Austrian businessman Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer has decided not to reapply for a place on the supervisory board of Swiss healthcare company F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Roche).Ruttenstorfer, who has headed Vienna-based oil and gas group OMV for eight years, entered Roches supervisory board in 2007. The Swiss health industry giant will decide on who will follow the […]
Around 20,000 Euros of damages were caused at a bank branch in Gödersdorf, Carinthia, when an Advent wreath caught fire at the weekend.Staff forgot to turn off the plastic wreaths electric candles when going home on Friday evening. A patrolling policeman noticed the smoke coming out of the building the next day. He called the […]
An Austrian businesswoman accused of being Bernard Madoff’s “criminal soul mate” has claimed she was a victim of the bankers illicit operations herself.Madoff was sentenced to a maximum 150 years in jail by a court in New York City in the United States for what is widely considered to be the largest so-called Ponzi scheme […]
Austria has failed to make the top 10 in a think tanks latest global democracy ranking.The Vienna-based Democracy Ranking Association announced today (Mon) Norway, which came second in 2009, toppled last years leader Sweden to grab first place in its 2010 Democracy Ranking.Finland takes third place ahead of Switzerland and Denmark. New Zealand makes sixth […]
Austrian Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Werner Faymann has met with Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor just three days after her predecessor was arrested in Austria.A spokesman for Kosor claimed that today’s (Mon) meeting was agreed upon “a long time ago”, and dismissed it had anything to do with the arrest of ex-HDZ […]
More and more teenagers are consuming bathing salts to get high, police officials have warned.Hermann Feldbacher, a drug expert at the Upper Austrian police department, said today (Fri): “There is a trend for an increasing number of very young addicts to buy bathing salts, incense sticks and other cheap products.”Speaking to Viennese newspaper Heute, Feldbacher […]
The population of Graz has soared by more than 13 per cent during the past nine years, outdoing all of Austrias other provincial capitals.Statistik Austria and the Federation of Austrian Cities (Städtebund) announced yesterday (Thurs) 257,000 people were currently living in the provincial capital of Styria, up by 13.7 per cent compared to 2001.The authorities […]
Robert Dornhelm has hired a yet unknown actress to star as murder victim Meredith Kercher in an upcoming TV drama based on the life of convicted killer Amanda Knox, according to British media.Newspapers report that 26-year-old Cambridge University graduate Amanda Fernando Stevens has been assigned by the Austrian director to star as the Irish exchange […]
Around 10 per cent of Austrians bribed authorities last year and almost one in two believe corruption in the country is on the rise, according to a study.Transparency International (TI) announced yesterday (Thurs) every eleventh Austrian admitted having acted corruptly in bribing officials of various sectors of public life in 2009. The internationally operating non-government […]
Siemens manager Brigitte Ederer has been asked to advise the German Social Democrats (SPD) on economic-political issues, it has been claimed.Austrian magazine Format reports today (Fri) that the former Siemens Austria boss agreed to join the SPDs new economic politics council consisting of around 50 members.German media regard the foundation of the group as an […]