Joran van der Sloot said he elbowed Stephany Flores Ramirez in the face before strangling her and then suffocated her with his own shirt, according to transcripts of his confession.

The man who held a 16-month-old boy hostage and kept police at bay for 55 hours in Sacramento, California, was shot to death by SWAT team members, authorities confirmed early Saturday morning.

The mother of one of the two New Jersey men arrested last week at a New York airport allegedly on their way to fight with an al Qaeda affiliated group in Somalia says the two men are guilty of stupidity — but no the sinister plan described by authorities.

A jailed Italian mobster claims he can prove American student Amanda Knox, her former boyfriend and a drifter are innocent of murdering Knox’s British roommate. He says his brother did it. FULL STORY | The case against Amanda Knox

A judge dismissed charges against polygamist leader Warren Jeffs on Wednesday after the Mohave County, Arizona, prosecutor requested they be thrown out, citing “much more serious charges” against Jeffs in Texas and the desire of his alleged victims that he “face these more serious charges as soon as possible.”

Ronnie Lee Gardner, who is set to die next week before Utah’s firing squad, said something Thursday he didn’t plan to: He supports capital punishment.

Murder suspect Joran van der Sloot was moved from his jail cell to a prosecutor’s office as his lawyer said he’d ask a judge to toss out his confession. FULL STORY | VIDEO| BLOG: Peru’s harsh prisons

Joran van der Sloot, who authorities say has confessed to the murder of a Peruvian woman, faces criminal charges in Alabama because he tried to extort 0,000 from Natalee Holloway’s mother, according to an Interpol document.

Peruvian authorities say Joran van der Sloot will re-enact the hotel room slaying of Stephany Flores Ramirez. FULL STORY | VIDEO | HOLLOWAY CASE

A New York teenager charged with conspiring to kill faculty and students at a Long Island high school had plotted a similar attack in 2007, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.