Nearly all of Austria's glaciers shrank significantly last year, with one glacier receding a record 97.3 meters (319.2 feet), the Austrian Alpine Association (OeAV) said Friday.

Out of the 95 glaciers measured, 93 retreated an average 17.4 meters (57 feet) in 2012 while just two were unchanged, the body said in its annual report.

Austria said Wednesday it does not plan on withdrawing any forces from the U.N. peacekeeping mission on the Golan Heights, despite rising concern over troop safety in conflict-torn Syria.

"At the moment there are no plans" for any reduction in personnel, a defense ministry spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

Many parents would be delighted to have their son become pope -- not so Eleonore Schoenborn, mother of Austrian candidate Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.

"Being pope would be too much for Christoph, it would be much too difficult for him," the 92-year-old told Austrian daily Kronen-Zeitung in an interview. "He is too good for the job."

Germany said on Wednesday it had banned three Islamist Salafist groups which officials said aimed to sweep aside democracy and set up a system based on Sharia Islamic law.

The interior ministry said the bans, which come amid stepped-up observation of the Salafist community in Germany, took effect early Wednesday in the western states of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Sweden on Wednesday became the ninth European country to upgrade the status of a Palestinian representative office to that of an embassy.

Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to ratify a June 28 agreement between Stockholm and Ramallah on upgrading the Palestinian Authority's mission here.

Like anywhere, dozing off behind the wheel in Austria can be deadly. But for one teen-ager it will likely result in a charge of attempted car theft.

State broadcaster ORF cites police saying they are have identified a 17-year-old male as the likely suspect after a woman found her vehicle partially hot-wired, a door forced open and a youth apparently drunk and fast asleep inside.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog will "work hard" to resolve differences with Iran over its nuclear program at talks in Tehran, the body's chief inspector said on Tuesday.

"Differences remain... we will work hard to try to resolve these differences," Herman Nackaerts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told journalists at Vienna airport as he boarded a plane for Tehran.

Austria's media authority condemned on Monday the capital Vienna's biggest free daily newspaper Heute for an article deemed racist and insulting to Muslims.

The December article in Heute ("Today") reported that a suspect in a murder trial was the sort of person "who thankfully tends to live in the shadow of the moon crescent."

Two packed commuter trains collided head-on in the morning rush-hour in Vienna on Monday, leaving several dozen people injured including five in serious condition, the emergency services said.

In a large rescue operation involving around 25 fire engines as well as helicopter ambulances and a special accident train, many of the injured had to be extracted from the wreckage using special cranes.

A 27-year-old Austrian tourist was killed in northern Ethiopia when his group was attacked during a whitewater rafting trip on the Nile, Austria's foreign ministry said Monday.

The attack occurred on Sunday near Bahir Dar, 550 kilometers (340 miles) northwest of the capital Addis Ababa, ministry spokesman Martin Weiss told AFP.