Vienna  - Independent journalist Magomed Yevloyev died in custody in Russia's Ingushetia region because authorities wanted to silence him, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Tuesday.

"Yevolyev's death is the culmination of an orchestrated campaign by the authorities of Ingushetia to silence the only critical voice in the region," OSCE Freedom of Media Representative Miklos Haraszti said in a statement.

Yevloyev, owner of the news website ingushetiya. ru, was detained by police on Sunday at the airport in Ingushetia's capital Nazran in connection with an unsolved attack.

Vienna - The economist and banker Ewald Nowotny took office as new Governor of the Austrian national bank on Monday, the bank said in a statement.

As the head of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), 64-year-old Nowotny is also a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), which sets interest rates in countries using the euro.

In the past, Nowotny has criticised the ECB's strict anti-inflation policy, calling on the bank to focus also on economic growth and employment. His predecessor, Klaus Liebscher, had a hawkish position on price stability.

Vienna - It was vital for the future of the European Union to agree on a strong position on Russia's actions in Georgia, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said Monday in Vienna, ahead of an EU emergency summit in Brussels this afternoon.

"Should the European Union not be able to find a clear, strong, common position," Schwarzenberg said, "we can write off the European Union as a political project for some time to come."

The foreign minister, who was in Vienna to meet his Austrian counterpart Ursula Plassnik, reiterated his position that EU sanctions against Russia would not be effective.

Vienna - Three children fathered by Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who has admitted imprisoning for 24 years a daughter who bore him six children, want to go back to school, it was reported Saturday.

However - with public interest in the case still enormous and Fritz's trial due to begin in November - the schools involved were fearful of a media invasion, the Kurier newspaper said.