World News joined 2

[OMEN]

FACE THE NATION: Elisabeth Fritzl is set to appear on Austrian television to reveal details of her imprisonment at the hands of her father.
The Austrian incest victim Elisabeth Fritzl is to emerge from the shadows of her cellar nightmare to give a world exclusive interview to a television station next week.

Ms Fritzl, 42, has reportedly chosen the same channel and the same interviewer who coaxed a previous Austrian dungeon captive, Natascha Kampusch, to tell her story.

Ms Kampusch, now 20, broke free from an 8½-year hell in August 2006 and told the world of her ordeal on ORF TV. Austrian media say Ms Fritzl is prepared to do the same after marathon negotiations between the television station and her lawyer.

Like Ms Kampusch, Ms Fritzl will reportedly receive no money for her appearance but could make millions of dollars in syndicated rights as upwards of 300 TV stations around the world will pay handsomely to broadcast the program live, or gain the resale rights.

Media in Austria said none of her children - neither the three who lived upstairs with their grandparents, nor the three children forced to endure her captivity - will be in the studio with her.

Ms Fritzl is expected to talk about the first time she was raped by her father, Josef, 73; how she coped with giving birth in the squalid, damp cellar; what she felt when her stillborn child was cremated in a stove by her father; how she thought she would never see sunlight again, and her hopes for a more normal future with the children who adore her.

The interview has been organised in part to reduce the pressure on the family by media camped at the hospital door.

There is increasing tension between authorities and paparazzi who know that a picture of Ms Fritzl or her children would be worth a fortune. Already a security guard at the hospital has been injured after he fell from a balcony while tackling a photographer.

Hospital officials confirmed that 17 photographers have been caught trying to get into the Amstetten Mauer hospital. One photographer was disguised as a policeman; another pretended to be a birdwatcher.

Austrian media also reported on Sunday that a hospital worker had taken secret photographs of the family and was offering them for sale for €300,000 ($NZ603,000).

Officials have sent a letter to staff warning them that there will be legal consequences and a claim for damages that would "far exceed any profit made from the sale of such photos".

Seven members of the Fritzl family are staying at the clinic, including Ms Fritzl and two of her children from the cellar, Stefan, 18, and Felix, 6, and her three children that lived in freedom - Alexander 12, Monika, 14, and Lisa, 15.

Her mother, Rosemarie, is also in the hospital. Another daughter, Kerstin, 19, the third cellar captive, is still in a coma in hospital.

ORF TV will not deny or confirm the interview, saying only that it has been in "strong negotiations" with Ms Fritzl's lawyer. It is understood that the family thought that the first interview should go to a domestic television station.

According to media reports it is scheduled to be screened next Monday night.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Josef Fritzl is to undergo new DNA testing to see if he is the killer of three women whose murders - in 1966, 1986 and last year - have gone unsolved in Austria.

"Is Austria the heart of darkness?" a newspaper headline asked on Sunday.

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[OMEN]

Security will be stepped up at the Australian High Commission in Fiji and families will be brought home following serious threats to the diplomatic mission, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.

The decision had been made following Fiji's refusal to allow greater protection for Australia's High Commissioner to Fiji, James Batley, who had received two death threats, Mr Smith told reporters in Canberra today.

"A number of additional steps will now be taken, by the high commission itself, to further strengthen the security of our staff, their families and our premises," Mr Smith said.

"The government has decided to offer spouses, partners and dependent children of high commission staff in Suva the option of `voluntary return' to Australia, with reasonable costs met by the Australian government in the usual way.

"Families may choose to stay. It will be entirely a matter for them."

Mr Smith said it was regrettable that Fiji's interim government had advised it was not prepared to agree to close personal protection for Mr Batley.

"As of this morning, I'm still awaiting a response on additional Fiji police measures," he said.

"As a consequence of the refusal to date of the interim Fiji government to agree to close personal protection provided by Australian Federal Police, and to date a failure to respond to further requests for Fiji police assistance, the Australian government has today decided to allow the families of Australian officials in our commission in Fiji to voluntarily return to Australia if that is their wish."

AAP

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[OMEN]

Democrat Barack Obama won a US presidential nominating contest in Oregon, NBC News projected, while rival Hillary Clinton cruised to a rout of the front-runner in Kentucky.

The results gave Obama a majority of pledged delegates won in the lengthy state-by-state nominating fight with Clinton.

He hopes that milestone marks the beginning of the end of their gruelling Democratic race for the right to face Republican John McCain in November's election.

