Vienna  - German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG has submitted a valid bid for Austrian Airlines AG (AUA), the Austrian takeover commission confirmed Thursday, but it said it was still uncertain if there would be a deal.

"Against the background of AUA's economic development and an apparent wide gap between the negotiating positions, it is uncertain whether the transaction can be concluded," the commission said in a statement.

The Austrian government is in the process of selling its 42.75-per-cent stake in the country's ailing flag carrier, but Air France has dropped out of the bidding process.

Vienna - Austrian incest suspect Josef Fritzl has said he was "born to rape," according to a report by a court-appointed psychiatrist who probed the mind of the man who had kept his his daughter locked in a dungeon for 24 years.

Vienna  - The Vienna Stock Exchange AG is expanding its reach in Central and Eastern Europe, as it has agreed to take over a majority of the Prague Stock Exchange.

"We agreed on the general terms of sale," Beatrix Exinger, spokeswoman of the Vienna bourse, was quoted by Austrian news agency APA on Wednesday.

The Prague stock exchange is valued at between 200 million and 400 million euros (268 million to 537 million dollars), but Exinger said the sale price was still to be negotiated.

Vienna could take over up to 90 per cent of the Prague exchange, according to Czech media reports.

Vienna  - The Austrian government will have to rescue Austrian Airlines AG if the privatisation process fails, Transport Minister Werner Faymann said Wednesday, as he announced that there was one valid bid for the ailing flag carrier.

While Faymann left it open whether there was another, incomplete, offer, the government holding OeIAG said it would stick to its schedule and announce a decision Monday on the sale of its
42.75-per- cent stake in Austrian Airlines.

As the privatisation faced uncertainty, the price of Austrian Airlines shares crashed to 2.9 euros (3.9 dollars) on the Vienna stock market, a decline of 28.9 per cent from yesterday.

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell by 0.31 dollars Tuesday, even though cartel members have indicated they might cut production at their meeting on Friday in Vienna.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC crude stood at 64.32 dollars Tuesday, down from 64.63 dollars on the previous day.

Analysts expect OPEC to lower production by at least 1 million barrels per day on Friday, as slowing demand has dragged down oil prices.

Vienna/Paris  - The privatisation of Austrian Airlines AG is facing uncertainty as Air France-KLM said Tuesday it had dropped its bid, and a newspaper reported that Deutsche Lufthansa AG had also not submitted a formal offer.

According to the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, only the Russian S7 Airlines submitted a valid bid by the deadline on Tuesday at midday.