Deangelo Clark, the suspect in the murder of his 20-year-old Trinidadian girlfriend Kiara Alleyne, will be charged with murder today.

Sgt Paul Bloom of the Marion County Sheriff’s office told Newsday that Clark will return to the county this morning, and placed in jail at around 10 am. Clark was in hospital being treated for “serious injuries.” “He is suspected of killing his girlfriend in Marion County and fleeing to the Florida Keys where he broke into a home and started a fire before being arrested by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office,” Bloom said.

On September 11, Kiara Alleyne originally from Point Fortin, was found murdered in her Ocala, Florida home. Police said Clark video called her father, Sheldon Alleyne, on FaceTime during the act. Clark then fled with their one-year-old daughter and police issued an AMBER alert which was cancelled after the child was found, unharmed, with a family member.(Stabroeknews)…[+]

Arson, assault, harassment and vandalism: as the rising cost of housing funnels more Los Angeles residents out of their homes and onto the streets, homeless people and their advocates are reporting an alarming rise in vigilante attacks against the unhoused.

In late August, a fast-moving fire in the hip, residential neighborhood of Eagle Rock briefly dominated headlines when it temporarily closed down two freeways and triggered a small-scale evacuation. In the week that followed, authorities revealed the fire had started in a homeless encampment, and was set by two men, one the son of the local chamber of commerce president. No one was injured, but prosecutors are reportedly considering charges of attempted murder.

By the time of the Eagle Rock fire, advocates for the homeless say they had already clocked a steady rise in vigilantism. Statistics have long shown that the homeless are more likely than the housed to be the victims of a variety of crimes. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) doesn’t keep specific records of vigilante attacks against the homeless. But in interviews with close to a dozen people who live on the streets and in their cars, all said there had been a noticeable increase in attacks and harassment from people who target them for being homeless over the past year.

Many of those attacks have occurred in the San Fernando Valley, a sprawling network of suburbs with a growing homeless population.(The Guardian)…[+]

A British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran is to send her daughter home to the UK to start school, she has said in an open letter. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was jailed for five years in 2016 after being convicted of spying, which she denies. Her family insist she was in Iran to introduce her daughter to relatives.

Five-year-old Gabriella – who has been living with her grandparents in Tehran – has visited her mother at least once a week since her arrest. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab described the letter as “heart-breaking” and said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detainment was “unjustifiable and unacceptable”.

Her daughter will be back in London before Christmas, according to the Times. Speaking to the BBC, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, confirmed that the couple have decided to bring Gabriella back to the UK to start school. He added that his wife is hoping for a last minute release to enable her to come home with Gabriella. “I don’t think she’s expecting it though,” he said.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family told the Times they had agreed Gabriella should return to the UK for the start of the school year in September but postponed the decision after Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken to a psychiatric hospital.(BBC)…[+]

The cen­tu­ry-old Clax­ton Bay Ju­nior An­gli­can School has been shut down be­cause of un­safe con­di­tions, leav­ing over 170 pupils dis­placed. The clo­sure of the school was high­light­ed by for­mer UNC Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj in a Face­book post yes­ter­day.

Ma­haraj said the school was or­dered closed with im­me­di­ate ef­fect and a rec­om­men­da­tion was made by the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Au­thor­i­ty in­spec­tion of­fi­cers on Sep­tem­ber 30, 2019 for it to be de­mol­ished. “The ne­glect of the school by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion con­tin­ues de­spite the state of the school. Over 170 stu­dents have been af­fect­ed by the no­tice to close the school pur­suant to the OSH Act Sec­tion 71 (1). This school which is over 100 years old was not on the list for ren­o­va­tions for the last pe­ri­od,” Ma­haraj wrote.

Dur­ing a meet­ing of par­ents and teach­ers at the An­gli­can church next to the con­demned build­ing, school of­fi­cials made clear the po­si­tion of the OS­HA.(Stabroek News)…[+]

A woman and her daugh­ter had to be res­cued yes­ter­day by of­fi­cers from the Guard and Emer­gency Branch, Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions re­sponse Team (SORT) and the North­ern Di­vi­sion af­ter a two-hour or­deal where they were held hostage by the woman’s hus­band. The in­ci­dent took place at Mal­abar yes­ter­day morn­ing and saw scores of heav­i­ly armed po­lice of­fi­cers in the area as they tried to bring a peace­ful end to what could have been a dead­ly sit­u­a­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, of­fi­cers were told the 34-year-old man, who lives with his wife and daugh­ter at Har­ri­nanan Av­enue, Mal­abar be­gan “act­ing-up” at about 7 am. He is said to suf­fer from a men­tal ail­ment.  Po­lice said they were told that the sus­pect was at­tempt­ing to pre­vent the two fe­males – the moth­er and her daugh­ter, from leav­ing the house and even­tu­al­ly held them against their will.

