Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Problem:The military court hearing the court martial of the WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning was on Friday shown a noose that the soldier made from a sheet in his cell just days after his arrest for having allegedly committed the largest leak of state secrets in US history. 
  
 The knotted pink sheet, which was held aloft by the chief prosecution lawyer, Major Ashden Fein, dramatically illustrated the suicidal state that Manning was in when he was brought to Kuwait immediately after his arrest at an operating base outside Baghdad in May 2010. The prosecutor also produced a second noose made from sandbag ties and two metal objects that he suggested Manning may have intended to use to harm himself, though the soldier said he did not recollect those items. 
  
 The exhibits were shown at the start of the prosecution case in a so-called Article 13 hearing – a motion brought by Manning in an attempt to have his charges thrown out or any sentence reduced, on grounds that he was subjected to unlawful pre-trial punishment while he was held at the brig in Quantico marine base in Virginia in 2010-11. The soldier was kept on an extreme custodial regime designed to thwart suicide attempts that included removing his clothes at night, keeping him under constant observation and chaining him whenever he left his cell, which he was allowed to do for only 20 minutes every day. 
  
 On Thursday Manning, 24, delivered his first publicly spoken statements since he was put into custody 918 days ago on suspicion of having handed hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. Under questioning from his own defence lawyer, David Coombs, he painted a picture of a Kafkaesque world in which the more he tried to convince Marines authorities that he had recovered and was no longer a suicide risk, the more he was treated as though he were vulnerable and put under harsh restrictions that expert witnesses this week described as worse than Guantanamo Bay or even death row. 
  
 In a theatrical move, Coombs placed white tape on the floor of the court room in exactly the dimensions of Manning's cell throughout the nine months he was held in Quantico, marking out a 6ft by 8ft (180cm by 240cm) area. The cell contained a toilet that was in the line of vision of the observation booth, and Manning was not allowed toilet paper. When he needed it, he told the court, he would stand to attention and shout out to the observation guards: "Lance Corporal Detainee Manning requests toilet paper!" 
  
 The burden of proof falls to the US government to justify why it imposed such stringent restrictions on the soldier. Fein's line of questioning was clearly intended to portray Manning's conditions in a more favourable light than had been suggested by the defence the previous day – he invited Manning to talk about the books he was allowed to read (which included Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier), about the complaints procedure he was allowed to follow and the contact he was granted with lawyers and friends. 
  
 But Manning frequently corrected the prosecution's version of events. When Fein said there had been a skylight and windows outside his cell, Manning replied: "Further down the hallway, yes sir." On Thursday Manning had testified that he could only see the natural light that came from these windows as a reflected gleam when he held his head to the door of his cell and looked through the crack. 
  
 Fein read from a weekly series of reports signed by Manning that gave a progress report to his army liaison officers. Most of the reports recorded that the inmate thought his treatment at the hands of the guards and the brig facility was "excellent" and several said that he had "no issues" of concern to raise. 
  
 Manning, however, said he had regularly discussed his frustration at being held so long under a so-called "prevention of injury order" or PoI – which is only marginally more relaxed than full suicide watch – but the officers had chosen not to write that on the form. 
  
 The prosecutor also brought up conversations between Manning and friends and family members who visited him at the brig, citing the transcripts of routine recordings that had been made. Fein said, incredulously, that in those interactions the soldier had asked how his glasses looked on his face, discussed hiring a PR agent and talked about his need of money, yet never made any effort to sound the alarm over the harsh treatment he was receiving. 
  
 "Rather than ever alluding to your treatment in the brig, you were more interested in asking a private investigator to find a fundraiser for you," Fein said. 
  
 Manning later riposted that he had not gone into any detail about his conditions because he knew his visitor conversations were being recorded. "I was also concerned they might end my visits and say I did something wrong," he said. 
  
 Contrary to the prosecution's portrait of him as someone who was more concerned about his public image than about any mistreatment, Manning said that he had expressly instructed his lawyer not to court the press. 
  
 "I didn't want you going out and making interviews and grand standing," he told Coombs. "I wanted a court martial, I didn't want the court of public opinion." 
  
 Despite this being the most serious stage of the pre-trial proceedings that began last December, there were moments of levity in which Manning displayed to the court his quirky sense of humour. Asked by Fein if he wanted a comfort break, the soldier replied: "In seven minutes, I can control my bladder." 
  
 He also explained why he had asked for new underwear during his spell at Quantico by saying: "No matter how much you washed them, they still smelled of Iraq." 
  
 The Article 13 hearing is just one of several ways in which Manning and his defence team are seeking to reduce the severity of any possible sentence. Under the most severe of the 22 counts he faces – "aiding the enemy" – he could be detained in military custody for the rest of his life. 
  
 In the hope of avoiding that fate, Manning has effectively admitted that he transferred government information to WikiLeaks while he was working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. It remains to be seen whether such a manoeuvre will persuade the US government to handle his prosecution more leniently. ||||| On Friday, U.S. government prosecutors cross-examined Pfc. Bradley Manning at his pretrial hearing at Fort Meade. Manning testified Thursday and Friday as a part of a motion brought by his defense arguing that the detained soldier suffered “unlawful pretrial punishment.” 
  
