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Mother updated Twitter as her son, two, lay dying

A mother posted messages on Twitter as rescue workers tried to save her dying son.Shellie Ross, who is in her 30s, sent out ‘tweets’ to the social networking site just minutes after two-year-old Bryson was found floating face down in the family’s swimming pool.As paramedics tried to revive him, Ross, who used the online name ‘Military-Mom’, posted the note: ‘Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.’

Five hours later, after he was pronounced dead from drowning, she wrote, ‘Remembering my million dollar baby’.She then uploaded photos of Bryson to be viewed by her 5,000 followers. But her actions have provoked anger from fellow bloggers and Twitter users, and raised questions about the sharing of private information over the internet.One user, Madison McGraw, wrote: ‘The first thing I thought when I saw the tweet was that it was very sad. I just thought, “Who would tweet that her son just drowned?” I couldn’t believe it.

‘The person that I have compassion for is her son who might still be alive if Ross interacted with her son like she interacted with people on Twitter.‘It shows the repercussions for social media gone awry.’Yesterday, a police spokesman said Ross’s 11-year-old son, who had been cleaning out the chicken coup at the family’s home in Merritt Island, Florida, had called an ambulance after noticing his brother had fallen into the water.Ross sent her first tweet at 10.22pm British time on Monday – just a minute before the 999 call was made.Records show an ambulance arrived at the house at 10.38pm and Ross posted another message 34 minutes later.Yesterday, Ross defended the use of Twitter to announce her son’s death, saying no one ‘had a right to question my actions’. ‘I didn’t tweet-by-tweet the accident,’ she said.Trisha Haas, who founded the website Momdot.com where Ross worked, defended her friend’s actions, saying: ‘She twitters a lot and was close friends with people in the blogging community’.Ross and her husband Steven, who is in the U.S. Air Force, have asked to be left in private so they can mourn their son.

Flights cancelled, trains delayed and roads closed – Britain wakes to transport chaos after heavy snow falls overnight

• Gatwick and Heathrow airports cancel or divert flights due to ‘unsafe’ conditions
• Luton Airport forced to close
• Rail services cancelled in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire
• 200 motorists stuck in snow overnight in Kent
• Essex Police called to 180 weather-related incidents

Britain has been hit by transport chaos this morning as a blanket of snow fell in many areas overnight. Between 5cm and 15cm was recorded after flurries hit eastern England, particularly Essex and Kent, as forecasters warn that the snowfall will continue today.

The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for the South East, North West, London and the East Midlands.

Heavy snow in Colchester last night came as drivers were warned to take care on the roadsUp to 8ins is possible in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, London and East Anglia, with gale-force winds causing drifts.Trains and flights have been disrupted in London and the South East – with more than 200 motorists forced to spend hours stranded in their cars in the worst affected areas.TV presenter Davina McCall was among those stuck on the A21 in Kent for more than 10 hours after a lorry blocked the road.A spokesman for Gatwick Airport said 16 incoming flights were diverted to other UK airports due to bad weather and three outgoing flights were cancelled.‘Flights are being diverted to Manchester, Birmingham and other airports as a result of the weather,’ he said.Passengers are being bussed back to London, he added.Flights to and from Luton Airport have also been cancelled or diverted.A spokesman for Gatwick Airport said flights will not be able to take off until snow and ice is removed from the runway this morning.‘The runway is not safe,’ he said.The maintenance work has already begun but he said it was impossible to estimate how long that would take.

Between 5cm and 10cm of snow was recorded last night in East Finchley

It is currently still snowing at Gatwick where a total of 18 incoming flights have been diverted to other UK airports so far.Luton Airport was due to remain closed until 7am today because of the severe weather conditions and the shuttle bus between Luton Airport Parkway Station and the airport terminal is suspended.easyJet flights to Paris, Geneva, Turin and Nice, which were due to take off between 6am and 7am, have been cancelled.The 7.05am to Glasgow, 7.10am to Edinburgh, 8.25am to Berlin and 8.40am to Belfast – all easyJet – have also been cancelled even if the airport has reopened by the time they were due to depart.A spokesman for Heathrow Airport said the runways have been cleared through the night.‘Heathrow is open for business as usual,’ he added. But its website warned of cancellations and delays due to the severe weather.Flights may be disrupted as a result of adverse weather at other European airports or because aircraft are not ready.Passengers are advised to check with their airline before leaving for the flight.Rail passengers may also face disruption this morning.

Flurries: Snow continues to fall in Bromley High Street, Kent, this morning

National Express East Anglia has cancelled several services in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.Rail firm Southern said services between Redhill and Tonbridge have been suspected. And routes between Brighton and East Croydon are delayed by one hour.In London, overground services from Stratford and Camden Road are currently suspended.Services to Stansted Airport via the Stansted Express are delayed by 45 minutes.Snow and ice has caused problems on many roads overnight.The Highways Agency said sections of the M40 are closed this morning following accidents involving several vehicles on the northbound carriageway in Buckinghamshire and the southbound carriageway in Oxfordshire.Essex Police said between 10pm last night and 5am this morning they attended more than 20 road collisions.A spokesman for the force said there were 36 calls relating to youths causing a nuisance by throwing snowballs at passing vehicles or at properties.Blizzards caused more than 70 lorries to get stuck on the A120 leading out of Harwich.Vehicles were also trapped on other major roads including the A12 northbound at Colchester. A number of car and lorry drivers slept in their vehicles until gritters and snowploughs were able to reach them and open the roads, said the police spokesman.‘With further snow forecast over the next few days I would advise people to only make journeys if they are absolutely necessary,’ Chief Inspector Jon Dodman, from an emergency special operations centre at Essex Police headquarters, said.‘If you have to drive leave plenty of time for your journey, drive slowly and leave a large distance between you and the vehicle in front.‘It is advisable to make sure you have a mobile phone, a shovel, a blanket and a flask of hot drink with you just in case you do get stuck.’Kent Police today urged motorists not to drive unless the trip was essential.A spokesman said: ‘Only go out if absolutely necessary. If you do go out, be well equipped.’

Strictly half-naked: Forget the dancers… the real stars have been those impossibly skimpy costumes

It’s the final of Strictly Come Dancing tomorrow, and with Ola Jordan’s spray-on catsuits and Natalie Lowe’s flesh exposure, the outfits have never been sexier. LISA SEWARDS gets all the backstage gossip from the unsung heroes whose needles, thread, sequins and false eyelashes are an integral part of the show’s success.

This year, the smouldering chemistry between the celebrities and their professional dancers has bubbled to the surface more than in any other Strictly Come Dancing series.We’ve had sparks flying between The Bill actress Ali Bastian and partner Brian Fortuna, and the passion of pro-dancer Kristina Rihanoff and world champion boxer Joe Calzaghe.

