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(Vatican Radio) Germany's interior minister has unveiled plans to boost security after recent attacks, including making it easier to deport foreigners deemed dangerous and stripping dual nationals who fight for extremist groups of their German citizenship. Thomas de Maizière's proposals also include creating several thousand jobs at federal security services over the coming years and making "promoting terrorism" a criminal offense.

De Maizière said his nation needs to urgently boost security after four notorious attacks last month. He announced that more than 4,600 posts in Germany’s security services would be created with an extra two billion euros in funding until 2020.

Other measures include stripping dual nationals who fight for extremists groups abroad of their German citizenship and greater use of video surveillance, notably facial recognition systems. Last year Germany accepted more than a million asylum seekers, many from war-torn nations such as Syria, and critics have said at least some extremists are among them.  

The minister also wants to strengthen German authorities' ability to probe cybercrime and the darknet, an area of cyberspace invisible on the open Internet. "Crime also takes place in cyberspace. This is why it needs to be a place of inquiry. The technical skills, and research and development to investigate cybercrime will therefore be brought together under the command of one institution for information technology," he told reporters.  

De Maizière spoke at a turbulent time for Germany.

German security forces have been busy with acts of terrorism. Two of the attacks in a week-long period starting July 18 were claimed by the Islamic State group. IS said its fighters had carried out an ax and knife rampage at a passengers train in Wuerzburg that wounded five and a suicide bombing that injured 15 outside a bar in Ansbach. 

ASYLUM-SEEKERS KILLED

Both attackers, asylum-seekers who arrived over the past two years, were killed.

Separately, last month, a shooting by a German-Iranian 18-year-old claimed 10 lives at a shopping mall in Munich, including the assailant's, while a 21-year-old Syrian asylum seeker fatally stabbed a pregnant woman with a machete and injured several others at a restaurant in Reutlingen. The motive behind these attacks remain unclear, though officials claim that Islamic extremism is not suspected.

Yet, Interior Minister De Maizière, who also wants to make "promoting terrorism" a criminal offense, said many people are now worried about further violence.

He stressed that while "no one can guarantee absolute security, authorities must do what is possible." But he backed off from plans to ban the all-body veil worn by some Muslim women, known as the Burka, saying the measure is "constitutionally problematic" and that "you can't ban everything that you reject."

The minister said he was limiting himself to proposals that could be implemented quickly and are considered "politically reasonable" for the center-left junior party in the conservative government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. De Maizière, who is a member of Merkel's party, the Christian Democrats, said he hopes that many of the measures can be introduced before a national election expected in September next year.

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Vatican City, Aug 11, 2016 / 09:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Thursday Pope Francis invited 21 Syrian refugees to join him for lunch at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, exchanging gifts, toys and drawings with the children.

The Syrian families were those brought by Pope Francis after his day-trip to Lesbos, Greece in April. Pope Francis brought the first group back to Rome with him on his flight April 16, and the second group arrived to Rome in mid-June.

During the meal, “both adults and children had an opportunity to speak with Pope Francis about the beginning of their lives in Italy,” an Aug. 11 communique from the Vatican read.

The Pope presented the children with toys and gifts and the children gathered around the Pope to give him a collection of their drawings.

Looks like @Pontifex has some new bff's: he read & give gifts to the Syrian children he lunched w today @oss_romano pic.twitter.com/xyD1eC7Ds5

— Elise Harris (@eharris_it) August 11, 2016 The first group of refugees, accompanied to Rome by Pope Francis in April, was made up of three Muslim families and numbered 12 people in total, including six children. Two of the families are from Damascus, and one is from Deir Azzor, which is now territory occupied by ISIS. Their homes had been bombed.

The second group, which arrived in Rome in June and included two Christians, was made up of six adults and three children. They are all Syrian citizens who had been living in the Kara Tepe camp on Lesbos after making the perilous boat ride from Turkey to the small Greek island.

All of these families are currently hosted by the Community of Sant’Egidio and were joined at lunch by the founder, Andrea Riccardi, and several other members of the community.

Tender moment from Pope Francis' lunch with Syrian refugees today https://t.co/cAZ7zcEJmL

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) August 11, 2016 Pope Francis and his Syrian guests were also joined by the Substitute Secretary of State, Archbishop Angelo Becciù and Dr. Domenico Giani, Commander of the Vatican Gendarmerie, and two gendarmes who assisted with the transfer of the families from Lesbos to Italy, according to the communique.

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Yei, South Sudan, Aug 11, 2016 / 01:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In the midst of an intense humanitarian crisis gripping his country, a South Sudanese bishop has called for collaboration between local political leadership and the international community in obtaining peace.

South Sudan saw a civil war break out in 2013 as a power struggle between its president, Salva Kiir, and vice-president, Riek Machar, who are of rival ethnic groups. A peace deal was reached last year, but fighting has continued in some places, with more than 300 killed in July.

Bishop Erkolano Lodu Tombe of Yei addressed the ongoing conflict at Christ the King Cathedral on Sunday.

According to the Catholic Radio Network, Bishop Lodu called on South Sudan's transitional government Aug. 7 to reach out to international bodies such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) and the African Union to achieve peace.

However, he warned against the tendency of international partners to force peace, instead of helping the nation in resolving the crisis and giving citizens hope for peace and safety.

Bishop Lodu's comments came after an Aug. 5 report from Igad that South Sudanese leadership has finally agreed to accept the deployment of a regional intervention force.

That report called the internal displacement of South Sudanese and the massive departure of refugees to neighboring countries “a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions.”

Igad also stated its condemnation of “the reported widespread sexual violence, including rape of women and young girls by armed men in uniform.”

While the scope of the regional intervention force to be deployed is not stated, it is expected to help implement a peace deal signed in August 2015 by Kiir and Machar.

The peace deal was ended in July when heavy fighting broke out in Juba, the capital, between the forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, loyal to Kiir, and the SPLA in Opposition, loyal to Machar.

Machar fled Juba amid the relapse of conflict, and Kiir appointed Taban Deng Gai, his mining minister, as acting vice president in Machar's stead on July 23.

The July fighting, according to Igad, resulted in a huge loss of lives and displacement of citizens.

South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. In its brief history it has been marred by an ethnically motivated civil war, with the Dinka supporters of Kiir fighting against the Nuer followers of Machar.

 

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