“There would be no signs of violence if someone pushed him in,” Hahslinger said. “But it’s also possible that he became ill and fell into the water.”

Ghanem was dressed normally when found in the river but had no personal identification on him other than a document that named the company he was working for, Hahslinger said. An employee of the company was subsequently contacted and identified him, the police spokesman said.

Hahslinger said Ghanem apparently left his residence early Sunday morning after spending Saturday evening at home with an acquaintance. Police were alerted by a passerby who saw his body floating near his Vienna residence, close to the modernistic building housing U.N. agencies in the Austrian capital.

Ghanem is a former Libyan premier who last served as his country’s oil minister until 2011. He left Libya for Tunisia and then Europe in June as insurgents were pushing to topple Gadhafi, and he subsequently announced he would support the rebels.

Reporters covering the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries remembered Ghanem as a friendly and approachable man who readily gave his cell phone number to selected journalists covering OPEC ministerial meetings and gracefully took even late-evening calls from them.

With advanced degrees in law and economics, Ghanem served in senior positions within the Vienna-based OPEC before his appointment as Libyan prime minister in June 2003 — an office he held until 2006 when he took the oil ministry portfolio.

Considered a member of Gadhafi’s inner circle until his defection, he insisted that Libya bore no responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.

He also repudiated Libyan responsibility in the 1984 shooting death of British constable Yvonne Fletcher during a protest in front of his country’s embassy — an incident that led to the severing of British-Libyan relations.

He continued to live in Vienna after Gadhafi was ousted and later killed last year in the NATO-backed rebel campaign.

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Associated Press writer Juergen Baetz contributed from Berlin.

Lueger nonetheless had Jewish friends and once famously declared, “I decide who is a Jew.” His views were shared by many Austrians at a time when anti-Semitism was widespread across much of Europe and before it became associated with the Holocaust.

Vienna Counselor for Culture Andreas Mailath-Pokorny of the governing Social Democrat-Greens coalition announced the name change on Thursday, saying the city “should not act as if there were no dark spots” in its history. At the same time, he said, statues and other reminders of Lueger’s tenure spread throughout the city will remain standing.

Austria’s rightist-populist Freedom Party — whose supporters range from those disillusioned with more traditional parties to Islamophobes and Holocaust deniers — criticized the decision.

“The socialists set up a memorial for a foreign mass murderer like Che Guevara, but an excellent Viennese mayor is stripped of a street name,” said Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache. “This is a scandal!” His party is Austria’s second-strongest political force.

However, Oskar Deutsch, who represents Vienna’s Jewish community, praised the action. In an allusion to the Freedom Party, he said the name change should “also serve as a warning on our present politicians who frivolously and reprehensibly use anti-Semitic, racially motivated and xenophobic slogans.”

Austria has moved from its postwar portrayal of being Nazi Germany’s first victim to acknowledging that it was Hitler’s willing partner. Most young Austrians reject Nazi ideology and condemn the part their parents might have played in the mass murder of Europe’s Jews.

In his comments Thursday, Strache invoked a decision by Vienna’s Social Democratic government four years ago to erect a bust of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in a city park.

The centrist People’s Party — which governs together with the Social Democrats nationally — also took Vienna’s Social Democrats to task.

While agreeing that Lueger’s heritage needed to be looked at critically, People’s Party chief Manfred Juraczka said the municipal’s coalition government did not have the moral authority to decide on a name change after commemorating “the mass-murderer Che Guevara” with a bust.

Greens official Alexander Van der Bellen described Lueger as a “great communal politician” whose image was nonetheless besmirched with “his expressions of anti-Semitism.”

Since revelations surfaced 10 years ago that it was secretly building a uranium enrichment program, Tehran has argued it has a right to enrichment to create reactor fuel under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and insisted it will never use that ability to create the fissile core of a nuclear warhead.

But the United States and other countries accuse Iran of repeatedly violating the treaty, and Tehran continues to expand enrichment despite four sets of U.N. Security Council resolutions and other penalties imposed by the U.S., Europe and others. Adding to concerns, it now is enriching uranium to levels closer to the grade needed for nuclear weapons in an underground bunker that could be impervious to attack.

The talks in Istanbul on Saturday saw the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany sitting at the same table with Iran. Knowing the road ahead is tough, both sides focused on what they said was the positive tone of the talks, in contrast to the previous round 14 months ago.

That last session broke up with no progress after Iranian negotiators refused to even consider discussing enrichment

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who formally led the talks on behalf of the six powers, called the meeting “constructive and useful.”

