![Knox cleared of murdering Kercher]()
Amanda Knox has been cleared after a court overturned her conviction for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
The 24-year-old American has spent four years behind bars for the killing in Perugia, Italy, that she insisted she played no part in.
But her nightmare ended when jurors in her appeal trial found her not guilty of stabbing Miss Kercher after forcing her into a violent sex game.
Knox, from Seattle, was jailed for 26 years in December 2009 after a year-long trial, along with her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito who was jailed for 25 years. Sollecito, 27, was also cleared after a successful appeal.
The verdicts came after the former lovers delivered heartfelt addresses to the Perugia court, proclaiming their innocence once more.
Knox, watched by her anxious family in the medieval chamber, declared: "I am not who they say I am - the perversion, the violence, the lack of respect for life - and I did not do the things they say I did. I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there at the time."
The semi-naked body of Leeds University student Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found on November 2, 2007, in the house she shared with Knox on her year abroad.
Small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede, 24, from the Ivory Coast, was jailed for the murder and sexual violence after separate proceedings and, while he too protests his innocence, his conviction was upheld on appeal.
Hundreds of people gathered in the streets outside the court shouted "shame" when they heard about the decision. Knox was told she must pay 22,000 euros in compensation to Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, a barman she falsely accused of the murder.
Knox walked out of the court in floods of tears, followed shortly afterwards by Sollecito, who showed little expression on his face. Meredith's brother Lyle and sister Stephanie comforted each other as they remained seated in the courtroom with their mother Arline.
Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich "betrayed and blackmailed" fellow Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and demonstrated that wealth and influence meant more to him than loyalty and friendship, a barrister has alleged in the High Court.
Mr Berezovsky is claiming that Mr Abramovich "intimidated" him into selling shares in Russian oil company Sibneft at a fraction of their value.
He is alleging breach of trust and breach of contract and claiming more than £5 billion US dollars (£3.2 billion) in damages from Mr Abramovich, a judge was told.
Both men were at the first day of the trial - expected to last for more than two months - before Mrs Justice Gloster at the Commercial Court in London.
They sat at either end of the packed courtroom.
Laurence Rabinowitz QC, for Mr Berezovsky, told the judge that both men had worked together to acquire Sibneft and became friends.
He said Mr Berezovsky had been "betrayed" after falling out with Russian political leaders and leaving Russia in 2000.
"This is a case about two men who - and this is common ground - worked together to acquire an asset - that is Sibneft - that would make them wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of most people," said Mr Rabinowitz.
"In the process, we say, (they) became and remained good friends until, that is, Mr Berezovsky, who had adopted a high political profile in Russia, not least through his control of certain media outlets, fell out with those in power in the Kremlin and was forced to leave his home and create a new life abroad."
He added: "It is our case that Mr Abramovich at that point demonstrated that he was a man to whom wealth and influence mattered more than friendship and loyalty and this has led him, finally, to go so far as to even deny that he and Mr Berezovsky were actually ever friends."
Amanda Knox has made a heartfelt plea for freedom telling an appeal court she was innocent of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
American Knox declared: "I have paid with my life for things I did not commit."
Knox, 24, said she was betrayed by the Italian authorities after the killing of her flatmate in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007.
She said: "I am not who they say I am, the perversion, the violence, the lack of respect for life, and I did not do the things they say I did. I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there at the time."
Speaking in Italian on the final day of the appeal hearing, she sought to persuade the two judges and the jury who will decide her fate that she did not murder Miss Kercher when a sex game went wrong.
She said: "I want to go back home. I want to go back to my life. I do not want to be punished. I do not want my life taken away for something that I did not do because I am innocent."
Tearful and hesitant, Knox said she wanted "justice" for her friend Miss Kercher. She said: "I am the same person I was four years ago. The only thing that is different is what I have suffered. I have lost a friend in the most brutal way, in an unexplained manner."
Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty in December 2009 of murdering Miss Kercher, a Leeds University student from Coulsdon, after a trial which lasted almost a year.
Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25. In her statement on Monday, Knox stood by her ex-boyfriend, saying: "I am innocent and Raffaele is innocent too."
