Two west Delhi businessmen were shot dead on the streets of Pitampura

Day after two west Delhi businessmen were shot dead on the streets of Pitampura, Delhi Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal said there is no organised crime in the Capital. “There is no mafia or underworld (operating in Delhi),” Dadwal told Newsline on Tuesday. These are “isolated incidents of people being involved in contract killings. We do not have information about any gang operational in Delhi.” Several incidents in the past one month have seen criminals using firearms, which suggests organised crime is seeping into Delhi. Dadwal refused to comment on the double murder that has shaken the Capital — this was exactly two weeks after another businessman, Arun Gupta, was gunned down on a crowded Monday-morning street in Kalkaji. “We are investigating it; nothing can be disclosed at the moment.” On recent incidents of contract killings, armed robberies: “These incidents take place — they happened last year, before that, and would take place (in future). Crime has been there; it’s not new. But we have managed to bring it down. We are (now) working on specialised probe of these crimes.” However: Police sources say gangs have started operating in Delhi and many extortion incidents are being reported now, which is considered ‘organised crime’. Plans in several robberies reported lately also appear to be similar, done by one or two groups, they say.
On use and sale of firearms in Delhi: “There is no sale of illegal arms in Delhi. We have not come across any such activity.” So how are guns available so easily? “Some people bring in these weapons secretly.” However: A source says country-made pistols have been smuggled into Delhi since ages and are easily available in Seelampur and many trans-Yamuna areas. The weapons primarily come from eatern and western UP and Munger, Bihar.

Georgi Stoev’s killer is unlikely to face justice. His murder is one of more than 150 contract killings in seven years - with no convictions.

“Something’s going to happen,” he told his lawyer as he left a cafe in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, shortly after midday last Monday. Seconds later he was lying fatally wounded in the street in front of the Pliska hotel in the centre of the city. He had been hit by three bullets. This weekend police were investigating the theory that Stoev had been hunted by one of the characters from his nine crime books, including three about the country’s mafia “godfathers”. Stoev, 35, claimed that his books, which mixed fact and fiction to reveal the secrets of some of the country’s most notorious crimes, were based on his own experiences in the formative years of the ruthless Bulgarian mafia in the 1990s. As a teenager training to be a wrestler he attended Sofia’s “Olympic Hopes” school. With the collapse of communism in 1989 the school was closed and the wrestlers formed a gang that has become one of the most dangerous in Europe. Stoev later turned his back on the mafia and began to write. In a country renowned for brutal contract killings, he took the startling decision to expose alleged mafia characters in his books, making no attempt to disguise their identities. In Godfather 3, Stoev wrote about a prominent secret service officer and politician. “This is the book that will get me killed,” he told his publisher when he handed over the manuscript. In another Godfather book, Stoev wrote about an alleged mafia boss who had supposedly offered him £240,000 to kill an underworld figure. According to the novel, Stoev refused and went to the police. He knew the risks: another witness against this man had “got a bullet in the head”, he wrote. Stoev’s publisher, Dimitar Zlatkov, claimed the interior ministry was a “moral killer” for failing to protect him. This is denied by the ministry, which claims Stoev had refused to testify and had exaggerated his mafia past. What is clear is that Georgi Stoev had become convinced that he was about to die. In the weeks before he was shot he told the press he would be murdered. “My life is in danger. I’ve been protecting myself but now there is a serious threat,” he said on a television show. According to his editor, Stoev, the divorced father of a seven-year-old daughter, had hired bodyguards and frequently changed his car and telephone number. On Thursday he was buried in a private funeral at Bistrica, nine miles outside Sofia. The public prosecutor’s office said it will question three mafia bosses featured in his books. Stoev’s killer is unlikely to face justice. His murder is one of more than 150 contract killings in seven years - with no convictions.

Vincent Smothers has confessed to as many as seven killings

Vincent Smothers, 27, has confessed to as many as seven killings -- including the contract killing of a Detroit police sergeant's wife -- and is expected to be charged today with first-degree murder in connection with a double-killing in Detroit in 2007, Bully-Cummings said. "When an individual tells you this is what he does for an occupation, I think that is the definition of a hit man," Bully-Cummings said at a press conference this afternoon. Smothers was arrested in Shelby Township late Saturday night. Police said he told them he was a professional hit man who had committed a string of killings, including the Dec. 26, 2007, killing of Rose Cobb, 47, outside a CVS pharmacy on East Jefferson. On Sunday, hours after the arrest of Smothers, Detroit police arrested Rose Cobb's husband, Sgt. David Cobb, who worked in the eastern district of Detroit police, in connection with Rose Cobb's killing.
David Cobb is tentatively set to be arraigned in 36th District Court on Tuesday.
Police have identified three more suspects in connection with other slayings, but Bully-Cummings declined to say if more arrests had been made. At least some of those identified are people who are believed to have hired Smothers to kill. Smothers has been, "very cooperative" with detectives, Bully-Cummings said. He revealed a career that he claimed dates to the August 2006 slaying of one man, and then the first victim's brother five months later, she said. Smothers also has told police that he killed two people in the 59000 bock of Joseph Campau in May 2007.
He also is accused of killing two people in June 2007 on Gravier on the city's east side. Bully-Cummings said it is routine for investigators to bring up old unsolved crimes with a homicide suspect, just in case. As Smothers talked to investigators this weekend, the lead detectives of several old cases were called to police headquarters. Police are confident his stories are true.
"He provided information that nobody else knew," Bully-Cummings said.
Smothers was expected to be arraigned at 5 p.m. today in Detroit's 36th District Court, according to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy for the June 21, 2007, killings of Clarence Cherry, 34, and Gaudrielle Webster, 17. They were slain at an apartment building near Gravier and Cadieux.
In that incident, two men with guns tied up the two female occupants of the apartment and shot them both, killing one of them and critically injuring the other. Cherry was shot to death outside the building. Karsia Rice survived the attack.
police sergeant arrested after a man claimed he was paid to kill the sergeant's wife has been released from custody, and isn't facing charges.Assistant Police Chief Robert Dunlop says 38-year-old David Cobb was released Tuesday morning after spending 47 1/2 hours in custody. He was let go after prosecutors refused to authorize charges.
Cobb was arrested after a man charged with two murders told investigators that he was responsible for at least seven contract killings. One of those killings was Cobb's wife, who was killed outside of a pharmacy in December.
Wayne County prosecutor's spokeswoman Maria Miller had no immediate comment.

