[Ain't_It_Just_]

http://www.news.com....i-1226502058856

ITALIANS living in major cities could be forgiven for feeling a little on edge.
According to Italy's Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research, there are detectable levels of cocaine in the air of eight major cities.

The report followed the findings in 2006 that cocaine was present in Roman air.

Now it's been discovered that cocaine also occupies airspace in Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Turin, Milan, Verona and Naples.

The levels aren't significant enough to alter one's consciousness simply from breathing in the air, but the data could be used to shape health policies.

Marijuana and caffeine levels are higher during winter; researchers believe people may be self-medicating due to seasonal affective disorder.

Which leads us to wonder about Australian cities and their cocaine presence.

Sydney, anyone?



Read more: http://www.news.com....6#ixzz2CcfHCItJ

[Dag]

Map: Where the Emotionally Challenged Live


"U.S. pollster Gallup conducted a survey in 152 countries to compare how people feel about their lives. Singapore ranks as the world’s most emotionless society, behind Georgia, Lithuania, and Russia. Singaporeans are unlikely to report feelings of anger, physical pain, or other negative emotions. They’re not laughing a lot, either.
The award for most pessimistic goes to the inhabitants of Greece, ground zero of the euro debt crisis. Last year, the people most likely to report feeling stress, anger, sadness, worry, or pain were Iraqis. The most emotional nation? The Philippines."


Click on the map to see how your country did in the poll.

[Shiara]

http://www.dailylife...0308-1um0i.html

[Shinrei]

LOLOLOLOLOL

"China paper carries Onion Kim Jong-un 'heart-throb' spoof"

http://www.bbc.co.uk...d-asia-20518929

Quote

The Onion, which ran its Sexiest Man Alive piece earlier in the month, had an update to its article on Tuesday.

"For more coverage," it wrote," please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades."

[Baco Xtath]

Shinrei, on 30 November 2012 - 12:55 PM, said:

LOLOLOLOLOL

"China paper carries Onion Kim Jong-un 'heart-throb' spoof"

http://www.bbc.co.uk...d-asia-20518929

Quote

The Onion, which ran its Sexiest Man Alive piece earlier in the month, had an update to its article on Tuesday.

"For more coverage," it wrote," please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades."

And the response was

North Korea Has Found a Secret Unicorn Lair, Apparently


http://www.theatlant...orn-lair/59483/

[worry]

http://www.bbc.co.uk...d-asia-20614593
Driving school for dogs in New Zealand

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Apt's duck video in the Awww thread reminded me of this:



And now for a palate cleanser:

 duck.jpg (65.61K)
Number of downloads: 0

[Tsundoku]

Na na nana nana nana nana nana nana nana ...

------------------------------

http://www.news.com....r-1226538375828

Would you seriously drive this car, Batman?

Nissan has made Batman a car that no superhero or billionaire would want to drive. Picture; Jim Lee / DC

"IT'S the car, chicks dig the car."

But the Warner Bros exec who signed off on the deal that allowed Nissan to make this car clearly doesn't know what Batman is all about.

The best thing you can say about special edition Dark Knight Rises Juke Nismo is that it's the kind of car that Batman's party-loving aunt would drive while listening to Coldplay.

You can't even say it's the kind of car Batman's alter ego would drive. Bruce Wayne is a billionaire playboy. That means extremely expensive sports cars. Not cars with custom-made shark fin antennas that fool absolutely nobody into thinking the driver is some dark and mysterious crime fighter.

Attached File(s)

•  380089-batman.jpg (36.14K)
  Number of downloads: 0

[Tsundoku]

I shit you not:

-------------------------------------

http://www.news.com....d-1226536813888

Super poo: Are faecal transplants the way of the future?

