Amanda Knox Prosecutor Concedes She Could Go Free

Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images(PERUGIA, Italy) -- One of Amanda Knox's Italian prosecutors conceded Wednesday "a possibility" that the American woman and her ex-boyfriend could win the appeal of their murder conviction, and said, "I would find it very serious if they were set free."

Prosecutor Manuela Comodi, one of three prosecutors on the case, spoke to ABC News after the court refused her request to have further tests carried out on DNA evidence that was used to help convict Knox and Raffaele Sollecito of murdering Meredith Kercher.

Kercher, 21, was Knox's roommate in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Knox has been sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito was given 25 years.

Their appeal got a boost when a court-appointed panel of forensic experts issued a blistering report on key pieces of DNA evidence, concluding it was badly handled, likely contaminated and should not have been presented in court. The appeal is expected to conclude later this month.

Speaking to the court Wednesday, Comodi criticized the panel's work as "inadequate, unreliable and flawed" and said they "were incapable of carrying out the duty they were assigned." She asked the court to order more sophisticated tests on the DNA by different experts, but was rebuffed.

"The court thought our request superfluous and we accept it," she told ABC News.

The prosecutor allowed for the possibility that Knox could win the appeal.

"We did our job. I am convinced by what I have said. I am fully convinced of their guilt and I would find it very serious if they were set free," Comodi told ABC News.

"Today's decision could lead one to think that there is more of a possibility that they be set freed," she said.

The judge on Wednesday set closing arguments to begin on Sept. 23.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Government Scientist Pleads Guilty for Attempted Spying for Israel

Medioimages/Photodisc/ThinkStock(WASHINGTON) - A former government scientist pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to attempted espionage charges for his efforts to sell classified information to Israel.

Steward Nozette helped discover water on the moon, worked on the Reagan-era “Star Wars” ballistic missile defense program and ran a variety of highly classified projects for NASA, the Defense Department and the Department of Energy.

He was arrested on October 19, 2009 at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington by counterintelligence after he believed he was meeting with agents from the Mossad to pass information to them in exchange for money. It was all an FBI sting operation, and the FBI used an undercover agent who approached Nozette in September 2009 and told him he worked for Mossad.

The FBI began their investigation into Nozette in 2002 when agents searched his home in a fraud investigation and discovered classified documents. Justice Department and FBI officials say Nozette was motivated by greed.

Nozette now faces 13 years in prison for his attempted espionage.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Giordano Denied Release from Aruba Jail

Handout Photo(ORANJESTAD, Aruba) -- Gary Giordano was denied release from an Aruba jail Wednesday as ABC News obtained evidence showing Giordano's eager calls to cash in on the life insurance policy of missing woman Robyn Gardner.

Court documents also show that Giordano had previously taken out an insurance policy on Gardner for a trip in June.

The policy, obtained by ABC News, is dated April 27 and was signed by Gardner on May 12, officially designating Giordano as her beneficiary and listing him as her "domestic partner."

The details of the insurance call emerged as lawyers for Giordano went to court Wednesday in an attempt to overturn a court ruling keeping him in jail for another 60 days while police investigate the disappearance of Gardner.

The judge rejected the request, ensuring that Giordano will remain in an Aruban jail cell for the next few weeks.

Giordano has not been formally charged with any crime, and no body or evidence linking Giordano to a murder has been found. Gardner disappeared on Aug. 2, halfway through a weeklong trip taken by the pair, who met on an online swinger's website.

Giordano submitted a second insurance policy on Gardner on July 30, the day before the trip, by mail and fax. An insurance agent who spoke with ABC News said that no one she's dealt with in the entire year has both mailed a hard copy of their policy and faxed it in, noting Girodano's urgency in getting the documents in before the trip.

Giordano, who has maintained that Gardner was swept out to sea while the two were snorkeling together, contacted the insurance company four times in the days after Gardner vanished, and told one insurance representative the she was likely dead, according to the transcripts.

Former FBI agent Brad Garrett said the policies are important, but cannot stand alone without other evidence to convict him.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

NHL Players Among Those Dead in Russian Plane Crash

John Foxx/Thinkstock(TUNOSHNA, Russia) -- A Russian jet carrying a KHL ice hockey team crashed Wednesday shortly after taking off from an airport in western Russia, leaving at least 43 people and two others critically injured.

The team's head coach, Brad McCrimmon, most recently served as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings. Karel Rachunek, Ruslan Salei and Karlis Skrastins, Pavol Demitra and Josef Vasicek all spent time in the National Hockey League. Alexander Vasyunov played with the New Jersey Devils this past season.

The plane was headed to Minsk, Belarus, for a Thursday night game.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Amanda Knox Wins Another Round in Her Murder Appeal

Oli Scarff/Getty Images(PERUGIA, Italy) -- American college student Amanda Knox won a skirmish round Wednesday in the appeal of her Italian murder conviction when a court rejected prosecutors' request to conduct further tests on DNA evidence in the case.

The request to do additional tests on the DNA came after a court appointed independent panel gave a scathing report on the prosecutions' handling and analyzing of the DNA evidence, concluding it should not have been admitted as evidence.

A fresh round of tests could have added months to the appeal at a time when the Seattle woman has gotten her hopes up that her four year incarceration could be coming to an end.

The judge on Wednesday set closing arguments to begin on Sept. 23.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Bomb Explodes Near Indian Court: Several Dead, Wounded

PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images(NEW DELHI) -- At least 10 people are dead and dozens more injured after an explosion outside the Indian High Court in New Delhi Wednesday morning.

