Vienna - Austrian public broadcaster ORF said Thursday it was planning to reduce its workforce by around 1,000 until 2012, a cut by nearly 30 per cent, as the company faces lower advertising sales and increasing competition.

ORF director-general Bernhard Wrabetz told staff members that the headcount would decrease from more than 3,400 to below 2,500 by outsourcing the engineering department, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and other departments.

In addition, employees will be laid off or sent into early retirement, Austrian news agency APA reported.

Vienna - Austrian skier Matthias Lanzinger plans to take the sport's ruling body FIS, Norwegian organizers and an Oslo clinic to court as he seeks compensation over a crash at a World Cup race in Kvitfjell in which he lost his lower leg.

The Austrian Press Agency APA reported on Wednesday that Lanzinger's lawyer, Manfred Ainedter, will press charges in Norway for compensation of "at least 100,000 euros" (129,000 dollars).

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose above the 45-dollar mark again on Tuesday, the cartel announced on Wednesday.

Vienna  - When UN talks on a new climate-saving pact resume in Poland next week, the global economic crisis will loom large.

Resistance to the cost of fighting global warming has grown, notably in Europe, which has traditionally set the pace in international efforts to cut fossil fuel use.

Now, countries like Italy and Poland say ambitious EU plans are too expensive.

Vienna  - After a headmaster issued a kissing ban in an Austrian middle school, 20 young couples protested Monday by holding a smooch-in at the regional school authority in Linz.

Vienna  - In the new Austrian cabinet lineup presented on Monday, social issues are firmly in the hands of the Social Democratic Party, while law and order portfolios have shifted to the conservative People's Party.

As expected, social democratic leader Werner Faymann, 48, will lead the government as chancellor, while his conservative counterpart Josef Proell, 40, will become vice chancellor and finance minister.

The 18-strong cabinet is expected to be sworn in next week by President Heinz Fischer.

Compared with the last coalition between the two parties, which broke apart in July, the labour and health agendas shifted back to the social democrats.