"We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States," Obama told supporters in Iowa, site of his breakthrough win in the first Democratic contest on January 3.

At a rally outside the Iowa state capitol in Des Moines, the Illinois senator turned his attention to a showdown with McCain and said their November battle would represent "more of the same versus change. It is the past versus the future."

But Clinton gave no sign of surrender, promising supporters in Kentucky that she would keep fighting until the Democratic voting ends on June 3.

"I'm going to keep making our case until we have a nominee - whoever she may be," said Clinton, who has shrugged off calls to drop out of the race for weeks.

"We have to select a nominee who is best positioned to win in November and someone who is best prepared to address the enormous challenges in these difficult times," the New York senator and former first lady told supporters in Louisville.

Even with Tuesday's results, Obama will still be about 50 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to win the nomination at the Democratic convention in August. But he hopes the milestone will start more undecided superdelegates - party officials who can back any candidate - flooding his way.

He contends those superdelegates, who have been breaking his way heavily in recent weeks, should support him because he won the most delegates in state voting.

Clinton says they should reconsider because she would be a stronger opponent for McCain, an Arizona senator. Her victories in big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio gave her a broader base of support than Obama, she said.

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[OMEN]

French police have arrested the top military commander of Basque separatist group ETA in southwest France, Spanish state television reported.

It said Francisco Javier Lopez Pena and three other ETA members were arrested in a raid in the French city of Bordeaux.

ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades in its fight for independence for the Basque Country in northern Spain and southern France.

Polls show most Basques do not seem to want independence, although the leader of Spain's Basque regional government Juan Jose Ibarretxe is defying the Spanish government with plans to hold a referendum on whether to begin a debate on ties with Spain.

More than 750 suspected ETA members have been arrested since 2000, and the group is believed to have been seriously weakened

Reuters

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the story.

[OMEN]

Former NSW Labour minister Milton Orkopoulos, convicted of child sex and drug offences, has been sentenced to at least nine years and three months in jail by a Newcastle court.

Orkopoulos, 50, was found guilty by a jury in March of 28 offences, and pleaded guilty to two other charges at the outset of his trial.

In the Newcastle District Court today, Judge Ralph Coolahan set a maximum jail term of 13 years and 11 months for the former Aboriginal affairs minister.

Judge Coolahan spent more than an hour detailing the former MP's crimes which date between 1995 and 2006 and involved the grooming of three young boys with drugs and alcohol in exchange for sex.

He said Orkopoulos used his position of authority and power to win the trust of his victims and introduced one to heroin, an act which he described as "a very serious offence".

"His conduct was premeditated, predatory and manipulative with far reaching impacts," Judge Coolahan told the court.

The only time Orkopoulos displayed any emotion during the hearing was when the judge mentioned the ongoing support he had received from his mother, sister and former parliamentary colleague Jan Burnswoods.

All three of his victims, who were present in court with family and friends, simply stared at Orkopoulos as the sentence was passed.

Outside court, his second victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said today represented a new beginning.

He condemned Orkopoulos as "gutless", and said he hoped he would suffer.

"Justice has been served," he told reporters.

"It's taken away so much of my life, and I want to make up for the last 10 years I have lost."

He said he was not surprised Orkopoulos only showed emotion when his own family was mentioned, saying: "That's just the sort of person he is."

The man said he supported a fundraising push by some Labor MPs hoping to raise money for Orkopoulos' wife Kathy and daughter Anastasia.

"His wife has probably suffered," he said, but broke down when asked if he believed the Labor Party had tried to protect Orkopoulos.

The third victim, Ben Blackburn, who was 16 when he was first indecently assaulted by Orkopoulos, said he was extremely relieved by the sentence.

"It's been a long road but we got justice in the end," he said, as his mother sobbed beside him.

"Obviously it is not something that is going to go away. It is always going to be with me." Orkopoulos' lawyer, John Fitzgerald, said he had since the sentencing visited his client, who was yet to consider whether he would appeal against the sentence.

"He has asked me to seek advice on his options," Mr Fitzgerald said.

"They are matters that I shall discuss with him.

"He's asked for some time to digest what's been handed down."

Hetty Johnston, executive director of the child sex abuse support organisation, Bravehearts, for whom Mr Blackburn now works, said they were satisfied with the sentence.

"(This sends a message to pedophiles that) You are going to get caught and when you get caught, justice is going to come down on you," she told reporters.

She supported fundraising for the Orkopoulos family, but said his victim's should not be forgotten.

"I think his wife and his children can't be held responsible for what he has done," she said.

AAP

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.