According to the BBC, officials believe the blast derived from a bomb placed inside a case near a security checkpoint at the court complex.

The militant group Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami, or HuJI, has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack in an email that was distributed to several Indian news outlets.  In the email, the group demands that the death sentence of Afzal Guru, who was convicted of attacking India's Parliament building nearly 10 years ago, be dropped.

HuJI warns that if Guru's death sentence is not repealed, it will "target major high courts and the Supreme Court of India."

Investigators are currently looking into the email.

"It would be very premature to make any comment on the mail at this stage, but yes, that mail has to be looked at seriously, because Huji is a very prominent terrorist group," Director General of India's National Investigation Agency SC Sinha told reporters Wednesday.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

White House Denies US Troop Levels in Iraq Will Shrink to 3,000

Spencer Platt/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The White House denied a report by Fox News Tuesday that the administration has decided to reduce troop levels in Iraq to 3,000 by the end of 2011.

While the U.S. plans to withdraw most of its remaining 47,000 forces from Iraq within the next four months as previously agreed upon with Baghdad, there apparently has been no exact figure set by the administration.

Fox News said that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had given his approval to leaving just 3,000 soldiers in Iraq by year's end, according to sources "familiar with the inner workings and decision on U.S. troops movements in Iraq."  The network also alleged that U.S. generals were "livid" about the extent of the withdrawal.

However, when pressed by journalists, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the report was not accurate, adding, "We want a normal, productive, healthy relationship with Iraq.  If the Iraqi government makes a request of us, we will certainly consider it."

There has been talk of the Iraqis asking for a larger U.S. force to remain behind in Iraq after the December deadline to help with security chores.

Meanwhile, Carney gave an evasive answer to whether budgetary concerns are figuring into the president's plans, responding, "we live in a world ... where resources aren't finite."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

‘Odd Day’ Wednesday Dedicated to Life’s Oddities

Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Why do two odds make an even?  Where does the expression “beating the odds” come from?  Where is that odd sock that has been missing in action for years?

Wednesday -- Odd Day -- is the perfect day to tackle these odds and oddities.  The date is either 9/7/11 or 7/9/11, depending on whether you’re in the U.S. or another country.

Ron Gordon, the retired California science teacher behind Odd Day, wants everyone to “be awed by the odd,” as he says on his website dedicated to the day.

“It’s a little math, a little smile, a little fun.  It’s Odd Day,” Gordon  told ABC News.  “They’re like calendar comets.  You wait and wait and wait for them, and then poof, they’re gone.  It comes, it sparkles, it shines and then it’s gone.”

The Gordon family has established a contest for odd days with a prize jackpot of $791.10 to be distributed among 7+9+11 winners.  That means each of the 27 winners will walk away with a grand total of $29.30.

Past winners have written poems called “Odd Odes,” have gotten married on Odd Day or had a baby born then.  One retirement home in the Midwest celebrates every Odd Day by having dessert before dinner.

Gordon’s daughter Rachel has created a Facebook page for Odd Day and told ABC News that in the same spirit as Pi Day (March 14 for the never-ending digit that begins with 3.14), the day is meant to be a fun way to celebrate math for math lovers and math loathers alike.

“I think it’s a cute little way for people that don’t like math to think, ‘I get it.  I understand this,” she said, describing herself as “the opposite of a math person.”

The family’s next big day is 11/11/11, which it has dubbed “Once Upon a Day.”  It will be celebrated with a short-story writing contest and a $111.11 prize to be divided among 11+11+11 winners.

For most of the world, Wednesday’s mathematical treat happens only five times a century -- 5/7/9 was the previous odd day, and 9/11/13 will be the fifth and last of the century.  But the U.S. and Canada get a bonus odd day on 11/13/15.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Moammar Gadhafi Nurse Speaks Out about 'Daddy'

Salah Malkawi/ Getty Images(MOGILNOYE, Ukraine) -- Oksana Balinskaya wouldn't be able to tell anyone where to look for Libyan Col. Moammar Gadhafi, but what she can tell you is that the fugitive leader is a healthy man.

Balinskaya was one of five Ukrainian nurses assigned to take care of Gadhafi's medical needs for the past few years until she returned last February to her home in Mogilnoye, Ukraine.  That was just around the time when Libyan rebels began their revolution that eventually upended Gadhafi's four-decade-long regime.

The nurse told CNN that "Daddy," as the nurses referred to their boss, "gave us jobs, money and a good life...He would ask us whether we are happy and whether we have everything that we need."

She also dismissed the rumors that Gadhafi used the nurses as his own personal harem, claiming there was nowhere he and they could go without being surrounded by his wife, children and grandchildren.

Having given birth to a child since her return to Ukraine, Balinskaya would like to one day go back to Libya even though she knows Gadhafi won't ever be her "daddy" again.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Czech Army Cracks Down on Overweight Soldiers

Ablestock.com/Thinkstock(PRAGUE) -- The Czech army is smaller than it was when it was part of the Soviet Bloc, yet its soldiers are getting bigger.

When commanders discovered that one out of every two Czech soldiers is overweight -- with some 3,500 falling into the "obese" category -- the Defense Ministry launched a battle against the bulge.  The Financial Times reports top brass have ordered military cooks to sling low-fat chow to its soldiers, and also provide diet pills to the military.

The report says the Czech troops' weight problem is a reflection of the Czech Republic's growing obesity issue.  In fact, the military is thinner than the Czech civilian population in general: one in three Czechs are said to be obese, according to The Financial Times, compared to one in seven of the country's fighting men and women.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio