Mexico blast bodies handed over

2 February 2013 Last updated at 22:54 GMT Rescuers rush to the point where sniffer dogs alerted their handlers as the search for survivors continues The bodies of the victims of a blast at the headquarters of Mexican oil company Pemex have been handed to their relatives.

Thirty-three people died in Thursday's explosion in Mexico City.

Hundreds of rescue workers continue to search the rubble for possible survivors.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said investigations into the cause of the blast were underway and no line of enquiry had been ruled out.

Rescue workers regained hope of finding people alive on Saturday after sniffer dogs alerted their handlers in the basement of the collapsed building.

Earlier, two families who believe their relatives could still be trapped, had asked the authorities not to give up on them after the Red Cross had declared its search finished.

The last person to be rescued from the debris was found at noon on Friday (1800 GMT).

Search for truth

Firefighters and police officers using heavy machinery continued to move rubble from the site of the blast as special investigators examined the site for clues to the cause of the explosion.

According to the attorney general, the government "is determined to find out the truth, be it what it may".

"If it's an accident, if it's negligence, if it's an attack, whatever it is," Mr Murillo Karam said.

Mr Murillo Karam said investigators had established that the blast had not set off a fire, but that it was not yet clear what that meant.

More than 100 people are being treated in hospital for injuries sustained as a result of the blast, Many of them were hit by falling rubble and masonry.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto visited some of them on Friday. He has declared three days of mourning.

The BBC's Will Grant said the blast was the biggest explosion to hit Mexico City for 30 years.

Pemex said it would resume operations at its headquarters on Tuesday, moving employees who worked in the affected building to other offices.

The company has experienced a number of fatal accidents in recent years.

Last September, 30 people died in an explosion at a Pemex gas plant in northern Mexico, thought to have been caused by a build-up of gas.

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Blast hits Pakistan Shia march

22 November 2012 Last updated at 07:53 GMT The late-night blast in Rawalpindi hit a procession of Shia Muslims A Taliban suicide bomber killed at least 23 people at a Shia Muslim procession in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, police say.

The bomber targeted marchers as they approached a mosque near the city centre. Another 62 people were hurt.

Blasts earlier on Wednesday outside a Shia mosque in the southern city of Karachi killed at least two people, and a bomb in Quetta left five dead.

The bombings come as Shias mark the holy month of Muharram.

First reports from Rawalpindi said 10 people had died in the attack late on Wednesday night, but officials raised the figure on Thursday morning.

Police rescue spokeswoman Deeba Shehnaz said several people who were critically wounded had died in hospital.

Police say they attempted to stop and search the bomber who then blew himself up. The force of the blast ripped a hole in the wall of the mosque.

"It was like the world was ending," one of the victims, Nasir Shah, was quoted as saying by Associated Press.

The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the attacks in Rawalpindi and Karachi. Attacks on Shia by hardline Sunnis have increased in recent months in Pakistan.

BBC's Aleem Maqbool: "Karachi really has a sense, right now, of a city on high alert"

Karachi, where the mosque was apparently targeted, has a long history of sectarian tensions. A second blast there left at least seven people wounded, police official Javed Odho said.

Correspondents say the authorities are braced for more violence as Muharram reaches its climax this weekend.

The attack in Quetta did not have a sectarian motive. Police say the remote-controlled bomb exploded near a security vehicle escorting schoolchildren.

Three of those killed were soldiers. Two civilians also died. About 30 people were wounded, some of them critically.

"The target was an army vehicle which was escorting a school bus carrying children of local army officers from different schools," Quetta city police chief Hamid Shakeel told the AFP news agency.

Quetta is the capital of the south-western province of Balochistan, where a separatist insurgency is being waged by ethnic militants demanding more autonomy and a greater share of natural resources.

Pakistan's military also has troops in the province engaged in a long-running battle against militants in tribal areas near the Afghan border, including the Taliban and armed groups who support them.

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