‘We Will Find You’ : Obama Tells Boston Bombers

US President Barack Obama vowed Thursday 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.
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.
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

Dino Accuses Police of Unprofessionalism in ‘Assassination Attempt’

A former Nigerian lawmaker, Dino Melaye, whose claim of an assassination attempt in Abuja was discredited by the police, has accused the force of unprofessionalism.

Mr. Melaye said he expected the reaction countering his claims from the police following his earlier assessment of their reaction to his complaints.

“I am not surprised at what the commissioner of police said,” he declared.

Mr. Melaye questioned how the police, who got to the scene of the incident 12 hours after the attack – expected to find evidence.

He accused the police of negligence saying they prepared a full report on the incident without admitting his statement and assessing damages on his car.

He agreed that his car windows are not bullet proof, as already stated by the police, but argued that they are double-placed-treated glasses only penetrable by close range shots.

He said the police have consistently ignored calls for protection following previous threats to his life.

“I wrote to them in January and September 2012 complaining of threats to my life and up till now, nothing happened,” he said.

Shell Shuts Key Oil Pipeline

Shell has shut a key oil pipeline in southern Nigeria to repair damage caused by oil thieves, leading to a cut of around 150,000 barrels per day, the company said Wednesday in a statement.

The Nembe Creek Trunkline in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer with output at about two million barrels per day, will be closed for an undisclosed period.
“The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) shut down the Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL) on Monday (15th April) to remove crude oil theft connections and investigate suspected oil theft leaks,” it said.
“Production of some 150,000 barrels of oil per day has been deferred due to the shutdown. As a result, SPDC has declared force majeure on Bonny Light export,” the statement added.
SPDC is Nigerian subsidiary for the Anglo-Dutch firm.
The 97-kilometre (60 miles) NCTL pipeline has been closed several times as a result of crude oil theft leaks and fires between December 2011 and May 2012, it recalled.
Oil theft has been estimated as costing Nigeria some $6 billion (4.7 billion euros) per year.
The pipeline was shut for 10 days last month following a major leak of Bonny Light crude, one of the main grades of crude oil produced in Nigeria.
The company had then declared force majeure, a legal term releasing it from contractual obligations due to circumstances beyond its control.
The company removed 157 points of sabotage on its pipelines last year, but 90 points still exist, the company earlier said.
“We’re concerned that the NCTL has been targeted by crude oil thieves repeatedly since we installed the new line in 2010 at a cost of $1.1 billion,” said Managing Director of SPDC Mutiu Sunmonu in the statement.
“The current exercise aims to remove a significant number of oil theft connections and repair any leaks on the pipeline,” he said.
“Crude theft continues to affect people, the environment and the economy, and urgent action is needed by all stakeholders to tackle the problem,” Sunmonu saids.
Last month, he said that oil theft in Nigeria had reached unprecedented levels, rising to 60,000 barrels per day for Shell alone.
A 2009 amnesty deal led to a sharp decline in unrest in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, but criminal activity has since flourished.
While Shell blames most of the spills on sabotage, activists argue that the company does not do enough to prevent such incidents and effectively clean up the damage when they do occur.