Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters

Francesco Papa, a prisoner at the Gorgona island penal colony, walks between rows of grapevines in winemaker Marquise Lamberto Frescobaldi's vineyard on June 11, 2013.

GORGONA ISLAND, Italy -- High on a hillside overlooking the azure sea on a small Mediterranean island, two brawny men toil under the sun in a vineyard that has just released a $66 wine destined for the tables of top restaurants.

This is not an exclusive wine estate or secluded retreat for the rich, despite the tranquil beauty. It is, rather, the residence of men serving long sentences for some of Italy's most notorious and brutal crimes, on an island named after monstrous sisters in Greek mythology with snakes for hair.

Gorgona, the smallest of the Tuscan archipelago that also includes Elba, where Napoleon was incarcerated, is home to a project to rehabilitate hardened criminals through agriculture.

The island, an isolated refuge for monks for 1,500 years and a penal colony since 1869, has just produced 2,700 bottles of a crisp white wine called Gorgona with the help of a 700-year-old Italian wine dynasty. Among the buyers is a Michelin three-star restaurant in Florence.

Gorgona's 40 inmates, many of them convicted of murder, including a notorious contract killing, also produce high quality pork, vegetables, chickens, olive oil and cheese.

The two men on the hillside are serving long terms for murder and won transfer to Gorgona after years in other jails.

There is a long waiting list for entry to the island, a highly desirable location compared with most of Italy's chronically overcrowded jails.

Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters

The penal colony where more than 40 prisoners work on agriculture is pictured on Gorgona island on June 11, 2013.

"When I come up here in the morning I am struck by the peace. The time does not weigh on you. It is a different mentality here," said one of them, Brian Baldissin, a tattooed and muscular 30-year-old from the northern Veneto region, whose older brother is also in the jail.

His companion, Francesco Papa, also 30 and from Sicily, agreed: "It is different here. You are outside and free. I drive a tractor. I work. You seem a normal person. Elsewhere you are inside for 23 hours a day."

Escape from Gorgona, 23 miles off the port of Livorno, is considered impossible -- although one prisoner did disappear and has never been found.

The only boat allowed near the rocky coast is a weekly ferry that brings family members for visits. Even that is not permitted to dock and passengers are taken off on police launches.

Prisoners are only locked up at night.

'Off you go'
"When I arrived and got off the launch, the first thing I did was to look round for a guard. Then they said to me: 'Off you go'. I was staggered," said Umberto Prinzi, 41, a convicted murderer serving a 22-year sentence.

He came to Gorgona after spending many years in five other prisons, and has three years left to serve.

The island, in an archipelago which includes the setting of Alexandre Dumas's novel "The Count of Monte Cristo", has only one permanent resident, 86-year-old Luisa Citti-Corsini, a tiny woman who lives with a cat called ET in a house above the harbor. Around 50 former residents visit their houses periodically, especially during the summer.

Citti-Corsini spends her time knitting and reading. "I don't feel lonely at all. I always have the cat," she told reporters on a recent visit. She said the inmates were "very polite". Asked if she was scared, she replied: "Scared of what?"

"I am magnificently fine here ... the air is fantastic."

In the 1960s, she escaped suffocation in a mudslide that swept her out of a window and dumped in the harbor.

Rehabilitation
Both prisoners and guards are strong supporters of the rehabilitation regime and say it should be used elsewhere.

Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters

Benedetto Ceraulo, prisoner in the Gorgona penal colony, holds up cheese from Frescobaldi's cheese factory on June 11, 2013.

"What does prison do? A prison like Gorgona can improve you. But other institutions where you are closed 22 hours in a cell just make you bad, that's it," says Prinzi. "The screams of desperation there will stay in your head forever."

"Work in the fields is an escape valve ... If you are locked up in a cell you just watch TV and become an idiot," he added.

"I am fortunate. But there are thousands and thousands of others who don't have this chance so they get locked up, they don't understand why, and when they get out they offend again."

Higher up the island from the vineyard, Sicilian Benedetto Ceraulo, 55, works among racks of ewes' milk and cow's milk cheeses, including a deliciously light ricotta.