 The prosecution produced grim props in an attempt to justify Manning's stringent detainment regime as a necessary means to keep the soldier from committing suicide. The chief prosecution lawyer, according to the Guardian's Ed Pilkington's courtroom reports, held up a knotted pink bedsheet -- a makeshift noose Manning reportedly fashioned in U.S. military custody in Kuwait, just days after his arrest. "The prosecutor also produced a second noose made from sandbag ties and two metal objects that he suggested Manning may have intended to use to harm himself, though the soldier said he did not recollect those items," reported Pilkington. 
  
 On Thursday, while being examined by his defense attorney, Manning recounted psychological struggles and harsh prison conditions during his 918 days in U.S. military custody, both in Kuwait and at Quantico. He admitted having suicidal thoughts while kept in what he called an "animal cage" in Kuwait, but testified -- in line with the reports of Quantico psychiatrists -- that he was not a suicide risk during his detainment in the U.S. military brig and thus should have been taken off prevention-of-injury status (under which he was not allowed a regular blanket or pillow, and was forced to undergo regular, humiliating guard checks). ||||| As a military prosecutor held up a knotted bedsheet in court, Pfc. Bradley Manning acknowledged on Friday that he fashioned a noose and contemplated suicide shortly after his arrest on charges of engineering the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history. 
  
 FILE - In a Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012 file photo, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, steps out of a security vehicle as he is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., for a pretrial hearing. Manning... (Associated Press) 
  
 The pretrial testimony appeared to support the military's argument that it was trying to protect the former Army intelligence analyst from harming himself by taking away all his clothes, keeping him in strict isolation and shackling him when he was outside his cell. 
  
 Manning's lawyers argue that the conditions he experienced for nine months at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va., amounted to illegal punishment, lasting well past the time he was having suicidal thoughts, and that the charges against him should be dropped as a result. 
  
 On Friday, prosecutor Maj. Ashden Fein produced a knotted, peach-colored sheet from an evidence box on the prosecution table and held it up, displaying a loop in the fabric. 
  
 "You made a noose out of this?" he asked Manning. 
  
 "Yes," the soldier replied. 
  
 Manning, 24, said he fashioned the noose while being held in Kuwait soon after he was accused in May 2010 of leaking reams of military and diplomatic documents to the website WikiLeaks. He said his time in Kuwait was the lowest he felt during his entire confinement. 
  
 When he was transferred to the brig at Quantico in July 2010, he said, he wrote on his intake form that he was "always planning and never acting" on suicidal thoughts. He was classified a suicide risk for eight days, then upgraded to the less-restrictive "prevention of injury" status. 
  
 Manning maintains that neither designation was appropriate because he didn't feel like hurting himself after leaving Kuwait. 
  
 Quantico commanders kept the restrictions in place despite repeated recommendations by brig psychiatrists that they be eased. Among other things, Manning was given scratchy, suicide-prevention bedding, and sometimes all his possessions, including his underwear and eyeglasses, were removed from his cell. 
  
 Manning testified that he stood naked at attention during a morning head count one day after a guard appeared to object to his use of a blanket to cover himself. He said he had been put on "suicide risk" the previous day, and stripped of all his clothes at night, after he told a guard that if he really wanted to kill himself, he could do it with his underwear. 
  
 The testimony came on the fourth day of the hearing and marked the first time Manning came face-to-face with prosecutors in court. The hearing is expected to continue into the weekend. 
  
 The 5-foot-3 soldier looked youthful in his dark-blue dress uniform, close-cropped hair and rimless eyeglasses. He was animated, often speaking in emphatic bursts, swiveling in the witness chair and gesturing with his hands. More than a dozen supporters were in the courtroom. 
  
 Fein, the prosecutor, said that during eight visits Manning received when he was in brig, the soldier either said he was doing fine or didn't complain about his conditions. 
  
 In one recorded visit, a friend asked Manning if he had to perform hard labor. Manning responded that he just had to sit a lot. 
  
 "It's not that bad, like people back in the Victorian age. Because you can just sit there and think a lot," Manning said, according to a transcript read by the prosecutor. 
  
 Manning appeared more relaxed on the stand Friday than the day before, when he said he felt like a caged animal while jailed in Kuwait and thought he would die in his cell. 
  
 At times he flashed a broad smile and drew laughter from the courtroom. At one point he was asked why he requested new underwear and socks. 
  
 "The ones I had were from my deployment. They still smell like Iraq," Manning said. 
  
 Manning, who was an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010, is charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy and violating espionage and computer security laws. He could get life in prison. 
  
 He is accused of sending WikiLeaks more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, classified memos, Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, Guantanamo Bay prison records and a 2007 video clip of a U.S. helicopter crew gunning down 11 men who were later found to have included a news photographer. The Pentagon said its troops mistook camera equipment for weapons. 
  
 Manning has offered to plead guilty to eight of the charges, but the military judge presiding over the case has yet to decide whether to accept the plea. |||||
Solution:
Bradley Manning's pretrial hearing continued today, with a prosecutor showing the court a knotted noose that the Army private made after he was charged with giving classified documents to WikiLeaks. Manning admitted that he contemplated suicide soon after his arrest in Iraq, but he said those feelings quickly subsided and were no longer present by the time he was transferred to the Quantico military brig in Virginia, reports the Guardian and AP. His state of mind is critical in this particular hearing: Manning is arguing that charges should be dropped or reduced because he was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment while at Quantico. The military, though, says extreme measures were necessary because it feared Manning was going to kill himself. Despite the seriousness of the hearing, Manning managed to draw laughter a few times from the courtroom, including once when he was asked why he requested new underwear while at Quantico. "They still smelled of Iraq," he said. Click for more.