Beheading suspect held in custody

 15 May 2011 Last updated at 17:23 ET  A security guard managed to wrestle the suspect to the ground, witnesses said A Bulgarian man accused of stabbing and beheading a UK woman in a shop on Tenerife has been detained in prison.

Deyan Valentinov Deyanov, 28, was ordered to jail by a judge on Sunday following his arrest on suspicion of killing Jennifer Mills-Westley, 60.

A note issued by the court said he should have no possibility of bail.

Mrs Mills-Westley, originally from Norfolk, had sought help minutes before the attack in Los Cristianos on Friday, according to media reports.

The Sunday Times said she told staff in an employment centre she was being followed and security guards told a man to go away.

'Absolutely devastating'

Thinking he had disappeared, the grandmother-of-five then walked to a nearby shop where she was stabbed before being beheaded, the paper said.

Mrs Mills-Westley had retired some years ago, her family said

The Daily Telegraph website reports that the man accused of killing her was ordered to be detained in a psychiatric unit.

One of Mrs Mills-Westley's two daughters, Sarah, said she was "full of life, generous of heart and would do anything for anyone".

"We now have to find a way of living without her love and light and we would ask at this difficult time for some privacy as we try to come to terms with our loss," she said.

She said her mother was enjoying her retirement, travelling between Tenerife and France and visiting her other daughter in Norfolk.

Ms Mills-Westley retired to Tenerife after working as a road safety officer at Norfolk County Council.

Leader of the council Derrick Murphy said the news was "absolutely devastating" for those who used to work with her.

"We offer our sincere and deepest sympathies to Jenny's friends and family, in particularly her two daughters and five grandchildren," he said.

Silent attack

"As you can imagine, the terrible news obviously has come as a great shock to us... she was an incredibly well-respected member of the staff."

Ms Mills-Westley's former neighbour, Stella Watts, said she was a "kind, lovely lady" who used to take her to hospital to visit her sick partner.

Local officials have been analysing CCTV footage of the attack which shows a man walking into the supermarket - which sells Chinese food and tourist souvenirs.

Witnesses said the man attacked the woman without saying a word.

Local councillor Manuel Reveron said: "The man entered the shop and then cut this woman's neck and took the head in his hand outside,"

A security guard then managed to wrestle the man to the ground, he said.

In a video posted on YouTube, Colin Kirby of Tenerifemagazine.com said security guards held down the suspect until the police arrived.

Christina Perez, a legal representative at a nearby court, said she and her colleagues ran indoors for safety.

"Everybody is shocked. It's a very safe area. You can usually go anywhere you want in the day or at night. This is really not normal."

Eyewitness Colin Kirby describes the aftermath of the attack in Tenerife

Dominica Fernandez, of the Regional Interior Ministry, said the attack appeared to be random and that the suspect was well known in the area.

Regional newspaper La Opinion said the suspect had received treatment at the psychiatric unit of a local hospital in February after being involved in previous violent incidents.

The BBC's Maddy Savage said this kind of violence was extremely rare in the Canary Islands which attract more than 10 million tourists each year.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are in touch with the next of kin and are providing consular assistance.

"Consular officials in Tenerife are in contact with local authorities about this tragic incident and our condolences go out to the family at this difficult time."

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After Houston Officers Are Shot, Suspect Is Found Dead

HOUSTON (AP) — A man opened fire on two police officers Saturday, injuring them as part of a two-hour episode that began at a downtown Houston bus station and ended with the suspect found dead in a parking garage three blocks away, officials said.

The incident began about 5:15 p.m. Saturday when a Greyhound ticket agent checked the baggage of an unidentified man, saw an exposed handgun butt and alerted an off-duty police officer working security at the station, Houston Police spokesman John Cannon said.

Officer Fernando Meza, a two-year veteran of the force, followed the man outside, demanded his bag, then used a Taser in a failed effort to subdue the man, Cannon said. Instead, the man opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun, wounding Meza in the hand.

The gunman darted across the street to a McDonald's restaurant where he encountered Officer Timothy Moore, who was responding to a report of an officer in distress. There, his first gun empty, the man pulled another gun from his bag and fired at the 12-year police force veteran, wounding him in the leg, Cannon said.

Witnesses say they saw the man apparently bleeding from a wound to his side as he fled two blocks to the Amegy Bank parking garage, beside Interstate 45, and exchanged gunfire with arriving tactical unit officers as he darted inside, Cannon said.

Police closed the interstate and tactical officers searched and cleared each level of the multilevel garage. Officers found the unidentified man dead with a gunshot wound to the head at 7:05 p.m., Cannon said.

The freeway was reopened and the man's body taken to the Harris County medical examiner's office for autopsy and identification, he said.

"There were 80 to 100 patrons in the bus station waiting room or waiting to board their buses just outside," Cannon said, adding that it was nearly miraculous that no one else was injured and that neither police officer's wound appeared to be life-threatening. "That's why Officer Meza waited until the man was outside."

