Briefly

AUSTRIA

New govt takes office, keeping far right out

Austria's centrist coalition government, the first three-party alliance since the aftermath of World War II, took office on Monday, ending Austria's longest-ever wait for a new government and keeping the far-right Freedom Party, or FPO, in opposition. Although the FPO won September's parliamentary election with about 29 percent of the vote, it failed to form a coalition government. When the FPO last month gave up trying to agree on a government, the conservative People's Party, Social Democrats and liberal Neos revived a bid to form an alliance.