What really happened to Prisoner X

New details have emerged about the Ben Zygier case and the offences that led to his imprisonment in Israel.

Ben Zygier. Picture: Twitter Source: Supplied

AUSTRALIAN-born Mossad agent Ben Zygier inadvertently compromised an Israeli intelligence operation, it has been revealed.

The operation was aimed at recovering the remains of three missing soldiers and Zygier's action drew the wrath of his spy agency bosses.

That is the latest chapter in a story detailing the demise of the Melbourne-trained lawyer who committed suicide in 2010 after spending 10 months in a maximum-security cell, reports ABC TV.

The offence, which prompted the Israeli government to detain Zygier in a top security jail, has remained a mystery but had been linked to his naming of Lebanese citizen and double agent, Ziad al-Homsi.

Al-Homsi admitted to ABC TV having been approached by Israeli contacts about the whereabouts of the bodies of three Israeli tank crewmen killed during Israel's incursion into Lebanon in 1982.

Soldiers Yehuda Katz, Zvi Feldman, and Israeli-US citizen Zachary Baumel were captured by Syrian troops and paraded through Damascus before their deaths. Their bodies had never been recovered, despite Israeli efforts.

Israeli agents initially made contact with al-Hamsi in a bid to retrieve the missing soldiers.

"After one year of meeting with them, at the last meeting they informed me about the location of the corpses, exactly ... I had to find a way (to) bring the bodies and keep them," al-Hamsi told the ABC.

However before the operation progressed, al-Hamsi was named as a Mossad informer and jailed in Lebanon.

While Zygier's motive remains unconfirmed, the ABC said that following a mediocre start to his career in espionage, the Australian had been keen to impress Israeli spy bosses. He made unauthorised contact with an agent of Lebanese Hezbollah with the view to recruiting him as a double agent.

By way of proving his credentials to his Lebanese counterpart, Zygier allegedly named al-Hamsi as an informer.

The ABC reported when Zygier named al-Hamsi he unwittingly subverted one of his agency's most important operations.

When the repatriation operation subsequently fell over, Zygier was imprisoned and after 10 months in a window-less cell, he killed himself.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr is still waiting for Israel to respond to a request for more information about the circumstances leading up to the death of the dual citizen.

The ABC spoke with unnamed medical professionals who had contact with Zygier in the weeks leading up to his death.

One man, identified only as "the doctor", said Zygier needed help.

"It was obvious that he needed to be in therapy with someone from the organisation where he had worked. Someone who would say to him, you made a mistake, but everything will be ok," the man said.

Former Mossad agent Rami Igra simply said: "He was psychiatric, full stop".

Despite being housed in a high-security cell with CCTV and audio recorders, Zygier's death was not captured on camera. Prison authorities reported that the cell's bathroom recorder was inoperative at the time.

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Gas tanker explodes, killing 19

A gas tanker that exploded in a Mexico City suburb has killed at least 18 people, and wounded 36 others.

A GAS tanker has exploded in a Mexico City suburb, killing at least 19 people, wounding dozens more and setting cars and buildings on fire.

The blast rocked a neighbourhood of Ecatepec, north of the Mexican capital, in the early hours of Tuesday, injuring at least 36 people while affecting 15 cars and 27 homes, the mayor and a Mexico state official said.

Nearby buildings, cars and trucks burst into flames out when the tanker exploded before sunrise in the community of San Pedro Xalostoc, which is part of the municipality of Ecatepec and is home to a 16th century church.

Later, television images showed the charred remains of vehicles on a highway, road cement barriers thrown to the side and smoke billowing from buildings.

The truck was travelling on a highway linking Mexico City to the central city of Pachuca when it exploded at around 5.30am (8.30pm AEST). The cistern apparently slid off its support when the accident happened.

The roads of the metropolis are notoriously congested and can be busy before dawn as commuters head to work in the city.

"Unfortunately, 27 homes have been affected and 19 people died," Ecatepec Mayor Pablo Bedolla wrote on Twitter, adding that authorities were giving "all the support to Ecatepec families".

