Some children carried thank-you cards. A first-grader was eager to see her favorite gym teacher and for a chance to say goodbye for the school year.

It was one of many difficult goodbyes for the city of Moore. Family and friends attended the funeral of a 9-year-old girl who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School the first since Monday's storm, which killed 24 people.

Students who survived the storm's onslaught at the school and those whose parents had pulled them out of class just before it hit gathered with their teachers at another Moore school that wasn't damaged. Seven children died at Plaza Towers.

Authorities kept journalists at a distance, but Cheryle Dixon, a grandmother of first-grader Crisily Dixon, talked to a reporter about how hard it was for the little girl.

"A lot of tears, a lot of worry about her gym teacher, a lot of worry about a lot of the teachers that she knew, so she just can't believe it," Dixon said.

The father of 7-year-old Crisily had picked her up an hour before the tornado struck when he learned the severity of the approaching storm a top-of-the-scale EF5 that was on the ground for 40 minutes, according to the National Severe Storm Lab in Norman.

The police and the mayor's office in Oklahoma City both estimate that around 12,000 homes were damaged and destroyed by the storm in the city and to the south in Moore.

After the disaster, when Crisily saw pictures on the news of a car in the hallway that leads to her classroom, "her little face, she just turned pale," Dixon said.

At the same time, Dixon said her granddaughter was looking ahead to second grade in the fall and was hoping a book she needed was fished out of the school's ruins.

"She said, 'What about my book, what about my book? I'm supposed to have it for next year,'" the grandmother said, her eyes filling with tears. "She said, 'I'm supposed to take it to second grade. It was in my desk.' "

Moore Schools Superintendent Susan Pierce said Plaza Towers and Briarwood Elementary schools will be rebuilt. Briarwood was heavily damaged but no one was killed there.

"And we will reopen and we will have school in August," she said.

Also headed to Thursday's reunion of classmates and students was Carly Ramirez, who held her 4-year-old daughter, Kamrin, in her arms. The small, ponytailed brunette shyly buried her face in her mother's neck, tightly holding two thank-you cards she planned to give her teachers.

In each envelope were two notes: One from Kamrin and one from her mother.

Kamrin also was not at Plaza Towers when the storm hit, having already left her morning preschool class. She rode out the storm in a shelter at her grandfather's home.

The main reason they came, though, Ramirez said was so that Kamrin could see with her own eyes that all her teachers had emerged from the school alive.

"She's asked about her teacher and her book buddy, which is a fifth-grader that goes to the library with her on Wednesdays," Ramirez said.

Gov. Mary Fallin said that as the removal of mountains of debris begins "we are also in a stage of healing." A public memorial service would be held Sunday night at a church, she said.

At Thursday's funeral service, relatives and friends gathered in a chapel in Oklahoma City to remember 9-year-old Antonia Candelaria. Mournful country music played in the chapel, which was adorned with flowers and photos of the smiling girl.

An obituary posted on the funeral home's website said the girl loved to sing she knew the words to most of the songs on the country radio station her family frequently had on and she would sing along, bringing joy to the house.

The family's remembrance also talked of the "gentle and loving spirit" of a girl whose nickname was "ladybug."

The third-grader recently auditioned to sing in a talent show that would have been held Thursday.

"Tonie always danced, not walked, to the beat of her own drum," the family wrote in her obit. "And she banged her drum very well. She would bang that drum so loud that others could not help but to start dancing to her beat as well."

The Wallabies, who are to play the British and Irish Lions in a three-test series starting on June 22, on Thursday confirmed a match against Wales on their end of season tour.

They also meet England on Nov. 2, then play Italy, Ireland and Scotland on successive weekends before they conclude the tour in Cardiff on Nov. 30.

The only Australian side to complete the grand slam of victories against the four Home Nations was the 1984 side captained by Andrew Slack.

The Wallabies' last grand slam tour in 2009 faltered in the second match when they drew 20-20 with Ireland and were then beaten 9-8 by Scotland.

"There's a good core of guys in the squad now who were on that trip," Wallabies' lock James Horwill said in a statement.

"Having the grand slam opportunity taken away in the final minute in Dublin like it was, wasn't the reason we lost the next week in Scotland, but there's no doubt that its dangerous if it (the Grand Slam possibility) becomes too much of a focus."

