Cameron on U.S. trip to learn Boston lessons, discuss Syria

By Andrew Osborn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron will visit Boston on Monday to learn more about the bombings there after a meeting with President Barack Obama aimed at helping broker a Syrian peace deal and spurring talks on an EU-U.S. trade pact.

Making his first trip to the United States since Obama won a second term, Cameron will receive a detailed briefing from the FBI on the Boston bombings to see if Britain can learn lessons from how the United States responded. He is also expected to express his condolences to the victims of the attack.

Global diplomacy will feature prominently during his trip and the British leader is hoping the U.S. president will help him prepare the ground for next month's G8 summit in Northern Ireland and that the two - along with Russia - can help find a political settlement for Syria.

Cameron's three day visit will begin at the White House in Washington and finish in New York where he is expected to take part in U.N. talks on agreeing new global development goals.

His visit underlines the continued importance of the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States, even as cuts to Britain's defense budget and talk of Britain leaving the European Union are causing anxiety among senior U.S. policymakers who fear their close ally is growing weaker.

Cameron phoned Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss Syria before the trip. A spokesman from Cameron's office said he had talked about "how the UK, Russia and America could work together to successfully achieve the plan of a peace conference by the end of the month".

Cameron was also keen to discuss with Obama how Britain and America could work together to establish a stronger and more credible opposition inside Syria, the spokesman added.

EU-U.S. TRADE DEAL

But it is the prospect of an EU-U.S. trade deal and the lucrative dividends that such an agreement could bring both countries that Cameron was keen to stress before the trip even as one of his own government ministers said he thought Britain should leave the EU.

In particular, he is hoping Obama will help him clinch an agreement to start talks on such a trade deal in the margins of the G8 summit, an achievement he believes would give the global economy a shot in the arm at a time when his own country and many others are seeing only a fragile economic recovery.

"Britain and America can once again lead the way in meeting the greatest challenge of our time: securing the growth and stability on which the prosperity of the whole world depends," Cameron wrote in an article for the Wall Street Journal.

He said an EU-U.S. trade deal would boost the British economy by 10 billion pounds a year and the U.S. economy by 63 billion pounds annually.

"When times are tough, some want to put the barriers up, to look inwards, and to protect themselves from the world. But Britain and America stand for a better way," he wrote in the same article.

Cameron is hoping Obama will also help him turn high-flown rhetoric on cracking down on global tax evasion into a meaningful international agreement at the G8 summit.

"We must fight the scourge of tax evasion by promoting a new global standard for automatic information exchange between tax authorities," Cameron said.

Using some of his strongest language on the subject yet, he added: "We must lift the veil of secrecy that too often lets corrupt corporations and officials in some countries run rings around the law."

A global standard for resource-extracting companies that obliged them to report all payments to governments across the world would be also be an important step forward, he said.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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Exclusive: Boston bomb suspects' parents retreat to village, cancel U.S. trip

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION IN NORTH CAUCASUS, Russia (Reuters) - The father of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects has abandoned plans to travel to the United States to bury one son and help in the defense of the other, he told Reuters on Sunday in an interview in southern Russia.

Anzor Tsarnaev said he believed he would not be allowed to see his surviving son Dzohkhar, who was captured and has been charged in connection with the April 15 bomb blasts that killed three people and wounded 264.

"I am not going back to the United States. For now I am here. I am ill," Tsarnaev said. He agreed to the face-to-face interview on condition that his location in the North Caucasus, a string of mainly Muslim provinces in southern Russia, not be disclosed.

"Unfortunately I can't help my child in any way. I am in touch with Dzhokhar's and my own lawyers. They told me they would let me know (what to do)," he said.

Tsarnaev had said in the North Caucasus province of Dagestan on Thursday that he planned to travel to the United States to see Dzkhokhar and bury his elder son, Tamerlan, who was shot dead by police in a firefight four days after the bombings.

(Reporting by Maria Golovnina; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Boston suspects' father postpones trip to US

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Sunday that he has postponed a trip from Russia to the United States because of poor health.

"I am really sick," Anzor Tsarnaev, 46, told The Associated Press. He said his blood pressure had spiked to dangerous levels.

