Just a week after Islamic terrorists attacked Tiananmen Square killing two pedestrians and three terrorists, another attack took place on the provincial government headquarters in Taiyuan.
Police say the blasts struck just after 7:40 a.m. local time from what appeared to be “home-made explosive devices” that were filled with ball bearings.
State broadcaster CCTV reported one person was injured and two cars seriously damaged. The bombs were reportedly hidden inside flowerbeds by the roadside.
Police have sealed the area and are restricting access in a manner similar to last week’s closure of Tiananmen Square. Witnesses claimed hearing as many as seven blasts.
The Pakistani Taliban have confirmed that their leader has been killed as the result of a U.S. drone strike.
Hakimullah Mehsud, who masterminded the Taliban attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan and multiple missions that lead to the deaths of thousands of Pakistani civilians, died Saturday when he was targeted by a U.S. drone. Mehsud was also believed to be the plotter of the failed Times Square bombing in 2010.
The U.S. had a $5 million bounty on Mehsud’s head.
Pakistan’s government expressed outrage over the U.S. strike saying they were working on peace talks with the Taliban at the time of the strike. Government officials summoned the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan to government offices for protests. Pakistan’s interior minister said the death of Mehsud was “the death of all peace efforts” although he said they would not be breaking off relations with the U.S. because of the attack.
The Taliban has been meeting to decide on a new leader.
This is not the first time that Mehsud was reported to be killed in a drone strike, however, this is the first time the Taliban acknowledged that he had been killed.
A storm with wind gusts near 120 M.P.H. roared across Europe on Monday leaving at least 13 people dead.
At least three were killed when they were crushed under falling trees and the heavy rains and high winds swept at least one woman out to sea. A teen girl in England died when a tree fell on the mobile home her family was living in while their main house was renovated.
Power outages reached 42,000 in northern France and over 600,000 homes in England.
German meteorologists recorded a record 119 m.p.h. wind gust in the North Sea.
The storm’s intensity reached the point that German officials had to stop all train service in the country and all shipping ports were closed for the duration of the storm.
Terrorist group al-Qaeda is seeing a resurgence in Iraq.
The terror group and its affiliates detonated nine separate car bombs on Sunday at various markets and police checkpoints in Baghdad killing dozens.
The campaign of violence by the terrorists has resulted in more than 5,300 Iraqis being killed in 2013. Local officials worry of worsening security conditions, as the government appears unable to stop the terrorist network in the two years since American troops withdrew from the country.
An interior ministry official told the Washington Post that 40 people died in attacks on neighborhoods in Baghdad while 14 soldiers were killed in Mosul when a homicide bomber drove a car into a group of troops.
The violence from terrorists was on the wane after a US troop surge in the 2000s helped Sunni fighters turn the tide against al-Qaeda but over the last year violence has escalated as sectarian groups choose sides.
The terrorist groups have been strengthened by the release of hundreds of captured members through various prison raids.
Authorities investigating the Monday shooting at a Nevada middle school say they have not ruled out the possibility of filing charges against the parents of the shooter. Police say that the boy was likely to have obtained the handgun used in the assault from his home.
Officials in Sparks, Nevada have refused to name the boy who shot and killed a teacher and wounded two classmates before taking his own life.
A classmate told CNN that she believes the gunman was responding to repeated bullying.
Amaya Newton said that the shooter was a “nice kid” who liked to help cheer up people having a bad day but was repeatedly bullied. She said that she believes he brought the gun as a way to protect himself from the bullying happening on the playground and in school.
Police praised slain teacher Michael Landsberry on Tuesday saying that his actions likely saved the lives of many students. The Marine veteran, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada Air National Guard, approached the gunman with hands up in an attempt to get him to lay down the weapon. He was backing away from the student as ordered when the gunman shot Landsberry in the chest.
Landsberry leaves behind a wife and two daughters.
A student opened fire at a middle school in Nevada killing a teacher and wounding two other students.
The student shooter also died.
“As you can imagine, the best description is chaos,” Tom Robinson, deputy chief of the Reno Police Department, told CNN. “It’s too early to say whether he was targeting specific people or just going on an indiscriminate shooting spree.”
A 13-year-old student told the Reno Gazette-Journal that the shooter pointed a gun at a teacher who told him to drop the weapon. The student then shot the teacher causing students to panic.
Law enforcement says they cannot tell if the shooter killed himself or if he was killed by officers.
Boko Haram terrorists wearing military uniforms slaughtered 19 people at a checkpoint in Nigeria’s northern Borno state.
While the terrorist group has not yet claimed official responsibility, the BBC is reporting that multiple witnesses linked the killers to the terrorist organization. Borno state has been under a state of emergency as the Nigerian military has been trying to eliminate the Islamic extremist group.
“We were asked to get out of our vehicles and lie face down by nine men dressed as soldiers who blocked the road,” a witness told AFP news agency. “They shot dead five people and went about slaughtering 14 others before someone called them on a phone and said that soldiers were heading their direction.”
Witnesses say the terrorists fled the scene on motorcycles. They claim they knew the men were not soldiers because the military does not allow soldiers to have beards.
The terrorist group targets both military and civilians and has killed more than 2,000 people since 2011. Most recently, they attacked an agricultural college in northeast Nigeria and shot 50 students while they slept in dorms.
A major earthquake has struck in the Philippines under an island that is popular with tourists.
Bohol Island and nearby Cebu both were heavily shaken resulting in destruction of buildings and markets. The governor of Bohol told the BBC that a church and city hall building were heavily damaged by the quake.
At least six people are dead according to local officials. Dozens more have been taken to area hospitals.
“Communication lines are quite difficult here,” Neil Sanchez of the Cebu disaster management office told ABS-CBN news agency. “Even the disaster risk reduction management office has been damaged. We had to move elsewhere.”
The Philippines are located on the Pacific Ring of Fire of seismic and volcanic activity.
A fresh outbreak of viral encephalitis has broken out in India resulting the death of at least 15 children. The death toll from the disease this year in India has reached 358.
The disease usually strikes during monsoon season and children are usually the worst affected. At least 200 patients are reportedly still in government hospitals.
Doctors say that the infected children come between 10 and 12 districts and are mostly from the rural poor.
While Japanese encephalitis had been the dominant strain through 2005, doctors say an unidentified strain of the disease has been killing children over the 8 years. While the Japanese strain comes from mosquitoes, the new virus has an unknown origin.
A fifth of children who survive the disease suffer lifetime neurological weakness.
Chinese media is reporting at least five dead and four confirmed missing in the wake of Typhoon Fitow.
The tropical cyclone struck early Monday with sustained winds of more than 93 m.p.h. Officials said homes were flattened and many villages were completely flooded by the massive rainfall.
More than 4.5 million people were impacted by the floodwater.
Officials in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces say economic losses have already reached $3.4 billion dollars.
State media said shrimp farms and seaweed farms were destroyed by the storm.
“We have basically lost everything this year,” a seaweed farmer told the BBC.
