Could there be a breakthrough in Copenhagen on climate change? President Obama has changed the dates he plans to attend the summit, according to The Washington Post. He’ll now attend on December 18, when more than 80 heads of government will try to hammer out a plan to address climate change. “After months of diplomatic activity, there is progress being made toward a meaningful Copenhagen accord in which all countries pledge to take action against the global threat of climate change,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced Friday afternoon. “Based on his conversations with other leaders and the progress that has already been made to give momentum to negotiations, the president believes that continued U.S. leadership can be most productive through his participation at the end of the Copenhagen conference on December 18th rather than on December 9th.”

Amanda Knox has been declared guilty of murdering her former roommate, Meredith Kercher, and was sentenced to 26 years in prison by an Italian jury Friday night. The Italian jury declared Knox guilty of all six counts she faced, including tampering with a crime scene and theft. The 22-year-old has been on trial for 11 months in a case that has gripped international media attention. Prosecutors argued that Knox convinced her boyfriend and another man to hold her British roommate down and sexually assault her before she cut her throat. She was led from the courtroom crying, and her lawyer says they will appeal the decision.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is again calling on banks to rein in their big compensation packages. Calling this “an era of irresponsibly high bonuses,” Geithner slammed the record bonuses banks are paying their senior executives and suggested they consider long-term goals in regard to compensation in an interview with Bloomberg Television. In the discussion that will air this weekend on Political Capital With Al Hunt, Geithner also responded to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s claim that his firm would not have fallen victim to last year’s financial crisis even without government aid. “None of them would have survived a situation in which we had let that fire try to burn itself out,” Geithner said.

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and his wife were in a three-way car accident that killed one woman. The accident happened Friday afternoon on New York's Bruckner Expressway when an SUV driver lost control of her vehicle in the right lane and slammed into a mail truck in the middle lane, according to Brokaw. The SUV driver, an unidentified woman, was thrown from the car and killed, say police. Brokaw, 69, and his wife were driving in the left lane, and were uninjured.

Just days before the climate-change talks commence in Copenhagen, the head of a United Nations panel announced its investigation of claims that scientists manipulated global-warming data on Friday. The controversy centers around thousands of emails released from scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, in which some have seen allusions to efforts to suppress or manipulate findings. The head of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change told the BBC that the allegations were serious. Those skeptical of climate-change reports, like some congressional Republicans, have taken the opportunity to accuse researchers of exaggerating global warming. Some Republicans have claimed that President Obama’s efforts in regard to climate change should be revisited in light of the emails. The University of East Anglia announced its own review of the email-related allegations on Thursday. The head of the institution’s unit has stepped aside barring the outcome of the investigation.

Is this the bailout for Main Street that some have been clamoring for? White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday that President Barack Obama is likely to endorse using part of the government’s $700 billion financial bailout package for a new jobs-creation program. About $139 billion of TARP money remains unallocated and available, while the government has an additional $10 billion in interest and dividends and $71 billion that has been repaid. Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he wanted to use the TARP money to reduce the national debt, but Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have been crafting a jobs bill that would use the money. Obama, meanwhile, will announce his jobs program on Tuesday. 

At least 100 people have died in the nightclub explosion in Perm, Russia, according to police sources. Russian news agencies say pyrotechnics were the source of the blast, but emergency officials have not specified whether the pyrotechnics were involved in the show at the club, or if they were in storage. Approximately 200 people were at the club early Saturday when the accident occurred. Perm is a city of more than a million people, 700 miles east of Moscow.

