AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: March 07, 2008

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SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: March 07, 2008

Investigating Committee Meets


1. The parliamentary investigating committee created earlier this
month to look into allegations of abuse of office in the Interior
Ministry will meet for the first time today. At the inquiry's
inaugural session, members will vote on a chairperson - a position
sought by both the Freedom Party (FPOe) and the Greens. Austrian
media do not believe that the Greens' candidate, the party's justice
spokesperson Albert Steinhauser, will have a genuine chance among
the other committee members against his FPOe rival, justice
spokesperson Peter Fichtenbauer.
All major Austrian media report that the wide-ranging parliamentary
enquiry into allegations of abuse of office and questionable
practices in four Austrian ministries will be inaugurated on Friday.
The committee of 17 MPs will address 32 questions relating mainly to
allegations by a former top policeman of political interference in
the interior ministry. The justice, finance and foreign ministries
will also be scrutinized. However, the committee's first task Friday
afternoon will be to select a chairman. The Green's justice
spokesman Albert Steinhauser and PeterFichtenbauer from the Freedom
Party are the two ain candidates, but the FPOe candidate is
believd to have better changes to be chosen. Fichtenbaue can bank
on the support of the majority of the cmittee's MPs, among them
Social Democrats who sare the opinion of party floor leader Josef
Cap,and consider the FPOe MP a "moderate and competent person.
Like the majority of Austrian media, OR online news points out
there had been "quite a tug-of-war in the past few days over the
chairpersonship."


Inflation Affects Poor Families More Than Wealthier Ones


2. Labor Chamber (AK) expert Christoph Klein is warning that the
current high rate of inflation is having an especially adverse
impact on families with low incomes, who must spend a higher
proportion of their incomes on basic needs than wealthier ones. He
notes that with food prices having risen by 7.6 percent last year,
poorer families also have more recourse to personal bankruptcies,
which numbered 8,600 last year - an increase of 15 percent compared
to 2006. If something isn't done quickly to help poor families,
Klein warns, there will be even more cases of poverty and bankruptcy
this year, says semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung.


OeVP Warming to Idea of Early Vote


3. So far, the two coalition parties, the Social Democrats (SPOe)
and the People's Party (OeVP),both dismissed all rumors and
speculations about potentially impending early general elections.
Now, however, there are voices in the OeVP suggesting this might be
an option after all, an Austrian daily reports. The newspaper quotes
OeVP state secretary Reinhold Lopatka as saying if no way out of the
coalition crisis was found soon, an early vote could be held
quickly, even before summer. Lopatka suggested June 8 as a possible
date for a general election. The OeVP governors of Lower and Upper
Austria have also said they would no longer rule out an early vote.
OeVP party leader Wilhelm Molterer underscored, however, that such a
move was "not an option." All major Austrian media give prominent
coverage to the increasingly persistent rumors the general election,
which should be held in fall 2010 according to schedule, could be
brought forward to as early as June this year. The coalition
government is "drifting towards early elections," reads the
front-page headline in semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung. The daily
points out that OeVP party manager Lopatka's suggestion Austrians
could go to the polls before the summer if the coalition crisis
could not be resolved by April is a "clear departure from the OeVP
and SPOe's position on the issue up to now. While the daily quotes
Lopatka as suggesting June 8 as a possible date for the vote,
mass-circulation tabloid Oesterreich on its front-page says: "Almost
a done deal: Early election on June 1." The People's Party, the
tabloid adds, is already planning the motion in Parliament. Whether
the party will go ahead with its plan "depends on how OeVP
heavyweight and Lower Austrian Governor Erwin Proell does in the
provincial elections on Sunday: If he secures an impressive victory
there, the OeVP will push for an early vote," the newspaper
suggests. Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor and leader of the People's
Party, Wilhelm Molterer, responding to Lopatka's suggestion, has
dismissed the speculation saying it was "not a topic" for his party.
Molterer laid the blame for speculation about an early election on
the Social Democrats, saying it was Chancellor Gusenbauer who had
first raised the issue.
Terrorism Trial Defendant Claims He Gained Iraq Hostage Release


