Salzburg (Austria), Oct 7 : Austrian politicians Gabi Burgstaller and Heinz Schaden hosted a banquet in honour of President Pratibha Devisingh Patil upon her arrival in Salzburg city on Thursday.

Burgstaller, the governor of Salzburg and Schaden, the Mayor of the city welcomed Patil and were seen interacting with her.

Earlier Patil visited the Austrian Parliament in Vienna and met Barbara Prammer President of the National Council of Austria.

Vienna, Oct 6 : President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, who is on a four-day state visit to Austria, said that India''s relations with Pakistan would improve if a conducive atmosphere is created between both countries.

Discussing India''s neighbourly relations with her Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer, President Patil also said that relations with China have moved forward with the passage of time.

Spending few times and pondering about your ancestors before an exam or job interview can vitally boost the options for success, as stated by the scientists at the University of Graz in Austria.

The so-termed ''ancestor effect'' fits well and acts accordingly as a reminder in case of brain that makes the nearly impossible hurdles to surpass, reports the Daily Mail.

Psychologists believe that the effect might be linked with the basic notion that the ones who associate themselves with their family history have a higher sense of identity and self-esteem, which in actuality boosts the overall intellectual performance.

Vienna, Oct 26: "Pink Saris" and "Jan Villa" are two of the India-themed films being shown at the Viennale, the city's international film festival. While the former focuses on the evils of child marriage, the latter shows the sights and sounds of Mumbai after the 2005 floods.

"You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger", starring Indian actress Freida Pinto, was also screened at the festival that began Oct 21 and will conclude Nov 3.

A recent study has found that people using a mobile phone daily for more than four years have twice as much the chance of being affected by tinnitus.

Tinnitus is a condition of the ears where a constant ringing or buzzing noise is heard.

It has been found that usage of mobile phones for an aggregate of 10 minutes per day creates 70 per cent more chances to develop tinnitus. Also, people who use both their ears on phone calls in addition to using it for four years have their chances of developing tinnitus doubled.

Doctors in an Austrian state cut off the wrong leg of a 91-year-old woman mistakenly, and then had to amputate the infected leg too.

Surgeons at the St. Johann Hospital in Austria's western state of Tirol, carried out the wrong surgical procedure June 16, and later realized that they cut off a healthy leg after the surgical operation was over.

After some days, they conducted the second amputation that caused the patient losing both her both legs at the end.

Researchers in Austria have found that say rheumatoid arthritis remission provides superior outcomes across socioeconomic categories such as productivity and quality of life.

It has been reported that lead author Dr. Helga Radner of the Medical University Vienna and colleagues found significant improvements in quality of life in those in remission vs. those with low disease activity. The study said that overall activity impairment and physical disability were greater in those with low disease activity.

With exit polls showing he captured 78 percent of the vote, Austrian President Heinz Fischer coasted to election to a second six-year term on Sunday.

The Times of London has reported that far-right candidate Barbara Rosenkranz won barely 15 percent of the vote. She had called for lifting a ban on voicing neo-Nazi sentiments, but later retracted the statement, and questioned Austria's laws forbidding denial of the Holocaust.

A new milestone achieved in the treatment of heart diseases by identifying the genes responsible for heart functioning as now a day's heart diseases have become one of the major cause of deaths and disabilities. A new study was revealed by a group of international researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA), Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) and other organizations gave a new perspective on the subject.

Vienna, Feb 25 - Lufthansa is reducing the cargo business of Austrian Airlines, the newly acquired subsidiary said Wednesday - 24 hours after announcing cuts in its technical maintenance unit.

The troubled Austrian Airlines is currently implementing tough savings measures and cuts, after being taken over by Lufthansa last September in an effort to use synergies between the two carriers.

A quarter of jobs in cargo and maintenance would be slashed, reducing the number by 260, a spokesman said.

Vienna, Jan 8 - Good news for those who seek to shed their holiday pounds: Researchers announced Thursday in Austria that they have found a way to suppress growth of fat cells.

So far, the method has been used in mice, by unlocking a genetic mechanism. Such a method could eventually help humans, too.

By modifying a certain gene, the molecular biologists were able to raise very lean, but healthy, animals that developed almost no white fat cells, according to a study published in the US journal Cell.

Vienna, Dec 14 : The oil price of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) slid to $70.85 at the end of last week, the group reported Monday.

The average price for OPEC-produced oil shed 58 cents Friday.

The recent downward movement in international oil markets was due to a number of economic factors, including negative demand figures for gas oil and petrol, analysts at J. B. C. Energy wrote in Vienna.

Vienna, Dec 7 : African Union leader Jean Ping warned Monday in Vienna that the population on his continent would disappear if there was no progress at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Africa would speak with one voice at the summit meeting that started Monday, as natural catastrophes like floods and droughts had become a reality in developing countries, the chairperson of the African Union's secretariat told reporters.

Vienna, Nov 26 : The dispute over Iran's nuclear programme showed no sign of abating as diplomats gathered at the International Atomic Energy Agency Thursday for a meeting that would be the last under IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

The IAEA's board of governors was set to vote on a resolution drafted by six world powers that would express "serious concern" about a new nuclear site that Tehran revealed belatedly in September and note that Iran had broken international rules by building it.

Vienna - Austrian investor Christian "Toto" Wolff has joined Williams as a minority stakeholder, the British Formula One team announced Friday.

The team did not disclose the size of Wolff's share but said that the 37-year-old financier is taking a seat on the team's board.

Toto Wolff, who lives in Switzerland, is himself a GT and rally racer.

Beijing - Vienna - Panda Fu Long, the two-year-old star of the Vienna Zoo, on Thursday arrived in his new home in the south-western Chinese province in Sichuan, a zoo official said.

Fu Long will have to undergo a month of quarantine, a deputy head of the Wolong nature reserve told the German Press Agency dpa over phone.

Vienna  - Austria's biggest steelmaker voestalpine AG made a profit of 28 million euros (42 million dollars) in the quarter ending in September, recovering from a loss in the previous quarter, the company said Thursday.

However, the latest results were only a fraction of the 279-million-euro profit made between July and September of last year.

Voestalpine's business year runs from April to April, meaning the company reported its second-quarter results Thursday.

Vienna  - The Austrian government agreed Tuesday to introduce a form of civil union for same-sex couples, which will grant some, but not all rights enjoyed by married heterosexual couples, Justice Minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner announced.

The so-called registered partnerships are to give homosexual partners rights regarding social security claims, inheritance or court trials.

However, those who register will not be allowed to adopt children, and lesbian couples will not be able to have children through in-vitro fertilization.

Vienna  - Spain will return Wednesday to Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadion for their last match of 2009, against hosts Austria.

It was in this stadium that La Seleccion won the Euro 2008 final in splendid style, beating Germany 1-0 on a handsome goal from Fernando Torres.

The Liverpool striker will miss Wednesday's match through injury, but the other Spaniards are looking forward to returning to Vienna.

"Vienna is a city with special memories for us," said captain Iker Casillas on Sunday.

"It was there, last year, that we finally managed to win something important."

Vienna - Austria's economy has pulled out of recession, with third quarter growth of 0.9 per cent, the Austrian Institute of Economic Research said Friday.

It joins the Netherland in officially emerging from the down turn in figures released Friday.

The growth in gross domestic product (GDP) was the first quarter- on-quarter increase since the second quarter of 2008.

Exports and investments in the construction sector drove the turnaround, the researchers said.