Man, 66, admitted to freezing her body after she died before wrapping her in bandages to absorb any fluid
Austrian police have discovered the body of an 89-year-old woman who died more than a year ago and was mummified in the cellar by her son who wanted to continue receiving her benefits.
In a statement, police said the woman, who is believed to have suffered from dementia, had died in June last year.
Continue reading...Prized collection smuggled across Europe by Jewish owners in 1930s expected to fetch more than $2m
A collection of prized Meissen porcelain smuggled across Europe after its Jewish owners were forced to flee the Nazis and later procured for Hitler before being uncovered in a salt mine by the “Monuments Men”, is to be auctioned in New York next month.
The extraordinary journey that the 18th-century artworks have undergone, reflecting the turmoil of the second world war years, has been reconstructed by art historians and restitution lawyers before their sale by Sotheby’s, the international auction house.
Continue reading...20 August 1921 My door leads on to the open hillside, a rough trellis forming a shady arbour outside while the grass all around is made beautiful by fallen plums
After the sweltering heat of Vienna it is like coming to heaven to be in the Salzkammergut. My quarters are in a peasant’s house with a spacious room containing the usual excellent spring bed and the usual quilted cover which is the despair of English sleepers. My door leads on to the open hillside, a rough trellis forming a shady arbour outside. The grass all around is made beautiful by fallen plums, unripe and useless, but most exquisite to see in their slender oval form and colours, shot rose and lilac and purple; the drought here has been very destructive. Now the rain has come heavily and such corn as is not yet stacked has been pitched upon long poles, and there are rows of these standing melancholy in the fields like gigantic Capuchin friars.
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Continue reading...As violence causes a fresh wave of desperate journeys, populist politicians claim their country has become a ‘dumping ground’
It was a journey that had taken weeks, and there were times when the 65-year-old Afghan widow, who walks with the aid of a stick, had to be carried by her son.
Their trek, across 15 canyons she says, left Durdana with badly scarred feet. “I have not had a day of peace in over 40 years. I had to come to Turkey, there was no choice.”
Continue reading...CDU leader Armin Laschet caught laughing on camera as president delivered solemn address
More flash-floods have devastated towns in Austria, Bavaria and eastern Germany, as the frontrunner to replace the chancellor, Angela Merkel, was forced to apologise after seeming to make light of a catastrophic situation that has claimed the lives of more than 150 people.
The Alpine district of Berchtesgadener Land declared a state of emergency on Saturday evening after heavy rainfall led to flooded streets and landslides, leaving at least one person dead.
Continue reading...Biden administration suspended duties to allow time for negotiations over digital-services taxes on US tech companies
The Biden administration announced 25% tariffs on over $2bn worth of imports from the UK and five other countries on Wednesday over their taxes on US technology companies, but immediately suspended the duties to allow time for negotiations to continue.
The US trade representative, Katherine Tai, said the threatened tariffs on goods from Britain, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India and Austria had been agreed after an investigation concluded that their digital taxes discriminated against US companies.
Continue reading...Karin Kneissl has been given seat on board of directors at Rosneft, which is controlled by the Russian state
A former Austrian foreign minister who danced with Vladimir Putin at her wedding has been given a seat on the board of directors of the Russian state-controlled oil industry giant Rosneft, the company has annnounced.
Karin Kneissl shot to infamy after she invited Putin to her wedding. Images of her dancing with the Russian leader in Gamlitz in the south-eastern state of Styria near the Slovenian border, went around the world in August 2018.
Continue reading...Freistadt Clinic apologises for ‘tragic mistake’ which local media said the patient did not initially recognise because of his illness
An Austrian hospital amputated the wrong leg of a patient, it said on Thursday, blaming human error for what it called a “tragic mistake”.
The elderly patient was suffering from many illnesses, the Freistadt Clinic, in a town of the same name near the Czech border, said in a statement. Previous sicknesses have affected his legs, to the point that his left leg required amputation.
Continue reading...Anti-corruption prosecutor alleges Sebastian Kurz deliberately misled MPs investigating scandal
The political future of Austria’s high-flying chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, is in question after it emerged that he is being investigated for lying to a parliamentary committee during the “Ibizagate” affair.
In a 58-page criminal investigation cited by Austrian media, the country’s anti-corruption prosecutor alleges Kurz deliberately misled MPs trying to shed light on the entanglement of political and commercial interests highlighted in the 2019 affair involving his former far-right coalition partners.
Continue reading...Memoir by Peter Fabjan, an acclaimed hit in Bernhard’s native Austria, describes a tormented man who flitted between ‘affection and icy contempt’
In public, he could be gregarious. His charm was legendary. For the great Austrian novelist and playwright Thomas Bernhard, life was a kind of production. But as his half-brother Peter Fabjan remembers him in his new book, A Life Alongside Thomas Bernhard: A Report, published in German in January, there was another side to Bernhard. “My life was a life with a phantom – indeed a demon – at my side,” he writes.
A Top 10 bestseller in Austria, and labelled a must-read by Germany’s Die Welt, Fabjan’s book marks what would have been Bernhard’s 90th year, were it not for his premature death in 1989 at the age of 58. It has been widely acclaimed by critics; behind Fabjan’s sentences, Marc Reichwein wrote in Welt am Sonntag, one feels “the wounds of a sibling’s entire life”.
Continue reading...Several countries suspend inoculations but regulator says vaccine benefits outweigh its risks
The European Medicines Agency has said the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine can continue to be used during an investigation into cases of blood clots that have prompted several European countries to pause their use of the shot.
The EMA said 30 cases of “thromboembolic events” or blood clots had been reported among 5 million people who had received the jab in Europe so far. “The vaccine’s benefits continue to outweigh its risks,” the regulator said in a statement.
Continue reading...Man’s neighbor notified police of his death in November, but found in January that no one had come to collect his body
For two months, Vienna’s funeral services “forgot” to pick up the body of an elderly man who had died in his apartment, according to a city official.
The 66-year-old man had been living alone and had been ill for a long time, and was found dead in his flat on 11 November by a neighbour who had been helping him.
Continue reading...Respiratory masks already compulsory in Bavaria over fears of coronavirus mutations
Germany is weighing up following Austria and Bavaria’s lead in making it compulsory to wear full protective filter masks on public transport and in shops, as the country remains on high alert about the impact of possible coronavirus mutations.
The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, announced on Sunday that wearing single-use filtering facepiece respirator, or FFP2, masks would become mandatory on public transport and in shops from 25 January, as the Alpine state moves to extend its national lockdown until 7 February.
Continue reading...Italy prepares for national lockdown over Christmas; Spanish minister warns of third wave
Austria is to enter a third lockdown from Boxing Day but will stage mass coronavirus tests in mid-January to determine who will be exempt from certain restrictions, the government announced on Friday.
Italy is preparing to outline new measures that could lead to a complete lockdown over the Christmas and new year period, while the Spanish government has warned of a possible “third wave” of infections.
Continue reading...Coronavirus clusters in Alpine resorts played key role in early spread of virus in Europe
France will carry out random border checks over the holiday season targeting French skiers on their way to and from foreign resorts – particularly Switzerland and Spain – where slopes stay open, the prime minister, Jean Castex, has said.
“The goal is to avoid French citizens getting contaminated. That will be done by performing random checks at the borders,” Castex told French television, adding that returning holidaymakers would be ordered to quarantine for seven days.
Continue reading...British tourists, chalet owners and resort staff wait for winter season decisions across Europe
British holidaymakers, chalet owners and resort staff are in limbo as countries across Europe decide whether or not this winter’s ski season will go ahead.
This week, Britain’s biggest ski operator Crystal Ski Holidays was forced to cancel all its French ski trips in December after President Macron ordered the nation’s resorts to stay shut until the new year.
Continue reading...Mayor says residents, known as Fuckingers, ‘have had enough of visitors and their bad jokes’
Residents of an Austrian village will ring in the new year under a new name – Fugging – after ridicule of their signposts, especially on social media, became too much to bear.
They finally grew weary of Fucking, its current name, which some experts say dates back to the 11th century.
Continue reading...Germany, Italy and France in favour of resort closures but Austria and Switzerland fear economic damage
Governments are at odds over a Europe-wide plan to bar ski holidays over Christmas and new year, with Germany, Italy and France in favour but Austria and Switzerland reluctant to damage a sector worth billions to their economies.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Thursday joined Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in calling for a Europe-wide shutdown of winter sports until 10 January to avert a fresh coronavirus wave.
Continue reading...German chancellor says she does not currently have the backing of state leaders
Angela Merkel has said she does not have backing among state leaders for new restrictions to give Germany’s “soft” lockdown a harder bite, postponing any decision until a further meeting between the chancellor and 16 state premiers next week.
The chancellor had been in favour of people limiting social interactions in private to only one set second household, and forgo any kind of party until Christmas Eve, according to a draft proposal cited by several news outlets including Der Spiegel.
Continue reading...Geoffrey Hoguet is suing Austrian authorities for control of trust set up by his ancestors, but seized by Nazis in 1938
A Rothschild descendant has claimed an initial victory in a legal battle with the city of Vienna over a medical trust set up by his ancestors, seized by Nazis and now controlled by the city.
Geoffrey Hoguet is suing Austrian authorities for control of the trust, which he claims has been hollowed out by town hall officials who have made themselves administrator and potential beneficiary of assets worth up to €110m (£98m).
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