Justin Bieber’s pet Monkey ‘belongs to Germany now’

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 9:37 AM - 0 Comments

Instagram

Justin Bieber had four weeks to pick up his pet monkey after it was confiscated by German authorities and his time is up. Mally, as the petite capuchin monkey is named, will now become property of Germany.

Bieber was busted for the monkey after he reportedly tried to sneak the 14-week-old primate into the country on his private jet on March 31. He didn’t have the correct documents to bring the monkey into the country and he has failed to produce those documents by the deadline, meaning Mally now belongs to the state.

“The monkey belongs to Germany now,” Judith Brettmeister, a spokesperson for the shelter that is caring for Mally told Reuters. She said that Bieber has not been in contact with her or the shelter since his monkey was confiscated and that he will not be able to get it back.

However, Bieber does have six weeks to contest the decision in court, should he choose to do so, reports The Associated Press.

At the time Mally was confiscated, the Biebs was on his somewhat troubled Believe tour, which was marked by not only the monkey incident, but also by Bieber collapsing on stage, Bieber offending many with his comments about Anne Frank, a Bieber bus drug bust and, finally, being attacked by a fan on stage.

Search continues for dead after tornado rips through Moore, Oklahoma

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 8:19 AM - 0 Comments

The Oklahoman, Bryan Terry/AP

Rescue crews are digging through the rubble Tuesday morning after a deadly tornado ripped through Moore, a Oklahoma City suburb, killing dozens.

Reports Tuesday morning said as many as 91 people could have been killed, and at least 233 others had been injured. But later Tuesday, Amy Elliott, the spokeswoman for the Oklahoma City medical examiner, said this number “is no longer accurate.” She said a confirmed 24 people were dead, reports The New York Times.

It is possible that the number of dead could rise, as rescuers comb through the wreckage of destroyed buildings, including two schools and a hospital, which were levelled during the storm.

CNN reported Tuesday morning that 101 people had been pulled from the rubble alive by rescue crews.

• Photos: Scenes of devastation from Moore, Oklahoma

One of the schools destroyed was Plaza Towers Elementary, where local television reports say that a rescue mission had turned into a recovery mission after some children were pulled from the rubble of the school alive.

Reuters reported that seven children at Plaza Towers had been confirmed dead. Children at the school were instructed to remain in the hallway, which collapsed, reported KFOR-TV. Continue…

Sites seek to crowdfund cash to buy alleged video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking drugs

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 17, 2013 at 2:41 PM - 0 Comments

Frank Gunn/CP

A handful of individuals are seeking donations to crowdsource money they say will be used to purchase a copy of a video that allegedly appears to show Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, as reported by both the Toronto Star and Gawker.

The published reports say reporters at both media outlets viewed the video, which was taken by men who were said to be connected to the Toronto drug trade. The owners of the video tried to sell it to the media outlets for $100,000, say the reports.

While neither Gawker nor the Toronto Star paid the money, several citizens have taken it upon themselves to raise the funds needed to, potentially, make the video available to the public.

At the site Indiegogo, a post asks for $100,000 and reads: “In case you haven’t heard, there is allegedly a video out there of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Let’s all chip in and buy the Rob Ford video!” At the time of writing, nine donors had given a total of $698. It says that if the $100,000 goal is not reached, it will donate the cash to CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

A second Indiegogo campaign is asking for $100,000 and it also says it will donate any funds raised to CAMH, should it come short of its goal. That one had 89 funders and a total of $1,356 at the time of writing.

Another Indiegogo campaign, organized by The Province newspaper in Vancouver, said it would do the same with $100,000, minus the donation to CAMH. The Province says it will return any funds, should it come up short.

Of course, there is no guarantee that those fundraising will be able to track down the individuals with the alleged video, even if they do meet their goals. Though, Gawker reporter John Cook writes near the end of his story: “If you want to buy it, let me know. I can put you in touch with a guy.”

So far, Ford has not addressed media about the allegations, apart from uttering the word “ridiculous” while getting into his car outside his suburban Toronto home Friday morning.

Ford has, however, entered his office at Toronto City Hall, where dozens of reporters are camped outside, waiting for a statement from the mayor.

