After the King of Pop died, among the first questions his mother Katherine asked his children ex-nanny where her son hid all his money.
Other allegations, forming an account of the star’s life and living conditions, include his bizarre nomadic life, days of living without any cash flow, how the children froze in his presence and “pumping out his stomach after he took too many drugs”.
The article describes her as “the woman who worked for Michael Jackson for 17 years, starting in his office, then looking after his three children and sharing his ramshackle life after his sexual abuse trial — though never being his wife.”
Recently sacked, Grace is quoted as saying, “Katherine just called me. She said, ‘Grace, the children are crying. They are asking about you. They can’t believe that their father died. Grace, you remember Michael used to hide cash at the house. I am here. Where can it be?’ I told her to look at the garbage bags and under the carpets.”
“I asked to speak to the children. She said they were sleeping. But she just said they were crying. She never let me speak to them. She said, ‘Grace, where are you? Come. I will pick you up from the airport.’ She sounded so strong. So strong!”
Banned from seeing the children at one point, she confided in the paper then, “I took these babies in my arm on the first day of their life,” she insisted. “They are my babies.”
She cried, “I don’t know what to do. He doesn’t let me see my babies. ... Nobody is cleaning the rooms, because he didn’t pay the housekeeper.”
And then, “I just got a phone call that Michael is in such a bad shape. He is not clean. He has not shaved ... His nails ... He is not eating well. I used to do all this for him. They are trying to lure me to go back. But each time it happened before, he got rid of me.”
The star apparently didn’t like her growing attachment to the children. “I miss my babies. I used to hug them and laugh with them. But when Michael was around, they froze. He didn’t like me hugging them. But they needed love. I was the only mother they knew.”
Prince was smart, she said, and Blanket, who made her laugh, even did a concert once for her, singing Billie Jean and his father’s other songs. She recalls, “I was laughing so hard. Prince and Paris were playing around. It was such a happy moment. Then suddenly Michael walked in. He surprised us. Usually, the security would alert me that he was about to come. Blanket immediately stopped. The kids looked frightened. Michael was so angry. I knew I would be fired. Whenever the children got too attached to me, he would send me away.”
And as the family travelled around the world — Bahrain, Ireland, Germany, New Jersey — there was sometimes no money. She confided in the paper: “When Paris had her birthday this April, I wanted to buy balloons, things, to make a happy birthday. There was no money in the house. I had to put everything on my personal credit card. I brought people to clean the house. The room of the kids needed to be cleaned. But they weren’t paid.”
The reporter remarks, “Revealed within her account of their love-hate relationship was Jackson’s everyday life as a father and drug addict. Grace told me of pumping out his stomach after he took too many drugs and of how dirty and unkempt he became towards the end.”
Grace said the children disliked the masks they had to wear in public and she tried to help them by often “losing” the accessories. Grace says, “I hated it as well. So whenever I had a chance, I misplaced the masks or forgot to pack them. Michael always got angry and asked, ‘How come we keep losing children’s masks?’ He didn’t notice that we were losing them only when I was around.”
He didn’t read his O2 contract either before signing and didn’t realise he had committed himself to 50 concerts. “Fifty performances! I told him, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘I signed only for 10.’ He didn’t know what he was signing. He never does!”
Jackson also seemed to have no understanding of money. “During the trial Jermaine (his older brother) suddenly connected him to Sheikh Abdullah. I was happy because he was so down. He was scared. Nobody else called. So Michael was spending hours on the phone with Abdullah. He is the one who is sending the money for the lawyers.”
Abdullah one day called and asked for her bank account and said he wanted to send “money to Michael through my account. He sent $1m. Then another $35,000. Katherine needed money too. So Michael told me to give her my ATM card. She was cashing out of the machine every day. I checked it.” She allegedly was even framed for taking the money when the singer denied ever having received any money after Abdullah sued Jackson for reneging on a music contract that would have paid back this and other loans.
Grace then pointed out to his mother, “I said, ‘You, Michael and I — we will all go to jail! You know that we didn’t report to the IRS about that gift.’ I told her I had all the documents. That worked.”
The next time Michael received some money, Grace can’t remember how, instead of investing in a small house, he chose to send her to buy antiques worth £1m. “I flew on my credit card. When I arrived in Florence and saw these antiques, I called him and said, ‘This is not worth anything.’ Michael never listened to me. He said, ‘Buy it. Buy it.’ We didn’t even have a home to live in so we had to put the antiques in some storage.”