Sollecito, 27, also protested his innocence when he addressed the court just before Knox. And he denied accusing his ex-girlfriend of the murder. Sollecito said the claim was "totally untrue" and he said his conviction was a "nightmare" he had never woken from.
Tube drivers in the capital will see their pay go over the £50,000 a year mark under a four-year wage deal negotiated between London Underground (LU) and union leaders, it has emerged.
The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union on Monday began consulting on a four-year pay deal which LU said offered the prospect of no industrial action over wages until at least 2015.
Under the deal, staff will get a 5% pay increase this year followed by RPI inflation plus 0.5% in the subsequent three years.
Industry sources said that if RPI inflation stays reasonably high, some Tube staff will receive a pay rise approaching 20% by the end of the settlement period.
The pay of Tube drivers, currently around £46,000, will go over £50,000, while some staff could receive a £10,000 pay rise over the four years, it was estimated.
The RMT said the issue of a payment for working during next year's Olympic Games in London was separate to the four-year wage deal.
General secretary Bob Crow said: "We saw major movement from LU and we now take this improved offer back to our local reps.
"In these days of austerity we have shown that fighting trade unionism is the best defence from attacks on jobs and living standards. I doubt you will find a better offer than this anywhere else in the public sector."
Mike Brown, managing director of London Underground, said: "This fair and affordable multi-year pay deal is a good deal for London - providing a platform for stability over a crucial time for the Tube network.
"This deal enables our employees' salaries to keep pace with the cost of living whilst being realistic given the current economic situation and the pressure on Transport for London's finances."
More accountants than engineers advised the Government on a lucrative train-building contract, which has led to the threat of 1,400 job losses, union officials have said.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said the disclosure was more evidence of the "betrayal" of workers at Derby-based Bombardier, which lost out to German firm Siemens on the £1.4 billion contract to build Thameslink trains.
The union said a written Lords answer revealed that of the nine officials who evaluated the Thameslink tenders, only two had an engineering background.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "The news that there were more accountants than engineers involved in assessing the Thameslink contract is yet more evidence as to how the betrayal of Bombardier was allowed to happen.
"This shameful episode has been dominated by accountants and management consultants on fat fees while the engineering excellence of Bombardier at Derby has been totally ignored."
Mr Crow said "bean counters and politicians" were in charge of key engineering decisions that had the power to "destroy train-making in the nation that gave the railways to the world".
The union said five government advisers had finance or legal backgrounds and two were engineers.
Emergency services are dealing with a major fire on an industrial estate which has left eight people injured.
Police, firefighters and the ambulance service were called to Hobbs Industrial Estate in Newchapel, near Lingfield, Surrey, just before 11.30am after reports of an explosion, Surrey Police said.
A spokeswoman said: "Surrey Police, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, South East Coast Ambulance Service and Surrey Air Ambulance are all in attendance at the scene."
The explosion was heard by people at the nearby London England Temple.
One engineer, who did not wish to be named, said he was working on a roof near the boundary of the temple's 32-acre grounds, when he heard a loud bang.
"There was a massive, massive bang, a large bang, with a little after-bang but that was it," he said.
A South East Coast Ambulance Service spokeswoman said eight people had been taken to three different hospitals. She said their injuries ranged from "less serious to far more serious".
One casualty was airlifted to a London hospital, five were admitted to the East Surrey Hospital at Redhill and two were taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
A spokesman for the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance service said it was called to the scene just after 11.20am. He added: "Both helicopters attended with additional doctor and paramedic ground support. Two patients were airlifted and other casualties were taken to local hospitals by land."
Protesters who blockaded a nuclear power station have said their actions were a "phenomenal success" in shedding light on opposition to new nuclear reactors.
Members of several anti-nuclear groups who are part of the Stop New Nuclear alliance barred access to Hinkley Point power station in Somerset in protest against EDF Energy's plans to renew the site with two new reactors.
Stop New Nuclear claimed more than 200 people took part in the peaceful "celebration of resistance" - which saw just one arrest - while EDF said the number of protesters was closer to 100.
Stop New Nuclear spokeswoman Camilla Berens said they were protesting against the plans put forward by EDF Energy and the Government and to draw attention to their belief that the UK does not need new nuclear power stations.
