Boston Bombs: Carjack Victim Recounts Ordeal

The driver of a Mercedes SUV carjacked by the Boston bombers, as they evaded police last week, has spoken publicly about his ordeal for the first time.

The victim - a 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur - was interviewed by the Boston Globe newspaper.

He was identified only as Danny and told the paper he did not want his real name to be used.

"I don't want to be a famous person talking on the TV," he said. "I don't feel like a hero. I was trying to save myself."

His nightmare encounter with the Tsarnaev brothers began at around 11pm last Thursday with the older of the two, Tamerlan, rapping on the car window. 

As Danny opened it, the armed man reached inside and warned: "Don't be stupid". 

Boston bomb suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev (L) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Tamerlan, 26, told him he was responsible for the marathon bombings and that he had just killed a police officer in Cambridge.

He climbed into the Mercedes and ordered him to drive to another neighbourhood, where they met up with his brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar.

Throughout the harrowing 90-minute journey, Danny said the Tsarnaev brothers talked about the bombings but also mundane things like iPhones, girls, and whether people listened to compact discs anymore.

He said they also talked about going to New York, but he was unable to make out what they were intending to do.

US intelligence sources now believe the brothers could have been planning an atrocity in Times Square.

"Death is so close to me," Danny recalled thinking. "I have a lot of dreams that haven't come true yet."

He thought of trying to escape more than once, but his best chance came when they were forced to pull into a service station to get fuel.

"I was thinking I must do two things: unfasten my seatbelt and open the door and jump out as quick as I can,"  Danny said.

"If I didn't make it, he would kill me right out, he would kill me right away."

He seized the moment and managed to make it to the safety of another service station.

He spent the rest of the night filling in police and FBI agents with as much detail as he could remember.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the boat in a Boston back garden

That included the key fact that the SUV the Tsarnaev brothers had taken off in was equipped with two trackers. One was in Danny's iPhone and the other was part of a Mercedes two-way satellite device.

The car was soon cornered in the Watertown district. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police.

His younger brother escaped but was found hours later hiding in a boat in a nearby street.

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Boston Bomb Suspect Moved To Prison

Boston bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved to a Massachusetts prison, the US Marshals Service has confirmed.

The 19-year-old is now at the Federal Medical Centre in Devens - 40 miles (65km) northwest of Boston - which provides long-term medical care for inmates.

US Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade released the following statement: "The US Marshals Service confirms that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been transported from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre and is now confined at the Bureau of Prisons facility FMC Devens at Ft Devens, Massachusetts."

The younger Tsarnaev brother is recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway, days after the bombing which killed three and wounded 264.

The ethnic Chechen has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and could face the death penalty if convicted in a US federal court.

Before being moved from hospital, he reportedly told investigators that he and his brother Tamerlan, 26, had discussed going to New York to detonate their remaining explosives.

An injured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev just after his capture

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told journalists at a briefing that the two suspects had a pressure cooker bomb and five pipe bombs they intended to set off in Times Square.

Police Commissioner Kelly said: "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev revealed he and his brother decided spontaneously on Times Square as a target and they would drive to Times Square that same night.

"They discussed this while driving around in an SUV they had hijacked after they shot and killed an MIT police officer in Cambridge.

"That plan fell apart when they realised the vehicle they hijacked was low on gas and ordered the driver to stop at a gas station when the driver used the opportunity to escape and called police.

"Up till that point the brothers had at their disposal six improvised explosive devices.

Dzhokhar graduating from Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School in Boston

"One was a pressure cooker bomb similar to the two that exploded the marathon. The other five were pipe bombs. We knew Dzhokhar was pictured in Times Square with friends on or before April 18, 2012, and he was in the city again in 2012.

"We don't know if those visits were related in any way to the brother's spontaneous decision to target Times Square."

A senior US law enforcement source told Sky News the brothers' plan to attack New York was "aspirational at best". He said it was "just talk, there were no real plans, research on, or attempts to get to New York".

The news came just hours after their mother launched an impassioned attack on US authorities over the death of her older son.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said she regretted moving to the United States and claimed "America took my kids away from me".

An emotional Mrs Tsarnaeva said she was told her she could not see her remaining son.

