Vienna  - Austrian police have started to contact Chechen exiles whose names appear on an alleged death list published on the internet, following the murder of a Chechen refugee last week, an interior ministry spokesman said Thursday.

In another sign that police are increasing security for Chechens, around 100 officers and a police helicopter were deployed Thursday in Vienna for the funeral of Umar Israilov, 27, who was shot by two unknown men near his Vienna home on January 13.

Vienna - Austrian far-right parliamentarian Susanne Winter was convicted Thursday of incitement because of her anti-Muslim statements, including the claim that Islam's prophet Mohammed was a paedophile.

A court in Winter's home town of Graz also found the 51-year-old politician guilty of humiliating a religion. She was sentenced to a fine of
24,000 euros (31,000 dollars) euros and a suspended prison term of three months, Austrian news agency APA reported.

The politician, who took a seat in parliament last fall for the Freedom Party (FPOe), made the anti-Islamic remarks in January 2008.

Vienna - Passenger numbers at troubled carrier Austrian Airlines declined by 1.1 per cent in 2008, as business caved in amid the global economic crisis in the third quarter, the company said Thursday.

Lufthansa is set to take over the Austrian flag carrier, pending approval from the European Commission.

The airline's long-distance flights were hit the hardest, with passenger numbers dropping 9.4 per cent year-on-year. In December, numbers fell by 13.1 per cent from the same month in 2007.

Bucking the trend, 6.2 per cent more seats were filled on flights to Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Kitzbuehel, Austria - Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht was airlifted to hospital after a severe crash in training Thursday for Saturday's men's downhill World Cup race in Kitzbuehel.

Albrecht lost his balance at high speed on the final jump and flew through the air before landing heavily on his back, losing both skis.

The 25-year-old appeared to be unconscious as he was treated on the course for some 20 minutes before being flown by helicopter to hospital.

The accident was similar to a bad crash by US skier Scott Macartney a year ago at the same spot in the classic Hahnenkamm downhill on the Streif course.

Vienna - An Austrian court is set to try Josef Fritzl from March 16 on charges that he incarcerated his daughter for 24 years and murdered one of the seven children she bore him, the prosecution office at the court in Sankt Poelten confirmed Thursday.

In April 2008, the case came to light when Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth, 42, managed to bring one of her daughters to a hospital.

The suspect had kept his daughter and her children locked up in a dungeon built beneath his house in Amstetten in the province of Lower Austria.