Hunt for clues after Egypt blasts in Dahab

Three foreigners were among those killed, officials said, and some 62 people were injured in the blasts.

The attack is the third strike against tourist resorts along Egypt's Red Sea coast in the past two years.

Police in Dahab made at least eight arrests on Tuesday as they tried to establish who was behind the bombings.

But officials remained unsure whether Dahab was hit by suicide bombers, or if the bombs were detonated with timers.

Dahab locals and holidaymakers were joined by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on a protest march through the town centre condemning terrorism and stressing support for the tourism industry.

"Terrorists do not know borders any more," Mr Nazif said, pledging that Egypt would remain on the "front line" of the global war against terrorism.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and a host of world leaders have condemned the attack, which followed blasts in Taba in 2004 and Sharm al-Sheikh in 2005.

US President George W Bush described the bombing as a "heinous act".

Popular resort

Dahab's seaside promenade, crowded with popular restaurants, was hit by two blasts in quick succession at about 1900 (1700 GMT) on Monday.

A third bomb exploded in a nearby shopping street, where tourists browsed for holiday souvenirs.

The town has grown from a Bedouin village along with the influx of tourists in Sinai, but remains a small, low-key resort popular with Western backpackers, budget Israeli tourists and scuba divers.

Eyewitnesses spoke of seeing debris and body parts in the streets.

Most of the dead were Egyptians, who had been enjoying a spring holiday in Dahab when the attacks occurred. A German boy was among three foreigners killed.

Among the 62 wounded there were three Danes, three Britons, two Italians, two Germans, two French people, a South Korean, a Lebanese, a Palestinian, an American, an Israeli and an Australian.

6:06 AM - 4/25/2006

Cayman avoids major tragedy

Source: Cayman Press - Editorial

The Cayman Islands could have been the topic of major international news Friday if things hadn’t turned out as well as they did.

A snorkel boat carrying 54 people capsized at the sandbar. Luckily, everyone escaped the unfortunate event safely, although one person had to be taken to hospital

The passengers and crew aboard the Sun Runner were lucky.

And so were we.

If just one of those tourists had met death during that incident, the Cayman Islands and its diving industry would have been placed under a pretty ugly international microscope.

As it is, enough damage will be done when the folks involved in the incident return home and recount their tales of terror.

On the plus side, many of the visitors we talked to after the capsize said they thought the authorities in Cayman had handled the incident as best they could.

And we’re sure they did.

Unfortunately many of our guests lost personal items that are now littering the bottom of the sea.

That’s surely got to leave a long–lasting bad taste.

But this is certainly a rare incident.

Fortunately for our cruise ship guests, the crew aboard the Kirk Sea Tour scuba boats are all CPR trained and certified, as are most of the scuba crews in the Cayman Islands.

Kirk’s also equips all of its boats with life–saving equipment, as do most scuba boats.

The dive industry here does a pretty good job of self–regulation.

Because of this Friday incident, an investigation is under way.

Tourism Minister Charles Clifford has promised that authorities will find out the cause of the accident and that corrective measures will be identified and rigorously pursued.

There are many hands investigating the near–fatal incident – the Royal Cayman Islands Police maritime unit, the Port Authority and the Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands.

If any of those agencies find areas of improvement that could prevent such an accident on any boat used to transport guests and residents, it is hoped that those findings will be made public and measures put in place to correct the problem

We repeat: the dive industry does a good job of regulating itself. But as more cruise ships sail into George Town and more people crowd onto the sandbar and accompanying reefs, it may be time to look at some form of government regulation.

Tourism is part of the bread and butter of the Cayman Islands.

We need to do all we can to make sure our visitors have a happy and safe experience while here.

We look forward to the findings of the investigating agencies and coming up with solutions to any problems that are uncovered.

3:20 PM - 4/16/2006

Foreign tourist dies in diving accident

Koh Samui, Surat Thani - A foreign tourist died in a diving accident off Koh Samui Wednesday while another was in a serious condition. Both were suspected to have succumbed to decompression sickness, also known as the bends.

There was no immediate information available to determine the cause of the death, as seven other foreign tourists who were also diving in the same area were unharmed. The body of the dead tourist and the injured diver had reportedly been taken to a naval facility in Surat Thani.

Sakchai Chaithawat, head of the communications centre of a coastal rescue and safety centre, said he received an SOS call from nine tourists who were diving close to a boat they had rented from a local tour agent anchored about 120 nautical miles northeast of Samui.

After receiving the call, a Navy patrol boat handed over both bends sufferers to a rescue boat that took them to a nearby oil rig which had a pressure chamber. One of the tourists later died.

4:40 AM - 4/9/2006

San Jose diver may have drowned before shark attack

By many accounts, Anthony Moore was an experienced diver. The 45-year-old San Jose engineer left a detailed "float plan" with his wife before heading out for a free-diving excursion off the south coast of Maui Thursday.

Then something went terribly wrong. When he failed to return as scheduled, his wife called 911, prompting a massive search by the US Coast Guard and Maui authorities.

On Friday morning, a kayaker discovered parts of Moore's shark-bitten body off the coast near Makena. The coroner's office received three different sections of remains: a pelvis and lower extremities. A Coast Gaurd official said Saturday that Moore's wife identified her husband by a lanyard that included his rental car key.