The Lions began their tour of Australia on Wednesday with a 69-17 victory over a depleted Western Force side in Perth and now move to the east coast to play the Queensland Reds in Brisbane on Saturday. (Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by Alison Wildey)

U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs last month, slightly more than the 170,000 forecast by economists, according to data provider FactSet. The figure is consistent with steady hiring but less robust than the pace reported in the fall and winter.

The report gave a boost to stock market bulls, who expect the Federal Reserve to keep up its stimulus program as the U.S. economy continues to recover moderately. That combination pushed the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index to record highs last month.

For investors who expect the Fed to stay the course, "these types of slow economic growth reports speak to that," said Kevin Mahn, chief investment officer at Hennion & Walsh Asset Management. "It keeps interest rates at record lows and it keeps the equity markets humming."

The Dow Jones Industrial average jumped 165 points, or 1 percent, to 15,206 as of 10:56 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Home Depot rose $1.63, or 2.1 percent, the $78.90, the most of the 30 stocks in the index.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 15 points, or 1 percent, to 1,637. The Nasdaq composite rose 27 points, or 0.8 percent, to 3,451.

The market slumped on Tuesday and Wednesday after disappointing reports on private-sector hiring and manufacturing. The S&P 500 index lost 1.9 percent over those two days.

Friday's gains were broad. Nine of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 index rose, led by industrial stocks, which stand to benefit more than other sectors if the economy picks up. The only group that fell was telecommunications, a so-called defensive sector that investors favor when they are seeking safety and high dividends.

Financial markets have turned volatile over the past two weeks as traders parse comments from Federal Reserve officials for hints about when the central bank will cut back on its support and the impact that will have on long-term interest rates and the economy. The Fed is buying $85 billion of bond every month to keep interest rates low and encourage borrowing and spending.

The S&P 500 index is down 1.8 percent since reaching a record high on May 21. The next day, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed could act to ease up on its economic stimulus program in one of its next few meetings

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.14 percent from 2.08 percent late Thursday as investors moved out of safer assets.

The Labor Department's monthly survey of employment is one of the most important gauges of the U.S. economy and receives close scrutiny from investors. It can frequently cause big moves in financial markets, especially if the report shows that employment is stronger or weaker than economists were expecting.

On May 3, the government reported not only a strong pickup in hiring in April but it also revised sharply upward its estimates for job growth in February and March. That sent the Dow Jones industrial average past 15,000 for the first time, while the S&P 500 index broke through 1,600.

In the weeks following that report, bond yields rose from 1.63 percent as high as 2.20 percent May 31. That meant investors think the economy was strengthening, dampening the appeal of low-risk assets like bonds. It also meant investors thought the Federal Reserve would act sooner than previously thought to curtail its bond-buying program.

In commodities trading Friday, the price of oil rose 93 cents, or 1 percent, to $95.68 a barrel. The price of gold fell $30, or 2.2 percent, to $1,385 an ounce.

Among stocks making big moves:

Gap rose 96 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $44.85. The San Francisco-based clothing store chain reported late Thursday that its sales jumped 7 percent in May, more than expected, helped by strong results at its namesake Gap and Old Navy stores.

TiVo plunged $2.40, or 17.4 percent, to $11.36 after the company settled patent disputes with several technology companies including Cisco and Motorola Mobility but received far less than what most investors inspected. TiVo has posted annual losses in nearly all of the past 10 years.

Thor Industries rose $5.18, or 12.6 percent, to $46.42 after the company reported a 6 percent increase in income. The results beat market expectations on stronger sales of RVs and a lower tax rate.

"I'm thinking, 'Yeah, an alligator. OK,'" Deputy Michael Rust told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday (http://lat.ms/13IVx4U ). "Maybe an iguana, but an alligator?"

A 911 operator agreed. "Could it have been a lizard?" the operator tells a woman reporting "a couple girls carrying an alligator" on a recording released by the Sheriff's Department.

Rust investigated the report Tuesday morning and found not just a 4-foot alligator, but a kangaroo and monkey too, all inside the same van.

The women explained that the menagerie is part of the "Zoo to You" program in Paso Robles that introduces kids to animals.

The animals had just visited with students at Quartz Hill Elementary and had begun the nearly 200-mile journey home when they pulled over for some emergency cleanup.

