Man jailed for killing teenage wife by stabbing her in the neck | X8Y054R | 2024-05-01 11:08:01
Sahil Sharma, 24, stabbed his wife Mehak Sharma, 19, and then said 'I have killed my wife'
A man has been jailed for life after stabbing his teen wife to death at their home in south London.
Sahil Sharma, 24, stabbed Mehak Sharma, 19, in the neck in Croydon on October 29 last year before he calmly called police and said: 'I have killed my wife'.
He falsely claimed on the call that Mehak had been cheating on him and was 'responsible' for her death.
Mehak died 20 minutes after paramedics arrived as a result of knife injuries to her neck, a postmortem examination later found.
The prosecution said Sharma mentally and physically abused Mehak throughout the course of their marriage.
Mehak also called 999 on three separate occasions despite Sharma threatening to kill her mum and siblings.
Her mum read out a victim impact statement in court which said: 'The one thing I want more than anything is to have my daughter back but this is not possible.
'No amount of prayers or money or support will bring her back to me. I am broken. Sahil hasn't just murdered Mehak, I feel he has killed me as well.'
Sharma has been jailed for a minimum term of 15 years (Picture: Fisher Simon – Communication & Engagement)Mehak was stabbed to death by her husband (Picture: Met Police)
Detective Inspector Laura Semple said: 'Mehak was killed in her own home, a place where she should have felt the safest, and by the person that should have loved and protected her.
'My thoughts remain with her family and loved ones.
'This is a tragic case that has completely devastated a family. In killing his wife, Sharma has robbed her family of a loving daughter for reasons known only to himself.
'While I am aware that nothing can bring Mehak Sharma back to them, I hope that the sentencing will bring some closure to her loved ones.'
Sharma was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years at Kingston Crown Court on Friday.
He previously pleaded guilty to the murder at a previous court hearing held on February 8.
Passing sentence, Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC told Sharma: 'You harassed Mehak from almost a year before her death. You subjected her to violence.
'You accused her of cheating on you. But your suspicions were the product of your own imagination. No blame or shame should be attached to Mehak.'
Map shows where in the US is most at risk of tornados this season | X8Y054R | 2024-05-01 11:08:01
Tornado probability estimated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration based on data from severe weather reports from 1982 to 2011 (Picture: Getty Images/Metro.co.uk graphic)
Tornadoes wrecked deadly havoc on numerous US states over the weekend and the worst may be yet to come, as twister season continues for another few months.
Powerful storms brought tornadoes to Nebraska and Iowa on Friday and Saturday, and twisters tore down towns in Oklahoma on Sunday.
A tornado is a 'narrow, violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground' that 'forms a condensation funnel made up of water droplets, dust and debris', according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL).
The US is hit by about 1,200 tornadoes annually and first began keeping a record of them in 1950.
Tornadoes struck Nebraska over the weekend (Pictures: Reuters/AP)
This year from April 26 to 28, at least 72 twisters hit the US from Nebraska to Texas.
On Friday, a tornado destroyed homes in Omaha and left 10,000 Nebraskans without power. One of the hardest hit places was Elkorn in the western area of the city, where hundreds of residences were ripped apart. Resident Kim Woods said 'the whole neighborhood just to the north of us is pretty flattened'.
Twisters descended on Oklahoma on Saturday into Sunday and killed at least four people including a child. Among the communities that were struck were Holdenville, Marietta and Sulpher, which seemed to be battered by several tornadoes overnight.
How are tornadoes categorized?
Tornadoes are categorized by strength based on the damage they inflict, which in turn helps determine their wind speed. The National Weather Service implemented the Enhanced Fujita Scale in 2007 to rate them.
Tornado damage in Sulphur, Oklahoma, on Sunday (Picture: USA Today Network)
The EF-Scale classifies tornadoes into three broad categories based on wind speeds and damage inflicted. EF0 and EF1 are 'weak' with wind speeds of 65mph to 110mph. EF2 and EF3 are 'strong' with winds speeds of 111mph to 165mph. EF4 and EF5 are 'violent' with wind speeds of 166mph to 200mph.
Where in the US is there tornado risk?
A map of tornado probabilities created by the NSSL based on data from a 30-year period of severe weather reports from 1982 to 2011 shows eight gradients of tornado risk, from dark to light.
The darkest shade of brown, representing the highest risk, is in the center of Oklahoma. A medium shade of brown for the second highest risk surrounds the dark brown and covers much of Oklahoma as well as a section of northern Texas and a sliver of Kansas.
A map of tornado probabilities based on tracking from 1982 to 2011 (Picture: NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory)
A dark red representing the third highest risk touches parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and the northwestern tip of Louisiana.
The heat map spans out to other parts of the Southwest, Mideast, with lower risk extending to the Southeast and Northeast. The West is largely untouched.