"We cannot move forward because everyone has bought the line that nuclear is needed to keep the lights on," she said.
"That is blatantly not true, we know there are alternatives. If a country like Germany can do it there is no reason the UK cannot follow."
Hinkley was one of eight sites the Department of Energy and Climate Change confirmed in June as being suitable for new nuclear power stations to be built.
Hinkley Point C, as the project is called, would be the first nuclear power plant in the UK for more than 20 years.
The others are Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Oldbury, south Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk; and Wylfa, Anglesey.
Stop New Nuclear comprises groups from across the UK, including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), CND Cymru, Stop Nuclear Power Network UK, Kick Nuclear, South West Against Nuclear, Shutdown Sizewell, Sizewell Blockaders, Trident Ploughshares and Stop Hinkley.
Meredith Kercher's sister has said it would be "very difficult" to forgive anyone for the British student's murder as she awaited the outcome of an appeal hearing.
Stephanie Kercher said her sister had been "hugely forgotten" in the furore around the appeal launched by American student Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito over the November 2007 killing in Perugia, Italy.
Sitting alongside her mother Arline and brother Lyle, she told a press conference: "It is very difficult to keep her memory alive in all of this."
Miss Kercher said forgiveness "does not come into it" at the moment.
She went on: "It would be very difficult to forgive anything at this stage. What everyone needs to remember is ... the brutality of what happened that night, everything that Meredith must have felt that night, everything she went through, the fear and the terror, and not knowing why.
"She doesn't deserve that, no-one deserves that."
Meredith's mother Arline refused to say whether she believed Knox killed her daughter but said she trusted the Italian justice system. She added: "You have to go by the evidence because there is nothing else. What I want, what they want doesn't come into it.
"It is what the police have found, what the science has found, what the evidence is and that's all you can go on. It is to find out what happened to Meredith and to get some justice really."
Two judges and six jurors are considering whether to overturn the murder convictions of Knox, 24, and Sollecito, 27.
Knox made a heartfelt plea for freedom, telling the appeal court: "I have paid with my life for things I did not commit."
A power failure is causing problems for BT broadband customers across the UK, the firm said.
The fault at the major exchange in Birmingham has meant a loss of internet service for BT customers in several parts of the country, including Cardiff, Bristol, East Yorkshire and London.
BT said the "majority" of customers' broadband services had already been restored and for most the problem would have lasted for "little more than an hour".
"We can confirm that, as a result of a power failure at one of our major exchanges, some customers may currently be experiencing loss of broadband service," a spokeswoman said on Monday.
"Our engineers are on site and the majority of customers' service has already been restored.
"We are working to restore service to remaining customers as soon as possible this afternoon.
"Should any customers continue to experience difficulty in accessing their broadband service, they are advised to turn their hub or modem off and on again."
BT said the "brief outage" at the exchange in Birmingham affected hundreds of thousands of customers.
However, the company stressed this was no more than 5% of the total broadband connections over its network.
"We can confirm that, as a result of a power failure at one of our major exchanges, some customers may have experienced loss of broadband service for a brief period this afternoon," a spokeswoman said. "All services have now been restored, with the majority of BT's consumer broadband customers' service being restored within just one hour.
The brother of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is to be extradited to Northern Ireland to stand trial on allegations that he sexually abused his daughter.
Liam Dominic Adams is wanted by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in relation to 18 alleged offences against Aine Tyrell, who has waived her right to anonymity.
The 56-year-old, who denies the allegations, lost his fight against extradition from the Irish Republic at the High Court in Dublin.
Mr Adams has 15 days to lodge an appeal against the court's ruling before the extradition order takes effect. He had claimed he will not get a fair trial after the Sinn Fein leader publicly supported his niece.
The sex abuse claims became public in December 2009 when Ms Tyrell was featured in a television documentary.
He is accused of rape, indecent assault and gross indecency at various addresses in Belfast between March 1977 and March 1983, when the alleged victim was aged between four and 10.
Mr Adams, who was supported in court by another daughter Claire Smith and her friend, showed no emotion as sections of the 64-page judgment were read by Mr Justice John Edwards.