"The alligator urinated inside his cage, and it's a long ways back to Paso Robles with the smell of alligator urine," Rust said. "So they decided to pull over."

Rust said he gets constant calls about wildlife, but they're usually for the kind of wildlife that live in his semi-rural area.

"We get all kinds of animal calls, from bulls to bears to mountain lions," he said. "But I've never heard of an alligator."

___

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales appeared in a military courtroom where he publicly gave his account of the massacre for the first time.

When the judge, Col. Jeffery Nance, asked Bales what his reason was for killing the civilians, Bales said, "I've asked that question a million times since then. And there's not a good reason in the world for why I did the horrible things I did."

With simple "yes sir" and "no sir" responses, Bales affirmed that he killed the 16 people in March 2012, that he had no legal justification for the killing, that he was not acting in self-defense and that it was a freely made decision to kill them.

"Could you have avoided killing them if you wanted to?" the judge asked.

"Yes, sir," Bales replied.

The sergeant also said that he did not recall setting a compound on fire, but he did not contest that it was on fire.

"There was a kerosene lantern in the room and based on the evidence...that lantern was used to set those people on fire," Bales said.

The judge also asked Bales about the steroid he was using to build muscle tone with Bales saying it "definitely increased by irritability and anger."

Bales, 39, pleaded guilty today to 16 counts of premeditated murder, six counts of attempted murder and seven counts of assault. The judge accepted his guilty plea at the end of the hearing and scheduled the sentencing for Aug. 19.

His only not guilty plea was to a charge of impeding the investigation by destroying a laptop computer.

The charges stem from a massacre last year when Bales snuck out of his remote outpost in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar to go on a shooting spree in two nearby villages. The pre-dawn attack left 16 villagers dead and six injured. Nine of those killed were children.

Bales is a father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash. He is wearing military dress for the hearing and his wife sat in the front row.

Bales' attorney John Henry Browne said last week that Bales wanted to plead guilty as part of a deal in order to avoid the death penalty, according to the Associated Press.

In a November preliminary hearing, several of his fellow soldiers testified that Bales returned to the base alone just before dawn, covered in blood, and that he made incriminating statements such as, "I thought I was doing the right thing." Some of the blood on his person was later matched to at least one of the shooting victims, according to prosecutors.

Evidence was also presented that suggested Bales carried out the massacre as revenge for previous attacks on his unit, particularly a roadside bomb attack a few weeks earlier that severely wounded a fellow soldier. Bales did not testify during the two week hearing, which was to determine if he would face a court martial, but some of the surviving villagers did appear via satellite from Afghanistan.

Some of his squad mates admitted to having consumed alcohol prior to the attacks, but said Bales did not seem to have been incapacitated by the alcohol.

Bales' attorneys have said that their client's mental state may have possibly been clouded by the alcohol as well as steroids and sleeping aids he had taken, but prosecutors countered that comments made by Bales after he was apprehended demonstrated he had a clear state of mind about the violent acts he is alleged to have committed.

An Army press release said that Bales faces a maximum punishment of death if he is convicted of the charges against him. However, the release noted it may be difficult for prosecutors to obtain such a sentence.

"For capital punishment to be imposed, the court-martial members must unanimously find: the service member is guilty of the eligible crime; at least one aggravating factor exists; and that the aggravating factor must substantially outweigh any extenuating or mitigating circumstances found by the court-martial members," it says.

There has not been a military execution since 1961.

[Updated at 1:50 p.m. ET]

CENTENNIAL, Colo.After a judge allowed Aurora, Colo., shooting suspect James Holmes to plead not guilty by reason of insanity on Tuesday, he dealt a major setback to the defense by granting the prosecution access to a key piece of evidence.

By Monday at the earliest, prosecutors will get to see a notebook and package Holmes mailed to his university psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, days before the July 20, 2012, shooting spree. Fenton never received the package, and it has since been sealed.

Judge Carlos A. Samour ruled that any evidence pertaining to Holmes mental illness was no longer shielded by doctor-patient privilege now that the court has accepted the insanity plea. This includes the notebook, which defense attorney Daniel King argued was a unique piece of evidence that the prosecution shouldnt see because Fenton herself hadnt seen it, and it could have altered her opinion of Holmes mental health.

The argument advanced by Mr. King is a creative one, Samour said on Tuesday, but I am not persuaded by it.

Under Colorado statute, once a defendant pleads insanity, any evidence related to mental illness is no longer protected and is covered under an evidence waiver.

The release of the notebook and the insanity plea mark significant movement in the case, which has been mired in arguments over the notebook and Colorados laws related to capital punishment.

Holmes is accused of fatally shooting 12 Aurora movie theater patrons last summer during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, the latest Batman movie. Fifty-eight others were injured. The Arapahoe County district attorney is seeking the death penalty.

Marcus Weaver, a victim who was shot in the arm, hailed Tuesdays developments.

The trial is moving forward finally, Weaver said after the hearing. I feel it is a step forward for a lot of the victims. Were happy there is momentum.

The decision is a defeat to Holmes defense team, which since August has sought to keep the prosecution and other witnesses from learning the contents of the notebook, which reportedly contains violent imagery and detailed descriptions of the attack. Law enforcement officials thumbed through the notebook in the University of Colorados mail room days after the shootings. But because the court ruled last fall that Holmes was under Fentons psychiatric care at the time, lawyers and witnesses couldnt discuss or see the notebooks contents.

Also at Tuesdays hearing, Samour advised Holmes that the state will administer an evaluation at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, south of Denver. The exam will be finished by Aug. 2 after the doctors and clinicians conducting the exam sift through thousands of pages of evidence provided by prosecutors.

Every person is presumed to be sane, Samour said.

However, he noted that in Colorado, once an issue of insanity is raised, the burden is on the prosecution to prove the defendant is sane. The judge will allow Holmes defense team to have a doctor of its choice also evaluate Holmes.

, Samour denied the defenses request for more time to prepare to discuss the notebook in court.

The privilege issue related to the [notebook] has been briefed and discussed before, Samour wrote. It is true, of course, that the defendants not guilty by reason of insanity plea, if accepted, may alter the analysis, but the parties have been aware of that for some time.

Indeed, attorneys haveas far back as August, when prosecutors tried to convince the first judge in the case that Fenton was more akin to a general practitioner than a mental health professional and, thus, the notebook wasnt privileged. The prosecution abandoned its quest for the notebook at the time.

Courtroom sketch of Dr. Lynne Fenton and shooting suspect James Holmes (Bill Robles)

Samour read a lengthy advisement to Holmes during the hearing that detailed what his insanity plea means, including what happens to Holmes should he not cooperate with the mental illness exam. The defense lost its bid last week to strike down portions of Colorado state law, arguing that government psych exams could violate Holmes right to a fair trial in a capital case.

The hearing, originally scheduled for last Thursday, was moved to Tuesday at the defenses request. The prosecution agreed on the condition the hearing would address the notebook privilege issue.

, noting that it was pulling extremely long hours to comply with the courts Monday deadline on noncapital-punishment motions as well as work related to Holmes insanity plea.

Counsel simply cannot complete all the work that needs to be done on those motions, the defense wrote in that filing.

The defense filed dozens of motions late Monday, most related to noncapital issues, including a request to move the trial to a different Colorado county.

"U.S. Secret Service can confirm that the White House mail screening facility intercepted a letter addressed to the White House that [was] similar to letters previously addressed to Mayor Bloomberg in New York. This letter has been turned over to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force for testing and investigation," Ed Donovan, Secret Service deputy assistant director, confirmed in an email on Thursday.

White House mail is processed off-site and, therefore, it never came into contact with the president nor was it at the White House.

The two letters to Bloomberg were sent to his advocacy group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and also did not come into contact with Bloomberg. That mail contained threats against Bloomberg and referenced the nations gun-control debate, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said in a statement on Wednesday.

Though the individuals who opened the Bloomberg letters were uninjured, the NYPD said members of its Emergency Service Unit responding to the letter exhibited symptoms of ricin exposure on Saturday and were treated.

The letters to Obama and Bloomberg follow an incident last month in whichreceived ricin-laced letters.

Suspect J. Everett Dutschke of Mississippi was arrested in that case.

Holly Bailey contributed to this story.

