Gai v Singo: WTF is going on?

We'll assume he wasn't blowing up about her fashion sense Source: The Daily Telegraph

Businessman John Singleton has sacked trainer Gai Waterhouse following a clash on live television.

ON THE surface, the John Singleton/Gai Waterhouse bust-up is a story about racing. But it's actually about much more than that.

It is about friendship, family, integrity, trust and the fundamental problems with having an upstart 32-year-old bookmaker in every Australian lounge room.

If you've missed the finer points, here's a super quick five point summary, followed by five early lessons from this still unfolding yarn:

1. THE BLOW-UP
Colourful businessman and horse owner John Singleton splits acrimoniously on live television with his long-term trainer Gai Waterhouse. Gai is the mum of Tom Waterhouse, whose relentless self-promotion has made him one of Australia's most disliked public figures.

2. THE FAILURE
The split occurs because Singleton has a mare called More Joyous engaged in a big race called the All aged Stakes at Randwick. More Joyous is no Black Caviar, but it once won eight races in a row. On Saturday it runs second last.

3. THE ALLEGATIONS
Singo blows up after the race, not because his horse has lost, but because he says a friend heard from Tom Waterhouse that the horse had health issues and was "no chance" of winning. The inference is that Tom must have got that info from Gai. Tom Waterhouse denies the allegations and is considering legal action.

4. THE FOOTY STAR TIE-IN
It then emerges that Waterhouse tipped Channel Nine commentator Andrew Johns a different horse to More Joyous in a casual interaction during Friday Night Footy. On The Sunday Footy Show, Johns says Waterhouse said nothing negative about the horse's health. He also reveals that he himself backed More Joyous. Meanwhile, Waterhouse says he lost $300K on the race, thereby inferring that he wanted More Joyous to win, and believed it could win.

5. THE TENSE PHONE CALL
There is also reportedly a phone call between mother and son where Gai asks Tom if he has told anyone More Joyous was not well enough to win. Tom says 'no, Mum'. A more thorough inquest will take place next Monday, headed by NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy.

SO THERE'S YOUR SUMMARY. NOW HERE ARE FIVE THINGS WE'VE LEARNED SO FAR...

1. THE FAMILY DEFENCE DOESN'T CUT IT
The Waterhouses really have to stop defending each other in public. Three weeks ago, Gai Waterhouse said everyone should lay off her son because he was such a productive young Australian. Today Tom Waterhouse has defended his Mum saying "if anyone does not think Mum is out there trying to win every time, they don't know her". Gee, that settles it, then.

2. PEOPLE NOW LIKE TOM EVEN LESS
Tom Waterhouse is everywhere, bombarding people of all ages with his gambling information. The guy has a weird role on Nine's Friday Night Footy which is passed off as editorial content when  really he's just spruiking gambling odds. People don't like him for that. Now that he's embroiled in all this, they like him even less.

3. SOMETHING LIKE THIS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO HAPPEN
When you're hanging out with that many sports stars who enjoy a bet, and when you're a bookie whose Mum is a top horse trainer, there will always be people like John Singleton who question the information chain. The words "conflict of interest" come very strongly to mind.

4. THE WATERHOUSE NAME TAKES ANOTHER BATTERING
Tom's father Robbie and grandfather Bill were warned off Australian racecourses for being implicated in the Fine Cotton horse substitution scandal in the 1980s. Tom plays on his family's gambling knowledge in his ads, as though it's something people should respect. In truth, many people still haven't got over Fine Cotton.

5. RACING IS BACK TO NORMAL AFTER BLACK CAVIAR
Two weeks ago, racing was in the headlines for a fast horse which always tried its hardest and won every race it contested. Children loved the horse, and racing momentarily seemed like a happy, open, family kind of sport. How very quaint that suddenly seems.

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What $12 billion actually looks like

Confirming newspaper reports today, Ms Gillard told a forum in Canberra the government's revenue had slid $12 billion since the last budget update in October.

BY now we all know the government's revenue has slid by $12 billion since the last Budget update in October.

Sure, it's a big number, but what does it actually mean?

Thankfully the helpful people at Deloitte Access Economics have worked it out.

Read: Federal Budget decisions "grave" and "urgent"

Deloitte is not saying Prime Minister Julia Gillard should do any of these things immediately (in fact, it would be ugly if she did) but this is a simple way to understand how big the $12 billion shortfall is.

The PM offers an analogy to help explain the cuts that will need to be made in the upcoming budget.

If the shortfall was made good entirely from spending it would require:

- Entirely abolishing all Family Tax Benefit A payments (saving $14 billion).
- Or stopping all funding to the States for health care (saving $13 billion).
- Or stopping all funding to schools (saving $13 billion).
- Or stopping all funding to aged care homes (saving $8 billion), as well as community care ($2 billion) and veterans' care ($2 billion).
- Or cutting all Medicare payments by two-thirds (saving $12 billion).
- Or cutting pensions to the aged by a third (saving $12 billion).
- Or abolishing all disability pensions (saving $15 billion).

Or if the shortfall was made good entirely from taxes and 'tax expenditures':

- Extending capital gains tax to the family home (raising – eventually – $15 billion a year).
- Or raising the current 45 per cent rate to 66 per cent (raising $12 billion).
- Or having the current 45 per cent rate cut in at incomes of $65,000 rather than $180,000 (raising $12 billion).
- Or raising the 32.5 per cent rate to 37 per cent (that is, do away with that rate completely, raising $10 billion).
- Or lowering the $18,200 threshold to $12,500 (raising $13 billion, but you'd be taxing about an extra 650,000 people, including many pensioners).
- Or taxing all superannuation contributions at marginal tax rates (raising $14 billion).
- Or raising the rate of company tax from 30 per cent to 35 per cent (raising $12 billion – but also adding to franking credits that would cut the personal tax take).
- Or adding 30 cents a litre in additional taxes on the price of petrol (raising $12 billion).
- Or tripling the existing taxes on cigarettes (raising $12 billion, and adding about $17 to a pack of 25 cigarettes).
- Or lifting the carbon tax to $60 dollars a tonne and removing the future link to the European carbon price (raising $12 billion).

Summary: It's A LOT of money.

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Baby sons died in shower: inquest

An inquest has heard two little boys died in a bathroom while their exhausted mother was unconcious or asleep for 10 hours.

INQUEST: Miranda Hebble, whose two sons drowned in a shower at her Ellenbrook home in 2008, outside Perth Coroner's Court today. Picture: Richard Polden Source: PerthNow

INQUEST: Miranda Hebble, whose two sons drowned in a shower at her Ellenbrook home in 2008, outside Perth Coroner's Court today. Picture: Richard Polden Source: PerthNow

AN exhausted Miranda Hebble put her two young sons in the shower and closed the bathroom door.

She fell asleep and woke up about 10 hours later to find water overflowing from the shower - and both boys dead.

The WA coroner is examining the deaths of Lochlan James Stevens, aged two, and Malachi Isaac Stevens, 10 months, who died in November 2008.

Ms Hebble, then aged 22, was caring for her sons alone in Perth while the boys' father, Christopher Stevens, then aged 23, was working on a fly-in fly-out basis.

The couple have since separated.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Kate Ellson, said Ms Hebble had no history of mental illness or drug and alcohol abuse.

She was a quiet person and had been struggling with sleep because of Malachi's restlessness.

Constable Daniel William Herbert O'Rourke testified that in February 2008 he was called to an incident in which Malachi had been left in a car while Ms Hebble returned a DVD to a store.

The baby, then five weeks old, was hot, crying, sweaty and red in the face when he was pulled from the car, he said.

Ms Ellson said in her opening address that on November 7, Lochlan had smeared faeces from his nappy on floors, walls and Malachi's cot, so their mother took the boys into the shower.

She left to fetch something but passed out or fell asleep, the court heard.

When she woke up 10 hours later, she found Malachi floating in the shower on his side, with bruises on his cheek.

Lochlan was lying on the bathroom floor with blood coming from his mouth and had a scratch on his forehead and a mark on his stomach, Ms Ellson said.

In a call to emergency services, Ms Hebble said: "I passed out and the plug in the shower got plugged up ... and the shower filled up ... and they're not breathing. They're dead.''

The boys were pronounced dead at 2am the following morning.

A post mortem examination could not reach a definitive conclusion, but indicated drowning may have caused Malachi's death, while Lochlan may have suffered exhaustion, hunger and possibly hypothermia, Ms Ellson said.

Drowning might also have contributed to his death, the court heard.

Ms Hebble was comforted by family members as she sat quietly in court for some of the proceedings.

Outside court, Mr Stevens told reporters he was hoping to get an "end to the story'' to help everyone move on.

Mr Stevens said he now had a wife and daughter but still missed his boys.

He described Lochlan as a "terror'', causing "chaos'' like many children his age and said Malachi had "iron lungs that could scream the house down''.

Mr Stevens said he wanted to know how and why they died.

"Give me an answer that I can actually use,'' he said.

The inquest continues.

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Man lucky to be alive after blast

An onlooker almost takes a hit from an explosion in London's inner city. Vision: LiveLeak

CAMERAS have caught the moment a pedestrian runs for his life after flames shoot from the ground.

The man was walking in Pimlico Rd in central London when the blast shook the area, the Daily Mail reports.

