Vienna - Countries should do more to combat financial and cyber crime, UN drugs and crime office (UNODC) chief Antonio Maria Costa said Thursday, warning that there were signs of increased crime amid the global economic downturn.

"We can palpably already verify that the economic crisis is causing an additional dose of crime," Costa told reporters in Vienna.

Vienna  - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its inspectors left North Korea Thursday, after Pyongyang reacted to a UN Security Council condemnation by telling them to return to Vienna.

Before leaving, the inspectors were forced on Wednesday to remove all seals and switch off cameras installed by the nuclear agency to monitor that nuclear facilities in Yongbyon remain turned off.

Vienna- The price for oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) hover

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 - North Korea told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday to stop monitoring its nuclear facilities as the country wants to restart its nuclear programme, IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said. "The inspectors have also been asked to leave the DPRK at the earliest possible time," Vidricaire said, referring to the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.