By Kate Midena
news.com.au
December 14, 2012 1:30PM

Stool transplants used to treat severely ill patients
"It's only a matter of time before donors are more common"
Process also used to treat metabolic conditions, type 2 diabetes

Professor Thomas Borody, at the Centre for Digestive Diseases in Five Dock, Sydney. Picture: Supplied

YOU'VE heard of sperm banks and blood banks - but what about stool banks?

"It's already happening in America," Professor Thomas Borody, director of the Centre for Digestive Diseases told news.com.au.

"It's just waiting FDA approval there. Today in Australia stool donation is only done in one place, but in the future we envisage that there will be a select group of 'Super Donors' - people who did not have antibiotics as children, who are lean and healthy, who will be able to donate their stool.

"It's only a matter of time before donors are more common. And soon, we hope that all hospitals will have filtered, frozen stool which will be able to be used in emergencies," he said.

But what on earth is the kind of emergency another person's waste would be used for?

That would be anything requiring a stool transplant.

Faecal Microbiota Transplantations

It is exactly what it seems to be. Faecal Microbiota Transplantations, or FMT, occur when you take a healthy person's stool and transfer it into the bowels of a sick person.

To explain the process simply, stool is put in a blender with saline (salt water), and poured into a syringe. The sick patient is then given the freshly homogenised human stool via a colonoscopy, which is done through the rectum.

The transplants are currently used to treat gut bacterial conditions such as colitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Clostridium difficile, or C. diff - an infection which causes diarrhoea so severe that it kills thousands of people every year.

Tests are also being done in Europe to look at what else FMT can be used for - it is thought to be effective in treating metabolic issues, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and neurological conditions including Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinsons.

"Contrary to popular belief, stool has no waste in it - it's a mass of good bacteria," says Prof Borody, who does one to six transplants a week in his Five Dock clinic.

"The incoming bacteria are capable of killing bad bacteria and recolonising your gut, restoring your body's balance and leading to a resolution of your symptoms."

While it might sound gross, the results speak for themselves. Prof Borody has had people flying in from as far afield as Paris to undergo stool transplants in his surgery.

Many of his patients are C. diff sufferers who have been plagued with recurrent diarrhoea for years, but are cured within days.

"I was diagnosed with C. diff about two months ago after a stay in hospital had me undergo two courses of antibiotics for a minor infection," a recent patient of Prof Borody, who flew to Sydney especially for FMT, told news.com.au.

"I was treated for C. diff overseas but relapsed very quickly after the first round of antibiotics. The toxins had passed into my bloodstream and I was getting worse by the day.

"I was desperate and so I started googling and came across the Centre for Digestive Diseases here in Australia. FMT isn't available where I'm from. I called up Prof. Borody last Monday and was able to get on a plane right away - the Monday and Tuesday just gone I underwent the transplant.

"I'm only on day two of my recovery, but I feel so much better already, it's remarkable," he said.

Prof Borody said there were "few medical therapies that work so dramatically".

"In my experience, with a single treatment there's a 95 per cent cure rate of C. diff. With a double treatment, the recovery comes so close to 100 per cent that you may as well call it 100 per cent."

So if FMT is so successful, why isn't it more widely available?

"Some people just can't get past the ick factor," says Prof Borody.

"It's similar to any new theory or practice when it's introduced - is very hard to get old dogs to learn new tricks. Little interest has been shown within the pharmaceutical industry. Young doctors are very much on board with FMT, it's the old farts who are holding us back.

"If you speak to the people who have been suffering from C. diff, they don't care about having someone else's stool in their body - they just want the treatment that works, whatever gets rid of their problems," he said.

"Once you relapse and you know antibiotics aren't going to control your C. diff, it's vicious," Prof Borody's patient agrees.

"It's a superbug, it takes over your life. It's of course a strain on your physical health, but your mental and emotional health are affected too - I am 35 and was a normal, fit and active guy before this. You just have to seek out the best solution to get you well again - and that's FMT.

"I just want people to know that FMT is available, that antibiotics don't always work and if they don't, it's OK - there is another option for you," he said.

