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20. 08. 09. - 16:45

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20. 08. 09. - 16:45

Fat seats for trains

Special chairs for fatties have been installed on Brazil's trains to cope with the country's soaring obesity race.

The blue-coloured seats are nearly twice as wide as normal chairs and can support even the bulkiest passenger up to 550lbs without breaking.

But baffled Metro bosses in Sao Paulo say they're being ignored by obese passengers, who they think are to ashamed to use them.

A sign above each seat shows a cartoon of an roly-poly passenger saying "Priority chair for obese people."

"It may be that they don't want to think of themselves as fat or they resent being put in with pensioners and the disabled," said one manager.

Austrian Times

Vienna ÖVP endorses proposed district cuts
Vienna People’s Party (ÖVP) Josefstadt district head Veronika Mickel suggested continuing to speak about a reduction of positions in the city's administration.

Skiing starts in Vienna
Over this winter holiday week, Vienna’s residents will once again be able to make a trip to the slopes without venturing out of the city. The capital’s very own ski slope, "High Hills", will be open daily to the public from 4 February until 11 February.

Vranitzky appreciates tuition fees discussion
Former Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Franz Vranitzky has said he welcomes the current debate about a reintroduction of tuition fees.

Wiener Linien records rising demand for annual passes
The number of people opting for annual Wiener Linien tickets is soaring.

Many Austrians mistrust jurisdiction
Almost four in 10 Austrians had a worse opinion of the country’s juridical system today than a few years ago, a new survey shows.

Ice wine harvest later than ever
The grapes for ice wine production have been harvested later than ever this year in Austria. The fruit for the popular dessert wine are normally picked in December at the latest but only now have the temperatures been cold enough for the harvest.

Westbahn welcomes 6,000 a day
Westbahn manages to sell one in two of the overall number of tickets it offers, a spokesman said today (Fri).

Vice chancellor refuses to exclude FPÖ
The People’s Party (ÖVP) keeps refusing to disassociate itself from the Freedom Party (FPÖ) following FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache’s controversial comparisons with the Nazi era.

Austrian and German terrorists hid plans in their underpants
Two alleged terrorists including one Austrian hid plans in their underpants to hack off heads, burn bodies and then send the videos back to their al-Qaeda bosses in Afghanistan, a German court has heard.

Vitamin D linked to fertility
Austrian scientists have found a link between a lack of vitamin D and fertility. Graz-based endocrinologist Barbara Obermayer-Pietsch and her colleague Elisabeth Lerchbaum compared data from several vitamin D studies and say there is a clear link between vitamin D and the production of testosterone and sperm quality.