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June 1 (Reuters) – Austria aims to raise 1.65 billion euros ($2 billion) by reopening 2018 and 2021 bonds in an auction on June 8, the country’s debt agency said on Tuesday.
The Austrian Federal Financing Agency (AFFA) will split the amount between the two bonds according to demand on auction day. It will sell 1.5 billion euros and keep 150 million euros for market-smoothing operations. (Reporting by Boris Groendahl; editing by Jason Webb)
London, May 26(ANI): England striker Theo Walcott has admitted that he did not deserve his place in the Germany World Cup squad four years ago, but now he does.
Former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson had stunned fans when he named Walcott in his 23-man squad for the 2006 finals. At the time, Walcott was just 17 and had never played in a Premier League clash.
However, the 21-year-old reckons that he has since brushed aside his baby-faced image and has earned his place in the team.
“It feels so much different to last time. I had not played in the Premier League and did not deserve to go to Germany, I knew that. I am now playing in the Premier League and the World Cup qualifiers and am doing quite well,” The Sun quoted Walcott, as saying.
“I feel I am there by rights and, fingers crossed, I will be on that plane. There are a lot of world-class players on the right-hand side for England and it is a great competition to be a part of,” he added.
Walcott further said that he was satisfied with his performance in Monday’s friendly 3-1 victory over Mexico, and insisted that the key is to keep the momentum going.
“Now it is vital that I focus on the training camp in Austria leading up to the Japan game and not look too far ahead, as there is still a lot of work to do,” he added. (ANI)
London, May 14 (ANI): Coach Fabio Capello wants David Beckham to join him on the coaching staff at this year’s World Cup.
Becks is currently out of the squad with a ruptured Achilles tendon, but Capello believes he could be of great help behind the scenes, The Sun reports.
Beckham, 35, however, will not be going to the squad”s pre-World Cup training camp in Austria, as he continues the rehabilitation from his injury. Instead, he will fly out with the 23-player party to South Africa on June 2.
The England 2018 bid team want to use the former skipper to help promote their campaign to host the World Cup in eight years” time.
Capello, though, will release Becks, for only one or two events and the coaching job will be his main focus. (ANI)
London, May 14 (ANI): Coach Fabio Capello wants David Beckham to join him on the coaching staff at this year’s World Cup.
Becks is currently out of the squad with a ruptured Achilles tendon, but Capello believes he could be of great help behind the scenes, The Sun reports.
Beckham, 35, however, will not be going to the squad”s pre-World Cup training camp in Austria, as he continues the rehabilitation from his injury. Instead, he will fly out with the 23-player party to South Africa on June 2.
The England 2018 bid team want to use the former skipper to help promote their campaign to host the World Cup in eight years” time.
Capello, though, will release Becks, for only one or two events and the coaching job will be his main focus. (ANI)
An Australian soldier has been seriously wounded by a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan.
The soldier was on patrol in the Mirabad Valley region of Uruzgan Province yesterday when an improvised explosive device detonated.
Major General John Cantwell of the Commander Joint Task Force 633 said the soldier suffered blast and fragmentation wounds.
“His mates immediately set about providing first aid and calling for a casualty evacuation helicopter to ensure that he received high quality care as soon as possible,” he said.
“That quick reaction had him at the Tarin Kowt medical facility being prepared for surgery within 50 minutes.”
Major General Cantwell said the explosion could have been catastrophic.
“His body armour, helmet and ballistic eyewear – equipment we wear as often as possible – have all prevented life-threatening injuries,” he said.
“Good basic patrolling discipline such as maintaining spacing has certainly prevented what could have been a more catastrophic event for the patrol.”
The Defence Force says the soldier has a good prognosis for recovery.
Fifteen Australian soldiers have been wounded in Afghanistan this year.
Several former members of the renowned Vienna Boys’ Choir have come forward to tell of abuse by leaders in the 1980s, Der Standard newspaper reported.
The choir set up an emergency hotline last Friday after two former singers told the Austrian newspaper they had been sexually molested.
Since then eight former choir members have come forward, the latest report said.
On the choir’s trips, a teacher would call choirboys one by one to the back of the bus “to question them closely about sexual experiences”, one former member, now 40, was quoted as saying by Der Standard.
The choirboys suffered huge “pressure” in the prestigious choir and “permanent humiliation”, the man said on condition of anonymity, describing the choir as a “concentration camp”.