Burned cars are pictured in a highway in Ecatepec near Mexico city. A gas tanker exploded in a Mexico City suburb, killing at least 18 people and damaging several homes and cars. Picture: Victor Rojas

Officials initially said nine people had died and 13 were wounded.

Mexico state public safety secretary Salvador Neme reported 36 injured. The wounded were taken to hospitals and 13 of them were in serious condition, he told Milenio television.

A command centre was being set up at the scene of the accident to tend to the residents of the area.

It is the latest deadly gas or oil accident to rattle Mexico.

On January 31, a gas build-up sparked a huge explosion in the Mexico City headquarters of state-owned energy giant Pemex, killing 37 people and injuring more than 120.

In September, a huge explosion killed 30 people at a gas facility near the US border.

Burned cars are pictured in a highway in Ecatepec near Mexico city. A gas tanker exploded in a Mexico City suburb, killing at least 18 people and damaging several homes and cars. Picture: Victor Rojas

In December 2010, an oil pipeline exploded after it was tapped by thieves in the central town of San Martin Texmelucan, leaving 29 people dead and more than 50 injured.

Earlier, in October 2007, 21 Pemex workers died during a gas leak on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Most drowned when they jumped into the sea in panic.
 

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China cuts off Kim's accounts

The outlook just got a little worse for Kim Jong-un as a major Chinese bank has refused to do business with one of his financial institutions. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

ONE of China's biggest banks has halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the US of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs in the latest sign of Beijing's displeasure with its estranged ally.

The state-run Bank of China Ltd has notified the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea that its account or accounts were being closed and all financial transactions suspended, said a bank spokeswoman, reading a brief statement.

The spokeswoman for the Beijing-based bank did not identify the number of accounts closed or provide further details.

The move comes after the Chinese leadership, installed last year, has shown growing frustration with North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong-un, and the nuclear and missile tests his government has conducted, aggravating regional tensions.

In recent months, Beijing has displayed willingness to work with Washington to apply pressure, from signing on to UN sanctions to issuing a statement with US Secretary of State John Kerry last month urging North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs.

China is North Korea's economic lifeline, providing nearly all of its fuel and most of its trade. North Korea's economic dependence on China is rising, following a standoff with South Korea that effectively shut an industrial park that was an important source of hard currency.

As North Korea warns foreign residents to leave South Korea for safety -- a mixed reaction in Seoul and China. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

The Bank of China's suspension of business further complicates the ability of the Foreign Trade Bank, North Korea's main foreign exchange bank, to access a key financial market.

In March, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against the Foreign Trade Bank, effectively cutting it off from the US financial system and urged Beijing to do the same.

The department called the bank a "key financial node" in North Korea's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction.

It said the Foreign Trade Bank had financed other banks and companies already targeted by sanctions, including assisting in millions of dollars in transactions for the Korean Mining Development Corp., a major arms dealer.
 

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Mum forced to support daughter's rapist

Ed Abar, who was convicted of raping his stepdaughter, is out of jail and seeking spousal support and $US33,000 in back payments from his ex-wife. Picture: CBS2 Los Angeles Source: Supplied

A WOMAN has been forced to pay thousands in alimony to her ex-husband who was convicted of raping her daughter.

California woman Carol Abar married Ed Abar in 1991, when her daughter was nine years old. He repeatedly raped and abused the girl for 16 years before she told her mother and the couple divorced, the daughter told CBS2 in Los Angeles.

"He had threatened me that he would kill my mom, he would kill my stepbrothers, he would kill me," the daughter - who wishes to remain anonymous, said.

Mrs Abar was forced to pay alimony of $US1300 ($1266) a month to her ex, since she made more money than he did. In California, spousal abuse is taken into consideration when deciding alimony, but child abuse is not.

"He victimised a little girl all these years and I have to pay for that behaviour. It just doesn't make sense," said Mrs Abar.

"Every time I wrote that cheque I cried, because I felt like I was paying the man that raped my daughter."

"The judge told me I had no proof. It was my word against him," she said. "He had been raping her since she was little. Since I got married to him."

