Italy: Briton Held Over Tour Guide Murder

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

A Briton has been arrested in Italy for the murder of a tour guide and the attempted killing of another man.

Jason Peter Marshall, 24, was held by police early on Saturday after they traced him through his mobile phone signal to a late night bus.

Police believe he met both men through gay internet chat rooms.

He was arrested after a 55-year-old man was found severely beaten in the bedroom of his apartment in central Rome, following calls to police when neighbours heard screams and calls for help.

When officers arrived on the scene, the victim identified Marshall as his attacker and described how he had been threatened with a gun, badly beaten with a telescopic cosh and smothered with a pillow.

Marshall is said to have fled the apartment with €400 (£348), credit cards and the victim's iPad as he allegedly tried to erase all traces of contact between him and the victim.

Marshall, who is originally from Greenwich, southeast London, is said to have arrived in Italy last month and police in Rome have confirmed he is also the prime suspect in the murder of tour guide Vincenzo Iale.

The 68-year-old was found strangled and stabbed to death in his flat at Torvajanica, on the outskirts of Rome, four weeks ago with his bank card missing.

Police said Marshall was being held in Rome's Regina Coeli jail on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, kidnap and possessing offensive weapons.

Sources said the victims had been targeted through gay internet chat rooms.

A Rome police source said: "This could easily have been a double murder investigation and the second victim - although badly hurt - can think himself lucky he is not dead."

No one from the British Embassy in Rome was immediately available for comment and Marshall is expected to be questioned further by prosecutors ahead of appearing before an investigating judge.

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Peru: Dozens Of Dead Sea Creatures Washed Up

Experts are trying to work out why nearly 100 dead animals and birds have washed up on a Peruvian coastline.

The bodies of 18 sea turtles, 22 sea lions, eight dolphins, 16 angular roughsharks and 22 marine birds were found during an inspection by government officials.

Some of the creatures were sprayed with a special paint as part of an investigation into the grim discovery along 77 miles of the Lambayeque coastline.

The carcasses, were in various states of decomposition, were measured, placed in bags and then taken away for analysis.

Jaime De La Cruz, an engineer with Peru's Ocean Institute, said a report detailing their cause of death was expected in the coming weeks.

In the past couple of years, a worrying number of dead sea creatures have been ending up on Peru's shores.

While officials have yet to conclusively pinpoint a cause, some of the possible explanations include viruses, offshore oil exploration, or poisoned food sources.

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British Man Drowns At Egypt Resort

A British man has drowned while swimming in the sea off the popular Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh.

A British embassy spokeswoman in Cairo confirmed that the 50-year-old had drowned while swimming on Friday.

However, she said she could give no further detail on the circumstances surrounding his death.

The Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh

Sharm el Sheikh is one of the main Red Sea resorts and attracts millions of tourists each year.

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Austin Sigg On 911 Call: 'I Murdered Jessica'

An 18-year-old accused of kidnapping and killing a suburban Denver schoolgirl told 911 that he had murdered her.

"I murdered Jessica Ridgeway. I have proof that I did it," Austin Sigg said in the October 23 call.

He said some of Jessica's remains were in the crawl space at his mother's house, according to a recording of the call played in court during his preliminary hearing.

Sigg has been ordered to stand trial and be held without bail.

He is charged with murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and robbery.

Prosecutors have also added three counts of sexual exploitation of a child because of child pornography allegedly found during the investigation.

Jessica, 10, disappeared while walking to school on October 5. Some of her remains were found in garbage bags in an open space park five days later.

The case set parents in the Denver area on edge as weeks passed without an arrest.

Jessica disappeared while walking to school

Hundreds of officers searched the area, investigating leads and taking DNA samples as parents waited with their children at bus stops.

Sigg is also accused of attacking a jogger months before Jessica disappeared. The attack took place just across the street from Jessica's elementary school.

Investigator Michael Lynch testified that Sigg had first confessed to his mother.

According to Mr Lynch, Sigg told her that he had kidnapped Jessica, bound her arms and her legs and placed her in the back seat. He then drove around for a bit before taking her to his house.

He first tried to strangle the girl and later dismembered her, Mr Lynch testified.

Investigators searched Sigg's home after he was linked to the girl's death

The suspect's mother Mindy Sigg called 911 to say her son wanted to turn himself in and had confessed to killing the girl.

During the call she can be heard crying, and eventually she put her son through.

The dispatcher asks him general questions.

"I don't exactly get why you're asking me these questions. I murdered Jessica Ridgeway. I have proof that I did it," the 18-year-old said.

"You have to send a squad car down here, and I'll answer any questions you want to ask me."

During the call he also confessed to attacking the jogger months before.

Both Mindy Sigg and Austin Sigg wiped their faces as the tape was being played.

