Vienna

VIENNA, Austria -- Alarmed by the prospect of a huge influx of East European immigrants, Vienna lurched to the right in voting yesterday for a municipal legislature.The result is expected to cause strains between left and right in Austria's national coalition government, which links the conservative People's Party with the Socialists of Chancellor Franz Vranitzky.The Vienna election bolstered not only the right-wing Freedom Party and its popular leader, Joerg Haider, but also the environmental Greens, who oppose Mr. Vranitzky's goal of Austrian membership in the European Community.

The Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra opens its 36th season with "A Night in Old Vienna," a performance planned for Saturday, Oct. 6, at Bel Air High School As Sheldon Bair, music director and founder of the orchestra, explained, Vienna in the 19th Century was the world capital of music, and even German composers like Beethoven and Brahms were drawn to the homeland of Johann Strauss Sr. and Jr. Today, Strauss Jr., Beethoven and Brahms rest in the...

Sometimes, you find history in the strangest places.At Vienna's venerable Greichen-beisl restaurant, founded more than 500 years ago, history is written on the ceiling. Look carefully there and you'll spot autographs of such illustrious personalities as Beethoven, Wagner, Schubert and Strauss. Mark Twain signed in large, firm strokes. Mozart's moniker looks a little squiggly, Count von Zeppelin's takes a bit of neck-stretching.Other famous names are inked into the plaster, but they're hard to decipher.

Dr. Ernst Friedrich Lepold Niedermeyer, who was a leading researcher, author, clinician and pioneer in the field of electroencephalogy and its use in epilepsy and other brain research, died Thursday of colon cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The longtime Towson resident was 92. "He was one of the senior people in his field at his passing and widely respected. His textbook, 'Electroencephalography,' is the standard in the field," said Dr. Ronald P. Lesser, professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

"Oh, give me the free 'n' easy waltz that is Viennesey," goes the Ira Gershwin lyric. "When I want a melody lilting through the house, then I want a melody by Strauss." That, more or less, was the attitude Friday evening as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra continued its Summer MusicFest with "A Night in Old Vienna." Melodies by Strauss - mostly Johann Jr. - lilted through Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, along with a few equally memorable tunes by other composers, not all "Viennesey." Pulling everything together into one neat, entertaining package was MusicFest conductor Mario Venzago.

VIENNA -- For Mayor Russell Brinsfield and Chief Sewell Fitzhugh, the event yesterday was more than a celebration of the history of this little village along the Nanticoke River. If things go as the pair plans, the daylong commemoration of Capt. John Smith's 1,500-mile trek around the bay in 1608 could be a first step toward making Vienna a tourist stop along the National Park Service's first water trail. "We're looking for ways to make the town a destination," Brinsfield said. "We don't want our town turning into some huge tourist thing, but we're testing the waters to see what's possible in terms of some sort of historical and environmental center, something that would include a Native American heritage center.

Suzann Barthold doesn't know how her choir at Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church in Crofton got an invitation from the Vienna Tourist Board to perform in that city's International Advent Sing, but she and its members were more than happy to accept.They are leaving Wednesday for Austria, where they will join more than 1,000 singers from the United States and Europe to perform at churches and concert halls throughout the city during the first weekend of Advent.The choir will perform a program of American folk hymns, spirituals and contemporary hymns at a senior center, Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna Community Church and Vienna's city hall, said Barthold, the choir director, who spent part of the summer in Vienna making arrangements for the group.

VIENNA -- As Mayor Russell Brinsfield sees it, his tiny hometown on the banks of the Nanticoke River has two choices -- cookie-cutter McMansions on 20-acre lots or a carefully planned addition that reflects Vienna's rural character and history. Either way, as development surges all across Maryland's Eastern Shore, Brinsfield does not believe that standing still is an option for his 280 constituents. He figures developers will inevitably take over the grain fields outside the town, which celebrates its 300th anniversary this weekend.

VIENNA - Officials in this tiny Nanticoke River town have given up elaborate plans for annexing 400 acres and allowing enough homes to double the population of 280. Instead, Maryland's open-space program plans to spend $4.6 million to buy two-thirds of that land to preserve it as a "green belt." The purchase, to go before the state Board of Public Works for approval next week, would still give Vienna the chance to allow moderate growth on a separate 100-acre property if the owner wants to develop the site under the town's strict design standards, said Mayor Russ Brinsfield.