Sarah Palin will have to keep her tweets to herself on Saturday night when the former Alaskan governor speaks at the exclusive Gridiron Club’s winter dinner in Washington. Sen. John McCain’s 2008 vice-presidential candidate will take a break from her Going Rogue book tour to provide one of two of the night’s typically witty guest speeches, while openly gay Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank will give the other. The twice-yearly event, which is strictly off-the-record, brings together members of what Palin might call the “media elite” and elected officials. Some, however, are reportedly skeptical about whether Palin will be among the schmoozers this weekend, because she’s already skipped out on a few major D.C. appearances since the 2008 presidential election.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has changed the channel on ABC, calling for the community to protest the network in its third statement regarding the controversy between Adam Lambert and the Disney-owned network, even as The View announced late Friday that Lambert will now be appearing on the show this Thursday. Lambert’s canceled appearances since his too-hot performance at the American Music Awards have caused commotion, resulting in the GLAAD president now explicitly criticizing ABC for its treatment of the American Idol runner-up, deeming it a “double standard.” In the organization’s previous statements, GLAAD suggested that Lambert’s same-sex kiss was not the cause of the cancellation of his subsequent appearances on the network. But Friday afternoon, GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios made it clear that he does believe Lambert being an “openly gay performer” led to his removal from other ABC programs. ABC declined to comment today—until it released a “Late Breaking” media alert to announce that Adam Lambert will appear on The View this Thursday. The episode will air the day after Barbara Walters “includes Lambert as one of the year’s ‘Most Fascinating People.'”

Apple, the ruler of the U.S. musical arena via iTunes, is discussing the purchase of streaming-music service Lala, Bloomberg reports. Unlike on iTunes, Lala users can purchase songs for a small fee, and songs are stored on Internet servers—known as "clouds"—instead of being downloaded to a computer's hard drive. Larry Kenswil, former head of Universal Music Group's digital unit, says Apple is "wise to cover its bases because it's only in the download business." There is a wide debate in the industry about how users should obtain music, and expanding user options could bolster Apple's popularity—even though it is the biggest seller in the U.S. Apple has yet to confirm the deal.

Mexican authorities freed 107 slave laborers in a Mexico City factory that was masquerading as a drug-rehabilitation facility on Thursday. Dozens of suspects were arrested for allegedly physically and mentally abusing the victims, who ranged in age from 14 to 70. All of the captives suffered from severe dehydration and malnutrition and some also endured sexual assaults, the city’s attorney general said. They were reportedly locked in the factory building with bars on its windows. They worked 16 hours a day making handbags and clothespins for no pay, and were not permitted bathroom breaks, officials report. They were given one daily meal that consisted of chicken legs and rotten vegetables. The suspects allegedly abducted most of the victims from the streets after leading them to believe they’d receive treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. Some family members, however, brought in their loved ones thinking they would be treated for their addictions. Officials say thousands of others could have undergone similar exploitation during the eight years the phony hospital has been open.

Europe isn’t leaving President Obama hanging: The NATO secretary-general announced on Friday that the alliance will contribute 7,000 new troops to Afghanistan, making the total commitment, when you add in American forces, to 37,000 new troops. Obama had sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier in the week to press NATO allies. It’s unclear, exactly, where the new troops are coming. Britain has pledged 500 new soldiers, while Italy, Poland, Georgia, and Slovakia have commitments ranging from a few dozen to 1,000. Rasmussen didn’t specify, though, which countries were contributing to the 7,000.

Here’s another setback for the Rudy-as-senator rumor. Brazilian officials announced  Thursday that they will hire Rudy Giuliani as a long-term security adviser for the 2016 Olympic Games. "He's going to help us with day-to-day security," said the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio Cabral. The new job is raising questions about whether the former mayor of New York City is still considering a run for office, but the New York Daily News says the contract will "not preclude him from running for U.S. Senate," which some say Giuliani is considering.

After Kimberly Harris noticed headlights shining into her home the morning of Tiger Woods' accident, she and brother Jarius Adams rushed to the scene to find the pro golfer with wife Elin Nordegren by his side. In an interview with Florida police, Adams was asked if Woods was unconscious after the crash. "At that point, he was, uh, he was snoring," he said. "He was snoring?" the investigator asked. "He was actually snoring," Adams said. Nordegren appeared in “shock,” and asked Adams to help her, she said. They covered Woods with a blanket and put pillows under his head as they waited for the ambulance, and Adams said she did not smell alcohol on his breath. Radar Online reports alleged mistress Rachel Uchitel told friends that she and Woods did drugs, specifically the sleeping pill Ambien, before having sex.