Mrs Tsarnaeva being questioned by reporters in Dagestan

She said she had been told he had a "really bad wound to his right neck" which meant he could not eat and was being fed by a tube.

Reports in the US have claimed the teenager suffered a self-inflicted throat injury during a shootout and subsequent stand-off with the police.

According to US officials, he said his older brother, who died in a gunfight with police, recruited him to take part in the attacks only recently.

However, both Mrs Tsarnaeva and her husband, Anzor Tsarnaev, said there was no way their sons were responsible for the attack which killed three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and injured more than 180 others.

Tamerlan during a boxing match in 2009

She said her sons were victims of a conspiracy and had been framed. She claimed she had seen a video of Tamerlan being arrested and was later shown pictures of him alive.

Mrs Tsarnaeva said she had spoken to her son after the bombings and before he was killed in the police shootout during which he told her "Don't worry mamma" and tried to reassure her he was safe.

Mr Tsarnaev told reporters: "I am going to the United States. I want to say that I am going there to see my son, to bury the older one. I don't have any bad intentions. I don't plan to blow up anything."

Banging the table as he spoke, he said: "I am not angry at anyone. I want to go find out the truth."

Family photographs of brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Mrs Tsarnaeva said she was not sure whether she would accompany her husband. She was charged with shoplifting in the US last summer and is concerned she could be arrested.

They were speaking as it emerged that Tamerlan's name had been included on a database of suspected terrorists by the CIA in 2011, 18 months before the attacks.

He was investigated after Russia's FSB security service raised concerns that he had become a follower of Russian Islam.

Mrs Tsarnaeva said she did not believe that Russia had raised concerns over her son with the US authorities.

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Bomb Suspects' Mum On Terror List Before Blasts

The Boston bombing suspects' mother was put on a federal terrorism database by the CIA about 18 months before the marathon attack, US government officials have said.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was added at the same time as her eldest son Tamerlan Tsarnaev, according to two officials.

Tamerlan and his brother Dzhokhar are suspected of carrying out the double bombing on April 15 that killed three bystanders and wounded 264 at the race.

Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a shootout with police a week ago, and his 19-year-old brother is in prison charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

The CIA reportedly put Mrs Tsarnaeva on the classified Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as Tide. It includes known and suspected terrorists.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and Anzor Tsarnaev

The move came after the US was contacted by Russia in 2011 amid concerns that the mother and son were religious militants intent on travelling to Russia.

But the US may not have taken strong action on those warnings because of lingering Cold War-era distrust of Russia, a former Russian official told Congress on Friday.

Andranik Migranyan, the director of the New York-based Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, said the US and Russia still view each other warily, and so American officials "just didn't pay enough attention" to warnings about the Tsarnaev family.

Tamerlan was investigated after Russia's FSB security service raised concerns that he had become a follower of Russian Islam, and Russia asked the FBI and the CIA to look into his activities.

Inclusion on the Tide list does not automatically subject a person to surveillance or travel restrictions.

A childhood photo of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Other media reports on Friday cited government sources as saying Mrs Tsarnaeva is being investigated as a "person of interest" for any part she could have played in radicalising her eldest son.

Mrs Tsarnaeva vehemently denies her sons had anything to do with the Boston bombing, claiming they have been framed and are the victims of a conspiracy.

She claims she had seen a video of Tamerlan being arrested and was later shown pictures of him alive.

In an emotional interview in Russia, Mrs Tsarnaeva said she wishes she had never moved her family to the US from their 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."

Her husband, Anzor Tsarnaev, says he plans to travel to the US to bury his elder son and to try to visit Dzhokhar in the Federal Medical Centre Devens outside of Boston.

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Obama Warns Syria Over Weapons 'Game Changer'

Syria: Evidence Is No Smoking Gun

Updated: 2:39pm UK, Friday 26 April 2013

By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

Vital questions remain unanswered over the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Like the scale of casualties. Who fired the weapons? Who gave the orders?

To get that kind of information the Syrian government would need to allow in international inspectors and that isn't going to happen.

If chemical weapons have been deployed by government forces President Bashar al Assad won't cooperate in arranging a noose for his own neck.

If there is to be conclusive proof of the crossing of a "red line" Mr Assad would have to carry out an atrocity akin to the actions of Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in Halabja in 1988, where chemical weapons were used to kill at least 5,000.

