Austria

The United Nations atomic agency’s call on Iran to suspend fully uranium enrichment goes against the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a senior Iranian official said in Vienna on Monday. Uranium enrichment is not banned by the NPT, Iranian atomic energy chief Reza Aghazadeh said.

The United States and Europe appeared to be closer toward agreement on Thursday on setting a deadline for Iran to clear up questions about its nuclear programme, diplomats said, although differences remained over what to do afterwards. Iran could face being taken before the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.

Opec oil cartel ministers began formal deliberations on Wednesday amid supply fears in world oil markets that sent prices higher prior to the start of the ministerial session. Oil for October delivery had risen 0,47% prior to the meeting to ,60 per barrel on New York’s Mercantile Exchange.

You do the math: can 1 000 firefighters pump 104 000 liters of water from one alpine lake over an 800m-high mountain into another lake 24km away? Helmut Auerbach isn’t sure, either — but he and other organisers of the stunt hope to pull it off and secure a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

The United States appears headed for a showdown with Iran over the Islamic republic’s alleged nuclear weapons programme, with both sides taking hardline positions on Tuesday at the United Nations atomic agency. Iran has said it will not agree to an unlimited suspension of uranium enrichment.

Austrian historians are ridiculing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for telling the Republican National Convention that he saw Soviet tanks in his homeland as a child and left a ”socialist” country when he moved away in 1968. ”I saw tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes,” Schwarzenegger said.

A special Vatican inspector began his inquiry on Wednesday into the discovery of a vast cache of child pornography at a seminary where candidates for the priesthood photographed themselves kissing and fondling each other. Austrian Bishop Klaus Kueng was appointed on Tuesday as Pope John Paul II’s ”apostolic visitor” to deal with the scandal.

A boat carrying American, British and Canadian tourists on a sightseeing trip down the Danube River in Vienna rammed a landmark bridge on Thursday, smashing windows on the vessel and leaving 19 with minor injuries. The collision damaged the restaurant deck of the boat, which was packed with tourists enjoying the scenery.

In another apparent link to the nuclear black market emanating from Pakistan, United Nations inspectors in Iran have discovered undeclared designs of an advanced centrifuge used to enrich uranium. The revelations came a day after United States President George Bush acknowledged loopholes in the international enforcement system.