Natonals win at least three extra seats

HE bush bashed 40,000km around the country campaigning in places most of us haven't even heard of, but the hard work has definitely paid off for Nationals leader Warren Truss.

Not only will he become deputy prime minister, but his party swept up at least three new extra seats in the lower house of parliament in the federal election.

The Nationals reclaimed the NSW rural electorate of Lyne and neighbouring New England - formerly held by independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor respectively, and staged an upset in nearby Labor-held seat of Page.

Though still too close to call by late Saturday, the Queensland seat of Capricornia is also a potential scalp.

Veteran MP Warren Snowdon's Northern Territory seat of Lingiari is also on the radar.

The party had set its sights on regional Labor electorates held by a margin of seven per cent or less to boost its numbers from 12 House of Representatives seats to a possible 18.

High-profile former Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce will return to Canberra, this time as a lower house MP after winning New England as expected.

He quit the Senate in a bid to change houses, but his gamble paid off when Mr Windsor tearfully announced in June he wouldn't recontest the seat he'd held for 12 years.

Mr Joyce, who was raised a property in southern New England, thanked the community for embracing him after his long absence in Queensland as a senator.

"To come home after so long away, and to be accepted back into the house by the people who had every reason to have a sense of doubt, I just find that incredible," he told ABC TV on Saturday.

But he dismissed suggestions that now he's heading for the lower house he'd make a move for the leadership of the Nationals, describing the prospect as "miles away".

Gastroenterologist David Gillespie took Lyne, the neighbouring electorate vacated by retiring independent Mr Oakeshott, after falling just short against him in 2010.

Cattle farmer and small business owner Kevin Hogan defeated Labor's Janelle Saffin in Page, a seat many thought was an outside chance of victory.

The Nationals also gave ALP heavyweight Joel Fitzgibbon a real scare in Hunter, slashing his 12.5 per cent margin.

Western Australia could toss some more seats the Nats way, but these are far from certain with many more votes to be counted.

The Liberals and the Nationals are battling it out among themselves for O'Connor - the seat held by on again, off again Nationals MP Tony Crook - and the nearby seat of Durack.

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Minor players set to hold power in Senate

TONY Abbott's new coalition government will be forced to negotiate with minor parties and independents that will hold the balance of power in the Senate.

As the Liberal leader claimed a lower house victory, the party's Senate representation looked set to fall short of the 39 spots necessary to give the coalition an upper house majority, despite collecting additional seats in Saturday's poll.

"It was always mathematically impossible for the coalition to win control in the Senate," Victorian Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield told ABC television.

"The best that we could hope for is that the Labor-Greens alliance be denied control of the Senate."

He said it appeared "possible" that upper house marriage would be broken, handing the balance of power to other independents and minor parties from July 1, 2014.

"We will work with whoever has the balance of power," Senator Fifield said.

In a Senate makeup described as "interesting" by political commentators, South Australia was on track to return Senator Nick Xenophon, and possibly his party's second candidate, Stirling Griff.

By 11pm (AEST) Saturday the SA state swing against the ALP had passed 15 per cent, meaning preferences could determine the return of a second Labor senator or that of Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Nova Peris will become Australia's first indigenous woman in parliament with her on track to win a Senate seat in the Northern Territory.

In Queensland, the Palmer United Party looked likely to collect a Senate seat with a 10 per cent swing pushing number one candidate, former football player Glenn Lazurus, close to reaching the necessary quota.

The party, making its political debut for billionaire businessman Clive Palmer, is also a chance of picking up a Senate ticket in Tasmania, where it saw a seven per cent swing.

In NSW, One Nation candidate Pauline Hanson or the Liberal Democrats remained a chance.

While unlikely to reach a quota for the upper house, the Liberal Democrats were positioned first on the one-metre-plus ballot paper and picked up a 6.5 per cent swing. Some commentators attributed the shift to the ballot position and voters mistaking the party name for that of the Liberals.

Nationally, the Greens and Labor saw swings of 4.4 per cent against each party.

The Palmer United Party collected more than five per cent of first preference votes across the nation.

Forty Senate positions were up for grabs at Saturday's election, contested by a record 592 candidates.

The final outcome is unlikely to be known until at least mid next week.

