Your new one place stop for news from the land of Mozart, Hitler and Swarovski!
http://www.thelocal.at/20150113/german-axe-killer-lives-with-corpse-for-three-months
QuoteGerman axe killer kept body for three months
On Tuesday evening police arrested a 52-year-old German man in Vienna for the apparent axe murder of his room mate.
Vienna's specialized armed police unit WEGA arrived around 10 pm in the messie apartment building in Aichholzgasse, to find the badly decomposed body of an as-yet unidentified victim, with the axe still embedded in the corpse, and covered with a blanket.
The apartment was totally trashed, according to police, but was still home to the suspect, who is thought to have lived with the body in the living room for around three and a half months.
The suspect surrendered himself peacefully in the bedroom.
While police don't have confirmation of the corpse's identity, they suspect that a 50-year-old migrant worker from Poland who was sharing the apartment became the victim after some kind of dispute.
Police spokesman Paul Eidenberger said that the 52-year-old suspect had been staying with a friend, and had complained he couldn't sleep at his own apartment because of the body in the living room. The friend told another friend, who was so disturbed that he contacted the police station in Ottakring.
According to the acquaintance, the German suspect was suffering from a severe mental illness. He has already confessed to the murder in custody, however the background of the killing and the identity of the victim have not been disclosed.
The Vienna prosecutor's office has ordered an autopsy.
I find it amusing that only the friend of a friend was disturbed enough to call the police. :lol:
Also, a man in Styria is collecting girl's braids.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150112/plait-thief-strikes-again-in-styria
QuoteCreepy 'plait thief' strikes again in Styria
Police are appealing for witnesses after a strange man cut off a seven-year-old's long plaited hair as she was on her way to school in eastern Styria last week.
Police fear that a man known locally as the "Zopfabschneider" (plait cutter) is back after going quiet for a few years. In April 2011 there were several reported incidents of a man aged between 40 and 50, who spoke the local dialect, approaching young girls and snipping off their plaits.
He was described as balding, with short grey hair and stubble. He was dressed in a black jacket with a neon green lining and blue jeans. He also wore a black woolen hat edged with blue, and brown shoes.
In the latest incident a seven-year-old girl and her nine-year-old brother were on their way to school in Bad Gleichenberg at 7.15am on Thursday when a man aged between 40 and 50 approached them, spoke to them, and walked down the road with them.
As they passed the tourism school he took a pair of silver scissors out of his jacket and cut off the little girl's plait. He then ran away, and the children ran to school and reported what had happened.
Despite these, I still believe that the world can benefit from having more Germans. A lot more.
Quote from: Monoriu on January 14, 2015, 06:24:29 AM
Despite these, I still believe that the world can benefit from having more Germans. A lot more.
:hmm:
Quote from: Monoriu on January 14, 2015, 06:24:29 AM
Despite these, I still believe that the world can benefit from having more Germans. A lot more.
Friendly tip: don't say to an Austrian that he's German. They can get mad about it. :ph34r:
Maybe if Germans acted more like Zee Germans and less like the girl on the Swiss Miss box, Russia wouldn't be as annoying these days. Goddammit.
Quote from: Syt on January 14, 2015, 04:23:13 AM
I find it amusing that only the friend of a friend was disturbed enough to call the police. :lol:
He was probably a foreigner. :P
I can't believe Austria is still a country.
Didn't someone put an end to that in 1938?
Quote from: The Larch on January 14, 2015, 07:20:45 AM
Friendly tip: don't say to an Austrian that he's German. They can get mad about it. :ph34r:
Luckily for Mono, Syt's a German living in Austria. :contract:
http://www.thelocal.at/20150115/hitlers-childhood-home-in-legal-battle
QuoteHitler's childhood home in legal battle
Austria's government has made an offer to buy the house where Adolf Hitler spent his early years, and is looking at options that would allow it to expropriate the house should the owner refuse to sell.
The move is the latest in efforts by the government to ensure that the house does not become a shrine for Hitler's admirers.
Municipal officials in Braunau, where the house is located, already complain that it draws neo-Nazi visitors to the town.
Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundböck said on Wednesday that his ministry expects expert opinions by the end of the month on expropriation and other legal options - which he stressed would be a "last resort".
He said that won't be necessary if the owner - a woman whom authorities have refused to identify - accepts a government offer to buy it and agrees to a fair price, as the house is in need of some renovation.
She reportedly has turned down past offers, however.
The Interior Ministry has been the main tenant of the building since 1972, subletting it to various charitable organisations. But the building has stood empty since a workshop for the mentally disabled moved out more than three years ago.
The approximately 800 square metre property currently costs €4,800 a month. The tenancy agreement states that it may not be used as a museum, or in any historical context, and that the owner must consent to any new tenant.
The most recent suggestion was that it could be used as an adult education centre, but the owner rejected this plan, reportedly because of the renovations the house would need.
So yeah, this has been going on for years. The owner has in recent years refused offers to sell, vetoed any new use of the property, and also refuses to cover costs of necessary repairs and renovations. At the same time, the houses in the street have been under protection since before the war for their historic value.
The only solutions are either dispossession (which is a huge legal fight), or waiting for the house to deteriorate to the point where it's a safety hazard and has to be either repaired by the owner or torn down (which will also be a long legal fight).
The entrance still bears the initials "MB", btw, from when Martin Bormann owned the place. When Hitler drove through Braunau during the Anschluss, eye witnesses say that he didn't look at his birth house even once, and never visited the town after.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150119/russian-mobster-nabbed-at-vienna-railway-station
QuoteRussian mobster nabbed at Vienna railway station
Austrian police commandos have arrested the alleged head of an "extremely brutal" Russian organised crime gang wanted for a string of killings in the north Caucasus, authorities said Monday.
The group "is believed to have carried out numerous murders of government officials and leading police officers and their families from 2008" in North Ossetia, Austrian federal police said.
The alleged victims include the Russian republic's deputy vice-president, the deputy public prosecutor, a mayor and the chief of police, they said in a statement.
The gang's head, Aslan Gagiev, 43, who was arrested at Vienna's main train station on Saturday, allegedly personally shot dead at least six people in 2012-13 and seriously injured three others.
Gagiev fled abroad in 2013 and Interpol Moscow last December informed Austrian authorities that he might be living there, prompting local police to investigate.
Gagiev, who was using a forged Bulgarian passport, was "completely surprised" when he was arrested and did not resist. He will be extradited to Russia, the Austrian police said.
And this is also ongoing:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/17/us-austria-saudi-centre-idUSKBN0KQ0KA20150117
QuoteAustria mulls quitting Saudi-backed religious center in Vienna
(Reuters) - Chancellor Werner Faymann has called for Austria to withdraw from a Saudi-sponsored religious dialogue center in Vienna that has become embroiled in controversy over Saudi Arabia's human rights record.
He became the latest and most senior Austrian politician to suggest quitting the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), which was opened in 2012.
Riyadh paid for the baroque palace that houses the center, and is footing its budget for the first three years.
"This center does not fulfill at all the mandate of dialogue and is silent about basic issues of human rights. We will not tolerate this. It is clear to me from today's perspective that we should get out," Faymann told newspaper Der Standard in an interview published on Saturday.
Austria has been particularly critical in recent days over Saudi Arabia's flogging of an atheist and civil rights blogger, sentenced to 1,000 lashes for charges including insulting Islam.
The Foreign Ministry called in the Saudi ambassador to protest, although a second round of public flogging scheduled for Friday was postponed.
Former Justice Minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner, the center's deputy head who came under fire last year for comments that appeared to play down Saudi Arabia's human rights record, told the APA news agency she would soon resign from the post.
Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz of the conservative People's Party has called for restraint while he draws up a report by mid-year on whether KAICIID is adhering to its mission.
Austrian President Heinz Fischer and Roman Catholic Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn have also warned against rash action.
Despite Riyadh's funding, KAICIID is not a Saudi entity.
It is backed by an international treaty signed by Austria, Spain and Saudi Arabia. The Vatican is a founding observer and gets representation on its board, which by treaty must have three Christians, three Muslims, a Jew, a Hindu and a Buddhist.
Last November, senior Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders condemned violence by jihadi militants such as Islamic State at a KAICIID conference.
No one at the center was immediately available for comment on Faymann's intervention.
Bandion-Ortner (a former judge) was criticized for saying that the full cover up of women in Saudi-Arabis isn't so bad, and that the dress actually feels comfy, kind of like a judge's robe. Oh, and telling critics that it's not like there's public flogging/executions
every Friday.
Quote from: Syt on January 20, 2015, 04:40:29 AM
and that the dress actually feels comfy, kind of like a judge's robe.
If only we all could walk around with nothing on underneath. Think how liberating.
Quote from: The Larch on January 14, 2015, 07:20:45 AM
Quote from: Monoriu on January 14, 2015, 06:24:29 AM
Despite these, I still believe that the world can benefit from having more Germans. A lot more.
Friendly tip: don't say to an Austrian that he's German. They can get mad about it. :ph34r:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsVGtLAYRDA
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/11359867/British-paratrooper-charged-with-rape-of-six-year-old-Austrian-girl.html
QuoteBritish paratrooper charged with rape of six-year-old Austrian girl
Unnamed British paratrooper charged with rape and grievous sexual abuse of a minor after allegedly climbing into girl's bedroom while in Austria on week of ski training
Austrian prosecutors said on Wednesday that they have charged a British soldier for allegedly breaking into a local family's house and sexually abusing their six-year-old daughter.
The paratrooper, 30, who has not been named, has been charged with rape and grievous sexual abuse of a minor, said Hansjoerg Mayr, public prosecutor in the western Austrian state of Tyrol.
"The trial will start on March 10," Mr Mayr said. The defendant faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
The soldier, who was taking part in a week of ski training in the Alps, was tackled by the girl's father in the house in Neustift during the alleged incident late last year, and has been in Austrian custody ever since.
He is serving with 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.
An Army spokesman said in December, shortly after his arrest: "The Army is aware of the arrest and detention of a soldier in Neustift, Austria, on the morning of 29 November. This is a matter for the Austrian authorities and it would be inappropriate for us to comment further."
According to the Austrian newspaper Heute, the girl's father caught the "half-naked" soldier in the act of attacking his daughter, and "beat him bloody" before police arrived.
The soldier broke into a house in the small town Neustift, in the Stubaital valley, an area of ski resorts south of Innsbruck, gaining access to the girl's bedroom through a window.
Neustift, which has fewer than 5,000 permanent inhabitants, attracts more than a million overnight visitors each year.
Two things:
1. Parachute horse artillery - cool concept :lol: (I know they probably don't have horses anymore)
2. This seems like a weird assault - did he walk around town peeking into windows looking for a sleeping little girl? I didn't see anything on whether the soldier knew the family, or on which floor he broke in.
Quote from: Syt on January 23, 2015, 03:13:26 AM
1. Parachute horse artillery - cool concept :lol: (I know they probably don't have horses anymore)
People's Liberation Army Reserve Force, 1994.
"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun carried by a horse that has been pushed out of an airplane."--Mao
I'm reminded of what a wargame designer once said about researching the British Army: "The first thing you have to do is put out of your mind what a unit is called, and instead look at what its OOB shows it to be." With any army, you have to look at whether or not units actually has the equipment their OOB says they should have (lots of times, they don't--for example, many Soviet Tank divisions in mid-1941 could be more accurately called "bunches of men who are supposed to have been trained in armored warfare and would have eventually been equipped with tanks if the Germans had waited another year or so to invade"), but in the British Army, something called the 5th Tank Regiment might be anything from a searchlight battery to a field kitchen to a corps HQ. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but less of one than you might think.
Quote from: Syt on January 23, 2015, 03:13:26 AM
Two things:
1. Parachute horse artillery - cool concept :lol: (I know they probably don't have horses anymore)
2. This seems like a weird assault - did he walk around town peeking into windows looking for a sleeping little girl? I didn't see anything on whether the soldier knew the family, or on which floor he broke in.
I'm impressed by the dad.
I always heard that airborne soldiers were elite.
So this dad caught an elite soldier (allegedly) assaulting his daughter - and beat the shit outta him ("beat him bloody"), then held him for the cops.
One of the tourist shirts you can buy here is "No kangaroos in Austria" in reference to the similarity of names between Austria and Australia.
Currently, though, a kangaroo is on the loose. Three escaped recently in Upper Austria. Two have been caught, but the third seems to enjoy its new found freedom. It keeps coming to lady's garden, though. She keeps plying him with food, hoping to make the recapture easier.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles2.orf.at%2Fslides2%2Fooemagazin%2F53328%2F220635%2F1422454761760_58rpketn.jpg&hash=0e83cdad0d4ea35974a997a9850cdabe77d5562a)
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles2.orf.at%2Fslides2%2Fooemagazin%2F53328%2F220633%2F1422454761120_346odcl3.jpg&hash=dd4bf19cd4933b9b1c6903647abf8446b8f4f327)
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles2.orf.at%2Fslides2%2Fooemagazin%2F53328%2F220634%2F1422454761460_trszsp4w.jpg&hash=987203cfbcad1a42c215111be5806f25409eb90f)
According to experts the animal can survive the winter without problem, so it's in no immediate danger.
Quote from: Syt on January 28, 2015, 02:11:13 PM
One of the tourist shirts you can buy here is "No kangaroos in Austria" in reference to the similarity of names between Austria and Australia.
http://youtu.be/VRIUbFLjtX0
:P
:P
http://www.thelocal.at/20150219/nazi-ritual-murder-suspect-mentally-ill
QuoteNazi ritual murder suspect 'mentally ill'
The investigation into the brutal murder of a young woman in Saalfelden, Pinzgau last autumn has uncovered more evidence that it was a ritual killing committed by an insane man, according to the accused's lawyer.
The body of 20-year-old Mirela B., a Bosnian-born waitress, was found in pool of blood in the bathroom of the suspect's mother's apartment on October 9th.
She had been stabbed multiple times. It was reported that she had Nazi symbols carved into her skin, had been raped, and that the suspect had eaten parts of her body.
A 21-year-old man was found at the crime scene and arrested for her murder. He is currently in Salzburg prison, awaiting trial.
His lawyer, Liane Hirschbrich, told the Austrian Press Agency that a forensic examination of the crime suggests that her client was suffering from "delusions" which led him to commit the gruesome slaying.