It's estimated a further 7,000 were injured or suffered long-term illnesses. The nerve agents tabun, sarin and VX, as well as mustard gas, were believed to have been used at Halabja.

But Mr Assad is far too clever to carry out an attack like Halabja. He knows such an undeniable use of chemical weapons would leave the international community with no choice but to make good on its threats.

It would leave the Russians with no option but to finally and publicly turn their backs on him. For now having the Russians sitting on the diplomatic fence renders the United Nations Security Council impotent. Russia has the power of veto enabling it to block meaningful sanctions and actions against Syria.

The UN says it has a  fact-finding team on stand-by in Cyprus ready to go into Syria within 24 hours. They may well have a long wait.

The UN team has been given permission to investigate claims of chemical weapons use in Syria's second city of Aleppo but they say they will not go in unless they are given permission for a country-wide investigation. That's something the Syrians have refused.

The British Government is keeping up diplomatic pressure to try to get investigators and evidence-gatherers into Syria. But just like all other aspects of diplomacy in Syria right now there's a lot of "keeping up pressure" but little progress.

David Cameron knows only too well the consequences of rushing to conclusions without proof. Anyone remember the fruitless hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Astonishingly, the US Republican Senator John McCain said "it's pretty obvious that red line has been crossed".  Sorry Mr McCain but where is the evidence of a smoking gun?

US President Barack Obama is being much more cautious. With America now out of Iraq and heading towards the finishing line in Afghanistan he doesn't want to rush into another war in another Muslim country.

And keeping Americans safe isn't all about the Middle East. The despot who cried wolf in North Korea - otherwise known as Kim Yong Un - hasn't entirely gone away.

North Korea's new young leader has been threatening to launch a war against America. It seems like a cry for attention rather than a promise.

But just in case Mr Kim means business it wouldn't be ideal to have American troops deployed to north-east Asia and Syria just as quickly as they had got out of Iraq and Afghanistan - which leads us to the conclusion that we are no nearer military intervention in Syria than we were before this latest round of intelligence claims.

So whatever Mr McCain says this is not a game-changing moment. Expect more deaths, more refugees, more atrocities and more heart-rending stories of despair from Syria.

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9/11 Plane Part Found Between NYC Buildings

A part from one of the commercial planes that was flown into the Twin Towers on 9/11 has been found between two buildings, police say.

New York Police Department Spokesman Paul Browne said the piece of landing gear, discovered on Wednesday wedged between a mosque site and another lower Manhattan building, has a clearly legible Boeing identification number.

The twisted and rusted equipment features cables, levers and giant bolts. It measures 5ft high, 3ft wide and 1.5ft deep.

"The odds of this being wedged between there is amazing. It had to have fallen just the right way to make it into that space," Browne said.

The part was found wedged in this narrow crevice

He added that other wreckage has been found nearby in the years since the terrorist attack.

The part was found by surveyors who had been hired to inspect the site of a planned Islamic community centre at 51 Park Place, about three blocks from ground zero.

The surveyors spotted the debris as they looked down between the buildings from the roof, quickly called 911, and the scene was secured and police documented the findings with photographs, Mr Browne said.

The National Transportation Safety Board and police will work to determine whether the wreckage belongs to American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the North Tower, or to United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower. Both planes were Boeings.

A plane can be seen before it flies into one of the Twin Towers on 9/11

Police are awaiting a determination from a medical examiner on whether to sift the soil around the building to search for human remains.

The medical examiner's office is in the middle of a 10-week sifting operation as it attempts to identify additional human remains in debris unearthed at the World Trade Center site during construction of a new skyscraper.

If the landing gear's origin is authenticated, it would mean it sat undisturbed for nearly a dozen years.

Patricia Riley, the sister of 9/11 victim Lorraine Riley, called the discovery "very strange."

"Twelve years later we are still finding remnants of the attack on our country," she said.

The ruins of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attack

"For years to come we'll continue to find things that we didn't see before. Hopefully, they'll serve as a reminder that we have to stay vigilant."

More than 2,750 people were killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked the two commercial passenger planes and flew them into the upper floors of the Twin Towers, then the tallest buildings in the world.

