NEWS,06.04.2012.

Fears of another motorbike serial killer after four shootings in Paris

Police in Paris have linked a 7.65mm gun to four separate murders in the Essone area of the capital since November, raising the possibility of another serial killer following the death of Mohamed Merah in Toulouse on 22 March.The fourth victim, a 47-year-old woman of Algerian origin, was shot four times in the head on Thursday. The gunman was seen to flee on a motorbike.Interior Minister Claude Guéant told radio  Europe-1: "This series of killings deserves our maximum attention and we're putting all our resources into this affair." Prosecutor Marie-Suzanne Le Quéau told a press conference that police were trying to determine whether there the victims were linked, and whether there was one killer or more than one: "On the theory of a serial killer, I will simply say that three of the murders  the second, third and fourth, show similarities."However, it was also stressed that as yet no terrorism link had been made, unlike in the seven murders around Toulouse by Merah, who also used a motorbike.Le Quéau said that a suspect in the first attack was still being held, but had retracted a confession. The fourth victim, Nadjia Lahsene, was shot while in the entrance hall of her housing block in the district of Grigny. A neighbour was quoted as saying: "Everyone is in shock. She didn't feel threatened. She's a normal person, simple, no history." Police appealed for witnwsses who saw the gunman, described as tall and slim.The first victim, Nathalie Davids, a 35-year-old lab assistant, was shot in her block's carpark in Grigny on 27 November. On 22 February, her 52-year old neighbour, Jean-Yves Bonnerue, was killed in the entrance to their building. The third, an 81-year old man, was shot in the suburb of Ris-Orangis on 19 March. 19th.Le Queau said that over 100 officers have been deployed to investigate the case and carry out identity checks in the area of the attacks. All were killed execution-style, with shots in the head. Le Quéau also said that all four deaths occurred at the same time of day, around 4 to 6 pm. Their locations are also near two trunk roads, allowing a fast escape.Following the first murder, a man aged 46 was arrested in December; he had been jilted during an affair with the woman, and had a record for petty crime. While in custody and with his lawyer, the man had confessed, but he then made a retraction in front of the investigating judge.The killings come as France is still distressed by the terror attacks in the south that left dead three Jewish children and a rabbi, plus three paratroopers. Mohamed Merah, the al Qaeda-inspired gunman, also used a powerful motorbike. He was identified, put under siege in his flat, and shot dead while leaping out of the window.France is holding the first round of its presidential election on 22 April, and the Toulouse case has played into a sharpening of the tone in the campaign; an opinion poll put Socialist François Hollande's lead over President Nicolas Sarkozy at its narrowest so far.

Tearful Hugo Chávez prays for God to spare him from cancer

'I have more to do for this country,' Venezuelan president pleads at pre-Easter mass after latest round of treatment in CubaThe Venezuelan president wept in a televised speech from the Catholic service in his home state of Barinas. His voice broke as he eulogised Jesus, the revolutionary fighter Che Guevara and the South American independence hero Simon Bolívar. "Give me your crown, Jesus. Give me your cross, your thorns so that I may bleed. But give me life, because I have more to do for this country and these people. Do not take me yet," Chávez said, standing below an image of Jesus with the Crucifix. Chávez said he had held faith that his cancer would not return after his first two operations last year  which removed a baseball sized tumour from his pelvis  but it did."Today I have more faith than yesterday," he said. "Life has been a hurricane ... but a couple of years ago my life began to become not my own any more. Who said the path of revolution would be easy?"Very little is known about the 57-year-old president's condition, including even what type of cancer he has. Chávez has undergone three operations in less than a year and received two sessions of radiotherapy. He has said the latest surgery was successful, that he is recovering well and will be fit to win a new six-year term at an election in October. But big questions remain about his future and on Thursday the strain appeared to show."Never forget that we are the children of giants ... I could not avoid some tears," the former soldier said as his parents and other relatives looked on from the church rows. Chávez soon seemed to recover his composure, joking with his brother Adan in the congregation that few people were watching because it was Easter, when Venezuelans typically hit the beach. After 13 years of his rule over the continent's biggest oil exporter, Chávez's sickness has thrown its politics into turmoil in the run-up to the election on 7 October.Flying back and forth to Havana for treatment, Chávez has been forced to run a kind of virtual campaign via Twitter and appearances on state television, while his opposition rival Henrique Capriles tours the country.He returned to Barinas late on Wednesday from Havana, where he had undergone a second session of radiotherapy. He said it went well and that all the test results had been positive.But in the absence of detailed information on his condition, Venezuelans have hunted for clues in his appearance each time he is on state TV. One local news website ran a large photo of his heavily perspiring brow after he disembarked from the jet.One Venezuelan opposition journalist who has broken news on Chávez's condition in the past reported that his medical team continued to disagree among themselves over the best course, and a Brazilian blogger said he might travel there for treatment.Capriles has mostly kept quiet about the president's illness, preferring to wish him a speedy recovery so that he can beat him in a fair fight at the polls.But the youthful state governor has criticised Chávez for choosing to be treated abroad, saying it sends a bad message to ordinary Venezuelans if he does not trust local doctors.Capriles, 39, took issue this week with repeated comments by Chávez and his allies that Jesus must have been a fellow leftist radical. "This theme is an obsession of the eternal candidate," Capriles said on Twitter, referring to Chávez. "This holy week we should remember Christ was neither socialist nor capitalist.In the latest opinion poll released last month the president had a solid 13 percentage point lead over Capriles, but many voters remained undecided.