THE NEWS WRAP: Police deny Boston bombing arrest, poison letter sent to Obama

Police have denied reports they have arrested a suspect in connection with the Boston bombing on the same day US President Barack Obama was sent a letter containing a substance preliminary tests identify as ricin.

Reports from news organisations including CNN, Fox and the Associated Press all reported a suspect had been identified in connection with the Boston bombings, although police deny an arrest has been made at this point.

“Despite reports to the contrary, there has not been an arrest in the marathon attack,” Boston Police stated on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating a letter sent to President Obama containing a poisonous substance believed to be ricin, with the same substance also detected in a letter sent to Republican Senator Roger Wicker.

It is unclear at this point whether the letters are linked to the terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon.

Harvey blames Gillard government and computers for weak sales

Computer and furniture retail king Gerry Harvey has blamed the Gillard government and weak television sales for recent poor sales at his Harvey Norman stores, after announcing third-quarter sales grew by 0.6% and like-for-like sales growing by 2%.

“You’ve got 30% of people supporting a political party and that’s pretty much as low as it gets. That means 70% of people are maybe not voting for them and so seven out of 10 people are not happy with whoever is governing them – that can’t be good,” Harvey says.

“Right across the board our sales are good but they have declined dramatically with TV and computers. If we had never been in computers or TVs we wouldn’t have had anything like this decline we had.”

Devondale says it can turn a profit off Coles milk deal

Murray Goulburn Co-operative chief executive Gary Helou says the milk processor, which trades under the Devondale brand, can turn a profit off a recent deal to process milk for supermarket giant Coles.

“We have a long-term supply with a major customer that has an attractive price attached and we’re quite happy with the result. We are investing in state-of-the-art plants where we will have a fraction of the headcount they have and a faster, lower-cost supply chain” Helou says.

“We can’t stipulate the shelf price of any retailer, but our contract is built on a farm-gate price that we set and is based on commodity prices and other exposures we have, and a premium is locked into that – that doesn’t entrench dollar milk or any price for that matter.”

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.94% to 14,618.59 The Aussie dollar is down to US102.92 cents.