Carl Abar, how has paid around $22,000 to the ex-husband who raped her daughter for 16 years, says she cried everytime she sent his $US1300 a month spousal support cheque. Picture:CBS2 Los Angeles

She paid a total of $US22,000 until last year, when Abar pleaded guilty to one of the rape charges and went to jail for more than a year. The judge stopped the alimony payments temporarily while Abar was behind bars.

He's now out of jail and has filed to get spousal support again – as well as what he claims is $US33,000 in past due amounts, despite being a registered sex offender.

"It hurts me. I still feel like I'm being victimised", said the daughter.
 

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Secret translations for Dan Brown

Translators on Dan Brown's new book toiled away in secrecy under conditions that could be something out of The Da Vinci Code (the movie adaptation starred Audrey Tautou and Tom Hanks). Picture: Columbia Pictures Source: Supplied

FOREIGN translators secretly toiling away on a prized text inside an Italian bunker sounds like something cooked up by The Da Vinci Code novelist Dan Brown.

And it was. Except, according to reports, this was fact and not fiction. Eleven translators were put into "lockdown" for two months from February 2012 near Milan, and were even given alibis and kept under guard as they worked on the bestselling author's new book Inferno. The translators said they kept a punishing schedule, working long hours until 8pm, seven days a week, with little time to do anything but eat and collapse at their hotel at the end of the day.

Three US women who went missing as teenagers around 10 years ago have been found alive in Cleveland.

There were also more stranger-than-fiction twists in the case of the three missing women found inside the Cleveland home of Ariel Castro. The women were overnight released from hospital as investigators praised the bravery of Amanda Berry - the woman who escaped and raised the alarm - and confirmed a six-year-old child found at the house was Ms Berry's daughter.

A photo of Ariel Castro released by the Cleveland Police Department. Source: AP

It also emerged the son of one of the suspects once wrote a story on one of the missing women (even interviewing her mother) while one of the suspects told a TV station last year that a search for the body of Ms Berry was a "waste of money". Separately, the parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann said the discovery of the women "reaffirms our hope of finding Madeleine, which has never diminished".

This undated image released by the Metropolitan Police shows composite photos of four year old missing child Madeleine McCann and an age progression computer generated image of her at 9 years old. London's Metropolitan Police said Wednesday April 25, 2012, they will release a new image of the girl, who went missing on a family vacation in the Algarve coast in Portugal in May 2007. Police say they still have regular contact with her parents and continue to investigate. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Police/Teri Blythe) Source: AP

Elsewhere, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has been injured in a fall at a political rally, a gas tanker explosion in Mexico has killed 19 people, UK comedian Jimmy Tarbuck has been arrested as part of the Jimmy Savile investigation, a juror is suing the Japanese government for thetrauma of having to hear a murder case, a woman has spoken of her outrage at being forced to pay alimony to her ex-husband who was convicted of raping her daughter and China is cutting off the bank accused of facilitatingKim Jong-un's nuclear program while Barack Obama has said Kim's attempts at provocation have failed.

Burned cars are pictured in a highway in Ecatepec near Mexico city. A gas tanker exploded in a Mexico City suburb, killing at least 18 people and damaging several homes and cars. Picture: Victor Rojas Source: AFP

Portly New Jersey GovernorChris Christie has revealed he had gastric band surgery, New Delhi is breath-testing train passengers to weed out the drunks, China's use of dogs to predict earthquakes is drawing some howls from its citizens, three cocaine smugglers dressed as nuns have given new meaning to the term "drug habit", and police in the UK are incredibly on the hunt for a woman who allegedly assaulted a teen outside a McDonald's while dressed as the Hulk.

A still captured the woman police are looking for. Source: Supplied

In showbiz news, Ja Rule has been released from prison, Beyonce has expanded her repertoire to include being the voice of a cartoon character, therap world may need a health check after the early deaths of many of its stars, the version of Iron Man 3 seen in China has had scenes added to promote a milk product and Indonesia's corruption watchdog is ensuring there is justice for all by taking possession of aguitar given to Jakarta's governor by Metallica.