past month has seen three high-profile killings in Moscow

The past month has seen three high-profile killings in Moscow: Central Bank official Andrei Kozlov, crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and most recently, Aleksandr Plokhin, a manager with Vneshtorgbank, Russia's second-largest bank. All three crimes are widely viewed as contract killings reminiscent of the wave of killings that characterized the "Wild West" period in Russia in the 1990s.
Russia under President Vladimir Putin seemed a safer place compared to the 1990s -- when the killing of politicians, businessmen, and bankers seemed to be an almost daily occurrence. But that impression, carefully cultivated by the Kremlin, has now come under sharp scrutiny following the recent wave of apparent contract killings of leading figures in Russian banking and independent journalism.Precise statistics are hard to come by. But some observers argue the recent string of killings does not change the fact that, overall, high-profile contract killings have diminished since peaking with the 1998 slaying of human rights advocate and State Duma Deputy Galina Starovoitova."Really high-profile contract killings are much rarer now than they were 12 or 15 years ago," says Mikhail Tukmachyov, who presents "Chrezvychainoye proisshestviye" (Emergency Event), a program on crime on Russia's NTV. "But this may have less to do with the authorities' success in tackling criminality than with the fact that authorities in our country have already divided the money between them. Many criminal groups have made up and found ways of coexisting more or less peacefully.""What we are seeing today in Russia is huge corrupt deals within state companies. And if you have the big corrupt deals within state companies, then you have contract murders." -- economic expert Anders Aslund
Still, hired killings of low-profile targets, such as gangsters, appear to continue unabated. At a 2004 conference on crime in Moscow, Valentin Stepankov, then deputy secretary of the Security Council, estimated that in 2003 alone, organized crime gangs were responsible for some 5,000 contract killings across Russia.

As for high-profile victims, many observers say that the killings over the past month of two banking officials as well as of reporter Anna Politkovskaya show that contract killing remains a common means of settling accounts, eliminating competition, or suppressing media criticism of government policies.

Politkovskaya controversially exposed Russian military atrocities and human rights abuses in Chechnya. Many foreign observers are pointing the finger over her killing at the highest levels of the Kremlin.

Honour killing in Halifax Five men have gone on trial

Tahir Mahmood, 22, Arza Khan, 27, both of Parkinson Lane, Halifax, Naveed Mahmood, 23, of Granville Road, Sheffield, John Reeves, 54, of Adlington Road, Sheffield, and Sam Lee, 30, of Deerlands Avenue, Sheffield, deny murdering Mian Shahid Mehmood.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Mr Mehmood, 29, of Grove Street South, Halifax, was shot dead in cold blood on February 11 last year. Tom Bayliss QC, prosecuting, said Mr Mahmood had married Yasmin Bibi Racha of Parkinson Lane, Halifax, in secret. But her family took exception to the marriage and her brothers, Khan and Tahir Mahmood , took out a contract of her husband's life.Mr Bayliss said: "The prosecution case is the man was killed to order. "Such killings are sometimes referred to as honour killings - this killing was about control and not honour."

Five policemen were killed when about 300 heavily armed Maoists attacked

Five policemen were killed on Sunday when about 300 heavily armed Maoists attacked the Jhajha railway station on Patna-Howrah mainline in Bihar.
Several more were injured, some of them critically. Traffic between Patna and Howrah was disrupted after the attack snapped railway communication links at the station.
There was chaos at the station as passengers scurried for shelter at the station, which comes under Danapur division. All passenger trains passing through Jhajha have been suspended as a precautionary measure, said a senior railway official. The target of the attackers was the government railway police (GRP) station situated at the station. The Maoists swarmed the station on the platform and fired indiscriminately. Before they could respond, four GRP jawans had slumped to the ground. Maoists later carried away weapons, including rifles, SLRs and carbines, besides ammunitions from the GRP armoury. The attack, which came at 6.30pm, also targeted the railway booking office and the RPF post at Jhajha station.

the IEDs were packed in “pan masala” tins and were made from high quality plastic explosive.

The Darjeeling police have recovered 10 sophisticated IEDs and six electronic timers after it carried a raid on a house in Siliguri on Saturday night. This is the third instance in the past two weeks when police have recovered a substantial amount of explosives in the north Bengal city.
All the IEDs were attached to timer devices and were armed, police sources said about the latest seizures. Significantly, this time too the explosives were hauled from a rented accommodation. “They contained ball bearings intended to act as splinters upon explosion. The raid was conducted at a rented house in Gurung Basti, but no arrests have been made,” said Darjeeling Superintendent of Police Rahul Srivastav. All the IEDs were packed in “pan masala” tins and were made from high quality plastic explosive. The chain of seizure began after a bomb blast at a rented apartment on April 3 that killed three people and injured one. The fourth injured member was arrested while trying to escape to Nepal. His interrogation revealed that all four had come from different UN-aided refugee camps in Nepal set up for Nepali refugees formerly settled in Bhutan. The intelligence sources now say that the seized explosives could be a series of planned strikes by Nepal Maoists. Security agencies are, however, yet to establish if the bombs and explosives were meant to be used in terror attacks on Indian soil or in Bhutan.
On April 3, the police had recovered two bombs with timers and detonators from the blast site. Four cellphone SIM cards were also found of which three were of Indian mobile service provider and one Nepalese.
According to Srivastav, the police have since then launched a drive to check out the antecedents of tenants living in the town in rented accommodations.
“We have published advertisements in local newspapers asking people to inform us about their tenants. Using information from the seized SIMs and documents, we have also established electronic surveillance. Both these moves have contributed much towards establishing links and trails.” Following the blast and seizures on April 3, police raided another rented house from which 2.5 kg of plastic explosive was recovered.