The judge rejected arguments the accused could not get a fair trial because of pre-trial publicity and comments by his brother, a delay in bringing charges and changes in the jury selection in Northern Ireland.
"He must look to the courts of the requesting State to protect his rights," said Mr Justice Edwards.
"Those courts would be better placed to deal with those issues."
Eight people have been injured after an explosion at an industrial estate, emergency services said.
Witnesses described hearing a loud bang on the Hobbs Industrial Estate in Newchapel, near Lingfield, Surrey, before a large fire broke out. Firefighters are still battling to control the blaze.
A spokesman for the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance said they were called to the scene of the explosion just after 11.20am.
The casualties were taken to three hospitals - two by air ambulance. A spokeswoman for South East Coast Ambulance Service said their injuries range from "less serious to far more serious".
In a joint statement, Surrey Police, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service and the South East Coast Ambulance Service urged anyone living near the site to close their windows and asked members of the public to stay away from the area.
The statement said 12 fire engines were sent to the scene, and that fire crews were "faced with a serious and escalating fire". It added: "Police, fire and ambulance services are working hard to bring the incident under control in what are difficult circumstances. In addition local NHS services are responding well."
An insurance assessor at the scene, who declined to be named, said the premises where the fire broke out belong to a firm called eReco EMEA, which deals with IT and electrical recycling.
Ian Thomson, of Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, said all those in the building at the time of the blaze had been accounted for. The cause of the fire was under investigation and police and fire officials refused to be drawn on whether it was suspicious or what might be responsible.
Mr Thomson said around 60 firefighters who tackled the blaze were faced with a "serious and rapidly escalating fire" at the building, which is split into five smaller units.
The fire broke out in the middle unit before spreading to the entire building, Mr Thomson told reporters at a cordon at the entrance to the industrial estate.
Chancellor George Osborne has rejected calls for temporary tax cuts to boost the economy, warning that they would put Britain's credit rating and low interest rates at risk.
He unveiled a package of help for small business, investment in science and infrastructure and an £800 million council tax freeze, which he said could be funded with savings on Whitehall waste and inefficiency without affecting the drive to reduce the deficit.
The Chancellor told the Conservative Party conference that the Government was taking an "activist" approach to helping families and businesses "ride out the storm" of global economic crisis.
But Labour dismissed his speech as "a hotch-potch of small measures and re-announcements" which did not match up to the scale of the difficulties facing the country.
One of Mr Osborne's most prominent Tory critics, Commons Treasury Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie, who last week warned that the Government lacked a "coherent and credible" strategy for growth, said he was "greatly encouraged" by the announcements. But the Chichester MP was forced to deny being "nobbled" by Downing Street, after the BBC reported that he was given a "talking to" by aides of David Cameron before facing the TV cameras.
Shortly after the Chancellor spoke in Manchester, he was given a big boost by ratings agency Standard and Poor's, which reaffirmed the UK's coveted triple-A status.
Mr Osborne said it was an "illusion" to think that injecting £5 billion or £10 billion into the economy through temporary tax cuts or extra spending - as Labour advocates - would transform the economy.
"We'd be risking our nation's credit rating for a few billion pounds more, when that amount is dwarfed by the scale and power of the daily flows of money on the international bond markets, swirling around ready to pick off the next country that lacks the will to deal with its debts," he said.
"Conference, we will not take that risk. We are in a debt crisis. It's not like a normal recovery. You can't borrow your way out of debt."
Mr Osborne confirmed plans to offer £800 million to enable all councils in England to freeze council tax for the second year in succession, saving an average family £72. And he said cash would be made available for devolved governments to run similar schemes in Scotland and Wales.
The family of Amanda Knox, who was acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher, have said they are "thankful that Amanda's nightmare is over".
Deanna Knox, her sister, spoke to reporters outside the court building just moments after the conviction was overturned.
She said: "We're thankful that Amanda's nightmare is over.
"She has suffered for four years for a crime that she did not commit."
She went on to thank her sister's legal team. "Not only did they defend her brilliantly, but they also loved her," she said.
"We are thankful for all the support we have received from all over the world - people who took the time to research the case and could see that Amanda and Raffaele were innocent.
