Rising rents fuel inflation
Prices climbed by more than two per cent last month.
Vienna, May 18, AI News reports: Statistik Austria said yesterday the inflation rose by 2.3 per cent, meaning that the average price of predicts and services on offer in Austria climbed to this extent from April 2011 to the same month of this year. This is the lowest rise since December 2010, researchers stressed.
Especially car petrol prices (plus 3.8 per cent) and housing costs (plus 3.4 per cent) increased last month, according to Statistik Austria. Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner of the Austrian People’s Party’s (ÖVP) said last month he would set up a fuel price corridor. Mitterlehner said drivers "must not suffer under mineral oil enterprises’ arbitrariness". Mitterlehner said he would appreciate if the market caused fair circumstances on its own but added that now was the time to act.
Mineral oil companies and service stations hit back by pointing out that drivers in most other European countries were paying more for petrol. Car clubs and the Austrian Traffic Club (VCÖ) supported Mitterlehner concerning the price corridor policy. The Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) called for stricter laws against businesspeople caught manipulating prices while the Freedom Party (FPÖ) said the federal model of subsidisations for commuters should be reformed.
Statistik Austria’s housing costs price check includes rent, heating expenses and the price of tap water supply. People using gas to heat their homes had to pay 11.6 per cent more for the same amount of the resource in March 2012 than in March 2011.
Speaking about electricity prices, Walter Boltz said Austrians were paying too much. The head of the Austrian energy industry watchdog said prices "should be 10 to 15 per cent lower". Boltz explained Austrian households should pay between 20 and 25 Euros less a year if providers considered price developments on global energy product trade markets since 2008.
The Labour Chamber (AK) found that apartment rents shot up by 34.5 per cent between 2001 and 2010. AK experts said the domestic inflation climbed by only 21 per cent at the same time. The organisation appealed on real estate dealers to stop charging exaggerated provisions. Austrians’ incomes rose by 22 per cent between 2000 and 2010, according to the AK.
Bernhard Felderer of the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) said the inflation would reach 2.2 per cent this year. The annual inflation rose by 3.3 per cent from 2010 to 2011. Karl Aiginger, who heads the Viennese Institute for Economic Research (WIFO), said the inflation would range around 2.4 per cent this year compared to 2011.
Food prices strongly varied in the past months. While coffee became 11 per cent dearer last month compared to April 2011, the average price for fruits and vegetables dropped. Coffee cost 19 per cent more in March 2012 than in the same period of last year. The average inflation of the European Union (EU) – which has 27 members – was 2.7 per cent last month.

Nazi still honoured in Austria
Vienna, May 18, Wiener Zeitung reports: Former SS Nazi Josef Vallaster involved in thousands of murders in Nazi concentration camps is still honoured in a book of remembrance which is located in the crypt at Heldenplatz in the Austrian capital of Vienna. The Austrian Green Party criticised this in parliament earlier this week. Vallaster who is listed in the book which has thousand of names of those fallen together with date and place of death However, Green party politician Harald Walser said: "It is not only a list of those fallen at war. You can clearly see the name of Harald Walser in the book of remembrance. Vallaster was allegedly involve din the killings of thousands of disabled people in an institute for disabled people in Hartheim, Upper Austria. He was then moved to the Concentration Camp Sobibor in Poland where he was involved with the murders of Jewish people. Vallaster himself was later killed in a a prisoner protest.

French cabinet cuts pay for ministers
PARIS, May 17: French leader Francois Hollande's new Socialist government ordered a 30 percent pay cut for the president and ministers as it held its first cabinet session on Thursday, several ministers said.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault earlier said the top item on the meeting's agenda would be the salary cut, a Hollande campaign promise that the premier said was about "setting an example" for France.
The move was aimed at drawing a clear distinction between Hollande and former president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose salary famously increased by 170 percent to 19,000 euros ($24,000) per month after he took office in 2007.
Hollande, who defeated right-winger Sarkozy in a May 6 vote, on Wednesday unveiled a government of mainly moderate Socialists and longtime allies.
The new line-up met a promise to appoint an equal number of men and women in Hollande's cabinet, a first for France, although most of the senior posts went to men.
It is also a cabinet with little experience -- only five of its 34 members have served previously in government and seven are under the age of 40.