The Palin story of the day seems to be her semi-endorsment of the birther movement, but there's another question now being asked: Why did Sarah Palin leave Hawaii after one semester when she was an 18-year-old student? The New Republic draws attention to a startling passage from Sam Tanenhaus’s recent New Yorker review of Palin’s book: In Going Rogue, Palin says “Hawaii was a little too perfect. Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for 18-year-old Alaska girls.” But Tanenhaus then flags another passage from Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe’s biography of Palin, in which Palin’s own father says she left because she was uncomfortable around Asians and Pacific Islanders: “They were a minority type thing,” her father says, “and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.”

If one has to endure house arrest, a Swiss chalet is probably a good place to do it. Director and self-professed child rapist Roman Polanski began his house arrest in Switzerland on Friday after posting a $4.5 million bail. A police convoy took him to his waiting wife and children at his Alpine chalet in the luxury resort of Gstaad. Polanski will wear an electronic monitoring bracelet that will alert the police if he leaves the house or removes it. The Chinatown director convinced Swiss authorities, who scooped him up in Zurich two months ago as he tried to attend a film festival where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award, to end his two months in Swiss jail while they decide whether or not to extradite him to the U.S. in a 32-year-old sex case. The 76-year-old director pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, but fled to France, which does not extradite its citizens, on Feb. 1, 1978, the day he was to be sentenced.

Dieters, beware: Slim-Fast has announced a recall of millions of its shakes and diet drinks due to the possibility that they could cause moderate food poisoning. Quality testers discovered the presence of B. cereus in some of the drinks, a bacteria that can lead to nausea and diarrhea. Though the company says it has not received complaints from consumers, it issued a statement urging buyers to discard cans and cartons of Slim-Fast “regardless of flavor, best-by date, lot code or UPC number." It is currently unclear how the bacteria made its way into the beverages, and scientists say that B. cereus is more often found in fried rice at Mexican and Asian restaurants. "The company is in the process of identifying and correcting the production issue and will resume production and shipment of the product when the issue has been addressed and corrected," said a statement from Slim-Fast.

Revolutionary War, round two? It was announced Friday that the U.S.’s first game of the 2010 World Cup will be against England, followed by matches against Slovenia and Algeria. In the last U.K.-U.S. World Cup game, the 1950 American team managed an unexpected 1-0 win. The World Cup begins June 11, and the U.S. team’s first game takes place June 12. Overall, the United States’ first-round group appears relatively easy, giving the team a good chance to advance.

The fall of Tiger Woods is translating to an unexpected rise for a little-known science book. After photos of the interior of Woods’ smashed SUV hit the Internet following his accident last weekend, sales in a book seen in the backseat amid shattered glass, Get a Grip on Physics, have jumped on Amazon.com from a rank of 396,224 to 2,268. The author, John Gribbin, says he’s "delighted that anybody's reading my books—I just wish it was one that's still in print.” The illustrated guide, first published in 1999, charts the subject from the 1950s. “Tiger Woods is absolutely my target audience,” the Sussex University professor explains. “He's busy, hasn't got a lot of time, but wants to catch up on what's happening in physics… Perhaps Woods will see if he can find a universe in which none of this ever happened.”

If only every week were like this week in the book industry: Christie’s most recent book auction surpassed estimated prices and brought in huge bids for rare editions of works by authors from Charles Dickens to Charles Darwin to Oscar Wilde, with some copies garnering six-digit selling prices. A number of Jane Austen’s novels were up for auction, and a three-volume 1816 edition of Pride and Prejudice went for $104,000, outpricing an 1847 edition of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, which went for $86,500. An 1849 print of Origin of the Species went for $146,000, but the big-ticket author for this auction ended up being Edgar Allan Poe. A number of the author’s works were being auctioned, but the one that garnered the most interest was his first work, Tamerlane and Other Poems. Published in 1827 under the ambiguous byline “By a Bostonian,” the book is one of 12 copies still in existence, and went for a staggering $662,000, though its seller described it as "kind of a beat-up copy." "This is known as the black tulip of U.S. literature," said the head of the auction. However, an autographed manuscript of one of Poe’s other poems performed even better and went for $830,500, several hundred thousand dollars more than its estimated take.