Jackson reportedly even demanded that the sheikh build him a house in a Bahrain. After moving to Ireland and then New Jersey and Japan, they were back in California, where Jackson rented a house from the Nation of Islam, who “grossly overcharged”.
According to the paper, Grace hasn’t been paid her salary and expenses since 2008 and medical insurance since she was with him and the children in Bahrain. Once, when she had been in hospital for chemotherapy, he had accused her of abandoning him and the children, she said.
Says Grace, who the daily claims suffers from a life-threatening form of the auto-immune disease lupus, “To Michael, to go to a hospital was never about being ill. It was all about avoiding a court appearance or a performance or some other commitment he didn’t want to respect. You know, during the trial, the only peaceful place we could escape to and sleep was a hospital room. We used to go to the hospital and relax.”
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The coroner may have concluded that there was no foul play in legendary singer Michael Jackson's death, but his family is not satisfied. It wants an independent autopsy to determine the cause of the pop singer's death.
The Jackson family is understood to have requested a second independent post-mortem examination of the body.
According to reports, Coroner's investigator said that on Saturday Jackson family told his office, that they wanted a second autopsy carried out, as they still have unanswered questions about MJ's death.
Veteran politician and a friend of MJ's, Reverend Jesse Jackson said the Jacksons were upset because the official cause of death might not be known for weeks.
He said the family wanted answers from the star's personal doctor, Conrad Murray, who was with him when he died.
Jesse Jackson told a news daily "When did the doctor come? What did he do? Did they inject him, if so with what?"
He went missing immediately following the death, which raise questions of substance that will not go away until they are answered.
And while the details of his death are a mystery, so are the details of his funeral.
Jackson's body was handed over to his family on Saturday afternoon, which was taken by them to an undisclosed mortuary. The family is still pondering plans for the King of Pop's funeral and there is no news of when and where will it take place.
Aman (Anubhav Anand) is a talented young architect. Raised by his Uncle, he has all the love and care a family could offer but Aman takes it for granted. While working towards his dream, his life takes a beautiful turn when he bumps into the perfect girl Neha (Nandana Sen). The two fall in love, and nothing seems able to come between
them.
Nothing, that is, until it is the time for families to meet. Sparks fly. Every known disaster strikes when hyper-vibrant Mr. Bhalla (Anupam Kher) and the rigidly-conventional Mr. Patel (Boman Irani) meet. Both are hilariously different. Both are woefully mismatched. Naturally both fathers lock horns & vehemently oppose this match.
The lovebirds must find a way to bring their families together and this leads to a comical series of misadventures of the two disapproving, faultfinding fathers. In the process Aman realizes the true definition of family and what it really means to love someone. Will Aman be able to bring the two families together? And will he succeed in achieving his dream?
PERFECT MISMATCH invites you to Join Mr. Bhalla, Mr. Patel, Aman & Neha, along with their families as they celebrate life, love and everything in between.
This Indo-American production is a passionate view of hilariously star-crossed romance while never forgetting the importance of family, culture, and staying true to one's emotions.
Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told The Times that paramedics responded to a 911 call from the home. When they arrived, Jackson was not breathing.
The paramedics performed CPR and took Jackson to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda said. Hundreds of reporters gathered at the hospital awaiting word on his condition. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said family members rushed to Jackson’s bedside, where he was in a deep coma.
The circumstances of Jackson’s death remain unclear. Law enforcement sources said that Los Angeles Police Department robbery-homicide detectives have opened an investigation into the death, though they stressed that there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
The detectives plan to interview relatives, friends and Jackson’s doctors to try to figure out what happened. The L.A. County coroner’s office will determine a cause of death. A Los Angeles Fire Department source told The Times that Jackson was in full cardiac arrest when rescue units arrived.
A doctor was in the house performing CPR on Jackson, said the source who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Paramedics were called to a home in the 100 block of Carolwood Drive off Sunset Boulevard.
Jackson rented the Bel-Air home -- described as a French chateau built in 2002 with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces and a theater -- for $100,000 a month. The home is about a six-minute drive from UCLA Medical Center. Jackson has three children -- sons Prince Michael 7, and Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11.
Jackson, 50, died as he was attempting a comeback after years of tabloid headlines, most notably his trial and acquittal on child molestation charges.
