The BBC reports on a fresh terrorist attack in Algeria. The latest attack was twin car bombs that hit a barracks in bus in the Algerian city of Bouira. The attacks killed twelve and injured 42. They come just a day after an attack that killed 48 people at a police college.
The attacks come one day after a car bomb killed 48 people and injured a further 38 at a police college near Boumerdes, east of Algiers.
In recent months Algeria has suffered regular attacks blamed on Islamist insurgents linked to al-Qaeda.
The country has been rebuilding with the help of oil and gas profits after a brutal civil conflict in which Islamist militants led an insurgency against state security forces in the 1990s.
Many recent attacks have happened in the area east and south of Algiers, which borders the mountainous Berber region of Kabylia.
The attacks in Algeria have been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The Guardian has a story about the rise of al-Qaeda in Algeria.
Earlier this month the FBI's suspect in the anthrax case, Dr. Bruce E. Ivins, 62, committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him. Dr. Ivins worked at Ft. Detrick on anthrax research and he helped the FBI on the 2001 anthrax cases.
A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned.
Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.
Many of his co-workers and friends did not see Ivins as a threat.
To some of his longtime colleagues and neighbors, it was a startling and inexplicable turn of events for a churchgoing, family-oriented germ researcher known for his jolly disposition - the guy who did a juggling act at community events and composed satiric ballads he played on guitar or piano to departing co-workers.
"He did not seem to have any particular grudges or idiosyncrasies," said Dr. Kenneth Hedlund, a retired physician who once worked alongside Ivins at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick. "He was the last person you would have suspected to be involved in something like this."
One person who did perceive Ivins as a major threat was his therapist Jean Duley. This video has a recording from a court hearing where frightened therapist Jean Duley sought a protective order from Dr. Ivins on July 24th. Duley feared for her life and called Dr. Bruce Ivins a psychotic "revenge killer."
The government's position is that Ivins is guilty and that he acted alone in distributing the deadly anthrax in 2001, which killed five people. Journalists continue to ask questions about the investigation. One reason for this is because bio-weapons expert Steven Hatfill was at one point wrongly accused for this same crime. There are also questions being raised as to why someone with mental problems was allowed near the deadly anthrax in the first place.
Militants Kill 16 Police Officers in Western China
A violent attack that killed sixteen police officers has China rattled ahead of the Olympic Games. The violence has been blamed on an Islamic group that is also threatening to attack Beijing during the Olympics. The Christian Science Monitorcites Xinhua as reporting the attackers drove a dump truck into a team of border police out for a morning jog.
Xinhua reports that two unnamed attackers drove a dump truck into a team of border police during a Monday morning jog near their barracks, killing 14 officers on the spot. Two other officers died on the way to the hospital. The attack occurred in Kashgar, the westernmost city in China.
