Crowded courtroom for start of Kercher murder trial

An American woman and her Italian former boyfriend went on trial in Perugia Friday in the 2007 killing of a British exchange student, with reporters crowding the courtroom as proceedings began. The cases of Amanda Knox, 21, and 24-year-old Raffaele Sollecito are expected to take months.

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Killing sparks protests in Kashmir

Protesters — angry about the killing of a carpenter, allegedly by Indian paramilitary forces — on Thursday stormed the streets of a village near Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. The 35-year-old carpenter was killed in front of family members when a patrol unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) entered his house in the southern village of Kashmir Kheegam for a search, locals said. The carpenter, the father of four young children, died on the spot.

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Web site seeks donations to help O.J. Simpson appeal conviction

A new Web site is seeking donations to help free O.J. Simpson, who it says was wrongly convicted of robbery and kidnapping. Creators of the site say the controversial former football star was railroaded by a “kangaroo court” in Las Vegas, Nevada, last year.

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Motion: Police violated rights of suspect in anchorwoman’s death

Police violated the rights of a man charged in the death of a Little Rock, Arkansas, anchorwoman by interviewing him twice without his lawyer present, defense attorneys said in a motion. The motion requests a judge bar police from “interviewing, interrogating or otherwise communicating with” Curtis Lavell Vance

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Police: 81 cars missing from dealership; 3 execs in custody

The owner of a Nebraska car dealership and two executives were in police custody facing theft charges Thursday after 81 cars were taken from the dealership’s lot, authorities said. Alan Patch, 52, the owner of Legacy Auto Sales in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, was being held in Tooele County, Utah, Scottsbluff police Capt

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Coleman and Franken Still Battle, as Minnesota Awaits a Senator

When Minnesota’s Senate recount trial began in January, the state’s lone U.S. Senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, made a prediction: either Republican incumbent Norm Coleman or Democratic challenger Al Franken would be seated as Minnesota’s next senator by April 11, the day the ice is expected to melt on Lake Minnetonka, a large lake outside of the Twin Cities. But after 30 painstaking days in court, Klobuchar is starting to have her doubts.

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Prosecutor: Levy ‘random victim’ of Salvadoran laborer

Nearly seven years after the remains of federal intern Chandra Levy were found in a Washington park, a jailed laborer from El Salvador faces a murder charge in her death, authorities said Tuesday. A judge on Tuesday signed an arrest warrant for Ingmar Guandique, 27, who is serving a 10-year sentence for two assaults in Rock Creek Park that occurred around the time of Levy’s disappearance.

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Trial delayed for baseball hero Bonds

Baseball slugger Barry Bonds won’t be headed to court Monday after all. Bonds’ federal trial on perjury and obstruction charges was to begin with jury selection Monday. But on Friday, prosecutors in the case filed an appeal of a court ruling about evidence admissibility, and the proceedings were stayed until further notice, the court said.

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