German police arrest Syrian refugee 'who asked ISIS for 180,000 Euros to turn cars into suicide bombs he could drive into crowds of non-Muslims'02/01/17
[DailyMail] German police have arrested unemployed 38 year old Syrian refugee Hasan A. in Saarbruecken who allegedly asked ISIS to fund an attack using explosives-packed vehicles. He contacted someone in Raqqa using the Telegram app, proposing cars repainted to look like police vehicles be exploded in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The man had entered Germany in December 2014 and applied for asylum in January 2015, obtaining refugee status and a residency permit, prosecutors said in a statement.
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German police say they prevent repeat of New Year Cologne assaults
[AlAhram] German police said on Sunday they had prevented a repeat of the assaults and robberies suffered by hundreds of women in Cologne a year ago by screening 650 mostly North African men on New Year's Eve. Police detained and screened many of the men at the main railway station as they headed towards the centre of Cologne in western Germany, where the attacks a year earlier fuelled criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door migrant policy. Cologne police chief Juergen Mathies did not say how many of the men were subsequently allowed into the city centre but denied that the checks amounted to racial profiling. He also said many of those detained had been aggressive.
"This was clearly about preventing similar incidents to last year," he told a news conference. "A large part of this group that was checked was such that criminal acts were to be expected. That is why we took this clear approach."
| Congratulations, sir. You prevented another night of vicious attacks. But unless those men are evicted from Europe altogether, they will do the same thing soon enough. |
Asylum-seeker lights himself on fire in German supermarket warehouse
[DeutscheWelle] An Afghan teen has sustained serious burns after lighting himself on fire at a supermarket warehouse in Bavaria. Police say he was carrying a knife but his motives weren't immediately known.
Braunschweig, northern Germany, uncovers 300 cases of welfare fraud by asylum seekers
[DeutscheWelle] The northern German city of Braunschweig has launched a special commission investigating more than 300 cases of welfare fraud by mostly Sudanese asylum seekers. One fraudster is believed to have used as many as 12 different identities.
According to the initial report, the refugees in question had registered themselves several times in different locations in a bid to receive multiple welfare payments. Most of them succeeded by using basic disguises to create three or four different identities.
"Sometimes just growing a beard, or putting on a pair of glasses, having shorter hair, but always different surnames," Memenga said.
According to the Asylum Seekers Act, every asylum seeker receives 135 euros "pocket money" and 216 euros a month to cover the necessary personal needs - if they're not completely under the care of state authorities. Asylum seekers who arrived last year are now being asked to return to registration centers to provide their fingerprints.
"You can maybe fake your name and date of birth, but you can't fake your fingerprint," Memenga said.