Jakarta's governor Joko Widodo holding a maroon bass guitar given to him by Robert Trujillo of US band Metallica. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

In sport, Bernard Tomic's father has been banned from the ATP tour, Cadel Evans has ridden into the top 10 at the Giro D'Italia, Liverpool's Steven Gerrard needs shoulder surgery, Rafa Benitez agrees that it will be Jose Mourinho who replaces him at Chelsea and Roger Federer is back in the swing of winning tennis matches after taking a few weeks off.

Australia's Cadel Evans (right) pedals in the pack during the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia, from Policastro Bussentino to Serra San Bruno, Italy. Picture: Fabio Ferrari Source: AP

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Massacre accused to plead insanity

James Holmes will plea not guilty by reason of insanity in his upcoming trail. Courtesy Fox News

James Holmes, accused of mass killngs at the Aurora theatre in Colorado, wants to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. RJ Sangosti/AP Photo/Denver Post Source: AP

LAWYERS for the man accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in a Colorado cinema say he wants to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

Lawyers for James Holmes on Tuesday said in a court filing they plan to formally ask for the change of plea at a May 13 hearing.

A judge in the case previously entered a standard not guilty plea for Holmes.

If the judge accepts the insanity plea, Holmes would be sent to the state mental hospital, where doctors would determine whether he was insane at the time of the July 20 shootings.

If the doctors do determine that Holmes was insane, a jury could still find him guilty.

The insanity plea was widely expected given the compelling evidence against Holmes.

He is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Holmes' lawyers have said in court hearings and written in court documents that Holmes is mentally ill. He was seeing a psychiatrist before the attack on a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie.

Prosecutors say Holmes spent months buying guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition, donned police-style body armour and opened fire in a crowded Aurora theatre during a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie on July 20.

Twelve people were killed and 70 injured.

Holmes could be executed if he's convicted of more than 160 counts of murder and attempted murder. 

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Internet access to Syria cut

Turkey and Iran decry Israeli air strikes on Syria as region pushes for political solution to civil war. Lindsey Parietti reports.

SYRIA "vanished" from the internet today, shortly after President Bashar Assad declared he was capable of facing Israel.

The Syrian leader stopped short of threatening retaliation for the strikes near the Syrian capital of Damascus after a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who paid an unexpected visit to Damascus.

Internet traffic in and out of Syria suddenly stopped about 5am AEST today.

US tech firms monitoring Web traffic and the State Department have confirmed the outage.

The reasons were not immediately clear, but a similar blackout happened last November.

"Syria is currently experiencing an internet blackout as of this afternoon," a State Department tweet said.

"On closer inspection it seems Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet," said Umbrella's Dan Hubbard.

An image grab taken from the state-run Syrian television shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, right, meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Damascus.

A similar picture came from Google through its Transparency Report on Web traffic and Web monitoring firms Akamai and Renesys.

According to activists, sudden communication cuts may occur before major military offensives.

Meanwhile, Iran has become increasingly vocal in its support of Syria.

Iran, one of Syria's closest allies, and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia allied with both Assad and Tehran, have become increasingly involved in Syria's civil war, supporting the regime with fighters, military advisers and weapons. Syria and Hezbollah have been key to Iran's expansion of influence into the Arab world, and a collapse of the Assad regime would be a major blow to Tehran.

"We are fully confident that Syria will emerge victorious from the crisis," Salehi said about the more than 2-year-old battle between fighters loyal to Assad and rebels trying to oust him.

Israel's airstrikes on Friday and Sunday put Syria and Iran in a difficult position because if they retaliated, they would run the risk of drawing Israel's powerful army into the war. At the same time, inaction further weakens Assad's already shaky claims to being the leader of the Arab world's hard-line, anti-Israeli camp.

A web traffic report showing Syria's sudden drop from the internet.

Israel has not formally acknowledged the strikes, but Israeli officials have said they targeted shipments of advanced Iranian weapons possibly bound for Hezbollah. The officials have said the aim was to deprive Hezbollah of weapons that could someday be used against Israel, not to raise tensions with Syria.

