United States

MOSCOW -- Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, called his mother Thursday morning, hours before being killed in a shootout with police, and told her he had received a call from the FBI, she said. “He would call me every day from America in the last days,” Zubeidat Tsarnaev said Sunday in a telephone interview with The Times from her home in the Russian republic of Dagestan, “and during our last conversation on the morning [before the shootout]

Re "Gun check effort fails in Senate," April 18 The population of the United States is about 315 million. According to some polls, 90% of us support expanded background checks for gun purchases. The National Rifle Assn. has about 4.5 million members - less than 2% of the population. When did 2% become the majority? Louis Sanford Studio City ALSO: Letters: Why we run Letters: Saving CEQA Letters: For whom the tolls toll

Re "Two sought in Boston blasts," April 18 The Boston Marathon bombing is the very worst of what makes us human. It's a reminder that we're not far removed from our closest cousins, the sometimes savage common chimpanzee. In contrast, the world of organized running races embodies many great things about humanity, beginning with cooperation and generosity. People come from around the world to share a day of personal empowerment, make a statement about a cause they support, raise money for charities, celebrate their cancer recovery or simply challenge themselves physically and mentally.

MOSCOW -- Although the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings came from the Russian region of Chechnya, that isn't expected to worsen already strained U.S.-Russia relations, Moscow political analysts said Friday. “The relations between Russia and the United States are reliably bad and I don't expect them to significantly deteriorate even if it is proven that those Chechen lads were guilty of the Boston explosions,” said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of the USA-Canada Institute, a Moscow-based think tank.

WASHINGTON - Britain and the Eurozone are steadfastly sticking to austerity measures despite increasing evidence that such action alone isn't working to revive their economies and is dragging down global growth. Such persistence, analysts said, could further endanger a U.S. economy that is facing another spring slowdown. European leaders have come under renewed pressure this week from the International Monetary Fund and other parties as the IMF and the World Bank hold their spring meetings in Washington.

California's economic recovery continued to outpace the nation's in March as its unemployment rate fell to 9.4%, the lowest in more than four years for the Golden State. The state increased its payrolls by 25,500 jobs and pushed down the jobless rate from 9.6% in February, according to data released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. But the economic picture was not all rosy. Although jobs were added because of a rising housing market and continued consumer spending, 14,900 people dropped out of the workforce, mirroring a national trend of job seekers who become discouraged and give up looking for work.

Human rights groups are appropriately appalled by the breadth of a U.S. Supreme Court decision this week that would make it exceedingly difficult for some victims of human rights abuses committed in other countries to win redress in U.S. courts. Led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a self-proclaimed foe of judicial activism, the court reined in the use of a 1789 law known as the Alien Tort Statute, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over "any civil action by an alien for a tort committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.

A massive Russian crackdown on Chechnya's bid for independence in the 1990s and the installation of loyal leaders there pushed the Caucasus Muslim enclave from the headlines years ago. But resentment has festered and at times bled into the global holy war being waged by Islamic militants. It appears unlikely that oppression of Chechnya's Muslim majority instigated the attack on the Boston Marathon, in which two Chechen emigre brothers are suspects. The two were young when they arrived in the United States and weren't known to associate with militants.

WASHINGTON -- The British and French governments have asked the United Nations to investigate what they believe is credible evidence that the Syrian regime has used small amounts of chemical weapons in recent months, officials said. The evidence, including soil samples and witness testimony,  is not definitive. But the concerns are such that “we are pressing the United Nations to investigate further and raising our concerns with international partners,” said a British diplomat who declined to be named in speaking about a sensitive matter.

ATHENS - Police scoured much of Greece's rural south Thursday searching for three strawberry plantation foremen suspected in the shootings of 29 foreign workers in a pay dispute that has fanned fear of rising racism. None of the workers, mainly from Bangladesh, suffered life-threatening injuries. But many sustained multiple gunshot wounds when at least one of the foremen at a plantation in the Peloponnese, about 160 miles southwest of Athens, went on a rampage late Wednesday, opening fire on about 200 workers demanding back pay, workers told authorities.