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World Briefing | Asia: Terrorism Suspect Is Captured in a Raid in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A man believed to be a senior leader of the terrorist group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was captured in Afghanistan this week during a joint Afghan and coalition operation in Kunduz Province, NATO officials said Friday.

The raid was the latest in a series conducted by coalition forces against the movement’s leaders in Afghanistan. The group, which is closely tied to Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, has played a role in the revitalized insurgency in northern Afghanistan, where it is believed to be responsible for multiple attacks on Afghan and coalition forces.

NATO does not release the names of captured insurgents. But in a statement, the alliance described the man as the movement’s top leader in Afghanistan. He was taken during a raid on Wednesday along with two associates in the Khanabad district of Kunduz Province. No shots were fired in the operation, NATO said.

Military officials called the man a central conduit between the movement and senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They said he assisted both groups by coordinating suicide and mortar attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout northern Afghanistan and helped coordinate insurgent training in both countries. He escaped from a Pakistani prison in 2010, officials said, and he is believed to have paid bribes to secure the release of other prisoners.

The group is estimated to have 2,500 to 4,000 fighters in Pakistan’s tribal regions and in Afghanistan, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that tracks the conflicts there. In the past two months, coalition forces have killed more than 20 insurgents within the group, including Bilal Konduzi, its top leader in Afghanistan. Mr. Konduzi and another of the movement’s leaders, Shad Mohammad, were killed in an airstrike in Samangan Province on March 10.

News of the capture came as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, was meeting with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, during a brief visit to Kabul on Friday. The trip came as tensions between Pakistan and the United States worsened over Pakistan’s demands that Americans end drone strikes in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan border, and the American insistence that Pakistan do more to deal with insurgents in the areas. Competing aims for the future of Afghanistan have added to the tensions.

Before arriving in Kabul, Admiral Mullen met with the Pakistani Army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in Islamabad. Mr. Karzai had also recently met with a senior Pakistani delegation, including Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who visited Kabul last Saturday.

It is not clear, however, if Admiral Mullen and Mr. Karzai discussed relations among the three countries in any detail on Friday. Waheed Omar, Mr. Karzai’s spokesman, said that while both men discussed their recent conversations with Pakistan officials, that was only one of a wide variety of issues touched on in the hourlong meeting.

“There was not a central focus,” Mr. Omar said. “It was really a general discussion about a range of issues.”

Also on Friday, Afghan officials said that NATO helicopters killed four security guards at a road construction site in an airstrike at 4 a.m. in the Sperra district of Khost Province, near the Pakistan border. A NATO spokesman said the helicopters came under attack from armed men and in the exchange of fire, four people were killed. NATO is investigating the episode.

Insurgents killed a coalition soldier in an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Friday. And five Afghan policeman were killed Thursday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Spinbaldak in Kandahar Province. Three police trainees were also killed on Thursday in Nangarhar Province when their vehicle struck a bomb.

And in the eastern province of Paktika, a combined Afghan and American force killed several insurgents after coming under fire in the Yahya Khel district, NATO officials said. Mukhles Afghan, spokesman for the governor of Paktika, said 12 insurgents were killed. The district has been one of the most volatile in the province. No civilians or Afghan or coalition forces were killed in the attack, Mr. Mukhles said.

Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting from Kabul, Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan, and an employee of The New York Times from Nangarhar Province.

 

Terrorism Suspect Is Captured in a Raid in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A man believed to be a senior leader of the terrorist group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was captured in Afghanistan this week during a joint Afghan and coalition operation in Kunduz Province, NATO officials said Friday.

The raid was the latest in a series conducted by coalition forces against the movement’s leaders in Afghanistan. The group, which is closely tied to Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, has played a role in the revitalized insurgency in northern Afghanistan, where it is believed to be responsible for multiple attacks on Afghan and coalition forces.

NATO does not release the names of captured insurgents. But in a statement, the alliance described the man as the movement’s top leader in Afghanistan. He was taken during a raid on Wednesday along with two associates in the Khanabad district of Kunduz Province. No shots were fired in the operation, NATO said.

Military officials called the man a central conduit between the movement and senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They said he assisted both groups by coordinating suicide and mortar attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout northern Afghanistan and helped coordinate insurgent training in both countries. He escaped from a Pakistani prison in 2010, officials said, and he is believed to have paid bribes to secure the release of other prisoners.

The group is estimated to have 2,500 to 4,000 fighters in Pakistan’s tribal regions and in Afghanistan, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that tracks the conflicts there. In the past two months, coalition forces have killed more than 20 insurgents within the group, including Bilal Konduzi, its top leader in Afghanistan. Mr. Konduzi and another of the movement’s leaders, Shad Mohammad, were killed in an airstrike in Samangan Province on March 10.

