Young man, 20, shot dead in north London named as Richard Odunze-Dim

Pic:Victim: Richard Odunze-Dim ( Met Police )
Crime reporter,London(wp/es):

A young man shot dead in north London has been named as Richard Odunze-Dim as police continue to appeal for information relating to his death. 

Mr Odunze-Dim, 20, was found suffering a gunshot wound at an address in St Joseph's Road in Edmonton at around 9.15pm on December 18. 

London Ambulance Service and officers from the Metropolitan Police rushed to the scene. 

Mr Odunze-Dim died at the scene shortly after at 10.10pm. 

His next of kin have been informed, Scotland Yard said in a statement.

A post-mortem examination on December 21 found the cause of death to be a gunshot wound.

Officers from the Met's Homicide and Major Crime Command have arrested five males on suspicion of murder.

Three, aged 24, 19 and 17, were arrested at the scene. They have since been released with no further action.

Two men, aged 19 and 23, were arrested on Sunday. They remain in custody at this time.

Detective Chief Inspector Gary Holmes said: "This Christmas is going to be incredibly hard for Richard’s family who have lost someone dear in a senseless act of violence.

“Despite it being within the festive season, my officers will be working tirelessly around the clock to establish the motive for the shooting and apprehend the dangerous individuals involved.

"Although, we have two suspects in custody, I urge anyone who may have witnessed this murder or who has information to contact police without delay.”

A spokesman for Richard’s family said: “Whoever knows anything about this must come forward and assist the police. Whoever is protecting these individuals must come forward.

“Our circumstances are no different - too many families have gone through the pain that we are going through now.

“We do not want vengeance we just want the violence to end.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Incident Room on 020 8345 1570 or call police on 101 and quote CAD 7822/18Dec.

Information can also be reported to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org.

Two teens charged with murder following death of 25-year-old from knife wounds

Crime reporter(wp/es):

Two teenage boys have been charged with the murder following the death of 25-year-old Wilham Mendes.

Mr Mendes was a Portuguese national who has lived in the UK since 2015 and a keen boxer, Scotland Yard said as they named him on Monday.

He was found in Albert Place, Tottenham, at around 1.20am with multiple knife wounds.

Police officers attended along with London Ambulance Service (LAS) and he was taken to an east London hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2.13am.

Mr Mendes' next of kin are aware and a post-mortem examination will be held in due course, police said.

The pair of boys, aged 15, were arrested on December 23 and charged on Christmas Eve.

They will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, December 26.

Mum Rebecca Fisher, 23, says blog is 'lifesaver'

Pic:Rebecca Fisher (pictured with daughters Elsa and Cleo) found out she was pregnant at the same time as her mother - their babies were born 17 days apart/bbc
Staff reporter(wp/bbc):    
A mother who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after giving birth to her second child said her blog has been her "lifesaver".

Rebecca Fisher, 23, originally launched it shortly after her brother Rory was born with Down's syndrome - 17 days after she had her first child in 2015.

The blogger, from Norfolk, has since won awards and said being a parent in a rural village could be "isolating".

"I don't know what I'd have done without [the blog]," she said.

Mrs Fisher lives in Burnham Market with daughters Elsa, three, and 18-month-old Cleo, and her husband Jonny, 26.

She said The Coastal Mummy had helped her overcome a string of challenges.

Her younger daughter was born by emergency Caesarean section, which led to post-traumatic stress disorder and post-natal depression. It was the blog which helped her through the distressing experience.

"I couldn't speak about it afterwards," she said.

"But if I've got a problem, I will write it down and then it's out of my head. It is like a cleanse.

"If my bad birth experience helps one other person then that helps me."

It was also the village's rural nature that prompted her to start writing after her family was shunned by some people when brother Rory, now three, arrived.

He had been a much-wanted fifth baby by Mrs Fisher's mother Jayne Thompson, 44, who revealed her pregnancy at the same time as her daughter.

"I was dreading telling my parents. I called my mum into my room and said 'I think I'm pregnant' and she went 'That's funny, because I think I am too'," said Mrs Fisher, who was at college at the time.

The family were told there was a 20 per cent chance the baby could have Down's syndrome, so they were prepared but soon felt the need to raise awareness after he was born.

"People either stood by us or stopped speaking to us," said Mrs Fisher, who describes herself as a Down's syndrome advocate.

She said she wanted to challenge a lot of the "myths" about the condition. "I thought I'd get something out there," she said.

Despite having to retake her English GCSE, Mrs Fisher has gone on to win a national Mencap journalism award and a local parenting blog title.

"I am a completely different person to who I was at school," she said.

"I wonder what my English teacher would say if they saw what I do now."