In May, The Times reported that Jackson had rented the Bel-Air residence and was in London's O2 Arena. Jackson had won the backing of two billionaires to get the so-called "King of Pop" back on stage.
His backers envisioned the shows at AEG's O2 as an audition for a career rebirth that could have ultimately encompassed a three-year world tour, a new album, movies, a Graceland-like museum, musical revues in Las Vegas and Macau, and even a "Thriller" casino. Such a rebound could have wiped out Jackson's massive debt.
Lucknow: In the sweltering heat, worsened by heavily humid conditions, it was time for celebrations in Varanasi.
The men turned out almost bare-bodied at the event but the women came out in their Sunday best on Wednesday evening.
Amidst beating of drums and ‘dhols’, the marriage began. Two frogs, dressed up as groom and bride, were tied to a plate and placed inside the ‘mandap’ as the priest recited the wedding mantras on the Dashwamedha Ghat.
The frog wedding, according to priests is an age-old trick to invoke Lord Indra and persuade Him to bring in the rains. The frogs were later offered a meal-not of
insects, though-- but the apparently weary couple did not touch the feast and scampered away into the Ganga for a ‘shower’.
In Mirzapur, an Alsatian dog was ‘married’ to a Labrador bitch in a similarly organized function. The only difference was that the groom and the bride here
were a lot more restless than the ones in Varanasi and fretted and fumed as they were made to take the ‘saat pheras’ before the holy fire. The purpose of the
wedding was, again, to invoke the rain god and bring in relief for parched throats and parched lands.
In Allahabad a group of women got together to plough the fields as the men stood under a tree offering prayers.
"According to Hindu mythology, rains come rushing in if women -- without wearing even a thread on their bodies-- plough the fields. However, since this is not possible in today’s time, we asked the women to drape saris on their bodies but avoid wearing any stitched clothes," says Pandit Sushil Kumar Tiwari.
In Sitapur district, young boys covered themselves in mud and rolled along the streets singing "Kale megha paani de, paani de, gud-dhani de, nahi to apni naani de’.
Men walked behind the boys -- called ‘lotan team’ -- sprinkling water on them. Women came out of their house to offer ‘sherbet’ to the ‘lotan team’ and join them
in their prayers. The local people believe that God always answers the prayers of children and hence this event.
More and more such events are being organized in the cities as well as in the rural interiors because temperatures have been escalating and, majority of the district have yet to get even a single drop of rain. It is only Maharajganj in eastern UP that experienced a heavy rainfall on Wednesday but adjoining districts remained dry.
The increase in humidity levels, receding ground water levels and increasing power cuts have made life even more unbearable this season.
In case we didn’t have enough proof that Miley Cyrus makes bad decisions – or rather just normal decisions for a 16-year-old – here’s a new batch. Thanks to the idiot (and possibly pervy) director on her most recent film ‘The Last Song,’ we have pictures of Miley posing super seductively, crouching over a chair like she’s giving an imaginary lap dance in what appears to be a leather skirt or shorts. Her eyes are closed as she makes what’s supposed to pass as an attractive “come hither” expression these days (but really just looks like she’s got a bad case of gas).
While this picture’s debatable, the next one sure isn’t. Director/moron Adam Shankman shot one of Miley while he stands next to her in the cheesiest aviator shades on record – and that’s saying something. Miley’s looking back at him with a more obviously dirty expression on her face. And what’d Shankman choose to do with these photos? Why post them on his Twitter, of course!
"Despite experiencing unprecedented economic growth during the last decade, South Asia, including India, has the highest rates of malnutrition and the largest numbers of undernourished in the world," it said.
Citing estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it said about 49 per cent of the world's underweight children, 34 per cent of the world's stunted children and 46 per cent of the world's wasted children, live in India.
The prevalence of malnutrition varies across states, demographic and socio-economic groups, with scheduled tribes and scheduled castes ranking highest among all.
"Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand have the highest malnutrition rates," it said, adding that even in urban areas, a third of the children are underweight.
"Over the past decade, progress in reducing malnutrition in India has been limited; in fact anaemia has increased," it said.
The son gave back more than he received: a lifetime of ruminations about the man who abandoned the family, and endless reflections on his own successes and shortcomings as father of Sasha (8) and Malia (10).
In advance of Father’s Day, celebrated in many countries on the third Sunday of June, he’s asking American men to be better fathers.
The father-son presidencies of the George Bushes were bookends on Bill Clinton, whose father drowned in a ditch before he was born and whose stepfather was an abusive alcoholic nicknamed Dude.
