In brief: One dead, Cuomo aide injured after New York City parade
NEW YORK– The West Indian Day Parade, a rollicking, colorful celebration of Caribbean culture, music, style and food, rolled through New York City’s streets Monday but, once again, was marred by pre-dawn violence that left one man dead and an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in critical condition.
Cuomo identified his wounded staffer as Carey Gabay, a first deputy general counsel at the Empire State Development Corporation. Gabay was walking with his brother near the Brooklyn parade route at 3:40 a.m. when he was caught in the crossfire between two gangs, according to police officials.
The pair had been walking back from a pre-parade party celebrating West Indian Day. A bullet struck Gabay, 43, in the head.
The shooting was one of several outbursts of violence in the neighborhoods surrounding the parade, which included the stabbing death of a 24-year-old man at 2 a.m. near Grand Army Plaza.
Germany reports IS using mustard gas
BERLIN – Germany’s foreign intelligence agency BND has collected evidence of mustard gas use by the Islamic State group.
German daily Bild reported Monday that BND intelligence agents collected blood samples from Kurds who were injured in clashes with IS.
It quoted BND chief Gerhard Schindler as saying that the agency has “information that IS used mustard gas in northern Iraq.”
Schindler told the paper that the mustard gas either came from old Iraqi stockpiles produced under Saddam Hussein’s rule or was manufactured by IS after it seized the University of Mosul.
Whale trapped in fishing line spotted
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. – A boat off the coast of Mexico apparently spotted the blue whale Monday that rescuers first saw several days ago entangled in hundreds of feet of fishing line near Los Angeles.
A blue whale trailing line and a red buoy was seen around 10:30 a.m. about 18 miles southwest of the Coronado Islands. Those islands are off Tijuana, Baja California, and more than 100 miles south of where the whale was last seen Friday.
U.S. rescuers cannot work those waters but have been in contact with their Mexican counterparts.
Though the whale was estimated at 80 feet long, rescuers fear the stress and strain could weaken and eventually kill it.