New senators will begin their terms in July 2014.

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British PM congratulates Tony Abbott

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron says it will be "great working with another centre right leader" after calling Tony Abbott to congratulate him on his victory in the Australian federal election.

A convincing victory for the Liberal-National coalition on Saturday ended six years of Labor rule after a campaign in which Abbott pledged to boost a flagging economy and axe a controversial carbon tax.

But he has also said his government's deficit-reduction measures would include cutting overseas aid - a policy that will put him at odds with Cameron's stance on development.

Tory MP Douglas Carswell seized on Abbott's victory to urge Cameron to adopt similar policies.

"I'm loving the way that the centre right in Australia have modernised - and won. Ought to inspire Conservatives here in UK!" he wrote on Twitter.

"Abbott won offering lower taxes, less immigration, an end to obsession with CO2 and less foreign aid. Go figure.

"Abbott's views are throughly modern. He seems to have seen through global warming fad, wants less government and is pro Anglosphere."

There were some less complimentary assessments from Labour MPs.

Paul Flynn posted: "Oz has elected a bigoted air-head to drag them backwards into mean prejudice and vainglorious chauvinism."

And Tom Harris said: "I'm sure that in terms of attitudes to women, new Australian PM Tony Abbott will bring his country roaring into the 1980s."

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Croat who hijacked US plane in 1976 dies

Croatian man Zvonko Busic, who served 32 years in jail for hijacking a US plane, committed suicide. Source: AAP

ZVONKO Busic, a Croatian nationalist who served 32 years in prison in the US for hijacking a plane and also planting explosives that killed a policeman, has committed suicide. He was 67.

Police said Busic was found dead Sunday at his home in Rovanjska, near the coastal town of Zadar. They said he left a suicide note.

Busic led a group of five who in 1976 hijacked a TWA plane flying from New York to Chicago with about 80 passengers and crew members on board, and also planted a bomb in a locker at New York's Grand Central railway station that killed a policeman.

Busic and his group said at the time they wanted to draw attention to Croatia's bid for independence from communist Yugoslavia.

They forced the pilots to fly the plane to Montreal, then London and Paris, where they eventually surrendered. The policeman in New York died while trying to defuse the Grand Central bomb.

Busic returned to Croatia in 2008 after he was paroled in the US where he was serving a life sentence for air piracy.

Four other conspirators, including Busic's wife, also were released after serving their sentences. As a condition of his parole Busic was barred from returning to the US again.

In Croatia, which gained independence after Yugoslav wars of 1990's, Busic received a warm welcome as a hero of the country's struggle for statehood.

The country joined the European Union in July.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.

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Ariel Castro called victim's mother: media

KIDNAPPER Ariel Castro said he called the mother of one of his victims while she was in captivity and told her she was OK, according to a videotaped FBI interrogation.

Castro also told investigators that authorities missed opportunities for capturing him.

The kidnapping and repeated rapes of three young women over about a decade shocked Americans when the women escaped from Castro's home in May. Castro, 53, was a month into his life sentence for the crimes when he killed himself on Tuesday.

Castro says in the video obtained by NBC and reported on Friday that he called the mother of Amanda Berry and told her that Berry was OK and that she was his wife now.

He said he hung up, and they didn't have a conversation. Berry's mother died before Berry escaped.

Castro told investigators that video surveillance near the school of victim Gina DeJesus should have tipped police to him. And he said a girlfriend noticed a TV on in a room occupied by victim Michelle Knight and got him worrying he might be caught.

Two state reviews of Castro's death are under way, Ohio prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said. One is looking into the suicide, and the other is examining whether Castro received proper medical and mental health care.

A representative of Castro's family had been expected to claim his body on Thursday, the Franklin County coroner said.

Castro was sentenced on August 1 to life in prison plus 1000 years after pleading guilty to 937 counts, including kidnapping and rape, in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

"I'm not a monster. I'm sick," he told the judge at sentencing.

Castro's captives - Berry, DeJesus and Knight - disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20. They were rescued from Castro's run-down house when Berry broke through a screen door.

Investigators said the women were bound, repeatedly raped, and deprived of food and bathroom facilities.