Yahoo looking to buy Tumblr for as much as $1 billion: reports

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 17, 2013 at 9:13 AM - 0 Comments

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Yahoo could be in talks with the blogging site Tumblr to buy it for as much as $1 billion, at least according to speculation on tech websites.

All Things D quotes “sources close to the situation” who say Yahoo is eyeing Tumblr in an effort to attract the coveted younger 18-24 demographic and to add a cool-factor to its aging services.

Recently, Yahoo tried, and failed, to purchase the French video-sharing site Dailymotion under the direction of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. The Dailymotion deal was reportedly blocked by the French government, says the The Wall Street Journal, which didn’t want a U.S.-based company to own a 75 per cent share in the successful French video-sharing service.

Yahoo is also one of several companies looking at a deal with video-streaming service Hulu, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

Since Mayer took over the company, Yahoo has also reportedly been in talks with: Foursquare (for $800 million), Path ($2 billion), Pinterest, Zynga, Gdgt, Wavii and Media Ocean, notes Wired, which quotes a source close to Yahoo that says: “Literally they talk to everyone.”

It also notes that a Tumblr buy would be a risky one for the company. If the reported $1 billion asking price is correct, that would represent 1/4 of Yahoo’s cash on hand, reports Wired.

Time to resign? What pundits are saying about Mike Duffy

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 1:00 PM - 0 Comments

In a strange twist of fate, one-time pundit Mike Duffy is now the subject of the punditry, after his former employer CTV News reported that the senator received a $90,000 personal cheque from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright in order to cover inappropriate housing allowance claims he made during his time as a Conservative senator.

News also came to light Wednesday that Duffy may have been making more questionable claims, saying he was on Senate business while actually campaigning and fundraising for the Conservative party during the 2011 federal election.

So, should Duffy resign? Opposition members certainly think so, as do many opinion writers and newspaper editorials. Here’s a roundup of what the press said today:

Continue…

Saudi religious police leader says Twitter use will lead to hell

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 11:47 AM - 0 Comments

Beware Saudi Twitter users, for the top leader of the Saudi Arabia religious police says that he who uses the social networking service “has lost this world and his afterlife.”

The anti-Twitter rhetoric, which basically says that Twitter users are going to hell, comes from Sheikh Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh and corresponds with a major uptake in Twitter use in the country, according to BBC News correspondent Sebastian Usher.

What religious leaders in the country are probably most worried about is that the surge in Twitter use could, potentially, help facilitate a public uprising in the country, as has been the case elsewhere in the Middle East, points out Mashable.

This concern about Twitter comes from leaders in the same country that refused to allow BlackBerrys unless the company formerly known as RIM made it easier for the Saudi government to monitor users’ messages.

BBC News points out that the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca has also condemned Twitter and the kingdom’s most senior Muslim cleric called Twitter users “fools.”

Ontario inches closer to liquor-store strike before long weekend

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 10:22 AM - 0 Comments

J.P. Moczulski/CP

A strike that would shutter Ontario liquor stores during the May long weekend, and possibly beyond, could happen as early as 12:01 a.m. on Friday.

The strike threat comes as the 7,000 workers for Ontario’s government-owned LCBO liquor stores negotiate a contract with the provincial government. The workers’ contract ended on March 31, 2013 and they have been without a contract since then.

One of the sticking points between the province and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents LCBO staff, is hours, pay and benefits for casual and part-time workers.

On Thursday, some LCBO stores were reporting long line ups as customers stocked up, just in case.

Should the workers strike, the province’s Beer Store shops will remain open, but access to wine and hard liquor over the holiday weekend will be severely curtailed.

In 2003 and 2009 LCBO workers voted in favour of a strike, but didn’t end up walking off the job. If the LCBO workers do strike, it will be the first strike in the store’s 87-year history.

About those parking lot fridge magnets… Rob Ford could be fined for breaking bylaw

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 9:33 AM - 0 Comments

Chris Young/CP

The day after various Toronto media outlets published versions of a story about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford attending a community meeting and leaving abruptly to place “Rob Ford” fridge magnets on cars parked in the church lot, a bylaw enforcement officer is investigating to see if Ford broke any rules during his magnet blitz.