“All the men are over 40 and were members of the Vienna Boys’ Choir in the 1980s or earlier,” the woman in charge of the hotline, Tina Breckwoldt, told Der Standard.
The choir’s management said in a statement that it aimed to bring “clarity on potential cases, justice and help for victims and avoid future abuse”.
The accounts come amid a growing series of revelations in Austria of sexual abuse at religious institutions, which has led to the suspension of several clergy.
- AFP
In the wake of the latest sex abuse claims in the Catholic Church in Germany, a number of senior clergy have called for a debate on the issue of celibacy in the priesthood.
The Archbishop of Vienna called for a thorough examination of the link between celibacy and child sex abuse by priests and the Archbishop of Salzburg asked whether it was an appropriate way of life for priests today.
But overnight, Pope Benedict quashed any suggestions of a change in the vow of celibacy, calling it the ultimate commitment to God.
Father Thomas Williams, a Catholic priest and professor of theology and ethics in Rome, says there needs to be more study into any links between clerical celibacy and child abuse.
“I think studies need to be done and we need to know whether there is a causal relationship,” he said.
“Is, for example, the incident of child abuse higher among celibate clergy than it is among, for example, non-celibate clergy of other faiths to start?
“Or is it higher among celibate clergy – Catholic priests for example – than it is among other people that work with children; so in public schools, the boy scouts; whatever.
“These are studies that need to be done.”
Since the start of his Papacy in 2005, Pope Benedict has met with abuse victims in the Unites States and in Australia. Now Europe is in the spotlight.
Crimes the Pope called heinous were exposed in Ireland last year, and now in the Pope’s home country of Germany, 19 of the 27 dioceses have been implicated in a flood of allegations of child sex abuse.
Tip of the iceberg
One of the 170 known German cases is Norbit Denoff, who says his soul was murdered by a priest.
“When I was 10 years old the local priest selected me to be an altar boy,” he said.
“I was very excited. After the service, he took me up to his apartment, I felt very proud.
“But he locked the door, sat down and undid my trousers. Then he performed a sexual act on me. At that very moment he murdered my soul.”
Mr Denoff is now 61 years old. The priest who abused him was a friend of his parents. The abuse carried on for five years until a church organisation intervened.
The priest was transferred to a different parish.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” Mr Denoff said.
“If you hear 10 people talking about how they were abused, you can be certain that there are 10,000 more victims remaining silent.
“It’s also misleading to say that the sexual abuse happened 30 years ago and not talk about what is happening now.”
Overnight Germany’s top Catholic cleric met with the Pope and issued a new apology to those affected.
He announced that creation of a watchdog to monitor abuse claims.
London, Aug 21 (ANI): More than 4,000 children in Belfast have attempted to beat the world record for finger painting.
The previous record was set in Austria two years ago and was 699sq ft smaller than the new gigantic spread.
Two adjudicators approved by Guinness World Records are currently examining the artwork to find if it is a new record.
The latest painting was stitched together at the Belfast zoo carpark to produce a massive 22,496.5sq ft canvas.
Northern Ireland Child Minding Association organized the event to mark its 25th anniversary celebrations.
Sky News quoted association director Bridget Nodder as saying: “We wanted to do something a bit different to celebrate our anniversary.”
Belfast Lord Mayor Naomi Long called the effort “a great opportunity for children to get involved in a creative project which is tremendous fun.”
The confirmation of the new record will be known in a couple of weeks. (ANI)
London, Aug 18 (ANI): Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was killed by a bacterial infection akin to MRSA, claim Dutch researchers.
Mozart died at age 35 – young by even 18th century standards. His untimely death has remained a mystery ever since he passed away in the early hours of 5 December 1791.
Some claimed he was poisoned, others said he simply wore himself out by composing more than 600 pieces during his short life.
Now, a group of boffins has suggested that he died from a bacterial infection spread by soldiers which was rife in Vienna at the time, reports The Telegraph.
The researchers, who studied the city’s death register, found that the three most common causes of death among men of his age were tuberculosis, severe weight loss and a condition called ‘oedema’ or ‘dropsy’ – an accumulation of fluids causing the body to swell up.
And, Mozart’s symptoms match the last of the three, according to Dr Richard Zeger, from the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, who said it could have been caused by a bacterial infection.
He said: “I think you can compare this to a superbug like MRSA or C.difficile.”
