Dublin deserted as coronavirus dampens St. Patrick's Day

Yahoo – AFP, Joe STENSON, March 17, 2020

St Patrick's Day celebrations were cancelled over the virus (AFP Photo/Paul Faith)

Dublin (AFP) - Pubs were shuttered and pints left unpoured on St. Patrick's Day in Dublin Tuesday, as the Irish capital swapped its annual riot of celebration for "social distancing" designed to stem the spread of coronavirus.

The cobbled streets of Temple Bar -- usually the epicentre of celebrations -- were deserted.

"This place would be just swarming with people, the whole town would be," said Dubliner Anthony Whyte.

"It's like a ghost town. It's like armageddon," the 49-year-old told AFP.

Last week, Ireland's government cancelled St Patrick's parades nationwide, asked pubs to close and curbed gatherings of more than 100 individuals until March 29.

"Social distancing" -- remaining apart from others in public -- has also been strongly advised.

"On a day like St. Patrick's Day, you can really feel it," said Justin Sinnott, 44, strolling through abandoned streets with his young son on his shoulders.

Two people have died from coronavirus in Ireland, which has 223 confirmed cases so far.

Prime minister Leo Varadkar said he expected 15,000 cases in the country by the end of March.

Lost jobs

In central Dublin, St Patrick's Day decorations featuring brimming pints of Guinness, leprechauns and pots of gold found no customers to tempt.

In one open corner shop, staff wore face masks.

"Coronavirus/COVID-19 -- we are closed. Government + HSE (health service) advice," read a handwritten sign on one of the area's most popular drinking spots.

While most Irish citizens have lost a night on the town, others have felt the blow more dearly.

State broadcaster RTE estimated 140,000 hospitality and childcare workers have been laid off over government coronavirus measures.

"We're preparing for the worst," said tourism transport worker John Gately, cycling through central Dublin wearing protective blue rubber gloves.

The 30-year-old has not yet joined those laid off as a result of the coronavirus.

"It's a case of just battening down the hatches and trying to recover," he said. "This is totally unprecedented in my lifetime.

"I'm kind of fascinated and terrified at the same time -- it's like being in a horror movie and we're just waiting to see what happens next week."

Tourist attraction

Last year an estimated 500,000 people attended Dublin's St Patrick's festival. Irish media reported around 100,000 attendees were overseas visitors.

But with pubs closed and various foreign governments banning flights from European nations, many tourists had already begun to filter home.

Some US travellers had brought forward their flights home before Washington's travel ban on European countries was extended to include Ireland and the UK from 0400 GMT Tuesday.

"It just escalated so quickly in the last several days," Travis Mino told AFP at Dublin Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Washington.

Others were determined to soldier on with efforts to celebrate Ireland's patron saint on Tuesday.

"Strange times," said cheerful Russian tourist Aleksei Vishtibeev, sporting a shamrock green novelty leprechaun hat and a fake ginger beard.

"No parade, no holiday. But a holiday is in the head and in the heart, not only in the street."

"I'm ready and going on my single parade," the 45-year old said before setting off on a solo route around the eerie streets of the capital.

Hungary boat tragedy captain already under investigation over earlier accident

Yahoo – AFP, June 6, 2019

Candles have been lit close to the Danube in memory of the victims (AFP
Photo/ATTILA KISBENEDEK)

The captain of a river cruise ship involved in a deadly collision last week with a smaller sightseeing boat in Budapest is already under investigation over another accident in April, Hungarian prosecutors said Thursday, as the toll rose to 17.

After last week's crash, the 64-year-old Ukrainian captain of the larger Viking Sigyn ship was arrested on suspicion of "endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths".

Hungarian press reports said the same man, named as Yuriy C., was being investigated over the collision of another Viking ship, the Idun, with a chemicals tanker near the Dutch city of Terneuzen on April 1.

"He is being treated as a suspect in Holland," the Metropolitan Chief Prosecutor's Office told AFP in a statement, citing information from the EU judicial agency Eurojust, but without confirming the incident they were referring to.