Tsarnaev said at a news conference Thursday that he planned to leave that day or the next for the U.S. with the hope of seeing his younger son, who is under arrest, and burying his elder son, who was killed. His family, however, indicated later Thursday that the trip could be pushed back because he was not feeling well.

Tsarnaev confirmed on Sunday that he is staying in Chechnya, a province in southern Russia, but did not specify whether he was hospitalized. He is an ethnic Chechen and has relatives in Chechnya, although he and his family spent little time in Chechnya or anywhere else in Russia before moving to the U.S. a decade ago.

He and the suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, returned to Russia last year and settled in Makhachkala, the capital of neighboring Dagestan, where Tsarnaeva's relatives live.

During the past week, they were both questioned extensively by U.S. investigators who had traveled to Makhachkala from Moscow. They also were besieged by journalists who staked out their home.

Tsarnaev's family said last week that he intended to get to the U.S. by flying from Grozny, the Chechen capital, to Moscow. He and Tsarnaeva left Dagestan on Friday, but their whereabouts were unclear.

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Boston suspects' father says he's returning to US

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Thursday that he is soon leaving Russia for the United States, to visit one son and lay the other to rest. Their mother said she was still thinking over whether to make the journey.

"I am going there to see my son and bury my older one," Anzor Tsarnaev said in an emotional meeting with journalists. "I have no bad thoughts, I'm not planning any bombings, I don't want to do anything. I'm not offended by anyone. I want to know the truth, what happened. I want to work it out."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a gun battle with police, while his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, remains hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Their parents returned last year to Dagestan, one of several predominantly Muslim provinces in southern Russia, where the family lived briefly before moving to the U.S. a decade ago.

The elder suspect spent the first half of 2012 in Russia's Caucasus, which has been ravaged for years by an insurgency led by religious extremists. Anzor Tsarnaev said his son stayed with him for at least three months in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, and spent one month with relatives, but he was unclear on where his son was for the remaining time.

U.S. investigators have been trying to determine whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev was radicalized during his stay in the Caucasus, where he regularly prayed at a Makhachkala mosque.

A team of investigators from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has questioned both parents in Makhachkala this week, spending many hours with the mother in particular over the course of two days. Tsarnaev said the questions were mostly about their sons' activities and interests.

The father, who wore dark aviator sunglasses during Thursday's news conference, said he was leaving "today or tomorrow" for the United States. But the family later said his travel may be delayed because he was not feeling well.

The suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who was charged with shoplifting in the U.S. last summer, said she has been assured by lawyers that she would not be arrested, but said she was still deciding whether to go.

Tsarnaeva, wearing a headscarf and dressed all in black, said she now regrets moving her family to the U.S. and believes they would have been better off in a village in her native Dagestan.

"You know, my kids would be with us, and we would be, like, fine," she said. "So, yes, I would prefer not to live in America now! Why did I even go there? Why? I thought America is going to, like, protect us, our kids, it's going to be safe."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the Boston bombings should spur stronger security cooperation between Moscow and Washington, adding that they also show that the West was wrong in supporting militants in Chechnya.

"This tragedy should push us closer in fending off common threats, including terrorism, which is one of the biggest and most dangerous of them all," Putin said during his annual call-in show on state television.

The Russian government contacted first the FBI and then the CIA in 2011 with concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, U.S. officials said. The FBI said it had asked for more information from Russia, but none was provided.

Putin said Thursday that the Russian special services had no information to give because the Tsarnaevs had spent so little time in Russia.

Putin warned against trying to find the roots for the Boston tragedy in the suffering endured by the Chechen people, particularly in mass deportations of Chechens to Siberia and Central Asia on Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's orders. "The cause isn't in their ethnicity or religion, it's in their extremist sentiments," he said.

The suspects are ethnic Chechens and their father's family was deported to Central Asia in the 1940s. The Tsarnaev family moved back to Chechnya in the early 1990s, but soon fled back to Kyrgyzstan after fighting broke out between Chechen separatists and Russian troops, whose bombs and artillery pummeled Chechen cities and town.

