Arson Fire Kills 52 in a Casino in Mexico

Armed men burst into a casino in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey on Thursday and set a fire that killed at least 52 people and injured several others, the authorities said.The attack, shortly after 3 p.m. at the Casino Royale, was the worst massacre, according to tallies by Mexican news organizations, since a crackdown on drug gangs by the authorities and infighting among the gangs exploded more than five years ago.Monterrey, once a peaceful business and industrial hub in Nuevo Leon State,...

Read More

Rioters push inmate total to record high

The prison population reached a record high today as officials said they were developing contingency plans to manage the unprecedented situation caused by hundreds of people being jailed over the riots.Tough sentencing of those involved in the violence and looting by the courts saw the number of people behind bars in England and Wales rise by more than 100 a day over the past week.But as some of the first appeals were heard, one woman who was jailed for five months after admitting that she accepted...

Read More

Ursula Nevin slept through riots in Manchester but was jailed after accepting a pair of shorts looted by a friend

A woman who spent a week in prison separated from her two young children after she handled a pair of shorts looted from Manchester city centre during the riots by her lodger has been freed on appeal. Ursula Nevin, 24, of Stretford, Greater Manchester, slept through the riots, but was jailed for five months after admitting handling stolen goods looted by her lodger.The day after the riot Nevin had tried on and decided to keep a pair of shorts her housemate Gemma Corbett, 24, looted from the Vans...

Read More

Police officer arrested over leaks

A police officer has been arrested in relation to leaks during the Scotland Yard phone-hacking investigation.The 51-year-old detective constable was arrested at work on Thursday and has been released on bail until 29 September. He has also been suspended.A 35-year-old has also been arrested by appointment as part of the hacking investigation, Operation Weeting.The Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said the officer's arrest was "hugely disappointing".She said: "I made it very clear when...

Read More

Police shaken over Jersey stabbing murders

Three of the six people murdered on the Channel Island of Jersey on Sunday were children according to police.Two women and a man were also discovered dead after police had been called to a disturbance at a flat in the island's capital St Helier at around 3pm.“When you're dealing with multiple deaths of men and women and in particularly young children, you'd be inhuman not to be shaken yourself. So yeah, it has shaken the force,” said Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, leading the inquiry for States of Jersey Police.A 30 year-old man is in police custody at the Jersey Hospital on the island...

Read More

When rioters went on the rampage over the past week, the chain that suffered some of the worst damage was JD Sports.

Peter Cowgill, chairman of the successful clothing retailer, said as many as 30 of its stores were targeted and the clean-up and replacing lost stock will cost in excess of £10m. He said he was "depressed" by how quickly things had spiralled out of control. "Ultimately you have to have faith in the law and this resolving itself," he told Retail Week.The riots affected a broad range of businesses, from Debenhams to Boots, Carphone Warehouse and Argos, which said 18 stores had been looted. A report...

Read More

Speculations circle as to why the London riots have become so big, but the answer is quite obvious.

I'm huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and running street battles in Hackney, of police horses lining up in Lewisham, of roiling infernos that were once shops and houses in Croydon and in Peckham. Last night, Enfield, Walthamstow, Brixton and Wood Green were looted; there have been hundreds of arrests and dozens of serious injuries, and it will be a miracle if nobody dies tonight.This is the third consecutive...

Read More

Top cops furious as David Cameron and Theresa May try to claim glory

BRITAIN'S top cops yesterday issued a stinging rebuke to David Cameron for claiming he quelled the riots.Furious officers - from the head of Scotland Yard to rank and file street cops - lined up to attack the Prime Minister and Home Secretary Theresa May for saying they had ordered the crackdown on the rioters.There was also anger that Cameron used his Commons statement to accuse the police of being too timid to take action against the thugs and looters.Acting Metropolitan Chief Tim Godwin pointed out that Cameron and May were still on holiday at the start of the riots.He said: "I think after...

Read More

Wandsworth council moves to evict mother of charged boy

Conservative-run Wandsworth council in south London has started eviction proceedings against a woman whose son appeared in court charged in connection with the riots in Clapham Junction.It is the first local authority to issue an eviction notice on a tenant in the wake of the riots although Westminster, Greenwich, Hammersmith and Fulham, Nottingham and Salford councils have all said they will consider evicting those found to have taken part in the unrest.The mother and son cannot be named for legal reasons and a judge will take the final decision about their proposed eviction. David Cameron gave...