The man was said to be throw­ing any­thing he got his hands on in­clud­ing fur­ni­ture in­side the house. It was un­clear if he was armed or had any weapon when he held his wife and daugh­ter in­side the house against their will.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

Northern Ireland’s abortion law breaches the UK’s human rights commitments, the High Court ruled. The case was taken in Belfast by Sarah Ewart, who challenged the law after she was denied a termination. The judge said she ruled in Mrs Ewart’s favour as it was not right to ask another woman to relive the trauma that she had already experienced. Mrs Ewart said the ruling was “a turning point for women” in their campaign against “outdated laws”.

The judge said a formal declaration of incompatibility would not be made at this stage. Mrs Justice Keegan made that decision in light of impending legislation, already passed at Westminster, which will decriminalise abortion if there is no deal to restore devolution in Northern Ireland by 21 October. Members of the anti-abortion campaign group Precious Life protested outside the court during the hearing. “It’s a very sad day that the court has denied the right to life for unborn children,” said director Bernie Smyth.(BBC)…[+]

Thieves stole some of Mahatma Gandhi’s remains on what would have been his 150th birthday, police say. The ashes were taken from a memorial in central India, where they had been kept since 1948 – the year of Gandhi’s assassination by a Hindu extremist.

The thieves also scrawled “traitor” in green paint across photographs of the independence leader. Some Hindu hardliners view Gandhi as a traitor for his advocacy of Hindu-Muslim unity. This is despite Gandhi being a devout Hindu himself.

Police in Rewa, in Madhya Pradesh state, confirmed to BBC Hindi’s Shuriah Niazi that they were investigating the theft on the grounds of actions “prejudicial to national integration” and potential breach of the peace. Mangaldeep Tiwari, caretaker of the Bapu Bhawan memorial, where the ashes were being held, said the theft was “shameful”.

“I opened the gate of the Bhawan early in the morning because it was Gandhi’s birthday,” he told Indian website The Wire. “When I returned at around 23:00 [17:30 GMT], I found the mortal remains of Gandhi missing and his poster was defaced.” Police took action after Gurmeet Singh – leader of the local Congress political party – filed a complaint. “This madness must stop,” Mr Singh told The Wire. “I urge Rewa police to check CCTV cameras installed inside Bapu Bhawan.”(BBC)…[+]

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have begun the final day of their overseas tour as the Mail on Sunday says it will “vigorously” defend itself in a court case launched by the couple. Prince Harry’s wife is suing the paper over a claim it unlawfully published a private letter Meghan sent to her father, Thomas Markle.

The duke said the legal action was in response to “relentless propaganda”. A Mail on Sunday spokesman said the paper stood by the story it published. Prince Harry said “positive” coverage of the couple’s tour of Africa had exposed the “double standards” of “this specific press pack that has vilified [Meghan] almost daily for the past nine months”.

The royal couple visited Tembisa township, near Johannesburg, to learn about a scheme to tackle youth unemployment, on the final day of their 10-day tour. They also met Nelson Mendela’s widow, Graca Machel.(BBC)…[+]

NEW YORK – The United States has blocked the import of goods suspected to have been made with forced labour from five countries, including clothing from China and diamonds from Zimbabwe, officials said on Tuesday following a rare crackdown on slave labor abroad.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it seized five different products this week based on information indicating the goods were made using slave labor overseas. The items included rubber gloves made by a company in Malaysia, gold from artisanal mines in Democratic Republic of Congo, clothes produced by a firm in Xinjiang, China, diamonds from the Marange Diamond Fields in Zimbabwe, and bone black – charred animal bones – manufactured by a business in Brazil.

Under a 2016 law, it is illegal to import goods into the United States that are made entirely or in part by forced labor – which includes prison work, bonded labor and child labour. “A major part of CBP’s mission is facilitating legitimate trade and travel,” said Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan.(Thomson Reuters Foundation)…[+]

Fifty-two el­der­ly peo­ple aged 60 years and over have been mur­dered in Trinidad and To­ba­go be­tween the start of 2018 and now, with the first nine months of 2019 ac­count­ing for 32 of them. This star­tling dis­clo­sure was made to Guardian Me­dia by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) on Tues­day.

Of the 32 cas­es this year, six peo­ple were ar­rest­ed and charged, one of which was a fam­i­ly mem­ber of one of the vic­tims. In 2018, 20 mur­ders were re­port­ed, sev­en of which were de­tect­ed with ten peo­ple ar­rest­ed and charged, one of whom was a fam­i­ly mem­ber.

An ar­ti­cle pub­lished in the Sun­day Guardian on Sep­tem­ber 8, re­vealed that be­tween 2016 and Sep­tem­ber 8, eight per cent of the vic­tims of se­ri­ous crimes in this coun­try have been se­nior cit­i­zens. In that ar­ti­cle, Janelle Se­bas­t­ian-Reyes, an of­fi­cer at the Vic­tim Wit­ness and Sup­port Unit (VW­SU) of­fi­cer ex­pressed con­cern about how vul­ner­a­ble the coun­try’s rapid­ly grow­ing el­der­ly pop­u­la­tion are to crim­i­nals “Eight per cent is too high!” (Trinidad Guardian)…[+]