Archive for August, 2010

Austria is a country situated in Central Europe. It is located next to Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The country has most of its western part covered by the Alps and some plains and low lands in the east. Only less than a quarter of the country’s territories are below 500 meters.
The climate of the country is cool to temperate due to the mountainous landscape with distinct western humid winds. In the higher areas the climate is mostly Alpine. In the plains and in on the Danube banks the climate is more continental. There are four distinct seasons with temperatures of -10 to 0 °C in the winter to 30-40 °C in the summer.
Currently, the population of Austria is approximately 8.3 million people. The population in Vienna, the country’s capital, is more than 1.6 million. Around 88% of the people in the country are German-speaking and the remaining 12% represent traditional and newly acquired minorities. Among the recent immigrants the biggest groups come from Turkey and ex Yugoslavia’s republics. The majority of the population is Catholic, with Islam as the second denomination. The official language is German here other Slavic languages and Turkish are spoken among the country’s minorities.
The Republic of Austria is a federation of nine states: Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Voralberg and Vienna. The country is a parliamentary democracy governed by the Federal Chancellor. The head of state is the Federal President who is elected by direct popular vote.
The country is part of the European Union since 1995. Austria has a history of military non-alignment and is not part of NATO. Moreover, the country is part of the Schengen Agreement.
The Car Rental Austrian companies that operate in the country are Economy, Easy Car, Auto Europe, Europcar, Budget and others.

The shocking history of the Fritzl family came out in the spring of 2008 and stunned the world. It became clear that the 73-year-old Joseph Fritzl had held his daughter Elizabeth as a captive for 24 years. He kept her in a specially built basement dungeon without any access to the outside world, air, and sunlight. It was discovered that he had continuously physically assaulted, sexually abused and raped her over this period.
Joseph had fathered 7 children with his daughter. 3 of those he had taken out and adopted to live with him and his wife, Elizabeth’s mother, in the same building. 3 more were left to live in complete confinement with their mother in the basement. One baby boy had died from respiratory problems soon after birth because it was deprived of heath care.
Joseph had a history of sexual violence. He had been trialed and been in prison for a year and a half for rape. Later, he was once again investigated for an attempted rape. It is now known that he had started sexually molesting his daughter at the age of 11. He had fathered 7 kids with his wife Rosemarie and 7 with his daughter Elizabeth.
The abominable story came out soon after Kerstin, Joseph’s oldest daughter, who was kept in the cellar had health problems. She was taken to the hospital where the case raised suspicion and reached the police. Fritzl took Elizabeth to the hospital to see her daughter and both of them were taken by the police for questioning.
Joseph was trialed for false imprisonment, rape, incest, manslaughter by negligence. He confessed for having imprisoned his daughter and was found guilty and sentenced to life.

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The rest of the family was taken to a psychiatric clinic and then to a safe location for their treatment. Later, they were moved to a new location somewhere in the north of Austria where they are trying to resume a normal life.