Vienna

Austrian authorities have discovered the body of a man who apparently died at home in bed five years ago, a Vienna newspaper reported on Wednesday. The corpse of Franz Riedl, thought to have been in his late 80s when he died, went undetected for so long because his rent had been paid by automatic order from the bank account into which he received his pension, the daily Kurier said.

The United Nations nuclear agency declared Iran had failed to halt nuclear work by a Thursday deadline, and Tehran defied the threat of sanctions by vowing never to abandon a programme the West fears could give it atom bombs. ”The Iranian nation will never abandon its obvious right to peaceful nuclear technology,” Iranian state radio quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying.

An Austrian girl held captive in a windowless cell for eight years before escaping said she had ”sexual contact” with her kidnapper, police said on Saturday. Federal police spokesperson Erich Zwettler had no further details on the sexual contact disclosed by Natascha Kampusch, now 18.

A would-be robber was arrested after he tried to hold up his local town hall, mistaking it for a bank, Austrian police said on Wednesday. Wearing a mask and waving a toy pistol, the unemployed man burst into the town hall in the village of Poggersdorf, southern Austria, and shouted: ”Hold-up, hold-up!”

Austria said on Saturday it has asked the Tanzanian government for an explanation after filmmaker Hubert Sauper accused it of targeting people who took part in his award-winning documentary Darwin’s Nightmare, an indictment of the pitfalls of globalisation in Africa.

United Nations inspectors have found new traces of highly enriched uranium in Iran, in equipment at a technical university in Tehran, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Thursday in a confidential report obtained by Agence France-Presse. Uranium can be enriched to produce nuclear-reactor fuel. But if it is enriched to a much greater degree it can be used to manufacture atom bombs.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani promised that Tehran would cooperate with United Nations inspectors, in a meeting late on Thursday in Vienna with UN atomic agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei. ”The discussion was that of course Iran is continuing its cooperation with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency],” Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh said.

The European Union is considering helping Iran to acquire a light-water nuclear reactor, but Tehran would have to give up enriching uranium on its soil as part of guarantees that it will not make atomic weapons, diplomats told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday. Under the deal being readied by European powers, Russia would enrich uranium on Iran’s behalf.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday that it had adequate monitoring measures in place at a site where Brazil says it is now enriching uranium. ”There are safeguard measures that have been agreed that will meet the agency’s requirements,” said Marc Vidricaire, spokesperson for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

An Austrian advisory panel handling claims for paintings, sculptures and other items looted by the Nazis during World War II has recommended that 6 292 artworks be returned to their original owners, the minister of culture said on Wednesday.

Floods in Austria claimed their first victim on Tuesday as rising water in rivers caused a second dam to break, forcing many to evacuate their homes while emergency services worked to reinforce flood defences. An 18-month old boy was found dead on Tuesday afternoon after falling into the swollen Duerre Ager river while playing in front of his parents’ house.

Iran refuses to halt uranium enrichment, Iranian ambassador Aliasghar Soltanieh told Agence France-Presse on Thursday, the day after the United Nations Security Council called for the programme to be suspended. ”Iran’s decision on enrichment, particularly research and development, is irreversible.” said Soltanieh.

Sixty-five journalists were killed in 2005 — 13 less than the previous year — and freedom of the press was still under threat in many countries, according to the International Press Institute’s annual report. Iraq, where 23 journalists were killed last year, was still ”the most murderous country for journalists to report from”, the media watchdog said.

Disgraced Austrian ski coach Walter Mayer faces criminal proceedings after a dramatic overnight car chase in southern Austria, police reports said on Monday. The incident came 24 hours after Mayer was the target of a police raid at the Turin Winter Olympics on the Austrian biathlon and cross-country ski team.

World powers including Russia agreed on Wednesday on a draft resolution asking the United Nations atomic watchdog to report Iran to the UN Security Council over nuclear work that could be weapons-related. The resolution was to be introduced later in the day to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.