Development of stool transplants so far has been driven by a few individual clinicians across the world, but more and more patients are requesting the procedure.

"FMT just begs further attention," says Prof Borody. "As doctors, it really lies within our duty of care to do so."

Douglas Samuel from the University of New South Wales is part of a research group looking at FMT.

"It seems a novel lifesaving treatment for some patients with C dificile colitis," he told news.com.au, "but it is still too early to know if it causes more harm than good for other patients."

Clostridium difficile is an infection of the bowel which is associated with antibiotic use, and surfaces in your body as severe, life-threatening diarrhoea.

The bacteria has been around since the 1970's, but it wasn't until a highly toxic strain which is resistant to antibiotics appeared in the United States in 2002 that people realised how deadly it is.

The outbreak caused hundreds of thousands of deaths across the Northern Hemisphere and 15 to 20 thousand people die from it in the United States each year. In the UK more than 110,000 cases have been reported over the past five years, with an average of 2200 dying from it per annum.

"This epidemic strain is only just arriving to Australia on aircrafts from the States," said Prof Borody.

"We have had 15 recorded deaths in Sydney and 15 in Melbourne, but that's a huge underestimate, as it's often misdiagnosed or passed off as normal diarrhoea."

The Department of Health released figures in May this year confirming 1781 C. diff cases in Australia.

The epidemic strain of C. diff is contracted in similar ways to a virus - from not washing hands, being in contact with someone who is a carrier of the bacteria, and from eating cold meats and pork, which can also be carriers of the bacteria.

C. diff is more common in the elderly, among pregnant women, and in people who have recently been on antibiotics. However, not everyone who comes into contact with the bacteria gets sick from it.

C. diff only exists in those who have incomplete gut flora - usually thanks to antibiotics - which is why stool transplants can be so effective.

------------------------------------------

Looks like a job for SUPER MEZLA!

Gotta love some of the comments.

This post has been edited by Sombra: 17 December 2012 - 11:23 AM

[worry]

http://www.nydailyne...ticle-1.1245723

[stone monkey]

"Yeah, you! Monkey-boy! Bring those opposable thumbs over here and do something useful for once. And me and my bros won't pretend you're a porpoise and beat you to death!"

[worry]

Best news story in a while:
http://www.bbc.co.uk...-wales-21533681

[Baco Xtath]

Panda porn is shown to try and get some pandas in the mood: http://www.telegraph...wo-to-mate.html

Superhero hangs it up after getting beat up: http://www.telegraph...s-attacked.html

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Okay, more funny than weird:

Quote

Florida Woman Arrested After Genital Kicking Spree

When the Manatee County Sheriff’s office got the call that a woman was standing on a street in broad daylight kicking strangers in the genitals, reports the Miami Herald, they sent an undoubtedly unlucky deputy to investigate.

When the deputy found a woman who matched the description of wearing red pants and braids, he called for her to come towards him. Instead the woman, now identified as Katina Jane Collins, ran for it. As the deputy gave chase, Collins allegedly stopped in her tracks and punched the officer in the face, knocking his sunglasses off. The deputy was able to get Collins on the ground and in handcuffs, despite her alleged attempts to scratch the deputy while he handcuffed her, the report said.

What led Collins to be standing in the “street kicking people in genitals and running around kicking a man,” according to an arrest affidavit from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, is unclear. Collins, a 38- year old resident of Sarasota, Florida, was fresh off of another charge for battery of a police officer. It’s unclear if the incidents are related.

