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A radar map shows the route of the missing EgyptAir flight MS804 before it loses signal 10 miles into Eygptian air space.

 An EgyptAir flight carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo went missing on Thursday, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt's national airline said.

 Officials with the airline and the Egyptian civil aviation department told Reuters they believed the Airbus A320 probably crashed into the sea. ||||| CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Despite early reports to the contrary, an EgyptAir official now says debris from flight MS804 has not yet been found. USA TODAY

 A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight 804 wipes her tears as she is comforted at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris on May 19, 2016. (Photo: Michel Euler, AP)

 Debris found Thursday in the Mediterranean Sea was not from an EgyptAir flight that vanished from radar en route from Paris to Cairo early Thursday, an airline official said.

 Ahmed Adel, EgyptAir vice chairman, told CNN Thursday that a statement he made earlier to the network was not accurate.

 "We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane," Adel told the news organization. "So the search and rescue is still going on."

 Adel's statement added to the mounting questions as to what happened to the Airbus 320 that was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew members, and turned global attention back to the prospect of potential terrorism.

 Earlier, Greek officials disputed Egypt's claim that Greek authorities found floating wreckage, including two life vests, from an EgyptAir flight carrying 66 people that crashed into the Mediterranean early Thursday en route from Paris to Cairo.

 EgyptAir said the Egyptian foreign ministry confirmed in a letter to the Cairo government that Greek searchers found the debris near the Greek island of Karpathos. But within an hour of that report, Athanassios Binis, head of Greece’s Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board, told state ERT TV that “an assessment of the finds showed that they do not belong to an aircraft.”

 Binis said the determination was confirmed by Egyptian authorities, according to the Associated Press. There was no immediate response or clarification from EgyptAir.

 Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said the Airbus A320 made two sharp turns then suddenly lost altitude before vanishing from radar 174 miles off the Egyptian coast. “It turned 90 degrees left and then a 360-degree turn toward the right, dropping from 38,000 to 15,000 feet and then it was lost at about 10,000 feet,” he said.

 Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said the possibility of a terror attack as the cause of the crash of flight MS804 is "higher than that of a technical error,” Egypt's state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

 Adding to Thursday's confusion, unnamed officials told Reuters that the United States saw no signs of an explosion as it reviewed imagery.

 French President François Hollande earlier confirmed the disappearance of the airliner but said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash.

 The plane vanished shortly after entering Egyptian airspace. Greek civil aviation authorities said all appeared fine with the flight until air traffic controllers were preparing to hand it over to their Egyptian counterparts. The pilot did not respond to their calls, and the aircraft then disappeared from radar.

 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Egypt's aviation minister said on Thursday that a 'terror attack' was a more probable explanation for the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight than technical failure.Video provided by AFP Newslook

 About 40 minutes before contact with the plane was lost, Greek air traffic controllers said the pilot was in good spirits and reported no problems as he flew over the Greek island of Kea, according to a statement by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority.

 Al-Ahram identified the pilot as Captain Mohamed Shokeir. The airline said he had 6,275 hours of flying experience, including 2,101 hours on the A320 aircraft used in the flight.

 The French military said a Falcon surveillance jet monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants was diverted to help in the Egypt-led search effort for the airliner. Greece's defense ministry also mobilized a search-and-rescue operation. U.S. Commander Sixth Fleet is working to provide U.S. Navy P-3 Orion support, according to the U.S. Navy.

 In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Obama received "multiple updates" on the missing plane from his homeland security and counterterrorism team and asked to be kept apprised of developments.

 Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump weighed in on the crash, calling it "yet another terrorist attack." In a Twitter post Thursday, Trump pointed to the incident, asking "when will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!"

 FBI Director James Comey told reporters during a visit to the Chicago field office that U.S. officials don't have any evidence at this point that confirms the plane was brought down in a terrorist attack. "We don't know exactly what this is yet," Comey said.

 At Charles De Gaulle's Terminal 1, Paula Alina checked boarding passes Thursday afternoon, including those for EgyptAir flight MS800 bound for Cairo. Since the Paris terrorist attacks last year, Alina said, she has seen many people boarding flights in tears because they're afraid of a terror attack onboard.

 "It is heartbreaking," she said. "I can barely speak. I feel tired and confused." As for those boarding the next plane to Cairo, Alina said, "I feel afraid for them."

 But she said the ground staff puts on a brave face. "I don't speak to them otherwise I would show them that we are worried for them," Alina said.

 In Cairo, Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council, the country’s highest security body. The council includes the prime minister and the defense, foreign and interior ministers, in addition to the chiefs of the intelligence agencies.

 El-Sissi and Hollande spoke on the phone and agreed to “closely cooperate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances” surrounding the incident, according to a statement issued in Paris.

 Sherif Ismail, Egypt's prime minister, told reporters at Cairo airport that it was also too early to draw any conclusions about what caused the plane's disappearance. “We cannot rule anything out,” he said. He also said there was no "distress call."

 Aircraft manufacturer Airbus said in a statement that it "regrets to confirm the loss of an Egyptair A320, flight #MS804." Airbus said EgyptAir took delivery of the plane in November 2003 and that it had accumulated approximately 48,000 flight hours.

 Details on passengers emerge

 EgyptAir said the passengers included:

 • 30 Egyptians

 • 15 French

 • 2 Iraqis

 • One each from Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

 No Americans were reported to be aboard the plane.

 One of the victims was Egyptian-born Ahmed Helal, a plant manager at Procter & Gamble's Amiens, France, manufacturing facility, the company said. Helal spent two years in Cincinnati from 2012 to 2014 as an associate operations director for single dose unit detergents as P&G first launched Tide Pods, according to his LinkedIn profile.

 Relatives of passengers aboard the missing flight arrived at Cairo airport and at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, where crisis centers were set up. The Associated Press reported that a man and a woman, identified by airport staff as relatives of the flight’s passengers, sat at an information desk near the EgyptAir counter at Charles De Gaulle. The woman sobbed, holding her face in a handkerchief.

 In Cairo, family members of passengers and crew sat in the modest restaurant at the Le Passage hotel just beside Cairo Airport. Paramedics and doctors were on standby in an adjacent alcove ready to assist grief-stricken survivors.

 "Only God knows what happened to them," said Mohammed Diab, an uncle of one of the air marshals on the ill-fated jet.

 "All they have told us is the plane is missing," said the tearful 72-year-old, even as Egyptian TV broadcasted video of wreckage thought to be from the downed plane floating in the Mediterranean. "He had been working for EgyptAir for five years and he loved his job," Diab said of his 25-year-old nephew.

 EgyptAir operates from a hub at Cairo International Airport and is based in Heliopolis, Egypt. It offers passenger and freight services to more than 75 destinations.

 In March, EgyptAir Flight 181 en route to Cyprus was hijacked by a passenger claiming to be wearing a suicide belt. The hijacker surrendered at Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus and all passengers were released safely. No one was hurt in the incident, which Cypriot authorities said was not terrorism related.

 A Russian passenger plane crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and a local branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility.

 Contributing: Jacob Wirtschafter in Cairo; Nikolia Apostolu from Lesbos, Greece; Maya Vidon in Paris; Melanie Eversley, Gregory Korte in Washington.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/27Ct7fy ||||| U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials are working to gather information on EgyptAir Flight 804, which vanished overnight just as it entered Egyptian airspace.

 While the details surrounding the incident are still unclear, Egypt and its flag carrier, EgyptAir, have had a checkered air travel safety record. Two recent incidents in particular have called the country's transportation security into question, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues.

 When EgyptAir Flight 181 was hijacked in March, many initially assumed the motive was terrorism. Claiming to be wearing an explosive vest, 59-year-old Seif Eldin Mustafa demanded the domestic Cairo-bound flight divert to Cyprus.

 In a standoff on the tarmac, it was discovered Mustafa's interests were personal. He was arrested and no one was hurt.

 The incident renewed security concerns at Egyptian airports, following the crash of a Metrojet flight in October 2015. The Russian passenger plane disintegrated over the Sinai desert after departing from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, en route for St. Petersburg. All 224 people on board were killed. ISIS soon claimed responsibility for the apparent bomb attack.

 In 1985, one of the deadliest hijackings in history was on EgyptAir Flight 648. After departing Athens for Cairo, three heavily armed terrorists forced the plane to land in Malta. On the ground, Egyptian troops raided the aircraft in a move that has since been criticized. At least 58 people on board were killed.

 Fourteen years later, EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed off the coast of Nantucket, shortly after taking off from New York. All 217 people on board died. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the pilot brought down the plane intentionally -- something Egyptian authorities have disputed, instead blaming mechanical failure.

 Egypt says it will investigate the latest incident -- what happened to EgyptAir Flight 804 -- joined by French authorities and the plane's manufacturer, Airbus.

 There will also be an examination of French aviation safety at airports. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| MS804 plane crash.

 7:00pm Egypt's aviation ministry said a letter it received from the country's foreign ministry says that Greek authorities have found “floating objects” that are part of the plane wreckage.

 Pieces of plastic as well as lifejackets have also been found near the island of Karpathos, the ministry added in a statement.

 "Family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected," EgyptAir said.