Baby named after officers who took woman to hospital

Pic:2 Hero police officer-PC-James Ireland&Dan Bellingham -wp/bbc
Staff reporter(wp/bbc):

A pregnant woman rushed to hospital by two police officers has said thank you - by naming her baby after them.

PCs James Ireland and Dan Bellingham were battling the rush hour traffic near Chelmsford, Essex, when they came across a panicked man whose wife was in the final stages of labour.

The officers blue-lighted the couple to hospital, where baby James Daniel arrived 10 minutes later.

PC Ireland, who is based in Stanway, said it was "an amazing job for us".

James' father Steve, who flagged the officers down on the A12, said they were "heroes".

"We felt that they definitely executed their duties with distinction," he said.

PC Ireland added: "We were more than happy to help the couple. We wish them all the best with their new addition."

Abbas Edalat: British professor returns to UK after detention in Iran

Pic:Abbas Edalat was reportedly detained on 15 April/bbc
Diplomatic correspondent(wp/bbc):
A British-Iranian academic who was arrested and detained in Iran on security charges has returned to the UK, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

Prof Abbas Edalat, who works at Imperial College London, was detained in Tehran in April.

The Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran said he was released last week.

British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe remains in prison in Iran, where she has been since 2016.

Prof Edalat - who specialises in computer science and mathematics - was reportedly attending an academic workshop in Iran on 15 April when he was detained.

At the time of his arrest, an Iranian news agency reported that Prof Edalat was part of a "network" of British spies whose members had been identified and arrested.

Prof Edalat founded anti-war protest group CASMII, which opposes sanctions in Iran.

The group said: "It increasingly appears, as we had suspected, that his detention in spring in Iran was a case of misinformation and misunderstanding by the Iranian security apparatus."

• Iran confirms arrest of British professor
• Mayor calls for jailed Briton's release

In April, there were at least 30 dual nationals in jail in Iran - among them several dual British-Iranian nationals.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We continue to take action on all our consular cases in Iran in line with what we believe will produce the best outcomes in their cases."

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year jail sentence after being convicted of spying charges, which she denies.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt met Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, Richard Ratcliffe, on 21 December to assure him the Foreign Office was continuing to work towards her release.

With regards to her case, a Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have repeatedly lobbied the Iranians to release Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe on humanitarian grounds and we raise all our cases at every level and every opportunity."

The spokesman added that Iran did not recognise dual nationality, which made the case more difficult.

Prime Minister Theresa May met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for talksat the United Nations in New York in September, when she told him she had "serious concerns" about Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's imprisonment.

Ant Financial in talks to buy UK payments firm WorldFirst - Sky News

Staff reporter(wp/reuters):
Ant Financial Services Group, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited’s (BABA.N) fintech affiliate, is in advanced talks to buy British currency exchange startup WorldFirst in a deal that could be worth more than 500 million pounds, Sky News reported on Monday, citing sources.
Ant Financial, China’s biggest online payments platform, has been in talks with WorldFirst for several months, according to the report.

“We don’t comment on market rumours,” an Ant Financial spokesperson said, when asked about the report.

WorldFirst did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Sky News report also said that it was unclear whether existing investors would retain a stake in WorldFirst, which was founded in 2004 in the basement of a house in South London.

After Gatwick chaos, minister says detection systems can combat drones

Staff reporter(wp/reuters):
Britain’s security forces have detection systems that can be deployed throughout the country to combat the threat of drones, security minister Ben Wallace said on Monday, after three days of disruption at London’s Gatwick airport last week.

"I can say that we are able to now deploy detection systems throughout the UK to combat this (drone) threat," Wallace said in a tweet bit.ly/2QQO72E. The tweet did not give further details.

Three days of drone sightings caused chaos at Britain’s second busiest airport, thought to be the most disruptive incident of its kind, revealing a vulnerability that will be scrutinised by security forces and airport operators worldwide.

Police say they have taken statements from scores of witnesses who saw the drones. They have rowed back from a statement by one police officer to the BBC that there may have been no drone activity at all.

On Sunday, British police released without charge two people arrested earlier in the inquiry.

The investigation is ongoing, with no group having yet taken responsibility publicly for the incident.

The drones were spotted at the airport on Wednesday evening, forcing it to close its runway in the run up to Christmas. Every time the airport sought to reopen the runway on Thursday, the drones returned.

Authorities finally regained control over the airfield after officials said the army had deployed unspecified military technology to guard the area, reassuring the airport that it was safe enough to fly.

Flying drones within 1 km (0.6 mile) of a British airport boundary is punishable by five years in prison.

“Those people who choose to use drones recklessly or for criminal purposes can expect the most severe sentence when caught,” Wallace said on Twitter.

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