New bomb alert on anniversary of Boston Marathon attack

A man is in custody after a bomb alert in Boston as the US city commemorated the first anniversary of the attack on its marathon. The man, in his twenties, is said to have been behaving suspiciously and dropped a bag containing a rice cooker near the finish line of the race. It was destroyed in a controlled explosion. The US Vice President led tributes to the three people killed and 264 wounded in last year’s bombing. “We refuse to bend, refuse to change, refuse to yield to fear,” Joe Biden said. “That is what makes us so proud of this city and this state, what makes me be so proud to be an American. It’s that we have never, ever yielded to fear. Never.” Other speakers recalled how police officers, spectators and others reacted immediately to help the wounded. The authorities say two brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, carried their bombs to the finish line in backpacks. Boston’s public library has a display of 150 running shoes, to remember the victims. There will be heightened security and new restrictions for the tens of thousands of runners expected at this year’s race next Monday April 21.