World IN BRIEF : AUSTRIA : Letter Bombs Injure Doctor, Activist

Two letter bombs apparently timed to coincide with a neo-Nazi trial under way in Vienna exploded in the rural northeast, injuring a foreign-born doctor and a respected refugee activist. In the village of Stronsdorf, Mahmoud Abou Roumie, 47, a popular Syrian-born doctor who has lived in Austria for 30 years, was one of the two latest victims of a shadowy extreme right-wing group that targets immigrants and those who stand up for them. The bomb seriously injured his left hand. In the nearby village of Poysdorf, 71-year-old Maria Loley, a refugee counselor and recipient of a United Nations human rights prize, was wounded in both hands by the second bomb. Austria’s security chief, Michael Sika, said a third letter bomb, addressed to a Chinese gynecologist, was intercepted and defused.