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CNN Exclusive: CNN Exclusive: Brothers call Ariel Castro a 'monster'

Ariel Castro's brothers no longer refer to him as kin. Instead, they call him "a monster" who should rot in jail after being accused of kidnapping and holding three young women hostage in his home for a decade. "I had nothing to do with this, and I don't know how my brother got away with it for so many years," Pedro Castro, 54, said when he and brother Onil Castro, 50, sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN's Martin Savidge this weekend. When the story first broke, the world saw all three brothers as suspects after Cleveland police arrested them last Monday and released their mugshots. It was not until Thursday that Pedro and Onil Castro were freed and investigators said the brothers had no involvement in the kidnappings.

ALSO SEE: CNN: As Ohio women remained in captivity, alleged abductor's life crumbled

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CNN: Prosecutor: 'Child kidnapper operated a torture chamber and private prison'

First came the pain - a decade of torture, torment and terror for three captive women and one of their young daughters. Now comes the prosecution and - if there's a conviction - punishment for the man accused of being responsible for their hell. Ariel Castro appeared silently in court Thursday, his head down, as he was arraigned on four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, accused of holding the women captive in his Cleveland home. Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lauren Moore ordered Castro held on $8 million bond - $2 million for each of the three women and the child born to Amanda Berry before they were freed Monday evening.

ALSO SEE: CNN: 'He is dead to me,' daughter of Ohio suspect says in CNN exclusive

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CNN: Ohio kidnapping case: Amanda Berry's baby delivered by another captive

As Ariel Castro prepares to make his first court appearance Thursday, accusations of what he did to three young women trapped in his home for a decade get more and more abhorrent. The man charged with kidnapping and rape allegedly forced one of the women to deliver another captive's baby, and threatened to kill if the baby did not survive, a police source familiar with the investigation said.

USA Today: Bombing suspect says brother's wife not involved

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators in the days after the attack that his brother's widow, Katherine Russell, was not involved in the plot, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday. Russell, married to Tamerlan Tsarnaev who was killed in a confrontation with police three days after the bombings, has drawn the scrutiny of federal investigators, who have sought to question her more closely about contacts with her husband - including a telephone conversation between the two just hours after photographs of the Tsarnaev brothers were circulated as suspects by the FBI on April 18.

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CNN: Women reunite with families; details begin to emerge

The first time most of America heard Amanda Berry's voice was on a frantic 911 call. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years," the 27-year-old woman said on the call, which was made on Monday. "And I'm here. I'm free now." A day later, Berry could be heard again. This time talking to relatives, she seemed positive, even upbeat - telling her grandmother Fern Gentry in Tennessee that she's "fine" and that the 6-year-old girl also rescued Monday from a Cleveland home is indeed her own.

ALSO SEE: CNN: Timeline: Three Cleveland girls go missing; no word of them for 10 years

WATCH: VIDEO – Kidnapping survivor Jaycee Dugard was honored by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Tuesday night.

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CNN: 911 call - 'I've been kidnapped!' - cops find 3 women missing for years

Amanda Berry was last seen after finishing her shift at a Burger King in Cleveland in 2003. It was the eve of her 17th birthday. Georgina "Gina" DeJesus disappeared nearly a year later, in April 2004. She was 14. Michele Knight vanished in 2002, at age 19, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. All three were found alive in a home in a Cleveland neighborhood Monday night, police announced in a development hailed as a miracle by their families.

CNN: Bomb suspect's friend out on bail, released to mom

One of three friends accused of helping Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cover up his alleged crime got out on bond Monday, released to his mother's custody. Robel Phillipos left the federal courthouse in a red Toyota sedan after a judge set bail at $100,000. He will stay at his mother's home, where he was living before his arrest last week, and be monitored electronically, according to terms his lawyers and prosecutors agreed to before Monday's hearing.
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CNN: Feds search Boston bombing suspect's apartment

Federal authorities were at the apartment of deceased bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev on Sunday, executing a search warrant, an FBI spokeswoman said. Amanda Cox said, "There is court-authorized law enforcement activity" at the home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that Tsarnaev shared with his wife and young daughter. Workers in white hazmat suits were at the apartment, CNN affiliate WCVB reported. … On Sunday, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body remained at a funeral home, where his uncle said he was trying to deal with the logistics of readying the body for burial. Tsarni said he was the only family member at the funeral home and had not had contact with Katherine Russell, Tamerlan's widow. The funeral home owner, Peter Stefan, said he still has yet to find a cemetery willing to accept the body for burial.

ALSO SEE: CNN: Father of friend arrested in Boston bombing case defends son

WSJ: Colleges Cut Prices by Providing More Financial Aid

Private U.S. colleges, worried they could be pricing themselves out of the market after years of relentless tuition increases, are offering record financial assistance to keep classrooms full. The average "tuition discount rate"—the reduction off list price afforded by grants and scholarships given by these schools—hit an all-time high of 45% last fall for incoming freshmen, according to a survey being released Monday by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

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CNN: Sources: Boston bombs built in older Tsarnaev's home, first target was July 4

The bombs used in the Boston Marathon attack were built in the apartment that suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with his wife and child, a U.S. law enforcement official with first-hand knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Thursday. The official was not authorized to release the information. Katherine Russell, Tsarnaev's widow, has remained largely out of view inside her parents' North Kingstown home since her husband's death. It remains unclear what, if anything, Tamerlan's widow might have known or suspected, the source added. …Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, initially planned to carry out a suicide-bomb attack on July 4, a U.S. law enforcement official regularly briefed on the Boston bombing investigation told CNN. The source said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators their bombs were ready earlier than they expected and they decided to move up the date.
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BREAKING OVERNIGHT:

URGENT – Iraq Violence

– (CNN) - A total of 712 people were killed and another 1,633 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in Iraq in April - making it the deadliest month since June 2008, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq said Tuesday. Baghdad saw the most violence, the agency said.

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CNN: FBI details how blast suspect's friends took, trashed key pieces of evidence

When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev got a text from a friend asking him if he was one of the two men shown in FBI-released photos of Boston bombing suspects, his reply was short and light: LOL. Other messages from the teenager followed, including "You better not text me" and "Come to my room and take whatever you want," according to an FBI affidavit released Wednesday. His friend took the texts as jokes, as if Tsarnaev found humor in the mere idea that he could be responsible for such horror. But when Dias Kadyrbayev showed one of their mutual friends that last text, the friend wasn't laughing.

ALSO SEE: CNN: Who are Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos?

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CNN: FBI did its job in Tsarnaev probe, Obama says

Federal intelligence officials are looking at whether more could have been done to prevent the Boston Marathon attacks, President Barack Obama said Tuesday, though he added that he's not aware of any missteps. "Based on what I can see so far, the FBI performed its duties. The Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing," Obama said. "But this is hard stuff." The president called the review by the Director of National Intelligence's office "standard procedure," but it comes amid withering criticism from some lawmakers of how well law enforcement, intelligence analysts and the administration handled a 2011 request by Russian officials to investigate one of the two bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

ALSO SEE: The Hill: Senate panel to probe Boston intel issues

WATCH: VIDEO – CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports on Tamerlan Tsarnaev's six-month visit to Russia and who he might have met there.

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