Clampdown on off piste skiing

Categories
General News

Vorarlberg has been looking at ways to improve safety for winter sports lovers while off piste and has come up with a series of measures to make it safer and also to protect the natural environment. Among the measures are increased fines for people who breach the rules. After the heavy snowfalls of the last […]

Next rating agency set to downgrade Austria

Categories
Finance

A leading rating agency has sent shockwaves through Austria by threatening to downgrade its credit rating. New York City-based credit rating agency Moody’s announced last night (Mon/Tues) that it decided to put Austria on negative credit watch due to great uncertainty about whether Europe will be able to solve the worsening debt crisis. The outlook […]

Teachers ‘should work more’

Categories
Politics

People’s Party (ÖVP) Finance Minister Maria Fekter has intensified the increasing public budget path arguments by suggesting that young teachers should work more for less. The ÖVP vice leader said yesterday (Thurs) young people starting in the profession could do 27 instead of 21 hours a week. She told Die Presse that her plan was […]

Hit and run incident in Vienna

Categories
General News

Police in Vienna are investigating after an elderly woman was knocked down by a car as she tried to cross a road. Officials said today (Thurs) the incident occurred in the district of Floridsdorf yesterday afternoon. The 66-year-old woman suffered fractures. The driver of the involved car did not stop. Witnesses of the collision carried […]

Cycling campaign after bike garage fiasco

Categories
Politics

Tens of thousands of Vienna’s residents are cycling to work every day, according to a traffic research organisation.The Austrian Traffic Club (VCÖ) announced today (Weds) that 34,000 of the city’s overall 1.7 million residents use their bikes to get to their workplaces.Now the capital’s coalition of Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Green Party presented an […]

Faymann meets Merkel and Socrates

Categories
Politics

Austrian Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Werner Faymann met political leaders from Germany and Portugal in Berlin today (Weds).Faymann gathered with German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Chancellor Angela Merkel and Portuguese Socialist Party Prime Minister Jose Socrates in the German capital to speak about topics which will be debated at the upcoming Eurozone meeting.The term Eurozone […]

Fine dust levels on the rise

Categories
General News

Styrian decision-makers are under pressure to react to figures showing soaring amounts of fine dust in several cities in the province.Latest Styrian Air Quality Report figures show that there were more fine dust particles in the air in Graz than allowed on 25 days so far this year. The provincial capital recorded too high levels […]

NGOs shocked by ‘deadly’ development aid cutbacks

Categories
Politics

Federal President Heinz Fischer has claimed he is “deeply hurt” by the government’s decision to slash its development aid spending from next year.However Fischer, who attended the 2011 budget speech by People’s Party (ÖVP) Finance Minister Josef Pröll in the federal parliament in Vienna today (Tues), also stressed that he had understanding for the planned […]

Hirsch Servo recovers from crunch effects

Categories
Business

Carinthian machine and packaging manufacturer Hirsch Servo AG managed to reduce its losses in the past business year.The company said today (Fri) it suffered net losses of 6.2 million Euros in the 2009/2010 business year, down by 4.5 million Euros year on year.Hirsch Servo, which managed to keep its turnover stable at around 86 million […]

Horrendous car repair price gaps reported

Categories
Business

Consumer rights watchdogs are up in arms over soaring price gaps at garages.Officials at the Labour Chamber’s (AK) Vienna branch said today (Tues) they have found out that some garages charge up to 110 Euros more than others for one hour’s work.A spokesman for the body announced: “We tested 39 car repair shops in Vienna […]