Edinburgh

The sister of Meredith Kercher has criticised a solo comedy show by Amanda Knox, who was convicted and later acquitted of murdering the British student in Italy in 2007.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe website says Knox’s show, Cartwheel, is about motherhood and how she will explain what happened in Perugia to her daughter.

Stephanie Kercher, addressing Knox directly on BBC Breakfast, said: “What I would say [to Knox] is to think about the family here, think about her friends and to turn the tables if it was your sister that this had happened to, because I know you have a sister as well.”

Knox said the show, set to run over 11 days from Friday, honours Kercher’s memory.

Her comedy show’s title Cartwheel references a story that once claimed she did cartwheels in the police station after her friend’s death.

Knox told the Telegraph newspaper, external last week: “I don’t joke about Meredith’s death. I joke a lot about how I was vilified, but I don’t joke about her murder.”

Asked if Meredith Kercher would have found her comedy funny, she added: “Yeah, I think so. I mean, it is funny!”.

Responding to that suggestion, Stephanie Kercher told the BBC: “Meredith absolutely wouldn’t find these topics of any comedy value.”

She said: “Our family’s pain is immense. I can’t explain to you how much pain our family have been through, and also we’re talking two decades later now, this pain.”

A petition against the show, set up by a friend of Meredith, has been signed by just over 2,400 people, and says the show disrespects her memory and also risks normalising violence against women by making light of such a harrowing event.

It is the latest wildfire call out for the Scottish fire service during the recent stretch of warm, dry weather.

Hundreds of firefighters, two helicopters and specialist resources were sent to the Cairngorms National Park where a blaze has been ongoing for four days.

Six square kilometres of land had been affected resulting in homes and businesses, including campsites and a ski resort in the Glenmore Forest Park area, being evacuated as a safety precaution.

A high volume pump has been used to draw water from Loch Morlich to support firefighting efforts.

On Sunday, fire crews said the fire was now “surrounded” and police began escorting residents and campers back to properties and campsites to collect personal belongings.

June 20 (UPI) — Police arrested a man after stabbing five people in Edinburgh, Scotland, in suspected anti-Muslim attacks.

The man was allegedly roaming the streets of the city Friday night and stabbed five people and damaged a car and business. The attacks began near a mosque in the west of Edinburgh, where two men were injured. The Scottish Association of Mosques said two worshippers were attacked in a park after leaving the Broomhouse mosque.

Police said that five men in total, two of them 22 years old, and others ages 24, 27 and 39, suffered a range of injuries. Three of them were treated at a hospital, though none of the injuries was life-threatening.

A 36-year-old white man was arrested, and counter terrorism officers have joined local Police Scotland in an investigation.

Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton said in a statement that there is “no place for racism or faith-based hate in Scotland.”

Police got reports of attacks near shops in the west and north of the city, and said three other men were attacked in the Telford Road and Leith Walk areas. Police eventually confronted the man with a taser and arrested him, though they said the taser was never used.

“There is a profound sense of shock, alarm and anger within Muslim communities across Scotland today,” Omar Afzal, director of public affairs for the Scottish Association of Mosques, told The Scotsman. “These latest attacks are deeply disturbing. However, they do not exist in a vacuum. For years, Muslim communities have warned about the consequences of anti-Muslim hatred becoming normalized in public discourse. When prejudice is left unchallenged, it creates an environment in which some individuals feel emboldened to act on that hatred.”