WATERTOWN (MASSACHUSETTS): Thousands of heavily armed police went door-to-door through a Massachusetts town on Friday in an unprecedented massive hunt for the remaining Boston marathon bombing fugitive.

Authorities halted all public bus and train services in the Boston region and told hundreds of thousands of people in several towns around Watertown to stay home in a bid to isolate the suspect.

Fleets of buses were sent to Watertown to ferry out nervous inhabitants. Those who stay were ordered to remain in their homes and only answer the door if they were sure it was a police officer.

More than 9,000 policemen, many armed with shotguns and automatic rifles, were sent to the town to find Suspect Two, one of two young men suspected of having carried out the bomb attack on Monday in which three people died and 180 were injured.

The hunt was concentrated on about 3.8 square kilometers of Watertown, a quiet suburb of 35,000 people.

Earlier, the police killed one of the Boston marathon bombing suspects in a shootout and pursued a chaotic street-to-street manhunt for his accomplice, officials said.

Several Boston suburbs were put under effective lockdown and public transport was suspended throughout the region as police chased an "armed and dangerous... terrorist... who has come here to kill people."

The two men, dubbed "Suspect One" and "Suspect Two" by the FBI, led police special forces on a violent cavalcade that left inhabitants of towns around Boston cowering in their homes as gunfire and explosions erupted through the night.

One police officer was killed and another wounded in the operation, Boston police commissioner Ed Davis said. Davis also confirmed that Suspect One had been killed.

The man, whose identity has not been released, died in the hospital after being hit with bullets and injured by an explosion, a doctor at Beth Israel hospital told reporters.

Police told inhabitants of Watertown and nearby towns to stay home.

The governor also suspended all public transit services through the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

The surviving fugitive was "armed and dangerous," Davis said. "We believe this to be a terrorist, we believe this to be a man who has come here to kill people," the police chief told reporters.

Police said the first suspect had explosives on his body, and there were fears the second suspect still at large was also strapped with bombs.

The suspects first tried to rob a convenience store in Cambridge, across the river from Boston, Davis said.

They then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where one campus police officer was shot several times and died, the commissioner added. The pair then hijacked a Mercedes car and eventually let the driver out in Watertown, which is close to MIT, Davis added.

The chase went on through Watertown where the two were seen throwing explosives out of the car, local media said, citing police reports. Blasts and gunfire were heard in several districts.

During a shooutout, one wanted man was hit and died later in hospital, Davis said. Another police officer was also wounded. The second suspect, who has been shown in pictures wearing a white baseball cap, escaped.

MIT students were kept in a lockdown for three hours after the shooting on campus. Police with rifles flooded the streets, and search helicopters patrolled the skies.

MIT, one of the world's top universities, is in Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston where the double bomb attack was staged on Monday in the worst militant attack on the United States since the September 11 atrocities in 2001. Authorities cancelled classes on Friday, in the wake of the incident.

Hours before the manhunt, the FBI released pictures and video of the two suspects, appealing for help to identify the pair who were carrying large backpacks.

Both appeared to be young men, one dressed in a white baseball cap and the other in a black cap. The FBI gave no details of their identities or origin, naming them only as Suspect One and Suspect Two.

Two bombs were placed around the marathon finish line on Monday, spraying nails, ball bearings and other metal fragments into massed spectators, many of whom suffered horrific injuries.

The men are seen in the video walking calmly, one a few paces behind the other, weaving between crowds on Boston's Boylston Street where the race finished.

President Barack Obama vowed to the people of Boston Thursday that the "evil" bombers would be brought to justice.

At a special service at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Obama vowed: "Yes, we will find you, and yes, you will face justice."

"We will find you, we will hold you accountable," he told a congregation of 2,000, including relatives of the dead, survivors of the blasts, rescuers and city leaders.

"If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorise us," Obama said, then "it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it." — AFP

NEW DELHI: A five-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped by a neighbour after holding her captive for four days, is battling for life due to infection contracted from foreign objects found inside her body, doctors said on Friday.

The incident reported on Thursday from Gandhi Nagar triggered protests outside Swami Dayanand Hospital.

Dr R K Bansal of the hospital said the next 24 to 48 hours will be critical for the girl and that there were injuries and bruises on her private parts, chest, lips and cheeks. She had some bruises on her neck, which indicated that the accused might have tried to strangle her.