Read More

Mark Duggan, the man whose death sparked the beginning of riots across Britain, was the nephew of a renowned gangland criminal with a history of violence.

Duggan's late uncle has been revealed as Desmond “Dessie” Noonan, whose feared crime family ran Manchester's underworld for 20 years.The link emerged yesterday as police sources said the officer who opened fire on Duggan had “an honest-held belief that he was in imminent danger of him and his colleagues being shot”.A gun belonging to Duggan was found at the scene in Tottenham, North London, but is not thought to have been fired during the incident.Protests over the 29-year-old’s death erupted into the first of the London riots last Saturday, which rapidly spread right across the country.In 2005,...

Read More

TEENAGER APPEARS IN COURT OVER FIRE AT MISS SELFRIDGE

Thousands of people around the world viewed YouTube footage of a youth in a hooded top apparently reaching through the window of a looted shop and setting light to a red dress on a mannequin.It led to flames engulfing Miss Selfridge in Manchester’s city centre.Yesterday Dane Williamson, 18, appeared in court accused of the arson. He was arrested soon after Tuesday night’s blaze, which caused £319,000 of damage to stock, but he has claimed he is a victim of mistaken identity.The teenager is accused of criminal damage and recklessly endangering life, a charge which carries a maximum sentence of...

Read More

Malaysian student mugged during riots was 'attacked at knifepoint

The Malaysian student who was mugged in Barking, east London, by young men who appeared to be going to his aid said on Wednesday that he had been attacked at knifepoint and left with a broken jaw.Ashraf Haziq, 20, told one of his friends who visited him in the Royal London hospital in east London: "They threatened to stab me."His friend recorded their conversation in hospital and posted it on YouTube. Channel 4 News has translated the footage. Haziq said: "Some of them were quite young, maybe still in primary school. They had their hoods on and demanded my bicycle."Haziq, from Kuala Lumpur, was...

Read More

UK rhino horn heist highlights EU-wide crime trend

Wedged between a woolly mammoth and a giraffe, Rosie the stuffed rhino may seem an unlikely target for crime.But, like the fate that threatens many of her living relatives, the 100-year-old creature has had her horn stolen in a wave of rhino horn heists that is spreading across Europe.Thieves broke into the Ipswich Museum in Essex, a southern English county, just after midnight and took off with Rosie's horn and a black rhino skull displayed nearby."They wrenched the horn off Rosie - it probably only took them five minutes to take it and leave. They knew exactly what they wanted, and nothing was...

Read More

Boris Johnson today called on the Government to reconsider its plans to reduce police numbers following widespread rioting across the country.

The London Mayor claimed ministers should take “another look” at proposals to cut force budgets, and said officers needed to “get on and do what they signed up to do”.Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, he described the case for cuts as frail while also condemning the violence seen in London as “a massive own goal”.He also argued that those in authority needed to have their ability to instill discipline in youngsters restored.“If you ask me whether I think there is a case for cutting police budgets...

Read More

KITCHEN staff brandishing rolling pins drove out robbers terrorising customers at a high-end London restaurant owned by Aussie Chef Brett Graham.

Terrified diners in London told how rioters brandishing baseball bats smashed their way into a top restaurant and forced them to hand over wedding rings, cell phones and wallets.Staff at two-Michelin-starred The Ledbury, in the affluent west London suburb of Notting Hill, were forced to confront the gang of intruders with rolling pins and kitchen utensils Monday evening in a desperate bid to protect customers.The looters, wearing masks and hoodies, stormed the well known restaurant late in the evening...

Read More

The treatment of inmates at Wandsworth Prison in London was "demeaning, unsafe and fell below what could be classed as decent

The treatment of inmates at Wandsworth Prison in London was "demeaning, unsafe and fell below what could be classed as decent", a report says.Chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick said he "did not detect sufficient willingness" in the prison to acknowledge and address concerns.The report says conditions were significantly worse than in June 2009.The National Offender Management Service said a "robust action plan" was in place.Mr Hardwick's report followed an unannounced inspection of the prison between 28 February and 4 March which was undertaken because a previous inspection - in June 2009...

