Vienna - The new management of Austrian Airlines AG announced a "crisis package" of austerity measures to ensure liquidity on Friday, moving quickly after Alfred Oetsch made public his resignation as chief executive late on Thursday.

The measures came as the partially state-owned carrier is waiting for the European Commission to greenlight the takeover by German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Innsbruck, Austria - Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht remained in an induced coma in an Innsbruck hospital on Friday, but doctors said his condition was improving more than a week after he crashed heavily in training for the Kitzbuehel downhill.

Doctors said there were no complications in the skier's treatment for head injuries and that bleeding of the lower lobes had stopped. But he was being kept in a coma in view of overall injuries to his lung.

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose by 0.50 dollars Thursday, as OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said the cartel might decide on further production cuts.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC crude stood at 41.21 dollars Thursday, the Vienna-based organization announced Friday.

Vienna  - , chief executive of Austrian Airlines AG, was forced to step down with immediate effect, ahead of the flag carrier's planned takeover by German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Austrian media reported Thursday.

Lufthansa agreed last December to buy a 42 per cent stake in the ailing carrier currently held by Austria's state holding OeIAG. The deal is pending on approval from the European Commission.

Vienna - Czech Foreign Minister Karel Scharzenberg said in Vienna on Thursday that he could imagine that the United States would delay its Central European missile shield project, one day after Russia reacted positively to a perceived shift in US policy.

Russia halted plans to deploy Iskander missiles in its European enclave of Kaliningrad on Wednesday, responding to signals that the new Obama administration would review its missile shield project to be stationed in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Vienna- The price for crud