In a statement sent to AFP on Thursday, Viking said: "We can confirm that even though the captain of the Viking Sigyn was onboard the Viking Idun on April 1, he was not serving as the ship's captain at the time of the incident."

"We are unable to comment further while the investigations of both incidents are ongoing," the statement added.

At the time of the April collision, the Idun had 43 crew and 137 passengers on board. Several passengers were injured.

Dutch authorities are still investigating the circumstances of that collision.

Hungarian prosecutors also said Thursday that the captain was suspected of "deleting data from his telephone after the collision" in Budapest.

The captain's lawyers could not be reached for comment on Thursday but said in a statement issued last Friday that he was "devastated" by the accident and insisted that he did not make any errors.

Meanwhile the death toll rose to 17 after the bodies of two more South Korean tourists were identified, leaving 11 people still missing from the occupants of the Mermaid sightseeing vessel -- nine South Koreans and two Hungarian crew members.

The Mermaid overturned and sank on May 29 seconds after colliding with the Viking Sigyn on a busy stretch of the Danube river in the heart of Budapest.

Only seven people are known to have survived the accident.

Divers have been unable to enter the sunken boat due to the strong current in a river swollen after weeks of rain.

A barge carrying a crane powerful enough to lift the Mermaid arrived in Budapest Wednesday but was to remain docked in the north of the city until the river level subsides enough to allow it to pass under several bridges to reach the accident scene.

Experts said the crane was unlikely to begin the salvage operation before the weekend.

The Viking Sigyn left Budapest with a new captain last Friday but Seoul has reportedly asked Hungarian authorities to return the ship to Budapest for the duration of the investigation.

Europe brings on charm and blue skies to lure Chinese tourists

Yahoo – AFP, Céline CORNU, 20 January 2018

Europe brings on charm and blue skies to lure Chinese tourists

Venice (AFP) - Chinese tourists are big spenders and with the numbers visiting Europe set to soar by nearly 70 percent over the next five years, the countries of the Old Continent are rolling out the red carpet to make the guests feel welcome.

A total 12.4 million Chinese, mostly in guided tour groups, came to Europe in 2017, according to the European Travel Comission. And the Chinese Tourism Academy (CTA) is expecting the number to reach 20.8 million by 2022.

"A few years ago, the Chinese came to Europe solely to do some shopping. Now, they're increasingly keen to get know the culture and the countryside," CTA president Dai Bin told AFP, speaking in Venice, at the launch of the year of tourism between the EU and China.

Festivals, cooking courses... "they want to have personal experiences and visit areas where they don't see any other Chinese," said ETC's executive director, Eduardo Santander.

"They like the cuisine, the music, the blue skies... most of them come from the coast, where pollution is extremely high," Santander said.

And some were surprised that they can "breathe without coughing," he added.

China is the world's biggest market for foreign tourism -- with 129 million Chinese holidaymakers travelling abroad, they account for one fifth of the total number of tourists globally.

And they spend more than twice the amount that, say, US tourists do -- $261 billion in 2016 compared with $123 billion.

Hot water and credit cards

Small gestures can go a long way towards making Chinese tourists feel more at ease in Europe, said Jacopo Sertoli, head of Welcome Chinese, a body that awards certificates to tourism companies catering for Chinese customers.

"You can make them very happy by offering them a glass of hot water," he said, noting most Chinese families drink water at that temperature rather than cold.

Chinese language television stations and good wifi in hotel rooms are a good idea while payment methods favoured by the Chinese, such as UnionPay, the only credit card issuer in China, WeChatPay or Alipay are a must.

CTA chief Dai Bin said Europe should reduce the red tape for its Chinese visitors.

"We hope Europe will make is easier for Chinese to get a visa," he said.

"In a number of eastern European countries, for example, it's easy. But it's very difficult in others. And when Chinese tourists visit Europe, they want to visit several countries, not just one," Dai Bin said.

By reciprocation, China would become "more flexible when granting visas and Europeans can stay in Beijing or Shanghai for 144 hours -- or six days -- without a visa," he promised.

