Austria, Croatia report first cases of coronavirus infection

The coronavirus disease has reached the European states of Austria and Croatia, as authorities report their first cases of the infection.

Austria confirmed its first two cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a spokeswoman for the health authority in the province of Tyrol said on Tuesday.

They are two Italians who live in the province and were probably infected in Italy's Lombardy region, Tyrol governor Guenther Platter was quoted as saying by local media.

The new virus has already killed more than 2,600 people, most of them in China, the origin of the virus, and spread to about 29 other countries, according to a Reuters tally. The number of confirmed cases has risen above 80,000.

Europe's biggest outbreak is in Italy with some 220 infections - from just three before Friday - and seven dead.

Meanwhile, Croatia has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus infection in a patient who is hospitalized in the capital Zagreb, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday.

"The patient is in the Zagreb clinic for infectious diseases. It is a younger person and has milder symptoms. He is in isolation and his condition is good at the moment," Plenkovic told a news conference.

Health Minister Vili Beros said that the patient had stayed in Milan from Feb. 19 to Feb. 21.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Vienna is world's 'most liveable city' for second year: The Economist

VIENNA -- The Austrian capital Vienna has retained its ranking as the world's most liveable city, according to an annual report from the Economist.

Vienna once again came ahead of Melbourne -- which had held the top ranking for 7 years until losing it to Vienna in 2018 -- according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released Wednesday.

The top two were followed by Sydney, Osaka and Calgary.

Each year the EIU gives 140 cities scores out of 100 on a range of factors such as living standards, crime, transport infrastructure, access to education and healthcare, as well as political and economic stability.

Vienna -- known for its convenient public transport, refreshing Alpine tap water and varied cultural life -- scored 99.1 points out of 100, as it did last year.

"Western Europe and North America continue to be the most liveable regions in the world," the EIU said in a press release.

Europe claimed eight of the top 20 spots, with cities in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada making up the rest.

However, the City of Light, Paris, dropped 6 places to 25th due to the anti-government "yellow vest" protests -- images of which went around the world.

For the first time, the index noted the effects of climate change on liveability, with New Delhi and Cairo plunging in the rankings to 118th and 125th place respectively due to "poor air quality, undesirable average temperatures and inadequate water provision".

"We expect problems relating to climate change to put increasing pressure on liveability scores in the coming years and for the number of cities affected to grow," Agathe Demarais of the EIU said.

Improvements in liveability that had taken place in emerging markets' cities in recent years -- thanks to greater stability as well as better education and healthcare -- "are under serious threat from an increasingly adverse climate," she said.

London and New York rank 48th and 58th respectively as they continue to struggle under the perceptions of the risk of crime and terrorism and overstretched infrastructure.

The least liveable cities were Karachi, Tripoli, Dhaka, Lagos and, at the very bottom, Damascus.

Vienna also won top place in another survey, the annual quality of living index by human resources consulting firm Mercer, for the 10th time in a row in 2019.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Intersex Austrian becomes first to get third-sex identity documents

LONDON - The first Austrian to gain official documents with a third option beyond male or female on Wednesday hailed the move as recognition for those who do not identify as either.

"(For) the first time in my life, I feel seen by the law," said Alex Juergen, who is intersex, a term for people who are born with atypical chromosomes or sex characteristics.

"There was no place for people who are not male or female."

Juergen, who fought a three-year legal battle for recognition, now has a passport with the sex classification "X" instead of "M" or "F" and a birth certificate saying "divers", which roughly translates as "other".

In 2018, a constitutional court ruled that the country's laws allowed for the inclusion of more than two sex options on identity documents.

A growing number of U.S. states, as well as countries including Germany, Pakistan and Nepal, now allow people to choose a third sex option on official documents.

Juergen also called on Austria's government to make the third option easier to get.

Regulations issued by Austria's interior ministry after the 2018 court ruling state that a child whose sex cannot be determined should have "open" on their birth certificate until a decision can be made by them or their legal representative.

An intersex person can get "divers" on their birth certificate if they are issued with a report by a panel of medical experts, a requirement that activists want removed.

"This would be a big trauma if someone would force me to go to a doctor again, and a lot of intersex people had the same experience," Juergen told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A spokesman for Austria's interior ministry did not return requests for comment.

Intersex babies often undergo surgery to bring the appearance and function of their genitalia into line with that expected of males or females, which research suggests can lead to psychological damage later in life.

Medically unnecessary surgeries carried out on intersex children without their consent are banned in Malta and Portugal.

"There will have to be another lawsuit of a person who doesn't have a diagnosis (of an intersex condition)," said Tobias Humer, the head of Austrian intersex advocacy group VIMO.

He also encouraged people who identify as neither male nor female, and who were not intersex, to choose the third option on their identity documents.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Who's a Good Boy? Wolves, not dogs, apparently

WASHINGTON, United States - If you're looking for a word to describe your adorable pet pup, "selfish" might not top the list.

But a new study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE suggests Fido's reputation for being caring is all a ruse -- at least if you're a fellow dog.

A series of touchscreen experiments carried out by the Wolf Science Center in Vienna, Austria found that wolves make for more selfless pack mates than dogs who were also raised in groups.

The study's authors say the findings suggest domestic dogs inherited their cooperative tendencies from their fierce wolf ancestors, rather than through their contact with human beings, a competing hypothesis.

Researchers trained the animals to use their snouts to press a "giving" symbol on a screen that delivered food to an adjacent enclosure, where a fellow animal may or may not be present.

Over multiple trials, wolves opted to deliver food to members of their own pack, knowing they would not get anything in return -- but lost interest if they were shown an unfamiliar wolf.