Greek elections set for June 17
ATHENS, May 17: Debt-laden Greece is headed for new elections next month following an indecisive vote and on Wednesday named a judge as caretaker premier amid growing fears over the country's eurozone future. Pikrammenos, the head of Greece's top administrative court, was tasked with organising the next general election, which the semi-state Athens News Agency said would be held on June 17. "This is clearly a caretaker administration whose sole purpose is to lead the country to elections," Pikrammenos said after accepting the mandate from President Carolos Papoulias. "It is clear to all that our homeland is going through difficult times. We must safeguard its prestige and assure a smooth transition," said Pikrammenos

Euro at four-month lows on Greek turmoil
TOKYO, May 16: The euro was stuck at four-month lows against the dollar in Asian trade Wednesday amid fears over political uncertainty in debt-ridden Greece and its wider impact across the 17-nation eurozone.
The euro bought $1.2715 in Tokyo afternoon trade, compared with $1.2728 in New York late Tuesday, and treading its lowest levels since mid-January.
The common currency fetched 102.16 yen against 102.12 yen, while the dollar was changing hands at 80.40 yen, slightly up from 80.23 yen late Wednesday in New York.
“There is a pervading sense of unease in financial markets, a disquieting feeling of having been in something like this position before and wondering if it might turn out the same,” National Australia Bank said in a note.
“In Greece, there are increasing outflows from its own banking sector and broader discussion of contagion effects,” it said.
Greece must hold fresh elections next month after talks on forming a new government broke up without agreement Tuesday, prolonging a tortuous crisis which could ultimately see Athens exit the eurozone and even the European Union.
“The concern now is regarding contagion. It’s not Greece per se that is the problem, but the credibility of the euro as a currency,” the bank said.
Spain was already feeling pressure with yields on its 10-year bonds rising, it added, while 26 Italian banks saw their ratings downgraded.
Masafumi Yamamoto, chief strategist at Barclays Bank in Tokyo, said the dollar may rise above 81 yen if minutes of the US Federal Reserve policy-making body due later Wednesday suggest the Fed will hold off additional easing steps.
“It’s worth paying attention to whether the number of the Fed board members supporting additional easing will decrease,” he told Dow Jones Newswires.
The greenback firmed against other Asian currencies.
It rose to 31.48 Thai baht from 31.37 baht on Tuesday, to 42.97 Philippine pesos from 42.78 pesos, to Tw$29.60 from Tw$29.53, and to Sg$1.2670 from Sg$1.2568.
It also firmed to 1,164.25 South Korean won from 1,153.80 won and to 9,357.50 Indonesian rupiah from 9,241.00 rupiah.

