• 'We saved the ship': WWII vets gather, likely for last time

    Terry Pickard / NBC News

    Surviving sailors from the USS Franklin hold a reunion at Patriots Point in Charleston on Friday.

    Terry Pickard and Carlo Dellaverson, NBC News writes

    MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Two dozen surviving veterans from the World War II aircraft carrier USS Franklin gathered on Friday, probably for the last time, to honor and remember one of the most remarkable naval episodes of the war.

    It was before dawn on a late winter morning in 1945 when a Japanese dive bomber dropped two 500 pound bombs on the Franklin. The year-old carrier nicknamed “Big Ben” was serving in the Pacific theater and, at that moment, had maneuvered closer to Japan than any other U.S.-flagged carrier during the war.

    More than 800 sailors died in the catastrophic 1945 attack on the USS Franklin, leaving the ship listing in the water. The survivors kept the ship afloat, and made it back to port. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    Sam ‘Dusty’ Rhodes was asleep in the ship’s bunk area when the bombs hit. Rhodes was a water tender 3rd class and was responsible for operating the ship’s massive boilers – and with debris from the massive explosions raining down on him, that is just what he did.

    Rhodes said he and other crew members ran to the one of the unaffected firerooms and attempted to raise enough steam to light the remaining boiler. When the flame caught from Rhodes’ Zippo lighter, “that’s when the ship’s heart started to beat again,” he recalled.

    Above on the flight deck, the scene was nothing short of catastrophic. The Franklin was dead in the water, listing to one side and cut off from communications as fires burned everywhere. More than 800 sailors died in the attack, with hundreds more wounded.

    Terry Pickard / NBC News

    Flags line the walkway to the USS Yorktown, where a '13' was painted to honor the number of the USS Franklin.

    But the Franklin didn’t sink, and that is the legacy crew members like Rhodes like to remember. The Franklin would become the most heavily damaged aircraft carrier of the war to make it back to port.

    “We saved the ship,” Rhodes said. “In the Navy, you save the ship. It’s your home.”

    William Schauer was a Naval electrician and fireman 1st class, just out of high school when he reported for duty on the deck of the Franklin, three months before the attack. Looking back on that day 68 years later, he said he was certain he was going to go down with the ship that morning, and “that was the end.”

    “But we were there for a purpose,” and despite suffering such heavy losses, Schauer says he still considers their mission – keeping the ship afloat – accomplished.

    At the reunion on Friday, Medal of Honor recipient and retired Gen. James Livingston saluted the assembled veterans. He said their “refusal to allow her to sink” allowed the Franklin to limp back to port instead of ending up buried forever on the ocean floor. “That’s a testimony to what you are as men,” he said.

    Terry Pickard / NBC News

    The tattered battle flag from the USS Franklin hangs on display at the USS Yorktown.

    In the belly of the USS Yorktown, another decommissioned carrier that saw battle in the Pacific and now survives as the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Naval Museum in this bucolic Charleston suburb, a tattered and smoke-tinged flag is mounted overhead. It was the original battle flag that flew on the mast of the Franklin’s flight deck the day of the attack -- the same flag that Rhodes remembers looking up and noticing through the haze of black smoke after the bombs hit. Seeing it meant they still had a chance, he remembered, “because we would strike the colors before abandoning ship.”   

    “Big Ben” made it all the way back to New York for repairs, where it sat on V-J Day when the war finally ended. It never saw action again, and was sold for scrap in the 1960s. The flag, along with the bell and a gun turret also on display at the Yorktown, are all that remain of one of the most momentous spectacles of heroism and fortitude of World War II. And with what could be the final gathering of the men who saved the ship, it is up to a new generation to remember the Franklin.

  • Fighting to save Africa's rhinos

    Wildlife Rangers are on the frontline of the battle to save elephants and rhinos from poaching gangs. The illegal trade in rhino horn, highlighted by Prince William earlier this year, is threatening the very existence of the creatures. NBC's  Rohit Kachroo reports on the work of the round-the-clock patrols at Lewa National Park.

    By Rohit Kachroo, Correspondent, NBC News

    First came the sound of gunshots late at night.

    Then, a few hours later, a carcass was found -- his bloodied face and mutilated body shielded by the long grass. 

    Before long, the stench of death was rising from what was now a crime scene.

    The rangers at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy seemed almost unmoved. But they have seen it, heard it and smelled it too many times before.

    Once again, this 60,000-acre park -- home to one in eight of Kenya’s rhinos -- has been struck by an armed gang.

    Despite the helicopters, the dog handlers, the electric fencing and the hiring of a former British Army captain as chief executive, Lewa has struggled with the poachers, losing six rhinos over a four-week period earlier this year.

    It is a problem for parks across Africa, where some populations of rhino and elephant face extinction within decades. Gruesome killings, like the slaughter of a family of 12 elephants in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park last January, have caused shock but brought no solutions.

    At least Lewa has a powerful supporter. This is where Prince William spent much of his gap year.  It is where he proposed to Kate Middleton in 2010. And it is here that he found another love: the precious species that are under threat from the trade in ivory and rhino horn.

    On Tuesday, William will challenge African "producer" countries and Asian "consumer" countries to end the slaughter. But what is the chance of a real solution?

    The words of a prince will mean little to the paupers who stalk the parks of Africa in search of a rhino horn which may be worth 30,000 pounds – more than its weight in gold. 