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Hitler's bodyguard Rochus Misch dies

ROCHUS Misch, who served as Adolf Hitler's devoted bodyguard for most of WWII and was the last remaining witness to the Nazi leader's final hours in his Berlin bunker, has died. He was 96.

Burkhard Nachtigall, who helped Misch ghostwrite his 2008 memoir, said on Friday that Misch died on Thursday in Berlin after a short illness.

Misch remained proud to the end about his years with Hitler, whom he affectionately called "boss".

In a 2005 interview, Misch recalled Hitler as "a very normal man" and gave a riveting account of the German dictator's last days before he and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves in their bunker in Berlin.

Misch said, "he was no brute. He was no monster. He was no superman."

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Katter's campaign ends in a Qld pub

Federal MP Bob Katter is hopeful of picking up more than just one Senate seat after Saturday's poll. Source: AAP

WALKING the streets of Bob Katter's political heartland, it's hard to imagine the veteran MP losing the north Queensland Seat of Kennedy that he's held since 1993.

"You've got my vote Bob," a construction worker yells out as Mr Katter crosses a street in the inland mining city of Mount Isa.

It's safe to say the Katter brand is well-known around these parts.

Mr Katter kicked off his campaign last month at a pub in Atherton, inland from Cairns, where Queensland Senate hopeful country musician James Blundell belted out hits surrounded by supporters feasting on a BBQ.

On Friday he finished up his campaign - minus Mr Blundell who has returned home to Stanthorpe, near Brisbane - in similar style in Mount Isa.

Punters sipping beer patted the Akubra-wearing MP on the back or shook his hand and wished him luck.

However, one local man did complain that he no longer wanted Mr Katter sitting at his table because he was sick of hearing him talk.

Despite his outward confidence, Mr Katter says he's feeling the nerves.

"I've only once been confident of winning... I go home with fear and trepidation leading up to the election," he told AAP.

Local newspaper the North West Star says Liberal National Party Kennedy candidate Noeline Ikin has campaigned across the electorate "leaving a new brand of conservative followers in her wake hungry for change".

Friday's front page reads: "You decide: Is Bob's reign over?" This election is a brave new world for Mr Katter, who is for the first time running as the leader of his own political party - Katter's Australian Party.

But he's going to fall well short of his party's hopes of winning four Queensland seats and two Senate spots.

Political analysts say Mr Katter will keep his lower house seat, and star candidate Mr Blundell may pick up a Senate seat in Queensland but that'll be about it.

Asked whether he was more nervous this year compared to others, Mr Katter said: "I've probably had it worse".

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Versace Macau hotel will fit local culture

Italian fashion house Versace says its Macau hotel will be tweaked to appeal to Chinese culture. Source: AAP

ITALIAN fashion house Versace and Macau casino company SJM say the Versace-themed hotel they're planning for the Asian gambling city will be tweaked to appeal to the local Chinese market and open in 2017

Versace chief executive Gian Giacomo Ferraris said on Thursday that the five-star Palazzo Versace hotel would retain the company's "neoclassical style". But he added, "Clearly there'll be some finetuning with the local culture."

He declined to give more details, saying designer Donatella Versace would be responsible for the design

Versace and SJM Holdings signed a deal last month to build the hotel at SJM's Cotai resort in Macau. The city is a semiautonomous Chinese region that's the world's most lucrative gambling market.

SJM officials said the hotel would open in 2017 and is expected to cost about $HK2.5 billion ($A353.24 million).

The project gives Versace a new way to raise its profile with mainland Chinese, who account for two-thirds of Macau's visitors. It also gives SJM a big-name brand to help keep up with rivals who have a head start on expanding.

Macau raked in $US38 billion ($A41.69 billion) in gambling revenue last year, about six times the amount on the Las Vegas Strip.

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UK rider jailed for assault on ex-jockey

ONE of the Queen's horse riders has been jailed after attacking an ex-jockey in a jealous rage.

Jonathan Nolan, 32, who is a work rider for royal trainer Sir Michael Stoute, battered former jockey-turned-PR director John Maxse after confronting him in Newmarket, Suffolk.

When police arrived, Nolan was so covered in Maxse's blood that they thought he had himself been the victim of a serious assault.

On Thursday, Judge Rupert Overbury jailed him for four years at Ipswich Crown Court, after he admitted grievous bodily harm with intent.

