Phone-Hacking Trial

 Rupert Murdoch’s ‘News of the World’ intercepted Kate Middleton and Prince Harry's voicemails, prosecutors alleged in a London court on Thursday.

 Kate Middleton and Prince Harry had their phones hacked by Rupert Murdoch’s biggest selling newspaper, a court in London heard on Thursday.

 It is the first time the Murdoch media empire has been accused of illegally accessing the phone of a member of the royal family: previous allegations have centered on the hacking of phones used by royal aides. The now-shuttered Sunday tabloid, the News of the World, is accused of accessing Middleton’s voicemails to gain embarrassing personal details about her and Prince William.

 The court heard that a series of private messages that were intended to be shared only by the two young lovers have recently been unearthed as part of the police investigation. "Hi, baby. It's me," began one of the messages left by her then boyfriend, Prince William, in 2006. In another, he calls her "babykins".

 In a message that was allegedly left on Harry’s phone, William, the future King of England assumed a falsetto voice and pretended to be his brother’s girlfriend Chelsy Davy. “I really miss you,” he joked. “Hopefully I'll see you very soon you big hairy fat ginger.” The jury was told by the prosecution lawyer, Anthony Edis QC, about eight voicemail messages recorded by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who has pleaded guilty to a second charge of phone hacking earlier this year.

 The explosive allegations are the latest in a series of damning claims of corrupt and illegal practices that the prosecution says were endemic at the News of the World.

 In prosecution evidence in mid-November, the jury at the Old Bailey were shown a note seized from Mulcaire on his arrest in 2006, entitled “target evaluation.” Eighteen names were on the list including Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, then private secretary to Prince William and Harry; Helen Asprey, another royal aide; and Mark Dyer, a royal equerry to Charles and his two sons. Recent evidence has alleged the Sunday tabloid targeted Patrick Harverson, Prince Charles’s communications secretary.

 Prince Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge are the highest profile alleged victims of phone hacking to emerge during the first two months in the trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and five others.

 In recent weeks the jury at the Old Bailey in Central London has heard allegations that the tentacles of Murdoch’s newspaper reached right inside Buckingham Palace. When the home of Clive Goodman, the former royal correspondent for News of the World, was raided by police in August 2006, police say they discovered 15 royal phone directories, which listed the numbers of the entire royal family, staff and close friends. The jury have since been shown several timelines of admissions or ‘agreed facts’ between defense and prosecution that show the Sunday tabloid sourced a number of its royal stories from phone hacking. In 2006, the paper accused Prince Harry of cheating in exams at the Sandhurst military academy after a message on his private secretary’s phone was allegedly intercepted.

 However, palace officials were not informed of this apparent security lapse about the royal directories until Goodman’s re-arrest in the light of the phone hacking scandal in 2011. The alleged breaches heard in court on Thursday were the most serious yet.

 In a transcript of one of the messages, William was quoted as saying to Middleton: “Hi, baby. Um, sorry, I’ve just got back in off my night navigation exercise,” the jury were told. "I’ve been running around the woods of Aldershot chasing shadows and getting horribly lost, and I walked into some other regiment’s ambush, which was slightly embarrassing because I nearly got shot.”

 The jury were then shown emails Clive Goodman sent to his editors at the News of the World explaining how William "got shot on a night exercise." Goodman's Blackadder columns in January 2006 are alleged to have relied on the exclusive revelations that William calls Kate “babykins” and a description of the military training accident. Prosecutor Andrew Edis alleged that the stories were linked to payments of around $5000 to 'Matey'--an alias for private investigator Mulcaire.

 Earlier this month the court heard that Andy Coulson, who replaced Rebekah Brooks as editor of News of the World 2003 was warned by Goodman about the risks they were taking by acquiring the phone directories, let alone using them to hack phones. “These people will not be paid in anything other than cash because if they're discovered selling stuff to us they end up on criminal charges, as could we,” Goodman allegedly wrote to Coulson, in an email read in court. Coulson, who is alleged to have been conducting an affair with Rebekah Brooks at the time, later became Prime Minister David Cameron’s head of communications at Number Ten Downing Street.

 In other evidence the prosecution claims that Rebekah Brooks, during her time as editor of the best-selling British daily paper, the Sun, approved over $60,000 of payments to a former Ministry of Defence employee, Bettina Jordan-Barber, who—the prosecution alleges—was the source of several stories about the royal princes as they attended the military training academy at Sandhurst. ||||| Story highlights Prosecutor reads transcripts of messages between Prince William, Kate Middleton

 Evidence is revealed in phone-hacking trial of former News of the World editors

 Several hundred attempts made to hack phones of UK princes' aides, court told earlier

 The British tabloid News of the World hacked Kate Middleton's phone while she was dating Prince William, a prosecutor told a London court Thursday in a trial of the defunct newspaper's executives, according to the British Press Association.

 In one voicemail message that William left Kate -- the transcript of which was read in court by the prosecutor -- the prince calls his future wife "Babykins" and says he was almost shot by blank rounds during a military training exercise, the PA reported.

 The date of the message wasn't immediately clear, though the couple weren't yet married at the time, the PA reported. Middleton became the Duchess of Cambridge when she married William in April 2011.

 The transcript, dug up during a police investigation into the newspaper's alleged hacking practices, was one of several messages between the couple that were read at London's Old Bailey court, the PA reported.

 The revelation came at the trial of former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson and the paper's former managing editor, Stuart Kuttner. All are accused of conspiring between October 2000 and August 2006 "to intercept communications in the course of their transmission, without lawful authority." They deny the charges.

 JUST WATCHED Report: Kate Middleton's phone hacked Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Report: Kate Middleton's phone hacked 02:19

 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Britain's Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge pose for a photo with their children, Princess Charlotte and Prince George in the French Alps on Thursday, March 3. Hide Caption 1 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Britain's Prince William poses with Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, during a family Christmas photo released on Friday, December 18. Hide Caption 2 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Princess Charlotte plays with a stuffed dog in this photo taken by her mother in early November. Hide Caption 3 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family William and Catherine pose with their children at Charlotte's christening in July. Hide Caption 4 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Princess Charlotte is seen with her big brother for the first time in a photo released by Kensington Palace in June. Hide Caption 5 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family William and Catherine present their newborn daughter as they leave a London hospital in May. Hide Caption 6 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family In March, William and Catherine visit a center dedicated to community learning in London. Hide Caption 7 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The royal family celebrates Prince George's first birthday with a trip to the Natural History Museum in July 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The royal family waves to a crowd before boarding a plance in Wellington, New Zealand, in April 2014. They went on a three-week tour of Australia and New Zealand. Hide Caption 9 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The royal couple attends the Tusk Conservation Awards at the Royal Society in London in September 2013. Hide Caption 10 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family William and Catherine start an ultra marathon in Holyhead, Wales, in August 2013. It was Catherine's first public appearance since the birth of Prince George. Hide Caption 11 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple are pictured with their newborn boy, Prince George, in 2013. The new parents released two family photographs taken by Michael Middleton, Catherine's father. Hide Caption 12 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The Duke and Duchess and their newborn son depart St. Mary's Hospital in London in July 2013. Hide Caption 13 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family In June 2013, William, Catherine and Prince Harry arrive at Westminster Abbey for a celebration marking the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Hide Caption 14 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family In April 2013, Harry, Catherine and William make magic on the set used to depict Diagon Alley in the "Harry Potter" films. Hide Caption 15 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple attends a St. Patrick's Day parade as they visit Aldershot, England, in March 2013. Hide Caption 16 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family In September 2012, the couple drank coconut milk from a tree that Queen Elizabeth II planted decades ago in the South Pacific nation of Tuvalu. Hide Caption 17 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Catherine and William celebrate during cycling events at the Olympic Games in London in August 2012. Hide Caption 18 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The Queen, William and Catherine stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the finale of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June 2012. Hide Caption 19 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family As part of their charity work, the couple attended a "healthy living cookery session" in London in December 2011. Hide Caption 20 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The newly married royal couple watches a rodeo demonstration at a government reception in Calgary, Alberta, in July 2011. Hide Caption 21 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Catherine shovels soil during a tree-planting ceremony in Ottawa in July 2011. Hide Caption 22 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family You can feel the love as the happy couple attends a Snowbirds air show during Canada Day celebrations in July 2011. Hide Caption 23 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama meet with the royal couple at Buckingham Palace in May 2011. Hide Caption 24 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The newlyweds walk hand in hand from Buckingham Palace the day after their wedding in April 2011. Hide Caption 25 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family After their wedding on April 29, 2011, the couple drove from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House in a vintage Aston Martin. Hide Caption 26 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family William and Catherine kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their wedding ceremony in London. Hide Caption 27 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The pair returned to their alma mater in St. Andrews, Scotland, in February 2011. They launched a fundraising campaign for a new scholarship. Hide Caption 28 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple poses for photographers to mark their engagement in November 2010. Catherine received the engagement ring that belonged to William's late mother, Diana. Hide Caption 29 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple cheers on the English rugby team during the Six Nations Championship match in London in February 2007. Hide Caption 30 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple takes a photo after graduating from the University of St. Andrews in June 2005. They met at school and even shared a house with others while students. Hide Caption 31 of 31

 JUST WATCHED Explain it to me: UK tabloid scandal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Explain it to me: UK tabloid scandal 03:36

 Glenn Mulcaire, a former private investigator for News International -- the then parent company of News of the World -- was convicted of phone hacking in 2006 and has already pleaded guilty to hacking charges in the current case.

 Greg Miskiw, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup have also pleaded guilty in the case.

 Jurors were told that Ian Edmondson, who is also charged with conspiring to hack phones between October 2000 and August 2006, is "currently unfit" and will take no further part in the trial, the PA reported. He will be tried at a later date, the judge said.

 Brooks, her husband, Charlie Brooks, and her former personal assistant Cheryl Carter also face a separate set of charges of conspiring to obstruct the police investigation into phone hacking.

 Brooks is also accused of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office. Coulson faces a similar charge, the PA reported.

 Among the allegations made in the trial previously: A police investigator testified that several hundred attempts were made to hack the cellphones of aides to princes Charles, William and Harry.

 Hacking allegations against the News of the World prompted British Prime Minister David Cameron to set up an independent inquiry, led by Lord Justice Leveson, to make recommendations on journalistic ethics and examine the relationship of the media with the public, police and politicians. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Prosecutors told a London court today that Rupert Murdoch's News of the World hacked the phones of Kate Middleton and Prince Harry, marking the first time the now-closed tabloid has been accused of hacking the phone of an actual member of the British royal family—as opposed to an aide. Voicemails on Middleton's phone were intercepted by the newspaper and heard by the court today, including one from 2006 in which Prince William calls her "baby" and another in which he calls her "babykins," the Daily Beast reports. In one of the messages, William tells Kate he was nearly shot by blanks while going through military training, CNN reports. The court also heard an intercepted voicemail of Prince Harry's, in which William spoke in falsetto, pretending to be Harry's then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy. In total, Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who has pleaded guilty to phone hacking in the case, recorded about eight messages, the prosecution says.


Article:
Play Facebook

 Twitter

 Embed Are Shark Attacks on the Rise? 2:02 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog

 A 10-year-old boy suffered minor injuries when he was bitten by a shark Wednesday in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida. He is the second 10-year-old to be attacked in Florida in a week and at least the fourth person to have been attacked in Volusia County this year, authorities said.

 The boy, who wasn't identified, was bitten on the calf as he swam in chest-deep waters just after 1 p.m. ET, said Tamra Marris, a spokeswoman for Volusia County Beach Safety/Ocean Rescue. A lifeguard responded, and the boy was treated at the scene for lacerations on his leg without having to go to a hospital.

 The beach safety agency told NBC station WESH of Orlando that beaches would remain open.

 Related: North Carolina Shark Attack Victim Who Lost Arm 'Didn't See It Coming'

 Another 10-year-old boy is recovering from what authorities called "significant injuries" after he was attacked last week off Cocoa Beach, about 60 miles south.

 Play Facebook

 Twitter

 Embed Florida Boy Recovering After Shark Attack off Cocoa Beach 0:17 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog

 Wednesday's attack was the fourth reported this year in Volusia County, which was labeled the shark bite capital of the world earlier this year by the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.

 But while the rate of shark attacks may appear to be on the rise, data suggest that perception reflects better reporting and an increase in the number of people involved in water activities, not an increase in aggressiveness by sharks.

 There were 72 reported attacks on humans around the world in 2014, the shark attack center said — three fewer than in 2013. ||||| A 10-year-old boy was bitten by a shark in Daytona Beach Shores on Wednesday afternoon.

 The boy, who is visiting from Georgia, was in chest-deep water when he was bitten on the calf and suffered minor lacerations.

 "I heard him start yelling as we were walking back out and he said something bit him,” said the victim’s father, Kenneth Wood.

 The boy was treated on scene and wasn’t taken to the hospital, according to Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue.

 “I was scared there for a while. Now I know he’s all right," Wood said.

 The beach remained open in spite of the incident.

 Most watched: Boy bitten by shark talks with WESH 2

 This is the fourth reported shark bite in Volusia County this year. Four bites have also been reported in Brevard County.

 "We will be seeing more shark attacks in years ahead because there’s more of us. We're simply flooding sharks out of their own environment,” said Dr. George Burgess, the director of the Florida program for shark research.

 In 2014 Florida led the nation with shark attacks with a total of 28, Burgess said. So 11 so far this year isn’t abnormal.

 “We're all worried about them being man eaters. But when you think about it, the ratio each year, the number of humans that are killed by sharks versus the number of sharks killed by human beings is 10 million to 1,” Burgess said.

 He also said the best way to avoid being a victim of shark attacks is to stay in groups while in the water and not to swim near the inlet where many other are putting out bait while fishing.

 Related: Where in US do most shark bites happen? ||||| OAK ISLAND, N.C. (AP) — The shark attack on a girl about 100 yards from a pier has prompted this town to consider at least a temporary ban on shark fishing, a move already undertaken by several cities along the East Coast.

 In this image taken from video provided by New Hanover Regional Medical Center, 16-year-old Hunter Treschl, of Colorado Springs, Colo., speaks during an interview at New Hanover Regional Medical Center... (Associated Press)

 Vacationers walk in the surf in Oak Island, N.C., Monday, June 15, 2015, the day after a 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy from Colorado... (Associated Press)

 Doug Baucom, right, of Wadesboro, talks with his daughter Katie Reynolds, left, of Boone, N.C., as they stand in the surf by the Ocean Crest Pier in Oak Island, N.C., Monday, June 15, 2015. Beachgoers... (Associated Press)

 A woman stands in the surf on the beach in Oak Island, N.C., Monday, June 15, 2015. A 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy from Colorado... (Associated Press)

 Will Rudisill, 10, of Raleigh, N.C., left, and Stella Cross, 11, of Matthews, N.C., right, walk with their skim boards on the beach in Oak Island, N.C., Monday, June 15, 2015. A 12-year-old girl from... (Associated Press)

 A helicopter flies close to the water as vacationers relax on the beach in Oak Island, N.C., Monday, June 15, 2015. A 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and... (Associated Press)

 Vacationers sit in chairs in the surf in Oak Island, N.C., Monday, June 15, 2015. A 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy from Colorado lost... (Associated Press)

 A helicopter flies over the Ocean Crest Pier in Oak Island, N.C., Monday, June 15, 2015. A 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy from Colorado... (Associated Press)

 Vacationers relax on the bench and in the surf in Oak Island, N.C., Monday, June 15, 2015. A 12-year-old girl from Asheboro lost part of her arm and suffered a leg injury, and a 16-year-old boy from Colorado... (Associated Press)

 In this image taken from video provided by New Hanover Regional Medical Center, 16-year-old Hunter Treschl, of Colorado Springs, Colo., speaks during an interview at New Hanover Regional Medical Center... (Associated Press)

 In this image taken from video provided by New Hanover Regional Medical Center, 16-year-old Hunter Treschl, of Colorado Springs, Colo., speaks during an interview at New Hanover Regional Medical Center... (Associated Press)

 Fishing piers can be a magnet for sharks even when people aren't looking to land them because live bait is in the water and the pilings from the structure itself offer refuge for fish. There are also fish guts and blood from caught and cleaned fish that are sometimes tossed back into the water.

 "That's going to attract fish and that's going to certainly attract sharks," North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Director Louis Daniel said. "If they get into the surf zone where the water is a little muddy and cloudy and there's dead fish parts floating around and they're gobbling it up," the sharks can get confused and bite a person.

 Fishermen say they don't think they should be blamed or punished for the rare shark attacks, but local officials in Oak Island want a shark fishing ban to limit the food supply for sharks close to shore — at least through the popular Independence Day holiday weekend, town manager Tim Holloman said. It's not clear how a ban could be enforced, but could involve limiting the use of certain types of hooks, rigs and bait used for shark fishing.

 Experts say swimming farther away from piers is a good idea, regardless of whether a shark fishing ban is in place. At Oak Island, two young people lost limbs in separate, life-threatening shark attacks within 90 minutes of each other on Sunday. One happened in the shadow of a fishing pier. The other was 2 miles away.

 Both had been swimming about 20 yards offshore, in waist-deep water.

 Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, are among popular destinations that have outlawed shark fishing from piers to try and better protect swimmers. Towns in Florida have also considered bans.

 In North Carolina, it's legal to attract sharks by placing fish parts — also called chum — into a mesh laundry bag and hanging it off the side of a boat or pier, allowing the scent to attract sharks. But even without chum, virtually any structure in the water offers a place for fish to congregate, and that gives sharks a destination for hunting, said John Zardus, an associate professor of marine biology at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.

 "With their sensory system, they are able to tell there is structure and they know from experience that food is in that area," he said.

 Last Sunday, Kiersten Yow, 12, of Asheboro, was swimming about 100 yards from Oak Island's Ocean Crest Pier when a shark attacked. She lost her left arm below the elbow and suffered leg injuries. Her parents said in a statement Tuesday she was in stable condition.

 Nearly 90 minutes later, a shark bit off the left arm above the elbow of 16-year-old Hunter Treschel of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was in good condition Wednesday at a Wilmington hospital, spokeswoman Carolyn Fisher said.

 Officials do not know if they were attacked by the same shark.

 The Ocean Crest Pier — near where the girl was attacked — allows shark fishing only at night, but forbids floating bags of chum, manager Steve Sanders said.

 The town's other pier, the Oak Island Pier, is 2 miles from where the boy was attacked. That pier boasts the state's record-breaking tiger shark, a 1,150-pound monster caught there in 1966.

 The Oak Island Pier allows shark fishing during its open hours but doesn't allow chumming, said operator Tommy Thomes. He said town officials would have to show him some evidence his pier is imperiling swimmers by attracting sharks.

 "Until we get some other support than the town's opinion, no we would not" stop allowing shark fishing, Thomes said.

 Shark fishing usually involves large hooks, strong steel fishing rigs and bloody cut bait, such as the head of another large fish.

 It's unclear whether shark fishing bans are effective. Beth Firchau of the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center said she doesn't know whether shark fishing increases the likelihood of an attack or of any marine scientists studying the bans.

 But, she said, "we know that the act of fishing is all focused on attracting animals to your bait. And so if you're actively fishing in an area where people are swimming, one plus one equals two."

 Virginia has had just five attacks since 1837, with the only fatality coming when a 10-year-old boy was attacked south of Virginia Beach in 2001. After that deadly attack, Virginia Beach expanded its ban on shark fishing or chumming to include all of the city's waters to within 500 feet of shore.

 Only five shark bites have been reported in South Carolina waters in 2014, and there were just four in North Carolina last year, part of a gradual increase in recent years, according to the International Shark Attack File report compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida.

 ___

 Emery Dalesio can be reached at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio.

 ___

 Masters reported from Raleigh, North Carolina. Associated Press writer Bruce Smith in Charleston, South Carolina, contributed to this report. |||||Summary:

– Volusia County, Fla., was declared the "shark bite capital of the world" this year by the International Shark Attack File, according to NBC, and it doesn't seem to be in danger of losing the title. A 10-year-old boy was in chest-deep water at Daytona Beach Shores yesterday when he was bitten on the calf by a shark, WESH reports. Officials say the boy was treated for lacerations at the scene and didn't need to go to a hospital. He was the county's fourth shark victim of the year and the second in the space of a week: Another 10-year-old boy was severely injured last week in a shark attack at Cocoa Beach, around 60 miles south of the latest attack, NBC reports. This is the 11th attack in the state so far this year, which isn't an exceptionally high number, shark expert Dr. George Burgess tells WESH, noting that "the number of humans that are killed by sharks versus the number of sharks killed by human beings is 10 million to one." He advises swimmers worried about sharks to stay in groups and avoid areas where fishermen put out bait. Two young people lost limbs in shark attacks in Oak Island, NC, on Sunday and the town is considering banning shark fishing to protect swimmers from sharks attracted by the bait, the AP reports. (A 16-year-old boy who lost his left arm in Sunday's attack says he won't let it ruin his life.)


The last batch of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released Thursday by the National Archives.

 The 19,045 documents — the largest batch to date — represent the final release under a directive from President Trump Donald John TrumpAvenatti ‘still considering’ presidential run despite domestic violence arrest Mulvaney positioning himself to be Commerce Secretary: report Kasich: Wouldn’t want presidential run to ‘diminish my voice’ MORE.

 The federal government hit an Oct. 26, 2017, deadline to release thousands of documents related to the 1963 assassination in compliance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

 Trump actively encouraged the release of the long anticipated files last year to “put any and all conspiracy theories to rest.”

 Trump then provided agencies with temporary certification until this Thursday to allow for re-review of all documents withheld to release "as much as possible."

 Ultimately, at the request of the FBI and CIA, Trump blocked the release of some of the original records. Those records were not part of the final batch released Thursday and may never be released.

 The administration released all related JFK documents other than the names and addresses of any mentioned person who is still living.

 "I have no choice today but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our Nation's security," Trump said in October. ||||| Updated at 2 p.m. to clarify the number of documents remaining under seal.

 WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued an order Thursday, keeping some of the most sensitive records from the Kennedy assassination files sealed for another 3 1/2 years, as the National Archives released a final batch under a law meant to force most of the records into the light by last fall.

 In 1992, Congress set a 25-year deadline for releasing remaining documents stemming from John F. Kennedy's murder in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

 When the deadline arrived — Oct. 26 last year — Trump gave federal agencies a six-month extension to plead the case for keeping selected records sealed, if they could assert a vital national security interest. The FBI and CIA in particular had pressed for more time.

 Some 15,884 records that have now been partially released, some with heavy redactions, will be subject to yet more review over the next three years under Trump's order.

 The National Archives released 19,045 documents Thursday. Those can be downloaded here, along with previously released records, such as secret 1978 testimony from a former CIA station chief in Mexico City, David Atlee Phillips, a Fort Worth native.

 He called assassin Lee Harvey Oswald "loony" and insisted that as far as he could tell, Oswald had acted alone.

 "God knows I would like for it to come out that Fidel Castro was responsible or that the Soviets were responsible," Phillips testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations, under questioning by Rep. Floyd Fithian, an Indiana Democrat. "But I know of no evidence to show that the Cubans or the Soviets put him up to it, and I just have to go along on the side that he was a kind of loony fellow who decided to shoot the president, and he did."

 The transcript of the four decade-old testimony was in the batch of documents released Dec. 15. Historians, assassination buffs and conspiracy theorists are still digging through those and other previously secret files for insights into the investigation and countless unrelated topics, from the U.S. escalation in Vietnam to assassination plots and meddling with unfriendly regimes in Cuba, Chile and other nations.

 (Hat tip to Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for flagging the Phillips testimony.) ||||| JFK Assassination Records - 2018 Additional Documents Release

 The National Archives is releasing documents previously withheld in accordance with the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act. The vast majority of the Collection (88%) has been open in full and released to the public since the late 1990s. The records at issue are documents previously identified as assassination records, but withheld in full or withheld in part. Learn more

 These releases include FBI, CIA, and other agency documents (both formerly withheld in part and formerly withheld in full) identified by the Assassination Records Review Board as assassination records. The releases to date are as follows:

 * Note: There are instances where multiple record identification numbers are associated with the same pdf. This is due to the fact that the files were scanned in batches.

 Accessing the Release Files

 The table below displays metadata about all the released documents. You can also download the spreadsheet as an Excel file (4.7MB).

 To view or download a specific document, follow the link in the "Doc Date" column. The files are sorted by NARA Release Date, with the most recent files appearing first. The previous withholding status (i.e., formerly withheld in part or formerly withheld in full) is identified in the “Formerly Withheld Status” column.

 Bulk Download of PDF and WAV files

 You can access individual files by browsing the webpage above and selecting the link in the "Doc Date" column. You may also download the Excel spreadsheet above, which includes links to all of the files. If you need copies of all PDF and WAV files, you can request a compressed bulk download by emailing bulkdownload@nara.gov with “JFK Bulk Download” in the subject line. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Back in October, President Donald Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, agreeing to appeals from the CIA and FBI.

 Now, Trump has accepted a recommendation from the National Archives to keep the lid closed, more than five decades after the 35th president was killed.

 Trump writes in memo issued Thursday that some of the classified documents are "of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure." The FBI and CIA had said the release could jeopardize national security.

 The president ordered agencies to review the remaining documents in the next three years to determine which should be released.

 Congress ordered in 1992 that all records be released in 25 years to put consistent conspiracy theories to rest. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– The can has been kicked a little farther down the road. When President Trump in October approved the release of previously classified or redacted documents on the JFK assassination, he blocked the release of others over national security concerns and gave federal agencies 180 days to re-review the withheld documents. The review in some cases turned up "identifiable national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns," per a memo written by Trump, who on Thursday said some files would now be kept under wraps until Oct. 26, 2021. He wrote that some files are "of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure," per the AP, but he ordered that they be reviewed over the next three years, and that any that can be released be made public immediately. The Dallas Morning News reports roughly 19,000 documents were released Thursday by the National Archives—the largest batch thus far, notes the Hill; 520 remain fully sealed. In his memo, Trump included a hopeful note for the curious: "The need for continued protection can only grow weaker with the passage of time from this congressional finding." (Some were hoping files would be released this week that would shed light on a 1971 suicide.)


Article:

(Photo: Provided by family)

 VIRGINIA BEACH, Va (WVEC) – A man who shot and killed his dog then buried her on the Oceanfront is facing animal abuse charges, but he says police have it wrong.

 For 15 years, Michael Whalen said Allie was his closest companion, but Cushing’s disease caused hardship towards the end.

 Allie would have seizures as a result and one night in February, the worst one came.

 “It required my full attention to keep her airway open, to keep her from aspirating her vomit, to keep her from laying in her poop,” said Whalen.

 Whalen told 13News Now that the sight was too painful to witness, so he shot her.

 "I told myself I have a small handgun and I thought this will be painless, instantaneous," Whalen said. "And then I just broke down, it was the most emotional thing I've ever done."

 Whalen then buried Allie at the 85th street beach and a resident found her, according to police. Authorities charged Whalen with burying trash, as well, after hearing Whalen’s side.

 “I gave my full testimony of what happened ‘This is what happened folks, I didn’t do anything wrong here and you’ve got to know the truth`,” Whalen said.

 Whalen is speaking out because he wants to set the record straight.

 He has a court date in June and hopes his case will shed light on euthanasia rights.

 “If your animal needs you, you gotta be there for her. You have a duty and obligation. I loved this dog. She needed me,” Whalen said.

 © 2017 WVEC-TV ||||| Close Get email notifications on Stacy Parker daily!

 Your notification has been saved.

 There was a problem saving your notification.

 Whenever Stacy Parker posts new content, you'll get an email delivered to your inbox with a link.

 Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video

 VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - A dog owner is facing animal cruelty charges after allegedly shooting his dog to death in February.

 News 3 spoke with Michael Whalen about the decision to end his pet of 15-years life.

 “We did everything together. She went everywhere with me. I even took her on a vacation trip one time on my motorcycle," Whalen said.

 He said Allie was diagnosed with Cushing's disease more than a year ago and a veterinarian offered to euthanize her.

 “Allie was not ready. I was not ready. She was still having fun. She wasn’t in ill health. “I got her stable on her medication," Whalen explained.

 That was until late one early February morning when he said Allie started having uncontrollable seizures.

 “She was not coming out of this," Whalen described.

 Unable to get to a hospital, Whalen says he took his gun and ended her suffering.

 “It was so emotionally disturbing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to go through this in my mind and sometimes I’ll just start crying," Whalen said.

 Allie was found partially buried on February 10 near 85th Street.

 News 3 spoke with a local veterinarian about Whalen's decision.

 She said based on current guidelines and standards, they don't consider a gunshot a form of euthanasia.

 His attorney, George Yates, disagrees.

 “We feel that he did what a pet owner is required to do," Yates said. "Take care of their animal and when their animal is suffering to properly euthanize the animal.�?

 Whalen is expected in court in June.

 Please enable Javascript to watch this video

 Previous coverage:

 Owner of dog found buried at Oceanfront charged with animal cruelty

 Virginia Beach Animal Control looking for info on dog found buried on the beach |||||
What is a summary?

– A Virginian man charged with animal cruelty for allegedly shooting his dog of 15 years says it was an act of kindness, not abuse, WTKR reports. Michael Whalen says his dog Allie was one of his best friends. "We did everything together," he says. Last year, Allie was diagnosed with Cushing's disease. Whalen says a vet offered to put her down, but neither he nor Allie were "ready" for that. Instead, he put Allie on medication. But early one morning in late January, Allie started having intense seizures, according to the Virginian-Pilot. Whalen says he didn't think he could get Allie to a 24-hour vet safely, so after 40 minutes he decided to end her misery. Whalen tells WVEC he thought shooting Allie would be a "painless, instantaneous" way for her to go. He says shooting his dog was "so emotionally disturbing" he still cries when he thinks about it. He buried Allie's body at a beach nearby because he says she used to like watching him surf, and he would wave to the spot when he walked by in the coming days. But a few weeks later, a passerby spotted Allie's partially buried body. Whalen was charged with animal cruelty and burying trash. Vets don't consider a gunshot an appropriate form of animal euthanasia. But Whalen says he's no animal abuser. “If your animal needs you, you gotta be there for her," he says. "You have a duty and obligation." A court date is set for June.


– The latest twist in the Manti Te'o saga is that he spoke on the phone for hundreds of hours with a man posing as his non-existent girlfriend. Now Te'o has released three voicemails to Katie Couric's show, and you can grade the apparent falsetto yourself. The voice allegedly belongs to hoaxster Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, and Deadspin also has the audio here. In an interview with Couric, meanwhile, Te'o shot down the rumor that he's gay, notes TMZ. Couric: "One of the many theories making the rounds is somehow you created this whole scenario to cover your sexual orientation. Are you gay?" Te'o: "No, far from it. Farrr from it."

Expand this summary.

In advance of this afternoon's interview, Katie Couric's show has released recordings of three voicemails provided by Manti Te'o. The messages were left on Te'o's phone by who he believed was Lennay Kekua. As the Daily News reported this morning, hoaxer Ronaiah Tuiasosopo claims he disguised his voice over the phone, and Te'o was always talking to Tuiasosopo posing as a woman.

 Lennay speaks to Te'o before her first chemotherapy session:

 This is a jealous Kekua accusing Te'o of having a girl in his room:

 This voicemail was left for Te'o on Sept. 11, 2012, the day Kekua claimed she had been released from the hospital. (Original accounts of Te'o's tragedy put her release on Sept. 10.) On the 12th, she "died."

 Advertisement

 Yeah, that absolutely sounds like a woman. Couric saw what are reported to be Te'o's phone records, and claims there were "dozens of calls, some hours long, to one phone number." ESPN's spreadsheet had indicated "more than 1,000" calls over a four-month span.

 Advertisement

 Katie Couric's site has all the messages, but it keeps going down so we're hosting them here. ||||| Who is Lennay Kekua? Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o has claimed he is the victim of a cruel hoax after it was revealed that his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, never existed and that her death was faked. He says he believed that she was real and that he spent hours talking on the phone with Lennay, sometimes even falling asleep with her on the other end of the line. Katie reviewed Manti’s phone records and there were, in fact, dozens of calls, some hours long, to one phone number, the number Manti Te’o says belongs to Lennay Kekua. So who was this person on the other end of the phone? Listen to the voicemails Manti Te’o provided exclusively to “Katie”:

 Hear the following voicemails from Lennay Kekua:

 One she left on what she said was her first day of chemo treatment:

 One she left accusing Manti of having someone else in his room:

 One she left on the day she said she was released from the hospital, September 11th, 2012:

  |||||


Playmobil pirate ship. (Playmobil instruction booklet)

 A Playmobil pirate ship set has sparked a firestorm over a figurine that resembles an African American slave wearing a neck shackle.

 Ida Lockett of Sacramento, Calif., said her 5-year-old son received the toy as a birthday present, and when she was helping him assemble it, she noticed the instructions — telling her to put a play shackle around the figure’s neck.

 “This right here was found on his neck,” she told CBS Sacramento about the piece.

 “You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else. The fact that you can Google it, look it up, say what it is — it’s a slave collar.”

 Playmobil figurine. (Playmobil instruction booklet)

 The toy’s instruction manual shows a dark-skinned doll wearing no shoes, ripped pants and a tattered yellow shirt and directs the assembler to pop the silver piece around its neck. The ship appears to include a dungeon.

 “It’s definitely racist,” Lockett told the CBS affiliate. “It told my son to put a slave cuff around the black character’s neck, and then to play with the toy.”

 Lockett said the set was a gift from the boy’s aunt, who purchased it from Toys R Us. The set retails for $89.99 but the store is selling it for $62.99.

 Playmobil said in a statement to The Washington Post that the toy was intended to portray life on a 17th-century pirate ship.

 “If you look at the box, you can see that the pirate figure is clearly a crew member on the pirate ship and not a captive,” according to the statement. “The figure was meant to represent a pirate who was a former slave in a historical context. It was not our intention to offend anyone in anyway.”

 Toys R Us could not immediately be reached for comment.

 Aimee Norman, the aunt who gave the set to the Sacramento 5-year-old, wrote on the Playmobil USA Facebook page that she was “MORTIFIED to have recently bought” the pirate ship set for her nephew, “only to hear that when assembling it, they found that its assembly instructions indicate to add the neck cuff/shackle to the black character’s neck.”

 “WOW,” she wrote. “Would it be too much to ask for you to just create a regular old black pirate?

 “Newsflash, Playmobil: this is the 21st century. People of African descent have contributed to mankind in a myriad of ways that existed outside of the disgusting institution of the slave trade. Selling children’s toys that are suggestive of slavery in play is obscene, even moreso given the marked absence of diversity in your entire toy line.”

 Norman added: “#Slavery.is.not.a.game.”

 What toy will they come up with next! Posted by Ida Ida on Sunday, October 4, 2015

 Sacramento NAACP President Stephen Webb said he wants the toy banned.

 “This is deplorable,” he told CBS Sacramento. “This cannot be accepted, and it needs to be pulled off the shelf.”

 But not everybody agrees.

 “You do realize that pirates took slaves & prisoners of all races right?” one woman wrote on the Playmobil USA Facebook page. “If you don’t like the idea of pirates and slaves/prisoners then a pirate ship toy is not for you. Also a child has imaginative play and can easily make said character anything he/she wants them to be. Throw away the offending pieces.”

 Slaves (black & white) were used to row boats. Slavery is wrong but this woman's outrage is ridiculous. http://t.co/kngF1MwJSS — Debra DeBoer (@debradeboer) October 7, 2015

 This story has been updated. ||||| SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A mother is upset after she says her son’s toy came with racist instructions, telling him to shackle a dark-skinned character that appeared to be a slave.

 Ida Lockett was happy for her son after he received a Playmobil pirate ship for his fifth birthday.

 “He was excited when he got it,” she said. “I spent the weekend putting it together.”

 And only after putting together the gift from his aunt did she see what her son was playing with.

 “This right here was found on his neck,” she said.

 The dark-skinned character with no shoes and tattered pants came with instructions to put some sort of neck piece on him.

 “You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else,” she said. “The fact that you can Google it, look it up, say what it is—it’s a slave collar.”

 SEE ALSO: Sacramento NAACP Calls News & Review’s Kevin Johnson Cover Racist

 Ida is sure her son was playing with a toy slave. The ship itself comes with what she calls a dungeon.

 “It’s definitely racist,” she said. “It told my son to put a slave cuff around the black character’s neck, and then to play with the toy.”

 CBS13 reached out to the toy’s maker, Playmobil, and the retailer who sold it, Toys ‘R’ Us, but neither responded.

 Sacramento NAACP President Stephen Webb says it is demanding action.

 “This is deplorable; this cannot be accepted, and it needs to be pulled off the shelf,” he said. ||||| See more of Aimee Norman on Facebook |||||

Write a summary.

– A California mother is outraged over what she claims is a racist toy her 5-year-old son received for his birthday, the Washington Post reports. Ida Lockett says she was helping her son put together a Playmobil pirate ship set when she came to instructions to put a shackle around the neck of one of the dark-skinned pirates. “It’s definitely racist,” she tells CBS Sacramento. “It told my son to put a slave cuff around the black character’s neck and then to play with the toy.” The boy's aunt, who purchased the pirate ship set, posted on the Playmobil Facebook page that she was mortified. "Would it be too much to ask for you to just create a regular old black pirate?" she asks. Playmobil issued a statement defending the toy as a portrayal of life on a 17th-century pirate ship. “If you look at the box, you can see that the pirate figure is clearly a crew member on the pirate ship and not a captive,” the statement reads. “The figure was meant to represent a pirate who was a former slave in a historical context." But not everyone was mollified by the statement: The Post reports the president of the Sacramento NAACP is calling for the toy to be removed from shelves. In her Facebook post, the boy's aunt claims the pirate ship was the only Playmobil set she could find with a black figure. (Playmobil once demanded a pastor stop crucifying toys.)


Article:

This story emerged last week as a sad, yet unusual death of a U.S. soldier deployed to Afghanistan.

 Capt. Bruce Clark, 43, was Skyping with his wife from Tarin Kowt Afghanistan, about 85 miles north of Kandahar, April 30, during one of their scheduled calls when he pitched forward unresponsive.

 More than 7,000 miles away in their El Paso home, his wife Susan frantically reached out to Tarin Kowt emergency base services, but it took a full two hours before anyone came to her husband's aid and by the time they arrived, he was pronounced dead.

 Susan originally said only that her husband showed no alarm or discomfort, and she was awaiting the military's decision on the cause of death.

 But when the Army came out ruling Clark died from natural causes, Susan decided it was time to speak up about what she believes she saw.

 In a statement released by the family, Susan describes what she witnessed in the moments leading up to her husband's death, and in the two hours their Skype chat remained running.

 Via Military Times:

 “Clark was suddenly knocked forward,” the statement said. “The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it. The other individuals, including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of CPT Clark’s wife also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole.”

 “After two hours and many frantic phone calls by Mrs. Clark, two military personnel arrived in the room and appeared to check his pulse, but provided no details about his condition to his wife,” the statement said.

 Susan says she released the information to “to honor my husband and dispel the inaccurate information and supposition promulgated by other parties.”

 The military says it took so long for help to arrive because Susan's calls were routed through several stateside commands before reaching Afghanistan.

 Officials familiar with the case also announced that while Clark's death was ruled non-suicide and non-combat related, cause of death will not officially be announced until toxicology and an autopsy have been concluded.

 Clark joined the Army in 2006 after earning his nursing degree from SUNY Brockport. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

 By all accounts he was a good guy, a solid soldier, and will be sorely missed by his command and his family.

 09:30 May 7: The Army officially announced it found no bullet wound on Capt. Clark's body. While looking for that announcement on Twitter, I noticed speculation over Clark's death is running wild, with some people claiming he was killed by a sniper.

 Regardless of the military findings it looks like rumor could follow this story for some time. ||||| An Army nurse showed no alarm or discomfort before suddenly collapsing during a Skype video chat with his wife, who saw a bullet hole in a closet behind him, his family said Sunday.

 This undated photo provided by the U.S. Army shows Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark. The family Clark, a Texas-based Army medic serving in Afghanistan, says Clark's wife witnessed the officer's death, which happened... (Associated Press)

 Chaplain Col. Dennis Goodwin, left, directs a prayer over the transfer case containing the remains of Army Capt. Bruce K. Clark of Spencerport, N.Y., upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on Thursday... (Associated Press)

 Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark's family released a statement describing what his wife saw in the video feed recording her husband's death in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. It's not clear how the bullet hole got in the closet.

 "Clark was suddenly knocked forward," the statement from the soldier's family said. "The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it. The other individuals, including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of CPT Clark's wife also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole."

 The statement says the Skype link remained open for two hours on April 30 as family and friends in the U.S. and Afghanistan tried to get Clark help.

 "After two hours and many frantic phone calls by Mrs. Clark, two military personnel arrived in the room and appeared to check his pulse, but provided no details about his condition to his wife," the statement said.

 In the statement, Susan Orellana-Clark said she was providing details of what she saw "to honor my husband and dispel the inaccurate information and supposition promulgated by other parties."

 U.S. officials in Afghanistan referred questions to the Pentagon, which previously referred questions to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, where Clark was assigned.

 The Pentagon said previously that Clark's death remains under investigation.

 Clarence Davis, spokesman for William Beaumont Army Medical Center, declined to comment on Clark's family's statement.

 Clark, 43, grew up in Michigan and previously lived in Spencerport, New York, a suburb of Rochester, his wife's hometown. He joined the Army in 2006 and was stationed in Hawaii before he was assigned to the medical center in El Paso. He deployed to Afghanistan in March.

 Clark's body was returned Thursday to Dover Air Force Base.

 He is survived by his wife and two daughters, aged 3 and 9. |||||
What is a summary?

– The sad and strange tale of the US Army captain who died while Skyping with his wife gets even more mysterious: Army investigators say they found no bullet wound or any evidence of foul play in Bruce Kevin Clark’s death, but wife Susan Orellana-Clark has suggested her husband may have been shot. "Clark was suddenly knocked forward," reads a family statement released yesterday. "The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it.” Others, “including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of Clark's wife, also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole." Orellana-Clark says her husband showed no signs of alarm or discomfort before falling forward onto his desk during their Skype chat, which she kept open for two hours as she tried to get assistance for Clark, 43, who was at his base in Afghanistan. "We can positively say that Captain Clark was not shot," says an Army spokesperson, adding that there was no trauma on the body other than a possibly broken nose from when Clark hit the desk, the AP reports. The Army is waiting on complete autopsy results, but has ruled the death from natural causes, Business Insider adds—but speculation is rampant on Twitter, with some wondering if Clark was killed by a sniper.


Summarize this article:

Morrad Ghonim sped out of the parking lot with his young bride bleeding to death in the passenger seat next to him. On the way to a hospital, he barreled through a red light.

 Through frantic screams, he told the California Highway Patrol officer who pulled him over that someone had just shot his wife, Vicki, through the window of the family’s burgundy Honda as they left a park in La Mirada. He didn’t get a look at the shooter’s face, he said. As her body went limp, their 6-month-old son watched from the back seat.

 It was July 23, 1992, and Ghonim had just become a 19-year-old widower.

 Detectives followed a few leads, but the investigation went cold. A breakthrough nearly two decades after the shooting would lead investigators to a drug dealer with a wild story — and a courtroom drama that ended Monday.

 The morning after the shooting, Ghonim and a pair of somber detectives went to see Vicki’s parents.

 He told them that he and his wife had taken their baby to Creek Park. It was a special place for the sweethearts — Morrad, 19, and Vicki, 17 — who sometimes had sneaked away from class at John Glenn High School to spend time there together.

 Soon after they got to the park, Ghonim said, he heard a group of people catcalling his wife. He figured they were gang members. Vicki, whose loving but feisty personality sometimes got the best of her, screamed something back.

 Ghonim said he got a bad feeling and ushered his family toward their car. As they settled into the Honda, he heard gunfire. The shooter had been hiding behind bushes, he said, so he never got a look at who had attacked his wife.

 Police had collected a clump of clothes from the park that night, including a sweatshirt a witness recognized as one worn by a man jogging nearby right after the gunshots rang out. But detectives could never determine whom the items belong to.

 Ghonim eventually remarried a woman from Jordan — his parents’ homeland. He and his new wife had five children. They raised Vicki’s son together. He fell out of touch with his dead wife’s family.

 About a decade ago, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department received grant money to reopen old cases and look at genetic evidence.

 Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times Defense attorney Alan Eisner delivers an opening statement in the trial of Morrad Ghonim, who is charged with hiring Leon Martinez to stage a robbery and kill his wife in 1992. Defense attorney Alan Eisner delivers an opening statement in the trial of Morrad Ghonim, who is charged with hiring Leon Martinez to stage a robbery and kill his wife in 1992. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

 They tested a pair of black pants found in the bushes at Creek Park and turned up DNA from Leon Martinez, who was serving prison time for burglary.

 At first, Martinez tried to pin the murder on a dead friend. But he eventually admitted to shooting Vicki Ghonim. It wasn’t the botched carjacking that authorities long had suspected. No, he told detectives, he was a hired hit man.

 And his client was Morrad Ghonim.

 Now a businessman living in Antigua with his third wife, Ghonim was extradited last year. He recently sat at the defense table in a Norwalk courtroom — his graying temples framing heavy eyes.

 As Martinez entered to testify, Ghonim cleared his throat and glared.

 The two had met through a mutual acquaintance in 1992, Martinez said. After Ghonim bought crack cocaine from him that same day, Martinez said, Ghonim asked if he knew anybody who would kill for money.

 Martinez had recently traded drugs for a .22-caliber revolver, so he said he would do it.

 They didn’t get into many details, Martinez said, but Ghonim told him that he wanted it to look like a robbery. They settled on a price: $20,000.

 “He just wanted her dead,” Martinez said.

 When he saw the burgundy Honda pull into the parking lot that evening, Martinez was high on cocaine. But he said he remembers walking up to the window and pulling the gun from his pocket. He stood a foot away, he said, and fired at Vicki’s head.

 As she pleaded with him not to hurt her baby, he shot her again and again. The last time, he said, he put the gun directly to her eyes and pulled the trigger.

 As her body slumped over, Martinez testified, Ghonim handed him an envelope of cash, reaching over his wife’s body.

 “It doesn’t get more premeditated and deliberate,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Villa said during the trial.

 After taking the money, Martinez said, he jogged away, shedding his top layer of clothes near some bushes. He then headed to a nearby Del Taco, where he waited for a friend.

 During Martinez’s testimony, Ghonim scribbled notes. Sometimes he stared down, shaking his head.

 Villa urged jurors to consider Martinez’s testimony along with that of his former friend, Deanna Woody, who had picked him up the night of the murder.

 In 1998, Woody said, a tearful Martinez had confessed to her. She said she didn’t tell police until after a detective contacted her in 2009 because she feared for her life and her family’s safety.

 She also testified that a few days before the slaying, she had seen Martinez with a man who she thought looked Middle Eastern. She said the man asked her if she was single and told her that he was having problems with the mother of his child — a student at John Glenn High. He said they were planning to split up.

 The man also told Woody, whose child had recently had a heart transplant, that he too had had an operation on his heart, she testified.

 But the defense pointed out that Woody had been unable to pick out Ghonim’s photograph from a lineup. And Martinez had changed some details while on the witness stand.

 During previous interviews and court appearances, he’d said that Ghonim had paid him a lot less — putting the amount at $500 one time and $10,000 at another. Earlier, he’d told authorities that he had met Ghonim on numerous occasions to sell him drugs before he was asked about killing Vicki.

 Pressed by the defense, Martinez said, “My memory ain’t that good at all.”

 And in several recorded phone calls Martinez made to his wife from behind bars, he said he had talked to the prosecutor about the case and was considering lying about Ghonim’s role in the killing.

 “I could tell by the way the D.A. is acting that they need me,” he told her. “If I could make up a lie to convict this other guy, they’re going to do that.”

 In another call, he said the detectives and attorneys wanted him “to basically sit and make a story up.” ||||| NORWALK >> A judge on Friday ruled there was enough evidence to try an Antigua man accused of hiring a drug dealer to kill his wife at a La Mirada park in 1992.

 The judge also denied the defense’s motion to dismiss the charges against 43-year-old Morrad Ghonim.

 He ordered Ghonim to return to court Feb. 16 to be arraigned.

 Leon Martinez, the convicted shooter, testified Thursday at the preliminary hearing that Ghonim hired him for $10,000 to kill Victoria Ghonim, 17, in a staged robbery while the couple were at Creek Park in La Mirada on July 23, 1992. He said he only received $5,000.

 Martinez told others that he was hired for $500, according to Sgt. Howard Cooper of the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau who testified Friday.

 But Dmitry Gorin, one of Ghonim’s attorneys, questioned the motive of Martinez and Ghonim’s second wife.

 The defense pointed out that Martinez, who previously faced a sentence of life in prison without parole for the killing, will now get 28 years to life after testifying against Ghonim.

 “So essentially this is a 20-year-old murder that comes down to the credibility of a convicted killer and an ex-wife who hates Mr. Ghonim, wants to see him in prison and promised to send him to hell,” Gorin said.

 Gorin said the ex-wife went to the police with her version of the story.

 He thinks it will be hard for a jury to find Ghonim guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He said no one identified his client as the Middle Eastern man who talked to a witness and was seen with Martinez.

 “We didn’t hear evidence of a real motive,” Gorin said.

 The attorney asked how Ghonim, who was a teenager in 1992, could have had access to that type of money.

 The defense also argued that there was a lack of physical evidence.

 Gorin asked Cooper if Ghonim was tested for gunpowder residue. He pointed out that Morrad Ghonim was inside the car when Martinez shot Victoria Ghonim six times. Gunpowder residue could end up on someone who was near a shooter, Gorin said.

 “To my knowledge, the results of the test were negative,” Cooper said. But the detective said hands and wrists are usually tested for gunpowder residue. Ghonim’s clothing wasn’t tested, according to Cooper.

 The other version of what happened at Creek Park two decades ago comes from Ghonim.

 Ghonim told investigators he and his wife went to the park with their baby son. They went for a walk. When they reached a wooden foot bridge, he told detectives they started hearing catcalls from a group east of them.

 Advertisement

 Cooper said Ghonim couldn’t describe the people in the group but knew it was composed of males and females.

 “He said Vicky started saying something to the group,” Cooper said.

 Ghonim told his wife to shut up, and they returned to the car. As he was putting their son in the back seat, he heard his wife arguing with the group through the partially open window.

 “He heard gunshots as he places the key in the ignition,” Cooper said.

 Ghonim told detectives he never saw the shooter. He raced out of the park, noticed his wife had been shot and drove around looking for a hospital but was unsuccessful. He reportedly drove to a medical facility in La Mirada, but it was closed.

 He later got stopped by an officer in Norwalk.

 Ghonim was first arrested in 2010 for the murder but later released.

 Detectives arrested him last year in Antigua and Barbuda, where he had been living.

 The district attorney’s office charged him with murder with the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and murder for financial gain. It is also alleged that a handgun was used to commit the crime.

 He faces death or life in prison without parole if convicted as charged.

 The prosecution has not decided yet whether to seek the death penalty.

 Ghonim is being held without bail in county jail. ||||| LA MIRADA >> A jury on Monday convicted a former La Mirada man of hiring a hit man to kill his 17-year-old wife at a La Mirada park 24 years ago.

 Jurors found Morrad Ghonim guilty of the July 23, 1992 first degree murder of Victoria Ghonim, Shiara Davila-Morales, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, said

 Davila-Morales said the jury also found true the special circumstance allegations that Ghonim solicited his wife’s murder and killed her by means of lying in wait, that he killed her for financial gain and that a handgun was used to commit the crime.

 The 43-year-old Ghonim will be sentenced Dec. 19 at Norwalk Superior Court, Davila-Morales said.

 The Ghonims and their baby son headed to Creek Park in La Mirada on July 23, 1992. At the time, authorities were told that a man walked up to the family car, tried to rob the couple and shot Victoria Ghonim several times.

 But robbery was not the motive behind the shooting.

 The prosecution said Morrad Ghonim hatched a plot to kill his wife and hired Leon Martinez to do it.

 Martinez, who admitted to dealing drugs in 1992, testified at the preliminary hearing in January that Morrad Ghonim offered him $10,000 to kill Victoria Ghonim. He claimed he only got paid $5,000.

 Ghonim wanted it to look like a robbery, according to Martinez.

 Martinez said he walked up to the car’s passenger side and demanded money. The couple’s son was in the backseat.

 “She said, ‘Don’t hurt my baby.’ I had no intention of hurting the baby,” Martinez said during the preliminary hearing.

 He shot Victoria Ghonim several times, including once in the head.

 Martinez threw his pants, sweatshirt and a baseball jersey underneath a bush, got rid of the bullet shells then called someone for a ride. He promised the driver a dinner at Sizzler.

 He wore a trench coat when his ride picked him up.

 The murder remained a cold case until 2009 when DNA on the clothing left behind matched samples taken from Martinez while he was in prison on an unrelated case. He was arrested in 2010, and tried twice.

 A jury convicted Martinez last year of killing Victoria Ghonim.

 Detectives also arrested Morrad Ghonim in 2010 but he was later released. Then in 2015, investigation arrested him in Antigua and Barbuda where he was living with his current wife, a former Miss Dominica.

 Advertisement

 Morrad Ghonim remains in custody at the Pitchess Detention Center North Facility in Castaic without bail. |||||

– On July 23, 1992, Morrad Ghonim watched his 17-year-old wife die. The couple had taken their 6-month-old son to Creek Park in La Mirada, Calif. Ghonim said he felt uncomfortable after a group of people called out at his wife and he wanted to leave, reports the Los Angeles Times. But as they made to drive off, a gunman approached the passenger door, demanded money, and murdered his wife. Now, 24 years later, a jury has decided who was responsible for Vicki Ghonim's death: then-19-year-old Morrad Ghonim. The 43-year-old, who was extradited from Antigua last year, was on Monday found guilty of first-degree murder. The man who pulled the trigger, however, was Leon Martinez. Police got to Martinez by way of grant money earmarked for cold cases, reports the Whittier Daily News. A DNA test of pants found near the scene led them in 2010 to Martinez, who said Ghonim hired him and even reached over his wife's body to hand him payment. A friend of Martinez's relayed meeting a man days before Vicki's death who said he and his child's mother—a student at John Glenn High, as Vicki was—were having issues and planned to separate. In late January, the Daily News painted a picture of a confident defense, given that in exchange for testifying, Martinez will not serve life without parole for the murder, but instead 28 years to life. "This is a 20-year-old murder that comes down to the credibility of a convicted killer and an ex-wife who hates Mr. Ghonim ... and promised to send him to hell," said one of Ghonim's lawyers, noting that Ghonim's second wife talked to police. Ghonim could be handed life without parole at his Dec. 19 sentencing.


KABUL (Reuters) - Twelve people were killed on Friday in the bloodiest day yet in protests that have raged across Afghanistan over the desecration of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO military base with riot police and soldiers on high alert braced for more violence.

 The burning of the Korans at the Bagram compound earlier this week has deepened public mistrust of NATO forces struggling to stabilize Afghanistan before foreign combat troops withdraw in 2014.

 Hundreds of Afghans marched toward the palace of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, while on the other side of the capital protesters hoisted the white flag of the Taliban.

 Chanting "Death to America!" and "Long live Islam!," protesters also threw rocks at police in Kabul, while Afghan army helicopters circled above.

 Friday is a holy day and the official weekly holiday in Afghanistan and mosques in the capital drew large crowds, with police in pick-up trucks posted on nearby streets.

 Armed protesters took refuge in shops in the eastern part of the city, where they killed one demonstrator, said police at the scene. In another Kabul rally, police said they were unsure who fired the shots that killed a second protester.

 Seven more protesters were killed in the western province of Herat, two more in eastern Khost province and one in the relatively peaceful northern Baghlan province, health and local officials said. In Herat, around 500 men charged at the U.S. consulate.

 U.S. President Barack Obama had sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the unintentional burning of the Korans at NATO's main Bagram air base, north of Kabul, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.

 Muslims consider the Koran to be the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

 Afghanistan wants NATO to put those responsible on public trial.

 In neighboring U.S. ally Pakistan, about 400 members of a hardline Islamist group staged protests. "If you burn the Koran, we will burn you," they shouted.

 To Afghanistan's west, Iranian cleric Ahmad Khatami said the U.S. had purposely burned the Korans. "These apologies are fake. The world should know that America is against Islam," he said in a speech broadcast live on state radio.

 "It (the Koran burning) was not a mistake. It was an intentional move, done on purpose."

 Most Westerners have been confined to their heavily fortified compounds, including at the sprawling U.S. embassy complex and other diplomatic missions, as protests that have killed a total of 23 people, including two U.S. soldiers, rolled into their fourth day. The embassy, in a message on the microblogging site Twitter, urged U.S. citizens to "please be safe out there" and expanded movement restrictions to relatively peaceful northern provinces, where large demonstrations also occurred Thursday, including the attempted storming of a Norwegian military base.

 The Taliban urged Afghan security forces Thursday to "turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders" and repeatedly urged Afghans to kill, beat and capture NATO soldiers.

 Germany, which has the third-largest foreign presence in the NATO-led war, pulled out several weeks early of a small base in the northern Takhar province Friday over security concerns, a defense ministry spokesman said.

 (Additional reporting by Amira Mitri in TEHRAN, Imtiaz Shah in KARACHI, Sabine Siebold in BERLIN, Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Michael Georgy and Ed Lane) ||||| It was unclear on Friday night whether, after four days of protests, the violence that has rolled through the country was finally spent, or if the Koran burning had uncorked an inexhaustible well of fury over the continuing presence of Western troops after 10 years of war. In some measure, the angry demonstrations were to be expected in a religious country fed up with foreigners, but the tension this week seems more pervasive and irresolvable than in the past.

 “The violence is almost within the normal realm of things that you would see after this kind of incident,” said Martine Van Bijlert, a co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a policy and research institute in Kabul. “The big question is, how long does it go on? You have to watch who jumps on the bandwagon. It is very intense, and there’s the feeling that all areas need to have had their own demonstration if they haven’t had one yet.”

 Photo

 The worst violence Friday was in Herat Province, in the West on the Iranian border, where seven people were killed. Protesters there were armed and some appeared to be agents provocateurs, government officials said.

 “People were on their way home after the prayer when a number of opposition and agitator people, misusing the pure emotions of the people, urged them to go toward the United States Consulate in the city,” said Mohyaddin Noori, the spokesman for Herat’s provincial governor. “On the way to the consulate, some of these riotous people who were armed opened fire and were throwing rocks.”

 One of the vehicles hit by gunfire was a police truck full of ammunition, which exploded, sending bullets in all directions and wounding 65 people, he said.

 Several Heratis suggested that Iranian agents were at work behind the scenes. Some noted that Radio Mashad, an Iranian station, had urged action against Western interests in Afghanistan, taking advantage of a moment when people’s emotions were running high, said Mohammed Rafiq Shaheer, a professor of political science at Herat University. He noted that protesters appeared to have been directed to march towards the American Consulate by mullahs in several areas of the city.

 He said that he blamed Pakistani and Iranian intelligence. Both agencies, he said, “have invested a lot in this country and they have people loyal to them, and this is a perfect time for the intelligence apparatus of the neighboring countries to ignite people’s fiery emotions which would lead them to violence.”

 Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 Two protesters died in Khost Province, near the Pakistan border, and one in Baghlan Province.

 In Kabul, despite larger numbers of protesters on the streets, only a handful were injured.

 Interior Minister Bismullah Khan adopted a nuanced strategy that encouraged the protesters to express themselves peacefully, but also put in place a phalanx of police units to keep the most menacing from making their way to the center of the city.

 Photo

 Riot police officers backed up by heavily armed special units in some 40 police trucks faced down an estimated 4,000 men wielding rocks and sticks after Friday Prayer. At one point as the two groups neared each other, protesters threw rocks and shouted, but the police did not fire and eventually moved the protesters back.

 A few of the protesters were waving the Taliban’s white flag, some wore head wrappings bearing the jihad slogan “I sacrifice myself,” and protesters throughout the city shouted “Death to America.”

 The police also broke up another crowd of about 1,000 in central Kabul, first by driving trucks into the crowd to disperse it and then by chasing the protesters on foot and hitting them with rubber batons.

 Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.

 Some officers said they did the job despite sympathizing with the protesters.

 “We try to stop the demonstrators from violence and looting,” said a Kabul police officer, Azizullah, 40, who uses only one name. “That is our job, but If I were an ordinary person, not a policeman, I would have joined the demonstrations.”

 NATO said it was still investigating what led to the decision to burn Korans and other religious texts. Early reports said that the books had inflammatory messages written in them from detained Taliban suspects. Most of the Korans that were rescued from the flames are still at Bagram Air Base in a locked container. They are viewed as evidence, a NATO spokesman said. A few of the Korans were taken out of the base by Afghan employees.

 The absence of lethal violence in Kabul belies a deep frustration that appeared in interviews with police officers and protesters alike, a sense that justice has not yet been done and a suspicion that the United States, while apologizing, will not hold anyone to account.

 “Just by saying ‘I am sorry,’ nothing can be solved,” said Wali Mohammed, one of the protesters. “We want an open trial for those infidels who have burned our Holy Koran.”

 Mohammed Anwar, an off-duty police officer, had joined the protesters on Friday and seemed barely able to contain his fury. “I will take revenge from the infidels for what they did to our Holy Koran, and I will kill them whenever I get the chance,” he said as he walked with crowd of protesters wielding rocks and sticks. “I don’t care about the job I have.” ||||| Germany says it has withdrawn troops from an outpost in northern Afghanistan amid protests over the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base.

 Defense Ministry spokesman Stefan Paris said the German military, which handed over security responsibility for the Taloqan area to Afghan authorities on Feb. 15, had originally planned to shut down its base there altogether in late March.

 But, he said Friday, the regional commander decided in view of demonstrations in Taloqan and elsewhere in the north _ which led to injuries but no deaths _ that the 50 remaining German soldiers should pull back to a larger base in Kunduz immediately.

 Paris says the soldiers already have made the roughly 43-mile (70-kilometer) transfer to Kunduz and have taken most material from the Taloqan outpost with them.

 Germany has nearly 4,800 troops in northern Afghanistan. |||||

Write a summary.

– Protesters are rallying once again to decry the burning of Korans at Bagram, with more shouts of "death to America"—and deaths—throughout the country. The New York Times reports that gunfire was audible as demonstrators assembled at a Kabul mosque following Friday prayers. Another 4,000 people carrying sticks and rocks moved toward the center of the city; some waved Taliban flags and had a jihadist slogan written on their clothes: "I sacrifice myself." Demonstrations occurred in at least six more provinces throughout Afghanistan, and Reuters reports that nine more were killed today: seven in the western province of Herat, and two in Khost in the east. Meanwhile, Germany says it has withdrawn troops from an outpost in northern Afghanistan amid the protests. The German military had planned to shutter its base in the Taloqan area in late March, but the 50 remaining soldiers have been transferred out of the base in light of the demonstrations, reports the AP. And at home, Obama is facing GOP criticism for his apology.


Write an article based on this summary:

– New York Knicks center Enes Kanter took news that prosecutors in Turkey want to imprison him about as well as a person could. "Four years? That's it?" he said on Wednesday, per the New York Times. "For all of the trash I've been talking?" Turkish media reported earlier Wednesday that the "fugitive" would be tried in absentia on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with prosecutors seeking four years in prison, reports Hurriyet Daily News. Kanter—who was born to Turkish parents in Switzerland and grew up in Turkey before moving to the US—is a vocal supporter of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who's been blamed for last year's failed military coup in Turkey, reports ESPN. He continued to bash the leader Wednesday, telling reporters he's a "maniac." "I'm just trying to be the voice of all of these innocent people," said Kanter, who hasn't visited Turkey in years, per the Times. "Journalists, innocent people in jail getting tortured and killed and kidnapped. And it's pretty messed up." The first sign of Turkey's displeasure at his comments came in May, when Kanter's Turkish passport was canceled. He was temporarily detained in Romania before US officials intervened. Kanter has said his family home in Turkey was also raided. The New York Daily News reports Kanter's father publicly disowned him while apologizing to Erdogan in August. The charges now laid against Kanter are "just nothing to me, man, because I'm in America. I'm good," Kanter said. "It's a free country. But it's not like that in Turkey." Acknowledging laws banning criticism of Erdogan, he added, "They can do whatever they want to do."

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's state-run news agency says prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for NBA player Enes Kanter on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 Anadolu Agency says an indictment prepared by the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office accuses the New York Knicks center of insulting the president in a series of tweets he posted in May and June 2016.

 Kanter, who is in the United States, would be tried in absentia.

 Turkish prosecutors are seeking a four-year prison term for Knicks player Enes Kanter, who sent a series of tweets that the government deemed insulting. John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

 Kanter said on Wednesday that he isn't bothered by the potential indictment.

 "You guys were seeing today that I was just out there having fun, playing basketball and practicing with my teammates," Kanter said. "... You guys are going to say, 'How do you get used to, like, prison, this and that, whatever?' I think it's just nothing to me, man, because I'm in America. I'm good. My focus right now is just going out there, playing basketball, having fun with my teammates and just winning, and just thinking about playoffs. I don't really think about all this stuff, whatever. They can do whatever they want to do."

 Kanter, who grew up in Turkey, is a vocal supporter of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Turkey for last year's failed military coup. Kanter was detained in Romania on May 20 because his Turkish passport was canceled. He said he was able to return to the United States after American officials intervened.

 The Knicks center said he found out about the indictment on Wednesday morning.

 "I was like, 'Oh, four years.' I was like, 'That's it? Only four years? All the trash I've been talking?' I said I promise you guys, it doesn't really bother me a little, even one bit," he said. "My thing is just going out there and just playing basketball."

 Kanter was asked Wednesday if he hopes the situation in his country can change.

 "The only thing you can do is just pray for all these innocent people in Turkey," he said. "People don't understand. They're saying your family is still back in Turkey -- why are you doing all of this? Why are you talking? I'm just trying to be the voice of all of these innocent people, man. Because all of these innocent people are just going through really tough times. Journalists, innocent people in jail getting tortured and killed and kidnapped. And it's pretty messed up."

 He added that the Knicks' success on the court would be a good way to answer back to the government.

 "If we make playoffs, then that will drive him crazy, so that's what I'm really focused on right now, just make the playoffs and drive this dude crazy," he said.

 Of Erdogan, Kanter added: "That dude is maniac. Think about it. I mean, America ... you've got freedom of whatever you want to say. I mean, it's a free country. But it's not like that in Turkey. You cannot criticize or you cannot even say nothing bad about the dude, Erdogan. Just, like, say he's a bad guy and you're in a prison. It's politics. People can choose or say whatever they want to say. I think right now the situation there is pretty messed up."

 ESPN's Ian Begley and the Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Enes Kanter is one of the more outspoken players in the N.B.A., riffing about LeBron James or Kevin Durant or just about anything else that grabs his attention.

 But the Knicks center is never more passionate than when speaking out about his home country of Turkey. And in recent years, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has amassed more and more power, Kanter has emerged as one of Erdogan’s louder and more prominent critics.

 Kanter’s decision to be vocal has come at a cost. Out of caution, he has not visited Turkey in years, and in May he was detained for hours at an airport in Romania after the Turkish government canceled his travel documents.

 On Wednesday, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported that prosecutors were seeking more than four years in jail for Kanter on charges that he has insulted Erdogan on Twitter. It should be noted that Kanter has 526,000 followers on Twitter, giving him a sizable audience when he has something to say. |||||


– We don't want to know how many pills it took to kill this hangover: Two buddies went out for a few drinks at a pub in Marton, England, last Friday. Hours later, they were in Thailand, a la Hangover II. The idea for the spontaneous trip sprouted around 11am Saturday at Phillip Boyle's place. The men had headed there from the pub around 1am for a "quiet night" after picking up a "few drinks from the petrol station," Boyle, 33, tells GazetteLive in a story spotted by USA Today. Friend Jamie Blyth "asks if I have my passport handy and comes up with the idea of us going to Thailand straight away," says Boyle. "Then we got into a taxi he'd phoned and—apart from the short delay of picking up Jamie's passport—we were off." It was "all a bit rash," says Boyle, whose luggage consisted of a grocery bag containing a few shirts and some underwear. The men booked two seven-hour flights spanning 6,750 miles, heading for the beachside city of Pattaya; they apparently "knew some guys from school" in Thailand. "On the way out there we sobered up on the flight and thought 'what have we done!'" Blyth tells GazetteLive. But they made the most of the adventure, which ran through Tuesday. It was "brilliant fun," Boyle says. "We went out for meals and to bars and didn't really sleep that much." He adds, "I'm feeling okay now." The guys admit they did face consequences. "I have fallen behind with a few things at work," Boyle says. Blyth adds his new girlfriend "was a bit annoyed," but "she's just been laughing about it and thought we were daft." (A night of drinking didn't end so well for one Qatar Airways employee.)

Expand this summary.

VIEW GALLERY

 So...how’s the hangover?

 That’s the question on the world’s lips after news of Middlesbrough lads Phillip Boyle and Jamie Blyth’s last-minute trip to Thailand made headlines across the globe.

 But - perhaps surprisingly - the pair are feeling pretty dapper.

 “I’m feeling okay now,” says Phillip, speaking to The Gazette after their booze-fuelled jaunt to Thailand.

 “I was worse when we came!”

 Jamie and Phillip with his upgraded bag

 “It’s been crazy,” says 33-year-old company director Phillip from Nunthorpe.

 The Gazette first broke news of the story on Monday after learning that the pair - who started their Friday night at The Southern Cross in Marton for a ‘quiet pint’ - had ended up jetting out to Thailand in a drunken haze.

 But the boozy plan paid off and - despite a few moments of hesitation as the drink wore off - they’ve had the time of their lives.

 “It was around the bend there,” says Phillip of the holiday resort of Pattaya.

 “It’s been non-stop as we were only there for a couple of days.

 “We went out for meals and to bars and didn’t really sleep that much.

 “If we were there for a week or so we might have travelled around a bit.

 “I have fallen behind with a few things at work though,” admits Phillip.

 Phillip had initially jetted out with just a carrier bag stuffed with a few T-Shirts and pairs of boxer shorts.

 But he did manage to upgrade - buying a new backpack and a pair of trainers whilst out there, that were unfortunately swiped.

 Phillip forced to wear work shoes after trainers were pinched

 Pal Jamie, 33, a rigger from Marton and instigator of the trip, said: “On the way out there we sobered up on the flight and thought ‘what have we done!’

 “We were a bit confused in Abu Dhabi at the stop over but just thought ‘We’re here now so we should just make the most of it'.

 “The guys that we knew from school were shocked to see that we’d turned up!

 “It’s been great.”

 Jamie, who has a new girlfriend, said: “She was a bit annoyed, but it was only two days - a short break.

 “She’s just been laughing about it and thought we were daft.”

 And Phillip has some advice for others wanting to follow in their footsteps.

 “I would recommend it - it’s been brilliant fun.” ||||| Anyone who sat through the mess that was The Hangover Part II remembers that Bradley Cooper and his brohams woke up in Bangkok, with one shaved head, one facial tattoo and one chain-smoking capuchin monkey. Phillip Boyle and his friends managed to avoid the worst aspects of that movie, but the part about going out drinking and waking up in Thailand? Yeah, they did that.

 Boyle and several friends went out on Friday night for a few drinks, picked up a few more drinks at a gas station and then stayed up all night throwing back the finest alcoholic beverages that Northern England has to offer. At 11 the next morning, Boyle’s friend Jamie Blyth started asking if he had his passport, then called a cab to take the whole hungover group to the Manchester Airport. Boyle told GazetteLive

 When we got in the taxi we didn’t even have flights. It’s a last minute bad idea – but one of those bad ideas that turns into a good idea. I nearly canceled when [we were] on the way to Manchester Airport and realized this is all a bit rash and nothing was booked.

 But they followed their best (worst?) instincts and bought tickets to Pattaya, Thailand, two seven hour flights interrupted by a layover in Abu Dhabi. Boyle said that he didn’t even pack a real suitcase, he just stuffed some t-shirts and some clean underwear in a grocery bag. After 14 hours and 6,750 miles, the group landed in the beachside city, where they planned to stay until Tuesday. “No one’s misbehaved,” he said.

 Phillip Boyle went out for a few quiet beers and ended up on a plane to Thailand http://t.co/xO6KgmjppO pic.twitter.com/vEEnf4DGrS — HuffPost UK (@HuffPostUK) March 24, 2015

 British teenager Luke Harding pulled a similar – if shorter – stunt after a night of drinking. The then-19-year-old was “well and truly plastered” in a cab heading home when he realized that he’d never seen the Eiffel Tower. He told the cabbie to take him to the Manchester Airport (which must have special boarding area for Drunken Travelers), bought a $150 flight to Paris and staggered onboard the 6 a.m. flight. He didn’t fully realize what he’d done until he woke up, beyond hungover in a bathroom at Charles De Gaulle airport. Harding said

 When I woke up I initially didn’t know where I was but then I remembered a bit about being in Manchester airport and booking the flight to Paris – and thinking ‘oh sh*t.’

 The moral of this story seems to be “don’t drink in the north of England.” At least not without packing a bag first. |||||


...

 R PAWS Pod and you won’t want to miss the first episode. In episode one released on February 1st, Dr. Amir Khalil, FOUR PAWS veterinarian of 25+ years, provides a first- hand account of our rescue mission to Magic World Zoo near Aleppo, Syria. Relive the joys, the sorrows and the suspense of one of the most famous FOUR PAWS emergency response missions.

 Have you heard?! FOUR PAWS USA is releasing a podcast called the FOU ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Lula the bear was suffering from pneumonia when found at the zoo in February

 The only surviving animals of Mosul zoo have been rescued from appalling conditions in the war-torn Iraqi city.

 Simba the lion and Lula the bear were found abandoned at the privately-owned zoo in February, still in their cages and covered in dirt and excrement.

 The charity Four Paws International came to their aid, and on Monday it flew them to a better life in Jordan.

 Troops are trying to drive Islamic State militants out of Mosul, their last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

 Almost six months of fierce fighting has caused many civilian casualties, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.

 Image copyright AFP Image caption It took Four Paws International weeks to get the necessary permits from the Iraqi authorities

 The Montazah al-Morour Zoo was nearly destroyed during the battle for the eastern half of the city earlier this year and most of its animals - including a lioness, monkeys and rabbits - were killed or died of starvation.

 Amir Khalil, an Egyptian-Austrian vet who headed the Four Paws mission, said Simba and Lula were suffering from many diseases caused by malnutrition and lack of care when he first saw them in February. Both had very bad teeth, Lula was suffering from pneumonia and Simba from ill joints.

 The next month, Dr Khalil started trying to acquire the correct paperwork from the Iraqi authorities so that the animals could be taken abroad for proper care.

 Dr Amir Khalil speaks to BBC World Service

 Two weeks later, their first attempt to fly the animals out had to be aborted after a lorry carrying them was detained at a checkpoint.

 The lorry was stuck at the roadside for nine days until further permits were secured, during which time Simba developed a respiratory problem.

 Before the plane carrying them to Jordan took off on Monday, Dr Khalil told AFP news agency: "This is a beginning of a new life for the animals."

 "From now on, they won't have to be part of this war." |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Lula and Simba are headed to a new life in Jordan. The bear and lion, respectively, were discovered in February in the war-decimated Montazah al-Morour Zoo in Mosul, Iraq, apparently the only two animal survivors in the facility, the BBC reports. All of the other creatures had starved to death or were killed during clashes between Iraqi forces and ISIS, and Lula and Simba weren't doing so great themselves: They were found dirty, covered in feces, and suffering from various maladies between them, including bad teeth and malnutrition, Four Paws veterinarian Amir Khalil says. But the Four Paws International charity stepped in to tend to them, and after various paperwork issues, Lula and Simba finally had their big day on Monday: They were crated up and put on a plane to Jordan, where they'll be placed in a "species-appropriate home," per Four Paws' Facebook page. "From now on, they won't have to be part of this war," Khalil told AFP Monday, via the BBC. (These elephants were saved from a muddy demise.)