Both are being investigated for misconduct, and, as the Daily News notes, both of the "good-looking" language teachers were very popular with their students. • General Mills has announced plans to reduce the amount of sugar in cereals marketed to children. This means that munchie-favorites like Lucky Charms and Count Chocula could drop at least 25% of their sugar, until there are less than 10 grams per serving. Wonder if that will effect the taste. •  According to an Italian newspaper, Amanda Knox still has hope that she will be freed. She reportedly told Italian lawmaker Walter Verini that she "has faith in the Italian justice system," including her pending appeal. • New York State's oldest registered sex offender could be released from a halfway house soon. Prosecutor Frank Sedita has warned against the dangers of releasing the 100-year-old convicted child molester, who he calls the "personification of evil." •  A 10-year-old British girl has made the news after she wrote an angry letter to the man who broke into her house. Her letter, which describes her feelings of fear and sadness, will be sent out to known burglars with the hopes that it will deter them from robbing again. •  In the past few weeks, three top female newspaper editors have announced that they are leaving their jobs, and do not intend to continue careers in journalism. The timing of their resignations has lead some to worry about diversity in the newsroom. However, Sandra Mims Rowe, editor of the Oregonian says it is not always gender-specific issues that force editors to seek new opportunities, and that times are tough across the board. •  The New York Times helpfully reminds us of the number one rule of any affair: don't put anything in writing. Oddly, many otherwise intelligent-seeming people (Tiger Woods, Senator John Ensign) seem to think that this does not apply to text messaging, which has led the NYT to deem texts the "new lipstick on the collar." Professor Shirley Turkle rather poetically describes our cellphone-blindness: "Like Peter Pan, we do not see our electronic shadow until it is pointed out to us. We assume it is not there." • Kumari Fulbright, the former beauty queen and University of Arizona law student accused kidnapping of her ex-boyfriend, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and aggravated assault today. She'll spend the next two years in prison. • A Pennsylvania woman who drank herself unconscious at her 20th birthday party is suing a hospital for medical malpractice because she passed out while sitting on the floor in the emergency room and was left in that position for 12 hours. This cut off circulation to her legs, and they were later amputated at the knees • The International Olympic Committee has reallocated two of the three gold medals Marion Jones was stripped of in 2007 when she admitted to using steroids. But for the first time the IOC is leaving a gold medal spot vacant because 100-meter silver medalist Katerina Thanou of Greece is still facing charges for staging a motorcycle accident to avoid doping tests. "She disgraced herself and the Olympic movement by avoiding three doping tests. We are not legally bound to give medals," said an IOC spokesman. • Police arrested a Florida woman for allegedly throwing a raw steak at her disabled live-in boyfriend when he asked for a roll instead of sliced bread with his dinner. Authorities say she beat the man, who has terminal cancer and an injured left leg, in the face with the meat and threw a bag of clothing at his bad leg. She repeatedly told a deputy that she only slapped him "so that he can learn." •

In one of the most in-depth examinations yet of the ins and outs of the Polanski case, The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin explores not just Polanski's crime and its aftermath, but Polanski himself. Polanski the man has, in the words of his agent Jeff Berg, "a very existential approach to life." This existentialism allows him to live without "bitterness," again according to Berg, about the death of his mother at Auschwitz and the murder of his wife Sharon Tate. It also produces some rather upsetting statements. In his autobiography, he wrote that during his time in Gstaad after his wife's death,

Kathy, Madeleine, Sylvia and others whose names I forget played a fleeting but therapeutic role in my life. They were all between sixteen and nineteen years old ... They took to visiting my chalet, not necessarily to make love — though some of them did — but to listen to rock music and sit around the fire and talk.

And two years after his rape of Samantha Gailey, he told Martin Amis,

I realize, if I have killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But ... fucking, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to fuck young girls. Juries want to fuck young girls — everyone wants to fuck young girls!

This last reveals a solipsism (everyone wants exactly what I want!) that may have deserted Polanski in the long years of his rather comfortable exile, many of which he has spent married to actress Emmanuelle Seigner. While Polanski's claim that everyone was so worked up about his rape because of their desire to have sex with thirteen-year-old themselves is idiotic, it's true that others' feelings about the way he conducts his life — whether informed by jealousy, disapproval, or admiration — have influenced the progress of his case.

Toobin notes the now-famous probation officer's report, which creepily praised Polanski for being "solicitous regarding the possibility of pregnancy" (this solicitousness took the form of anal sex). He mentions an "equally smitten" psychiatrist, who reported that prison time "would impose an unusual degree of stress and hardship because of [Polanski's] highly sensitive personality and devotion to his work." Both men were, in Toobin's words, "starstruck" by the famous director. Toobin also notes that part of the reason Samantha Gailey (now Geimer) was unwilling to testify was because of the high-profile nature of celebrity trial. This unwillingness enabled Polanski to plead down to statutory rape, a bargain that not only shortened Polanski's potential sentence but also allowed many people to forget how severe his crime really was.

On the other hand, all the public attention on Polanski's trial may have made Judge Laurence Rittenband harsher. Polanski's prison sentence was stayed (again, a bit of leniency likely influenced by his fame) so that he could finish a film — while in Munich, apparently working on a distribution deal, he was photographed sitting with women and smoking a cigar. The photograph would never have been made public, and probably never taken, had Polanski not been world-famous. But along with public reaction to the case, it made Rittenband consider a longer sentence for Polanski, and possible deportation. It was at this point that Polanski fled.