He was standing just yards away from the blast.

The explosion is said to have shaken nearby buildings and left a large crater on the side of the road.

The cause of the explosion is being investigated.

A National Grid spokesman said the explosion was not gas-related.

This pedestrian is lucky to be alive following an explosion in central London.

A spokesman for London Fire Brigade said such explosions were ''not completely unheard of'' and often related to electrical cables.

For more see the Daily Mail

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'Save the apology': Former sex worker to Freedman

ONE of the world's most prominent sex workers, Brooke Magnanti, has lashed out at Mia Freedman for comments she made on Q&A and subsequent commentary on her blog.

The two prominent women appeared on the first all female panel on the ABC show earlier this month to discuss issues affecting women - including the ethics of sex work.

Ms Magnanti is the woman behind the popular anonymous blog, 'Belle de Jour',  who supplemented her income by working as a London call girl while completing her doctoral studies.

It was apparent that the two did not agree on much by the end of the show.

At one point MsFreedman said: "Let's be clear that no little girl grows up wanting to be a sex worker, thank heavens."

To which Ms Magnanti replied: "I know ones who did. I mean that's a pat line but I actually know ones who did. I'm sorry that it bothers you."

Since then MsFreedman has used their on-screen feud as fodder for a number of blog posts. In her most recent entry she reflects on the reasons why she won't apologize for her sex worker comments.

"To the sex workers and others who were agitating on social media and loudly demanding an apology from me, I'm going to disappoint you."

Magnanti has responded to Freedman on her own blog, The Sex Myth, insisting that she save an apology for her remarks as it would be "insincere".

"Here's the thing. I agree with Mia on this: I don't think she should apologise."

"Why not? Because if she did it would be insincere. My first impression when we met backstage was that she was insincere, and damn it, a successful lady editor like her should have the guts to be true to herself and stand by her opinions no matter what they are."
 
To read more of the controversial conversation between the two panelists follow the posts on their respective blogs.

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Singo and Gai in another blow-up

Gai Waterhouse (L) and John Singleton (R) have been involved in another spectacular race-day blow-up. Source: The Daily Telegraph

A SECOND showdown is looming between some of Australian racing's biggest names after the volatile relationship between John Singleton and Gai Waterhouse boiled over in the most sensational way at Royal Randwick yesterday.

Owner-breeder Singleton, trainer Waterhouse, bookmaking son Tom Waterhouse, bookmaking husband Robbie Waterhouse and jockey Nash Rawiller will all front stewards on Friday in the wake of Singleton's stunning decision to sack Waterhouse as trainer of More Joyous.

The champion mare Singleton bred and owns produced one of the worst races of her career when finishing seventh to All Too Hard in the All Aged Stakes (1400m).

Singleton made the sensational claim that Gai's bookmaker son, Tom Waterhouse, had told "good friends of mine for 20 years" last Friday night that More Joyous couldn't win.

"Why (did she run)? Her son Tom Waterhouse is the biggest bookmaker in Australia ... who told mates of mine who I trust and have known for 20 years (she wouldn't win). This is the third time it's happened."

Tom Waterhouse vigorously denied the allegation both to The Sunday Telegraph and to his mother, Gai, who relayed her conversation to stewards.

"I rang him after the race with John Singleton's assertions," Waterhouse explained to chief racing steward Ray Murrihy.

"I said, 'What did you say?', and he said, 'Nothing was said, mum. If anything, I backed the horse, and it was a $300,000 difference to me. I was on More Joyous to win the race'."

An angry John Singleton threatens to remove his horses from the stables of trainer Gai Waterhouse after alleged conflict of interest. Vision: 7TWO/TVN

Singleton then told the media he would be taking his horses off Waterhouse and transferring them to new trainers today - including More Joyous. It was a claim he repeated in a stewards inquiry,

Waterhouse told stewards that although More Joyous had a slight problem with her neck after a brilliant track gallop on Thursday, she maintained the mare was fit to race.

Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy was clearly unhappy that Waterhouse had not informed stewards of More Joyous' neck problem but the trainer told Murrihy repeatedly it was not an issue.

As the drama unfolded, the body language between Singleton and Waterhouse told a revealing story.

Singleton, arms folded and clearly upset, refused to look at Waterhouse and also refused a stewards' request to reveal the names of those who had told him of More Joyous' plight two days ago.

Waterhouse is always confident and ebullient, but she was clearly rattled by Singleton's outburst and the course of the stewards inquiry.

The whole sorry, sad saga was being played out before a shocked national television audience.

Owner John Singleton and trainer Gai Waterhouse leave the stewards inquiry at Randwick after More Joyous' was unplaced in the All Aged Stakes Picture: Jermey Piper

Stewards adjourned their inquiry until Friday, while Singleton and Waterhouse remained well apart as they left the inquiry, their lifelong friendship and professional relationship fractured - and possibly forever.

Two of Sydney's most famous people have been friends for 35 years and Waterhouse has trained 26 Group 1 winners for Singleton.

But none have meant more to him than More Joyous. He bred and raced her dam, Sunday Joy, who delivered him Group 1 glory in the 2003 AJC Australian Oaks. He also bred Sunday Joy's half-sister Tuesday Joy, who went on to win four more Group 1s for Singleton - the Coolmore Classic, Ranvet Stakes, The BMW and the Chipping Norton.

But then came More Joyous. The best horse he has bred and raced. The daughter of his beloved Sunday Joy.

Every owner-breeder wishes to have a horse like More Joyous. She's almost like part of the family. She has lived her life under Singleton's watchful eye at his boutique Strawberry Hills farm at Mt White on the Central Coast. She even spells there whenever she's not in work with Waterhouse at Tulloch Lodge.

The filly showed immediate potential, winning on debut by five lengths. She has gone on to win eight Group 1 races.

This was always the horse Singleton thought could win him the elusive Cox Plate, only for those dreams to go horribly awry last spring.

That's when the first cracks appeared in the Singleton and Waterhouse relationship, when the trainer drew barrier 11 for More Joyous in the 2012 weight-for-age classic.

Singleton rang this writer soon after the barrier draw to vent his feelings - and they were on the record.

"I love Gai but this is bloody madness," Singleton said at the time. "If this was a normal race and not the Cox Plate, the horse would be scratched and the trainer sacked!

"I instructed my racing manager Duncan Grimley to tell Gai to get barrier 4-6 if possible.

"Gai didn't need to pick that barrier. It's absolutely ridiculous, no one in the world thinks this is a good barrier."

Singleton was only just warming up.

"This isn't death, it is suicide," Singleton said. "It will be almost impossible for her to win now.

"The bookies aren't idiots, she is out to $13 and will probably end up $20 on race-day.

"I'm absolutely gutted."

Waterhouse maintained at the time the barrier would suit More Joyous, giving jockey Nash Rawiller "options" and ensuring the mare did not get snookered on the inside rail.

More Joyous ran only 11th and Singleton left Moonee Valley fuming.

Over summer, Singleton cooled down but the tension between them remained bubbling under the surface until boiling over yesterday at Royal Randwick.

Stewards have their adjourned their inquiry until 2pm on Friday.

It will be standing room only at Racing NSW's Druitt Street headquarters when Singleton and Waterhouse front each other again.

The only certainty out of all this that the headline writers will be busy again.

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'Let us live in your house for free'

Emma McCrone and Steve Cumner with their four-month-old daughter Haylie-Rose want to move into an abandoned house at Alawa rent-free. Picture: Daniel Hartley-Allen Source: Northern Territory News

A YOUNG family who will be forced on to the street want the owner of an abandoned house to let them live there rent-free.

And in exchange they will fix the place up, the NT News reports.

The abandoned home in the Darwin suburb of Alawa has drawn complaints from neighbours who say teenagers are using it to hold out-of-control parties.

Neighbour Nick Westley, 31, said something needed to be done.

Steven Cumner, 23, has a solution - he wants to live in the Alawa Cres home so his partner Emma McCrone, 19, and their four-month-old daughter Haylie-Rose have a roof over their heads.

''Let us move in and we will start working on it straight away,'' he said.

He said once the house had been renovated, he would negotiate with the owner about paying rent.

Mr Cumner said his family had to leave their present home tomorrow.

''We need a roof over our heads,'' he said.

It is unknown who owns the property.

For more details, see the NT News.

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Gwyneth's sheer shocker at Iron Man 3

Gwyneth Paltrow at the Iron Man 3 premiere. Pictures: Splash Source: Splash News Australia

Gwyneth's Iron Man 3 dress. Picture: Splash Source: Splash News Australia

Oh, Gwyn. Picture: Splash Source: Splash News Australia

DESPITE being named People Magazine's Most Beautiful Woman earlier this week, Gwyneth Paltrow has committed what is quite possibly her worst fashion faux-pas to date.

At the premiere of Iron Man 3, Paltrow took to the red carpet in a space-age-style Antonio Berardi gown in white, navy and green.

And while the front on the dress was nothing to write home about, as soon as Paltrow shifted to the side, panels of sheer mesh reaching all the way up to her waist were revealed.

"This has got to be the most vulgar, look-at-me, attention-seeking dress I have ever reviewed in over 30 years of writing about fashion" The Daily Mail's Liz Jones said of the number, which left many wondering what she was doing in the underwear department.