She added that his mental state was even worse than previously suspected. "The findings indicate that this is an offense that no normal human being could commit," she said. "My client is sick, and he needs to be admitted to a special institution where his mental illness can be treated," she said.
However, according to Salzburg-based neuro-psychiatrist Ernst Griebnitz the young man has a severe personality disorder but is sane, and fit to stand trial.
Hirschbrich is demanding that another well-known forensic psychiatrist, Reinhard Haller, should examine her client.
The suspect was drunk when he was arrested and was apparently friends with Mirela. He confessed to her murder.
So is the psycho killer per citizen rate drastically higher in Austria than anywhere else, or what?
Quote from: Tamas on February 20, 2015, 06:26:20 AM
So is the psycho killer per citizen rate drastically higher in Austria than anywhere else, or what?
They are still traumatized by the Nazi aggression. :(
Quote from: Tamas on February 20, 2015, 06:26:20 AM
So is the psycho killer per citizen rate drastically higher in Austria than anywhere else, or what?
We don't get many murders, but the ones we do get have a chance of being noteworthy.
Quote from: Syt on February 20, 2015, 06:14:39 AM
The suspect was drunk when he was arrested and was apparently friends with Mirela.
Apparently not. ;)
Quote from: Malthus on January 27, 2015, 03:02:51 PM
Quote from: Syt on January 23, 2015, 03:13:26 AM
Two things:
1. Parachute horse artillery - cool concept :lol: (I know they probably don't have horses anymore)
2. This seems like a weird assault - did he walk around town peeking into windows looking for a sleeping little girl? I didn't see anything on whether the soldier knew the family, or on which floor he broke in.
I'm impressed by the dad.
I always heard that airborne soldiers were elite.
So this dad caught an elite soldier (allegedly) assaulting his daughter - and beat the shit outta him ("beat him bloody"), then held him for the cops.
You would be mistaken.
Oops.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150224/kazakh-ex-diplomat-aliyev-found-dead-in-vienna-jail
QuoteKazakh ex-diplomat found dead in Vienna jail
Rakhat Aliyev, an opponent and former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president, was found dead Tuesday in an apparent suicide at an Austrian jail just before he was due to testify against alleged extortion, authorities said.
Aliyev, 52, used strips of gauze bandages to hang himself from a coat hook in the bathroom of his Josefstadt jail cell, which he occupied alone, said Peter Prechtl, head of prison administration.
The businessman and former diplomat had been in custody in Vienna since June after turning himself in to face charges he killed two bank managers from Kazakhstan who disappeared in 2007 and whose bodies were found four years later.
Aliyev has denied the accusations and was due to go on trial in April.
A Kazakh court had already convicted him of murder in the case and sentenced him to 40 years in prison.
However Aliyev sought refuge in Austria, which refused to extradite him back to Kazakhstan saying he would not get a fair trial.
Before falling from grace in 2007, the former Kazakh ambassador to Austria was married to Dariga, the eldest daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who holds an iron grip on the ex-Soviet republic.
Aliyev's death came as he was to testify on Tuesday in the trial of two inmates he alleged had demanded payment or they would kill him and make it look like a suicide.
"There is a presumption that someone killed him," said Stefan Prochaska, one of Aliyev's lawyers.
Another Aliyev lawyer, Klaus Ainedter, said he has "considerable doubts" his client committed suicide and demanded a full investigation.
Prechtl told the Austrian Press Agency that Aliyev had requested a single cell in the prison's hospital unit. He was not considered a suicide risk and was graded "green" in the corrections department system, which meant he could be left unattended.
Aliyev blamed his fall from grace on his presidential ambitions which led to him becoming a fierce opponent of Nazarbayev.
However the Kazakh opposition never accepted Aliyev into their fold, alleging he had participated in government political repression since the 1990s.
Nazarbayev has been at the head of Kazakhstan since its independence in 1991 and since 2010 has held the title "leader of the nation" which gives him lifetime decision-making powers over the country's major policies.
Also, Wild West in Vienna!
http://www.thelocal.at/20150224/two-injured-after-vienna-shootings
QuoteTwo injured after Vienna shootings
Police were in a shoot-out with an armed burglar in Floridsdorf on Monday evening after catching him and an accomplice breaking and entering a business in Helene-Richter-Gasse, not far from the border with Lower Austria.
Witnesses reported seeing a massive firefight at around 7.45pm, with at least ten shots fired.
One of the burglars, a 47-year-old Austrian man, was critically injured after being hit twice in the upper body and once in the leg.
It has since emerged that he is a convicted double murderer who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a policeman and a drug dealer in 1989.
He was released in 2009 after a psychologist classified him as harmless.
Police spokesman Paul Eidenberger said that he fired two shots at the police, who then pursued him through a housing estate.
After shooting and injuring him police approached him as he lay on the ground and he threatened to detonate a hand grenade.
However, the officers overpowered him and seized a gun and the grenade. None of the officers involved were injured. The man's 63-year-old accomplice did not resist arrest.
The injured man was taken to Vienna General Hospital and is reported to be in a coma, but doctors said his life is no longer in danger.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a 31-year-old Serbian man is in a critical condition after being shot in front of a Billa supermarket in Liesing on Monday evening at about 6.30pm in Purkytgasse.
A police spokesman said that a fight broke out among two men over a USB stick. One man shot the other at close range with a handgun and then ran off, leaving the seriously injured man lying on the ground.
Police tracked the gunman with helicopters, using thermal imaging. They surrounded a house but the man was able to escape.
QuoteIt has since emerged that he is a convicted double murderer who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a policeman and a drug dealer in 1989.
He was released in 2009 after a psychologist classified him as harmless.
Well...I bet that psychologist is glad none of the cops were injured.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150303/la-familia-drug-clan-busted-in-vienna
Quote'La Familia' drug clan busted in Vienna
Vienna police have busted a family of drug dealers and arrested 18 people including the clan head who is said to have made his children addicted to cocaine so that they would be "better dealers".
The 43-year-old father-of-three controlled the gang who called themselves La Familia, and who made around €56,000 a month selling cocaine and marijuana on the streets of the capital.
The father, his wife, his 19-year-old twin sons and 22-year-old daughter, as well as the daughter's two exes and her current boyfriend were the main players. A 44-year-old dealer who lives in a villa in Lower Austria and a 49-year-old benefits recipient who dealt out of a large house in Vienna's Donaustadt were also arrested in raids last week.
Police said that the 43-year-old head of the clan was a particularly nasty character. As well as encouraging his own children to use drugs so as to know their product better he also forced his daughter to retract a statement she made to police after being abused and raped by her 33-year-old boyfriend.
The gang's regular customers included a woman who regularly bought marijuana for her 12-year-old daughter.
The head of the clan led a double life - in the morning he worked in a garage north of Vienna, but in the afternoon he sold drugs and organized deals from his home in Donaustadt.
His 46-year-old wife (his children's stepmother) was in charge of managing the money but also helped her husband mix and deal the drugs, and sometimes transported them to her husband's company address.
His children and his daughter's former lovers were responsible for supplying the customers, mainly from a flat in Floridsdorf. One of the twins was also responsible for running a marijuana plantation with approximately 350 plants, located next to a tennis court in Floridsdorf. The second son sold drugs near his home in Meidling.
The 22-year-old daughter and her abusive boyfriend picked up drugs from her father and delivered them to selected customers, as well as selling from their apartment in Landstrasse. One of the daughter's exes also sold drugs from his workplace - a snack bar in Kaisermühlen. Police said that in order to buy drugs from the clan he took money from the bar's till.
After having the clan under observation, 130 police officers including narcotics detectives as well as special forces police stormed 15 addresses in Vienna and Lower Austria on February 23rd. Eighteen people were arrested within the space of an hour, and most of the family have confessed.
Police found €28,000 worth of cash as well as drugs, shotguns, gas guns, a crossbow, a dagger and a machete. Around 350 cannabis plants were destroyed.
Charming people all around, but I'm betting they're small fry against the really big drug pushers.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150325/psychotic-shaolin-monk-injures-six-police-officers
QuotePsychotic 'Shaolin monk' injures six police officers
Six police officers in Vienna were injured by a psychotic man dressed as a Shaolin monk and wielding a Samurai sword on Monday.
Police spokesman Roman Hahslinger told the Austria Press Agency that the drama started when a woman in an apartment in Kudlichgasse, in the Favoriten district, heard a loud knocking on her door at 2:00am.
She opened the door to find a bald-headed man she had never met before dressed in an orange monk's robe, and armed with a large sword. He pushed his way into her home, and she ran out and called the police.
Three police officers arrived at the building shortly afterwards and found the 39-year-old man in the stairwell.
They surprised him with pepper spray and managed to knock the sword out of his hand but all three officers were seriously injured in the scuffle. As the man seemed to be suffering from mental illness they took him to the Rufolfstiftung psychiatric hospital.
However, he managed to escape from the hospital just hours later and was spotted in Meidling cemetery wearing a white hospital gown.
When three police officers arrived he karate kicked and punched them. Again, they had to use pepper spray to subdue him and then took him back to hospital.
Is Austria: the Florida of Europe? :hmm:
Why are there so many nut cases in Austria?
Impossible! Nobody from Austria could be dangerously insane.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150428/pro-smokers-to-protest-in-front-of-parliament
QuotePro smoking lobby to protest at parliament
Bar and restaurant owners as well as die-hard smokers are demonstrating in front of Austria's parliament on Tuesday afternoon in protest against the general smoking ban which will come into force in May 2018.
Opponents of the ban have gathered 300,000 signatures, many from those who work in the catering industry and believe their businesses will suffer as a result of the ban.
Currently, smoking is banned in public places in Austria under a 2009 law but restaurants and cafes are exempted and the legislation is not tightly enforced.
The organisers of the demonstration, two prominent Viennese restaurant owners, say they plan to "put out smoke signals" on behalf of private businesses and the protest is supported by the Chamber of Commerce.
"The demo aims to show that restaurateurs should be able to decide for themselves what their guests can and can't do. We want a referendum, so that finally the topic can be laid to rest," Heinz Pollischansky told Austrian broadcaster ORF.
The Chamber of Commerce may file a suit in the constitutional court, on behalf of restaurateurs who it says have invested a total of €150 million to create smoking and non-smoking areas in their establishments.
Meanwhile anti-smoking groups have said in an open letter to the economics minister that the three-year 'transition period' which gives businesses time to adjust before the ban comes into force is "shameful and scandalous".
Robert Rockenberger from the Austrian Society for the Protection of Non-Smokers said the three-year grace period was "unacceptable - all restaurant and bar owners need to do to convert their establishments is get rid of the ashtrays".
Austrian politics in action. Yes, a ban is coming, but we'll have a three year(!) transition phase.
A lot of the ire from the bar/restaurant owners is due to the most recent law which came into effect a few years ago, which ruled that establishments below a certain size can choose to be smoking or non-smoking, whereas larger places had to have separate smoking/non-smoking sections. A lot of places had to create those physical barriers.
And quite frankly, if a place has a smoking section, you might as well sit there, because the separation is often so poor that even sitting in the nonsmoking area you'll smell like an ashtray afterwards. Not to mention that the smoking sections are often at the entrance of the restaurant/bar, or at the main bar where you go order drinks, or you have to pass through on the way to the loo. Or the doors between the two are permanently open to allow waiters to pass through.
Based on that, I try to avoid places that have smoking sections, even if non-smoking areas are available.
At any rate, many places put quite some money in following the soon to be obsolete law and now want their investment back.
They did the same thing here, and it was a total failure. A couple of years down the line a total smoking ban was established, making the bar and restaurant owners that set up the separations look like doofuses. We haven't looked back since then, it has been a great improvement.
The separations were government mandated; and it was actually strictly enforced (which is unusual for Austria), so if your establishment was above a certain size, you had to do them. Now, that was 5 or 6 years ago, and you can probably argue that from an accounting point of view a lot of the expense has already been written off. :P
Quote from: Syt on April 28, 2015, 05:04:30 AM
The separations were government mandated; and it was actually strictly enforced (which is unusual for Austria), so if your establishment was above a certain size, you had to do them. Now, that was 5 or 6 years ago, and you can probably argue that from an accounting point of view a lot of the expense has already been written off. :P
At least it took a while. Over here they first introduced the partial ban, mandating separations, and a couple of years afterwards introduced the complete ban. If I was a bar owner who made a big investment because of this I would have been pretty mad.
The Belgian politicians handled it the same way. First forcing investments for a free smoke area and than a complete ban.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150429/defendants-blame-each-other-in-bank-murder-trial
QuoteBank employees on trial for grisly murder
Two former bank employees are on trial in Graz for murdering and dismembering one of the bank's customers - a 54-year-old Styrian millionaire - after he discovered they had stolen €80,000 from his accounts.
Testimony from the two defendants kicked off the trial on Monday - with both men giving very different versions of events.
On Tuesday the court heard testimony from the wife of the 24-year-old defendant, Ferhat K., who said that she had noticed that her husband had contacted his 30-year-old co-defendant (Halil I.) several times on the days leading up to the murder and that he was often out in the evenings.
When she had asked him what was going on, he told her he was "involved in a matter which he couldn't extricate himself from very easily" and that he and his friend had had to get rid of some drugs.
He later confessed to the murder, just days before he was arrested. "He said that his friend had strangled the man in the car and then dismembered him and encased his body parts in concrete."
She said that she had noticed that her husband's behaviour had changed a few months before his arrest and that a friend of his had remarked on his sudden weight loss. The man's father also testified, saying that his son had changed drastically, was no longer happy and seemed depressed.
The man's wife also said that Halil I. had threatened her husband and family from prison. "He sent word to my husband that if he did not change his testimony, he has to fear for his family, because he has a lot of friends on the outside," she said.
Halil I. denied this, saying that the 24-year-old was his friend. "We even have the same watches, that we bought together," he said.
He told the court that the younger man had committed the murder and that he had watched, but had wanted to forget about it. He said that he had spent the days after the murder with his mistress, a younger woman, in a hotel.
She told the court that he had received many messages on his phone: "I saw fear in his eyes. He was frantically looking at his phone." She added that he hadn't wanted to tell her what was going on. He had given her an expensive watch as a gift but she told the judge that she had no idea where he had got the money from to buy it.
Halil I.'s cellmate testified that the accused had told him about the murder in prison, and had said his 24-year-old accomplice was "too stupid" to do it. He also told him that he had later regretted not hiding the corpse abroad, somewhere like Slovakia.
