Austria bans Nazi numbers, letters of IS on car plates

Vienna: Austrian authorities banned as of Thursday, writing letters and numbers to indicate neo-Nazi or the Islamic State codes in personalised car number plates, including the SS and IS and numbers 18 and 88.

This was determined by a decree issued on Thursday by Austrian Transport Minister Alois Stoger, in relation to current legislation for vehicles that allows car owners to choose a specific combination of letters and numbers for their enrollment.

Among prohibited combinations, the numbers 18, meaning "Adolf Hitler" because of where A and H come in the alphabet, the number 88, which represents "Heil Hitler", 1919, which refers to the Waffen-SS, and 74, which stands for a single Germanic Volk, or nation.

Abbreviations now outlawed include NSDAP as it refers to Hitler's troops acronym, or IS or ISIS -- acronym of Islamic State.