"Talk about an attention-grabber! The dress hardly left anything to the imagination" Andrew Gruttadaro from Hollywood Life said.

The Huffington Post were a little more reserved in their judgement, concluding that "this look might just be too stressful for us."

And while it's obvious that Paltrow's body defies her 40 years, does a clearly attractive woman really need to bare so much flesh?

"It is very see-through" Paltrow acknowledged to E! News "But I just thought it was really beautiful. It sort of has a superhero thing happening." 

What do you think? Tell us below

Paltrow's red carpet choice tops off what has been an interesting week for the actress.

First she came under fire for sexualising children after endorsing a range of bikinis for girls as young as four on her website.

Then, she was named People magazine's Most Beautiful Woman - a title which was met with some confusion from fashion commentators and even Gywnny herself.

At the Iron Man 3 premiere, Paltrow told the Associated Press that "it's like obviously not true.

"Because I mean you can't say that, you know! But it's been wonderful. It's been very wonderful. And as my friend said, it's so nice that someone who has kids and is a mum and is not like 21 is named that. It's really an honour."

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'Let us live in your house for free'

Emma McCrone and Steve Cumner with their four-month-old daughter Haylie-Rose want to move into an abandoned house at Alawa rent-free. Picture: Daniel Hartley-Allen Source: Northern Territory News

A YOUNG family who will be forced on to the street want the owner of an abandoned house to let them live there rent-free.

And in exchange they will fix the place up, the NT News reports.

The abandoned home in the Darwin suburb of Alawa has drawn complaints from neighbours who say teenagers are using it to hold out-of-control parties.

Neighbour Nick Westley, 31, said something needed to be done.

Steven Cumner, 23, has a solution - he wants to live in the Alawa Cres home so his partner Emma McCrone, 19, and their four-month-old daughter Haylie-Rose have a roof over their heads.

''Let us move in and we will start working on it straight away,'' he said.

He said once the house had been renovated, he would negotiate with the owner about paying rent.

Mr Cumner said his family had to leave their present home tomorrow.

''We need a roof over our heads,'' he said.

It is unknown who owns the property.

For more details, see the NT News.

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Is that you, Hermione? Watson turns bad

Emma Watson portrays a bad girl in the films newly released trailer who longs for the life of the rich and famous.

Emma Watson plays a bad girl for the first time in The Bling Ring. Picture: Supplied Source: news.com.au

IF Emma Watson can't shed her Hermione Granger image after this film, then she never will.

To her millions of young fans, she will always be known as the lovable Hogwarts geek. But Watson has swapped her Gryffindor robe and magic wand for a mini-skirt, leather jacket and high heels for her latest role in The Bling Ring.

The 23-year-old plays the lead in the Sofia Coppola-directed flick based on the 'Bling Ring' or 'The Hollywood Hills Burglar Bunch' as they were known, whom were arrested in 2009 for a string of break-ins into celebrities' homes.

Watson plays Nicki, the ring leader of the Hollywood-obsessed bunch, and transforms her innocent girl-next-door persona into one of Tinsel Town's most notorious party girls.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower star smokes like a chimney, boldly steals from the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, and even grinds on a pole in one steamy scene.

Gone is the pixie cut, the adorable British accent and the ginger-haired crush. Instead, Emma is rocking sexy long curls, a Valley Girl drawl and has a throng of minions at her beck and call.

The Bling Ring is slated for release in June, 2013.

What did you think of Emma Watson's transformation for the film?
 

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Father and abducted daughter reunited

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta and her daughter Reya. Picture: Today Tonight Source: Supplied

Reya age-progressed to 10. She was allegedly abducted by her mother, Camilla Lunetta. Picture: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Source: Supplied

Camilla Ellefsen is believed to be living in Australia with her daughter Reya. Picture: Megan Slade Source: The Courier-Mail

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta in 2002. Photo: Supplied. Source: Supplied

• Desperate dad reunited with abducted daughter
• Brozzi Lunetta trying to help ex-wife leave the country
• Trio plan to evade authorities until agreement struck

A DESPERATE dad has been reunited with his abducted daughter after his decade-long search for her ended near Sydney yesterday.

But in a bizarre twist, American father Brozzi Lunetta has gone into hiding with the ex-wife who stole her from him.

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta abducted their daughter Reya from the United States in 2002 amid a bitter custody dispute.

"Today we're basically hiding from any kind of police action and trying to find some way to get them safely back to Norway and to get them into some sort of protection from the Norwegian Government," he told news.com.au this morning.

"Right now we're still in the Sydney area. They're safe and very close by.

"(Camilla) is a Norwegian citizen who we're trying to stop from going to prison in America (from where Reya was abducted) and have returned to her own country."

Brozzi Lunetta with daughter Reya before she was abducted. Picture: supplied. Source: Supplied

The 40-year-old father, now based in Norway, returned to Australia last week after news.com.au revealed that Ms Ellefsen Lunetta and Reya were living in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Yesterday Mr Lunetta and a Today Tonight television crew confronted the pair at a property about an hour's drive from Sydney after receiving a tip-off.

The pair had reportedly been hiding there for more than a week.

In a strange twist, mother and daughter are now holed up with Mr Lunetta. News.com.au is not aware of their exact location.

"Camilla's very worried and fearful," he said.

"She wants to just disappear with her people and have them try to get her out (of Australia) on a fake passport or something.

"It's (been made) very clear to her that if she does a runner we'll have no choice but to call the police.

"There will be complete absolute police action if she disappears from the custody we have."

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta in 2002. Photo: Supplied Source: Supplied

Mr Lunetta said his ex-wife could flee again.

"I'm close by but I'm not in the same room," he said.

"They have their own bedroom and a shared bed. They're together, they're safe."

Channel Seven, which has paid for Mr Lunetta's flights and accommodation during this trip, has not responded to questions from news.com.au about whether the television station is also paying for Ms Ellefsen Lunetta's accommodation.

"Nobody is being hidden, they are acting of their own free will," a Seven spokeswoman said.

"We are under no obligation to report this matter to the authorities.

"Both parents have indicated to us they want to deal solely with the Norwegian Embassy."

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta and Reya in 2002. Photo: Supplied Source: Supplied

Mr Lunetta said they were trying to "keep very low key" until the consulate re-opened tomorrow.

"I'm absolutely completely hiding from (authorities) right now," he said.

"No one knows where I'm at except Today Tonight.

"We're praying the consulate will be open tomorrow because to hide for three or four days will be impossible."

Mr Lunetta said he hoped the trio could leave Australia within days.

"We just need to get through another 24 hours and tomorrow we can get the Norwegian Government and the Australian Government on the same page as to what's best for the child," he said.

"Hopefully by Saturday we can all be on a flight back to Norway.

"I've said all along, I don't want Camilla to go to jail and that's what she's facing now.

"There's an election coming up in Australia and does the government really want to see another kid taken away by the AFP screaming and crying? I don't think so."

An Australian Federal Police spokeswoman said they could not act on new information without orders from the Family Court.

The FBI recently confirmed its investigation was ongoing. A felony California state warrant was issued in 2002 for Camilla Lunetta for deprivation of child custody. A federal warrant for Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution was issued in U.S. District Court (federal) in 2004 after the District Attorney requested assistance.

"Obviously, with good reason, Camilla's very scared of the authorities, she doesn't want to go to prison and she doesn't want to be separated from her daughter for years," Mr Lunetta said.

"I've offered her that if we can get them to Norway she will have primary custody.

"I don't want my daughter to see her mum taken away in handcuffs. That's what I'm trying to avoid."

Brozzi's search for his daughter Reya brought him to the Sunshine Coast in 2010. Picture: Megan Slade Source: The Courier-Mail

Ms Ellefsen Lunetta has been unlawfully in the country since 2003.

A NSW Police spokesperson said that under the Migration Act 1958 NSW Police Officers can detain an unlawful non-citizen.

"Police liaise with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to determine whether or not a person is lawfully in Australia," they said.

A Department of Immigration spokeswoman said they could not discuss individual cases for privacy reasons.

"Any person found to be in the country without a valid visa may be subject to compliance action."

This morning Mr Lunetta updated his hundreds of Facebook followers.

"EVERYBODY PLEASE READ - I am with Camilla & Reya, literally hiding them from the potential arrest and extradition back to California for a prison sentence for felony kidnapping," he wrote.

"We have been trying for hours to get the Norwegian government to intervene, work with the Aussies to deport back to Norway for the visa violation. But the Norwegian Government has been unwilling to do a f***ing thing.

"If you are in Norway PLEASE put pressure on the authorities to Help This Child, my daughter. –Brozzi"

Mr Lunetta told news.com.au that his ex-wife was cooperating.

"Absolutely, as much as she is capable," he said.

"She's been running this show underground for the last 10 years.

"She thought she'd be able to get out of here without me finding her but I've found her.

"Given the situation she's in she knows she doesn't have the leverage she used to have."

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta and Reya on April 24, 2013. Picture: Today Tonight. Source: Supplied

He said his daughter was doing well considering her confusing ordeal.

"She's OK. By bed time last night she was cool," he said.

"For Reya it's overwhelming. She's not scared of me so I can tell there's been no vilification.

"The possibility that my daughter will be with me in Norway in a month … this could have such a happy ending if we could just get off the rocks."