He said: "You carried out a vicious, sustained and unprovoked attack.

"Simply by using your hands and feet you left Mr Maxse looking like the victim of a road traffic accident."

The court heard that Nolan had objected to Maxse's friendship with his ex-girlfriend, Genevieve Hippisley.

Hippisley, the mother of Nolan's three-year-old daughter, watched helplessly as the five-minute attack took place at her home in Corsican Pine Close at 11.30pm on July 21.

One police officer said Maxse's injuries were the most shocking he had seen.

Prosecutor Richard Kelly told the court that Nolan and Hippisley, 26, had broken up after a long relationship.

Earlier on the day of the attack, she sent him a text message saying: "I have tried not to hurt you but you and me are over now."

The prosecutor described how Nolan arrived at his ex-girlfriend's home that night and found Maxse sitting on the sofa.

He attacked the 5ft 6in Maxse who stood little chance against Nolan, who is 6ft 1in and athletically built.

Nolan kicked Maxse several times as he lay on the floor then chased him on to the pavement outside where he continued the attack.

The victim was left with a broken nose, fractured eye socket and fractured cheekbone.

Maxse, former PR director at the Jockey Club and the British Horseracing Authority, was photographed with a black eye and cuts and bruises to his face following the incident.

The 45-year-old former jockey, who works as a communications consultant for Qatar Racing and is a work rider for Michael Bell, said on Twitter that he was left looking like film character Rocky Balboa.

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Abbott proud of best-ever policy package

Tony Abbott wants his proposed commission of audit to run its eye over every part of government. Source: AAP

THE coalition's policy war chest is the best ever taken to an Australian election by an opposition, Tony Abbott reckons.

But there's still scepticism about the party's costings released two days before voters hit the polls.

Hours after shadow treasurer Joe Hockey's policy costing announcement revealed a coalition government would deliver $6 billion to the budget bottom line by 2016/17, plus pay down $16 billion of national debt, Mr Abbott was heralding the efforts of his team.

"No opposition has ever gone to an election with a more carefully, comprehensively and thoroughly prepared set of policies," the opposition leader told reporters on the outskirts of Melbourne on Thursday night.

He said almost 800 pages of coalition policy has been closely scrutinised by three public finance experts, and in many cases, also the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

But he refused to publish the working papers behind the figures, saying no political party ever does so.

And he defended those key policies that haven't been processed by the PBO, saying "some policies inevitably were finalised late in the day".

"I am happy to submit myself and to submit our work to the judgment of the Australian people," he said.

He was quizzed about projected savings, including the $1.1 billion stemming from stopping asylum seeker vessels.

Coalition calculations assumed that by the end of 2014 the number of people arriving by boat would return to "the long-term average" but Mr Abbott did not say what that was.

He said it would drop further to 50 people per month or less by the end of 2016.

"We think we can do better than that," Mr Abbott said, adding that they would stop the boats.

"But for the purposes of our costings document and we've been very conservative," he said.

Mr Abbott was asked about his controversial paid parental leave scheme and how the coalition had calculated future receipts on the 1.5 per cent levy imposed on big business to pay for the plan.

"These are issues to do with the ramp up, they're quite technical," Mr Abbott said, insisting the scheme is fully costed and fully funded and has faced the scrutiny of the PBO.

Mr Hockey admitted the coalition's projected $6 billion surplus in 2016/17 was not hugely different to Labor's $4.2 billion figure for the same year, as shown in the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook.

But the shadow treasurer insists coalition spending will drive growth in the economy.

"We're turning the direction around from Labor, which is increasing debt and deficit, to ourselves who are starting to pay it off," Mr Hockey told ABC TV.

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Skaf rapist paroled, brothers face court

THE brothers of Skaf gang rapist Mohammed Sanoussi have been charged over a bashing on the same day he was granted parole.

The news comes after the NSW government revealed it would considering appealing against the parole because "some new and relevant information" was not available at the parole hearing.

The parole authority granted Sanoussi parole under strict conditions on Thursday, including a ban on him associating with the Brothers For Life gang.

Police opposed parole, alleging that members of Brothers 4 Life had been meeting at Sanoussi's family home and his family's had links to the gang.