Mozart’s sister-in-law Sophie Haibel, who saw him days before he died, said he was covered in a rash – consistent with a bacterial infection – and severely swollen – consistent with oedema or dropsy.
At the time Vienna was full of soldiers from the Austro-Turkish war who had been struck down by disease.
Zeger said: “Austria was at war at the time so people were living in a bad condition and most of the deaths were among soldiers. You can see there was clearly an epidemic and we found that it started in a military hospital. There was some kind of inflammatory disease that almost everyone contracted and some people died. It was an epidemic of oedema, which is a collection of fluid.
“When your kidneys fail, they can’t secrete body fluids so fluid accumulates in your body, which causes people to swell up and get worse and worse.”
This kind of a condition could have been caused by being infected with bacteria from the Staphylococcus aureus (SA) family, or which MRSA is a more recent member.
“Mozart’s body had swollen up so badly he was not able to turn around any more in his bed, showing he had post-streptococcal complications,” said Zeger.
In those times, antibiotics like penicillin were nowhere present, so strictly speaking the bacteria would not have been a ‘super’ bug as it could not have developed any resistance in the way that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has done.
Zeger postulated: “We still see the streptococcal infection today in close communities like schools and armies so that would be a good reason behind the epidemic.
“In Mozart’s time, several soldiers in the army were also musicians who might have performed in Vienna, where Mozart might have contracted it.” (ANI)
London, July 13 (ANI): A study carried out by American bioscience company Martek suggests that taking fish oil supplements can reduce memory loss in old age.
Dr Karin Yurko-Mauro, a researcher associated with the company, has revealed that taking a supplement of omega 3 for six months had a beneficial effect on people with age-related forgetfulness and loss of learning ability during the study.
The research team tested the affect of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), the most commonly found in fish oil, on 485 healthy people with an average age of 70, and found that memory and general brain function increased significantly.
According to the study report, taking 900mg capsules every day was found to be the equivalent of turning back the clock three years.
The researchers hope that future studies will provide promising results suggesting that the fatty acid may help stave off Alzheimer’s disease, if new techniques can be found to diagnose it before it take holds.
Dr Yurko-Mauro said that the participants who took the supplements had “almost double the reduction in errors on a test that measures learning and memory performance.”
“The benefit is roughly equivalent to having the learning and memory skills of someone three years younger,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.
Dr. William Thies, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at the Alzheimer’s Association, feels that it is “too early” to make a recommendation about use of DHA supplements to prevent loss of mental function.
“In high doses, DHA does have side effects, so you would want to see a benefit to justify the risk you are taking. We need more work for that,” he said.
A presentation on the study was made at the international Alzheimer’s Association meeting in Vienna, Austria. (ANI)
Agra (Uttar Pradesh), July 7 (ANI): Soaring temperature has made life miserable for people in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra city, as the city continues to reel under intense heat wave situation on Tuesday.
People who were earlier hoping to get some respite from the monsoon showers are now upset as there has been scanty rainfall in the region.
The scorching sun has aggravated the heat in the area and the temperature recorded in the past couple of days has oscillated between 43 and 44 degrees Celsius.
Tourists who frequent the city to visit ‘Taj Mahal’ have been forced to endure a tough time coping with the intense heat.
“It’s very hot and not so comfortable. Not so fine to stand here for few hours,” said Staniel, a tourist from Austria.
The unusual heat wave has forced people to remain indoors while the roads have been presenting a deserted look in the city. (ANI)
Washington, July 2 (ANI): Researchers from across Europe have united to build the largest quantum key distribution (QKD) network ever built.
The efforts of 41 research and industrial organisations were realised as secure, quantum encrypted information was sent over an eight node, mesh network.
With an average link length of 20 to 30 kilometres, and the longest link being 83 kilometres, the researchers from organisations such as the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Toshiba Research in the UK, Siemens, and many more have broken all previous records and taken another huge stride towards practical implementation of secure, quantum-encrypted communication networks.
Undertaken in late 2008, using the company internal glass fibre ring of Siemens and 4 of its dependencies across Vienna plus a repeater station, near St. Polten in Lower Austria, the QKD demonstration involved secure telephone communication and video-conference as well as a rerouting experiment which demonstrated the functionality of the SEcure COmmunication network based on Quantum Cryptography (SECOQC).