Greece faces fresh poll threat
ATHENS, May 15: Greece on Monday faced the prospect of fresh polls after political parties failed to narrow divisions over a painful EU-IMF bailout deal, with few expecting progress at talks to form a government. Meetings hosted by President Carolos Papoulias resume at 1630 GMT as eurozone finance ministers gather in Brussels where officials insist Greece must stick to the tough austerity measures it agreed to in return for the debt rescue. If Athens does not, and the debt accord lapses, it appears increasingly that eurozone leaders are prepared for Greece to leave the 17-nation bloc despite fears that that outcome could destabilise the whole euro project.
Greek May 6 polls saw a huge protest vote against the austerity measures and produced no party able to command a majority in parliament which convenes Thursday when, absent a new administration, fresh elections must be called.
On Monday, the head of a small moderate leftist party, seen as the last hope for a coalition, said there was no chance of a unity government being formed.
“No unity government can emerge,” Fotis Kouvelis, head of the Democratic Left party, told a Greek television, pointing to the refusal of the radical leftist Syriza party - which came second on May 6 - to join a coalition.
“A government without Syriza would not have the necessary popular and parliamentary backing,” said Kouvelis.
Outgoing government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said the situation was dangerous because of the pressing economic problems which Greece must tackle.
“At the moment, there is a political vacuum, which is very dangerous,” Kapsis told Mega Television.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has said he will not attend Monday’s talks which will include the conservative New Democracy and the socialist Pasok parties that backed the 240-billion-euro EU and International Monetary Fund debt deal.
New Democracy, which came first in the polls, and Pasok third, would control 168 of the 300 seats in parliament if they could combine with the Democratic Left, which came last with 6.1 percent of the vote.
Kouvelis insisted, however, that Greece must “immediately” start to disengage itself from an EU-IMF deal which many see as only making problems worse as Greece languishes in a fifth year of recession.
Greek media comment was sceptical Monday about the talks, with the centre-left Ethnos saying “Syriza has opened the way to new elections and this time it will be a sort of referendum (on the bailout).”
For Eleftheros Typos on the right, the talks “are the last act in the drama of the ‘no’ national consensus. We are headed for new elections after Tsipras’ veto.”
The stakes could not be higher for Greece, given the uncertainties of a euro exit, and for the wider eurozone as voters grow disenchanted with governments which stress austerity to stabilise public finances at the expense of growth.
The election of Socialist Francois Hollande as French president on a pledge that growth must come first has ruffled feathers in Berlin where Chancellor Angela Merkel, under pressure too after a poor regional election result at the weekend, is trying to hold to the hard line.
The drawn-out bailout negotiations and now the Greek political impasse have become the lightning rod for fears over the eurozone’s future, roiling European markets which tumbled again Monday as investors looked for safety.
Investors worry that if the Greek crisis cannot be contained, other much larger eurozone states such as Spain and Italy could need a bailout too, costing even more than those for Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Spanish and Italian stockmarkets were down more than three percent each in midday trade Monday while London lost 1.78 percent, Frankfurt shed 2.25 percent and Paris sank 2.55 percent.
“Greece’s time in the euro seems limited now and a large bill for their default will need to be paid ... Germany’s percentage of that will be large enough to shake the eurozone further,” said broker Jonathan Bristow at Valbury Capital.
Recent opinion polls show Syriza likely to emerge as the largest single party in fresh elections, opening up a whole new political landscape.
“Syriza wants elections,” Kouvelis of the Democratic Left said, adding that the country was “clearly” heading for a new ballot.
In a statement Monday, Syriza reiterated that it would not attend the next round of talks and demanded that details of Sunday’s negotiations be released “so that the Greek people be informed of the plans and positions of the parties.”
On Sunday, Papoulias was said to have produced a letter from outgoing prime minister Lucas Papademos which, according to Greek media, showed that the state only has enough cash to pay salaries and pensions until late June.
Papademos has warned that Greek banks need to be urgently recapitalised after taking major losses in a bond exchange last month that erased nearly a third of Greece’s huge 350 billion euros debt.
Greece is committed under the EU-IMF accord to finding another 11.5 billion euros in savings over the next two years and needs to repay 435 million euros in maturing debt on May 15.

Mothers Day brings in millions of Euros for gift shops in Vienna
Vienna, May 14, Austrian Independent reports: The Viennese Chamber of Commerce estimates that citizens spend around 26 million Euros on gifts for their mothers on Mother's Day.
For flower shops, Mother's Day is the second most profitable day - after Valentine's Day.
Flowers are the most common Mother's Day gift, according to a survey made by the Viennese Chamber of Commerce. 69 per cent of the people participating in the survey claimed that they were going to buy flowers. Only 22 per cent were buying chocolate, or something sweet for their mothers.
Gift vouchers, restaurant invitations and cosmetics are also popular gifts.
The most generousage group are the 15-29 year olds, who buy gifts for their own mother - but also for their partners, mother-in-law and great grandmothers. According to the survey, the average amount of money spent on gifts is 35 Euro.
The Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, Brigitte Jank, used Mother's Day to raise awareness regarding the problems of children's education.
She said: "There continue to be more self-employed women than employed women in many parts of the country, and that is a disadvantage when it comes to parenting and social security."
The Chamber of Commerce demands an expansion of the childcare system, and grants to cover the costs of it - as well as an increase in salary for women entrepreneurs.

Man killed by poisoned umbrella attack
Hannover, May 14: A man who was stabbed in the bottom with a poisoned umbrella has died in Hannover, Germany, nearly a year after the attack, say police. The 40-year-old man had been in a coma with mercury poisoning for months after a stranger jabbed him in the backside with the toxic brolly. Prosecutors say he had been showing signs of recovery but suddenly died. The mystery seems to be a carbon copy of the assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, who was killed with a poisoned umbrella in London in 1978 at the height of the Cold War. German police are still hunting for the new killer.

Greek president to urge unity government to avert new polls
ATHENS, May 12: President Carolos Papoulias was under pressure Saturday to orchestrate a way out of Greece’s political impasse as fresh elections appeared increasingly likely.
The president must step in after three failed attempts to form a coalition government following inconclusive elections in the debt-strapped country.
The nation is deeply torn over tough austerity measures imposed as conditions for its IMF-EU bailouts, and the crisis has raised the specture of a default and exit from the 17-member eurozone.
“We’re a breath away from the drachma and disaster,” liberal daily Kathimerini warned on Saturday. “A very large segment of our fellow citizens do not realise it, and this is very dangerous.”Voters last Sunday punished the mainstream parties and left a fractured political landscape amid intense EU pressure over Greek finances.
Socialist Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos on Friday failed in the latest bid to form a government after the radical leftist Syriza party refused to join a pro-austerity coalition with the socialists and conservatives.
Venizelos was to return his mandate to Papoulias at 1000 GMT.
The head of state is then expected to urge party leaders to form a national unity government, by Monday at the latest.
If the parties cannot agree a compromise by next Thursday, new elections will have to be called.
“The president is now called to attempt to find a solution,” said financial daily Naftemboriki. It added that the man who had held together Greece’s previous uneasy coalition, former ECB deputy chief Lucas Papademos, had told Papoulias on Friday that he would not remain as caretaker prime minsiter in the event of repeat elections.
The latest twist in the tortuous political drama came as EU paymaster Germany threatened to cut off the country’s loan lifeline and hinted that the crisis-ridden eurozone could get along without Greece.
Venizelos was the third party leader who tried and failed to cobble together a government after the inconclusive elections.
“I am going to inform the president of the republic (Saturday) and I hope that during the meeting with Carolos Papoulias, each party will assume its responsibilities,” Venizelos told reporters in Athens.
Venizelos had been hoping to win the support of Syriza, a party deeply opposed to the terms of the 240 billion euro (311 billion dollar) European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout and which surged to second place in Sunday’s vote.
Earlier, another possible ally, the small Democratic Left party, said it would not join a government made up of only Pasok and the conservative New Democracy party that did not include Syriza.
Both Syriza and the New Democracy party had failed in their own attempts to assemble a coalition government.
Two new opinion polls have shown that Syriza could even emerge as the victor if new elections are held in June.
Brussels on Friday revised downwards its economic forecasts for the country at the epicentre of the eurozone debt crisis.
The European Commission said the economy is expected to contract by 4.7 per cent this year and see zero growth next year.
Fitch credit rating agency warned that the emergence of a Greek government “unwilling or unable to abide by the terms of the current EU-IMF programme would increase the risk of Greece leaving the eurozone.”
“If they are required, the re-run elections will therefore be a critical event for both Greece and for the eurozone,” it said in a note.
Greece has already committed to finding in June another 11.5 billion euros in savings over the next two years. It also needs to redeem 436 million euros in maturing debt on May 15.

Eurozone can cope with a Greek exit: German finance minister
BERLIN, May 11: The eurozone would cope if Greece left the currency union, Germany’s finance minister said in an interview on Friday as Greek parties continued with efforts to form a government coalition.
Asked by the regional Rheinische Post whether the eurozone could withstand a Greek exit, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said: “Europe won’t sink that easily.”
“We want Greece to remain in the eurozone. But it also has to want this and to fulfill its obligations. We can’t force anyone.”
“We have learned a lot these past two years and have built protection mechanisms. The danger of contamination for other countries in the eurozone have become weaker and the eurozone as a whole has become more resistant.”
“The crisis has shown that one must act quickly and that Europe can act quickly… the notion that we would not be capable of reacting in the short term to something unforeseen is false.”
Schaeuble’s comments came as Socialists in Greece tried to cobble together a government, the third party to attempt to do so since Sunday’s elections gave a razor-thin majority in parliament to anti-austerity parties.

Dead body found in the Salzach river in Salzburg
Salzburg, May 10: Police is investigating after a body was discovered in the River Salzach on Thursday.
The alarm was raised at 10:30 AM and local firemen were called to pull the lifeless body from the River near the area of the Makartstegs.
Police spokesman Anton Schentz said inflation was eagerly indicated that the body was of a woman. Because of the large number of people who stopped to watch what was happening, police had to seal of the area so that the body could be recovered.
Any indication of the identity of the body is at the moment not available. Likewise there is also no indication as to the cause of death.

Merkel stresses need for austerity in Europe
BERLIN, May 10: German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave little ground to those hoping she would temper her demands for austerity, telling the country’s Parliament that the only way Europe can recover from its debt crisis is if it perseveres with structural reforms alongside tough measures to bring borrowing levels down.
In a speech Thursday, Merkel dismissed calls to abandon or scale back austerity measures, which involve lower government spending and higher taxes, within the European Union. She insisted that the combination of debt reduction and growth were the ”two pillars” of the strategy needed to bring the trade bloc out of the crisis.
”Growth through structural reform is important and necessary,” she told Parliament.
”Growth through debt would throw us back to the beginning of the crisis.”
Debate over the future of European austerity measures has flared up in recent days following elections in France and Greece.
Socialist candidate Francois Hollande won France’s presidential elections on Sunday after campaigning for a greater emphasis on growth in Europe’s crisis management.
Meanwhile, most people voted for anti-austerity parties in Sunday elections in Greece, stoking fears that the country would not meet the commitments it has made in return for bailout money.
Merkel said reducing debt and strengthening competitiveness needed to go hand in hand.
”They aren’t contradictory, they belong together,” she said.

Iraqi man arrested for killing of his wife in Vienna
Vienna, May 8, The Austrian independent reports: Austrian police have finally managed to arrest a man wanted for the murder of a woman 11 years ago in the Favoriten district of Vienna.
The man who was originally from Iraq but who had Austrian citizenship fled the country shortly after the killing. He was married to the murdered woman.
Once back in the country, the man, who is now 79 years old, adopted a false name and went to live at Dohuk in northern Iraq.
The allegation is that the man murdered his ex-wife with a gun on 30 April 2001 at her home in the Sonnleithnergasse.
The couple had been estranged, and she had hidden from him, but he allegedly managed to force his daughter at gunpoint to tell him where his ex-wife was – and he then drove there with his daughter to confront her.
At the end of a heated row he shot her with several bullets according to the indictment, and also injured his daughter by shooting her in the arm.
He was arrested in 2010 by Interpol investigators working with police in Baghdad and has finally been extradited to Austria.

Pope Flat's Offer in Germany
Bad Godesberg, May 8: First it was his old VW Golf - now Pope Benedict XVI's flat has been put up for rent on eBay. But unlike the car that sold for 130,000 GBP - the three-bedroomed flat where Benedikt XVI lived for four years between 1959 and 1963 is not fetching a huge amount of interest after it was offered for rent in Germany. The flat at Wurzerstraße 9-11 in Bad Godesberg is currently to be seen on websites Immobilienscout 24 and Kalaydo for just under 1,000 GBP, and contains little in the way of luxury or opulence. The man who was to be Pope lived there while teaching theology at the nearby University of Bonn. Owner Zofia Ahrens said: "Yes it is true that Pope Benedikt XVI lived here. But despite that I haven't really had any more requests for this property than you might expect for property anywhere else with a less famous former tenant. At the time he was known simply as Joseph Ratzinger - as proved by the page from the old telephone directory attached to the advert.

Shocking Bill
Bratislava, May 7: Slovak woman Jana Nagyova, 37, had a real shock when she was sent a final demand - to settle a five million pound electricity bill from Eon for her one bedroomed flat in Bratislava. Local officials refused to accept that the amount was not due, and it was only when Jana got a lawyer involved that the firm admitted it's mistake. The German company said staff at their Slovak subsiduary ZSE had accidentally put the woman's customer number in the amount due box - and apologised over the mistake.

Austrian McDonalds killer on trial
München, May 7, The austrian Independent reports: A court case has started in Germany after a disagreement at a McDonalds in Münich an which a man was killed after being punched by an Austrian.
The German businessman Giacomo A., 41, had been attacked by the unemployed Austrian David M.,25, at the McDonalds on 30th July last year.
It was as the businessman was visiting the fast-food restaurant with his girlfriend that the Austrian arrived and started picking a fight with the 16 years older man.
Witnesses told the police that the Austrian had been in a foul mood, and that he had ignored the line when ordering his food. He then sat down right beside Giacomo A., even though there were many other free tables, and started harassing him.
The older man met the insults with a dismissive calm at first, but as the time passed, a loud disagreement broke out which ended with Giacomo A. leaving the restaurant and being pushed in the back by David M. who then proceeded to strike the businessman twice in the face, ripping an artery in his neck. He died of internal injuries.
After the attack the Austrian was heard swearing in a Yugoslavian dialect.
An ambulance was called to the restaurant, but Giacomo A. had died from internal bleeding before they arrived. The trial continues.