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[Black Widow]

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[JohnCenaFan28]

A man shot dead in the street may have been the victim of gang feuding, it has emerged.

Ashley Kemete, 20, was gunned down in White Hart Street, Kennington, south London.

Paramedics and the air ambulance were called but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Locals told how there were gangs in the area though police said they were keeping an open mind as to motive at this stage and declined to comment on whether it was gang related.

One woman, who refused to give her name, said there were many gangs around there.

She said: "There are five gangs in the immediate area. They fight on Friday nights, it's all about drugs and territory. We can expect to see some terrible repercussions from this."

Abdul Momen, who works at Taste of India takeaway, said the murder was "shocking".

"Normally it's just car accidents in Kennington Lane but this is very serious. There's so many gangs in this area so maybe it's linked to them."

A post-mortem examination will be held at Greenwich Mortuary.

Detective Inspector Tony Broughton of the Metropolitan Police's Trident unit, which investigates gun crime within the black community, said: "This murder happened in a busy part of town, just after nine o'clock on a Friday night. We know there were many people in the area. Several witnesses have already come forward, but there will be others who saw something or know something. We need those people to get in touch with us."

-Ananova

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[JohnCenaFan28]

The father of a 19-year-old woman whose skeletal remains were found in woodland in a seaside town has been arrested on suspicion of murder, sources said.

Medical records were used to help establish that the remains belonged to Victoria Couchman and her family have been informed, police said.

Children playing in Redgeland Wood, near Wishing Tree Reservoir in the Queensway area of Hastings, East Sussex, found a human skull on Monday afternoon.

Further forensic searches revealed other remains, including an upper left leg, pelvic bone and tibia, which were discovered near each other and did not appear to be buried.

Sussex Police announced that a 45-year-old local man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Sources said the man was Ms Couchman's father.

In a short statement, police said: "Police investigating the discovery of a body believed to be that of 19-year-old Victoria Couchman from Hastings have this evening arrested a 45-year-old local man on suspicion of murder."

Details of a cause of death have not been disclosed by Sussex Police who earlier said it was important to establish how Ms Couchman ended up in the woods.

Inspector Becky Newman said: "Police investigating the discovery of human remains found in Redgeland Wood believe they have established the identity of the victim. From medical records, it is believed she was Victoria Couchman, 19 years of age, from an address in the local area."

Speaking of the identity of the remains earlier, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Hibbert said: "This is a significant breakthrough in the inquiry and it is vital for us to now establish the circumstances to how Victoria died and came to be in Redgeland Wood."

Police said that around 90% of the skeleton had been recovered and that the bones were degraded. It was originally thought the remains had been in the woods for up to ten years, but following further discoveries police said they think they had been there for around 18 months.

-Ananova

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Police divers have recovered a man's body found near the wreckage of a plane which had crashed into the sea.

The two-seater Piper 38 crashed into the sea near cliffs close to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire.

Several witnesses saw the light aircraft moments before it plunged into the sea.

The pilot, thought to come from the Teesside area, was the only person on board.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "A body of a man was recovered by police divers close to the wreck of a plane. A police helicopter landed on rocks and the body was airlifted up to the cliffs before being taken to Scarborough Hospital by an undertaker."

The body has not been formally identified while relatives are informed.

The Coastguard, RNLI and RAF helicopters were involved in the search, which began after a member of the public reported seeing a small aircraft crash into the sea.

Search teams located the stricken aircraft submerged in the water and returned to carry out a more detailed examination.

Holidaymaker Sean Flesher, of Yeadon, near Leeds, was in the Bay Hotel overlooking the sea when he saw the crash.

He told the Scarborough Evening News: "I saw a light aircraft heading into the bay. I thought it was going to disappear around the headland as it was flying so low. The next thing I saw it had plunged into the water."

-Ananova

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[JohnCenaFan28]

An American student slit the throat of her British housemate in a Satanic rite, prosecutors told an Italian court.

They alleged Meredith Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was forcibly held down as Amanda Knox and two men attacked her.

The court in Perugia was told Knox's Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito held Miss Kercher. a Leeds University student, down as Rudy Hermann Guede tried to sexually assault her.

Sollecito's lawyer, Luca Maori, said prosecutors "laid out a scenario like from some crime novel," during the seven-hour hearing.

Prosecutors "alleged it was some kind of Satanic rite", with Amanda allegedly first touching Meredith with the point of a knife, then slitting her throat, while Sollecito held her by the shoulders, from behind, Guede held her by an arm and tried to sexually assault the victim, Maori said.

Earlier Knox, 21, had proclaimed her innocence at the closed-door hearing in the Umbrian university town and reportedly wept as she accused police of hitting her on the head and calling her a liar during an interrogation, defence lawyers said.

At his lawyers' request, a fast-track trial is being conducted for Guede. He has acknowledged being in the bedroom where Miss Kercher's body, lying in a pool of blood, was found in November 2007 in the house she rented with Knox.

Fast-track trials can sometimes result in lighter penalties. But prosecutors asked the court to convict Guede, from the Ivory Coast, and mete out Italy's stiffest punishment - life imprisonment. Italy does not have the death penalty.

The court deciding Guede's fate is also hearing arguments to determine if Knox and Sollecito should stand trial for the murder.

A ruling on prosecutors' request for their indictment is expected at the end of October. All three suspects have repeatedly denied any part in Miss Kercher's death.

-Ananova

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[JohnCenaFan28]

Alistair Darling is set to pour billions of pounds into major public works in an attempt to fend off the worst of the economic downturn, he announced.

With the economy sliding towards recession, the Chancellor said he would re-channel public spending into projects that would spur growth.

Official figures are expected to confirm this week that the economy is shrinking for the first time since 1992.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson admitted that the contraction was inevitable, adding that it was impossible to say how long it would last.

But despite increasingly tight public finances, exacerbated by declining tax revenues, Mr Darling pledged to press ahead with spending on major projects that the country needs.

Citing John Maynard Keynes's dictum that governments should spend their way out of an economic downturn, Mr Darling said expenditure would be focused on areas that "make a difference".

"At a time like this, it would be wrong to start taking money out of the economy, in terms of cutting back on spending, in terms of tax," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"You do not do this when an economy is slowing down.

"Much of what Keynes said still makes sense. You will see us switching our spending priorities to areas that make a difference - housing and energy are classic cases where people are feeling squeezed. They expect the Government to help them. We'll do that."

The strategy will necessitate taking on more debt, as the Chancellor has already signalled he is ready to do. It secures costly new programmes like a new nuclear deterrent, London's £16 billion Crossrail project and the £9.3bn 2012 Olympic games.

-Ananova