Both mother and child remain listed as missing on the Family Court of Australia website.

Email kristin.shorten@news.com.au or follow @itsKShort on Twitter

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Aussies celebrate Anzacs with pride

AUSTRALIANS have proved the Anzac spirit is alive and well, with huge numbers attending dawn services across the country, as the centenary of Gallipoli nears.

Tens of thousands of people stood motionless in the darkness to remember their fallen countrymen and women as they marked the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915.

As the ceremonies and marches got under way around the world, those celebrating Anzac Day got in to games of Two-Up, while drinking beers and toasting to our fallen and present soldiers who have died and continue to protect our country.

The young and old ventured out to watch and congratulate veterans who marched across our states, and overseas.

Patrons play Two-up at the Australian Hotel in The Rocks, Sydney on ANZAC Day. Picture: John Feder Source: News Limited

Fred Bagshaw, 92 - Anzac Day march in Sydney. Picture: Craig Greenhill Source: News Limited

Positive news has also emerged today, after a World War II digger who lost his war medals at an Anzac Day service in southern NSW has been reunited with them after his plea went viral on social media.

ANZAC Day March in Sydney where veterans soaked up the atmosphere along George St. Picture: John Feder

Maurice Dore, a 90-year-old veteran of the New Guinea campaign, noticed he was missing his medals after leaving a church service in Albury. Soon after, he made a plea via local media in the hope of getting the medals back.

The appeal quickly went viral on social platforms, with more than 60,000 people reportedly viewing it on Facebook in the hours after it was posted.

Sailors Timothy Crosse, Andrew Harding, Aidan Greet and Matty Woods enjoy a beer after marching on Anzac Day in Sydney. Picture: Craig Greenhill Source: News Limited

On seeing the Facebook alert, a local high school student responded that the medals had been handed in to a nearby RSL by an unknown person.

Mr Dore was reunited with his medals - just three hours after they had disappeared.

Huge crowds gathered in the darkness to pay their respects to the past and present Australian service men and women at the Dawn service here in ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli, Turkey. Brendon Russo and Helen Wright from the New Zealand's North Island at this morning's ceremoney. Picture: John Ferguson Source: News Limited

The Dawn Service Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

Meanwhile, in Gallipoli, the dawn service at Anzac Cove was disrupted by a protester.

A middle-aged man started yelling in Turkish just after Australian Veterans Affairs Minister Warren Snowden had finished his address.

Moments after he'd finished speaking, a protester, who later gave his name as Ali Risa Ersoy, started yelling in Turkish.

The man was eventually led away from the commemorative site and questioned by the Turkish gendarmerie.

A Turkish newspaper reporter told AAP the man had been yelling: "The Australian police are trying to kill me."

Local authorities told Australian reporters the man had not been arrested but was being "interrogated"

Extracts from letters of WWI veterans will be read out at the new-look dawn service in Canberra.

A Seven Network cameraman who saw the incident at close quarters said the man pulled out an Australian passport when he was being questioned by the Turkish police.

He waved at Australian reporters while being questioned by authorities.

A protestor attempts to disrupt an Anzac Day Dawn Service in Gallipoli. Picture: Charles Miranda Source: News Limited

Numbers of those attending the dawn service were down on previous years with about 5200 making the trek - about a thousand less people than last year and just on half as few from the high in 2005.

Huge crowds gathered in the darkness to pay their respects to the past and present Australian service men and women at the Dawn service here in ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli, Turkey. Picture: John Ferguson Source: News Limited

But the service's director Tim Evans said interest was fairly static and was likely to increase next year in the final dry run before the balloted 2015 centenary commemorations where the capacity of 10,500 will attend.

Julia Gillard lays a wreath during the dawn service in Townsville. Picture: Getty Images

Across the nation, thousands turned out to share in the Anzac spirit by marching and honouring their war time heroes.

In Afghanistan, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, taking part in the last Anzac day service at Tarin Kowt, can look back with pride on their service.

"It would have been an incredibly special day today as a time to reflect on what's been achieved ... and to think about what the future will bring," Ms Gillard told Fairfax Radio today.

The prime minister spoke to Captain Ann Miller, who is based in Tarin Kowt, after the dawn service.

Ms Gillard told her that Australians thought about the nation's military personnel based there every day, but especially on Anzac day.

"They are there in the Anzac tradition doing such important and dangerous work for our nation," she said, adding the Australian mission had made much progress in Afghanistan and there was so much to be proud of.

Crowds gathered across the nation as Victoria Cross recipient Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith recited letters from his mates, both fallen and fighting, in a moving tribute to Diggers on Anzac day.

Capt Miller described the Tarin Kowt service as a "very beautiful''.

Cooper Twyford marching for his Great grandfather Dunford Barrass, Anzac Day march in Sydney. Picture: Craig Greenhill Source: News Limited

"The chief of army (David Morrison) gave a very stirring speech, and then when we saw the dawn break, as the flag was raised the breeze picked it up," she said.

Most Australian troops will leave Afghanistan by year's end as part of Australia's withdrawal from Tarin Kowt.

Huge crowds gathered in the darkness to pay their respects to the past and present Australian service men and women at the Dawn service here in ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli, Turkey. Picture: John Ferguson Source: News Limited

In France, Australia's history, including the Anzac legend, belongs to all who live in it whether they are born there or immigrate, Foreign Minister Bob Carr has told a commemorative service in France.

David and Sue Doughty from Boronia and their grandchildren Riley, 3, and Isabella, 8, around the eternal flame at the Shine of Remembrance in Melbourne. Picture: Nicole Garmston

"All of us linked across the world by the same duty to honour and remember, and by the same sense of the loss and waste of war," he said.

The answer to why so many were drawn to such services could be found in the men who gave their lives - a cross-section of the Australian people.

Senator Carr said a fifth of those who served in the First World War had been immigrants to Australia, including the great general Sir John Monash.

From left, Georgia Totham, 19, of Launceston, Jessica Totham, 22, of Launceston, and Jessica Faithfull, 18, of Bundaberg, from Australia, walk after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Australian National Memorial, in Villers-Bretonneux, northern France, on ANZAC Day Thursday, April 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) Source: AP

"This serves to remind us that we were then and remain today a nation of immigrants," he said.

"That the more recent arrivals are part of our living history and that all the history of modern Australia, including the story of Anzac, belongs to them equally wherever they were born."

Huge crowds have gathered to honour Australia's fallen soldiers at Sydney's Anzac dawn service.

French veterans affairs minister Kader Arif said it was unthinkable today that any nation would send one-tenth of its population overseas to fight on behalf of another country.

"You have fought in France as though this country was your own," he told the service.

"Today we welcome you here as our brothers."

The wartime link between Australia and France was also commemorated in Canberra, with about 150 people attending a service at the French embassy.

The Last Post is played during an ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) Day ceremony at The Australian War Memorial on April 25, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images

In London, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders have gathered in London's Hyde Park for an Anzac Day dawn service. A mild morning greeted the crowd at the Australian War Memorial.

Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith with the children of fallen Diggers: Keegan Locke, 17, the son of Sergeant Matthew Locke and the children of Sergeant Blaine Diddams, Elle-Lou, 16, and Henry, 14 in Canberra today. Picture: Gary Ramage

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop attended the ceremony and will lay a wreath.

A wreath-laying parade and ceremony at the Cenotaph on Whitehall and a memorial service at Westminster Abbey will be held later on Thursday.

The Australian and New Zealand war memorials in London are located diagonally opposite each other and take turns to hold the dawn service in alternate years.

Anzac Day commemorations have taken place in London since 1916.

It's estimated about 300,000 Australians and 200,000 New Zealanders reside in the UK.

In Sydney, former Defence Force chief Peter Cosgrove wants families to dig out the diaries and letters of World War I diggers and share their stories with the nation 100 years on.

Around 40,000 people paid tribute to Australia's fallen soldiers at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.

ANZAC Day March in Sydney. General Peter Cosgrove, Chair of NSW Centenary of ANZAC Committee Picture: John Feder Source: News Limited

General Cosgrove, chairman of the NSW Centenary of Anzac Committee, marched in Sydney on Anzac Day and said the next five years was a time for sharing stories of the 1914-18 war.

He marched with the 9th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment and told reporters the cheers from the crowd were uplifting for the veterans.

"People wearing grandpa's medals, great-grandpa's medals, turned up and marched with the veterans who are still up and about," Gen Cosgrove said.

"To me that's special ... I like the idea that there's a transference of something important within family groups from one generation to the next."

ANZAC Day March in Sydney today. A digger soaks up the atmosphere. Picture: John Feder Source: News Limited

People gather around the eternal flame at the Shine of Remembrance in Melbourne for the dawn service. Picture: Garmston Nicole

In Townsville north of Queensland, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australian children will be the driving force behind Anzac day for ''all of time''.

The PM said she is encouraged by the the number of young people attending Anzac day services around the country.

''The thing I always look for is the number of children and there are just more and more and more,'' she told ABC TV.

Parents often freely admitted to her that it was their children who ''dragged'' them to services.

''It's actually the children who are driving the next level of engagement.

''I think that means that for all of time we will commemorate Anzac day and think about who we are as Australians on that day.''

The director of Veterans SA has talked about the pain inherited by the families of soldiers killed in war.

