(NEWSER) – Police have released a frantic 911 call made by one of three women found alive in a Cleveland home yesterday after disappearing a decade ago. "Help me, I am Amanda Berry," she tells police. "I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now." The AP has the entire transcript here. Police say the three women have now been released from the hospital—where Berry was photographed joyfully reuniting with her sister—and gone home with family. A 6-year-old child was also rescued, but police did not reveal the child's identity or relationship to anyone in the home; Radar describes her as Berry's daughter.

Three brothers, ages 50, 52, and 54, have been arrested, though only the middle brother, identified by neighbors as former school bus driver Ariel Castro, is believed to have lived at the home where the women were held captive. Authorities, who plan to hold a press conference on the case this morning, say the women were probably tied up during their years of captivity, the AP reports. A woman whose relatives live on the street tells the Plain Dealer that Castro typically parked his car behind the house, and would lock a gate before entering—through the back door. She described the home as always dark, with at least one window covered with boards. Click for more on how the women were able to escape.

(AP) – Any day now, billions of cicadas with bulging red eyes will crawl out of the earth after 17 years underground and overrun the East Coast. The insects will arrive in such numbers that people in the southern state of North Carolina to Connecticut in the northeast will be outnumbered roughly 600 to 1. Maybe more. Scientists even have a horror-movie name for the infestation: Brood II. But as ominous as that sounds, the insects are harmless. They won't hurt you or other animals.

"It's not like these hordes of cicadas suck blood or zombify people," says a University of Illinois entomologist. They're looking for just one thing: sex. And they've been waiting quite a long time. Since 1996, this group of 1-inch magicicada cicadas has been a few feet underground, sucking on tree roots and biding their time. They will emerge only when the ground temperature reaches precisely 64 degrees. After a few weeks up in the trees, they will die and their offspring will go underground, not to return until 2030. And they will make a big racket, too. The noise all the male cicadas make when they sing for sex can rival a rock concert.

(NEWSER) – Robel Phillipos, the Massachusetts teen who is accused of lying to investigators about the activities of friends Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev in the aftermath of the Boston bombing, has been released under house arrest until his trial begins after posting $100,000 bail, NBC reports. Reuters reports that prosecutors "conferred extensively" with the defense today, and the two sides filed a joint motion asking the judge to OK a pre-trial release for the 19-year-old at this afternoon's hearing, so long as strict conditions are met. Phillipos will be clad with a GPS-enabled electronic bracelet, live at the home of his mother and submit to drug testing.

Meanwhile, the Telegram & Gazette reports that a Massachusetts community activist has deposited $500 into a fund he's starting in order to send Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body back to Russia. William Breault thinks it'll cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,000 to $7,000 to ship the body to Kyrgyzstan or Dagestan. "I don't look at it as I'm helping his family," says Breault. "I look at it as I'm helping the citizens of Boston, Worcester, and this state move on from this problem." (Breault says there's some buzz Tamerlan's body could be bound for a Worcester location.) 

(NEWSER) – Most of us know carnival games are scams, but Henry Gribbohm learned that particular life lesson the hard way—by losing his life savings in a desperate attempt to successfully toss a ball into a tub. The New Hampshire man was trying to win an Xbox Kinect by playing Tubs of Fun at the Manchester carnival, and quickly found himself down $300. (He was apparently going "double or nothing" in an attempt to win his money back.) This is where the story gets really weird: He then went home, and returned with all of his remaining money, $2,300 ... which he also lost. He ended up filing a police report and is considering a lawsuit.

The game seemed so easy when he practiced it, Gribbohm explains to CBS Boston, but when he played for the prize, the balls wouldn't stay in the tub. "It’s not possible that it wasn’t rigged," says the 30-year-old dad, though he adds—in what may be the understatement of the year—"It was foolish for putting up my life savings." Fiesta Shows, which ran the carnival, is interviewing the independent contractor who ran the game, and the police are also investigating the possibility of fraud. As for Gribbohm, he went back the next day to complain and $600 was returned to him. Plus, he won a giant stuffed banana with dreadlocks.

The Boston Police Department has three more suspects in custody that are connected to the deadly bombings at last month's Boston Marathon.

The police made the announcement with a Twitter message Wednesday morning.

The three suspects being held by the police are college students who allegedly helpedDzhokhar Tsarnaev after the double bombing near the finish line on April 15, the Boston Globe reported.

"Please be advised that there is not a threat to public safety," the police announced in a statement. "There is no additional info to release at this time. Additional details will be provided when they become available."