RELATED:

From Wednesday afternoon's : "Today we're launching verified Pages to help people find the authentic accounts of celebritiesand other high-profile people and businesses on Facebook. Verified Pages have a small, bluecheck mark beside their name on timelines, in search results, and elsewhere on Facebook." Of course, Twitter verification has been around since 2008 to help us figure out whether or not it was really, truly a celebrity that said something crazy. (Note:  is not among theverified famous people on Twitter.) Since Ashton Kutcher reached 1 million followers and Oprah , Twitter has been seen as the favorite network of the rich and famous—a direct way for fans to feel connected to celebrities, and a place for celebrities to comfortably, even addictively speak out... sometimes to their detriment. (Twitter verification, it should be pointed out, has also reached levels of ridiculousness. See Choire Sicha'son the subject in the Awl.)

RELATED:

On a basic level, Facebook verification will, yes, help us make sure that we're really hearing from the real celebrity. But there's a fundamental difference between Twitter and Facebook. Despite verification, everyone is essentially the same on Twitter. Even if the follows aren't mutual, a non-celeb's Twitter account looks the same as a celeb's. Facebook is, at its core about friends—celebs on Facebook don't have friends, they have fans. You get to "like" a celeb, not be their buddy. It's very obviously all about self-promotion. Some celebs, such as Jessica Chastain, use . But that's rare. Note how Justin Bieber'spage (now verified!) pales in comparison to his . 

PARIS (Reuters) - After beating Urszula Radwanska at the French Open tennis on Wednesday, Dinah Pfizenmaier is likely to find her third-round opponent is extremely motivated.

Next up at Roland Garros for the German qualifier is Radwanska's elder sister and last year's Wimbledon finalist, Agnieszka.

Pfizenmaier, ranked 127 in the world, has already improved upon her best grand-slam result by upsetting the younger Radwanska and hopes there is a family resemblance when it comes to her sibling's game.

"Maybe she plays like her sister," she said after beating the 40th-ranked Urszula. "Yeah, let's try to do the same or do it better and have fun. That's the most important thing for me."

(Editing by Clare Fallon)

Rick wants to bring his mother with us. It will be a tight fit in our car, but I don't have a problem with that. What bothers me is that Rick wants her to stay with us in our hotel room.

I am a very private person. I have a problem sharing such close quarters with her. There is no privacy in a hotel room!

I offered to get two rooms, but he feels I am being unreasonable. I feel three adults plus two children is a lot to pack into a small hotel room.

Am I being unreasonable? Or should I just accept it and deal with being miserable? -- FRUSTRATED IN THE SOUTH

DEAR FRUSTRATED: Although there may be exceptions, as a general rule, adults need their privacy. Frankly, I am surprised your mother-in-law would be willing to go along with such an arrangement. This is a vacation, and you should not be miserable when you're supposed to be enjoying it.

A better solution would be to get two rooms, and the children should bunk with their grandmother. That way you and your husband could enjoy some private time together.

DEAR ABBY: I have been with my boyfriend for seven years. We have no children together, but he has two young children from a previous relationship whom I have been raising as my own. They call me "Mom," but they know I'm not their biological mother. Their mother has not contacted them -- or cared to -- since the younger one was just months old.

My fear is now that the kids are getting older, they may want to form a relationship with her later on. I don't want to seem selfish, but they are my kids. Any girl can have a baby, but it takes a real woman to be a mom. How should I handle this when that time comes? -- DREADING THE FUTURE IN ARIZONA

DEAR DREADING THE FUTURE: It is natural for children to want to know who their biological parents are; that's the reason adoption records are no longer sealed. You appear to fear that your boyfriend's ex-girlfriend will want to swoop in and steal your maternal spotlight. From all indications, it's not the case; you are the only mother they know.

If the children want information about their birth mother, the truth should not be kept from them. Meeting her does not guarantee they will love you any less. Worrying about it is self-defeating.

DEAR ABBY: What is the protocol for in-person conversations vs. phone interruptions (either via text or call)? When talking with someone, I feel it's rude for the other individual to respond to voice or text messages. Can't people take a break long enough to actually have a real live conversation? How do other readers handle this? Do they walk away? Patiently wait? Or speak up? -- TECHNOLOGICALLY OVERLOADED IN VIRGINIA

DEAR OVERLOADED: The best approach is the direct approach. Tell the person, "I wish you wouldn't do that."

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in "What Every Teen Should Know." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)