Boston bombs: Officials wait to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev A top US interrogation group is waiting to question the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was arrested late on Friday when he was found seriously injured in a suburban backyard after a huge manhunt. He is under armed guard in hospital. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said the suspect was stable, but not yet able to communicate. The teenager's brother, Tamerlan, died after a shoot-out with police. Three people were killed and more than 170 others injured by Monday's twin bombing, close the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Analysis Rajesh Mirchandani BBC News, Washington DC Miranda warnings - or more usually, Miranda rights - are designed to remind a suspect who has been arrested or is questioned in custody that they have certain constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent so as not to incriminate themselves and to have an attorney present during questioning. Police officers are required to recite them, although not necessarily word for word, to a suspect. But there is an exception - and that's what happened in the case of the Boston bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev. The exception was identified in a 1984 Supreme Court ruling which stated that "the need for answers to questions in a situation posing a threat to the public safety outweighs the need for the prophylactic rule protecting the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination". The exception has been used in a couple of high profile terror-related cases in recent years: against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was stopped while trying to set off a bomb hidden in his underpants on a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, and against Faisal Shahzad, who tried to detonate a bomb in New York's Times Square in 2010. Applied to the Boston manhunt, if officers had read Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights, he might have stayed silent about any more bombs, any more attacks planned - or any co-conspirators. Police officer Sean Collier was shot dead during the police operation to find the brothers on Thursday night. A transport officer was later seriously injured in the shoot-out which left Tamerlan Tsarnaev fatally wounded. On Saturday, President Barack Obama met his top security advisors to review the events in Boston. He has vowed to seek answers on what motivated the alleged bombers and whether they had help. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found by a member of the public on Friday evening, shortly after a city-wide lockdown was ended. He was injured and hiding in a boat in a backyard, and was reportedly further injured in a fire fight with police. The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group - a multi-security agency unit specialising in questioning terror suspects - is waiting at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston as he recovers. The BBC's David Willis, outside the hospital, says the suspect is suffering gunshot wounds to the neck and leg and has lost a lot of blood, so it could be a while before investigators are able to talk to him. CBS News quoted investigators as saying that a wound to the neck may have been a suicide attempt. Prosecutors are also at the scene, determining what charges the teenager might eventually face. A federal charge of using a weapon of mass destruction to kill people carries a possible death sentence. There is no death penalty in the state of Massachusetts. grilse
Syria crisis: US steps up aid to rebels at talks in Turkey US Secretary of State John Kerry has announced a doubling of US aid to Syria's rebels and told a Friends of Syria meeting its members were committed to a peaceful transition. Mr Kerry told the meeting in Istanbul that the US would provide Syrian rebels $123m (£81m) in new, non-lethal aid. He said President Barack Obama was committed to a "democratic, unified, post-Assad Syria". More than 60,000 have died in the two-year uprising against Bashar al-Assad. Mr Kerry also announced that all aid from the 11 countries known as the Friends of Syria would now be channelled through the Turkey-based Free Syrian Army group headed by Gen Salim Idris. The meeting in Istanbul brought together the foreign ministers of countries opposing the government of President Assad. Mr Kerry said the meeting had brought significant advances. He said: "The situation in Syria is horrific. It is horrible." He accused the Assad government of "using ballistic missiles against innocent people" and "using his air force to rain down terror on the people of his country". Mr Kerry said Mr Obama had instructed him to step up efforts with the opposition and that the Friends of Syria were committed to a "mutually consented transitional government and then an elected new leader". The rebels have been pushing for military supplies and insisted in Istanbul that any weapons they received would not "fall into the wrong hands". The US and EU have so far refused to supply the rebels with weapons. The Western allies are concerned that they may end up in the hands of Islamist extremists inspired by al-Qaeda. Before the Istanbul talks, the main opposition expressed its frustration with the lack of support, urging allies to act more decisively. In a statement quoted by the AFP news agency, the Syrian National Coalition said: "It is the moral imperative of the international community, led by the Friends of Syria, to take specific, precise and immediate action to protect Syrian civilians from the use of ballistic missiles and chemical weapons." It also called for "surgical strikes" on positions it alleged were being used by Syrian government troops to fire missiles. Both Damascus and the rebels accuse each other of using chemical weapons. UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon has recently announced an investigation into the allegations, and a team of UN-led experts is now in Cyprus awaiting permission to enter Syria. fungible
