• The so-called "Hecession" continues in the UK: According to a new report, one of out every ten men will be unemployed next year. Young men and black men have it the worst, with one in five currently out of work. •  Teenage boys in Sweden are kind of jerks, says study. Researchers found that many of them are unwilling to take precautions to prevent the spread of chlamydia, and that "a very high proportion of the boys state that they will not be following the advice given during [sex ed] classes and that almost as many think that sex education has no impact whatsoever on their sexual behaviour." • A study out of Rice University found that girls who have a better sense of smell are also more attuned to emotional cues. This suggests an overlap between the emotional section of the brain and the olfactory. •  Many women with uterine fibroid tumors are advised to get hysterectomies, but according to the New York Times there are several other treatment options for those suffering from the tumors, some of them less invasive. •  Members of the Yale community gathered yesterday to pay their last respects to slain medical student Annie Le. She was remembered by University President Richard Levin as bright, caring, loving, and spontaneous. • In most countries, animals are stunned before they are slaughtered, which decreases their pain. However, religious killings often do not stun the animal first, but new research on pain may increase the pressure to adapt Jewish and Muslim religious law. • Scientists have determined that in rare cases cancer can be passed from a mother to her unborn child after a 28-year-old Japanese mother passed leukemia cells to her baby through the placenta. The mother died of leukemia shortly after giving birth and at 11 months old the daughter was diagnosed with lymphoma. She is now in remission. • 12-year-old Abby Miller plays her guitar and sings on the street to raise money for her 4-year-old friend, Taylor Love, who has neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system. The money goes to Love's family and Miller also asks people to write "Love Notes" to Taylor. "Her mom reads them to her before she goes to bed at night," Abby said. "Taylor gets excited for them and she loves getting them read to her because she likes knowing that people are supporting her and people are actually thinking of her." • According to a new study, people who get most of their daily liquids from plain water rather than other beverages tend have healthier diets in general and eat more fiber, less sugar, and fewer calorie-dense foods. • Authorities in Austria haven't been able to sell the home where Josef Fritzl imprisoned and raped his daughter for 24 years. Three of his other properties have been sold and the profits have gone to Fritzl's creditors and his daughter Elisabeth. The police have rejected some offers to turn the dungeons below the home into a museum. • A 17-year-old Utah girl who paid a 21-year-old man $150 to beat her in an attempt to kill her late-term fetus was released from jail today when a judge ruled it was a legal attempt at abortion, not murder. She gave birth in August and is seeking custody of her baby girl, who is currently in state custody. • Police have arrested Dennis Earl Bradford, a 40-year-old welder, for allegedly abducting, raping, and slitting the throat of 8-year-old Jennifer Schuett in 1990 and leaving her for dead in a field. Advances in DNA technology let authorities make the match. Schuett, who survived the attack and is now 27, said, "This event in my life was a tragic one... But today, 19 years later, I stand here and want you all to know that I am OK. I am not a victim, but instead, victorious." •

The abuse reportedly started in the 1970s when the victim was only 11 and continued to the present day. The unidentified man's wife says she "never suspected" her husband was abusing their daughter. • In response to the arrest and imprisonment of a journalist in Sudan for wearing trousers, Egypt's top Islamic authority has said that he is cool with women wearing pants. However, he is not a fan of "stretch" pants, which he deems "unacceptable." • Raymond Clark III was charged with the murder of Yale grad student Annie Le today, and Le's fiance issued a statement thanking people who were involved in preparations for "a wedding that was not to be." • A 23-year-old British student who was sexually assaulted in her apartment in India broke down recently in court while the defense lawyer was questioning her. He asked her whether she bathed, and whether she drank or smoke. She said she was humiliated by his questions, and found testifying almost as traumatic as the original assault. • Perhaps unsurprisingly, a study found that if one spouse smoked or drank heavily and the other did not, the relationship was more likely to deteriorate than if both engaged in the behavior. • Yesterday the Yemeni government defended their attempts to halt child marriages in a written statement. They cited a law introduced to parliament in February that would have set the minimum marriage age at 17, but did not pass due to conservative opposition. • A report released by the CDC indicates that 1 in 3 girls aged 13-17 has received the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine. The report also notes that vaccination varies dramatically state by state, with Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi falling far behind. • A 65-year-old man named Abraham Kortotki won the $20,982 first prize at an Atlantic City casino's ladies poker tournament. Unsurprisingly, some women are miffed, especially second-place finisher Nicole Rowe, who intended to use the cash to help recover from a mastectomy. • Now that the Hofstra University freshman who had accused five men of gang-raping her recanted her statement, Amanda Hess has written am interesting piece on rape culture. A snippet: "Rape culture does not only tell men to assert ownership over whichever female body they desire. Rape culture also tells women not to claim ownership over their own bodies. Rape culture also informs women that they should not desire sex. Rape culture also tells women that saying yes makes them bad women." • Surprise, surprise: Teen birth rates are highest in the most religious states. More here, here and here. • Want to wash all this bad news from your mind? Pictures of fishing cats!