According to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, Collins has been charged with battery of an officer and is being held at the Manatee County jail on a $1,500 bond. There is no word on the number of individuals who fell victim to genital kicking spree before police intervened.

http://newsfeed.time...e/?iid=obinsite

[Mrs Savagely Wishy Washy]

I was back in Switzerland for a week recently and in the city where I used to live there was a big trial on about a self-proclaimed healer. The case caught my interest because the circumstances are bizarre and tragic. Here follows a somewhat sketchy account of what I have read.
This link leads to one article with links to the full coverage, for those who read German.
http://www.bernerzei.../story/22589833



This self-proclaimed healer, shaman and all sorts of other esoteric mumbo jumbo priest, and martial artist was also a music teacher and he treated his students, friends, acquaintances and those who went to see him because of word of mouth, for various ailments and afflictions using acupuncture among other things. However, over the past 8 or so years, he infected at least 16 of his student/patients with HIV, all of them are still alive, but some have AIDS now and the consequences of his acts in the lives of those he infected are immense. One victim was only 16 at the time of the infection while others were married. One guy whose examination in court was published said that when he found out about the infection, he told his wife, and she went to get tested too. He said he was waiting for her call standing in a forest with a knife in his hand. Had the result been positive, he would have slashed his carotid artery. Not to mention discussing the fact that your husband suddenly is HIV positive- what is your first thought?

Some of his victims received 'vitalising' tonics which had been spiked with KO drops, and they were infected while they were unconscious. Others were infected during 'acupuncture sessions' or just simply stabbed in the back with a syringe. One victim said that during a session, he stabbed her with a syringe. Afterwards, he told her to be careful not to catch a cold for the next two weeks. When she got ill, he told her that she is HIV positive and gave her the address of the University Hospital to go and get checked. When she was tested positive, this didn't actually make her suspicious of the healer but increased her faith in him.

The healer got eventually identified because the doctors at the University Hospital that treated all of these patients realised that the infections must come from the same place because the virus strains were the same and the other thing in common was that a lot of these patients mentioned the healer. That got the case rolling. The healer himself had been in custody several times for other things already, such as domestic violence or so. Apparently, he infected his wife too and then stopped having sex with her.
When asked about how he explains that the HIV strains were all the same, he said of his victims that they had unprotected sex or were drug users sharing the same syringes.

Apparently he got hold of the HIV infected blood because about 10 years ago he 'interviewed' HIV positive people (or from an infected student, not clear there) for a book he wanted to write about AIDS. He asked at least one of them for a blood sample, which he took himself at his house or 'therapy room', under the pretence that he wanted to prove that HIV can be healed and have it examined in his circle of Shaman friends.

He is going to prison for 12 years - he is 54, but it is expected that he will appeal and take his case to the Federal Court.

[Spoilsport Stonny]

And so begins the Pockylips...

Posted: Mar 24, 2013 1:31 PM EDT Updated: Mar 24, 2013 1:31 PM EDT GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Officials say a vial containing a virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever has gone missing from a research facility in Galveston, but say there's no reason to believe there's a threat to the public.

The University of Texas Medical Branch said Saturday that there was no breach in the security its Galveston National Laboratory and no indication of wrongdoing. Officials suspect the missing vial containing the Guanarito virus was destroyed during the lab's cleaning process but the investigation continues.

The medical branch says the virus, native to Venezuela, is transmitted only through contact with Venezuelan rats. It is not believed to be able to survive in U.S. rodents or to be transmitted person-to-person.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was immediately notified after the vial was discovered missing Wednesday.

[Darkwatch]

Humanoid Reptile Bodyguard

Quote

White House Can’t Afford Its Shapeshifting Alien Reptile Guards
BY ROBERT BECKHUSEN 03.26.13

A shapeshifting reptile from outer space guards President Obama, according to a new conspiracy video. Yet according to the White House, the extraterrestrial heft behind Obama’s protection detail is a mere allegation — and one that congressionally mandated budget cuts would have to ax, anyway.

If you believe the video above, recently posted to YouTube, the White House deployed at least one reptile guard as recently as this month. The narrator, using a text-to-speech program, suggests a bald-headed G-Man protecting Obama during his March 4 speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee “could be a shapeshifter alien humanoid working for the powers that be, caught in a high-definition video during an event of the Zionist cabal.”

