Women

CLEVELAND - Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, was charged with four counts of kidnapping - covering three captive women and the daughter born to one of them - and three counts of rape, against all three women. The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Prosecutors brought no charges against Castro's two brothers, who were arrested along with him on Monday, saying there was no evidence they had any part in the crime.

CLEVELAND - Three women who went missing separately about a decade ago, when they were in their teens or early 20s, were found alive Monday in a residential area just south of downtown, and three people were arrested. One of the women told a 911 dispatcher that the person who had taken her was gone, and she pleaded for police officers to come and get her, saying, "I'm free now. " Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were found earlier in the day. Police didn't immediately provide any details of how the women were found but said they appeared to be in good health and had been taken to a hospital to be reunited with relatives and to be evaluated.

POINTED QUESTIONS arose yesterday amid the cheers of celebration on the day after the shocking news that three women who had disappeared from a blue-collar Cleveland neighborhood in the early 2000s - and were thought by many to be dead - had been freed from a nearby house, allegedly kidnapped by a retired bus driver. Both authorities and American TV audiences riveted to the bizarre saga struggled with the same things: How could three young girls, including two whose disappearances sparked community searches and local news coverage, be hidden for roughly a decade in plain sight, just three miles from where they vanished?

As cofounder of We Advance, a grassroots organization providing much-needed programs for women and girls in some of the poorest slums in the Western Hemisphere - Wharf Jeremie and Cite Soleil, Haiti - I spend a lot of time listening to the voices of women. We advocate for and empower women by providing tools, training, education, and compassion to improve their lives and lift their communities. Today, we are happy to be able to provide help to 350 women's groups across the country. During a recent visit to Haiti, I learned of one young woman in need of help.

THERE ARE people who don't think that women can be funny. Jen Childs certainly isn't one of them. After all, it wouldn't make sense for someone who is generally acknowledged as Philly's first lady of theatrical comedy to suggest such a thing. Besides, if it was true, she wouldn't have had any reason to conjure "It's My Party: The Women and Comedy Project," her latest production for 1812 Productions, the local company she co-founded in 1997. It runs through May 19 at Plays & Players Theatre, in Center City.

Cabrini routed visiting Immaculata, 21-8, in Radnor on Wednesday to advance to the Colonial States Athletic Conference women's lacrosse title game for the 16th time in the program's 17-year history. Melissa Scanzano (Haverford) scored five goals, and Christina Pasquariello (Harriton) added four for the Cavaliers (10-7, 8-0). Katie Lasater (Great Valley) had five assists. Danielle Lopez had a hat trick for the Mighty Macs (11-7, 5-3). In the other league semifinal, Neumann topped visiting Marywood, 20-10, in Aston.

Embrace every female shape With teens emulating British model Cara Delevingne, there is a problem that girls could go too far to get a so-called thigh gap ("A dangerous teen obsession," April 25). That being said, there's nothing wrong with admiring or having a thigh gap (as I have, without dieting to attain it). But there is nothing wrong with not having one, either. When will the media and their experts on this subject of women's bodies get it right? Feature all body types with the positives expressed, without condemning another shape.

ON SATURDAY afternoon at Franklin Field, Villanova's women did something they haven't been able to do in 16 years. Or really even tried to do. They won the 4 x 800 meters at the Penn Relays Carnival, an event they won nine times from 1979-97. But they hadn't entered it since the late 1990s, because coach Gina Procaccio didn't feel she had a foursome capable of competing. It also marked the first time the Wildcats - who took the distance medley Thursday for the second April in a row, the first time they'd repeated in that since 1994-95 - have won multiple times here since 1997 as well.

Climate change will lead poor women to opt for "sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage" warns a resolution proposed last week in Congress. Introduced by a group of Democrats, the resolution calls on both the House and Senate to recognize how women will be disproportionately affected by global warming. Women are "the first to feel the immediate and adverse effects of social environmental and economic stress on their families and communities," the document states, adding that 60 to 80 percent of farmers in developing countries are women.