The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Cleveland kidnapping victims endured decade of isolation, rape, beatings
- Bangladesh factory fire kills eight; collapse toll hits 892
- Argentine congress passes judicial reform bill
| Cleveland kidnapping victims endured decade of isolation, rape, beatings Posted: 08 May 2013 08:42 PM PDT CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Three young women newly freed from a decade-long kidnapping ordeal in Cleveland endured their captivity in the dungeon-like squalid confines of a house, where they were raped, starved, beaten and kept in chains by the man who abducted them, authorities said on Wednesday.
Their accused tormentor, Ariel Castro, 52, a veteran school bus driver fired from his job last fall, was formally charged on Wednesday with kidnapping and raping the women, who were rescued from his house on Monday evening shortly before his arrest. His two brothers, initially arrested as suspects in the case, were not charged, and police said investigators had determined they had no knowledge of the abductions or captivity of the women. The three victims, abducted separately from the surrounding neighbourhood and completely cut off from the outside world during their captivity, were found alive together when neighbours were alerted by cries for help from one of the women, Amanda Berry. She told police that her escape two days ago was her first chance to break free in the 10 years that she was imprisoned in the house, during which time she conceived and gave birth to a daughter, now 6, authorities said. The little girl was rescued along with Berry, 27, who was a day shy of her 17th birthday when she disappeared in 2003, and the two other women - Gina DeJesus, 23, who went missing at age 14 in 2004, and Michelle Knight, 32, who was 20 years old when she vanished in 2002. Chilling new details of their captivity emerged as two of the women were treated to jubilant celebrations with relatives - Berry and her daughter arriving at her sister's house and DeJesus at her mother's home in separate homecomings captured on national television. Knight remained in a Cleveland hospital, where she was listed in good condition. BRUTAL MISCARRIAGES Berry's pregnancy with her daughter was not an isolated incident, according to Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins, who said he had read portions of a police report from the initial investigation and was briefed by numerous police department sources. Cummins said one of the three women - he did not know who - had suffered at least five miscarriages, which Castro is accused of inducing by starving her for weeks and beating her in the abdomen. Berry's baby was born in a plastic inflatable kiddy pool on Christmas Day, 2006, authorities said. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl's father. All three women were held in the home's basement for long periods, restrained with ropes and chains and occasionally starved, according to Cummins. He added that the victims were kept apart from each other in the house until their captor at some point gained sufficient confidence in his control over them to allow them to mingle. Moreover, the councilman said all three women were abducted by Castro when he offered them rides in a vehicle. Cummins said much of their ordeal was recounted by the three women as soon as they were freed. "En route to the hospital there was just a flood of information shared by these victims immediately," he said. "One can only imagine the mental distress and eruptions of joy and emotions." Castro, owner of the modest, two-story house, had been thought by neighbours to live there alone. Berry has said she only managed to call for help when he briefly left the premises on Monday. "The only opportunity, after interviewing the young ladies, to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped," Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said at the news conference. "They don't believe that they've been outside that home for the last 10 years respectively." Authorities said the women recalled leaving the confines of the house just twice during their captivity, on both occasions to go into a garage on the small lot while disguised in wigs and hats. Tomba said that during their separation in the house, the three women were kept in different rooms but were aware of the others' presence. TELEVISED HOMECOMINGS Berry and her daughter could be seen from an aerial television camera arriving in a convoy of vehicles at her sister's house and entering through a back door. DeJesus was rushed into the home she had not seen in nine years, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra. DeJesus hid her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt but raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to spectators chanting "Gina. Gina." Her mother Nancy DeJesus came outside after a little while. "I want to thank everybody that believed," she said. "Even the ones that doubted, I still want to thank them the most because they're the ones that made me stronger, the ones that made me feel the most that my daughter was out there." Neither Berry, who was last seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant, nor DeJesus, who vanished while walking home from school, spoke publicly. Castro faced arraignment on Thursday morning, the prosecutor said. Investigators took some 200 pieces of evidence from