Israel has largely stayed on the sidelines since the uprising against Assad, which erupted in March 2011, turned into an armed insurgency and finally a civil war.

But on Tuesday, Assad accused Israel of supporting "terrorists" - the Syrian government's name for the anti-regime rebels - and boasted that Syria was "capable of facing Israel's ventures." He did not say what action he would take, if any.

Salehi adopted a slightly harsher tone, saying that "it is time to deter the Israeli occupiers from carrying out these aggressions against the peoples of the region." He also stopped short of threatening retaliation.

Later Tuesday, Internet companies reported Syria was experiencing an outage similar to a two-day blackout last fall. Syrian authorities have cut phone and Internet service in select areas in the past to disrupt rebel communications when regime forces are conducting major operations. The companies said Syria's networks appeared to go offline about 9 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Meanwhile, the United States and Russia, another Syria ally, said they'll convene a new international conference later this month to build on a transition plan they set out last year in Geneva.

Pro-Syrian regime activists, one holding up a poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, shout slogans during a march against the Israeli attacks on Syria as they rally outside the United Nations offices in the capital Sanaa.

Speaking in Moscow after his discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the plan should be a roadmap for peace and not just a "piece of paper."

The goal is still to bring the Assad regime and representatives from the opposition together for talks on setting up an interim government, Kerry said. The Geneva plan, which never gained traction, allowed each side to veto candidates it found unacceptable.

In Syria, meanwhile, rebels detained four U.N. peacekeepers on Tuesday near the frontier with the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, raising tensions just two days after the most recent Israeli airstrike.

The abduction was the second such incident in the area in two months. It exposed the vulnerability of the U.N. peacekeeping mission during the Syrian civil war and sent a worrisome signal to Syria's neighbors - including Israel - about the ensuing lawlessness along their shared frontiers.

Rebels with the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigades are holding the peacekeepers, a spokesman said in a phone interview. The Yarmouk Brigades were behind the abduction in March of 21 Filipino U.N. peacekeepers released unharmed after four days of negotiations. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because he was outside of Syria serving as a mediator on peaceful matters concerning the group.

In New York, Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department, confirmed the abduction and said the four peacekeepers, all from the Philippines, were taken on Tuesday by an unidentified armed group near the town of Jamla in southern Syria.

An Israeli soldier patrols, the Israeli side of the Lebanese-Israeli border, near the village of Kfar Kila, Lebanon.

"Efforts are underway to secure their release now," Dwyer said.

In a statement posted on the Yarmouk Brigades' Facebook page, the group said the peacekeepers were not hostages, but were being held for their own safety. The statement did not specify where the peacekeepers were being held, nor did it specify conditions for their release.

The rebel unit said it suspects the U.N. peacekeepers are shielding Assad's troops, who the rebels said killed civilians during an army sweep of Wadi Raqat in the south.

The U.N. monitoring mission was set up in 1974, seven years after Israel captured the Golan Heights and a year after it managed to push back Syrian troops trying to recapture its territory in another regional war. For nearly four decades, the U.N. monitors have helped enforce a stable truce between Israel and Syria. But in recent months, Syrian mortar shells overshooting their target have repeatedly hit the Israeli-controlled Golan.

In this photo provided by the Syrian official news agency SANA, workers clear the rubble of buildings destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria.

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Three dead after container ship crash

The toppled control tower of the port of Genoa, northern Italy, is lit by rescuers after a cargo ship slammed into it killing at least three people. Picture: Francesco Pecoraro/AP Source: AP

AT least three people died when a ship crashed into a control tower in the Italian port city of Genoa.

Italian news agency LaPresse said a half-dozen people remained unaccounted for, with some believed trapped in the elevator of the control tower. Four people were taken to hospital.

Genoa newspaper Il Secolo XIX said on its website that the crash occurred at around 11pm Tuesday (7am AEST today), during a shift change, making the accounting of personnel more difficult. But it said at least three bodies had been recovered.

