Two arrested over Cabral killing

12 July 2011 Last updated at 21:11 GMT Elgin Vargas Hernandez was one of two suspects held in Guatemala City Police in Guatemala have arrested two men over the killing of Argentine singer Facundo Cabral.

Cabral - one of Latin America's most respected folk singers - was being driven to the airport in Guatemala City when his car was ambushed on Saturday.

He was shot dead and the music promoter travelling with him, Henry Farinas, was seriously injured.

Police say the suspects were caught after being identified from hotel surveillance videos.

Prosecutor Claudia Paz y Paz said the two - named as Elgin Vargas Hernandez and Wilfred Stokes Arnold - had been following Mr Farinas and probably did not know who Cabral was.

They were arrested on separate raids in Guatemala City on Tuesday. Police are continuing to search for others believed to have been involved in the attack.

Organised crime

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said the evidence suggested Mr Farinas was the target of the attack.

Cabral's coffin was put is on display in Buenos Aires

"It's evident that the attack came from organised crime and that's what we are investigating," he told Mexican Radio.

Mr Farinas, a Nicaraguan national, remains in hospital. Prosecutors say he has no criminal record and the motive for the shooting remains unclear.

Earlier on Tuesday, the body of Facundo Cabral was flown back to his native Argentina, where he became famous in the early 1970s as a protest singer.

His widow and nephew were accompanied by Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman to receive his coffin.

He was due to be cremated on Wednesday.

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Brazil plane crashes, killing 16

13 July 2011 Last updated at 14:48 GMT Firefighters said there were no survivors from the crash A twin-engine aircraft has crashed in north-east Brazil, killing all 16 people on board.

The crew had reported problems almost immediately after take-off from the city of Recife, officials said.

They said the pilot had apparently tried to land on the beach near Recife, but the plane came down on an empty lot and burst into flames.

Authorities say they believe weather was not a factor in the crash, which they are now investigating.

Firefighters said the blaze was quickly brought under control.

According to the authorities, the plane came down on wasteland between two Recife neighbourhoods - Piedade and Boa Viagem.

Brazilian media reported that the crash scene was just 150m from the beach and in a residential area.

A circus had been pitched on the site a fortnight previously, reports said.

"I saw a woman in a window [of the plane] asking for help and it just exploded" witness Erandir Rodriguez told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

"There was nothing to be done."

The twin-engined L410 was operated by Noar Airlines and took off from Recife at 0615 (0915 GMT), officials said.

It was en route to Mossoro via Natal.

Noar Airlines has been operating for about a year, running short flights in north-east Brazil.

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India actress jailed over killing

1 July 2011 Last updated at 09:58 GMT An Indian court has sentenced an actress and her naval officer boyfriend in connection with the killing of TV executive Neeraj Grover in 2008.

Maria Susairaj was sentenced to three years in jail for destroying evidence. Emile Jerome got 10 years for "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".

Both had been charged with murder. But a judge in the Mumbai (Bombay) court ruled the killing was not planned.

Mr Grover was stabbed and his body hacked to pieces, the court heard.

Both defendants had been charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, common intent and causing disappearance of evidence.

Susairaj, a model who has had some small television parts, confessed to her role in covering up the killing. But she said that Jerome had been responsible for Mr Grover's death.

Her lawyers claimed that she was not party to the killing and that there had been no conspiracy. Her lawyer is quoted saying she was "a victim of circumstance".

According to the prosecution, Jerome, to whom Susairaj was engaged to be married, had a fight with Mr Grover when he found him at the actress's home.

The naval officer stabbed the producer to death, the court heard. Prosecutors said the couple then hacked Mr Grover's body to pieces and disposed of it in a nearby forest.

The judge held that Jerome had acted on the spur of the moment and that it had not been a pre-meditated killing, so he passed the lesser verdict of "culpable homicide".

"When he [Jerome] entered the room he was calm. This showed he did not have intention [to murder]. Obviously for a fiance, in a situation where he finds a stranger with his partner, would upset a prudent man and he would lose control," sessions court judge NW Chandwani is quoted as saying by the CNN-IBN news channel.

Correspondents expect Susairaj to be freed soon, as she has already been in jail for three years. Jerome faces seven more years in prison.

Both defendants have been ordered to pay compensation to the family of Neeraj Grover. Mr Grover's family have said they are unhappy with the verdict, saying they have not received justice.

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Youths guilty of station killing

16 May 2011 Last updated at 12:32 GMT Sofyen was chased to the ticket hall where he was stabbed repeatedly Five teenagers have been convicted of killing a 15-year-old boy at Victoria station in central London.

Sofyen Belamouadden, from Acton, west London, was chased and stabbed in the ticket hall of the Tube station.

Two teenagers have been found guilty of his murder in March 2010. Three others have been convicted of manslaughter.

The trial at the Old Bailey heard the rush-hour attack was planned on Facebook, and followed tensions between pupils from two west London schools.

'Merciless' attack

The trial heard some of the pupils saw the station as "home territory".

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So brazen and confident were his killers that they openly carried the various weapons that they used with them as they ran towards him and together hunted him down”

End Quote Mark Heywood QC Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said the "merciless" knife attack on the schoolboy took place in front of hundreds of commuters.

One member of the gang, Samuel Roberts, told the court that he joined in the violence on 25 March - captured on CCTV - simply because "everyone else was doing it".

Obi Nwokeh, 18, of Bermondsey, south-east London, and a 17-year-old were convicted of murder by unanimous jury verdicts.

Roberts, of Camberwell, south-east London, Adonis Akra, of Stockwell, of south London, both 18, and another 17-year-old were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

Enoch Amoah, 18, of Camberwell, was cleared of both charges but convicted of violent disorder. All six defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

Sofyen was confronted by a group with a sword at Victoria station before being chased into the Tube station where he was stabbed nine times, including to the lung and chest.

Mr Heywood said: "He was given no chance of life.

"So brazen and confident were his killers that they openly carried the various weapons that they used with them as they ran towards him and together hunted him down."

A number of other youths are due to face separate trials over the killing. All defendants will be sentenced following the conclusion of these cases.

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