Niki Lauda has been accused of having prejudices towards homosexuals.The Formula One (F1) legend and aviation businessman caused a stir some days ago by urging Alexander Wrabetz, head of state-owned TV channel ORF, to ban gay entertainer Alfons Haider from competing in “Dancing Stars” with a male dancing partner.Lauda said the teaming up of Haider […]
Furious residents of a Croatian seaside resort have called on water guards to fine an Austrian singer for speeding.A clip (www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFLHa3jZaDw) for Monika Martins new hit “Auf Wiedersehn Goodbye” shows the folk music and Schlager singer going on a motor boat going at high speed along the coast of Vis.Many locals and music fans discussing […]
Vienna public transport agency Wiener Linien faces fresh pressure after an underground train got stuck in a tunnel for several minutes yesterday afternoon (Thurs).Newspapers reported today that the U2 line train stopped in the middle of a tunnel between the Volkstheater and Museumsquartier stations. It stood still following a power supply outage on the service, […]
Ukrainian cigarette smuggler caught
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An Ukrainian man has been caught smuggling more than 700 cartons of cigarettes.The 27-year-old was stopped in a routine road check near Villach in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia yesterday (Thurs). Traffic police officers discovered 735 cartons containing hundreds of thousands of cigarettes in the boot of his car and on the vehicles back […]
Boy killed by snow groomer
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A primary school student died instantly in a freak skiing accident around midday today (Thurs).Officials in the ski resort of Rußbach in Salzburgs Tennengau region announced that the boy whose nationality and age were not given skidded down a hill for around 200 metres after dropping out of a tow lift. He was […]
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 managers office of a bomb in the building in a phone call around 5pm.Police, who […]
The property insurance chief of a leading insurer has expressed doubts over the recently presented figures showing a decline in crime.Federal Crime Office (BK) director Franz Lang said earlier this week that 2,617 car thefts were reports across Austria in 2010, significantly fewer than in the previous year when 5,297 such offences occurred. He also […]
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has vehemently denied that an “EastEnders” character has caged “Austrian-style kids in an Austrian-style cellar” since he joined the series more than 20 years ago.Viennese newspaper Heute labelled the allegedly upcoming storyline as “a disgusting bid to allure viewers” yesterday (Thurs), while British newsdesks consider the apparently leaked BBC-internal e-mails […]
A German woman had a lucky escape when she survived a dramatic car accident yesterday (Weds).The 41-year-old sustained injuries to her vertebra after she came off a pass road and fell down a 40-metre ravine near Brandberg in Tyrol.The car, which landed on its roof, had to be salvaged with a rope after the driver […]
Compulsive pigeon-feeder evicted
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A man has been evicted from his flat in Vienna for excessively feeding pigeons for many years.The unemployed man, 56, was kicked out of his apartment in the Meidling district after a court ruled his actions made living in the housing estate unbearable for other tenants. Several residents filed legal complaints against the pigeon enthusiast […]