Joran van der Sloot, the primary suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalie Holloway, confessed last night to the killing of 21-year-old Stephanie Flores Ramirez.

Van der Sloot last came under suspicion during the Holloway case, telling conflicting stories about selling Holloway to a human trafficking ring and witnessing a man having sex with Holloway before dumping a body into the ocean. Afterward, he repeatedly denied his own admissions. Police are re-opening the Holloway case, as well as pursuing prosecution for Flores’ murder.

In more peaceful news, a group of Italian women have written an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI, decrying the Pope’s recent assertion of “the sacred value of celibacy.”

Stefania Salomone, one of the letter writers, has begun an Italian website for adult women in relationships with priests, saying that a priest "needs to live with his fellow human beings, experience feelings, love and be loved." The letter, and the church scandals spreading across the world, might hopefully renew the debate on what Salomone and her group call “the tattered shroud of mandatory celibacy."