    Perhaps stiffer sentences in African countries will make a difference -- but campaigners say that some are resisting pressure to punish those involved in the trade.

    Then there's the question of how the meeting dignitaries can succeed in choking demand in the Far East, where others have failed before -- and where horns and tusks are said to have medicinal value.

    Campaigners welcome the fact that the issue is being talked about at all -- and they accept that solutions will take time.

    But for the majestic creatures that roam Lewa, there may be little of that.  

  • Sisters, separated for 17 years, find each other at high school track meet

    Robin Jeter and Jordan Dickerson both grew up in Washington, D.C., in separate families that lived miles apart. They knew they had other family members, but never met one another – until ending up at the same track competition. NBC's Ron Mott reports.

    By Ron Mott, Correspondent, NBC News

    WASHINGTON – Their similarities are striking, but teenagers Robin Jeter, 18, and Jordan Dickerson, 17, grew up quite differently in the nation’s capital.

    They’re smart, pretty and fashion-forward. Both teens are also athletically inclined and have double jointed thumbs they can contort onto the palms of their hands.

    But Robin, a senior at Friendship Collegiate Academy in northeast Washington, D.C., grew up in foster care, moving from one home to another until stability finally came her way.

    “I only grew up with my one brother, that's all I’d known,” she said.

    A few miles away, Jordan, a junior at Woodrow Wilson High School in the Northwest section of the city, was raised as an adopted only child, something her mom never hid.

    “Her telling me I was adopted really wasn't that big of a deal,” Jordan said. “I just wanted to know more about it, I was really curious ... She told me that there was a possibility that I did have a sister, but you know, the information wasn't crystal clear.”

    What’s clear is that these two young women met under remarkable circumstances in perhaps the most unlikely of places.

    'She looked just like you!'

    In January, at an indoor high school track meet, one of Jordan’s teammates was watching a girls’ race, cheering enthusiastically.

    “I said, ‘Go Jordan, Go Jordan!’" William Carson recalled.

    That is, until he realized he was rooting for an opponent. When she crossed the finish line, William realized it wasn’t Jordan after all.

    “Jordan was up like 10 feet away from me [in the bleachers]. She was looking at me, like, ‘Who is he talking to?’ And I was like, ‘She looked just like you!’”

    The momentary confusion was soon cleared up by another student, Laniyyah Elam, who’d attended elementary school with Robin but was now a schoolmate of Jordan’s at Woodrow Wilson High School.

    “I know that girl!” she said. “Her name is Robin Jeter.”

    Jordan started to cry. She knew her birth name was also Jeter.

    “I escorted her off to the bathroom,” Laniyyah said. “I asked her what was going on, and she told me that that was her sister, because she knew the last name. And I was, like, ‘Oh, wow. Do you want me to introduce you to her?’ Later on, after the meet was over, I told Robin to come up and they met each other.”

    Separated by a few miles and 17 long years, the sisters awkwardly began what quickly developed into a comfortable, familiar, strong relationship -- with nary a trace of a sibling rivalry forming.

    “I couldn't even say anything,” Robin said of the initial face-to-face conversation at the track meet.

    “The only thing I could say was, ‘You know, we look a lot alike,’” Jordan countered.

    After several months of getting to know one another—spending many weekends together and, soon, prom night—the sisters look as though they were never apart. They often finish one another’s sentences. Robin lovingly shoos away a fly from her sister’s hair. And in those moments, when they’re in each other’s company, physical contact seems irresistible, as if to suggest they fear ever losing grip on their suddenly discovered treasure.

  • No cellphone, no Wi-Fi: Living in America's quietest place

    The area surrounding the Green Bank Radio Telescope may be the quietest place in America, banning cell phones, Wi-Fi, and other transmitters. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.

    By Kevin Monahan, Producer, NBC News

    GREEN BANK, W.Va. – Every week, Chuck Niday patrols Green Bank, W.Va., in a vehicle that looks a bit like something out of the movie “Mad Max,” aiming to protect the largest steerable radio telescope in the world.

    He searches for sources of interference, which can come from something as simple as a spark plug or an electric fence. And when Niday runs across illegal wireless signals or other electronics, he asks residents to desist.

    “We just go in and ask them to turn it off, and leave it off,” he said. “People are usually pretty cooperative.”

    If they don’t, he can send a report to the Federal Communications Commission. In 1958, the FCC created a 13,000-square-mile quiet zone to shield radio telescopes in Green Bank and Sugar Grove, W.Va., from harmful man-made interference, allowing scientists to study sounds emanating from galaxies all around the universe. 

    Cellphones, Wi-Fi, radio, even certain electronics are all regulated. And there’s not a single cellphone tower to be found for miles. The entire U.S. National Radio Quiet Zone straddles the border between Virginia and West Virginia.

    Bob Sheets has spent his entire life living in the shadow of the giant telescope -- literally. It’s visible from nearly every window of his home, and looms over his field of cows.

    Green Bank, W.Va., is in the National Radio Quiet Zone, an area that covers 13,000 square miles. Bob Sheets, a life-long resident, says most people that visit are happy to turn off their cell phones, but others have a harder time adjusting.

    A retired English teacher from the area, Sheets is quite aware that people might consider him “road kill on the technology highway,” as he puts it, but says the National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a great neighbor. He doesn’t think outsiders mind much either.

    “Most people that come to visit are happy to turn their cellphone off and get away from it all for a while. It seems to reduce their anxiety,” he said.

