Austrian Times RSS FeedsLike the Austrian Times Facebook page!Follow us on Twitter!


Events for May
M T W T F S S
29 30 1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31 1 2
Add your event FREE

Today



BurgKino

Pub Quiz everyTuesday at Johnny's Pub

Popular in Austria

Cosmo&Nanu

Cosmo&Nanu

Police officer claimed smuggled turtles rescued from soup pot

Police officer claimed smuggled turtles rescued from soup pot

A Czech police officer caught with 50 rare turtles stuffed into socks in his luggage claimed that he had purchased the live animals at an open-air market in Hong Kong because he didn't want to see them end up in the cooking pot.

Jiří Kolář, 42, was stopped by police at Vienna airport and said that he planned to sell the rare turtles which include specimens from six protected species once he got back home.

He claimed he had not realised they were protected and it simply felt sorry for the reptile's which were being sold as a delicacy by a Chinese man to locals in Hong Kong.

An expert from the reptile section of the nearby Schonbrunn zoo in Vienna which was given the turtles to look after said they would be worth around €20,000 on the black market.

None of the animals had died despite their ordeal but all were badly dehydrated and needed urgent attention.

The animals will eventually be put back into nature conservation programs for protected species.

Austrian Times


Are you on Facebook? Like the Austrian Times on Facebook and win great prizes!




Tag cloud:
section  reptile  police  expert  nature  Schonbrunn  nearby  delicacy  Kong  Hong  protected  worth  euro  animals  turtles  conservation  specimens  Chinese  Vienna  iacute


Latest News

 

Salzburg Social Democrats Lose Case Against Finanzbuddha
The social-democratic party (SPÖ) in Salzburg has had to make a public apology on its website after it lost a legal battle against the financial advisory company Finanzbuddha in the context of the financial scandal that has hit the region.

1111th performance in camel theatre
The camels of Kernhof, district of Lilienfeld (Lower Austria) have been acting for ten years. The 1111th performance took place yesterday (Wed). Herbert Eder directed the desert animals.

20 years prison for murdering ex girlfriend
The state court of Linz sentenced a 29-year-old man from Upper Austria to 20 years in jail on Tuesday. The man was accused of having killed his ex-girlfriend and disguising it as a suicide.

Army officer sentenced over getting recruits to lay flooring at his house
The state court of Vienna sentenced a second lieutenant of the Austrian Army to nine months in jail due to misuse of authority. He had three recruits lay the flooring in his own house.

Water quality tests in lakes
The bathing lake next to the motorway in Wals-Viehhausen (Flachgau) has one of the worst water qualities. A test showed that there is a high amount of bacteria in the lake.

Drunk man drives 40 km on wrong side of road
An intoxicated Slovenian man drove 40 km on the wrong side of the Tauernautobahn motorway (A10) on Tuesday night. A courageous lorry driver stopped the Slovenian when the man stopped to urinate.

Tyrol lowest regional unemployment level in EU
In comparison to European regions, Tyrol and Salzburg have the lowest regional unemployment. Most unemployment occurs in the regions of Spain and Greece.

Heidi Chocolat buys Niemetz
The Meinl subsidiary Heidi Chocolat bought the Schwedenbomben manufacturer Niemetz for 5.25 million Euros. The firm promised to keep the production in Austria, which pleased the Niemetz staff.

Child injured on zebra crossing
A ten-year-old girl was severely injured in a car accident in Vienna-Margareten yesterday (Wed). A car hit her on a zebra crossing. It remained unclear whether the girl or the driver was supposed to wait.

Wrong labelling led to contamination
The newspaper "Kurier" reported that there might be a connection between the last radioactive incident in the old chemistry department of the University of Innsbruck, Tyrol, and the radioactive accident in Seibersdorf, Lower Austria.

 


Austrian Zimmers

The most popular stories –
last 7 days



Don't moan alone, the Ombudsman Investigates.

Why suffer in silence. Let off steam by letting our readers share your troubles. File your complaints about anything and everything here.

Our ombudsman David Rogers will try and help solve some of the problems from lazy civil servants through to incompetent companies – and at the very least the worst transgressors will end up in our weekly special report.


Cosmo&Nanu