A KURDISH refugee was accused yesterday of the murder of a fellow countryman.

Both men are originally from Sulemania, in northern Iraq, and came to the UK in 1999 fleeing Saddam Hussein's regime.

Ali Abdulla Mahmud, 27, of Southfield Road, Middlesbrough, was remanded in custody until Tuesday by Teesside magistrates, charged with the stabbing, in Middlesbrough's Cleveland Shopping Centre, of Mohammed Ali, also 27, of Windsor Street, Middlesbrough, last Friday.

He was also accused of a knife attack at his home on another man on Christmas Day. There was no application for bail for Mahmud