300 Sick With Stomach Illness On Caribbean Cruise Ship

Stomach Illness Outbreak on Cruise Ship

USA Today reports a Celebrity Cruises ship sailing in the Caribbean is experiencing an unusually large breakout of a norovirus-like illness, with more than 15% of passengers having fallen ill. It has been reported that the ships medical facilities were overwhelmed.

Spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez states about 300 out of 1,800 passengers on the Celebrity Mercury are suffering from stomach upset, vomiting and diarrhea.

The ship set sail out of Charleston on Feb. 15 on an 11-night voyage to the Caribbean that is scheduled to end in the city on Friday.

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al Qaeda Training Women for US Suicide Attacks

Additional details have been released since we first reported airline security officials are on the lookout for possible female suicide bombers traveling with western passports on U.S. bound flights.

Intelligence officials issued the alert believing the women may have been trained by Al Qaeda in Yemen.

“U.S. intelligence does believe that there are other suicide bombers out there who have been give missions to attack the United Sates and they have not been found,” said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke.

Authorities told ABC News they received the information from accused Northwest airlines bomber, Umar Abdulmutallab. He provided the FBI with specific names and descriptions of others who trained with him in Yemen.

“There are also women who have been trained. So Al Qaeda is looking to put together an attack using people that would not fit a profile that we'd be looking for,” said Clarke.

US officials say in one 48-hour period last weekend, six different people on the no-fly list were stopped from boarding US flights.

Two of them at London's Heathrow airport attempting to board flights on American Airlines to Miami and a United Airlines flight to Chicago.

The four others were stopped attempting to board flights in Nairobi, Kenya, the Caribbean island of Saint Maarten, in Fort Lauderdale and Minneapolis.

via Al Qaeda training women for US suicide attacks – Source – abc7.com.

Puerto Rico – Feds Launch Probe Into Massive Fuel Depot Fire

The cause has yet to be determined and there is at this time no indication the fire was deliberately set or related to terrorism however, more than 100 federal authorities have entered a smoldering fuel depot for the first time Sunday to investigate whether someone intentionally caused the massive explosion explosion.

On Saturday, President Barack Obama designated the U.S. Caribbean territory an emergency zone and ordered federal aid to supplement local efforts.

From The Caribbean Business PR

More than 100 federal agents entered the smoldering Caribbean Petroleum Corporation fuel depot on Sunday as the investigation began in earnest into the cause of an explosion that rocked the San Juan metro area early Friday morning and sparked a massive fire that burned for more than two days.

The blast registered 2.8 on the Richter scale and the ensuing blaze sent up an enormous tower of toxic smoke that forced the evacuation of some 1,500 residents from communities surrounding the Bayamón facility.

Marcial Orlando Félix, the head of the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Bureau in Puerto Rico said Sunday marked the first time that ATF and FBI agents have been able to enter the site since the blast shortly before 12:30 a.m. Friday. Federal agents have been at the scene since then as a crew of nearly 200 firefighters battled the blaze around the clock before nearly snuffing the flames on Sunday.

Officials said only one tank containing 210,000 barrels of jet fuel remained burning and that was finally extinguished sometime Sunday afternoon. The facility supplies the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, some 200 Gulf gas stations on the island and stores jet fuel.

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