Melbourne, Jan 29 : The Great Barrier Reef's dream job has attracted more than 9000 jobseekers from 162 countries, who would love to swim, snorkel and blog about it.

Desperate to win the "Best Job in the World", thousands of jobseekers are seen bragging, begging, singing, and even getting tattooed to become tropical island's new caretaker.

Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said the campaign was arguably one of the most successful tourism campaigns ever, attracting more than 2.3 million people to its website.

Vienna - Heavy snowfalls in Austria caused large-scale power cuts

Vienna - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei has cancelled interviews with the BBC, reacting to the British broadcaster's refusal to air a charity plea for people in the Gaza Strip, his spokeswoman said Wednesday.

"He believes this decision violates the rules of basic human decency which are there to help vulnerable people irrespective of who is right or wrong," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

Vienna  - Actress Nicollette Sheridan, one of the stars in the US TV series Desperate Housewives, will add sparkle to this year's Vienna Opera Ball as guest of Richard Lugner, the Austrian socialite announced Wednesday.

In order to promote his Vienna shopping centre, Lugner traditionally pays a celebrity to accompany him to Austria's most glamorous society event, which will take place on February 19 this year.

British-born Sheridan, 45, is not only set to get a taste of Vienna's ball culture, but also of Lugner's rough manners, which he put on display already when announcing his guest.

Vienna - Austrian police arrested six Chechens on Wednesday for possible involvement in the murder of a Chechen refugee earlier this month, the Vienna public prosecutor's office said.

Prosecutor Gerhard Jarosch confirmed a report by Austrian broadcaster ORF that the six suspects were arraigned and that several house searches were conducted in Vienna and other provinces.

The shooting of Umar Israilov on January 13 in Vienna was likely politically motivated, as he had brought a torture case against Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov before the European Court of Human Rights.

Vienna - After a study found one fifth of Austria's Islamic religious education teachers to have anti-democratic views, politicians are voicing concerns, and far-right parties are calling for drastic measures.

In a dissertation project on Islamic religious education in Austria, 21.9 per cent of surveyed teachers said they were opposed to democracy because it is at odds with Islam.