What is Tornado Alley?
'Tornado Alley' is a 'nickname invented by the media to refer to a broad area of relatively high tornado occurrence in the central United States', according to the NSSL.
Such maps may differ because twister occurrence can be measured in different ways, including all tornadoes, only violent ones, by counties, and within certain time frames.
A tornado risk index map by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Picture: Federal Emergency Management Agency)
According to the NSSL, the term tornado alley can also be misleading.
'The US tornado threat shifts from the Southeast in the cooler months of the year, toward the southern and central Plains in May and June, and the northern Plains and Midwest during early summer,' stated the agency.
'Tornadoes can occur and have been reported in all fifty states!'
When is tornado season?
The peak tornado season in the southern Plains, which include Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, runs from May into early June.
A severe tornado striking Lancaster, Nebraska (Picture: AP)
In the northern Plains and upper Midwest including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, the season is in June and July.
Meanwhile on the Gulf Coast, tornadoes occur earlier in the spring.
The NSSL cautioned that tornadoes can happen any time of the year and in the day or night, but most commonly from 4pm to 9pm.
Map shows parts of the UK set for a wet and windy bank holiday | X8Y054R | 2024-05-01 11:08:01
At least some parts of the country can expect a rainy weekend (Picture: North News & Pictures/WX Weather)
It's not long until the May Day bank holiday, traditionally the start of summer in the UK.
But is it actually going to be summery, or a washout?
With a few days still to go, models have been somewhat contradictory on exactly how the weather will look, but so far the indications aren't great.
At least some parts of the country can expect a rainy weekend, despite some warmer days this week.
The Met Office forecast for Friday to Sunday predicts weather will 'remain changeable with further spells of rain or showers, particularly in the south. In any drier and brighter interludes it will feel warm away from the east coast.'
There will be an 'uncertain period through the bank holiday weekend with the most likely result a warm but cloudy day Sunday with a few light showers, then increasingly cloudy with rain spreading from the west, though weakening as it does so'.
Morris dancer on the top of Eccles Pike in Derbyshire this morning (Picture: Getty)Torrential downpours on Westminster Bridge on April 19 (Picture Rex)A weather warning for thunderstorms in place todayTeeming rain in Sunderland on Sunday (Picture: North News)The village of Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire flooded on April 28 (Picture: Shutterstock)How Monday might shape up, with all areas risking rain (Picture: WX Weather)How the Met Office predicted Sunday afternoon could look (Picture: Met Office)
'Into the new week all areas are likely to see a mixture of showery periods or spells of rain.'
At the moment, there is still some uncertainty about how the weather will pan out.
The gloomier latest forecasts come days after senior meteorologist at the Met Office Amy Bokota said: 'Temperatures have been below average for the last couple of weeks, so certainly by the time we get to Wednesday, and probably into next weekend, temperatures will be warmer.
'It might not be the sort of glorious sort of heatwave that we're hoping for … but there probably will be some more pleasant and warmer weather for some people as we head towards the end of the week.'
So it's possible people might get some use out of their barbecues and garden furniture… but more likely they'll need an umbrella.
Putin crony 'illegally adopts' two young children from Ukraine | X8Y054R | 2024-05-01 11:08:01
One of the children was thrown out like an 'unwanted kitten' (Picture: East2West)
A scandal has deepened over a prominent pro-Putin Russian politician, 71, who 'kidnapped' two children from occupied Ukraine.
Sergey Mironov, leader of the Fair Russia party, is accused of a war crime after he and his fifth wife removed a ten-month-old girl and a two-year-old boy.
The politician 'adopted' and renamed the girl Marina Mrionova from an orphanage with his wife Irina Varlamova, 56, before changing her birth certificate to make it seem as though she was born near Moscow.
An investigation has now revealed the girl, whose real name is Margarita, has a legal Ukrainian guardian who is now living in exile from the war in Greece with the child's full sibling, an elder sister named Anna.
Ukrainian officials are demanding that the politician and his wife return the girl so she can be reunited with her blood sister.
The boy taken by the politician's wife was brought to Russia but after less than a week was rejected by Mironov and his spouse.
Anna Prokopenko (L) is the sister of Margarita Prokopenko (Picture: TSN/East2West News)
The boy, then two and now four, was thrown out like an 'unwanted kitten', according to Ukrainian TSN TV channel.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament's human rights ombudsman, said: 'Varlamova got rid of the boy when it became known that Ilya Vashchenko was diagnosed with a disease.'
Leaked Varlamova emails reveal she complained she was given a 'low quality child'.
The boy's fate is not known, but a new birth certificate was issued for him in Moscow region.
The head of the Child Protection Department of the Office of the Prosecutor General in Ukraine said: 'Specifically about Ilya, we have no information about where the boy is now.