In the end, Polanski's fame may have done him more good than ill — he'll never have to stand trial for rape, only for unlawful sex with a minor, and he can't serve more than two years. At the same time, Judge Rittenband was under all the pressure of public scrutiny in sentencing, and this may have influenced the result. Amanda Knox's case is obviously much different from Polanski's — for one, the details of her crime are far less clear. But she too may have suffered from a judicial system that wanted to make an example of a high-profile defendant. And on the flip side, she too has benefited from that high profile.

Just a few days after Knox's conviction, a senator from her home state is already advocating on her behalf. The Secretary of State may get involved. While many Americans — and Italians — revile her, many others leap to her defense without ever having met her. Knox isn't a famous director, but she's pretty and young and white, and her story makes better human-interest news than, say, those of the over a million people arrested for drugs in America this year.

Knox and Polanski became cause celebres to different people, for different reasons, but both now enjoy the benefit of supporters far beyond their own families and defense teams. Sadly, many people indicted in America and worldwide don't even have that much support. In the upcoming weeks, we'll be hearing a lot about both Knox and Polanski. We won't be hearing about the countless men, women, and teens represented by overworked public defenders, who will be convicted during that time of crimes they didn't commit, or given unfair sentences for crimes they did. The pressures of celebrity justice may sometimes work against famous defendants, but the pressures of racism and classism and unenlightened tough-on-crime-ism work just as steadily against the anonymous, and the problem that gets less media attention may actually be the more important one.

Image via The New Yorker.

The Celebrity Defense [The New Yorker]

Knox is reportedly on suicide watch, and one of her lawyers has announced that he'll appeal her conviction, focusing on the fact that none of her DNA was found at the crime scene. Meanwhile, some Americans supposedly "vowed to boycott Italian holidays, wine and food," at least according to The Sun. And Sen. Maria Cantwell, of Knox's home state of Washington, says, "I think what happened [Friday] is we had a decision in which it seems the overall impression of Amanda Knox by the press in Italy and the overwhelming amount of attention given this case may have prejudiced the jury." She continues, "I think it's important for both of our countries to make sure that justice is served and that there is a rule of law and a standard that people believe in." Cantwell plans to ask the EU to put pressure on Italy, and she will request a meeting with Hillary Clinton regarding Knox. Says Clinton, "Of course, I'll meet with Sen. Cantwell or anyone who has a concern but I can't offer any opinion about that at this time."

Knox's family members swear she's innocent, and are preparing to begin the arduous appeal process — it could be a whole year before her appeal even goes to trial. Meanwhile, her defenders continue to question the objectivity of the Italian court. Time writer Nina Burleigh tells ABC,

People here in this town [Perugia] have been reading these stories ... 'Sex Game Gone Wrong,' 'Drug Fueled Sex Game. They believe that scenario is real, that it's true. [...] A lot of people think that this verdict has a lot to do with the power of the prosecutor, the power of the police in this town and the fact that once this train started to roll ... the jury and the judge in this case were very leery of stopping it.

Not everyone is so supportive. Says the murder victim's brother, Lyle Kercher, "We're pleased that we got the decision but it's not a time for celebration." According to Libby Purves of the London Times, it's a time for an indictment of "fling culture." Here's her version of the crime:

We live in a transitional age where sexual licence is concerned: those who embrace it enthusiastically (bragging of having strangers on trains, like Knox) remain uneasily aware of old taboos. They can become shrilly angry if anyone seems to disapprove, possibly because deep down they are not sure they wholly approve of themselves. It is not hard to see how hostile Amanda Knox could become to her sober flatmate; and how, assisted by drink, drugs and admiring men, it could lead her into a vicious folie à trois. And thence, confused, to a drunken, clumsy cover-up and a chilling flippancy (even turning cartwheels) at the police station.

Purves says it's inaccurate to portray Knox as "sexually adventurous," and that "these people" (people who have casual sex? People who get accused of brutal throat-slittings? Are they one and the same?) are simply "randy and needy, and afraid or incapable of love." Purves continues,

What is really sad though - see, even I jib at saying "wrong" - is the idea of "adventurousness": sex made "zipless", gourmet, divorced from affection, understanding, wonder or hope. You clock a hot piece, pull, mate and discard with hardly a name-check. It rounds off the evening but blunts your humanity. Many grow out of it and find faithful partnerships. Some find later life haunted by it. Some misunderstand the other party's intentions and are devastated, or become stalkers.

At worst, a few confuse the general tolerance with permission to bully and coerce.

That's right, ladies. Better keep your pants zipped — or you might end up murdering your roommate and spending your life in an Italian jail. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Amanda Knox: U.S. Backlash Grows As Hillary Clinton Is Called In Over Jailing [Daily Mail]
Clinton In Knox Vow [Sun]
Fantasy World Fuelled By Sex, Drink And Drugs [TimesOnline]
Foxy Knoxy On 'Suicide Watch' [New York Post]
Knox "Completely Surprised" By Verdict, Parents Say [MSNBC]

The jury is expected to issue a verdict on Knox in the next few days. Unfortunately, as several recent articles point out, Knox has already been tried in the court of public opinion - and lost. Anyone following the trial of Amanda Knox by now probably knows not only the basic story—in brief: Knox is accused of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher while on a semester abroad in Italy—but also the intimate details of Knox's life, from her toilet-flushing habits to her sex toy of choice. The trial has painted over Knox again and again, casting her first as a sex-crazed sadist, and then as a sweet, overgrown child. It's come to the point where Amanda Knox, the 22-year-old from Seattle, has been completely lost behind all the lurid layers. Her "angelic" face has provided the perfect canvas onto which both prosecution and defense have projected discordant images, each supposedly grounded in analysis of Knox's behavior.