Ms Gillard said for her personally the day was about the ''spirit of being Australian, and our history and what's forged us and shaped us''.

One thing the Prime Minister won't be doing today is enjoying a rum and milk at the local RSL.

''I'll have to rule that out,'' Ms Gillard said.

After the service, the PM said it will take some years to assess the full extent of services needed to support veterans of Afghanistan and other recent conflicts.

Ms Gillard was responding to the concerns of Victoria Cross recipient Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith who worries wounded diggers could be forgotten as the Afghanistan conflict fell off the radar.

In Papua New Guinea, Governor-General Quentin Bryce has paid her respects to current and former Australian soldiers at an Anzac Day service at the Bomana war cemetery.

The Dawn Service Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

At this morning's ceremony, Ms Bryce was joined by PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Australian High Commissioner to PNG Deborah Stokes, as well as her PNG counterpart Sir Michael Ogio.

More than 2000 people armed with glow sticks crowded into Bomana, located about 19km outside of Port Moresby.

''Wherever we come from and wherever we go, this is a day that gives pause and silence to our journey,'' Ms Bryce said in a short speech.

''A moment to remember the Australian soldiers, merchant navy men and airmen - and members of the Papua New Guinea local forces - who died defending this territory and ours.

''The tranquility of this clearing belies the desperate, bloody confrontations of the Kokoda campaign that took place beyond.''

Bomana is final testing place to more than 3000 soldiers killed serving in Papua New Guinea.

The Anzac Day Dawn Service at the Shrine of Remembrance in Brisbane. Picture: Mark Calleja

Australia and PNG formed close ties during World War II, with Australian soldiers being aided by locals known as Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels.

Ms Bryce will later fly to Isurava and Kokoda to pay her respects at memorials in both locations.

Anzac Day will mark the fourth day of Ms Bryce's five-day state visit to PNG.

Delivering the Anzac Day address at Hellfire Pass in Thailand, Defence Minister Stephen Smith paid tribute to former Australian and New Zealand prisoners of war, saying the way they looked out for each still rightly inspired the two nations.

Mr Smith said one in five prisoners, including 2800 Australians who never came home, perished as they worked on the infamous Thai-Burma Railway during World War II.

Mr Smith said the most notorious stretch of the railway claimed the lives of 700 POWs in just four months in 1943.

The dawn service at the cross on Mt Macedon in Victoria. Picture: Jay Town

''Those POWs who did survive suffered crippling damage to their health,'' Mr Smith said.

Many died after the war at a significantly higher rate than other veterans.

''The endurance of the Australian and New Zealand POWs and the way they looked out for each other still rightly inspires our two nations.''

Four former Australian POWs have returned to Thailand on a pilgrimage to the place where they worked as prisoners of the Japanese 70 years ago.

Mr Smith said he was honoured by their presence.

''Being in this place will be a deeply poignant reminder for them of their own endurance, of fallen mates, of their bond with those who suffered alongside them, of those who helped them survive,'' he said.

More than 17,000 attend the 2013 Anzac Day National Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Picture: Ray Strange Source: News Limited

In Canberra, Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith has marched with the children of his fallen comrades in Canberra to mark ANZAC Day.

Keegan Locke, 17, the son of Sergeant Matthew Locke and the children of Sergeant Blaine Diddams - Elle-Lou, 16, and Henry, 14 - took part in the National Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial today.

Corporal Roberts-Smith spoke with the kids and comforted them before the walk. 

Corporal Roberts-Smith made a moving tribute to Sgt Locke during the dawn service in Canberra, reciting the words of the son of Matthew Locke, killed in action in Afghanistan's Chora Valley in 2007.

''Whenever something challenges me and I think of giving up I can feel dad looking down on me cheering me on. His death left a hole in my heart but his spirit has given me the motivation to push myself further than ever before,'' wrote Keegan Locke.

Corporal Roberts-Smith paused and looked emotional as he read the words.

"I truly believe he has given me the gift of the Anzac spirit," he said.

Corporal Roberts-Smith spoke of a young soldier whose wife gave birth while he was in Afghanistan.

The soldier's wife cried as she told her husband what the baby boy looked like.

"Just like you she says, but with red hair," Corporal Roberts-Smith read.

Another soldier recalled killing on the battlefield.

"I felt so guilty and I still do."

More than 30,000 attended the service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, a large increase on previous years.

Corporal Roberts-Smith is the most public face of a call for younger veterans not only to attend dawn services but to march in parades.

Speaking after the service Corporal Roberts-Smith said he hoped the service today, and particularly the readings, helped give Australians an insight into what serving personnel went through.

''Particularly in Afghanistan - I don't think a lot of information comes out about what we do there,'' he said.

''It's still a real war and there are a lot of people going through it.''

Corporal Roberts-Smith said he had to rehearse his readings ''a couple of times'' because of the emotion behind them.

''The writings are from the guys hearts and to me, I know what they've done and what they've been through and yeah it is emotional.'' he said.

''The idea today was not to talk about the guts and blood it was to talk about the emotion and what people go through and what it means for them to serve. That's what's important and that's why we do it.''

The Anzac Day dawn service at the Australian War Memorial has featured some innovations, among them readings of accounts of Afghanistan by Australian servicemen and their families.

From midnight images of Australian servicemen and women, accompanied by the names of iconic battlefields from over a century of conflicts, were projected onto the Memorial building.

Excerpts from letters and diaries of Australians who experienced firsthand war were also read out from 4.30am.

War Memorial director and former defence minister Brendan Nelson said today's service was ''extraordinary''.

''From my perspective here today I think the dawn service has been an extraordinary event and I am very proud of all our staff and volunteers who made it happen,'' Dr Nelson said.

''Everyone we have spoken to has said we have more people here today than last year. It looks in excess of 30,000.''

A national ceremony will be held in Canberra from 10.15am, attended by Tony Abbott.

Mr Abbott said Anzac Day is the most sacred day in our national life.

''Today, we honour all who have served our country in war and in peace,'' Mr Abbott said in a statement.

''Australia is a better place because of their service and the world is a safer place because of their sacrifice.''

Corporal Roberts-Smith will be accompanied by the children of Sergeant Locke and Sergeant Blaine Diddams, both killed in Afghanistan in the march at the war memorial later on this morning.

As well as the readings from Afghanistan, the memorial displayed the names of iconic Australian battles which were have flashed onto the side of the memorial building - Lone Pine, Long Tan, Gallipoli and many more - as thousands in Canberra gathered for the Anzac Day dawn service.

And with them have appeared the images of Australian men and women taken in more than a century of conflict.

The dawn service outside the memorial has attracted ever increasing crowds - an estimated 25,000 last year -with the expectation of a record much crowd as the centenary of World War I and the Gallipoli landing approaches.

The dawn service will be followed by the Anzac Day indigenous commemoration at the memorial behind the war memorial complex.

Australia plans to have the majority of troops out of Afghanistan by December.

Currently around 1600 Australian servicemen and women are in the war-torn nation.

In Sydney, a parade of 20,000 serving and former defence force personnel is setting off in Sydney, 98 years to the day since the landings at Gallipoli.

The Anzac Day Dawn Service 2013 held at Martin Place, Sydney. A large crowd turned out under a bright moonlit sky at 4am. It was a chilly morning but fine weather to greet the thousands here to pay their respects. Picture: William Hearne Source: News Limited

Marchers and bands gathered around Martin Place for the 9am (AEST) start of the Anzac day Parade, which will pass the Cenotaph before heading up George Street and on to Hyde Park.

With no surviving World War I diggers to take part this year, those who served will be represented by a memorial horse and the flags of units that fought in that conflict.

NSW Governor Marie Bashir will lead the parade that features more than 45 military, cadet, college and school bands.

Former Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove, chair of the NSW Centenary Committee, will march with the 9th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment.

''I'll get in the ranks with the boys and we sort of shuffle around . . . I'm always more focussed on the bloke in front because you've got to stay in step, that's sometimes a challenge,'' he told the Seven Network.

During the parade there will be flyovers of RAAF Hawk fighter trainer and aircraft from the Historical Aircraft Society.

Earlier, thousands filled Sydney's Martin Place for a dawn service and heard the Anzac spirit continues to inspire Australian servicemen and women in current conflicts across the world.

The Anzac Day Dawn Service 2013 held at Martin Place, Sydney. A large crowd turned out under a bright moonlit sky at 4am. It was a chilly morning but fine weather to greet the thousands here to pay their respects. Picture: William Hearne Source: News Limited

Tim Barrett, Commander Australian Fleet, gave the Anzac Day address to a sombre crowd at Martin Place.

''It was on this day that Australia's national identity was forged in the courage and determination of our young men,'' he said.

''Their fighting prowess, irrepressible humour and sense of mateship would come to symbolise the triumph and the spirit over adversity and defeat.

''It is this Anzac spirit that shows us not who we are intrinsically as Australians but who we want to be as a nation.

''It has inspired Australian servicemen and women for almost a century and it continues to inspire those who are right now deployed to conflicts across the world serving our nation.

''It is a time to think of the 3000 or so men and women of the Australian Defence Force who are currently serving with great distinction overseas from South Sudan, Egypt to the Middle East, Afghanistan, in the Southeast Asian region and the South Pacific.''