News of the capture came as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, was meeting with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, during a brief visit to Kabul on Friday. The trip came as tensions between Pakistan and the United States worsened over Pakistan’s demands that Americans end drone strikes in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan border, and the American insistence that Pakistan do more to deal with insurgents in the areas. Competing aims for the future of Afghanistan have added to the tensions.

Before arriving in Kabul, Admiral Mullen met with the Pakistani Army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in Islamabad. Mr. Karzai had also recently met with a senior Pakistani delegation, including Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who visited Kabul last Saturday.

It is not clear, however, if Admiral Mullen and Mr. Karzai discussed relations among the three countries in any detail on Friday. Waheed Omar, Mr. Karzai’s spokesman, said that while both men discussed their recent conversations with Pakistan officials, that was only one of a wide variety of issues touched on in the hourlong meeting.

“There was not a central focus,” Mr. Omar said. “It was really a general discussion about a range of issues.”

Also on Friday, Afghan officials said that NATO helicopters killed four security guards at a road construction site in an airstrike at 4 a.m. in the Sperra district of Khost Province, near the Pakistan border. A NATO spokesman said the helicopters came under attack from armed men and in the exchange of fire, four people were killed. NATO is investigating the episode.

Insurgents killed a coalition soldier in an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Friday. And five Afghan policeman were killed Thursday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Spinbaldak in Kandahar Province. Three police trainees were also killed on Thursday in Nangarhar Province when their vehicle struck a bomb.

And in the eastern province of Paktika, a combined Afghan and American force killed several insurgents after coming under fire in the Yahya Khel district, NATO officials said. Mukhles Afghan, spokesman for the governor of Paktika, said 12 insurgents were killed. The district has been one of the most volatile in the province. No civilians or Afghan or coalition forces were killed in the attack, Mr. Mukhles said.

Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting from Kabul, Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan, and an employee of The New York Times from Nangarhar Province.

 

Hamas Captures Suspect in Italian’s Killing; 2 Others Dead

GAZA — Two of the extremists suspected of killing an Italian activist died and a third was captured on Tuesday when Hamas security troops stormed a building in central Gaza where the men were hiding, according to the Gazan Interior Ministry.

Hamas security forces stood guard Tuesday near the scene of a shootout west of the Nussirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

A ministry statement said that one of the hunted men, who had Jordanian citizenship, threw a grenade at the other two — both Palestinians — to prevent them from surrendering. One was fatally injured. The Jordanian then killed himself with a gunshot to the head, the statement said. The third man, who was injured, was taken into custody.

The Italian, Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, was a pro-Palestinian activist living in Gaza. He was strangled and his body was found in an empty Gaza house on Friday, a day after a fringe group called Tawhid and Jihad claimed responsibility for his abduction. The case was an embarrassment to Hamas, which controls Gaza and maintains that it has restored security here. In the past, Hamas has protected foreign journalists and activists for the Palestinian cause.

The three men were found at a two-story house to the west of the Nussirat refugee camp. In a five-hour standoff, Hamas militants joined the security forces, who exchanged fire with three men inside for less than a minute before the grenade blast and final gunshot were heard. Three police officers were wounded.

 

Burglary Suspect Killed in Apple Store Shootout

A private security guard fatally shot a gunman at an Apple store early Monday in what police said was the latest attempt to steal prized electronic gear from the high-end retailer.

Two other suspects were arrested after the driver of the getaway car died from his head wound and the car crashed. The driver's name was not immediately released.

The two passengers ran into a neighborhood, where police locked down schools for about an hour before the man and woman were found in the courtyard of a condominium complex in Chula Vista.

They were identified as Johnny Chenda, 25, and Melissa Ortiz, 21, and both had prior criminal records, police said.

Chenda is a suspected gang member and convicted felon. He and Ortiz were arrested on suspicion of robbery and other crimes and remained jailed Tuesday, according to the San Diego County sheriff's jail website.

Thieves using everything from sledgehammers to rocks have smashed the glass doors and windows of Apple stores across the country, stealing tens of thousands of dollars in high-tech gear in seconds.

Many of the stores have been hit more than once in only a few months. Some have turned to armed guards such as the one in Chula Vista, after unarmed security failed to intervene when thieves flashed guns.

Chula Vista police investigator Capt. Gary Ficacci said he believes Monday's break-in was the first time someone was killed during an Apple store burglary.

Amy Barney, an Apple spokeswoman, declined to comment, saying local police would be the best source of information.

In Monday's theft, an armed guard was inside the store with the manager when two men forced open the door just before 7 a.m., Ficacci said.

They apparently planned to smash store cases but they spotted the guard and "one of the guys began shooting almost immediately," Ficacci said.

The guard — a former San Diego County sheriff's deputy — returned fire and the gunfight continued out in front of the store, Ficacci said.

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