World in brief: Suicide bombings kill at least 34
A suicide bomber attacked a military convoy near the Afghan border on Saturday, killing at least 24 Pakistani soldiers as thousands of troops deployed to thwart a call for an anti-government holy war.
Another suicide car bomber struck a convoy elsewhere in the border region early today, killing more than 10 security personnel, police said.
The escalating violence along the frontier, a haven for Pakistani and foreign extremists, follows the government’s bloody attack on Islamabad’s Red Mosque that sparked calls for revenge from radical groups.
London
Third doctor faces terrorism charge
A third doctor has been formally charged with a terrorism offense in connection with last month’s failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.
Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, 26, who worked in a hospital outside Liverpool, England, was charged by Metropolitan Police on Saturday with possessing information that could have prevented a terrorist attack.
Ahmed was arrested June 30, the same day that his brother Kafeel Ahmed, 27, an aeronautical engineer, rammed a flaming Jeep Cherokee packed with canisters of propane and gasoline into the main entrance of Glasgow’s airport.
Dr. Bilal Abdullah, an Iraqi physician who was a passenger in the Cherokee, already has been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions.
Sydney, Australia
Tank takes toll during rampage
A man went on a rampage with a stolen armored personnel carrier through suburban Sydney on Saturday, crashing into several mobile phone towers, telecommunications buildings and an electricity substation before being arrested.
The man led officers on a 90-minute chase across six western suburbs before the vehicle stalled as it was being driven toward another mobile phone tower, New South Wales police said in a statement.
The armored personnel carrier was from a company called A-One Lift Truck Services in the town of Minchinbury, and was popular with students hiring it for school formals, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Police charged the man with numerous offenses, including predatory driving, possession of a prohibited drug and use of a weapon to avoid apprehension.