In court, Judge Terence Christie conceded it appeared Sanoussi's two brothers were members of the gang.

It is believed his two brothers were arrested on Wednesday, along with a cousin and another man.

Police confirmed Ahmed Sanoussi, 30, and Mahmoud Sanoussi, 28, both believed to be his brothers, were charged with bashing a cleaner at Revesby in Sydney's southwest.

Muhammad Sanoussi, 29, believed to be his cousin and another man, 31-year-old Ar'med Bre'aery were also charged.

The men also intimidated a police officer who came to help the man.

Three of the men were given conditional bail in court on Thursday except Mahmoud Sanoussi who is behind bars.

The father of a Skaf gang rape victim is furious that one of the rapists will be released on parole, saying he should rot in jail.

"Let them rot, who cares," he told the Nine Network.

"They don't pay the price.

Sanoussi was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the August 2000 gang rapes of young girls in isolated locations in Sydney's west.

He was 16 at the time of the horrific attacks involving 14 men, led by brothers Bilal and Mohammed Skaf.

Outside court, Sanoussi's lawyer Ruth Layton told reporters she was confident her client would not go back to jail.

"He is utterly changed since the teenager who committed that offence," she said.

The authority had rejected three previous parole applications from Sanoussi.

Judge Christie said Sanoussi's prison performance had been satisfactory and he'd completed programs to address his behaviour.

The judge told the court the parole board was "anxious to ensure he obeys every condition of the parole", of which there are 30 strict conditions.

If the parole remains, he will walk from jail within the next month after serving 13 years.

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Condolences pour in for Tweddle's family

FRIENDS and supporters of Gary Tweddle have offered their condolences to his family after his body was formally identified.

The 23-year-old went missing from a work conference at the Fairmont Resort at Leura, west of Sydney, in the early hours of July 16.

Police revealed on Wednesday night that a body found earlier this week in the area was that of Mr Tweddle.

As the news broke, some of the 4724 people who were part of the Facebook community page "Have you seen Gary Tweddle" offered their condolences online.

Kristy Ratkun wrote: "So not the outcome anyone was hoping for my thoughts are with Gary's family and friends."

Victoria Rose wrote: "may he rest in peace."

Margitta Olup wrote: "He really was blessed and deserved the best in his life, and surely made the most of what it afforded him. He's touched many peoples' lives and will never be forgotten."

"The community of the Blue Mountains send their thoughts of healing and consolation to Gary's family and friends," said Jo Truman.

His family and partner Anika Haigh are yet to make any public statements.

But Ms Haigh took to her Facebook page on Tuesday, before his body was formally identified, to say: "Your time of hide & seek needs to end now though please. Time to come home where you belong. I love you."

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Labor will stick by its carbon tax policy

LABOR will stick by the policies it takes to the election even if an Abbott government claims a mandate to dump the carbon tax.

Climate Change Minister Mark Butler says Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is putting up "a very new theory of mandate" with his insistence that Labor must help the coalition reverse Labor's own carbon pricing policy.

Mr Abbott has vowed to repeal the carbon tax, which is transitioning to an emissions trading scheme in 2015, if the coalition wins Saturday's election.

Mr Butler says Labor's very clear policy is to move from the current fixed price on carbon pollution to an emissions trading scheme a year earlier.

"It's always been the tradition in the Australian political scene that MPs stick by the policies they took to the people," he told ABC TV on Wednesday.

"I think people would be terribly surprised if we did anything other than that.

"We're not simply going to lie down and let Tony Abbott do whatever he does without voicing our particular position that we took on Saturday."

Earlier on Wednesday Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Labor would never "pull up the white flag" on climate change.

"If we in Australia turn our back on it, it licenses everyone around the world to do the same," he told the Nine Network.

He says climate change and global warming aren't going away and voters who have doubts about the coalition's direct action plan shouldn't vote for them.

But opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt says any Labor refusal to support a coalition government's moves would be "inconceivable" and a "breathtaking defiance" of voters.

"Now what they're saying is they will thumb their nose at the Australian people," he told the ABC.

"They have learnt nothing and they need a period in opposition to reflect."

The coalition has repeatedly called this election a referendum on the carbon tax.

