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Austrian Dad Charged With Murder, Rape, Slavery

CitizenSugar — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 06:05:20 -0800

Josef Fritzl, the man who imprisoned and abused his daughter for 24 years and later blamed Hitler, has been charged with murdering one of the children he fathered with his daughter.

Fritzl, 73, was found to be responsible for the death of a newborn in 1996 after he neglected to seek medical help when he knew the baby might die. Fritzl previously told police that the baby, one of twins, was born dead and he had burned the body. To learn some of the heartbreaking details uncovered from the case files (warning: they are truly awful),

Front Page: Key al-Qaeda Leader Killed, Bush, Paulson Promise Improvements, Austrian Incest Dad Fit For Trial

CitizenSugar — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:00:18 -0700

Key al-Qaeda Leader Killed:
The US military has announced that the second-in-command of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed. The militant leader Abu Qaswarah had ties to senior al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was killed in a raid on Oct. 5 in Mosul, a city described as the military as one of the group's last strongholds.
Bush, Paulson Promise Improvements:
President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson said today that confidence and cash will rehabilitate the economy, but that improvements will take time and patience. Bush said he's confident the economy will "come back" in the long run. Speaking on the $250 billion bank investment announced yesterday, Paulson said, "There's no doubt that the way to get the maximum bang for the taxpayers here was to invest in banks."
Austrian Incest Dad Fit For Trial:
Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of holding his daughter in the cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, has been declared mentally fit to stand trial. The court said the psychiatric evaluation of the 73-year-old found him lucid enough, but that he suffers from a "profound personality disorder."

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Front Page: Austria Cellar Daughter Awake, China Drains Quake Lake, TV Crew Abducted

CitizenSugar — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:00:24 -0700

Austria Cellar Daughter Awake: Kerstin Fritzl, the 19-year-old woman, and the oldest daughter kept in the cellar in Austria, has regained consciousness. Her illness in April tipped Austria's authorities to the incest scandal. Kerstin is the oldest of seven children fathered by Josef Fritzl, her grandfather, during the 24 years he kept his daughter Elisabeth in his cellar, captive while raping her repeatedly. Doctors say Kerstin still requires intensive medical care. Let out of the cellar because of her illness, Kerstin has been unconscious and in intensive care since then.

China Drains Quake Lake: China declared victory today over the brimming lake formed by landslides from the massive earthquake, threatening to flood downstream communities. Sichuan province's top official claimed a "decisive victory" over the potential crisis. A manmade channel caused the water to pour out and into the mostly evacuated town of Qinglian, a resident who remained in the area said. More than 250,000 people downstream had moved to high ground due to fear that the lake could breach its banks entirely. About 1.3 million people total live downstream.
Phillipine's TV Crew Captured: A TV news team from the Philippines’s largest network along with one of the country’s most famous journalists is believed to have been abducted by members of the militant group Abu Sayyaf. The journalist, a cameraman, and driver were on their way to meet with Abu Sayyaf when they were intercepted on Sunday by armed men in a province where Abu Sayyaf, which is fighting for a separate Muslim state in the southern Philippines, are known to operate. Abu Sayyaf is notorious for its kidnap-for-ransom activities and has terrorized Filipinos and foreigners alike. The militants have been blamed for several major terrorist attacks across the Philippines in recent years. The abductors have not yet made contact.

Are Human Rights For Non-Humans Too?

LibertySugar — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:30:01 -0700

Paula Stibbe, an Englishwoman living in Austria, wants to adopt Matthew — a 26-year-old chimpanzee — when his habitat sanctuary closes. The problem? Austrian law says only humans are allowed guardians.

Not satisfied with Austria's Supreme Court's rejection of their request to give the chimp legal standing, Matthew's advocates are appealing to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Stibbe explained that they are not trying to get him declared a human, just a person. (I guess that must be a legal distinction.) She has argued:

Everybody who knows him personally will see him as a person. In his home in the African jungle, he would have been well able to look after himself without a guardian. But since he was abducted into an alien environment, traumatized and locked up in an enclosure, it did become necessary for me to act on his behalf to secure the donation money for him and to avoid his deportation. Since he has no close relatives, I am doing this as the person closest to him.

Matthew was captured as a baby and smuggled into Austria to be used for pharmaceutical research. If he is not recognized as a person, he could be sold or killed for economic profit.

Does Matthew's predicament require a less extreme solution? If he is considered a person, is he entitled all human rights? Should there by a separate framework for animal and human rights, or should we all be treated with the same level of dignity?
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Austrian Incest Family Speaks Out For First Time

CitizenSugar — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:00:16 -0700

The family of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of imprisoning and raping his daughter in a cellar for 24 years, released their first public message, a hand-written poster hung in a local shop window thanking people for their support.

The sign reads:

We, the whole family, would like to use this occasion to thank you all for your sympathy with our fate. Your compassion really helps us to cope with this difficult time and shows us that there are also good and honest people. We hope that a time will come for us when we can lead a normal life again.

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The message from the 18-year-old boy, who'd never been outside in his entire life says that he's relishing experiencing sun, fresh air, and nature for the first time. Local residents reading the sign have been reportedly moved to tears. The family is currently in the care of Austrian authorities who are protecting their privacy.

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Police to Quiz Josef Fritzl's Wife Again

CitizenSugar — Sun, 11 May 2008 12:55:14 -0700

Police to Quiz Josef Fritzl's Wife Again The wife of Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years beneath their house and had seven children with her, is to be questioned again by police to determine whether she knew about his secret life in the cellar. Detectives are to conduct a forensic search of the upper floors of the “house of horrors” where Fritzl, 73, lived with Rosemarie, his 68-year-old wife, while their daughter Elisabeth was locked in the basement. “We think Fritzl acted alone but cannot exclude the possibility that someone else was aware of what was going on downstairs,” said Frank Polzer, the chief investigator.