According to a report in the Toronto Star, a resident complained to the city after finding the Ford magnet on their car. A city bylaw deems it illegal to be found: “depositing handbills on vehicles and handing handbills to pedestrians,” says the Star.

The uncertainty comes around whether the magnets fall under the handbill category. If he is found to have broken the bylaw, Ford could get off with just a warning, or face a fine of between $100 and $150, reports the Star.

Accused in Cleveland kidnapping will plead not guilty: lawyers

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 11:52 AM - 0 Comments

Tony Dejak/AP

Ariel Castro, the man who is accused of kidnapping and raping three women and holding them hostage in his Cleveland home for a decade, will plead not guilty, his lawyers have said.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, along with a six-year-old girl born to Berry while she was in captivity, were released from a home belonging to Castro by a neighbour on May 6.

Speaking with Reuters in a telephone interview, one of Castro’s lawyers, Jaye Schlachet, confirmed that his client plans to plead not guilty.

Speaking to Cleveland local television station WKYC, another one of Castro’s lawyers, Craig Weintraub, said his client was not the “monster” he has been portrayed as. “The initial portrayal by the media has been one of a ‘monster’ and that’s not the impression that I got when I talked to him for three hours,” Weintraub said. “I know that family members who have been interviewed by the media have expressed that as well.”

Castro remains in a Ohio jail where he has been put on suicide watch. On May 9, a judge set his bail at $8 million.

Castro’s own brothers Onil Castro, 50, and Pedro Castro, 54, have turned against their brother since his arrest, telling CNN in a television interview that their brother was a “monster” and that they “hope he rots in that jail.”

Onil and Pedro were originally named as suspects, but police have since said there is no reason to believe the had anything to do with the alleged crimes.

Hologram rap stars to appear at Rock the Bells hip hop festival

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 10:57 AM - 0 Comments

Hologram Tupac.

Deceased rapper Tupac Shakur’s hologram appearance alongside Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg at the Cochella music festival in 2012 made headlines, and now late rappers Eazy-E and Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB) will follow in his holographic footsteps.

The hip-hop festival Rock the Bells – which has shows in California, Washington D.C. and New Jersey in September and October — announced that Eazy-E and ODB will both be projected into the performance.

A virtual version of ODB (Russell Tyrone Jones), who died in 2004 from a drug overdose, will perform alongside the remaining members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a group in which he was a founding member. Continue…

The case of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and the parking lot fridge magnets

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 9:10 AM - 0 Comments

Chris Young/CP

While the big political story in the country Tuesday was a Liberal election victory in B.C., a much smaller scene played out in Toronto the same evening, as reporters followed Mayor Rob Ford around a suburban church parking lot as the mayor of Canada’s biggest city slapped fridge magnets adorned with his name and phone number on parked cars.

Though the next Toronto election isn’t until 2014, Ford appeared to get a very early start on campaigning when he left a community council meeting in Etobicoke, a west-of-downtown part of the city, to plaster cars with fridge magnets that read “Rob Ford Mayor.”

Inside, residents were discussing a proposed highrise condo development called Humbertown, which many in the community objected to, saying it didn’t mesh with their suburban neighbourhood.

While it’s possible that Ford just had some leftover magnets from the 2010 campaign that he wanted to get rid of, his actions attracted the attention of journalists inside the meeting. Toronto Star city reporter Daniel Dale writes:

“When a reporter told Ford that some people might find his behaviour strange, he retorted that some people find the reporter strange. Magnets in hand, he made no further comment.” Continue…

Man says he’s found the secret recipe for Coca-Cola. It can be yours for $15 million.

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 11:35 AM - 0 Comments

A man who says he has found the top-secret recipe for Coca-Cola is selling it on eBay, for a starting bid of $5 million and a “buy-now” price of $15 million.

The man claiming to have the secret formula is Georgia resident Cliff Kluge, an antiques lover who, along with his wife, purchased a box of letters at an estate sale and found the recipe in it. “It’s a treasure hunt,” Kluge told local television station 11Alive. “We go around looking for treasure. And apparently we may have found some.”