It said the ship was leaving port when the motors apparently jammed, rendering it uncontrollable.

Lapresse and the newspaper identified the ship as the Jolly Nero of the Ignazio Messina & C. SpA Italian shipping line. According to its website, the Genoa-based Messina Line has a fleet of 14 cargo ships, with the Italian-flagged Jolly Nero listed at being 239 meters long and 30 meters wide.

The Jolly Nero container ship, from the shipping line Messinaline, Ignazio Messina & co. AFP PHOTO /MESSINALINE/IGNAZIO MESSINA&CO/ HO

Images from the port shown on Italian television early Wednesday showed the control tower tilted to its side.

The ANSA news agency quoted a tearful company official Stefano Messina as saying nothing like this had ever happened before to the company, which was founded in 1921. "We are devastated," he was quoted as saying.

A person who answered the phone at the Genoa port authority early Wednesday said officials were too busy to talk to the media. There was no answer at Messina's Genoa headquarters.

The Genoa port, located on Italy's Ligurian coast, is Italy's busiest in terms of overall handling of cargo, according to the port authority website.

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Victims' horror behind closed doors

Fox News reports that police are investigating the 911 dispatch handling of the Amanda Berry call as well as digging for evidence. Fox News

THE RUN-down houses and derelict buildings near Ariel Castro's house made it easier to hide a secret, his neighbours said.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight, who all went missing separately about a decade ago, were found on Monday in a home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Those who live near the modest home where the women were kept, say their neighbourhood has a dark side which may have helped the main suspect keep the three women from prying eyes.

"That was a perfect place for him because people couldn't hear any noise," community organiser Khalid Samad told NBC News.

Mr Samad said main suspect Ariel Castro had accompanied him on local searches for the missing women.

The 52-year-old's job as a bus driver also made him relatively well- off in a neighbourhood where many houses are boarded up and others have been foreclosed on in an area that has clearly seen better days.

"In terms of money he probably made more money than anyone else on the street when he was driving the bus," he said.

Neighbours and relatives say they didn't have a clue about Ariel Castro's suspected crimes, even as his own daughter was interviewed in 2005 on Americas Most Wanted. Fox News

Jennifer Faykus who knew Gina DeJesus' sister, moved from the area because she felt it had lost its sense of community.

"In this kind of neighbourhood you don't [pry] because you're afraid to talk to your neighbours," she said.

Did Castro target his daughter's friend?

Ariel "Anthony" Castro said he fears his father may have targeted the 14-year-old who went missing in April 2004 as she was such a close friend of his daughter Arlene. She was the last person to see Gina before she disappeared.

The 31-year-old told The Daily Mail he thinks it is "conceivable" that Gina got into his father's car instead of walking home as she recognised the elder Mr Castro as her best friend's father.

"That's one of the thoughts that went through my head because Gina disappeared in broad daylight on a very busy street. It's probably the busiest street on the west side of Cleveland," he said.

Fox News reports that the three brothers under arrest will be facing multiple charges for the ten year period of captivity and assault they subjected three young women to. Fox News

"It make you think how could she possibly disappeared without any trace. If she was abducted forcefully somebody would have seen it."

It is thought the teenager knew the person who took her and initially willing went with that individual on the day she disappeared.

Victims say they are fine

Close relatives of the three abducted women have told of how they're coping as more details emerge about their horrific life over the last decade.

Amanda Berry's grandmother Fern Gentry said Amanda told her that she's "fine" and that the six-year-old girl named Jocelyn also rescued from the Cleveland home is hers.

"I love you honey, thank God," her tearful grandmother said, in a call recorded by CNN affiliate WJHL. "... I've thought about you all this time. I never forgot about you."

The sister of 23-year-old Georgina "Gina" DeJesus said 'Gina' is in "good spirits."

Local police efforts are in question after calls were made by several neighbours over the past years, and was the suspect deliberately trawling for younger and younger girls? Fox News reports

Five pregnancies

As the world waits to see what will happen to Ariel Castro and his brothers Pedro and Onil who were arrested, relatives have told of their shock, painting Ariel Castro as a recluse and violent man at times.

