Car bombs hit hotel, military HQ
Twin car bombs rocked a hotel and military headquarters in Algeria, killing 12 people Wednesday, a day after a suicide bombing nearby killed 43. The new bombings were the sixth major terrorist action this month in the North African nation.
No group has claimed responsibility for the recent spate of killings, including the two remote-controlled car bombs that struck the city of Bouira on Wednesday. But all six occurred in an area east of the capital where militants from an Algerian offshoot of al-Qaida are suspected to operate.
Violence in this gas- and oil-rich U.S. ally has surged since the GSPC – a homegrown extremist group that led a deadly insurgency in the 1990s – joined Osama bin Laden’s network in 2006 and took the name Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa.
Toronto
Listeriosis outbreak kills one, sickens 16
An outbreak of listeriosis has killed one person and sickened at least 16 others, Canadian public health officials said Wednesday, as a food company suspended production at a Toronto plant and expanded a recall of nearly two dozen types of packaged meats.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said it was working with officials in four provinces to establish any link between the outbreak and the affected products recalled by Maple Leaf Foods.
Listeriosis is a kind of food poisoning that can be dangerous to the elderly, newborns, pregnant women and people with chronic medical conditions. Symptoms include fever, headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
On Sunday, the company announced it had discovered listeria bacteria in roast beef and corned beef made at the Toronto facility. It increased the recall on Wednesday to a total of 23 products, including a variety of turkey, smoked meat and roast beef.
Ensenada, Mexico
Fishermen asked to help porpoise
Mexico said Wednesday it will invest $16 million to save a highly endangered species of porpoise in the upper Gulf of California, asking reluctant fishermen to adopt safer methods or give up their trade entirely.
Scientists say the population of the vaquita marina – Spanish for “little sea cow” – has dwindled to 150 or fewer from more than 500 a decade ago.
Plans include paying fishermen to avoid the porpoise’s habitat or give up drag nets that drown dozens of the shy, dolphinlike animals each year. Some will even be paid to stop fishing forever.
Fishermen said the money would likely fall short of their lost revenues.
“We’re participating to help save the species,” said Oscar Javier Garcia, who agreed to keep out of the nature preserve if paid. “We’re not convinced, but we’re participating.”