Tag Archives: Germany

Three Men Die From Squirrel Virus

A new report on the deaths of three German men who worked as squirrel breeders has found that they all died from a new strain of virus that jumped from the squirrels to the men.

“A new bornavirus that can be transmitted to humans and cause severe disease has been detected in variegated squirrels. The study shows that exotic animal species can have the risk of transmitting novel zoonotic viruses to humans from close contact,” said Dr. Martin Beer, head of virus diagnostics at Germany’s Friedrich-Loeffler Institute.

The men developed encephaltits, or brain inflammation, and died within two to four months after showing symptoms

The breed of squirrel involved live in southern Mexico and Central America.  That’s one of the reasons Dr. Marc Siegel of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York told HealthDay the general public shouldn’t be concerned at this time.

“It’s likely that bornavirus, commonly found in horses and sheep and capable of causing neurological symptoms, was present in the squirrels that scratched these men, causing the neurological and behavioral symptoms,” he said.  “It is possible that this virus could spread to squirrels here in the U.S. and occasionally to humans, but we wouldn’t see sustained spread, as there is no evidence of spread from human to human.”

All the men who died from the virus were in their 60s or older and had other health conditions that doctors say could have contributed to the virus being able to impact them.

Jewish Woman Gets Doctorate Denied By Nazis

102-year-old Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport is now a doctor.

Eight decades after she should have earned that honor.

In 1938, she was denied the change to defend her doctoral thesis by the Nazis.  Her crime?  She was part-Jewish.  Now, the University of Hamburg has given the neonatologist a doctorate after she passed an oral exam.

“After almost 80 years, it was possible to restore some extent of justice,” Burkhard Goeke, the medical director of the university’s hospital, said in his speech. “We cannot undo injustices that have been committed, but our insights into the past shape our perspective for the future.”

Syllm-Rapaport said that she did it for more than herself, but for all those who suffered injustice at the hands of the Nazis.

“For me personally, the degree didn’t mean anything, but to support the great goal of coming to terms with history — I wanted to be part of that,” Syllm-Rapoport told German public television station NDR.

Uwe Koch-Gromus, the university’s dean of the medical faculty, was asked about her oral exam on the subject of diptheria, the subject of her original doctoral thesis.

“She was brilliant, and not only for her age,” he said.   “We were impressed with her intellectual alertness, and left speechless by her expertise — also with regard to modern medicine.”

Taking her grades into account, she was graduated magna cum laude.

Naghmeh Abedini Asks European Officials For Help

The wife of wrongfully imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini is turning to European leaders for help in her quest to free her husband.

Naghmeh Abedini visited with German officials and the European Parliament to speak with lawmakers who are committed to religious freedom around the world.  The German Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights quickly supported Naghmeh’s mission.

“I call upon Iran to quash Pastor Abedini’s sentence – and the sentences of all those imprisoned merely on account of their religious belief – without delay,” the commissioner said in a statement following the meeting. “Until he is released, I appeal to all those responsible in Iran to grant him urgently needed medical treatments, including outside the prison.”

A vigil at the Iranian Embassy in Germany was held by Naghmeh and German freedom advocates.

The meetings were arranged by the American Center for Law and Justice along with the German rights group Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte.

Tiffany Barrans of the ACLJ traveled with Abedini.

“This opportunity was invaluable to raise the plight of Pastor Saeed and the Christian community that suffers in Iran,” Barrans said.

The ACLJ has been advocating for Abedini’s release for years.

“Continued international pressure has helped free persecuted Christians before and we pray that it will again,” ACLJ said.

German Officials Stop Boston Style Terrorist Attack

German security officials told reporters that they had stopped an Islamic terrorist plot similar to the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

A 35-year-old Turkish man and his 34-year-old wife were taken into custody near Frankfurt.  Special police forces found a bomb, firearms, ammunition and chemicals that can make explosives.

Authorities say that the man had been under surveillance as a suspected Islamic extremist.

“According to our current information we have prevented an attack,” said Stefan Mueller, the chief of police for western Hesse state.

The speculation among police is that the target was a professional cycling race scheduled for Friday.

“Of course we talked about the Boston attack last night,” said Mueller, explaining why security officials decided to go ahead with the raid. The race “is a soft target, and of course since the Boston Marathon it’s part of the security assessment for every marathon in Germany, and of course this is true for cycling races too.”

Weapons found in the home included a pipe bomb, 100 rounds of ammunition, a training rocket for an anti-tank weapon and a gallon of hydrogen peroxide along with other chemicals.  Hydrogen peroxide can create a substance called TATP which is what shoe bomber Richard Reid tried to use to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight.

“I want to emphasize that an attack was prevented, but it will have to be seen whether a concrete attack against tomorrow’s cycle race was planned,” Mueller added.

Former Auschwitz Guard Describes Camp In Detail

A former SS guard on trial in Germany has provided chilling details about the operations of the camp and the lives of those who were imprisoned there.

Oskar Groening is facing 300,000 counts of accessory to murder in connection with his service at the camp from May to July 1944 when Jews from Hungary were brought to the camp and almost immediately murdered.

