VIENNA, Oct 10 (Reuters) – East European lender Erste Group
Bank warned on Monday it would make a net loss this
year of up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) and not pay a
dividend after taking hits on its foreign currency loans in
Hungary and euro zone sovereign debt.

The Austrian bank’s shares were down more than 14 percent at
17.75 euros by 0850 GMT, when the Stoxx 600 Europe banking
sector index was down less than 0.7 percent.

THAL, Austria (Reuters) – Arnold Schwarzenegger took a trip down memory lane in Austria on Friday, visiting his childhood home to open a museum dedicated to his life.

Hundreds of fans – many clad in Terminator-style leather jackets and national dress — gathered in the soggy southern village of Thal to see the former California governor and Hollywood action star.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s opposition Greens want sweeping changes to international finance rules and domestic policy in return for giving their crucial support to the creation of the euro zone’s permanent bailout fund in 2013, a leading party member said.

The governing coalition of Social Democrats and conservatives won parliamentary approval on Friday for beefing up the region’s current rescue fund — the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) — with just a simple majority.

ISTANBUL/VIENNA Sept 22 (Reuters) – Looted camps and poor
logistics are going to make returning to Libya slow and arduous,
oil and gas group OMV said on Thursday, predicting it
could take up to 18 months for production to normalise.

OMV, which got about a tenth of its oil from Libya last
year, will send a team to the North African country in the next
few days to inspect its facilities and meet the new head of the
state National Oil Corp, CEO Gerhard Roiss said.

ISTANBUL, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Energy group OMV (OMVV.VI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)
plans to divest 1 billion euros ($1,4 billion) of refining and
marketing assets by 2014 as it shifts its portfolio towards
exploration and production (E&P), it said at its capital
markets day in Istanbul.

Presenting its new mid-term strategy, the Austrian group
said on Wednesday it wanted E&P to make up around 55 percent of
its business in 10 years time compared with 35 percent now.

TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s new political order will show that Islam and democracy can co-exist just as they have in Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

Erdogan, in Tunis on the second stop of a North African tour aimed at asserting Ankara’s growing regional influence, said secularism should guarantee that people of all beliefs, as well as atheists, were treated fairly.

TUNIS (Reuters) – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkish warships could be sent to the Eastern Mediterranean at any time and Israel could not do whatever it wants there, escalating a war of words over the 2010 killing of Turkish activists.

Ties between the two regional powers have deteriorated sharply since Israeli naval commandos raided the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship carrying aid to the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

TUNIS, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
said on Thursday that Turkish warships could be sent to the
Eastern Mediterranean at any time and Israel could not do
whatever it wants there, escalating a war of words over the 2010
killing of Turkish activists.

Ties between the two regional powers have deteriorated
sharply since Israeli naval commandos raided the Mavi Marmara, a
Turkish ship carrying aid to the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

VIENNA/AMSTERDAM, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Austria, the
Netherlands and Slovakia said on Thursday they want collateral
on loans to Greece after Finland secured a commitment, raising
question marks over a second bailout agreed for Athens last
month.

The three countries said their positions were not new
and echoed the view of some other euro zone states.