Among those in the crowd was Blue Mountains resident Michael Adams, who was draped in military medals.

''My father was in World War II in New Guinea and my great grandfather was killed over in France in 1917 so I come here every year to honour them, as well remember those who have been left behind,'' Mr Adams said.

Vietnam veteran Col Kelson has attended the dawn service in Sydney for 28 years.

''Why wouldn't you come,'' the 64-year-old said.

''Let's face it, there's lots of blokes that aren't; never had the opportunity to be here today.

''It's all about them.''

Wreaths were laid at the Martin Place cenotaph by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell, state Opposition Leader John Robertson and federal MP Tanya Plibersek.

Special guests NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and retired Australian Army general Peter Cosgrove were due to attend the service too.

Parts of George, Pitt, Castlereagh and King streets have closed for the Anzac Day parade.

Melbourne's Anzac Day parade passes Flinders Street Station. Picture: Mark Wilson Source: News Limited

In Brisbane, more than 20,000 people cheered on veterans of wars past and present as the Anzac day march wound through the city centre.

Super Hornets shot through Brisbane's clear blue skies to kick start the march at 10am (AEST).

Jeeps and buggies carried some of the World War II veterans, including one of a few surviving World War II Rats of Tobruk, Captain Neil Russell.

Parade organisers say WWII veterans' numbers are dropping with just 17 at today's parade.

Three former RAAF pilots, who served in the Vietnam War, Ron Mitchell, 65, Lachie Milne, 62, and John Thynne, 62, told AAP they are pleased to see the number of well-wishers grow every year.

All three had mates who died in the war and had fathers and grand fathers who fought in World War I and II.

''I spend a lot of the earlier part of the day thinking about my dad and my granddad. I get teary just thinking of it,'' Mr Mitchell told AAP.

''I'm proud of them and everyone else for what they did.''

He says they always look forward to having a drink with mates after the march and sharing war stories.

Up to 18,000 people filled ANZAC Square in Brisbane's inner city for a dawn service.

All but about 100 ignored the invitation to beat the crowd and watch the event live on screens in King George Square.

There were old diggers glistening with medals and young diggers standing in suits.

Some people dressed up, others came in warmer tracksuits and groups of school children stood in uniform.

As the Reveille drifted over those remembering, some broke into a sob, but others stood tall.

Tony Smith, a Vietnam veteran who organised the dawn service, says it's fantastic so many showed up.

''For me it's great, my grandfather fought on the Western Front and my dad was in Tobruk,'' he told AAP.

''And I remember my own mates in Malaya and Vietnam.

''Everyone here has someone or something to meditate on today, even if it's just an idea.''

Dawn services to remember the fallen

In her address, the Governor of Queensland Penelope Wensley reminded the crowd that Anzac Day was, in the midst of sorrow, to "celebrate the Anzac spirit" 98 years after the legend was born on the shores of Gallipoli.

Ninety-five-year-old Neil Russell, a veteran of the Middle East and the Pacific, will be just one of many living stories in the Queensland capital's march.

As a 25-year-old first lieutenant, he helped stop the Japanese from taking Port Moresby in the 1942 Battle of Milne Bay.

He says when the order came to fix bayonets and charge, his company "stormed the enemy stronghold".

"And the Japs shot off like a Bondi tram," he said.

Melbourne's Anzac Day parade makes its way down St Kilda Road. Picture: Mark Wilson Source: News Limited

In Melbourne, thousands of Victorians are lining St Kilda Road for the annual Anzac Day march, after near-record crowds attended the dawn service.

Crowds have gathered from Flinders St to the Shrine of Remembrance in an emotional salute to our Diggers.

About 45,000 people assembled in the dark for the dawn service and stood in silence as the Last Post rang out across the Shrine.

Anzac Day Parade in Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis Source: News Limited

Commemorations started at 5.45am and will be followed by a wreath laying service and march.

Shrine of Remembrance CEO Denis Baguley says it will be a very traditional service, reflecting the commemoration of Australian service men and women.

Service men and women march in a parade commemorating Anzac Day in Sydney. Picture: AP Source: AP

''It is a simple service, but one that is very poignant,'' he said.

He said everyone from young children to veterans would be attending the service.

AFL teams Essendon and Collingwood will clash at the MCG in the afternoon in their traditional Anzac Day clash, then the Melbourne Storm play the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL at nearby AAMI Park in the evening.

Meanwhile, former premier Ted Baillieu will head a committee to organise Victorian celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Anzac day.

Premier Denis Napthine said the state government was also making significant improvements to Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance, including a $45 million development of the undercroft to enhance its commemorative and educational capabilities.

Old friends perhaps? Greetings at Melbourne's Anzac Day parade. Picture: Mark Wilson Source: News Limited

In Adelaide, thousands of people have gathered along the route for the annual Anzac day.

Led off by representatives of the New Zealand forces, the march looks set to be blessed by cool and dry conditions.

It will take those marching from the war memorial on North Terrace to the Cross of Sacrifice where the final Anzac day services will be conducted.

Veterans' Affairs Minister Jack Snelling said he was impressed by the respect shown by South Australians to those who served.

''I am heartened by the way South Australians show their appreciation to those who have served in every conflict in which Australia has been involved, from the Boer War to the current conflict in Afghanistan,'' Mr Snelling said.

The dawn service attracted a crowd of more than 5000 in keeping with a recent increase in numbers.

A video featuring Australian diggers fighting at the Somme in France during World War I was played in Adelaide, marking a departure from the traditional service that has been attended by growing crowds in recent years.

The video will form part of a film to mark the Anzac centenary in 2015.

The dawn service heard the families of soldiers killed in war inherit a legacy of mourning and unimaginable emotional pain.

Veterans SA director Bill Denny said 300,000 Australians had died in 51 conflicts from 1863 to the present day.

But he said that national loss ignored the enormous peripheral casualties of war - the millions of men, women and children who mourned or continue to mourn.

''Nowhere is that pain felt more keenly than among the families of someone killed at war,'' he said.

''Many times families had little involvement in the decision of their loved one to enlist.

''Occasionally they were vehemently against it, but could do nothing.

''In every case however they inherit a legacy of mourning and unimaginable emotional pain lasting their lifetime.''

Wreaths were also laid at the memorial with SA Governor Kevin Scarce, acting premier John Rau and Opposition Leader Steven Marshall among those to take part.

Also in South Australia, news research will try to determine what was so special about the Australian diggers who fought in World War I.

University of Adelaide PhD student Lachlan Coleman is comparing the resources available to Australian soldiers to those provided to their British comrades during the Hundred Days Campaign in northern France which paved the way for victory against the Germans.

War historian Robin Prior said little work had been done to understand why the Australian soldiers were so successful.

In Tasmania, the Anzac spirit has been credited for helping Tasmania through its worst bushfires in 50 years.

Tasmania Fire Service representatives are for the first time among those preparing for Hobart's Anzac day march.

The TFS has been invited to join the procession through the capital in the wake of January's devastating bushfires.

The parade made its way to the Hobart Cenotaph in the city's Queen's Domain, where Tasmanian Governor Peter Underwood delivered his annual Anzac day address.

A colourful crowd of several hundred lined major thoroughfare Macquarie Street, in cool and blustery conditions, many in uniform or wearing medals.

Earlier, more than 5000 attended the city's dawn service at the Hobart Cenotaph above the River Derwent.

In temperatures of around 6C, a crowd that spanned the generations heard Anglican Reverend Cyril Dann conduct the service.

The dawn service heard the lessons of sacrifice and mateship taught by Australia's World War One servicemen are still on display when times get tough.

The PM talks with former P.O.W Sidney King in Townsville. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images

Year nine student Hamish Pickford has recounted the story of an anonymous man who donated the generator from the back of his ute to a queue of people heading back to fire-ravaged Dunalley during January's crisis.

''He left without leaving a name or an address so it could be returned to him,'' Hamish said.

''He just gave it to them, a total stranger to the people of that town to this very day and he gave them hope.''

Ceremonies were taking place in around 50 towns around Tasmania, including a dawn service for the first time at Dunalley in the state's south.

Jodi Willcox brought her two daughters, aged seven and five, to remember their great-great grandfather who fought at Gallipoli.

''I think it's important for the children to understand the sacrifices that they made and that that's why we have all the things that we have today and can live the life we live,'' Ms Willcox told AAP.

Vietnam veteran Jim Lockhart's grandfather fought in the Boer War and his father in World War II.

Mr Lockhart will catch up with his three Tasmanian room-mates from recruitment training at Puckapunyal, having moved back home after 40 years in Queensland.

''It's a wonderful day and people should know what it's all about,'' he said.a large Anzac Day crowd has been greeted by a cold morning at the Hobart Cenotaph above the River Derwent.

Ceremonies will take place in around 50 towns around Tasmania, including a dawn service for the first time at bushfire-hit town Dunalley in the state's south.

A peacekeepers' service at Anglesea Barracks was attended by Australian Greens leader Christine Milne.

Images of terrified soldiers who had "pissed in their own pants'' have been used by Tasmania's governor to implore Australians not to glorify war on Anzac day.

Governor Peter Underwood says the country needs to remember the realities of conflict as the centenary of Anzac day approaches.

He has used a graphic description of an evacuation by a Vietnam War helicopter crewman to make his point.