 "The Egyptian Investigation Team in co-operation with the Greek counterpart are still searching for other remains of the missing plane."

 6:40pm France is sending three investigators to Cairo along with a technical expert from Airbus, to join the probe into the EgyptAir flight that crashed Thursday, Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said, according to AFP.

 6:00pm The Egyptian Armed forces said in a statement that the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Italy, France and Greece are cooperating in the search for the missing plane. The statement confirmed that the search is still ongoing.

 5:45pm A Greek frigate discovered two large floating objects in a sea area 230 miles south of the island of Crete, Reuters reported. The objects appeared to be pieces of plastic in white and red. They were spotted close to an area where a transponder signal was emitted earlier, according to Greek defence sources.

 5:35pm According to the Guardian correspondent, an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo is departing now.

 5:15pm Egypt’s aviation ministry denied in a statement reports “about finding the plane debris over the Greek island of Crete.”

 “EgyptAir contacted concerned sides who did not confirm the published information is accurate,” read the statement.

 4:45pm Egypt’s State TV says no confirmation yet from Egypt's aviation ministry that plane wreckage has been found.

 4:30pm Egypt's health ministry announced that family members of the victims of the EgyptAir MS804 plane were aided by a medical team at Cairo International Airport for conditions varying from a mental breakdown to a rise in blood pressure.

 Nine family members received aid at the Airport while one was referred to EgyptAir Hospital.

 Greek state TV said authorities found aircraft parts in the sea while looking for the missing flight MS308, Reuters reported.

 3:15pm Greek military official says an Egyptian search plane has located two orange items believed to be from the missing EgyptAir flight, AP reported.

 The official says the items were found 230 miles (370 kilometers) south-southeast of the island of Crete but still within the Egyptian air traffic control area. One of the items was oblong, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.

 3:08pm Missing EgyptAir MS804 debris found South of Greek Island of Karpathos in Southern Meditereanean according to Greek State TV

 2:35pm Egyptian aviation minister Fathy told reporters during the press conference that the “possibility of a terror attack is higher than that of a technical error,” according to an Ahram Online reporter.

 Answering Ahram Online's question on why he believes it was likely a terrorist attack rather than a technical error, Fathy said: "I said so based on what I read and from my expertise, but these remain assumptions and possible scenarios. I will still use the word ‘missing’ till we find the debris."

 2:20pm Egypt's Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek ordered an investigation into the incident, according to a prosecution statement.

 Sadek commissioned the Supreme State Security Prosecution to conduct investigations into the matter.

 2:15pm Egypt’s aviation minister said that the last contact with plane was at 2:30am Cairo time. Authorities tried to contact the flight again at 2:50am but there was no response.

 Fathy also said that Egypt will cooperate with French authorities to investigate to the disappearance of the plane.

 1:45pm Egypt's Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy said in a press conference that Egypt does not refute the assumption that the missing EgyptAir aircraft might have crashed due to a terrorist attack or a malfunction or any other scenario.

 Fathy stressed that they will continue to say that the Airbus 320 is “missing until the debris is found.”

 1:40pm Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday that a terrorist act might be linked to the disappearance of EgyptAir's MS 804.

 “It is extremely unfortunate that today one more incident happened with a plane from the Egyptian Airlines. It seems that this is a terrorist act, which resulted in the deaths of 66 citizens from around 12 countries,” Bortnikov said during a press conference.

 Egypt said that it is not ruling out that the airliner may have crashed due to a terrorist attack or a technical malfunction.

 1:30pm Greece's civil aviation department released a statement with a timeline on Egypt Air MS 804's latest moments and Greek attempts to contact it.

 1:10pm Greek's Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said on Thursday that no results have been obtained so far in the search for the missing EgyptAir aircraft, Reuters reported.

 Kammenos said that until now there was only a picture obtained of the missing plane that was in Egyptian airspace mid-air and made sudden swerves.

 "At 3.39am the course of the aircraft was south and south-east of Kassos and Karpathos (islands)..immediately after it entered Cairo FIR and made swerves and a descent I describe; 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right," Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told a news conference.

 Earlier, Egypt's army spokesman said the search for the plane that disappeared from radar monitors while en Route from Paris to Cairo was taking place where the plane reportedly went missing, with the participation of jets from Greece.

 12:50 Families of the EgyptAir crash victims said that they have no information and that the company said they will get in contact with them when they do, an Ahram Online reporter, Lina Wardani, at Cairo International Airport said. The families refused to speak to the press and covered their faces.

 12:40 Egypt's National Security Council, headed by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, decided to continue the search efforts through Egyptian military jets and navy vessels, and to work on uncovering the circumstances behind the plane's disappearance as soon as possible in cooperation with France and Greece.

 The council, attended by several ministers including the civil aviation minister, also decided to mandate the government with offering all means of aid to the families of passengers and crew members, and called on the crisis management centre at EgyptAir to follow up on the developments and announce any new details

 12:20 French President Francois Hollande has announced that they have confirmation that the EgyptAir plane reported missing has been 'crashed and disappeared'. Hollande stressed that no hypothesis should be ruled out, but they are keen on "finding the truth".

 Earlier, France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday "no theory can be ruled out" in the missing EgyptAir flight.

 12:10 According to AP, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says "nothing is confirmed" regarding the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight and is warning against some unverified information in circulation.

 Ayrault, speaking after meeting with families gathered at a hotel at Charles de Gaulle airport, tells journalists the priority is "solidarity" with them and extended a "message of compassion and support."

 He says French authorities are in direct contact with Greek and Egyptian authorities.

 11:35 Airbus released a statement saying that it "regrets to confirm the loss of an Egypt Air A320, flight #MS804 "

 According to Airbus, the plane went missing at around 2:30 am (local Egypt time) over the Mediterranean Sea, with a scheduled service operating from Paris to Cairo.

 It stressed that until now no further factual information is available, adding that it will provide more details as soon as they are confirmed and cleared by authorities for release.

 Airbus expressed its readiness to provide full technical assistance to the French Investigation Agency and to authorities in charge of the investigation.

 The company provided details about the aircraft involved, which was delivered to EgyptAir from the production line in November 2003 and accumulated 48,000 flight hours with IAE engines.

 11:30 According to AP, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says "nothing is confirmed" regarding the disappearance of the EgyptAir flight and is warning against some unverified information in circulation.

 Ayrault, speaking after meeting with families gathered at a hotel at Charles de Gaulle airport, tells journalists the priority is "solidarity" with them and extended a "message of compassion and support."

 He says French authorities are in direct contact with Greek and Egyptian authorities.

 11.20 Egypt's army said it is taking all the necessary procedures to find the missing plane by dispatching a number of rescue and search jets along with navy vessels specialised in rescue and relief operations.

 A high alert has been imposed in military hospitals and the army is currently in coordination with the cabinet and the foreign and civil aviation ministers to provide the needed support.

 The army spokesman said the search for the disappeared plane is taking place where the plane reportedly went missing, with the participation of jets from Greece.

 Fifty-six passengers including 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, one Briton, one Canadian, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Belgian, one Kuwaiti and one Saudi were on board of the missing plane in addition to 10 crew members.

 11.05 According to Reuters, Greece is deploying military aircraft and a frigate to an area in the southern Mediterranean where an EgyptAir aircraft vanished from radar screens early on Thursday, its defence ministry said.

 Meanwhile, AP reports that the French military says a Falcon surveillance jet monitoring the Mediterranean for migrants has been dispatched to help search for the EgyptAir flight that crashed in the area.

 Military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron told The Associated Press that the jet is joining the Egypt-led search effort, and the French navy may send another plane and a ship to the zone.

 He said the Falcon was on a surveillance mission as part of EU efforts to monitor migrants crossing the Mediterranean toward Europe.

 10.45 According to AP, the director of Greece's Civil Aviation Authority says air traffic controllers were in contact with the pilot of the EgyptAir flight as it passed through Greek airspace.

 The director, Constantine Lyzerakos, said the plane was at 37,000 feet, traveling at 519 mph, and did not report any problem.

 Lyzerakos told private Antenna television that controllers tried to make contact with the pilot 10 miles before the flight exited the Greek Flight Information Range (FIR), but the pilot did not respond. Lyzerakos says controllers continued trying to contact the pilot until 3:39 a.m. Greek time (1239 GMT) when the plane disappeared from the radar.

 Lyzerakos says the plane was in Cairo's FIR when it vanished.

 10.40 Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault exchanged condolences on the casualties of EgyptAir flight MS804. Meanwhile, there are no confirmations from the Egyptian authorities that the plane has crashed. The two officials stressed that they need to cooperate to understand the reasons behind the crash.

 10.25 There were no weather issues at the time and in the vicinity of the area where an EgyptAir plane with 66 people on board went missing on Thursday morning, European air traffic network manager Eurocontrol told Reuters.

 10.22 France has offered to send planes and boats to the crash area, Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister, declared this morning.

 10.20 PM Sherif Ismail told reporters at Egypt's international airport that search for the lost EgyptAir plane is still underway and that the crisis management centre is putting into consideration all scenarios that could have led to the disappearance of the plane including terrorism.

