@ale, I'm unable to compile latest build of 1.4.0 to see if the fix provided by jghali (see the link in my previous post) is going to make it into the final, 1.4.0 version. The version from repos (Debian/Ubuntu, 1.4.0.rc5) doesn't include it ATM. Can you test it, just to be sure?
@Timbow, importing styles is a logical and IMHO preferred method of keeping things consistent and simple . As you can see from jghali's comment in the bug report above, things are as they are at the moment, devs are aware of this style importing issue and future versions (hopefully final 1.4.0) will have this sorted out. At the moment, note that only things related to character settings of styles imported in Scribus do not work, meaning you should plan ahead and set correct fonts and formatting in OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice. If some of fonts do not appear in Scribus, then it's better you don't use them at all, since Scribus is very picky about quality of fonts.
I personally use plain text and do formatting in Scribus directly, at least for now, until style importing issue gets solved completely.
P.S. Did you try Scribus 1.5.0?