Boston mosque refuses to offer funeral prayers for marathon bomber: Report

By AFP / Web Desk

BOSTON: A small mosque in Boston, called the “Islamic Society of Boston”, has refused to hold funeral prayers for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, his aunt told NBC News on Wednesday.

According to the report, Patimat Suleimanova said the US authorities had told the family they could have the 26-year-old’s body.

One of the suspects’ uncle approached the mosque requesting a burial and funeral services but the mosque declined the request, she added.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the mosque said that the decision to conduct the burial would be made by a scholar. “This one is complex because the things that this guy did were just absolutely disgraceful,” he was quoted by NBC News as saying.

Authorities are still working to piece together a motive for the twin bombings just over a week ago at the Boston marathon that killed three people and wounded 264, as more details emerged about the ethnic Chechen brothers accused of carrying out the attack.

Still hospitalised, 19-year-old Dzhokhar has reportedly admitted to being driven by radical ideas, telling investigators the attacks were motivated by the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Eyewitness: Explosions “100 times louder than thunder”

By Esme E. Deprez, Drew Armstrong & Annie Linskey

Powerful explosions killed two and injured 23 near the finish of the Boston Marathon, police said.

The first blast near Copley Square caused a huge puff of white smoke and was followed by a smaller one. Police at the corner of Boylston Street and Clarendon Street said there were many casualties.

“There were two bombs that exploded near the finish line in today’s Boston Marathon,” according to statement on the race’s website. “We are working with law enforcement to understand what exactly has happened.”

President Barack Obama was notified of the attack and directed federal authorities to provide whatever assistance is needed, according to a White House statement.

The Boston Globe reported on its Twitter feed that police found other explosives, and a third blast was heard after the area was secured.

Phil Kirkpatrick, a 59-year-old from Nashville with blood on his jeans and shoes, said he was watching his girlfriend race when the explosions went off.

“I was standing just there and something blew up on the street,” he said. “There was a large explosion and a white flash. It blew us all back onto each other. It was so loud, I still can’t hear out of my right ear. I was crawling on the sidewalk, and my cell phone blew out of my hand. There were some really hurt people.”

He was taken a medical tent, and saw a man with his foot blown off.

Makeshift Bandages

Dan O’Gara was working at Marathon Sports, a running store on Boylston Street, next door to where an explosion went off and said three injured people were brought into the store with cuts on their arms and legs. Employees bandaged them with shirts.

“I took a peek out the window and I could see at least four or five people on the ground bleeding,” O’Gara said.

Walter Antos, of Boulder, Colorado, said the explosion about a block away was “100 times louder than thunder.”

Runners were directed off the course and not able to finish, he said.

After the blasts, athletes walking away from the race course began running again.

An online broadcast showed dozens of U.S. military personnel had been patrolling the route.

The marathon, first run in 1897, is considered the most prestigious in the U.S. It attracts about 20,000 runners each year, most of whom have met a qualifying standard in another race. Rita Jeptoo of Kenya won the women’s race; Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia won the men’s.

To contact the reporters on this story: Esme E. Deprez in New York at edeprez@bloomberg.net; Drew Armstrong in New York at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net; Annie Linskey in Boston at alinskey@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net

Courtesy: Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-15/two-explosions-reported-near-finish-line-at-boston-marathon.html

Via – Twitter

In-camera session: ISI chief shot back at ‘favour-seeking’ Nisar

By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: Though he spent a large chunk of the marathon session on the back foot, besieged by politicians, the chief of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency did come out of his shell to silence fiery Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Details of Friday’s closed-door session of a special joint sitting of Parliament continue to trickle out – with some interesting nuggets of information being narrated to The Express Tribune regarding an exchange between Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha and Chaudhry Nisar.

Reported yesterday was a fiery speech by Nisar against the military establishment – but it emerged, through fresh information, that the DG ISI did not just stand there and take the tirade.

Pasha, who has been at the receiving end of a number of fiery speeches by the PML-N leader over the last few weeks, is said to have shocked Nisar by replying in the same token.

Nisar is said to have risen out of his seat for his speech right as the question and answer session was to begin. But a “visibly angry” Pasha snubbed Nisar in front of a full house.

Pasha claimed that he ‘knew’ why he was being targeted by the leader of the opposition as of late – alleging that Nisar had asked him for a personal favour, which he, as DG ISI, refused to extend.

Since then, said Pasha, Nisar had launched a number of tirades against him in particular and the military in general. However, Pasha said he would not reveal what the favour was on the floor of the august house – but would if asked outside.

An embarrassed Chaudhry Nisar was said to have been taken aback as Pasha continued with his ‘counter-attack’. The DG ISI kept on grilling Nisar, asking the PML-N leader if he knew what the effects of his recent tirades had been. Pasha told the house that on a recent trip to the US he was told by CIA chief Leon Panetta in an important meeting: ‘Look, General Pasha – how can we trust you when your own country’s opposition leader is saying that you cannot be believed?’