Ready to rumba: Finalists Chris Hollins and his dance partner Ola Jordan doing the jive

And tomorrow we’re left with the raunchy dynamics between finalists Hollyoaks actor Ricky Whittle and his sexbomb pro Natalie Lowe and the more mischievous moves of TV presenter Chris Hollins and the perky Ola Jordan.So it can hardly be coincidence that this year’s dresses have been the sexiest and most daring to date, with more transparent costumes and bare flesh on display than ever before.And the Strictly designers know there is a clear link between looking fabulous and dancing to win.’If the man sees his partner looking gorgeous, his heart sings,’ explains Su Judd, Strictly’s costume designer.

Skimpy: Ricky and Natalie, in a stomach baring outfit

‘When there is a connection between a couple, you really see it played out on the dance floor and a lot of this stems from the chemistry of looking and feeling fantastic.’Everyone is saying that the dresses have been sexier this series. If we let her, Natalie would become more daring each week and she and Ricky could easily be half-naked all the time because they have great bodies.’Ola loves a revealing dress or an impossibly tight catsuit. When she came out in her sexy black rumba dress in the first show, Chris danced so well because he hadn’t seen her before she emerged and he was overwhelmed.’We could see him thinking “Cor …” because she looked so passionate and powerful.’The dresses with more gaps and flesh on show are technically harder to make, but this is often what the dancers want.’We know it’s easy to score points and gain popularity by being half-naked but it gets too boring to have too much flesh on show too much of the time,’ insists Su.’We have to push the dancers to accept that rolls of flesh don’t always look glam, even though they have fabulous bodies. I had a hard job to persuade Ola to wear a peachy dress with pleats covering her all the way to her neck for a ballroom number.’I wanted her to go from the seductress to the angel, and finally she agreed and loved the dress. So did Chris because he suddenly took on the romantic nature of the costume and therefore the dance.’

As the series has progressed, the dresses have got shorter as the celebrity dancers have gained confidence and lost any pockets of flab.’Actress Natalie Cassidy lost four inches off her hips and got more daring as the series went on and Chris has just had another centimetre taken in from his trousers after the one-and-a-half centimetres we took in last week,’ says Su.’Ali Bastian was nervous in the first two fittings because she didn’t want to wear anything too revealing. But she’s very slim so we were able to dress her in more revealing costumes, with cut-away fabric, because, by the second show, she had lost the softness on her muscle tone.’One of Ali’s favourite outfits was her black and red tango dress. ‘We had more problems with Brian than Ali, to be honest,’ laughs Su. ‘He likes to be costumed and was always asking for something new.

Barely there: Chris Hollins and Ola Jordan; Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe

‘And he knew exactly how he wanted Ali to look. He was insistent on making this dress traditional but very sexy, so we created a black lace basque with 8,000 hand-sewn crystals and full skirt to enable her to pivot so the dress flared out beautifully. She looked sensational and the magic certainly worked on Brian.’Ali agrees: ‘I loved the drama of my tango dress – it made me feel like I wanted to party.Feeling and looking fabulous made a huge difference to the way we danced and connected.’Just before we went on stage Brian would always kiss me on the cheek and say “You look beautiful, good luck.” This was a wonderful last-minute ritual and confidence booster.Brian knows what looks good. He’d quickly point out if I had mascara on my face and said if he disliked my hair. He preferred styles that would show off my long neck to make the dance more graceful. He certainly made me feel special.’

He made me feel special: Brian Fortuna gave Ali Bastian advice on her hair and outfits

But not all celebrities this series have experienced the feel-good factor of the costumes.’I think we let actress Lynda Bellingham down a bit,’ admits Su. ‘She never really felt right and I feel bad about this.’She found it very difficult on the floor being surrounded by dancers in skimpy costumes. We had such a laugh during the fittings I think we may have lost sight of our aim to make her feel fabulous and you really need to feel that on this show to dance convincingly.’On the other hand, Ronnie Wood’s estranged wife, Jo Wood, did revel in the costumes: ‘Jo may be a grandma, but she is a rock ‘n’ roll chick and looked fabulous in everything.’All the celebs on this series have been the nicest. They all want to win but this hasn’t made them fearful of each other as has happened previously.’We created a mermaid dress for actress Laila Rouass, who didn’t like it, but was happy for Ali to try it instead. Ali looked amazing and when she wore it for the Viennese Waltz, she got four tens.’Su and her team of 30 have been creating stunning outfits for the professional dancers and stars since the show’s first series, seven years ago.There were 42 dresses created for the first show in this series alone and nearly as many for tomorrow as the entire team return for the grand finale. More than 20 sewing machines have been whirring day and night.There is a slick tried-and-tested system, where designer Vicky Barkess sketches a dress for pattern-maker Theresa Hewlett, who then gives it to 75-year-old cutter Dumos Loizou, who hands the fabric pieces to machinist Mei Lau.Design assistant Elise Gillman applies the lace decoration on the dresses before stoner Ashraf Hydrose and his team of seven work round the clock to hand-sew up to 10,000 crystals or rhinestones.

A mannequin dummy is made matching each dancer’s exact proportions, with plastic bubble wrap held together with masking tape to create their personal shape.Each dress is worn just once and then sold to the public after the show for up to £2,000.For the men, it is ex-Savile Row tailor Tony Brackley who creates their bespoke suits.’The longer they remain in the show, the better their tail suits fit,’ he says. ‘Ricky Whittle has lost muscle from not working out with weights during the show but his body has elongated instead, so his tail suit is no longer tight under the arms.’Before the series starts, Su spends five hours with the female celebrities designing 14 dresses each in case they make the final.’Ola and Lilia Kopylova are small so we keep their skirt length short and sexy to make them look taller,’ says Su. ‘Kristina has been vampy but less brassy this year.’Kristina agrees: ‘I like to look classy but sexy to stand out. It was a shame because when it came to the live show, Joe couldn’t cope.’But at least he had never seen such beautiful dresses and that helped us dance better.’

Dresses have got shorter: Chris and Ola, in a turquoise dress

In the make-up department, every surface is littered with what looks like dead spiders but are, in fact, false eyelashes.By the close of each show, makeup artist Lisa Armstrong is covered in glitter and her voice hoarse from shouting during a frantic schedule in which a team of five make-up artists turn contestants from sweaty-faced dancers into dazzling divas.’Normally, we keep the eyes traditional for ballroom dances and strong and sexy for the Latin dances,’ explains Lisa, 33. ‘But this time, for a ballroom dance, I used pink, yellow and green across Ali’s eyes, with a crystal in each corner, and she loved it.’A few of the girls have been intimidated by the use of lots of make-up, says Lisa. ‘Olympic athlete Jade Johnson started off by being particular about the way we did her make-up because her own style was more low key, and so did Natalie Cassidy. It took them a couple of weeks to get into our way of thinking.