The coroner told the jury that she had examined three containers of body parts encased in concrete - all weighing around 100 kg. "The body parts were wrapped in black plastic bags and were well preserved because of the cold conditions of the Mur river," she said.
She added that the limbs had been "expertly cut, at the joints". She said that the body was clearly dismembered after death and that she suspected a sharp knife had been used. The victim had died from asphyxiation due to strangulation.
A psychiatric expert told the court that the two defendants did not have any mental health issues. He said that in his opinion the pair had worked together as a team and "would complement each other perfectly".
He described the 24-year-old as "intellectually agile" and capable of coming up with a murder scenario and said that the 30-year-old would then have been to one to work out the grisly details.
A judgement is expected later on Wednesday.
Theft, murder, dismemberments, fear, threats, lovers - this would make a great plot for a noir movie. Setting: the one perp in the hotel room with his younger lover. The text messages he receives take us to flashback sequences of the events from the theft to the murder and getting rid of the body while his girlfriend tries to find out what's going on. Eventually the two killers stop trusting each other and try to pin it on one another, but get both caught in the end.
I guess this is news in Austria since they didn't do it in a hidden cellar to their own family or since there weren't any bodyparts devoured
;)
I check my bank statements carefully, and I also use online banking regularly. If I find out that money has been missing, I will call the police, not the bank :mad:
Quote from: Archy on April 29, 2015, 05:41:14 AM
I guess this is news in Austria since they didn't do it in a hidden cellar to their own family or since there weren't any bodyparts devoured
;)
heh yeah, clearly non-austrians (going by the name) cause otherwise it'd be in a cellar and news in 2035 when the guy emerges.
Was my thought...
http://www.thelocal.at/20150504/magazine-printed-with-hiv-blood-ink
QuoteMagazine printed with HIV+ blood ink
An Austrian magazine has used ink infused with the blood of three HIV+ people to print a special edition of their current issue.
Vangardist magazine, usually only available online, release their third print issue, called the Heroes-issue, next week.
A special edition of 3,000 copies have been printed with ink containing blood donated by three HIV positive men; a further 15,000 copies have been printed using normal ink.
Julian Wiehl, CEO and Vangardist's editor, told Gay Star News they were aiming to send a message to the world – a message especially relevant while Austria is in the media focus.
Read the full story at GayStarNews. (http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/magazine-prints-issue-using-ink-laced-hiv-positive-blood020515)
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What is the message exactly?
I'm not going to click "GayStarNews" at work. :P
Quote from: Valmy on May 04, 2015, 09:16:00 AM
What is the message exactly?
That in spite of all the mainstreaming, there still remain gays who are theatrical, over-dramatic kooks. :punk:
I guess I'm surprised that the "use blood as printer's ink" hasn't been used by a metal band first.
Edit: It seems Watain printed posters where they added some of their blood to the ink (but didn't make the ink with blood as main ingredient).
Bah, Manowar signed a contract with their blood, much better than using a printer. :contract:
Quote from: Valmy on May 04, 2015, 09:16:00 AM
What is the message exactly?
From GayStarNews:
QuoteThis year's Eurovision Song Contest and the Life Ball, one of the biggest HIV and AIDS charity events in the world, are both held in Viennna with only three days between events.
'If I pick up this magazine and hold it in my hand, I confront myself – and I confront my fears and prejudices,' Wiehl described the ides behind the issue.
Each of the special editions, available from 4 May in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, comes wrapped in plastic and carries the note 'break the seal and help break the stigma'.
'If there is an infection, we should try and cure it, not stigmatize it,' Wiehl said.
'Some of the biggest symptoms of HIV are listed as isolation and depression.'
He continued: 'As long as something like this is seen as provoking it means that the topic of HIV is not done being talked about.'
Touching the issue does not hold any risk of infection, but Wiehl said some comments online accused Vangardist of 'trying to murder people'.
The idea was developed by Swiss advertising agency Saatchi + Saatchi, who considered Vangardist to be the ideal carrier.
'With this unique project, we want to create a response in a heartbeat by transforming the media into the very root of the stigma itself - by printing every word, line, picture and page of the magazine with blood from HIV+ people,' Jason Romeyko, the agency's executive creative director, said.
'By holding the issue, readers immediately break the taboo.'
The publication of the special edition is part of a new campaign called #HIVHeroes, aiming to break the stigma and allow people to show their support for HIV positive people.
I see I was not aware that stigma still existed. I have certainly known a few HIV+ people. That sounds like 80s and 90s stuff.
I guess that idiocy on the internet shows that it is still around...I mean presuming idiocy on the internet proves anything.
Quote from: Duque de Bragança on May 04, 2015, 05:16:12 PM
Bah, Manowar signed a contract with their blood, much better than using a printer. :contract:
They didn't sign a contract, they promised the fury of Odin on anybody who failed to give them royalties.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150511/naked-teacher-causes-row-in-linz
QuoteNude photos teacher causes a row in Linz
A secondary school teacher from Linz, Upper Austria, who was sacked for posing nude photos of himself on the Internet has won an unfair dismissal case and is now working in a different school.
The man, who now teaches in a New Middle School and is an amateur bodybuilder, had posted images of his muscular physique in a number of Internet forums. In some of the photos he is completely naked.
The images were brought to the attention of the head of the regional school board, Fritz Enzenhofer, who promptly fired the teacher. The teacher took his case before the employment court and won. The school board was then obliged to rehire him.
The teacher, who took a break from his job to travel to the US but then returned to Austria after his relationship broke down, said he had only posted the photos when he thought he wasn't going to be teaching again.
Enzenhofer is unhappy with the decision and told the Kronen Zeitung newspaper that if it was up to him, the teacher would be "long gone". He added that the court had accused him of damaging the teacher's reputation.
Currently there's a parliamentary inquiry into WTF happened at the Hypo Alpe Adria to tank it, who caused what, and maybe find out where some of the money was drained to.
Exec. summary of the case, courtesy of Wikipedia:
QuoteThe Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA) is an Austrian banking group with numerous cross-border activities in the Alps-Adriatic region. The group is active in Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine.[1]
In May 2007 the BayernLB bought 50% plus one share (controlling stake) of HGAA for 1.63 billion Euros.[2]
On 14 December 2009, BayernLB, Kärntner Landesholding and Grazer Wechselseitige Versicherung sold their stakes in the bank to the Austrian government for 1 Euro each.[3] The bank was nationalised by the Austrian government to avert a bank collapse.[4] It is expected that between 13 and 19 billion Euros of outstanding loans will never be paid back; to avoid bankruptcy, the Austrian taxpayers will have to cover this loss. :mad: [5]
The headquarters, which accounts for around 500 employees, is located in Klagenfurt, Austria and is responsible for controlling the subsidiary banks in Austria, Italy and South-Eastern Europe as well as those markets from which the bank is currently withdrawing (wind-down markets).[6]
As of February 2014, the HGAA situation was unsolved,[7] causing Chancellor Werner Faymann to warn that its failure would be comparable to the 1931 Creditanstalt event.[8]
In March 2014, the Austrian government decided to split HGAA into a Balkans banking unit, an Italian business and a bad bank, Heta Asset Resolution. The Balkans unit is to be sold in 2015 to Advent International (80%) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (20%). It was intended to wind down Heta Asset Resolution over a period of years.[9]
On 1 March, 2015 the Financial Market Authority of Austria imposed a moratorium on debt and interest payments by Heta Asset Resolution on unguaranteed debt, after an audit found that it had a capital shortfall of up to 7.6 billion euros.
Anyways, the inquiry is going over many of the bank's files. However, a lot (if not most) of the text has been redacted with black felt pen, leaving them nearly unusable:
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An investigator in a previous bank scandal pointed out that in his case some of the people tasked with the redactions developed health issues because of the solvents used in the pens, and that the files didn't have nearly as many redactions at the time. The FPÖ now asked the finance minister to ascertain the health and well being of the people tasked with marking the files.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150525/man-dead-after-shooting-on-vienna-tram
QuoteMan dead after fatal shooting on Vienna tram
One man was killed and another seriously injured in a shooting on a tram car in Vienna on Sunday evening.
A third person was also injured, but less seriously, according to a police report. The 19-year-old woman, who was thought to be an innocent bystander, had been entering the tram when she was hit in the leg by a stray bullet.
The shooting occurred after an argument among four men on the tram, which was at the Johnstrasse stop of the 49 tram line.
As two of the men were leaving the tram, one of the other men fired several shots at them. The first victim, a 28-year-old man, was hit by several bullets in the upper body. He died in hospital during the night despite several hours of emergency surgery.
The second victim, the 25-year-old brother to the dead man, was also hit in the upper body by several bullets, and was reported to be in a serious condition in hospital, where he remains in intensive care.
The attacker and his accomplice were last seen running away from the incident in the direction of the city centre
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Police found several 9 mm cartridges, but a weapon was not recovered at the scene of the crime. Forensic investigation has begun, and police are examining footage from surveillance cameras from the tram.
Update: Latest details released by the police suggest the shooting was pre-meditated, and motivated by a long-term feud between two Albanian families. The alleged perpetrator is believed to have traveled to Vienna especially to carry out the revenge killing. The meeting on the tram was no accident, according to police sources.
Robert De Niro? No!
Less original than the use of Viennese trams by the Carlos the Jackal for the OPEC hostage taking. :yawn:
http://www.thelocal.at/20150528/hoarder-found-with-hundreds-of-pigeons-in-home
QuoteHoarder found with hundreds of pigeons
A man in Schwechat, near Vienna, was found hoarding between 150 and 200 pigeons in his house, in appalling conditions.
His windows were so dirty hardly any light came through, leaving the house in constant darkness, the Vienna Tierschutzverein animal welfare group said.
His furniture, and the walls and floors of the house were covered with pigeon faeces, feathers and dirt.
A Tierschutzverein team had to carry out three rescue operations, wearing face masks and protective suits to protect them from germs and dirt. They saved 73 pigeons but around 30 birds, along with 66 eggs, did not survive.
"The stench was unbearable and there was the risk of being poisoned by breathing in the excrement," a press release from the Tierschutzverein said.
Tierschutzverein experts believe that the birds had been kept for several years in these appalling conditions.
All the pigeons were examined by veterinarians. "Some of them were severely malnourished, had parasites and eye damage. In addition, they were severely dehydrated and had probably had no water for days," they said in a statement.
The Tierschutzverein is now looking for a pigeon fancier who can keep the birds in proper conditions.
The appalling case only came to light after the occupant of the house fell over and called an ambulance. Paramedics and police were then shocked to discover the birds and the horrific living conditions.
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:x
failed attempt at making a gunpowderfactory...
Or slow self-poisoning.
I vomited
Ya'll shouldn't pigeon-hole that guy, even if his life was for the birds.
Quote from: Tonitrus on May 28, 2015, 11:25:25 PM
Ya'll shouldn't pigeon-hole that guy, even if his life was for the birds.
:lol:
I always wonder where the tipping point is with those people. At one point in time he was probably living normally, keeping some pigeons in the back. When do you go from that to not caring that the animals are literally shitting all over the place and not bothering to clean up anymore. It's hard to imagine this as a gradual process.
"Huh. The pigeon shat over my TV. I'll clean this up after lunch. Or maybe tomorrow. Or next week."
It appears that the FPÖ in Styria has jumped from 10 to 27% in today's election.
A few examples of their campaign:
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"New apartments instead of mosques!" (Nobody is planning to build mosques in Styria)
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"We fight for YOUR security! - And end to break-ins, theft, and begging!" (It's one of the safest states in already safe Austria, with crme numbers dropping)
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.derstandard.at%2Ft%2FE494%2F2015%2F02%2F25%2Ffpoe.jpg&hash=feffcb2b1cb3ce84355d0cfb4750799ddf5422a1)
"Our House rules; This is how integration works:
- learn the language
- obey the law
- earn your own keep
- live with us, not next to us or against us"
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"Better: Our money for our people!"
Charming people...
I forgot to add:
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"Strange in the own country? Let's preserve home and values!"
(Though Heimat is a very strong word, meaning a place/region/country where you live (or have lived) and that you have strong emotional connections to, where you consider yourself to be at "at home wth your heart.")
How did that Greek layabout pay for his braces? No way he was born with those teeth. :mad:
Quote"Our House rules; This is how integration works:
- learn the language
- obey the law
- earn your own keep
- live with us, not next to us or against us"
Dead or alive you're voting for me!
I'd vote for them.
So, when are you guys going to start the camps up again?
Quote from: Razgovory on June 01, 2015, 12:14:17 AM
So, when are you guys going to start the camps up again?
Free camp would be awesome. :)
Do they offer sailing?
General consensus is that the ruling Styrian coalition of conservatives and social democrats really pissed off Styrians - while the federal government doesn't want to rock the boat too much, even if it means veeery slow growth, Styria actually attempted reforms to get their economy out of stagnation. Those were painful, and the voter gave the answer.
Quote from: Syt on May 31, 2015, 01:44:31 PM
It appears that the FPÖ in Styria has jumped from 10 to 27% in today's election.
"Die Soziale Heimatpartei" - what could possibly go wrong with that?
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on June 02, 2015, 02:52:40 PM
Quote from: Syt on May 31, 2015, 01:44:31 PM
It appears that the FPÖ in Styria has jumped from 10 to 27% in today's election.
"Die Soziale Heimatpartei" - what could possibly go wrong with that?
:lmfao:
where do they come up with those
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on June 02, 2015, 03:08:15 PM
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on June 02, 2015, 02:52:40 PM
Quote from: Syt on May 31, 2015, 01:44:31 PM
It appears that the FPÖ in Styria has jumped from 10 to 27% in today's election.
"Die Soziale Heimatpartei" - what could possibly go wrong with that?
:lmfao:
where do they come up with those
Well, you have to admit it's a step back (or forward depending on the viewpoint) from Das Soziale Vaterlandpartei.
Quote from: Syt on January 14, 2015, 04:23:13 AM
http://www.thelocal.at/20150113/german-axe-killer-lives-with-corpse-for-three-months
QuoteGerman axe killer kept body for three months
So here's the verdict:
http://www.thelocal.at/20150617/15-years-for-axe-murderer-who-killed-homeless-man
Quote15 years for axe killer who lived with body
A 52-year-old man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Vienna court for killing a homeless man with an axe in his apartment last October.
