• Man accidentally saws off arm, retrieves it, drives himself to hospital where it is reattached

    Herbert Neubauer / EPA

    Plastic surgeon Oskar Assmann, center rear, stands next to his patient, Hungarian worker Tibor A., in Vienna's AKH hospital on May 13. The 37-year-old man drove just over nine miles to the nearest hospital on May 11 after he accidentally sawed off his right arm below the elbow while cleaning a machine that processes construction rubble. He was able to retrieve the cut-off arm from the machine, then drive himself from Purbach, eastern Austria, to a hospital in Eisenstadt. He was then flown to Vienna, where doctors successfully reattached the arm.

  • Underwater ice hockey played upside-down in frozen lakes

    Michael Dalder / Reuters

    Uwe Kiehl of team Germany I dives during a match at the Underwater ice hockey Championships in lake Weissensee in Austria on Feb. 17.

    Michael Dalder / Reuters

    Thomas Jurkschat and Uwe Kiehl of team Germany I concentrate on the surface before a match at the Underwater Ice Hockey Championships in lake Weissensee in Austria on Feb. 16.

    Michael Dalder / Reuters

    Team Germany I plays Austria II during a match at the Underwater Ice Hockey Championships in lake Weissensee in Austria on Feb. 17.

    Michael Dalder / Reuters

    Uwe Kiehl of team Germany I breathes on the surface during a match at the Underwater Ice Hockey Championships.

    Michael Dalder / Reuters

    Equipment is prepared before a match at the Underwater Ice Hockey Championships in lake Weissensee in Austria.

    Underwater ice hockey is played upside-down underneath the ice of frozen lakes with a floating puck by teams of two divers in wet suits and flippers. Reuters photographer Michael Dalder made these unique pictures on assignment covering the Underwater Ice Hockey Championships in Austria.

    Dalder, also a diver, wrote about his adventures in Reuters' Photographers Blog:

    I’ve been diving for almost 15 years, but due to family matters it has fallen off my list lately. So a new picture assignment at Lake Weissensee in mid-February 2013 just came right to my diver’s heart: The Underwater Ice hockey Championships.

    Ice diving is, together with cave diving, considered to be the most dangerous diving discipline. For that reason I listened to the security briefing attentively. Continue reading.

  • The art of exposure: Nudists visit 'Naked Men' exhibit at Vienna museum

    Ronald Zak / AP

    Naked Museum visitors look at pictures of the show "Nude Men from 1800 to Today" during a special opening to friends of nudism at the Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 18. The show "Nude Men from 1800 to Today" opened its doors from 19 October 2012 to March 4,2013, looking at how artists have dealt with the theme of male nudity over the centuries.

    Heinz-Peter Bader / Reuters

    A nude visitor walks through the art exhibition "Nude Men" at Leopold museum in Vienna, on Feb. 18. The museum welcomed naked viewers from the public on Monday in an after-hours showing of the exhibition, which has been extended to run until March 4, 2013.

    Reuters -- VIENNA -- The exhibit in Vienna's Leopold Museum is entitled "Naked Men", so a group of nudists and naturalists took the curators at their word and showed up to see it on Monday in the buff.

    "It is good to be free, I am seeing this exhibition for the second time now and it is perfect to see 'Naked Men' as a naked man," said one of the visitors who called himself Max and who on his previous visit wore his clothes.

    The exhibition, which has been extended until March 4, is designed to show the diverse and changing depictions of male nudity in art history.

    "Naked Men" helped boost visitor numbers at the museum by 17 percent to more than 364,000 last year.

    Continue reading.

    Recently on PhotoBlog:

    Leopold Museum via EPA

    Naked visitors in the exhibition 'Nude Men' at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 18.

  • Skier Lindsey Vonn airlifted after crash on slopes in Austria

    Dominic Ebenbichler / Reuters

    Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. is airlifted after crashing during the women's Super G race at the World Alpine Skiing Championships in Schladming Feb. 5

    Leonhard Foeger / Reuters

    Tina Maze of Slovenia reacts after learning that her competitor Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. did not complete the race, during the women's Super G race at the World Alpine Skiing Championships in Schladming on Feb. 5.

    Fabrice Coffrini / AFP - Getty Images

    Lindsey Vonn competes during the women's Super-G event of the 2013 Ski World Championships in Schladming, Austria on Feb. 5.

     , NBC Sports

    Two-time world champ Lindsey Vonn has been flown to a hospital after suffering a serious crash on the opening day of the Alpine World Championships in Schladming, Austria during the super-G event.

    Vonn lost her balance on a tough landing, lost her ski, and slid off course into a gate before finally coming to a stop. She was checked out by a doctor on the hill for more than ten minutes, and then taken to the hospital for further evaluation.

    An FIS official said the doctor reported her injury as cruciate and lateral tears in her right knee. Not a tibia fracture, as originally reported.

     For more on the story click here.

    Watch Lindsey Vonn talk about her career in 2010.