Hijackers also took over two other planes that day, crashing one into the Pentagon in Washington DC.

The fourth plane went down in a field in rural Pennsylvania.

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North Korea: American On Trial In Pyongyang

North Korea has said an American tourist detained for nearly six months will face trial for plotting to overthrow the government, a move that could further increase tensions in the region.

The case involves Kenneth Bae, who was arrested in early November. If convicted, he could face the death penalty, news reports said.

The trial comes amid weeks of heightened rhetoric and tensions pitting Pyongyang against Seoul and Washington.

On Saturday, South Korea pulled out most its workers from a joint industrial complex after Pyongyang rejected its ultimatum to begin talks on restarting the stalled operations.

Seoul said it would pull out all 170 remaining workers from Kaesong

The move plunged into doubt the future of the Kaesong complex - once a rare symbol of cooperation between the North and the South and a crucial source of hard currency for Kim Jong-Un's isolated regime.

Mr Bae, described as a Korean-American tour operator, was arrested in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, according to official state media.

The 44-year-old was among a group of five people.

Young leader Kim Jong-Un has succeeded his father

The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been revealed, but Pyongyang accuses him of seeking to overthrow North Korea's leadership.

"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) with hostility toward it," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

South Korea-US joint drills have angered Pyongyang

"His crimes were proved by evidence. He will soon be taken to the Supreme Court of the DPRK to face judgment."

No timing for the verdict was given.

A number of US citizens of Korean descent have run into trouble in the North over the years.

In one famous case, former President Bill Clinton travelled to the reclusive nation in 2009 to win the release of two Americans.

Friends and colleagues described Bae as a devout Christian from Washington state but based in the Chinese border city of Dalian who travelled frequently to North Korea to feed the country's orphans, the AP news agency reported.

Under North Korea's criminal code, crimes against the state can draw life imprisonment or the death sentence.

Pyongyang is locked in a standoff with the Obama administration over North Korea's drive to build nuclear weapons.

The Kaesong complex was established in 2004

Washington has led the campaign to punish Pyongyang for launching a long-range rocket in December and carrying out a nuclear test, its third, in February.

North Korea says the need to build atomic weapons to defend itself against the US, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Over the past two months the US has been holding joint military drills with South Korea that have included nuclear-capable stealth bombers and fighter jets, angering Pyongyang.

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Bangladesh Building Collapse: Five In Custody

Police in Bangladesh have arrested two clothing factory bosses based at the eight-storey building near the capital Dhaka that collapsed killing 348 people.

Two engineers - Imtemam Hossain and Alam Ali - involved in approving the design of the structure have also been detained for questioning.

Junior home minister Shamsul Haque Tuku said police had arrested Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd, and Mahmudur Rahaman Tapash, the company chairman. It is the largest of the five factories in the complex.

Police have filed a case against them for "death due to negligence", after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the owners forced the workers to return to work after cracks appeared in the building.

The wife of Mohammed Sohel Rana - the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building who has not been seen since the tragedy - has also been detained.

A survivor is carried to an ambulance on a stretcher

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had asked the factories based in the structure to shut down on Wednesday morning, hours before the building came down.

"After we got the crack reports we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed," said association president Atiqul Islam.

The arrests came after police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of clothing workers who took to the streets on the outskirts of Dhaka to protest over the deaths as clashes also erupted in the southeastern city of Chittagong.

There was no sign of the rescue operation being called off with authorities pledging to continue the search after 29 people were pulled out alive on Saturday - more than three days after the building came down.

With time running out to save workers still trapped in the collapsed building, rescuers have been digging through mangled metal and concrete to find more survivors.

They finally reached the ground floor from the top of the mountainous rubble through 25 narrow holes they drilled.

Protesters set fire to furniture from a police control room on Saturday

Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan, head of the fire service, said: "We are still getting a response from survivors though they are becoming weaker slowly.

"The building is very vulnerable. Any time the floors could collapse. We are performing an impossible task, but we are glad that we are able to rescue so many survivors," he added.

The rescued have described hearing a loud crack just before the eight-storey building collapsed, with each level pancaking on top of those below.

The building housed at least four factories producing clothes for leading Western retailers.

