CA-NEWS Summary

Boston Marathon bombs packed with gunpowder, shrapnel

BOSTON (Reuters) - A pressure cooker stuffed with gunpowder and shrapnel caused at least one of the blasts at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured 176 others in the worst attack on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001, law enforcement sources said on Tuesday. President Barack Obama called the two bombings on the marathon finish line an "act of terror" and police said parts of the center of Boston could be closed for days as they investigated the blasts that caused several people to lose limbs.

Pakistan bears brunt of Iranian earthquake, 35 killed

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck a border area of southeast Iran on Tuesday killing at least 35 people in neighboring Pakistan, destroying hundreds of houses and shaking buildings as far away as India and Gulf Arab states. Communications with the sparsely-populated desert and mountain region were largely cut off, making it difficult to assess Iranian casualties. But an Iranian provincial governor later said there were no reports of deaths there so far.

Venezuela accuses opposition of plotting coup, seven dead

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President-elect Nicolas Maduro accused the opposition on Tuesday of planning a coup against him after seven government supporters were killed in violent clashes over his disputed election victory. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles has demanded a full recount of votes from Sunday's election after official results showed a narrow victory for Maduro, who is late socialist President Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor.

At least nine killed in blast at Pakistan election rally

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least nine people were killed and more than 50 wounded on Tuesday when a suicide bomber attacked an election rally for a party opposed to Pakistan's Taliban movement, police said. The blast struck a gathering called by senior politicians of the Awami National Party (ANP) in the northwestern city of Peshawar ahead of the May 11 general elections.

Syrian guns fall silent to allow Aleppo's dead to be collected

AMMAN (Reuters) - Guns fell silent in one of the main battle zones of Syria's biggest city, Aleppo, on Tuesday to let aid workers collect 31 bodies that had been rotting amid the rubble of the front line - the first truce in months of warfare in the city. Red Crescent workers and members of an opposition local council drove into the edge of the working class al-Sakhour district in north Aleppo to pick up the mostly civilian dead, many of them hit by army sniper fire, as fighters from the two sides looked on, activists and rebel military sources said.

North Korea issues new threats over protests in South

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea issued new threats against South Korea on Tuesday, vowing "sledge-hammer blows" of retaliation if South Korea did not apologize for anti-North Korean protests the previous day when the North was celebrating the birth of its founding leader. The North also rejected what it called "cunning" U.S. overtures for talks, saying it will not be humiliated into being dragged to sit at the negotiating table by Washington.

Plea deal talks underway for US soldier accused in Iraq killings -lawyer

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier charged with killing five fellow servicemen in 2009 at a military counseling center in Iraq is seeking a plea deal with Army prosecutors that would spare him from facing the death penalty, his lawyer told Reuters on Tuesday. Russell faces five charges of premeditated murder, one charge of aggravated assault and one charge of attempted murder in the shootings that killed two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport.

Congo army battalion accused of mass rape U.S. trained: U.N. envoy

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An army battalion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, some of whose members have been accused of mass rape, was trained by the United States, a senior U.N. envoy said on Tuesday. The United Nations said 126 women were raped in Minova in Congo's volatile east in November after Congolese army troops fled to the town when M23 rebels briefly captured the nearby provincial capital, Goma.

Ex-rebels launch reprisals in Central African Republic capital

BANGUI (Reuters) - Members of a rebel movement that seized power in Central African Republic last month launched a reprisal raid on a stronghold of the ousted former president on Tuesday as the United Nations voiced concern at the deteriorating security situation there. Fighters from the Seleka rebel coalition, which overthrew President Francois Bozize on March 24, opened fire in the same area of the capital Bangui where at least 13 people were killed and dozens more were injured in clashes on Sunday.

Top general says U.S. to assess Afghan troops level after summer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. commander of international forces in Afghanistan said on Tuesday he will make a recommendation of how many American troops should remain in Afghanistan after he sees how well Afghan security handles the summer fighting season. "We need to see how the Afghans do in their first summer in the lead, and make an assessment in November 2013," Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-103756524.html

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