    The remote town of Green Bank sits smack in the middle of the Allegheny Mountain Range, situated in a valley in the mountains that is naturally protected from many of the radio signals flying around. 

    It’s the closest community to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which runs the Green Bank Telescope. One-and-a-half times taller than the Statue of Liberty, the radio telescope listens into space. 

    Telescope director Karen O’Neil explained: “We listen to galaxies, not just our own, and by doing so, try to understand how these galaxies were formed.”

    Michael Holstine, operations manager, says it takes on some of the biggest questions of our time -- and the quiet zone is the perfect place to do it.

    “We‘ve been able to peer back to just after the Big Bang, 13.9 billion to 14 billion years ago,” he said. “We need quiet to gather all the signals that are being supplied to us by the universe. Green Bank is just about the quietest place in the country.”

    Michael J. Holstine, business manager at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia tells NBC's Kevin Tibbles that the steerable radio telescope, which is the largest in the world, can "peer back to just after the big bang."

    But what about the seemingly draconian restrictions it puts on the local residents here?

    At Green Bank Elementary Middle School, which is in direct line-of-sight of the telescope, students actually talk to each other instead of texting.

    It doesn’t mean however, that some teenagers wouldn’t prefer to have a cellphone to help beef up their social lives.

    “If you have a cellphone with you all the time, everybody can get a hold of you,” said Kourtney Cohenour, 14, who recently moved to Green Bank with her family. “You don’t need to worry about people trying to find you.”

    They still have payphones here in Green Bank -- and people seem to use them. Some of the residents even get a kick out of those who still rely on cellphones.

    “I saw a lady one time at a local gas station here,” Sheets said with a smile. “She was holding it high above her head to try and get a signal and then she took it over and she waved it around the pay phone.”

    At the main general store in town, owner Bob Earvine and his son, Donnie, don’t seem to mind the restrictions.

    Donnie Earvine claims to miss using his cellphone when he leaves town and comes back. As for his father, not so much.

    “I don’t miss a cellphone one bit,” said Bob Earvine. “If the observatory wasn’t here, I’m not sure we would be. You can see how little other employment there is around here. It’s a small price to pay.”

    Brian Farkas / AP file

    The Robert C. Byrd Telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory rises above the rural Pocahontas County, W.Va., countryside on Oct. 26, 2008. The telescope is the world's largest steerable radio telescope.

     

     

    This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 6:20 PM EDT

  • White House releases additional documents related to Benghazi response

    One hundred pages of emails were passed out by the White House Wednesday as the Obama administration tried to put an end to the long simmering dispute over what took place when the American compound in Benghazi was attacked. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.

    Michael O'Brien writes

     

    Under increasing scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the White House on Wednesday released copies of emails and other additional supporting documents related to its response to last fall’s attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.

    The White House released the materials in the wake of Republicans’ clamor for more information about how the Obama administration crafted its explanation for the incident, which came at the height of last year’s campaign season, and resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

    The emails convey different parts of the administration -- the White House, the State Department, and the CIA -- trading drafts of talking points for use not just by representatives of the administration, but also by members of Congress.

    Read part one of the White House emails (.pdf)

    From the very first draft, the talking points included references to "Islamic extremists" who might have participated in the attack.

    The most significant changes involved removing references to Ansar al-Sharia to not hinder the investigation into the attack, and changing reference to the Benghazi location to a "mission" or "diplomatic post," rather than a consulate.

    Those talking points, though, were subjected to scrutiny and a series of tweaks from different agencies to ensure the talking points did not get out in front of investigators, who did not yet appear to have a full grasp of the underpinnings of the attack at that point.

    The documents released by the White House indicated that then-CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell voiced similar concerns to those from State Department officials and that the same intelligence analysts who drafted the original talking points were comfortable with the language included in the edits, NBC's Peter Alexander reported.

    On page 95 of the documents released Wednesday, an email appears to show that then-CIA Director David Petraeus wasn't completely sold on releasing the talking points, writing: "No mention of the cable to Cairo, either? Frankly, I'd just as soon not use this, then ... NSS's call, to be sure; however, this is certainly not what Vice Chairman Ruppersberger was hoping to get for unclas use. Regardless, thx for the great work."

    A congressional hearing last week, where whistleblowers took issue with the administration’s initial explanation that the attacks were the spontaneous outgrowth of an unrelated protest (and not a terrorist attack) gave rise to new demands for more information from the administration.

    Read part two of the White House emails (.pdf)

    Republicans took the emails as a validation of their criticism of the White House for making more changes to its talking points than the administration had originally let on.

    “The seemingly political nature of the State Department’s concerns raises questions about the motivations behind these changes and who at the State Department was seeking them. This release is long overdue and there are relevant documents the Administration has still refused to produce,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “We hope, however, that this limited release of documents is a sign of more cooperation to come.”

    President Barack Obama has dismissed Republicans’ interest in the administration’s evolving explanation for the attack as a “sideshow,” as recently as this Monday.

    “The whole issue of talking points, frankly, throughout this process has been a sideshow,” he said. “What we have been very clear about throughout was that immediately after this event happened, we were not clear who exactly had carried it out, how it had occurred, what the motivations were.”

    Underlying Republicans’ interest in the Benghazi matter – at which they’ve kept now for six months – is a suspicion that the administration clouded the reality of the attack so as to not damage Obama’s prospects for re-election.