According to ETC data, France is the number one desired destination in Europe for Chinese tourists, with 61 percent of visitors hoping to go there, followed by Germany with 37 percent and Italy with 28 percent.

Nevertheless, that picture has started to change in recent years, and travel to eastern Europe is booming, not least because of the easier allocation of visas and the increased availability of cheap flights. The string of terrorist attacks in France and Germany in recent years is also a factor.

In 2016, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Serbia, for example, rose by 173 percent, and numbers were up by nearly 90 percent in Montenegro.

But while "the Chinese are very alert to questions of security, they tend to forget more easily than other tourists," Santander said.

Popular for perceivedly having deep pockets -- a result of the Chinese tradition of giving presents -- Chinese visitors haven't always enjoyed a reputation for their savoir-vivre.

But that's an image which China is itself keen to remedy, with "some tourist agencies offering lessons to customers before they go to Europe," said CTA president Dai Bin.

Chinese tourists are big spenders and with the numbers visiting Europe set to soar by nearly 70 percent over the next five years, the countries of the Old Continent are rolling out the red carpet to make the guests feel welcome https://t.co/Ao1n3dfovy pic.twitter.com/vHbrfR8DIA

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 20, 2018

Bonn elects first mayor with Indian background

History has been made in the former German capital after CDU's Ashok-Alexander Sridharan became the city's first mayor to come from an immigrant background. But he told DW that his roots were irrelevant to his campaign.

Deutsche Welle, 14 Sep 2015

Following last weekend's mayoral election, Sridharan became the first candidate from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to win the Bonn mayoral election in over two decades, leaving the Social Democratic Party (SPD) out in the cold after 21 years in office.

Even more unique perhaps was that Sridharan became the city's first mayor to come from a migrant background. Born in Bonn in 1965, the Catholic father of three spent his whole childhood and university life in Germany's former provisional capital city, branding himself during his election campaign as a "Bonn lad." It was his father, an Indian diplomat, who first moved to western Germany in the 1950s before marrying Sridharan's German mother.

Despite drawing media attention from India, in an interview with Deutsche Welle, Sridharan said his Asian roots weren't relevant to his campaign.

"That's not important to me at all," Sridharan told DW. "I didn't think about it because it played absolutely no part in the campaign."

The World Conference Center Bonn

The attention on Bonn from overseas could reap rewards for the city, however.

"Of course I think it's great that people in India are interested in who has been elected as Bonn's mayor," Sridharan said.

"I think that could even contribute efforts to make Bonn better-known internationally than it already is and that would do us good. We have many international companies and organizations here and I feel we have to strengthen that."

End of SPD office

Some 50.06 percent of Bonn's electorate voted for Sridharan in Sunday's election. Throughout the course of his campaign, however, Sridharan received a handful of xenophobic posts on social media such as: "The German population's still only 25 percent migrants. Why didn't the Bonn CDU find a German candidate?"

For the Sridharan, however, the comments aren't a matter of concern.

"I just ignored them. I didn't react at all. There were also really so few of them, just a handful of very infrequent posts," he told DW.

As the former treasurer of nearby Königswinter prepares to move office into Bonn's historic town hall, the SPD will now be looking to see where they went wrong after 21 years.

Beethoven's birth house is in Bonn

Sridharan said he believed that much of his success in Sunday's election came from his own personal efforts.

"I think overall it helped that I was at so many events and made myself as well known as is possible in Bonn, and clearly that worked… but we'll look at the results and then at exactly what the reasons were behind our success."

Re-branding Bonn

Top of the agenda for Sridharan, when he officially takes office on October 21, is to improve Bonn's international presence - both politically and economically, as well as culturally.

Since the fall of the Berlin wall 25 years ago, the Berlin-Bonn law has regulated the move of the German Bundestag to Berlin and certain federal facilities between the two cities. Sridharan warned, however, that the law should not be implemented to Bonn's detriment.

"In the recent weeks, months and years, the majority of the arrangements have been at Bonn's expense. Therefore ,I think we must watch out that the law doesn't unravel and the facilities that have come to Bonn as compensation are not put in danger. We need to discuss the issue with broad agreement as we did at the beginning of the 90s, both regional and partisan."

