Superbike World Championship: Miguel Oliveira continues with the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. - BMW Group

DURHAM, N. C. (WTVD) -- Jurors spent another day hearing detailed forensic testimony in the Faith Hedgepeth murder trial, with defense attorneys beginning their cross-examination of the state's DNA expert and focusing on what they contend were shortcomings in the handling and testing of evidence. Erin Ermish, a forensic scientist with the North Carolina State Crime Lab, was the only witness to testify Thursday. Ermish's role at the crime lab includes analyzing biological evidence such as blood, semen and saliva. She testified that she first examined evidence in the case in 2012, but re-examined several items in 2021 using updated DNA testing technology that allowed scientists to analyze additional portions of DNA profiles. According to Ermish, DNA profiles from a Bacardi rum bottle, a blue Riesling wine bottle, a white bag, Faith Hedgepeth's boxer shorts and samples collected from Hedgepeth's body included DNA from defendant Miguel Salguero Olivares. During direct examination, Ermish explained one of the DNA mixtures analyzed in the case.

Israeli settlers have attacked European diplomats, including a French mayor, near the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. The delegation was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters on Saturday when the Israeli attackers confronted the group. The attack comes a day after settlers assaulted a US journalist north of Ramallah. In Saturday’s incident, the settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. “A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged,” Prevot said, linking the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledging to push for further European Union sanctions. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, who was assaulted, told the AFP news agency that the violence suggests that “there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government” towards settler violence. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said the settlers surrounded the diplomats’ vehicles, pelted them with stones and smashed their windows.