    “The president ran out the clock and he won the election,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., a chief Republican critic of Obama’s on Benghazi, said Tuesday on Fox News. “He was able to get Benghazi behind him in terms of electoral politics, but it won't go away.”

    Meanwhile, U.S. government officials said investigators have identified a person who played a central role in the attack in Benghazi, and that federal criminal charges against that person will soon be made public. The person to be named in the charges is not yet in U.S. custody, one official said.

    Word of that progress in the investigation followed a statement by Attorney General Eric Holder, who told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the Justice Department has taken "definitive, concrete action" to bring people to justice who were responsible for the attack.

    "We have been aggressive and we are in a good position. Definitive action has been taken," Holder said, though he declined to be more specific. 

    "We will be prepared shortly to reveal what we have done," he said.

    NBC News' Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed to this report.

     

    This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 5:01 PM EDT

  • Holder faces questions on Capitol Hill

    Carrie Dann writes

    As the White House faces a trio of burgeoning controversies that have put the administration and agencies throughout Washington on the defensive, Attorney General General Eric Holder reiterated before a House panel Wednesday that he was not involved in the Justice Department's decision to seize two months of phone records from Associated Press journalists as a part of a leak probe.

    LIVESTREAM: House Judiciary Committee hearing

    The Justice Department has also opened an investigation into revelations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status for additional scrutiny. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder said that prosecutors are looking at several different statutes in the investigation of those actions. 

    He said those potential violations could include an IRS statute that requires employees to do their jobs without favoritism, civil rights laws, the Hatch Act that restricts a federal employee's political activities, or the law against making false statements to investigators.

    “The facts will take us wherever they take us,” he added, promising a nationwide investigation. 

    Asked about the leak probe, Holder confirmed that Deputy Attorney General James Cole authorized the subpoenas on AP reporters' phone records after Holder recused himself from the matter.

    Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

    Attorney General Eric Holder is sworn in during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill May 15, 2013 in Washington, DC.

    Holder first announced Tuesday that he had recused himself from the AP leak probe because he had previously been questioned by the FBI about the intelligence breach.

    He added Wednesday that he also turned over his own phone records as a part of that questioning. 

    He told the committee that he recused himself because he was one of the “relatively limited number of people” who had first-hand knowledge of the leaked information – and also because he had more regular communication with reporters than Cole.

    “I was a possessor of the information that was ultimately leaked,” he added. “And the question then is, who of those people who possessed that information – which was a relatively limited number of people  within the Justice Department – who of those people actually spoke in an inappropriate way to the Associated Press,” he added.

    In response to questions, he said that he did not know the date of his recusal for certain and that there was not a written record of it.  He also said that the White House would not have been informed of the recusal. 

    Holder has been widely criticized by Republicans for DOJ's handling of the matter, scrutiny Holder noted at the beginning of his remarks.

    "The head of the [Republican National Committee] called for my resignation in spite of the fact that I was not the person who was involved in that decision," he said.

    The routine Justice Department oversight hearing became a hot ticket after two scandals – the DOJ probe and the revelations about the IRS – erupted since the end of last week. The Obama administration also continues to be dogged by lingering questions over its administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.

    In opening remarks he was set to deliver before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder says the Justice Department “has taken critical steps to prevent and combat violent crime, to confront national security threats, to ensure the civil rights of everyone in this country, and to safeguard the most vulnerable members of our society.”

    NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report. 

    This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 1:07 PM EDT

  • 'Spirit of the Cold War': Russia says US diplomat was trying to recruit for CIA

    Ryan Fogle, a 29-year-old U.S. Embassy employee, was reportedly caught trying to recruit a Russian intelligence official to work for the CIA.  NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Anna Nemtsova, Robert Windrem, Alastair Jamieson and Erin McClam, NBC News writes

    Evoking the spy games of the Cold War, Russia said Tuesday that it had detained an American diplomat who was carrying cash, two wigs and technical equipment and was trying to recruit a Russian intelligence official to work for the CIA.

    Russia ordered the expulsion of the American diplomat, whom it identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle, third secretary of the political division of the U.S. Embassy. The State Department said only that an officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had been detained and released.

    American officials said they did not expect a rift in U.S.-Russian relations. U.S. officials are trying to improve those relations, and to persuade Russia to help resolve a civil war in Syria.

    FSB via AP

    Wigs and spy gadgets that the Russian Federal Security Service says were carried by American diplomat Ryan Fogle.

    Russia used stronger language, calling the matter provocative and in the spirit of the Cold War.

    A statement by the Russian Federal Security Service, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, said that Fogle was taken to the service’s headquarters and then to the U.S. embassy after his arrest Monday night.

    The security service, known as the FSB, released to Russian media photographs of the American’s arrest and what it said were items he had with him, including the wigs, a torch, a compass and a wad of 500-euro notes, each worth $650.

    Russian television also displayed a letter it said was found on Fogle, printed in Russian and addressed “Dear friend.” The letter offered a $100,000 payment as “an advance from someone who has been highly impressed by your professionalism, and who would highly value your cooperation in the future.”

    The statement from the security service said that the U.S. had “repeatedly attempted to recruit employees of Russian law enforcement bodies and special departments” recently.

    The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, was participating in a question-and-answer session on Twitter when the detention was announced. He was summoned to Russia’s foreign ministry, The Associated Press reported.

    Experts expressed surprise at the old-school nature of the alleged espionage, but they noted that intelligence-gathering had not stopped just because the Cold War ended more than two decades ago.

