Category Archives: Austria

Anoosheh Ashoori to start hunger strike in protest against Iran hostage-taking

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The British-Iranian dual national is staging a strike in solidarity with Barry Rosen who is campaigning outside Vienna nuclear talks

A British-Iranian man imprisoned in Iran is to start a hunger strike on Sunday in support of a 77-year-old American who is protesting outside nuclear talks in Vienna against Iranian hostage taking.

Anoosheh Ashoori, who is being held in Evin prison in Tehran, is staging the strike in an act of solidarity with Barry Rosen, who started his own four days ago. He told the Guardian he was humbled by the support, as well as other messages being sent to him by Iranians in jail.

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Austria creates Covid lottery with €500 prizes to woo vaccine hesitant

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Carrot-and-stick approach includes vaccine mandate and lottery tickets for fully inoculated

Austria has announced plans to give Covid-19 vaccine recipients an almost one-in-three chance to win a €500 (£415) gift voucher while MPs voted to fine those who decline it, as the Alpine republic implements its “carrot and stick” strategy for overcoming reluctance to take the jab.

The conservative-green coalition government of chancellor Karl Nehammer on Thursday morning unveiled what it called its “vaccination lottery” programme, which will run from 15 March until the end of the year and cost the government approximately €1.4bn.

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Exploding New Year’s Eve fireworks kill two in Germany and Austria

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Several more injured in separate incidents despite Germany introducing ban this year on sale of fireworks for personal use

Exploding fireworks killed two men on New Year’s Eve, one in Germany and the other in Austria, according to local media.

A 37-year-old man died in Hennef, near Germany’s western city of Bonn. A 39-year-old was severely injured in the same incident and taken to hospital.

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Why does Austria stay silent over dual national’s arrest six years ago in Iran?

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Iranian-Austrian Kamran Ghaderi is serving a 10-year sentence for spying and his family are still waiting for answers

Six years ago on New Year’s Day, an Iranian-Austrian IT businessman said goodbye to his wife and three children and boarded a flight from Vienna to Tehran via Istanbul. Kamran Ghaderi was due to return five to six days later, but instead, on 2 January 2016, he was arrested and has now spent six years in Evin prison in Tehran.

In October 2016, he was sentenced to 10 years for spying for a foreign country at a trial in which neither he nor his lawyer were able to say more than two words. His sentencing was based on a confession he gave under what his wife, Harika, says was torture, in the belief she might be in danger. No written judgment has ever been given to his family.

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German optimism over Omicron as Europe dampens new year revelry

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Covid expert hopeful for ‘relatively normal’ winter 2022 but prevalence limits celebrations across continent

Germany’s leading coronavirus expert has expressed optimism that his country could expect a “relatively normal” winter in 2022 as Europe prepared to ring in the new year in muted fashion, with many countries limiting celebrations.

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant fuels a record-breaking surge in Covid infections across the continent, many governments have curtailed mass public gatherings and either closed or imposed curfews on nightclubs.

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Bambi: cute, lovable, vulnerable … or a dark parable of antisemitic terror?

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A new translation of Felix Salten’s 1923 novel reasserts its original message that warns of Jewish persecution

It’s a saccharine sweet story about a young deer who finds love and friendship in a forest. But the original tale of Bambi, adapted by Disney in 1942, has much darker beginnings as an existential novel about persecution and antisemitism in 1920s Austria.

Now, a new translation seeks to reassert the rightful place of Felix Salten’s 1923 masterpiece in adult literature and shine a light on how Salten was trying to warn the world that Jews would be terrorised, dehumanised and murdered in the years to come. Far from being a children’s story, Bambi was actually a parable about the inhumane treatment and dangerous precariousness of Jews and other minorities in what was then an increasingly fascist world, the new translation will show.

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Netherlands to enter lockdown as nations across Europe tighten curbs to slow Omicron spread

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Dutch lockdown puts limits on Christmas celebrations, while France and other countries toughen restrictions as Covid cases climb

Nations across Europe moved to reimpose tougher measures to stem a new wave of Covid infections spurred by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, with the Netherlands leading the way by imposing a nationwide lockdown.

All non-essential stores, bars and restaurants in the Netherlands will be closed until 14 January starting Sunday, caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte said at a hastily arranged press conference Saturday night. Schools and universities will shut until 9 January, he said.

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Austria ends Covid lockdown restrictions for vaccinated people

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Strict rules lifted across most of country after three weeks as case numbers plummet

Austria has ended lockdown restrictions for vaccinated people across most of the country, three weeks after reimposing strict rules to combat a rising wave of coronavirus infections.

The rules, which vary by region within the country, largely allow for the reopening of theatres, museums and other cultural and entertainment venues on Sunday. Shops will follow on Monday.

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Tens of thousands protest against compulsory Covid jabs in Austria

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Crowds in Vienna demonstrate against mandatory vaccines and confinement orders for unvaccinated

Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Austria’s capital Vienna to protest against mandatory Covid vaccines and home confinement orders for those who have not yet received the jabs.

Police said an estimated 44,000 people attended the demonstration on Saturday, the latest in a string of huge weekend protests since Austria last month became the first EU country to say it would make Covid vaccinations mandatory.