“She was scared and not fully conscious. Initially, she did not allow us to proceed with the examination as she was in tremendous pain. She had fever also and after giving medicines, it became normal. However, the fever recurred and we found she had some infection.

“After giving anaesthesia, more tests were conducted and we found that there were some foreign objects like candle and a 200 ml bottle of hair oil inside her body,” Bansal said, adding that they were not giving her food as she had infection in her stomach also.

Dr Bansal said it was one of the worst cases his team of doctors had attended to.

the police is on the hunt for the accused, who stayed on the ground floor of the building where the victim and her family lived. The girl was rescued from the house of the accused on Thursday, four days after she went missing.

The minor’s family claimed that the police was “insensitive” by not registering a case in time and that some policemen told them that they should be happy that the girl was alive, allegations which were denied by the force.

“When I went to lodge an FIR, the police refused to register the case. If they had made a better attempt, they would have found her. The police told me to be happy that she was alive,” her father alleged.

He also alleged that doctors refused to give any information beyond that his daughter was critical.

The girl’s mother said the victim went out to play and was kidnapped. “The man then locked her up in his room and raped her. I want justice from the government,” she said.

A relative of the girl alleged that when they went to the police station to enquire about the case, the personnel told them that now they should pray for her recovery as she has been rescued.

A senior police official denied the allegations saying they found the child from the same building where the girl was staying and rushed the victim to the hospital.

He said they also immediately registered a case of kidnapping as soon as the matter was reported to them.

Sources said senior doctors from LNJP hospital will visit the victim and then take a decision on the next course of treatment.

The incident saw protests outside the hospital, where the girl is undergoing treatment.

The protesters included family members of the minor, neighbours and activists of the Aam Aadmi Party.

“The five-year-old rape victim is critical and is in a shabby municipality hospital. Why cannot the government and police shift her to a better hospital?” AAP leader Manish Sisodia said.

In a letter to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai claimed that the incident showed the administration’s “inhuman” attitude towards the common person.

“The victim has been admitted by your administration and the police to a small hospital where only minimal facilities are available,” they said alleging that police tried to win over the parents by offering them money to hush up the case.

“We appeal to you to shift the girl to AIIMS, so that her life is saved,” they said. — PTI

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was on Friday arrested from his farmhouse in a case relating to sacking of judges, a day after he dramatically fled the court to avoid detention, and remanded in two days in custody, becoming the first ex-Army Chief to face such action. Police officials arrested the 69-year-old former military strongman this morning and took him to the court of judicial magistrate Muhammad Abbas Shah.

After hearing arguments by Musharraf's lawyer and the counsel of several persons who have filed petitions against him, the magistrate sent the former Army Chief on "transit remand" for two days.

The magistrate also directed police to produce Musharraf in an anti-terrorism court in two days as the Islamabad High Court had yesterday directed authorities to charge him under the Anti-Terrorism Act for his actions during the 2007 emergency.

Musharraf can appeal in the Supreme Court against the magistrate's order.

The arrest came a day after the Islamabad High Court revoked Musharraf's bail for not cooperating with police officials investigating a case registered against him for detaining 60 judges, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, during the emergency.

Footage on television showed Musharraf being led into the magistrate's small and dimly-lit office by dozens of policemen and paramilitary personnel.

Musharraf looked shaken and was wearing a waistcoat over a shalwar-kameez.

He was also seen emerging from the magistrate's office and heading for his car. Musharraf waited in his car for some time as the magistrate initially reserved his decision. 

However, he was driven to his farmhouse by his security detail before the magistrate issued the order for his detention shortly after 9.15 am.

Officials said Musharraf would be detained at his farmhouse at Chak Shahzad on the outskirts of Islamabad as he faced threats to his life and could not be sent to prison.

Earlier, police officials informed the magistrate that they did not need physical custody of Musharraf and he could be placed in judicial custody.

However, the lawyers of those who had filed petitions against Musharraf for imposing emergency in 2007 and detaining over 60 members of the superior judiciary contended that he should kept in police custody.

They also questioned why Musharraf had not been handcuffed by police after his arrest.

Musharraf's lawyer Qamar Afzal argued that his client should be kept in judicial custody as there were serious threats to his life.