The Tiger Woods scandal grows more complicated by the second. Despite reports that Woods offered alleged mistress Rachel Uchitel $1 million to cancel her press conference Thursday, TMZ.com claims that Woods didn't pay Uchitel anything, rather "fear and secrets" are keeping the New York party girl quiet. Unnamed sources said Uchitel is "scared for her safety" because she knows specifics about other women, details about Woods’ marriage, and information about other Woods matters. The rumor mill doesn't stop there, though: TMZ says it's obtained a flight itinerary and emails between Uchitel and Tiger Woods Design president Bryon Bell that prove Bell flew Uchitel to Australia while Woods was playing the Australian Open, and paid for a room in the same hotel Woods was staying at; Radar Online says Uchitel told friends that she and Woods did drugs—specifically the sleeping pill Ambien—before having sex; and speaking of drugs, evidently, Radar claims, second (third?) alleged Woods mistress Jaimee Grubbs has been working at a medical marijuana pharmacy.

The innocent era of Hannah Montana may be over for Miley Cyrus. The 17-year-old singer was spotted with a brand-new tattoo while cavorting in an itsy bitsy pink bikini in Miami Thursday, after wrapping up her Wonder World world tour the previous night. The tattoo says "Just Breathe" in cursive below her left breast, and may be a memoriam for a 9-year-old friend named Vanessa who died of cystic fibrosis in 2007. Cyrus' brother Trace recently said that the rest of the family was planning to get matching tattoos, so it's possible that Miley—who is under the legal age for tattoos—got permission from her parents.

Leonardo DiCaprio is joining the legions of A-list actors who lend their voices to the animated screen. DiCaprio will be the voice of Jack Frost in DreamWorks’ production of The Guardians, to be released in November 2012. The movie brings together the imaginary childhood characters of Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost, who comprise a superhero team that fights an evil spirit. It is the first time the actor will be participating in an animated film.

A man convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl was executed Thursday evening in Texas, despite protests from his attorneys that he was mentally impaired. Bobby Wayne Woods' IQ tests indicated a score ranging between the 60s and 80s. An IQ of 70 is considered mentally impaired in the eyes of the law. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene, and Woods was put to death via lethal injection. It was Texas' 24th and last scheduled execution of the year. Woods' final words were "Bye. I'm ready."

Fans of the New Orleans Saints no longer have reason to wear paper bags over their heads. As a fan banner put it, "This Ain't Yo Momma's Saints." Once a team of lovable losers, dubbed the "'Aints" by fans, the Saints have started out the season with an 11-0 record, and player Drew Brees is a front runner for the NFL's most valuable player award. On Monday night, the Saints overwhelmed the New England Patriots 38-17, and on Saturday they are set to play the Washington Redskins. The team's wins have the city of New Orleans afire. Fans showed up five and six hours before the Patriots game to start tailgating. The noise level inside the stadium during the game reached 119 decibels, just shy of the 120 decibels of a thunderclap or jackhammer. After Monday's victory, the last die-hards didn't leave the French Quarter until about 6 a.m. Before the game, a dining Patriots staffer found the wait staff of a restaurant entirely garbed in Saints apparel. They were polite to him, but after his employer became known, the owner told him "Southern hospitality ends at 7:30."

It has long been speculated that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is just a placeholder for Vladimir Putin, who has to wait until 2012 to run for president again, because the Russian constitution prohibits more than two consecutive terms. Putin is fanning the flames, saying Thursday he’d “think about” running for president again. On Thursday, the steely leader spoke for a marathon four hours as part of his annual town-hall forum, which debuted in 2001 when Putin was president. When asked if he would retire into ordinary civilian life, Putin responded, "Don't count on that." And when questioned about the 2012 presidency, the ever-popular prime minister responded, "I will think about it. There is plenty of time for that." Putin fielded questions from the live audience and also via phone, email, and text messages, addressing topics ranging from terrorism to the economy to pensions to hip-hop music.