A Kenyan goatherder-turned-intellectual who clawed his way to scholarships and Harvard, Barack Obama Sr. left a family behind to get his schooling in the US, where he started another family, then left his second wife and 2-year-old Barack Jr. to return to Africa with another woman.
Obama’s finger-wagging is most pointed when addressing other black men, reflecting years of worry about the fabric of black families and single mothers, but it applies to everyone. Including himself.
“I know I’ve been an imperfect father,” he has said. “I’ve lost count of all the times, over the years, when the demands of work have taken me from the duties of fatherhood.”
His years as a community organiser, Illinois lawmaker, US senator and presidential candidate often kept him apart from family. But he went to great lengths in the 2008 campaign to find time with them, and now sees routine family time as one of the joys of living and working in the White House.
Richard Wolffe’s book, Renegade, recounts strains in his marriage early this decade, arising from his absences and what Michelle Obama apparently considered his selfish careerism at the time.
Obama himself attributed his “fierce ambitions” to his dad while crediting his mother — a loving but frequently absent figure — with giving him the means to pursue them.
Obama was a schoolboy in Hawaii when his father came back to visit. He gave his dad a tie. His father gave him a basketball and African figurines and came to his class to speak about Kenya.
The visit took a sour turn when Obama went to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and his father made him shut off the TV, saying he watched too much of it. Obama slammed the bedroom door; a loud argument ensued among grown-ups.
Not the quality time Obama has in mind in asking dads to turn off the TV now.
Just days after reportedly getting engaged to girlfriend Samantha Ronson in London, Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan has been spotted partying with 'American Idol' host Ryan Seacrest.
The 'Mean Girls' star who partied with Seacrest for two consecutive nights was also photographed leaving the TV
host's home in the morning, reported X 17 online.
he was proud to be with Lindsay. Ryan was laughing while Lindsay ducked down behind the seat of the car," an onlooker told the website.
The pair continued partying at her Hollywood home and then headed to Seacrest's place after neighbours lodged a
police complaint about the loud music.
"I couldn't believe I was seeing the two of them together. I don't think Ryan has any idea what he's getting
into," said the source.
'I never realised how cruel I was': Fritzl finally cracks after brave daughter faces him across court
Josef Fritzl's resistance finally broke yesterday after he came face to face at his trial with the daughter who suffered 24 years of rape and depravity in his secret dungeon.
Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, spent an hour watching her tormentor as her video-tape evidence was played in court on Tuesday, it emerged.
That night Fritzl called a prison psychiatrist and his lawyer to tell them: 'I will change my plea. I am guilty of everything they say.'
Monster unmasked: Josef Fritzl, still clutching the blue binder he used to hide his face from the media, arriving in court on Tuesday
Lawyer Rudolf Mayer said: 'It was the straw that broke the camel's back. My client was so changed, his mind, his behaviour, everything.'
Elisabeth's arrival was completely unexpected given that she had said she never wanted to see her father again after being freed from her cellar prison in April last year.
Because of the strict secrecy surrounding the proceedings, nobody outside the courtroom knew she had been present.
Yesterday morning, a different Fritzl, 73, appeared before Judge Andrea Humer when proceedings resumed.
Gone was the blue binder he used to shield his face during the first two days of the hearing at the court in St Poelten in Austria.
Gone, too, was the fantasy he had nurtured of a sentence that would one day allow him to return to his family.
Josef Fritzl has pleaded guilty to the rape and imprisonment of his daughter Elisabeth, pictured here in a school photo aged 15
Elisabeth's harrowing evidence of her imprisonment and rape, combined with her bravery in turning up to witness his humiliation, stripped away the arrogance and left a broken old man who finally acknowledged guilt and expressed remorse.
'I am sorry,' said Fritzl. Today he is expected to be jailed for life.
The court had heard how the sexually-obsessed building engineer locked up Elisabeth when she was 18 in a secret cellar beneath his home in the town of Amstetten in August 1984.
For the next 24 years he would rape her up to 3,000 times and father seven children by her.
Fritzl told his wife Rosemarie that Elisabeth had run away to join a cult.
Three incest children - Lisa, now 15, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12 - were removed by Fritzl to be brought up with him and his wife: the so-called 'upstairs children'.