Ceraulo was convicted in 1998 of being the gunman in one of Italy's most sensational crimes, the murder of Maurizio Gucci, last member of the original family to control the fashion empire, on the orders of his former wife.

Ceraulo, who has repeatedly claimed he is innocent, won a transfer to Gorgona a year ago. "It's a good life here. You are free. You have the chance to learn, I feel lucky," he said.

"In other prisons it's horrible. You live in cages like wild dogs. It is not suitable for humans. If you are locked up in a cell, deprived of basic thing like privacy, a person gets worse.

"Here I can see the sea, take a stroll. The time passes."

Not far away, Chinese immigrant Jin Zhaoli works in a large nursery cultivating more than a thousand tomato, courgette, aubergine and pepper plants. He was convicted of murdering his wife 14 years ago and is due to get out in a year. "It's good here," he said.

The vines on Gorgona were first planted in 1999 but later abandoned. They were cleaned up and restored after 2009 by a now-released Sicilian inmate who had his own vineyard at home, helped by Prinzi and Papa.

The Marchesi de'Frescobaldi wine dynasty came on the scene in summer 2012 after prison authorities asked local companies to invest in the agricultural program. The firm sent experts to improve the care and picking of the vines, harvesting the same year.

Lamberto Frescobaldi, 30th generation of the family, vice president and head of wine making, said that the 2.5 acre vineyard was ideally situated, facing east toward the morning sun and planted in mineral rich soil.

Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters

Marquise Lamberto Frescobaldi, a member of the winemakers family of the finest wine in Tuscany, is seen in front of his vineyard in Gorgona island.

The Frescobaldis, who were bankers and then wine suppliers to the English kings in the Middle Ages, pay a wage to the convict workers and then sell the wine.

They should roughly break even from their investment, said Frescobaldi, 49, although, for a company with an annual turnover of $107 million, it is not a money spinner.

Asked what he felt when he took his first sip of the wine, Frescobaldi replied: "It brought a tear to my eye. It made me reflect on all the people on this island that don't have the chance I have to come and go."

The governor of Gorgona, Maria Grazia Giampiccolo, is known for her progressive methods and also runs a prison inside a Medici fortress in the Tuscan town of Volterra. Inmates there run "Jailbird Dinners" every year with help from local chefs.

She is a leading advocate of engaging inmates in work by building relationships with outside companies. "We need real possibilities to reinsert inmates into society... If the response is only prison it will always be inadequate," she said.

Petar Kujundzic / Reuters

Liu Xia, wife of jailed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo, looks out of a car window after a trial outside a court in the Huairou district of Beijing on Sunday. The court sentenced Liu Hui, brother-in-law of Liu Xiaobo, to 11 years in prison on charges of fraud in a case that rights activists have called another example of official retribution on the Liu family.

HUAIROU, China -- A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison on charges of fraud in a case that rights activists have called another example of official retribution on the Liu family.

Supporters of Liu Hui say his case was trumped up, aimed at thwarting the increasing attention by the rights community on the plight of Liu Xia, who has remained under effective house arrest since her husband Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Prize in 2010.

The court in Huairou, a one-hour drive northeast of Beijing, convicted Liu Hui, a manager in a real estate company in the southern city of Shenzhen, on charges of defrauding a man named Zhang Bing of $490,000 with another colleague, lawyer Mo Shaoping told reporters.

"As Liu Hui's defense attorney, I definitely do not approve of this verdict, because we see this fundamentally as a civil issue, and it fundamentally does not constitute criminal fraud. Also, there is not sufficient evidence," Mo said.

Liu Hui has maintained his innocence, according to his lawyers.

In a rare statement to media, a weeping Liu Xia told reporters from the front passenger seat of her car as she drove away from the courthouse that she was extremely angry with the verdict and vowed to launch an appeal.

"I absolutely cannot accept this. This is simply persecution," she said. "This is completely an illegal verdict."

Liu Xia said she had "completely lost hope" in the government.

"I can't even leave my house."

After about two minutes, security forced journalists away from the car, which moved off.

Liu Hui was out on bail last September, but then arrested again in January, after several rights activists and foreign reporters forced their way past security guards late last year to visit Liu Xia, one of his other lawyers, Shang Baojun, told Reuters before the verdict.

Raphael Droszewski, a first secretary at the European Union Delegation to China, told reporters outside the courthouse that the EU was deeply concerned by Liu Hui's sentence. He called for Liu Xiaobo's release and the ending of restrictions on Liu Xia.

"As it is clear Liu Xia is under house arrest, the EU urges the Chinese authorities to end all forms of extra legal restriction on her," he said.

The ruling is seen as a setback for hopes for political reform from new Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose government has detained anti-corruption activists and tightened free expression on the Internet following his appointment in March.

"Everything related to the Liu Xiaobo case previously could have been seen as the legacy of the previous leadership," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group.

"But with this sentence the new leadership buys into this suppression and persecution of the family. It deems the prospect unlikely that the government is amenable to the release of Liu Xiaobo, or will make any concessions on the case."

The case will also renew international criticism of the plight of Liu Xiaobo's family.

The verdict was handed down within hours of Xi and U.S. President Barack Obama completing an informal summit in California. U.S. and European diplomats were present outside the courthouse in Huairou, a one-hour drive northeast of Beijing.

Speaking in California after the summit, China's top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi defended the country's achievements in human rights as "there for all to see".

"With China's economic and social development, human rights causes in China will enjoy even greater progress in the future," Yang told reporters, though he did not refer directly to the Liu Hui trial.

Liu Xiaobo, a veteran dissident involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests crushed by the Chinese army, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 on subversion charges for organizing a petition urging the overthrow of one-party rule.

His wife Liu Xia is rarely allowed out and is almost never allowed to receive visitors. She has not been convicted of any crime.

Related stories:

• China Nobel winner Mo Yan likens censorship to airport security
• Assad, China warned over human rights as Nobel Peace Prize is awarded
• For Chinese winner's wife, Nobel is no prize

Fernando Vergara / AP file

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos is shown in a file photo from 2013. On Tuesday, Santos said a criminal group was plotting to kill journalists.

BOGOTA - Colombia's government warned on Tuesday of a plot by a criminal group to kill several high-profile journalists just weeks after the attempted assassination of an investigative reporter boosted concerns over threats to a free press in the violence-plagued Andean nation.

President Juan Manuel Santos also announced that 90 journalists are being given protection by the government. He urged Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre to investigate attacks against journalists.

"In this government, we're totally committed to get to the very bottom of the problems that undermine this fundamental right to be well-informed that all Colombians have," Santos said at an event to promote media rights.

Journalists and investigators have long been the target of attacks and threats in Colombia, allegedly carried out by corrupt politicians, drug lords, Marxist rebels and right-wing paramilitary leaders to silence coverage that may damage their interests.

A hit man has entered the Colombian capital to kill columnist Leon Valencia, analyst Ariel Avila and reporter Gonzalo Guillen, according to Andres Villamizar, head of a government-run agency to protect high-profile targets.

"We won't allow these plans to be carried out," Villamizar said early on Tuesday on his Twitter account, pledging to step up security.

Before entering politics, Santos served as an editor at the country's top newspaper, El Tiempo, once owned by his family. He said he will strive to protect freedom of expression "because that's where I was born, it's at the heart of who I am."

Spotlight on dangers
Even though a U.S.-backed military offensive has improved security in Colombia over the last decade, the new threats throw a spotlight once again on the dangers for reporters covering corruption and criminal gangs in Colombia. This comes as the government seeks a peace accord with the biggest rebel group, the FARC.

The threat likely stems from an investigation into links between paramilitary groups and politicians during last year's municipal elections, Valencia, a former Marxist rebel and columnist for the respected Semana magazine, told Reuters.

The hit man was probably hired by a criminal group with links to politicians, Valencia said.

"No doubt we're afraid because the people involved are very powerful and have no limits," Valencia said. "We will continue investigating, nothing will stop us."

Paramilitary groups continue to operate across Colombia even after former President Alvaro Uribe negotiated their demobilization in 2008 and many handed in their weapons in exchange for light jail sentences. Thousands have morphed into new drug-funded crime gangs and continue to kill and make threats if their operations are at risk.

It was not immediately clear why Guillen would be targeted alongside Valencia and Avila.

Criminal groups
Colombia has been rattled by a five-decade war involving various insurgent groups - including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and paramilitary forces - that has killed more than 100,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.

The new generation of criminal gangs is now fighting with the FARC and paramilitary groups for control of drug-smuggling routes and illegal activities, while journalists, union workers and residents are often caught in the middle.

The latest threat comes on the heels of an assassination attempt two weeks ago on Ricardo Calderon, an investigative journalist who narrowly survived an ambush that riddled his car with bullets as he returned to Bogota after reporting on irregularities in a military prison for Semana magazine.

Last week, eight journalists were given 24 hours to leave the city of Valledupar, in Cesar province, as they reported on government attempts to return stolen land to war victims. Leaflets from a little-known group, the Anti-land Restitution Army, declared the reporters collaborators and hence targets for death.

All the reporters and analysts threatened have worked on some of the most damning stories, including corruption in northern La Guajira province, the government's intelligence agency wire tapping opponents, and right-wing paramilitary involvement in the nation's Congress.

(Additional reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Eduardo Garcia in Bogota; Editing by Vicki Allen and Will Dunham) 

SEOUL -- North Korea said on Saturday that a Korean-American tourist, jailed by the reclusive state since late last year, will face trial for "committing crimes" against the North, a move that could further stoke tensions with the United States.

The move comes amid a diplomatic standoff between the North and the United States, and as Pyongyang has threatened to attack U.S. military bases in the Pacific and the South.

Slideshow: North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un

The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

Launch slideshow

A number of U.S. citizens of Korean descent have run into trouble in the North over the years, and Pyongyang has tried to use their detention to extract visits by high-profile American figures, most notably former President Bill Clinton.

In the latest case, Kenneth Bae, 44, has been held by police since arriving in the northeastern city of Rajin on November 3. He was among a group of five tourists.

"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it," KCNA state media reported, using the North's official title of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"His crimes were proved by evidence," it said, adding he would soon be taken to the Supreme Court "to face judgment". It did not provide further details.

South Korean rights workers said that the North's authorities may have taken issue with some of his photographs, including those of homeless North Korean children.

A South Korean newspaper published by an evangelical family said he may have been carrying footage of North Korea executing defectors and dissidents. It was impossible to verify this.

According to North Korean law, the punishment for hostile acts against the state is five to 10 years of hard labor.

Clinton flew to Pyongyang in 2009 and met then-leader Kim Jong-il before securing the release of two American media workers who had been charged with entering the North illegally.

Former U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson has made numerous trips to North Korea that have included efforts to free detained Americans. He delivered a letter regarding Bae to officials during a trip to North Korea in January, although he was unable to meet Bae.

Tensions between North Korea and South Korea and its ally the United States have spiraled in recent weeks since the United Nations tightened sanctions after the North's third nuclear weapon test in February.

The toughening of those sanctions led to the North threatening nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States.

North Korea has a long record of making threats to secure concessions from the United States and South Korea, only to repeat the process later. Both the United States and the South have said in recent days that the cycle must cease.

Slideshow: Glimpses into the hermit kingdom of North Korea

David Guttenfelder / AP

As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.

Launch slideshow

On Friday, Pyongyang rejected a call for formal talks to end a standoff that forced operations at a joint industrial complex shared by the North and South to be halted.

South Korea in turn said it would pull out all its remaining workers from the Kaesong factory complex, which is just inside North Korea and is one of the North's few sources of ready cash.

Of the 175 remaining South Korean workers, 126 workers left the factory zone on Saturday. The rest are scheduled to return on Monday.

A representative of the South Korean firms at the complex urged the government to hold inter-Korean talks and to authorize their visit to North Korea on Tuesday, South Korea's news agency Yonhap said.

Related stories:

• North Korea rejects talks with South's 'puppet regime'
• Analysis: North Korea blinked in missile standoff, but will threaten again
• Full North Korea coverage on NBCNews.com

Saurabh Das / AP

An Indian woman holds a poster as she protests with others about the handling of sex crimes in India, Monday.

NEW DELHI - A second suspect was arrested Monday in the rape of a 5-year-old girl who New Delhi police say was left for dead in a locked room, a case that has brought a new wave of protests against how Indian authorities handle sex crimes.

Pradeep Kumar, a 19-year-old garment factory worker, was arrested Monday in the eastern state of Bihar, about 620 miles from New Delhi, and was being brought to the capital, police said.

Police said questioning of the first man arrested in the case, Manoj Kumar, led them to the second suspect. Manoj Kumar, 24, was arrested Saturday in Bihar and flown back to New Delhi. Kumar is a common last name in India and the two men are not related.

The men are accused of abducting, raping and attempting to murder the 5-year-old, who went missing April 15 and was found two days later by neighbors who heard her crying in a locked room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her family. The girl was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by her attackers, police say.

The girl was in critical condition when she was transferred Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country. D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of the state-run hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said Monday that she was responding well to treatment and that her condition had stabilized.

"She is much better today and her wounds are healing well," Sharma told reporters.

The attack came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.

For the third consecutive day, sporadic protests erupted in at least three places in New Delhi. Scores of supporters of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party dodged a huge police cordon and managed to reach the gates of India's Parliament where they shouted slogans against the Delhi police's tardy handling of the case. About 100 BJP supporters were detained. Police said they would be held at a nearby police station and then releases in a few hours.

Separately, about 100 women protested at another venue near the Parliament building. Most of the protests were directed against the Delhi police officers who failed to act after the girl's parents told them she was missing.

The protesters have demanded that the Delhi police chief be removed from office and that police officials accused of failing to act on the parents' complaint be dismissed.

"Police and other officials that fail to do their jobs and instead engage in abusive behavior should know that they will be punished," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for changes in attitudes toward women in India. "The gruesome assault on the little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society," Singh said Sunday at a meeting with civil servants.

The December gang rape on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage and spurred the government to pass tough laws for crimes against women, including the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim's death.

Related:

PhotoBlog: Protests build in New Delhi after child rape

Defense attorney blames victim in India gang-rape, murder case

Oscar Pistorius' uncle says the Olympic sprinter is in "extreme shock" -- barely eating and spending his time reading the Bible -- but will "bounce back and be greater than ever" when his murder case is over.

In an interview that aired Wednesday night on the South African television network eNCA, Arnold Pistorius called his nephew a "soft person" and said he's certain he is not guilty of charges he intentionally killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

"Oscar will survive. He will have a tough time going forward, but he is a survivor," the uncle said.

"Nobody can be the same ever again if such a tragedy comes over your life but he will bounce back and be greater than ever.”

His prediction came after the athlete's lawyers and prosecutors faced off in a South African courtroom for the second day of a hearing that will determine if the 26-year-old runner gets bail or sent to prison until a trial. The hearing continues Thursday.

Pistorius, the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics, has been in custody since the Valentine's Day shooting at his Pretoria home.

"He spent a lot of time reading, especially reading his Bible...His mother was extremely religious," Arnold Pistorius said, adding that his nephew had only started eating again Tuesday night.

Pistorius, who claims he thought a prowler was in his house when he shot through a locked bathroom door and killed his model girlfriend, has sobbed through some of the court proceedings.

"He's grieving. He is in extreme shock. I don't expect it to get over it even soon," the uncle said, but added that the Olympian's life and career are far from over.

"I can tell you that Oscar, with his character, is able to work through this," he said. "He will bounce back and be greater than ever."

During Wednesday's hearing, Pistorius' lawyer subjected a police official to a tough cross examination in which he admitted a witness who heard an hour of screaming before the shooting was a thousand feet away from the apartment.

Warrant Officer Hilton Botha disputed Pistorius's version of the shooting, in which he claimed to have opened fire after rushing to the bathroom on his stumps in a panic.

He said the downward trajectory of the shots suggested Pistorius had on the artificial legs that gave him the nickname Blade Runner and aimed at someone on the toilet.

"I believe he knew she was in the bathroom," Botha testified.

Related:

Oscar Pistorius in court: Defense exposes cracks in police evidence

Pistorius: I felt 'sense of terror' on night I mistakenly shot girlfriend

Sportscaster: Pistorius was 'jumpy' about safety