Three women, missing for a decade, found alive

Three women, two of them missing for a decade since they were teens in Cleveland, have been found alive, according to police.

A 52-year-old man has been arrested, police say. The women were being treated at the hospital. One of the women reportedly had a baby since she came up missing, according to reports.

One of the women, Amanda Berry, was last heard from in 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from the Burger King restaurant where she worked, reported the Cleveland TV station WEWS. She was to turn 17 the day after she disappeared.

The other woman, Gina DeJesus, was 14 when she went missing on April 2, 2004. She was walking home from school.

The third woman, Michelle Knight, 32, was missing since she was 20.

Ariel Castro, the owner of the home where the women were found, has been arrested, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Live TV reports showed hundreds of people and media gathered outside the Cleveland home, where the women were found. 

Police have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday.

View the original article here

Three more Boston suspects in custody

Watertown Police officer Brandon O'Neill holds a large American flag during a candlelight vigil at Victory Park …

Boston police have three additional suspects in custody in connection to the Boston Marathon bombings, the department confirmed to Yahoo News Tuesday.

A spokeswoman at the Boston police department directed all questions on the suspects to the FBI, which has yet to disclose their identities.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old college student, is charged with killing three and injuring more than 200 in the two bombs last month. His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed while fleeing arrest.

View the original article here

Three men charged with undermining Boston bombing probe

By Scott Malone, Tim McLaughlin and Mark Hosenball

BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Wednesday charged three men with interfering with the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing, accusing two students from Kazakhstan of hiding a laptop computer and backpack belonging to one of the suspected bombers.

The third man, a U.S. citizen named Robel Phillipos, was charged with making false statements to investigators.

The three were described as friends of surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. They were not charged with direct involvement in the April 15 Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured 264.

Authorities charged the two Kazakhs, Azamat Tazhayakov, 19 and Dias Kadyrbayev, 19, with conspiring to obstruct justice by disposing of a backpack containing fireworks they found in Tsarnaev's dorm room.

Tsarnaev, who attended the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, is being held at a prison hospital where he is recovering from wounds sustained in a gun battle with police. His older brother, Tamerlan, died in the gunfight.

The three new suspects were scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston on Wednesday afternoon.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and $250,000 fine. Phillipos faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Kadyrbayev's lawyer, Robert Stahl, said his client was "not a target" of the bombing investigation, but declined to comment on any other specifics. He said his client had "cooperated fully" with investigators and "wants to go home to Kazakhstan."

COVER-UP ALLEGATION

According to court papers unsealed on Wednesday, the three men admitted to investigators that they had removed Tsarnaev's backpack from his dorm room on April 18 - the day that investigators released photos of the Tsarnaev brothers, saying they were suspects in the bombing.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov decided to "get rid of" the backpack, as well as a laptop computer and fireworks, after seeing reports that suggested their friend was one of the bombers, the criminal complaint said.

After seeing Tsarnaev's photo in TV news reports on the bombing investigation, Kadyrbayev texted the younger Tsarnaev to say that he resembled the suspect, according to the complaint.

Tsarnaev's response included the phrase "lol" and "you better not text me," as well as "come to my room and take whatever you want," according to court papers.

Tsarnaev's roommate let the three new suspects into his room, where they found a backpack including fireworks that had been emptied of explosive powder. They decided to remove the backpack to help their friend "avoid trouble," according to court papers.

Kadyrbayev placed the backpack and fireworks in a dumpster near his apartment. Investigators recovered the backpack on April 26 in a New Bedford, Massachusetts, landfill.

In addition to the fireworks, it included a homework assignment sheet from a class that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was enrolled in.

A New Hampshire fireworks store last month confirmed that the elder bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, bought two large boxes of fireworks in February.

The parents of the Tsarnaev brothers have said in interviews in the North Caucasus region of Russia that they do not believe their sons were responsible for placing the bombs.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body has still not been claimed, a spokesman for the state's chief medical examiner said. His widow, Katherine Russell, on Tuesday said she wanted the medical examiner to release her husband's body to his family.

(Additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Aaron Pressman and Ross Kerber; Editing by Grant McCool and Jim Loney)

View the original article here

Colorado governor will sign three gun control measures on Wednesday

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado's governor will sign three gun control bills into law on Wednesday, including one banning ammunition magazines with more than 15 rounds in a state that has experienced two of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

The measures that Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper will sign also include a bill requiring universal background checks for gun buyers, and another that requires gun buyers to pay for their own background checks, said the governor's spokesman, Eric Brown.