As the birthplace of composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven, the newly-elected mayor also hopes to rebrand the city.

"We need a stamp for Bonn and I'd like to develop it as 'Beethoven city' and make it known internationally," Sridharan said.

Saudi king hits French beach -- with a cast of 1,000

Yahoo – AFP, 24 July 2015

Saudi Arabia's King Salman will holiday in France with an entourage of more

than 1,000 people (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

Vallauris (France) (AFP) - King Salman of Saudi Arabia is expected to arrive in France later Friday for a Riviera beach holiday, bringing with him no fewer than 1,000 people from his entourage.

While the king's three-week visit is a boon for the local economy, it has also sparked anger due to the closure of a public beach for the privacy and security of the royal party.

The king's inner circle will be put up at the family's private villa, which stretches across a kilometre of Riviera coastline between Antibes and Marseille.

Some 700 other members of his entourage will be accommodated at top hotels on the promenade in Cannes.

Hundreds of other Saudis will be following the king on his holiday -- as is the tradition -- bringing the total number of Saudi citizens flooding into the southern French beach resorts to around 1,000.

"Clearly this is good news," said Michel Chevillon, president of an association representing hotel managers in Cannes.

"These are people with great purchasing power which will pep up not only the luxury hotel industry but also the retail and tourism sectors of the town," said Chevillon.

General view of the public beach called "La Mirandole", located below a villa

 owned by the Saudi King, on July 20, 2015 in Vallauris, southeastern France

(AFP Photo/Valery Hache)

But not everyone is happy.

An entire kilometre of public beach will be cordoned off for security and privacy reasons and coastguards will stop anyone coming within 300 metres of the villa by sea.

The Saudis also generated a great deal of anger by starting work on an elevator from the beach to the villa, which involved pouring a huge slab of cement directly on to the sand.

A petition against the "privatisation" of the public beach gathered more than 45,000 signatures in eight days.

"We recall that this natural zone, like all maritime public estates, is an intrinsic public property that should be available for the benefit of all, residents, tourists, French, foreigners or people passing through," said the petition.

"We ask the state to guarantee the fundamental principle of the equality of all citizens before the law," the text added.

"We're sick and tired of this messing around," said a local woman, more succinctly.

"I can see it's normal that you need to guarantee their security but they should let us go for a swim."

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Anger as Saudi king takes over entire French beach

Yahoo – AFP, Vincent Morvan, 19 July 2015

An AFPTV screen grab shows the beach at Vallauris which will be cut off 

from the public during the Saudi royal family's stay (AFP Photo)

Vallauris (France) (AFP) - Beach lovers on the French Riviera expressed their anger Sunday over the imminent arrival of the Saudi royal family, who have ordered a long stretch of beach to be closed off to the public.

"Looking after their security is fine, but they should at least let us go for a swim," said Mohamed, a disgruntled fishing enthusiast.

Nestled in the rocks between the coastal railway and the translucent waters of the Mediterranean, the grounds of the royal family's immense villa stretches across a kilometre of Riviera coastline between Antibes and Marseille.

Local authorities confirmed that King Salman is due to arrive at some point this week, and that access to the entire kilometre stretch will be cut off, including the public beach at Vallauris, which can only be reached through a tunnel under the railway line.

"Access to the coast will be prohibited by police officers for the duration of the king's holiday," said local official Philippe Castanet.

Coastguards will also stop anyone coming within 300 metres of the villa by sea.

Beach users swung between disappointment and anger over the news.

"They take the decision and there's nothing we can say," said Mohamed, rinsing off his fishing rod on the beachfront.

"It's a good fishing spot and blocking access is not acceptable."

Beach-to-villa elevator

Fatima, a local nurse, had come with her two daughters for a swim.

"Whether it's him or another billionaire, they always have priority over ordinary people. On the other hand, they are good for business, coming here with 400 people in their entourage. I heard they might even fix the roads."

