The Austrian horror house of incest, a cyclone-ravaged Burma and a 180-kg black bear acting as a prison guard dominated the headlines this week.

Cyclone Nargis struck impoverished Burma at the weekend, destroying towns and villages in the rice growing delta region south-west of Rangoon.

Aid agencies and international authorities have predicted the devastation has already claimed up to 100,000 lives. State radio and TV, the main official sources for news on casualties and damage, reported a revised death toll of 22,980 people, with 42,119 people missing and 1,383 injured in Asia's most devastating cyclone since a 1991 storm in Bangladesh that killed 143,000.

You can check out the latest news and pictures from Burma on our dedicated online portal.

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International donors pledged support for the cyclone-ravaged nation, but there was increasing concern over whether the country's ruling military junta would grant access for a full-scale relief operation.

The investigation into Austrian man Josef Fritzl intensified this week.

The 73-year-old is being interrogated over holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering seven children with her. More horrific details emerged from the bizarre incest story, which has made headlines around the world.

His lawyer says Fritzl may avoid a jail term by pleading insanity, while his daughter is considering legal action against her father.

The parents of a US solider are overcoming their own horrific ordeal after discovering a frightening three-minute message on their answering machine of their son caught in a firefight in Afghanistan.

Twenty-two-year-old Stephen Phillips, and other soldiers in his Army MP Company, were battling insurgents when his phone pressed against his Humvee and accidentally redialled his parents in the small Oregon town of Otis.

Another American family with problems is the Clintons. They were forced to 'donate' up to $US 6.4 million to Hillary's presidential campaign.

A campaign aide said Clinton gave her campaign another $US5 million on April 11, more than a week before the Pennsylvania primary. She then again dipped into her personal wealth for $US1 million last week and $US425,000 on Monday, a day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

Earlier this week her Democratic opponent Barack Obama won the North Carolina primary by 56 per cent to 42, while Clinton eked out a razor thing win in Indiana - 51 per cent to 49 per cent.

For those avid Week In Review followers, it isn't always death, destruction and incest - there is a lighter side of life.

Louisiana State Penitentiary has possibly created the fool-proof prison guard, by hiring a 180kg black bear to provide extra security.

Inmates are expected to think twice about escaping, because the animal is smarter than your average bear - and while it won't swipe your picnic basket, it's already found a lucrative career in law enforcement.

And we end the week with a bit of pot luck, with thousands of marijuana enthusiasts parading down the streets of Toronto.

Marchers were openly smoking the drug as part of a globally co-ordinated rally to celebrate cannabis culture and to push for the legalisation of the drug.

And no, not just for medicinal purposes.

See you next week!
Source: Debs Majumdar