News Briefs

Local and VCU

Richmond police identify homicide victim
Richmond police have identified a man whose body was found Saturday night in an alley in the Southern Barton Heights area of the city.
Around 8:20 p.m. police received a call of a person down in an alleyway between Monteiro and Lamb avenues, and arrived to find Kernard T. Bowling Jr., 38, unresponsive with gunshot wounds.
Bowling, of the 2000 block of Cleary Road in Henrico, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Richmond police.
A homicide investigation is ongoing. Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Va transportation board awards contracts
The Commonwealth Transportation Board has awarded contracts for stimulus projects that include replacing or repairing 119 bridges and culverts across Virginia.
The Virginia Department of Transportation says 112 of the structures are deficient.
Projects approved Thursday also include widening and rehabilitating Route 3 in Fredericksburg.
Any contract worth more than $2 million normally must be approved by the board. Board members took action to speed the process for stimulus-funded projects.
Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner David S. Ekern was authorized to approve bids and execute contracts for such projects. Bids must be within the construction estimate through Dec. 17.
Brief by The Associated Press

Va starts vaccinations for high-risk groups
State health officials are designating children, pregnant women and people who have underlying health conditions such as asthma as those who should get vaccinated with Virginia’s initial batches of the H1N1 vaccine.
The Virginia Department of Health is encouraging people in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s priority groups to be first to receive the vaccine for the highly contagious H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu. Healthcare workers already have been getting vaccinated.
State health commissioner Dr. Karen Remley said Thursday at a news conference that all Virginians are encouraged to get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu, and that most people will have access to the vaccine next month.
The health department is launching public-service television, radio and Internet advertising with the theme, “H1N1Get1. It’s up to you to fight the flu.”
Brief by The Associated Press

National and International

Colorado sheriff: Runaway balloon saga was hoax
The parents who set off a worldwide drama by reporting their 6-year-old son was inside a flying saucer-like helium balloon hurtling over Colorado concocted the stunt to market themselves for a television show, a sheriff said Sunday.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said at an extraordinarily candid news conference that the boy, Falcon Heene, might not have even been hiding in the rafters of the family’s garage during the intense five-hour search for him Thursday afternoon.
Alderden said the parents Richard and Mayumi Heene “put on a very good show for us, and we bought it.”
The sheriff said no charges had been filed yet, and the parents were not under arrest. He said he expected to recommend charges of conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, making a false report to authorities and attempting to influence a public servant.
Some of the most serious charges each carry a maximum sentence of six years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Richard and Mayumi Heene were shopping at Wal-Mart with their three sons as Alderden told reporters at the sheriff’s station that the whole thing was a hoax.
Brief by The Associated Press

Brazil pledges Olympic security after Rio violence
Brazilian officials are insisting security will not be a problem for the 2016 Olympics despite drug-gang violence that plunged Rio de Janeiro into a day of bloody chaos just two weeks after it was picked to host the games.
An hourslong firefight between rival gangs in one of the city’s slums killed at least 12 people, injured six and saw a police helicopter shot down and eight buses set on fire Saturday.
Police said Sunday that they killed two other suspected drug traffickers in overnight clashes near the Morro dos Macacos (“Monkey Hill”) slum where the gangs fought for territory a day earlier, but otherwise the area was largely peaceful as 2,000 officers were put on patrol to maintain order.
Two officers died and four were injured Saturday when bullets from the gang battle ripped into their helicopter hovering overhead, forcing it into a fiery crash landing on a soccer field. Officials said they did not know if the gangs targeted the helicopter or it was hit by stray bullets.
Gunfire on the ground killed 10 suspected gunmen and wounded two bystanders.
Brief by The Associated Press

Irish, Ugandan aid workers freed in Darfur
Two foreign aid workers seized at gunpoint more than three months ago in Sudan’s Darfur were released Sunday by their captors in the third and longest kidnapping of aid workers in the arid region.
The Irish and Ugandan women were in good health and were having medical checkups at a hospital in northern Darfur, said Sudan’s state minister for humanitarian affairs, Abdel-Baqi al-Jailani.
The two women were taken hostage July 3 in the western region of Sudan, where government forces have been battling rebels for more than six years. The Irish woman, Sharon Commins, 33, and her Ugandan colleague, Hilda Kuwuki, 42, were working for Irish humanitarian aid agency GOAL.
Brief by The Associated Press