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US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama vowed today that the Boston marathon bombers would be found and held “accountable” as investigators focused their efforts on two potential suspects.
“Yes, we will find you, and yes, you will face justice,” Obama told a special service in the city, three days after the two bombs killed three people and injured about 180 in a hail of nails and ball bearings.
“We will find you, we will hold you accountable,” he added in a keynote speech on a special visit to show national solidarity with what he called “one of the world’s great cities.”
“If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us,” Obama said, then “it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it.”
The US leader was given several ovations by the 2,000-strong congregation in Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross, which included relatives of the dead, rescuers who helped victims and political leaders.
Obama, who was to meet some victims with his wife Michelle, listened attentively to messages from representatives of all religions in the city.
Nasser Wedaddy, chief of the New England Interfaith Council, spoke for American Muslims and highlighted how the Koran says that killing one person “is like killing all mankind.”
Wedaddy told how he experienced a car bomb while living in Damascus as a child. “What happened on Monday has shocked and horrified us, but it has also brought us together,” he said in a message carefully prepared by Muslim community leaders who fear a backlash if the attackers are found to be militant Islamists.
The archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, read a message from Pope Francis in which he said the people of the city should keep “working together to build an even more just, free and secure society.”
Acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma played with a choir of teenagers, some of whom fought back tears as they sang for the service.
Relentless hunt
Obama has vowed a relentless hunt for the attackers and authorities say they want to speak to individuals captured in surveillance camera images around the marathon finish line that was devastated by the pressure cooker bombs.
“There is some video that has raised the question of those that the FBI would like to speak with,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Congressional hearing. But she added that she would not call the men suspects.
No claim of responsibility and no arrests have been made in connection with the twin bombings that are the worst attack in the United States since the September 11, 2001 atrocities.
But media reports said authorities would later release images of two men who could have planted the bombs that sprayed nails, ball bearings and other metal fragments into the crowds.
“Authorities have clear video images of two separate suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings carrying black bags at each explosion site and are planning to release the images today,” the Boston Globe said, quoting an official.
The images were from surveillance cameras in Boylston Street in Boston where the marathon ended.
Suspects
A law enforcement official confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that investigators have images of at least one potential suspect and are seeking “to locate and identify that individual.”
The suspects have not yet been identified though, reports said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it has launched a “worldwide” hunt. But the FBI and political leaders have appealed for patience over the pace of the investigation.
The FBI released photographs of the mangled metal remnants of a pressure cooker believed to have been used for one of the bombs. The lid of one pressure cooker was found on the roof of a hotel near the marathon finish line.
More than 100 of the injured have left Boston hospitals, but about 10 remain in critical condition and some will require new operations.
At least 12 people have lost at least one of their legs because of the blast from the bombs, which fired the metal fragments at low level.
Doctors at Boston Medical Center said a second Chinese student caught in the blast had come out of a coma and was improving. The girl’s family was expected in Boston soon.
- © AFP 2013.
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They should bring back the Back to Education grant
Plus a million there
FF to abstain on budget vote will need Lowry to get it through ! Now is John Deasy chance to get rid of Kenny vote against general election quick ??
Heard him during the week saying he won’t vote against it
I’m comfortable earning a middle income please leave it like that and give the money to those struggling. To much vote wanting here
Pension in 2007 budget €209. It will probably be nearly €239 by 2017. While I don’t begrudge anyone that worked hard all their life a pleasant retirement I can assure you I’m no where near €30 better off.
FG re alignment where they look at the number of years.you contributed for will keep this in check. Wrongly if course as those who never worked won’t be impacted
@lavbeer: We should have the same system as America where your pension is based on your contributions. In Ireland especially for females who take time out to have children but work the rest of their lives could end up getting less than someone who decides not to work – how can that be fair. The difference between contributory and non contributory is a joke.
Here a question I don’t know the answer to. My mother worked in the civil service in the early 70′s. After she got married she like thousands of other women was forced to give up her job. Not only did she loose her civil service pension but her old age pension is cut too as a result. Has anyone ever taken the government to task over this matter?
I lost you when you said same system as America. They are not a social stage and I’m proud to say we offer all citizens a basic life at the very least. And I’m happy to pay my tax towards that.
I think she might have gotten a marriage gratuity, how that affects old age pension I don’t know.
Totally agree with you. The two groups that suffered least during the recession and whose actual spending power increased due to the cost reductions and deflation. Maybe we could actually stop buying votes and adjust things for the future? With only 40% or so of people paying all the income tax in this country, it is time to widen the tax Base and to give something back to those that have shouldered the burden of the recession, people with jobs that are paying tax!
Am I reading that right, social welfare is increasing for recipients by €20 a week? As a “squeezed middle” family, looks like we’d be lucky to see an increase of €20 a month. Yes, we might have more incoming than those on social welfare, but my outgoings are enormous. The costs of working, commuting, childcare in our joint income household leaves nothing at the end of each month. I would love €20 extra a week to spend on entertainment or a meal out, after a tough week working. Lucky them. Sure they probably need it more than we do after their tough week.
You read it wrong.
That was the 2007 budget
@CazzoA: this is about a FF budget in 2007, wait til tuesday for this decades one.
Ah, I should read properly and jump off the soapbox. Will save my ranting for budget day. A nice chunk off USC and some childcare tax credits would do nicely.
And an equivalent for those of us without children.
Wish they wouldn’t touch tax and improve healthcare system.
I’d say your disposable income could be less than someone on social welfare as you no doubt have bills to pay like insurance, medical and mortgage, etc…
You didn’t read it at all…instead jumped straight to the comments section
Budget 2007 bought the election nothing else.
Brisn Clown should be in jail for selling us down the river. This useless character should have his pension taken away, we keep rewarding failure handsomely in Ireland. This has got to stop.
So let me get this straight, earning <€4,004 is 0% ,BUT €0 – €10,036 has a 2% charge. Hope the poor hoors in the lowest bracket have a box to tick!
Well spotted. But shur this country in all about box ticking and loopholes!!!
@TractorPat:
You do realise that they are the 2011 figures, don’t you?
That gif had given me an overwhelming urge to watch Wayne’s world once again.
Let’s make sure our politicians get their €125 pw rise and leave the pensioners carers etc. wait until next year to get their paltry (not modest) €5
Should bring back health levy for dental & optical we pay enough tax & prsi to at least get something out of it.. I
Cowen on TV the other day, at Bobby Molloy funeral.
Did not look well. But that’s what heavy drinking does.
For all the bad choices he made for the country, he has to escape reality somehow. Has spent his life waiting to have
“a few pints”.
MK.
Buying the Social welfare vote again with a 12 % increase This budget will be a joke just more money for the long term social grabbers. I have no issue with a helping hand but when holidays and cars are bought with social money we pay for …….
have your say