One of the first practical applications to emerge from advances in the sometimes baffling study of quantum mechanics, quantum cryptography has become a soon-to-be reached benchmark in secure communications.
Quantum mechanics describes the fundamental nature of matter at the atomic level and offers very intriguing, often counter-intuitive, explanations to help us understand the building blocks that construct the world around us.
Quantum cryptography uses the quantum mechanical behaviour of photons, the fundamental particles of light, to enable highly secure transmission of data beyond that achievable by classical methods.
The photons themselves are used to distribute cryptographic key to access encrypted information, such as a highly sensitive transaction file that, say, a bank wishes to keep completely confidential, which can be sent along practical communication lines, made of fibre optics.
Quantum indeterminacy, the quantum mechanics dictum which states that measuring an unknown quantum state will change it, means that the information cannot be accessed by a third party without corrupting it beyond recovery and therefore making the act of hacking futile.
According to the researchers, “In our paper we have put forward, for the first time, a systematic design that allows unrestricted scalability and interoperability of QKD technologies.” (ANI)
London, June 19 (ANI): WH Smith, the British newspaper, books and stationery retailer, has come under fire for promoting a book on Austrian incest fiend Josef Fritzl as a Father’s Day gift.
The Crimes of Josef Fritzl, written by journalists Stefanie Marsh and Bojan Pancevski, details how the 74-year-old kept daughter Elisabeth captive for 24 years in a rat-infested cellar at Amstetten, Austria.
Fritzl, now serving life, raped her constantly and she had seven children by him.
Shocked shoppers could not believe when they saw the tome on a “Top 50 Books for Dad” display which also proclaimed “Dads Are Heroes”, reports The Sun.
Matt James, who was searching for a gift at the WH Smith branch in South London, said: “Are they mad? He’s probably the worst dad in the world. What he did to his children was horrible.”
The book promoted alongside more traditional gifts written by the likes of Dan Brown and Jeremy Clarkson.
Dad Ian Bennett, 44, said: “I’d wonder what they were trying to tell me. What person in their right mind would want to be reminded of that monster on Father’s Day?”
Rowena Langlois, 50, said: “It seems like some kind of sick joke. Has anyone in the company actually sat down and thought about this?”
WH Smith called the blunder “a mistake by one store”.
A spokeswoman said: “Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It is not national policy. We will rectify this immediately.” (ANI)
London, June 19 (ANI): Natascha Kampusch, who made headlines around the world when she was able to escape her kidnapper after being held for eight years in a dungeon in Austria, is reportedly in talks to strip off to promote animal rights.
After becoming the new face of PETA in Austria, Kampusch is apparently planning to bare all to protest against animal cruelty, reports The Sun.
A PETA spokesman said: “It’s possible, but not arranged yet.”
Yesterday, the 21-year-old sent a letter to Ilse Aigner, the agriculture minister in Germany where the PETA campaign is being organised, asking for freedom of zoo animals.
“It is up to you whether social, intelligent and wonderful creatures are to be freed from their chains and cages where ruthless people keep them.
“The animals would, if they could, flee as I did, because a life in captivity is a life full of deprivation,” she wrote.
Kampusch escaped from a basement in Strasshof just outside Vienna in August 2006 after being kidnapped and held there for eight years by Wolfgang Priklopil. (ANI)
London, June 19 : Natascha Kampusch, who made headlines around the world when she was able to escape her kidnapper after being held for eight years in a dungeon in Austria, is reportedly in talks to strip off to promote animal rights.
After becoming the new face of PETA in Austria, Kampusch is apparently planning to bare all to protest against animal cruelty, reports The Sun.
A PETA spokesman said: “It”s possible, but not arranged yet.”
Yesterday, the 21-year-old sent a letter to Ilse Aigner, the agriculture minister in Germany where the PETA campaign is being organised, asking for freedom of zoo animals.
“It is up to you whether social, intelligent and wonderful creatures are to be freed from their chains and cages where ruthless people keep them.
“The animals would, if they could, flee as I did, because a life in captivity is a life full of deprivation,” she wrote.
Kampusch escaped from a basement in Strasshof just outside Vienna in August 2006 after being kidnapped and held there for eight years by Wolfgang Priklopil.
Amritsar, May 27 (ANI): Sikh leaders and diaspora across world have condemned the violence in Vienna and in Punjab.