Austrian Incest Dad Blames Hitler

CitizenSugar — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:00:13 -0700

This is one route I did not expect the Austrian incest story to take. Josef Fritzl, the father who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years, is claiming being raised in Nazi times instilled him with the "decency and uprightness" that led him to keep his daughter in the cellar for almost a quarter of a century. He was instilling discipline in his unruly daughter and had “rescued” Elisabeth (then 1 to keep her from “going out to seedy bars” and “drinking and smoking.”

Fritzl explains his actions through a series of jailhouse notes passed to his lawyer like this:

I have always had high regard for decency and uprightness. I was growing up in Nazi times, when hard discipline was a very important thing. I belong to an old school of thinking that just does not exist today. I grew up in the Nazi times and that meant there needed to be control and the respect of authority. I suppose I took on some of these old values with me into later life, all subconsciously, of course.

Apparently Elisabeth started acting out when she hit puberty. To see how Fritzl thought his imprisonment was actually saving her,

More Developments in the Austrian Incest Horror Story

CitizenSugar — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:00:35 -0700

Here's a quick roundup of new developments out of Austria in the Josef Fritzl incest story. The more details that come out, the crazier it becomes:

Dungeon Plans: Police say the Austrian man accused of holding his daughter captive for 24 years planned to build his secret cell as early as 1978, when she was just 12 years old. — AP
Held Behind Eight Doors: Elisabeth Fritzl was imprisoned behind eight locked doors during the 24 years that her father held her in the cellar of his house in Austria, police have revealed. — Telegraph
Captives Helped Build Dungeon: The "House of Horrors" captives were forced to help expand the prison that housed them as their numbers grew, Austrian police have revealed. — CNN
Wife Had No Idea: Meanwhile his wife fought to keep the troubled family together but never knew their child was in a soundproofed cellar beneath the apartment, her sister said. In an exclusive television interview with the Associated Press, a woman who identified herself as Josef Fritzl's sister-in-law provided intimate details of the oppression inside the Fritzl home, describing him as a "tyrant." — AP

Insanity Plea For Josef: A German newspaper has reported that Fritzl plans to claim insanity when the case comes to court. — Guardian

The picture allegedly shows Lisa, one of the three children from the cellar adopted by Fritzl and raised as his grandchildren in the house upstairs. Do you think Fritzl's really insane? Does it seem like the more information that comes out about the story, the more questions it raises? Are you following the story, or turned off by the whole thing?

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Details Tumble Out in the Austrian Incest Story

CitizenSugar — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:00:42 -0700

More details are coming out of the cellar in the horrifying imprisonment/incest story — despite the Austrian government's efforts to minimize one of the most bizarre cases in recent memory. After Josef Fritzl was arrested for imprisoning his daughter in a windowless room for over 24 years and forcing her to conceive seven children, Austria's chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, said “it’s not Austria that is the perpetrator. . . we won’t allow the whole country to be held hostage by one man.” Austria is actually planning to hire image consultants to restore the nation’s image.

The horror of Josef Fritzl might not end at the cellar door. The Amstetten police are now looking into the murder of a 17-year-old girl whose body was found 22 years ago. The police are looking into the possibility of a connection between her murder and Josef Fritzl, as his wife owned an inn on the other side of the lake where the girl's body was found. To see the most bizarre twist in the story,

Austrian Admits to Imprisoning/Abusing Daughter for 24 Years

CitizenSugar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:27:08 -0700

A 73-year-old Austrian man has just confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children, according to authorities. The head of the local criminal affairs bureau said that the man accused, "Josef F" had confessed during questioning. There's a press conference happening soon.

The woman abused is now 42, and has six surviving children fathered by her own father. Police said the woman, named Elisabeth, had told them that her father had begun sexually abusing her from the age of 11. She disappeared in August 1984 when her father Josef lured her into the cellar, drugging and handcuffing her before locking her up.

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A letter in Elisabeth's handwriting arrived a month later asking them not to search for her so it was assumed she had run away. During the 24-year imprisonment, Elisabeth gave birth to seven children by her father, including twins in 1996. One of the twins died several days later because it had not received proper care. Josef's wife Rosemarie had no idea Elisabeth was being held in the basement of her house.

Elisabeth's case came to light after her eldest daughter required hospitalization, and doctors demanded to speak with her mother. Josef then released her, told his wife Elisabeth had decided to return home, and was almost immediately arrested.

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Should Cell Phones Be Banned in Public?

LibertySugar — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:16 -0700

The European Commission recently ruled that cell phones could be used on airplanes flying over Europe. Meanwhile, back on the ground, countries and cities are creating no cell phone zones, otherwise known as "Zen Zones." Passengers on France's high speed railway enjoy cell phone free travel. Austria's second largest city now requires public transit riders to keep their phones on silent.Is it possible to silence banal cell phone chatter and annoying ring tones, or are laws that aim to regulate human communication futile? Should there be a legal mandate that public space is for texting only? Feel free to share the conversations you've overheard!Source

Should Cell Phones Be Banned in Public?

Yay! I do not need to hear about what business school you got into.

Nay. This is free speech people. We can't outlaw annoying people.

Nay. Only, if cell phones shock you when your voice rises above an acceptable volume.

Other. I'll tell you in the comments.