinet resigned after the clashes in the north of the country, an official said.

"The minister of education, Mohammed Ali Tamim, resigned from his post after the Iraqi army forces broke into the area of the sit-in in Kirkuk" province, the official from deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlak's office said.

"The resignation is final, and there will be no going back."

Since the last US troops left in December 2011, Iraq's government has been mired in crises over how to share power among the Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish parties.

Mr Maliki's critics accuse him of amassing power at their expense.

Many Iraqi Sunnis say they have been sidelined after the US-led 2003 invasion that ousted Sunni strongman Saddam Hussein and allowed the Shi'ite majority to gain power through elections.

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Boston Bombs Suspect 'Awake And Responding'

The surviving Boston marathon bomb suspect is beginning to respond to questions from investigators, reports say.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains in a critical but stable condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, where some of the 180 people wounded in the blasts are also being treated.

The 19-year-old is said to have a wound to his throat - reportedly caused by a gunshot through his mouth that exited the back of his neck - which prevents him from speaking.

Tamerlan died in a gunfight

But major US news networks say he is responding to questions in writing.

He is under armed guard in hospital and federal prosecutors are preparing to file criminal charges against him.

Dzhokhar is also reported to have been shot in the leg during a shootout with law enforcement the night before his arrest.

His older brother and fellow suspect Tamerlan, 26, died in that gunfight.

A lawyer for Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, said US authorities have also asked to speak with his client.

Amato DeLuca said Mrs Russell Tsarnaev did not suspect her husband of anything, and nothing seemed amiss after the bombings.

After Tamerlan was killed early on Friday, Dzhokhar escaped, triggering an hours-long manhunt that shut down Boston.

It ended with the teenager's capture in a boat parked in a backyard late on Friday night.

It has also emerged police chiefs believe the Tsarnaev brothers were planning further attacks.

Tamerlan's wife apparently did not suspect her husband of anything

Commissioner Ed Davis said officers found a large stockpile of weapons and more than 250 rounds of ammunition at the scene of the earlier gun battle.

"They had IEDs," he said, referring to improvised explosives devices. "They had homemade hand grenades that they were throwing at the officers.

"The scene was loaded with unexploded improvised explosive devices that actually we had to point out to the arriving officers and clear the area."

He said one IED was found in a Mercedes the brothers had abandoned. "This was as dangerous as it gets in urban policing," Commissioner Davis said.

Dzhokhar leaves the boat he was hiding in

The city's residents have been asked to observe a moment of silence at 2:50pm today, exactly a week after the first of two bombs went off within seconds of each other near the marathon finish line.

A private funeral was also set to take place later for Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant worker who was among the dead.

A memorial service will be held at Boston University for another victim, Lu Lingzi, 23, a graduate student from China. The youngest person to die was eight-year-old Martin Richard.

Mr Davis said federal authorities were trying to track down how and where the two suspects obtained the firearms and explosive devices.

There was a big manhunt for Dzhokhar who escaped after the first gun battle

The two were ethnic Chechens who had been living in the United States for a decade.

Dzhokhar became a US citizen in 2012, while his older brother's application was reportedly held up.

Tamerlan began posting militant videos on social media sites in recent years, and travelled to Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, in 2012. Both Russian regions host separatist rebel groups.

Three people were killed in the twin bombings

The brothers' social media pages appeared to express sympathy with the struggle in Chechnya, which has been ravaged by two wars since 1994 between Russia and increasingly Islamist-leaning separatist rebels.

Three people died and more than 180 others were injured in the twin blasts at the marathon, the worst bombing to take place in the US since 9/11.

The Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball and several affiliated organisations have contributed more than £400,000 to One Fund Boston, established to help people most affected by the blasts last Monday.

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Boston: 'Wife Heard Husband Was Suspect On TV'

The wife of one of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers apparently found out he was a suspect on television.

US investigators have asked to speak to Muslim convert Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, according to her lawyer Amato DeLuca, as they try to establish a motive for the attacks.

She did not suspect her husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev of anything, and nothing seemed amiss after the bombings, he added.

