Vienna - Neither of the two candidates in the election to succeed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed ElBaradei reached a decisive majority in the first rounds of the poll held Thursday, the agency has said.

The favoured candidate, Japanese diplomat and disarmament expert Yukiya Amano (61) however emerged in the lead, beating rival South African Abdul Samad Minty
(69) in the three voting rounds, without achieving the necessary 24 votes out of 35 members of the IAEA's board.

Vien

Vienna - Disgraced Austrian cross-country ski coach Walter Mayer has been arrested on doping charges, the Austrian Press Agency APA reported on Monday.

Citing prosecutors, APA said that Mayer is under investigation for buying the blood booster EPO at a Vienna pharmacist and distributing it to athletes.

The pharmacist is suspected of having sold doping substances to Mayer and an Austrian cyclist. The pharmacist and cyclist, who have not been identified, have also been arrested over the affair.

Vienna - The price for OPEC-produced oil was inching toward the 50-dollar mark Monday, reaching 48.77 dollars for one barrel (159 litres) of OPEC crude, the group announced Tuesday.

The price had been 47.39 dollars for a barrel a day earlier.

Energy consultant JBC attributed the rising price to cutbacks in OPEC production and lingering concerns about the state of global financial markets. Overall, oil prices rose by about 10 per cent worldwide in the last week.

Vienna - A member of an autistic persons' self-help group shot a woman member dead and then turned the gun on himself in a Viennese self-help centre, police said Saturday.

A spokeswoman said the shooting happened at a weekly meeting of the five-strong group late Friday, when the man suddenly produced the gun and shot the woman without any warning or obvious reason.

As other group members scattered to safety, the gunman killed himself.

Berlin  - Elisabeth Fritzl suffered an unimaginable ordeal, held for 24 years in a cramped, windowless cellar, behind a secret door locked with a code only her father Josef knew.

From the age of 18, when Fritzl lured her into the dungeon he had meticulously prepared, Elisabeth was raped around 3,000 times by her father, and gave birth to seven children.