High street giant Primark confirmed one of its suppliers occupied the second floor of the building, and protesters targeted the group's flagship store in central London today to demand compensation for the workers who were killed.

Speaking outside Primark's Oxford Street store, Murray Worthy of the War on Want group said: "We're here to send a clear message to Primark that the 300 deaths in the Bangladesh building collapse were not an accident - they were entirely preventable deaths.

"If Primark had taken its responsibility to those workers seriously, no one need have died this week."

The Primark protest in central London

A Primark spokesman said: "The company is shocked and deeply saddened by this appalling incident at Savar, near Dhaka, and expresses its condolences to all of those involved."

Elsewhere in Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of workers walked out of their factories in solidarity with their dead colleagues.

Some workers' leaders attacked Western firms, whom they accused of turning "a blind eye" while using Bangladeshis as "money-making machines".

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Boeing Dreamliner Passenger Flights Resume

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Timeline

Updated: 2:36pm UK, Saturday 27 April 2013

The turbulent history of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner:

Apr 27, 2013: Eithiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner flies from Addis Ababa to Nairobi in Kenya

Apr 25, 2013:  The FAA gives formal approval to Boeing's new lithium-ion battery system

Apr 22, 2013: The batteries in five All Nippon Airways Dreamliners and two Japan Airlines jets are replaced

Apr 19, 2013: The Federal Aviation Administration approves Boeing's battery modification plans

Apr 3, 2013: Company says it has completed more than half of its battery tests

Mar 25, 2013: Boeing says its first test flight with the new lithium-ion battery went according to plan.

Mar 15, 2013: Boeing unveils modifications to its 787 batteries, saying the Dreamliner is "absolutely safe"

Mar 12, 2013:  FAA approves Boeing's certification plan for a new battery system for the aircraft

Mar 7, 2013: US National Transportation Safety Board says it has failed to identify the cause of the Jan 7 fire

Feb 28, 2013: Boeing says it has found a "permanent" solution to fix problems with Dreamliner batteries

Feb 25, 2013: All Nippon Air (ANA) confirms all of its fleet will remain grounded until the end of May

Feb 8, 2013: Boeing confirms it has sent letters to airlines expecting imminent deliveries of possible delays

Feb 7, 2013: US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allows limited test flight of the grounded Dreamliner

Feb 5, 2013: Japanese official reveal CT scans of failed batteries does not reveal fire cause

Feb 4, 2013: Boeing requests FAA approval for test flights of grounded model

Jan 30, 2013: Amid revenue loss forecasts of $500m to $5bn, Boeing CEO addresses investors and downplays impact

Jan 28, 2013: Investigators widen battery examination to sub-contractors of lithium ion battery maker GS Yuasa

Jan 21, 2013: Safety officials start probe of lithium ion battery maker GS Yuasa

Jan 19, 2013: Boeing says it is stopping deliveries of the Dreamliner to airlines

Jan 18, 2013: FAA officials arrive in Japan to examine a 787 and its melted battery pack after an ANA emergency landing two days earlier

Jan 17, 2013: The European Aviation Safety Agency,  FAA and Qatar Airways ground Dreamliners under their regulatory control

Jan 16, 2013: Japan Air Lines Co Ltd (JAL) follows suit and suspends Dreamliner flights from Japan over safety concerns

Jan 16, 2013: ANA grounds all 17 of its 787s after four of its aircraft suffer problems

Jan 16, 2013: ANA 787 Dreamliner makes emergency landing in Takamatsu, Japan, after smoke appears in cabin

Jan 11, 2013: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces a review of the 787 design and systems

Jan 11, 2013: ANA discovers engine oil leak after a domestic flight lands at Miyazaki

Jan 11, 2013: A separate ANA flight to Matsuyama reported a crack appearing in the pilot's window

Jan 9, 2013: ANA cancels a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight due to a brake problem

Jan 8, 2013: Japan Air Lines (JAL) grounds a jet at Boston Logan International Airport after a 787 leaks 150 litres of fuel

Jan 7, 2013: A fire erupts in a battery pack in another JAL Dreamliner at Boston

Dec 13, 2012: Qatar Airways grounds one of its Dreamliners because of a faulty generator

Dec 5, 2012: The FAA orders inspections of all 787 Dreamliners in service in the US

