The NYT reports on the firebombing of two researchers' homes in Santa Cruz, California. Authorities believe animal rights activists opposed to biomedical research are responsible for the attacks.

About 5:30 a.m. Saturday, two small bombs ignited outside the researchers' homes. In one of the attacks, a vehicle was destroyed in a faculty member's driveway. At the second residence, a two-story home near the university's front gates, the fire forced the researcher, his wife and two children to flee the home from an upstairs window. The fires were quickly extinguished.

One minor injury was reported, according to The Santa Cruz Sentinel, which also said the police were viewing the attacks as acts of attempted homicide and domestic terrorism. . . .

The university described the attacks as the latest in a series of threats and provocations from those opposed to "biomedical research using animals," including a February incident in which several masked intruders entered a researcher's home. After a confrontation, the intruders fled. That incident followed harassing phone calls and vandalism of researchers' homes, the university said.