Peachy perfect: Ali loved her dresses

‘It got to the point when we said: “You can’t have pink and sparkles again.” Meanwhile, Jo Wood loved smoky eyes; the sexier the better.’The team’s piece de resistance is the false eyelash trick which involves cutting out the middle of a fake lash and sticking it to the centre of the eyelid to create a baby doll look.The spray-tan expert arrives on Friday to give the ladies an overnight treatment so streaks don’t rub off on the couture dresses by the time it gets to Saturday’s performance.The make-up and hair routines kick off at 9am on Saturday, with the ladies taking priority as nail and toe polish must match and each bruise, caused in training, has to be camouflaged.’We start off the series with a team of 16 but every time a female is voted off, we lose a team member from hair and make-up,’ explains Lisa.’If a male is voted off we don’t lose anyone as the men make no real difference to our workload. Ricky Whittle, for example, is so goodlooking and confident he just needs anti-shine and powder.’Chris Hollins is naughty. He once came in just 15 minutes before we went live even though he knows he, like all the men, has to come in at least one hour before the show.’Laura Solari, 39, lead hair stylist for Strictly, says: ‘The girls, especially Ali, Laila and Ola, feel more sexy with their hair down, so I had to persuade them to wear it back for certain dances.’After a few weeks Jade said we’d helped her change the way she thought of herself, and she had a little cry.’

Her greatest challenge is to create two to three hairstyles per girl per show. ‘We have just under two minutes in between dances to change a female contestant’s look.’So I prepare a secret hairstyle underneath. For Natalie Lowe I created a side-twist style for her Foxtrot, which transformed into a big detailed bun for her ballroom dance and underneath was a prepared pony-tail for her Latin dance.’LAURA says her most important job is ‘to guard the gorgeous hair accessories and diamantes to stop the celebrities inadvertently waltzing off with them into the night.’If the Strictly experts need spice put into a dance routine, with sexy, show-stopping moves, they bring in choreographer Ryan Francois. For the final, he has saved up one of the trickiest dances – the Lindy Hop.’They all freaked when they heard what they had to do,’ laughs Ryan, 43.’This dance is the master of big band swing dance and involves explosive aerial steps, throwing your partner in manic ways.’I have to play to their strengths so Ricky, who is athletic and the most natural dancer, can do more spectacular moves.’But Chris is a cheeky chap where comedy is the key element. In him, Ola has found her perfect foil, so I have brought in a step called The Boot where Ola is going to kick him on the bottom, then he’ll fly through the air, landing on all fours.

Cheeky chappy: In Chris dancer Ola has found her perfect foil

‘The final routine has to be down to the choreographer. Not every prodancer sees it that way, unfortunately, particularly Brendan Cole.’We haven’t connected greatly as he likes to control everything and have the most spectacular moves and is like a disruptive schoolboy if he can’t.’The competing couples in the final hope to pull off some tricky moves.’I hope to include a classic step called The Snatch, which the couples are fighting over. It involves the man pulling his partner by her arms, slicing her through the air like Superwoman, whereupon she lands on her partner’s back, he catches her by one leg and throws her from the same leg back the way she came!Naturally this movement is a hot favourite and, if Chris and Ola are lucky, they might be able to pull it off. Everyone is hungry to win so the stakes are high this year in dance, style and glamour.’

Temptress Rosie Webster strips off in bid to become ‘new Jordan’

One is a TV institution that has been a fixture in the nation’s living rooms for almost 50 years.The other is a surgically enhanced model who made a career from scantily-clad poses and outrageous antics.But despite being one of Britain’s most controversial celebrities, Katie Price – aka Jordan – is deemed so socially important a new Coronation Street plotline features one of the characters wanting to emulate her.Rosie Webster, played by actress Helen Flanagan, stuns her family when she decides she wants to be the ‘new Jordan.’The character, who is 18 in the show, has a test photo shoot, dressed in provocative outfits.In one photograph, she wears a white and red cheerleader’s top, with the words: ‘Pop My Cherry’ emblazoned on the back.While in another, she wears a corset and thigh high stocking as she hitches up her skirt.

..

What will her parents say? Rosie Webster in her revealing outfit

Rosie is seen for the first time in the ‘Pop My Cherry’ outfit tonight when she takes a job as a promotions girl for a cherry vodka company.She is seen rollerskating around Weatherfield in the outfit, leaving father Kevin furious.The episode is also being shown before the 9pm watershed.Last night, Vivienne Pattison, from Mediawatch, said:  ‘This is a pre-watershed programme – but I don’t think this is suitable viewing before the watershed.’

Teenage temptress: Rosie in one of her glamour model costumes

Even more raunchy photographs of Rosie’s burgeoning glamour career will then be featured on the Coronation Street website.Miss Flanagan said of her character: ‘The whole cherry vodka promotions job leads on to Rosie becoming a glamour model which I’m very excited about! It’s perfect for her.’It is not the first time in recent months the soap opera has been accused of being too risqué, with regards to Rosie’s character.

Cheeky: The teenager is determined to make her fortune

Pop icon: Glamour model Jordan yesterday

In September, raunchy footage of her stripped on the cobbles were again deemed too risqué for the TV show – but not for the Weatherfield watchers on the internet.The scene showed the young Webster throwing off her coat to reveal a sexy basque, stockings and suspenders in attempt to seduce a rival’s boyfriend.TV viewers saw an edited version that merely showed Rosie strolling down the street. The programme finished as she began to undress.And earlier this year, the programme featured Rosie dressed in knickers and a white basque that could barely contain her cleavage. The plot-line focussed on Rosie as a Lolita-style seductress having an affair with her tutor.Ms Flanagan said of the character recently: ‘Rosie is outrageous and such a madam and I love playing her. I get to do things that I would never dare do.’Jordan, meanwhile, rose to fame as a glamour model. In recent years, she has become a favourite of the celebrity magazines.ITV paid £350,000 for her to appear on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here – but she walked out after a week.She had first appeared on the show in 2004, when she met her, now, ex-husband Peter Andre.

I’ve been waiting to type the following sentence since August 17th: The semester is finally over. This is how I feel:

I hope you’re singing the theme song in your head, because I am.

I woke up this morning, and out of pure habit, reached almost immediately for my little red planner. When I opened it up to today’s page, I was struck by two things: 1 the page was empty. and 2 there are only a few pages left. While my emotional reaction to #1 is perfectly easy to describe (ELATION), I found that my reaction to #2 is a little more complicated. I’ve always thought that the ending of one year and beginning of another  is a little bittersweet – on one hand, you’re forced to look back almost nostalgically over what the world has given you over the past year and over what you have, in return, given to the world. It’s sometimes hard, for me at least, to watch this all slip away into the “past” – no longer represented on the calendar on my wall or in the pages of my planner. But, on the other hand, I can never help but to be excited about my next 365 day trip around the Sun and all of the challenges, victories, and defeats this trip will inevitably bring. Like I said, it’s bittersweet.

I started to think about this year though, about 2009, and I realized just how amazing this year has actually been. Maybe “amazing” isn’t the perfect way to describe it, but I can’t think of any single word that encapsulates everything I’ve experienced and everything I’ve felt along the way.