Dec 4, 2012: A United Airlines 787 is forced to make an emergency landing in New Orleans after a generator fails

July 23, 2012: ANA grounds five Dreamliners due to an engine component issue

Feb 22, 2012: Boeing says around 55 Dreamliners may be affected by a flaw in the fuselage

Oct 26, 2011: The Dreamliner makes its maiden flight with paying passengers on board an ANA jet

Sep 26, 2011: Boeing delivers its first 787 Dreamliner to Japan's ANA, three years late

Jun 23, 2010: Boeing postpones the first flight of the Dreamliner because of a structural flaw

Dec 15, 2009: The passenger jet 787 Dreamliner takes off on its maiden test flight

Apr 9, 2008: Boeing says there will be a revised plan for the first 787 flight and initial deliveries

Dec 11, 2008: Boeing announces further delays due to strike action by machinists Sept-Nov

Oct 19, 2007: Boeing says there will be a six-month delay to deliveries due to assembly issues

Jul 8, 2007: The first assembled 787 goes on display to media, employees and customers

Jul 18, 2006: Boeing says it is making "solid progress" on the 787 Dreamliner programme

Jan 28, 2005: Boeing gives its new commercial airplane an official model designation number - 787

Jan 29, 2003: Boeing announces the launch of a new aircraft called the 7E7

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Italy: New Government Ends Political Deadlock

Weeks of political deadlock have ended in Italy as Enrico Letta of the centre-left becomes the new PM and forms a government.

Mr Letta, a 46-year-year-old leftist moderate, leads a broad-coalition government backed by his own Democratic Party and the conservatives of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The government will be sworn in on Sunday and then faces votes of confidence in both houses of parliament, possibly as early as Monday.

A general election in February proved inconclusive, with the electorate split among three main blocs and no party winning enough of the vote to muster majorities in parliament.

Since then a political stalemate had paralysed Italy, unnerving markets at a time of deep economic crisis.

Silvio Berlusconi is backing the new government

Mr Letta is a pro-European, reform-oriented politician who has served as a minister in previous centre-left governments. Viewed as a bridge-builder, he is a nephew of Mr Berlusconi's long-time right-hand man, Gianni Letta.

The prime minister has said he wants to move quickly to tackle the economic problems plaguing Italy, the eurozone's third-largest economy.

The country is mired in its worst recession in decades and austerity measures pushed by the previous technocratic government led by Mario Monti have stirred anger across the nation.

The new government includes some of Mr Berlusconi's closest allies, including the secretary of his party Angelino Alfano, who will serve as interior minister.

Bank of Italy director general Fabrizio Saccomanni will take the powerful economy ministry and former European Commissioner Emma Bonino will be foreign minister.

Mr Letta (R) shakes hands with President Giorgio Napolitano

The third-largest force to emerge from the Italian election, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement led by comic Beppe Grillo, has demanded change and ruled out any alliance with the traditional political parties.

It will remain outside of the government.

Mr Grillo has said the coalition government "is an orgy worthy of the best bunga bunga" - a reference to Mr Berlusconi's infamous parties.

More follows...

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Second Suspect Arrested Over Ricin Letters

Police have said a Mississippi martial arts tutor has been arrested in connection with poison-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama and two other officials.

Everett Dutschke was taken into custody by US Marshals at his home without incident, according to Tupelo police chief Tony Carleton.

Federal agents from the FBI and the US Capitol Police, as well as members of an anti-terrorist response team from the Mississippi National Guard, had earlier searched the 41-year-old's home and former martial arts studio.

Authorities searched Dutschke's former martial arts studio

US prosecutors dropped charges on Tuesday against another Mississippi man, Elvis impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis, who was released from jail after a search of his home in nearby Corinth revealed no incriminating evidence.

Three ricin-laced letters were sent to Mr Obama, Senator Roger Wicker and a Lee County, Mississippi, judge. 

Paul Kevin Curtis (in glasses) was cleared of charges last week

The letters sent to the president and Sen Wicker were intercepted at government mail sorting facilities before reaching the White House and Capitol Hill.

Ricin - made from castor beans - can be deadly to humans and is considered a potential terror weapon, particularly if refined into an aerosol form.

More follows...

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