The crewman describes soldiers being pushed out of an overcrowded chopper so it can take off and escape enemy fire.

He writes those being abandoned were so afraid "some had even pissed in their own pants".

Mr Underwood says Australia is in danger of overlooking the brutal reality of war as the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing approaches in 2015.

"That is what war is really like and, with respect to those who have a different view, I say that is how we should tell it to our children," he said.

The governor said the "real heroes'' of war were those who fought in fear because their country needed them.

"They deserve honouring and remembering as they struggled to overcome the terror and do their duty: not the mythical tall, lean, bronzed and laconic Anzac, enthusiastically and unflinchingly carrying the torch of freedom in the face of murderous enemy fire," he said.

"Australia needs to drop the sentimental myths that Anzac day has attracted.

"The soldiers of Gallipoli must be respectfully, but realistically honoured and each of us must remain resolute about peace."

Tasmanian RSL president and Vietnam veteran Chris Munday hailed the speech, but acknowledged some would find it controversial.

"That was the best speech I ever heard in my life," Mr Munday told AAP.

"That gentleman told the truth.

"It's bloody horrible."

In Perth, Australians have been urged to show the Anzac spirit of mateship and national pride every day, and not just once a year during the veterans march in Perth.

Residents of the Perth capital gathered in record numbers to honour veterans and present day diggers, with 50,000 gathering for the dawn service at Kings Park and even more then lining the streets of the city as hundreds of veterans marched.

Modern-day digger Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Willis, whose grandfather Robert Lowson was one of the original Anzacs to land at Gallipoli in 1915, led WA's main Anzac day march on a new route and with a new focus.

Vietnam veteran, former state and federal politician and now RSL WA president Graham Edwards said in his address the best way to honour the sacrifice of servicemen and women down the years was to live by their code every day.

"Perhaps we ought to better honour our Anzacs in our daily lives with those same qualities of humour, honour, sacrifice, mateship and a fair go for all," Mr Edwards said.

"Indeed if those same qualities were practised by all of us, including our nation's political, corporate and civic leaders, then we could give surely give truth and meaning to the saying - we will remember them."

Lt Col Willis said his pride at being able to lead the march was tempered with a realisation the Anzac tradition needed work to survive.

"The world and Australia have changed,'' Lt Col Willis said.

"But I'm sure those challenges can be met and the RSL can deliver like it did for my grandfather's generation."

WA governor Malcolm McCusker echoed the sentiment, saying Anzac day was about more than just the landing at Gallipoli in 1915 - it was about all wars that Australia had fought in and the people who gave their lives for the cause of freedom.

"To them we owe an enormous debt. A debt that we must never forget and which we must try to pay in our daily lives," he said.

Mr McCusker also paid tribute to the Aboriginal servicemen who were only in recent times acknowledged, as well as nurses and others who helped the wounded.

Young onlooker Maggie Wormold, 17, who had travelled from Busselton to attend the march, said she felt her generation was determined to retain the memories of the sacrifices of older Australians.

"It is important we never forget what they did in the last century, and what our forces are doing today," she said.

Vitalia and grandmother Val Mitchell at the start of the Melbourne parade. Picture: Mark Wilson Source: News Limited

The WA government, meanwhile, says work to prepare the historic West Australian coastal city of Albany for next year's Anzac commemorations will be completed on time.

The site where thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops departed for Egypt and then Gallipoli in Turkey in 1914 needs to be finished by November 1 next year, when there will be a re-enactment of the departure of ships from King George Sound.

In Darwin, Veterans of World War II and more recent battles were overjoyed to see the crowds of young people who turned out for Darwin's Anzac Day.

"I am impressed by all the young people here,'' said 94-year-old WWII veteran Ted Milliken.

Lieutenant Milliken, who was too frail to march and was driven along the parade route, said seeing them line the streets made him happy.

He served aboard a ship in the Pacific during the war and while it was a "bit hairy", his vessel had never come under direct attack.

"I just got lucky," he said.

Air Surveillance Officer Rachel Boyles, aged 24, who served in Afghanistan with the Air Force in 2008 and 2009, praised the large turnout of people at Darwin's dawn service and Anzac Parade.

"It is really good to see the younger generation getting involved," she said.

Among the 3000-strong crowd who attended the dawn service in the city, many were of school age.

Fifteen-year-old Geoffrey King said it was his dream to join the air force one day.

"I have attended every dawn service since I was four," he said.

Earlier Bill Buckley, vice-president of the Darwin RSL, said in his speech that Alec Campbell, the last Australian veteran of the Gallipoli campaign, had warned Australians to never to glorify the event.

"It was a terrible fiasco, a total failure and best forgotten," Mr Buckley quoted him as saying. Mr Campbell died in 2002 aged 103.

Darwin turned on a cloudless morning and warm temperatures as the service was held overlooking Darwin Harbour under a full moon.

Members of the armed forces of Australia and the United States - which has a contingent of marines stationed in Darwin - laid wreaths at the cenotaph.

David Alford, 49, an ex-navy seaman, said he came to show respect for his country.

"I think this is a very important celebration of our proud history," Mr Alford said.

Military Police officer David Bates, who recently served in Afghanistan, said it was good to be in Darwin after the desolation he had seen overseas.

Lance Corporal Sean Starling was one of hundreds who lined Darwin's streets on Thursday to watch the Anzac Day parade, although he prefers not to march himself.

He served in Oruzgan province in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011.

"It is important to show support for the old diggers," he said.

Australians and American marines, who are stationed in Darwin for training during the dry season, also took part in the parade.

A riderless horse signifying unknown soldiers who died in past campaigns led the parade and was followed by veterans from many of the conflicts Australia has been involved with.

About 200 US Marines are stationed in Darwin, and two platoons of Americans, about 90 people, took part in Anzac Day proceedings today.

After dealing with temperatures from minus 15C to 50C in the deserts of Afghanistan, Sean Starling is glad he is now back in Darwin.

Lance Corporal Starling was one of hundreds who lined Darwin's streets to watch the Anzac day parade, although he prefers not to march in it himself.

He served in Uruzgan province in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011.

''It is important to show support for the old diggers,'' he said when asked why he came.

''They are the blokes who really did it tough.''

- with AAP

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'Exorcist took bomber's brain'

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, mastermind of the Boston bombings, had been influenced by radical Islamic websites and a red-bearded convert called Misha. Picture: Splash Australia Source: The Sunday Telegraph

RADICAL Muslim websites and a mysterious convert known only as Misha turned Tamerlan Tsarnaev into a timebomb who brainwashed his younger brother into helping kill and maim innocents.

As Dhzokhar Tsarnaev, 19, recovers in hospital and reveals more information about the deadly Boston Marathon bombing attack to the FBI, a clearer picture is emerging of why two emigre brothers turned against their adopted country to plant crude pressure cooker bombs in the crowd lining the route last week.

The blasts killed three and wounded more than 260. At least 50 are in still in hospital, some with appalling injuries.

Two days later, the brothers went on the run, killing a policeman and hijacking a car before a dramatic chase through the suburbs of Boston  culminated in a gunfight with police.

Tamerlan was shot dead. Dzhokhar escaped and hid in a boat in a suburban back yard, only to be flushed out and captured last Saturday (AEST).

But why did they do it?

Family members reached in the US and abroad by The Associated Press said Tamerlan was steered toward a strict strain of Islam under the influence of an Armenian Muslim convert known to the Tsarnaev family only as Misha.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has confessed to being behind the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three and wounded more than 200.  

After befriending Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing - he had once wanted to represent the US -  stopped studying music and began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to family members, who said he turned to websites and literature claiming that the CIA was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"Somehow, he just took his brain,'' said Tamerlan's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, who recalled conversations with Tamerlan's worried father about Misha's influence.

Tsarni also claimed claimed that the brothers' mother, Zubeidat, allowed Misha into their house to give one-on-one sermons to Tamerlan over the kitchen table during which he claimed he could talk to demons and perform exorcisms.

"Misha was telling him what is Islam, what is good in Islam, what is bad in Islam," added Elmirza Khozhugov, the former brother-in-law of the Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, who sat in on some of the conversations.

"This is the best religion and that's it." Khozhugov told the Associated Press.

"Misha was important. Tamerlan was searching for something. He was searching for something out there."

In this picture taken by Bob Leonard about 10-20 minutes before the Boston Marathon blast, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Suspect Two) and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Suspect One) watch runners pass by.

"You could always hear his younger brother and sisters say, 'Tamerlan said this,' and 'Tamerlan said that.' Dzhokhar loved him. He would do whatever Tamerlan would say,'' recalled Elmirza Khozhugov, the ex-husband of Tamerlan's sister. He spoke by telephone from his home in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The brothers, who came to the US from Russia a decade ago, were raised in a home that followed Sunni Islam, the religion's largest sect, but were not regulars at the mosque and rarely discussed religion, Khozhugov said.

Then, in 2008 or 2009, Tamerlan met Misha, a heavyset bald man with a reddish beard. Khozhugov didn't know where they met but believed they attended a Boston-area mosque together.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr said after the Senate Intelligence Committee was briefed by federal law enforcement officials there is "no question'' that older brother Tamerlan  was "the dominant force'' behind the attacks, and that the brothers had apparently been radicalised by material on the Internet rather than by contact with militant groups overseas.

