'Ramadan row' behind fire at Düsseldorf refugee shelter
http://www.thelocal.de/20160609/ramadan-row-behind-fire-at-dsseldorf-refugee-shelter
A quarrel over meal times during the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan likely sparked an arson attack that destroyed a refugee shelter, said
prosecutors on Thursday.
The huge blaze in the western city of Düsseldorf on Tuesday
completely levelled a hall that housed 282 male asylum seekers mostly from
Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and North African countries, with 28 people suffering
from smoke inhalation.
Police have detained eight men allegedly involved in the
dispute, including two men suspected of arson, both Moroccans aged 26, one of
whom allegedly poured a flammable liquid onto a mattress and set it alight.
Witnesses reported that there had been recurring tensions
between followers of different religions in the Red Cross-run facility.
"During this time of Ramadan, there was one group that
wanted to strictly observe the fast, and another that insisted on the usual
timetables and usual servings," said Ralf Herrenbrück, spokesman for the
prosecutors service.
"This had led on several occasions to disputes and
altercations with officials of the German Red Cross," he said in an
interview with public broadcaster WDR.
"It got to the point where threats were made over what
would happen if things didn't change, and that one threat was obviously
implemented."
Since the start of the year, police had been called 89 times
to the 6,000-square-metre hall, which was formerly part of the city's congress
centre, reports said.
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Meet the Austrian who might be going to Mars
http://www.thelocal.at/20160608/meet-the-austrian-who-might-be-going-to-mars
The Mars One mission that hopes
to ‘resettle’ 24 humans on the red planet in 2026 announced the next stage of
the gruelling selection process this week. One of the remaining 100 candidates
- the Mars 100 - is Austrian creative and rock magazine publisher Günther
Golob.
Forty-year-old Golob,
who is originally from Carinthia but has lived in Graz since 2001, managed to
fight off nearly 200,000 other hopeful applicants to make it to the final 100.
"Mars needs
entertainment. The whole project should be fun - that's where I see my main
task," he said in his promotional video.
So what else do we
know about this Austrian who might be going to Mars?
Dad to Niclas, 16, Romy, 8 and Matthias, 7, he has said that
his children are happy for him, although he thinks the two younger ones don’t
fully understand it. Asked by Kleine Zeitung whether he would miss his kids,
Golob said he hopes he would “not miss anything on Mars” adding that it’s not
as if he would have disappeared as “the whole world will be looking at the
settlers”. “I hope that my children will be proud of me,” he added. His dad is
also supportive, having told him if he were young again and had the chance to
go to Mars, he would also be interested.
A man of many talents
As well as being a
musician, publisher and motorbike enthusiast, Golob describes himself as an art
lover, project manager, a passionate intermediary in the creative scene and a
multiplier of the economy. We’re not exactly sure what the last one means but
he certainly sounds like a useful guy to have around when deserted on a desert
rock millions of miles from home.