I thought I’d share with you all a “few” (okay, this post is actually really long. sorry) of the things that have made this year so memorable and so life-changing. This list (yes! another list!) is a roughly chronological and truly insane compilation of the the accomplishments I am most proud of… here is my 2009.

-Packed my life into a backpack and two very heavy suitcases and flew to Perugia, Italy to live/study for 4 months (that was, at least, the original plan)

-Moved here:

-Woke up to this view everyday:

-Met one of my closest friends, whom we shall call Kiki

-Traveled to Venice, drank champagne in the middle of Saint Mark’s Square, and took a little trip down the Grand Canal on a gondola.

-Learned the joy of eating slowly. (like a four-hour lunch kind of “slowly”).

-Met a “lovely” french boy. Broke this lovely french boy’s heart.

-Travled to Milan with two fabulous gentlemen, spent the night in the sketchiest hostel known to man, summited the Duomo, attended a rowdy A.C. Milan game, dined in Milan’s China Town, and played for an hour at a makeshift carnival in the middle of the city.

-Met Casimiro.

-Traveled to Rome for the beginning of a whirlwind Spring Break trip, rode a two-person bike/car around the colosseum and to the pantheon (this may or may not have been illegal), missed our flight to Prague, spent the night in the airport, and lived the life of a gypsy for 24 hours.

-Travled to Prague and learned very quickly how foreign of a language czech really is.

-Traveled to Brussels, met Frank, our Norwegian hostel roommate, spent hours in Delerium Tremens, the bar with the world record for the greatest number of different beers, discovered the meaning and consequences of “das boot” (courtesy of Frank), and realized what a disgrace the “eggo” is to the world of waffles.

-Traveled to (and fell in love with) Bruges, marveled at the simplicity of bicycle transportation, bar hopped through torrential downpours, and drank more pints than is possible to remember.

-Ate a dinner with Cas, Kiki, a man/master chef named Paolo, a mystery 50 year old creepo, his tranny girlfriend, enjoyed several bottles of wine (each) and a liter of limoncello….(as painful as it sounds).

-Was visited by my entire family for one week, traveled to Rome, Amalfi (HEAVEN ON EARTH) and Florence, and realized that no matter how exciting your life may be, it’s nothing compared to being able to share experiences with the people you love most.

-Visited Castello del Trebbio, a castle/winery outside of Florence, was offered a job for the summer, accepted, and started making plans to extend my italian adventure.

-Traveled to Paris on a whim with Kiki, watched the light show at the Eiffel Tower, watched Kiki board a plane for the United States, and took a 13 hours train ride back to Italy (rough).

-Moved into Cas and Nini’s apartment, gained approximately 100 lbs from Cas cooking lunch and dinner everyday, listened to hours and hours of coldplay, watched hours and hours of soccer games, and learned the meaning of “livin the dream.”

-Had a little ‘hiccup’ with the Italian government, realized my visa had expired, spoke with members of parliament trying to get a new visa, failed, almost got deported, and had to back out on the job at the castle. Sobbing ensued until Cas poured me a glass of wine.

-Headed back to the United States two and a half months later than originally planned and ate the world’s most delicious Chipotle burrito upon landing.

-Realized I was homeless and moved in with my lovely brother for the summer. God bless him.

-Decided I want to go to law school.

-Enrolled in the most insane school schedule known to man.

-Moved back to the lovely Boulder, Colorado and fell right back in love with it.

-Got an internship doing marketing and PR for a Denver law firm, confirmed that I want to go to law school, and realized how much I hate commuting.

-Worked harder than I ever have before, became more exhausted than I thought possible, and alllllmost gave up….

-But decided to kick ass instead (and by this, I mean I survived).

[If you're still reading, serious kudos to you and your eyeballs]

It’s a good thing Thanksgiving isn’t the only day of the year you’re allowed to be thankful for everything that’s happened in your life, and that New Years isn’t the only the day to look back and to look forward. I have so much to be thankful for this year, it’s almost difficult to comprehend – many times it’s even difficult to convince myself that this all really did happen. I stand here a much different person than I was 365 days ago, and it’s all because of this list and the people in it (and many many others). If that doesn’t make you excited for 2010, I don’t know what will.

So what were the highlights of your last trip around the Sun? The things that you’re most proud of? The new paths that you’ve forged? The accomplishments that separate the 2008-you from the 2010-you? Whatever they are, I hope they make you sad to take down your current calendar and excited to put up the new one.

Cheers

-S.

To: The New York Times
From: Cat Sinclair, 18, Flower Mound, Kansas

Dear editor:

I’ve been reading a lot of international newspapers recently and I’ve been shocked to hear that Italy has brought a young woman to trial for murder, claiming that she took part in a drug-fueled violent sex orgy that turned homicidal. As I read the case closely, I had to ask: Why doesn’t stuff like that ever happen in my town? Do crazed, murderous orgies only happen in Italy?

So very often I dream of taking a gap year or wanderjahr to the land of the ancient Romans. But this case has greatly troubled me as I pore over international newspapers and books from the library.

There are so many stories from Italy that can give a person pause: An Italian politician runs rampant with Lesbian foot-fetish prostitutes, or some woman takes off her top at a party in a Fellini movie, or a bunch of Satan worshiping orgiastic Templars go nuts in an Umberto Eco novel and have sex with a blindfolded girl while performing voodoo. Life here in Flower Mound is just so staid by comparison, and maybe I am naïve, but these just aren’t the kinds of things I’m used to where I come from.

What is it about Italy that makes murderous orgies so commonplace that they are immediately accepted with jaded nods by the Italians? Is it some atavistic remnant of Roman culture from the days of its debauched Empire? I’ve never seen Pasolini’s 120 Days of Sodom, which has been banned by our library here, but when I read the most recent story, I assumed that it was old hat to the Italians–that they must simply be shaking their heads with familiar chagrin at another story about a cannabis inspired cluster fuck gone bad spraying across the front pages of their tabloids like grapeshot.

Supposedly an angel-faced American student went native and is now accused of killing her roommate in a completely spontaneous orgy initiated among strangers well besotted on killer dope. Some people say the forensic evidence points to another person, but the tabloids know better and are having none of it. Evidently this happens a lot: a sweet, all-American girl on the outside, a good student and athlete with an ebullient demeanor who demonstrates no antisocial behavior suddenly goes berserk on drugs and hate sex and begins to kill in a fit of joie de vivre. Is this what happens during one’s sexual awakening in the romantic Italian hills—that the mask is removed and we are all stripped down to our most ulterior and base desires to fuck and kill? Is that what the study abroad program is all about?

We’re just all so innocent in America. No right thinking attorney general here would ever even guess that the motivation for a murder with no forensic evidence was Dionysian thrill-kill lust. But Italy is different. Italians are very alert and cognizant at all times for the possibility of rampant Bacchanalian escapades–they sound, in fact, like they’re always ready for it to happen–the balmy nights, the open cask of wine and the wild abandon that culminates in the all-too-predictable snuff moment. I mean, in Italy these stories pretty much tend to just write themselves, don’t they? “Someone died? Sounds like another one of these crazed orgies we’ve been having during our two thousand years of licentiousness hedonism.” Once the whiff of that Umbrian countryside gets in your lungs, the concupiscence and the sentimental education of co-ed orgy murder cannot be but one or two steps behind, and the Italians simply know that better than we do.