Sources told PTI that authorities had asked for Musharraf to be placed in judicial custody as this would allow the administration of Islamabad to declare his farmhouse at Chak Shahzad a 'sub-jail' and detain him there.

Authorities have been focussing on this measure as officials are not keen on holding Musharraf at a jail due to threats to his life.

However, immediately after Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui revoked his pre-arrest bail yesterday and ordered police to detain him, Musharraf and his security detail fled from the Islamabad High Court complex and drove to his farmhouse.

Musharraf's lawyers could not file an appeal in the Supreme Court yesterday as they were unable to complete certain formalities before the court closed for the day.

Analysts said Musharraf's arrest could put the judiciary in conflict with the powerful military, which would not like to see a former chief being humiliated or insulted in public.

The analysts further said that if Musharraf was put on trial, members of the current military leadership, including army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, could be dragged into the matter as they were part of Musharraf’s inner circle when he clamped emergency rule six years back.

Musharraf has had to grapple with numerous legal problems since he returned to the country last month after nearly four years in self-exile.

Earlier this week, Musharraf was disqualified from contesting next month's general election, effectively ending his ambitions for a political comeback.

Authorities have also barred him from travelling out of Pakistan. — PTI

CHENNAI: Former Telecom Minister A. Raja, who has been accused in the JPC draft report of having misled the Prime Minister on 2G spectrum issue, on Friday, maintained he had done everything in consultation with Manmohan Singh and would send a detailed note in his defence to the panel next week.

“I had done everything in consultation with the Prime Minister. After demitting office, I told everyone that whatever I did was in consultation with the Prime Minister.

“After I was arrested, I advanced the same argument in court and at the time of framing of charges, the same argument was forwarded. My stand has been very clear,” he told reporters in Chennai.

While giving sequence of events leading to allocation of 2G spectrum, the draft JPC report says, “the Committee is inclined to conclude that the Prime Minister was misled about the procedure decided to be followed by the Department of Telecommunications in respect of issuance of UAS (Universal Access License) licences.”

Mr. Raja said, “I will prove my innocence and send a note to the JPC and I do hope that after the perusal of my report, they will call me”.

Answering a query on the probe in 2G scam, he said, “The entire 2G is complete lawlessness. Whether it is the CAG... With due respect to the Supreme Court, even the Supreme Court observations are completely violating natural justice. I do have faith in judiciary, the trial is going on and I will prove my innocence.”

The DMK has come out in support of its party leader, saying that it is a “false accusation” that Mr. Raja had “misled” the prime Minister on the 2G issue. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Under attack from the BJP and other Opposition parties over the draft JPC report on 2G scam, the government on Friday said the report is not yet “finalised” and requested the media and the opposition to “refrain” from “speculation“.

“The JPC report is yet to be finalised. JPC is going to meet, and once it is finalised, it shall be presented to Parliament. And that’s the time we all shall debate it because we will have to look at what the reasons are in the report for the conclusion that they have arrived at and we don’t know either at the moment,” Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said.

“So I request the opposition and the media to refrain from speculating and to wait so that a proper debate can take place, both within Parliament and outside it,” he said.

The minister said, “We are now committing the same mistake as we did in the past. Without the CAG submitting its report to Parliament, the opposition started protesting, newspapers started writing well in advance and leakages of the report made public discourse very difficult.

“So I would suggest we should not commit the same mistake,” he said.

The government is under fire from the opposition over the draft JPC report with the BJP saying that it appeared like a “Congress document” where attempts have been made to save its leaders including the Prime Minister.

The JPC report, which was circulated among members yesterday before its adoption on April 25, gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 2G spectrum allocation, saying he was “misled” by the then Telecom Minister A.Raja whose assurances stood “belied“.

The report also rubbishes the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore estimated by CAG, saying it was “ill—conceived”. — PTI

SYDNEY: An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 struck off northern Japan on Friday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The USGS recorded the quake at 0305 GMT. It later put the depth of the quake at a relatively shallow 10 km (6 miles). The epicentre of the quake was located 275 km (170 miles) northeast of Kuril'sk in the Kuril Islands, the USGS said.

There was no tsunami warning issued immediately after the quake.

The quake rocked towns in the northernmost Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido.

"We have received no reports of damage so far," a spokesman at the Hokkaido police said, adding there were no reports of injuries. — Reuters