Police captured a 19-year-old ethnic Chechen suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings with his older brother after an intense day-long manhunt on Friday that closed down the city and turned a working-class suburb into a virtual armed camp. The break in the case sent waves of relief and jubilation through Boston and the suburb of Watertown, where armored vehicles roamed the streets and helicopters flew overhead through the day. Residents and police officers cheered and clapped when the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was caught after an exchange of gunfire with police. A Massachusetts State Police spokesman said Tsarnaev was bleeding and in serious condition in a Boston hospital. He had been hiding in the stern of a boat parked in the backyard of a house in Watertown, police said. A resident called police after seeing blood on the boat. More»

Pakistan's former leader Pervez Musharraf has appeared at an anti-terrorism court over claims he illegally detained judges in 2007. Mr Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan between 1999 and 2007, was arrested on Friday. The High Court ruled that the allegations amounted to an act of terrorism and ordered him to appear at Islamabad's anti-terror court. Mr Musharraf has described the case against him as politically motivated. Last month Mr Musharraf returned from years of self-imposed exile hoping to lead his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) party into the general election next month. More»

Scores of people are injured and an unknown number are dead after a huge explosion at a fertiliser plant near Waco in the US state of Texas. Dozens of homes and buildings have been destroyed, and several are still on fire, after the West Fertilizer plant exploded at about 19:50 (00:50 GMT). Some people are thought still to be trapped in buildings and a number of firefighters are reported missing. Emergency services officials said ammonia may have caused the explosion. It has been reported the company had 54,000lbs (20 tonnes) of anhydrous ammonia on site. Firefighters had been tackling a blaze at the plant when the explosion in West, a town of about 2,700 people some 20 miles (32km) north of Waco, occurred. More»

China has approved the merger of commodities trader Glencore and mining group Xstrata, clearing the final big hurdle in completion of the deal. The nod came after Glencore agreed to sell its stake in Xstrata's copper mining project in Peru to a buyer approved by Chinese authorities. It also agreed to supply a minimum volume of copper concentrate to China for a period of eight years.The merger will form one of the world's biggest metals and commodities firms. It was first announced in February last year, but the completion date has been pushed back several times, not least due to concerns over the influence the combined entity may have on the global commodity markets. More»

Bombs that targeted the Boston Marathon on Monday may have been packed in pressure cookers, investigators say. Images from a joint Homeland Security and FBI bulletin show the remains of a dark backpack, a detonation device and mangled pieces of metal. Three people were killed and more than 170 injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line of Monday's race. Those who died were an eight-year-old boy, a woman aged 29 and a postgraduate student from China. The BBC's Paul Adams, in Boston, says vigils for the victims were held across the city on Tuesday night as Bostonians still wrestled with why anyone would want to attack their much-loved marathon. More»

The bombs that tore through a crowd of spectators at the Boston Marathon could have cost as little as $100 to build and were made of the most ordinary ingredients — so ordinary, in fact, that investigators could face a gargantuan challenge in attempting to use bomb forensics to find the culprit. Investigators revealed Tuesday that fragments recovered at the blast scene suggest a simple design: a common pressure cooker of the kind found at most discount stores, packed with an explosive and armed with a simple detonator. A final ingredient — a few handfuls of BBs, nails and pellets — helped ensure widespread casualties when the two devices exploded Monday near the race’s finish line, law enforcement officials said. The devices’ design was immediately recognized by counterterrorism experts as a type touted by al-Qaeda for use by its operatives around the world. Similar devices have been used by terrorists in mass-casualty bombings in numerous countries, from the Middle East to South Asia to North Africa. Yet the bomb’s simplicity and garden-variety ingredients complicate the task of determining whether the maker was an international terrorist, a homegrown extremist or a local citizen with a grudge, investigators and experts say. More»

U.S. law enforcement officials said Tuesday that a Saudi national injured in the Boston Marathon bombing is regarded as a witness, not a suspect. The Saudi, who is recuperating at a Boston hospital, is in his 20s and is in the United States on a Saudi scholarship to study at a university in the Boston area. The federal officials’ explanation echoed comments by a Saudi official at the country’s embassy in Washington. The embassy official said that a Saudi national has been questioned as a witness but is not regarded as a suspect. The Saudi official cited information provided to the embassy by U.S. law enforcement officials. “We’re not aware of any Saudi suspect or Saudi person of interest,” said the Saudi official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the preliminary nature of the information. More»

A senior U.S. intelligence official says two more explosive devices have been found near the scene of the Boston marathon where two bombs detonated earlier. The official said the new devices were being dismantled. It was not immediately clear what kind of devices had been found Monday. The official said the first two did appear to be bombs. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the findings publicly. The official said it was not clear what the motive was or who may have launched the attack. More»

Two explosions hit the Boston Marathon as runners crossed the finish line on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring 110 on a day when tens of thousands of people pack the streets to watch one of the world's best known marathons. Pictures from the scene showed blood stains on the ground and several people knocked down. Massachusetts General Hospital was treating victims of the explosion in its emergency room but information about their condition was not immediately available, a spokeswoman said. Police reported at least one explosion and witnesses said there were two, which hit as spectators were cheering on people finishing the Boston Marathon, which was first run in 1897. Reporters in the media center heard two blasts. More»

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has said Washington is willing to engage with North Korea as long as it takes steps to give up nuclear weapons. Kerry said during a meeting with Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan, that the on burden is on Pyongyang to follow "to observe laws and the norms of international behaviour". "The burden is on Pyongyang," he said. "North Korea must take meaningful steps to show that it will honour commitments that it has already made". At a separate meeting with Japanese students, Kerry also said that the US and Japan are united in addressing the North Korean crisis. "One thing is certain, we are united. There can be no confusion on this point. The North's dangerous missile programme threatens not only North Korea's neighbours but it threatens its own people," he said. More»