    FSB via AP

    In this photo provided by Russian Federal Security Service, a man claimed by the service to be Ryan Fogle is seen at the service's offices in Moscow.

    “If anything, it has increased,” said James Nixey, head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the British think tank Chatham House. “The methods have changed — or so we thought — because it’s more about industrial espionage and corruption these days.”

    Besides the diplomacy over Syria, there have been questions about whether Russia gave the United States enough information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the attack on the Boston Marathon.

    Russian officials asked the U.S. for more information about Tsarnaev, who was born in what is now Russia and traveled to Russia early last year. Russia suspected that Tsarnaev was becoming radicalized, American officials have said.

    The FBI interviewed him in 2011 and turned up nothing, and when the FBI asked Russia twice for more information about its concern, Russia failed to respond, the American officials said. Tsarnaev was killed April 19 in a shootout with police.

    President Barack Obama later said Russia had cooperated since the attack but noted: “Old habits die hard. There are still suspicions sometimes between our intelligence and law enforcement agencies that date back 10, 20, 30 years, back to the Cold War.”

    The incident would not be the only intelligence blunder in Russia. Britain admitted bugging a Moscow park in 2006 by disguising a recording device as a big rock. The FSB saw a British diplomat picking it up and walking away with it.

    Related: 

    Full Russia coverage from NBC News

    Editor’s note: This story includes a correction.

    This story was originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 7:59 PM EDT

  • DNA tests confirm Cleveland kidnap suspect is father of girl freed from house

    Local law enforcement officials in Cleveland tell WKYC that accused kidnapper Ariel Castro is the father of Amanda Berry's 6-year-old daughter.

    Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News writes

    DNA tests have confirmed that Ariel Castro, the suspect in the kidnapping and decade-long imprisonment of three women in Cleveland, is the father of a 6-year-old girl born to one of the women in captivity, the Ohio attorney general said Friday.

    Attorney General Mike DeWine also said that Castro’s DNA did not match other unsolved Ohio cases. He said that the FBI is still checking Castro’s DNA against unsolved cases elsewhere in the country.

    Castro, 52, is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape in the abductions of the three women and is being held on $8 million bond. They were freed Monday night when one of them, Amanda Berry, broke through a door and screamed for help.

    Berry is the mother of the 6-year-old, who was also rescued from the house, authorities have said.

    The baby was delivered in a kiddie pool by another captive, Michelle Knight, according to a Cleveland police report. Knight told investigators that Castro threatened to kill her if the baby died, the report said.

    Knight also told investigators that Castro impregnated her at least five times, and starved her and pummeled her in the stomach to force her to miscarry, the police report said.

    A DNA match to Castro would confirm what Berry told police, according to the police account. It also said that Castro would take the child out with him, and made sure the girl did not know Knight’s or DeJesus’ real name in case she said them in public.

    An Ohio prosecutor pledged Thursday to pursue charges of aggravated murder against Castro for any pregnancies that he terminated.

    Knight remains in a Cleveland hospital. The hospital said Friday that she is in good spirits, is grateful for an outpouring of flowers and gifts and is asking for privacy.

    Berry and another captive, Gina DeJesus, returned home to their families earlier this week.

    This story was originally published on Fri May 10, 2013 10:57 AM EDT

  • Two best friends, ages 6 and 7, raise $200,000 to fight rare disease

    Best friends Jonah and Dylan have a special bond, especially now that they've raised more money for Jonah's medical condition than any institution has been able to do. NBC's Chelsea Clinton reports.

    By Mary Murray, Senior Producer, NBC News

    LOS ANGELES -- There are only about 100 people in the U.S. like 7-year-old Jonah Pournazarian.

    He suffers from a rare genetic and incurable disease called Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1B. Up until the 80s, most kids with his condition didn't survive past the age of two.

    But his best buddy, Dylan Siegel, wanted his friend to get better, so he wrote a book hoping to raise one million dollars to find a cure.

    It took him an hour to write and illustrate the pages of "Chocolate Bar," an expression the boys use to describe something great, fantastic, or awesome.

    He then nagged his parents to find a publisher. David and Debra Siegel, who live in Los Angeles, Calif., turned to a local printer for help.

    "We had 200 copies to sell at a school fair," said Debra Siegel. "We were hoping that we could sell all the books we had printed.  We didn't want to get stuck with these books."

    In a couple of hours, the boys sold every copy and had collected $6,000.

    "Lo and behold, we had to do a second printing," said David Siegel, who then set up a Facebook page, and eventually a website. "People started to hear about this beautiful little book and wanted to help, be a part of Dylan's Magic."

    Click here to visit the Chocolate Bar website and here to visit their Facebook page. 

    In six months, sales of "Chocolate Bar," as well as real chocolate bars donated by a local Whole Foods supermarket, have raised $200,000 along with awareness of a disease most know little about.

    Cornstarch becomes Jonah's lifeline


    GSD is a metabolic disorder     that affects the liver.

    "The only thing keeping my son alive is cornstarch," explained his mother, Lora Pournazarian, as she mixed a precise dose of cornstarch and water. She administers this mixture through a feeding tube around the clock to keep Jonah's blood sugar levels even. 

    Jonah is permitted to eat other foods, but sweets, fruits and dairy can only be had in strict moderation. 

    "He can have a bite of an apple.  Nothing will happen to him.  He can have a slice of pizza if he wants to, and it's okay," said Lora. "You know, his main food is bread.  If he eats, bread with butter.  And plain pasta."