The recipe dates back to 1943, writes Kluge in his eBay posting:

“…we were at an estate sale of a deceased, renown Chattanooga chemist, who at one time worked at one of the more prominent chemical companies in the area. There were masses upon masses of personal paperwork at the sale. Curious, we bought several boxes of this paperwork, which yielded some interesting finds. Among those finds is what is offered for sale here – what we believe to be the formula for Coca Cola.” Continue…

Google celebrates 37th anniversary of ‘Atari Breakout’ with image search game

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 10:57 AM - 0 Comments

Google screenshot.

Enter “atari breakout” in a Google image search today and be prepared to waste some time.

To celebrate the 37th anniversary of the Atari game, Google has created its own version of Atari Breakout, which was created by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow and came out in 1976.

At the time it was released the brick-breaking game resembled its forerunner, Pong.

The Google version of Breakout is fully operational and lets players share their high scores through social media if they’re looking for bragging rights.

Of course, if you’re actually looking for images of Atari Breakout, you can just skip the game and search for images, too.

Osaka, Japan mayor under fire for calling war-time sex slaves ‘necessary’

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 9:42 AM - 0 Comments

Toru Hashimoto (Kyodo News/AP)

Osaka, Japan Mayor Toru Hashimoto has angered his Chinese and South Korean neighbours by making comments where he called war-time sex slaves — many who were Chinese and Korean — “necessary.”

Hashimoto made the comments during a press conference with reporters Monday, reports Reuters.

“Anyone can understand that the system of comfort women was necessary to provide respite for high-strung, rough and tumble crowd of men risking their lives under a storm of bullets,” Hashimoto told reporters. “At the time, it was a necessary system to maintain military discipline.”

The Reuters report says that an estimated 200,000 “comfort women” were forced to consort with Japanese soldiers in brothels before and during WWII. The woman came from China and Korea, as well as the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan, reports BBC News. Continue…

Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’ released, review calls it his worst so far

By Bookmarked and Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 8:51 AM - 0 Comments

Doubleday

Dan Brown’s latest suspense novel, Inferno, was released today, in what one critic called his “worst book” so far. Other reviewers have been only lukewarm about the book.

This means, of course, that the latest adventures of symbologist Robert Langdon, as chronicled in Inferno, are sure to make the book an immediate best seller.

Here’s a sample of the tepid reviews from critics about the latest offering from the author of Da Vinci Code:

From The Telegraph:

…where once he was abysmal he is now just very poor. His prose, for all its detailing of brand names and the exact heights of buildings, is characterised by imprecision. It works to prevent the reader from engaging with the story. This mattered less in his previous novels, but with Inferno I sense for the first time that Brown is aiming at a tauter, better book, one more interested in the real world, longing to escape from the prison of his pleonasm.

But in the end this is his worst book, and for a sad, even noble, reason – his ambition here wildly exceeds his ability.

From the Washington Post: Continue…

‘I hope he rots in that jail,’ Ariel Castro’s brothers tell CNN

By Emily Senger - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 10:53 AM - 0 Comments

Tony Dejak/AP

The two brothers of Ariel Castro, the man accused of kidnapping and holding three young women for a decade in his Cleveland home, spoke to CNN’s Martin Savidge, calling their brother a “monster” and “hateful.”

In an interview, which was recorded over the weekend and aired Monday morning, Onil and Pedro Castro said that their brother is no longer a part of the family.

“I hope he rots in that jail,” Onil Castro, 50, said. “I don’t even want them to take his life like that. I want him to suffer in that jail.”

They also expressed their condolences for the families of the women involved.

“I would say, I’m sorry that you had to go through this,” Pedro Castro, 54, said. “I was thinking about these girls being missing and I’m just grateful that they’re home.”

He added that the Castro family personally knew the father of one of the missing women, Gina DeJesus, which made it even worse.

The events have taken a huge toll on the Castros and their families, Onil Castro said. “This has torn my heart apart. This has killed me. I’m a walking corpse right now,” he told Savidge.

Ariel Castro has been charged with the kidnapping and rape of three women: DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight. He is being held in custody on $8 million in bail.

