Irreconcilable
Natalie Sands lives with immeasurable torment. Early one morning four years ago, a crazed man killed her mother and her five-year-old son. Natalie, too, almost died after the attacker set her on fire. She suffered horrific burns, the scars of which will never disappear. While the physical trauma she has endured is one thing, the mental anguish is even more agonising. On assignment for 60 Minutes, Nine's Dimity Clancey reports how Natalie's pain is compounded by two details she finds impossible to reconcile: The perpetrator of the crime has escaped trial due to mental illness. And even worse, he's her father.
Reporter: Dimity Clancey
Producer: Garry McNabThe Battle of Britney
For anyone wanting a crash course in the pitfalls of celebrity, Britney Spears' recently released tell-all memoir, The Woman In Me, is a must-read. It's a confronting account of a tortured pop superstar. Looking back, the young woman once known as "America's Sweetheart" says she was hounded, exploited and humiliated by almost everyone she came into contact with, including her family, friends and lovers. It's hoped that by revealing the darker side of her life's battle, Britney feels a sense of liberation, and even more importantly, now has a chance to hit the reset button on her many years of turbulence.
Reporter: Tom Steinfort
Producer: Naomi ShivaramanRare Opportunity
At a secretive location a few hundred kilometres north of Perth, there's a stockpile of what looks like ordinary beach sand. At first glance it's undeserving of a second look. Except it's not sand. It's actually a mountain of money; a stash of in-demand heavy metal minerals that's worth more than a billion dollars. Australia has an abundance of these so-called "rare earth" minerals but until very recently we didn't care. China, though, has long known how valuable this resource is and has been buying it up and processing it to make defence weaponry. And as Nine's Christine Ahern reports, that has a lot of people very worried.
Reporter: Christine Ahern
Producer: Laura Sparkes