Could be. It’s certainly fodder for Tinfoil Tuesday, Danger Room’s occasional look at the internet’s most insane conspiracy theories.

The White House dismissed the alien bodyguards as too costly in this era of budgetary austerity. “I can’t confirm the claims made in this video, but any alleged program to guard the president with aliens or robots would likely have to be scaled back or eliminated in the sequester,” Caitlin Hayden, the chief spokeswoman for the National Security Council, e-mails Danger Room. “I’d refer you to the Secret Service or Area 51 for more details.” We are journalistically obligated to observe that this isn’t a flat denial.


Check out the evidence for the reptiles-from-space theory. The video’s narrator teases: “Even though at first sight he looks like the average Secret Service spook, a series of odd features on his head, face, plus a very strange behavior and creepy movements suggest something else.” Next, another view of the agent — from another angle at a distance and in low lighting — makes him appear slightly different. His head is still swiveling back and forth, with his eyes on the crowd. “His ears, his nose, his chin, cheekbone, jaw and mouth are no longer looking human at all,” the narrator observes.

Conclusion: The agent must be “shapeshifting into some sort of reptilian, nonhuman form,” since that’s a logical explanation. The narrator suggests technology used by the agent to keep his true identity hidden might have glitched out. All this is new evidence of a collaboration between a conspiratorial elite and “at least one extraterrestrial race” that is “pulling the strings of mankind.”

Crucially, the narrator hasn’t figured out just what kind of alien is guarding the president. Is it an “actual reptilian humanoid?… Is he an Annunaki?” That’s a reference to the ancient Babylonian deities who some conspiracy theorists believe were ancient aliens who built the ziggurats for a mysterious purpose. “Is he a tall, grey bio-android?” The White House didn’t answer.

Not everyone’s convinced. Also keeping tabs on the agent are the followers of the “Grand Order of Draco Slayers,” which mirrored the video on its YouTube channel, and which touts itself as a “magical order of spiritual warriors dedicated to the eradication of the reptilian/illuminati current and the full restoration of humankind’s liberty and spiritual inheritance.” The group called the agent a “weird humanoid,” but stopped short of alleging reptilian infiltration. One commenter believes the agent could be a “genetically engineered super soldier or a human-animal hybrid.”

To believe any of this, you’ll have to discard all contradictory evidence. The narrator instructs you to ignore the low lighting; doesn’t mention the abrupt shift to a different camera angle; and asks the viewer to “disregard all the distortions and image artifacts caused by post-editing zooming.”

But still: alien guards. They’ve gotten a raw deal through the sequester. The White House didn’t clarify if its reptilian Secret Service agents are subject to the furloughs without pay affecting federal employees. But say this for the automatic budget cuts: They may have prevented Obama from falling into the clutches of an intergalactic conspiracy — that is, if the president wasn’t in on it from the start.




Spencer Ackerman provided additional otherworldly aid.

[Tsundoku]

One for EmperorMagus ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-22020822

Top Gear in Iran: Why do Iranians love Jeremy Clarkson?
By Maryam Maruf
BBC World Service

It's the most widely watched factual TV programme in the world, according to Guinness World Records - Top Gear is watched in 214 territories, and dubbed into eight languages. One of the latest countries to succumb to its charms is, unexpectedly, Iran.

When Mozaffar Shafeie, an Iranian actor living in London, was in Kurdistan a few weeks ago a whisper went round the party he was attending.

"Is it him? Is he really the guy that does Top Gear?"

Soon enough a group of Kurdish teenage boys put the question directly. Shafeie, who does indeed have a close connection with the programme, replied: "Yes, I am Jeremy Clarkson."

They looked sceptical, until he declaimed loudly, "Emshab!" - Farsi for "Tonight!", the word with which Clarkson, the show's outspoken and politically incorrect lead presenter, frequently opens the programme (usually followed by a long pause).