The call occurred four days after the FBI took a DNA sample from Sigg as part of their investigation.

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Banksy Mural Withdrawn From Auction

By Liz Lane, Sky News Reporter

A Banksy work that was removed from the side of a north London Poundland shop under mysterious circumstances has been withdrawn from sale in the US.

The world's most famous street artist painted the mural on the side of Poundland in Wood Green last May, before the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Called Slave Labour, it showed a boy hunched over a sewing machine making Union Flag bunting.

It was suddenly removed from the wall last weekend, to the anger of local people, and turned up at Fine Art Auctions in Miami where it was expected to fetch up to £460,000 ($700,000).

It looks like a week-long campaign by Haringey Council to stop the sale may have worked as, at the last-minute, the lot was pulled.

A spokesman for the Florida auction house said there were "no legal issues" regarding the sale but that it had decided to withdraw two Banksy lots. No further explanation was given.

Wood Green councillor Alan Strickland said: "To have the mural withdrawn from sale at the 11th hour is a wonderful surprise for the community here in Wood Green.

"It suggests the level of international media attention has had a real impact."

Mr Strickland emailed FAA owner Frederic Thut to ask why the sale had not gone ahead and if there were any plans to auction it in the future.

"Local people have already been in touch about the brilliant news, but we need to know what's going to happen now," he said.

A stencil of a rat holding a sign saying "Why?" has appeared on the wall

"It seems like we're half-way there. The next step is to get it returned."

It is still unclear who intended to sell the artwork via the auction house, but the Metropolitan Police had said there had not been any reports of theft.

A solicitor for Wood Green Investments, which owns the Poundland site, told Sky News: "My clients do not court publicity, but find themselves in the quite remarkable position that if they deny removing the mural then they will become embroiled in an international criminal investigation that has already involved the FBI.

"But if they admit to consenting to the removal of the mural then they will become the target of abuse."

The episode has started a debate about who, if anyone, owns street art.

Artist "Stik" is clear about who he paints for: "Street artists are putting their work on the street for people. It's for communities, and it's an artistic expression. It's a public gallery. It's open 24 hours a day and it's the biggest gallery in the world, because it is the world."

This isn't this first time murals have been removed to be sold for huge sums. French artist Thierry Noir contributed to the longest concrete painting in the world on the Berlin Wall.

He told Sky News that when the wall came down, his work was stripped by East German soldiers and sold in Monaco for £2m: "It was the soldiers so what can I do against soldiers? Nothing except look at those soldiers.

"It took them one week to take the complete pieces I paint in Berlin, but it was too strong for me so I had to accept it."

A rat holding up a sign saying "Why?" has been stencilled next to the empty space where the Banksy mural stood, with some speculating it could be another work by the elusive artist.

Whether Slave Labour will be returned to the community it was meant for, remains as mysterious as the artist.

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Las Vegas Crash: Suspect Named After Shooting

Police have named a prime suspect in a Las Vegas shooting that killed a rapper and led to the deaths of two other people.

Ammar Harris, 26, is being sought in connection with the attack following the discovery of a Range Rover.

The vehicle is believed to have been used in the shooting that killed aspiring rapper Kenny Clutch, 27, who was driving his Maserati down the city's main boulevard.

The attack resulted in a six-vehicle crash on the famous Strip near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and Flamingo resorts.

The black Range Rover thought to have been used in the shooting

"His location is unknown," police Captain Chris Jones said of Harris.

Police said he had been arrested for working as a pimp and warned he should be considered armed and dangerous.

The Range Rover, with blacked out windows and distinctive black rims, was found at an apartment complex near the boulevard, and was impounded as evidence, Captain Jones said.

Taxi driver Michael Boldon died after his vehicle burst into flames

Kenny Clutch, whose real name is Kenneth Cherry Jr, died when his dark grey Maserati was peppered by gunfire from the 4x4.

Taxi driver Michael Boldon and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, of Maple Valley, Washington, died when the Maserati hit their taxi, which exploded in flames.

Mr Boldon, 62, was a family man who moved from Michigan to Las Vegas. Ms Sutton-Wasmund, 48, was a businesswoman and a mother of three children.

A passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm, and four people from four other vehicles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

"My son was a good boy," Kenneth Cherry Sr told reporters in a news conference convened by Las Vegas lawyers Vicki Greco and Robert Beckett.

Mr Beckett said they wanted to respond to rumours that the 27-year-old victim - who produced a rap video using the name Kenny Clutch - was a gangster and a troublemaker.

The lawyers had previously represented the rapper, and now represent his estate and family.

"My son was a victim just like the two people in that taxi," Mr Cherry said. "Trouble found him. The people in the taxicab, trouble found them."

