Vienna - When Stefan Petzner said after the death of Joerg Haider in October that the far-right leader was his "Lebensmensch", the most important person in his life, he probably did not guess that Austrians would vote the term as buzzword of the year.

Although the word usually describes a close, important friendship, the public saw Petzner's use of the term as having a more intimate meaning, said professor Rudolf Muhr, the head of the panel of linguists at the University of Graz who announced the results of the online vote Thursday.

Vienna - The price for oil produced by

Vienna - A Vienna woman, Ellen Mueller, is offering "laughter-yoga" seminars to help Austrians cope with the global financial crisis. She has also written a book on her exercise method.

"Laughter yoga is a wonderful way to achieve a cheerful prevailing mood and thus better cope with everyday challenges," Mueller said. The trick, she explained, was simply to draw up the corners of one's mouth to cheer up, even when things were most dismal.

Vienna  - In a mix-up which was close to being fatal, a stage actor playing a suicide scene in Vienna seriously wounded himself when he used a real knife, instead of a fake one, to cut his throat, theatre officials said Wednesday.

Actor Danel Hoevels managed to stagger off the stage after inflicting a deep slice wound to his throat.

He was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment, officials of Vienna's famous Burgtheater confirmed about reports about the incident which had happened the previous weekend.

Vienna - Austria's post offices were partially closed Wednesday, as postal workers protested plans to downsize the mail service.

Employees at around 80 branches were on strike, but mail delivery went on uninterrupted, Oesterreichische Post AG said in a statement.

The protests came one day before the post's management meets to discuss possible restructuring plans for 2009.

To prepare the company for the end of the state monopoly on mail delivery in 2011, its management has reportedly drawn up plans to reduce the 25,800-strong workforce by 35 per cent by 2015 and to close or sell 77 per cent of post offices.

Vienna - Opponents of the Turkish Ilisu dam seized rooms in the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG (OeKB) in Vienna on Wednesday, calling on the bank to pull out of the project on ecological and cultural grounds.

Austrian, German and Swiss export guarantees worth an estimated 450 million euros (577 million dollars) underpin the financing of the project to dam the Tigris river in south-eastern Turkey and build a power plant.