She expressed the hope they will lead to “a sustained process of serious dialogue, where we can take urgent practical steps to build confidence and lead on to compliance by Iran with all its international obligations.”

Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili said the talks made “some progress.” But he acknowledged “some points of difference.”

“What we saw today in the talks was the interest of the other party in the talks and cooperation, which is considered positive,” he told reporters.

In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the talks were “the first steps” toward the six-nation push to find “a peaceful, negotiated solution to the (Iran) nuclear issue.”

“Today’s talks were a first step towards that objective, but there is still a long way to go.”

Both Jalili and Ashton said there was agreement to move slowly and be guided by reciprocity — meaning that Iran stood to benefit from easing fears about its enrichment program by unspecified rewards from the other side.

Iran hopes those rewards could include easing or delaying sanctions that target its main cash cow, its oil sales. Jalili acknowledged Saturday that Iran would like to avoid those penalties.

“The lifting sanctions is one of the demands by Iranian nation,” Jalili told reporters.

But a senior U.S. administration official who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing strategy at upcoming talks said that was not on the table in the near future.

“One only expects to look at the issue when there are sufficient concrete steps taken” by Iran, she said at a post-negotiation briefing. “Dialogue is not sufficient for any sanctions relief.”

Beyond the bite of sanctions, Iran is under threat of Israeli and possibly U.S. military attack unless it makes headway in persuading the international community it is not pursuing nuclear weapons.

The U.S official said Iran’s acceptance of the need to discuss its nuclear program appeared dictated by recognition that the diplomatic “window of opportunity was closing” and that the threat of military action potentially growing.

Ashton said there was agreement by both sides that the talks should be guided by the Nonproliferation Treaty, but because Iran says it has never violated that treaty that understanding could prove to be a huge stumbling block to progress.

Top level meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which tries to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities, are often dominated by inconclusive debate between Iran and its critics on whether Tehran is in compliance or has broken treaty provisions.

“Under the NPT, the right of enrichment exists for all member countries,” Jalili told reporters after the talks, suggesting his country would press that point at follow-up meetings. Ashton, in turn, told reporters that the six seek “to ensure all the obligations under the NPT are met by Iran while fully respecting Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

In its claim to comply with all NPT obligations, Iran asserts that it declares all its nuclear material and allows inspectors to monitor all nuclear facilities.

But IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has said repeatedly that because Iran does not cooperate fully with his agency it cannot guarantee that it is not hiding undeclared nuclear material that could be used for weapons. Additionally, he has spoken of compelling evidence that Iran may have worked on nuclear arms — charges Tehran dismisses as fabrications spread by the United States and Israel.

Officially, the international community’s long-term goal remains what it was when nuclear negotiations began eight years ago — persuading Tehran to stop all uranium enrichment and thereby relieve fears that it will use that program to create fissile warhead material.

A senior diplomat involved in the talks said, however, that influential Western nations now are increasingly coming around to the idea that Iran should be allowed to keep some enrichment activity “under the right circumstances,” sometime in the future, if all fears about possible Iranian plans to make nuclear weapons are put to rest. He demanded anonymity because his information was confidential.

Such doubts might appear puzzling to opera goers who have experienced the versatile 46-year old Bulgarian on stage.

Her singing appears effortless, burnished and warm in the lower registers and as clearly textured and free-flowing as clover honey up top — a voice New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini described in 1999 as “unforgettable and deeply affecting.” Her dramatic skills are superb, letting her master even pathos-ridden roles without being maudlin. She owns the stage — and seems to do so naturally.

Trained as a concert pianist before she opted to study voice, Kasarova, who now lives in Zurich, Switzerland, gained attention in the late 1990s, first with the bel canto works of Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti.

She debuted internationally at the 1991 Salzburg Festival in Austria as Annio in Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito.” Since then, she has appeared on many of the world’s major opera stages and expanded her repertoire to the point where she is equally at home with the works of Wagner and Richard Strauss, French opera, lieder and oratorios both live and in the recording studio.

But Kasarova says the ease she projects is hard work. The road to success, she says, is paved with sacrifices that can be as minor as doing without ice cubes in her drink to save her voice and as emotionally tasking as missing out on birthdays and other family occasions while on the road.

“Sometimes when I think of all that I do for my voice, I think I don’t want to go on,” she said, during a stop in Vienna, where she will perform works by Mozart, Donizetti, Tchaikovsky and Verdi with Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova at the Austrian capital’s gilt Musikverein concert hall April 30.

