Dutroux goes on trial for girls' deaths

BELGIUM'S public enemy Number One and three co-defendants went on trial yesterday for kidnapping, abusing and killing young girls in a mid-1990s crime spree that shocked the country.

The first day of the trial of Marc Dutroux, 47, his ex-wife and two others was spent selecting 12 jurors amid tight security and intense attention from Belgian and foreign media.

The trial focuses on six girls, two of them only eight years old, who were randomly kidnapped and abused in a cell behind a custom-built door in a basement in one of Dutroux's homes.