Elisabeth endured in the dungeon with the 'downstairs' children - daughter Kerstin, now 20, Stefan, 18, and Felix, six, until Kerstin became dangerously ill last year, was taken to hospital and the cellar and its secrets were exposed.
Ashamed: Fritzl hid his face behind a blue binder for a second day yesterday. His lawyer said he was too 'embarrassed' to show his face
Fritzl had pleaded guilty on Monday to incest and depriving his family of their liberty, charges which carried a maximum combined penalty of 11 years.
He pleaded 'partially guilty' to rape and to a charge of 'massive coercion' relating to the threats he levelled against his captives that they would be killed if they attempted escape.
He pleaded not guilty to enslavement and not guilty to murder.
The latter charge related to the newborn Michael (Alexander's twin) who fell ill and died in 1996 after Fritzl failed to get medical help for him.
Yesterday Fritzl stood before Judge Humer, who asked him: 'Can we go back to Elisabeth's testimony yesterday?' Fritzl replied: 'Yes.'
'Do you have something you want to say to me?' enquired the judge.
Fritzl: 'Yes. I recognise that I am guilty of all of the charges. I am sorry.'
Asked why he had changed his mind, he said: 'Because of the video-taped testimony of my daughter. I never realised until yesterday how cruel I was to Elisabeth.'
The judge then asked: 'Why did you not do more for the baby? Did you not realise it was gravely ill?'
He replied: 'I was hoping the little one would survive but I should have done something. I don't know why I didn't help. I just lost sight of the issue.'
Fritzl's admissions of guilt were followed up by psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner who painted a portrait of a demonic man incapable of reforming.
She said he was an 'emotional volcano' who was 'born to rape'. Dr Kastner said Fritzl the man was formed out of a painful childhood.
She detailed how his mother hit him frequently and said Fritzl had been haunted by nightmares of growing up in wartime Austria where he was forced to descend into a dingy air-raid shelter for hours on end alone - a taste of the terror he was to mete out to his captives.
She said he had a power complex, the need for control, of events and more specifically, people. This was, in part, compensation for the years he was degraded.
The jury will still have to deliver a formal verdict today despite Fritzl's guilty pleas.
Although his confessions are grounds for a reduced penalty, his lawyer said he expected him to be sentenced to life imprisonment to be served in a secure psychiatric institution.
A stolen childhood
Fritzl claims Elisabeth was sliding into a life of drink and debauchery and that he was 'saving her from herself' when he incarcerated her.
But she spoke of being a normal teenager with normal passions and dreams.
'Somehow, I don't know why, my father seemed to choose me for himself,' she said.
He began abusing her when she was 11, fondling her and leaving pornographic magazines under her pillow.
In October 1983, she ran away with a friend to Vienna because she could no longer handle the abuse. She was found by police and returned to her father for her last months of freedom.
Austrian prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser looks at defence lawyer Rudolf Mayer, on his telephone, before the start of the trial today
She said that she wanted to move away from home and enjoy all the normal things teenage girls wanted.
But, she said, her life was stolen by her own flesh and blood and she was to become the personal breeding machine of her twisted father.
Thoughts of suicide
She neither wept nor faltered as she recounted the ordeal that began on August 29, 1984, when Fritzl asked her to go down to the cellar to help him install a door.
He overpowered her, knocked her out with medical ether and left her in the cellar. A day later he returned with a chain and began the rapes that would lead to what prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser called 'the breaking of Elisabeth Fritzl'.
The impression was given by prosecutors last year that the cellar tribe - although imprisoned and abused - lived in some comfort in the underground apartment that Fritzl, a building engineer, fashioned beneath the family home in Amstetten.
Today the court heard how nothing could be further from the truth.
Elisabeth spoke of rat infestations, of raw sewage and of a primitive air-induction system that left them gasping for breath and unable to move around for long.
The electricity often went out, sometimes for ten days at a time. Food ran perilously low and Elisabeth would have to ration supplies because she never knew when their gaoler would return.
She spoke of the stale food her father bought from supermarket outlets far from home and of the tedium which, along with fear, depression and thoughts of suicide, was her constant companion during the 8,642 days she spent underground.
But this was nothing compared to the treatment that Fritzl, already a convicted rapist, meted out to her as he embarked upon his terrible quest to create a secret, second family.
He raped me 3,000 times
Jurors were both repelled and spellbound as Elisabeth recounted how she spent the first five to nine months - she doesn't know the exact time because she had no clock - chained to four poles with an iron girdle around her waist.