As mentioned earlier, Fritzl, 73, changed his plea on day three of his trial, saying he was guilty of all charges, including murdering by neglect one of the seven children he fathered while he imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a homemade basement dungeon for 24 years. He initially denied murdering Michael, a twin born in the cellar, by refusing to get him medical treatment. He changed his plea on Wednesday after seeing his daughter in court, according to The Telegraph. He burst into tears and told the jury, "I regret from the bottom of my heart what I did to my family. Unfortunately I can't make amends for it. I can only try to find ways to limit the damage that has been done."

Fritzl was found guilty on all counts, including murder, rape, incest, false imprisonment and coercion in a unanimous verdict, reports Telegraph. He was also the first man convicted of slavery in Austria. Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said his client would not appeal the ruling and that it was "the logical consequence of his guilty plea."

Judge Andrea Humer told Frizl he would serve his life sentence in "a psychiatric unit for people with an abnormality of mind." However, according to The Telegraph, if he responds to treatment and is considered rehabilitated he will be transferred to a normal prison and be eligible for parole in 15 years. Under Austrian law, sentences are served concurrently not consecutively, and his longest sentence for the murder of his child carries a 15 year sentence. A spokesmen for the court said Fritzl could be released even sooner if transferred. "As he has already served 11 months on remand, that would go down to 14 years from now," said Franz Cutka, vice president of the court. Many criticized the court's decision, but Cutka said the Austrian justice system aims at "bringing the offenders back within the norms of society" rather than just punishing criminals.

Either way, Fritzl will have a much more comfortable life than the one he provided to his children in his cellar. During his imprisonment in the hospital unit at Mittersteig prison in Vienna, Fritzl will have his own cell with a shower, color TV, and personal computer, and be allowed to keep a pet. He will share a sitting room, kitchen, and outdoor garden with other inmates and be allowed to study a foreign language through the prison's learning center.

Rudolf Mayer, Fritzl's lawyer, said, "He doesn't mind where he goes. It's not like it's a hotel but he would like a prison close to home because it may be that relatives will go to see him." It's hard to imagine though what relatives would come see him. His sister-in-law, Christine Renner, said after hearing of the comparatively comfortable conditions in the psychiatric center, "What right does he have to live like this after all he has destroyed?" She added, "They should have put him in a pit, put a lid on it, locked it and thrown away the key."

As for Fritzl's wife Rosemarie, she has started divorce proceedings and was not called as a witness in the trial or questioned as a possible accomplice, reports Time, because the chief investigator said, "no wife would be able to accept such a thing if she had any knowledge about it." Elisabeth Fritzl has the right to bring a civil suit against Fritzl but Austrian officials say there are no plans to change any laws as a result of this case. Austria's social services never properly investigated when Elisabeth first ran away from home at 16 to escape her father's sexual abuse, police didn't question Fritzl's story that she'd joined a cult after he imprisoned her two years later, and the courts allowed him to adopt the three "upstairs children" that he said Elisabeth left on his doorstep over the years. However, there will be no official inquires into failures by the authorities that could have spared Elisabeth from her 24 years of imprisonment and torture.

Josef Fritzl Will Be Locked Up In Comfort [The Telegraph]
Josef Fritzl Trial: Loophole Means Fritzl Could Be Released In 14 Years [The Telegraph]
Austria Hastens to Close the Book on Ugliest Abuse Case [Time]

Earlier: Fritzl Trial Day 3: Josef Fritzl Pleads Guilty On All Counts

"When I saw the video tapes I realised for the first time how cruel I was to Elisabeth," he said. The 11 hours of videotaped testimony revealed many terrible details, and it was supposedly what led Fritzl to recognize his years of "sick behavior," as he put it. Per the testimony of Elisabeth and her brother Herald, the "sick behavior" had been going on for the last 31 years. More details from Day 3:

• According to the Independent Fritzl first began abusing his daughter when she was only 11. Elisabeth's story was backed up in court by testimony from Herald, who told the court that Elisabeth was "terrified" of her father, and that he was "sexually obsessed" with Elisabeth from a very young age.
• Fritzl's abuse started with forcing Elisabeth to watch pornography with him, and sending her pornographic notes, the Daily Mail reports. "Somehow, I don't know why, my father seemed to choose me for himself," she said.
• It was the years of abuse that caused Elisabeth to run away at age 16. She was found by the local police, and brought back home. A little over a year later, Fritzl imprisoned her in the basement.
• During her teenage years, Herald was her sole confident. However, he too was terrified of his father. Herald suffered repeated beatings at his father's hands, and felt that he was powerless to help his younger sister.
• Fritzl claims that his daughter was wild, and that he caught her drinking on several occasions. He says that by imprisoning Elisabeth he was "saving her from herself." He also initially attempted to refute Elisabeth's accusations by saying that she was "confused" about the early years of abuse, and didn't correctly remember who had abused her.
• The court also saw a 30-page psychiatric report by psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner, which warns that Fritzl will never be sane, according to the Mirror:
  

  Dr. Kastner warned: "During the entire period of his crimes he was aware of his responsibility and thus his criminal liability.

  "They reach the dimension of a high-grade mental abnormality. It is to be feared that in future he will again commit acts with serious consequences."

• The report claims that for someone "born to rape he held out for a relatively long time." Dr. Kastner believes that Fritzl's childhood had a huge impact on his current mental state. Fritzl was unloved, and "at best regarded as a calamity."
• Also in the report: Fritzl apparently suffered from a condition as a child which made him embarrassed about his penis.
• Dr. Kastner has recommended that Fritzl spend the rest of his life in a secure institution for criminals with mental problems. She believes that there is an absolute risk that Fritzl will re-offend. Fritzl has expressed fantasies of spending his last days with his wife, but Kastner says this "cannot be considered as something that is very likely to happen."
• The Daily Mail reports that Fritzl's guilty plea includes his recognition that his actions lead to the death of his infant son Michael. The newborn died three days after his birth in 1996 after developing breathing problems, which Fritzl ignored:

  'I don't know why I have not seen the baby would have needed help. All I can say is that it was not planned,' Fritzl said today.

  'I don't know why I didn't help. I just overlooked it. I thought the little one would survive.'

  Admitting the murder means the pensioner now faces a likely life sentence and will die in jail.

• Unfortunately, this may not speed up the trial; however, the verdict is expected to come as early as this Thursday.
• A reporter for the Daily Beast has revealed that Elisabeth is now in a safe location, and plans to start her life over under an assumed identity:

  During the trial, Elisabeth and her children are staying at a nearby psychological center. She will not have to confront her father in court, but she may be asked to provide further video testimony. After the trial, she plans to live under a new identity in an undisclosed location with her son Felix. Kerstin and Stefan suffer from severe social and physical disabilities, including rotting gums and immunity problems from being raised without sunlight. They, along with Fritzl's wife and the upstairs children, have also taken new identities.

• Yesterday the court confirmed that Fritzl had been placed on suicide watch following the viewing of Elisabeth's testimony and his subsequent admission of guilt.

Josef Fritzl Trial: He'll Always Be A Danger Says Doctor's Report [Mirror]
Fritzl Lets The Mask Slip As His Daughter Tells Her Tragic Story [Independent]
Josef Fritzl Trial: Daughter Elisabeth Reveals Sick Beast's Sick Sex Acts As He Forced Her To View Porn [Mirror]
Josef Fritzl On Suicide Watch As ‘Avenging Angel' Daughter Gives Damning Testimony [Telegraph]
Fritzl Pleads Guilty To ALL Charges As He Tells Court: 'My Daughter's Evidence Made Me Realise How Cruel I Had Been' [Daily Mail]
In Change Of Heart, Fritzl Pleads Guilty To All Counts [WSJ]
My Life In The Dungeon [Daily Beast]

• According to The Independent, Fritzl once again entered court holding a blue folder in front of his face, and held it up for 10 minutes until cameramen were ordered to leave the courtroom.
• Prosecutor Christians Burkheiser told the jury the ceiling of Fritzl's cellar was only five feet from the ground and that the cellar itself had no heat, no shower, no warm water, and hardly any ventilation for the first nine years Elisabeth was imprisoned there. Burkheiser said:
  

  He kept his daughter in a room that measured only 11sq meters for nine years. That is just about the size of the jury box you are sitting in .... In the summer it was blisteringly hot. In the winter it was freezing cold. Nobody can really imagine what went on down there.