The German native lived with the corpse in his home for over two months, before finally confessing what he had done to friends.
His trial on Tuesday began two and a half hours late, after he complained that he had a bad headache and there were some doubts as to whether he was mentally well enough to attend.
He shuffled into the courtroom wearing pyjamas and slippers, and told the judge that he was finding it "hard to cope" with being in prison, and was keen that the trial should be over with as quickly as possible. A psychiatrist had declared him fit to stand trial.
The accused, who according to prosecutor Karina Fehringer had taken early retirement and was suicidal and depressed, had a "social conscience" and repeatedly offered homeless people a bed for the night in his home. His friends described him as "calm and caring".
Last year he met a 50-year-old Slovakian man and offered him a place to sleep at his apartment in Meidling. However, he became annoyed after the Slovak outstayed his welcome and was constantly turning up at his flat drunk.
"I threw him out three times but he kept coming back," the defendant said. He added that the Slovak became aggressive towards him and that he didn't know what to do. "I was overwhelmed."
When he turned up drunk at his home on October 26th the 52-year-old said that he cooked him a meal, and then told him it was time to go, "otherwise something bad is going to happen".
The unwanted guest ignored him and went to sleep on the sofa. "When I woke up at 2:00am and found him still there I became enraged," the accused said.
He took an axe from his bedroom, which he said he kept next to his bed to defend himself from intruders, and struck the Slovak with two "massive blows" to the head. When he was sure the man was dead he went back to bed and fell asleep.
He lived with the decomposing body in his home for over two months. The mummified corpse was only discovered on January 12th, after the 52-year-old (who moved in with a friend in late December because the smell in his apartment was getting too bad) confided in a drugs counsellor and two friends.
In his defence, he said that he felt that his victim was exploiting him and he could see no other way out of the situation.
A psychiatric report found that the 52-year-old suffers from a narcissistic disorder with schizoid-paranoid components, but that this did not mean he couldn't be held responsible for his actions and it was not recommended that he be sent to a psychiatric hospital.
He has been ordered to pay €9,900 in compensation and to cover funeral costs to the victim's daughter.
Quote"I threw him out three times but he kept coming back,"
:o
Oh, this was before. Nm.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150618/grass-mower-runs-over-body-on-donauinsel
QuoteGrass mower runs over body on Donauinsel
A gruesome discovery has been made on Vienna's Donauinsel island - the body of a 31-year-old woman, hidden in tall grass.
The body was found after it was run over by a tractor-drawn grass mower, which was being used near to the Steinspornbrücke bridge on Wednesday morning at 9am.
Police are now investigating whether she was dead before being run over. "Circumstances suggest that she was already dead," police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer said. An autopsy has been ordered.
Maierhofer said that the woman was fully dressed and had an ID card with her. The grass she was lying in was around one metre high - and is part of a large green space which connects the Lobau nature reserve with the Donauinsel and is used by cyclists and walkers.
:pinch:
The victim was a 32 year old homeless woman. She was still alive when the mower ran over her. Toxicological tests are being run to check if she was drunk/on drugs when the accident happened, because normally you'd hear the thing approaching.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150620/three-dead-in
QuoteThree dead in Austrian car and knife attack
A seven-year-old boy is reported to be one of the three people killed when a man deliberately crashed his car into crowds in Graz and then started stabbing people.
A witness told the Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung that dead bodies were left lying face down in the street after the vehicle sped through the historic Herrengasse and Hauptplatz in Graz, Austria's second-largest city.
34 pedestrians have also been reported to have been injured during the episode. The driver, reportedly a 26-year-old Austrian man of Bosnian heritage, has been arrested and the area sealed off.
14844, a hotline for relatives and victims has been set up.
:(
Authorities say that it's not a terrorist attack
What's wrong with people?
http://www.thelocal.at/20150622/strache-under-fire-for-exploiting-tragedy
QuoteStrache under fire for exploiting tragedy
As Graz residents still recover from the shock of Saturday's tragedy, the leader of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) Heinz-Christian Strache has come under fire for his comments about the nationality of the driver behind the attack.
Posting on his Facebook page, Strache wrote: "Madness in Graz! The culprit is from Bosnia. A religiously motivated assassination is not ruled out!"
The comment later disappeared from his social media page but screengrabs taken of the post quickly began circulating online.
Police ruled out a terrorist motive for the attack by the 26-year-old man who killed three people, including a four-year-old boy, when he drove his car into a crowd of shoppers on Saturday afternoon.
Regional police chief Josef Klamminger said: "We can say clearly and without doubt that it is an isolated incident without political or extremist motivation."
Initial interviews carried out by the police suggested the driver showed symptoms of "psychosis" though they say he has since remained "evasive" in his answers. He is being brought before a judge today.
Strache's post was met by fiery criticism on social media, including a comment from Austrian-Serbian football star Marko Stanković.
Stanković, who plays for SK Sturm Graz, wrote on the FPÖ leader's page: "Can you determine from these lines that the reason for this terrible act is his country of origin??? I feel personally attacked by this post and see in your post a fundamental dislike of people with foreign origin!!! Shame on you, Mr. Strache, shame on you!!!"
Strache later defended his comment by pointing to a report in the Krone Zeitung that also highlighted the driver's Bosnian origins. The driver is believed to have been born in Bosnia but moved to Austria when he was a young boy to escape the Bosnian war.
The Krone article Strache points to is basically saying that while authorities say it wasn't a religiously motivated attack, WHAT IF THEY'RE LYING TO US???
FINALLY. Only three more years to go. :P
http://www.thelocal.at/20150708/smoking-ban-bill-to-become-law
QuoteSmoking ban bill to become law
Austria's parliament will pass a new bill on a complete smoking ban on Wednesday - which will come into force in May 2018.
The ban covers smoking in "all public places where food and drinks are manufactured, sold and consumed" and affects many restaurants and cafes which are currently exempt under a 2009 law.
Most restaurant and cafe owners are strongly opposed to a total ban as they say their businesses will suffer and complain that they invested millions of euros to create smoking and non-smoking areas.
Business owners who break the law will face a €2,000 fine and smokers caught smoking in restaurants, cafes and bars will be fined €100. Alongside cigarettes and cigars, the law also covers e-cigarettes and shisha pipes.
The ban will also be enforced in schools and open spaces where children and teenagers are supervised - including sports clubs and rehearsal spaces. It will not cover private club rooms used by adults. Smoking will also be banned in hotel rooms and bed and breakfasts, but "strictly separate" smoking areas will be provided.
There are tax incentives for businesses who enforce the ban before July 1st 2016. A tax bonus of 30 percent will apply, the value of which is related to previous costs in setting up smoking and non-smoking areas.
Austria has some of the worst smoking statistics in Europe - with only Greeks, Bulgarians and Latvians smoking more. Around 14,000 people a year die in Austria from tobacco-related illnesses.
A large majority is expected to vote for the bill in parliament, with only the right-wing Freedom Party and Team Stronach voting against it - saying that it endangers Austria's bar and cafe culture and smacks of a 'nanny state'.
I like that there are still places that say that smoking bans will cause business to collapse.
FPÖ led a protest against the law a few weeks ago. Less than 500 smokers turned up to show their displeasure. One promptly suffered a heart attack.
Quote from: Syt on January 23, 2015, 03:13:26 AM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/11359867/British-paratrooper-charged-with-rape-of-six-year-old-Austrian-girl.html
QuoteBritish paratrooper charged with rape of six-year-old Austrian girl
Unnamed British paratrooper charged with rape and grievous sexual abuse of a minor after allegedly climbing into girl's bedroom while in Austria on week of ski training
Austrian prosecutors said on Wednesday that they have charged a British soldier for allegedly breaking into a local family's house and sexually abusing their six-year-old daughter.
The paratrooper, 30, who has not been named, has been charged with rape and grievous sexual abuse of a minor, said Hansjoerg Mayr, public prosecutor in the western Austrian state of Tyrol.
"The trial will start on March 10," Mr Mayr said. The defendant faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
The soldier, who was taking part in a week of ski training in the Alps, was tackled by the girl's father in the house in Neustift during the alleged incident late last year, and has been in Austrian custody ever since.
He is serving with 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.
An Army spokesman said in December, shortly after his arrest: "The Army is aware of the arrest and detention of a soldier in Neustift, Austria, on the morning of 29 November. This is a matter for the Austrian authorities and it would be inappropriate for us to comment further."
According to the Austrian newspaper Heute, the girl's father caught the "half-naked" soldier in the act of attacking his daughter, and "beat him bloody" before police arrived.
The soldier broke into a house in the small town Neustift, in the Stubaital valley, an area of ski resorts south of Innsbruck, gaining access to the girl's bedroom through a window.
Neustift, which has fewer than 5,000 permanent inhabitants, attracts more than a million overnight visitors each year.
The soldier has been sentenced to 9 years. He says he went drinking with his fellow soldiers, but can't recall leaving, entering the family's house and approaching the girl; he only vaguely remembers fighting the father and the girl in her mother's arms. The defense will appeal the verdict. The judge says that the soldier committed heinous sexual acts that would be "near impossible to surpass."
Yay! <_<
http://www.thelocal.at/20150723/state-must-foot-costly-squat-eviction-bill
QuoteState must foot costly squat eviction bill
The interior ministry has said that the state will have to foot the bill for evicting a squat in Vienna last summer- which came to €870,000.
1,454 police were on duty on July 28th for a ten hour operation to evict 19 squatters from a house in the 2nd district. Many of the police were dressed in riot gear and equipped with water hoses. 31 people were arrested.
The house in Mühlfeldgasse had been occupied by the activists - who called themselves Pizzeria Anarchia - for over two years.
The owners of the building had actually invited them to move into an empty apartment for six months, rent free. The building was badly in need of renovations and the owners hoped that the anarchists would scare off the older tenants who were refusing to move, and clear the way for a new real estate project.
However, the squatters became sympathetic to the tenants' plight, and decided to stay - so the owners requested they be evicted.
Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundböck said there was no legal case for retrieving the cost of the police operation from the building's owners - and that whether or not they had invited the anarchists in was "irrelevant" legally.
:mad:
Wow, that's quite an eviction! Over 1400 police. That plan by the building owners to get rid of the other tenants backfired pretty badly on them.
Quote from: Syt on July 08, 2015, 05:02:56 AM
FINALLY. Only three more years to go. :P
http://www.thelocal.at/20150708/smoking-ban-bill-to-become-law
QuoteSmoking ban bill to become law
Austria's parliament will pass a new bill on a complete smoking ban on Wednesday - which will come into force in May 2018.
The ban covers smoking in "all public places where food and drinks are manufactured, sold and consumed" and affects many restaurants and cafes which are currently exempt under a 2009 law.
Most restaurant and cafe owners are strongly opposed to a total ban as they say their businesses will suffer and complain that they invested millions of euros to create smoking and non-smoking areas.
Business owners who break the law will face a €2,000 fine and smokers caught smoking in restaurants, cafes and bars will be fined €100. Alongside cigarettes and cigars, the law also covers e-cigarettes and shisha pipes.
The ban will also be enforced in schools and open spaces where children and teenagers are supervised - including sports clubs and rehearsal spaces. It will not cover private club rooms used by adults. Smoking will also be banned in hotel rooms and bed and breakfasts, but "strictly separate" smoking areas will be provided.
There are tax incentives for businesses who enforce the ban before July 1st 2016. A tax bonus of 30 percent will apply, the value of which is related to previous costs in setting up smoking and non-smoking areas.
Austria has some of the worst smoking statistics in Europe - with only Greeks, Bulgarians and Latvians smoking more. Around 14,000 people a year die in Austria from tobacco-related illnesses.
A large majority is expected to vote for the bill in parliament, with only the right-wing Freedom Party and Team Stronach voting against it - saying that it endangers Austria's bar and cafe culture and smacks of a 'nanny state'.
welcome to the 90s, Europe ;)
Quote from: Syt on June 19, 2015, 05:14:17 AM
The victim was a 32 year old homeless woman. She was still alive when the mower ran over her. Toxicological tests are being run to check if she was drunk/on drugs when the accident happened, because normally you'd hear the thing approaching.
Oh God! :o
Quote from: KRonn on July 23, 2015, 01:57:16 PM
Wow, that's quite an eviction! Over 1400 police. That plan by the building owners to get rid of the other tenants backfired pretty badly on them.
Why? The building is empty now, and he has incurred no (or negligible) cost.
Quote from: Syt on July 24, 2015, 12:58:19 AM
Quote from: KRonn on July 23, 2015, 01:57:16 PM
Wow, that's quite an eviction! Over 1400 police. That plan by the building owners to get rid of the other tenants backfired pretty badly on them.
Why? The building is empty now, and he has incurred no (or negligible) cost.
Ok, I thought the article said that the squatters took the side of the tenants so I assumed the tenants were still there and only the squatters removed.
http://www.thelocal.at/20150727/number-of-foreigners-in-vienna-up-49-percent
QuoteNumber of foreigners in Vienna up 49 percent
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelocal.at%2Fuserdata%2Fimages%2Farticle%2Fw468%2Ff86824a95f74adee0a0d3f2c3b122a4b1c0afd905b6704021ec410353dbd0d6f.jpg&hash=70fd421511af3bb5c44c98a245f4246c184e9c8b)
The number of non-Austrians living in Vienna has risen by 49 percent in eight years, recent statistics show. Political parties are now considering not only how to tackle the theme of immigration but also how to appeal to foreign citizens, ahead of local elections in October.
460,163 non-Austrians now live in Vienna - 49 percent more than in 2007. The number of Austrian citizens has dropped by one percent.
EU nationals who are officially registered at their residence in Vienna (angemeldet) will be able to vote for their local district councillor in the Vienna elections - but not for the city council or the mayor (those elections are limited to Austrian nationals).
In 2014, 712,000 people in Vienna had a migration background. "That's one out of two people," Vice Mayor Maria Vassilakou from the Green party said. "Integration is yesterday's topic, now it's about acceptance and promotion." She added that education is the key and said that every child aged two years and up needs to have a guaranteed nursery place.
Some migrant groups have even started their own political parties, as they feel under-represented by the mainstream parties. The Türkische Liste (Turkish List) is led by doctor Turgay Taskiran, who says that the party is designed to appeal to "all individuals with and without a migration background".