his house, which Tomba said was "in quite a bit of disarray," but found no human remains on the site. Police were still searching a second house. The three brothers were arrested on Monday evening within hours of the women's escape. However, there was no evidence Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were involved, the prosecutor said. However, the two brothers were slated to appear in court on Thursday on unrelated outstanding misdemeanour warrants. "There is nothing that leads us to believe that they were involved or had any knowledge of this, and that comes from statements of our victims, their statements and the brothers' statements," Cleveland city prosecutor Victor Perez said, adding, "Ariel would have kept everybody at a distance." Berry can be heard naming Ariel Castro as the man she was fleeing on the frantic emergency call she made to a 911 operator after a neighbour heard her scream and helped her break through a locked screen door. Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son. In 2005, Castro was named in a complaint of domestic violence in a custody dispute with his ex-wife that accused him of breaking her nose twice, knocking out her tooth, dislocating her shoulder twice and threatening to kill her and her daughters several times. The complaint was eventually dismissed. (Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Steve Gorman; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Bernard Orr and Eric Walsh)
Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Bangladesh factory fire kills eight; collapse toll hits 892 Posted: 08 May 2013 08:14 PM PDT DHAKA (Reuters) - Eight people were killed when a fire swept through a clothing factory in Bangladesh, police and an industry association official said on Thursday, as the death toll from the collapse of another factory building two weeks ago climbed to 892.
The fire, in an industrial district of Dhaka, comes amid global attention on safety standards in Bangladesh's booming garment industry following the catastrophic collapse of Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the city, in the world's deadliest industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984. "It is not clear to us how the accident happened, but we are trying to find out the cause," Mohammad Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), told Reuters. On Wednesday the Bangladesh government said it had shut down 18 garment factories for safety reasons following the April 24 collapse of Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories making clothes for Western brands. Salvage teams are still pulling bodies from the rubble of the building in Savar, around 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Dhaka, and on Thursday a spokesman at the army control room coordinating the operation said the death toll was now nearly 900. Roughly 2,500 people were rescued from the building, including many injured, but there is no official estimate of the number still missing. The government has blamed the owners and builders of the eight-storey complex for using shoddy building materials, including substandard rods, bricks and cement, and not obtaining the necessary clearances. Bangladesh's garment industry, which accounts for 80 percent of the poor South Asian country's exports, has seen a series of deadly accidents, including a fire in November that killed 112 people. The latest fire, in the Mirpur industrial district, broke out at a factory belonging to the Tung Hai Group, a large garment exporter, after most workers had gone home, police said. A fire service official and BGMEA president Islam said the Bangladeshi managing director of the company and a senior police officer were among the dead. Tung Hai Group says on its website that it has more than 1,000 employees and its customers include major Western retailers including Britain's Primark, and Inditex Group of Spain. It makes products including cardigans, jumpers and pyjamas. (Editing by Matthew Green and Alex Richardson) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Argentine congress passes judicial reform bill Posted: 08 May 2013 06:27 PM PDT BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's Senate passed a court reform law on Wednesday aimed at "democratizing the judiciary," but critics said the move would leave judges vulnerable to political influence. Under the reform, backed by President Cristina Fernandez and passed by 38 votes to 30, members of the board that chooses federal judges will be elected. The measure had already been approved by the lower house of Congress. The National Chamber of Civil Appeals, the main body of appeals court judges, issued a statement saying the new law "violates the principle of judicial independence." The reform is a lightning rod for criticism against the president as talk swirls of a possible bid by her supporters to seek a constitutional change to allow her to seek a third term. Fernandez was re-elected in 2011 but the popularity of the 60-year-old Peronist Party leader has fallen over the last year amid high inflation and discontent over her economic policies. More than 1 million Argentines took to the streets on April 18 in protest against her government. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Guido Nejamkis; Editing by David Brunnstrom) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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