    Despite the work involved in being constant caregivers, Jonah's father Rabin Pournazarian said he's grown to appreciate life more since Jonah was born.

    "I understand how fragile life is. I understand how difficult it is, at the end of the day, to have a child with special needs.  I understand what a blessing it is to have a child with special needs," he said. "Unfortunately, I've become a little bit more impatient, and -- just life is more stressful now than it was before.  But that's okay, it's just -- it's different.  But different isn't bad."

    The Pournazarians have two other children, Rachel, 9, and Eli, Jonah's twin brother, who both say they're proud of Dylan for everything he's done to help their brother Jonah.

    "It's really amazing to me that a boy his age can make this happen," Rachel said.  

    Dylan and Jonah's siblings Eli, Rachel and Jack share their excitement and appreciation for the "Chocolate Bar" book. 

    An "astounding" book

    Professor Dr. David Weinstein, director of the Glycogen Storage Disease Program at the University of Florida, is working on finding a cure through gene therapy. Because it is so rare, he said, "We're just in the infancy of really trying to treat this."

    Funding research for what Weinstein describes as an "orphan disease," something rare that affects a small population, has been challenging.

    "It's too small for the NIH [National Institutes of Health] to care about, too small to have a foundation," Weinstein said.

    Until "Chocolate Bar," he added, "we had no place to turn.”

    Like other adults, Weinstein was skeptical that Dylan's book would help his efforts.

    "I thought it was wonderful that Dylan wanted to help Jonah," said Weinstein, but at the time he doubted the book would make any real difference.

    Now, he calls Chocolate Bar "astounding."

    "To think that a 7-year-old boy could write a book that could raise more money than all the medical foundations combined! This book is going to allow us to build research teams so that we can really work toward improving the lives of these children," he said.

    And why not? To Dylan and Jonah, friendship is that simple.

    "Dylan wrote the book to help me," said Jonah.

    "I want Jonah to feel better," said Dylan.

    The boys say they've been best buddies for "years." The two first started playing together in nursery school, when they were three. These days, they are inseparable.

    "We're not really good friends," said Jonah. "We're really, really good friends."

    Correcting him, Dylan replied, "No, we're not really, really good friends. We're really, really, really, really, really good friends."

    Clearly, the best of friends.

  • Time-lapse map chronicles decades of global change as seen from space

    Google and Time magazine have stitched together satellite images collected by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, showcasing developments in our planet's landscape via time-lapse. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.

    Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News writes


    Satellite imagery can serve as a time machine, revealing dramatic change in just a few seconds — but can you imagine documenting almost three decades' worth of all that change, across most of our planet's land mass? A team of imaging experts, computer scientists and journalists did. Now they've unveiled the result: a global database of zoomable, animated satellite views known as Timelapse.

    "We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public," Rebecca Moore, engineering manager for Google Earth Engine and Earth outreach, said Thursday in Google's blog announcement of the Timelapse project.

    Moore said the project began in 2009, when Google started working with the U.S. Geological Society to make its archive of Landsat imagery available online. The team sifted through more than 2 million satellite images, adding up to 909 terabytes of data, and selected cloudless, high-quality views for every year since 1984.

    Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab smoothed the views into seamless animations, and Time magazine built it all into a presentation that supplements the time-lapse animations with commentaries on climate change, urban growth and the other trends that are transforming the planet.

    "I've been chiseling away at this project over the last 11 months, and am in awe of the folks who helped this come together in ways I could never have conceived on my own. Some very bright minds figured out how to make the biggest video frames ever constructed, equivalent to 900,000 HD TVs next to one another," Jonathan Woods, the Time project's executive producer (and a former colleague at msnbc.com), said in an email.

    Google Earth is also hosting the Timelapse zoomable map. "Much like the iconic image of Earth from the Apollo 17 mission — which had a profound effect on many of us — this time-lapse map is not only fascinating to explore, but we also hope it can inform the global community's thinking about how we live on our planet and the policies that will guide us in the future," Moore said.

    When it comes to telling the story of our changing planet, one time-lapse animation is worth a thousand words. But there's more to tell. Find out more about the trends illustrated in the seven animated images you see here:

    Columbia Glacier: Alaska's retreating ice reveals how climate change is changing Earth's surface.

    Dubai coastal expansion: New islands are sprouting along Dubai's coastline as part of a $14 billion land reclamation effort, arguably the largest project of its kind.

    Irrigation in Saudi Arabia: Agriculture amid the deserts of Arabia? It's a growing concern, thanks to huge irrigation projects that take advantage of underground rivers and lakes. The water won't last, though: Hydrologists estimate that it'll be economical to pump water for only about 50 years. 

    Lake Urmia drying up: Iran's great salt lake is not as great as it was, and the reason for that is in dispute. The Iranian government blames climate change and drought, while critics blame the dams that have been built around the lake.

    Brazilian Amazon deforestation: Satellite imagery documents the loss of Amazonian forest land in Brazil due to road-building, logging and agricultural clearing.

    Las Vegas urban growth: What sprawls in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas. Landsat pictures reveal how urban development has spread out around Nevada's biggest city over the decades.

    Wyoming coal mining: The Black Thunder mine in Wyoming's Powder River Basin ranks as the largest single coal mining complex in the world, according to Arch Coal, its operator. Satellite imagery shows how the mine has spread out over the decades.

