newsmakers

newsmakers

Drugs on Maersk ship where 2 ex-SEALs died

NORFOLK, Va.

Drugs were in the room where two former Navy SEALs were found dead aboard the Maersk Alabama, a ship that was the focus of a 2009 hijacking dramatized in the movie “Captain Phillips,” a company spokesman said Thursday.

Police from the African island nation of Seychelles have given no cause of death for Mark Daniel Kennedy, 43, and Jeffrey Keith Reynolds, 44. The Americans were security contractors who were found dead Tuesday in a cabin on the ship while berthed in Port Victoria in the Indian Ocean.

Maersk Line Ltd. spokesman Kevin Speers said the Seychelles police report includes observations about the presence of drugs and paraphernalia in the room where the two men were found dead, although the type of drug is unknown.

On Thursday, police spokesman Jean Toussaint, noted that officials were awaiting autopsies and said, “As far as I know there is no evidence of physical trauma” on either man’s body.

‘Modern Family’ star assaulted in Sydney

SYDNEY

Australian police have charged a man with indecently assaulting a star of the hit television comedy “Modern Family,” Sarah Hyland, in Sydney.

The cast of the ABC series arrived in Sydney this week to shoot an Australian episode.

The 23-year-old was attending a social function for cast members at a Sydney hotel Thursday night when she reportedly was groped on the chest by a man who had asked her to pose for a photograph, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported today.

The actress, who plays big-eyed teenager Haley Dunphy, immediately alerted private security guards, who called police to the scene.

New South Wales state police said in a statement Friday that a 29-year-old man had been charged after the purported indecent assault.

He was charged with assault with an act of indecency, a crime that carries a potential maximum of five years in prison. He was freed on bail to appear in a Sydney court March 14. Police have not revealed his name.

James Taylor appears in anti-fracking TV ad

RALEIGH, N.C.

James Taylor still has Carolina in his mind these days.

The singer-songwriter is starring in a television ad for an environmental group urging North Carolinians to challenge efforts to allow natural- gas exploration through hydraulic fracturing in the state where he grew up.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said the ad began running Thursday.

The General Assembly told a state regulatory panel to create rules the industry must follow to participate in the exploration, better known as fracking. Lawmakers still must take further action to allow drilling permits.

Associated Press