Berry was able to escape the home where she was held captive with the help of a neighbour, Charles Ramsey, who alerted police. A child, who belongs to Berry — along with DeJesus and Knight — were also freed from the home.

Onil and Pedro Castro were originally arrested on outstanding charges, but were later released. Police have since said that there was no evidence to suggest they are connected to the alleged crimes of their brother.

Dennis Rodman ready for mission to North Korea to free Kenneth Bae

By Emily Senger - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 10:07 AM - 0 Comments

Kim Kwang Hyon/AP

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman appears poised to continue his self-appointed mission to improve the relationship between North Korea and the U.S. by, this time, vowing to free imprisoned American citizen Kenneth Bae.

Bae, a Christian of South Korean descent who acted as a tour guide, has been in North Korean custody since November. North Korea claims that Bae was using his tourism business as a front to perform missionary work in the country. Earlier this month, Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for a range of charges that include undermining the state and smuggling inflammatory literature into the state.

According to a report from celebrity gossip site TMZ.com, Rodman said — amid curse words directed at President Barack Obama — that he is going to North Korea on August 1 in order to get Bae back. Continue…

Arrested Development trailer released, the Bluths are back in two weeks

By Emily Senger - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

(AP Photo/ Fox Broadcasting,Isabella Vosmikova)

Netflix’s Arrested Development trailer was released late Sunday, giving fans the first peek at what they can expect from the Bluth family in the upcoming fourth season of the resurrected cult television program.

From the video, a few things are clear. All of the original Bluth family members are back, including: Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), George Michael (Michael Cera), Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter), George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), Lindsay Bluth Fünke (Portia de Rosie), Tobias Fünke (David Corss), Maeby Fünke (Alia Shawkat), Buster Bluth (Tony Hale) and Gob Bluth (Will Arnett). Neurotic secretary Kitty Sanchez (Judy Greer) also makes an appearance.

It appears, from the trailer, that Michael has made good on his threats to leave the family and move to Phoenix, Az., Tobias hasn’t given up on his dream of acting, and George Michael and Maeby could rekindle their awkward cousinly romance while sharing a college dorm. Continue…

Did Bloomberg spy on traders that used its subscription services?

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 3:40 PM - 0 Comments

Scott Olson/GETTY IMAGES

Bloomberg LP is being accused of allowing its journalists to access information about how traders used its services, particularly those at Goldman Sachs.

The news that Bloomberg may have been providing subscriber data to its reporters came after Goldman Sachs, a major Bloomberg client, complained to the company, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg responded by blocking its journalists from accessing the following data about customers: when a subscriber had most recently logged onto the service, when they became a subscriber and the content they were accessing, an unnamed source told The Wall Street Journal.

JP Morgan also made a complaint to Bloomberg, according to The Financial Times.

Another report in the New York Post said that, prior to the Goldman Sachs complaint, a reporter had approached a staff member at Goldman Sachs and asked if another executive had left the firm because he hadn’t logged into his account for some time. This raised concerns that the information accessed through the Bloomberg-owned terminals investors frequently use may not have been secure, reports the Post. “You can basically see how many times someone has looked up news stories or if they used their messaging functions,” a source from Goldman told The New York  Post. “It made us think, ‘Well, what else does [Bloomberg] have access to?”

Companies can rent out the Bloomberg-owned terminals for about $20,000 per year and the company has around 315,000 subscribers, says The Financial Times.

There is no indication that Bloomberg journalists used this information, though The Financial Times story raises the question of whether Bloomberg used customer data for a story about the so-called “London whale” trader, Bruno Iksil, who was responsible for $6.2 billion in losses at JP Morgan in 2012.

Spacewalk needed to fix ammonia leak on International Space Station

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 11:27 AM - 0 Comments

AP/Dmitry Lovetsky

Astronauts on the International Space Station are preparing for an unscheduled space walk to fix leaking ammonia, which is used to cool the power panels on the station.

While Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who is currently commanding the station, won’t be one of two people doing the spacewalk, he will be assisting from inside. Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn are preparing for the walk.

“The crew is not in danger, and the station continues to operate normally otherwise,” NASA said in a press release issued Thursday. “Work is underway to reroute power channels to maintain full operation of the systems normally controlled by the solar array that is cooled by the suspect loop.”