He physically attacked her constantly. She told how he covered her mouth and prevented her from breathing. Although the prosecution says he did not speak to her for years, Elisabeth said he did, in fact, make threats such as: 'If you do not do as I say, your treatment will get worse - and in any case you cannot escape out of the cellar.'
Finally the restraints were removed because they impeded Fritzl's sexual assaults.
Elisabeth told how the lights would go off, he would come in, rape her, and leave.
At first she resisted but then realised resistance would only end in more physical abuse. So she stopped resisting.
The rapes averaged out to one every three days, but there were occasions - such as when he was on holiday in Thailand - when there were none, and some when he raped her more than once a day. She told of 'constant beatings and kickings all over my body'.
Later, after 1989, he would come to the cellar armed with boxes of lurid pornographic videos which he would play while ordering Elisabeth to mimic the actors.
She also spoke of sex toys being used upon her in violent sessions lasting many hours that left her with grave internal injuries. She received no medical care.
When the children were born Fritzl would turn off the lights to rape her. The children were just feet away and had to sit and listen to his grunts and moans while Elisabeth stopped herself from crying out for fear he would either beat her or them.
No chance of escape
Elisabeth said the physical brutality was only part of his rule - the 'uncertainty' of her situation, and that of her children, was the most paralysing, fear-inducing factor she had to live with.
Then there were the threats. He told them he had rigged up a way in which gas could escape and kill them all if they tried to escape. He would rather kill everyone than have someone succeed in escaping and the truth to come out about their captivity in the cellar.
'You have no chance of survival here without me,' he would taunt her. If you want me to, I will close the door for good - then we will see just how you will manage without me.'
'Her mental state suffered particularly during her pregnancies, she had no medical help of any kind in the cellar. She feared every new pregnancy that came,' says the prosecution.
Elisabeth told how the food often ran out and how, with no power for days on end, they were forced to eat cold food and wash in cold water.
The cellar walls ran with so much condensation in summer they had to place towels along the bottom to stop a lake of water from spreading across the cellar.
'We hated the summer and were always glad when it was over,' she said. 'It was like living in a sauna.'
She wore dresses that Fritzl picked out for her from shops far away from home.
But perhaps most punishingly were the photos of the children Monika, Alexander and Lisa - the 'upstairs family' - that Fritzl paraded before her and his 'downstairs family'.
As a result of the living conditions in the cellar, Elisabeth and the children were often ill but had no medical care. He gave them only cough medicine or painkillers.
Judge Andrea Humer speaks at the start of the second day of the trial today
Miscarriage in the dark
Elisabeth recalled how she first became pregnant, aged 20, in the summer of 1986 but she miscarried in the darkness in the 10th week of pregnancy.
Approximately four months later she conceived again, but was entertaining thoughts of suicide at this point because of her maltreatment at Fritzl's hands.
She suffered from severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
'Her soul was shattered,' says the prosecution. In October 1987, Elisabeth became pregnant again. After putting 'severe pressure' on Fritzl she was able to persuade him to buy a book on pregnancy two months before the birth of Kerstin. She was also given a dirty mattress and a filthy pair of scissors.
Kerstin was born in the damp darkness in August 1988. Fritzl did not return to the cellar to see mother and daughter for ten days.
Elisabeth's son Stefan was born in February 1990, followed by Lisa in August 1992, Monika in February 1994, twins Alexander and Michael in April 1996 and Felix in December 2002.
She told how, after the birth of Lisa, because there was an increasing shortage of space in the cellar, Fritzl decided to remove some of the children.
He had told his wife that Elisabeth had run away to join a cult. Now he made her write letters to them claiming the cult would not let her keep the children.
He said he had found the children abandoned on the doorstep - Lisa in 1993, Monika in 1994 and Alexander in 1997. And he took them into the 'upstairs family'.
Elisabeth said that, shortly before the birth of Monika, Fritzl expanded the cellar, adding two rooms. He also installed a shower, ventilation system, oven and fridge. The cellar expanded from 18 square metres to 40 square metres.
The cellar where Elisabeth Fritzl was kept prisoner
A 'murdered' twin brother
Baby Michael's death was a pivotal point in Elisabeth's testimony against her father.
Jurors listened intently as she detailed the events that robbed Alexander of his twin.
She realised weeks before that she was expecting twins because of the excessive movement in her stomach and the excessive weight gain and told Fritzl.
As Elisabeth went into labour, he was present in the cellar and he came to check on her every few hours during her labour.
Fritzl was present at the birth because he had just finished having dinner with Kerstin and Stefan.
Michael, the first to be born, was soon wheezing and struggling for breath in his first hours.
He would not take the breast and his legs were getting increasingly hard and stiff. The day after the birth Fritzl brought down a new cot for the twin babies.
She claims he could see that Michael's situation was getting worse and he fully comprehended that his life was 'clearly in danger'.
Instead of calling for emergency medical care for the newborn and ensuring help for the baby, Fritzl simply told Elisabeth: 'What will be, will be.'
Michael died on May 1, 1996, from breathing difficulties. The next day Fritzl took his body upstairs while his other family were away and burned it in the solid fuel furnace. He scattered the ashes in the garden.
The miracle of freedom
The final part of Elisabeth's testimony concerned the illness that Kerstin, then 19, suffered in April 2008.
Fritzl had always threatened that he would rather kill everyone in the cellar than let his secret out.
But Elisabeth pleaded with him to get emergency medical care and related how she and son Stefan had to drag Kerstin out to Fritzl's Mercedes so he could drive her to hospital.
It was her first glimpse of the outside world in 24 years. For her son, it was his first experience of life overground.
He bundled them both back into the cellar while he took Kerstin to hospital, again using the lie that he had found her dumped on his doorstep. The hospital did not believe him and neither did the police who began to investigate.
Doctors insisted on seeing Elisabeth because they needed information about Kerstin as she lay at death's door.
Elisabeth said Fritzl ordered her to tell doctors she had abandoned Kerstin because she could not cope with her.
But the game was up for Fritzl: officers took them into separate rooms at Amstetten police station.
After she was given a guarantee that she would never have to see her father again, she chronicled her stolen life.
She's as famous for her carefully stylised image as she is her catchy pop tunes, but in an unprecedented move Lady GaGa has actually let her guard down.The Poker Face singer was caught with a bare face while enjoying a romantic day at the beach with her boyfriend in Hawaii.There was no sign of the lashings of make-up that have become her trademark and her blonde hair, usually groomed with incredible precision, was an unkempt mess.
She was dressed more demurely than usual in a black bikini covered by an over-sized black T-shirt and she was wearing - gasp - flip flops.But she seemed unconcerned as she canoodled on a pebbled beach with her boyfriend, known only as Speedy.She was rumoured to have ended their relationship last week following a grueling tour schedule.But they pair looked a picture of passion, with Lady Gaga wrapping her legs around Speedy and intensely kissing him on the black rocks of a Hawaii beach.
At least eight more people, including four workers of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi and an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, were killed on Monday in the ongoing spate of political violence that has gripped the city for the past three days.One month back eight people were killed in karachi and karachi was in news again two months back with several people being killed in ethnic violence.
But why is karachi burning?.
Here are reactions of some pakistanis
Aarif
Stop asking logical questions, everyone knows the mqm is always to blame for everything that goes wrong everywhere
Husein
That question you should have asked yoruself and your leadership before killing 27 innocent Pathans in Karachi.
The question should have been put before PPP and Baloch national part BNP for the matter of fact they are the ones who have patronised the criminal gangs who have killed your two MQM workers.
unfortunately Altaf bhaya is once again making it an ethnic issue by linking it up with the Pathans despite that fact that he knows the criminals backed by PPP and BNP are responsible for the killing of MQM members.
But alas the MQM terrorists have killed over 27 innocent people.
Yunus
I guess in our nation this sh$t of party cult, personality cult, ethnic identity cult will continue for a long time to come
The ethnic politics is sickening, the fact that exists even on this forum, amongst so called educated people is a matter of great shame. The fact that you guys will point fingers at people of other ethnicity, whilst defend/ignore the crimes of those of your own ethnicity is as bad as the ones shooting each other.
Well karachi is home to sindhis and 20 lakh balochs live in karachi. Sounds similar to Indian metros and mega cities , isn't it?.Well guess ethnic violence , ethnic politics is subcontinental feature .
A group of around 10 gunmen were trying to cross the border fence into Israel when they were spotted by troops, according to Palestinian security officials.
Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the GazaHealth Ministry said four fighters were killed in the clash. The Israeli military said soldiers patrolling the fence early Monday came under fire and shot back. There were no reports of Israeli casualties.