Rumen Petkov has resigned amid increasing criticism of the Government over its failure to combat organised crime.

Mafia-style killings have been a hallmark of Bulgarian life since the collapse of communism in 1989, and successful prosecutions been almost unknown.Bulgaria's Interior Minister Rumen Petkov has resigned amid increasing criticism of the Government over its failure to combat organised crime.The move comes after a scandal in which two senior officials of the Interior Ministry were accused of passing classified information to alleged crime bosses.Many European Union member states were sceptical about Bulgaria joining the bloc in 2007 because of a perception that organised criminal gangs controlled large parts of the economy, and were operating in a climate of impunity.The Bulgarian Government says it has given the issue top priority, but has not been able to point to many tangible successes.
Last weekend alone two prominent Bulgarians - an author of books about the mafia and the head of a company maintaining nuclear plants - were shot dead by unknown attackers.

Khasan Yandiyev was killed in the city of Karabulak

Unidentified assailants have killed a senior judge in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, an investigative committee said Sunday.The committee said Ingushetia Supreme Court Deputy Chairman Khasan Yandiyev was killed in the city of Karabulak, RIA Novosti reported.An investigation into the homicide was under way, the Russian news agency said.Organized crime opponent and police officer Anatoly Kyarov was killed by in a similar way by a group of armed gunmen in January.The attack, which also left another police officer dead, occurred as Kyarov was traveling through the city of Nalchik in the North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, RIA Novosti said.

Journalists are killed in contract killings in Russia

Alarming numbers of journalists in Russia have learned the hard way just how strong the opposition to their work can be. Since Putin came to power in 2000, more than a dozen journalists have been killed in contract killings -- the most recent occurring just last month, and the most sensational being the slaying of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.Forty-seven journalists have been killed in the line of duty since 1992, according to the international Committee To Protect Journalists, while reports of beatings and intimidation are common.
Often enough, the government plays a prominent role in the pressures faced by the media. Natalya Morar, a correspondent for the weekly "Novoye vremya" who has Moldovan citizenship, was barred last month from entering Russia for a second time. She was prevented from entering Russia in December on national-security grounds after writing articles about alleged corruption within the Kremlin.
And as of April 7, accredited journalists have been barred from open access to the Russian White House, the main government office complex in Moscow. All official press communications will be distributed by fax and e-mail and published on the government's official website, ending the need for journalists to physically enter the building except for official events.Tregubova says she despairs of the current state of the media in Russia."It's probably not very ethical for me, sitting so far away, in a civilized European country, where human rights are guaranteed, where freedom of speech and freedom of the press are taken for granted -- it wouldn't be ethical for me to criticize those colleagues of mine still in my homeland," Tregubova says. "But frankly, I think that what's going on there is less like journalism than some sort of harem."She says even the boldest of her Kremlin-reporter friends have been reduced to writing flattering anecdotes about the president. No one dares to criticize or write anything different today, she says, because they fear the consequences.As for television, she says, it has become a "nightmare similar to what was shown in Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev's era." Russia's three main television channels are either state-controlled or owned by Kremlin-friendly enterprises, which means you never see news that's critical of the government, Tregubova says.What is interesting, she says, is that samizdat -- the illicit reports published during the Soviet era that were critical of the regime -- have started to reappear, but in a different format."In fact, the strange thing today is that the Internet is playing the role of publisher of samizdat," Tregubova says. "I think that the future journalism textbooks will reflect this. Have a look, for example, at the grani.ru website -- content-wise it is human rights-oriented per se. In fact, this is just what existed before -- underground 'chronicle of the current events' or chronicle of what was going on during the pre-reform times in the Soviet Union."Recently alarms have been raised that the government -- after becoming wary of modern methods of disseminating information -- has stepped up efforts to monitor and control electronic communications and the Internet. In addressing a recent Internet forum, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev reportedly told the audience that the government must consider "the delicate question of the relationship between freedom of speech and responsibility.""I'm afraid that the Russian media must go through the very same difficult path it went through [at the collapse of the Soviet Union]," Tregubova says. "Just as when Yeltsin's reforms began, we built journalism with our own hands, we started a new style, we tried to study western journalism -- so the next generation will have to do the same thing in 10, 15 years' time, when the current regime has gone."

According to federal affidavits, Servando-Ortiz and Mendoza were hired by Doug Tobar, 40, of Houston, and Narayan Thadani, 60, of Richmond, Texas,

Miguel Angel Servando-Ortiz, 40, of Katy and Nelson Oswaldo Mendoza, 34, of Houston, to stand trial on charges of first-degree, premeditated, murder and felony firearm in the deaths of Aasha Chhabra, 56, and her husband, Brij Chhabra, 65. Investigators say both suspects were pulled over by Taylor police in that city after 5 p.m. and found in possession of a handgun and bloodstained documents linked to the Chhabra house, including a map. Last week, Eduardo Hernandez of Wixom testified he was contacted by the suspects about coming to Michigan to look for work. But once they got here, Servando-Ortiz told Hernandez of their real objective. "He (Servando-Ortiz) indicated he had lied to me," said Hernandez. "He wasn't here for work. He was here to get rid of two people. Kill." According to federal affidavits, Servando-Ortiz and Mendoza were hired by Doug Tobar, 40, of Houston, and Narayan Thadani, 60, of Richmond, Texas, to kill the Troy couple because of a pending lawsuit in Texas against Thadani by Aasha Chhabra. She and Thadani had been childhood friends in India and he had agreed to help transfer her $1.5 million inheritance to the United States. Her lawsuit claimed Thadani, a retired engineer, instead withdrew funds without her knowledge or permission into his own account and refused to return them to her. Thadani and Tobar are expected to be extradited next week to stand trial on federal charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Friday. Tobar was Thadani's landscaper and gardener, according to federal documents, and set up the contract with Servando-Ortiz, who told Hernandez he was promised $100,000 to do the job, Hernandez said.