'A fake birth certificate is the first thing they issue in Russia to make it impossible to find abducted children. The girl that Mironov and Varlamova stole received a new ID. Now, as written in the new certificate, she is not Ukrainian Margarita Prokopenko, but Marina Mironova, born in the Moscow region….
Pro-war Russian politician Sergey Mironov has been accused of the crime (Picture: East2West News)
'It seems that the kidnapper hopes that Margarita will eventually get used to both the new family and the new name, as if it's better than being a lonely orphan in an orphanage.
'But the fact is that Margarita has relatives – both a sister and a legal guardian. Nobody asked their permission when Margarita was taken out of Kherson. They are looking for the stolen girl and are ready to give her a real family.'
Lubinets said: 'We already have a family that is ready to become a new family for Margarita. Moreover, this family is raising Margarita's own sister.
'Therefore, we have all the obligations from the state to turn to mediators, as well as to the international community, so that they demand from the Russian federation the urgent return of Margarita to her sister so that the reunification of the Ukrainian family takes place.'
Anna – believed to be 11 – is being raised by her godmother Daria Repina, who is legal guardian to both girls.
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Daria said: 'When I was told that the child was alive, that she had been adopted, it was a great happiness for us.
'It means we have a chance to take her back, that she will be with us. That the children will be reunited. Because children should grow in a family, in their own family. The two of them.'
Sergey married his wife Varlamova recently (Picture: East2West News)
Mironov's loyalty and obedience to Putin has been known since he stood against the dictator in a presidential election in 2004.
He said at the time, indicating he was a sham candidate: 'We all want Vladimir Putin to be the next president.'
In Soviet times, he served in the USSR's airborne troops and later worked as a geophysicist, before entering politics.
Lawyer Maria Chashchilova said Mironov's act of 'adoption' 'is considered genocide' due to the 'forcible transfer of children from one human group to another'.
She said: 'These children often have relatives or guardians in Ukraine who have lost contact with them, and in the case of children from orphanages, the guardians are officials of these institutions.
'According to international law, the parties to the conflict must provide relatives and guardians with information about the missing and facilitate their search.'
Putin and his children's ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova have been indicted by the International Criminal Court as war criminals over the illegal human trafficking of young people from Ukraine to Russia.
Mironov hit out at 'fake hysteria unleashed by the Ukrainian special services and their Western curators' over the adoption story – but leaked documents and emails show the Ukrainian child is now 'legally' adopted by him and his wife.
The abandoned 'Paradise City' with huge tower blocks left to rot | X8Y054R | 2024-05-01 11:08:01
The blocks have no surrounding infrastructure to support them (Picture: HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Eerie pictures have emerged of a huge failed housing scheme left to rot.
The Mehra Mer project, located 31 miles outside Iran's capital city of Tehran, had high hopes of becoming a ready-made community equipped with public transport, hospitals, and schools.
But nowadays the project looks like it would fit in as the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-esque film.
Incredible aerial pictures show around 100 tower blocks which appear to have sprung out of nowhere from the surrounding desert, with barely any surrounding infrastructure and half-built roads that lead nowhere.
They're part of a wider development of homes on the outskirts of Tehran called Pardis, meaning 'paradise' – but this name might be overselling things somewhat.
Built between 2001 and 2011, it was hoped the project would help Iran to tackle its population crisis by creating affordable homes for lower-income workers.
They're part of a wider development called Pardis, meaning 'paradise' (Picture: HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)The identical blocks rise from the desert (Picture: HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)Piles of construction materials have been left behind (Picture: HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
It was hoped the development would become a 'Paradise City' – but some of the first flats to be occupied turned out to have faulty sewage systems and heating, inadequate water access, and only intermittent electricity.
The progress of desolation was sped up by the 2017 earthquake which damaged or destroyed a number of buildings, leaving even more empty.
Soaring inflation rates amid Iran's struggling economy were the final nail in the coffin for the project, as the cost of the apartments became unattainable for lower wage workers – the exact people who were supposed to benefit from the scheme.
The ecological conditions also hampered the project's construction, and in the end developers scrapped the scheme mid-construction.
There are mountains of building materials, including thousands of plastic buckets and piles of cables and wiring, dumped in the desert.
While some of the blocks were completed, others are towers of exposed concrete with no doors or windows in some cases.
But despite how it looks, Mehra Mer isn't completely abandoned.
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The most recent census in 2016 recorded a population of just over 73,000 people, The Sun reports, but it's thought most residents spend the majority of their time in Tehran for work, only returning to sleep.
There isn't any public transport linking Mehra Mer to Tehran either – and the commute can take hours each way, making the satellite cities an even less appealing prospect for wannabe homeowners.