Talking from San Francisco, Dr. Pritpal Singh, the convener of the American Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (AGPC), said:
“Violence has never been a solution of any problem. If there are any differences, they should be solved through dialogue.”
He said Sikhs were having strong relationship with the “Dalit Samaj” and this brotherhood should continue. He appealed to the Government of Punjab to take appropriate measures to restore peace in the state.
After 9/11 in US, Sikhs living in US and other parts of the world were mistakenly identified with Arabs due to similarity in appearance. Sikhs leaders opine that such acts of violence give a jolt to the peaceful Sikh community worldwide.
Ranjit Singh Masuta, a Sikh leader in Switzerland, said the Government of Punjab should strongly take action against those who have disrupted public life over the last few days.
“We already have been victimizing for mistaken identity of the Sikhs. Such incidents could further damaged the image of the Sikhs living outside India,” a worried Masuta said. r. Rajwant Singh, the Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE), in Washington DC, said: “We condemn the violence which took place in Vienna, Austria. He said it need to be categorically condemned by all Sikhs without going into the merits of the issue. No issue requires taking law into your own hand no matter what the provocation is. We are saddened by this terrible tragedy. We appeal everyone to maintain peace and calm at all cost.”armjit Singh Sarna, the President of the Delhi Sikh Management Committee (DSGMC), said there are many other ways to tackle the problems besides violence.
He said that those who follow Sikhism should also know the Sikh code of conduct as evolved by the Akal Takht Sahib, the high temporal seat of the Sikhs. He appeals to the people of Punjab to maintain the peace that has comes after long time.
Alleging that the Government of Punjab has failed to restore peace in Punjab, he said a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry should be conducted against the Punjab Government..xpressing concern over the present Sikh issue, Ragubir Singh, a Sikh leader from France said that such incidents undoubtedly cause a major setback to Sikh interests at the international level.
He said that we already have been working hard day and night to convey the European Government about the peace loving Sikh community. He said that we must keep larger interest of the community when we confront with various differences within the community.t is pertinent to mention that in France and in other European countries Sikhs have been facing problem like wearing Turban and their other religious symbols.
Meanwhile, the Jathedar Akal Takht, Gyani Gurbachan Singh, has expressed sympathy and solidarity with the victims of Vienna incident and urged their followers in Punjab to maintain peace and tranquility. By Ravinder Singh Robin (ANI)
Chandigarh, May 26 (ANI): Curfew was relaxed for a brief while in some parts of Punjab on Tuesday, though there were reports of sporadic violence.
On Tuesday, the atmosphere in the northern state was still tense, a day after two protestors were killed in large-scale violence and arson sparked by the killing of a leader of a Sikh sect in Vienna, Austria. Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal will preside over an all-party meeting that will take stock of the overall situation and make appropriate recommendations.
The state government had to call in the army in four cities — Phagwara, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Jalandhar to bring the situation under control. No traffic is being allowed into Ludhiana till 2 p.m.
At least 45 persons including 20 policemen were injured as followers of the Dera Sachkhand Ballan Sikh sect and various Dalit organisations fought pitched battles with security personnel and indulged in vandalism.
Rail and road traffic were badly hit while trains were stranded in several stations in the state. Police said that in all there were 86 incidents of violence in Punjab.
The protesters torched four bogies of Jammu-Kanyakumari express at Jalandhar but the passengers left the train leaving behind their luggage’s to protect themselves from the violent mob.
On Monday night, an SAD municipal councillor killed a protestor allegedly in self-defence after being attacked in Jalandhar district where authorities relaxed curfew for two hours on Tuesday.
A mob allegedly attacked SAD councillor Balbir Singh Bittu and burnt his car. Bittu opened fire at the mob in which Vijay was killed.
Jalandhar is a stronghold of the Dera Sach Khand, a Sikh sect comprised of mainly Dalits who took to the streets in protest against the death of one of their gurus Sant Raman Nand during a clash between rival Sikh communities in a Vienna Gurudwara.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the situation was under control and claimed violent incidents was limited only to a few pockets in Jalandhar and its surrounding areas.
“The situation is normal, there is no violence at this moment and some incidents which took place today were limited to a few pockets, mostly in Jalandhar,” Badal and his deputy and son Sukhbir Badal, who is also the SAD president, said while condemning the Vienna incident.
Meanwhile, police in Vienna said investigations are still on. The Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said that he has assured the Indian Government that the culprits involved in the attack would be brought to book. (ANI)