He has stressed that despite the name it's not a "Turkish party... but an alternative for Viennese people who want to live together without prejudice". He has also spoken against school classes where the majority of students are non-Austrian and said he is in favour of more "mixing".
A spokesman for Mayor Michael Häupl (SPÖ) said that "a lack of citizenship has nothing to do with a failure to integrate."
Statistics from the mayor's office show that the biggest number of immigrants (84 percent) are from EU countries, and that more than half of all immigrants in Vienna are aged between 20 and 29 years old. 44 percent of them have a university degree. The mayor's spokesman said that even if immigration brings certain challenges it also clearly "profits" the city.
However, Manfred Juraczka from the ÖVP said that the SPÖ and Green coalition has failed to tackle some of the immigration failures of recent years and called for "integration through achievement".
Pollsters have said that the right-wing Freedom Party, with its anti-immigration policy, stands to benefit strongly from anti-immigration sentiment.
The picture shows the fresh produce market that's held every morning in a side street off the permanent stands of Viktor Adler Market in 10th district, near where I used to live in 10th district.
A map showing the monthly per square meter rates in the vicinity of subway stations, based on the prices given on real estate websites.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.zoomsquare.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F05%2Fpricemap-underground_v7-alle.png&hash=9b15d1e0d7ed41243b31e17bb580f7abdb88cd27)
The rate shown at my station (Rathaus) is actually 50% above what I pay, but then again I know I'm lucky.
Quote from: Syt on July 31, 2015, 04:34:00 AM
The rate shown at my station (Rathaus) is actually 50% above what I pay, but then again I know I'm lucky.
Or your building is older/in worse shape than the neighborhood average.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on July 31, 2015, 04:38:25 AM
Quote from: Syt on July 31, 2015, 04:34:00 AM
The rate shown at my station (Rathaus) is actually 50% above what I pay, but then again I know I'm lucky.
Or your building is older/in worse shape than the neighborhood average.
Not from what I can tell, though I might be missing something. The row of houses is under conservation as an example of pre-March architecture, and they're all fine from the outside. My apartment was renovated less than 10 years ago, though others in the building will likely not have been. And I've seen apartments in our building go for a notably higher m² rate than what I'm paying.
I'm guessing, though, that the numbers are driven up by the buildings directly next to the Rathaus on the far side of Landesgerichtsstraße and on Ringstraße.
Quote from: Syt on July 31, 2015, 04:34:00 AM
A map showing the monthly per square meter rates in the vicinity of subway stations, based on the prices given on real estate websites.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.zoomsquare.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F05%2Fpricemap-underground_v7-alle.png&hash=9b15d1e0d7ed41243b31e17bb580f7abdb88cd27)
The rate shown at my station (Rathaus) is actually 50% above what I pay, but then again I know I'm lucky.
U6= Balkan Express, right?
Depends. It's ok on the far edges where you're already in the green suburbs. Along the Gürtel it's crap and overcrowded.
Horrible news:
http://www.dw.com/en/austrias-top-pole-vaulter-paralyzed-after-training-injury/a-18619621
QuoteAustria's top pole-vaulter paralyzed after training injury
Austrian pole-vaulter Kira Grünberg suffered a serious injury in training and despite emergency surgery, has been left paralyzed by the accident.
Austria's leading pole-vaulter Kira Grünberg has suffered severe cervical injuries after the 21-year-old landed beside the mat on her head and neck in a practice jump. Her injuries have left her tetraplegic.
A statement on Friday from the Austrian athletics federation (ÖLV) and the University Clinic in Innsbruck where Grünberg is being treated revealed "a fracture of the cervical vertebrae of the spine" had been found. The statement added: "After we had diagnosed paraplegia before the operation, the patient received emergency surgery in order to stabilize her spine and avoid further damage."
Trained by her father, Grünberg finished fourth at the 2012 junior world championships before going on to set an Austrian women's record of 4.45 meters during last year's outdoor European Championships in Zurich. She repeated that feat indoors in Prague in March of this year.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages05.kurier.at%2F46-63700936.jpg%2FhtmlTaggingImage%2F144.441.872&hash=d54ce249d4dd64083a6a33d64ac104f979297b3c)
:(
http://www.thelocal.at/20150804/mother-suspected-of-stabbing-four-year-old-to-death
QuoteFour-year-old stabbed to death by mother
A four-year-old girl has been found stabbed to death in Vienna's Hernals district, and her 38-year-old mother has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
The girl's 13-year-old brother found his sister lying in a pool of blood in the family's kitchen early on Tuesday morning, with severe injuries. Police said she had been stabbed several times.
The boy told police that his mother was standing next to the body of his sister, with a knife in her hand.
The 13-year-old ran to his neighbour's house, who called police to the apartment in Goldscheidgasse.
An ambulance and first aid helicopter arrived on the scene at 7.30am and medics tried to revive the child. "Help came too late," a spokesman for the ambulance service, Ronald Packert said.
Police said that the child's mother appeared to be in shock and did not resist arrest. The 13-year-old boy has been taken into emergency care, according to police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer.
It is believed the children's father was not at home.
A report in the Kronen Zeitung newspaper said that the family were due to be evicted from their flat on Tuesday.
A 40-year-old neighbour told the newspaper that the family had been having financial problems and that the woman had sometimes been heard shouting at her children but had never been violent towards them. She added that she had met the woman for a coffee on Monday and had lent her €200 when she heard that they were in trouble.
The children were not registered with Vienna's Youth Welfare Office.
According to the Kronen Zeitung newspaper the girl died from stab wounds to her throat. The medical team who treated her are reported to be traumatised.
In July a woman in Vienna's Favoriten district smothered her five-year-old son with a cushion. She told police that she was depressed and had been hearing voices that told her to kill her child.
:(
Long article in Profil about the increasing prices for real estate in Vienna. Prices have risen by an average of 55% in the city since 2007. In prime spots like the Inner City the prices have often more than doubled. But even blue color/immigrant districts like 10th or the 15th have seen price hikes of 80-100% since 2010.
Additionally, for the first time more real estate is held by foreign investors than by locals. And while Vienna's population keeps rising quickly, apartments for 80k-100k people are estimated to be vacant for a variety of reasons - apartments held by out of town guests, people buying to sell when the price is higher, letting buildings intentionally decay so that they have to be torn down and can be replaced by modern buildings etc. Calls for a tax on empty apartments have fallen on deaf ears so far.
In general, average incomes are driven out of the city and into cheaper districts where they displace the poorer inhabitants who have to scramble for cheaper places to live. The Vienna suburbs outside the city are becoming popular with young double income families that are additionally driving prices. The city felt compelled to resume building public housing this year after a 10 year hiatus.
I'm lucky I have a reasonably priced apartment in my part of town, but I expect that in a few years, or if I take over the contract from the landlord who sub-lets it to me, it'll quickly become painful to the point that I have to move again.
Great, the one GREAT aspect Vienna differed from Paris is now on the way out. :rolleyes:
PS: there is still the much cheaper public transportation annual pass
cheap rents Bad for the bobos and the gentry great for everyone else ;)
:unsure:
Quote from: Duque de Bragança on August 20, 2015, 05:19:43 AM
Great, the one BAD aspect Vienna differed from Paris is now on the way out. :rolleyes:
Was it Syt?
So the auxiliary bishop of Salzburg has given an interview. He thinks homosexuality is curable, abortion should be outlawed, even in case of rape, he warns that St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna mustn't become a mosque, and he advocates exorcism in case of "genuine" possession by the devil.
:pope:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn3.spiegel.de%2Fimages%2Fimage-118696-galleryV9-evmq.jpg&hash=b735a51c84bad3f58390e67ea3c9bf9ee0f7f603)
EDIT: turns out after the tragedy at a techno Love Parade in Duisburg where several people were killed in a mass panic, he said that while obviously it's not for Man to judge whether or not this was a divine punishment, the Love Parade itself was an insurrection against creation and divine order and an open invitation to sin.
Love Parade? They had it coming.
So what you say is that he is an asshole.
Does anyone not advocate exorcism in cases of genuine possession by the devil?
Quote from: Zanza on August 22, 2015, 06:24:22 AM
So what you say is that he is an asshole.
The signs seem to point to it.
Quote from: The Brain on August 23, 2015, 12:39:33 PM
Does anyone not advocate exorcism in cases of genuine possession by the devil?
Also, I tend to agree that St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna shouldn't become a mosque. A museum would be a better use for the building.
Quote from: alfred russel on August 23, 2015, 12:59:53 PM
Quote from: The Brain on August 23, 2015, 12:39:33 PM
Does anyone not advocate exorcism in cases of genuine possession by the devil?
Also, I tend to agree that St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna shouldn't become a mosque. A museum would be a better use for the building.
Also, homosexuality is curable. Just ask Anne Heche.
Quote from: Zanza on August 22, 2015, 06:24:22 AM
So what you say is that he is an asshole.
After the comments were picked up by Fox News, he is also now leading in the polls for the Republican nomination.
Quote from: The Brain on August 23, 2015, 12:39:33 PM
Does anyone not advocate exorcism in cases of genuine possession by the devil?
Mainstream protestants, e.g Lutherans, do not anymore IIRC.
So what do they recommend in the case of genuine devil possession?
Promotion
:lol:
http://www.thelocal.at/20150902/third-of-young-people-in-lower-austria-are-smoking
QuoteThird of young people are regular smokers
Every third young person aged between 12 and 16-years-old in Lower Austria smokes regularly, according to latest research into young people's smoking habits.
The findings were announced by Lower Austria's provincial health councillor Maurice Androsch (SPÖ) and Dr. Reinhard Raml from the Institute for Empirical Social Studies (IFES), who helped to carry out the research.
They found that 31 percent of the 918 students interviewed by researchers were regular smokers and the average age for smoking the first cigarette was 12 for boys and 12-and-a-half for girls.
Despite the high numbers of young smokers in the province, more than 80 percent of those interviewed said smoking was "not sexy" and over 90 percent believe non-smoking support is important. A clear majority also want non-smoking venues and restaurants.
Eighty-one percent were aware of tobacco use being restricted to under 16-year-olds and the health problems associated with smoking, but said they were enticed to start smoking by curiosity and peer pressure, according to Raml.
Although smoking was referred to by some young people as "stupid", and was recognised as addictive, Androsch said: "Nevertheless, we must also recognise that young people are beginning to smoke earlier and earlier."
The findings were supported by the experience of health psychologist Alexandra Beroggio, who said that the smoking helpline 'Smoke Free Telephone' reported frequent desperate calls from young people wanting to give up smoking.
"Cigarettes are dangerous. Just a few tries of smoking is enough to trigger addictive behaviour," says Beroggio.
Raml is now incorporating the results from the study into a tobacco prevention strategy for Lower Austria.
Smoking ban in Austria
Austria has one of the highest rates of smoking in Europe and is one of the last countries to enforce the European law banning smoking in all restaurants and bars.
After years of debate, politicians in Austria voting earlier this year to introduce a total smoking ban in restaurants and bars that would come into force in 2018.
Most restaurant and cafe owners are strongly opposed to a total ban as they say their businesses will suffer and complain that they invested millions of euros to create smoking and non-smoking areas.
Business owners who break the law will face a €2,000 fine and smokers caught smoking in restaurants, cafes and bars will be fined €100.
If we stop doing things because they are dangerous, stupid, and addictive, how will the species survive?
http://www.thelocal.at/20150911/woman-on-trial-after-shooting-herself-in-head
QuoteWoman on trial after shooting herself in head
A rather unusual trial is taking place at the regional court in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg on Friday - a woman is on trial after accidentally shooting and seriously injuring herself in the head whilst taking part in illegal target practise.
The incident took place in January. A friend of the 32-year-old woman had organised the target practise. After he passed her the gun she shot herself by accident. According to the prosecution the woman had no experience with guns and had been drinking.
Her 35-year-old friend had a weapons ban and should not have had a gun. In order to try and help him avoid a prison sentence the injured woman told police that the gun belonged to her and she had bought it from another woman - who was later prosecuted.
Since the real version of events came to light, the 32-year-old who shot herself is now on trial for defamation and her friend faces charges of negligent bodily harm and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Well, looks like they were right and really shouldn't have used the gun...
Vienna 1858, before the creation of the Ringstraße with its famous buildings (Opera, the Kunst- and Naturhistorisches Museum, Parliament, Town Hall etc.).
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Wien1858.jpg)
I live in the oblong grey thing below the Milit. Geogr. Institut in square Bf.
Syt, interesting, a 20th century story; military priorities give way to urban traffic considerations?
Partially. Until the 1683 siege, Vienna was mostly confined to within the city walls shown on the map. Everything around it were mostly villages. Few major buildings were outside the protection of the city walls (which explains why you still have tiny alleys in what is now the First District/Inner City.
After 1683 and subsequent expulsion of the Ottomans from Austria and Hungary, construction activity outside the walls exploded. Prince Eugene of Savoy was the first to build a residence outside - the Belvedere (right hand side of the map).
By the 19th century the fortifications had become obsolete. 150 years ago (the Ringstraße is celebrating its anniversary this year), it was therefore decided to remove the walls and instead put down a boulevard loosely modeled after the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Ring_Road
The article has a fun fact: the original early 13th century city walls were paid for with a part of the ransom money the Babenbergers received for Richard the Lionheart. :D
Quote from: Syt on September 14, 2015, 11:26:58 AM
Partially. Until the 1683 siege, Vienna was mostly confined to within the city walls shown on the map. Everything around it were mostly villages. Few major buildings were outside the protection of the city walls (which explains why you still have tiny alleys in what is now the First District/Inner City.
After 1683 and subsequent expulsion of the Ottomans from Austria and Hungary, construction activity outside the walls exploded. Prince Eugene of Savoy was the first to build a residence outside - the Belvedere (right hand side of the map).