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‘I don’t like mandates’: Germans and Austrians on new Covid measures

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People give their views on compulsory jabs and restrictions on those have not been vaccinated

The German government has announced a lockdown for the unvaccinated and is considering making Covid vaccines mandatory, after weeks of record infections in the country and much of German-speaking Europe.

In Austria, thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest against a string of measures: from February, the government will be introducing compulsory vaccines for all, with exemption for those unable to receive a jab on medical grounds.

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Austrian surgeon fined €2,700 for amputating wrong leg

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Doctor found guilty of gross negligence after marking wrong leg of 82-year-old man for operation

An Austrian court has fined a surgeon for amputating the wrong leg of an elderly patient.

The 43-year-old surgeon said her actions were due to “human error”, but the judge found her guilty of gross negligence and fined her €2,700 ($3,060), with half the amount suspended, a spokesperson for the tribunal in the northern city of Linz said on Wednesday.

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Germany ‘at crossroads’ as Covid cases surge across Europe

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Urgent measures needed to avoid ‘chaos’, warns expert, as Spain, Portugal and Netherlands tighten rules

Germany’s top health officials have raised the prospect of a national lockdown, warning that a rapidly rising number of coronavirus cases and a dramatic increase in the number of patients in intensive care meant contact reduction was the only way of tackling the crisis and avoiding “the road to chaos”.

“We need a massive contact reduction immediately,” said Prof Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s federal disease control agency.

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Covid live: UK records 44,917 new cases; strict restrictions for unvaccinated come into effect in Greece

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UK also reports 45 further Covid-related deaths; from today Greeks barred from all enclosed public spaces if they are unvaccinated

Here’s some more detail from Agence France-Presse in Vienna on Austria’s move into its fourth Covid lockdown:

People in Austria are not allowed to leave home except to go to work, shop for essentials and exercise, as the country returned to a Covid-19 lockdown on Monday morning.

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Germany and Netherlands face fresh Covid rules as Austria enters lockdown

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Reintroduction of restrictions has led to violent protests in European cities

Germany and the Netherlands have been told they should face still tougher Covid restrictions as the German health minister, Jens Spahn, made the startling prediction that most of his compatriots would be “vaccinated, cured or dead” by the end of winter.

With Europe again the centre of the pandemic, ushering in tighter controls mainly on the unvaccinated across the continent, on Monday Austria became the first west European country to re-enter lockdown since vaccination began earlier this year.

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Violence in Belgium and Netherlands as Covid protests erupt across Europe

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Anger at government restrictions spreads to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark and Croatia

Violence erupted at demonstrations in Belgium and the Netherlands over the weekend as tougher Covid-19 restrictions to curb the resurgent pandemic led to angry protests in several European countries.

Ten of thousands of people marched through central Brussels on Sunday to protest against reinforced restrictions imposed by the Belgian government to counter the latest rise in coronavirus cases. The march, which police estimated involved 35,000 people, began peacefully but descended into violence as several hundred people started pelting officers, smashing cars and setting rubbish bins on fire. Police responded with teargas and water cannon.

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‘I want my freedom back’: thousands protest against Covid lockdown in Austria – video

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Thousands of people gathered in central Vienna to protest against new tough pandemic measures in Austria. Whistling, clapping, blowing horns and banging drums, protesters – many of them far-right supporters – streamed into Heroes’ Square on Saturday. With daily infections still setting records, the government said it would put the countryt back in lockdown from Monday and make it compulsory to get vaccinated from 1 February

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‘An attack on our health system’: Austria’s chancellor condemns anti-vaxxers – video

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Austria is to go into a national lockdown to contain a fourth wave of coronavirus cases, the chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, announced on Friday, as new infections hit a record high amid a pandemic surge across Europe. Despite all the persuasion and campaigns, too few people had decided to get vaccinated, Schallenberg said, leaving the country no other choice but to introduce mandatory vaccinations in February

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‘No way around it’: Austrians queue for jabs as unvaccinated told to stay home

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In Linz, jab willingness is rising as police check Covid passports – but confusion remains on what is essential travel

On a street of shops in the Austrian city of Linz, a stone’s throw from the winding Danube river, two police officers in navy-blue uniforms and peaked white caps stop random passersby to check their vaccine passports.

Elderly shoppers rummage around in their handbags and comply with a smile, but a fortysomething woman with a nose piercing is less forthcoming: she says she left her immunisation certificate on the kitchen table as she had to dash across town to see a dentist.

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German health chief urges Covid crackdown to avert ‘very bad Christmas’

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Country facing ‘extremely dismal days’ as it set ninth consecutive record for daily case numbers

The head of Germany’s disease control agency has said the country is heading for a “very bad Christmas season” if drastic measures are not taken to dampen the spread of coronavirus.

Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), said that even if measures were taken Germany faced a period of “extremely dismal days” during which hundreds of people would die out of those currently infected.

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Austrian police carry out routine checks as unvaccinated enter lockdown

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Experts warn rules will be hard to enforce, as country records highest Covid infection rate in western Europe

Police in Austria have begun carrying out routine checks on commuters to ensure compliance with a nationwide “lockdown for the unvaccinated”, as the Alpine country tries to get on top of one of the most rapidly rising infection rates in Europe.

The restrictions, which came into effect on Monday morning, will affect almost 2 million Austrian citizens aged 12 and older who have so far not been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Of those, the 356,000 people who have been vaccinated only once can be released from lockdown if they show a negative PCR test.

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