Mr DeLuca said she had been working 70 to 80 hours a week as a home health care aide while her husband looked after their toddler daughter.

The lawyer said on the last day his client saw her husband alive, Tamerlan, 26, was home when she left for work.

She was at university in Boston when friends introduced her to her future husband at a nightclub and they dated on and off, before marrying in 2009 or 2010, Mr DeLuca said.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev (left) and his younger brother Dzhokhar

Mrs Russell Tsarnaev, reportedly aged 24, was raised as a Christian, but at some point after meeting Tamerlan Tsarnaev she converted to Islam, he said.

When asked why she converted, he said: "She believes in the tenets of Islam and of the Koran. She believes in God."

The suspected bomber was killed after a shootout with police early on Friday.

His brother Dzhokhar, 19, escaped, triggering an hours-long manhunt that shut down Boston before he was caught.

The siblings are accused of planting two bombs near the marathon finish line last Monday, killing three people and injuring more than 180.

Forensic officers at one of the blast sites

Mrs Russell Tsarnaev did not speak to federal officials who on Sunday evening came to her parents' home, where she has been staying since her husband died.

Mr DeLuca said he spoke to officials but he would not offer further details.

"We're deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this," he said.

When asked whether anything seemed amiss to the wife following the bombings, DeLuca said, "Not as far as I know."

"When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family," he said.

He said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was at college and she did not see him "at all" at the apartment they shared with her mother-in-law.

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Boston: Video Of 'Bomber' Dancing Amid Shock

A video has been released of the younger Boston Marathon bombing suspect joking around, doing robotic dance moves, and wrestling with a friend.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is accused, along with his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan, of setting off the deadly explosions near the finish line, killing three people and injuring over 180.

Yushun Tsou, who was on the wrestling team with the teenage suspect at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, has posted the video online with the words ''this was the Jahar I knew'', referring to Tsarnaev by his nickname.

The footage, taken in a basement during their high school years, shows the tall Tsarnaev dancing in front of the camera and wrestling a friend before he eventually pins him down.

Mr Tsou, who refers to Tsarnaev as a "friend and teammate", is one of a number of the suspect's associates who have expressed their shock at the apparent out-of-character behaviour.

Andrew Glasby, a friend at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth who lived in the same dorm in a floor above, said they had chatted the day after last Monday's bombings.

Dzhokhar was also pictured wrestling in the video

"I thought it was just regular old Jahar," Mr Glasby said.

"We had a typical conversation, he was not startled, he was not scared, he was not anything. He was just the same old Jahar."

Mr Glasby also told ABC News: "He had the balls to come back and act like everything was OK, like nothing happened."

He said Tsarnaev had offered to give him a lift home on Friday.

Mr Glasby said he shocked when he saw his friend identified as a suspect in the bombings.

"Shocked is the word for it. I did not expect it. This was out of nowhere," he said.

Two days after the attacks, Tsarnaev reportedly attended a party, and one female student who was also there said: "He was just relaxed."

He had also been to the gym and slept in his dorm room that night.

The suspect is being treated in hospital as Boston pays tribute to victims

A former classmate at the university, who would only identify himself by his first name San, said Dzhokhar had told him he was having trouble on some courses.

"He was talking about how he wasn't doing as good as he expected," San, 22, said.

"He was a really smart kid, but having a little difficulty in college because going from high school to college is totally different."

San told the New York Times he would be willing to testify on Dzhokhar's behalf. "I feel like all of his friends would do that," he said.

Peter Tean, 21, a high school wrestling teammate, said he thought Dzhokhar's interest in rough-and-tumble sports came from a desire to be like his brother.

"He's done these violent sports because his brother's a boxer," Mr Tean said. "He really loves his brother, looks up to him."

Ethnic Chechen Dzhokhar is in a critical but stable condition in hospital under armed guard after being injured during a gunfight with police before his capture on Friday evening.

His older brother and suspected accomplice Tamerlan, 26, died after an earlier shootout.