 Ismail said that the armed forces might have received a plane signal not a pilot signal and that they are still looking into the matter.

 Ismail said that a press conference is expected to take place after 1:00pm local time in Cairo to explain the latest updates on the incident.

 Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy told reporters that all officials are closely following the matter and that families of the passengers are present in the airport.

 10.10 According to AFP and AP, the EgyptAir flight which disappeared on route from Paris to Cairo early Thursday crashed into the sea off the southern Greek island of Karpathos while in Egyptian airspace, a Greek aviation source told AFP.

 Meanwhile, the Egyptian aviation ministry says the causes of the disappearance are still unknown and has denied all circulating reports of a crash.

 10.00 A joint crisis management centre between Egypt and France has been created at France’s international Charles De Gaulles airport to be able help families of passengers who on the lost plane.

 9.50 EgyptAir said the reasons behind the sudden disappearance of EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo are still unknown. In their seventh statement since the disappearance of the aircraft, EgyptAir asks all media outlets to be cautious and to stick to their issued press releases.

 9.40 Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is currently holding an urgent meeting with the National Security Council to follow the latest updates and news on the lost EgyptAir flight. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters from the EgyptAir crisis center that the search is still underway and that there is still no confirmations on the missing plane.

 9.35 According to AFP, France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said that "no theory can be ruled out" as to why the EgyptAir flight went missing.

 09:20 According to the armed forces, no distress signal was in fact received from the plane. A brief note posted a few moments ago by the army's official spokesman, Mohamed Samir, on Facebook said that the armed forces "had not received any SOS signal" from the lost plane.

 09:15 French President Francois Hollande called Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to follow developments, AFP reports. The French president is due to hold a crisis meeting with senior officials later.

 Meanwhile, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has arrived at EgyptAir's crisis centre, the airline reported, where he will follow the situation in person.

 09:10 From an EgyptAir statement: An EgyptAir official said that the Egyptian army's rescue and search had received a distress call from the plane at 4:26 Cairo local time.

 The implications of this are still unclear.

 09:00 There are unofficial reports that the plane may indeed have crashed. AP quotes "Egyptian aviation officials" as saying that "the possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed." The search is currently underway for the debris, the officials said, requesting anonymity as they were not cleared to speak to the press.

 08:00 The Egyptian army has dispatched jet fighters to search for the missing flight, an army spokesman statement read.

 The army is coordinating the search with Greece and Egyptian and Greek naval vessels have been dispatched to hunt for the plane, amid fears it may have crashed in the Mediterranean.

 07:45 EgyptAir said the 56 passengers including 3 children on board include 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, one Briton, one Canadian, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Algerian, one Belgian, one Kuwaiti and one Saudi. Ten staff members were also on board, three of them were security personnel.

 --

 An EgyptAir flight vanished early this morning en route from Paris to Cairo. Radar signals from flight MS804 were lost at 2:30am Cairo time, EgyptAir have said, around the time the flight entered Egyptian airspace over the Mediterranean.

 The commercial flight left Paris at 11:09pm GMT and was due to land at Cairo airport at 03:15am local time.

 Sources told Al-Ahram Arabic website that air traffic controllers in Athens had failed to establish communication with the pilot after the plane went off the radar.

 Fifty-six passengers and 10 crew members are on board.

 Authorities say they lost contact with the plane as it was cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet at 2:45am Cairo local time.

 Rescue teams and the Egyptian armed forces have been searching the area where the plane was last spotted on the radar.

 The company identified the plane as an Airbus 320 manufactured in 2003.

 The pilot, who was identified by sources as Captain Mohamed Shokeir, has over 6,000 flight hours while the copilot has over 2,000 hours of flight.

 Short link:

  ||||| Three air marshals were among the 66 people aboard EgyptAir Flight MS804 that crashed while flying over the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday, authorities said.

 France’s transport chief Alain Vidalies told reporters that having that many security officers on such a flight was “the usual practice.” He added that the plane — which can carry up to 189 passengers — was not transporting any freight.

 Related: Missing EgyptAir Jet Raises Fears of ‘Worst-Case Scenario’

 Former NTSB investigator Greg Feith told MSNBC that Egypt had boosted security recently, which could explain the number of officers on board.

 “The only other reason to have security personnel like we do here in the U.S. is if they were transporting some sort of prisoner or someone of interest,” Feith added. “But most likely this was similar to our federal air marshals flying on this flight.”

 Egyptian aviation security has been under intense scrutiny since a Russian Metrojet passenger plane crashed after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport on Oct. 31, killing all 224 people on board.

 This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com. ||||| Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton agree on at least one thing — the disappearance of EgyptAir Flight 804 appears to be the work of terrorists.

 “Looks like yet another terrorist attack. Airplane departed from Paris. When will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!” the presumptive Republican nominee tweeted early Thursday.

 Clinton chimed in Thursday afternoon, telling CNN, “It does appear that it was an act of terrorism.”

 “Exactly how, of course, the investigation will have to determine,” she added.

 Secretary of State John Kerry didn’t speculate on what caused the Cairo-bound jetliner to vanish from radar over the Mediterranean, but he offered his condolences during a NATO meeting in Brussels.

 “We extend our condolences to each and every country that lost people, and particularly Egypt, which has made so many efforts in recent months to break out of and away from the last events,” he said.

 “And so no matter what, I think everybody — our thoughts are with them and with all the passengers.”

 British Prime Minister David Cameron also refrained from speculating and instead expressed condolences for the families of the 66 people who were aboard the jetliner.

 “I absolutely feel for them,” Cameron told LBC Radio. “This is obviously a dreadful event. We don’t know very much right now about what’s happened.” |||||Summary:

– Debris from EgyptAir Flight 804 has been found in the waters near Greece's Karpathos Island, ABC News reports via a statement from the airline. The country's Ministry of Civil Aviation was sent an official letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirming the find; EgyptAir says family members of passengers and crew have been informed and "conveys its deepest sorrows." Meanwhile, as officials probe the cause of the crash, an Egyptian official says it's looking more like terrorism than mechanical malfunction, USA Today reports. In a Thursday press conference held before the debris was confirmed, Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi says the "possibility of a terror attack is higher than that of a technical error," noting he based that assessment on "what I read and from my expertise," per Al-Ahram. But, he added, "these remain assumptions and possible scenarios." More developments: NBC News offers a breakdown of what countries the passengers were from. A radar map showing the plane's flight path appears on the Telegraph. There were three air marshals aboard the flight, per MSNBC. CBS News examines Egypt's "checkered air travel safety record." In addition to aviation experts, government officials, and law enforcement authorities, Donald Trump is chiming in on what he thinks happened, the New York Post reports.


– Bahrain protesters reclaimed their symbolic Pearl Square today, after the nation's leaders ordered the military to withdraw in a key concession that came just a day after a brutal crackdown that injured at least 50 and drew a sharp condemnation from President Obama. Members of the opposition chanted, "We are victorious," as they poured into the square carrying flags and flowers. Bahrain's king is signaling that he's open to talks with the opposition, reports the Washington Post, appointing his son, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al Khalifa, as point man. The crown prince appeared briefly on state TV, reports the AP, to urge talks and calm.

Expand this summary.

President Barack Obama condemned the violence in Bahrain and urged the country's king in a phone call Friday night to show restraint after a series of bloody protests.

 Bahraini volunteers donate blood at a hospital in Manama, Bahrain, Friday, Feb. 18, 2011. Soldiers fired tear gas and shot heavy weapons into the air as thousands of protest marchers defied a government... (Associated Press)

 An unidentified Bahraini with blood from the injured stands in front of army tanks near the Pearl roundabout Friday, Feb. 18, 2011, in Manama, Bahrain. Soldiers fired tear gas and shot heavy weapons into... (Associated Press)

 Bahraini Shiite anti-government protesters chant anti-government slogans as they gather inside a building in Manama, Bahrain, Friday, Feb. 18, 2011. Soldiers confronted some thousands of protest marchers... (Associated Press)

 Paramedics treat injured Bahraini protesters near the Pearl roundabout Friday, Feb. 18, 2011, in Manama, Bahrain. Soldiers fired tear gas and shot heavy weapons into the air as thousands of protest marchers... (Associated Press)

 Obama discussed the situation with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, asking the king to hold those responsible for the violence accountable.

 Obama says Bahrain must respect the "universal rights" of its people and embrace "meaningful reform."

 Security forces opened fire on Bahraini protesters for a second straight day, wounding at least 50 people as thousands defied the government and marched in an uprising that sought to break the political grip of the Gulf nation's leaders.

 Earlier in the day, Obama cited reports of violence in response to protests in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen and called on the governments of those countries to show restraint.

 Obama said the governments of the three countries should respect the rights of citizens demonstrating peacefully in the wake of Egypt's uprising. He expressed condolences to the families of those killed.

 The president's statement was read aloud by White House press secretary Jay Carney to reporters traveling with the president on Air Force One from California to Oregon. ||||| MANAMA, BAHRAIN - Anti-government protesters streamed back into Bahrain's Pearl Square roundabout Saturday to continue their push for political reforms after tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled out of the capital following an order by the crown prince for the military to withdraw.