Crews discovered the leak after they saw small white flakes floating away from the station Thursday, says NASA. Using cameras and data from ground crews, members of the International Space Station were able to determine that the rate of the ammonia leak was increasing. Continue…

Singer from ‘As I Lay Dying’ metal band says he’s not guilty in wife’s murder plot

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 10:05 AM - 0 Comments

Tim Lambesis/As I Lay Dying

Tim Lambesis, the lead singer in the Christian heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, has pleaded not guilty in a plot to hire a hit man to kill his wife.

Lambesis, 32, was arrested in Oceanside, north of San Diego on Tuesday after police allege he had a conversation with a man who was an undercover cop. Police say Lambesis paid the undercover cop $1,000 to kill his estranged wife, Meggan Lambesis. He also gave the official details about how to carry out the hit, including photograph, an address, a security gate code and dates he would be with their children to give him an alibi, reports The Associated Press.

Lambesis pleaded not guilty to a charge of solicitation of murder in a California courtroom Thursday. A judge set his bail at $3 million and ordered him to wear a GPS tracking device until his next court appearance.

The couple had filed for a divorce, which had not yet gone through. Papers filed in court showed that the spilt was mainly amicable. Tim and Meggan Lambesis have three children — ages 4, 8 and 10 — who were all adopted from Ethiopia. Continue…

Facebook in talks to buy Waze mapping app for $1 billion: reports

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 1:49 PM - 0 Comments

Paul Sakuma/AP Photo

Reports from three Hebrew-language news outlets say that Facebook is in negotiations to purchase Waze, a mapping application headquartered in Israel.

The move is seen as a bid to increase the social media site’s mobile capabilities, much in the same manner it did when it purchased Instagram for $1 billion in August 2012.

The Waze deal is thought to be worth $1 billion as well, reports TechCrunch. Israeli newspaper Haaretz says the deal would be half in cash and half in Facebook shares.

Previously, there were rumours that Apple was in talks to purchase Waze, but that deal never happened.

For anyone who hasn’t used Waze, the app allows users to share real-time traffic and road information with other users. It also tracks location, which allows people who are carpooling or driving to the same location to co-ordinate.

However, Waze’s location-tracking capacity is already causing some observers to raise alarm about Facebook collecting even more data about its users: “The location data will give Facebook one more point of reference for targeting its increasingly invasive advertisements,” writes The Atlantic Wire.

Ariel Castro appears in court to face charges, bail set at $8 million

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 10:08 AM - 0 Comments

Ariel Castro appeared in a Cleveland courtroom Thursday morning where he was charged with kidnapping and rape and his bail was set at $8 million.

Castro is charged with one count of kidnapping, as well as three charges of rape. The high bail — $2 million for each of his alleged victims — means he will remain in prison until his trial. It is possible he could face additional charges. Castro has not yet entered a plea in the case.

Castro is the owner of the house in Cleveland where three women who had been missing for a decade were found alive, on Monday. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight where reunited with their families. A fourth girl, a child who belonged to Berry, was also found in the home.

Castro’s two brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, had been arrested on outstanding charges, but a decade-old charge against Onil were dismissed. Pedro paid a $100 fine for an open-container charge from 2011 and was released. Police now say there is no evidence to suggest the brothers were involved in the alleged kidnappings.

Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ out of hospital after being hit in the head with ball

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 2:21 PM - 0 Comments

Blue Jays starting pitcher J.A. Happ has left the hospital after being hit in the head by a line drive Tuesday evening during an away game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Sportsnet reporter Barry Davis tweeted that he saw Happ leaving the hospital with a bandage on his head. Davis said he was also on crutches with what appeared to be a damaged right knee, which may have been injured during his fall.

This information was also confirmed by the Bayfront Medical Centre in Florida, where Happ was taken for treatment after he was injured.

Happ fell straight to the ground Tuesday evening, after the ball flew off Desmond Jennings’ bat and hit him on the head. He was taken away on a stretcher and whisked to the Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida to undergo treatment.

Earlier Wednesday, the Jays used their official Twitter account to report that Happ was doing well and had a “head contusion and a laceration to his left ear.”