Dogs, on the other hand, showed no particular inclination to feed other dogs when no personal payoff was involved, regardless of whether they knew them or not.

"This study shows that domestication did not necessarily make dogs more prosocial," said lead author Rachel Dale.

"Rather, it seems that tolerance and generosity towards group members help to produce high levels of cooperation, as seen in wolves."

But don't write off your pooch just yet. The authors cautioned against applying the results of an experiment carried out on pack dogs to pet dogs, who have been found to have prosocial tendencies in past studies. 

The researchers believe those behaviors could be the result of training or encouragement, and say more research is needed to determine what accounts for the differences.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Vietnam wins Miss Earth 2018

Miss Earth 2018 Phuong Khanh Nguyen of Vietnam (second right) joins (from left) Miss Earth-Fire Melissa Flores of Mexico, Miss Earth-Water Valeria Ayos of Colombia, and Miss Earth-Air Melanie Mader of Austria during the grand coronation night of the Miss Earth 2018 pageant held at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Saturday. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Austria police step up security amid terror warning

VIENNA - Austrian police said Saturday they stepped up security in Vienna and other cities after receiving a warning of possible attacks during the holiday season.

"In the lead-up to Christmas, a friendly intelligence service sent a warning to numerous European capitals saying potential bomb or gun attacks could take place in areas with large crowds between Christmas and New Year," Vienna police said in a statement.

The warning included "several names of potential attackers" but investigations have so far yielded no concrete results, the statement said.

In response to the alert, police officials said they would increase security at public events and tighten controls on roads in Vienna and elsewhere in Austria.

The warning comes after jihadist gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris on November 13.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

PH diplomat holds solo art exhibit in Vienna

AUSTRIA - The diplomatic community in Austria joined Philippine Embassy Cultural Attache Toni Bosa during the opening of her first solo art exhibition at Top Lokal in Vienna.

In the exhibition “Expression: My Kind of Art“, Bosa wanted to show her strong interest in color through an expressive artistic style.

“I started this as a hobby when I was still in the Philippines. Now I come to a point that I have to share also this kind of artwork which is very unique and distinctive Filipino,” Bosa said.

Bosa began painting when she was a child in the southern Philippines. She used coconut husks as a paintbrush and paints mixed with sands, pebbles and clay.

“For me, painting is a way of communicating my innermost feelings, moods, expressions and impressions of the world, resulting in a complex, densely textured mesh of colors and lines. It is energy and motion made visible,” she said.

Austrian Migration officer Karin Fleischhacker praised the works of Bosa.

“The paintings of Toni are very expressive and the colors are very nice. They seem to imbibe a deeper meaning of life which could not be expressed in words. Indeed, her works send a message of happiness, peace, love and positive energy,” Fleischhacker said.

Tommy Aquino, also a Filipino painter based in Austria, is very much impressed by Bosa’s works.

“It is amazing! I did not know in the first place that a diplomat like Toni possesses an artistic talent. Through her example, other artists in Vienna would be given the courage to come out and share their talents,” Aquino said.

“They are quite unique in a sense, since they are expressions of emotions. The paintings evoke variety of emotions. In every picture you can see colors. Indeed, a very promising exhibition,” art enthusiast Emy Duran said.

Philippine Ambassador to Austria Ambassador Lourdes Yparraguirre also graced the opening of Bosas’s solo art exhibit. The ambassador noted that Bosa’s responsibility as cultural attache at the embassy in Austria and her talent in painting are effective tools for cultural promotion, awareness and education.

The Ambassador related that Bosa helps a lot in promoting the richness of the Filipino culture.

Aside from her first solo exhibition in Vienna, she has received invitations to hold an exhibition in the US.

“I have an invitation in the US. I hope that this would materialize very soon. Of course, I will also conduct a vernissage in the Philippines,” she said.

She likewise wants to encourage other Filipino artists who have the inclination to paint, to realize their talents.

“I encourage everyone like me. It’s never too late to follow your dreams. Just like me, express yourselves in whatever form you want to express it,” she said.

The art exhibition is open to the public from November 12 to January 15, 2013.

Top Lokal is located at Fleischmarkt 18, 1010 Vienna. Proceeds of the art exhibition will go to Bosa’s Children’s charity projects in the Philippines and in Honduras.

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Pinay nurses in Austria lauded for contribution to healthcare

Austrian Federal Minister for Labor, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection Rudolf Hundstorfer praised Filipino nurses in Austria for their “very important contribution” to their host country’s healthcare system.

In his remarks during the 10th anniversary of the Philippine Nurses Association Austria on December 3, Hundstorfer "thanked the Filipino nurses in Austria for their very important contribution to the country’s healthcare system," the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

Hundstorfer noted that a good healthcare system was "one of the criteria in the 2011 Quality of Living survey set by the global consulting firm Mercer in choosing Vienna as the best place to live in the world for three consecutive years,” the DFA said.

Hundstorfer and Philippine Ambassador Lourdes Yparraguirre were the special guests at the event.

Yparraguirre lauded the nurses for their “hard work, high skills and dedication” that helped open the gates for other nurses from the Philippines to go to Austria.

“Under a bilateral agreement, Filipino nurses came to Austria, first in trickle, then in groups. In virtually every corner of this country, there is nothing but praise for Filipino nurses. And many Austrians who have never heard of the Philippines learn about us through the most positive examples - you! Our nurses overseas are truly some of the best ambassadors of the Filipino people,” she said.

She likewise highlighted the recognition awarded by the City of Vienna to Filipino and Filipino-Austrian nurses and caregivers for their long years of dedicated services to the health sector of Austria.

The DFA said there are about 30,000 Filipino-Austrians in Austria. - VVP, GMA News

source:gmanetwork.com