Think of it. One minute you’re smoking some pot with your expat friends and the next minute your flat-mate’s blood is all over the walls, as you wonder, staring through the bars of your Italian jail cell, how you so lost your moral compass. How many a teenager’s summer in Florence, I wonder, ends up this way?

I ask you, New York Times editor, because I was thinking of spending this summer in Florence myself. But now I am very frightened of the idea: If I work for a year at Grandy’s and save 50% of my earnings for a trip to Tuscany, what are the chances that I, too, am going to die in an orgy gone bad? Or worse, what if I, too, swoon at the beauty of the Tuscan hills and in a state of crazed sexual debauchery turn into a psychopathic killer in a sex game? What if there is some base instinct deep within my ovaries that neither my mother nor Our Bodies, Ourselves ever told me about?

This case has made me think that perhaps a young girl is capable of anything–even the unspeakable acts of the Marquis de Sade–if her first experiences of the Tuscan countryside, hash oil and cunnilingus are especially vivid. Not having experienced any of these allegedly beautiful sensations personally yet, I am now afraid of myself. I have become greatly frightened of what dangers lurk in my unknowable heart should I follow its impulses. Perhaps I’m playing with fire by planning to go overseas and perhaps I should instead do as my preacher says and marry this guy from Votech who has a crush on me. I mean, he’s no prize. But sometimes you just have to bet on the goofy refrigerator mechanic when the alternative is orgiastic frenzy and death. Save me from the murderous tendencies I might only belatedly discover and not understand until I’m in an Umbrian jail cell, my mouth covered with blood, doing cartwheels for the paparazzi as they refer to me as “Luciferina,” “Demoness Lover” and “Orgy Girl.”

I’m not sure where I was going with this, New York Times editor, except to say that none of us knows who we really are, and Italy is one dark peninsula where I have decided I will not go to find out. The Italians know what evil really lurks in the hearts of men. I can only ask God to please keep me safe from the heart of darkness that is Italy.

Photo: An Italian police artist’s rendering of the most recent American orgiastic crime scene.

Today, at 14,11 local hour, a middle hearquake – 4.2 Richter’s scale - has been near Perugia.
The quake was deep under the ground at 6-7 kilomenters and damage should not be serious
I live here and, at first floor, in front of my Pc the ‘crash’ has been scary.
Now, at this moment, only 3 hours after that earthquake, the elicopters of Italian Civil Protection plays around the places of that thingalso the damages, i repeat aren’t bigs.

Update after 7 hours ( translate with ‘Bing translator’ from PERUGIA Blog, and corrected by me):

PERUGIA EARTHQUAKE: RECORDED A FEW DAMAGE

After a very first estimate of damages made by upward with the civil protection – fire – brigade helicopters authorities have said damage seem minor, as provided for by the power of the earthquake measured in 4.2 degrees on the Richter, scale, and because the depth of the epicenter - between Deruta and Marsciano‘ Towns – was roughly calculated over 7 kilometers, damage are very slight, as perhaps not everyone knows the epicentre is deep damage will be less, although the seismic wave then expands on a wider area, indeed to Perugia you heard very well, as if were was a little distance from the mentions, instead you is at least a 30 of kilometers, if not more than.
Read the full article, go here

PERUGIA, Italy — American college student Amanda Knox was found guilty of murdering her British roommate and sentenced to 26 years in prison early Saturday after a year-long trial that gripped Italy and drew intense media attention. Her co-defendant, former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years. The two also were found guilty of sexual assault in the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old student from England.  “No, no,” Knox said, bursting into tears and clinging to one of her lawyers as the judge read the verdict just after midnight following some 13 hours of deliberations. Minutes later, the 22-year-old Knox, who is from Seattle, and the 25-year-old Sollecito were put in police vans with sirens blaring and driven back to jail. Prosecutors had sought life imprisonment, Italy’s stiffest sentence. Courts can give less severe punishment than what prosecutors demand. The American’s father, Curt Knox, asked if he would fight on for his daughter, replied, with tears in his eyes: “Hell, yes.” “This is just wrong,” her stepmother, Cassandra Knox, said, turning around immediately after hearing the verdict. Her family had insisted she was innocent and a victim of character assassination. The family said later in a statement they would appeal the ruling. One of Knox’s attorneys, Luciano Ghirga, was asked if she was distraught. “Yes, I challenge anyone not to be,” he replied. Silence fell on the packed and tense courtroom as the jurors walked in. Kercher’s mother and sister cried at the verdict. “The sentence is fair and satisfactory for the family,” said their lawyer, Francesco Maresca. “It was a heartfelt sentence. There is deep suffering on all sides.”

Polly has been contemplating this case for awhile. First, I thought she did it because most people aren’t accused of something they didn’t do, but now I’m confused. I think everyone deserves a fair trial, and that I am sure she didn’t not recieve in Italy. Has anyone researched the prosecuting attorney? He is a criminal and he should not be trying cases. For what it’s worth this girl deserves a fair trial and there is not enough evidence to prove she did it. 

Amanda Knox non ha dormito, neanche un minuto: dopo la condanna a ventisei anni, ha passato la notte a piangere. Le compagne di cella l’hanno accolta con una tazza di latte, ma non è servito a calmarla.

Una delle cose che apprezzo di questa città sono le finestre, ampie luminose, alcune volte più simili a schermi televisivi per le immagini che ci trasmettono. Nella mia stanza le tende non vengono mai abbassate, tanto bello è andare a letto con questo panorama (nella foto sopra il mio panorama) ancor di più nello svegliarsi insieme a NY e vedere la luce filtrare piano piano tra i palazzi. Come dicevo sembra di addormentarsi e svegliarsi davanti alla TV.

Radio nelle orecchie, luci e suoni della città e si può star qui all’infinito, all’infinito mica tanto perchè l’allarme mi ricorda che devo tirar fuori i panni dall’asciugatrice, un elettrodomestico che non dovrebbe mai mancare!!! Che cosa spettacolare tirar fuori i panni caldi ed asciutti, indossare i jeans caldi ma morbidi ed uscire al freddo per una cena veloce veloce dai china sotto casa. Fighezza!
Un piccolo punto di ritrovo qui a NY sono le lavanderie a gettone, la mia fortuna e di averne una qui nel residence universitario (a tessera con chip… ma sempre automatiche), si trova gente si chiacchiera un po e via così. E’ strano ma bello, io nel frattempo mi son letto un altro capitolo di Kitchen Confidential.