Oleg Gordievsky attempted murder

The Mail on Sunday states police Special Branch are investigating an alleged attempt to murder Oleg Gordievsky, 69, the former KGB colonel and Cold War double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence. Gordievsky, who defected to Britain in 1985, believes he was poisoned by a Russian acquaintance, a former intelligence officer who visited him at his safe house in Surrey in November. He collapsed and was in hospital in Guildford near death for 34 hours, then he spent two weeks in a private clinic and was initially left partially paralysed. He still has no feeling in his fingers. He believes he was poisoned by a Russian Gordievsky told the Mail on Sunday he was certain he was the victim of a similar Kremlin-inspired assassination attempt to that which he claimed befell his friend former Russian Federal Security Service officer and dissident Alexander Litvinenko.
Last October, Gordievsky was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George - the same accolade held by fictional superspy James Bond - by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in recognition of his services to UK security, The Press Associaton adds. Gordievsky accused MI6 of trying to cover up the case, and claimed that police re-opened the inquiry only after pressure from senior intelligence figures, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Leonid Rozhetskin was the victim of a contract killing ,arrested person is the former employee of the Russian secret services

Arrest of former KGB officer reportedly made in missing millionaire case in Latvia
Latvian police have arrested a man they suspect may have been involved in the disappearance of Russian millionaire Leonid Rozhetskin, 41, while in Latvia. Latvian journalists have learned the paragraphs of the Criminal law on the basis of which the man has been arrested – “murder” and "partnership in murder". The Mail on Sunday writes that the arrested man is the same person who earlier claimed to have seen Rozhetskin leave his £1 million luxury villa in his red Porsche Cayenne 4x4 at 7.30am on the day of his disappearance. But then he admitted that he had seen only the car and not the tycoon leaving the gated property.
It also became known that in the hall of a local court an elderly person had been delivered, according to police, a citizen of Latvia. And the policemen have done the utmost to hide the suspected person; he was lead into the court building through the rear entrance. Riga-based daily Telegraf, reporting on the case, underlines that the unknown man has been suspected of murder while the corpse of the businessman is not found till now.
According to unofficial information of the Telegraf, the arrested person is the former employee of the Russian secret services, and probably he was the manager of house of the missing oligarkh. The British Daily Telegraph confirmed yesterday the detained suspect is thought to be a member of Rozhetskin's staff who allegedly has been less than forthcoming with information regarding the disappearance of the millionaire three weeks ago. - We do not think he is being forthcoming with everything he knows. We want to question him further, - the paper cites a police source. Detectives are working on three theories - that Rozhetskin was the victim of a contract killing linked to his business and political background, he was targeted by a far right group because of his private life, or that he may even have decided to stage his disappearance after threats. His family fear he has been murdered by Moscow agents for his business connections.
The arrest came as Rozhetskin's private plane was spotted throughout Europe, leading police to form a number of theories to explain the unusual missing person case. In another twist, Latvia's Interior Minister, Mareks Seglins, revealed that Rozhetskin possessed a fake passport – carrying a real picture of him but a false surname.

EEP member shown secret police murders files on East German fugitives shot in Bulgaria

AIA already reported about recent revelations by a Bulgarian official that the country's communist-era border troops killed East Germans who had fled across Europe and tried to get to the West through the Balkan country's borders. These days the German Member of the European Parliament Gisela Kallenbach (the Greens) was shown two cardboard boxes of "murders files" from the archives of Bulgaria's Border Police about the targeted killings of the East Germans trying to escape to the West before 1989, Sofia News Agency reports. Kallenbach is in Bulgaria in order to collect data about the East Germans shot dead by the Bulgarian Border Police before 1989 while trying to make their way to Greece and Turkey.
At the end of 2007 the German magazine Der Spiegel published materials about the so called "fugitives from the republic", disclosing the Embassy of the former German Democratic Republic in Bulgaria had paid the communist regime in Sofia BGN 2000 for every East German shot at the Bulgarian border while trying to escape from the Eastern Block. According to the investigation of the German historian Stefan Apelius some 2000 East Germans were shot by border patrols while trying to cross the border into Greece and Turkey. The partially opened archives from the Interior Ministry also reveal that 22 Bulgarians were shot while trying to escape to Greece and Turkey only in the period of 1964-67.
The Interior Ministry files contain information about 415 East Germans arrested at the Bulgarian borders, but also about a number of Polish and Hungarian citizens. Yekaterina Boncheva from the Files Committee said in 1975 there was a proposal to destroy these files, Sofia News Agency marks. It adds that many pieces of documentation from the Interior Ministry files are missing. The files from the Ministry of Defense and the National Investigation Service have not been opened yet.
Apart from information about the targeted killings of East Germans in Bulgaria, the opened files also contain information about the cooperation between Stasi, the secret service of the former East Germany, and Bulgaria's State Security Services. The correspondence between them was conducted only in Russian.

Brian Ranard Davis was arrested Friday for the murder of Kandus Hightower-Sharp

Brian Ranard Davis may also have played a role in the death of 26-yer-old Candice Douglas. Her body was found under a bridge in June 2007.police believe killed 25-year-old Kandus Yvonne Hightower-Sharp.The victim's burned body was found in early August 2007.Houston investigators are trying to determine if Hightower-Sharp's killing is related to the deaths of 6 other women. Those bodies were found in Houston's Acres Homes neighborhood from January 2006 to September 2007.Police are awaiting results of forensic and DNA tests.The Acres Homes murders. As many as eight women have been killed in the area in the past few years. “We have expended more resources in this case than in any other that I have been involved in,” said HPD’s Lt. Ron Walker. “It’s because we want to. It’s because we have to. We need to.”
“We want to answer the questions for the people that live in the Acres Homes area,” he said. The killings have left residents of the predominantly black, close-knit community fearful.The Harris County Sheriff's Office is handling the Hightower-Sharp investigation because she's believed to have been killed outside the Houston city limits.