Sources told WKYC that as many as five pregnancies occurred in the house. They were also told the captors would beat the pregnant girls and that the babies didn't survive.

Police in Cleveland have been reportedly searching a property for "possible aborted babies" after finding the three women who had been kidnapped and held as sex slaves.

According to local reporter Scott Taylor of 19 Action News, "investigators are looking for possible aborted babies in the backyard" of the residence where three brothers allegedly held three young women.

There are reports that the three women were also tied up with chains and tape and kept in separate rooms, The Daily Mirror reports.  One of the women is thought to have suffered three miscarriages due to malnutrition.

Police to gently quiz victims

Reluctant hero Charles Ramsey tells how he helped rescue Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight ending the women's kidnapping ordeal. Courtesy WKYC3

Since the three women have found their freedom, questions have been raised about abductions in the local area, including whether 14-year-old Ashley Summers is the fourth victim of the kidnapping.

She vanished from the same Cleveland neighbourhood where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight went missing.

FBI investigators have removed vehicles and items from the home where the women were held captive.

FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said. An FBI child victim specialist has interviewed all three abducted women as well as Berry's 6-year-old daughter in a "comfortable setting."

The three brothers arrested in the abduction case will be interviewed tomorrow local time, likely by both federal and local law enforcement officers.
 

FBI forensic personels remove evidence from the house where three women were held captive for a decade, May 7, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand Source: AFP

A photo of Ariel Castro released by the Cleveland Police Department following his arrest.

FBI forensic personnel remove evidence from the house where three women were held captive for a decade on May 7, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand Source: AFP

Suspects' lives in spotlight

More photos and details of the suspects have also emerged as locals have come to show their support for the women.

Investigators removed a number of items from the Cleveland home of Ariel Castro, including an amplifier, a storm door and black trash bags full of items.

Young residents come to show their support near the house where three women were held captive for a decade, May 7, 2013 in Cleveland. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand Source: AFP

 New photos of Ariel Castro have also surfaced.

This undated combination photo released by the Cleveland Police Department shows from left, Pedro Castro and Onil Castro.

 911 call reviewed

Cleveland officials are now reviewing the actions of the 911 dispatcher who took Amanda Berry's call.

The call-taker asked the name of Berry's captor, his age and ethnicity. But the dispatcher's repeatedly told her: "Talk to the police when they get there."

Cleveland Department of Public Safety Director Martin Flask said police were dispatched and on scene in the west side neighbourhood in less than 2 minutes.

"While the call-taker complied with policies and procedures which enabled a very fast response by police, we have noted some concerns which will be the focus of our review, including the call-taker's failure to remain on the line with Ms Berry until police arrived on scene," Flask said in a statement.

Audio has been released of the frantic emergency call Amanda Berry made after escaping a kidnapping lasting ten years.

Amanda Berry's family prepare a warm welcome. Picture: Twitter.

Locked house at centre of case

In another strange twist one of the brothers, Pedro Castro, was filmed by Fox News in July last year as excavating crews dug through an empty lot after a tip from an Ohio inmate that Ms Berry's body was buried there.

"That's a waste of money," Castro told Fox.

And even more bizarrely the son of suspect Ariel Castro, wrote a journalism piece in 2004 as a student on the disappearance of Ms DeJesus.  It is not believed that Ariel "Anthony" Castro knew she was locked up in his father's house.

Anthony Castro has also given an insight into the house where the three women were held captive.

"The house was always locked," he told The Daily Mail. "There were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage."

Amanda Berry, left, and Gina DeJesus have been found alive after disappearing in the US city of Cleveland about a decade ago. Picture: AFP

Amanda, Michelle and Gina according to sources were also gagged for years in the basement before moving to separate rooms.

WKYC says the windows had garbage bags over them so no one could see in or out.

Even more chillingly, Anthony Castro says he had a conversation two weeks ago in which his dad asked him if he thought the police would ever find Amanda Berry.

He responded that he assumed she was dead because she had been missing for a decade, to which his father responded "Really? You think so?"

