Austria

VIENNA, June 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog is increasingly concerned about the welfare of Ukrainian staff at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Europe's largest, it said on Friday, adding that it must go there as soon as possible.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has for months said that the situation at Zaporizhzhia, where Ukrainian staff are working operating the plant under the order of Russian troops, poses a safety risk and that it wants to send a mission there. 

VIENNA, May 22 (Reuters) - Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, a 78-year-old former leader of the Greens, announced on Sunday he is standing for re-election this year to a second six-year term, which is likely to limit the number of candidates.

Van der Bellen is a popular figure who has been a steady hand in periods of turbulence including the scandal-tainted collapse of a ruling coalition between the conservative People's Party (OVP) and the far-right Freedom Party in 2019.

VIENNA (AP) — The European Union’s main representative at the nuclear talks with Iran says he was briefly detained with colleagues at Frankfurt Airport, in breach of diplomatic rules.

Enrique Mora of Spain, who has long led the EU delegation at the talks in Vienna, said the incident happened Friday morning as he was trying to make a connecting flight from Tehran to Brussels.

VIENNA, May 11. /TASS/: Hungary is ready to support the ban on Russian oil imports only if the European Commission (EC) offers a solution to issues that may arise in this case, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday, adding that Brussels has not provided any respective proposals yet.

The embargo should not cover Russian shipments to Hungary via pipelines, the minister noted. "Hungary will take this position during the future talks," he said.

VIENNA, May 11. /TASS/: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres does not see the possibility of concluding peace or achieving a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine at the moment.

"At the present moment, there are no immediate chances of a peace agreement or immediate chances for a global ceasefire," he told a news conference after a meeting with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.

VIENNA, May 6. /TASS/: Austria has no plans to pay for Russian gas in rubles, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg told Al Jazeera in an interview.

"Our position is clear. We are committed to the already existing agreements [with Russia] and will not pay in rubles, we have no such intention," Schallenberg said.

04 May 2022; MEMO: OPEC+ is set to agree on another small increase in production targets for June, delegates from the group say, as expectations that sanctions will crimp Russian output further counter demand growth concerns from Chinese lockdowns, reports Reuters.

OPEC+ ministers are set to meet on Thursday and are expected to agree to raise production targets by 432,000 barrels per day (bpd) for June, four OPEC+ delegates told Reuters.

VIENNA, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Radiation levels at the exclusion zone of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which Russian forces had controlled for weeks before withdrawing in late March, have remained within the safe range, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Thursday.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi headed a mission to the Chernobyl plant earlier this week to deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems.

VIENNA, April 28. /TASS/: OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Poland Zbigniew Rau and OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid on Thursday announced that the OSCE would take immediate steps to implement the closure of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, the OSCE said in a statement.

The decision followed the lack of consensus at the OSCE Permanent Council on 31 March 2022 to extend the mission’s mandate.

VIENNA, April 28 (Reuters) - Radiation levels in a part of Chornobyl's exclusion zone where Ukraine has said Russian troops dug trenches in the highly contaminated soil are elevated but still well within the safe range, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's chief said on Thursday.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi travelled to Chornobyl this week with IAEA staff to bring equipment and check radiation levels at the site which includes radioactive waste facilities near the now-defunct power plant that in 1986 suffered the world's worst nuclear disaster.