The bills passed both chambers of the Colorado state legislature last week as part of a package of gun control legislation that followed months of heated discussion and pushed Colorado to the forefront of a national gun control debate.

State lawmakers have also approved legislation banning online certification for concealed-carry permits. Another measure could bar gun purchases by domestic violence offenders, although Hickenlooper had previously said he was undecided about that measure until he sees the final wording.

The passage of those bills comes as the nation reels from several mass shootings last year, including the December massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut.

That followed a mass shooting in Colorado in July when a gunman opened fire in a crowded premiere of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" in the Denver suburb of Aurora, killing 12 people and wounding 58 others.

Former University of Colorado neuroscience graduate student James Holmes, 25, has been charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder in that case.

Colorado was also the site of a 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, where two teenagers shot dead a teacher and 12 other students before committing suicide. Several of the guns used in that attack were bought at gun shows.

Following Columbine, the state closed a loophole that allowed firearms purchases at gun shows without a background check.

The Colorado legislature's action follows the passage in New York state in January of a sweeping gun-control law that bans assault weapons and magazines that hold more than seven rounds of ammunition, requires gun owners to register most guns with the state and requires universal background checks.

President Barack Obama has put forward a number of federal gun-control proposals following the Newtown killings.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)

View the original article here

Three killed in small plane crash in Florida

By Mark Lamport-Stokes INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) - Rafa Nadal produced vintage form against an out-of-sorts Roger Federer, crushing the Swiss 6-4 6-2 in their heavily anticipated quarter-final at the BNP Paribas on Thursday. The Spanish left-hander, competing in his first hardcourt event since his return from seven months on the sidelines with a knee injury, outplayed his long-time rival with a sharp display at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. ...

View the original article here

Three die in shooting, fiery crash on Las Vegas Strip

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Three people died in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip early on Thursday when one or more gunmen in a Range Rover sport utility vehicle opened fire on a Maserati, killing the driver and touching off a fiery multi-car crash.

The driver of the Maserati died in the pre-dawn shooting, and his car veered out of control and smashed into a taxi carrying two people, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman Officer Jose Hernandez said.

The cab exploded into flames in the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, a popular tourist area in front of several casino resorts, killing the driver and a passenger.

"There was a loud bang and I hear two other booms. I looked out my window at Caesars Palace ... and could see the fireball," witness John Lamb was quoted as saying on the website of Las Vegas KLAS-TV's 8News Now.

The gunfire and collision in the busy intersection near the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace hotels triggered another crash involving four other vehicles, in which at least four people were injured, Hernandez said. The Range Rover sped from the scene.

Authorities said the shooting was believed to have stemmed from a fight in the valet area of the Aria Resort and Casino on the Strip, but investigators had not established a motive.

Representatives for MGM Resorts International, which owns the Aria, declined to comment on specifics of the incident.

"Each of our resorts employs fully trained, full-time, professional security departments and our extensive surveillance systems provide law enforcement with valuable assistance, often helping them close cases quickly," Gordon Absher, vice president of public affairs, said in a written statement. "We continue to work closely with Metro on this investigation."

An injured passenger in the sports car and three people hurt in the crashes were taken to University Medical Center.

'LAS VEGAS IS SAFE'

A hospital spokeswoman said three of the people had been treated and released. She declined to provide information about the fourth person.

Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie told reporters at an afternoon news conference that police had few leads on the Range Rover or its occupants, who were considered "armed and dangerous," but had launched a multi-state search and were seeking help from the public.

The sheriff bristled at suggestions that the outburst of gun violence could call into question the safety of the Strip, which attracts millions of visitors every year.

"I have been asked by many of you this morning, ‘Is the Las Vegas Strip safe?'" Gillespie said. "Yes it is."

"Las Vegas is a valley of 2 million people. Forty million tourists visit here a year. We have 153,000 hotel rooms. In order for my police organization and other law enforcement organizations in the valley to keep this community safe, we have to work very closely not only with the community but the resort corridor as well," he said.

The incident occurred less than mile from where rapper Tupac Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, while riding in a BMW with Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight after the two men had attended a Mike Tyson boxing match.

Shakur, 25, was hit by gunfire from at least one assailant in a Cadillac while sitting in Knight's car at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane and died six days later at University Medical Center. The crime remains unsolved.

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

View the original article here