TODAY’S NEWS BRIEFING
1: Milton Greene slides of stars snag $1.8M
NEW YORK — Tens of thousands of negatives of Marilyn Monroe and other stars by celebrity photographer Milton Greene have sold at auction for $1.8 million.
The archive includes 3,700 negatives and slides of Marilyn Monroe. All the material was sold with copyright.
Profiles in History auction house says the highlights included a collection of color transparencies of the Hollywood siren with Laurence Olivier from the “The Prince and the Showgirl” movie. It sold for $42,000.
2: Driver of Spain train IDs caller on phone
MADRID — The driver of a Spanish train that crashed killing 79 people said he was talking by phone to the train’s on-board ticket inspector moments before the accident but hung up just before the train left the tracks, a court said Wednesday.
Train driver Francisco Jose Garzon Amo went to the court of his own volition and told the judge he received a call from the ticket inspector about which platform to take on arriving at a station, a court statement said.
Garzon told the judge, that he hung up “seconds before” the train hurtled off the track.
3: Gadhafi-era official sentenced to death
TRIPOLI, Libya — A criminal court in Libya sentenced a Gadhafiera education minister to death Wednesday for murder and for inciting violence during the 2011 civil war, the second such guilty verdict by the same court in recent days.
A judge in Misrata, one of hardest-hit cities during the war, found Ahmed Ibrahim guilty of inciting residents in Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte to form armed gangs and fight the rebels who were seek- ing to overthrow the Libyan dictator.
Ibrahim also was convicted of spreading false news through the local radio station there and terrorizing and demoralizing the public.
4: US: Mideast deal in 9 months is target
JERUSALEM — Reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal within nine months is a target, not a deadline, a U.S. diplomat in Jerusalem said Wednesday, two days after the sides resumed negotiations and ended a five-year freeze.
During the talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to visit the region “on a regular basis” to check on progress, said Michael Ratney, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem.
Israelis and Palestinians are trying to reach agreement on the terms of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
In two previous attempts, in 20002001 and in 2007-2008, the two sides made progress on drawing a border between Israel and a state of Palestine, but negotiations broke off — each time under disputed circumstances — before they could close a deal.