The pressure on Social Democratic (SPÖ) Defence and Sport Minister Norbert Darabos is increasing as a new Audit Office (RH) examination indicates a waste of taxpayers’ money by the army. The RH announced yesterday (Tues) that 2,059 army employees were inactive in 2010. The institution said that these circumstances cost the state 66.1 million Euros […]
Manchester United have signalised interest in David Alaba. German sport newspapers reported yesterday (Tues) that the Premiership team want to sign the Austrian national team star. Bayern Munich are not expected to let Alaba go. Speculations about a possible transfer to England follow claims that FC Barcelona want to snatch up the 19-year-old former FK […]
Austria’s longest-serving governor has been identified as the most capable one in the opinion of citizens. A study published by magazine profil shows that 20 per cent of Austrians consider Erwin Pröll, the provincial governor of Lower Austria, as the best of all nine governors. The conservative politician became governor of Austria’s largest province 20 […]
The current conflict with the works committee does not negatively affect Austrian Airlines’ (AUA) booking figures, according to a spokesman. AUA announced yesterday (Tues) that reservations and passenger numbers were on the rise despite the continuing dispute with pilots and cabin crew. The works council is fighting the planned salary cut of 25 per cent. […]
The Austrian economy will manage to grow by nearly one per cent this year, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Paris-based institution announced yesterday (Tues) that the small alpine state’s economy had chances to do 0.8 per cent better in 2012 than in 2011 before achieving an improvement of 1.6 […]
A Catholic preacher who established a group of “disobedient” priests reacted coolly to Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn’s warnings. Speaking to Italian daily La Stampa last week, Schönborn said regarding the Austrian Church’s reaction to the Preachers’ Initiative: “Now is the time to clarify the various issues. We might take disciplinary measures, but I hope […]
Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Finance Minister Maria Fekter has launched an attack on the new French president. The former interior minister branded Francois Hollande’s targets as “nonsense”. Speaking to the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten newspaper, Fekter said ambitions to add aspects guaranteeing economic growth in struggling countries to the planned European Union (EU) fiscal pact were outdated. […]
Austrian education officials have spent more than £6 million rebuilding a school – after an aerial shot showed that it looked like a swastika from the air. The resemblance to the Nazi symbol was not noticed after the school was built in 1979 and it was only when Google Earth snaps were studied that the […]
The Vienna Greens are risking a coalition-internal conflict by calling for a city toll. Rüdiger Maresch, the leftist party’s traffic spokesman, said such a fee “is unavoidable on the long term”. Maresch underlined the city government’s ambition to slash fine dust levels, the volume of toxic emissions by cars and noise caused by traffic in […]
‘Suicide’ sculptures by British artist Anthony Gormley are to be removed from Alpine passes in Austria where they sparked fears of a rise in the rate of mountain rescue call outs. The 100 sculptures – identical to works in London and New York – show life-sized men standing on the edge of precipices over 100 […]