In TV c’è Larry King, stan parlando del caso di Perugia, o meglio della sentenza di Amanda… ovviamente stanno criticando la giustizia italiana.. non voglio entrare nel merito perchè secondo me nessuno ancora adesso sa cosa diavolo sia successo davvero e sopratutto chi cavolo ha ucciso l’inglesina. Fatto sta che qui si domandano perchè non hanno permesso alla polizia usa di vederci chiaro. Ora credo che da noi si possa dire tutto tranne che la giustizia sia sugli scudi… o no?

Pian piano ci stiamo avvicinando al natale, io intanto mi gusto il MIO panorama, notte.

Hillary Clinton has been drawn into the battle to overturn Amanda Knox’s conviction.

Amid a growing U.S. backlash against the verdict, the American Secretary of State has agreed to meet a senator from 22-year-old Knox’s home state of Washington.

On Friday night, Knox was found guilty of the drug-fuelled sex murder of British student Meredith Kercher and jailed for 26 years.

Her conviction, alongside her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, came in tense late-night scenes in the Italian town of Perugia at the end of a year-long trial. Sollecito, 25, was jailed for 25 years.

Last night, Miss Kercher’s family told of their anguish for the first time since her killer was jailed.

Her mother Arline, 64, said the entire family had been given a ‘life sentence’ and were ‘living in a nightmare’ for the two years since she was slain.

She also revealed how they keep the 21-year-old’s bedroom exactly as it was when she left in the vain hope she will one day come home.

Miss Kercher’s semi-naked body was found in November 2007 in a pool of blood in the bedroom of the home she and Knox shared in Perugia.

The court heard that Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was subjected to a terrifying ordeal when she returned to her Italian home after an evening with friends.

Knox, Sollecito and another man, drifter Rudy Guede, attempted to involve the Leeds University student in a sex game, cutting her throat when she refused and leaving her to die in ’slow agony’. Guede, 22, was convicted of murder and sexual assault last year and jailed for 30 years.

After the verdicts, Knox’s furious father Curt Knox vowed to fight to clear his daughter’s name and spoke of his ‘anger and disbelief’ at the Italian justice system.

His campaign seems to be gaining support on Capitol Hill. Senator Maria Cantwell, from Washington state, declared there were ’serious questions about the Italian justice system’.

She said she was concerned there had been an ‘anti-American’ feeling at the trial and said she would be raising her concerns with Mrs Clinton.

‘The prosecution did not present enough evidence for an impartial jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Miss Knox was guilty,’ she said. ‘Italian jurors were allowed to view highly negative news coverage about Miss Knox.’

She said Knox, who called herself Foxy Knoxy on a web page, had been a victim of ‘harsh treatment’ and branded handling of evidence ‘negligent’.

(CBS News)

For centuries the town of Perugia has drawn scholars, tourists and in recent years foreign students eager to study and bask in its glories.

Amanda Knox had just arrived from Seattle to spend her junior year learning Italian when she met a nice Italian boy named Raffaele Sollecito, reports CBS News correspondent Alan Pizzey.

The two said they were in his apartment smoking marijuana, watching a movie and making love the night before police broke down the door of the cottage Knox shared with British student Meredith Kercher.

Amanda Knox Family In Despair, Wants U.S. Input

There was blood everywhere, and the body of Kercher with her throat slashed.

Knox went to the police voluntarily to give evidence. But they thought she acted strangely. She kept changing her story and two days later she and Sollecito were arrested and charged with Kercher’s murder.Journalist Andrea Vogt began covering story for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer online.

“Amanda Knox’s attorneys explained that behavior as sort of a cultural and generational gap, that she was a young foreigner. She was kind of an odd bird
from Seattle. She didn’t act like they thought she was supposed to. And therefore they started to suspect her early on,” Vogt explained.

Questioned without a lawyer, Knox claimed police were verbally abusive and even hit her. She implicated a local bar owner in the murder. He was later cleared.

The DNA of a drifter named Rudy Guede was all over the crime scene. He was arrested, tried separately and sentenced to 30 years in jail.When Knox and Sollecito got their turn in court, the prosecution claimed that they and Guede forced Kercher into a drug-fueled sex game because she had criticized Knox for being promiscuous and untidy. They said she ended up killing the British girl.

The Italian judicial system uses a jury of two judges and six citizens who are not sequestered. Amanda Knox became a media sensation dubbed “Foxy
Knoxy,” her childhood nickname.

The defense contended evidence was tainted, that DNA samples were too small to count.

In a final plea to the court, Knox – speaking in Italian – said she was “scared of being branded what I am not…scared of having the mask of an assassin forced onto me.”

The verdict came at midnight: Guilty. Twenty-six years in jail for Knox, 25 for Sollecito.

Knox sobbed as she was led away.
Knox’s divorced parents bankrupted themselves to pay for her defense and to be in court every day. They were outraged.

“It’s a complete miscarriage of justice. It’s a travesty to the Italian judicial system,” Curt Knox, Amanda’s father, told 48 Hours.

Knox has an automatic right of appeal.

It sucks to be her….

My wife just pointed out the ironic contrast between Amanda Knox prosecutor Giuliano Mignini and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. While Mignini reaped the rotten fruits of his distorted moral play against Amanda Knox, a million demonstrators took to the Roman streets asking for their corrupt leader’s political head. An excerpt from an Agence France-Presse report:

Former minister Rosy Bindi said she took part as a “simple citizen” and not as a representative of the Democratic Party (PD).

“It is significant that a large part of the country is reacting against and getting angry at a prime minister who doesn’t want to be judged and isn’t solving problems,” she told AFP.

Antonio di Pietro, a former anti-corruption judge and now leader of the Italy of Values party, denounced “the Berlusconi government’s great electoral, political, judicial and media swindle”.

Participants ranged from film director Nanni Moretti, who condemned Berlusconi’s domination of Italian television, to ecologists opposed to a planned bridge across the Straits of Messina and immigrant defense groups.

Protesters shouted “mafioso” at effigies of the billionaire prime minister, referring to a Mafia hitman who testified at a trial in Turin that his boss alleged Berlusconi had aided organised crime.

In league with the Italian mafia, Berlusconi recently vowed to strangle his detractors:

If I find out who is the maker of the nine seasons of ‘The Octopus’ and who has written books on the mafia, which give such a bad image to Italy across the world, I swear that I will strangle them.

Maria Cantwell, senatrice democratica americana preoccupata che la condanna di Amanda Knox per l’omicidio di Meredith Kercher possa essere stata motivata da sentimenti anti-americani, ha chiesto e ottenuto l’intervento del Segretario di Stato Hillary Clinton. La Clinton si è detta disponibile ad ascoltare chiunque abbia timori o dubbi sulle motivazioni della sentenza.

E adesso chi lo sente Berlusconi che quei comunistoni dei giudici italiani sono andati a rompere le scatole anche al suo amichetto Obama?

Giudici, e stateci attenti a ’ste cose!

Vedi anche: Perugia, Italia

Injustice.

If you have a daughter or son in college who may spend a year studying abroad, you’re likely shaken over the Amanda Knox case.