King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is due to arrive on the French Riviera

this week (AFP Photo)

Her boyfriend Didier recalls a time when Salman's predecessor King Fahd was visiting and the police had to forcibly remove swimmers who refused to clear out.

Workers hired by the Saudis had last week already started building the fence that will close off access to the beach, but were ordered to stop until the royal family arrives.

They had also generated a great deal of anger by starting work on an elevator from the beach to the villa, which involved pouring a huge slab of cement directly on to the sand.

The local authorities have allowed work on the elevator to continue on condition that it is dismantled when the family vacation ends.

The villa itself has become a hive of activity, with one local, Christian, saying there were dozens of people decking it out with rose bushes and other plants over the weekend.

"You can see they've replaced the balcony windows, no doubt to put in some bullet-proof glass," he said.

He also pointed out what appeared to be a golden throne, positioned to soak up the sun -- and a view unspoiled by the general public -- on the villa's terrace.

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British shoe seller tries to crowdfund Greek bailout

Yahoo – AFP, Ruth Holmes, 30 June 2015

Thom Feeney, pictured on June 30, 2015, has launched an online crowdfunding

 campaign to raise the money for Greece to meet its IMF debt repayment (AFP

Photo/Niklas Halle'N)

London (AFP) - A British shoe shop worker has launched an online crowdfunding campaign to raise the money for Greece to meet its IMF debt repayment due on Tuesday, saying he just wanted to help austerity-stricken Greeks.

Thom Feeney told AFP outside his shop in London's Covent Garden that he had been overwhelmed by the response and the messages of support, raising 209,000 euros ($233,000) by 1600 GMT after just two days.

More than 13,000 people have donated to the IndieGoGo project "Greek Bailout Fund" so far but it was still a long way from the final target of 1.6 billion euros that Greece needs to make its debt payment.

A woman walks past a wall bearing 

graffitti concerning Greece's possible 

exit from the euro in Athens on June 28, 

2015 (AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)

"Watching politicians going round in circles and dithering somewhat with making a decision on Greece, I just thought, I think it just needs someone to step in and sort it," said the bearded 29-year-old, who was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.

"I think the people of Europe can do that much quicker than the politicians can... The amount that we need per person is only 3.19 euros per citizen of the EU, so it's just a small amount," he said.

Feeney said it was his first attempt at crowdfunding and he spoke enthusiastically to AFP about his project, rejecting any talk of it being a joke.

The creator said he had no personal links to Greece but wanted to help Greek people in a time of hardship.

"I just thought perhaps a better way to help would be to do something immediately," he said.

'Real people do care'

Since setting up the webpage on Sunday, Feeney said the reaction has "snowballed", with "hundreds, if not thousands of godwill messages" flooding in from across Europe.

Surprisingly, the bulk of donations in the first 24 hours came from Britain, which is not a eurozone member, and Germany, which has taken a hard official line on Greece's debt repayments.

Should the project be successful, donors will receive perks ranging from a postcard of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, a feta and olive salad or a Greek holiday for two, depending on the size of the contribution.

Tourists taking 'selfies' at the Acropolis in Athens on June 30, 2015 as the country

 appeared set to default on a key repayment to the International Monetary Fund

(AFP Photo/Louisa Gouliamaki)

Initially, there was a small Greek island on offer for anyone who stumped up the full total, but IndieGoGo asked Feeney to remove the offer as the Greek government had not agreed to it.

"I hope it can reach the total. It would be fantastic if it could," said Feeney, from York in northern England.

"Regardless, it has made a bit of a statement that real people do care about other people across Europe."

Under the terms of the crowdfunding site, donations will be refunded if the target is not reached within seven days.

But Feeney hopes a way can be found to put the money to good use if donors are willing.

"It would be lovely if we could find a way for people's donations to still count and go towards something -- perhaps some kind of initiative to help Greek people get into work or sell produce abroad."