It has hinted it may resort to a double dissolution if Labor and the Greens thwart their mandate to axe the tax.

But Mr Hunt says another election is not something the coalition wants to rush to.

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Another man charged over Sydney brawl

A SECOND man has been charged over a brawl in which an off-duty police officer and his friends were set upon when they went to the aid of a man who was being attacked in Sydney's south.

The officer and his three friends were sitting in a Cronulla restaurant about 10.30pm (AEST) on August 31 when a 19-year-old man ran in, asking for help.

The man, who was bleeding from the head, told patrons that his friend was being attacked.

The off-duty officer and his friends went out into the street to help, but were set upon by a group of up to 20 males and assaulted, police say.

Local police, the riot squad and Polair were at the scene soon after.

Police arrested an 18-year-old man on Tuesday and charged him with affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He will appear in Sutherland Local Court on September 26.

Detectives arrested another 18-year-old on Wednesday afternoon.

The San Souci man was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, affray and robbery.

He's been bailed to appear at Sutherland Local Court on October 3.

Police said the 19-year-old man and his friend were taken to hospital with head wounds and the injured police officer was treated at the scene for a laceration to his chin.

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Jailed Cleveland rapist takes his own life

Ariel Castro, who held three women captive in his home, was found dead in his US prison cell. Source: AAP

THE death of the former US bus driver jailed for life for kidnapping and raping three young women he held as sex slaves for a decade has been met by surprise, relief and jeers.

Ariel Castro was found hanged in "an apparent case of suicide" in his closely monitored cell, authorities say.

His death has brought an abrupt and dramatic ending to a sordid case that shocked America and the world with its revelations of systematic depravity and brutality.

JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio prisons department, said that Castro was found hanging in a cell in which he was alone on Tuesday night in a prison in the town of Orient.

"It does appear to be an apparent case of suicide," Smith said early on Wednesday, declining to give further details.

But Cleveland TV station WOIO said he had not been on suicide watch. It said he had been at the Orient prison only for about 30 days. He was sentenced in August.

Officials tried in vain to resuscitate the 53-year-old, according to an earlier statement from the Ohio Department of Corrections.

"He was housed in protective custody which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes at staggered intervals. Upon finding inmate Castro, prison medical staff began performing life-saving measures," the statement by Smith said.

Castro, it said, was pronounced dead at 10.52pm (1352 AEST Wednesday) after he had been found hanging in his cell at 9.20pm at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient.

"A thorough review of this incident is under way," the statement said.

Blogs posted in the main Cleveland newspaper, The Plain Dealer, were merciless.

"Adios diablo, may you burn for 1,000 years, just like you were sentenced," one said, alluding to his jail term of life plus 1000 years.

"Why no picture of him hanging? Now THAT would be justice," said another.

"Must have used his clothing?" mused yet another.

Castro's crimes - keeping the three young women in what came to be known as a house of horrors and raping and otherwise brutalising them for around a decade - disgusted the country and led to an outpouring of national pity for the three victims: Amanda Berry, now 27; Gina DeJesus, 23; and Michelle Knight, 32. They were abducted separately between 2002 and 2004.

A cousin of Castro, Maria Castro Montes, told CNN that perhaps there was some good to come from the death of Castro. Maybe now, she said, the victims can truly can get on with their lives and not deal with periodic new details leaking about their respective nightmares.

"Maybe this is for the best," Montes said. "Maybe this is the only way he will be out of the spotlight."

She added of the women he tormented: "They would never find peace if he were still in prison."

Montes said she found it "hard to believe he had the courage to take his own life".

The woman ranged in age from 14 to 20 when Castro took them off the street in a working-class neighbourhood of Cleveland, under the pretext he was offering them a ride in his car.

They escaped on May 6 when Berry managed to break open part of the front door and call out to a neighbour for help. Her frantic telephone call later to emergency rescue services was played and replayed over the media in the days after the three women escaped.

At the trial, as Castro - a pudgy, balding man in wire rim glasses - sat in a bright orange prison jumpsuit, it emerged that they were brutalised, sometimes chained up and kept in abysmal conditions.

Berry had a daughter fathered by Castro.

The white dilapidated house where they were tormented was demolished a few days after Castro was sentenced.