4. Mohamed M., the suspect charged with membership of a terrorist
organization, has told a court in Vienna he played a role in the
freeing of Hannelore Krause, a German woman held hostage in Iraq who
was released last year. The defendant told the court that he had
published an open letter on the internet pointing out that the
kidnapping of women was forbidden by the Koran. He claimed that
through his membership of the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) he
was able to make contact with the kidnappers and argue for the
woman's release.
All major Austrian media continue to report on Mohamed M., who is on
trial in Vienna over his alleged involvement in a March 2007 video
posted on the internet threatening Austria and Germany with attacks
if they did not withdraw military personnel from Afghanistan. The
prosecution also holds that in Internet forums frequented by Islamic
radicals Mohamed M. mentioned the Vienna-based Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Euro 2008 soccer
championship as potential terrorist targets. Prosecutors allege that
his wife, Mona S., translated Arabic texts into German for the
couple's internet threat video. Austrian media also report on a
"row" in court Thursday: Mass-circulation tabloid Kronen Zeitung
runs the front-page headline "Defendant flies into rage in
courtroom," and explains that Mohamed M. "lost his cool," accusing
the court of not being interested in justice and carrying out a
"show trial." Because the man refused to stop shouting, he was
forcibly removed from the court room. The incident occurred after
the jury was shown a series of graphic clips showing the killing and
abuse of Western hostages abducted in Iraq that were saved on the
hard drive of Mohamed M.'s computer. The defendant claimed, however,
he only acquired the files so that he could better understand and
deal with kidnappers, and accused the court of trying to influence
the jury emotionally. If convicted, the pair faces up to ten years
in prison. At the start of the trial Monday, Mohamed M. pleaded not
guilty to all charges but acknowledged he had been active in the
Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF). However, he disputed that the
front had ties to al-Qaeda and described it as a media organization
whose goal is the truth.


Students Killed At Jerusalem School


5. World leaders have condemned an attack in Jerusalem, in which
nine people - many of them students -- were killed, when a
Palestinian gunman opened fire in a library at a Jewish religious
school. Israeli authorities say the attacker was a resident of East
Jerusalem, and had entered the library with a concealed automatic
weapon. He was shot by security personnel. Among those condemning
the attack are Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, US President
George Bush and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. At the United
Nations Security Council, however, Libya has blocked a resolution to
condemn the killings. Israel has meanwhile said this attack will not
derail peace talks with the Palestinians
Austrian radio in its early morning news Morgenjourjal reports on
the attack at a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem, which left at
least nine people dead, many of them students. ORF Jerusalem
correspondent Ben Segenreich comments on Austrian radio: "Jerusalem
had been spared terrorist attacks for four years, and now a
religious school, of all places, was the target of a massive and
unusual attack yesterday evening. The Palestinian attacker succeeded
in entering the building unnoticed. (...) It is believed the
attacker was from a village in the East Jerusalem area, and
therefore was in possession of an Israeli ID. Possibly, he may not
have been hired by one of the Palestinian organizations, but could
have acted of his own accord. Hamas has not claimed responsibility
for the attack, although several of the organization's functionaries
openly expressed their satisfaction with the attack. (...) In the
Gaza Strip, meanwhile the attack was welcomed and celebrated.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas however, said he condemned the
attack. There is no reason to expect the blast will have political
repercussions, though. Egypt is currently working on an arrangement
to avert the threatening major confrontation between Israel and
Hamas in the Gaza Strip."


The Super Delegates Could Decide


6. ... on who becomes the Democratic Party's presidential candidate,
suggests the Washington correspondent of a leading Austrian daily.
The newspaper runs the headline "Contest for the super delegates
divides the Democrats," and suggests it will be the "party
aristocracy that in the end is going to determine the outcome of the
Clinton-Obama match." Barack Obama, it seems, is already preparing
himself for a long, drawn-out competition with Hillary Clinton, the
Washington correspondent adds.
Analyzing the Texas and Ohio primary fallout, Washington
correspondent Norbert Rief says in centrist daily Die Presse that in
the end it will likely fall to the super delegates to decide the
contest between Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama. "Calling Clinton's Ohio and Texas results a Pyrrhic
victory would be a little too strong, but she has not gained much
from her success, either. At least when it comes to the number of
delegates: She succeeded in reducing Obama's lead by a mere 12
delegates, while he remains ahead by 140." It seems "almost
impossible that Clinton could still overtake Obama in the remaining
primaries," Rief says, pointing out that her "victories in the three
states on Tuesday were too narrow to seriously put her back in the
running." Nonetheless, Clinton has continued her campaign with new
momentum and motivation following her victories in Ohio and Texas.
The upcoming primaries are "unlikely to win either Obama or Clinton
the number of delegates necessary for the nomination, which is why
they are both vying for the support of the so-called super
delegates," Rief writes. Many Democrats, he adds, do not want the
two candidate's competition to drag on until the convention in late
August, and have called on the party leadership to "prevent the two
candidates from tearing each other apart until the last possible
moment."


Dozens of Victims in Baghdad Bomb Attacks


7. More than 50 people have been killed by two bomb attacks in the
center of Baghdad, and another 130 were injured, according to Iraqi
officials. Witnesses say a roadside bomb exploded in a mainly Shiite
area, and was followed a few minutes later by a second blast from a
suicide bomber who targeted the crowd trying to help the victims of
the first explosion. A spokesperson for the Iraqi security forces
has blamed the attack on al Qaeda, according to ORF radio early
morning news Morgenjournal.
Kilner