    More time-lapse videos:

    Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

  • Cleveland man charged with kidnapping, rape; no charges for 2 brothers

    In the Cleveland house where they were held for years on end, the three kidnapped women either remained chained in the basement or lived upstairs. Ariel Castro, who has been charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, reportedly kept the doors locked. On the rare occasion that the women did go outside, they were heavily disguised, according to police. NBC's Ron Allen reports.

    Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News writes

    The Cleveland man charged with holding three women captive for a decade impregnated one of them five times and punched her in the stomach until she miscarried, police said Wednesday in a chilling report on the kidnappings.

    The man forced one of his captives, Michelle Knight, to deliver the baby of another captive, Amanda Berry, in a kiddie pool, and threatened to kill Knight if the baby died, police said.

    Police made the revelations in a report that laid out a nightmarish captivity, including starvation and imprisonment in the basement. One official said the women apparently were allowed outside the house only twice, and briefly, in the years after they were captured.

    The Cleveland city prosecutor charged the man, Ariel Castro, with four counts of kidnapping — one for each of the three women and one for a baby that was born to Berry six years ago. Castro was also charged with three counts of rape for each of the adult women.

    But authorities filed no charges against two of Castro’s brothers who were arrested Monday night, after Berry escaped the house with the help of a neighbor and the other two women were freed.

    Authorities said they had no evidence that the two brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were involved in the kidnappings.

    The three captives — Berry, Knight and Gina DeJesus — were allowed only in the backyard when they were let outdoors at all, and were forced to wear wigs and sunglasses when they left the house, the report said.


    The escape came on Monday, when Castro went to McDonald’s and left a “big inside door” unlocked, the report said. That was when Berry broke through a locked storm door, afraid to open it further because she worried that Castro was testing her, the report said. Berry made it out and called 911.

    “From what we know, their only opportunity to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped,” said Ed Tomba, the deputy Cleveland police chief.

    All three women told police that Castro initially chained them in the basement, the report said, but he ultimately let them live on the second floor of the home, a shabby, two-story dwelling on Cleveland’s West Side.

    The women were not in the same room but did know the others were there, Tomba said.

    “As far as what the circumstances were inside that home, and the control he may have had over those girls, we don’t know that yet,” he said.

    According to the report, Knight told investigators that she carried Castro’s baby “at least” five times, and that when he found out, he “would make her abort the baby” — starving her for two weeks and repeatedly punching her in the stomach until she miscarried.

    When Berry’s baby was born, Knight put her mouth to the baby’s to keep it alive — and keep herself alive because Castro had threatened to kill her, the report said.

    Berry told investigators that none of the women had seen a doctor during their captivity, the report said.

    One police source close to the investigation cautioned earlier in the day that it was hard to be sure the women’s memories were completely accurate after such a long time in captivity.

    John Gress / Reuters

    Gina DeJesus arrives at her home in Cleveland.

    Earlier Wednesday, DeJesus and Berry returned home to their families, both greeted by cheering crowds and huge displays of balloons, ribbons, teddy bears and encouraging signs. DeJesus gave a thumbs up.

    “She was happy,” said her aunt, Sandra Ruiz. “She looked at the house and wanted a tour.”

    Knight remained in a Cleveland hospital and was getting mental health treatment, her mother said.

    Cleveland authorities said that a search of the Castro house had revealed no human remains. FBI agents returned to the house Wednesday and also searched a house two doors down that appeared to be abandoned.

    Authorities said they did not suspect Castro had kidnapped anyone else. They said they had questioned Castro about the disappearance of a fourth Cleveland woman, Ashley Summers.

    Castro was due in court Thursday morning for arraignment. The two brothers are also due in court Thursday, but on unrelated misdemeanor charges, authorities said.

    “There is no evidence that these two individuals had any involvement in the commission of the crimes committed against Michelle, Gina, Amanda and the minor child,” said Victor Perez, the city prosecutor.

    The three women were reported missing in Cleveland months apart: Knight in August 2002 after losing custody of her son, Berry in April 2003 after finishing her part-time shift at a Burger King, and DeJesus in April 2004 while walking home from middle school.

    The police report suggests Castro used the same tactic to capture each of them: He offered them a ride. In Berry’s case, he told her he had a son who also worked at Burger King.

    When Berry made her break for freedom years later, kicking the door and screaming, a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, helped free her. In her 911 call, Berry pleaded with the dispatcher to send help: “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years.”

    When help came, two police officers crawled through a broken panel of the storm door and kicked it open to allow other officers in, the report said.

    Two officers went upstairs, and the other two women threw themselves into the officers’ arms, it said.

    Berry is now 27, DeJesus 23 and Knight 32.

    Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

    A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland.

    Launch slideshow

    McGrath said that the house had come to the attention of police only twice — in 2000, when Ariel Castro called about a fight on the street, and in 2004, when Castro, a school bus driver, had left behind one of his passengers.

    The chief’s account conflicts with that of at least one neighbor, Israel Lugo, who told MSNBC on Tuesday that he called the police in 2011 after his sister spotted a woman with a baby in the home, banging on the window “like she wants to get out.”

    McGrath said that his department would have a record of such a call and that there was none. He said that he was “absolutely confident” that his officers did not miss a chance to free the three women.

    Ariel Castro, 52, was accused in 2005 of attacking his former wife, The Plain Dealer newspaper reported. Her lawyer at the time said that although the ex-wife had custody of their children, Castro “frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from mother,’’ the newspaper reported.

