"Teen killed amid London shopping frenzy" Associated Press, December 27, 2011
LONDON - A teenager was fatally stabbed yesterday after an argument broke out in a sports store on London’s most famous retail street as thousands of shoppers flocked to Britain’s capital seeking post-Christmas bargains....
Also see: A Hell of a Christmas
A Truly Black Friday
What is wrong with people?
Bargain hunters were also largely untroubled by a subway strike that badly disrupted the city’s public transport services. Union drivers for the subway system staged a one-day strike to demand extra pay and additional time off for members working on the public holiday....
Right, those greedy public workers again.
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But how were sales?
"11 suspects nabbed in London roundup after stabbing death" by Harvey Morris and John F. Burns, New York Times | December 28 2011
LONDON - Eleven people between 16 and 22 were in custody yesterday after a fatal stabbing 24 hours earlier shut down London’s main shopping street during one of its busiest days of the year, a move that prompted frustrated consumers to surge against police lines and a police officer to fire a stun gun.
The stabbing, part of a wave of knife crime that has swept through many of Britain’s largest cities in recent years, stunned many here. It seemed likely to renew pressure for stiffer penalties against those who carry knives, and demands that Prime Minister David Cameron fulfill promises made in a general election 20 months ago that all those caught carrying knives would face prison terms.
Scotland Yard announced that a postmortem had shown that the stabbing victim, Seydou Diarrassouba, 18, had died of a knife wound to the heart during a fight in a sneaker store on Oxford Street, an iconic stretch of chain stores and boutiques in the heart of London and the traditional center of its Christmas festivities.
The episode unfolded Monday, as thousands of local residents and tourists flocked to Boxing Day sales. British newspaper reports said members of rival youth gangs had clashed over a pair of sneakers in a Foot Locker store. They quoted witnesses as saying that Diarrassouba had staggered into the street and collapsed amid a heavy crowd of shoppers.
With shoppers looking on, police officers and paramedics came to his aid. Armed officers deployed in the area stood guard, repeatedly pushing back angry youths seeking to reach the victim as the paramedics attempted in vain to revive him....
The sales are being closely watched in Britain as a bellwether of what may lie ahead for the economy, with sluggish growth in recent months having fallen to near zero, and some economists predicting a return to recession if there is no resolution to the crisis in the eurozone, which accounts for 40 percent of Britain’s overseas trade.
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Also see: 2 convicted in 1993 murder of black teenager in Britain
