Three charged with boy's murder

15 May 2011 Last updated at 18:08 ET  Temidayo was the fifth teenager to be fatally stabbed in London this year A 17-year-old girl and two men have been charged with the murder of a 15-year-old boy in south London.

Temidayo Ogunneye died after being stabbed behind a block of flats in Cormont Road, Camberwell, on Wednesday.

Kieron Carew-Donaldson, 18, of Brixton, and Darius Kwakye, 18, of Camberwell, were both charged with murder and also two counts of robbery.

They, along with the girl who cannot be named for legal reasons, are to appear at Sutton Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Temidayo was the fifth teenager to be fatally stabbed in London this year.

He died six hours after being taken to hospital and post-mortem tests showed the cause of death to be loss of blood from stabbing injuries.

Another boy who was arrested on suspicion of murder was released on Thursday without charge.

A fourth teenage boy was arrested on suspicion of murder. He has since been released on bail.

IMF head charged over 'sex crime'

 16 May 2011 Last updated at 01:10 GMT  Dominique Strauss-Kahn was censured for an "error of judgement" over a 2008 affair The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been charged by New York police over an alleged sex attack on a hotel maid.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, was taken off an Air France plane at JFK airport just minutes before it left for Paris.

Police say the maid has now formally identified him in a line-up. He faces three charges which he denies.

The married former French finance minister is also considered a possible Socialist candidate for the presidency.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield, in Paris, says Mr Strauss-Kahn has been riding high in the polls and was seen as having a genuine chance of beating President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Martine Aubry, leader of France's Socialist Party, described news of his arrest as a "thunderbolt" which left her "astounded".

Mr Strauss-Kahn is expected to appear before a New York state court before 0100 local time on Monday (0500 GMT), despite reports of a delay as police apply for search warrants for further DNA evidence.

His lawyer, William Taylor, told Agence France-Presse news agency: "We saw him, he's doing OK. And we'll be in court with him later in the afternoon."

Mr Strauss-Kahn had been scheduled to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday, but that meeting has now been cancelled, reports say.

On Monday he had planned to attend a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Brussels on Monday to discuss the bailouts of Portugal and Greece.

Correspondents say his detention is likely to complicate ongoing efforts to stabilise the finances of struggling eurozone member states.

In a brief statement posted online on Sunday, an IMF spokeswoman acknowledged Mr Strauss-Kahn's arrest and said the organisation would not comment on the case.

"The IMF remains fully functioning and operational," she added.

There will be a special IMF session on Sunday of the executive board and John Lipsky will be acting IMF managing director in Mr Strauss-Kahn's absence.

'Locked in'

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest unfolded in dramatic fashion as he was poised to fly to Europe.

A spokesman for New York's Port Authority said they detained Mr Strauss-Kahn at JFK airport at the request of the New York Police Department (NYPD).

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Mr Strauss-Kahn had been charged with a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment relating to an incident involving a 32-year-old woman.

Continue reading the main story Born 25 April 1949 in ParisAttended France's prestigious Institute for Political Studies (Sciences Po)Becomes finance minister in 1997Loses bid for Socialist Party presidential candidacy to Segolene Royal in 2006Selected IMF head in 2007Mr Browne said the allegations had been made by a 32-year-old woman who worked at the hotel, which has been identified as the Sofitel near Times Square. His accommodation there was described by the New York Times as a luxury suite costing $3,000 per night (￡1,900).

"We received a call that a chambermaid in a hotel in midtown Manhattan had been sexually assaulted by the occupant of a luxury suite at that hotel, and that that individual had fled," Mr Browne told the BBC.

"The maid described being forcibly attacked, locked in the room and sexually assaulted," he said.

Speaking to Reuters, Mr Browne gave more details on the allegations against Mr Strauss-Kahn.

"She told detectives he came out of the bathroom naked, ran down a hallway to the [suite] foyer where she was, pulled her into a bedroom and began to sexually assault her, according to her account."

"She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives. He tried to lock her into the hotel room."

Mr Strauss-Kahn then made his way to the airport but left his mobile phone and other items behind, Mr Brown said.

"It looked like he got out of there in a hurry."

By the time police established that the occupant of the room was Mr Strauss-Kahn, the IMF chief was on board an Air France plane at John F Kennedy airport, about to depart for Paris.