Someone should be expecting coal: A man dressed up as an elf was arrested  Wednesday for threatening to blow up the Santa at a Georgia mall. William C. Caldwell III waited in line to have his picture taken, but then told the mall Santa that the bag he was carrying held dynamite. No explosives were found. Caldwell faces several charges, including making terroristic threats.

Did the Secret Service blow it when they let uninvited Tareq and Michaele Salahi into a state dinner or did the White House's social secretary, Desiree Rogers, leave them undermanned? At a hearing by the House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday, lawmakers grilled Secret Service director Mark Sullivan, who told them he believed the breach was an isolated incident "due just to poor judgement" by the agents in question. After Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D- D.C.) suggested the Secret Service might have been understaffed given reports of increased threats against President Obama, Sullivan said that the president was in fact receiving a similar number of threats as former presidents Clinton and Bush. The White House declined to make Rogers available for the hearing despite criticism that she may have contributed to the breach by failing to post staffers with the Secret Service to go over guest lists while people entered. Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said he would seek subpoenas for the Salahis, who were invited to the hearing and did not show, but not for Rogers, who he said was "not a central figure in this security matter." Rogers, a longtime close friend of the Obamas, previously worked as head of the Illinois Lottery and Peoples Gas, a utility company, before joining the White House.

A military aide to Guinea President Moussa Dadis Camara opened fire on him Thursday, slightly wounding the 45-year-old leader, according to his spokesman. The Associated Press reports that Guinea's armed forces contain a renegade faction due to the rift caused by a military-led massacre at a peaceful pro-democracy rally three months ago. Abubakar "Toumba" Diakite, the lieutenant accused of ordering that massacre (during which at least 157 were killed, and dozens raped), controls the military compound where Camara was shot Thursday. The president's spokesman accuses Toumba of ordering the attempted assassination as part of a power grab: "When you pull a gun on someone, is it your intention to scare him? No. Your intention is to kill him." The shooting coincides with the final days of a United Nations fact-finding mission to Guinea, during which Toumba asked the U.N. to "be open" in their judgment of the massacre.

With E. Coli killing dozens each year and sickening tens of thousands, researchers are hoping two vaccines for cows can help dramatically cut down on the rate of food poisoning. The meat industry has had to recall tainted beef some 52 times since January 2007, versus only 20 in the previous three years. While vaccines may not completely wipe out E. Coli they could reduce the number of animals carrying the bacteria by up to 75%. "I hope it works," on farmer told the New York Times. "It probably won't be so good for my pocketbook directly, but it'll probably be good for the industry." Two brands of vaccine, one developed by Minnesota's Epitopix and another by Canada's Bioniche Life Sciences, have been developed commercially and have received preliminary approval from the Agriculture Department this year.

The Senate is slowly chugging through the health-care bill, and on Thursday made symbolic progress by approving in a 61-39 vote a measure that would improve women's access to disease screenings. The development follows last month's controversial decision by two health groups to delay regular mammograms and pap smears. The amendment will increase women's access to screenings for diseases such as cancer and diabetes. While the move was a step forward for women's health, Medicare took a hit when the Senate voted 58-42 to cut more than $400 billion from the program that provides health care to the elderly. Two of the most contentious issues still lie in the road ahead: the public option and abortion coverage.

For the second day in a row, administration officials found themselves facing a skeptical Senate questioning President Barack Obama's new Afghanistan plans. The revised strategy calls for a surge in troops, costing the U.S. an estimated $30 billion a year, to stamp out al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) said that the focus on Afghanistan was misguided, stating, "We have largely expelled al Qaeda from Afghanistan." Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) asked "whether the costs of this deployment are justified in our overall national-security context and whether we are mistakenly concentrating our forces to fight a terrorist enemy in a specific location even as the global terrorist threat is becoming increasingly diffuse." Senators also emphasized the need to focus on Pakistan, which is becoming a potential staging ground for terrorism.