At his sentencing hearing August 1, Castro had insisted he was not evil but rather addicted to sex.

"I'm not a monster. I'm sick," he pleaded.

Despite having pleaded guilty to 977 charges related to his victims' brutal decade-long ordeal, including many rapes and the murder of a foetus through beating its mother, Castro said he was not a violent man.

He pleaded guilty after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Castro said he had himself been sexually abused as a child and had grown up obsessed with sex, addicted to pornography and a compulsive masturbator.

He said he had not plotted the three kidnaps, but had acted on impulse.

"I am not a monster. I am a normal person. I am just sick. I have an addiction just like an alcoholic has an addiction," he said.

A tearful Michelle Knight, who was kidnapped at the age of 20, said in emotional testimony before the court that death would have been "so much easier" for her tormenter.

"I spent 11 years in hell, and now your hell is just beginning," Knight told Castro.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.

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WWII hero's family seeks Obama's help

THE family of World War II hero Raoul Wallenberg will ask US President Barack Obama for help in their quest to find out what happened to the Swedish diplomat who vanished after being arrested by Soviet forces in 1945.

Wallenberg's niece, Marie Depuy, said on Tuesday the family will present a letter to Obama at a memorial ceremony for Wallenberg that the president is set to attend on Wednesday in Stockholm.

In the letter, Wallenberg's half-sister Nina Lagergren and the widow of his half-brother, Matilda von Dardel, suggest US diplomats raise the Wallenberg issue "directly in formal discussions with Russian authorities."

"Researchers need committed support in their efforts to obtain direct and uncensored access to Russian archival collections, especially those of the Soviet era intelligence and security services," says the letter, a copy of which was given to AP.

Wallenberg's work as Sweden's envoy in Budapest in 1944 was a cover for a humanitarian mission as secret emissary of the US War Refugee Board, created in an attempt to stem the annihilation of Europe's Jews. He saved at least 20,000 Jews in Budapest by giving them Swedish travel documents or moving them to safe houses and is also credited with dissuading German officers from massacring the 70,000 inhabitants of the city's ghetto.

Wallenberg disappeared after being arrested in Budapest by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. The Soviets initially denied Wallenberg was in their custody, but then said he died of a heart attack in prison on July 17, 1947.

"It is time that the world finally learns what happened to him," the family wrote in the letter. "It would be a fitting tribute to all those who risk their lives every day in the defence of civil liberties and to the millions of victims who, in spite of all efforts, could not be saved."

The Swedish government was widely criticised for not pressing the Soviets to reveal more about Wallenberg's fate during the Cold War. But Depuy said the US, too, could "absolutely have done more" to uncover what happened to him.

Obama is scheduled to stop in Sweden before attending a global summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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Heavy boozers drink rest under table

HEAVY drinkers are drinking more, light drinkers are drinking less and men and women are drinking about the same as each other, say Australian researchers.

The top 10 per cent of drinkers are responsible for more than half the alcohol consumed, according to a study of tens of thousands of Australians since 2001.

It shows the top five per cent of drinkers are drinking 140 more standard drinks a year compared with a decade ago.

At the other end of the scale, more people are abstaining altogether and lighter drinkers are drinking less than before.

Overall consumption has dropped but more damage is being done, says researcher Dr Michael Livingston, who will present the results of his study at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre Annual Symposium in Sydney on Wednesday.

"Increases in very heavy drinking have strong impacts on the risk of illness and injury," he says.

A separate study to be presented by Dr Catherine Chapman and Associate Professor Tim Slade shows traditional differences in male and female drinking levels have all but disappeared over the past century.

They used data from 75 studies in 59 countries, including Australia, to show men born in the early 1900s were more than three times more likely to drink alcohol than women.

This ratio has decreased so that women born in the 1990s are almost as likely as men to drink alcohol.

"Similar changes have occurred with binge drinking," says Dr Chapman.

It is likely that Australian patterns are in line with these trends, she says.

A separate study of 16 policies in nine countries including Australia shows there is a relationship between the stringency of policies, the effectiveness with which they are enforced, and resulting levels of consumption.

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Rudd offers health hub to woo Tassie

KEVIN Rudd will pledge a multi-million dollar health and sports science centre when he visits Tasmania, saying it will boost much-needed jobs in the north of the state.

