World/Nation Briefs April 26, 2013

Police: 'New York City was next' bombers' target

NEW YORK - The Boston Marathon bombers were headed for New York's Times Square to blow up the rest of their explosives, authorities said Thursday, 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 was next on their list of targets," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother decided on the spot last Thursday night to drive to New York and launch an attack. In their stolen SUV they had five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker explosive like the ones that blew up at the marathon, Kelly said.

But when the Tsarnaev brothers stopped at a gas station on the outskirts of Boston, the carjacking victim they were holding hostage escaped and called police, Kelly said. Later that night, police intercepted the brothers in a blazing gunbattle that left 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead.

U.S.: Syria has used chemical weapons twice

WASHINGTON -

The White House declared Thursday that U.S. intelligence indicates Syrian President Bashar Assad has twice used deadly chemical weapons in his country's fierce civil war, a provocative action that would cross President Barack Obama's "red line" for a significant military response. But the administration said the revelation won't immediately change its stance on intervening.

The information, which has been known to the administration and some members of Congress for weeks, isn't solid enough to warrant quick U.S. involvement in the 2-year-old conflict, the White House said. Officials said the assessments were made with "varying degrees of confidence" given the difficulty of information gathering in Syria, though there appeared to be little question within the intelligence community.

As recently as Tuesday, when an Israeli general added to the growing chorus that Assad had used chemical weapons, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration was continuing to monitor and investigate but had "not come to the conclusion that there has been that use."

Workers trapped inside building plead for rescue

SAVAR, Bangladesh - Bangladeshi authorities say 275 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a building that collapsed in the country's worst ever disaster for its notoriously unsafe garment industry.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said Friday morning that 61 survivors have been rescued since Thursday afternoon.

Authorities say more than 2,000 people have been rescued from the building since it collapsed Wednesday. Police had ordered it evacuated because the walls were cracking, but authorities allege that factory managers flouted the order.

Shikder said some of the dead were unrecognizable because of decomposition. He's head of the rescue operation.

Venezuela official will boycott audit of election results

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles announced Thursday that his movement will boycott an audit of election results because the National Electoral Council did not accept his demand for the examination of registers containing voters' signatures and fingerprints.

Capriles said the opposition will challenge the results of the April 14 presidential vote, narrowly won by Hugo Chavez's political heir, in the Supreme Court and pressure authorities to organize a new election.

The decision came after election officials did not respond to his repeated demands for a complete audit of the election won by President Nicolas Maduro.

The council announced last week that it would allow an audit of 46 percent of the vote not already audited. It said it would tell the nation this week when it would start comparing vote tallies from each machine with the individual vote receipts from that machine.

Fire in Russian hospital kills all 38 people inside

MOSCOW - A fire has raged through a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow, and emergency officials say it killed all 38 people inside, including two medical workers.

The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cites police as saying it was caused by a short circuit.

The fire broke out in the early hours of Friday in the one-story hospital in the town of Ramenye.

A photograph on the website of the emergency services shows a building consumed by flames.

Tourists swim for 14 hours after fishing boat sinks

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The fishing trip off the rugged north coast of St. Lucia was supposed to last all day, but about four hours into the journey, the boat's electric system crackled and popped.

Dan Suski, a 30-year-old business owner and information technology expert from San Francisco, had been wrestling a 200-pound marlin in rough seas with help from his sister, Kate Suski, a 39-year-old architect from Seattle. It was around noon April 21.

He was still trying to reel in the fish when water rushed into the cabin and flooded the engine room, prompting the captain to radio for help as he yelled out their coordinates.

It would be nearly 14 hours and a long, long swim before what was supposed to be a highlight of their sunny vacation would come to an end.

- Associated Press