Today Knox revealed that she is "scared of having the mask of an assassin forced onto me." She reportedly appeared in tears, trying desperately to convince the jury of her innocence. She said she has been trying to remain calm even though she is "disappointed, sad and frustrated" after spending two years behind bars. She also says she remains "confident and certain in what I know."

But it may prove difficult for the jurors to separate fact from fiction. And there has been a lot of fiction in the trial. In closing arguments, the prosecution described Knox as a "Luciferina," a "dirty-minded she-devil." One prosecutor, in what seems like an attempt to create a real-life version of one of those sepia-toned flashback scenes from CSI, stood in front of the jury and asked them to imagine what Knox could have said to her roommate before raping and murdering her:

You are always behaving like a little saint. Now we will show you. Now we will make you have sex.

Of course, there is no evidence Knox ever said this. There is also no evidence that she was even in the room. But they're not even saying she said this, just that she might have. Timothy Egan for the New York Times' Opinonator asks:

What century is this? Didn't Joan of Arc, the Inquisition and our own American Salem witch trials teach civilized nations a thing or two about contrived sexual hysteria with a devil twist?

Answer: apparently not.

Amanda Knox Revisited [Opionator]
Amanda Knox Has Lost The Battle For Public Opinion [Newsweek]
US Suspect Knox Urges Italain Court To Free Her [AP]

• He went on to say that Knox is a "clean-faced young girl, swept away by a tsunami." • Two California girls, ages 12 and 14, have been arrested for attacking a 13-year-old classmate - twice. The girls lured the victim, who they believed had been talking shit about them, to a field, telling her that they had some belongings of hers to return. Police caught the attackers after they posted videos of the beatings on YouTube. • Accused Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell has been indicted on murder charges in the deaths of 11 women, plus dozens of other counts, including kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, attempted murder, assault and rape. Authorities say many of the 10 identified victims were homeless addicts he lured into his home. • NPR's Richard Gonzales, who grew up in Richmond, California, returned to see how the town is coping after a teenage girl was gang-raped at the high school. He spoke to sophomore Lizette Franco, who said, "We don't want it to be our identity, because there is so much more to Richmond than what they're portraying in the media. We're not animals. We're not savages. We're students striving to be better people." •  Former track star Marion Jones has announced plans to sign up with a W.N.B.A. team. Jones, who was busted for steroid use and has since toured the country speaking to students about making good choices, says she hopes the W.N.B.A. will provide a larger platform for her message, as well as a "second chance." •  Good news: According to the DCist, a bill instituting same-sex marriage has just passed in the D.C. council. Ben Smith from Politico notes that this is "a sign that same-sex marriage has really become a quite mainstream Democratic cause, one embraced equally by a Massachusetts court and an urban City Council." • The Senate is expected to vote today on an amendment that would increase health insurance benefits for women in the first vote on the health care overhaul legislation. The amendment was introduced by Senators Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine and inspired by the recent and controversial mammogram and Pap smear recommendations. "My amendment guarantees screening for breast cancer, yes, mammograms," Mikulski said. "We don't mandate that you have a mammogram at age 40. What we say is discuss this with your doctor, but if your doctor says you need one, my amendment says you are going to get one." • Zeituni Onyango, the half sister of President Obama's late father, gave an interview to the Associated Press in which she said she's anguished over not having contact with the family after it was revealed that she'd been illegally living in U.S. public housing for years. She isolated herself from the family after the inauguration because she didn't want her immigrations problems to hurt his presidency. "Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all," she said. • South African President Jacob Zuma said today - on World AIDS Day - that the government will make sure that all HIV-positive babies receive treatment. There are also plans to expand testing and treatment for pregnant women. •  Sarah Palin's absurdist memoir Going Rogue has sold 1 million copies, a HarperCollins spokeswoman reveals. The publisher has increased the print run accordingly, to 2.8 million. • Asma Hanif, who runs a Baltimore domestic violence shelter for Muslim women says, "My biggest problem was that if you send a Muslim woman to be counseled in a shelter that's run by Christians, then what the people say is the reason why you're being beat is because of that religion. We do not want Islam to be the focal point of domestic violence." She added that in other shelters, "There may be situations - such as, there would be men that were there, or there wasn't any place for them to pray, or maybe there was an issue with the food." • An online poll of 1,027 people by the Tylenol Canadian Pain Survey found that women report experiencing headaches more often than men, and they experience somewhat more pain than men. "Pain doesn't discriminate against gender; however, with headache pain, women tend to be more expressive in reporting their pain than men, and tend to be more proactive in managing it," said Dr. Gary Shapero, a family physician who has studied headache and pain management. • Salon owner Cindy Vong is fighting the Arizona Board of Cosmetology's decision to ban flesh-eating fish foot treatments. "The board knows nothing about spa fish therapy, so its reaction is to shut it down," said her lawyer. "The board's action is more about protecting cosmetologists from competition than it is about protecting consumers against anything except wet feet and smooth skin." • On Thanksgiving, a woman and her brother were fighting over whether their parents are too old to be watching their children, when he allegedly threw extremely hot pecan pie at her after it was heated in the microwave. She was treated for first and second degree burns to her neck, face, and chest. Her brother is expected to be charged with aggravated assault. • 26-year-old Swedish father Ragnar Bengtsson has given up his months-long attempt to pump milk from his breasts. "All he got was sore breasts," said the host of a local show that was following the progress of the "Milkman." However, Bengtsson isn't walking away empty handed: He's flying to the U.S. to appear on - of course - The Tyra Banks Show. •