It's a favorite target of both liberal and conservative ire, but the $700 billion TARP program passed under President Bush has been more effective than many predicted. According to the Los Angeles Times, Bank of America's recent decision to repay $45 billion to TARP returns to the government more than half of the fund's direct investment in banks. "It turns out, actually, TARP—as wildly unpopular as it has been—has been much cheaper than any of us anticipated," President Obama said at Thursday's White House job summit. Other uses of the fund, like bailing out AIG and General Motors, are less likely to produce quick returns. One expert told the Times that the government may end up as much as $150 billion in the red. But given the surprising turnaround of the finance industry, it may be money well spent. "There's a widespread consensus that TARP shored up confidence in the global financial sector and paved the way for a dramatic rebound in Wall Street profits," the Times said.

Sarah Palin finally weighed in on whether President Obama is an American citizen. During an interview with conservative radio host Rusty Humphries, who asked if Palin would raise questions about Obama's birth certificate if she runs for office in 2012, Palin said that the public is "rightfully still making it an issue." She added, "I think it's a fair question, just like I think past associations and past voting records. All of that is fair game." Later, she noted that she'd put to rest questions about whether Trig was really her child by releasing his birth certificate. After the interview, on her Facebook page she wrote that "Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose," noting that "it was seemingly fair game" to question Trig's parentage during the 2008 election, but pointing out that "at no point" has she "asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States." Obama released his birth certificate in June 2008, but the move only sparked further rumors that the document was faked.

The intelligence community may finally have a beat on Osama bin Laden. A detainee in Pakistan who claims he met bin Laden numerous times before 9/11 says that in January or February of this year he encountered a trusted contact, a Mehsud tribesman responsible for arranging meetings between Bin Laden and foreign operatives. His contact had seen bin Laden 15 to 20 days earlier across the border in Afghanistan. The detainee, whose claims cannot be verified, said that bin Laden was likely in the eastern province of Ghazni, where the Mehsud tribesman comes from, early this year. But, of course, bin Laden may not be there now. As the detainee put it, "The sheikh doesn't stay in any one place." The account should bolster Pakistan's claim that bin Laden is not on its soil, although U.S. and British officials think otherwise. Even so, according to former CIA analyst and Daily Beast contributor Bruce Riedel, the tip is worth checking out, a venture that may take some time, as western interrogators haven't been given access to the man. As Riedel put it, "If it's true--a big if--this is an extraordinary and important story."

At least 35 people are dead after four militants opened fire and threw grenades before blowing themselves up during Friday prayers at a mosque near army headquarters in Rawalpindi. A local TV station reported that several high-ranking military officials died in the attack, although the army declined to confirm this. The attack took place in a heavily fortified area of the city, a few miles in the capital. Violence has escalated in Pakistan ever since the army launched its South Waziristan offensive in about six weeks ago. Since October, 400 people have died in Pakistan, and there have been two other attacks in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

The hemorrhage of jobs from the American economy is slowing, according to new figures from the Labor Department released on Friday. In the best showing since December 2007, payrolls fell by a mere 11,000 workers in November—far fewer than the median estimate of 125,000 predicted by Bloomberg-surveyed economists, while the overall jobless rate declined from 10.2 percent to 10 percent. In addition to the unexpectedly small payroll decline, the economy saw gains in hours worked, wages, and temporary jobs, which suggest that companies may start hiring full time workers again soon.

Amanda Knox, the 22-year-old American student accused of killing British roommate Meredith Kercher during a drug-fueled sex game in an Italian flat, told the final hearing in her trial that she feared having "the mask of the assassin forced on to me," "losing myself," and "being convicted of something I am not and something I did not do." Knox thanked her family and her lawyers as well as the prosecution for doing their jobs even though "they do not understand." Knox allegedly held a knife to Kercher's throat while her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, held Kercher down and Ivory Coast immigrant Rudy Guede, who has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his part in the crime, sexually assaulted Kercher. Last week the prosecution wound up its closing arguments, arguing that the wounds inflicted on Kercher reached the point where the three had to decide whether to stop and risk later identification by Kercher to the police, or whether to silence Kercher forever. The defense argued that DNA evidence putting Knox and Sollecito at the crime scene is flawed. Knox also faces a defamation lawsuit by Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner she falsely accused of being the killer. The judges and six-member jury are expected to deliberate on Knox's guilt for 12 to 18 hours, so stay tuned.