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Five Killed In Russia Hunting Shop Shooting

A manhunt is underway after a gunman killed five people in a shooting at a hunting shop in the southwest Russian city of Belgorod.

Interfax news agency reported the gunman walked into the shop and fired shots, killing three staff.

He then killed two more people on the street outside before getting into a BMW and driving off. One other person was also injured.

The vehicle was later found abandoned in the southwestern Russian city, close to the Ukraine border.

Officers surrounded a car fair in the city as they searched for the suspect.

The Moscow-based Investigative Committee said in a statement it had identified the suspect, adding the gunman was a resident of Belgorod and had been released from prison in 2012.

The area around the shooting scene has been cordoned off by police.

In a statement, regional police said: "Currently, an active search is going on to detain the suspect."

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Syria: US Offers Rebels $123m Non-Lethal Aid

The United States is providing Syrian rebels with $123m (£80m) in new non-lethal aid that may include body armour and other supplies.

The money will double the amount of non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, as well as increase humanitarian aid.

The aid could include armoured vehicles, night vision goggles and advanced communications equipment.

Foreign ministers from the main supporters of the rebels trying to topple the Syrian government have been meeting in Istanbul to increase pressure on Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

The United Nations estimates the fighting in Syria has killed more than 70,000 people.

"The stakes in Syria couldn't be more clear," said US Secretary of State John Kerry.

"Chemical weapons, the slaughter of people by ballistic missiles and other weapons of huge destruction, the potential of a whole country ... being torn apart into enclaves, the potential of sectarian violence.

John Kerry meets Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul

"This bloodshed needs to stop and that's what brought us here tonight on Saturday and a very early Sunday morning to talk about the possibilities for peace and transition."

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers said they welcomed the Syrian National Coalition's "firm rejection of extremism and its commitment not to use chemical weapons".

They cited those commitments in agreeing to enhance and expand support for all coalition institutions.

The foreign ministers said they recognised the "need to change the balance of power on the ground" and welcomed the additional pledges and commitments to further increase the support to the Supreme Military Council.

The head of the council provided a military briefing during the meeting.

Syrian opposition leader Moaz al Khatib said: "Our revolution is for the entire Syrian people."

US President Barack Obama has said he has no plans to send weapons or give lethal aid to the rebels, despite pressure from Congress, some administration advisers and appeals from the Syrian opposition leadership.

Since February, the US has shipped food and medical supplies directly to the Free Syrian Army, but Mr Obama recently expanded the aid to include defensive military equipment.

Mr Kerry's announcement on Saturday was the first under that new authorisation.

So far, the US has provided an estimated $117m in non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition.

Today, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel heads to Israel in a week-long trip to the Middle East that will be dominated by the Syrian conflict as well as the Iran's nuclear programme.

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India Protests At Rape Of Five-Year-Old Girl

Protesters have staged a second day of rallies in New Delhi in protest at the brutal rape of an abducted five-year-old girl.

It was the latest in a string of attacks on females that have brought thousands on the the streets of India's capital, angry at the way women are regularly subjected to violence.

The girl is being treated at New Delhi's top government hospital where officials said she was in "stable condition".

The attack on the young child and the subsequent public revulsion was reminiscent of the horrifying gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus last December, who died from her injuries.

That case led to weeks of protests and a national debate over the status of women in India, putting the spotlight on the level of sexual violence.

The girl suffered serious internal injuries during a two-day ordeal, allegedly at the hands of a garment worker who was arrested on Saturday.

Hospital medical superintendent D.K. Sharma told reporters: "She is in stable condition and showing signs of improvement.

"She is conscious and talking to her parents, doctors and nurses and it can be said there is no danger to her life now."

A woman protests outside the police headquaters in New Delhi

Demonstrators carrying flags and posters gathered outside the the city's main police headquarters for a second day of protest.

Another group headed to the hospital where the young victim girl is under round-the-clock observation.

The Times of India reported that many people sat in the road and sang songs as the police erected barricades to keep them in check.

Many called for the sacking of Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar after it emerged two police officers have been accused of delaying an investigation into the case.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the latest attack showed again work was needed to change attitudes and improve safety.