Just when you thought the Amanda Knox murder trial couldn't become anymore luridly bizarre, defense attorney Giulia Bongiorno went ahead and upped the ante. The prosecution, you'll recall, has made the case that the 22-year-old, in concert with ex-boyfriend Rafael Sollecito and friend Rudy Guede, murdered Knox's roommate, British student Meredith Kercher during a night of sinister debauchery in 2007. Bongiorno, however, paints a different picture. A candy-colored one! As UPI reports,

Bongiorno, in a blistering critique of the prosecution's case in the hotly debated trial, compared Knox to the naive character played by actress Audrey Tautou in the French film "Amelie," which Knox and Sollecito contend they were watching together the night Kercher was slain..."There is a more simple truth to Amanda," the Web site quoted Bongiorno as saying. "She looks at the world with eyes of Amelie: A naive, slightly extravagant, spontaneous young girl who is 60 percent imagination and 40 percent reality."

Of course, this is largely apiece with the embattled case, in which Knox has been treated, always, as a decidedly female killer. Her demeanor and appearance - viewed by some as preternaturally calm and cheerful - have been criticized. Certainly, presenting the young woman as a cheerful naif would be a much more attractive explanation for behaviors like sporting "All You Need Is Love" tees, going on lingerie-shopping sprees, doing cartwheels, and riffing on rabbit shaped sex toys, then the sociopathic callousness the prosecution has suggested. Coverage of the case, and of Knox, has always been aggressively pink-hued. The Daily Mail, that arbiter of taste, quickly took up the attractive student's MySpace nickname, "Foxy Knoxy" and described her as, for starters, as "like a Hollywood diva sashaying along the red carpet."

If the prosecution has its way, she's what the Guardian termed "a manipulative femme fatale who helped to kill her friend in an orgiastic sex game" - the ultimate villainness out of B-movies. If the defense is to be believed, she's instead the ingenue. It makes us wish, not for the first time, for some more nuanced female characters - and a swift end to the sensationalistic tragedy.

Attorney: Knox Naive Like Movie's 'Amelie' [UPI]

Amanda Knox's Court Demeanor In The Spotlight [Seattle Times]
The Friends Back Home Intent On Telling The 'Real Amanda Knox' Story [Guardian]
The Foxy Knoxy Show: Smiling Murder Suspect Makes Grand Entrance As Trial Begins [Daily Mail]

Earlier: Prosecutor In Amanda Knox Trial Pushes For Life In Prison

• PETA has requested that school official replace Uga with a robot, but so far UGA hasn't responded. •  According to new research, men are more likely to be woken up by a fly or the wind than by a crying baby. Wailing infants doesn't even register on the top ten of sounds most likely to disturb their sleep. Not so for women, who may be evolutionarily programed to react to a child's cries, or so suggests the author of the study. •  After being caught with a prostitute, a Swedish man told authorities that he was driven to pay for sex because his wife was pregnant, and he hadn't had sex in five months. He also asked that all letters regarding the incident be sent to his work address, to keep the charges secret from his wife. •  Women in Syria are at the forefront of the country's religious revival, according to the BBC. Many women are turning to prayer groups lead by female preachers, who are often quite conservative. • A 13-year-old girl from Detroit met a 19-year-old man on Facebook, who she allegedly invited over to her house, where they had "sex". She then hid the man in her closet for two days, before her mother finally found him. •  According to a new study out of Australia, women spend more time doing pleasurable activities than men (15 minutes each day) and are more likely to spend time socializing. Researchers also report that men spend six minutes more everyday on activities they dislike, including commuting and work. •  Carlo Pacelli, the lawyer representing Congolese man Patrick Diya Lumumba—who Amanda Knox initially accused of murdering her roommate—called Knox a "diabolical she-devil" in court. He also made mention of her vibrators and rumors of bad hygiene, concluding that she "is unclean on the outside because she was dirty on the inside." Knox's stepfather, who was in court, said Pacelli's statement is a "sexist discourse that sets Italy back 100 years." • On the other side of her family, Amanda Knox's father and stepmother are being investigated for defamation. Last year, they told the Sunday Times that Knox was beaten and brutalized by members of the Italian police force. "It is odd that the timing is coming out now, five days before the end of the trial, and this is supposed to be something that happened over a year ago," said Knox's stepmother. • Mary Arnott of Toronto has been given an honorary diploma from St. Peter's Girls High School on Staten Island for her 100th birthday. She had been in the class of 1925, but dropped out when her mother died during her senior year. "I kept going to night school and more night school and finally got business training and became a secretary to a lawyer, but it wasn't the same," said Arnott. • One of the rites involved in Islam's annual hajj involves pilgrims jogging seven times between two spots in Mecca to reenact Abraham's consort Hagar running between two hills searching for water for her dying son. Shahidah Sharif, an American Muslim on this year's pilgrimage, says clerics should stop telling women to do the run slowly because they are "weaker" or running is immodest. "We are commemorating the act of a woman, someone who made a sacrifice not just for her child but to the building of an entire city," Sharif said. "And she was going through these extremes to provide for her child, without thinking about gender, and here it is now (they're) making it forbidden for women to run." •

Knox and Sollecito are accused of murdering Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher, during what the prosecution claims was a drug-fueled sex game gone terribly wrong. A third suspect in the murder, Rudy Guede, has already been convicted of homicide and sexual assault and sentenced to 30 years in prison, though he is currently in the process of appealing. Knox has been painted by the prosecution as a jealous, hate-filled roommate who sought revenge of sorts on Kercher, backing up this characterization by presenting a knife they believe is the murder weapon; a knife that has Knox's DNA on the handle and Kircher's DNA on the blade.

