Wife is accused of Earl's murder

The estranged wife and brother-in-law of an English lord who vanished on the French Riviera have been arrested on suspicion of his murder.

Djamilia M'Barek, 37, third wife of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the tenth Earl of Shaftesbury, was held in Cannes on Friday.

Her brother, Mohammed, 40, was detained under a European arrest warrant at his home in Munich on Saturday before being transferred to France.

Both are accused of murdering the 66-year-old playboy earl, who vanished in Cannes in November.

Police said M'Barek, a former nightclub hostess who married Lord Shaftesbury in 2002, had confessed to her part in his murder.

They said her motive was linked to their planned divorce after he took a waitress as his new lover. British police said last year they were treating the case as murder.

The earl's son, Lord Ashley, also issued a statement saying the family 'feared the worst'.

The earl, who was last seen checkingout of his Cannes hotel, divided his time between Britain and the Riviera, where he was known to frequent nightspots.

Educated at Eton and Oxford, he inherited the title and family estate in Wimborne, Dorset, at 22.