Austria

Re "Specter of Nazi Hate in Austria," editorial, Feb. 1: Seventy-three percent of Austrian voters did not cast their ballot for Joerg Haider's party. Of those who did, the majority did not vote for this party because of anti-foreigner sentiments. Austria is a stable, civil and successful democracy. It has always pursued an outstanding humanitarian policy. These pillars of the Austrian postwar existence will not change. Concerns voiced in Austria and abroad about Haider's party are being taken very seriously.

It's hard to know which countries would welcome you with open arms and which ones keep you at arm's length, but the World Economic Forum has made this evaluation somewhat easier. Tucked inside the organization's 517-page  "Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013" is a chart about how countries feel about foreign visitors. It ranks 140 countries on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being "very unwelcome" and 7 being "very welcome. " Iceland and New Zealand topped the list with scores of 6.8 each followed by: 3. Morocco 4. Macedonia 5. Austria 6. Senegal 7. Portugal 8. Bosnia and Herzegovina 9. Ireland 10. Burkina Faso And the least friendliest?

If you go THE BEST WAY TO VIENNA From LAX, connecting service (change of plane) to Vienna is offered on KLM, Lufthansa, Air France, Swiss, British and Iberia. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $744.50, including taxes and fees. TELEPHONES To call the numbers below from the U.S. dial 011 (the international dialing code), 43 (the country code for Austria), 1 (for Vienna) and the number. WHERE TO GO Secession Building, 12 Friedrichstrasse; 587 53 07, http://www.secession.at . Open Tuesdays-Sundays 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Admission about $7 for adults; children and students about $5. Spanish Riding School, 1 Michaelerplatz; 533 90 31, http://www.srs.at . Open Tuesdays-Sundays 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Guided tours from $21; performance tickets from $30. WHERE TO STAY Hotel Sacher Vienna , 4 Philharmonikerstrasse; 51-4560.

All it took was a moment. Lindsey Vonn landed hard and tumbled face first with a piercing shriek. Just like that, her season was done. The star American skier was on the ground with two ligaments in her right knee torn, a bone in her lower leg broken. The cascading fall down the slope during the super-G at the world championships at Schladming, Austria, on Tuesday knocked out the four-time World Cup champion for the rest of the season. The U.S. team said in a statement it expects her back for the next World Cup season and the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which start a year from this week.

Times reader Karl Gerber captured this view of the Vienna State Opera House in Austria. Though stately in this photo, it did not always look this way. The opera house, which made its debut in 1869, was bombed in 1945 during World War II. Only a few parts escaped destruction. Ten years later, it reopened with a performance of Beethoven’s "Fidelio. " View past photos we've featured . To upload your own, visit our reader travel photo gallery . When you upload your photo, tell us where it was taken and when.

Based on Olympic Alpine results so far, Austria has to be flat, like Kansas. The country's strength is probably table tennis or microbrewing -- it can't be Alpine skiing. The Vancouver Games enter their last week and Austria's manly ski men have yet to earn a medal. They'll get their next chance in Tuesday's men's giant slalom at Whistler Creekside. With any luck, 45 guys will fall down and Austria can sneak in for the bronze. The women have two medals -- the same number as one 133-pound American woman: Julia Mancuso, who hadn't finished in the top three in a race that mattered in two years.

Poland's Roman Catholic primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, arrived in Austria on Friday for a two-day visit that will include meetings with Poles now living in Austria.

A "moderately strong" earth tremor, with a magnitude of 4.5, shook buildings in Austria's mountainous northern Tyrol region early Sunday but caused no damage, a spokesman for Vienna's meteorological institute said.

The myth of Austria and Kurt Waldheim: Far from being invaded and subjugated by Germany during World War II, Austria welcomed the Nazis. In fact, Austria produced some very renowned personalities in Hitler, Eichmann, Kaltenbrunner, Seyss-Inquart, and Waldheim. So enamored were the Austrians of acceptance into the German SS, that it gave its "finest sons" to Deutschland. History reveals just how efficient were these "sons" in devastating Europe, bringing on an avalanche of cruelty, the scope of which is simply indescribable.