Putin criticized the West for refusing to declare Chechen militants terrorists and for offering them political and financial assistance in the past.

"I always felt indignation when our Western partners and Western media were referring to terrorists who conducted brutal and bloody crimes on the territory of Russia as rebels," Putin said.

The U.S. urged the Kremlin to seek a political settlement in Chechnya and criticized rights abuses by Russian troops during the two separatist wars. It also provided humanitarian aid to the region during the fighting in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Russian officials have claimed that rebels in Chechnya have close links with al-Qaida.

Putin said the West should have cooperated more actively with Russia in combatting terror.

"We always have said that we shouldn't limit ourselves to declarations about terrorism being a common threat and engage in closer cooperation," he said. "Now these two criminals have proven the correctness of our thesis."

___

AP writers Vladimir Isachenkov and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

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Putin: Boston bombing shows West's mistake

MOSCOW (AP) — The Boston bombings should spur stronger security cooperation between Moscow and Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, adding that they also show that the West was wrong in supporting militants in Chechnya.

Putin said that "this tragedy should push us closer in fending off common threats, including terrorism, which is one of the biggest and most dangerous of them."

The two brothers accused of the Boston bombings are ethnic Chechens who had lived in the U.S. for more than a decade.

Putin warned against trying to find the roots for the Boston tragedy in the suffering endured by the Chechen people, particularly in mass deportations of Chechens to Siberia and Central Asia on Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's orders. "The cause isn't in their ethnicity or religion, it's in their extremist sentiments," he said.

Speaking in an annual call-in show on state television, Putin criticized the West for refusing to declare Chechen militants terrorists and for offering them political and financial assistance in the past.

"I always felt indignation when our Western partners and Western media were referring to terrorists who conducted brutal and bloody crimes on the territory of Russia as rebels," Putin said.

The U.S. has urged the Kremlin to seek a political settlement in Chechnya and criticized rights abuses by Russian troops during the two separatist wars since 1994, which spawned an Islamic insurgency that has engulfed the entire region.

It also provided humanitarian aid to the region during the high points of fighting there in the 1990s and the early 2000s.

Russian officials have repeatedly claimed that rebels in Chechnya have close links with al-Qaida. They say dozens of fighters from Arab countries trickled into the region during the fighting there, while some Chechen militants have gone to fight in Afghanistan.

Putin said the West should have cooperated more actively with Russia in combatting terror.

"We always have said that we shouldn't limit ourselves to declarations about terrorism being a common threat and engage in closer cooperation," he said. "Now these two criminals have proven the correctness of our thesis."

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Feds deny reports Boston suspect is arrested

BOSTON (AP) — Police and reporters converged on the federal courthouse in Boston on Wednesday amid conflicting reports of whether a suspect was in custody in the marathon bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 170.

Several media outlets reported earlier in the day that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a Lord & Taylor store between the sites of the two bomb blasts.

A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that a suspect was in custody. The official, who was not authorized to divulge details of the investigation, said the suspect was expected in federal court.

But FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Boston said no arrests had been made.

"Contrary to widespread reporting, there have been no arrests made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack," the FBI said in a statement. "Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting."

The official who spoke to the AP did so on condition of anonymity and stood by the information even after it was disputed. A news briefing was scheduled later Wednesday.

Law enforcement agencies had earlier pleaded for the public to come forward with photos, videos or any information that might help them solve the twin bombings. Police also gathered surveillance video from businesses around the finish line.

The bombs were made from ordinary kitchen pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage, investigators and others close to the case said. But the FBI said nobody had claimed responsibility.

Investigators in white jumpsuits had fanned out across the streets, rooftops and awnings around the blast site in search of clues on Wednesday. They combed through debris amid the toppled orange sports drink dispensers, trash cans and sleeves of plastic cups strewn across the street at the marathon's finish line.

President Barack Obama branded the attack an act of terrorism. Obama plans to attend an interfaith service Thursday in the victims' honor in Boston.

Scores of victims of the Boston bombing remained in hospitals, many with grievous injuries. Doctors who treated the wounded corroborated reports that the bombs were packed with shrapnel intended to cause mayhem. In addition to the 5-year-old child, a 9-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy were among 17 victims listed in critical condition.

