The Local - Austria's News in English

An asylum seeker in Austria has been arrested after contacting a schoolgirl on social media and allegedly pressuring her into having sex with him.

• Staff steal entire kitchen from refugee home
• Germany may lift border controls
• 'Germany should reinforce Austria-Italy border'
• Austria to post soldiers at Italian border

A homeless Austrian man who vandalised dozens of memorials to victims of the Nazis in Salzburg was on Friday sentenced to five years in jail.

Can a surfeit of bodily contact persuade sceptical Brits to stay in the EU? These Europeans hope it might.

Tickets for the Red Ribbon Concert hosted by the Life Ball and taking place in Vienna in June have gone on sale this week.

• Life Ball to take 'creative break' in 2016
• Stars head to Vienna's Life Ball charity event
• Conchita channels Klimt for Life Ball poster

Eight members of a criminal gang suspected of extorting as much as half a million euros from bar owners in Vienna have been arrested.

• Robber gives Austrian police the slip for 8 years
• Car stunt crims claim fake injury
• Austrian police help catch Bulgarian burglars

Two men got a group of refugees to unknowingly help them steal entire kitchen from a refugee home so they could sell it to fund an addiction.

• 25 attacks on refugee facilities last year in Austria
• Drop in state funds puts Austrian refugee NGOs at risk
• Thousands protest against refugee policies in Vienna

Police operation seizes 20 kilograms of drugs and arrests nearly 2,000 people in just a few weeks on one of Vienna’s underground lines.

• 31 drug arrests in Vienna weekend raids
• Austrian fails to smuggle drugs in chilli con carne
• Police fire shots to stop drug suspect

Vienna's Leopold Museum settles long-running feud over five Nazi-plundered drawings by Austrian painter Egon Schiele with the descendants of the works' Jewish former owner.

• Austrian museum seeks sponsors to save damaged art
• Looted ancient statue returned to Egypt
• Austrian painter Ernst Fuchs dies aged 85

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Austria has nearly doubled since 2014, according to a Jewish organisation in Vienna.

• Racism in Austria at its highest level in years
• Austrian charged for inciting hatred against migrants

Amateur shutterbug Jerry Barton visited one of Austria's traditional Easter markets at Schloss Hof.

A new exhibition at Wien Museum is showcasing photos from Vienna's famous Prater fairground since 1766.

Linda Coussement is a woman on a mission to film people’s personal stories as she slowly travels the globe - with the aim of spreading a message of empathy and connectedness. After spending a month in Vienna she is now en route to Budapest. She spoke to The Local about her project.

A school in northern Switzerland has decided to back the complaint by the two male students.

Germany's Autobahns are the envy of the world, and are associated with one thing above all - speed. But here are eight things you never knew about the iconic German tarmac.

UPDATED: Four people were detained on Thursday on suspicion of joining Isis in Syria.

The case against an overweight prankster who sat on a donkey foal "as a joke" and killed it has been thrown out of a Spanish court.