The prime minister will be in Launceston on Tuesday to announce a $28 million contribution over four years towards a University of Tasmania's health and sports science training and research centre, if Labor wins the election.

He says the project will boost jobs in the state's north, and create 345 new jobs during construction.

Tasmania has the highest unemployment rate in Australia at 8.2 per cent.

"This is exactly the kind of shot in the arm northern Tasmanian needs," Mr Rudd says.

Once complete, an extra 700 health students, including those studying nursing and physiotherapy will be trained at the centre each year. There will also be an extra 70 teaching jobs.

Building work could start next year, but the $83.5 million project also needs money from the state government.

Mr Rudd will be campaigning in the seat of Bass, which Labor backbencher Geoff Lyons holds by 6.7 per cent.

He's facing a tough challenge from the Liberal Party's star candidate former army brigadier Andrew Nikolic.

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Rudd clashes with pastor over gay marriage

MONDAY night television is not a usual venue for theological discussion but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd showed off his knowledge of the Bible as he clashed with a Brisbane pastor over gay marriage.

Mr Rudd turned feisty after first attempting to calmly explain to the ABC Q&A audience his conversion to support same sex marriage.

"If you call yourself a Christian why don't you believe the words of Jesus in the Bible?" Pastor Matt Prater then asked.

"Well mate, if I was going to have that view, the Bible also says that slavery is a natural condition," Mr Rudd replied, to extended applause.

"St Paul said in the New Testament, 'Slaves be obedient to your masters'.

"Therefore we should have all fought for the Confederacy in the US civil war? For goodness' sake."

He said the New Testament's fundamental principle was one of love for fellow man and that people shouldn't get "obsessed" on a particular definition of love based on sexuality.

"If you think homosexuality is an unnatural condition then, frankly, I cannot agree with you."

The prime minister also pledged a Labor government would "as soon as the budget opens up" reverse changes that led to many single parents being put on Newstart and losing money.

He faced several questions on the economy, the state of the budget and his claims about the opposition's plans.

Mr Rudd told a dairy farmer he was predisposed to not let Coles and Woolworths "have the power to smash the farming sector to bits" but he'd wait to see what the competition watchdog had to say about milk prices.

The final two questioners of the night wanted to know about Mr Rudd's plans if Labor lost government and what he saw as his legacy.

"How about we get a question which ends with 'if you do win the election'?" Mr Rudd replied to laughter.

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Tributes pour in for David Frost

TRIBUTES have poured in for "peerless broadcaster" David Frost after he died from a heart attack aged 74.

The veteran BBC interviewer died on Saturday night on the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, where he was giving a speech.

Known for incisive interviews with the leading figures of his time - and perhaps most famously disgraced US president Richard Nixon, Frost spent more than 50 years as a television star.

His family said in a statement: "Sir David Frost died of a heart attack last night aboard the Queen Elizabeth where he was giving a speech.

"His family is devastated and have asked for privacy during this difficult time. A family funeral will be held in the near future and details of a memorial service will be announced in due course."

David Cameron was quick to pay tribute and described Frost as "an extraordinary man - with charm, wit, talent, intelligence and warmth in equal measure" who had "made a huge impact on television and politics".

"The Nixon interviews were among the great broadcast moments - but there were many other brilliant interviews," Cameron said.

"He could be - and certainly was with me - both a friend and a fearsome interviewer."

Actor and comedian Stephen Fry said he had spoken to Frost only on Friday and he had "sounded so well" and was "excited about a house move, full of plans".

Former prime minister Tony Blair referred to Frost as a "huge figure in broadcasting, a great professional and a good friend".

Frost's award-winning interview style was considered non-aggressive, affable and effusive, but he had a talent for extracting intriguing information and revealing reactions from his subjects.

His roster of interviewees included virtually every US president and British prime minister during his working life.

His big break came when he co-created and hosted satirical show That Was The Week Was in the early 1960s.

In more recent times, he had hosted Breakfast with Frost on Sunday mornings (1993-2005) and panel game show Through The Keyhole (1987-2008).

He was currently working for Al Jazeera English and had recently interviewed Chilean novelist Isabel Allende and F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.

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