  • Beefing up security: Blacksmiths forge new suit of armor for bulkier Vatican guards

    Mathias Kniepeiss / Getty Images

    A new suit of armor being made for the Vatican Swiss Guard is seen on Jan. 21, 2013 at the Schmiede Schmidberger workshop in Molln, Austria.

    Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters, file

    Swiss Guards stand before Pope Benedict XVI makes an address from a balcony in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican City on Dec. 25, 2012.

    The Vatican has contracted a family of blacksmiths in an Austrian village to manufacture 80 new sets of armor in a project that will take seven years to complete.

    Most of the existing armor worn by the Vatican's Swiss Guard dates back at least 100 years when people were generally smaller than they are today, so the existing armor does not always fit today's bulkier guards.

    The firm of blacksmiths, Schmiede Schmidberger, is a family-run operation that has been in existence since the year 1350.

    -- Getty Images

    Related content:

    Mathias Kniepeiss / Getty Images

    Blacksmith Georg Schmidberger crafts a piece of metal that will become part of a suit of armor.

    Mathias Kniepeiss / Getty Images

    The design for a new suit of armor.

    Mathias Kniepeiss / Getty Images

    Tools in the Schmiede Schmidberger workshop.

    Mathias Kniepeiss / Getty Images

    An exterior view of the workshop.

    Mathias Kniepeiss / Getty Images

    Johann Schmidberger Senior works on the Swiss Guard armor.

    Mathias Kniepeiss / Getty Images

    Schmiede Schmidberger is a family-run operation that has been in existence since the year 1350.

     

  • The 15th annual World Bodypainting Festival wraps up in Austria

    Photos by Alexander Klein / AFP - Getty Images

    A participant poses with his body paintings during the 15th World Bodypainting Festival in Poertschach on July 8, 2012. Some 30,000 visitors are expected at the three-day event, with over 200 artists from 40 countries showing off their creations in the hope of taking home a prestigious World Award, the equivalent of a world championship title.

    A participant poses with her body paintings.

    By Robert Hood

    One of the world’s most colorful festivals takes place each year in Austria. The World Bodypainting Festival hosts artists from 40 nations, and tens of thousands of visitors admire the work of the participants each year. The festival includes art, music and fashion.

    See more photography from the festival at the World Bodypainting Festival website.

    •Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

  • Austria hosts World Bodypainting Festival

    Alexander Klein / AFP - Getty Images

    A participant poses with body paintings during the 15th World Bodypainting Festival in front of Woerthersee lake in Poertschach, Austria on July 7, 2012. Some 30,000 visitors are expected at the three-day event, with over 200 artists from 44 countries showing off their creations in the hope of taking home a prestigious World Award, the equivalent of a world championship title.

    Heinz-peter Bader / Reuters

    A model poses during the annual World Bodypainting Festival in Poertschach, Austria on July 7, 2012.

    Heinz-peter Bader / Reuters

    A model poses during the annual World Bodypainting Festival in Poertschach, Austria on July 7, 2012.

    •Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

  • Self-help bicycle workshop keeps Viennese riding

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    People repair bikes at the WUK self-help bicycle workshop (Selbsthilfe Fahrradwerkstaette) in Vienna on June 20.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Wheels are pictured at the WUK self-help bicycle workshop in Vienna on June 20.

    WUK bicycle workshop, founded in Vienna, Austria in 1983, offers a public workshop, tools and instruction for the self-repair of bikes on a daily contribution of three Euros.

    Bicycles have increased in popularity in Austria in recent years, with eleven percent of the population using bicycles as their main means of transport, according to the Ministry of Transportation, Innovation and Technology.

    Pictures taken on June 20, but made available to msnbc.com today.

    •Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    A woman repairs a bike at the WUK self-help bicycle workshop in Vienna June 20.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Tools are pictured at the WUK self-help bicycle workshop.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    A woman leaves the WUK self-help bicycle workshop.

  • Fifth generation blacksmith brothers forge Swiss Guard harnesses

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Blacksmith Georg Schmidberger works on a harness for the Vatican Swiss Guard at his workshop in Molln, Upper Austria on June 12.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Blacksmith Johann Schmidberger works on a harness for the Vatican Swiss Guard.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Blacksmith Georg Schmidberger works on a harness for the Vatican Swiss Guard.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Blacksmith brothers Johann and Georg Schmidberger work on a harness for the Vatican Swiss Guard at their workshop in Molln, Upper Austria on June 12.

    By Jon Sweeney, NBC News

    Blacksmith brothers Johann and Georg Schmidberger produce made-to-order handmade harnesses for the Vatican Swiss Guard.

    Each piece takes 120 hours of handiwork and they hardly differ from the 500-year-old originals. The brothers carry on the tradition of the blacksmith trade in the fifth generation of their family.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Hammers are pictured at a workshop in Molln, Upper Austria where handmade harnesses for the Vatican Swiss Guard are produced.

    •Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

Older posts