Shafeie says Iranian audiences enjoy Clarkson's pungent turn of phrase
Shafeie is the voice actor who dubs Jeremy Clarkson into Farsi, and this one word sent the boys - and nearby onlookers - into a flurry of excited whoops and screams.

"It was like Beatlemania," says Shafeie. "I even signed some autographs."

Iranian viewers have been watching the programme on BBC Persian TV (PTV) since 2009.

The BBC cannot operate freely in Iran, so Top Gear's popularity is hard to measure. But last year, when PTV dropped an episode to air an exclusive interview with then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the audience protested bitterly.

Clarkson himself was aware of the show's popularity in Iran, but still surprised by the outpouring of support.

"Hillary Clinton has got many things to say about Iran," he says.

Jeremy Clarkson and Mozaffar Shafeie met one another on The Fifth Floor, on the BBC World Service.

"You'd have thought that the Iranians would have found this relatively interesting - more interesting anyway than three fat old men falling over. I'm delighted to hear that we're more interesting than Hillary Clinton."

When the Top Gear season ends, PTV replaces it with its sister programme Top Gear USA, and this too has prompted complaints, one viewer objecting - with Clarkson-like bluntness - that the presenters were "not funny".

Shafeie attributes the success of the programme in large part to Clarkson's colourful language and racy anecdotes, which he so faithfully dubs into Farsi. Including phrases like "gentlemen's sausage", used to describe a shape he drew on the ground by with the tyres of a car, and "Pharaoh's dried testicles" - in reference to some truffles that Jeremy and his fellow presenters were tasting.

UK version is watched in 214 territories by 350 million people
Dubbed into eight languages: Farsi, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, Hungarian and Russian
The show, first screened in 1977 and relaunched in 2002, has stuck to the same theme tune - "Jessica" by The Allman Brothers

According to the BBC's Darius Bazargan, who made a documentary in 2008 about motor racing in Tehran, it is Clarkson's irreverence that endears him to Iranian audiences.

"His humour is so inappropriate and not at all what you hear on state TV - that must account for some of its appeal," he says.

"Jeremy Clarkson is about as opposite to President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad as you can get."

But Iranians - who are allowed to buy 60 litres (13 gallons) of petrol every month at the subsidised price of 4,000 rials (21p or 33 cents) per litre - also love cars.

"There's always been a car culture in Iran," says Bazargan. "It's a very status driven society, and this predates the Islamic Revolution of 1979."

The Porsche is the ultimate Iranian high-status car, a commonplace sight in the affluent neighbourhoods of northern Tehran, though the German company stopped selling cars in Iran last year, in response to pressure from campaigners against the country's nuclear programme. Maserati and Lamborghini have also recently cut all links.

The former Shah was one Iranian known for his love of classic cars, most of which are now housed in the country's National Car Museum.

He was in power when Iran in the late 1960s began manufacturing the Paykan, a car modelled on the British Hillman Hunter. This, according to Bazargan became feted as "the car of the people" - akin to Germany's Volkswagen.

Clarkson has described it as "terrible", on the grounds of its similarity to the Ford Cortina in which he learned to drive.

"Iranian nukes can't be very advanced if this is their idea of car technology," he once said on air.

But Clarkson says he would welcome the chance to drive one in Iran.

"I'd love to drive through Iran in one of those. It's the sort of thing that Top Gear is all about," he says.

"I'd love to take the show to Iran. We asked, we begged. And the (Iranian) ambassador in London was very sympathetic.

"At the time he had a son who was 14 or 15 years old who loved Top Gear but there is a rule in place that the BBC isn't allowed to go, so we weren't allowed, which is very sad - because we're not really very political."

[worry]

Jamestown cannibals:
http://www.bbc.co.uk...canada-22362831

[Spoilsport Stonny]

Missing people found after a decade:

This guy is straight up awesome:

https://www.youtube....&v=gcLSI3oyqhs#!

