WEEK OF TEARS, BLOOD IN US

As at press time, security  operatives have narrowed
down to two suspects, reported to be two brothers of Chechnia origin, killed
one in a gun battle while the other is on the lose and there is a city-wide
manhunt for the second. 

“Yes, we will find you, and yes, you will face justice,”
Obama told a special service in Boston city, on Thursday.

“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.”
Continuing Mr Obama said: “If they sought to intimidate us,
to terrorize us, 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.

Scores of victims remained in hospitals; many with grievous
injuries in the twin explosions near the marathon’s finish line. Several
amputations and many critical cases. An 8-year-old boy was among the dead. A
9-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy were among 17 victims listed in critical
condition according to information.

Information has it that, the bombs exploded 10 or more
seconds apart, tearing off victims’ limbs and spattering streets with blood,
instantly turning the festive race into a hellish scene of confusion, horror
and heroics. 

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. 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. 

But the Boston horror was not all that made a bad week for
the US. The country also lost its gun control legislation proposal forwarded by
two senators from different sides of the nation’s politics. They proposed
expanding the background check system to include the guns that are bought at
gun shows and also those over the internet. But their proposal was defeated in
the Senate. It fell well short, 54-46, as a handful of Democrats, people from
within president Obama’s own party, opposed the amendment. The development was
very disturbing to both the nation’s presidence, Obama dubbed the loss a
disgrace to Washington

Another odd event came up on Tuesday with the discovery that
a rescin poison-ladden mail has been sent to Obama and some members of the US
Senate, reminiscent of after 2001, after the terrorism attack of the US when
anthrax was sent to several Democratic senators and also to various companies.

But the horrors of one week did not end as indeed the dark
week darkened further for the USA Wednesday night as a fertilizer plant in
West, North of Waco in the State of Texas exploded on killing as many as 15
people and injuring more than 170 others, and laying waste over a dozen
buildings.

According to Sergent Patrick Swanton of the Waco Police
Department: “businesses were leveled in the normally quiet town of West, just
north of Waco, and there was widespread destruction in the downtown area.”

“At least five people were killed and scores were being
treated at area hospitals, Sergeant Swanton.’ he added.

He also, emphasised that the early estimates of casualties
could change as more casuualties were likely, and that three to five
firefighters were missing. He noted that mostly first responders from a
volunteer fire department who rushed to the scene before the blast were
involved. 

“They were actively fighting the fire at the time the
explosion occurred,’ he said.
He also said that the fires were still smoldering at the
plant and that there is nothing out of control”

As many as 75 homes have been damaged, along with several
businesses and a 50-unit apartment complex.

He said that there is no evidence indicating criminal
activity though he is not ruling it out.
According to Bill Flores,United States Representative, the
disaster began with a smaller fire at the plant, West Fertilizer, just off
Interstate 35, about 20 miles north of Waco. The fire spread and hit some of
these tanks that contain chemicals to treat the fertilizer and there was an
explosion which caused wide damage.

Nevertheless, D. L. Wilson, a state trooper with the Texas
Department of Public Safety argued that the explosion was compared to the
destruction to Iraq war scenes and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He noted
that it is most likely an act of terrorism. 

In his words: “this is an act of terrorism using explosives
made from fertilizer.

“I can tell you, I was there, I walked through the blast
area, I searched some houses earlier tonight. It was massive, just like Iraq,
just like the Murrah building in Oklahoma City.”

Tommy Muska, the mayor of West, said in brief televised
remarks that 50 to 60 houses in a five-block area were heavily damaged, and
that search-and-rescue teams worked through the night. A nursing home, with 133
residents was among those hit. The fate of those within it was, like so much on
the scene, not immediately clear.

‘We’re a little bit in the fog of war right now”’ Mr. Flores
said.

Mr. Wilson and other local officials told reporters that half
the town had been evacuated because of fears of toxic fumes being spread by
heavy winds. First responders continued to search house by house. 

A statement issued by the White House from President Obama on
Wednesday captured the enormity of the havoc. “Today our prayers go out to the
people of West, Texas.”
He pledged that the “Federal Emergency Management Agency and
other federal agencies would join state and local efforts to make sure there
are no unmet needs as search and rescue and response operations continue”

Governor Rick Perry of Texas describeded the explosion as a
truly nightmare scenario, and said that information about death and injury is
very preliminary” he added that because West is so small, the tragedy has most
likely hit every family and has touched practically everybody in that town. Mr.
Obama, he said, had phoned him from Air Force One, on his way to Boston, to
offer his support.

A few miles to the north of West, the school gymnasium in the
town of Abbott was converted into an emergency shelter for evacuees who lived
near the plant. But at 3 a.m. Thursday, the nearly 100 cots were empty, and
dozens of volunteers, including faculty members and teenage students, waited
for a rush of people that never came. Bottles of water sat in bundled packages
outside the school, untouched.

West is a small country town of just 2,700 people. Its name
refers not to its location on the state map, in northern central Texas, but to
its first postmaster, T. M. West.