The Boston Marathon bombers were headed for New York's Times Square to blow up the rest of their explosives, authorities said, in what they portrayed as a chilling, spur-of-the-moment scheme that fell apart when the brothers realized the car they had hijacked was low on gas. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother had decided spontaneously last week to drive to New York and launch an attack. In their stolen sport utility vehicle they had five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker explosive like the ones that blew up at the marathon, Kelly said. "New York City was next on their list of targets," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The plan fell apart when the Tsarnaev brothers got into a shootout just outside Boston that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead, Kelly said. "We don't know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists had they arrived here from Boston," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "We're just thankful that we didn't have to find out that answer." More»

An attack Thursday in restive northern Nigeria where suspected Islamists stormed a police station and stole nearly $60,000 from a bank killed 20 insurgents and five officers, the local police chief said Friday. "Five policemen and 20 gunmen had been confirmed dead when some Boko Haram Terrorist attacked police formations in Gashua town," the Yobe state police commissioner, Sanusi Rufai, said of the attack. Nigeria's military had previously given a toll of seven dead in the Thursday clash. More»

The US economy grew at a pace of 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013, with cuts in government spending offsetting private consumption and investment gains, the Commerce Department said Friday. The first estimate of GDP growth in the first quarter was a solid rebound from the previous quarter's poor 0.4 percent pace, but it came in below the average analyst forecast of 2.8 percent. Consumer spending gained 3.2 percent, a pick-up from the fourth quarter, and business investment continued to grow, albeit at a slower pace, gaining 2.1 percent. But federal government spending, hit by the "sequester" budget cuts which took effect during the quarter, continued to drag on the economy, falling 8.4 percent. Ahram More»

As the case unfolds against Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old may earn a dubious distinction -- the federal government has indicated his could be one of the rare cases where it seeks the death penalty. At an arraignment this week, the judge warned Tsarnaev he could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction in the twin blasts that killed three and wounded 264 people on April 15. But experts say the possible sentence is a long way off for the ethnic Chechen man who is accused, along with his now dead older brother, of committing the worst terror attack on civilians in the US since the suicide airliner strikes of September 11, 2001. Only three men have been put to death at the federal level since the U.S. reinstated capital punishment four decades ago, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Another 59 are on death row at a federal prison in Indiana, it said. More»

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered starkly different views of the Syrian unrest Tuesday, after meeting at NATO headquarters, according to VOA. The United States wants Russia to convince Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, but Russia refuses. Secretary Kerry tried to downplay the differences. “There's a difference of opinion between Russia and the United States with respect to when or how Assad might leave. I don't think there's a difference of opinion that his leaving may either be inevitable or necessary to be able to have a solution,” Kerry said. But Russia says the shape of a Syrian political settlement must be decided by the Syrians themselves, including President Assad. At a news conference, Foreign Minister Lavrov accused Western nations of blocking a series of peace efforts, and said if that continues, Syria could come under the control of radicals. More»

At least 70 people have been killed and many more are feared trapped after an eight-storey building collapsed in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, government officials say. Frantic efforts are under way to rescue those beneath the debris. At least 200 were injured by the collapse. The army is helping with the rescue operation on the outskirts of Dhaka. Building collapses are common in Bangladesh where many multi-storey blocks are built in violation of rules. The eight-storey building contained a clothing factory, a bank and several other shops. It collapsed during the morning rush hour. Many people have gathered near the scene looking for friends and relatives. More»

The shallow earthquake struck Sichuan province on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau just after 8:00 am, prompting a major rescue operation in the same area where 87,000 people were reported dead or missing in a massive quake in 2008. Eighteen hours after the quake hit Lushan county in the city of Ya'an, the death toll stood at 160, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the China Earthquake Administration which said more than 6,700 people had been injured. At least 10,000 homes were destroyed, the Sichuan government said, as rescue workers searched through the rubble for survivors. Local seismologists registered the quake at magnitude 7.0 while the US Geological Survey gave it as 6.6. More than 840 aftershocks followed, Xinhua said. The quake was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu, which lies to the east, and even in the megacity of Chongqing several hundred kilometres (miles) away. More»

Health officials raised further questions on Friday about the source of a new strain of bird flu infecting humans in China after data indicated that more than half of patients had had no contact with poultry. The H7N9 virus has been found in 87 people, mostly in eastern China, and killed 17. But it is not clear how people are becoming infected and the World Health Organization (WHO) says there is no evidence of the most worrying scenario - sustained transmission between people. The WHO's China representative, Michael O'Leary, issued data on Friday showing that half of the cases analyzed had had no known contact with poultry, the most obvious potential source, but he said it appeared human-to-human transmission was rare. "This is still an animal virus that occasionally infects humans," he said. "With rare exceptions, we know that people are not getting sick from other people". More»

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remained in serious condition in hospital "unable to communicate," Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick said Saturday. The 19-year-old is "serious but stable. I think not able to communicate yet," the governor told reporters after attending a tribute to the victims of Monday's bomb attacks that left three dead and about 180 injured. CBS television quoted investigators as saying that Tsarnaev suffered two serious wounds and had lost a lot of blood. It said investigators had speculated that one wound in the back of his neck could have been a suicide attempt. "They say it appears from the wound that he might have stuck a gun in his mouth and fired," said the report, which added that Tsarnaev could understand what those around him were saying. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was detained on Friday. His elder brother Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police earlier in the day during a massive manhunt. Patrick said he hopes the teenaged suspect survives. "We have a million questions and those questions need to be answered," he added. More»

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hopes to finalise a major arms deal with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during a visit to the Middle East this week, and also discuss fresh military supplies to Israel, an Israeli official said on Friday. The accord is worth $10 billion and will help the three countries counter any threat from Iran, the New York Times reported. Hagel arrives in Israel on April 20, where he will discuss the civil war in neighbouring Syria and Iran's contested nuclear programme. He will later hold talks in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Asked to comment on the New York Times report, an Israeli official confirmed that Washington "wants to close a major arms deal" with the Saudis and the UAE, and also "wants to preserve Israel's qualitative edge, in parallel". More»