Responding to the charges, Knox tearfully told the court that the prosecution's characterization of the night was "pure fantasy," and stating "Meredith was my friend, and I didn't hate her." Knox's family, meanwhile, remains optimistic, even going so far as to purchase a ticket home for Knox, so that she may rejoin them in Washington state should she be found innocent.

Amanda Knox To Jury: Charges Pure Fantasy [CBS]
Lawyer: Prosecution Wants Life Sentences In Knox Murder Case [CNN]
Parents Buy Ticket Home To Seattle For Amanda Knox[Seattle Times]
Life Sentence Sought In Italy For U.S. Student, Amanda Knox [NYTimes]

Nubian representatives say that the line compares black Egyptians to monkeys, and are suing the singer, her record label, and the songwriter. • The man charged with the kidnapping of Shaniya Davis has also been accused of raping and asphyxiating the 5-year-old South Carolina girl. Mario McNeill is being charged with first-degree murder and rape of a child. • Amanda Knox broke down in tears today in court as the prosecution closed their case against her, saying she "harboured hatred" for Meredith Kercher and "killed her to take revenge." • Amanda Knox's parents are so confident she'll be acquitted that they've already bought her a plane ticket home to Seattle. •  The British man charged with strangling his own wife on a camping trip was found not guilty on account of a rare disorder, which caused him to murder Christine Thomas in his sleep. "You are a decent man and a devoted husband. I strongly suspect that, not withstanding the circumstances here, you may well be feeling a sense of guilt about what happened that night. In the eyes of the law, you bear no responsibility," said the judge. •  Reporter Michael Crowley sat down in a restaurant the other night and found himself sitting two tables away from Sonia Sotomayor. Naturally, he sent out a Tweet, which read: "She left her purse on a chair; stern-faced security guys came back for it about 30 min later." •  Soldiers in Sweden are fighting for flame-retardant underwear. The Swedish Conscription Council claims that the female soldiers were promised appropriate bras and panties years ago, but the armed forces has failed to deliver. • Selma Aliye Kavaf, Turkey's minister for women's affairs, says, "The mentality change regarding women's participation in business or political life would take time. Legislation or laws are not enough for women to become active in business life." • A dad from Minnesota claims that during the first three years of his son's life, he spoke to him only in Klingon. The dad says it was part of an experiment, to see whether his kid would pick up the fictional language. He says he stopped when it became clear his son, now 15, preferred English. •  Warning: This story is disgusting and highly disturbing. Short version: a gang in Peru has been accused of murdering people in order to collect their fat, which is then sold on the black market for cosmetics. • The highest court in New York has rejected an attempt to throw out two government orders to recognize the rights of same-sex couples married in other states. While this is good news, the ruling was based on a technicality, and did not address the broader human rights issue at stake. • A team of researchers have made headway in understanding how the body metabolizes date rape drugs. They hope that the breakthrough "may provide new clues on how to counteract the drug's effects, or to enhance its metabolism and decrease toxicity for chronic abusers or victims of sexual assault." • A study from the Harvard School of Public Health found a woman's risk of developing multiple sclerosis during her lifetime is doubled if she was obese at age 18. This is the first time MS risk has been linked to obesity. The research was based on the Nurses' Health study, but doctors say "There's no reason to believe that the biological mechanisms would be different." • Ohio State University researchers found that alcoholics over the age of 60 have more than 40 alcoholic drinks a week on average, compared to between 25 and 35 drinks a week on average for younger alcoholics. The findings suggest older alcoholics have developed a tolerance and need to drink even more to get drunk. • A North Carolina doctor could lose his medical license for allegedly poking a patient's thigh and calling her fat and irresponsible for being unemployed and using taxpayer's money to pay for another pregnancy. The doctor admitted he told her that her fat thighs and diabetes could make her go blind. • Could "real" America's love affair with Sarah Palin be coming to a close? In this video an angry mob boos her and calls her a quitter after left a an event in Noblesville, Indiana without signing the books of about 300 families who had been waiting for more than three hours. • A few Indian travel agents are pushing "divorce tourism," package deals designed to help couples salvage their relationship. Viresh Hirjee, chief executive of a Mumbai travel agency, has been sending customers of vacation along with marriage counselors. "We are trying our best to bring the couple together," he said, but warned, "We are not destiny changers." • School officials in Orange County, California warned kids that if they skip school today to see New Moon they'll be marked truant. • The business information analysis firm IBISWorld says that the growing popularity of online dating sites is responsible for Australia's sex industry losing $67.6 million in the past year. "The rapid growth in online services means it has never been easier for like-minded individuals to organize casual liaisons for little or no cost," said IBISWorld analyst Edward Butler. • Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Democratic candidate for attorney general in Texas, says a clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages accidentally banned all marriages in the state. The clause reads: "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage." Backers of the ban say she's reading too much into the clause for political reasons. • The city of Auckland, New Zealand paid $74,000 to give a 66-foot fiberglass Santa statue a facelift. One of his mechanical eyes had been drooping and people were worried it would scare children. His face has been bandaged and the repairs will be unveiled on Sunday. •

