How must it feel to be Elizabeth Fritzl? How must it feel to be her mother?

In this nightmarish tale of abduction, rape and abuse in Austria, how does it feel to enter a cellar as a girl and leave as a middle-aged woman?

When Fritzl’s father pushed her into the basement, she was only 18 years old. It was 1986. Now she is 42 and emerges to a very different world.

All that time, she has spent in one tiny space, seeing no-one, never seeing daylight, being raped and beaten, giving birth to child after child - presumably with no pain relief or medical attention.

Aside from the fact that this should never have happened in a civilised society and the trauma she has suffered in being at the mercy of a psychopath, her father has stolen her life.

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The French Government today passed a bill to make the promotion of anorexia in the media illegal

It’s a been some time in the making. In contrast to countries like the United States, obesity, although on the rise in France, is not a major problem compared with anorexia, which has been an issue here since the 1970s.

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Alright - she’s over 40, so how could I not write about Carla Bruni, who has taken the UK by storm?

She’s all over the papers in her Dior suit (and also, in other papers, without much on at all - very nice timing). Bruni, wife, as we all know, of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has done what no-one thought she would - got the British press to roll over and have their tummies tickled. Their love affair with her is much to the bemusement of the French, who haven’t got much time for Bruni.

The truth is, she looks bloody fabulous on her trip. Poised, elegant, sexy as hell. Any woman who wouldn’t want to look like her is probably nuts. There’s no point in envying women like this any more than there is in envying Stephen Hawking’s intellect. Some people have got it and some people haven’t, and Bruni has got it in spades. That’s why she’s a millionairess.

She’s also fulfilling a media role that’s been left vacant a long time. (more…)

Chantal Sebire, who had requested doctors’ aid to end her own life, is found dead

Just a week ago, a court in Dijon refused Sebire, 52, the right to have doctors aid her to end her own life. She was dying of a rare form of facial cancer that caused her agonising pain and had cost her her sense of smell and taste before making her blind. She was unable to take morphine because of its side-effects and was facing a slow and terrible death.

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So Eliot Spitzer’s wife is standing by him, at least for the moment. What surprises me is why is anyone surprised about this.

From what I understand, about two thirds of marriages suffer an infidelity on someone’s part. Infidelity is something men and women have been weathering in one another since the dawn of time and only about half of those marriages collapse as a result. Many people pick up the pieces and move on. A lot depends on people’s private attitudes to fidelity and marriage in the first place as to whether or not they feel betrayed.

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Somali women’s rights activist found safe after going missing for three days

Waris Dirie, former supermodel and Bond girl, has been found safe after going missing in Brussels - good news on what is International Women’s Day.

It must be a relief for everyone who knows her that she’s turned up because - like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is under death threat - she is a campaigner against female genital mutilation.

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The EU has finally given Europe-wide police protection to Ayaan Hirsi Ali - and about time too.

Really, she should be given a medal.

Hirsi Ali, born a Somali Muslim, has suffered death threats since 2003 when she and her colleague Theo Van Gogh made Submission, a film that revealed the extend of violence against women within Islam.

Van Gogh was murdered in 2004 in Amsterdam (while he was cycling to work) and there are many extremists who would like to see Ali follow him. Van Gogh’s murderer even left a declaration to that effect pinned to his victim’s chest with a knife.

Ali has after all, commited the ultimate sin. She is an apostate - one who has lost her faith - which is punishable in Islam by death and nothing less.

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Most of us know about the Dove campaign for real beauty, but many of us don’t realise quite how comprehensive it is.

For many of us, hitting 40 was a time when we actually became more comfortable about our looks and our bodies, finally achieving that balance between the person we thought we’d be and the person we actually are.

But life is different for our daughters.

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There are millions of atheists, but when we come under attack, we often can’t justify our viewpoint - what we need is ammunition

I was raised in a very religious household, with many hours of Sunday dedicated to praising Him in whichever denomination my mother favoured at the moment, but there was something about it that my intelligence couldn’t quite accept.

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Gay couple take the state of Colorado to court for their right to marry

A lesbian couple from Englewood, near Denver are seeking to overturn the state of Colorado’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The couple, Kate Burns (44) and Sheila Schroeder (43), have filed a motion claiming that Amendment 43, which was passed in 2006 and sought to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, violated their constitutional right to equal protection.

“Marriage is a fundamental right, which should be for all Coloradans, not just some Coloradans,” said their lawyer Mari Newman.

Sadly, the amendment was passed by a 55 per cent majority, so perhaps their chances of overturning it are not high, but hats off to them for trying - what could be more romantic for Valentine’s Day?

For more on this story, visit the New York Times website.