Georgi Stoev,(updated) the author of several books on organised crime in the country, was shot shortly before 1pm on April 7 in Sofia

Georgi Stoev, the author of several books on organised crime in the country, was shot shortly before 1pm on April 7 in Sofia, Bulgarian news agency BTA said, quoting unnamed police sources.The man was shot near Pliska hotel on Tsarigradsko Chausse Boulevard, one of the busiest bus stops in the city. He was shot in the head and was in critical condition, BTA quoted doctor Stoyan Sopotenski at Pirogov emergency hospital as saying.The area was cordoned off, with police investigating the scene of the shooting, witnesses said, quoted by Focus news agency.
The shooting is the second in less than 24 hours in Sofia. Late on April 6, Borislav Georgiev, the chief executive of Atomenergoremont firm, closely linked to businessman Hristo Kovachki, was shot on the stairs of the apartment building he lives in,
Stoev was shot near Pliska Hotel on Tsarigradsko Chausse, one of the busiest bus stops in the city. He was shot in the head and was in critical condition, BTA quoted doctor Stoyan Sopotenski at Pirogov emergency hospital as saying.The area was cordoned off, with police investigating the scene of the shooting, witnesses said, as quoted by Focus news agency.At Pirogov, surgeons extracted two bullets from Stoev's head. He never regained consciousness and died around 7pm on the same day.
The shooting is the second in less than 24 hours in Sofia. Late on April 6, Borislav Georgiev, the chief executive of the firm Atomenergoremon, which is closely linked to businessman Hristo Kovachki, was shot dead on the stairs of the Lyulin apartment building in which he lived, BTA reported.Madjo and the Margin brothers were among the characters in Stoev’s books, that being the reason why they would be interrogated. “We have to check up everything he [Stoev] had written,” Kokinov said. Prosecution would use Interpol services if needed to interrogate Madjo as he is abroad, Kokinov said. The Margin brothers are in Bulgaria under house arrest.
Before his death, Stoev had repeately told the media that he wanted to testify against the organised criminal groups he allegedly was part of and that his life was in danger. Kokinov said that a prosecution representative was send to Stoev, but he refused to testify, which was why prosecution lost interest in his case. “If he really wanted to testify, the procedure was clear,” Kokinov said, adding that it did not involve writing books to increase his rating.
According to one of Stoev’s publishers, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, Stoev was a key witness in the trial against Madjo. He went to the police and confessed that Madjo had assigned him to carry out murders, though he claimed never went through with them. Police notified Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev, who in his turn told Interior Minister Roumen Petkov. Petkov was the one to cancel the operation, Nedyalkov told private broadcaster Nova Television.
Stoev’s murder happened amid a corruption row in the Interior Ministry, which has been raging for nearly a month. Opposition claims that high-level officials, including Petkov, protected organised crime in Bulgaria. In mid-March, the deputy head of the Interior Ministry chief directorate for combating organised crime, Ivan Ivanov, was arrested on charges of leaking confidential information about ongoing investigations. A record of his telephone calls with shady businessmen was sent anonymously to the media. A week after the arrest, on March 25, former Interior Ministry chief secretary general Iliya Iliev was also arrested and charged with overstepping his authority, tantamount to an obstruction of justice. Meanwhile, Petkov admitted meeting businessmen who were investigated by police at the time, claiming his actionsbenefitted both Bulgaria and the Interior Ministry.
The row sparked an immediate reaction in the European Commission (EC). During his official one-day visit to Bulgaria on March 28 2008, EC president José Barroso slammed Bulgaria over its inability to deal with corruption and organised crime.
Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev still refuses to dismiss Petkov, although coalition partners, National Movement for Stability and Progress and Movement for Rights and Freedoms, had already signalled that they were ready to sacrifice the minister. President Georgi Purvanov even said that Petkov had the qualities and the will to carry out the reforms in the ministry. Petkov and Stanishev are both members of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the senior partner in the ruling coalition. Purvanov was BSP's leader before he was elected president.

Charles Ray Hicks told state police troopers he knew why the severed hands of Deanna Marie Null were inside his bathroom

