Far right changes selection picture

Vienna - When the Austrian far-right leader, Mr Jorg Haider, held his first post-election news conference yesterday, he appeared…

Vienna - When the Austrian far-right leader, Mr Jorg Haider, held his first post-election news conference yesterday, he appeared in front of a blown-up photograph of his final campaign rally in Vienna.

What most journalists failed to notice, however, was that a poster carried by left-wing hecklers at Friday night's rally had been altered in the photograph to express support for Mr Haider.

The original said "1938 reasons against Haider", a reference to Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria in that year.

The doctored version was changed to read "1998 reasons for Haider". Asked to comment yesterday, the Freedom Party general secretary, Mr Peter Westenthaler, said: "This retouching is a little thank you to the leftists who disrupted our rally."