Hunt for Hitler salute train passenger

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General News

Police are looking for a public transport passenger for making the infamous Nazi salute in a Viennese underground train.The unidentified man wearing a black jacket and a grey bonnet raised his right hand to make the gesture – which is also known as Hitler salute – numerous times on an U2 line U-Bahn train in […]

Escalator plunge teen recovers

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General News

A teenager who suffered serious head injuries trying to balance on an escalator handrail is no longer in danger of his life, it has emerged.Rafael F. was rushed to the Wilhelminen Clinic after falling from eight metres to the ground in a stunt at Vienna’s Spittelau underground train station on Saturday night.He is recovering after […]

Bomb alert shuts Vienna department store

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General News

Police in Vienna are investigating after a popular city centre department store was evacuated due to a bomb warning yesterday afternoon (Weds).Around 700 shoppers and staff were asked to leave the nine-storey Steffl store after a male voice warned its manager’s office of a bomb in the building in a phone call around 5pm.Police, who […]

Police warn of bathing salts drug craze

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General News

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 […]

FPÖ official sentenced over rifle threat

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General News

A rightist politician has been given a suspended prison sentence for threatening his son with a rifle.Valentin Silberstein, who heads the Freedom Party’s (FPÖ) branch in the Lower Austrian town of Traismauer, fired a shot with his Winchester rifle at a company estate in Grafenwörth in the presence of his 19-year-old son last month.The teenager, […]

TA to finalise Velcom takeover

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Business

Telekom Austria (TA) is to fully take over a leading Belarusian mobile communications firm, it has been announced.TA, which has 16,000 employees and more than 21 million customers across Europe, said today (Tues) it finalised the purchase of 100 per cent of Minsk-based Velcom.The Austrian company headed by Hannes Ametsreiter already acquired 70 per cent […]

AWO to host ‘Down Under’ workshop

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Business

Economic experts will speak about the “excellent opportunities” Austrian companies find in New Zealand and Australia at an upcoming congress organised by the Austrian Economy Chamber’s Foreign Trade Department (AWO).The AWO said today (Thurs) Guido Stock – head of its trade delegation in Sydney, Australia – will present recent figures and an outlook for doing […]

Experts warn of social networks’ potential to ruin firms’ reputation

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Business

Social network platforms have the capability to harm companies’ reputation, an online strategies expert has warned.Josef Barth, who managed incumbent president Heinz Fischer’s 2010 election campaign’s internet activities, said today (Thurs) firms should not remove unpleasant postings but honestly respond to accusations they contained.Barth, a former journalist for political weekly profil, stressed this was the […]

Fire at Russian Embassy this morning

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General News

A fire broke out at the Russian Embassy in Vienna this morning (Thurs), it has been announced.Officials at the Landstraße district fire department said no one was injured by the blaze around 7am.Firemen quickly managed to extinguish the fire which broke out for unclear reasons.Experts are now set to investigate the site to find out […]

ÖBB freight branch’s 2009 turnover deep in the red

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Business

Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) supervisory board chief Horst Pöchhacker revealed today (Weds) the firm’s freight business department suffered operative losses of 100 million Euros last year.Pöchhacker said in a radio interview: “Turnover dropped by 500 million Euros due to the exceptional crisis last year, but we already managed to save around 400 million Euros.”He claimed […]