She says that after 10 years on stage, most singers develop common cold-like symptoms year-round, “because we breathe in dirt, dust and odors” while performing. Ailments affecting the breathing passages occur as frequently for singers as joint problems for professional tennis players, Kasarova explains.

And like athletes in a fiercely competitive environment, some singers turn to drugs to perform instead of opting for a rest. But the gain is only short term.

Overuse of steroids in the form of cortisone is common, say singers and doctors treating them. The treatment masks problems with inflamed vocal cords but the problem worsens to the point where operations may become necessary. That, in turn can change a voice — and even ruin it.

Tenor Endrik Wottrich first outed the pressure and resulting abuses behind the opera curtain in 2007 after harsh criticism for canceling a performance of the Wagner festival at Bayreuth, Germany, because of a cold.

“We are faced with the choice of performing and being attacked because we sing one false note, or being attacked because we are taking care of ourselves,” he told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

To deal with their tensions, “soloists are taking beta blockers to control their angst, some tenors take cortisone to push their voice high, and alcohol is everywhere,” he said.

“The real pressure is no longer good old stage fright but comes from a new dimension that has penetrated opera — it now lives from glamour, and normal human mistakes are a disruption in such an environment.”

Kasarova describes cortisone use as “an infernal circle” that sometimes becomes an addiction. Others, she says, abuse sleeping pills to try to escape stresses of performing that have grown in the past decades as stages get bigger, orchestras louder and opera seasons longer than ever.

Singers now get paid by the performance, meaning no money for no shows. The best are now in demand all year round, leading to exhausting globe-trotting. And even those who avoid long-distance travel often have little time between the late spring end of the subscription season, the start of rehearsals for summer festivals, and tours promoting their own recordings.

Adding to the pressure in this telegenic age, opera star allure now depends as much on looks as voice. To meet the challenge, American soprano Deborah Voigt underwent gastric bypass surgery, reportedly losing nearly 50 kilograms — more than 100 pounds — after being fired from a 2004 London production of “Ariadne auf Naxos” because she couldn’t fit into the costume.

Back in the 1960s, when life was slower on and off stage, singers “focused on a career that lasted for years,” says Kasarova. “Today, everything has to happen quickly — if you don’t play the game you are soon replaced.”

Still, it is possible to last and grow. Kasarova, who has been recognized as world class for more than two decades, says her inner voice has helped her avoid traps that she says some colleagues have fallen into by allowing her to recognize that every voice — and singer — has his or her limitations.

But she, too, has suffered from her demanding profession.

Her speaking voice is a light soprano, giving no hint of the power and color it is capable of in singing mode. But there is a sudden catch in it as she speaks of past family events — “my son’s first communion, birthdays” — missed because of a gig somewhere else.

“I’ll never forgive myself for that — never,” Kasarova declares.

Her son, Yves Lucien Kaufmann, is now 13, giving Kasarova somewhat more time to focus on performing than when he was an infant. Back, then, she says, trying to be both a loving mother and a diva was a Herculean effort.

“He flew with me, he was only three months old, and I was in New York,” she recollects. “I hardly slept all night, and then rehearsal the next day from 10 a.m till 1 p.m and then from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. Where did I get the energy?”

Then she catches herself.

Yes, life is hard. But, she says, it can also be intensely rewarding.

“It is impossible for a normal human being to experience what I sometimes have experienced on stage,” she says of the highs generated by the exuberance of an audience that is on its feet and cheering wildly moments after the curtain falls on a perfect performance.

“I receive intense energy from communicating with the audience,” she says. “The audience takes a lot from me but I also take a lot from them.

That’s opera, she says — “taking and giving.”

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George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn

Indeed, the language was substantially milder than the tough approach sought by Washington and allies Britain, France and Germany at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board meeting. Agreement came only after tough negotiations with Russia and China.

That could spell trouble on any diplomatic path ahead.

Russia, China and the four Western nations have agreed to meet with Iran in another effort to seek a negotiated solution. But with East-West disagreements within the group greater than ever, it could be difficult for the six to act in coordination at those talks.

A previous series of talks between the six and Iran ended in failure, the last one more than a year ago in Istanbul, Turkey. But the issue of six-power unity was never tested during those talks, because Tehran refused even to consider discussing concessions on its nuclear program.

