WORLD BRIEFING / ALGERIA

Al Qaeda-linked militants killed two teachers and eight police escorts as they brought copies of tests back from an examination center near the Algerian capital, a local official and Algerian news media said.

The militants triggered a roadside bomb as the teachers returned from a high school entry exam in the town of Timezrit, about 50 miles east of the capital, Algiers.

The teachers’ car was hit by the explosion, which also seriously injured the vehicle’s driver and the manager of Timezrit’s exam center, said Ali Hadjeres, the town’s deputy mayor. The militants then opened fire on the two police cars escorting them, Hadjeres said. He said that “despite this hard blow, the exam session will continue.”