 Police at first fired tear gas at the protesters as they approached the site they were forcibly expelled from just three days ago, witnesses said, but then security forces pulled back to allow the demonstrators to reach the roundabout, located in the financial district of the capital, Manama.

 Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, who has been assigned to try to broker a dialogue with the country's mostly Shiite-led opposition, appears to hope that by halting the heavy-handed tactics employed by security services over the past few days, he can create an opening for discussion of the protesters' grievances.

 In a statement released Saturday, the crown prince appealed to all political factions to join hands and "begin a new phase" in which "we will discuss all our issues sincerely and honestly."

 The statement represented a "180-degree change of policy," said Jassim Hussain, a member of the leading Shiite political party, al-Wefaq, which withdrew its 18 members from the 40-seat parliament after a deadly crackdown on demonstrators Thursday.

 The party has still not decided whether to sit down with the crown prince. "Al-Wefaq made a decree that they need the right environment before any serious dialogue can start. I'm sure this kind of environment will help," Hussain said. But he added, referring to the broader opposition movement: "We still have people who are not in the mood to talk."

 The disunity within the opposition over its ultimate goals and the protesters' passionate determination to continue demonstrating have left the outcome of this uprising uncertain and even the short-term outlook hard to predict.

 The Bahraini military's retreat came after a violent turn of events in the Middle East on Friday, as U.S.-allied governments in Yemen and Bahrain opened fire on their citizens, prompting Britain and France to announce a halt in arms sales.

 The use of live ammunition against pro-democracy demonstrators also triggered sharp criticism from President Obama, who called on authorities in Yemen, Bahrain and Libya to show restraint and "respect the rights of their people." Obama later spoke to the Bahraini king Friday night and urged that "those responsible for the violence" be held accountable.

 Clashes erupted across the region Friday, from Jordan to Djibouti. An eighth straight day of violence in Yemen claimed at least one life in the southern city of Aden, where police fired gunshots to break up a crowd. In Libya, the death toll was reported to be in the dozens after four days of clashes in the coastal city of Benghazi, where security forces have also fired on protesters.

 But the response from security forces was most heavy-handed in tiny Bahrain, home to the U.S. 5th Fleet, where soldiers used armored personnel carriers and machine guns to fire on protesters, wounding dozens, at least four of them critically.

 Bahrain's king tried to restore calm by appointing his son, the crown prince, to lead a dialogue with anti-government demonstrators, most of them Shiite Muslims, who are demanding greater representation and other democratic reforms in a country where most power is wielded by the Sunni minority. |||||


Here is a news article: Sanders: Well, I've talked about it, you have seen it. What the agenda is is very similar to where to where President Obama is. President Obama said at that Oregon speech…… with a great deal of emotion. That he thought this was an issue that's never going to be permanently solved. Nobody can guarantee that some lunatic is not going to pick up a gun today and kill people. But we have to do the best that we can to prevent those type of killings. And what we do, in my view, is significantly strengthen and expand the instant background check. What we do is do away with the gun show loophole, where people now are buying guns from unlicensed dealers. What we do is do away with the straw man provision, where you can buy a gun legally and then sell it to somebody who's a criminal. I think what we also is significantly expand mental health capabilities to try to address the fact that we have thousands of people walking in this country today who are suicidal and homicidal. So I support pretty much the President's agenda. ||||| -- --

 At the transit museum store, you can buy a set of the five "historic" New York City subway tokens, introduced in 1953, 1970, 1980, 1986 and 1995, as well as subway tokens made into key rings, lapel pins, cuff links, bracelets, and money clips. Other stores sell ashtrays, paperweights, drinking glasses, coasters, mugs, ties, t-shirts, Christmas ornaments, even dresses festooned with the image of the token. The People's Hall of Fame, which honors New Yorkers every year for contributions to the city's cultural life, presents inductees with an enormous replica of a token. There are Frisbees shaped like giant tokens. The only thing the New York City subway token will no longer be used for, as of May 4, is to get you onto the subway.

 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority ended all sales of the token at midnight April 12. On May 4, when the transit fare is scheduled to rise from $1.50 to $2, the 13 million tokens still circulating will no longer be "good for one fare" on the subway, leaving the Metrocard the exclusive currency of straphangers. Bus fare boxes will accept tokens (plus 50 cents) until December 31. Then, 50 years after its birth, the little brass coin will essentially end its working life - except for one small gig: For the time being, tokens will continue to be sold for $1.50 and used at the Roosevelt Island Tram, which is run by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, not the MTA.

 The demise of the token has been expected ever since 1994 when New York became one of the last subway systems in the country to introduce fare cards. The blue and yellow MetroCards are cheaper to produce and can be programmed to offer discounts and transfers. Emptying tokens from turnstiles and delivering them to token booths is time-consuming and expensive. Phasing out the token, transit officials say, will save $6 million a year in handling costs. "In this time of dwindling resources, the shift away from tokens will allow us to be more efficient," Lawrence G. Reuter, the president of New York City Transit told The New York Times recently.

 And so the clatter of metal tokens being emptied into buckets will soon join the clip-clop of horses on cobblestones, newsboys shouting "Extra" and the nasal intonations of Joan Rivers' taxi tape among New York's many bygone sounds.

 1953 Token

 fare: 15Â˘

 New Yorkers already seem to have accepted the demise of the token. Few people spoke out on its behalf at hearings this winter on the fare hike, and indeed, by early this year, tokens were already being used for only eight percent of all rides. (There are exceptions: One Paula Glatzer wrote to the Times "I care about the end of subway tokens. I always carry a few with me, mostly for the times my Metrocard won't swipe....Why can't we get dependable readers, like those in other cities?")

 The token is sure to live on, as item of nostalgia and icon of New York -- more humble than the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty, but a potent symbol nonetheless.

 "It says 'NYC' on it, so that's certainly a big part of its appeal, but it's also popular because it's a very democratic symbol," said Sarah Henry, a historian with the Museum of the City of New York, which featured the token prominently in its recent exhibition entitled "NYCentury" on the city's symbols. "Because the subway is so deeply embedded in New York's identity and so many different kinds of people use it, the token by symbolizing the subway comes to symbolize the city." In that way, at least, the token will not be replaced: "The MetroCard," she said with a touch of scorn, "doesn't have the visual presence of the token."

 RELATIVE NEWCOMER

 The token is so closely identified with New York that most people do not realize that the subway system carried New Yorkers for 49 years before it acquired its own currency. For 44 years it cost a five cents to ride a bus or subway and all riders needed to get on board was a nickel. When the fare rose to 10 cents in 1948, the city refit the turnstiles to accept dimes.

 1970 Token

 fare: 30Â˘

 But just as technology would eventually doom the token, technological limits created it. In 1953, when the fare rose to 15 cents, engineers could not figure out how to make a turnstile operate with a dime and nickel or three nickels. To solve the problem, they devised their own 15-cent currency.

 Those first small tokens set the pattern that would become world-famous. On one side was the legend "Good for One Fare," on the other "New York City Transit Authority." In the center were the letters "NYC" with the "Y" cut out.

 That token lasted 17 years, surviving a fare hike to 20 cents, and thousands probably remain squirreled away as keepsakes. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers who reached manhood in the 1950s and 1960s can still recall receiving one of those little tokens in the envelope with their draft notices to make it easy for them to report to the induction center.

 In 1970, a larger token, also with a "Y" cutout, debuted along with the 30-cent fare. A decade later, when the fare reached 60 cents, a solid token with a stamped "Y" replaced it. When the cost of a ride rose to $1 in 1986, the "bull's eye" token, which featured a round center plug made from gray metal, was introduced. The last version of the token, with a cut-out pentagon, appeared with the $1.50 fare in 1995.

 THEFT AND SPECULATION

 1980 Token

 fare: 60Â˘

 As the tokens gained in value, petty criminals devised ingenious if revolting ways to get them. Crooks jammed the coin slot to keep the tokens from falling down. As the commuter walked off indignantly -- out a token but unable to get through the gate -- the perpetrator would swoop in and suck the token out of the turnstile. The epidemic led to widespread disgust among even hardened New Yorkers, and to ingenuity among subway workers who fought back with mace, chili powder and even super-strength glue.

 Fare increases also gave rise to a unique form of arbitrage. When a hike was announced, people would begin hoarding extra tokens, hoping that transit officials would continue to use the old ones, instead of going to the trouble of minting a new coin. Sometimes the subway riders were right and made a nice little profit.

 This year, collectors and nostalgic New Yorkers began stocking up as soon as the token's demise was confirmed. Anticipating a run on the coins, New York City Transit limited sales to two per customer on March 30.

 But, so far a massive investment in subway tokens seems unlikely to reap big payoffs. A couple of days after official sales ended, the last version of the token was selling on eBay www.ebay.com for between $1.99 and $14.50. Even the original token, the dime-sized 1953 version with the Y cutout, was drawing bids of no more than about $25.

 SIXTY MILLION CUFFLINKS?

 1986 Token

 fare: $1.00

 What about all those tokens? Will they join keys for defunct locks, cigarette lighters and old scouting medals in the backs of thousands of dressers drawer across the city? Or will the financially ailing transit authority find some way to make gold from brass?