The trauma surgery chief at Boston Medical Center says most of the injuries his hospital treated after the marathon bombings were to the legs.

"We have a lot of lower extremity injuries, so I think the damage was low to the ground and wasn't up," Dr. Peter Burke said. "The patients who do have head injuries were blown into things or were hit by fragments that went up."

Dozens of patients have been released from hospitals around the Boston area.

At Massachusetts General Hospital, all four amputations performed there were above the knee, with no hope of saving more of the legs, said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery.

"It wasn't a hard decision to make," he said Tuesday. "We just completed the ugly job that the bomb did."

The bombs exploded 10 or more seconds apart, tearing off victims' limbs and spattering streets with blood. The blasts near the finish line instantly turned the festive race into a hellish scene of confusion, horror and heroics.

The blasts killed 8-year-old Martin Richard, of Boston, and 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, of Medford. The Shenyang Evening News, a state-run Chinese newspaper, identified the third victim as Lu Lingzi. She was a graduate student at Boston University.

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Associated Press writers Jay Lindsay, Pat Eaton-Robb, Steve LeBlanc, Bridget Murphy, Rodrique Ngowi and Meghan Barr in Boston; Eileen Sullivan, Julie Pace and Lara Jakes in Washington; Paisley Dodds in London; Lee Keath in Cairo; and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report along with investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York.

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Feds deny reports of Boston suspect is arrested

BOSTON (AP) — Federal officials denied a suspect was under arrest Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombings.

A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press earlier in the day that a suspect was in custody. The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Boston said that no arrests had been made.

The official who spoke to the AP did so on condition of anonymity and stood by the information even after it was disputed. The official, who was not authorized to divulge details of the investigation, had said the suspect was expected in federal court in Boston.

Reporters and police converged at the courthouse.

Several media outlets reported that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a Lord & Taylor store between the sites of the two bomb blasts, which killed three people and wounded more than 170.

A news briefing was scheduled later Wednesday.

"Contrary to widespread reporting, there have been no arrests made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack," the FBI said in a statement. "Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting."

Law enforcement agencies had earlier pleaded for the public to come forward with photos, videos or any information that might help them solve the twin bombings. Police also gathered surveillance video from businesses around the finish line.

The bombs were made from ordinary kitchen pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage, investigators and others close to the case said. But the FBI said nobody had claimed responsibility.

Investigators in white jumpsuits had fanned out across the streets, rooftops and awnings around the blast site in search of clues on Wednesday. They combed through debris amid the toppled orange sports drink dispensers, trash cans and sleeves of plastic cups strewn across the street at the marathon's finish line.

President Barack Obama branded the attack an act of terrorism. Obama plans to attend an interfaith service Thursday in the victims' honor in Boston.

Scores of victims of the Boston bombing remained in hospitals, many with grievous injuries. Doctors who treated the wounded corroborated reports that the bombs were packed with shrapnel intended to cause mayhem. In addition to the 5-year-old child, a 9-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy were among 17 victims listed in critical condition.

The trauma surgery chief at Boston Medical Center says most of the injuries his hospital treated after the marathon bombings were to the legs.

"We have a lot of lower extremity injuries, so I think the damage was low to the ground and wasn't up," Dr. Peter Burke said. "The patients who do have head injuries were blown into things or were hit by fragments that went up."

Dozens of patients have been released from hospitals around the Boston area.

At Massachusetts General Hospital, all four amputations performed there were above the knee, with no hope of saving more of the legs, said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery.

"It wasn't a hard decision to make," he said Tuesday. "We just completed the ugly job that the bomb did."

The bombs exploded 10 or more seconds apart, tearing off victims' limbs and spattering streets with blood. The blasts near the finish line instantly turned the festive race into a hellish scene of confusion, horror and heroics.

The blasts killed 8-year-old Martin Richard, of Boston, and 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, of Medford. The Shenyang Evening News, a state-run Chinese newspaper, identified the third victim as Lu Lingzi. She was a graduate student at Boston University.