Perugia prosecutor Giuliano Mignini is himself under investigation for serious transgressions regarding abuse of power, which includes heavy-handed tactics against journalists. Florence prosecutor Luca Turco recently called for his judicial colleague Mignini to be jailed for ten months, according to a report in Britain’s The Daily Mail.

In fact, weigh in with most any American journalist who covers the case — Vanity Fair’s Judy Bachrach and West Seattle Herald’s Steve Shay, who appeared recently on CNN or Seattle Times reporters — and you’ll discover disturbing practices of jurisprudence. It becomes clear that the fathers of Perugia, a conservative city in central Italy, had it in for a free-spirited American who simply didn’t act like the locals. Couple that with a veracious tabloid press, an unvetted jury that is permitted to read and view all manner of whacky media accounts, and you have a formula for disaster. Oh, throw in the fact that the defense was not permitted to challenge suspect DNA evidence with its own experts. Talk about having the jury stacked against you.

At this point, the Knox family and Washington State Sen. Maria Cantwell are making entreaties with the state department via Hillary Clinton. The appeals process will likely commence in October. The likelihood of an appellate turnover Italian-style depends on who you talk to. I spent time in Italy as a college student. While I didn’t run up against the law, I did run into a bureaucracy that makes Washington look like a walk in the park, and I was just registering my Fiat 500.

Hopefully, appeals and pressure from the U.S. State Department and European diplomats will help tip the scales of injustice.

Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox was convicted on all counts yesterday of murdering her former roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Italy.  Amanda spent two years in prison before going to trial and this was a bad year for this kind of event because the Flying Star feng shui on her Success direction was working against her all year long.

If you’re not familiar with Amanda she was an American exchange student studying in Italy.  Her roommate, Merideth Kercher who was a British exchange student, was murdered November 1, 2007 and Amanda along with her Italian boyfriend were the primary suspects in the crime. 

This year the case finally came to trial but the feng shui timing was really bad for Amanda.  That’s because she has the feng shui Conflict Star sitting on her Success direction for the year.  This means roadblocks, arguing, lawsuits and extreme difficulting in succeeding because people don’t believe her this year.

From what I read about the trial the prosecution changed their theory a number of times during the trial about how the crime was committed and the evidence pointing to Amanda’s guilt was questionable. 

The problem for her was that while it was possible for her to get a ‘not guilty’ verdict based on the prosecution’s case the feng shui Flying Star was staunchly working against her.  That meant that even if the prosecution’s case was extremely flimsy for conviction the Conflict Star stepped in to exercise it’s negative energy against Amanda.

Here’s the thing about this.  In feng shui Flying Stars can be remedied so their energy is reduced.  This can help you if you’re in a bad situation and can mean the difference between going to jail for 26 years vs. getting a suspended sentence plus time served. 

But here’s the inside scoop.  I think she probably was involved in the murder and here’s why.

At the time of Meredith’s death Amanda had the Disaster Star on her Success direction and the Conflict Star on her Relationship direction.  This combination can bring arguments with people in your life and if there’s a serious conflict it’s usually with just one person.

On top of that the Disaster Star on Amanda’s Success direction that year indicates some kind of disaster related to her education.  The murder definitely brought an end to her dream of a college degree.

Now, on November 1, 2007, which is when Meredith was murdered, Amanda had the monthly feng shui Disaster Star on her Relationship direction in combination with the Conflict Star that was there for the year.  When people are not getting along with someone and these two Stars come together this can bring death as a result of anger.

At this same time she had the Military Star on her Success direction sitting with the Disaster Star which can bring out a dictatorial nature and even militant behavior.

According to the story about Meredith Kercher, Amanda and her boyfriend wanted her to participate in a sex game.  When she refused they killed her.  If this is true this would tie into the feng shui Flying Star energy that was on Amanda’s Success direction the night of Meredith’s demise.

Given the Flying Star perspective at the time of the murder it appears that the verdict given was the right one.

HOLIDAY INFORMATION

As in the wonderful scenery, in Assisi ( the Country of Saint Francis) , the New Year, take the colors and lights of a unique and absolutely fascinating. In this city so special, you can breathe more air, almost mystical, and with the arrival of the holidays, the warmth and magic surrounding Assisi, offers an enchanting atmosphere and alluring…

click here to read complet article

Fast forward to the past, the American South of old: small town justice, small town sheriff, justice by prejudice. Only now it’s Perugia, the conservative, provincial Italian town, and the victim is Amanda Knox, the “angel faced” American college student plowed under by a railroad of bad press, bad judgment and bad practices in jurisprudence.

Here are a few good sources for this disturbing story:

1. Vanity Fair contributing editor Judy Bachrach, who lived in Italy for four years and covered the Knox trial gavel to gavel. As she explained last night on CNN, the small-town Italian justice system derives directly from “the ancient inquisition.” The Knox prosecutor is himself the subject of an inquiry regarding other recent heavy-handed practices. Also, the Italian trial system is devoid of jury vetting and defense challenges to evidence, among other primitive processes.
2. Such Knox family members as aunt Janet Huff. Huff has an astute understanding of the Perugia phenomenon, which includes gross prejudices fueled by a paparazzi-style Italian tabloid press that distorted innocent behavior and drew false conclusions from the get-go. See Huff’s video statement.
3. West Seattle Herald reporter Steve Shay, who draws the same conclusions as Bachrach and Knox, from his independent investigation. He commented last night on CNN, with Jim Moret who was sitting in for Larry King.

Meanwhile, as Knox’s family pursues the painful appeals process overseas, Maria Cantwell, a U.S. senator from Knox’s home state of Washington, issued the following statement:

I am saddened by the verdict. I have serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial. I will be conveying my concerns to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

If I asked you who Rudy Guede was, you might struggle to give me an answer.  If I asked you who Raffaele Sollecito was, you might begin to remember what I’m talking about.  But if I asked you who Amanda Knox was, I have no doubt that you’d be able to link all three names to the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. 

Although I suspect that if you were only given the name Meredith Kercher you might struggle to remember that she was the 21-year-old student who was murdered in Perugia in November, 2007. 

For the past 11 months, Knox and Guede have been on trial for murder, and related charges.  They were finally convicted late last night. 

If this trial had taken place in Britain the media coverage would have been very different.  There would have been calls for Sollecito’s lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, to stand down.  Bongiorno is an Italian MP and busy in Parliament Monday to Thursday; so the trial took place only on Friday and Saturdays.  This left the judge, Giancarlo Massei and prosecutor Giuliano Mignini free to take other cases during the week. 

The jury have therefore heard evidence over the best part of a year, but only at weekends.  Which, when you consider the seriousness of their deliberations; is not the best way of ensuring justice. 

But my main criticism isn’t the verdicts (I didn’t hear the evidence so I don’t have an opinion on the verdicts); nor the sentences; but the media coverage. 