 Transit officials are not sure. Of the 60 million tokens minted for the Transportation Authority in 1991, 41 million are in a vault somewhere in Queens. Transit officials will not say where, for security reasons.

 If the past is any guide, most will end up in a furnace. "If they follow previous iterations of the token, they will be sold as scrap," said Charles Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit. He said the scrap dealers could sell some of the tokens to jewelers and souvenir makers, but New York City Transit will not get into the business of making cufflinks. About six million of the current tokens are already believed to be in the hands of collectors or are lost. The Roosevelt Island Tram bought 7,000.

 Kilmartin Industries, the Attleboro, Mass, mint that sold the 1991 batch of tokens to the system for $7.6 million, doesn't have much interest in them. "It doesn't stir any emotions with me at all to be honest with you," Tom Vermillion, a sales manager at Kilmartin, told Newsday recently.

 METROCARD HUT?

 Now that the token is gone, straphangers face a new problem: What should they call the 700-plus structures formerly known as token booths?

 1995 Token

 fare: $1.50

 Officially, New York City Transit has rechristened them "station service booths," but that seems unlikely to catch on. Our recent brief but fruitful survey of subway riders yielded a variety of suggestions, among them: MetroCard sales booth, fare sales booth, good-for-nothing booth, little house of cards, metro mansion, MetroPod, ticket hut, kiosk, information booth, token booth ("because the person inside is usually the 'token' human around"), MetroCard Hut (or McHut, for short), no-use booth, card shack, hold-up target, "customer service center -- ha!," bullet-proof transportation hospitality center and "affordable housing."

 Of course, people still "dial" push-button phones, so maybe New Yorkers, notorious creatures of habit, won't change at all. They will simply buy their MetroCards at a token booth. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||
A summary of this is?

– If Hillary Clinton's going to win over New Yorkers before the state's April 19 primary, first she's got to prove she can master the NYC subway system. And she had a little trouble Thursday in the Bronx when, just like nearly every other Big Apple commuter has experienced, she tried to swipe her MetroCard to get through a turnstile and failed not once, but four times, reports BuzzFeed. The site has an animated GIF display of Clinton's persistence in all of her in-vain attempts, finally making it through on the fifth swipe. But as Politico points out, Bernie Sanders doesn't exactly have this in the bag, either. When he sat down with the New York Daily News on Friday, his interrogators asked him if he knew how to ride the subway. The Brooklyn native seemed confused as to what the reporter meant at first, then replied, "You get a token and you get in." (Tokens were discontinued in 2003.) When he was told he was wrong, he recovered with: "You jump over the turnstile." (Too bad Hillary wasn't on the subway when Improv Everywhere pulled off its latest prank.)


News article:

The Justice Department and the FBI have launched a review of thousands of criminal cases to determine whether any defendants were wrongly convicted or deserve a new trial because of flawed forensic evidence, officials said Tuesday.

 The undertaking is the largest post-conviction review ever done by the FBI. It will include cases conducted by all FBI Laboratory hair and fiber examiners since at least 1985 and may reach earlier if records are available, people familiar with the process said. Such FBI examinations have taken place in federal and local cases across the country, often in violent crimes, such as rape, murder and robbery.

 The review comes after The Washington Post reported in April that Justice Department officials had known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of potentially innocent people but had not performed a thorough review of the cases. In addition, prosecutors did not notify defendants or their attorneys even in many cases they knew were troubled.

 On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that it will conduct the more expansive review.

 “The Department and the FBI are in the process of identifying historical cases for review where a microscopic hair examination conducted by the FBI was among the evidence in a case that resulted in a conviction,” spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said in a statement. “We have dedicated considerable time and resources to addressing these issues, with the goal of reaching final determinations in the coming months.”

 FBI spokeswoman Ann Todd deferred comment to the Justice Department.

 In its April report, The Post identified two District men convicted largely on the testimony of FBI hair analysts who wrongly placed them at crime scenes. Santae A. Tribble, now 51, was convicted of killing a taxi driver in 1978, and Kirk L. Odom, now 49, was convicted of a sexual assault in 1981. Since the Post report, Tribble’s conviction was vacated, and on Tuesday, prosecutors moved to overturn Odom’s conviction and declare him innocent. The Justice Department had not previously reviewed their cases.

 Chitre said the new review would include help from the Innocence Project, a New York-based advocacy group for people seeking exoneration through DNA testing. It also would include the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

 Steven D. Benjamin, a Richmond lawyer who is incoming president of the association, called the review “an important collaboration” and a departure from one-sided government reviews that left defendants in the dark.

 “Mistakes were made. What is important now is our working together to correct those mistakes,” Benjamin said, adding that his organization will “fully assist in finding and notifying all those who may have been affected.”

 The review comes as the National Academy of Sciences is urging the White House and Congress to remove crime labs from police and prosecutors’ control, or at least to strengthen the science and standards underpinning the nation’s forensic science system.

 The last time the FBI abandoned a forensic practice was in 2005, when it ended efforts to trace bullets to a specific manufacturer’s batch through analyzing their chemical composition after its methodology was scientifically debunked. The bureau released files in an estimated 2,500 bullet-lead cases only after “60 Minutes” and The Post reported the problem in 2007.

 Michael R. Bromwich, a former Justice Department official who investigated the FBI Laboratory in the mid-1990s as inspector general and, more recently, the city of Houston’s crime lab, said the review is important as the nation’s crime labs come under scrutiny.

 “These recent developments remind us of the profound questions about the validity of many forensic techniques that have been used over the course of many decades and underscore the need for continuing attention at every level to ensuring the scientific validity and accuracy of the forensic science that is used every day in our criminal justice system,” Bromwich said.

 The Post reported in April that hair and fiber analysis was subjective and lacked grounding in solid research and that the FBI lab lacked protocols to ensure that agent testimony was scientifically accurate. But bureau managers kept their reviews limited to one agent, even as they learned that many examiners’ “matches” were often wrong and that numerous examiners overstated the significance of matches, using bogus statistics or exaggerated claims.

 Details of how the new FBI review will be conducted remain unclear. The exact number of cases that will be reviewed is unknown. The FBI is starting with more than 10,000 cases referred to all hair and fiber examiners. From those, the focus will be on a smaller number of hair examinations that resulted in positive findings and a conviction.

 It also is unclear whether the review will focus only on exaggerated testimony by FBI examiners or also on scientifically unfounded statements made by others trained by the FBI, or made by prosecutors. Also unclear is at what point government officials will notify defense attorneys or the Innocence Project.

 In past reviews, the department kept results secret and gave findings only to prosecutors, who then determined whether to turn them over to the defense. ||||| The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.

 Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated forensic matches in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed so far, according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence Project, which are assisting the government with the country’s largest post-conviction review of questioned forensic evidence.

 The cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison, the groups said under an agreement with the government to release results after the review of the first 200 convictions.

 The FBI errors alone do not mean there was not other evidence of a convict’s guilt. Defendants and federal and state prosecutors in 46 states and the District are being notified to determine whether there are grounds for appeals. Four defendants were previously exonerated.

 The admissions mark a watershed in one of the country’s largest forensic scandals, highlighting the failure of the nation’s courts for decades to keep bogus scientific information from juries, legal analysts said. The question now, they said, is how state authorities and the courts will respond to findings that confirm long-suspected problems with subjective, pattern-based forensic techniques — like hair and bite-mark comparisons — that have contributed to wrongful convictions in more than one-quarter of 329 DNA-exoneration cases since 1989.

 In a statement, the FBI and Justice Department vowed to continue to devote resources to address all cases and said they “are committed to ensuring that affected defendants are notified of past errors and that justice is done in every instance. The Department and the FBI are also committed to ensuring the accuracy of future hair analysis testimony, as well as the application of all disciplines of forensic science.”

 Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project, commended the FBI and department for the collaboration but said, “The FBI’s three-decade use of microscopic hair analysis to incriminate defendants was a complete disaster.”

 “We need an exhaustive investigation that looks at how the FBI, state governments that relied on examiners trained by the FBI and the courts allowed this to happen and why it wasn’t stopped much sooner,” Neufeld said.

 Norman L. Reimer, the NACDL’s executive director, said, “Hopefully, this project establishes a precedent so that in future situations it will not take years to remediate the injustice.”

 While unnamed federal officials previously acknowledged widespread problems, the FBI until now has withheld comment because findings might not be representative.

 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a former prosecutor, called on the FBI and Justice Department to notify defendants in all 2,500 targeted cases involving an FBI hair match about the problem even if their case has not been completed, and to redouble efforts in the three-year-old review to retrieve information on each case.

 “These findings are appalling and chilling in their indictment of our criminal justice system, not only for potentially innocent defendants who have been wrongly imprisoned and even executed, but for prosecutors who have relied on fabricated and false evidence despite their intentions to faithfully enforce the law,” Blumenthal said.

 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), urged the bureau to conduct “a root-cause analysis” to prevent future breakdowns.

 “It is critical that the Bureau identify and address the systemic factors that allowed this far-reaching problem to occur and continue for more than a decade,” the lawmakers wrote FBI Director James B. Comey on March 27, as findings were being finalized.

