Report: Germany to require citizens to stockpile supplies in case of catastrophe
[DeutscheWelle] A civil defense plan to be debated by the cabinet would require citizens to stockpile supplies in case of a catastrophe. The plan says people should prepare for an unlikely event that "could threaten our existence."
Report: Turkey's MIT agency menacing 'German Turks'
[DeutscheWelle] Germans of Turkish origin are being "menaced" in Germany by informers and officers of Turkey's MIT spy agency, according to "Die Welt" newspaper. Bundestag members want a probe into whether German agencies are complicit.
"Welt am Sonntag" quoted an unnamed "security politician" as saying that the MIT had at its disposition in Germany most of the 800 regular agents it had in Europe as well as a network of 6,000 informants across Germany - far more than previously known. That meant one MIT informant for every 500 citizens of Turkish origin, according to the unnamed politician quoted by the newspaper.
Germany toughens Swiss border against illegal migrants
[DeutscheWelle] Germany has deployed an additional 130 border staff to stop illegal immigrants at the Swiss border. As more migrants arrive in Italy, Switzerland has become a new transit route for migrants trying to reach Germany.
With the closure of the Balkan route earlier this year, Italy has become the new center of migrant arrivals in Europe. According to the EU border agency Frontex, from the beginning of the year to July some 95,000 migrants have arrived in Italy, a 12 percent increase from last year.
NZZ cited German federal police in Berlin saying 3,385 illegal immigrants from Switzerland have been caught this year, up 40 percent from the same period last year.
Switzerland used the tougher German response to justify sending back to Italy nearly 1,000 migrants a day.
Call-to-arms by German populist right AfD
[DeutscheWelle] Populist right-wing AfD party co-leader Frauke Petry has encouraged Germans to carry firearms. She claims the government has lost its state monopoly to protect the public, especially in thinly populated areas.
Petry, who caused an uproar January by suggesting German police could use firearms to deter incoming refugees, on Saturday called into question Germany's policing and stringent gun ownership law in the wake of deadly attacks last month.
There were no grounds for concern when citizens armed themselves for self-protection in areas where austerity measures by national and regional governments had "systematically ruined" police services, Petry told the Funke Media Group based in Essen.
"Every law-abiding person should be in the position to protect himself, his family and his friends," Petry said.
Greens co-leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt promptly accused Petry of negligently stoking anxiety and said trained recruits should be hired where Germany's "good" police forces were depleted. That would improve public perceptions of safety, "not weapons for all" as advocated by Petry, said Göring-Eckardt. "Weapons don't belong in the wrong hands."
The AfD co-chairperson had asserted that any further tightening of Germany's Weapons Ownership Act would disadvantage citizens.
"We all know how long it takes for police, especially in sparsely populated areas to arrive at the scene of deployments," said Petry, just days after the AfD wrangled over its leadership.
This would harm "reputable" citizens and not those who obtained weapons in the "darknet" [hidden Internet], she added. "Many people are increasingly feeling unsafe."