By the 19th century the fortifications had become obsolete. 150 years ago (the Ringstraße is celebrating its anniversary this year), it was therefore decided to remove the walls and instead put down a boulevard loosely modeled after the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Ring_Road
The article has a fun fact: the original early 13th century city walls were paid for with a part of the ransom money the Babenbergers received for Richard the Lionheart. :D
Thanks for that Syt, interesting info. :)
The Austrian Pirate party has ads on YouPorn. They show the interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner and the slogan, "Johanna wants to watch you! Stop the surveillance state!" :lol:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs9.postimg.org%2F5ztfosgwv%2FPirate_Party.jpg&hash=c13896d66227d486293c55940102b5a7fdce6991)
(Porn pixelated to make this SFW)
Dirty, dirty pixels. :perv:
Quote from: Syt on September 14, 2015, 11:26:58 AM
The article has a fun fact: the original early 13th century city walls were paid for with a part of the ransom money the Babenbergers received for Richard the Lionheart. :D
Heh just read this. Awesome. :D
It's a very CK2 thing. "I'll ransom you, so I have enough money to expand my holding!" :D
http://www.thelocal.at/20151002/five-bodies-found-after-suspicious-fire
QuoteFive bodies found after suspicious fire
Police in Vienna are investigating a suspicious fire after five charred corpses were found in the burnt out premises of an empty restaurant in Favoriten early on Friday morning.
The identity of the bodies, which were burnt beyond recognition, is not yet known.
Police spokesman Paul Eidenberger said that firefighters were called to a fire in the former Mostschenke bar and restaurant in Filmteichstrasse at 1.10am. As they extinguished the blaze they found the five bodies.
The empty building belongs to the Vienna city gardens department. Firefighters said that the property burnt down to the ground. The restaurant closed a year ago and is believed to have been vacant since then.
Police are now investigating the cause of the fire and will attempt to identify the victims.
"The ruins have now cooled, and we can begin our work at the crime scene," Eidenberger told media.
:ph34r:
Quote from: Syt on September 14, 2015, 11:26:58 AMThe article has a fun fact: the original early 13th century city walls were paid for with a part of the ransom money the Babenbergers received for Richard the Lionheart. :D
:lol:
Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. :D
Quote from: Martinus on October 02, 2015, 06:52:13 AM
Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. :D
That's what makes it funny. ;)
Quote from: Martinus on October 02, 2015, 06:52:13 AM
Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. :D
I didn't think it was anything personal I just thought they needed the money. :P
Quote from: Valmy on October 02, 2015, 09:22:51 AM
Quote from: Martinus on October 02, 2015, 06:52:13 AM
Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. :D
I didn't think it was anything personal I just thought they needed the money. :P
Naw, my understanding it that it was personal (and petty). Leopold V was pissed by Richard's asshollish behaviour in Acre - Richard basically tossed his flag on the ground and dared him to do anything about it; he handed him over to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also pissed at Richard, for stuff he pulled in Sicily ... Richard just had a way with making friends. :D
Of course, there was also financial and political issues, but it seems unlikely these guys would have imprisioned him in the first place if he wasn't so ... onery.
http://www.thelocal.at/20151008/man-strangles-wife-who-was-planning-divorce
QuoteMan strangles wife who was planning divorce
A 34-year-old man has been arrested in Vienna after strangling his wife to death in their home in the 2nd district.
He called emergency services, saying: "I've strangled my wife and I need help to resuscitate her".
He was given instructions on how to save her and when emergency medics arrived they also tried to resuscitate her but it was too late - by the time the police arrived she was already dead. Her husband did not resist arrest.
The 35-year-old woman is said to have been planning to divorce her husband, who had reportedly been physically abusive on previous occasions. Friends said she had been speaking to her lawyer. However, police said she had not reported the domestic abuse.
The couple have three children - girls aged three, four and seven - who, according to family friends, are currently in Slovakia.
http://news.yahoo.com/ex-miss-austria-dies-mountain-fall-094148695.html
QuoteFormer Miss Austria Ena Kadic died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a mountain fall while jogging in her home state of Tyrol, police said.
The 26-year-old had been in a critical condition after plunging off the side of the Bergisel mountain near the city of Innsbruck on Friday.
Two students discovered the severely injured woman near the Drachenfelsen (Dragon rock) panorama platform overlooking the steep ravine of the Sill river.
Shortly after hitting the ground, Kadic managed to call her brother and inform him of the accident before losing consciousness, police said.
She was rescued by helicopter and taken to a hospital in Innsbruck, where she succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday morning.
The exact circumstances surrounding the accident remain unclear, but police said the 2013 beauty competition winner was an avid runner who knew the area well.
Some 115 people died and 2,385 were injured between May and September in the Austrian alps, according to latest statistics.
Imagine receiving that call. :cry:
:(
It's been in the news here. The tabloids are going wild with it, while more serious media handle it with more decorum.
Quote from: Malthus on October 02, 2015, 09:34:56 AM
Quote from: Valmy on October 02, 2015, 09:22:51 AM
Quote from: Martinus on October 02, 2015, 06:52:13 AM
Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. :D
I didn't think it was anything personal I just thought they needed the money. :P
Naw, my understanding it that it was personal (and petty). Leopold V was pissed by Richard's asshollish behaviour in Acre - Richard basically tossed his flag on the ground and dared him to do anything about it; he handed him over to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also pissed at Richard, for stuff he pulled in Sicily ... Richard just had a way with making friends. :D
Of course, there was also financial and political issues, but it seems unlikely these guys would have imprisioned him in the first place if he wasn't so ... onery.
Homophobic revisionism. :P
http://www.thelocal.at/20151030/salzburg-erasmus-student-quits-due-to-racism
QuoteRacism forces Erasmus student back to UK
A black British student doing an Erasmus year in Salzburg says he left after just three weeks after experiencing "more racism and discrimination than [in his] entire life in London".
Writing on his blog, the student whose name on his Facebook profile is Albert Amankona, said he was at the receiving end of four significant incidents which led to him cutting his study year abroad short and returning to London.
Some of the incidents involved a tenant living below him who complained to the landlord that a black man was living in the building, and then told Amankona that he had called the police, apparently believing that the student was living in Austria 'unregistered'.
Another incident involved a woman at a bus stop shouting at him to speak German while he was talking to a friend on the phone, while other passengers looked on.
"Whilst this was terrifying on its own in retrospect what was more chilling is that not one single person at the bus stop said or did anything as this was going on and there were about 15 people there, it was almost as if we were invisible," he wrote on his blog. "It was at this point where I thought that maybe Salzburg was not the right place for me."
He went on: "I never imagined that somewhere in 'Western Europe' contained people as overtly racist as some of the people I encountered during my short time in Salzburg nor did I expect to see a coffee shop called Afro coffee mocking almost every aspect of African culture, down to the cartoons on the wall reminiscent of "Golliwogs"."
"I firmly believe that if everything else in my life was the same except I was white, my experiences in Salzburg would have been completely different and saying that upsets me deeply."
He also framed his experiences in the context of Europe's migrant crisis, which has seen thousands of migrants and refugees travelling through Salzburg on their way to Germany.
According to some reports, as many as 8,000 migrants are coming across Austria's southern border with Slovenia every day, with around 2000 to 3000 travelling daily through the province of Salzburg over the northern border to Germany.
Around 63,000 have applied for asylum in Austria although most seek a life further north in Europe.
Although highlighting the support many migrants receive from Austrians, Amankona concluded that "if you look like you could be a refugee some will treat you as a second class citizen".
Nearly 100 people have commented on his post, written earlier in October, with some agreeing with the student's assessment, a few apologising for his experience, while others arguing that Austria should not be judged as racist based on these few experiences.
"The world is complex and it is not as easy as drawing conclusions from these shameful and outrageous incidents on the Austrian people and Austria," one commentator under the name of Tamara wrote.
:(
I don't think many refugees get treated as citizens.
Quote from: Martinus on October 23, 2015, 05:44:24 PM
Quote from: Malthus on October 02, 2015, 09:34:56 AM
Quote from: Valmy on October 02, 2015, 09:22:51 AM
Quote from: Martinus on October 02, 2015, 06:52:13 AM
Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. :D
I didn't think it was anything personal I just thought they needed the money. :P
Naw, my understanding it that it was personal (and petty). Leopold V was pissed by Richard's asshollish behaviour in Acre - Richard basically tossed his flag on the ground and dared him to do anything about it; he handed him over to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also pissed at Richard, for stuff he pulled in Sicily ... Richard just had a way with making friends. :D
Of course, there was also financial and political issues, but it seems unlikely these guys would have imprisioned him in the first place if he wasn't so ... onery.
Homophobic revisionism. :P
:P
Richard I - stereotypical mincing pansy. :) All that he-man macho stuff was just ... overcompensation!
Quote from: Syt on October 31, 2015, 09:36:03 AM
http://www.thelocal.at/20151030/salzburg-erasmus-student-quits-due-to-racism
QuoteRacism forces Erasmus student back to UK
:(
For once that an English student decides to go on an Erasmus...
Now seriously, it's very disheartening what this kid had to go through to make him pull the plug on his stay. And in Salzburg, to boot, not some kind of remote village inhabited by inbred hicks who have never seen a foreigner.
Quote from: The Larch on November 01, 2015, 05:28:16 PM
For once that an English student decides to go on an Erasmus...
Our very own chav went Erasmussing.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on November 01, 2015, 05:32:02 PM
Quote from: The Larch on November 01, 2015, 05:28:16 PM
For once that an English student decides to go on an Erasmus...
Our very own chav went Erasmussing.
And that made him part of that particulary small group of people.
http://www.thelocal.at/20151102/winter-retreats-from-her-anti-semitic-remarks
QuoteWinter retreats from her anti-Semitic remarks
An Austrian far-right MP is rapidly backpedalling after making remarks on social media which were interpreted as supporting anti-Semitic views.
Susanne Winter, of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party, had replied to a post from a person called Hans-Jörg Öhlmann, which said "Zionist Jews are the global problem. Europe, and in particular Germany, are now getting what they deserve from Zionist Jews, particularly rich Zionist Jews in the USA, for the century-long persecution of Jews in Europe."
"According to the Zionists, Europe, particularly Germany, should be cut off as economic competitors to the US."
Winter responded with "It is great. You are taking the words right out of my mouth. There are a lot of things I am not allowed to write. Therefore I'm even more pleased about courageous, independent people."
On Sunday, the Jewish activist organization Anti Defamation League (ADL) was quick to condemn both posts as clearly anti-Semitic. Shortly thereafter, Winter's post was deleted, but not before copies were made.
Winter made a statement to Der Standard newspaper on Sunday, saying that she was sorry for the post, which she described as "foolish."
"I am not anti-Semitic, I have Jewish friends," she told the newspaper.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelocal.at%2Fuserdata%2Fimages%2F1446461878_Suzanne%2520Winter%2520Austria%2520campaign%2520poster.jpg&hash=69d9f17600fa87eb962c11d84bc02d655df3ae71)
Freedom Party General Secretary Herbert Kickl in a statement called Winter's post "absolutely unacceptable."
"The Freedom Party is no place for anti-Semitism," he said, adding that Winter could be suspended from the party.
Anti-Islamic views
This is not the first time Winter has been criticized for her outspoken views. In 2008, she was prosecuted for incitement, after making a strong anti-Muslim statement:
"In today's system" the Prophet Muhammad would be considered a "child molester," apparently referring to his marriage to a six-year-old child. She also said that it is time for Islam to be "thrown back where it came from, behind the Mediterranean."
A court in her home town of Graz found her guilty of humiliating a religion. She was fined 24,000 euros, and given a suspended prison term of three months.
She also proposed in a discussion with students that Muslim men should commit bestiality rather than making "indecent advances" on girls.
Winter's son Michael, a former youth leader in the Freedom Party, was convicted of the same crime. He had suggested in a newsletter that Turkish Muslims were in the habit of committing bestiality.
Disgrace
Winter is "a disgrace to the Austrian Parliament," Oskar German, president of the Austrian Jewish Community, told der Standard.
ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, who is meeting with European officials and the continent's Jewish community leaders, said in a statement: "Once again, a member of Austria's Freedom Party has been caught promoting offensive anti-Semitic stereotypes."
"Susanne Winter's response to the outrageous comments about Jews and money on her Facebook page shows that, when prompted, she would willingly endorse the worst kind of anti-Semitic stereotypes. These are the same grotesque notions that have bedeviled European Jews for hundreds of years.
"Anti-Semitic stereotypes simply have no place in Austrian society. It is bad enough when they are whispered privately, but far worse when such hateful views emanate directly from a member of parliament who has a bully pulpit to express her ideas."
It's amusing how transparently ye olde-style Jew-baiters have picked up on the fact that if you slap "Zionist" on your screed, you stand a better chance of getting away with it. :D
Quote from: Malthus on November 02, 2015, 10:07:37 AM
It's amusing how transparently ye olde-style Jew-baiters have picked up on the fact that if you slap "Zionist" on your screed, you stand a better chance of getting away with it. :D
Personally I am comforted that a conspiracy so insidious that it can still operate perfectly centuries after being exposed is working for our benefit :cool:
Surprisingly, she's getting kicked out of the party and has been given till 7pm to resign on her own accord.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CSz88mCWEAAbBDY.png)
And the International Jewish Conspiracy takes out another whistle blower :(
:P
Quote from: Malthus on November 02, 2015, 10:07:37 AM
It's amusing how transparently ye olde-style Jew-baiters have picked up on the fact that if you slap "Zionist" on your screed, you stand a better chance of getting away with it. :D
Well, it worked for Stalin and his ilk. :)
She was guilty of humiliating a religion? :hmm:
http://www.thelocal.at/20160105/second-body-found-in-traunsee-lake
QuoteMurder victim's head found in concrete block
Police have told a press conference in Linz that a woman whose dismembered body was found hidden in two suitcases in a lake in Upper Austria was likely strangled. Her head, which was missing, was later found encased in concrete.
A second body, that of a man, was found in Traunsee on Monday afternoon, about 5 km from the shore. He had bags containing stones and a concrete block tied to his hands. The concrete block concealed the woman's missing head.
Upper Austrian police chief Gottfried Mitterlehner told the press conference that detectives believe the man murdered the woman and then drowned himself.
The bodies have not yet been identified, and neither are believed to have been reported missing. So far, police have not found an abandoned car near the lake so it is not clear how the woman's body was transported to the water.
A coroner's report said that the woman was between 50 and 70 years old, was around 1.75 meters tall and weighed around 80 kilos. She was probably murdered between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and her body was then cut into pieces using a saw.
The first suitcase was found floating in the water by a man who was walking by the lake on the outskirts of Gmunden on Sunday. He pulled it ashore and called the police, who found parts of a female body inside it. On Monday morning a police dog discovered a second case, which also contained body parts.