___

Associated Press writers Jay Lindsay, Pat Eaton-Robb, Steve LeBlanc, Bridget Murphy, Rodrique Ngowi and Meghan Barr in Boston; Eileen Sullivan, Julie Pace and Lara Jakes in Washington; Paisley Dodds in London; Lee Keath in Cairo; and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report along with investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York.

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Mayors Menino, Giuliani Praise 'Brave' First Responders in Boston Bombing

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino this evening received condolences for the Boston Marathon bombing from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who compared it to the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack.

"One of the images that I take away from yesterday, having watched it all day, were your firefighters, your police officers and some of your citizens running right into the fire, and that reminded me of my firefighters and my police officers who ran into the building," Giuliani told Menino, speaking mayor-to-mayor in a joint interview with "World News'" Diane Sawyer.

Mayor Menino agreed, adding firefighters and EMS to the list of American heroes in Boston Monday.

"They reacted instantly and helped save lives," Menino said. "When it blew up, they moved quickly, and I'm very proud of what the first responders did yesterday afternoon."

"People of Boston should be, too," Giuliani said. "They should be very proud of their citizens, all of whom reacted in a very, very brave way, and I was very heartened by that."

The brief meeting between the two mayors of major American cities was a surprise for Menino, who did not know Giuliani was listening in on his interview with Sawyer.

Before being joined by Menino, Giuliani recalled being in London for the 2005 bombing that killed 52 civilians in the train system.

"They caught those people in less than a day," Giuliani said. "They caught them on tape.

"Now hopefully, they have tapes like that [in Boston]," Giuliani said. "They've got a lot of surveillance cameras in Boston - more than New York, less than London."

He suggested it was possible, too, that a spectator might have incidentally caught the moment on camera.

His advice to the people of Boston was to "go about their lives."

"They should not let whatever form of terrorist this is, they shouldn't let them win, because this is what they're trying to do. They can't capture us. They can't overwhelm us. They can't destroy us. All they can do is frighten us and try to stop us from doing the things that make us a great country. We shouldn't let them do that," the former New York City mayor said. "My heart goes out to them."

Menino told Sawyer that authorities continued to investigate the attack that left three dead and more than 170 wounded, going over the area with a "fine-toothed comb," and that a pressure cooker might have been involved.

"We don't have any other information that we can give to the public at this time, but I know the FBI, the Boston police [and] the state police are all working very closely on this investigation," Menino said.

He echoed Giuliani by saying he was optimistic that footage from surveillance and private citizens' cameras would allow officials to find the attacker.

"We have a lot of video on this, and we're looking at all that video and asking the public who might have cameras to give them to the Boston police so they can look at the information," the five-time Boston mayor said. "That's the most camera-ed area in the city of Boston."

Putting aside the deep-rooted baseball rivalry between the two cities, New York's Yankee Stadium planned to play the song "Sweet Caroline" during the Yankee game Tuesday night as a tribute to Boston, where the song is a Fenway Park tradition for the Red Sox.

"That's a historic moment when that song goes off at the ball game," Menino said.

"We are all together tonight," Giuliani assured him.

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Giffords Staffer Memorial Shadowed by Gun Debate, Boston Attack

Gabe Zimmerman

WASHINGTON - Amid a national debate on gun control, a meeting room in the Capitol was dedicated today to a congressional aide killed in the 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz.

Gabe Zimmerman was killed when a gunman opened fire at a constituent meet-and-greet event hosted outside a Tucson supermarket by then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killing six and shooting the congresswoman in the head. Giffords, her former staff members, and husband Mark Kelly were among those in attendance at the ceremony for her lost colleague.

"He was called the constituent whisperer," Kelly said. "Because if there was ever a grumpy or agitated constituent at the office or at an event, Gabe was the only person that could figure out how to console them. He had a gift with people."

The afternoon event was not intentionally timed with the national debate on gun rights, but Kelly, an astronaut who has taken an ardent role as a gun control activist with his wife since the tragedy, remarked on the coincidence.

"Some people say that a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun," he continued. "I always remind people that there was a good guy with a gun at the Safeway that morning. But in the chaotic 15 seconds that unfolded where 33 rounds were shot, he didn't have any time to react."