Velez, an Army private, had recently returned from Iraq, where she disarmed bombs. She had served for three years, recently reenlisted for another three, and wanted to become a psychologist to help other soldiers deal with the stress of military life. Her friend Sasha Ramos says she respected the position of Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter. "He's somebody she would have saluted," Ramos said. "It's degrading to all soldiers that he did something like that." • Vandy Beth Glenn has filed a federal lawsuit to get her job at the Georgia General Assembly back after she was fired for being transgender. She had been working as Glenn Morrison and living as Vandy Beth, but she and her supervisor agreed she would start dressing as a woman on Halloween 2006. But she was fired by Georgia Legislative Counsel Sewell Brumby, who said in a deposition, "It makes me think about things I don't like to think about, particularly at work … I think it's unsettling to think of someone dressed in women's clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing." • According to the American Psychological Association's annual stress survey released earlier this week, women are more likely than men to say they lack the willpower to make lifestyle changes to improve their health. But, Helen Coons, director of the Women's Mental Health Center in Philadelphia, says "willpower" is a misleading term because women may really mean they're too exhausted to make changes and think of themselves as being "selfish" if they put their needs ahead of others'. • A survey of 1,212 doctors published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that many doctors do unnecessary pap smears, adding to heath care costs. Doctors were asked what screening they'd recommend in various situations and most said they'd give a pap smear to a 35-year-old woman with no history of cervical cancer whose cervix had been removed, which is inconsistent with guidelines from several medical associations. • Though many men think women are mainly interested in color when buying a car, a survey by Ipsos Public Affairs for CarMax found 33% of women say price is the most important factor, followed by reliability and fuel efficiency. • Canadian researchers compared 6-year-old children who were breast-fed for 6 months with those who were breast-fed for only three months and found that there were no differences in intelligence, behavior, or blood pressure. While longer breast-feeding gave the children an immunity boost as infants, the researchers say the advantages of breastfeeding do not include lower risks of obesity, asthma, allergy, or dental problems in the long term. • Elizabeth Lambert, the NCAA women's soccer player whose unsportswomanlike behavior was featured on SportsCenter last night has been suspended indefinitely from the University of New Mexico's team. "Liz is a quality student-athlete, but in this instance her actions clearly crossed the line of fair play and good sportsmanship," said her coach, Kit Vela. • A prosecution source in the Amanda Knox trial says her DNA is on the handle of a knife used to kill Meredith Kercher, but the defense still insists there was DNA tampering at the scene of the crime and that the kitchen knife doesn't match Kercher's wounds. Closing arguments in the case begin in two weeks. • Mary Karr, who just published her memoir Lit, says she developed her storytelling ability as a child. She and her mother would play a game when they were driving or her mom was hungover. "Tell me a story she liked to say, meaning charm me - my life in this Texas suckhole is duller than a rubber knife. Amaze me," says Karr. • "Presidents hate the press," says White House reporter Helen Thomas. "They hate me most of the time. ... Asking questions about Watergate, about Monica Lewinsky, they're questions that will hurt and yet you can't avoid them. If you do avoid them, it shows you don't have guts." •

•  An angry bride attacked a bouncer at her own wedding reception after being asked to leave the venue where the party was being held so that the club could open to the public. Sharon Verallo, 40, reportedly hit the bouncer over the head with her red stiletto heel. • Sleddale Hall, a dilapidated farm house in Cumbria made famous by the 1987 movie Withnail and I, has been purchased by a fan of the film for an undisclosed sum. • A Florida judge ruled on Monday that accused cat killer Tyler Weinman will be receiving a little help from taxpayers to pay legal costs. Circuit Judge John Thornton ordered the state to pay $12,500 to cover the costs involved with the deposition of witnesses and investigators working for his defense. • A 33-year-old man was arrested in Florida after police found two children in his car, which was parked outside a strip club. The owner of the vehicle was found drinking beer inside. It is unclear how the man knew the kids. • Former Wimbledon champion Martina Hingis will appear on the reality series Strictly Come Dancing. Hingis has been banned from tennis after testing positive for coke during the 2007 Wimbledon tournament. • A football player from the University of Alabama was arrested last Wednesday for assaulting a former girlfriend. Kendall Grzyb reportedly approached Courtney Upshaw and slapped him. After she walked away, Upshaw chased her and grabbed her neck to push her to the ground. It seems that there were no serious injuries, but the coach later advised his team: "Don't put yourself in the wrong place, and don't put yourself out there to get in trouble like that." We have one question: why wasn't his message don't assault people? • New York state lawmakers may ban prison works from shackling pregnant inmates. Governor David Patterson is expected to sign a law later this week that would make New York the 6th state to forbid the use of restraints. • Up until age 80 when things begin to equal out, men lose their hearing at faster rates than women. Doctors believe the disparity can be attributed to men's higher level of exposure to extremely loud noises. • Comedian Sunda Croonquist's mother-in-law got a little tired of being the butt of all her jokes, which draw heavily from the culture clash of a half-black, half-Swedish girl marrying into a Jewish family, and so, naturally, she sued her. •