Related Article:

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EU roaming charges to be abolished in 2017

Yahoo - AFP, Katherine Haddon, 30 June 2015

The European Union currently caps roaming charges at 0.19 euros per minute
 for calls, 0.06 euros per SMS and 0.20 euros per megabyte of data (AFP
Photo/Josep Lago)

Brussels (AFP) - The European Union said Tuesday it had struck a deal to abolish mobile phone roaming charges in 2017, ending fees loathed by millions of holidaymakers and business travellers across Europe.

The agreement will end the frustration of EU citizens on holiday or business who face steep charges for using their phones for calls and Internet browsing when in the bloc but outside their home country.

Coming into force on June 15, 2017, the deal means "you can use your mobile device when travelling in the EU paying the same prices as at home," the European Commission said in a statement.

"If you pay for a monthly volume of minutes, SMS and data in your country, any voice call, SMS and data session you make while travelling abroad in the EU will be deducted from that as if you were at home, with no extra charges," it added.

The deal was reached following wider discussions stretching back to 2013 in overnight talks between the Latvian presidency of the EU and the European Parliament.

It still needs formal approval by the bloc's parliament and 28 governments and was described as "provisional".

"This is the end of a long process and we're delighted we managed to produce a result that will mean concrete improvement for citizens in the single market," European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters at a briefing in Brussels.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is in the process of negotiating EU reforms ahead of a referendum on membership of the bloc, described the move as "fantastic news".

But some analysts questioned whether the major structural changes to the industry necessary before roaming charges are actually abolished could be brought in within two years.

"I'm not convinced that 2017 is going to be the final date," said Dario Talmesio, Europe practice leader at telecoms, media and IT research group Ovum.

"The devil is in the detail about how to go about it. There's a lot that needs to be clarified."

'Prices may rise'

Before the full deal comes into effect, data roaming charges will be slashed from April 2016 to 0.05 euros per minute for calls, 0.02 euros per SMS and 0.05 per megabyte of data.

Under current EU rules, the cap stands at 0.19 euros per minute for calls, 0.06 euros per SMS and 0.20 euros per megabyte of data.

Providers would still be allowed to apply a "fair use policy" to prevent "abusive" use of roaming, the European Council said.

Talmesio said that the detail of this would be key to determining how and when the policy can be implemented.

Bert Van Roosebeke, a political analyst from the Centre for European Policy think tank said it was "possible that domestic prices rise" as telecoms companies respond to the ruling.

A principle of "net neutrality" is also being introduced under which operators will be obliged to treat all traffic equally when providing Internet access services and not impose any blocking or "throttling" -- slowing down Internet traffic.

That is designed to eliminate the paid prioritisation of traffic, subject to limited exemptions such as countering cyber-attacks.

Providers not respecting the rules face "significant pecuniary and administrative sanctions," the Commission said.

The EU wants to complete an overhaul of EU telecoms rules in 2016.

Cake but no lesbian kissing at iconic Viennese cafe

Yahoo – AFP, Simon Sturdee, 16 Jan 2015

Participants attend the Rainbow Parade march, on June 15, 2013 in Vienna, whose

reputation for tolerance is in trouble just as it seeks to attract more gay tourists

Vienna's iconic cafes are famous the world over, offering customers top-notch coffee, creamy cakes and sanctuary from the modern world in an atmosphere that harks back to a golden bygone era.

But one such venerable institution, the 112-year-old Cafe Prueckel, is in hot water over an incident that threatens to tarnish the Austrian capital's reputation for tolerance just as it seeks to attract more gay tourists.

And it all comes less than a year after the country's bearded transvestite Conchita Wurst -- with her long glossy mane, heavy makeup and stiletto heels -- helped put Vienna on the gay map by winning the Eurovision Song Contest.

Participants attend the Rainbow Parade

 march, on June 15, 2013 in Vienna, whose

 reputation for tolerance is in trouble just as

it seeks to attract more gay tourists

In the now infamous episode on January 6, lesbian couple Eva Prewein and Anastasia Lopez, 26 and 19, engaged in what the women call merely a "Begruessungskuss" -- a "kiss of greeting" -- at the cafe.

The waiter was less than impressed and the couple say they were refused service for more than two hours and then barred when they kicked up a fuss.

