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Austrian Islamists were in the process of drawing up plans to set up a caliphate in Austria, a massive raid conducted by over 800 Austrian police officers has revealed. around 800 Austrian police officers conducted a series of raids in the capital of Vienna and in Graz which saw 16 separate domestic premises searched, and led to the arrest of fourteen radical Islamists who are thought to be connected to the Islamic State terror group. Police say that the raid was the result of a two-year long investigation into the radical Salafist network Die Presse reports. Of the fourteen Islamists...

Watch out, guys! An Austrian femme fatale known as the “Ice Cream Killer” will have plenty of new men to choose from at her new lockdown. Estibaliz Carranza, 38, will be transferred to an all-male prison because she’s too dangerous to be locked up at a women’s facility, but authorities might be playing right into her hands. The maniacal murderess has a history of luring men into her web and then killing and slicing up their bodies with a chainsaw. In 2012, she was sentenced to life behind bars for the dismemberment murders of her ex-husband and her onetime lover...

The German defense company Rheinmetall has teamed with Austrian arms manufacturer Steyr Mannlicher to manufacture and market the RS556 – a German version of the 5.56mm x 45 cal. modular assault rifle system based on Steyr’s STM556. The Austrian weapon was first unveiled in 2012. Eying the German market, Rheinmetall positions the new weapon as a candidate for the German “System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr” – the planned replacement of the G36 – the standard German military assault rifle made by Heckler & Koch. This project is set to begin in 2019. Rheinmetall will offer the new assault rifle as a joint...

Police are hunting vandals after a series of chapels and shrines were desecrated within the space of a few days in northern Austria. Statues have been beheaded, prayer books burned and sacred images destroyed since the New Year in the Innviertel region on the Bavarian border. On New Year’s Eve, the vandals struck a chapel in the village of St Radegund, damaging a statue of the Virgin Mary before burning prayer books and wooden objects from the chapel in a nearby wood. That same day, another chapel at the nearby town of Auerbach was also attacked, with vandals smashing the...

A Christian woman was stabbed by an asylum seeker after he heard her reading from the Bible. The 50-year-old woman was only saved by her winter coat when she was attacked with a knife in the accommodation in Timelkam in Vöcklamarkt in Upper Austria. Her alleged attacker is a 22-year-old man from Afghanistan who had taken offense to the fact that the woman had been invited by Christian residents of the property to discuss the Bible. […] When questioned by police, the man accepted he had overreacted, but claimed he was suffering from “personal problems”. …

THE Archbishop tipped to be the next Pope has warned that Christians face being pushed aside by a growing Islamisation of Europe and wants to put a stop to accepting new refugees. While in the beginning Schoenborn also used the same infamous words as German Chancellor Angela Merkel "Wir schaffen das" ("We will manage it") when talking about refugees, over time he felt overpowered by the "unbelievable number of refugees" like many others in society. The Archbishop explained that like many others he was surprised by the large number of asylum seekers and he has now become "more cautious" about...

Link: http://www.thelocal.at/20161223/calls-made-to-ban-ritual-slaughter-of-animals-in-austria

CHRISTMAS treats have been taken off a menu and replaced with 'winter delicacies' over fears the phrase would offend Muslims. A function held at the Austrian embassy in Germany still served traditional festive fare such as Lebkuchen but rebranded them as 'winter delicacies'. The event was a presentation by the Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, who has written the book What Do Muslims Do at Christmas?: Islamic Faith in Everyday Life in Germany. The invitation to guests, from ambassador Nikolaus Marschik, was described as a “cosy get-together with winter delicacies.” A reporter attending the...

Austrian police will distribute 6,000 pocket alarms on New Year's Eve to help prevent incidents like the mass sex assaults in neighbouring Germany a year ago, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. "It's a national campaign aimed primarily at women on New Year's Eve," ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck told AFP. If activated, the free gadgets will emit a shrill sound aimed at chasing away potential aggressors, he added.

A NATIVITY play was turned into chaos after an asylum seeker stormed the stage and started preaching from the Koran. The Somali asylum seeker suddenly leapt on stage during the traditional depiction of the Christian story in the Austrian town of Oberndorf near Schwanenstadt in the state of Upper Austria, causing horror and upset amongst the children and parents. At first, no one had reacted when the asylum seeker came to the venue and stood next to the stage where children of nursery school age were performing. The Somali man storms the stage The asylum seeker suddenly leapt on stage,...