Groening testified that during the time so many trains full of Jews were coming to the camp that they sometimes had to wait with doors closed while other trains were emptied and processed into the camp.  He testified about one night where he worked 24 hours straight on the ramp at Birkenau where the Jews were brought into the camp and it was “a busy shift”indicating there was non-stop arrivals of victims.

“The capacity of the gas chambers and the capacity of the crematoria were quite limited. Someone said that 5,000 people were processed in 24 hours but I didn’t verify this. I didn’t know,” he said. “For the sake of order we waited until train 1 was entirely processed and finished.”

A surprising part of the testimony was Groening contracting many survivors claims that the process was chaotic, saying it was “very orderly”.

“The process was the same as Auschwitz I. The only difference was that there were no trucks,” he said during the second day of his trial. “They all walked —some in one direction some, in another direction … to where the crematoria and gas chambers were.”

Survivors and their families said they would be satisfied with any confessions given by Groening.

“I’m going to take whatever confession he gives —it’s better than no confession,” survivor Eva Kor, 81, told reporters. “Maybe this is the best thing he has ever done in his life. Isn’t that sad?”

ISIS Terrorists Impregnate 9-Year-Old Girl

The latest report by aid workers in Iraq is a 9-year-old girl that was repeatedly raped by 10 ISIS terrorists until she was impregnated.

The aid workers say the girl will likely die giving birth to the child.

“This girl is so young she could die if she delivers a baby,” thestar.com quotes Yousif Daoud, a Canadian-based aid worker who recently returned from the region, as saying. “Even a caesarian section is dangerous. The abuse she has suffered left her mentally and physically traumatized.”

The girl was part of a group of women and children released last week by the terrorists.  The release of the women, some impregnated by the terrorists, is seen as a way to shame the community.

“If they are married, their husbands won’t take them back if they are pregnant. And it’s clear that the babies will never be accepted,” Daoud said. “I don’t know what the future would be for their babies. The girls and women don’t want them. They have suffered so much they just want to forget.”

The terrorists have been reported to give young girls to front line fighters as a reward for their efforts.

The 9-year-old has been flown to Germany to be taken care of by a medical charity.

Germanwings Airliner Crashed On Purpose Killing 150

Investigators have found that the co-pilot deliberately crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 into the French Alps.

The “black box” voice recordings have shown investigators that Andreas Lubitz, 28, was in total control of the plane and spent eight minutes descending the plane into a mountain.

“He voluntarily … allowed the loss of altitude of the plane, which he had no reason to do. He had … no reason to stop the pilot-in-command from coming back into the cockpit. He had no reason to refuse to answer to the air controller who was alerting him on the loss of altitude,” Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said to reporters.

Robin said that most of the passengers had no idea what was happening until the very end.  The plane was descending at a speed where the entire craft was pulverized by the impact and death would have been instantaneous for everyone on board.

“Only towards the end do you hear screams,” he said. “And bear in mind that death would have been instantaneous … the aircraft was literally smashed to bits.”

Police are searching the home of the co-pilot looking for any clues as to his motive for crashing the plane.

Two People Killed In Belgian Anti-Terror Operation

Two people are dead after a raid by an anti-terrorism team in Verviers, Belgium.

The group had connected to the Islamic terrorist group ISIS and had been working on Paris-style terrorist attacks within Belgium.

VTM News reported that federal Belgian police were able to take one suspect into custody near a train station as part of the operation.

A senior Belgian counter-terrorism official says that the operation in Verviers is just one of several anti-terror raids currently taking place in the country.  The group reportedly had just returned from Syria where they had received ISIS training on carrying out terrorist attacks.

The attacks reportedly were planned in retaliation for coalition airstrikes against ISIS.

The official said under condition of anonymity that situations on Thursday with the group changed to the point Belgian forces had to stop surveillance and immediately carry out the raid.

Israeli Attacked In Germany By Man Singing Anti-Semitic Song

German police are investigating an attack on an Israeli man in Berlin on New Year’s Eve by Germans who were singing anti-Semitic songs.

Witnesses say a group of young men were shouting anti-Semitic slogans and singing songs on a subway train.  Shahak Shapira, 26, is an Israeli citizen who lives in Berlin and asked the group to stop singing the hate songs.

When the men refused to stop spewing their hate, Shapira recorded their actions on his cell phone.

He exited the train car at the next stop only to be followed by the men who shouted at him in both German and Arabic.  They demanded that Shapira delete the video from his phone.  When Shapira refused, the gang spat on him, beat him and then kicked him in the head when he fell to the ground.

Police say they are still looking for the attackers.

Brandenburg Gets First Synagogue Since 1938

A former church is being transformed into the first synagogue in the German state of Brandenburg since 1938.

The former “castle church” in Cottbus, Germany was handed from Christian leader Ulrike Menzel to the Jewish Association of the State of Brandenburg.  The facility will be renovated and then dedicated for use on January 27, 2015, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Menzel said during the transfer event that he was pleased to see the house of worship return to its intended use.  The church that had met in the building had disbanded and the facility was used for social events during the last few years.

The synagogue in Cottbus was destroyed on Kristallnacht when Germans nationwide took Jewish property and synagogues.  The site of that former synagogue in Cottbus is now the location of a department store.

The Jewish community formally reestablished in the city in 1998 and lists 350 members who are all former Soviet Union residents that fled for freedom to worship.