Charles Ray Hicks told state police troopers he knew why the severed hands of Deanna Marie Null were inside his bathroom.But, he never said anything more.
That left investigators without an explanation of the murder and dismemberment of the 36-year-old woman, and why – if Hicks is guilty – he would discard all body parts but keep her hands.Criminal personality expert Judith M. Sgarzi doesn’t know but has a theory.“He kept the hands, about all my guess would be, to use to please himself or to relive his fantasy of what he had her do before he actually murdered her,” said Sgarzi, a professor of criminal justice at Mount Ida College in Newton Centre, Mass.Sgarzi, an expert on criminal personality development and domestic violence, said a dismembering killer fits the psychological profile of a serial killer – a sexual sadist who has no remorse and commits crimes for pleasure.She also suspects the body of a previous victim is somewhere out there.While there have been no updates in the Null case since Hicks was arrested, Sgarzi believes a nationwide search for similarities into other unsolved dismemberment crimes may be under way.To search for patterns, Sgarzi said investigators will have to look at similar unsolved crimes prior to the Null case.If police investigating the case know more, they’re not saying.That leaves the public still wondering about the circumstances surrounding the brutal slaying of the former Williamsport woman.What they do know is that the woman’s body parts were found in January – strewn across highways in the Pocono region.Null’s hands were found inside Hicks’ Coolbaugh Township home in early March shortly after his arrest for the homicide. The hands were wrapped in the Feb. 4 issue of the Scranton Times-Tribune.Null’s body parts were found Jan. 29 along interstates 80 and 380 in Monroe County and 14 miles northbound along I-380 into Lackawanna County.Both hands were then wrapped in four more layers – a bag placed inside a sock, an outer bag with detergent and another sock.Hicks asked questions as he was being taken to jail following the arraignment on March 8, according to a trooper who testified at the preliminary hearing. He asked investigators what they found inside his home – and said they didn’t find a lot of blood, the trooper said.
Sgarzi, who reviewed the master affidavit on the case, said she thinks the person responsible for Null’s death and dismemberment is a disorganized killer who put the body parts out so they would be found.Some of the body parts were found miles away from where Hicks lived, but some were found close his home. Null’s severed head was located about 200 yards from Hicks’ house.
“From the description I saw on the affidavit, it appears some of the body parts were found close to home to where he lived,” Sgarzi said. “If this is true (that he did it), it is a sign of the profile of a disorganized serial killer.”Sgarzi said it is possible whoever killed Null led a double life as a serial killer who is a sexual sadist. The profile of a serial killer, she said, shows these individuals are loners who are pleasant enough to talk with people, but are leading a secret life that took root in childhood fantasies.But, in time, the sexual sadist will play out his or her fantasies in reality. Behaviors escalate over time, said Sgarzi, “All of the research shows that whatever the crime, no matter how vicious, the fantasy is far worse,” she said.
The Null crime, she said, “is definitely the work of one person.” State police have said Hicks’ demeanor has been calm, polite and relaxed, which Sgarzi said is not unusual for someone who might fit the profile of a dismembering killer. Hicks continues to deny any involvement in Null’s murder and dismemberment.
“If you watch interviews with the most famous serial killers, they are all calm and show little emotion, because they have no guilt – they have never developed it. That is what allows them to do this kind of crime.”Hicks, 33, formerly of Burleson, Texas, was employed as a subcontractor at Tobyhanna Army Depot.
At the time of his arrest, according to a trooper, Hicks said he was not on any medications but was prescribed psychiatric medications about five months prior while dealing with a “rocky” divorce.According to court papers, Hicks’ trouble with the law goes back at least six years:In 2002, he was arrested in Texas for assaulting a woman and causing bodily injury. The misdemeanor charge filed in Tarrant County was dismissed.
In 2003, Hicks was charged with aggravated sexual assault, also in Texas.
In 2006, he was arrested in Virginia for assault and battery and possession of cocaine. The assault and battery occurred in Hampton, where Hicks pleaded guilty. The cocaine charge was dropped.
In 2007, he was charged with aggravated robbery in Tarrant County, Texas. The felony charge was dismissed in August 2007
Sgarzi believes this shows a pattern of violence and anger.
“All assault cases are about anger,” Sgarzi said, “but more important, about displaying power over a victim.”
According to Hicks, he only met Null twice – and each time for sex.
Hicks told police he drove to Scranton in search of a prostitute. He said he had sex with Null on two separate occasions, and the two smoked crack cocaine, police said. He would give her drugs and money for sex and they would drive around in his Mercury Grand Marquis.
Null was last seen driving off with a man on Jan. 18 in Scranton, friends told police.
Null, a Williamsport native, had been living in Scranton for nearly two years, and investigators said she would work as a prostitute to support her drug habit.
His family members are steadfast in their belief that Hicks is innocent. They maintain he was set up and that he does not fit the profile of a dismembering murderer.“No one fits this description until they are caught, and they are the least likely to stand out,” Sgarzi said.
Sgarzi believes the information presented in the affidavit and the evidence gathered by police would stand up in trial.
The evidence: A pair of human hands, the bloody shoes found in Hicks’ trunk and hacksaws found inside his home.
Jan. 18: Friends of Deanna Marie Null say they last saw her when she got into a car in Scranton
Jan. 29: Parts of a woman’s body are found in several trash bags along interstate highways in the Pocono region and Lackawanna County
Feb. 4: Police identify Null as the victim in the human remains case
March 8: Charles Ray Hicks of Tobyhanna, Coolbaugh Township, is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of corpse in the death of Null
March 14: Hicks is ordered to stand trial in the murder of Null
“...(I)t appears some of the body parts were found close to home to where he lived.
If this is true, it is a sign of the profile of a disorganized serial killer.”

Attackers stormed the three-mast Le Ponant as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean

"This is a blatant act of piracy," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told reporters while on a visit to Brussels. "The Defense and Foreign ministries are mobilized to act as quickly as possible, I hope in the coming minutes or hours to try to win the freedom of these hostages."
Pirates seized control of a French luxury yacht carrying 30 crew members Friday in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's coast, the French government and the ship's owner said.Pirates boarded a French luxury cruise yacht off the coast of Somalia and took its entire crew hostage today, a French military spokesman said.
The yacht, the Ponant, "was the victim of an act of piracy early this afternoon as it was sailing between Somalia and Yemen," spokesman Christophe Prazuck said.
The 850-tonne, three-masted yacht was carrying about 30 crew but had no passengers on board, Prazuck said."As far as we know, no shots have been fired," he said. French military forces and a US-led task force, both present in the area, "were able to confirm the situation and are following its evolution."France has a patrol aircraft based in Djibouti, as well as a dispatch boat.French cruise operator CMA-CGM confirmed one of its boats had been seized in the Gulf of Aden, on its way from the Seychelles to the Mediterranean, and "the majority" of its crew were French nationals."The ship is indeed the Ponant, property of the CMA-CGM group. We were informed that there were pirates on board," a company spokesman said.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon's office said the government had launched a piracy alert plan.The foreign ministry said it had made contact with the ship's owner and was trying to reach the crew's relatives.The 32-cabin Ponant, fully equipped with lounges, bar and restaurant, is one of three operated by the Marseille-based firm, which describes itself as France's leading cruise provider.With a capacity for 64 passengers, it offers several cruises in the Gulf region, including between Egypt and Aqaba in Jordan, and off the coast of Oman, according to the company's website.
Pirate attacks are frequent off Somalia's 3700-km coastline, prompting the International Maritime Bureau to advise sailors to steer clear.
The French navy was called on in recent months to escort World Food Program boats through Somali waters, after two of the agency's boats were stolen.
Attackers stormed the three-mast Le Ponant as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea, said officials with French maritime transport company CMA-CGM.
He did not elaborate. France has considerable military resources in the region, including a base in Djibouti and a naval flotilla circulating in the Indian Ocean.
The ship was in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's coast in the Indian Ocean, the ministry said. At least some of the crew members are French. The company declined to identify any other crew member nationalities.
"French authorities are handling the situation," Jean-Emmanuel Sauvee, managing director of La Compagnie des Iles du Ponant, told reporters in the southeastern city of Marseille, where his subsidiary of CMA-CGM is based. The company did not want to comment further so as not to endanger the crew members held hostage, he said.
According to the company's Web site, the 88-meter (288-foot) boat features four decks, two restaurants, and indoor and outdoor luxury lounges. It can hold up to 64 passengers.
Le Ponant was next scheduled to carry passengers as part of a 10-day, seven-night trip from Alexandria, Egypt, to Valletta, Malta, starting April 19. Prices started at $3,465, not including air fare or taxes.
Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off Somalia's coast last year.
Denmark's government paid a ransom to win the release in August of the crew of a Danish cargo ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates some two months after they were taken captive.
The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. Last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker.
Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have its own navy, and a transitional government formed in 2004 with U.N. help has struggled to assert control.The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years

Dr Jayant Patel's bid to be free from a US jail while he fights extradition to Queensland on manslaughter charges has been rejected.