Spanish newspapers have reported that Maria del Carmen Bousada, the woman believed to be the world's oldest mother—she had twins at age 66—has passed away. The cause of death is unknown. • A Tennessee man was arrested for public intoxication early Sunday morning after he was found wandering the highway with a pair of women's underwear hanging from the zipper of his pants. Police found 40 pairs of panties stuffed into his pants, which he admitted he stole from a nearby home that Saturday. •  Yesterday the first ever pets only airline took its first flight. The husband-and-wife team that started Pet Airways say their flights are completely booked for the next two months. •  Government auditors found that Veteran Affairs Department hospitals and clinics often do not provide adequate privacy for female patients. They also said that the hospitals are lacking in child care, and do not have readily available diaper-changing tables. • The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty has released a list of the cities that are "meanest" to homeless. Topping the list is Los Angeles, followed by St. Petersburg, Fla. •  Temple University has announced the publication of Swimming Against the Tide: African American Girls and Science Education, which examines the experience of African American women who have gone into the (white, male) field of science. "They looked at us like we were not supposed to be scientists," said one girl involved in the study. • Today in No Shit Studies: Men and women who feel sensitive to rejection based on their physical appearances are more likely to want plastic surgery than those who don't care as much about their looks. • NOW has criticized a cartoon in the New York Daily News that depicts Senator Kirsten Gillibrand with an open mouth — and hands reaching for "corks, socks and gags" to shut her up. Gillibrand unknowingly went over her time in introducing Sonia Sotomayor. • Taraneh Mousavi was arrested July 19 during a post-election gathering in Iran, and later turned up at a hospital with "rupturing of her womb and anus." Witnesses allege she was raped in prison, but authorities claim she mutilated herself because of guilt over having premarital sex. • Russian human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who wrote about the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has herself been assassinated. • A woman who married evangelist and alleged polygamist Tony Alamo when she was 15 says he had child brides as young as eight, and so many girls and women at his disposal that he had to schedule when to have sex with them. • Residents of a Washington, DC neighborhood object to a proposed domestic violence shelter for women and children by likening it to a sex club and complaining that it will attract too many men to the area. • Obnoxious body snark alert: a "pregnant bikini contest" prompts BuzzFeed's Peggy Wang to complain, "I think I'd be much more into a bikini contest featuring women with giant tumors." • A Memphis 11-year-old used an assignment in persuasive writing to convince Hewlett-Packard to donate $72,000 worth of computer equipment to her school. • Is this tattoo of a girl's first period awesome or gross? And why does she have ghosts coming out of her hands? • A graphic novel of Twilight is on the way, with characters that look like "an amalgam of Meyer's literary imagination and the actors' actual looks." •

Knox, 21, took the stand for the first time on Friday, after being arrested in November 2007 shortly after the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, 21, in Perugia, Italy. Speaking in English and fluent Italian, Knox said that on the night of the murder she was at her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito's house and that the two smoked marijuana, watched Amélie, had sex and fell asleep, reports the New York Times. When she returned the next morning, she says the door to her apartment was open and Kercher's door was locked, and eventually she decided to call the police. Four days later she and Sollecito were arrested on charges of murdering Kercher in a sex game gone awry and tampering with the crime scene to make it look like a robbery.

Knox testified that during her interrogation, police said the "wanted a name" and pressured her to accuse her boss at the bar where she worked, Patrick Lumumba, of the crime. According to MSNBC, Knox said a policewoman hit her twice in the head:

"Do you remember? Do you remember? And then boom! On the head," Knox said, mimicking the slap in court. "I went: mamma mia! And then again, another boom!" ... "It didn't hurt, but it frightened me," she said of the slaps.

After hours of questioning and what she described as "a steady crescendo... of 'I don't know,' 'you're a stupid liar', 'maybes', and 'imagines' that..." she gave written testimony saying she was in the kitchen blocking out Kercher's screams while Lumumba committed the murder. Knox says she wrote the statements in an attempt to focus her thoughts after police spent hours trying to put ideas in her head. "I wasn't sure what was my imagination and what was reality," she said.

Knox explained:

When I said "Patrick" I actually started to imagine a kind of movie, images that could have explained the situation, Patrick's face, then [Perugia's] Grimana square, then my house on the night of the murder.

Lumumba has been cleared by prosecutors and is suing Knox for defamation.

Prosecutors asked Knox why she told her mother that she felt bad about sending Lumumba to prison in a bugged phone call from prison, but failed to tell police he was innocent. She said she didn't trust the police anymore because in her first few weeks in jail she was tested for HIV and told she had AIDS, before another test two weeks later proved she was negative, reports The Independent.

Knox also told her mother she was concerned that police found her kitchen knife at Sollecito's house. Forensic experts testified that it has Kercher's DNA on the tip and Knox's on the handle, but she said she wasn't upset because she knew it was the murder weapon. "I was worried because for me it was impossible. I didn't know how it could be there," she said. Attorney Anne Bremner, spokeswoman for Friends of Amanda, told Time that video from the crime scene proves police collected evidence incorrectly, and that the kitchen knife actually, "doesn't match an outline of the knife on the bed."

During cross examination on Saturday, Knox was asked by prosecutors to reveal details about her personal hygiene, sex life and drug use. She told them that she slept with Sollecito the first time she met him, and she was questioned about a $279 municipal citation she received for a party she and her friends held at the University of Washington, asking if the party involved "alcohol, drugs, people throwing rocks" and "naked people inside." Knox said the citation was just a noise violation.

She also denied that she was friends with Rudy Guede, the 22-year-old Ivory Coast native who has already been jailed for 30 years for murdering and sexually assaulting Kercher, the BBC reports. On Friday Guede told the press from prison, "You know you were there, Amanda, tell the truth."

In a sad concidence, Knox's testimony this weekend coincided with what would have been her college graduation. Knox's family and friends will testify for the defense next, with her mother, Edda Mellas, taking the stand on Friday.

In the video below from the Today show this morning, Curt Knox says he thinks his daughter stood up well to aggressive questioning from prosecutors.

