Body of missing Jamaican man found in pond in Cayman Islands
Police in the Cayman Islands say the body that was discovered in a pond in George Town early Monday October 28th 2013, is 35-year-old Patrick Leonard Williamson, a Jamaican national.
Detectives confirm they are treating the death as suspicious.
Media reports are that around 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, authorities received a report of a missing person, after which an investigation was launched.
“He was reported missing from his home address at Courts Road Sunday evening,” according to Chief Inspector Brad Ebanks. “It is believed that he was last seen alive during the early hours of Saturday, 26 October 2013.
Gov't actively looking into reforming ganja law
Justice Minister Senator Mark Golding has said active consideration is being given to reforming the law relating to ganja in Jamaica to allow its use, but within certain parameters.
Those boundaries include possession of marijuana for medical use, scientific research, religious purposes, and possession of small amounts of ganja (that is amounts of up to two ounces) for recreational use. It is also considering permitting the smoking of ganja in private places.
The justice minister made the disclosure during last Friday's sitting of the Senate while responding to questions posed by Opposition Senator Robert 'Bobby' Montague who queried, among other things, whether the Government would consider legalising ganja for medical use.
The justice minister, however, made it clear that the considerations were just that.
Golding said a draft Cabinet Submission had been prepared and was being reviewed within the Ministry of Justice before being sent to other ministries, departments and agencies for their comments after which it would be sent to Cabinet for consideration
U.N. investigators visited Cuba to discuss N. Korean freighter
A team of United Nations experts was in Havana last week to talk about the Cuban weaponry found aboard a North Korea-bound freighter this summer, showing that Cuban officials have at agreed to discuss the shipment, according to a Japanese media report.
Luxembourg Ambassador Sylvie Lucas, chair of the U.N. Security Council committee that supervises sanctions on North Korea, told the Japanese Kyodo News Service that the team of experts who advise the committee had returned from Cuba on Friday.
Kyodo quoted Lucas as saying that the team went to Cuba for “consultations on the consignments discovered” on the North Korean freighter Chong Chon Gang.
She gave no other details, but the visit clearly signaled that the Cuban government has been cooperating with the U.N. inquiry into the case since the experts could not have flown to Havana without government approval.
The Chong Chon Gang was seized by Panama authorities in July on a tip that it was carrying illegal drugs as it prepared to cross the Panama Canal on a voyage from Cuba to North Korea. Instead, searchers uncovered Cuban weaponry hidden under 10,000 tons of sugar.
Havana later confirmed the ship carried 420 tons of weapons but claimed it was “obsolete” equipment on its way to North Korea to be upgraded and returned to Cuba. Independent reports said some of the weaponry was in “mint” condition.
Public workers get salary increase in St Vincent
Public servants in St.Vincent will benefit from a salary increase of 1.5 per cent which will not be taxed when they are paid this week.
The money is half of the three per cent salary increase owed to them since January 2011.
Half of the amount was paid last year, and on Sunday which was Independence Day, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves confirmed that the money would be paid this week.
“As our Government has demonstrated repeatedly, we keep our promises solemnly which we make to our people, even though sometimes, now and again, infrequently, circumstances may conspire to cause delays in the delivery of a specific promise,” Gonsalves said as he delivered his Independence Day address.
“Accordingly, in their October pay check next week, all categories of public servants, including daily-paid employees will receive backdated to January the 1, 2011, a one-and-a-half per cent increase in salary, the balance to the heretofore-agreed salary increase,” he said as he addressed the Military Parade at Victoria Park, in Kingstown.
Sirte gunmen snatch $54m from bank van
Libya's state news agency says gunmen have stolen $54m in an attack on a van carrying foreign and local currency for the Libyan central bank.
Ten men stopped the van as it entered the city of Sirte from the airport. The cash delivery had been flown 300 miles (500km) from the capital, Tripoli.
"The robbery is a catastrophe for the whole of Libya," Abdel-Fattah Mohammed, head of Sirte council, told Reuters.
Libya has suffered continuing lawlessness since the 2011 civil war.
Briton Charged With Hacking US Government Computers
A British man has been arrested for allegedly hacking into the computers of several U.S. government agencies and the U.S. military.
Lauri Love has been charged with infiltrating thousands of computer systems, including those of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, NASA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
A federal grand jury in New Jersey charged Love, alleging he and his unnamed co-conspirators hacked into computer systems between October 2012 and October 2013.
