International

LUSHAN, China — The tent village that sprang up in two days to house quake survivors in mountain-flanked Lushan is no ordinary refugee camp. China’s full range of disaster response is on display: trucks with X-ray equipment, phone-charging stations, bank tellers-on-wheels — even a tent for insurance claims.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Tuesday denied any links with an alleged terrorist plot that Canadian authorities claim was directed by al-Qaida operatives in Iran and sought to derail a passenger train.

WASHINGTON — The surviving Chechen brother suspected in the bloody Boston marathon bombings is reportedly awake and communicating with investigators in writing amid speculation that he and his deceased sibling had plotted further terrorist attacks.

LUSHAN, China — Sitting near chunks of concrete, bricks and a ripped orange sofa, Luo Shiqiang told how his grandfather was just returning from feeding chickens when their house collapsed and crushed him to death in a powerful earthquake in southwestern China.

WATERTOWN, Mass. — Two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing killed a university police officer, injured a transit officer in a firefight and threw explosive devices at police during their getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left one of them dead and another still at large Friday, authorities said as the manhunt intensified for a young man described as a dangerous terrorist.

KAUFMAN, Texas — In a surprising twist, the wife of a jailed former justice of the peace was charged Wednesday with capital murder after authorities say she confessed to helping her husband kill two North Texas prosecutors who aggressively secured a theft conviction against him.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s push for tighter gun controls faced likely failure after the measure with the best chance of getting through Congress was blocked in the Senate. An angry Obama, surrounded by shooting victims and families of victims, said the powerful gun control lobby “wilfully lied” to the American people.

CORINTH, Miss. — A Mississippi man accused of mailing letters with suspected ricin to national leaders believed he had uncovered a conspiracy to sell human body parts on the black market and sometimes performed as an Elvis Presley impersonator.

BOSTON — Investigators were on the hunt Thursday for a man seen in a department-store surveillance video dropping off a bag at the site of the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people, a Boston politician said.

WEST, Texas — Rescue workers searched rubble early Thursday for survivors of a fertilizer plant explosion in a small Texas town that killed as many as 15 people and injured more than 160 others. The blast left the factory a smouldering ruin and levelled homes and businesses for blocks in every direction.