American Testifies In Her Murder Trial In Italy [The New York Times]
Amanda Knox: Slain Woman Was a Friend [MSNBC]
Knox In The Witness Box: 'I Did Not Kill Meredith' [The Independent]
How Strong Is The Evidence Against Amanda Knox? [Time]
Lawyer Challenges Knox Testimony [BBC]

As you'll recall, Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, are accused of murdering and sexually assaulting British student Meredith Kercher, who was found semi-naked with her throat cut in her bedroom in the house she shared with Knox in November 2007. Rudy Guede, 21, from the Ivory Coast, was already convicted of Kercher's murder and rape and sentenced to 30 years in prison in October. Prosecutors say that Sollecito and Knox held Kercher down while Guede raped her in a sex game gone wrong.

While Sollectito and Knox are both standing trial, not surprisingly, the Italian media frenzy has focused on Knox. "Foxy Knoxy" was the highest ranked woman in an Italian "personality of the year" poll in December, and the BBC reports that the Italian media has treated her as a "Lady Macbeth figure." Yesterday, much of the court proceedings dealt with how to handle the case considering the intense public interest. Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for Kercher's family sought to have the proceedings closed to the public and media, "to protect the memory and dignity of the victim and the Kercher family have lost a child." Prosecutors were not opposed to a closed trial, but the defendants wanted the case public. "We are going to demonstrate that there is no evidence against Raffaele Sollecito," said his lawyer, according to The Sun. The judge ruled that the trial will remain open, and more than 150 press passes have been issued for the court.

Earlier this week, the Kercher family appealed to the court to have a book about the case impounded, according to The Guardian. The book is based mainly on Knox's diaries, which were confiscated by the police, and reveals details about the students drinking and partying lifestyle. The publishers refused to stop distribution of the book, saying in is already in circulation. The author says that the book doesn't influence the trial because the diaries are part of evidence that will be submitted in court.

Knox and Sollecito have already been in jail for 14 months, and the trial could drag on for as long as a year, since in Italy only one to two hearings are held per week. Six members of the jury, three men and three women, were sworn in today and 250 witnesses are lined up to testify. Italy does not have the death penalty, so if convicted, the pair would face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Foxy Knoxy Appears In Court [The Sun]
Italy Focuses On 'Foxy Knoxy' As Trial Opens [BBC]
Meredith Kercher Murder Trial To Be Held In Public, Judge Rules [The Guardian]

• A British woman is pregnant with Siamese twins who share only one body. If the babies survive, they will be Britain's first ever dicephalus twins. • New research indicates that mouthwash containing alcohol may increase the risk of oral cancer. • Speakers will meet this week to discuss the fate of the cosmetic surgery industry. • Amanda "Foxy Knoxy" Knox will stand trial this Friday for her role in the death of former roommate Meredith Kretcher. • A Ukrainian bride in Britain has placed advertisements for "decent" guests to attend her wedding. • OMG!! 4real!?! A 13-year-old girl sent 14,528 texts in one month. That's one text every two waking minutes. • Maternity wards across England have been forced to widen their doors to accommodate obese mothers. • A woman gives birth two days after being declared brain dead in a hospital in Oxford, England. • Over the weekend Paul and Caragh Brooks tied the knot at their local Taco Bell. • A baby western lowland gorilla (a rare and endangered species) was born at the National Zoo Saturday. • A Scottish hospital has banned flowers, because of their potential to carry dangerous bugs. • Here's an unexpected gender bias: recent layoffs have affected men at a greater rate than women. • A New York waiter has been charged with a hate crime after he played an Arab chant at a Jewish wedding reception. • War crime prosecutors have charged ex-Congo VP Jean-Pierre Bemba with encouraging the use of mass rape as a weapon against civilians. • A married couple was refused permission to adopt on the grounds that the husband is "too fat" to be a father. •

Image via MSNBC

If you'll recall, Guede had the most damning evidence against him, as his bloody handprint was found beneath Kercher's dead body. If Guede has been convicted, why are Knox and Sollecito still being brought up on charges?

According to Time, "Knox's sexual history has been widely reported, with prosecutors linking her past to their allegation that the victim was forced into an orgy. (Even last week, Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera reported that Knox had to fend off lesbian advances of a fellow prisoner.)" In addition, prosecutors believe that Knox and Sollecito held Kercher down while Guede attempted to rape her. Besides Knox's "slutty" past and some circumstantial evidence (like Knox's DNA found on the knife that killed Kercher — a kitchen knife from their shared apartment that Knox would have used for cooking), there is no clear reason why prosecutors have stumbled on this particular series of events as the explanation for Kercher's death.

Meredith Kercher's poor family is mildly heartened by Guede's conviction. "It's important to remember that at the end of day we're here because our sister Meredith was murdered. 'Pleased' is not the appropriate word, 'satisfied' is the best we can say," Meredith's brother Lyle told reporters.

When Amanda Knox heard she would be standing trial for Kercher's murder, she burst into tears. For now, her lawyers are trying to get Knox out of the Italian prison where she's been held for the past year and into a hostel run by a Catholic charity. If she's found innocent, as at this point is truly seems she is, I hope Knox gets a boatload of money to write a memoir about this surreal and awful period of her life.

'Foxy' Amanda Knox to Stand Trial in Italy Murder [Time]
The Accused [Radar]
Meredith Kercher's Family 'Satisfied' After Drifter Rudy Guede Is Jailed For 30 years [Telegraph]

Earlier: Murder Suspect Amanda Knox Accused Of Satanic Orgy Plot