• Burkheiser said that during the first few years of her imprisonment, Frtizl never spoke to his daughter, he just randomly entered the room and raped her. "He would turn down the lights, rape her and then turn the lights back up," she said. After the children were born, Fritzl raped her repeatedly in front of them. Elisabeth was kept in the cellar in complete darkness and without electricity for periods of up to 10 days.
• Fritzl told Elisabeth that he had installed three locking doors and electronically operated light barriers which would flood the cellar with gas if she tried to escape.
• A few weeks before Elisabeth was due to give birth to their first child, Fritzl gave her a dirty mattress, a filthy blanket, and an old book about childbirth.
• The Guardian reports that Burkheiser told the jury she didn't feel the full impact of the cellar prison until she visited it herself. She said:
  

  I've seen the cellar dungeon twice. It has a morbid atmosphere, which starts with having to crawl in on your hands and knees through the 83cm entranceway. And it's sinister. It's really bad. It's incredibly damp, a damp that creeps into you after just a few minutes.

  She continued:
  

  "But do you know what the worst thing was? The uncertainty: when will he return, when will he turn on the electricity, when will he go again, what will happen if he doesn't return?"

  She said Elisabeth's life in the cellar could be encapsulated in the sentence: "Light out. Rape. Light on. Mould. Rape. In front of the children. The uncertainty. Birth. Death. Rape."

• Fritzl's defense attorney, Rudolf Mayer, shocked the court by claiming that Fritzl was a caring family man, according to The Mirror. Mayer said:
  

  A man who put so much effort into keeping two families cannot be called a monster. If I only want a daughter as a sex slave, I don't let her bring children into the world. You'd let them starve.

  He continued:
  

  "This is a man who had wanted to have two families. If he had not wanted children he could have used contraceptives.

  "If he didn't care about children he could have disposed of them. He had the power. But he slept in the cellar with his children and spent time with them over Christmas. He cared for his second family.

  "When his oldest daughter was ill, what would a monster do? What would a killer do?

  "What this man did was take her to hospital. He could have killed her and everyone else."

  "He could have claimed that he was mentally unstable and tried to escape these proceedings. But he did not do so. He's not trying to say he was mentally ill."

• The Guardian reports that Elisabeth's 11 hours of videotaped testimony is so harrowing it's being played for the four-woman, four-man jury in small portions and other jurors are standing by in case the eight main jurors decide they can't cope.
• According to the Daily Mail, Elisabeth agreed to testify on the condition that she would never have to see her father again.
• Elisabeth said Fritzl would come in the cellar with boxes of pornographic videotapes and make her reenact scenes in them. She says she suffered serious internal injuries from oversized sex toys he used on her.
• The defense presented information about Fritzl's childhood. As the Daily Mail reports:
  

  Fritzl said: "I did not have a good relationship with my mother. She tried to stop me having any friends. But I had one she didn't know about and that friend bitterly let me down. So I decided that I would not have any friends after that."

  "I had a very difficult childhood. My mother didn't want me. She was 42 when she had me. She simply didn't want a child and she treated me correspondingly. I was beaten."

  He told the jury that, at the age of 12, he had made it clear to his mother that he would not tolerate being beaten any longer and would defend himself.

  'From that point on, I was Satan personified for her,' he said.

• Fritzl's wife Rosemarie now lives alone and has begun divorce proceedings.
• The rest of the trial will be conducted in secret until a verdict scheduled for Friday. The judge's decision has angered the Austrian public. One Austrian lawyer is quoted as saying: "I thought secret trials ended with Stalin, but obviously I was wrong."

  'Herr Fritzl, Can You Just Answer One Thing – Why?' [The Independent]
  'Light out. Rape. Light On. Rape. In Front Of The Children. Birth. Death. Rape' [The Guardian]
  Josef Fritzl Trial: Lawyer Insists Dungeon Fiend Was A Caring Family Man [The Mirror]
  Josef Fritzl Trial Judge Clears Court For Daughter's Evidence [The Guardian]
  Elisabeth Fritzl Tells The World How Her Father Forced Her To Re-Enact Porn Films With Him In The Cellar Dungeon [Daily Mail]

  Earlier: Austrian Abuser Admits To Rape But Denies Murder On First Day In Court

Today, Mr. Fritzl's first day in court, the abuser held up a blue folder to hide his face and spoke only to confirm his name. He pleaded "partially" guilty to rape because he doesn't agree with how the charge is worded, and fully guilty of depriving his children of their liberty, reports Reuters. He pled innocent to charges that he enslaved his daughter Elisabeth since the age of 18 and to murdering their infant son in 1996. Prosecutors say he is guilty of murder by negligence for not taking their son to the hospital when he developed breathing problems. Fritzl is accused of burning the three day old baby's body in the furnace.

