‘Roof blaze’ was swarm of fireflies

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General News

Graz firemen were called to evacuate a busy city centre square after a man mistook a swarm of fireflies for a burning roof.Officials said today (Fri) fire-fighters decided to shutdown the bustling Franziskaner Square – a popular night-time entertainment location housing several restaurants and pubs – when a caller claimed the roof of an apartment […]

Pensioner fined for gold-smuggling attempt

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A German pensioner has been fined for trying to smuggle pure gold worth half a million Euros from Switzerland via Austria into his homeland.Vorarlberg custom officials said today (Fri) the man was ordered to pay 35,000 Euros over the incident last April, but added he had been allowed to keep the valuables.The 69-year-old claimed he […]

Newsagent beats wannabe robbers with stick

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Would-be robbers fled in horror when their tobacconist victim began clubbing them with a bludgeon.Police in Vienna-Brigittenau said today (Fri) the 40-year-old woman grabbed the wooden stick she kept behind the counter for self protection when the duo entered the her shop.Officials said the men – described by the newsagent as aged between 20 and […]

Minor quake churns Tyrol

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Experts said they expected no damage reports after a minor quake rattled a Tyrolean valley this morning (Fri).A spokesman for Vienna’s Centre for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) said the earthquake – felt by many in the town of Imst – reached 3.4 on the Richter scale around 8.30am.He added it was unlikely that the quake […]

Bishop nomination is Vatican’s demonstration of power, say critics

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The appointment of Ägidius Zsifkovics as new bishop of the Eisenstadt diocese has been branded a “reckless demonstration of power by the Vatican.”Theologian Paul Zulehner said he was “disappointed” to hear of today’s (Fri) decision of the Austrian Roman Catholic Church to make Zsifkovics the successor of Paul Iby.”I don’t think he will be accepted […]

Vienna police boss shamed by hasty study revelation

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Vienna police chief Karl Mahrer is in hot water after it emerged he earned an academic title after sitting just eight weeks of lectures.Political magazine profil reports in its new edition that Mahrer is eligible to call himself Bachelor of Arts after a drastically shortened “Police Leadership” Bachelor course offered to police officials by Wiener […]

Building site explosion shocks tenants

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Residents in a densely populated housing area in Vienna had a lucky escape after four gas bottles exploded on a neighbouring construction site yesterday around noon (Weds).Police in Favoriten district said today experts had started investigating the incident which occurred at a building site in-between the two apartment blocks.Officials said a massive fire kicked off […]

Skirt-clad women banned from fruit fields again

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A strawberry farm manager has come under fire for banning skirt-wearing women from picking the fruits for “hygienic reasons”.Reinhard Piribauer hit the headlines in 2008 when the rule was introduced for the first time at his “Erdbeerland” self-service picking farms across the province of Lower Austria.Now the businessman faces fresh pressure over his decision not […]

Famed tropical medicine expert suffers fatal heart attack

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Prestigious physician Helmut Mittermayer has died during a congress in Sweden, it has emerged.Officials at the Elisabethinen Hospital Linz said today (Thurs) the tropical medicine and macro biology expert passed away shortly after suffering a heart attack at the international conference in Stockholm.The 62-year-old published around 300 scientific studies.

Police investigate leg surgery mix-up

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Tyrolean crime investigators have began investigating surgeons who amputated a woman’s healthy leg by mistake before removing her other one.It emerged last week that bungling doctors amputated the woman’s healthy leg after she visited the clinic because of a serious vascular dysfunction. Surgeons were then forced to remove the diseased leg after realising their mistake.Local […]