Police today arrested a woman suspected of being a ringleader behind a multi-million pound series of smash-and-grab raids on fashion stores .

Police today arrested a woman suspected of being a ringleader behind a multi-million pound series of smash-and-grab raids on fashion stores in the West End. The woman, and two men, all in their twenties, were held in dawn raids on six addresses in north London. The arrests came as police revealed that motorcycle gangs have carried out 143 raids on stores in central London since January. In total, the gangs have seized more than £3 million worth of goods, an average of £24,000 in each raid. In today's operation, detectives from the Westminster central crime squad recovered suspected stolen goods, including designer handbags, sunglasses and clothes. The officers swooped on four houses and two lock-up garages in Islingtonand Tottenham. All three arrested were being interviewed at a central London police station today. The move follows mounting concern among West End stores over a new spate of robberies involving gangs on stolen scooters and motorcycles in lightning operations. Stores targeted include Anya Hindmarch's handbag shop in New Bond Street, Jimmy Choo shoes and Asprey jewellers. The motorbike gangs were known to include at least one female member. In March this year, a witness saw a woman pillion passenger clutching several stolen handbags after a raid on the Salvatore Ferragamo store in Old Bond Street. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Roycroft said today: "Today's raids were part of a long-term operation against smash-and-grab robbers in the West End which the Met takes extremely seriously. These are very organised gangs and we are determined to target them." Police believe the individuals involved in the raids are known to each other in a loosely-linked group. The gangs are believed to be making millions of pounds reselling the designer items on the black market. Shops have been advised not to display goods in windows overnight and to install shutters, but the precautions have done little to prevent the robberies continuing. In one series of raids last year, a detective likened the gangs' operations to something out of the film Mission: Impossible. The teams would load stolen motorcycles - with licence plates removed - into the back of a van and drive into central London. Once close to the target store, the motorbikes would roar out of the van, race to the target, smash the front windows with sledgehammers and grab as much as they could before escaping.
Often, the gang would load the bikes back into the van and calmly drive away, explaining why the police were often mystified as to how their getaway route was not picked up on CCTV cameras. Detectives from the Westminster crime squad carried out a series of arrests last year, but one senior officer said: "The proceeds from these raids are so great that there is always someone else to step into their shoes."
Police believe those arrested today are all ringleaders of at least one gang.

Police have arrested 26 Internet activists in the port of Alexandria

Police have arrested 26 Internet activists in the port of Alexandria, and 14 of them were jailed for more than two weeks for "threatening national security," a security official said on Thursday.Around 30 young Egyptians who belong to the so-called "6 April" group on social networking site Facebook, a group which earlier this year called for a day of protests at rising prices, gathered in Alexandria on Wednesday.
"We were heading for Sidi Beshr beach but a policeman prevented us getting there because we had a large kite painted with the Egyptian flag and we were wearing T-shirts with 'April 6 Movement' on," said Mohammed Abdel Aziz.He said that in the evening the group was walking along the seafront singing nationalist songs when police arrived and arrested 14 of them, he said.The official confirmed the arrests and said another 12 were detained on Thursday.The first 14 arrested have been jailed for 15 days under emergency laws for "threatening public security," the official said, while the others are still being questioned.The arrests "indicate the security agencies are targeting 35 young men and women who are members of the 6th of April group and all attending a trip arranged by the group," the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said in a statement.
ANHRI tried to contact those detained "but all their mobile phones are turned off, which raises concerns, especially with the well-known practice of torture" where they are being held, it said.Esra Abdel Fattah, the woman who set up the April 6 group in March calling for protests against price hikes, was detained at the time but freed after her mother made an appeal to Interior Minister Habib al-Adli.
Fattah, 27, was among several bloggers arrested ahead of what was supposed to be a nationwide protest on April 6.Egyptian police took her from a Cairo coffee shop a week before the planned day of action. Her Facebook group had 64,000 members, but observation of the day of protest was sporadic.Instead, protests focused on the Nile Delta city of Mahalla, where three people were killed by police after clashes erupted when demonstrators pulled down posters of President Hosni Mubarak.

WASP injector knife is a blade with a hidden canister of CO2 in the handle. When the button on the hilt is pressed, the knife injects a blast of gas

As if knife crime, gun crime, laser crime and out-of-control-robot crime wasn't bad enough, criminals now have another weapon with which to cause death and mayhem.Unfortunately it happens to be the most terrifying thing ever conceived.The WASP injector knife is a blade with a hidden canister of CO2 in the handle. When the button on the hilt is pressed, the knife injects a blast of gas through the channel in the knife, quickly freezing and expanding the insides of whatever your've jabbed the knife into. Once the gas expands, the target explodes.The knife is apparently on sale for a scarily-accesible $380, or around £170. The manufacturers suggest it could be used by hunters or divers encountering dangerous sharks. But if one story appears in the news about some young hoodlum using this on the streets, we're leaving the country. (Saying that, it would work great on zombies.)

