Vienna  - Austrian police and judicial authorities are plagued by "institutional racism" and treat people according to skin colour, the human rights watchdog Amnesty International concluded in a report presented on Thursday.

The problem was not only that 55 per cent of alleged victims of ill-treatment by police were foreigners or of foreign origin, according to the study.

A wider issue was racial profiling practiced by police, Heinz Patzelt, the head of Amnesty's Austrian chapter, told reporters in Vienna.

Vienna  - Schurli, the giant tortoise, is the oldest inhabitant of the Vienna zoo. But despite his age of more than 100 years, the animal has started a fitness training programme.

The exercise regime is part of a research project conducted by scientists from the zoo and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to learn about the animal's visual and learning capabilities.

The male Seychelles giant tortoise is not the most animated creature, but when he notices his keeper Roland Halbauer approaching, he knows his training session is about to start.

Vienna - Austria's anti-doping agency NADA has started procedures against two Austrian cyclists, one of whom is being linked to the country's disgraced cross-country skiing coach Walter Mayer.

The names of Christoph Kerschbaum, 32, and Ferdinand Bruckner, 37, appeared on a list of banned or suspected cyclists published on the website of the Austrian Cycling Federation on Wednesday.

Vienna  - Lisa Huetthaler, a key witness in Austria's ongoing doping scandal, announced Tuesday that she ended her thriathlon career, some five months before her ban would have expired in September.

"My doping past and its emotional and physical consequences have taken an extreme toll on me," 25-year-old Huetthaler said in a statement quoted by Austrian press agency APA.

The 2007 national champion made headlines in late March when she publicly accused the former sports manager Stefan Matschiner of having supplied her with the blood booster EPO.

Vienna - Road traffic poses an increasing threat to Austria's hares and rabbits, with some 41,000 animals run over last year, according to figures published by a traffic watchdog group on Tuesday.

With Easter Sunday mere days away, the Austrian Traffic Club said that there had been a 21-per-cent increase in rabbit roadkill last year, owing to more offspring and increased traffic.