A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Amanda Knox to be tried for slander
PERUGIA – An Italian court yesterday ordered the jailed American student Amanda Knox to stand trial for slandering police officers during the investigation into the killing of her British roommate.
Knox was sentenced to 26 years’ jail in December for her part in the murder of Meredith Kercher after what judges said was a frenzied sex game that spiralled out of control.
Knox was charged with slandering police after accusing officers of beating her during the investigation. The slander charge is separate from the murder case, which is due to go to an appeal hearing on November 24th.
Prosecutors said the slander trial will begin on May 17th. Ms Kercher’s body was found in November 2007 in the house she shared with Knox and two other students in the Perugia. – (Reuters)
15 killed in three Iraqi car bombs
BAGHDAD – Three car bombs killed at least 15 people in Iraq yesterday, including two attacks targeting Iranian pilgrims, as political leaders met to try to break an eight-month deadlock over a new government.
Two of the bombs targeted Iranian pilgrims in Iraq’s holy Shia cities of Kerbala and Najaf, killing at least 10 people, while a third struck a bustling street in Iraq’s southern oil hub of Basra.
The deputy head of Basra’s provincial council, Ahmed al-Sulaiti, and an Iraqi army source both put the toll from the Basra explosion at five dead and 42 wounded. The Iraqi army source had initially said 12 people were dead.
– (Reuters)
Israel pushes ahead with settlements
JERUSALEM – Israel is pushing ahead with plans to build 1,300 new apartments for Jewish families in Arab East Jerusalem, the interior ministry said yesterday, despite fierce opposition from Palestinians.
The timing of the announcement could prove an embarrassment for Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is in the United States looking for ways to revive Middle East peace talks that have stalled over the issue of Jewish settlement building.
Interior ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said plans for some 1,300 Jewish housing units in two neighbourhoods on land Israel seized in a 1967 war had been made public, passing another procedural stage toward eventual construction. She said the public could still raise objections to the plans and it could take a long time before building commenced.
– (Reuters)