China quake: Rescuers battle to reach survivors Chinese rescue teams are struggling to reach survivors of a powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake in remote hill villages in Sichuan province. Emergency workers dressed in bright orange uniforms were making their way to remote areas on foot after roads were blocked by landslides. Soldiers worked all night to search villages and treat the injured, while local people slept in shelters or cars. The quake killed 203 and injured some 11,500, state media said. Among the injured were 960 people who were seriously wounded. Premier Li Keqiang is overseeing relief efforts, and told reporters the rescue effort was "our first duty". Mr Li, who arrived on Saturday afternoon by helicopter to direct rescue efforts, visited hospitals and tents, and climbed on a pile of rubble to view the devastation. The BBC's John Sudworth in Ya'an, the closest city to the epicentre, says dozens of injured people are still being treated in a triage centre outside the city's hospital. Some villages close to the epicentre in Lushan county were left in ruins. A number of aftershocks followed the quake, which struck at 08:02 local time (00:02 GMT) on Saturday. "It was as if the mountain was alive," a 68-year-old woman with a broken arm, who had lost her home, told AFP news agency. China has received offers of help from countries including Japan, which is currently embroiled in a territorial dispute with Beijing over an island grouping in the East China Sea. Beijing said overseas help was not needed at the moment, but added that it would contact Tokyo if that changed. Chen Yong, the vice-director of the Ya'an city government earthquake response office, said the death toll may not rise much more. "We understand the situation in most areas. Most of the casualties have been reported," he said. "In some remote mountain areas, it is possible that we don't fully understand the situation." Ambulances, fire engines and military lorries piled high with supplies were waiting in long lines along blocked roads in the province on Sunday. Correspondents say the hill villages, where farmers grow rice, vegetables and corn on terraced plots, were hit the hardest. Kevin Xia of the Red Cross said: "Supplies have had difficulty getting into the region because of the traffic jams. Most of our supplies are still on the way." In Longmen village in Baoxing county nearly all the buildings were destroyed, officials said. Rescuers were forced to dynamite boulders that had fallen across some roads, while overnight rain slowed rescue work. A military vehicle carrying 17 soldiers came off the road, killing one soldier and injuring others. Tens of thousands of people spent the night in tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back because of the aftershocks. Sichuan province was devastated by a massive quake five years ago. Tens of thousands of people were killed and five million lost their homes. Many of the collapsed buildings were schools and nurseries, leading to widespread criticism of local government's planning policies. But Mr Chen said that this had not happened this time. "The Chinese government has put a lot of money into building schools and hospitals. I can guarantee that no schools collapsed," he said. ahull
Paraguay holds key presidential election Voters in Paraguay go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election seen as key to restoring the country's democratic credentials. Horacio Cartes, of the conservative Colorado Party, and the centre-right Liberal Party's Efrain Alegre are seen as front-runners among 10 candidates. The country's standing dipped in the region after last year's disputed impeachment of President Fernando Lugo. The South American blocs Unasur and Mercosur both suspended Paraguay. They cited a "rupture in the democratic order". The impeachment followed a land eviction at a farm last June that led to the deaths of 11 farmers and six police officers. The incident sparked a nationwide outcry and the opposition declared President Lugo responsible. Mr Lugo, a left-wing former Roman Catholic bishop, was impeached and replaced by Vice-President Federico Franco of the Liberal Party in less than 48 hours. When a near unanimous vote blamed the president's handling of the crisis for the deaths, neighbouring countries recalled their diplomats citing a "congressional coup". Polls will be open from 07:00 local time (11:00 GMT) until 16:00. Preliminary results are expected five hours after voting ends. The country will choose a new president and vice-president, 45 senators, 80 members of the lower house and 17 state governors. The poll will be closely monitored by international organisations. More than 500 observers from Unasur, the European Union and the Organisation of American States will be present, electoral authorities say. "The world will see that Paraguay is a country that elects its authorities democratically, solving a vital problem for the people, that is, re-joining the international bodies," Uruguayan MP Daniel Pena, who will be acting as an observer for the Mercosur parliament, told Paraguay's IP news agency. Just over 3.5 million of the nation's 6.6 million citizens are eligible for the mandatory vote. The electoral tribunal's president, Alberto Ramirez Zambonini, appealed for participation in Sunday's election. "For five years, others take decisions for us. This is the chance citizens have to choose [who they are]," Mr Ramirez told journalists. Mr Cartes' Colorado party governed Paraguay for 35 years, acting as the main allies of the military ruler Gen Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989. Mario Ferreiro, a popular TV journalist, and the left leaning doctor Anibal Carrillo Iramain, are other key candidates. Landlocked Paraguay is one of South America's poorest countries, with an economy highly dependent on agricultural exports. It has long-standing corruption problems. Its GDP shrank 0.5% last year, although forecasts predict double-digit growth for 2013. gravimetrical
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