Amanda Knox still waiting for Italy ruling

ROME -- U.S. student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend have to wait another day to learn whether they must stand trial yet again in Italy for the 2007 murder of her roommate.

Italy's top Court of Cassation put off until this morning its announcement of its decision on whether to definitively confirm their 2011 acquittals or throw out those verdicts and order what would be their third trial.

Neither came to court in Rome yesterday to follow the latest stage in their case. Knox was waiting for the decision in her home state of Washington, while her co-defendant and former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, stayed in northern Italy to continue his studies.

The court heard six hours of arguments yesterday and spent several hours deliberating that and a handful of other cases before announcing it would issue its decision at 10 a.m. today.

Italian prosecutors have asked the high court to throw out the acquittals for the murder of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher and order a new trial.

Kercher's body was found in November 2007 in her bedroom of the house she shared with Knox and other roommates in Perugia, a university town with popular with foreign students. Her throat had been slashed.

Prosecutors have alleged Kercher was the victim of a drug-fueled sex game gone awry. Knox and Sollecito claimed they weren't in the house the night of the murder.