Massive boulders fell away from the from the Muqattam cliffs outside Cairo and buried dozens of homes in an Egyptian shanty town. At least 18 people were reported killed and hundreds may be buried. CNN reports that some of the boulders were the size of small homes.
At least eight boulders, some the size of small houses, peeled away from the towering Muqattam cliffs outside Cairo and buried 50 homes in the sprawling Manshiyet Nasr slum, one of the shantytowns ringing Africa's most populous city.
It was the latest disaster to stir public anger at a government accused by many of neglect. A lawmaker representing the area said that despite warnings that the cliff face could collapse, the government failed to deliver on promises to relocate residents.
The collapse occurred in the early morning, when most residents were still sleeping after waking earlier to eat before the daytime fast of Islam's holy month of Ramadan.
The video below is from the Associated Press. You can watch another video here from National Geographic.
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.