Once inside, Love and others placed hidden "shells" or "back doors" within the compromised networks, which allowed them to return to the systems and steal confidential data.
The indictment said the stolen data included the personally identifying information of military service personnel and others.
British authorities said Monday that Love also was charged under a U.K. law that allows people to be arrested for starting attacks from the U.K. on computers anywhere in the world.
He was arrested Friday at his home about 110 kilometers north of London. He has been released on bail until February.
US woman to face trial for dumping newborn
An eastern Pennsylvania woman has been ordered to stand trial on charges accusing her of giving birth in a sports bar bathroom, wrapping the newborn in a plastic bag and hiding him in a toilet tank.
Twenty-six-year-old Amanda Hein, of Allentown, was ordered to stand trial on a criminal homicide count after a preliminary hearing Monday
A cleaning crew found the baby's body in the toilet on August 19 at Starters Pub in Bethlehem, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia. A coroner concluded the boy was born alive.
Police say they traced blood found in a bar booth to Hein. Investigators say she couldn't give them a reason she allegedly killed the baby except that she was "scared".
A message left for Hein's public defender, Michael Corriere, wasn't immediately returned.
EU Confronting US Over Surveillance
European Union lawmakers have begun a series of meetings aimed at confronting U.S. officials about allegations of widespread American spying on their allies.
The 23-member European Parliament delegation met Monday with U.S. lawmakers and officials in several government agencies, including the National Security Council at the White House. The talks are scheduled to extend through Wednesday.
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein on Monday called for a `"total review'' of all U.S. intelligence programs in response to the allegations, which the California Democrat said she was not told about.
But even with diplomatic efforts under way, European officials continue to look for a way to pressure the U.S. to provide details of past surveillance. They also want assurances that the practice will be curbed.
German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger suggested severing U.S. access to an important law enforcement tool used to track terrorist money flows. The SWIFT agreement, signed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, allows the U.S. access to funds transferred through the private, Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which handles the movement of money between banks worldwide.
In recent days, European leaders have denounced reports of National Security Agency spying on allies, including monitoring of the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the latest outcry, Spain denounced the snooping as "inappropriate and unacceptable."
The Spanish foreign ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador James Costos for a 45-minute meeting in Madrid within hours of reports in two Spanish newspapers that the U.S. tracked more than 60 million Spanish phone calls in a single month.
El Mundo and El Pais reported that the NSA monitored the calls last December 10 through January 8 of this year. The reports said the U.S. collected the numbers of the calls and their duration, but not their content.
Red Sox Take 3-2 World Series Lead
The Boston Red Sox are returning home with a chance to win the Major League Baseball World Series, after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 in game five Monday night.
The victory puts the Red Sox ahead three games to two in the best-of-seven championship series.
The game was tied 1-1 through six innings, continuing a trend of tight early battles between the two teams. The Red Sox broke the game open in the seventh inning, scoring a run on a double by catcher David Ross and another on a single by outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.
That was all the offense they would need, as Boston pitchers Jon Lester and Koji Uehara combined to give up just one St. Louis hit the rest of the game to seal the win.
The Cardinals are sending rookie star pitcher Michael Wacha to the mound for Wednesday's game six, hoping to beat Red Sox veteran John Lackey and force a game seven in Boston on Thursday.
The two pitchers matched up in the second game of the series, which the Cardinals won 4-2.
Putin insists gay and lesbian athletes have nothing to fear at next year's Winter Olympics
Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted gay and lesbian athletes have nothing to fear at next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Mr Putin told Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee, that gay athletes - and supporters - would feel at ease.
Russia has been criticised over a new law banning "homosexual propaganda" towards people under 18.
But a proposed boycott of the Games has gained little momentum.
There was some suggestion that gay visitors might face prosecution in Russia, but Moscow says this will not happen.
"We will do everything to make sure that athletes, fans and guests feel comfortable at the Olympic Games regardless of their ethnicity, race or sexual orientation. I would like to underline that," Mr Putin told Mr Bach.
But gay rights groups have accused the IOC of not putting enough pressure on Russia, which has invested more in its Games than any previous Olympic host.
During his visit, Mr Bach made no public mention of the new law, focusing instead on Russia's preparations for the Olympics.