 The FBI is waiting to complete all reviews to assess causes but has acknowledged that hair examiners until 2012 lacked written standards defining scientifically appropriate and erroneous ways to explain results in court. The bureau expects this year to complete similar standards for testimony and lab reports for 19 forensic disciplines.

 Federal authorities launched the investigation in 2012 after The Washington Post reported that flawed forensic hair matches might have led to the convictions of hundreds of potentially innocent people since at least the 1970s, typically for murder, rape and other violent crimes nationwide.

 The review confirmed that FBI experts systematically testified to the near-certainty of “matches” of crime-scene hairs to defendants, backing their claims by citing incomplete or misleading statistics drawn from their case work.

 In reality, there is no accepted research on how often hair from different people may appear the same. Since 2000, the lab has used visual hair comparison to rule out someone as a possible source of hair or in combination with more accurate DNA testing.

 Warnings about the problem have been mounting. In 2002, the FBI reported that its own DNA testing found that examiners reported false hair matches more than 11 percent of the time. In the District, the only jurisdiction where defenders and prosecutors have re-investigated all FBI hair convictions, three of seven defendants whose trials included flawed FBI testimony have been exonerated through DNA testing since 2009, and courts have exonerated two more men. All five served 20 to 30 years in prison for rape or murder.

 University of Virginia law professor Brandon L. Garrett said the results reveal a “mass disaster” inside the criminal justice system, one that it has been unable to self-correct because courts rely on outdated precedents admitting scientifically invalid testimony at trial and, under the legal doctrine of finality, make it difficult for convicts to challenge old evidence.

 “The tools don’t exist to handle systematic errors in our criminal justice system,” Garrett said. “The FBI deserves every recognition for doing something really remarkable here. The problem is there may be few judges, prosecutors or defense lawyers who are able or willing to do anything about it.”

 Federal authorities are offering new DNA testing in cases with errors, if sought by a judge or prosecutor, and agreeing to drop procedural objections to appeals in federal cases.

 However, biological evidence in the cases often is lost or unavailable. Among states, only California and Texas specifically allow appeals when experts recant or scientific advances undermine forensic evidence at trial.

 Defense attorneys say scientifically invalid forensic testimony should be considered as violations of due process, as courts have held with false or misleading testimony.

 The FBI searched more than 21,000 federal and state requests to its hair comparison unit from 1972 through 1999, identifying for review roughly 2,500 cases where examiners declared hair matches.

 Reviews of 342 defendants’ convictions were completed as of early March, the NACDL and Innocence Project reported. In addition to the 268 trials in which FBI hair evidence was used against defendants, the review found cases in which defendants pleaded guilty, FBI examiners did not testify, did not assert a match or gave exculpatory testimony.

 When such cases are included, by the FBI’s count examiners made statements exceeding the limits of science in about 90 percent of testimonies, including 34 death-penalty cases.

 The findings likely scratch the surface. The FBI said as of mid-April that reviews of about 350 trial testimonies and 900 lab reports are nearly complete, with about 1,200 cases remaining.

 The bureau said it is difficult to check cases before 1985, when files were computerized. It has been unable to review 700 cases because police or prosecutors did not respond to requests for information.

 Also, the same FBI examiners whose work is under review taught 500 to 1,000 state and local crime lab analysts to testify in the same ways.

 Texas, New York and North Carolina authorities are reviewing their hair examiner cases, with ad hoc efforts underway in about 15 other states. ||||| Cleveland Wright has asked a D.C. Court judge to clear his name after new DNA test results in 2012 exonerated his co-defendant in two similar 1978 murders. (Alexandra Garcia/The Washington Post)

 Cleveland Wright has asked a D.C. Court judge to clear his name after new DNA test results in 2012 exonerated his co-defendant in two similar 1978 murders. (Alexandra Garcia/The Washington Post)

 Nearly every criminal case reviewed by the FBI and the Justice Department as part of a massive investigation started in 2012 of problems at the FBI lab has included flawed forensic testimony from the agency, government officials said.

 The findings troubled the bureau, and it stopped the review of convictions last August. Case reviews resumed this month at the order of the Justice Department, the officials said.

 U.S. officials began the inquiry after The Washington Post reported two years ago that flawed forensic evidence involving microscopic hair matches might have led to the convictions of hundreds of potentially innocent people. Most of those defendants never were told of the problems in their cases.

 The inquiry includes 2,600 convictions and 45 death-row cases from the 1980s and 1990s in which the FBI’s hair and fiber unit reported a match to a crime-scene sample before DNA testing of hair became common. The FBI had reviewed about 160 cases before it stopped, officials said.

 (Related: ‘Irreversible harm’ when FBI didn’t reveal flawed lab work in death-row cases)

 The investigation resumed after the Justice Department’s inspector general excoriated the department and the FBI for unacceptable delays and inadequate investigation in a separate inquiry from the mid-1990s. The inspector general found in that probe that three defendants were executed and a fourth died on death row in the five years it took officials to reexamine 60 death-row convictions that were potentially tainted by agent misconduct, mostly involving the same FBI hair and fiber analysis unit now under scrutiny.

 “I don’t know whether history is repeating itself, but clearly the [latest] report doesn’t give anyone a sense of confidence that the work of the examiners whose conduct was first publicly questioned in 1997 was reviewed as diligently and promptly as it needed to be,” said Michael R. Bromwich, who was inspector general from 1994 to 1999 and is now a partner at the Goodwin Procter law firm.

 Bromwich would not discuss any aspect of the current review because he is a pro bono adviser to the Innocence Project, which along with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is assisting the government effort under an agreement not to talk about the review. Still, he added, “Now we are left 18 years [later] with a very unhappy, unsatisfying and disquieting situation, which is far harder to remedy than if the problems had been addressed promptly.”

 Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole this month ordered that reviews resume under the original terms, officials said.

 (Related: U.S. reviewing 27 death penalty convictions for FBI forensic testimony errors)

 According to the FBI, the delay resulted, in part, “from a vigorous debate that occurred within the FBI and DOJ about the appropriate scientific standards we should apply when reviewing FBI lab examiner testimony — many years after the fact.”

 “Working closely with DOJ, we have resolved those issues and are moving forward with the transcript review for the remaining cases,” the FBI said.

 1 of 25 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Investigating flaws in forensics View Photos A Washington Post investigation reveals that Justice Department officials have known for years that flaws in forensic techniques and weak laboratory standards may have led to the convictions of innocent people across the country, raising the question: How many more are out there? Read related story. Caption A Washington Post investigation reveals that Justice Department officials have known for years that flaws in forensic techniques and weak laboratory standards may have led to the convictions of innocent people across the country, raising the question: How many more are out there? Read related story. Santae A. Tribble, photographed in public defender Sandra Levick’s office in Washington last month. Tribble spent 28 years in prison based largely on analysis of hairs found at the scene of a taxi driver’s murder in 1978. More advanced DNA testing showed that none of the hairs used as evidence shared Tribble’s genetic profile. A judge has vacated his conviction and dismissed the underlying charges. Alexandra Garcia/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

 Emily Pierce, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said: “The Department of Justice never signed off on the FBI’s decision to change the way they reviewed the hair analysis. We are pleased that the review has resumed and that notification letters will be going out in the next few weeks.”

 During the review’s 11-month hiatus, Florida’s Supreme Court denied an appeal by a death-row inmate who challenged his 1988 conviction based on an FBI hair match. James Aren Duckett’s results were caught up in the delay, and his legal options are now more limited.

 Revelations that the government’s largest post-conviction review of forensic evidence has found widespread problems counter earlier FBI claims that a single rogue examiner was at fault. Instead, they feed a growing debate over how the U.S. justice system addresses systematic weaknesses in past forensic testimony and methods.

 “I see this as a tip-of-the-iceberg problem,” said Erin Murphy, a New York University law professor and expert on modern scientific evidence.

 “It’s not as though this is one bad apple or even that this is one bad-apple discipline,” she said. “There is a long list of disciplines that have exhibited problems, where if you opened up cases you’d see the same kinds of overstated claims and unfounded statements.”

 Worries about the limitations and presentation of scientific evidence are “coming out of the dark shadows of the legal system,” said David H. Kaye, a law professor at Penn State who helped lead a Justice Department-funded study of fingerprint analysis and testimony in 2012. “The question is: What can you do about it?”

 Courts and law enforcement authorities have been reluctant to allow defendants to retroactively challenge old evidence using newer, more accurate scientific methods.

 The Justice Department and FBI inquiry, which examines convictions before 2000, could provide a way for defendants to make that challenge. Because the government is dropping procedural objections to appeals and offering new DNA testing in flawed cases if sought by a judge or prosecutor, results could provide a measure of the frequency of wrongful convictions.

 Responding to the FBI review, the accreditation arm of the American Society of Crime Lab Directors last year recommended that labs determine whether they needed to conduct similar reviews, and New York, North Carolina and Texas are doing so.

 According to a Justice Department spokesman, officials last August completed reviews and notified a first wave of defendants in 23 cases, including 14 death-penalty cases, that FBI examiners “exceeded the limits of science” when they linked hair to crime-scene evidence.

