IT HAPPENED IN AUSTRIA

From Der Spiegel

Kidnapped when she was ten, Austria's Natascha Kampusch escaped eight-and-a-half years later. During her captivity she thought carefully about how she wanted to live once free. Now she's a media star and keeping to her script, surrounded by a team of eager advisors.

Many times one half hears news on the radio or TV and thinks it happened in the USA simply because we are bombarded with American films, news, books and TV concerning crime in Las Vegas or Miami.

Yesterdays drive by shooting case in Boreham Wood, the Dunblane Massacre, and the Hungerford shootings were all USA moments.

But the kidnapping of Natascha Kampusch was the classic USA moment as we could not believe it happened in "civilized" Europe.