An American student convicted in Italy of murdering her British flatmate has told an Italian MP in a series of jail conversations that she hopes to adopt children and be a writer when free.
Rocco Girlanda said yesterday he kept a diary of his frequent visits to Amanda Knox in her Perugia jail, material that formed the basis of a book being published in Italy and the US later this year.
Girlanda’s Take Me With You – Talks with Amanda Knox in Prison also includes letters and poetry Knox sent to Girlanda, president of an Italian-US foundation.
Knox, 23, is appealing against her December 5 conviction for murder and sexual assault over the 2007 death of Meredith Kercher. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison. (PA)
Quake rocks region
Iranian state TV said a magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook a remote area in northeastern Iran.
The report said the quake struck about 300 kilometres outside the town of Damghan in Semnan province.
The TV says one villager was injured and 15 homes were damaged. The toll likely was not higher because the area is very sparsely populated. (PA)
Air fleet grounded
Debt-ridden carrier Mexicana airline is halting all operations as it seeks to restructure costs, Mexico’s transport secretary said.
The country’s biggest airline was forced to shut down because it does not have enough money to keep flying, Juan Francisco Molinar Horcasitas told reporters.
But Mexicana da Aviacion “is in a process that should lead to restructuring,” he said. (PA)
Police find cocaine in Bologna sausage
A man was arrested after a kilo of cocaine hidden inside a hollowed-out chunk of Bologna sausage was delivered to his home.
Police in Holyoke, Massachusetts said they were tipped off by postal inspectors in Puerto Rico who were investigating similar shipments.
A dog confirmed the presence of drugs and the Bologna sausage was cut open.
The meat was then repackaged and an undercover postal inspector delivered it to a Holyoke address. A woman sitting on the front steps signed for it.
Police then executed a search warrant and arrested a 30-year-old man on a cocaine trafficking charge.
Police said the cocaine had a street value of $100,000. The investigation is ongoing. (PA)
Minister guilty of conducting gay weddings
A retired US Presbyterian minister was found guilty of misconduct by a church court for officiating at the weddings of 16 gay couples when same-sex marriage was legal in California.
A regional commission of the Presbyterian Church (US) ruled 4-2 that the Reverend Jane Spahr of San Francisco “persisted in a pattern or practice of disobedience” by performing the weddings in 2008 before Proposition 8 banned the unions in the state.
The church’s highest court held that Presbyterian ministers may bless same-sex unions as long as they do “not state, imply, or represent that a same-sex ceremony is a marriage”.
At the same time, however, the tribunal devoted most of its ruling to praising the 68-year-old pastor, a lesbian who founded a church group in the early 1990s for gay Presbyterians. (PA)
Politician offers breast implants to raffle winner
A Venezuelan politician is holding an unusual raffle to raise campaign cash. The grand prize: breast implants.
For a little under $6 a ticket, donors get the chance to win the pricey operation free of charge.
Breast enlargement is widely popular in image-conscious Venezuela. About 30,000 women had the surgery in 2006, according to the nation’s Plastic Surgery Society.
Gustavo Rojas, who is running as an alternate for the National Assembly in September 26 elections, said there is a great demand for the surgery.
The prize for his fundraising effort may be a little unusual, Mr Rojas conceded, but he said it is like raffling off a TV set or a telephone. (PA)
Priests murdered by suspected robbers at monastery
Police in Peru said two Roman Catholic priests were stabbed to death inside a historic monastery two blocks from the capital’s main square.
The victims are identified as Ananias Aguila of Peru and Linan Ruiz of Puerto Rico.
Homicide department chief Miguel Canlla said they were killed before dawn last Friday.
Police suspect a robbery, but Mr Canlla did not say whether objects of value were missing.
The two clerics ran a soup kitchen for the poor in Lima, and Father Ruiz directed religious youth groups.
They were killed at the San Francisco monastery. It is a popular tourist stop with religious paintings, sculptures and ornamentation dating to the 16th century. (PA)