"And last, we are thankful to the court for having the courage to look for the truth and to overturn this conviction."
Francesco Sollecito, the father of Raffaele Sollecito, said he had "allowed himself some tears".
Speaking outside the court room, he said his son had "nothing to do with the death of Meredith Kercher". Mr Sollecito said of the murdered student: "We will remember her with affection.
"I would have liked to talk to her relatives as well, as they have lost a daughter in a very cruel way. But tonight, they have given me back my son."
Amanda Knox has been cleared after a court overturned her conviction for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
The 24-year-old American has spent four years behind bars for the killing in Perugia, Italy, that she insisted she played no part in.
But her nightmare ended when jurors in her appeal trial found her not guilty of stabbing Miss Kercher after forcing her into a violent sex game.
Knox, from Seattle, was jailed for 26 years in December 2009 after a year-long trial, along with her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito who was jailed for 25 years. Sollecito, 27, was also cleared after a successful appeal.
The verdicts came after the former lovers delivered heartfelt addresses to the Perugia court, proclaiming their innocence once more.
Knox, watched by her anxious family in the medieval chamber, declared: "I am not who they say I am - the perversion, the violence, the lack of respect for life - and I did not do the things they say I did. I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there at the time."
The semi-naked body of Leeds University student Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found on November 2, 2007, in the house she shared with Knox on her year abroad.
Small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede, 24, from the Ivory Coast, was jailed for the murder and sexual violence after separate proceedings and, while he too protests his innocence, his conviction was upheld on appeal.
Hundreds of people gathered in the streets outside the court shouted "shame" when they heard about the decision. Knox was told she must pay 22,000 euros in compensation to Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, a barman she falsely accused of the murder.
Knox walked out of the court in floods of tears, followed shortly afterwards by Sollecito, who showed little expression on his face. Meredith's brother Lyle and sister Stephanie comforted each other as they remained seated in the courtroom with their mother Arline.
The Government's NHS reforms will do "irreparable harm", a group of top doctors and health specialists have said.
More than 400 experts sent an open letter to the House of Lords urging peers to reject the coalition's controversial Health and Social Care Bill when they vote later this month.
The letter, also sent to the Daily Telegraph, said: "The Bill will do irreparable harm to the NHS, to individual patients and to society as a whole.
"It ushers in a significantly heightened degree of commercialisation and marketisation that will fragment patient care; aggravate risks to individual patient safety; erode medical ethics and trust within the health system; widen health inequalities; waste much money on attempts to regulate and manage competition; and undermine the ability of the health system to respond effectively and efficiently to communicable disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies."
The letter includes signatories from across a wide spectrum of public health practice, including over 40 directors of public health and more than 100 leading public health academics.
Its authors added: "While we welcome the emphasis placed on establishing a closer working relationship between public health and local government, the proposed reforms as a whole will disrupt, fragment and weaken the country's public health capabilities.
"The Government claims that the reforms have the backing of the health professions. They do not. Neither do they have the general support of the public.
"It is our professional judgement that the Health and Social Care Bill will erode the NHS's ethical and co-operative foundations and that it will not deliver efficiency, quality, fairness or choice. We therefore request that you reject passage of the Health and Social Care Bill."
Professor Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a signatory of the open letter, said: "This letter demonstrates the widespread recognition within the public health community that this Bill is bad for the NHS and harmful to the overall health of the population."
Shadow health secretary John Healey said: "David Cameron is in denial, both about the damage his plans are doing to the NHS and the strength of opposition to his Health Bill."
Pub landlady Karen Murphy is to learn whether she has won her legal battle against the Premier League over the screening of games in her pub using a "foreign" television decoder.
European judges are deciding whether the League's power to restrict broadcasting rights within the UK breaches EU single market rules.
Ms Murphy faced a fine and costs of almost £8,000 after she was taken to court by the League for using a Greek decoder in her Portsmouth pub to screen matches, bypassing the League's own controls over where its matches are screened.
She took her case to the European Court of Justice - and although Portsmouth were relegated in 2010, she still hopes for a verdict supporting her right to watch cheap foreign satellite coverage of Premier League games.
