In brief: Knox expected to testify today

Perugia, Italy – An American suspect is expected to defend herself from charges of murder and sexual assault when she takes the stand today in the trial for the 2007 killing of a British student in Italy.

Amanda Knox, an exchange student from Seattle, is on trial in the central Italian town of Perugia for the death of her roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher.

Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, her former Italian boyfriend, have denied wrongdoing.

“She’s a bit nervous about going on to the stand, but she’s also quite confident in what she has to say and that the truth will come out during her testimony,” the American’s father, Curt Knox, told CBS’ “Early Show” on Thursday.

Gunmen attack taco stand

Morelia, Mexico – Gunmen opened fire and tossed a grenade at a crowded taco stand in the central Mexican city of Uruapan on Thursday, causing cooking gas tanks to explode and killing a police officer and a 15-year-old boy.

A spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office in Michoacan state said the policeman was shot while eating with a fellow officer.

Before fleeing, the assailants shot two tanks of cooking gas that exploded, burning the teenage taco stand worker to death, the spokesman said. Four other people were injured.

Investigators said the attack apparently targeted the two officers.

Volcker predicts ‘long slog’ for U.S.

Beijing – Global financial markets are starting to heal and the U.S. economy could begin to grow again this year, but a strong recovery is unlikely, said President Barack Obama’s top adviser Paul Volcker.

“An expectation of some growth late this year and next in the United States seems reasonable,” Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who leads a panel advising Obama on economic recovery, said in a speech Thursday at a conference of global bankers in the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China’s legislature.

However, “a really strong recovery, typical of most recessions, seems unlikely,” he said. “Rather, it is going to be a long slog, with continuing high levels of unemployment.”

The slump also is easing “most clearly” in Britain, trailed by other European economies, with less evidence of recovery in Japan, Volcker said. He said a “healing process” seems to be under way in financial markets.