 However, concerned that errors were found in the “vast majority” of cases, the FBI restarted the review, grinding the process to a halt, said a government official who was briefed on the process. The Justice Department objected in January, but a standoff went unresolved until this month.

 After more than two years, the review will have addressed about 10 percent of the 2,600 questioned convictions and perhaps two-thirds of questioned death-row cases.

 The department is notifying defendants about errors in two more death-penalty cases and in 134 non-capital cases over the next month, and will complete evaluations of 98 other cases by early October, including 14 more death-penalty cases.

 No crime lab performed more hair examinations for federal and state agencies than the 10-member FBI unit, which testified in cases nationwide involving murder, rape and other violent felonies.

 Although FBI policy has stated since at least the 1970s that a hair association cannot be used as positive identification, like fingerprints, agents regularly testified to the near-certainty of matches.

 In reality, there is no accepted research on how often hair from different people may appear the same. The FBI now uses visual hair comparison to rule out someone as a possible source of hair or as a screening step before more accurate DNA testing.

 This month, the inspector general reported that inattention and foot-dragging by the Justice Department and the FBI led them to ignore warnings 15 years ago that scientifically unsupported and misleading testimony could have come from more than a single hair examiner among agents discredited in a 1997 inspector general’s report on misconduct at the FBI lab.

 The report said that as of 1999, Justice Department officials had enough information to review all hair unit cases — not just those of former agent Michael P. Malone, who was identified as the agent making the most frequent exaggerated testimony.

 By 2002, Maureen Killion, then director of enforcement operations, had alerted senior criminal division officials to “the specter that the other examiners in the unit” were as sloppy as Malone, the inspector general said.

 “This issue has been raised with the FBI but not resolved to date,” Killion wrote to then-Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff and his principal deputy, John C. Keeney, in July 2002, the report said.

 Twelve years later, the Florida case shows the continued inadequacy of officials’ response.

 Duckett, then a rookie police officer in Mascotte, Fla., was convicted of raping and strangling Teresa McAbee, 11, and dumping her into a lake in 1987.

 After a state police examiner was unable to match pubic hair found in the victim’s underwear, prosecutors went to Malone, who testified at trial that there was a “high degree of probability” that the hair came from Duckett.

 Such testimony is scientifically invalid, according to the parameters of the current FBI review, because it claims to associate a hair with a single person “to the exclusion of all others.”

 The Florida court denied Duckett’s request for a new hearing on Malone’s hair match. The court noted that there was other evidence of Duckett’s guilt and that the FBI had not entirely abandoned visual hair comparison.

 Duckett attorney Mary Elizabeth Wells confirmed this week that Duckett’s case was under the FBI’s review. Both Wells and Whitney Ray, a spokeswoman for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, said Thursday that parties had not been notified of results, but they otherwise declined to comment.

 Duckett’s case was eligible for the 1996 review as a Malone case but was omitted, even though the inspector general stated that “it was important to the integrity of the justice system” that all of Malone’s death-penalty cases be immediately reviewed.

 The Justice Department declined to comment on the omission.

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– Impressed when an FBI forensic expert testifies in court? Jurors likely are too, but the FBI's hair-comparison unit actually gave unscientific testimony against criminal defendants for more than 20 years before 2000, according to the FBI and the Justice Dept. Among the FBI's 28 microscopic hair experts, 26 "overstated forensic matches" to favor the prosecution in nearly all of the 268 cases reviewed so far, the Washington Post reports. "The FBI’s three-decade use of microscopic hair analysis to incriminate defendants was a complete disaster," says Peter Neufeld, who helped found the Innocence Project. The reviewed cases include 32 defendants given the death sentence, 14 of whom have already died in prison or were executed; about 2,500 cases involving hair matches are being looked at in all. Of course, other evidence may have sufficed to convict defendants found guilty. But the FBI, acknowledging the problem, has agreed to work with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence Project in reviewing cases between 1972 and 1999. Now 46 states and the District of Columbia are receiving information that could lead to appeals, if defense lawyers, prosecutors, or judges are willing or able. Truth is, there's no scientific standard for matching hair, the Post says. Worse, the forensic-hair scandal is only part of an ongoing review of all criminal forensics, which the Post has reported on here, here, and here. "The forensic science system ... has serious problems that can only be addressed by a national commitment to overhaul the current structure," a science panel concluded back in 2009.


– Google Fiber: It's not just in Kansas anymore. Google has announced 34 cities in nine metro areas—including San Jose, Atlanta, Nashville, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix—as possible destinations to expand its fiber-optic network, offering lightning-fast Internet and cable. "People are hungrier than ever for faster Internet, and as a result, cities across America are making speed a priority," the company says, per the Verge. But while Google notes it "genuinely would like to build in all of these cities," it could choose all, none, or some; teams are first "hitting the road" and "conducting detailed studies" on the local topography and infrastructure, Ars Technica reports. Already at work in Kansas City and Provo, Utah, and with plans for Austin, Texas, and Shawnee, Kansas, Google Fiber's gigabit speeds will likely worry the competition. Plus, a telecommunications analyst tells the Kansas City Star that Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast (the latter two of which plan to merge) dominate all nine markets. But a larger customer base could give Google a leg up on negotiations for its TV lineup, which is still without some popular channels, the Star notes. The chosen cities should be announced at the end of the year. For the full list of those being considered, click here.

Expand this summary.

Google Inc. told dozens of cities Wednesday that it is considering bringing them its Internet and TV services, nearly three years after promising the hookups it has yet to fully deploy in Kansas City.

 In a post to its blog, Google Fiber said it would ask 34 cities in nine metropolitan areas to fill out a checklist of items to explore what it would take to string a fiber optic network in those communities.

 Google has regularly said it needs cities to clear out red tape that can slow the expensive work of building a network street by street.

 The companys Internet service is distinct because it relies on running fiber optic cables directly into homes and offering 1-gigabit-per-second uploads and downloads at home consumer prices.

 We continue to believe that the Internets next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, wrote Milo Medin, Googles vice president of access services. Were aiming to provide updates by the end of the year about which cities will be getting Google Fiber.

 Any impact on Kansas City could be difficult to gauge. Because the company relies mostly on contractors for the labor-intensive network construction and home installations, expansion to other markets is unlikely to slow progress in this market.

 An expansion would balloon its customer base, possibly providing Google greater negotiation leverage with entertainment companies for its TV lineup. It still notably lacks the popular cable channel AMC.

 The news could signal a big expansion hitting several regions in the country, although none of the countrys largest markets such as New York, Los Angeles or Chicago are included. Instead, Google says it is contemplating networks in Phoenix, Atlanta, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Nashville, San Antonio, Portland, Ore., and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

 Ill be surprised if they end up expanding to all nine of them, said Donna Jaegers, a telecommunications industry analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co. They would like to stir the pot and possibly pressure existing cable and phone companies to crank up their home Internet service speeds, she said.

 She noted that the nine markets represent places where the countrys three largest cable companies  Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Comcast  dominate. In Kansas City, Google Fiber mostly poses a threat to Time Warner Cable, although it came on the heels of AT&T;s U-verse build-out.

 More than 1,100 communities in 2010 pleaded with Google to bring them the ultra-high-speed Internet service. In the spring of 2011, Google named Kansas City, Kan., as its first choice. It then gradually expanded its plans to include much of the Kansas City market.

 So far, it has completed construction and installation to much of Kansas City, Kan., and to a central section of Kansas City. It has said it will tackle sign-ups for the southern and northern stretches of Kansas City later this year. Yet home installations for much of that area probably are more than a year away.

 Google Fiber will not say how many customers it has, or when it expects to turn a profit in Kansas City.

 The company has made agreements with several suburbs in the market  although notably not with Overland Park or Independence  but has not said when installations in the outlying areas might begin.

 Meanwhile, Google has cut a deal to build a similar network in Austin, Texas. That news was followed by announcements that AT&T; and another Internet service provider in that market would sell consumers gigabit connections.

 Google also bought an existing fiber-to-the-home system in Provo, Utah, and has begun delivering its service there.

 The Internet giants blog post did not say how broad its expansion plans might be. It doesnt say whether Google Fiber service will be sold in all 34 cities, or necessarily any. Still, the news bolsters long-running speculation that Google might compete nationally at selling Internet access and TV programming.

 Were aiming to provide updates by the end of the year about which cities will be getting Google Fiber, Medin said on the Google Fiber blog. Were going to work closely with each citys leaders on a joint planning process that will not only map out a Google Fiber network in detail but also assess what unique local construction challenges we might face.

 The company said local geography, existing infrastructure and housing density will play into its expansion decisions.

 Cities will provide maps of existing conduit, water, gas and electricity lines so that we can plan where to place fiber, Medin wrote. They will also help us find ways to access existing infrastructure  like utility poles.

 The Google Fiber business model has centered on going to neighborhoods where it can register the greatest demand and making consumers now-or-never offers on hookups. Thats intended to avoid costly piecemeal installations across a market.

 One analyst said the news reinforces the view by some that Google sees profits in selling Internet service, not just a way to pressure existing companies to provide better speeds.

 It could turn out to be a significant, profitable business for Google and stiff competition for others in the industry, Carlos Kirjner, an Internet analyst for Bernstein Research, wrote in a note to investors on Wednesday.