Quote

CLEVELAND — The voice of the long-missing woman was frantic and breathless, choking back tears. "Help me. I'm Amanda Berry," she told a 911 dispatcher. "I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now."
Those words led police to a house near downtown Cleveland where Berry, now 27, and two other women who went missing a decade ago were found on Monday, elating family members and friends who'd longed to see them again.

Authorities later arrested three brothers. They released no names and gave no information about them or what charges they might face.

City officials have scheduled a news conference for this morning.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said he thinks Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were tied up at the house and held there since they were in their teens or early 20s.

A 6-year-old also was found in the home, but police didn't disclose the child's identity or relationship to anyone in the home. The women appeared to be in good health and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and be reunited with relatives.

The women's escape and rescue began with a frenzied cry for help.

A neighbor, Charles Ramsey, told WEWS-TV he heard screaming Monday and saw Berry, whom he didn't recognize, at a door that would open only enough to fit a hand through. He said she was trying desperately to get outside and pleaded for help to reach police.

"I heard screaming," he said. "I'm eating my McDonald's. I come outside. I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house."

Neighbor Anna Tejeda was sitting on her porch with friends when they heard someone across the street kicking a door and yelling.

Tejeda, 50, said one of her friends went over and told Berry how to kick the screen out of the bottom of the door, which allowed her to get out.

Speaking Spanish, which was translated by one of her friends, Tejeda said Berry was nervous and crying. She was dressed in pajamas and old sandals.
At first Tejeda said she didn't want to believe who the young woman was. "You're not Amanda Berry," she insisted. "Amanda Berry is dead."

But when Berry told her she'd been kidnapped and held captive, Tejeda said she gave her the telephone to call police, who arrived within minutes and then took the other women from the house.

On a recorded 911 call Monday, Berry declared, "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years."

She said she had been taken by someone and begged for police officers to arrive at the home on Cleveland's west side before the man returned.

"I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years," she told the dispatcher. "And I'm here. I'm free now."

Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. They were found just a few miles from where they had gone missing.

Berry is now 27, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Authorities didn't provide a current age for DeJesus.

Police said Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now.

Police said one of the brothers who was arrested, a 52-year-old, lived at the home, and the others, ages 50 and 54, lived elsewhere.

Ramsey, the neighbor, said he'd barbecued with the home's owner and never suspected anything was amiss.

"There was nothing exciting about him — well, until today," he said.

Julio Castro, who runs a grocery store half a block from where the women were found, said the homeowner arrested is his nephew, Ariel Castro.

Berry also identified Ariel Castro by name in her 911 call.

Attempts to reach Ariel Castro in jail were unsuccessful Monday. Messages to the sheriff's office and a jail spokesman went unanswered, and there was no public phone listing for the home, which was being searched by dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies.

The uncle said Ariel Castro had worked as a school bus driver. The Cleveland school district confirmed he was a former employee but wouldn't release details.
The women's loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing them again.

A childhood friend of DeJesus, Kayla Rogers, said she couldn't wait to hug her.

"I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever," Rogers told The Plain Dealer newspaper.

Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper she couldn't wait to have Berry in her arms.

"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," she said.

Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

Councilwoman Dona Brady said she had spent many hours with Miller, who never gave up hope that her daughter was alive.

"She literally died of a broken heart," Brady said.

Mayor Frank Jackson expressed gratitude that the three women were found alive. He said there are many unanswered questions in the ongoing investigation.

At Metro Health Medical Center, Dr. Gerald Maloney wouldn't discuss the women's conditions in detail but said they were being evaluated by appropriate specialists.

"This is really good, because this isn't the ending we usually hear in these stories," he said. "So, we're very happy."

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry's remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers didn't find her body during a search of the men's house.

One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.

In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus' body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.
JOHN COYNE and THOMAS J. SHEERAN
Associated Press

This post has been edited by Spoilsport Stonny: 07 May 2013 - 12:49 PM