Vienna - Austrian officials and politicians on Wednesday protested comments by US economist Paul Krugman that Austria risked bankruptcy owing to its large exposure in Eastern Europe.

There was no need for "unqualified statements based on inadequate information, which can put a country under massive pressure if they are uttered carelessly," Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Josef Proell said, according to Austrian press agency APA.

Vienna - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stopped stopped monitoring North Korea's nuclear facilities on Wednesday, a diplomat in Vienna said one day after the country announced it would kick out the IAEA inspectors.

IAEA inspectors have removed all seals that were in place to verify that North Korea's nuclear programme remains turned off, said the diplomat who did not want to be identified.

In addition, all of the agency's surveillance cameras have been turned to face the wall, he said.

Vienna - Austrian prosecutors said Tuesday they had ended their investigation of Joerg Haider's fatal car crash, concluding that the accident was caused by the right-wing leader, and putting to rest conspiracy theories. The head of the Alliance for the Future of Austria died on October 11 last year at the age of 58, when he drove drunk at a high speed and his car veered off the road and flipped over.

Vienna - An Austrian woman who stalked David Caruso, the lead actor in the television series CSI Miami, was convicted Tuesday of making dangerous threats and was sentenced to seven months in prison. The court in Innsbruck also ruled that 41-year-old Heidi S., should be admitted to a prison for mentally abnormal offenders, Austrian press agency APA reported. She had evaded a previous hearing by fleeing to Mexico.

Her full name was not made public, in accordance with Austrian law.

Vienna- Four Austrian glaciers have increased in size in 2008, but the Austrian Alpine Club warned Friday that this was no sign of a new trend, as the majority of glaciers continued to melt in 2008. "The last time we had a larger number of growing glaciers was in 1997," the Alpine Club's lead researcher Gernot Patzelt said.

However, the group's latest study found that 83 of 94 monitored glaciers continued to melt by up to 49 metres, as temperatures lay above long-term averages by 0.4 degrees in winter and 0.9 degrees in summer.

Vienna - A court in Austria has thrown out a suit brought on behalf of a baby born with a deformed spine aimed at acknowledging his dignity of life, local media reported Thursday.

The lawsuit against the Austrian state was brought in the name of baby Emil Karg, who was born last August with an incompletely-formed spinal chord.