Flood levels stabilized Thursday in parts of Austria after three days of heavy rain.

"The worst seems to be over," a meteorologist at Vienna's central weather station told national broadcaster ORF radio.

A planned new nuclear reactor in Lithuania to serve all three Baltic states and Poland could be ready by 2018 Lithuania's prime minister said Thursday.

"We expect that 2018, if work actually starts next year, is a probable date for completing the power plant," Andrius Kubilius told the Lithuanian parliament.

The price for oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) gained slightly on Thursday but stopped short of crossing the 44-dollar mark, according to data released by OPEC on Friday.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC-produced crude stood at 43.87 dollars Thursday, 0.08 dollars higher than on the previous day.

The Vienna-based oil cartel calculates a basket price based on 12 brands produced by its members.

The price for oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) inched below the 40-dollar mark Tuesday, the Vienna-based cartel said Wednesday.

The price for oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) slid by 1.64 dollars Monday, continuing to meander above 40 dollars, according to data provided by the cartel on Tuesday.

The price for oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) hit its lowest point for four years, the organization's secretariat in Vienna reported Wednesday.

The price for oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) slid to 36.92 dollars Monday, just above this year's record low price, which was set earlier this month.

Austrian incest suspect Josef Fritzl tried to make money from his crimes by selling his police interrogation transcripts to British tabloid newspapers, the German weekly Stern reports in its latest edition, to be published Tuesday.