OMG anyone got vM's number?
Can't say I disagree with this list:
http://www.thelocal.at/20160111/what-really-needs-to-happen-in-austria-in-2016
QuoteWhat really needs to happen in Austria in 2016
Austria is a great country to live in and foreigners who have made it their home should be grateful for everything it has to offer - but if we're being honest there are a number of ways in which it could still be improved.
Austria will no doubt bring in plenty of new laws and amendments in 2016 as it does every year, but how many will really improve our lives?
Here are the things the government could do that would please us at The Local (some of them, of course, are wishful thinking, others are more serious).
Make friendliness an obligatory requirement in the service industry
Although the service sector is a key part of Austria's economy, many expats and tourists complain that hospitality and friendliness in some hotels and shops, restaurants and bars isn't a given - particularly in Vienna and other larger cities. Isn't it time that those working in the service industry learn something from customer service in the US and UK? A smile and friendly word doesn't hurt and might mean your customers return. We know that grumpy waiters are seen as an integral part of Austrian Kaffeehaus culture, but should the customer really have to win over the waiter? Last year Austria failed to make the top ten in a survey of expat destinations - because almost a third of newcomers say Austrians are unfriendly to foreigners.
Make landlords responsible for installing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
In the UK, most private landlords are required by law to install smoke alarms and, where appropriate, carbon monoxide alarms in rental properties. In Austria that's not the case and tenants even have to pay for their own yearly gas boiler check. New buildings in Austria now have to have smoke detectors installed - but we think it could help save lives if the government made landlords in older buildings responsible for installing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Just recently a teenager in Wiener Neustadt almost died after being exposed to CO from a faulty gas boiler.
Sell over the counter painkillers in supermarkets
Austrian authorities should have more sympathy for those with hangovers or head colds who can't find a chemist open on a Sunday. Supermarkets in Austria are not allowed to sell the likes of ibuprofen or paracetamol. Plus, pharmacies tend to charge more for over the counter drugs than shops in the UK and US do, and you can't buy generic painkillers for a fraction of the price of the bigger brands, which are available in UK supermarkets.
Scrap gender from the German language
It's 2016, so why do we still have gender in language? The words der and die mean "the" in a masculine and feminine form. Then there is "das", which is neutral gender. The seemingly arbitrary allocation of masculine, feminine and neutral gender articles in German can drive non-native speakers to despair. Wouldn't it be simpler if everything was neutral gender? It also gets confusing and becomes fraught with political correctness when referring to or addressing a group of people of both gender - for example teachers. Do we go with the politically correct "LehrerInnen", or the grammatically correct "Lehrerinnen und Lehrer" (female teachers and male teachers)? We can't wait until the German language simplifies its gender articles, just as English has managed to do since the Middle Ages. But we fear it may take centuries.
Owners should face victims of dog poo crimes
One way to tackle crime is to force criminals to meet up with their victims to learn of the trauma they have caused in the hope that they will feel remorse and mend their errant ways. Steep fines to end the problem of dog mess fouling Austria's pavements and parks have still not had the desired effect, so maybe it's time for a rethink.
There's no reason why rogue dog owners shouldn't be forced to visit the homes of their victims to hear of the suffering incurred by having to clean dog poo out of the carpet or scrape it out from the soles of their shoes.
Stub out smoking in public places
A long awaited general smoking ban for cafes and restaurants will not come into force until May 2018, meaning Austria is lagging behind the rest of Europe. Unsurprisingly, Austria has some of the worst smoking statistics in Europe and has been criticised by international organisations for its lack of anti-smoking policies. We think two years is too long to wait, and urge cafe and restaurant owners to take advantage of tax incentives and stub out smoking before the 2018 deadline - you'll be sure of our custom.
Embrace the cashless society
Please can Austria learn to love credit and debit cards? It is 2016. Many smaller shops and independent businesses don't take cards, and the few that do often have a minimum payment of around €10. The Western world seems to be heading towards a world without a physical currency, and it would make things much easier if Austria would get on board. How many times have you had to walk 15 or 20 minutes in the cold to withdraw cash to pay for a restaurant meal or a cup of coffee and slice of cake?
Extend shop opening hours
Very few shops are open in Austria on Sundays - except for a few supermarkets at major transport hubs. And even in the capital, Vienna, almost all supermarkets close by 6pm on Saturdays. This can make life difficult for the newly arrived expat who hasn't twigged on to the fact that you really need to do all your weekend grocery shopping on Saturday morning - and stock up if Monday happens to be a public holiday. Watch for the looks of disbelief on visiting friends' faces when you tell them that even main shops in tourist areas are closed on Sundays. We do like the idea that Sunday is a day to spend with friends and family and avoid consumerism, but please, could the supermarkets at least stay open later?
Scrap gender from the language? I detect a grumpy English speaker with their usual inability to learn any other language at play there. :P
QuoteOwners should face victims of dog poo crimes
One way to tackle crime is to force criminals to meet up with their victims to learn of the trauma they have caused in the hope that they will feel remorse and mend their errant ways. Steep fines to end the problem of dog mess fouling Austria's pavements and parks have still not had the desired effect, so maybe it's time for a rethink.
There's no reason why rogue dog owners shouldn't be forced to visit the homes of their victims to hear of the suffering incurred by having to clean dog poo out of the carpet or scrape it out from the soles of their shoes.
WTF is this?
Owners of dogs are supposed to clean up after their pets in Vienna (you will find turd bag dispensers in many popular dog walking areas). Not picking up after your dog can incur steep fines, but that generally doesn't deter too many dog owners.
Quote from: Valmy on January 12, 2016, 09:02:03 AM
QuoteOwners should face victims of dog poo crimes
One way to tackle crime is to force criminals to meet up with their victims to learn of the trauma they have caused in the hope that they will feel remorse and mend their errant ways. Steep fines to end the problem of dog mess fouling Austria's pavements and parks have still not had the desired effect, so maybe it's time for a rethink.
There's no reason why rogue dog owners shouldn't be forced to visit the homes of their victims to hear of the suffering incurred by having to clean dog poo out of the carpet or scrape it out from the soles of their shoes.
WTF is this?
Better to train them like puppies - rub their noses in it. :D
Quote from: Syt on January 12, 2016, 09:24:09 AM
Owners of dogs are supposed to clean up after their pets in Vienna (you will find turd bag dispensers in many popular dog walking areas). Not picking up after your dog can incur steep fines, but that generally doesn't deter too many dog owners.
I meant the trauma and suffering of being exposed to dog poop and the shaming of the evil perpetrators :P
Quote from: Valmy on January 12, 2016, 10:11:24 AM
Quote from: Syt on January 12, 2016, 09:24:09 AM
Owners of dogs are supposed to clean up after their pets in Vienna (you will find turd bag dispensers in many popular dog walking areas). Not picking up after your dog can incur steep fines, but that generally doesn't deter too many dog owners.
I meant the trauma and suffering of being exposed to dog poop and the shaming of the evil perpetrators :P
These are Austrians. They could easily have
died from dog poop on the carpet. ;)
Unless, of course, they are the type of Austrian who is into that sort of thing.
Quote from: Valmy on January 12, 2016, 10:11:24 AM
Quote from: Syt on January 12, 2016, 09:24:09 AM
Owners of dogs are supposed to clean up after their pets in Vienna (you will find turd bag dispensers in many popular dog walking areas). Not picking up after your dog can incur steep fines, but that generally doesn't deter too many dog owners.
I meant the trauma and suffering of being exposed to dog poop and the shaming of the evil perpetrators :P
I would definitely suffer if I stepped in the massive pile of dog poop I saw this man step in yesterday. With no hose, I'd have little choice to either throw out my shoes or bring them home to wash in the tub. :x
Quote from: garbon on January 12, 2016, 01:57:25 PM
I would definitely suffer if I stepped in the massive pile of dog poop I saw this man step in yesterday. With no hose, I'd have little choice to either throw out my shoes or bring them home to wash in the tub. :x
Well don't get me wrong, that would suck, but trauma?
Quote from: Valmy on January 12, 2016, 02:09:58 PM
Quote from: garbon on January 12, 2016, 01:57:25 PM
I would definitely suffer if I stepped in the massive pile of dog poop I saw this man step in yesterday. With no hose, I'd have little choice to either throw out my shoes or bring them home to wash in the tub. :x
Well don't get me wrong, that would suck, but trauma?
Trauma, no. Suffering, yes. ;)
Maps!
A recent survey maps the education per district. Share of people whose highest education is the mandatory minimum school attendance:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Foekastatic.orf.at%2Fstatic%2Fimages%2Fsite%2Foeka%2F2016014%2Fbildung_bezirke_pflichtschule_a_o.5437651.png&hash=5674f914176728acad4c8ecccd171a19a5c3e3c5)
Next, people whose highest education is Matura, i.e. qualified to university (however, this also includes many schools that do job preparation, so many of these go right into the job market afterwards):
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Foekastatic.orf.at%2Fstatic%2Fimages%2Fsite%2Foeka%2F2016014%2Fbildung_bezirke_matura_a_o.5437648.png&hash=f99f765fcc31e19def39cf8f5bd82cc6f2e48058)
Then, the share of people who have a master's or higher from university:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Foekastatic.orf.at%2Fstatic%2Fimages%2Fsite%2Foeka%2F2016014%2Fbildung_bezirke_akademiker_a_o.5437646.png&hash=5d2e5d1386b9587933640dce42529b43ef3f17cc)
And finally people who have gone through formal job training (typically after mandatory minimum school):
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Foekastatic.orf.at%2Fstatic%2Fimages%2Fsite%2Foeka%2F2016014%2Fbildung_bezirke_lehre_a_o.5437647.png&hash=7e4b5840408097d96c3b18890d70c7a248876bc4)
In related statistics: over 70% of children whose parents are academics will study at university vs. less than 25% children of non-academic parents. Upward mobility in education is still pretty low.
In Sweden families with brains made the education class move 1-2 generations ago. I guess it's the same in Austria?
http://www.thelocal.at/20160127/american-student-found-dead-in-vienna-apartment
QuoteAmerican student found dead in Vienna apartment
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelocal.at%2Fuserdata%2Fimages%2Farticle%2Fw468%2F416c55374bcf155f59539099348e2ffed57e95a1695fd72e68ed01d622909ed9.jpg&hash=f8be8b696c0d3773bddabc3d4d09ce939ca3168b)
A 25-year-old American au pair who was found dead in her apartment in Vienna's 4th district on Tuesday may have been murdered, police have said.
The young woman's employer became alarmed when she did not turn up to work on Monday and called the police.
Firemen broke open the door to her studio apartment on the Wiedner Hauptstrasse on Tuesday evening, to find her half-naked body lying face down on a mattress on the floor.
Detectives said that an autopsy showed she had no external injuries, and have now ordered a toxicological report to see if she was poisoned. Police spokesman Thomas Keiblinger said that traces of blood were found near her head, which may indicate an internal injury.
A forensics team initially had trouble examining the scene as all the light bulbs in her apartment had burnt out and had to be replaced with the help of a ladder.
Keiblinger said the young woman was from Colorado and had been studying and working in Vienna for around three years. Her employer said she was "very reliable" and had therefore thought it was unusual when she didn't turn up for work.
The Krone newspaper has named her as Lauren M., although this hasn't been confirmed by police.
No external injuries, all light bulbs burnt out? Better call Mulder and Scully ... :ph34r:
I guess she died with the lights on and they burned out before the cops got there.
Sounds like a possible OD situation to me.
Quote from: Valmy on January 27, 2016, 08:24:18 AM
I guess she died with the lights on and they burned out before the cops got there.
Sounds like a possible OD situation to me.
They say she suffocated. When she was found she was surrounded by many burning candles. :ph34r:
Quote from: Syt on January 29, 2016, 02:06:26 PM
Quote from: Valmy on January 27, 2016, 08:24:18 AM
I guess she died with the lights on and they burned out before the cops got there.
Sounds like a possible OD situation to me.
They say she suffocated. When she was found she was surrounded by many burning candles. :ph34r:
So too lazy or incapable of replacing the bulbs, though perhaps the landlord didn't respond, instead she resorted to using more and more candles to light the apartment, till one day the carbon monoxide build-up killed her?
Came across this picture from 1860:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xft1/v/t1.0-9/10419991_280063832188658_8291727652402787702_n.jpg?oh=2adb9b1b67eee6c74c34b4d3cf7318f1&oe=57458F23&__gda__=1463132329_f30760452751c8a38b050af8254bb7ae)
This is before the Ringstraße was built. The building with the globe on the top is the military geographical institute; I live in the little street behind it. Today, the right half of the picture would be covered by the town hall.
Modern view:
(https://wtvswpc.feratel.com/swpic/36/5970/841BF71D-2FC7-4B1D-837A-605254C6DAB5.jpeg?designx=feratel&dcsdesign=feratel4)
You can still (barely) see the two tips of the church on the left hand side. :P
Quote from: mongers on January 29, 2016, 02:14:06 PM
So too lazy or incapable of replacing the bulbs, though perhaps the landlord didn't respond, instead she resorted to using more and more candles to light the apartment, till one day the carbon monoxide build-up killed her?
That would have been poisoning, not suffocation. :nerd: Vienna has a couple of carbon monoxide incidents every year when people skimped out on having their heaters maintained (continuous flow water heaters powered with gas are very common in Vienna apartments). Usually they're quickly recognized as such.
Now how are you supposed to do proper military maneuvers with all those trees they planted there? :(
So this was pre-Ringstrasse but post-tearing down the city walls?
Quote from: Valmy on January 29, 2016, 02:31:36 PM
Now how are you supposed to do proper military maneuvers with all those trees they planted there? :(
So this was pre-Ringstrasse but post-tearing down the city walls?
It's roughly the time of the map I posted earlier in the thread, the area called "Drilling Ground".
I looked it up and it seems the old city walls were demolished between 1858 and 1863 (though it already started under Napoleon's occupation in the area from Albertina to what's today's Burgtheater - some of it was partially rebuilt after the Napoleonic Wars, a bit further out; Burgtheater would be the approx. position from which both shots were taken, though it didn't exist in 1860).