That could change as Russian and Chinese irritation grows with what the two consider unwarranted tough and unilateral sanctions recently imposed on Iran by Washington and the European Union. Tehran might try to exploit the rift by offering a compromise that Moscow and Beijing would likely welcome but the West would proclaim meaningless.

Thursday’s statement indicated that the West was willing to go some ways to maintain at least a semblance of six-power unity.

It refrained from calling out the Islamic Republic for refusing to cooperate with the IAEA’s probe of allegations that it secretly worked on components of a nuclear arms program.

Instead it put the onus both on Iran and the IAEA to “intensify their dialogue” to resolve the four-year standoff. And indirectly countering weeks of Israeli saber-rattling, it emphasized “continued support for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.”

Returning to Jerusalem from intensive talks in Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government will not allow Iran to obtain atomic bombs but prefers a peaceful solution to the issue

“I hope that Iran chooses to part from its nuclear program peacefully,” Netanyahu said, adding, “It is forbidden to let Iran arm itself with nuclear weapons, and I intend not to allow it.”

Israel and the U.S. agree that Iran is on a path that could eventually lead to the production of a nuclear weapon, but part ways over urgency: Netanyahu has seemed impatient with President Barack Obama’s statements that tough new economic sanctions imposed by the West be given time to work.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief IAEA delegate, condemned Israel’s “continuous threat of attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

In Tehran, Iran’s top leader welcomed comments by Obama advocating diplomacy as a solution in a rare positive signal from the head of a nation that regards Washington as its bitter foe.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quoted by Iran’s state television, praised Obama’s statement this week that he saw a “window of opportunity” to use diplomacy to resolve the nuclear dispute.

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters in Iran, told a group of clerics: “This expression is a good word. This is a wise remark indicating taking distance from illusion.”

But Khamenei had criticism for Obama as well. The Iranian leader said the economic sanctions pushed by the U.S. and other nations as a way to get Iran to alter its nuclear program would “lead their calculations to failure.”

Asked about Khamenei’s remarks, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “The president’s policy toward Iran is focused in a very clear-eyed way on Iranian behavior, certainly not on rhetoric of any kind.”

Ahead of the Vienna meeting, Washington and its European partners had hoped to send a firmer signal to Iran than even a tough joint statement would have.

They had sought a six-power resolution demanding compliance with U.N. Security Council demands for Tehran to end uranium enrichment and other programs that could be used for weapons purposes. A resolution passed by the IAEA board automatically goes to the Security Council and could serve as a potential springboard for new U.N. sanctions.

Instead, it took three days of horse trading — and a one-day adjournment Wednesday of the IAEA meeting — to agree on the watered-down text.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated that the United States continues “to believe that we have space for diplomacy … coupled with very strong pressure in the form of the toughest sanctions the international community has ever imposed.”

U.S. chief IAEA delegate Robert Wood said the six nations arrived at “a very good statement after some constructive discussions.” But freed of the constraints of unity imposed on the group of six, his statement to the board reflected a much tougher line.

“While we remain committed to a diplomatic resolution to the international community’s concerns with Iran’s nuclear program … we will not sit idle while a member state openly flouts its obligations and embarks on a path of deception and deceit,” he said.

Iran has steadfastly rejected demands to halt its uranium enrichment, which Washington and its allies worry could be the foundation for a future nuclear weapons program by providing the fissile core of nuclear weapons. Tehran claims it seeks only energy and medical research from its reactors, but it wants full control over the nuclear process from uranium ore to fuel rods.

It has also stonewalled an IAEA probe of suspected clandestine research and development into nuclear weapons for four years, dismissing the allegations as based on forged intelligence from the United States and Israel.

In a possible concession Tuesday, Tehran said agency experts could visit Parchin, a military facility that the IAEA suspects was used for secret atomic weapons work. An IAEA official, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue, dismissed the offer as a stalling tactic. IAEA inspectors were refused access to Parchin twice in recent weeks.

Concerns about Parchin are high. All Western statements, as well as the one issued Thursday by the six powers, have called on Iran to grant access to the facility.

Diplomats who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday said Iran was trying to clean up the site. They based their assessment on satellite images they said appeared to show trucks and earth-moving vehicles.

Two diplomats said their information reveals that Iran had experimented at the site with a test version of a neutron trigger used to set off a nuclear blast — information not previously made public.

Soltanieh, the Iranian chief delegate to the IAEA, described the diplomats’ reports as “a ridiculous and childish story.”

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Associated Press writers Noura Maan in Vienna, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington contributed to this report.

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George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn