AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: July 18, 2007

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SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: July 18, 2007


Bawag Trial to Focus on Billion-Euro Losses


1. On the third day of the bank Bawag trial, presiding judge Claudia
Bandion-Ortner is expected to question the defendants on how the
formerly union-owned bank incurred the vast losses of about 1.4
billion Euros between 1998 and 2000. Yesterday, all nine former bank
officials, including ex-CEO Helmut Elsner and investment banker
Helmut Floettl, pleaded "not guilty" to charges of fraud and false
accounting.
Like all Austrian media, mass-circulation tabloid Kronen Zeitung
reports on the bank Bawag trial underway in Vienna, and suggests
that defendant and former bank CEO Helmut Elsner "for the first time
showed a trace of self-criticism." In his first statement in court
he admitted to having made "a few wrong decisions," and
simultaneously tried to stand up for his co-defendants. He was
"absolutely certain" that the entire management, the board of
directors' president and the accountant always acted in the interest
of the bank at given moments in time."


Gusenbauer on Residence Rights


2. Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer from the SPOe said
yesterday that immigrants, who have been living in Austria legally
for more than ten years and who are well integrated, should be
granted residence rights. His comments are in sharp contrast to the
views held by Interior Minister Platter from the OeVP, who is
pushing for a tougher approach on the issue.
Speaking in Bregenz, Vorarlberg, yesterday, Alfred Gusenbauer said
that the SPOe's position on immigration was clear: "Before admitting
new people into the country, you should allow those to stay who are
already integrated," ORF online news quotes the Chancellor. "You
need a more humane approach," Gusenbauer stressed, and suggested
that immigrants, who have been living legally in Austria for a long
time and have "observed our laws, should have the right to stay."
The Chancellor also proposed that Interior Minister Platter should
first consider cases of immigrants who have lived in Austria for
more than ten years. It was also necessary to look at whether a
solution can be found that is compatible with the Interior
Minister's portfolio, otherwise, the law on immigration and alien
rights would have to be changed, according to Gusenbauer.


Libya: Death Sentences Commuted


3. The death sentences on five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian
doctor convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV/AIDS have
been commuted to life in prison by Libya's High Judicial Council.
The ruling came after the families of the 438 children agreed to a
compensation deal. Welcoming the move, EU Foreign Relations
Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she was "relieved about the
decision." She also emphasised that she "now expects steps will be
taken to initiate the process of transferring the six medics to
Bulgaria."
Liberal daily Der Standard says that by converting the death
sentences into life imprisonment, with terms to be served in the
medics' home country Bulgaria, Libya is trying to resolve the
crisis. Bulgaria and the European Union are meanwhile pushing for
the nurses and doctor's extradition to Bulgaria. Similarly, State
Department spokesperson Sean McCormack underscored that the Libyan
government must find a way to return the medical personnel to their
home country, ORF online news quotes.


North Korea Has Shut Down Reactor


4. North Korea has shut down all five nuclear facilities at its
Yongbyon reactor complex, according to IAEA Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei. Pyongyang shut down the only working reactor at Yongbyon
on Saturday. As negotiators are gathering in Beijing for a new round
of six nation talks, US envoy Christopher Hill has said concerns
about possible secret uranium enrichment activities in North Korea
are an ongoing issue, says centrist daily Die Presse.


Lukewarm Response to Mideast Initiative


5. The new initiative put forward by US President George Bush for a
Middle East peace conference later this year has been met with
skepticism. According to experts, the planned meeting on working
towards resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is "simply too
little, too late." James Zogby, head of the Arab American Institute,
argues that both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli
Premier Ehud Olmert are now too weak politically, and that the
United States "should have acted when Abbas was newly elected, and
still had the support of the majority of Palestinians."
In an analysis of the situation in the Middle East, semi-official
daily Wiener Zeitung suggests that the "weakened Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas has become the West's great white hope." It
is a "tightrope walk for Abbas and his Fatah movement: They need to
convince the Palestinians in Gaza that they can do better than the
Hamas-led government, which in the past year and a half merely
succeeded to completely isolate the Palestinians. At the same time,
Abbas must avoid the impression of being dependent on the West.
Here's where the US President apparently comes in with his plan for
a Middle East conference and his push to get moderate Arab states
like Jordan and Egypt on board. But the only chance for the moderate
forces to prevail is if a solution emerges in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has the support of a united and
broad front. Such a solution, however, is still a long way off."


US President Contradicts Intelligence Services On Al Qaeda


6. US President George Bush has indirectly contradicted the recent
US intelligence analyses warning that al Qaeda has recovered its
strength. "Al Qaeda is strong today, but not nearly as strong as
before the September 11 attacks," President Bush told UN Secretary
General Ban Ki Moon. The US President added that the terrorist
organization would be even stronger today if the United States and
its allies had not "stayed on the offensive" and kept putting
pressure on al Qaeda, according to ORF online news.
McCaw