TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
PROBLEM: A family spokesman has confirmed that Adam Lanza's father, Peter, claimed his son's body and that "private arrangements" for burial took place over the weekend. 
  
 State Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carer II had said Sunday that the body of the gunman in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting had been claimed sometime last week. 
  
 Lanza's burial site is being kept secret. 
  
 Lanza, 20, killed himself inside a classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14 after a shooting rampage that left 26 people dead in the school, including 20 children. Lanza earlier killed his mother, Nancy, at their house. 
  
 Carver has ruled Lanza's death a suicide but he is awaiting results of toxicology tests before completing the case. 
  
 In addition he has asked geneticists from the University of Connecticut to study Lanza's DNA for any mutations or other abnormalities that could shed light on his motivation for the shootings. 
  
 Nancy Lanza's body was claimed by a funeral home in New Hampshire and she was buried in a private ceremony earlier this month. She was born in Kingston, N.H. Carver would not comment on whether the same funeral home claimed Adam Lanza's body. 
  
 Peter Lanza lives in Stamford, although sources said he had little contact with his son in the past two years. Carver would not comment on whether Peter Lanza claimed the body. ||||| The body of the young man who killed 26 people in the second largest school shooting in U.S. history has been claimed by his father. 
  
 (Click Prev or Next to continue viewing images.) 
  
 ADVERTISEMENT (Click Prev or Next to continue viewing images.) 
  
 FILE - This undated file photo circulated by law enforcement and provided by NBC News, shows Adam Lanza. Authorities say Lanza killed his mother at their home and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook... (Associated Press) 
  
 A spokesman for the family said Monday that Peter Lanza claimed the remains of 20-year-old Adam Lanza. 
  
 Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut school on Dec. 14. He also killed his mother before going on the rampage and then killed himself. 
  
 Police have not offered a motive. 
  
 The attack prompted President Barack Obama to push for "real action, right now" on gun violence. |||||

SOLUTION: The body of Sandy Hook school shooter Adam Lanza has been claimed for burial by father Peter Lanza, a family spokesman tells the AP. The burial site of Adam Lanza, who killed his mother before massacring 20 elementary school students and six staff members, will be kept secret, the Hartford Courant reports. The examiner has ruled Lanza's death a suicide, but he won't close the case until toxicology reports are completed. Scientists plan to study Lanza's DNA for abnormalities.

PROBLEM: Image copyright SWA 
  
 A decade of strong growth in Scotch whisky exports came to an end last year as overseas sales fell, according to new figures. 
  
 The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) said HM Revenue and Customs data showed exports fell 7% to £3.95bn in 2014. 
  
 The decline was in part due to a sharp drop in exports to the USA, the biggest market for Scotch by value, where sales fell by 9% to £748m. 
  
 The volume of global exports also fell by 3%, to 1.19 billion 70cl bottles. 
  
 SWA blamed the decline on "weaker economic conditions and political volatility" in some markets. 
  
 But it remained upbeat about the future, arguing that the long-term outlook for the sector was good with underlying strong growth in most emerging markets. 
  
 In Asia, Taiwan saw exports jump 36% to £197m, partly as a result of the growing popularity of single malts. 
  
 Exports to India were up 29% to £89m, despite a 150% import tariff. 
  
 Top six Scotch whisky export markets by value - 2014 
  
 1. USA £750m (-9%) 
  
 2. France £445m (+2%) 
  
 3. Singapore £201m (-39%) 
  
 4. Taiwan £197m (+36%) 
  
 5. Spain £166m (-8%) 
  
 6. Germany £141m (-18%) 
  
 But there was a mixed picture in emerging markets. Exports by volume to Mexico grew 5% to 42.8 million bottles, while value fell by 10% in that market. 
  
 There was a similar trend in Brazil, with volumes flat but value down 20%. 
  
 The important hub market of the United Arab Emirates continued to boom, with exports up 27% by value. 
  
 However, exports to the major regional hub of Singapore fell by 39% in value to £200m. 
  
 SWA said this was partly down to the ongoing austerity campaign in China - the final destination for much of the Scotch shipped from the UK to Singapore. 
  
 Direct exports to China, the 26th largest market by value, fell 23% to £39m. 
  
 Image copyright SWA 
  
 SWA said the 9% fall in exports to the USA was due partly to stock adjustments and an increasingly competitive spirits market. 
  
 Exports to France, the biggest market by volume and second biggest by value, were up 2% to £445m, suggesting that the French market was stabilising after Scotch was hit by a tax increase in 2012. 
  
 One encouraging sign for the industry was that global exports appeared to perform better in the second half of last year. 
  
 SWA chief executive David Frost said: "Economic and political factors in some important markets held back Scotch whisky exports in 2014 after a decade of strong growth. 
  
 "It shows that the industry's success cannot be taken for granted and that we must continue to argue for more open markets and ambitious trade deals that tackle barriers to market access. 
  
 "The long-term fundamentals remain strong, with consumers in emerging markets wanting to buy Scotch whisky as a high-quality and authentic product with a strong reputation and clear provenance. 
  
 "This drives the strong investment in Scotch whisky production in Scotland and the significant interest in entering the sector." ||||| Bourbon distillers are kicking their Scottish rivals in the kilt. 
  
 Global exports of Scotch whisky fell 7% last year, as American drinkers continued to switch in droves to bourbon and other American whiskeys. It was the steepest drop-off in Scotch exports since 1998 and only the third annual decline in 30 years. 
  