The former head of surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital faces the prospect of spending the next two years sharing cells with murderers, rapists and drug dealers if his extradition battle with the Australian government drags on.
Patel, 57, has been held at the high-security Multnomah County Detention Centre, in Portland, Oregon since FBI officers arrested him at his million dollar home on March 11."I conclude that the respondent should be detained for the duration of these extradition proceedings," Judge Dennis Hubel ruled today in the US District Court in Portland.Australian authorities have charged Patel with 16 offences, including three counts of manslaughter, three counts of grievous bodily harm and fraud.
The manslaughter and grievous bodily harm charges relate to alleged botched operations he performed during his employment at the Bundaberg hospital between 2003 and 2005.If Patel is extradited to Queensland and found guilty, he could potentially be sentenced to a lengthy jail sentence.Judge Hubel noted this in his bail decision.
"The penalties which the respondent potentially faces if extradited and convicted in Australia are substantial enough to create a motive to flee," he said.
Patel's lawyer, Susan Russell, argued at a March 18 bail hearing Patel was not a flight risk and, as a vegetarian and devout Hindu, had struggled in jail after his arrest because of inadequate food and an inability to shower as frequently as his religious beliefs require him."While the respondent had difficulty obtaining a diet consistent with his religious practices when he was first incarcerated, the court is advised that pursuant to the court's order, this problem has been remedied and respondent now receives appropriate meals on a regular basis," Judge Hubel wrote.Russell also told the judge Patel, a US citizen, has not attempted to flee his home in Portland or leave the US the past two years despite the prospect of the Australian government moving to charge and extradite him.
US prosecutors pointed to Patel's wealth and his ties to his country of birth, India, as reasons for Patel to remain in jail."Despite the tenor of much of the evidence suggesting that the respondent will not flee, the motivation and means to flee cannot be ignored," Judge Hubel decided.
"Moreover, this court does not have adequate information before it to eliminate or moderate the possibility that the respondent could regain his Indian citizenship and potentially an Indian passport with which to travel."
Judge Hubel did not shut the door on Patel winning bail in the future and said Patel "may seek review of this decision if he has new information to present at a later time".Patel suffered another legal and financial blow last week when the court ruled he was not eligible to use Russell, a US government funded lawyer, because he had "substantial assets" to pay for a private lawyer.Judge Hubel ordered Patel to pay back the US government for the work undertaken by Russell from March 11, the date of his arrest, to the March 18 bail hearing.Russell submitted an affidavit to the court today detailing the 28 hours of work she performed for Patel.The dollar figure Patel will have to pay was not disclosed in the affidavit, but is believed the standard rate is around $US100 ($A09) an hour.Patel's extradition hearing is set for April 18 in Portland.

Nelson Oswaldo Mendoza, Miguel Angel Servando-Ortiz$100,000 to do the job,

Miguel Angel Servando-Ortiz, 40, of Katy and Nelson Oswaldo Mendoza, 34, of Houston, to stand trial on charges of first-degree, premeditated, murder and felony firearm in the deaths of Aasha Chhabra, 56, and her husband, Brij Chhabra, 65.
The Chhabras were found shot to death in second-floor rooms of their home on Delaware Drive on March 11 in what police described as murder-for-hire.
"Brij talked to his daughter on the phone at 12:45 p.m.," said assistant prosecutor Ken Frazee, adding the suspects were videotaped between 2:41 and 2:56 p.m. at the station, a half-mile from the house. Drury also heard Saif Jameel, owner of the BP gas station at Crooks and Big Beaver roads, tell how the pair and their vehicle were videotaped on his store security cameras, which even captured the license plate of the vehicle they were arrested in 90 minutes later in Taylor.
"It appears whatever you paid for the system was worth it today," Drury said to Jameel. Against defense attorneys' objections, Drury tacked on a charge of conspiracy to murder. Investigators say both suspects were pulled over by Taylor police in that city after 5 p.m. and found in possession of a handgun and bloodstained documents linked to the Chhabra house, including a map.
Last week, Eduardo Hernandez of Wixom testified he was contacted by the suspects about coming to Michigan to look for work. But once they got here, Servando-Ortiz told Hernandez of their real objective.
"He (Servando-Ortiz) indicated he had lied to me," said Hernandez. "He wasn't here for work. He was here to get rid of two people. Kill."
According to federal affidavits, Servando-Ortiz and Mendoza were hired by Doug Tobar, 40, of Houston, and Narayan Thadani, 60, of Richmond, Texas, to kill the Troy couple because of a pending lawsuit in Texas against Thadani by Aasha Chhabra.
She and Thadani had been childhood friends in India and he had agreed to help transfer her $1.5 million inheritance to the United States. Her lawsuit claimed Thadani, a retired engineer, instead withdrew funds without her knowledge or permission into his own account and refused to return them to her. Thadani and Tobar are expected to be extradited next week to stand trial on federal charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Friday.
Tobar was Thadani's landscaper and gardener, according to federal documents, and set up the contract with Servando-Ortiz, who told Hernandez he was promised $100,000 to do the job, Hernandez said

Ilyas Shurpayev, a correspondent for Russia's state-run Channel One, was found stabbed and strangled with a belt in his Moscow apartment

