Chatter: Manhunt in Boston

GlobalPost
           

                      

        *We take your privacy seriously, GlobalPost will not share your information with any other companies.

NEED TO KNOW

Boston manhunt. One suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing is dead, another is armed, dangerous and still at large after a dramatic late-night chase, police say.

Details are still unclear, but it appears that two male suspects – believed to be the two men caught on surveillance video at the marathon finish line – held up a store in Cambridge, outside Boston, late last night. Shortly afterward, shots were fired at the MIT campus, leading to the death of one university police officer. A carjacking and police chase through Watertown followed, with the suspects hurling explosives from their vehicle. One of the two was fatally injured in the ensuing shootout; the other escaped on foot.

Police have warned all residents to stay indoors while they hunt him down. "We believe this to be a terrorist," a spokesman said. "We believe this to be a man who has come here to kill people." Follow the latest developments here.

WANT TO KNOW

Pervez Musharraf wasn't made for a life on the lam. The day after he fled court with a warrant out for his arrest, Pakistan's former military president has turned himself in.

Musharraf still insists he'll challenge the warrant, which relates an order he gave in 2007 to place all of Pakistan's judges under house arrest. He claims the judiciary has pursued a vendetta against him ever since, and that he'll prove these charges are "politically motivated." In the meantime, the former strongman remains under house arrest himself at his home in Islamabad.

Search for survivors in Texas. Rescuers are returning to the rubble of the small town of West, where several people are still missing after a huge explosion at a local fertilizer plant.

Dozens of homes were destroyed in the blast, which turned buildings into "skeletons standing up." Anywhere from five to 15 people are feared dead, police said, though that toll is expected to rise as authorities pick over the disaster scene today.

French hostages go free. A family of seven French nationals have been released by their captors in Cameroon, two months to the day after they were kidnapped by a gunmen claiming to belong to Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadis.

The hostages, four of them young children, were set free somewhere between Cameroon and Nigeria late last night and are now safe at the French embassy. French President Francois Hollande says no ransom was paid for their release, only that "secret talks" have been taking place for weeks.

Now that's what you call a long player. In the Welsh city of Cardiff lies Spillers, officially the world's oldest record store. Founded in 1894 as a purveyor of gramophones, Spillers has been selling music for nearly 120 years – but in today's age of iPods and MP3s, staying open is a growing challenge.

GlobalPost reports on a musical institution's efforts to survive.

STRANGE BUT TRUE

Don'tcha just hate when your new squeeze turns out to be your long-lost second cousin? It seems this kind of thing is surprisingly common in sparsely populated Iceland, where developers have launched a new app to help prevent accidental incest.

Store your family tree on your smartphone, the developers say, and simply knock it against your potential lover's to find out if you have a little too much in common. The cheery tagline: "Bump the app before you bump in bed!" Sort of gross, sure, but the alternative is a lot worse.

Will you support The World with a monthly donation?

Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you. We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.

Make a gift today, and you’ll help us unlock a matching gift of $67,000!