 Scotch sales to the U.S.,... |||||

SOLUTION: America's whiskey drinkers have joined the trend to buy local, which is bad news for the Scots: The latest figures show that export sales of Scotch whisky dived 7% to $5.8 billion last year, largely because of a 9% fall in sales to the US, reports the BBC. The slide in American scotch sales comes amid surging sales of American whiskeys, with bourbon and Tennessee whiskey sales up more than 7% last year, reports the Wall Street Journal. The popularity of American whiskeys—especially Jack Daniel's—is also hurting scotch sales around the world, the Journal reports, but although sales of cheaper scotches like Johnnie Walker Red Label are down, the pricier single malts are still selling pretty well. (The world's best whiskey, however, comes from Japan.)

PROBLEM: One of the eight federal prisoners granted sentence commutations by President Barack Obama Thursday is a first cousin of Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass), one of the president's most devoted supporters on the national political scene. 
  
 Reynolds Allen Wintersmith Jr. was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in Illinois federal court in 1994 of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute cocaine and cocaine base and possession with intent to distribute crack. He was 19 at the time of his arrest and 17 at the time he got involved running drugs for the Gangster Disciples gang. He is 39 today and has spent the past 19 years in prison. 
  
 A spokeswoman for Patrick confirmed that the 57-year-old Massachusetts governor and Wintersmith are cousins but denied any invovement in the drive to get the federal prisoner a rare commutation — one of only nine Obama has granted as president. 
  
 (Also on POLITICO: Obama commutes 8 drug sentences) 
  
 "The Governor has no recollection of meeting Mr. Wintersmith (they are quite far apart in age), and believes that if they did meet, it would have been when Mr. Wintersmith was a small boy. The Governor was not involved in any application for a commutation of Mr. Wintersmith’s sentence, and only learned of the commutation through today’s media reports," said the Patrick aide, who asked not to be named. 
  
 Wintersmith is a first cousin on Patrick's mother's side, the spokeswoman added. 
  
 Patrick's 2011 book, "A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life," discusses his upbringing on the South Side of Chicago, an uncle's addiction to heroin and the involvement of others in the neighborhood with drugs and gangs. 
  
 (PHOTOS: Obama’s second term) 
  
 A White House spokesman, who also asked not to be named, said Wintersmith's tie to Patrick had no impact on the commutation decision and officials do not believe Patrick ever had any contact with the feds over the matter. 
  
 Wintersmith's case went to the Supreme Court in 1996, on a challenge to how his sentence and those of his co-defendants were arrived at based on distribution of both powdered and crack cocaine. The justices upheld the sentences without any noted dissent two years later in an opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer. 
  
 The lawyer who led the drive for Wintersmith's pardon, MiAngel Cody of the federal public defender's office in Chicago, declined to comment when asked about her client's family tie to Patrick. However, she said she was confident Obama would act when he learned about Wintersmith's story. 
  
 "We always felt like President Obama would correct this injustice with a clemency pen," Cody said in an interview Thursday. "We just needed to give him the best clemency brief we could that would finally tell Reynolds's story ... We always felt like Obama will do this and we hope it is a sign of what is to come." 
  
 Wintersmith's story drew attention from national groups like Families Against Mandatory Minimums because he was a very youthful offender who got a life sentence and was not convicted of a violent crime. 
  
 "His crime began and ended when he was a teenager," said Cody. "It was his first offense. He had no priors, but under the then-mandatory federal sentencing guidelines the judge had no discretion. He could only impose a life sentence." 
  
 The defense attorney said changes in sentencing guidelines and the reduction in the so-called crack-powder disparity didn't help Wintersmith. 
  
 "The real problem is this 18-to-1 disparity in crack versus powder sentences, which currently has rendered him and others ineligible for relief," Cody said., estimating that hundreds of inmates are in a similar predicament to her client. 
  
 "Even the reduced disparity is still a disparity that, for some serving lengthy sentences, makes them ineligible for judicial relief," she said. "This certainly illustrates what we hope is a crack in the dam." 
  
 Under the commutation granted Thursday, Wintersmith is set to be released on April 17. 
  
 Follow @politico ||||| It’s being reported that Gen. McChrystal has submitted his resignation to President Obama and Secretary Gates. And that’s being played in some publications as meaning McChrystal’s out. 
  
 Not even close. It’s entirely possible that McChrystal will be out this afternoon. But in the present circumstances McChrystal submitting his resignation is a given; it is absolutely essential for him to do. He has no choice. And it goes without saying. 
  
 The question is whether Obama and Gates choose to accept. His submitting his resignation simply isn’t the bombshell some are presenting it as. 
  
 (It’s definitely a scoop for the folks reporting it correctly.) 
  
 Wait till you hear that the resignation has been accepted. 
  
 Late Update: Like I told you, now there’s further clarification. McChrystal has “offered to resign.” To be perfectly clear: great scoop from Joe Klein. Wish we would have gotten it. But the offer to resign, even submitting your resignation isn’t the same as having it accepted. And in this case, it almost goes without saying. Don’t be misled. |||||

SOLUTION:
Gen. Stanley McChrystal has offered to resign in the wake of his unfortunate interview with Rolling Stone, reports Time. (The magazine's Joe Klein initially told CNN that McChrystal had actually submitted his resignation, but Time clarified with this Tweet.) Either way, it doesn't mean much at this point, notes Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo. It's almost a given at this point that McChrystal will submit his resignation, he writes. "It is absolutely essential for him to do. He has no choice." When it happens, it's no bombshell development. "The question is whether Obama and Gates choose to accept." President Obama, in fact, said late this afternoon that he won't make up his mind until meeting with the general tomorrow, reports Politico. "I want to make sure that I talk to him directly."