Court records show Kenneth Cherry Jr had no criminal cases or convictions in Las Vegas, and police said there was no record of arrests.

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Pistorius Brother To Stand Trial Over Death

The brother of Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is facing charges over the death of a woman in a road crash in 2008.

Carl Pistorius, who was a constant presence in court over the past week to support his younger sibling Oscar, is charged with culpable homicide over the alleged accidental death of a female motorcyclist.

Lawyer Kenny Oldwage said in a statement from the family that "there is no doubt that Carl is innocent and the charge will be challenged in court."

"Blood tests conducted by the police at the time proved that he had not been under the influence of alcohol, confirming that it was a tragic road accident after the deceased collided with Carl's car," the statement said.

Carl Pistorius arrving at his uncle's house in Pretoria on Sunday

The family statement also said that the charges had at one stage been withdrawn but then reinstated.

Carl Pistorius was already in court last Thursday, as his brother Oscar was facing a bail hearing, and will appear again at the end of next month.

On Sunday morning, Carl Pistorius arrived at his uncle's house in an affluent suburb of the South African capital Pretoria. He declined to speak to the media outside the property.

Oscar Pistorius, 26, is staying at the luxury three-storey villa after a judge released him on bail on Friday.

Oscar Pistorius was released on Friday

He has been charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day.

But the athlete denies murder, saying he killed the 29-year-old model accidentally. He says he opened fire after mistaking Miss Steenkamp for an intruder in his home.

Both brothers are being represented by the same lawyer, Kenny Oldwage.

The Oscar Pistorius case took a dramatic turn last week when it was revealed the lead investigator, Hilton Botha, was facing charges of attempted murder himself.

Botha, who denies the charges, was questioned at the athlete's bail hearing, where he gave an often confused testimony.

But the day after he was questioned in court, a judge dropped him from the case because of the charges.

Prosecutors admitted that the timing of the attempted murder charges had been "totally weird".

Carl Pistorius and his sister Aimee have been in court to support Oscar

On Saturday, the Pistorius family distanced themselves from a tweet on Carl's account thanking people for the support offered to both families.

A spokeswoman for the family said the account had been hacked. They said Pistorius' siblings would cancel their social media accounts.

It came as Miss Steenkamp's father spoke about the case, saying Oscar Pistorius will "suffer" alone if he is lying about how his daughter died.

"It doesn't matter how much money he has and how good his legal team is, he will have to live with his conscience if he allows his legal team to tell lies on his behalf," Barry Steenkamp told Beeld, an Afrikaans newspaper.

Miss Steenkamp was killed on Valentine's Day

"But if he is telling the truth then maybe I can forgive him one day. If it didn't happen the way he said it did, he must suffer, and he will suffer... only he knows."

Her mother June said that the Pistorius family had sent a card and flowers offering condolences for the death of her daughter but she added it meant little because: "They are not to blame."

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Ten-Car Crash At Daytona Track Injures 29

At least 28 fans and one driver were injured after a 10-car crash at the Daytona Speedway when debris flew into the crowd.

On the last lap of the Nationwide Nascar race, competitor Regan Smith was turned sideways and took out several racers behind him, causing a pile-up.

Large chunks of driver Kyle Larson's car landed in the grandstands, and one of his tyres appeared to fly over the fence and into the stands. 

His car went airborne when it hit the pile-up and it was flung into the fence that separates the track from the seats. 

The car itself had its entire front end sheared off, with the burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence.

Larson managed to climb out of the wreckage afterwards unscathed.

Race officials said 14 fans were taken to hospital, with another 14 being treated on the scene at the Florida track.

Driver Michael Annett, of the Richard Petty Motorsports team, was being treated in hospital for bruising on his chest, his team said.

Dan Wetzel, Yahoo Sports national columnist, spoke to fans in the damaged grandstand.

Twenty-eight fans were injured by flying debris

He told Sky News: "They described it as like a war zone, you simply had nothing you could do.

"The car is moving at 200 miles per hour, so you can't really dodge anything. An entire wheel slammed into one person."

Driver Tony Stewart won the race, but skipped the traditional post-race victory celebration because of the dramatic turn of events.

The Nationwide race was a curtain-raiser for American stock car racing's biggest event, the Daytona 500, which is going ahead as planned.

Nascar president Mike Helton told cable TV network ESPN: "There was obviously some intrusion into the fence, and fortunately with the way the events are equipped, there was plenty of emergency workers ready to go. They all jumped on it pretty quickly.                

"We've always known since racing started this is a dangerous sport."

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Thousands Attend Pope's Final Sunday Prayers

The Pope has delivered an emotional last Sunday prayer in St Peter's Square, saying God had told him to devote himself to prayer but assuring supporters he would not "abandon" the Church.

