National

WASHINGTON—NASA’s planet-hunting telescope has discovered two planets that seem like ideal places for some sort of life to flourish.
And they are just the right size and in just the right place.
One is warm, the other chilly.

People keep asking Joe Berti if he feels unlucky.
A bomb exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon seconds after Berti finished the race.
Two days later, he was in his home state of Texas when he saw a fertilizer plant explode near Waco.
“I was just like, ‘I can’t believe this!’” said Berti, who said he had never witnessed an explosion before.

WEST, Tex.—The bodies of 12 people have been recovered after an enormous Texas fertilizer plant explosion that demolished surrounding neighbourhoods for blocks and left about 200 other people injured, authorities said today.

OTTAWA—Canadian consumers can expect to see only moderate, if any, price increases across the broad spectrum of goods and services in the foreseeable future, analysts said today after release of new data showing inflation fell to one percent last month.

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.

WEST, Tex.—Rescue workers searched the smouldering ruins of a fertilizer plant today for survivors of a monstrous explosion that levelled homes and businesses in every direction across the Texas prairie.
As many as 15 people were feared dead and more than 160 others injured.

WASHINGTON—U.S. 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.

WINNIPEG—Nine of Canada’s provinces yesterday pressed for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women across the country.
The action came after a meeting in Winnipeg of aboriginal affairs ministers from every province and territory except British Columbia.

OTTAWA—Two recent deaths among members of the Neskantaga First Nation have prompted the remote Northern Ontario community to declare a state of emergency in the hope of getting help to prevent the spread of suicide.

OTTAWA—The International Monetary Fund is advising Canadian policy-makers against pulling too hard on the reins of austerity, saying in a new forecast that the economy remains weak and vulnerable to shocks.
The IMF said today that Canada’s economy likely will slow to about 1.5 percent this year from 1.8 percent last year, before picking up to 2.4 percent in 2014.