Gun sales in Austria have “quadrupled” as citizens of that nation seek to secure means of self-defense in response to the “immigrant crisis” that has enveloped Europe. Earlier in 2016, the crisis led Austria to “began limiting the number of asylum applications it would receive.” But gun sales began to skyrocket prior to this move being made.

BERLIN – The center-left candidate handily defeated his far-right challenger in Austria’s presidential election on Sunday, boosting the political establishment in Europe as it sought to contain the fallout of Donald Trump’s victory in the United States and thwart the spread of nationalism. The far-right Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer conceded defeat on his Facebook page less than 30 minutes after polls closed and following projections showing a surprisingly strong lead for Alexander Van der Bellen. The 72-year-old statesman and former Green Party politician was winning by 53.3 percent to 46.7 percent with nearly 100 percent of the votes counted. The...

The far-right Austrian presidential candidate Norbert Hofer’s campaign manager, Herbert Kickl, has conceded his candidate’s defeat to former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen, Reuters reports. Kickl told the state broadcaster: The bottom line is it didn’t quite work out. In this case the establishment - which pitched in once again to block, to stonewall and to prevent renewal - has won. Also: If confirmed, the margin of Van der Bellen’s forecast win over Hofer in Austria is a major surprise. Polls in the run-up to the vote had the two candidates neck-and-neck, with several putting the far-right Freedom party’s...

Far-right candidate Norbert Hofer has lost Austria's presidential election. His campaign manager said he had conceded victory to independent candidate, Alexander Van der Bellen. The Austrian presidency is largely ceremonial but the vote had been seen as a sign of how well populist candidates might do in upcoming elections in the European Union. The result is sure to be welcomed by establishment parties and officials in the EU. The election was a re-run of May's poll which suffered irregularities. Former Green Party head Mr Van der Bellen had a clear lead, according to projections.

Vienna (AFP) - Austria's long and ugly presidential campaign drew to a close Saturday, with the far-right aiming to emulate Donald Trump and Brexit campaigners by dealing a hammer-blow to Vienna's centrist establishment. A victory on Sunday for Norbert Hofer from the anti-immigration and EU-critical Freedom Party (FPOe) would make him Europe's first far-right elected president since World War II. The presidency is largely ceremonial but it would be another triumph for populist politics a month after Donald Trump's US election victory and barely five months since the British chose to leave the European Union. The election comes on the...

THE EUROPEAN UNION looks set to be shattered by a potential influx of Eurosceptic country leaders who refuse to toe the line of the Brussels elite This weekend Austria could be set to elect its first far-right leader while Italy could simultaneously lose its Europhile Prime Minister. Both outcomes would be a massive blow to the Union as fear begins to spread around the the corridors of Brussels - both nations have put a vote to the people and could start the process of engineering themselves out of the EU. The beleaguered EU boss Jean-Claude Juncker is watching his superstate...

Can far-right, anti-immigrant, gun-loving politician Norbert Hofer become the next anti-establishment figure to lead his country? Norbert Hofer is the friendly face of far-right politics in Austria. The 45-year-old engineer is well-tailored and gun-loving - and he sells anti-immigrant policies with a smile. Mr Hofer has also struck a chord with an increasingly polarised electorate. The senior member of the nationalist 'Freedom Party' told a packed audience at his final campaign event for the presidency that the time had come to put ordinary people first. "Austrian men and Austrian women have a strong will to succeed - to make this...

They say the third time is a charm and for the third time this year, a runoff election for president of Austria is set for tomorrow, December 4th. The first runoff earlier this year resulted in victory for leftist candidate Alexander van der Bellen over Nationalist candidate Norbert Hofer. But Hofer's Austrian Freedom Party challenged the election in court alleging irregularities in postal ballots (absentee votes). And they won. A second election was set for early this fall but the government decided to cancel the vote when early postal ballots were discovered to have irregularities in them. Polling data at...

The Energy Efficiency Award 2016 is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) as the result of a decision by the German Federal Parliament. It is presented with the support of dena’s premium partners Danfoss GmbH and DZ BANK AG. The winners of the 10th Energy Efficiency Award have now been confirmed. The Deutsche Energie-Agentur (dena) – the German Energy Agency – has awarded the international Energy Efficiency Award to three German companies and one Austrian firm at its annual Congress in Berlin. The first prize went to snowboard manufacturer CAPiTA MFG for the networked heating...

Link only: http://www.thelocal.at/20161123/attacks-on-asylum-centres-increasing-in-austria