Lopez told Austrian newspapers that Christl Sedlar, manager of the cafe on Vienna's famous Ringstrasse boulevard, informed the outraged pair that "diversity such as this belongs in a brothel, not in a traditional coffee house".

"We don't need any canoodling. Why was it absolutely necessary for the couple to show that they were an item," Sedlar told the Kurier daily.

All might have ended there but Sedlar's parting shot, unwisely as it now turns out, was that if the pair didn't like how they had been treated then "you girls could always go on Facebook".

And so they did. With the help of several LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) groups -- and a Facebook page, they organised a demonstration outside the Prueckel for this Friday evening.

By Thursday -- the day before -- 7,300 people had announced their attention to take part. Co-organiser Tamara Mittermann, head of the Axis of Critical Students (AKS), said she expects around a third or a half of these to actually turn up.

"This is not the first homophobic incident in a Vienna cafe," Mittermann told AFP. "Austrians feel like they are very tolerant ... but in fact this isn't the case. There is for example no legal protection against discrimination in the private sphere."

Manager Sedlar issued an apology of sorts on Thursday -- but it looks like this will do little to calm tempers.

Pink euros

Vienna's cafe culture dates back to the end of the 17th century -- legend has it that the retreating Turkish army left coffee beans behind in 1683 -- and is included in UNESCO's list of intangible cultural assets.

Their heyday was in the late 19th and early 20th century when they were a haven for Europe's cultural and intellectual elite like Sigmund Freud and Gustav Mahler -- as well as the likes of Lenin, Trotsky, Tito and a certain Adolf Hitler.

Although this belle epoque is long gone and the number of cafes have dwindled, they remain popular hangouts for locals and tourists alike, with visitors allowed to spend hours poring over the newspapers and ordering very little.

But Vienna's tourist board is also pulling out all the stops, like other European destinations, to attract gay tourists. Last year 80,000 people voted Vienna as their favourite cultural destination on website GayCities.com.

Although it may be a little less racy than other cities, there is also "fun to be had after dark, with plenty of fetish parties, saunas and gay clubs to keep even the most energetic boy or girl happy," the website said.

"We have been targeting LGBT tourists since 1998 and this unwelcome episode in Cafe Prueckel is definitely counter-productive," Vera Schweder from the Vienna tourist board told AFP.

"But I think this is an exception, generally this is a very welcoming place."

Eurovision Songcontest winner Conchita Wurst (L) is congratulated by UN
 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after his performance by Wurst at the United
Nations headquarters in Vienna, 03 November 2014. EPA Photo/Roland Schlager

Related Article:

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German travel operator cancels Israel tours over violence

Yahoo – AFP, 10 July 2014

The logo of German tourism group TUI, seen at Berlin's Tegel Airport
on February 4, 2011. (AFP File)

Germany's biggest travel group, TUI, said Thursday it had called off all tours through Israel until the end of the month over the recent eruption of violence in the region.

"TUI Germany is reacting to the current situation in Israel and has cancelled all tours in the country until July 31 inclusive," the company said in a statement.

"Holidaymakers who have booked a TUI tour through Israel in the next three weeks will be contacted."

The company said it would accept no new bookings for Israel with departure dates in the next three weeks.

Clients who had planned package trips or reserved hotel rooms in Israel that begin before the end of the month would be informed of the German foreign ministry's current travel advisory for the country and asked to reconsider their travel plans, it said.

Such travellers "can postpone or change their travel plans at no extra charge," the company said.

Current German foreign ministry travel advisory notes there have been "massive rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip in recent days," adding that the Tel Aviv region had also been targeted.

"The Israeli forces have started a military operation to stop such attacks. (But) one must assume the attacks will continue," it said.

No Israelis have been reported dead in the latest violence, but Hamas has launched waves of rockets across central Israel.

The overall number of Gazans killed since Israel on Tuesday launched Operation Protective Edge to halt cross-border rocket fire reached 76 on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed even tougher action against Hamas, despite growing international calls for a ceasefire in the worst confrontation in Gaza since 2012.

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