Fluterschen, Germany
Another ‘Fritzl’: A German truck driver who fathered eight children with his stepdaughter was convicted this week of 162 counts of sexual abuse and could be jailed for life. The man, identified only as Detlef S., began raping his stepdaughter when she was 12, and soon began pimping her out to other men for money. The stepdaughter, now 27, bore eight children, one of which died as an infant. Detlef S. was also convicted of raping and pimping out his daughter, now 18, beginning when she was 12. The judge handed down a sentence of just 14 and a half years, but ruled that the defendant should remain imprisoned indefinitely because of the risk that he could offend again. The case has drawn comparisons to that of Austria’s Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter in a cellar and fathered seven kids with her.
Berlin
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Goodbye to Knut: The polar bear that captured Germans’ hearts as a frolicsome cub four years ago died suddenly last week. Knut collapsed in his exhibit at the Berlin Zoo before hundreds of horrified visitors. Witnesses said he appeared to have epilepsy-like convulsions; an autopsy was to be performed. Knut became a media darling after he was rejected by his mother at birth and hand-raised by his keeper. He earned the zoo some $10 million in licensing fees and souvenirs. Animal-rights group PETA blamed the zoo for his death, claiming that exhibiting Knut with three female bears who picked on him caused him extreme stress. Others said he had never been the same since his zookeeper “father” died, two years ago.
Brussels
Sting reveals corruption: Two members of the European Parliament resigned this week after being caught in a bribery sting. Reporters for the London Sunday Times pretended to be banking lobbyists and offered the MEPs cash to promote laws easing banking regulations. Austria’s Ernst Strasser, Slovenia’s Zoran Thaler, and Romania’s Adrian Severin—each a former cabinet minister in his respective home country—accepted offers of tens of thousands of dollars. Faced with incriminating tapes, Strasser and Thaler promptly resigned. Severin stood his ground, saying, “I didn’t do anything that was, let’s say, illegal or against any normal behavior we have here.” The European Parliament has opened an investigation.
