Schönborn calls for immigration law reform

Categories
Politics

Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn has appealed to the Austrian government to reform the current immigration laws.The highest-ranking representative of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria said today (Tues): “It is not acceptable that families, who are fully integrated, who don’t financially burden anyone else, whose children know no other language than German with an […]

Austria up one spot in corruption study

Categories
Business

Austria has improved year on year in a global corruption survey.The country reached 15th place (2009: 16th) in the 2010 edition of the Corruption Perception study conducted by Transparency International (TI). Austria shares the spot with neighbouring Germany (2009: 14th) which also reached 7.9 of a maximum 10 points.Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand shared first […]

Ticket tax ‘may slash FlyNiki turnover by €10mn’

Categories
Business

FlyNiki CEO Niki Lauda has claimed the new ticket levy could decrease his firm’s annual turnover by 10 million Euros.The businessman, who founded airline FlyNiki in 2003, said today (Tues): “I expected FlyNiki to have four million passengers this year. The tax might reduce our customer number by 100,000. This would mean 10 million Euros […]

Listeriosis bacteria fish taken from shelves

Categories
General News

Austria has been hit by another case of food containing Listeriosis bacteria.HMF Food Production announced today (Tues) the listeria bacteria have been discovered in its Almare Seafood smoked salmon on sale at discount supermarket Hofer. The company stressed that the products were inedible, adding that customers who bought it will be refunded.Hofer, which belongs to […]

Lugner legal bid for Sunday shopping

Categories
Business

A Viennese entrepreneur has revealed plans to launch legal action over the Austrian Sunday shopping ban.Richard Lugner, whose Lugner City shopping centre opened in 1990, said today (Tues) he had assigned a lawyer to file a complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court (VfGH) about current regulations.Federal law disallows shops of all kind to do business […]

Delivery man fakes accident after casino losses

Categories
General News

A scheming parcel delivery man accused paramedics of stealing from him after losing more than 1,000 Euros of customers’ money in the casino.Police said today (Tues) the man from southern Styria deliberately steered his car against a lamppost on the L208 main road on Saturday. He told doctors in hospital two paramedics took money out […]

Police on high alert as poker tournament starts

Categories
Sports

Police in Vienna have set up security levels similar to those for a state visit, as an international poker tournament begins in the city.Poker stars from all over the world are competing in the six-day European Poker Tour (EPT) at the Kursalon Hübner palace in the capital which starts today (Tues).Vienna police’s special WEGA unit […]

Rottweiler mauls couple

Categories
General News

A couple suffered serious injuries when they were attacked by a Rottweiler on Sunday.Erika and Peter Petzner went for a walk in St. Stefan ob Leoben, Styria, when the three-year-old dog jumped over a fence and turned on the 48-year-old woman. She had to undergo surgery on both her arms at Leoben’s LKH clinic, while […]

DO&CO turnover takes off

Categories
Business

Austrian caterer DO&CO managed to raise its turnover and earnings in the first half of the current business year.The company, which is headed by Attila Dogudan, said today (Tues) its turnover soared by 21 per cent year on year between April and September 2010 to 222.7 million Euros. It added earnings before interest and taxes […]

Passengers to bear the brunt as government introduces flight ticket tax

Categories
Business

Airlines have vowed to pass extra costs on to customers after the government’s announcement to set up a tax on tickets.The federal coalition of Social Democrats (SPÖ) and People’s Party (ÖVP) announced on the weekend it will charge every ticket for a flight from Austria to another European country with eight Euros from next year. […]