"Our detectives requested of the airport authorities that they stop the plane from leaving, went to the airport and took him into custody," Mr Browne said.

"If our officers had been 10 minutes later he would have been in the air and on their way to France."

The woman has been treated at hospital for minor injuries, said Mr Browne.

'Error of judgement'

Mr Strauss-Kahn ran for the French Socialist Party's presidential candidacy in 2006 but lost to Segolene Royal.

He was appointed managing director of the IMF the following year.

Mr Strauss-Kahn has won praise for his stewardship of the IMF, which he has guided through difficult times including the recent world financial crisis.

Police say the allegations were made by a 32-year-old woman working at the hotel

But in 2008 he was investigated by the IMF board over his relationship with a female member of his staff.

The board ruled his actions "reflected a serious error of judgment" but that the relationship had been consensual. He apologised to IMF staff and his wife, French TV personality Anne Sinclair.

Mr Strauss-Kahn has not yet announced whether he intends to run in the 2012 French presidential elections, but had widely been expected to do so.

Russian Is Charged in Absentia With Betraying Spies in U.S.

MOSCOW — After a group of Russian sleeper agents were arrested in the United States last summer, an angry Vladimir V. Putin, Russia’s prime minister, promised to punish the person who betrayed them.

Now, a former Russian intelligence officer suspected of blowing the agents’ cover has been officially charged, and could, if he is ever caught, face up to 20 years in prison.

The officer, Aleksandr Poteyev, was charged in absentia with treason and desertion, a spokesman from Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Tuesday. He said all other details about the case were classified.

Little is known about Mr. Poteyev. It is not even clear where he is. Anonymous law enforcement officials cited in earlier Russian media reports said he had directed spy operations as a deputy head at the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service’s American section. There, he oversaw a group of at least 10 Russian agents working deep under cover in the United States, living and working as Americans.

Mr. Poteyev, the officials say, fled to the United States just before F.B.I. agents swooped into metropolitan Boston and New York and the suburbs of northern Virginia last summer to arrest the agents.

The operation uncovered the largest Russian spy network in the United States since the end of the cold war and dealt a major blow to the prestige of Russia’s intelligence services.

The agents, who appeared to have gathered no significant information, were deported to Russia after pleading guilty. They were traded for four men imprisoned in Russia, including Igor V. Sutyagin, a Russian scientist convicted of spying for the United States.

Mr. Sutyagin always maintained his innocence, and on Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that he had been wrongly imprisoned and ordered Russia to pay nearly $30,000 in compensation.

It is unclear what exactly will happen to Mr. Poteyev. He will be tried in absentia in a Moscow military court, though a court spokeswoman said hearings in the trial would be classified.

 

Russian Is Charged in Absentia With Betraying Spies in U.S.

MOSCOW — After a group of Russian sleeper agents were arrested in the United States last summer, an angry Vladimir V. Putin, Russia’s prime minister, promised to punish the person who betrayed them.

Now, a former Russian intelligence officer suspected of blowing the agents’ cover has been officially charged, and could, if he is ever caught, face up to 20 years in prison.

The officer, Aleksandr Poteyev, was charged in absentia with treason and desertion, a spokesman from Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Tuesday. He said all other details about the case were classified.

Little is known about Mr. Poteyev. It is not even clear where he is. Anonymous law enforcement officials cited in earlier Russian media reports said he had directed spy operations as a deputy head at the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service’s American section. There, he oversaw a group of at least 10 Russian agents working deep under cover in the United States, living and working as Americans.

Mr. Poteyev, the officials say, fled to the United States just before F.B.I. agents swooped into metropolitan Boston and New York and the suburbs of northern Virginia last summer to arrest the agents.

The operation uncovered the largest Russian spy network in the United States since the end of the cold war and dealt a major blow to the prestige of Russia’s intelligence services.

The agents, who appeared to have gathered no significant information, were deported to Russia after pleading guilty. They were traded for four men imprisoned in Russia, including Igor V. Sutyagin, a Russian scientist convicted of spying for the United States.

Mr. Sutyagin always maintained his innocence, and on Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that he had been wrongly imprisoned and ordered Russia to pay nearly $30,000 in compensation.

It is unclear what exactly will happen to Mr. Poteyev. He will be tried in absentia in a Moscow military court, though a court spokeswoman said hearings in the trial would be classified.