Here's the old walls shown on a modern map:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Wien_Stadtbefestigung_Degen_1809-2015_Gugerell.jpg/1024px-Wien_Stadtbefestigung_Degen_1809-2015_Gugerell.jpg)
The Werdertor during its demolition in 1860:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Wien_Werdertor.jpg/1280px-Wien_Werdertor.jpg)
The Kärntnertor in 1858:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/K%C3%A4rntertor_alt_aussen_1858.jpg)
You guys are so fucked when the Ottomans return. :P
Quote from: Malthus on January 29, 2016, 02:51:50 PM
You guys are so fucked when the Ottomans return. :P
They have to beat traffic on the Südosttangente first. :P
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.regionews.at%2Fdata%2Fnews%2F2010%2F08%2F05%2F10548%2Fpic_600%2F1281014781S6OC3.jpg&hash=3228a343ac53b9fe62508accba92f5f878397f9a)
In other news, large swathes around the Hofburg are locked off tonight. Until Ash Wednesday it's ball season in Vienna. Tonight is the Academics Ball, sponsored by the FPÖ and in the past a magnet for right wingers and neo-nazis from all over Europe to waltz in the Hofburg, plus the usual assortment of fraternities (which, in Germany/Austria are usually - 95% and up - of the far right/nationalist variety). Obviously, there's protests against it. Unfortunately, it draws the violent kind of left wing protesters who like to trash police and property when they protest against right wingers. In past years it caused a rather unseemly ruckus, causing the police to declare ever large exclusion zones every year. This year:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Forf.at%2Fstatic%2Fimages%2Fsite%2Fnews%2F2016014%2Fakademikerball_platzverbot_body_omni_o.4667996.png&hash=a2267278d7bf1a2ad549a1021ba870bd32f58328)
So far everything is peaceful, fortunately.
http://www.thelocal.at/20160205/swiss-arrest-gambian-suspected-of-killing-american-au-pair-in-vienna
QuoteSwiss arrest Gambian suspected of killing au pair
Swiss authorities have arrested a Gambian man suspected of murdering a 25-year-old American woman working as an au pair in Vienna.
The Swiss justice ministry told AFP the Gambian man had been arrested at a centre for asylum seekers in the northeastern town of Kreuzlingen, not far from the Austrian border.
The man, who was not identified, "is suspected of having murdered a woman in Vienna," the ministry said in an email, adding that he was being held pending extradition to Austria.
The arrest comes after a woman, named as Lauren M. from Colorado, was found dead last week in her Vienna apartment lying face-down on a mattress with splatters of blood on the floor.
Her half-undressed body had been surrounded by a sea of burning candles, according to the APA news agency.
Swiss authorities said on Friday the suspect "will be questioned today by the prosecutor in the canton of Thurgau on behalf of the justice ministry," stressing that if he agreed to be sent to Austria, he could be extradited "immediately".
If he opposes the move, however, Swiss authorities will need a formal extradition request from Austria before determining if he can be sent out of the country, the ministry said.
The office of Austria's state prosecutor meanwhile said it had already filed a formal extradition request for the suspect on Friday, although Swiss authorities said they had not yet received it.
Lauren M. was first reported missing by her employers, who described her as "very reliable", after she had failed to pick up their child from kindergarten.
http://www.thelocal.at/20170120/cut-free-wifi-to-combat-station-violence-say-rail-bosses
QuoteCut free WiFi to combat station violence, say rail bosses
Viennese rail bosses are blaming free WiFi at stations for a spate of violent incidents.
There have been reports, confirmed by police, of groups of youths attacking passengers and each other at Vienna's main rail stations.
Rail chiefs think the youths are attracted to the stations partly by the allure of limitless free internet access - and now plan to restrict the free WiFi service to 15 minutes per day, per traveller.
In the latest incident, captured on film by a witness at Vienna's Westbahnhof railway station, a group of youths intimidated a woman on the platform. The film shows the woman walking along the platform when one of the group approaches her and aggressively knocks off her hat.
The five youths then walk away. Police are seen talking to a group of lads at the end of the clip but say they are still looking for the one who harassed the female commuter.
Local media reported that an increased police presence had done nothing to curtail incidents of this type.
Police spokesman Paul Eidenberger said that most of the incidents are occurring late at night. Local media reports that fights often break out between groups of Afghan and Chechen teenagers.
Eidenberger added: "There have been complaints because there is often noise from the youngsters, especially when they also consume alcohol. We've also had reports of minor bodily injuries, and small fights."
"This is, of course, unpleasant for the passengers, for the people who are shopping here, and of course for the people who are running a shop here."
"There are simply many people here who are without social and economic perspective. And that is less a policing matter than it is an issue of integration," he added.
One shopkeeper who didn't want to be named described the activities of youths at Westbahnhof as: "scolding, arguing, brawling - nothing good."
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/lifestyles/patrick-park-may-get-realize-dream-austrian-ambassador/beWzYkOb7tfVugHw4JXqeI/
QuotePatrick Park is an avid fan of "The Sound of Music." You might say he's obsessed with it.
"Really, I've seen it like 75 times," the concert pianist/industrialist said.
"I know every single word and song by heart. I've always wanted to live in the Von Trapp house."
Well, if he can't live there, at least he'll be close enough to visit.
Park has received unofficial word from President Donald Trump — well, as unofficial as a handwritten note saying "on to your next chapter, Ambassador!" can be — that he is the president's choice to be U.S. ambassador to Austria.
The president said he thought it would be a good match for Park because it is steeped in musical culture.
Uh uh! I hope we get an ambassador who's obsessed with Lego. We'll get James May to build him a house.
Not very shocked. The ambassadors to Austria by previous presidents were usually campaign contributors with tenuous links and/or little knowledge about Austria. It's a cushy job in a nice country with comparatively little to do compared to, say, UK, Russia, or Germany.
He sounds like a child in that article. What adults says things like that.
Reviving this thread for all things Austria. :P
There were state elections in Styria last weekend. The FPÖ in the city of Graz (capital of Styria) has been mired in a huge scandal. One of the vice mayors is being investigated for funneling public and party funds into private pockets (with one purchase being a penis pump, apparently, besides luxury trips etc.). Investigations has turned stones and found a whole bunch of creepy crawlies underneath. One FPÖ guy had child sexual abuse images on his laptop. Another (who left, but his brother is still in FPÖ) had a meth lab in Graz. There's €1.8 million disappeared. One was hoarding nazi propaganda and artifacts and taking inspiration from them. And one witness committed suicide.
Of course the FPÖ won the election in a landslide, doubling their result from 5 years ago and became the strongest party. :bleeding:
(https://i.imgur.com/gEHRfVC.png)
On the plus side, it seems that coalition talks for a Federal government between ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS are well underway. In large part it's not so much that the ÖVP wouldn't work with FPÖ at all, but that Kickl has pissed off everybody too much to work with him (for now, anyways).
Coalition talks have failed after NEOS withdrew. They wanted to increase VAT from 20 to 22 percent, increase the pension age to 67 over the next decade or so and pushing back political influence in the media (e.g. political parties getting to appoint people within the state broadcaster ORF board, limiting the government ad budget which is a main income source for esp. news media) and reforming the federal system in Austria which is often severely limiting what the federal government can accomplish against the will of the (sometimes deeply entrenched) nine local state heads.
NEOS primarily blame the Social Democracts who were against the first two points and were pushing to instead introduce moderate taxes on very high incomes and/or assets. Both Social Democrats and Conservatives were pushing back against the other points.
SPÖ and ÖVP briefly kept talking, but ÖVP broke it off now, and Chancellor Nehammer is resigning.
Unclear what's going to happen next. The President could appoint an "expert" (i.e. independent) chancellor who will assemble a cabinet of other "neutrals" to run an interim government, forming majorities in parliament as required. This happened after the tumultuous exit of Sebastian Kurz, and while it only lasted half a year, that government saw through a decent amount of laws and generally the population were happy with the performance.
Alternatively, ÖVP/FPÖ could enter talks again - Nehammer was the most vocal opponent of working with Kickl's FPÖ; others might not feel so strongly. Not least since a recent poll shows that the FPÖ would get ca. 10% more votes than in the most recent election - and almost all of those votes would come from the ÖVP.
Of course, Sebastian Kurz might still make his comeback which has been hovering like a cloud above all this.
2025 is really off to a "great" start.
The biggest government challenge is currently a big budget gap. As is to be expected, the parties have different approaches. The Social Democrats wants to levy more strongly from the more affluent parts of society (wealthy individuals, banks, stock market profits) while Conservatives instead look at cutting costs e.g. in health insurance, welfare. FPÖ ... mostly wants to pay less money to immigrants, I guess? Austria had some of the highest inflation rates in the Euro currency zones in recent years, so any government measure that further cuts into people's wallets will be extremely unpopular. I guess I'm glad I don't have to make those decisions. :P
Kickl has been tasked with forming a government by the president. So I guess we'll have an FPÖ-led coalition with the ÖVP.
If previous governments with FPÖ participation are anything to go by, they will implode amongst scandals within 2-6 years, then become a non-factor for 5-10 years before rising back to the top again.
Meanwhile ÖVP keeps saying the SPÖ was unwilling to compromise which blew up their coalition talks. The SPÖ says the powerful business-wing of the ÖVP sabotaged the talks from the start. (They had gone on record that they see the FPÖ as the more compatible candidate in terms of economic policies which Nehammer who's from the ÖVP labor wing was against.)
In the interim, I guess there will be a Fico-Orban-Kickl threesome fucking over EU politics.
Good thing I left Austria this morning. Granted, I was only there for skiing, but anyway. :P
Kickl does not seem to have the charisma of Haider (or even HC Strache). Let's see what he is able to do.
I wonder if we are looking at a similar situation in Germany after the federal election in February.
By the way, there is an interesting podcast called Ehrenwort, about big and small scandals. It feels like every third case they discuss is from Austria. :yeahright:
Kickl doesn't have the charisma of Haider or even Strache, true. But for 10+ years he's been the "brains" in the background.
He's also the one who used police from the department for street crimes (which was under oversight of an FPÖ member) to raid the internal intelligence service in 2018 where a lot of material about far-right groups close to the FPÖ was confiscated on charges that supposedly members of the bureau had leaked such information to the media (which is not exactly uncommon in Austria).
Among the confiscated material was e.g. an email where known neo-nazi and holocaust denier Küssel invited several prominent right wing politicians, including the FPÖ man who was leading the raid - it was notable because the email was confiscated from an employee of the bureau who was not under the purview of the raid. There have not been significant consequences for these actions (the bureau itself was dissolved after the 2020 terrorist attacks and a new office was formed), really.
The FPÖ promised to significantly lower the tax burdens on businesses and corporations, driving cars and households. This includes (for example) cutting the tax on profits of smaller businesses from 23% to 10%, removing the CO2 tax on fuels, lwoering the oil tax and putting a price cap on fuels in case of price hikes, and reducing taxes on the income for working overtime. Overall, this would run in the amount of 20-30 billion Euros less income for the state. They didn't really specify how to finance this.
Meanwhile, the EU budget rules require Austria to cut the budet deficit by 4 billion Euros. Something they could reach by cutting e.g. the subsidies that go into climate change mitigation, including incentives to use public transports, subsidies for businesses to switch to more sustainable methods and the expansion of renewable energies - but then there's still the promises they made pre-election.
If I had a nickel every time an ÖVP chancellor resigns and Alexander Schallenberg takes over as temporary chancellor for a few weeks, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't much, but it's weird that it happened twice. :P
Read an article that suggested Kickl wants new elections (as FPÖ polls at 40%) and that he wants to take revenge against the ÖVP. Let's see if they actually are able to form a government.
One of the red lines for the ÖVP during the negotiations with SPÖ and NEOS was an additional bank levy, i.e. a "tax" on banks and their businesses to help fight the deficit. ÖVP has very tight connections to the Raiffeisengroup, with many politicians moving to the bank or from bank to party - Raiffeisen originally comes out of agricultural cooperatives and their financial institutions which are traditionally strongly ÖVP-leaning.
Anyways, during the (not harmonious) negotiations between FPÖ and ÖVP over the past week the FPÖ has now asked ... for a bank levy. Which puts the ÖVP in a fun situation - either insist on their non-negotiable and force new elections (which would likely see the FPÖ gain and ÖVP lose). Or they compromise - which would be further humiliation after previously insisting they wouldn't negotiate with Kickl's FPÖ. Wednesday will see the finance teams of the parties talk. The ÖVP team includes Harald Mahrer (head of Austria's Chamber of Commerce, but also ÖVP politician) and former ÖVP-man Clemens Niedrist who is general secretary at Raiffeisen.
Politics, not for the faint of heart
Coalition talks fell apart yesterday, it's back to square one. President asked in all party leaders for separate talks for today.
Possible options:
New elections. Would likely see a surge in FPÖ votes, mostly at expense of ÖVP. Though other party voters might be motivated to turn out in bigger numbers. But unless FPÖ wins absolute majority, no one would want to form a government with Kickl (and they have no other personnel alternatives, really).
The other parties try to get a coalition going again. After the mud slinging after the last attempt failed not likely.
An "expert" government of non-partisans who will act as custodians and seek parliamentary majorities as needed for their policies (which was fairly popular for the half year it happened recently, because they moved forward on a few stuck issues; not sure it's a reliable option for the next 4+ years).
Well, Austria has a government, of ÖVP (Chancellor Stocker), SPÖ (vice chancellor Babler) and NEOS (foreign minister Meinl-Reisinger), i.e. the parties that first discussed forming a government and originally failed to do so.
Of course the question that arises is, "Why did it take embarrassing ÖVP-FPÖ talks to get here?" And as Nehammer, who resigned as chancellor to make room for the ÖVP/FPÖ talks I'd be doubly pissed (not the biggest fan of his, but he was a fairly common sense person; don't have much of a read on Stocker).
(https://i.imgur.com/IWUM2go.png)
Dickwaving like this pisses of the electorate
Problem is, Austrian party landscape is very fractured. Nobody wants to work with FPÖ unless there's absolutely no way around it. Kickl is the least popular politician in Austria. There's two main reasons people vote for them: immigration and to voice frustration with the other parties. It's not likely that they will gain an absolute majority anytime soon. And after how Kickl went out of his way to humiliate the ÖVP during their coalition talks even their closest logical partner will be reluctant to discuss a government with them unless from a position of equity or strength. That said, potential FPÖ voters generally seem to come from ÖVP and (and move back there), much fewer from/to the other parties. FPÖ gets stronger, ÖVP grows weaker, and vice versa.