Tens of thousands of supporters turned out for Benedict XVI's historic prayers ahead of his formal resignation on Thursday, often interrupting the Pope with their clapping, cheering and chanting.

"The Lord is calling me to climb the mountain, to dedicate myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church," the Pope told the crowd from the window of his residence in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

"If God is asking me to do this it is precisely so I can continue to serve with the same dedication and love as before but in a way that is more appropriate for my age and for my strength."

A group of nuns wave to the Pope during his address

The 85-year-old leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics has said he is stepping down because he no longer has the strength of mind and body to carry on.

His shock resignation ended an eight-year pontificate dominated by the priest child sex abuse scandal and efforts to counter rising secularism in the West.

He thanked the crowd with a final unscripted call, telling them: "We will always be close."

The Vatican and Rome police estimated the numbers at more than 100,000 people - many times more than usually attend the traditional Sunday prayer.

It was estimated that up to 100,000 people were at prayers

There was tight security in and around the Vatican, with more than 100 police officers and snipers on surrounding buildings with the security being seen seen as preparation for the Pope's final general audience in St Peter's on Wednesday.

The Vatican has said Benedict will retire to the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome for the next two or three months while a former monastery inside the Vatican is renovated.

Benedict has said he will live "hidden from the world" but Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has said he could provide "spiritual guidance" to his successor and would probably continue to publish his theological research.

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Topless Protest At Berlusconi As Italy Votes

By Robert Nisbet, Europe Correspondent

Three topless feminists lunged at Silvio Berlusconi as he arrived at a polling station in Milan to vote in Italy's general election.

Polls opened in the country earlier amid concern the outcome could lead to political gridlock in Europe's fourth largest economy.

As voters queued at a polling station at a Milan school, the three half-naked women, who had the slogan "Basta Berlusconi" ("Enough With Berlusconi") scrawled on their backs, broke through a crowd of journalists.

The topless trio then jumped over some tables toward the former leader, but they failed to reach him.

They were quickly detained by police and dragged away screaming.

Italian news reports said the three were members of the Femen protest group. 

Beppe Grillo at a rally in the run-up to the election

Mr Berlusconi, the former prime minister, is leading a centre-right coalition in the election and polls indicate he will come second to the centre-left.

Italy is in its worst recession in two decades. Unemployment is above 11% and rising, while the public debt mountain as a proportion of GDP is second only to Greece in the eurozone.

The current administration, led by the unelected economist Mario Monti, has prescribed a tough medicine of economic reform, budget cuts and tax increases.

While the austerity programme was welcomed by those trying to stabilise the single currency, it has been deeply unpopular among Italian voters.

Support for his small coalition of centrist parties has foundered, while those who have taken an EU-critical, anti-austerity position have seen their popularity increase.

Voter intention surveys are banned in the days leading up to elections in Italy, but pollsters use elaborate ruses to disguise their findings. The most common features the political parties as competitors in fictional horse races.

They suggest the unconventional anti-corruption Five Star Movement, led by the comedian Beppe Grillo, could take up to 20% of the vote, which political analysts believe could throw parliament into chaos.

Franco Pavoncello, the president of Rome's John Cabot University, told Sky News: "Mr Grillo will not even be a member of parliament (because of a conviction for vehicular manslaughter in 1981).

Former PM Mario Monti casts his vote

"So the question is what's going to happen when you have 70 young and inexperienced people as MPs without the leader who got them elected?

"I think we might be in for some very interesting phenomena after the election."

Italy's European neighbours, including Britain, don't want interesting phenomena. They want calm in the crisis-wracked eurozone.

Because of the quirks of the Italian electoral system, it seems unlikely the two-day poll will deliver a clear working majority for any single party.

While the centre-left's Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the Democratic Party, is likely to emerge as prime minister - thanks to a bonus of 55 seats awarded to the biggest vote-getter in the lower Chamber of Deputies - he may find it hard to win over the Senate.

A law brought in by Mr Berlusconi apportions extra seats in the upper house to the most populous regions.

That favours the media magnate's centre-right PdL party, which is polling well in areas such as Sicily and Lombardy.

Mr Berlusconi, who was considered a spent force after his resignation in November 2011, may find he holds the balance of power as any law needs the approval of both houses.

Giovanni Ragusa, an economist from LUISS university, in Rome, says a political stalemate could be disastrous for Italy and for Europe.

"When Italian voters realise there's not going to be a strong government able to pass new laws and that the tax increases they have been subjected to for the past few years are not going to be temporary, then the discontent is going to spill over onto the streets," he warned.

Any political problems in Italy could effect the ability of the EU to bring about reforms which would ensure the stability of the euro, which the British Government insists is necessary to help the struggling UK economy.

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