'He doesn't deserve to have his own life anymore. He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of her life. I'm just thankful they're alive.'

Three brothers have been arrested in connection with three kidnapped US women found after being missing.

His account came as neighbours revealed they reported seeing a girl crawling on her hands and knees in a backyard but police did nothing.

Previous calls to the house

In a Tuesday morning media conference (midnight AEST) police said they had received no calls to the house other than a 911 call in March, 2000, after a fight broke out in the street, and again in January 2004, when child welfare authorities attended the home after Ariel Castro left a child on the school bus that he drove for work. Authorities deemed there was no case to answer and that the child had been left on the bus accidentally.

However, two neighbours said they were alarmed enough by what they saw at the house to call police on two occasions.

Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said.

A house where three women escaped is shown Tuesday, May 7, 2013, in Cleveland.

Other neighbours have reportedly seen naked women crawling in the backyard of his house on all fours with dog leashes around their necks and three men controlling them, The Daily Mail reports.

Another neighbour, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro's house, in November 2011. Mr Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. "They walked to side of the house and then left," he said.

Neighbours also said they would see Castro sometimes walking a little girl to a neighbourhood playground. And Ms Cintron said she once saw a little girl looking out of the attic window of the house.

First taste of freedom

The three women have been enjoying their first day of freedom after being released from hospital at about 8am (10pm AEST).

Ms Berry was the one to raise the alarm, getting the attention of neighbour Charles Ramsey, and making a frantic call to 911 in which she told the dispatcher, "I'm free now."

Neighbour Charles Ramsey speaks to media near the home on the 2200 block of Seymour Avenue, where three missing women were rescued in Cleveland.

Heartwarming: Sisters reunited after a decade

Mr Ramsey, told WEWS-TV that he saw Berry, whom he didn't recognise, at a door that would open only enough to fit a hand through.

"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."

Anna Tejeda, who lives across the street, said Ms Berry was nervous, crying and appeared dressed in pajamas and old sandals after she kicked out the screen in a door to escape and call police. Ms Tejeda speaks Spanish, and a friend translated her comments to The Associated Press.

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

"I'm free now." Amanda Berry, centre, with her sister and a young girl believed to be her daughter, told police she had been kidnapped and held for 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 he 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."

Ms 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. Ms DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. They were found just a few kilometres from where they had gone missing.

Police said Ms Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now. They didn't provide current ages for Ms Berry or Ms DeJesus.

Police said Ariel Castro, 52, lived at the home, and Onil, 50, and Pedro, 54, lived elsewhere. Ms Berry also identified Ariel Castro by name in her 911 call.

Mr Ramsey, the neighbour, said he'd barbecued with Ariel Castro and never suspected something was amiss.

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

Juan Perez, 27, who has lived two houses down from the home in question since he was 5, and has known the arrested man, Ariel Castro, since he was a child, he told US ABC News.

"My heart is feeling rough right now to know that this happened two houses from me and that none of us noticed anything," Mr Perez said. "I feel ashamed of myself and my community right now and this neighborhood that we didn't see anything."

Mr Perez said Castro was well known on the block as a "charismatic" guy who always wanted to take the neighbourhood kids on bike rides up and down the block.

Attempts to reach Ariel Castro in jail were unsuccessful. 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.

Charles Ramsey said he heard a girl screaming before helping her escape the house she was being held captive in. Courtesy Fox News

Loving families never gave up hope

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," Ms Rogers told The Plain Dealer newspaper.

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

Ms Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, had been in hospital 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," Ms 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 Centre, 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 Ms 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 Ms 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 Ms 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 Ms DeJesus' body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.

No Amber Alert was issued the day Ms DeJesus failed to return home from school in April 2004 because no one witnessed her abduction. The lack of an Amber Alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.

"The Amber Alert should work for any missing child," Felix DeJesus said then. "It doesn't have to be an abduction. Whether it's an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law."

Cleveland police said then that the alerts must be reserved for cases in which danger is imminent and the public can be of help in locating the suspect and child.

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