"We're not able to determine the cause of death," said Dr. Tony Manoukian, a coroner's physician, from the morgue at Maui Memorial Medical Center Saturday. "We can't exclude the possibility that he was dead at the time of the attack."

Manoukian, a forensic pathologist, said this was his fourth autopsy of a shark attack victim. He said the fact that the kidney was congested with blood indicated that Moore probably drowned and was then attacked by sharks, as opposed to bleeding to death while alive.

"We see shallow water blackouts and drowning more frequently than shark attacks," said Manoukian, who said that DNA testing or recovering the skull and dental records would be required to positively identify the body.

"It may have been more than one species of shark," Manoukian said. "But we have no evidence that it was anything other than a tiger or reef shark."

Moore was an engineer at Code Green Networks of Sunnyvale.

"He was very well liked, and he'll be missed," said Bob Verheecke, who recently joined the company as Chief Financial Officer.

5:24 PM - 3/14/2006

PADI dive shop owner murdered wife while scuba diving in British Virgin Islands

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (24 Feb 2006) -- A jury hearing a civil case found today that a Jamestown scuba shop owner killed his wife during a 1999 diving trip in the Caribbean, and it awarded her parents more than $3.5 million in damages.

The Superior Court jury found that enough evidence was presented to prove that David Swain, 50, a former Jamestown Town Council member, acted with "malice aforethought" in killing Shelley Tyre, 46, off the island of Tortola.

The five women and one man on the jury returned with their verdict at about 11:45 a.m. after deliberating for a little more than three hours over two days. They had heard eight days of testimony.

Tyre's parents, Richard and Lisa Tyre of Jamestown, brought the wrongful-death suit against Swain, alleging that Swain killed their daughter for money at a time when he was pursuing a relationship with another woman.

Tortola authorities had ruled the death an accident "unless proven otherwise," and Swain has never been charged with a crime.

In a civil trial, the burden of proof is less than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard used in criminal cases. A civil jury only has to prove that the defendant is liable by a "preponderance of the evidence" or, in other words, is more likely than not to have done what is alleged.

During the trial, several expert witnesses for the plaintiffs testified that they had concluded -- based largely on the condition of some of Tyre's recovered scuba equipment -- that Swain attacked his wife from behind, shut off her air tank and held her down long enough to drown her in 80 feet of water.

Swain took the verdict stoically.

"We're obviously saddened by the verdict," he said, adding that he's "not sure if this is going to bring any closure to anybody."

Swain said it was too early to decide whether he would appeal. But he said he would welcome a criminal trial because "in a criminal trial, all of the evidence gets evaluated, not just some of the evidence."

"Maybe Shelley was in court today," her father, Richard Tyre said, after the verdict. Today would have been his daughter's 53rd birthday.

The jury began deliberating late yesterday afternoon and discussed the case for about 45 minutes before quitting for the day.

It started this morning's deliberations at about 9:30 a.m. They signalled they had reached a verdict shortly before noon when they asked the judge a question about damages, and said there was no need to send out for sandwiches for their lunch.

The jury awarded the Tyres $2 million in punitive damages and $1,534,943 in compensatory damages.

The parents had asked for at least $854,364 -- a figure representing the projected loss of their 46-year-old daughter's future earnings -- and whatever other monetary damages the jury may be inclined to order.

Tyre had earned about $70,000 annually as a principal at Thayer Academy in Braintree, Mass., before taking a lower-paying teaching job at Rocky Hill School in Warwick, because she believed her marriage was in trouble, and she thought working closer to home could help salvage it, according to testimony and statements from her lawyer.

The couple had a prenuptial agreement preventing Swain from receiving anything from Tyre if they divorced, but Swain collected $570,000 after his wife's death, including $390,000 from two insurance policies, $134,000 in Tyre's bank and investment accounts and a $46,000 profit from the sale of her home, according to trial testimony.

Still, Swain filed for bankruptcy last fall.

Swain chose not to attend the proceedings or offer a defense for the first seven days of the trial, but in an unusual twist, he showed up in court Wednesday and told the judge he wanted to act as his own attorney. He had been subpoenaed to testify, but he was never called to take the stand.

Instead, he delivered an opening statement yesterday, called one witness, his 30-year-old daughter, then gave a closing statement.

In his closing argument, J. Renn Olenn, the lawyer representing Tyre's parents, claimed that Swain had gotten away with murder on Tortola, and he urged the jurors not to let him get away from them.

He claimed that evidence he presented at trial, including testimony from Dr. Bruce A. Hyma, chief medical examiner Florida's Miami-Dade County, proved that Swain went into the water with his wife and attacked her from behind, then surfaced quickly because he had run out of air from the struggle.

Olenn alleged Swain shut off his wife's air supply, ripped off her mask and prevented her from surfacing long enough for her to drown.

Swain reminded the jurors that he had never been charged with a crime and asked why the chief medical examiner in Miami hadn't contacted authorities in Tortola if the medical examiner was so convinced that he had killed his wife.

He called his wife's death an "unfortunate, painful accident" and not as the plaintiffs' "highly paid" expert witnesses speculated.

Source CDNN.info

9:11 PM - 2/24/2006

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