Black horses gallop on the cobblestone streets. Lightning flashes through the rainy darkness to illuminate a swaying coach. Three shots ring out.All is not well in fin de siecle Vienna. The city's glittering era of artistic vibrancy and scientific discovery also is a time of political discord and societal unrest. The rich go to the opera and eat strudel; factory workers wrap broken boots in rags to keep out the cold. Furthermore, Vienna's women are dying -- some by their own hands, others at the hands of a killer who has taken to sending the baffled police teasing notes: "Where oh where is Gertrude Van De Vere?

TV soap opera 'Guiding Light' shoots final scenes The cast and crew of "Guiding Light" - U.S. television's longest-running soap opera - have finished shooting their final scenes in a northern New Jersey town. Afterward, they gathered at Peapack Reformed Church for a service to remember the show. The church has served as the site for weddings and funerals in "Guiding Light's" fictional town of Springfield. The Rev. Kathryn Henry recalled that the show's title referred to a lamp put in a church window by the fictional Rev. Rutledge to welcome parishioners seeking guidance.

VIENNA - Officials in this tiny Nanticoke River town have given up elaborate plans for annexing 400 acres and allowing enough homes to double the population of 280. Instead, Maryland's open-space program plans to spend $4.6 million to buy two-thirds of that land to preserve it as a "green belt." The purchase, to go before the state Board of Public Works for approval next week, would still give Vienna the chance to allow moderate growth on a separate 100-acre property if the owner wants to develop the site under the town's strict design standards, said Mayor Russ Brinsfield.

VIENNA -- For Mayor Russell Brinsfield and Chief Sewell Fitzhugh, the event yesterday was more than a celebration of the history of this little village along the Nanticoke River. If things go as the pair plans, the daylong commemoration of Capt. John Smith's 1,500-mile trek around the bay in 1608 could be a first step toward making Vienna a tourist stop along the National Park Service's first water trail. "We're looking for ways to make the town a destination," Brinsfield said. "We don't want our town turning into some huge tourist thing, but we're testing the waters to see what's possible in terms of some sort of historical and environmental center, something that would include a Native American heritage center.

On a recent flight, a new digital camera was stolen from its box in my checked baggage ... with the box resealed and tucked in another suitcase. The airline claims it's not responsible. What recourse do I have? Although each airline limits its responsibility in its "contract of carriage" -- essentially the contract it makes with everyone who buys a ticket -- you can still try to recover the value of your camera. Checked bags are handled by airline baggage personnel and Transportation Security Administration screeners.

VIENNA -- John Smith slept here. Or somewhere near this Nanticoke River town, where the wind twists through vast marshes and gulls wail overhead. Never mind that the great Chesapeake Bay explorer's visit was short, or that it occurred 400 years ago. Vienna is banking on the lore of Smith's voyage to bring tourists into this sleepy Eastern Shore hamlet a mile off U.S. 50. The town is planning to build a John Smith discovery center along the Nanticoke, an...

Singer-songwriter and pianist Vienna Teng performs Wednesday night at Annapolis' Rams Head Tavern. On her Web site, Teng describes her sound as "somewhere between folk and pop, with a bit of classical and jazz." The show is at 8 p.m., and tickets are $20. The tavern is at 33 West St. For tickets, call 410-268-4545 or go to ramsheadtavern.com.

Two maps of the Nanticoke River, drawn nearly four centuries apart, appear side by side on Michael Scott's computer at Salisbury University's department of geography and geosciences. The 1608 version, part of the first mapping of the Chesapeake Bay by Capt. John Smith, was accomplished with a none-too-accurate compass and an astrolabe, which ascertained latitude but not longitude (that calculation wouldn't be refined until 1780). For all that, Smith's map of the broad and still largely undeveloped river flowing under U.S. 50 at Vienna is remarkably similar to the latest satellite-derived photos.

Vienna, Austria -- If you want to peddle Cokes, PCs, Big Macs or other products in Eastern Europe, where should you set up your business headquarters?Maybe Budapest or Prague, important capitals that are evolving? Or bustling Berlin or Bonn, which offer the strength of Europe's most powerful nation?More likely, Vienna. Although attention has been focused on united Germany's economic clout and the revolutionary changes former communist countries, tiny Austria has quietly but firmly assumed the role of Central Europe's business center.

VIENNA -- Natascha Kampusch is a sad, withdrawn-looking young woman, a lifetime apart from the ruddy-cheeked, open-faced 10-year-old who disappeared eight years ago. She weighs less than 100 pounds, and police who interviewed her shortly after she escaped from her kidnapper earlier this week described her as having a pallor that comes from a lack of natural light. Kampusch's reappearance brought joy to her parents, who gave a tearful interview on television, and has transfixed Austria.