"If the whole universe had no meaning," C.S. Lewis once wrote, "we should never have found out that it had no meaning. " Pithy observations like that - rooted in logical argument - have made the writer one Christian whom many agnostics and atheists accept and enjoy. "Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis," Sigmund Freud once wrote. "Mankind will surmount this neurotic phase, just as so many children grow out of their similar neurosis. " A pithy observation like that is one reason many people are stimulated by Freud's writing, even if they regard his psychology as dated, oversexualized nonsense.

Representatives of the NHL and the players' association spoke by phone on Saturday to clarify and discuss the proposed collective bargaining agreement the league presented late Thursday. The sides did not arrange a face-to-face bargaining session for Sunday, but it's possible they will meet late in the day in New York. "We do plan on continuing [Sunday] morning the 'informational' sessions we had today," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Saturday. "Then we will see. " The NHL's proposal included a deadline to have a deal in place in time to open training camps on Jan. 12 and start the season on Jan. 19 or the season would be canceled.

Larry White photographed this fairy tale-like scene during a trip to Hallstatt, Austria, in October. He and his girlfriend, Christine Cyran, visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site to celebrate her birthday, and stayed at the Pension Sarstein, near the spot where he snapped this photo. On Cyran's birthday, the couple rented a motorboat for a cruise around Hallstatt Lake, White said. The Westlake Village resident used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. To submit your photos, visit our reader photo gallery . When you upload your photos, tell us where they were taken and when.

The Eurozone is back in a recession, its first in three years, as gross domestic product for the debt-plagued 17-nation bloc contracted 0.1% in the third quarter from the earlier quarter. Two consecutive quarterly slips make a recession - in the second quarter, the currency collective tightened 0.2%, according to the official European Union statistics agency Eurostat. Compared with the third quarter last year, the Eurozone's GDP was down 0.6%. It's one more piece of bad economic news for the Eurozone.

Lindsey Vonn remained in a Colorado hospital Tuesday, “awaiting results from diagnostic testing for severe intestinal pain,” her spokesman, Lewis Kay, wrote in an email. The four-time World Cup champion skier has been to the hospital in Vail for the issue more than once during the last two weeks, her ski technician, Heinz Haemmerle, told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. “She told me she feels bad and has pain all over her body and that her bones are hurting," Haemmerle said.

An art exhibition in Vienna titled "Nude Men" -- "Nackte Manner" in German -- is stimulating considerable media attention in Austria. The show, which opens this week at the Leopold Museum, is dedicated to depictions of male nudity from the 19th century to the present day, and includes paintings, sculpture, photographs and more. The Leopold Museum is offering some of the artwork on its website. (Please note the images may be offensive for some readers.) On its exterior wall, the museum has put up a full-frontal image of a naked man created by Austrian artist Ilse Haider, "Mr. Big. " One of the items in the museum show has already proved controversial.

Here's the chance to taste the world-class schnapps and spirits of artisanal Austrian distiller Hans Reisetbauer . He'll be in town on Monday for a special tasting from 7 to 10 p.m. at BierBeisl in Beverly Hills.  In Austria, fruit brandies, or eaux de vie,  are a way of life.  And Reisetbauer turns out an astonishing lineup, starting with the classic fruit flavors of wild cherry, Damson plum, apricot and Williams pear and ending with uncanny flavors like carrot, ginger and dried pear.

LONDON - All three American women advanced to the finals of the 100-meter hurdles Tuesday, though Lolo Jones just barely made it after finishing third in her semifinal heat. The final will be contested later Tuesday, at 9 p.m. in London. Defending Olympic champion Dawn Harper opened the semifinals with a personal-best time of 12.46 seconds, faster than her winning time four years ago in Beijing. Runner-up Beate Schrott of Austria (23.83) automatically advanced. Australia's Sally Pearson, in the next heat, responded with a scorching 12.39 to win going away.