Ilyas Shurpayev, a correspondent for Russia's state-run Channel One, was found stabbed and strangled with a belt in his Moscow apartment on 21 March. Later the same day, gunmen fired on a car carrying Gadzhi Abashilov, the head of Dagestan's state-controlled television channel, in a drive-by shooting in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala. Two journalists who covered the volatile North Caucasus were brutally murdered in Russia, report the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES), along with other IFEX members and news reports. "The presidency of Vladimir Putin has been marred by an appalling record of ineffectiveness in bringing to justice the killers of more than a dozen journalists murdered during his administration," says CPJ. "We urge President-elect Dmitry Medvedev to confront this legacy and ensure that those responsible for these two killings are brought to justice." Firefighters found the body of Shurpayev, a Dagestan-born reporter who covered conflicts in the Northern Caucasus for Channel One, in his Moscow home after a neighbour reported a fire in the apartment he rented. According to CPJ, investigators say the perpetrators had set fire to the apartment to conceal the crime. It appears that Shurpayev might have known his assailants. The reporter had called down to his building's concierge at 2 am to ask that two young men, apparently of North Caucasus origin, be let into the building shortly before he was killed, say news reports. CPJ says the authorities have ruled out robbery since Shurpayev's valuables were not taken.

Hours before his death, Shurpayev posted an entry in his blog about the owners of a newspaper in Dagestan banning a column he had written and instructing the staff to not mention his name in publications. "Now I am a dissident!" was the title of the last entry. But Oleg Panfilov, head of CJES and a friend of Shurpayev's, thought it unlikely that his death was related to his work. Shurpayev, who previously worked for the state-controlled NTV channel and moved to Moscow in February to work for Channel One, was "never involved in any kind of aggressive journalism," says Panfilov. In an unrelated case, Gadzhi Abashilov was shot dead in his car as he travelled home from work in Makhachkala. His driver was hospitalised in critical condition. According to Russian news reports, Abashilov, "an uncompromising fighter against extremism and terrorism," was included in lists on separatist websites of people to be shot. Before becoming head of Dagestan's state television and radio broadcasting company GTRK, he hosted his own TV programme, edited a local newspaper and served as deputy information minister in the republic. Dagestan, which lies between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, has been plagued by clan struggle and criminal violence. Abashilov's predecessor, Tagib Abdusamadov, survived a murder attempt in 2004.
Russian officials have opened criminal cases into the murders and were considering the possibility that both killings were connected to the men's work.
Since 2000, more than a dozen journalists have been slain in contract-style killings in Russia, many appearing to have been targeted because of their attempts to expose allegations of corruption. Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in 2006 after writing about Russian atrocities in Chechyna. As in many of the other cases, the killers have not been found. CPJ has recently launched an impunity campaign that targets Russia

Shakeel used to call up businessmen in Mumbai for extorting money. Two businessmen, who refused, were shot dead by Zuber.

Mohammed Zuber Sheikh alias Tubrej, a member of the Chhota Shakeel gang, was arrested from the Naroda-Patiya area here late Thursday night. A bogus passport, an election photo identity and permanent income-tax account number (PAN) cards and a mobile phone were seized from him. Zuber, 28, is a sharpshooter of Chhota Shakeel gang and was said to be living in Gujarat’s Muslim dominated Modassa town in Sabarkantha district. He was in constant touch with Shakeel since January this year. He was about leave for Dubai using the bogus passport when he was caught, a police official told IANS.The Ahmedabad police Crime Branch Friday questioned Zuber who said that after passing Class 12, he was involved in a gang war with Arun Gawli and a complaint was registered against him in Kidwai nagar police station. Another complaint in the same police station was registered for looting Laxmi Jewellers. A case of extortion was also registered against him.Zuber, who is wanted by Mumbai and Delhi police forces, was involved in the sensational attempt to kill former Mumbai mayor Milind Vaidya in 1999 in front of his Mori Road residence in Mahim.
Zuber and his accomplices used AK-47 and 9 mm pistols. They fired indiscriminately and killed Vaidya’s bodyguard and six bystanders. Eight others, including Vaidya, were seriously injured.Zuber became part of Chhota Shakeel gang in 1995. Soon after in August 1995, Zuber shot dead Rajan Gupta, a wholesale dealer in Mahim cloth market. Shakeel used to call up businessmen in Mumbai for extorting money. Two businessmen, who refused, were shot dead by Zuber. When Shakeel tried to extort money from the Shiv Sena’s former mayor Vaidya, he refused to pay. Shakeel then ordered Zuber to kill Vaidya and an attempt was made in front of his house.
A case was registered against Zuber and his two accomplices under the MCOCA, IPC and Arms Act for the daring shoot-out. The Special Court set up under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) sentenced him to death in 2000. The Mumbai High Court ordered his release for lack of evidence. However, the Supreme Court ordered his re-arrest on an appeal by the state of Maharashtra. Before Zuber could be re-arrested, he escaped to Nepal and was there for some time.

Later, he came to Delhi after taking a `supari’ (contract) to kill someone and was apprehended. Again he got bail and went underground before coming to Modassa in 2004. He changed his name to Shabir Multani and then set up a transport business.The Mumbai Poluice crime branch was alerted soon after his arrest here. sharp shooter of the Chhota Shakeel gang, wanted in several offences in Mumbai and Delhi, was arrested in Ahmedabad while he was trying to leave the country on a fake passport, sources in the Crime Branch said on Friday.
Mohammad Juber alias Tabrez alias Jugnu Kasam Sheikh was caught by the Crime Branch from Naroda area when he was going to the airport on Thursday, they added. Crime Branch had received a tip off that he was going to Dubai on a fake passport, they said, adding the passport was recovered from him.
After Juber's preliminary interrogation, the Crime Branch has found that he was going for a specific mission to Dubai from Ahmedabad, the sources said.
Juber has several serious offences registered against him in Mumbai and Delhi, including the case of killing seven people in Mumbai when he along with his associates had attacked Mumbai Mayor Milind Vaidhya in 1999, officials said.
He was also involved in the killing of a Mumbai-based wholesale dealer, Rajan Gupta, in 1995, they added. He was earlier caught by Delhi Police with weapons and explosives while he was on a mission to kill underworld don Subashsingh Thakur.
Juber is also alleged to have participated in looting a branch of Allahabad Bank in Ahmedabad in 1988, police said.