Authorities believe neither brother, both Russian-born ethnic Chechens, had links to terror groups.

However, two US officials said Tuesday that Tamerlan  frequently looked at extremist websites, including Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaeda's Yemen affiliate. The magazine has endorsed lone-wolf terror attacks.

Injured peoples lie on the footpath after a bomb exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line. Picture: AP Photo/MetroWest Daily News, Ken McGagh

Hoping to learn more about the motives, U.S. investigators traveled to southern Russia on Tuesday to speak to the parents of the two suspects, a U.S. Embassy official said.

The parents live in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim province in Russia's Caucasus, where Islamic militants have waged an insurgency against Russian security forces for years.

A lawyer for the family, Zaurbek Sadakhanov, said the parents had just seen pictures of the mutilated body of their elder son and were not up to speaking with anyone.

In Washington, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee were briefed by the FBI and other law enforcement officials at a closed-door session Tuesday evening.

Afterward, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio described the two brothers as ``a couple of individuals who become radicalized using Internet sources.''

An attorney representing the wife of deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect says, she is "trying to come to terms" with Marathon bombing. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

"So we need to be prepared for Boston-type attacks, not just 9/11-style attacks,'' Rubio said, referring to lone-wolf terrorists as opposed to well-organized teams from established terror networks.

Investigators were also focusing on the trip that Tsarnaev made to Russia in January 2012 that has raised many questions.

His father said his son stayed with him in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, where the family lived briefly before moving to the US a decade ago. The father had only recently returned.

"He was here, with me in Makhachkala," Anzor Tsarnaev told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

"He slept until 3pm, and you know, I would ask him: 'Have you come here to sleep?' He used to go visiting, here and there. He would go to eat somewhere. Then he would come back and go to bed."

No evidence has emerged since to link Tamerlan Tsarnaev to militant groups in Russia's Caucasus.

On Sunday, the Caucasus Emirate, which Russia and the US consider a terrorist organisation, denied involvement in the Boston attack.

The Institute for Strategic Studies says the Caucasus Emirate is a radical Islamist group with ties to al-Qaeda and other international groups.

It aims to establish an Islamic state in the North Caucasus, but has gradually evolved as it was radicalised by an influx of Islamic extremism. While continuing and intensifying the separatist movement's attacks against the Russian state, the CE has also violently sought the implementation of Sharia law, engaged in sectarian violence and, in recent years, been implicated in various European terrorist plots.

Anzor Tsarnaev said they also travelled to neighbouring Chechnya.

"He went with me twice, to see my uncles and aunts. I have lots of them," the father said.

He said they also visited one of his daughters, who lives in the Chechen town of Urus-Martan with her husband. His son-in-law's brothers all work in the police force under Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, he said.

Moscow has given Kadyrov a free hand to stabilise Chechnya following two wars between federal troops and Chechen separatists beginning in 1994, and his feared police and security forces have been accused of rampant rights abuses.

What began in Chechnya as a fight for independence has morphed into an Islamic insurgency that has spread throughout Russia's Caucasus, with the worst of the violence now in Dagestan.

In February, 2012, shortly after Tamerlan Tsarnaev's arrival in Dagestan, a four-day operation to wipe out several militant bands in Chechnya and Dagestan left 17 police and at least 20 militants dead.

In May, two car bombs shook Makhachkala, killing at least 13 people and wounding about 130 more. Other bombings and shootings targeting police and other officials took place nearly daily.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's mother said he was questioned upon arrival at New York's airport.

"And he told me on the phone, 'imagine, mama, they were asking me such interesting questions as if I were some strange and scary man: Where did you go? What did you do there?'" Zubeidat Tsarnaeva recalled her son telling her at the time.

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'I have no idea what got into them'

CCTV of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's movements before after the bombing has been outlined in the bed side hearing

THE women closest to the Boston bomb suspects have told of their shock amid reports Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has admitted to planting the explosives.

The American wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is co-operating with authorities probing the attack, her lawyers say.

Katherine Russell, 24, who married Tamerlan Tsarnaev in June 2010 and has a three-year-old daughter with him, is "doing everything she can to assist (the) ongoing investigation'', her lawyers said today in a media statement.

And the suspects' sisters - who live in New Jersey - have expressed their sadness over the "callous acts" of the Tsarnaev brothers.

The Boston Globe reported that Tsarnaev admitted to planting the bombs and killing MIT police officer Sean Collier with his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a police shoot-out.

The Boston Marathon attack left three dead and at least 264 people wounded.

Tsarnaev reportedly told authorities on Sunday that he and his brother were behind the attacks, and said his brother had become radicalised in part because of US action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The statement from the Russell family said news that the two brothers may have been behind the carnage came as an "absolute shock'' to Tsarnaev's wife and her family.

"As a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, Katie deeply mourns the pain and loss to innocent victims, students, law enforcement, families and our community,'' it said.

"In the aftermath of this tragedy, she, her daughter and her family are trying to come to terms with these events.''

Katherine Russell, the American wife of killed marathon bomb suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, says she is devastated by the attacks and knew nothing of her husband's plans. Picture: Austral via William Farrington / Polaris

The sister of the suspects, Ailina and Bella Tsarnaeva, also said their hearts went out to the bombing victims.

"It saddens us to see so many innocent people hurt after such a callous act. As a family, we are absolutely devastated by the sense of loss and sorrow this caused.

"We don't have any answers but we look forward to a thorough investigation and hope to learn more,'' they said.

Ailina lives in a New Jersey apartment with her husband and baby, and the town's mayor has said her sister has also been at the home. The apartment building remained under police guard as the sisters asked that their privacy be respected.

Their statement was the first comment from either sister since the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger of their two brothers.

Early on Friday, through a barely open apartment door, Ailina spoke briefly with several news outlets about her brothers. She described the elder brother as a "kind and loving man'' and said "I have no idea what got into them'', and also that "at the end of the day no one knows the truth''.

Federal agents also removed a computer from the apartment.

West New York police director Michael Indri said last week that Ailina had told agents she had not been in contact with her brothers for a long time, and he said he was confident that the FBI had confirmed the claim.

It was unclear exactly how Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had confessed after reports he could not speak in the hours after his capture.

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has reportedly admitted to planting the explosives with his brother and to killing a police officer. Picture: AP/vk.com

Tsarnaev remains in a Boston hospital, where he is recovering from gunshot wounds that may be self-inflicted.

He was captured in a backyard boat on Saturday (AEST) after a dramatic manhunt that paralysed Boston.

Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. His condition was overnight upgraded from serious to fair, and he was now able to speak and communicate with authorities.

Officials have determined that the pressure cookers used int he deadly attack were bought at Macy's.

In Washington, Republican Sen. Richard Burr said after the Senate Intelligence Committee was briefed by federal law enforcement officials that there is "no question'' that older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was "the dominant force'' behind the attacks, and that the brothers had apparently been radicalized by material on the Internet rather than by contact with militant groups overseas.

Authorities believe neither brother, both Russian-born ethnic Chechens, had links to terror groups.

However, two US officials said that Tamerlan Tsarnaev frequently looked at extremist websites, including Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaeda's Yemen affiliate. The magazine has endorsed lone-wolf terror attacks.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

Family members reached in the US and abroad by The Associated Press said Tamerlan was steered toward a strict strain of Islam under the influence of a Muslim convert known to the Tsarnaev family only as Misha.

The Boston bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

After befriending Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing, stopped studying music and began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to family members, who said he turned to websites and literature claiming that the CIA was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"Somehow, he just took his brain,'' said Tamerlan's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, who recalled conversations with Tamerlan's worried father about Misha's influence.

Slain police officer Collier and eight-year old bombing victim Martin Richards were both laid to rest today.

Katherine Russell last saw her husband on Thursday night, just hours before he was killed in a police shoot-out, her lawyer told CNN. She was handing over their two-year-old daughter to him before heading to work.

"She knew nothing about it at any time," her lawyer Amato DeLuca told CNN. He said Ms Russell learned about her husband's involvement on the news, and is "is very distraught" and "cries a lot".

"The whole family is a mess, to put it bluntly," said Mr DeLuca. "They're very distraught. They're upset. Their lives have been unalterably changed. They're upset because of what happened, the people that were injured, that were killed. It's an awful, terrible thing."

American-born Ms Russell met Tamerlan as a uni student, prompting her to convert to Islam and drop out of college, friends said. The pair were married in June, 2010.

Earlier, bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev uttered his first word after being charged with using a weapon of mass destruction - "No".

MIT police officers march as they depart St. Patrick's Church in Stoneham, Massachusetts, following a funeral Mass for MIT police officer Sean Collier. Picture: AP

The 19-year-old, who could face the death penalty if convicted, was mostly silent and nodded affirmatively throughout the brief bedside hearing, indicating that he understood the charges laid against him,  court transcripts published by The New York Times reveal.

But when asked if he could afford a lawyer, the teen spoke for the first time, saying: "No".

CNN earlier reported that Tsarnaev, who has an injury to his throat that may be self-inflicted, has communicated he and his brother acted alone and that Tamerlan, the older of the two, was the ringleader in the bombings.

Boston has marked the one-week anniversary of the twin marathon bombings with a moment of silence.

The moment of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's arrest aftera dramatic shootout with police. Picture: via Twitter/Imgur

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