Any serious student of political scandal will recognise her name at once. Back in 1987 Donna Rice launched the modern Age of the Bimbo when she was sighted with Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, married man and aspiring Democratic presidential candidate, aboard the good ship Monkey Business and elsewhere. Where else but America? On the stage at the august Smithsonian Institution sat Donna Rice Hughes, articulate and wholesome as a spokesperson for an anti-pornography lobbying group should be. "She believed the children should go with her, but the body wills to live and Susan jumped out of the car," she said."When we talk about Susan's life, we're not trying to gain your sympathy, we're trying to gain your understanding."Even if Ms Smith is found guilty but mentally ill, the death penalty could still be applied.Since the fact of the children's drowning in the car is not in dispute, the trial is expected to be brief, perhaps ending by next week.. This is a case of I, I, I; me, me, me."But Judy Clarke, for the defence, said that Ms Smith was "deeply troubled" at the time of the murder and had intended to kill herself with the boys. She could control her action if she wanted to, and she did not This was a conscious decision by Smith to kill her children.

After owning up to what she had done, she asked for his gun to kill herself.In his efforts to secure the death penalty for Ms Smith, Mr Giese went on yesterday: "She knew right from wrong. Ms Smith confessed finally on 3 November to the local sheriff, Howard Wells, after he prayed with her. Jurors are likely to be shown a letter from Mr Findlay to the defendant, written before the boys' death, saying he was not ready to take on the responsibility of a family."For nine days in the fall of 1994, Susan Smith looked this country in the eye and lied," Mr Giese told the court. According to David Espie, an FBI agent she "made sounds of crying, but there was no water, no tears, nothing".In court yesterday Keith Giese, for the prosecution, argued that Ms Smith killed the children because she believed it would allow her to continue a relationship with Tom Findlay, son of a wealthy local industrialist.

The defence decided against an insanity plea.In testimony before the judge on Monday, police officials said they became suspicious of Ms Smith's car-jacking story at an early stage, partly because of how she sobbed when telling the story. DAVID USBORNE New York The young mother who last autumn tricked the US into believing her two infant sons had been abducted by a car-jacker took a "conscious decision" to murder them by sending them to their death in a lake, prosecutors said yesterday.At the start of the trial of Susan Smith, 23, in Union, South Carolina, the prosecution said that she knew exactly what she was doing when she drove to a lake outside the city and rolled her car into its waters with her two boys, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, strapped inside.Ms Smith, who faces the death penalty, confessed to the killings, but only after claiming for nine days - including in nationwide television appeals - that she had been stopped while driving at night by a man she said was black and that he had sped off with her children.Ms Smith's defence lawyers also gave opening statements yesterday in the hope of persuading the jury that she is "guilty but mentally ill" and that the boys perished as the result of a failed suicide attempt by their mother. Security sources said the two Israelis were in their twenties and were on a holiday hike in the Wadi Kelt nature reserve near Jersualem. The killings occurred a week before the deadline for Israeli-PLO negotiators to reach an agreement on expanding 14-month-old Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank beyond Gaza and Jericho.No group has claimed responsibility but Maj-Gen Biran said the killers will be caught.. Major-General Ilan Biran, the Israeli commander of the region, said the killers were probably from the Islamic militant group Hamas or another group opposed to the peace process.

Jerusalem (Reuter) - Palestinian guerrillas shot and stabbed to death two Israeli men hiking in a nature reserve in the Israeli-occupied West Bank yesterday. The current conflict, which began in 1983, has in recent years seen the Khartoum government making significant advances against the rebels but failing to secure a decisive victory.. Professor Meo, who is said to have suffered from stress during his ordeal, is due to fly back to Italy today.Sudan has been racked by civil war for most of the past 30 years. On landing it was discovered that Pariang had reverted to SPLA control and the passengers were immediately arrested by the rebels. They were taken to the SPLA stronghold of Chukudum where they were held until recently.After being held in the wilds of southern Sudan, the doctors, both in their late fifties, were transferred to Khartoum 10 days ago. The pilot was told it was too dangerous to wait around and that he should take off again immediately."At the Sudanese government's behest, a UN aircraft with three UN staff and two Sudanese government security advisers on board set off from Khartoum to retrieve the two doctors in Pariang.

"A plane was sent in to pick them up a few days later but there was no sign of the doctors. There they intended to conduct a medical assessment for the Italian charity Committato de Collaborazione Medica (CCM). Though CCM is affiliated to OLS, their mission was conducted outside the aegis of the UN, which has consistently been denied Sudanese government clearance to land at Pariang.While most of the towns in the south are under government control, Pariang has long been in the hands of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Soon after the doctors' arrival at Pariang, however, the village was attacked by government forces and the two men were captured."We found out that something had gone wrong soon after the doctors were dropped off," said a CCM spokesman who declined to be named. Their destination was the remote area of Pariang, deep inside southern Sudan. Their capture in rebel- held southern Sudan was part of a series of mishaps which have severely embarrassed the United Nations humanitarian operation.Professor Giuseppe Meo and Dr Hashim Ziada had set off from the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) base in northern Kenya at the end of May.