Austrians expressed shock and horror on Monday after police arrested a 73-year-old man they say imprisoned and abused his daughter in a windowless basement for 24 years and fathered seven children with her. The woman told them her father Josef lured her into the basement of the block where they lived in the town of Amstetten in 1984, and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her.
A son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi is mediating over two Austrians held by al-Qaeda in North Africa and is hopeful they will be freed soon, an Austrian politician was quoted as saying. Saif al-Islam, who heads the Gadaffi Foundation charity, has been in touch with the kidnappers, said Carinthia governor Joerg Haider.