He said: "It is widely accepted that, as a country, we have vast improvements to make in these (safety, security and status of women) areas. These issues came into sharper focus after the horrific gang rape incident in Delhi last December.

"The gruesome assault on a little child a few days back reminds us of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society."

The 22-year-old suspect, said by media reports to be a tenant in the child's house, was apprehended after he fled to his in-laws' home in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

He is accused of repeatedly attacking the child inside a locked room after kidnapping her on Monday in a lower middle-class area of the New Delhi.

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China Quake: Over 11,000 People Injured

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

The death toll in the Chinese earthquake is expected to rise above 200 today as rescuers find more bodies under rubble.

More than 11,000 people are confirmed to have been injured after the earthquake struck China's Sichuan province.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua said the quake, measured at varying magnitudes between 6.6 and 7.0, struck at 8.02am local time on Saturday close to the city of Ya'an in Lushan county.

The epicentre had a depth of a little less than eight miles (13km).

The quake triggered landslides and destroyed buildings. A major rescue operation involving emergency services and more than 6,000 troops has worked through the night to reach trapped people in various communities across the region.

The rescue effort is understood to have been hampered by aftershocks. Some of the tremors that followed the main quake have been almost as strong.

In one area, about 50% of buildings have been destroyed

According to local media reports, a vehicle carrying 17 soldiers fell off a cliff and into a river as it travelled to the epicentre. One soldier was killed and seven more injured, three seriously.

But extraordinary stories of survival are already emerging. According to one local media report, a mother managed to lift concrete weighing 50kg to rescue her son from the rubble.

Another report described how a woman gave birth at a bike shelter just a few hours after the quake hit.

And remarkable TV footage from one collapsed building shows rescue workers pulling a tiny baby alive from the rubble. The child's mother was also saved.

Tremors were felt in neighbouring provinces and in the provincial capital city of Chengdu. Users of Weibo, China's microblogging service, have posted images of damaged buildings and described scenes of panic as residents rushed outside.

Local seismologists registered the quake at magnitude 7.0 while the US Geological Survey (USGS) put it at 6.6.

The USGS said "significant" casualties were likely and "extensive damage is probable and disaster is likely widespread."

A Chinese general, flying over the region in a helicopter, told local media that as many as 50% of buildings in one area had collapsed.

Thousands of rescuers have been deployed

China's new Premier Li Keqiang has visited the region to survey the damage.

The quake is the first big test for the new Chinese leadership. Their ability to respond to it is likely to be scrutinised on an ever growing social media forum.

The epicentre is close to the location of the 2008 earthquake which killed 68,000 people. That quake had a greater magnitude of 7.9 but its epicentre was further underground.

The 2008 disaster destroyed large swathes of the province along with areas of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu. The government faced significant criticism for allowing badly constructed buildings to be erected and for covering up their failings.

This time, early indications suggest a much better level of preparedness.

Cai Jing, the Deputy Secretary-General of Sichuan's Provincial Government, attempted to reassure people at a late news conference last night.

"The main road sections in Lushan County have been reopened," he said.

"Hospitals in the province are ready to receive and transport the injured. A total of 28,971 rescuers from 95 professional rescue teams with 933 sets of equipment have been dispatched," he told reporters at the briefing in Chengdu City.

"At present, about 13,466 rescuers have arrived at the epicentre and 2,058 others are heading to the area. In addition, 13,547 rescuers are put on standby."

Better technology is also helping the authorities. For the first time, unmanned drones are being used over the disaster zone to send back pictures and assess damage.

But new technology is also putting increased pressure on the authorities. This is the first natural disaster in China in the "Weibo era". The twitter-like social media phenomenon has allowed "netizens" to openly criticise the government for failings.

International offers of assistance have already been received.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague sent the condolences of the nation.

"My thoughts are also with the Chinese authorities and the emergency services as they continue their rescue efforts. We are in contact with local authorities through our Consulate-General in Chongqing and will continue to follow the situation closely," he said.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin sent China's President Xi Jinping a telegram expressing his condolences and offering help.

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