 Experts have also said Google Fibers entry into other markets might hurt Kansas Citys there first bragging rights but is more likely to spur innovations that make full use of the service. So far, no consumer applications have been unleashed that need the gigabit speeds of Google Fiber.

 But industry analysts say developers will grow more inclined to invest in creating such applications the more broadly the service is deployed. ||||| Google just announced that it's invited nine metro areas across the US to explore "what it would take" to bring its Google Fiber gigabit internet service to more locations. "People are hungrier than ever for faster internet, and as a result, cities across America are making speed a priority," Google says. "We've long believed that the internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, so it’s fantastic to see this momentum." Google says up to 34 cities in all could potentially receive Fiber service. The nine metro areas where those cities are located include:

 Atlanta, Georgia

 Charlotte, North Carolina

 Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina

 Nashville, Tennessee

 Phoenix, Arizona

 Portland, Oregon

 Salt Lake City, Utah

 San Antonio, Texas

 San Jose, California

 Google's hometown of Mountain View, California is also holding talks about Fiber. The company plans to provide an update by the end of 2014 on which destinations will officially join the list of Fiber cities. "Between now and then, we’ll work closely with each city’s leaders on a joint planning process that will not only map out a Google Fiber network in detail, but also assess what unique local challenges we might face," Google says. That includes studying topography, housing density, and local infrastructure.

 Potential cities will also be pitching in to help move that effort along, completing "a checklist of items that will help them get ready for a project of this scale and speed."

 "For example, they’ll provide us with maps of existing conduit, water, gas and electricity lines so that we can plan where to place fiber," Google says. Cities will also attempt to help Google tap into existing infrastructure like utility poles so the company doesn't have to carry out unnecessarily digging or put up new poles where they already exist.

 "Cities who go through this process with us will be more prepared for us or any provider who wants to build a fiber network."

 Currently, Google Fiber has a presence in Kansas City and Provo, Utah. Rollouts are also planned for Austin, Texas and Shawnee, Kansas. That relatively small footprint caused plenty of skepticism when Comcast cited Google as a legitimate competitor and a reason its merger with Time Warner Cable should be approved. If Google Fiber expands in a significant way, that argument may start to carry some weight. But Google wants to emphasize that nothing is guaranteed at this stage. "While we do want to bring Fiber to every one of these cities, it might not work out for everyone." But even if some deals don't work out, the company says it will share what it learns from going through this process with each city. |||||


News article:

Actor Liam Neeson’s nephew has been left fighting for his life in hospital after suffering a fall while on a night out with friends.

 Ronan Sexton suffered serious head injuries after toppling 20ft from the top of a telephone box in Brighton, East Sussex.

 He scaled the telephone kiosk next to the pier on the seaside town’s promenade before falling at about 4am last Sunday, police said as they confirmed the accident was not suspicious.

 The 31-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital before being transferred to Hurstwood Park Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, where he remains.

 His mother Bernadette Sexton, the sister of Irish film star Mr Neeson, was at her son’s bedside on Thursday, her partner Harry Shannon said.

 Speaking at the family home in Worthing, West Sussex, Mr Shannon said: “Bernadette is not in at the moment because she has been at the hospital all day in Haywards Heath visiting Ronan.

 “I do not want to comment further.”

 He said Taken and Schindler’s List actor Mr Neeson, 62, had been in contact with his sister since the devastating accident last Sunday.

 Ronan is the youngest of Bernadette’s six children.

 Mr Neeson faced his own heartbreak five years ago when he lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, who died aged just 45 in a freak skiing accident in Quebec, Canada.

 Earlier this year he admitted her death still does not seem real.

 The actor, who lives in New York with his two teenage sons, said: “Her death was never real.

 “It still kind of isn't. There's periods now in our New York residence when I hear the door opening, especially the first couple of years... anytime I hear that door opening, I still think I'm going to hear her.”

 His sister Ms Sexton also paid tribute to her sister-in-law at the time of her death.

 She said: “She was just a wonderful friend, sister-in-law and auntie to my kids. She's been a tower of strength to us in hard times in the past.”

 A Sussex police spokesman said: “Just after 4am on Sunday June 22 a 31-year-old Worthing man had climbed on to the top of a telephone kiosk outside Brighton Pier when he fell 20ft to the ground, sustaining a serious head injury.

 “He was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital and was later transferred to Hurstwood Park Hospital in Haywards Heath where he is currently in a critical condition.

 “The man had been enjoying a night out with friends, who were present when he fell, and the incident is not being treated as suspicious.

 “There is no further police investigation.” ||||| Liam Neeson's new heartbreak as his nephew suffers serious head injury following tragic fall after night out with friends

 Hollywood star's nephew Ronan Sexton is in a 'critical condition' after falling off Brighton promenade in East Sussex

 He has been in touch with his sister Bernadette, who is by her son's bedside

 Liam was left devastated by the death of his wife, actress Natasha Richardson in 2009 after sustaining head injuries in a freak skiing accident

 In February, he told Anderson Cooper her death 'was never real' and that he still expects her to walk through the door

 He now lives in Manhattan with his two teenage boys

 The nephew of film star Liam Neeson is today in hospital with a 'serious head injury' after falling 20ft from a telephone box on Brighton promenade.

 Ronan Sexton, 31, is in a 'critical condition' after enjoying a night out with friends in East Sussex.

 He had climbed to the top of a telephone box on the seafront promenade and fell to the ground at 4am on Sunday morning, according to source.

 Scroll down for video

 Accident: Ronan Sexton, the nephew of film star Liam Neeson, is in a critical condition in hospital with a severe head injury after falling from Brighton Promenade in the UK

 Shock: Liam Neeson has been informed of his nephew's accident. He is pictured in a recent Anderson Cooper interview where he spoke about the tragic death of his wife Natasha Richardson in 2009

 Mr Sexton was then rushed to hospital before being transferred to Hurstwood Park Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

 His mother Bernadette Sexton - sister of the Star Wars and Taken film star - was today not at the family home in Worthing, West Sussex.

 Her partner Harry Shannon said Bernadette was 'in hospital with her son'.

 He said: 'Bernadette is not in at the moment because she has been at the hospital all day in Haywards Heath visiting Ronan.

 'I do not want to comment further.'

 When asked if her brother had been in contact with the family, Mr Shannon replied: Yes.'

 Friends and friendly have been quick to wish Ronan the best on social media website Facebook.

 Jason Burstow said: 'I hope he makes a full and speedy recovery. x'

 Other sources told how Mr Sexton was out wtih pals celebrating a 30th birthday.

 A Sussex police spokesman said: 'Just after 4am on Sunday June 22 a 31-year-old Worthing man had climbed on to the top of a telephone kiosk outside Brighton Pier when he fell 20ft to the ground, sustaining a serious head injury.

 'He was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital and was later transferred to Hurstwood Park Hospital in Haywards Heath where he is currently in a critical condition.

 'The man had been enjoying a night out with friends, who were present when he fell, and the incident is not being treated as suspicious.

 'There is no further police investigation.'

 Hollywood star Liam, 62, has starred in acclaimed movies including Steven Spielberg's 1993 Oscar winner Schindler's List.

 He has since starred in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Taken and Taken 2.

 In March 2009, Liam was left devastated by the death of his beloved wife, actress Natasha Richardson, following a freak fall during a skiing trip.in Quebec, Canada.

 Tragic: Ronan Sexton fell off a telephone box on Brighton Promenade in Britain

 She suffered a devastating brain injury and in February, Liam - who lives in Manhattan with his boys - opened up on his ongoing grief following Natasha's death, telling Anderson Cooper that her death at the age of 45 still doesn't seem real. And speaking at the time, the Irish actor's sister Bernadette told how the family had been left 'bewildered' by Natasha's death, saying how her son Pascal, who has Downs Syndrome was 'much loved' by the star. She said: 'She went to great pains to include him in everything, even an Easter egg hunt, and that just sums up the type of warm and caring person that she was. 'She was just a wonderful friend, sister-in-law and auntie to my kids. She's been a tower of strength to us in hard times in the past. 'She's also been there for my other sons and daughters.' Bernadette has five children, Emily, Conor, Louis, Manus, and Ronan, is the youngest.

 Liam married Richardson in 1994 and the couple had two sons, Micheál, now 19, and Daniel, now 17. And he admitted that even today he expects Natasha to come walking through the door. '[Her death] was never real,' he told Cooper. 'It still kind of isn't. There's periods now in our New York residence when I hear the door opening, especially the first couple of years... anytime I hear that door opening, I still think I'm going to hear her.' Widower: Neeson was devastated by the sudden loss of his wife Natasha Richardson

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What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Five years after his wife suffered a fatal head injury in a skiing accident, Liam Neeson is dealing with a similar family trauma, reports the Daily Mail. The actor's 31-year-old nephew, Ronan Sexton, fell 20 feet from a telephone box onto the pavement in East Sussex, Britain, and is in critical condition with head injuries. Sexton, the son of Neeson's sister, Bernadette, had been out with friends when the stunt went wrong about 4am Sunday, reports the Telegraph. Earlier this year, Neeson said the death of Natasha Richardson still didn't seem real.