The Lookout

  • [Updated 4:30 p.m. ET]

    CLEVELAND, Ohio—A judge set bail at $8 million at a brief hearing Thursday for Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man accused of kidnapping and keeping three young women as captives for a decade. The lawyer prosecuting the case said he may seek the death penalty against Castro.

    Cleveland Municipal Judge Lauren C. Moore set bail at $2 million per charge, an amount that indicated the judge wants to keep Castro in jail. He was ordered not to have any contact with the three women or their families.

    Castro appeared in court Thursday morning along with his brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50. All three were handcuffed, but Onil and Pedro Castro were not charged. They appeared before the same judge this morning on outstanding misdemeanors and were released around noon.

    The Cleveland Police Department announced it had handed over custody of Ariel Castro had to county authorities.

    Castro, 52, is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Police say the former school bus driver held Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, at his west side Cleveland home. The women were reportedly restrained with ropes and chains. Court documents indicate Castro repeatedly raped the women throughout their captivity.

    Timothy McGinty, a Cuyahoga County prosecutor leading the case, said he and his team are evaluating whether to pursue charges eligible for the death penalty, which he said should be reserved for the "worst examples" of human conduct.

    "I fully intend to seek to charges on each and every act of sexual violence, rape, each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault, all these attempted murders, and each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies that the offender perpetuaged against the hostages during this decade-long ordeal," McGinty told reporters at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

    Knight was taken on Aug. 22, 2002, Berry on April 21, 2003, and DeJesus on April 2, 2004.

    Berry, who went missing a day before her 17th birthday after leaving her job at a nearby fast-food restaurant, broke free from Castro's home with her 6-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, on Monday. After she called police, DeJesus and Knight were able to escape, too.

    Read More »

  • A stabbing victim is loaded into a helicopter on the Lone Star College CyFair campus. (Reuters)

    At least 14 people were wounded in an apparent mass stabbing at Lone Star College's CyFair campus in Cypress, Texas, on Tuesday morning.

    The suspect, a white male armed with what one witness described as an X-Acto knife, was detained, police said. The suspect, believed to be 21, was enrolled at the school.

    Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said police received a 911 call at 11:12 a.m. local time reporting a white male "on the loose stabbing people."

    The school was placed on lockdown.

    "Seek shelter now," Lone Star College's Twitter feed warned Tuesday afternoon. "If away, stay away."

    The incident occurred near and around the school's Health Science Center and remains an active crime scene, Garcia said.

    "Buildings are still being searched," he added.

    Four victims were transported by helicopter with serious injuries "consistent with laceration," a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office said. Two others were taken by ambulance to a local trauma center.

    Two of those victims are in critical condition, he said. Four are in fair condition. Others victims were treated for minor injuries, and two refused treatment, Garcia said.

    One witness told CNN that the stabber was hearing impaired.

    An announcement was made over loudspeakers warning students to seek shelter. "This is an emergency," the announcement said, according to KHOU-TV. "Everybody stay inside of your rooms. Do not leave your rooms."

    An alert issued on the school's website indicated that "another suspect may possibly be at large." But Garcia said surveillance video reviewed by police indicated there was one "and only one" suspect.

    An Instagram user who said he helped apprehend the stabber posted a photo of a man face down on the ground with a backpack. He said the man had stabbed five people, including two girls in the cheek. "Everyone ran the other way ... ," he said. "Me and this kid got em." #copsaretooslow

    Police would not confirm the exact weapon used, but said no firearms were found at the scene.

    The campus was evacuated, Vice Chancellor Randy Key told reporters, and the college will remain closed for the remainder of the day.

    In January, three people were wounded in a shooting at Lone Star College's North Harris campus near Houston. More than 90,000 students attend classes across the Lone Star College system's six campuses.

    Read More »

  • Click to explore. (CBC)

    Reports of brutal rapes of foreign tourists in India and Brazil in recent months have rocked the international travel industry.

    According to data cited by The Atlantic, visitors to India have dropped 25 percent since December's fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a bus in the capital of New Delhi, and 35 percent among female travelers. And that data was compiled before March 16, when a Swiss woman who was touring the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh by bicycle with her husband was gang-raped by a group of eight men.

    In Madhya Pradesh, there are nine reported rapes every day, according to the Washington Post.

    In Brazil, where an American tourist was raped by three men over the course of six hours on Monday, reports of rapes have risen 150 percent since 2009, The Atlantic reported.

    Not surprisingly, Brazil and India are among the most dangerous places to travel, according to an interactive map produced by Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs.

    But they're not the most dangerous: North Korea, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Mali, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Somalia are countries where would-be tourists are warned to "avoid all travel."

    For other countries, like Libya, visitors are cautioned to "avoid non-essential travel."

    The color-coded danger map also includes region- and time-specific warnings. In Pakistan, tourists are told to avoid:

    Read More »

  • Thought the weirdo in the window seat was your biggest worry? Think again.

    The CBS news station in Dallas checked the cleanliness of airplanes on two recent flights. The CBS 11 investigation revealed all sorts of ick. Serratia, Proteus vulgaris and Enterobacter were just a few of the bacteria strands stowed away around passengers.

    "Nasty stuff," one traveler told the TV station.

    Reporter Ginger Allen     randomly swabbed several areas on the planes and found filth on lavatory door handles and table trays.

    "But the grossest of all came from right here ... in the seat pocket," Allen showed in her report. (Note to self on where not to put mints or mobile phones, huh?)

    Fortunately, Dallas doctor Cedric Spak told CBS 11 that the bacteria it found on the airplanes are fairly normal and not harmful to a healthy person. To avoid airplane germs, Spak and other doctors advise travelers to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer and allow the air vents to blow above their seat.

    "It is all kind of the

    Read More »