Shillong, Mar 16 : To commemorate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Austria, the Vienna chamber orchestra performed jointly with Shillong chamber choir here and enthralled the audience.

"Northeast is making a way to a lot of western orchestras. I think it is a very good sign. We have a lot of fusion music happening nowadays and the doors are opening for fusion music also," said Jit Chalia, a patron.

The artists of the Vienna chamber applauded the performance of the Shillong choir.

"We are all enjoying it and it is a wonderful experience with the choir from Shillong. They are just amazing," said Oliver, an artist.

St Poelten, Austria  - The trial of incest father Josef Fritzl began Monday in the Austrian town of St Poelten.

The 73-year-old is accused of having kept his daughter Elizabeth locked in the cellar of his house in Amstetten for 24 years, where he is said to have raped her several thousand times.

The daughter gave birth to seven children in the windowless cellar, six of whom survived.

Fritzl is accused of repeated rape, incest, false imprisonment and slavery.

Vienna  - The decline in prices of crude oil during the worldwide recession will have consequences for the medium- and long- term for the international oil industry, said the current President of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Sunday.

Speaking at the start of the 152nd conference of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos warned that the organization already had to to stop long-term investment due to low oil prices.

Botelho, who is Angola's oil minister, also spoke of job losses worldwide in the industry.

Vienna - Austrian Airlines made a net loss of 429.5 million euros (549 million dollars) in 2008, the company reported Friday.

A statement by the board attributed the loss to "cripplingly high fuel prices" and a "rapidly falling demand for flights due to the economic slump."

Adjustments of 334.4 million euros related to its fleet of aircraft also played a role, the statement added.

The airline is set to be bought by its German rival Lufthansa, subject to approval by the EU Commission in Brussels.

Vienna  - Austrian incest father Josef Fritzl was mainly driven by an abnormal yearning to exert power over his victims, who are likely to suffer the consequences of their ordeal all their life, psychiatric and psychological experts say.

The case of Fritzl, 73, who imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years and fathered her seven children, was unique in criminal history, the Austrian forensic psychiatrist Gerhard Haller said.

Vienna  - The trial of Josef Fritzl starting Monday in the town of Sankt Poelten will see the Austrian who imprisoned and abused his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years facing the rest of his days behind bars.

Around one year after it became public that Fritzl had fathered seven of his daughter's children, the 73-year-old stands not only accused of enslavement, rape, imprisonment, coercion and incest, but also of murder.