    Khalid Samad, a community organizer, told NBC News that Castro had accompanied him on searches for the missing women.

    First lady Michelle Obama told NBC News that the kidnappings were “probably a parent’s worst nightmare.”

    “These families are going to have to wrap their arms around these young women and make sure that they get all the help and support they need so that they will go on and lead healthy, normal lives,” she told TODAY. “We’re just grateful that they’re safe.”

    Richard Esposito and Jeff Black of NBC News contributed to this report.

    This story was originally published on Wed May 8, 2013 8:54 AM EDT

  • Timeline of the Ohio kidnappings: Three women's shared nightmare

    Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were all kidnapped roughly ten years ago in the Cleveland area and were held captive in a home until yesterday when a neighbor heard Berry screaming for help. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.

    Elizabeth Chuck and Polly DeFrank, NBC News writes

    It's a story with a happy ending over a decade in the making. A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland, Ohio. Below is a timeline of events in the case, from before the women first  disappeared to their eventual freedom. 

    2000: Police visit the Cleveland home of the three Castro brothers, who years later would be placed into custody for the kidnappings of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus. At the time, police were responding to a call about a fight involving Ariel Castro, one of the brothers, then a bus driver.

    Aug. 22, 2002: Michelle Knight, then 21 years old, disappears. She is last seen at a cousin's house in Cleveland, according to Cleveland.com. She is reported missing the following day to police, but some family members believe she may have left on her own because she was angry that she had lost custody of her son, according to Cleveland.com. As a result, her disappearance and her photo are not widely publicized.

    April 21, 2003: Amanda Berry calls her sister to tell her she's getting a ride home from her job at a fast food restaurant on the day before her 17th birthday. According to authorities, she got into a white, four-door sedan with three men inside. She doesn't make it home and is reported missing, prompting a huge search involving national publicity.

    Nov. 15, 2003: The FBI reveals that a week after Berry vanished, her mom received a phone call from her cellphone. A male voice said, "I have Amanda. She’s fine and will be coming home in a couple of days.” Authorities are unable to determine the authenticity of the call.


    January 2004: Police make their second visit in four years to the home of the Castro brothers. Ariel Castro, the bus driver, had been accused of leaving a child on a bus; when authorities knocked on the door, no one answered. They later interviewed him and discovered he had "inadvertently" left the child on the school bus, according to The New York Times. Officials determined there was no criminal intent, and he was not charged.

    March 6, 2004: The FBI announces that the body of a teenage girl found near San Diego earlier in the week isn't a match for Berry's dental records.

    April 2, 2004: Gina DeJesus, then 14, vanishes while walking home from school in Cleveland. Her case bears striking similarities to Berry's: Both girls disappeared within in the same five-block radius, both girls were about 5'1'', and neither had a history of running away from home.

    April 9, 2004: Police looking for DeJesus tell the public they are seeking a Hispanic man driving a light-color, older-model, compact car with a license plate that includes the letters "SMS," driving in the area where DeJesus disappeared from. 

    November 2004: Berry's case is featured on "America's Most Wanted." The same month, psychic Sylvia Browne appeared on Montel Williams' nationally syndicated TV show alongside Berry's mother, and tells her that her daughter is probably dead.

    Oct. 24, 2005: DeJesus' parents, Nancy and Felix, make a national plea on the syndicated program "Maury" to ask for help finding their daughter.

    March 2, 2006: Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, dies of heart failure at age 43, nearly three years after she started the search for her daughter. “I want her on the news. She’s faded away from the whole world. It just kills me. This is killing me,” Miller had told a Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter who she often asked to write more about her daughter.

    Sept. 21, 2006: Police arrest Matthew Hurayt, a 35-year-old registered sex offender, after receiving a tip that DeJesus' body was buried beneath his garage on Cleveland's West Side. A search of his home yields nothing.

    July 6, 2007: Another Cleveland girl, Ashley Summers, 14, disappears without a trace from the same neighborhood as Berry and DeJesus. Her disappearance puts Cleveland on edge, and attracts more media attention than ever to the neighborhood and its unsolved crimes -- even though it isn't clear if there is a connection.

    April 2009: FBI says it suspects Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Ashley Summers may have all been kidnapped by one man.

    Sept. 8, 2009: Police rule out the possibility that a body found in Wisconsin the previous November is Berry's after DNA tests come back negative.

    January 2013: A Cleveland inmate, Robert Wolford, is sentenced to four-and-a-half years for providing a false burial tip in Berry's disappearance, sending authorities to a Cleveland lot in the summer of 2012 to dig for her remains.

    May 6, 2013: A neighbor hears a noise coming from the door of the Castro home. Stuck inside, Berry is trying to bust through, "kicking the door and screaming," said the neighbor, Charles Ramsey. "‘I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been in this house a long time and I want to leave right now,’” Berry said, according to Ramsey, who helps kick the locked door down.

    Once the door is open, Ramsey gives Berry his phone so she can call 911. She has a child with her. Police arrest the three Castro brothers: Ariel, 52, Pedro, 54, and O'Neil, 50.  The three women inside the home, plus the 6-year-old child, are taken to a hospital. Summers is still missing.

    May 7, 2013: The three women are released from the hospital Tuesday morning.

    In a press conference, police commend Berry for getting herself and the other women out of the house. "The real hero here is Amanda," said Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba.

    As of Tuesday afternoon, no charges had been filed yet against the three suspects.

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