Boston bombing: News roundup

Every time the widow of suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev leaves her parents' house, federal agents watching the residence follow her in unmarked vehicles.

Authorities are placing intense pressure on what they know to be the inner circle of the two bombing suspects, arresting three college buddies of surviving brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and keeping Tamerlan's widow, Katherine Russell, 24, in the public eye with their open surveillance and leaks to media about investigators' focus on her.

Legal experts say it's part of their quest not just to determine whether Russell and the friends are culpable but also to push for as much information as possible regarding whether the suspects had ties to a terrorism network or accomplices working domestically or abroad. A primary goal is to push the widow and friends to give their full cooperation, experts said.

David Zlotnick, a professor of law at Roger Williams University and a former federal prosecutor, said authorities may be tracking Russell closely because they feel she's not being completely honest about all she knows.

Eugene O'Donnell, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice lecturer and former police officer and assistant district attorney in New York City, said the message from federal authorities is clear: "No stone will be unturned" in their probe. "I think after 9 /11 there's really a kitchen sink approach to national security," he said.

A funeral home director was scrambling to find a cemetery that would bury a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, ignoring protesters gathered outside his business and saying everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of his or her death.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died from "gunshot wounds of torso and extremities" and blunt trauma to his head and torso, said Worcester funeral homeowner Peter Stefan, who has Tsarnaev's body and read details from his death certificate. The certificate lists the time of his death as 1:35 a.m. on April 19, four days after the bombing, he said.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body was initially was taken to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it was greeted by about 20 protesters, before being taken to Stefan's Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, which is familiar with Muslim services. "My problem here is trying to find a grave site. A lot of people don't want to do it. They don't want to be involved with this," said Stefan, who said dozens of protesters gathered outside his funeral home, upset with his decision to handle the service. "I keep bringing up the point of Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh or Ted Bundy. Somebody had to do those, too."

President Obama defended the FBI's handling of the bombing investigation as Republicans ready for oversight hearings on the attack.

Obama told the Spanish-language television network Univision he doesn't think it's fair to say law enforcement "dropped the ball" He said "there are going to be times where individuals decide they want to cause harm to people for crazy reasons, for no good reason, for ideological reasons."

The president also noted that the FBI "can't arrest somebody just based on a rumor."

The first of a series of House hearings is set for Thursday before the House Homeland Security Committee.