Three people have been convicted of murder, one last year and two last night, but the bulk of the media coverage has been focused on Amanda Knox.   Take these assorted headlines from today: 

• Daily Telegraph: Amanda Knox found guilty of murdering Meredith Kercher
• BBC News: ‘She-devil’ Knox and lover guilty of Kercher murder
• The Scotsman: Meredith Kercher verdict: Knox found guilty of murder
• Daily Mail: “Amanda Knox is guilty: Student gets 26 years in jail for drug-fuelled sex murder of British student Meredith Kercher”
• Daily Express: AMANDA KNOX FOUND GUILTY OF MEREDITH KERCHER’S MURDER
• Daily Mirror: WAILING & SCREAMING: Knox breaks down as she gets 26yrs 

This approach isn’t restricted to the British press.  I’ve ignored the US press, where such an approach can be justified as Knox is an American citizen and therefore the most relevant part of the story to a US audience; but even the Sydney Morning Herald leads with: “Knox jailed 26 yrs for sex murder of British housemate”; and the Irish Times goes with “Knox and boyfriend guilty of murdering flatmate”. 

These examples are not unrepresentative samples.  The Daily Telegraph makes it very clear who they believe this trial is about.  They headline a profile of Rudy Guede with the words: “Amanda Knox trial: Rudy Guede profile“. 

Why is it, that when a young British student is murdered overseas; three people have been convicted of murder, but only one is singled out for star-treatment by the media? 

Could it be that Amanda Knox is a young attractive female?  

Could the press have been hoping for a not-guilty verdict so they could turn Knox into the kind of modern-day celebrity where people are famous simply because some people in the media have decided they ought to be?  

If Knox had been cleared would we have been subjected to years of wall-to-wall coverage of her going in and out of nightclubs? Having affairs with famous footballers?  And taking part in Celebrity Big Brother or I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here? 

Knox had already been dubbed “Foxy Knoxy” by some media outlets – the build-up to celebrity status had begun. 

But this all ignores one thing – a family are today grieving for their daughter. 

Meredith Kercher

Meredith’s Dad, John Kercher, is a freelance journalist and he wrote an extremely moving account of his last conversation with his daughter; and how he heard the news of her death.  The Daily Mirror article provides a powerful rare testimony of the initial trauma a family goes through when they learn that a member of that family has been murdered. 

Any anybody who  thinks this trial is about Amanda Knox,  Rudy Guede or Raffaele Sollecito should read it and remember that this trial is about a young girl who has been taken from her family. 

As John Kercher says of his daughter in the Daily Mirror article: “She was always good company and her sense of humour always had us and others laughing. The sense of the ridiculous stayed with her. She had such life and vitality and made friends wherever she went. Meredith really enjoyed Halloween. 

“As a youngster she would make a costume from bin liners, put candles in the pumpkins with faces, tie them to sticks and then we would visit neighbours.  It is ironic and tragic that she would die so terribly only one day after Halloween.”

In the US this case would have been thrown out. It would never have seen a jury.

18 year exchange student Amanda Knox was arrested 2 years ago for the brutal murder and sexual attack of her roommate. Knox, naive and innocent, had been in the country a short time. There is no motive, no physical evidence that should have been admissible. A non-confession after 40 hours of continuous interrogation without representation during which she was hit (think 1920s and 30s US police in the movies) that she confessed that if she had been there she would have covered her ears not to hear the screams. No DNA. One person who had no relation to Knox confessed and implicated her as part of a plea bargain.

This was a political trial where Knox was demonized from the start. Was it anti-American feelings? Who knows?

What is known is the prosecution didn’t pursue other other possibilities after settling on Knox. Like the Duke lacrosse player prosecutor, he tied his career to the case. They jury had two judges and 6 citizens. There was no review for impartiality, and they have been chosen because they weren’t impartial. The conviction could have been by a simple majority. If their was a tie, the lead judge got a second vote.

Italy should be ashamed.

The US should be infuriated at this travesty. I am.

It is time for the US government to intervene. This is no less a travesty than the hikers in Kurdistan seized by Iran or the journalists in China seized by North Korea.

Well, after this long ordeal a decision has finally been made. Here is my quick synopsis and take on Amanda Knox’s trial.

With the exception of strong DNA evidence, all fingers pointed to Amanda Knox, 22, as a murderer, thus the judge and jury found her guilty, sentencing her to 26 years in prison. I am not writing to voice my opinion on whether or not she committed the crime. Rather, point out the adversity a trial like this brings.

Amanda Knox’s  trial has, so far, cost her family more than $1 million. What middle-class family can afford that? Through the frequent trips to Perugia, Italy to lawyers, a trial like this causes a financial burden on anyone.

Additionally her family must be torn. Her mom and dad have to sit by while their daughter is being prosecuted for hours. A person whose life they were responsible for 18 years traveled half-way across the world. Knox traveled independently, and as parents could only hope that her daughter made the right decisions.  Is Knox’s guilty sentence a reflection of bad parenthood? Or, is the task of raising children becoming increasingly difficult?

Also, her younger sister’s lives have been changed forever. Do they have the ability to have a normal life anymore? Or has this trial tainted chance of normalcy?

Additionally, there are two other men who have been convicted in this crime. Their lives, too, have been change along with their families lives.

On the other side of things Meredith Kercher’s family is going through the same kinds of hardships, with the additional loss of their child, sister or friend. Their family has to grieve this loss while watching the trial play out in the public’s eye. Constant media coverage is just another reminder of Kercher’s death and their loss.

I think the lesson to be learned from this situation is that we must always be careful of whom we become involved with, what actions we participate and how it affects us a person. This story, which is gaining worldwide media attention is tragic, but it is just another reminder of the cruelty human beings have the potential to cause.

We are a powerful species, but we should use our power for good, not evil.

PERUGIA, Italy (AFP) – American Amanda Knox was found guilty early Saturday of murdering and sexually assaulting her British housemate Meredith Kercher in 2007 and sent to prison for 26 years.

Knox’s then-boyfriend and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito was also found guilty and imprisoned for 25 years.
Knox, 22, cried out “no, no” and began weeping when the judge began reading out the lengthy verdict, while 25-year-old Sollecito’s face was blank as his sister called to him, “have courage”.
Judge Giancarlo Messai cited extenuating circumstances for reducing the sentence from the maximum life terms sought by the prosecution.
Each defendant was ordered to pay one million euros to each of the victim’s parents, plus 800,000 euros to each of her three siblings.

Knox’s mother Edda Mellas was shaking with grief as her stepmother Cassandra Knox moved to comfort her.

The six jurors and two judges deliberated for some 12 hours before reaching the verdict.

The prosecution alleged that the three youths were high on drugs when they tried to engage Kercher, 21, in a sex game that turned violent, leaving her dead with stab wounds to the neck.
Knox and Sollecito, the Italian engineering student she fell in love with just a week before the grisly murder, went on trial in the central Italian university town of Perugia in January, more than a year after the murder on November 1, 2007.

AFP Article

Guede, now 22, is appealing his 30-year sentence.

The defence insisted that Guede, described as a drifter who was taken in by a Perugia family who have since broken ties with him, was the sole killer.