ABC journalist Peter Lloyd As one of the ABC's most respected foreign correspondents, with years of reporting in Asia and the Middle East

ABC journalist Peter Lloyd As one of the ABC's most respected foreign correspondents, with years of reporting in Asia and the Middle East, he knows only too well the seriousness of his predicament.He looked a broken man.In his first appearance in public since his arrest last week, there was no evidence of the ebullient on-air persona that Aunty's viewers know so well. In its place was the bleak stare of a man mired in uncertainty. The 41-year-old, who is accused of possessing and supplying the drug ice, stared with empty eyes that betrayed no emotion as he emerged into the stifling tropical heat. He carefully walked the few metres to a hire car, seemingly oblivious to the waiting cameras and the questions from his media colleagues. If he had answers, he was not going to reveal them. Looking gaunt and tired, the pressure of the past week was etched on his face. His clothes and casual shoes resembled the crumpled attire of a backpacker rather than an experienced reporter at the peak of his career. In his first appearance in public since his arrest last week, Lloyd was only in front of the cameras for a matter of seconds, but his stare remained constant and focused.
Speaking for Lloyd was his close friend and ABC colleague Tim Palmer, who flew to the city-state last weekend to do what he could to help. Palmer said Lloyd was thankful to his supporters and had no complaints about how Singaporean authorities had handled the matter. Part of Lloyd's original reason for his trip to Singapore was to have treatment for an eye infection and his health had improved, Palmer said.
Lloyd's legal fight would begin in earnest, he said. The battle will undoubtedly be made even tougher by what is being held at stake: his career, his physical wellbeing and his freedom. Lloyd faces a maximum of 20 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane if convicted. Nowhere in sight yesterday was friend and confidant Mohamed Mazlee bin abdul Malik, a Singaporean who posted $34,500 bail on Wednesday.
At Mr Malik's plush condominium complex - where Lloyd is required to live as a condition of his bail - neighbours said no one was home. However, remaining close by was ABC news boss John Cameron who, despite telling reporters earlier in the day that he was leaving and had no further role in Lloyd's defence, was present at the journalist's legal conference. Lloyd will face the Subordinates Court again today

Liakat Ali alias Lakhwinder Singh, 34, was nabbed with the contraband wrapped in a polythene bag near the Chandigarh airport.

Sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Thursday arrested a man and recovered from him four kg of heroin, worth Rs.40 million in the international market. Liakat Ali alias Lakhwinder Singh, 34, was nabbed with the contraband wrapped in a polythene bag near the Chandigarh airport. He had gone there to deliver the packet to a Nigerian who, however, failed to turn up, NCB officials said.
“A close-knit network of heroin traffickers is run by a group based in Pakistan and their kingpin is a Pakistani national who is at present lodged in a Punjab jail,” NCB zonal director Saji Mohan told mediapersons.“They bring this heroin via Amritsar. Some Nigerians are the main buyers who further take it to European markets,” he said. During interrogation, Ali, a resident of Behlana village near here, told NCB officials that he had got this consignment Wednesday from Bittu who came from Amritsar. Ali, a drug addict, came in contact with drug traffickers when he was lodged in Patiala jail five years ago, the officials said. “We are keeping a close watch on the activities of that Pakistan national and of the Nigerian who was expected to come to receive this consignment,” Mohan said.NCB, however, did not disclose the identity of the Pakistani and Nigerian nationals.

Perry Wharrie a career criminal, from Loughton, Essex, was one of four men convicted of attempting to smuggle the largest ever haul of cocaine

Perry Wharrie, 48, a career criminal, from Loughton, Essex, was one of four men convicted of attempting to smuggle the largest ever haul of cocaine into Ireland and Britain. He was arrested after a drugs-laden boat capsized in rough seas off the coast of west Cork last summer.A convicted police killer is starting a 30-year jail sentence for his role in a botched £350 million drug smuggling operation.After a ten-week trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Wharrie and two other men were given a total of 85 years in prison over the drugs operation. Martin Wanden, 45, of no fixed abode, was also jailed for 30 years while Joe Daly, 41, of Bexley, Kent, was given a 25-year prison sentence. A fourth man, Gerard Hagan, 24, of Liverpool, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in November.