Earlier this year the Luxembourg court's Advocate-General backed her case in a legal "opinion", declaring: "European Union law does not make it possible to prohibit the live transmission of Premier League football matches in pubs by means of foreign decoder cards."
Such opinions have no legal force, but the full court follows the Advocate-General's advice in about 80% of cases.
If Ms Murphy wins it could trigger a major shake-up for the Premier League and its current exclusive agreements with Sky Sports and ESPN.
The League's existing arrangement allows selected broadcasters to screen matches and, in the words of the Advocate-General, "exploit them economically within their respective broadcasting areas, generally the country in question".
The licensed broadcaster encrypts its satellite signal, and subscribers can decrypt it using a decoder needing a decoder card.
But Karen took advantage of an offer to UK pubs of imported decoder cards, charging lower prices for screening matches than the charges of the rights-holding broadcaster.
A prisoner is due to go on trial accused of murdering another inmate and attempting to kill Soham murderer Ian Huntley.
Damien Fowkes, 35, is accused of slashing Huntley's throat in Frankland Prison, Durham, in March last year.
Fowkes, from Northampton, is accused of inflicting a seven-inch wound on Huntley's neck using a blade fashioned from a toothbrush and razor blade when they were in the kitchens.
School caretaker Huntley was jailed for life for the 2002 murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
Fowkes is alleged to have strangled to death another prisoner, Colin Hatch, at Full Sutton prison near York in February
He is due to go on trial at Hull Crown Court before Mr Justice Coulson.
A leading teachers' union has announced its timetable for a strike ballot amid growing signs of industrial unrest over the Government's controversial public sector pension reforms.
The NASUWT said it will give employers notice of the ballot by October 20, with voting starting on November 4 and closing on November 17.
The result will give the union time to call a strike on the TUC's day of action on November 30, which could involve millions of workers ranging from teachers and civil servants to refuse collectors and school dinner ladies.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "Despite all our best efforts to engage constructively with this coalition, in 16 months in office they have conducted a campaign of denigration of the teaching profession, encouraged schools to ignore contractual entitlements, attacked pension provision, undermined professional status and put in place plans to put the whole of the teaching workforce on a permanent competency procedure.
"Savage cuts to local authority and school budgets have caused job insecurity for all teachers and job loss of many specialist teachers and support staff.
"The result is that now half of teachers are seriously considering quitting the profession and 84% of teachers feel professionally disempowered and unable to do the best for the children and young people they teach.
"A successful outcome in the ballot will enable teachers to reclaim their contractual entitlements and free them from burdensome tasks that are distracting them from focusing on teaching and learning."
Thousands of members of the Welsh teachers' union UCAC will strike for 24 hours on Wednesday, forcing schools to close and disrupting lessons after members voted by 9-1 in favour of action. UCAC has not staged a strike since the mid-1980s when there was a dispute over pay.
Chancellor George Osborne on Monday accused unions of being "irresponsible" in striking over pensions.
The NASUWT published a survey of more than 13,000 teachers which it said showed that excessive workloads were preventing them from focusing on teaching and learning, leaving them "paralysed" by red tape. The union said its dispute will be over workloads, pay and jobs as well as pensions.
A judge at the trial of the next-door neighbour accused of murdering landscape architect Joanna Yeates is to start jury selection.
Mr Justice Field is expected to spend two days whittling down jurors before prosecutors open their case against Vincent Tabak, 33.
Dutch engineer Tabak denies the premeditated killing of Miss Yeates, whose body was found on a snowy verge on Christmas morning.
Prosecutors will claim Tabak, who lived in a ground-floor flat adjoining her home in Clifton, Bristol, murdered the 25-year-old after she went for festive drinks with colleagues.
She was reported missing two days after disappearing when her boyfriend Greg Reardon returned to their shared flat after a weekend visiting family in Sheffield.
Following a string of appeals by relatives and police, her frozen corpse was found by dog walkers three miles from her home on a lane in Failand, north Somerset.
Mr Reardon and Miss Yeates' parents, David and Teresa, are expected to attend Bristol Crown Court throughout the four-week trial.
Tabak, a trilingual engineer, is being represented by William Clegg QC. Nigel Lickley QC prosecutes.