Kelly said it was "no surprise" to him to learn that Zimmerman reportedly ran towards the gunfire unarmed during the shooting.

Giffords had difficulty speaking at the event due to head injuries she sustained in Tucson, and allowed her husband to speak on her behalf. The ceremony was also attended by Zimmerman's family, Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker John Boehner, and representatives Nancy Pelosi, Jeff Flake, Steny Hoyer, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and Ron Barber - the last a former staffer for Giffords and her successor in office.

Along with the remembrance of Zimmerman today came an added tone from the bombings Monday at the Boston Marathon.

"You probably more than anyone in this room today can understand how the people in Boston feel today," Biden told the assembled family. "Lots of times we're united in our victories, but more often we're united in our tragedies. It gives you a window into how difficult things are for other people."

Although he admitted words of encouragement in a time of tragedy could seem "hollow," he recollected a conversation with his own mother following the death of his first wife and daughter in a car accident.

"She said, 'Joey, if you look hard enough something good will come out of everything bad,'" he said, gesturing to Gabe Zimmerman's father, Ross Zimmerman. "We will come out of what's happened in Boston stronger, and believe it or not you will be stronger. He's in your bloodstream, pal. He's part of you. There's no way - there's no way it ever goes away."

Ross Zimmerman said the fact that the dedication of the room to his son would come a day after the attack on the Boston Marathon was "strange and surreal," as he and his son were avid marathon runners. But he asked for future lawmakers roaming the halls of congress to see the plaque hanging in the Zimmerman Meeting Room and remember the ideals of public service for which his son strove.

"An echo of Gabriel will persist, perhaps for centuries," Ross Zimmerman said. "That isn't worth the loss but the echo is good and true."

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Boston attacks are reminder of violence elsewhere

BAGHDAD (AP) — The blasts that struck the Boston Marathon on Monday were shocking not only for their brazenness and the lives they shattered, but also because attacks like this usually happen in far-off, troubled places — not in the middle of a major American city.

As the chief of emergency services at Massachusetts General Hospital, Alasdair Conn, put it: "This is what we expect from war."

Many who live in countries such as Iraq and Syria where violence remains troublingly common had mixed reactions to the bombings. While they were sorry to hear about the attacks, some expressed dismay that the assaults they face on a regular basis get less attention.

"Nobody cared about the dozens of victims who fell yesterday in Iraq and Syria," said Hazim Khazim, a teacher who lost a cousin in a bombing in Baghdad on Monday, in a reaction typical of many in the region.

Internet cafe owner Hassan Sabeeh in Baghdad was more understanding.

"The Iraqi people can feel, more than anybody else in the world, the misery of the Boston victims and their families," he said. "We sympathize and feel their suffering."

Authorities in the United States are urgently searching for clues into the bombing in Boston that killed three, including 8-year-old Martin Richard. More than 170 people were wounded.

Here is a look at some other countries that have faced violent attacks of their own in recent days:

SYRIA

Syrian warplanes swooped over the quiet town of Saraqeb in the country's north Saturday, dropping bombs on a residential district. The blasts shattered storefronts, set cars ablaze and sent huge plumes of smoke into the sky. Rubble and twisted metal littered the street after the airstrikes, which left 20 dead. Harrowing images like those have become routine for those watching the Syrian civil war unfold. Activists say an average of 120 people get killed daily in violence and clashes across the country.

"In Syria, it's not Boston every day, but many times per day," posted Jean Pierre Duthion, a French expatriate in Damascus who has Tweeted the war.

IRAQ

A bloody assault across Iraq began around an hour after sunrise Monday in the western city of Fallujah when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed car into a police checkpoint. Over the next several hours, attackers would detonate more than 20 sets of explosives, most of them car bombs. By the time it was all over — shortly before the Boston bombs struck — 55 people were dead and well over 200 were wounded. No one has claimed responsibility, but the highly coordinated attack bore the hallmarks of a resurgent al-Qaida in Iraq and appeared aimed at sowing fear days before the first elections since U.S. troops withdrew.

Ali al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraq's prime minister, condemned the Boston attacks and said Iraq "calls on the world to unite and fight terrorism that targets innocents everywhere."

SOMALIA

A well-planned, complex assault involving two car bombs and nine attackers — including six suicide bombers — aimed primarily at Somalia's Supreme Court complex on Sunday killed more than 30 people. The attackers ran through the labyrinthine court complex, where they took court employees and civilians hostage while rescuers used ladders to help people escape from second-story rooms. Officials say al-Shabab militants carried out the assault but, because of its complexity and the sophisticated nature of the bombs, Western officials said it may have been aided by al-Qaida.

In a Facebook message Tuesday, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud wrote of the Boston attack: "America will awake today stronger than ever."

BAHRAIN

In Bahrain, a series of four small explosions occurred in rapid succession late Sunday, including a gas cylinder blast that set a car ablaze in the Gulf nation's financial district. The attacks suggest a rising influence of militant groups in Bahrain's more-than-two-year-old uprising. Majority Shiites seek a greater political voice in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, which also has high strategic value for Washington as the base for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. The blasts came amid a wave of protests seeking to embarrass officials before Sunday's Formula One auto race, the premier international event in the kingdom.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

A mortar shell killed four worshippers when it struck a church in the Central African Republic's capital on Sunday. They were among more than 20 people killed over the weekend amid ongoing violence since rebels took the city of Bangui and ousted the mineral-rich country's president. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, reported widespread and grave violations since the rebel coalition took Bangui on March 24, including targeted killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, recruitment of children, rapes, disappearances and kidnappings.

AFGHANISTAN

Eight members of the same family were killed Monday when a trailer towed by a tractor in which they were riding struck an explosive device in southern Afghanistan. They were among 14 killed across the country on the day the Boston blasts hit. Most roadside bombs planted by the Taliban are meant to target Afghan security forces or coalition troops, but civilians are often the victims. So far, April has been the deadliest month this year for Afghan and foreign civilians and security forces, an ominous sign as the annual fighting season gets underway with improved weather.

PAKISTAN

Pakistan has been hit by a spate of violence related to the country's upcoming election. On Monday, gunmen on a motorcycle killed supporters of an independent candidate running for election in the South Waziristan tribal region while his convoy was on the way to a campaign stop. A bomb Tuesday hit a convoy of vehicles carrying another candidate, killing three people and wounding seven others. Another bomb attack on a security vehicle killed one soldier and wounded four, intelligence officials said.

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Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan, Michelle Faul in Johannesburg, Zeina Karam in Beirut, Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Rebecca Santana in Islamabad, Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya, and Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed reporting.

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Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck

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Saudi king condemns Boston Marathon bombings

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The king of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday condemned the Boston Marathon bombings, saying no religion or morals would condone such an attack.

In a condolences message to President Barack Obama and the American people, King Abdullah said the perpetrators of such "heinous terrorist acts" are "enemies of any humane considerations." He said the perpetrators represent only themselves.

In a separate statement, the Saudi Embassy said a Saudi woman was among those injured, suffering from minor injuries due to glass fragments.

The Saudi government has been cracking down on Islamic militants since al-Qaida launched a wave of attacks in the country in 2003, killing dozens. It has sought to distance itself from terrorist acts in the past, including the Sept. 11 attacks, where 15 of the 19 hijackers involved were Saudi citizens.

In Washington, a Saudi embassy official said Saudis have not been informed by the U.S. of any Saudi who is considered a person of interest in the Boston Marathon bombings. The official confirmed that a Saudi woman, who was watching the race with her husband and child, was injured by "flying shrapnel."

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, said the woman is not a person of interest and the official has no of information regarding any Saudis who may have been questioned.

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Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper contributed from Washington

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A shaken Boston mostly gets back to work; 12-block crime scene

By Tim McLaughlin

BOSTON (Reuters) - Shaken but determined, Bostonians struggled to get back to their workday routines on Tuesday, the day after a twin bombing wreaked havoc during the city's world-famous marathon and led to the closure of a wide area of Boston's city center.

The explosions, which killed three people and injured dozens, tore apart a cherished annual event and made the return from a three-day weekend difficult for many commuters.

Despite the horror that unfolded at the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon on Patriots' Day, a Massachusetts state holiday, some wanted to get back to work as a message of defiance to the perpetrators of the attack.

"I simply refuse to let a few deranged people intimidate me and get me away from my routine," said George Meier, 56, an information technology manager for a Boston pharmaceutical company.

Ropes & Gray LLP, one of Boston's most prestigious law firms, reported high attendance even though its main office is just a few blocks from where the bombs exploded, said Brad Malt, chairman of the firm's management committee.

Douglas MacLean admitted plodding through the work day, still shaking off the close call he had while running his 21st Boston Marathon.

The 46-year-old lawyer, head of Armor Law Group that advises hedge funds and private equity firms, was just a few hundred yards shy of the finish line when the first bomb exploded.

He now plans on going on a family vacation he considered not taking because he thought he was too busy.

"I want to be with my family," MacLean said. "I'm alive and definitely have a different view on life right now."

CRIME SCENE NARROWED

To be sure, some of the city's biggest financial service firms had to keep workers at home because their offices are near or within a 12-block crime scene at Copley Square, where the two bombs exploded Monday afternoon, ripping indiscriminately through spectators, race officials and runners.

"We want you to live your life. We want you to be vigilant. There is no reason not to come into the city," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who narrowed the cordoned-off area to about 12 blocks from an initial 15.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said the state would be open for business, "but it will not be business as usual." He told commuters using public transport to expect a beefed-up police presence, including random searches of packages, bags, and backpacks.

Sam New, a 31-year-old nonprofit worker near Boston's financial district, said he didn't change his commuting routine at all.

"There was a lot of hysteria right after the attack, but I think people have calmed down," New said.

Cab driver Gary Buchanan, 57, said Boston was a "ghost town" in the hours after the worst bombing on U.S. soil since security was tightened after the hijacked plane attacks of September 11, 2001. "It was dead," Buchanan said Tuesday morning after completing a 12-hour shift.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

At Fidelity Investments, which manages $1.7 trillion in U.S. investment assets, spokesman Adam Banker said an investment center would be closed on Tuesday because it lies within the no-go zone. But money managers for funds such as Contrafund and Magellan work at offices in another section of the city and would report to their jobs.

Fortunately it was vacation week for many of the area's schools, making commuter traffic much lighter than usual. But Boston is a busy destination for school children and their parents looking for something to do.

The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, located on the edge of the city's financial district, on Tuesday considered shutting down during a weekly manager's meeting.

"We asked, 'Do we open or do we close?'" said Shawn Ford, executive director of the museum. "We said, 'Damn it, We're open.' People will come here to learn what the Boston patriots sacrificed for us to give us this freedom."

(Additional reporting by Ross Kerber, Scott Malone, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Suzanne Barlyn; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Jordan extremist praises Boston bombing

Apr 15 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,137,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,442,389 4. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 5. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 6. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 7. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 8. Jason Day $1,659,565 9. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 10. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 11. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 12. John Merrick $1,375,757 13. Russell Henley $1,331,434 14. Michael Thompson $1,310,709 15. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 16. Bill Haas $1,271,553 17. Billy Horschel $1,254,224 18. ...

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Utah man sentenced in Boston porn-on-plane case

BOSTON (AP) — A Utah man charged with viewing child pornography on a Boston-bound commercial flight won't have to serve his jail sentence if he sticks to the terms of his probation.

Prosecutors say 50-year-old Salt Lake City resident Grant Smith pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing child pornography.

A Boston judge suspended Smith's 2 1/2-year sentence and placed him on five years' probation.

Smith must continue sex offender treatment, comply with Utah sex offender registry requirements and follow restrictions on contact with children and Internet use.

Prosecutors say a fellow first-class passenger saw Smith viewing pornographic computer images of young girls during a November 2011 flight. The passenger took a cellphone photo of the images and alerted a flight attendant.

Smith was arrested in Boston and initially pleaded not guilty. He resigned his job as a University of Utah engineering professor.

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