Read More

David Cameron valued his summer holiday over welfare of the nation

THE criminal complacency of Dave “Crisis? What Crisis” Cameron can be measured in lost homes and looted livelihoods.Nero fiddled while Rome burned and this smug, part-time Premier opted to sip cappuccino in Tuscany while London went up in flames.The storm engulfing a Dithering Dave – who flirted with a waitress instead of fulfilling a constitutional duty to lead Britain – is the Prime Minister’s very own personal ­Hurricane Katrina.American cowboy George Bush never recovered from ignoring the plight...

Read More

The weather is unlikely to do law-abiding citizens any favours tonight with little or no rain forecast to help keep troublemakers off the nation's streets.

There will be 16,000 police officers patrolling London's streets tonight and forces across the country are steeling themselves for a possible fourth night of riots and looting.Normally, offending levels are lower in poor night time weather and it was hoped the authorities' bid for peace would be bolstered by rain - which has lashed parts of the United Kingdom in recent days.But forecasters said the chances were slim.Across the capital there will be no rain, said a forecaster from MeteoGroup, the Press Association's weather centre.It will also remain dry further north into Birmingham, which also...

Read More

Kaiser Chiefs grab brooms and join riot clean up campaign

Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson and fellow band member Simon Rix put on their community caps and joined the growing group of ‘handy mobs’ with their brooms to help with the London clean up campaign following three days of riots.Tweeting their step-by-step journey, Ricky encouraged his 23, 698 followers to borrow a broom and help repair the devastation caused throughout the city following the riots.He said: “Camden Chalk Farm. Me and @curlywand will there in a bit with our brooms. Get to one...

Read More

450 detectives have been assigned to hunt for rioters and looters in the biggest criminal investigation ever mounted by the Metropolitan police.

Commander Simon Foy, head of the homicide and serious crime command, who is leading the investigation, said he was considering asking other forces to provide detectives to help as the number of arrests continues to rise.Foy has taken detectives off all other inquiries to concentrate on finding those who have been rioting. His team is trawling through CCTV images and a most wanted page shows images of scores of young men and women, some with their faces clearly visible, in an attempt to get the public to help identify looters.In the last three days 525 people have been arrested across the capital....

Read More

London Mayor Boris Johnson carries riot clean-up brush

London Mayor Boris Johnson faced a barrage of questions from residents as he toured the devastation in riot-hit Clapham Junction.He was handed a brush amid shouts of ''where's your broom?'' and added that he was ''very sorry'' for the damage done to local property by rioters.Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to restore order, recalling Parliament on Thursday.&nb...

Read More

To find the centre of the disturbances in Hackney, all I had to do was head towards the police helicopters hovering overhead.

A line of buses had been parked, to all intents and purposes abandoned, at the top of Mare Street, the main road through the area.Under the railway bridge, riot police formed a line, the lights on their vans flashing behind them. I could see the shopping precinct beyond, where the trouble had begun, but could not get through.On Mare St, clumps of rioters surged forward and then retreated as police ran towards them.A group of young men began trying to tear the metal shutter off a jewellery shop....

Read More

BRC tells Home Secretary to deal with "escalating lawlessness" after rioting

Industry body the BRC is to seek “urgent reassurances” from Home Secretary Theresa May that everything possible is being done to address “escalating lawlessness” on the streets of London and other cities after three nights of rioting resulting in the destruction and looting of stores.The BRC has demanded “intelligence-led information” to help retailers protect their properties and reassurances that those responsible for vandalism and theft will be punished.British Retail Consortium Director General, Stephen Robertson, said:“The shocking levels of lawlessness breaking out across the UK are hitting...

Read More

police who took tip-off fees to be investigated by taxman

Police officers who allegedly took payments from newspapers and private investigators could face hefty fines and criminal prosecution after it emerged HM Revenue & Customs is reopening personal tax records to check if payments were fully disclosed.It is understood HMRC has already begun probing self-assessment forms from previous years in the wake of new information obtained amid the phone-hacking revelations.Last month Sir Paul Stephenson, the outgoing Metropolitan police commissioner, said documents provided by News International appear to include information on "inappropriate payments"...

Read More