  The eigen-frequencies of the axial w-modes of oscillating neutron stars are
studied using the continued fraction method with an Equation of State (EOS)
partially constrained by the recent terrestrial nuclear laboratory data. It is
shown that the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy
$E_{sym}(\rho)$ affects significantly both the frequencies and the damping
times of these modes. Besides confirming the previously found universal
behavior of the mass-scaled eigen-frequencies as functions of the compactness
of neutron stars, we explored several alternative universal scaling functions.
Moreover, the $w_{II}$-mode is found to exist only for neutron stars having a
compactness of $M/R\geq 0.1078$ independent of the EOS used.