In her opening statement, prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser said, "Josef Fritzl treated his daughter as his property, he made her completely dependent," according to the BBC. She added that Fritzl, "showed no sign of regret or any consciousness of wrongdoing."

Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth, now 42, and her six surviving children, are now living in a secret location with new identities and will not testify in person. The Times of London reports that 11 hours of Elisabeth's videotaped testimony will be shown to the eight jurors in the coming days. According to excerpts, Elisabeth says that she was initially chained to an iron pole behind her bed and couldn't get to the bathroom in the cramped windowless dungeon Fritzl built under the family's home. He is accused of raping his daughter on average three times a week since imprisoning her in the basement.

Of the six surviving children she gave birth to while underground, three were kept underground their entire lives, and three were taken upstairs and raised by Fritzl and his wife. According to CNN, Fritzl explained his daughter's disappearance in 1984 by saying she ran away from home and forcing her to write letters to back up his story. The then said she left three of her children on his doorstep throughout the years. His wife Rosemarie supposedly didn't know what was going on in her basement.

Police discovered the dungeon last April when 19-year-old Kerstin, one of the children in the cellar, got sick and Elisabeth persuaded her father to take her to the hospital. Elisabeth now lives with her youngest child, 6, and is in contact with her other children. The two older children from the basement, who are 19 and 20, are still receiving therapy. They never left the basement or saw sunlight and as a result have a stoop, restricted spatial awareness, rotting teeth and gums, skin problems, weak immunity and difficulty communicating.

Officials at St. Pölten prison where Fritzl is being held say he on suicide watch, according to The Guardian. "He's under constant watch. We're aware of the possibility he might self-harm," said Günther Mörwald, head of the prison. A verdict is expected on Thursday or Friday and Fritzl faces life in prison if convicted.

Austrian Admists Rape But Not Murder [Reuters]
Fritzl Admits Rape, Denies Murder [BBC]
Josef Fritzl To Tell Court He Was Good Father To Dungeon Family [The Times of London]
Austrian To Plead Guilty To Rape And Incest, Lawyer Says [CNN]
Josef Fritzl Cellar Trial Begins In Austria [The Guardian]

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• A new study shows that children with contact lenses feel better about their looks than kids who wear glasses. • Horrible news: over 100,000 young women were killed in fires in India in a single year. Officials say that many of these deaths were tied to domestic abuse. • Proposition 8 is back in court. The court's decision is due within 90 days, so here's hoping that the 18,000 same-sex couples wed in California are not forced to give up their rights. • Four years after being honorably discharged, Lisa Pagan, mother of two, was recalled for duty. She reported with her children, and is now waiting to hear whether her appeal - on the grounds that she must stay in the country to take care of her kids - will be approved or not. • According to a study from the University of Warwick, modern women are ill-equipped to deal with motherhood because of their newfound geographical mobility. • New strains of drug-resistant gonorrhea have been detected in the US, UK and Australia. • The kidnapping trial of Kumari Fulbright, former beauty queen, has been pushed back until at least August. • Toward the end of the Spanish Civil War, thousands of children were kidnapped and put up for adoption. Years later, Spain is facing pressure to investigate the "lost children of the Franco regime." • The Belfast Rape Crisis Center is facing harsh criticism for its burlesque show fundraiser. Academic Fionola Meredith is among those opposing the show: "Forget post-feminism and irony - Northern Ireland remains an old-fashioned sexist's paradise where women's rights are very far down the political agenda." • More than 15,000 tapes of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Christian talk show, the 'PTL Club', are up for auction. • Excerpts from Josef Fritzl's psychological examination have been released, and the details are terrifying. Fritzl claims that he "actually led a completely normal family life" and that he was a "good provider." • According to UN officials, the women's prison at Badam Bagh, Afghanistan, is probably the best in the country. The "humane" prison allows children to stay with their mothers, and offers classes for the prisoners in English and computer science. • British teachers worry that forward-facing strollers may be to blame for the recent decline in the linguistic abilities of many children. • Artist Christian Faur assembles amazing portraits entirely out of whole crayons. Check them out here. • A new study has found that sexual dysfunction among women may have more to do with the brain than with the body. • The world's first pink dolphin has been discovered living in an inland lake in Louisiana. • The Japanese have invented a new weight loss tool: expensive toe rings. • Women are less likely to go into debt and work harder for financial independence than men, according to a new study. • Mariachi classes are gaining young followers, as second and third generation Latinos reconnect with music of their grandparents. 14-year-old Maureen Sanchez has been taking Mariachi classes since she was five, and has already recorded three CDs and appeared on national radio and television. • A recent survey shows that women are more religious than men. Analysts speculate that this may be caused by - what else? - motherhood. • For the first time, researchers have established a link between estrogen and fat storage, which may explain why women store fat differently than men. • The New York Times has a short, but important, documentary following an 11-year-old girl on her last day of school before the Taliban closes it down. • 

[Image via Florida Times-Union[

• FBI agents and local police force have rescued nearly 50 child prostitutes (aged 13-17) from a nationwide sex trafficking operation. Special Agent Melissa Morrow says that adult prostitutes tipped them off about a sixteen-year-old girl who had been recruiting children into sex work. • A website that sells human hair says they have seen a huge increase in women seeking to profit off their strands as the economy tanks. • A British couple have been rescued after spending 40 days stranded at sea. • Tragic news: three Chinese mothers have lost their children and their savings because of one reckless driver in Ohio. • On Husband's Day, Icelandic woman serve their men traditional delicacies, including ram's testicles. Tasty! • Despite receiving death threats, Hubsi Kramar, the star and director of Josef Fritzl-inspired play Pension F, will not cancel or delay the opening. The (tasteless) show must go on! • Scientists have found a medical reason for bad hair days, and it's not particularly surprising (hint: it has to do with oil and hormones). • Time interviews Barbara Davilman and Liz Dubelman, authors of What Was I Thinking: 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories about bad breakups and first impressions. • Sociological Images has an interesting post about suggestive names of juniors brands, including Tyte, Sugar Tart, and Hooked Up. • Duffy stars in a new campaign for Coca-Cola with the tag line: "I'm no superwoman." The F Word breaks down why this is a problem. • New research shows that gray hair is caused by buildup of hydrogen peroxide, even among those who aren't bottle blonde. • Need a classy way to show off your love for painkillers? Make some Vicodin earrings! • In this sad article, a self-described former street kids claims that "Slumdog Millionaire" does not provide give a "realistic" depiction of life in the slums: "It's no such thing. Slum life is a cage." • New York Times writer tackles the film from a slightly different angle, arguing that the word "slum" does not do justice to the reality of Dharavi. • 

• Celebrity hairdresser Andrew Barton says he has experienced a 67% surge in requests for blonde hair products compared to this time last year. Barton believes that women are dying their hair to counteract the gloom of the credit crunch. Which makes absolutely no sense, considering all the expensive touch ups necessary to maintain a blonde hue. • A new study has found that certain chemicals, commonly found in food packaging, upholstery and carpets may reduce women's fertility. • Scientists have begun to investigate a recent drop in the average age of puberty among girls. They believe that the increase in childhood obesity may be a factor, since fat can be a source of estrogen. • New research indicates that losing weight can significantly reduce urinary incontinence among women. • Further evidence that premature birth may be tied to autism: a U.S. study has found that children born more tan three months early are two to three times as likely to show signs of autism. • Front runner for the "most evil man alive" competition, Josef Fritzl, has invited the world's leading psychiatrists to examine him. He says they "should look into the deepest depths of my soul and learn from it for future cases." We find this deeply disturbing. • The so-called breast cancer gene may also indicate a man's likelihood for developing a particularly aggressive form of prostate cancer. • A new poll shows that more than half the respondents, while happy with their homes, would like to live elsewhere. • Here's the latest results from the seemingly endless pile of no-shit studies: circumcisions are twice as likely to be performed in states where Medicaid pays for them as in states where they are not covered. • Encouraged by security improvements throughout he country, thousands of Iraq women are running for local government. • According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of crimes committed in Britain by girls has soared 22% in the past few years. • At South Devon College, students as young as 14 watched a pole dancing demonstration as part of the school's Be Healthy Week. The video of the performance actually does not appear at all sexual, and looks incredibly challenging. • It turns out that UV light-enhanced tooth bleaching is not only ineffective, but is also terrible for your skin. A study also found that the procedure can damage teeth permanently. • Serena Williams has been named the all-time career prize money leader in women's sport, besting golfing legeand Annika Sorenstam. • 

• With today being the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the anti-choicers are out in full frontal crazy mode. One particularly dick protester smashed his SUV into a Planned Parenthood in St. Paul this morning. The damage was minor. • Two sixteen-year-old British girls were banned from school for being "too blonde." The school's dress code states that there should be no "unnatural" hair color on students. • The man charged with spraying Afghan school girls with acid says that he was paid by a major in the Afghan intelligence unit for the attacks. The girls continue to attend school undeterred. • Adolf Hitler Campbell's mother has told newspapers that "we would never abuse our children," and "I want my children back." • Mariana Bridi da Costa, a finalist in the Miss World competition, had her hands and feet amputated after being diagnosed with a urinary disease. • A new survey has found that professional women are more likely to drink alone at home than men or women in "routine or manual" occupations. • Two women whose sexual harassment accusations led to the resignation of an Ohio attorney general have reached a settlement and will receive over $200,000. • A man from Nevada shackled his 15-year-old daughter to her bed and beat her with a stick because he thought she was overweight. • In other awful parenting news: A 52-year-old Denver woman has been accused of binding her 10-year-old daughter's hands and feet each night because she suspected she was sneaking food. • Two teens from Minnesota have been arrested for abusing the elderly residents of a nursing home where they were employed part-time. • A town in Brazil where one in five pregnancies result in twins may have been the site of Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele's post-war experiments. Mengele was obsessed with twins, and some speculate that he "found the secret of twins." • Men's Health has named the worst food in America. This year it is the 2,600-calorie Baskin Robbin's large chocolate Oreo shake. • The Cat House in Parlier, California, is now home to 700 stray cats and even a few dogs. The owner of the 12-acre shelter says: "There was no place else for all of these cats, and I had all of this land." • Josef Fritzl's trial is set to begin March 16. He faces chargers of murder, rape, false imprisonment, and enslavement. • Polygamous communities in Canada are using the recent legalization of gay marriage as evidence to help overturn laws against polygamy. • Want to know what life looks like for your pet? For $50 you can buy a little camera to attach to their collars. Or you could just crouch down and see for yourself, but whatever. • Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Islamic leaders have condemned comments made by an Australian Muslim cleric who said it was OK to beat and rape your wife. • A British woman living in Dubai lost her appeal to have a sentence for adultery reduced from six months in prison to three. She also faces deportation. • A new study suggests that women suffer from worse nightmares than men because they are more likely to carry emotions from daily life into their sleep. • An 83-year-old man missed his bus back to Indiana because he was busy dancing with a young lady at the inauguration party. He has since found his way home and will be alright. • Head honchos at the San Fransisco Sentinel are trying to sell ad space by advertising their (attractive) female account executive. • A former manager of Hawaiian Tropic says that her boss bribed her to lie about her 2006 rape by a supervisor. • The Swedish National Library apparently has a large collection of child pornography dating from the 1970s, when it had not yet been made illegal. • 

Corrie Loftin, AKA "Bikini Cory." She's known as "Bikini Cory" because she earned it.


John Edwards. Fake, phony, fraud. Whose wife had cancer.


Dimitri the Lover, Canada's Greatest Lover and Seducer. We wouldn't have thought it possible, but this ludicrous personage makes Mystery look like a catch.


Speidi: took aggressive mediocrity, flesh-colored beards and general asshattery to breath-stealing new heights.


Bernie Madoff. Made some questionable ethical decisions, like bilking charities, the world for decades, billions.


Megan Johnson. This Stylista took us all back to high school, an automatic fail.


Josef Fritzl. Father of the year - and not in the good way.

Vanity Fair’s Hall of Infamy, 2008 [Vanity Fair]

From The Guardian:

1988 Teachers become suspicious when injuries are noticed on the face of one of the girls at school, but they are subsequently blamed on bullying. The other daughter stays away from school with a broken arm. During this time, and on several occasions over the next 14 years, doctors raise concerns with the sisters about abnormalities in the foetuses of their unborn children. One doctors tells a daughter not to have any more children with the same man and questioned the children's paternity. Any involvement with the father is disputed.

Early 1990s The family move from South Yorkshire to live in small villages in Lincolnshire.

1997 The brother of the two women goes to police with "hearsay evidence" of incest. Police look into the claim but no further action is taken.

1998 One of the daughters phones ChildLine in an attempt to report the ongoing abuse. She asks for a guarantee that the sisters would be able to keep their children but hangs up when that cannot be given.

2004 The family move back to South Yorkshire, and while social services again become involved, the abuse is not detected.

June 2008 The case comes to the attention of authorities. The father is arrested.

• Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who imprisoned and raped his daughter for 24 years in his basement, has been declared clinically sane, according to an Austrian psychiatric report to be presented when he comes to trial sometime next year. • Honor Blackman, the actress who played Pussy Galore in the film Goldfinger, says that her Bond girl was "no bimbo" but a "career woman" who fell in love with Bond. • Are you prone to shedding tears on your pillow? Now there's a pillow that is specially designed for bedtime-weepers. • Two Icelandic women have been put in charge of two nationalized banks that helped push Iceland's economy to the edge of bankruptcy. • A 24-year-old Australian woman who hid in her lover's house 10 years ago for 5 years and led her family to believe she was dead has recently married the man who helped hide her. • A new exercise program is being developed by researchers to reduce knee injury in the anterior cruciate ligament in women, which often sidelines female athletes. • A Florida grand jury issued a sealed murder indictment today in the murder of missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony. • A 68-year-old former cross-country champion ran after and caught a 15-year-old boy who stole her handbag in England. • Some young Muslim women in Turkey are rebelling against against the secular Turkish state, which forces them to drop out of college if they wear headscarves. • Actress Maggie Quigley (or Maggie Q) describes the stereotypes in Hollywood about Asians and the difficulty she has in Hollywood due to her biracial background. • The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials wants to delay the change on marriage licenses from "Party A" and "Party B" to a "bride" and "groom" which is supposed to go into effect on November 17 since the clerks are currently overloaded with Election paperwork. •

According to the Times of London, Elisabeth told Austrian judge Andrea Humer in an interview, "He was very brutal against me…And when I did not agree to have sex, then the kids would suffer. We knew he would kick us or be bad to us." The Times also notes, "Elisabeth said that her father threatened to leave them to rot in the cellar, which had no windows and was sealed by an electronically-locked door."

Unlike Elisabeth's children by her father — three of whom were kept underground with Elisabeth and three of whom were raised in the Fritzl's house proper — Alicja's two children were given up for adoption, and now authorities are trying to track down the two boys, ages 3 and 18 months, to see if Krzysztof is really the boys' father. The potential incest was discovered by Alicja's mother, Teresa, who said she learned about the abuse when she read Alicja's diary. However, the Times of London also reports that, Krzysztof "used to order [Teresa] to watch television whenever he went into the girl's room, closed it and took out the door handle." And when Teresa confronted Krzysztof about the abuse, "He intimidated us; he threatened that my daughter will be dead, that he will destroy us all, if anyone learned about it.”

There are no words. Actually, that's not entirely true: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the crime a "tragedy" and is now pushing for a chemical castration law for pedophiles. Jeez. Fritzl is currently in jail awaiting a trial which is slated for next year. According to the Daily Mail, Frizl "is expected to face up to 3,000 rape charges plus charges of child cruelty and false imprisonment." Krzysztof is also in jail, and police are currently in the midst of his investigation.

Man Dubbed 'Polish Josef Fritzl' Arrested [Times of London]
Elisabeth Fritzl Tells Of Father's Cruelty [Times of London]
'My ordeal at the hands of my all-powerful father': Elisabeth Fritzl Tells Of The Nightmare In The Cellar [Daily Mail]

Maria's siblings, Michelina and Prisco, have also been arrested, and while the IHT reported that Maria's 17-year-old son lived in the house with her, according to the AP he was living with relatives nearby and didn't know about his mother's imprisonment. The lawyer for Maria's mother claims that the "The family accepted him [Maria's out-of-wedlock son]," and "That should mean something."

In other Italian kidnapping news, a man in Genoa nabbed his ex-girlfriend from a bar. From there, he took her back to his apartment and after threatening to injure her, made her do his ironing. Apparently he was "furious" that she broke up with him. He's in police custody as well.

Another Imprisoned Woman Is Found, This Time In Italy [IHT]
Woman Freed After Being Locked Up For 18 Years [AP]
Man 'Kidnapped Ex-girlfriend To Do Ironing' [Telegraph]

Earlier: Austrian Man Locked His Daughter In The Basement For 24 Years