Austrian 'hid daughter in cellar'

A 73-year-old Austrian is under arrest on suspicion of hiding his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, police say.

The existence of the woman, believed missing since 1984 and now 42, emerged after a teenager said to be her daughter was taken to hospital.

Both the woman and teenage girl are receiving medical treatment and the other children are in care.

A police investigation in Amstetten, Lower Austria Province, is continuing.

The suspect, named only as Josef F, was arrested on suspicion of incest and keeping his daughter in captivity. He has not responded to the charges against him, police say.

One of the children the man allegedly fathered died in infancy, police believe.

Three children, including the 19-year-old who was taken to hospital, were allegedly kept in the cellar with their mother while the other three reportedly grew up with their grandparents.

DNA tests will be taken to establish whether Josef F was indeed their father.



The alleged crimes came to light after the teenager, named as Kerstin F, was dropped off at the Amstetten hospital last weekend.
Finding Kerstin seriously ill, doctors appealed for her mother, who at that time was assumed to be missing, to come forward to provide more details about her medical history.

Josef F allegedly then released the mother and two other children from the cellar, telling his wife Rosemarie that she had chosen to return home, police say.

It was not immediately clear how police were alerted.

The mother, named as Elisabeth F, has been receiving medical and psychological treatment since being discovered.

She appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning and agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father, and that her children would be taken care of, police added.

The six children are three boys and three girls aged between five and 20.

Police spokesman Franz Polzer told reporters they were now all in "psychological care in a secure institution in a clinic here in this area".

"They are being cared for individually - those between 12 and 16 years of age who grew up with their grandparents, and two boys who, when they came out yesterday with their mother, saw the daylight for the first time in their lives," he said.

Police said three of the children were registered with authorities and lived with the grandparents.

According to police, Josef F and wife Rosemarie had told authorities the three had been abandoned at birth outside their home - in 1993, 1994 and 1997 - each time, the couple claimed, with a note from Elisabeth saying she could not care for the babies herself.



The police issued a statement giving details of the alleged abuses Elisabeth recounted to them.




She said she had been sexually abused by her father since the age of 11.

Josef allegedly lured her into the cellar of their house in Amstetten on 28 August 1984, drugging and handcuffing her before locking her up.

It was assumed she had disappeared voluntarily when her parents received a letter from her asking them not to search for her.

"Abused continuously during the 24-year-long imprisonment", Elisabeth bore six children while a seventh, one of a set of twins, died soon after birth.

The dead baby was allegedly taken out of the cellar and burnt by Josef.

Elisabeth said Josef had provided her and three of her children, who were locked up along with her, with clothing and food.

His wife Rosemarie had allegedly not been aware of what was going on.

The discovery of another Austrian woman, who was held captive in a cellar by an abductor for more than eight years, gripped the country in 2006.

Natascha Kampusch finally escaped from her kidnapper, 44-year-old Wolfgang Priklopil, who killed himself shortly afterwards.

Ms Kampusch was abducted at the age of 10 in 1998 and held in a small, windowless cellar beneath Priklopil's garage in the commuter town of Strasshof, near Vienna.




Elisabeth reappeared at home after disappearing 24 years ago
Six children she says are hers have been found and placed in care
One of the children, aged 19, is seriously ill in hospital
Elisabeth's father Josef, 73, has been arrested on suspicion of incest and abduction

Buenos Aires under smoke.

elevator hell

Cat dung coffee up for £50 a cup

A gourmet coffee blended from cat droppings is being sold at a London department store for £50 per cup.

Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kopi Luwak bean are used to create Caffe Raro which is thought to be the most expensive cup of coffee in the world.

Kopi Luwak beans are eaten, then passed, by the Indonesian Civet cat and sell for £324 a kilogram.

All profits from sales of the coffee at Peter Jones in Sloane Square in April will go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Ripest berries

Civet cats, which live in the foliage of plantations across south-east Asia, are said to pick the best and ripest coffee berries.

Enzymes in their digestive system break down the flesh of the fruit before the animals expel the bean.

The beans are then collected from the plantation floor by workers who wash away the dung and roast them.

David Cooper, who created the blend, said: "These rare coffees have been slowly hand roasted for around 12 minutes to ensure that we maximise the potential of each coffee.

"The final roast colour is quite dark to ensure that the espresso is perfect for a smooth latte or cappuccino."

james joyce

The Meaning Of Life

Life has been compared to driving a car recently to appreciate it fully you need to be " in the moment" so fully conscious and grounded before you drive or take part in it. So just like a car you need to look back in the mirror before making a manoevre. Is this not how life is how can you plan for the future if you have no sense of the past.


" WE JOURNEY AROUND THE SUN AND WE CALL EACH TRIP A YEAR.

THIRTY MORE OF THESE JOURNEYS AND I AM OUT OF HERE"


One small point looking at a cross section of a carrot it occured to me that there is an iris looking out at me, is this why they are good for our eyes?

NAPLES' STINKS!

Naples' rubbish crisis may worsen tomorrow with the planned closure of the only remaining working landfill in the area. The southern Italian city has been turned into a stinking dump this week as rubbish collectors have gone on strike complaining that they have nowhere to take it. Angry residents have burnt refuse piled up in the streets. Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano, in a letter published this week in the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, appealed for a quick solution, warning that further delay would "precipitate an ecological and health disaster, with serious economic and labour repercussions."
Collectors have stopped hauling the rubish away because they have nowhere to take it. The government has approved construction of more dumps but there have been delays in getting them working because of opposition from local communities.
Tomorrow, authorities plan to shut the dump at Villaricca, north of Naples, exacerbating the situation, according to the office of the government-appointed "garbage tsar", Guido Bertolaso. The Villaricca dump has collected Campania's rubbish for months and is now full.
The southern Campania region - home to the luxurious Amalfi Coast but also the slums of Naples - has been plagued by a number of rubbish crises in recent years. Dumps fill up, and local communities block efforts to build new ones or create temporary storage sites. In 2004, a rubbish crisis prompted weeks of protests

Iran Part Two

You Need Feet

IRAN amputated the right hand and left foot of five criminals convicted of armed robbery and hostage-taking, the student ISNA news agency reported today.
The amputation, a legally permissible but rarely used punishment in Iran, was carried out in the presence of doctors in the southeastern city of Zahedan, capital of the restive Sistan-Baluchestan province.
The men were found guilty of "acting against God" and "corruption upon this Earth" for taking part in the robberies and taking hostages.

Iran Part One

Heavy overnight snowfalls covered most parts of Iran on Sunday, leading to closure of schools and major roads and cancelled domestic flights.
Most of the Iranian cities, particularly those located in the northern parts of the country, were blanketed by non-stop snowfall which still continues.
Primary and secondary schools were closed in Tehran and most cities including in Qazvin where university classes were also cancelled due to heavy snow.
The state airline, Iran Air, cancelled all of its domestic flights in the morning, while roads in the northwest Iran were closed to traffic.
Officials of Road Department urged people to cancel their unnecessary travels.
The authorities also urged the public to reduce their consumption of gas to ensure there would be no cuts amid plunging temperatures.
The Tehrani residents faced serious problems with transportation while public transportation vehicles like taxis and buses could hardly move in the snow-covered streets of Tehran.
The snow even caused Majlis deputies to arrive at the parliament with long delays so that they started the Majlis open session one and half hour later than the due time on Sunday.
Officials at the state Meteorological Center said that snowfalls and sharp cut of temperature would continue on Monday and in the coming days.