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Austria’s Sex-Slave Father Tells His Side of the Story

Ever since Josef Fritzl, the authoritarian patriarch of a sprawling family in the north Austrian town of Amstetten, was discovered to have imprisoned his daughter as a sex slave in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, Austria has been locked in an emotional debate over what could cause such a crime. Some have claimed Fritzl’s sadism to be a vestige of Nazism’s moral corruption, others that the psychological strain of living for years under the threat of nuclear destruction was to blame.

Actor, activist Ron Silver dies at 62

Actor and political activist Ron Silver, who played a recurring role in TV’s presidential drama "The West Wing," and who also let his political views play out in real life, died Sunday after a two-year battle with esophageal cancer, according to a colleague. Robin L.

The Children of the Cellar

The boys knew the world only through television and the little that their mother remembered. And so now, Stefan Fritzl, 18, and his little brother Felix, 5, are getting used to sunlight. After spending their entire lives imprisoned in a cramped, windowless cellar deep underground along with their mother, Elisabeth, they are now being cared for in a special wing of a clinic near Amstetten, Austria.

Austrian to plead guilty to rape and incest, lawyer says

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian accused of keeping his daughter in a cellar for decades and fathering her seven children, will plead guilty to rape and incest when his trial opens Monday, Fritzl’s lawyer told CNN. However, Fritzl will deny other charge he faces: murder, enslavement and assault, attorney Rudolph Mayer said Sunday. The 73-year-old expects to spend the rest of his life in prison, Mayer added

Family caught in Madoff swindle forced to sell Jewish heirlooms

Elisa Schindler says she is relieved her father, the late Rabbi Alexander Schindler, didn’t live to see the destruction caused by Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff. “Here’s a man who dedicated his entire life to making the world a better place and contrast that with a man who didn’t do that,” she says

Sweden’s Icehotel the ultimate place to chill

I’ve never been a fan of the cold.

Transcript: ‘This is your victory,’ says Obama

Sen. Barack Obama spoke at a rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the race for the White House Tuesday night. The following is an exact transcript of his speech

Can Marijuana Help Rescue California’s Economy?

Could marijuana be the answer to the economic misery facing California? Democratic State Assembly member Tom Ammiano thinks so.

Iraqis Divided over Jail Sentence for Shoe Thrower

In a land replete with martyrs and miscreants, Iraqis are divided over which label applies to Muntazer al-Zaidi. The once obscure television journalist who shot to fame for hurling his footwear at then President George W. Bush during a Baghdad press conference late last year was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison after being found guilty of “assaulting a foreign leader on an official visit.” But despite the verdict of Baghdad’s Central Criminal Court, many ordinary Iraqis still hail the 30-year-old Shi’ite shoe thrower as a national hero

Shooter planned ‘to go out in grand style,’ investigator says

The man who killed 10 people, then himself, in a shooting rampage in southern Alabama had failed in his dreams both to become a U.S. Marine and a police officer, and was depressed and unhappy with his life, investigators said Thursday. Michael McLendon, 28, fatally shot his mother in his hometown of Kinston on Tuesday before driving to nearby Samson and Geneva, killing nine more, then fatally shooting himself after a shootout with police.