Tsarnaev, 19, was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The new suspects were allegedly Dzhokhar's college roommates, according to NBC News.

Dzhokhar is in a Massachusetts prison hospital and charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a shootout and attempted getaway from police in Watertown four days after the Marathon bombing.

In an email to HuffPost about the additional suspects, an FBI spokeswoman wrote: "We are unable to comment or confirm any statement or tweets regarding custody or arrests."

The attack at the Marathon killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.

This is a developing story -- check back for updates.

(NEWSER) – As Amanda Knox's new book hits the shelves, she's speaking to the media about the saga that saw her convicted of roommate Meredith Kercher's murder in Italy. Amid media scrutiny in the courtroom, "for all intents and purposes, I was a murderer—whether I was or not,” she tells Diane Sawyer at ABC News. "And I had to live with the idea that that would be my life." Her entire history was in the spotlight, she says, including every online post and every romance.

"I’d like to be reconsidered as a person," she says in the interview, which airs tonight. "What happened to me was surreal, but it could’ve happened to anyone." Meanwhile, she spoke to USA Today about the book, Waiting to Be Heard. "I really, really want this to not be just about what happened to me, but about what one can do in a bad place," she says. As for Kercher's family: "The ideal situation in my mind is that they could show me Meredith's grave. Because it was like, I wasn't allowed to grieve." But "if that never happens, then that's OK. Because ultimately it's about them."

(NEWSER) – The case against the new ricin suspect is looking a lot stronger than the one against the old suspect. An FBI affidavit says investigators found traces of ricin at the martial arts studio once owned by James Everett Dutschke, along with traces on a dust mask tossed in a nearby trash can, reports AP. Dutschke also bought a key ingredient in the poison, castor beans, over the Internet, says the filing. The Tupelo man is accused of sending tainted letters to President Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, and a local judge, and the 41-year-old faces life in prison if convicted.

NBA center Jason Collins has become the first male U.S. athlete in a major professional sport to come out as gay.

The 34-year-old, a free agent who has played with the Washington Wizards and the Boston Celtics this past season, tells Sports Illustrated:

"I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, 'I'm different.' If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand."Collins continues, "When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue."

As to why he opted to address his sexuality now, Collins says that he was partly inspired by the Boston Marathon bombings, adding that "it takes an enormous amount of energy to guard such a big secret."

"I've endured years of misery and gone to enormous lengths to live a lie. I was certain that my world would fall apart if anyone knew," he writes. "And yet when I acknowledged my sexuality I felt whole for the first time. I still had the same sense of humor, I still had the same mannerisms and my friends still had my back."

You can read Collins' full Sports Illustrated editorial here.

NBA commissioner David Stern applauded Collins in a statement cited by ESPN, noting, "Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue." Washington Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld felt similarly, calling Collins "a leader on and off the court and an outstanding teammate throughout his NBA career" in a statement.

GLAAD's Aaron McQuade echoed those sentiments, calling Collins a "new hero" for young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) athletes in an email statement. "'Courage' and 'inspiration' are words that get thrown around a lot in sports, but Jason Collins has given both ideas a brand new context," McQuade said. "We hope that his future team will welcome him, and that fans of the NBA and sports in general will applaud him."

The issue of gay players in professional sports has been a matter of heated debate in recent months, after San Francisco 49ers player Chris Culliver told Artie Lange thathe would not welcome gay players in the NFL or on his team. "I don't do the gay guys, man," Culliver is quoted as saying. "I don't do that. No, we don't got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do."

Furthermore, rampant media speculation over Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's sexuality has prompted other professional athletes, including former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe and former Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita, to chime in.

In a March interview, Fujita said he "would argue that the overwhelming majority [of NFL players] would be fine with having a teammate who was gay," and that "it would not be an issue" to have an openly gay player in the locker room.

Others, such as former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Mark Knudson, were considerably less enthusiastic. In a February Op-Ed for Mile High Sports, Knudson suggested that players "who are able to keep their sexual orientation private" should be applauded because it's "best for the team."

Meanwhile, Nike poached newly out women's college basketball star Brittney Grinerfor an endorsement deal, but the athletic wear giant may have even bigger plans in the works for the first openly gay male athlete.

"[T]he first openly gay team-sport athlete -- provided he’s a recognizable name -- would earn millions in endorsements and speaking engagements from companies seeking to capture more of a U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adult population whose annual buying power he pegs at almost $800 billion," Bloomberg wrote after an interview with communications strategist Bob Witeck.