Six In The Morning Monday September 7

European migrant crisis: Austria, Germany near tipping point

By Kimberly Hutcherson, Melissa Gray and Frederik Pleitgen, CNN

Updated 0642 GMT (1342 HKT) September 7, 2015 | Video Source: CNN

Austria says it can't keep this up much longer. Germany says it can't, either. 

After absorbing more than 12,000 refugees, Austria wants to see a gradual reduction in the numbers of refugees coming through, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said. 

"We have always said this is an emergency situation, which we have to handle quickly and humanely," Faymann said Sunday. "We have helped more than 12,000 people in an acute situation. We must now step by step go from emergency measures to a normality that is humane and complies with the law."

New Zealand bans award-winning teenage novel after outcry from Christian group

Ted Dawe’s Into the River is banned from shops, schools and distribution across the country with fines of up to $10,000 for those ignoring the order

Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin

Monday 7 September 2015 09.44 BST

An award-winning young adult novel has become the first book in more than 20 years to be banned in New Zealand after an outcry from a Christian group.

Ted Dawe’s award-winning Into the River has been banned from sale or supply by the Film and Literature Board of Review (FLBR) after a complaint from conservative lobby group Family First.

It is currently being pulled from libraries, schools and bookshops around the country.

Family First objected to sexually explicit content, drug use and the use of a slang term for female genitalia.

The interim restriction took effect on 3 September and will be reviewed to decide on a permanent classification within the next month.

ROBERT FISK

Hungary must look to its own history for migrant guidance

Once, the country was quite happy to send those it disliked to Germany...

Funny what a weather-vane the Second World War becomes in the hands of politicians and journalists. Europe faces the biggest refugee crisis since the 1939-1945 conflict, we are solemnly told. And there are the Hungarian police standing before the crowds of poor and desperate souls – most of them Muslims – outside Budapest’s main railway station, where even ticket-holders could not board the trains. Funny how the old memory buds don’t kick in at this point. For just 71 years ago, the Hungarian police were forcing tens of thousands of Jews on to trains out of Budapest, desperate to get them to Auschwitz on time. Adolf Eichmann was setting the rules.

And don’t think that the Hungarians were just unwilling tools of Germany’s march into Hungary towards the end of the war. The Hungarian police actually escorted the Jewish deportation trains right up to the border of Austria – which was then part of the Großdeutsches Reich – so that the Nazi authorities could speed them on to the extermination camps. The Jews to be liquidated – of Hungary’s Jewish population, 565,000 were to be murdered in the Holocaust – came not just from the cities but from the smallest of Hungarian towns, even from the rail junction of Bicske which was only captured by the advancing Soviet army in early 1945. It seems that only three Jews from Bicske survived.

Russia returns to the dark ages

The destruction of historic statues and works of art by offended religious believers in Russia has sparked outrage. But as Fiona Clark argues, the release of the offenders is most offensive.

Over the past couple of weeks there have been two notable attacks by religious fanatics on works of art that they feel are offensive to their religious beliefs.

One has been likened to the acts of the "Islamic State" group as it involved the destruction of a bas relief in St. Petersburg of Mephistopheles - a demon like figure that had been in situ for more than 100 years in the city known for its architectural grandeur and works of art.

The offending winged devil made famous by Faust, was apparently facing the site of a new church - a fact that could not be tolerated by the offendee who claimed to be a member of a Cossack based group in St. Petersburg, although official Cossack groups have denied any connection to the attack.

Mother of slain Palestinian toddler succumbs to arson injuries

September 7, 2015 - 6:59PM

Ori Lewis

Jerusalem: The mother of a Palestinian toddler killed in a July arson attack in the Israeli-occupied West Bank died on Monday of her burns, the third fatality after her husband succumbed to his injuries last month.

Soon after the announcement by medical authorities, Palestinians rallied in the family's home village of Duma, calling for a "day of rage".

Suspected Jewish Israeli attackers torched the family's home in the northern West Bank on July 31, killing the 18-month-old boy, Ali. His father Saad Dawabshe died on August 9 and his mother Riham, 27, four weeks later.

Kurdish group claims deadly attack on Turkish troops

Fighter jets launch retaliatory strikes after PKK announces deaths of 15 soldiers in ambush in southeastern province.

07 Sep 2015 04:19 GMT

Several Turkish soldiers have been killed and others wounded in a major attack in Hakkari province carried out by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), according to both the Kurdish group and official Turkish media.

There was no immediate official casualty toll but the Turkish military immediately scrambled fighter jets to strike PKK targets after Sunday's ambush in the country's southeast.

The official Anatolia news agency said the attack on two military vehicles in a convoy in Daglica in Hakkari, a known PKK stronghold, had left several soldiers dead and others wounded.

Roadside bombs were detonated as the convoy passed, followed by a gun battle, Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Bodrum, said.

Several Turkish soldiers have been killed and others wounded in a major attack in Hakkari province carried out by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), according to both the Kurdish group and official Turkish media.

There was no immediate official casualty toll but the Turkish military immediately scrambled fighter jets to strike PKK targets after Sunday's ambush in the country's southeast.

The official Anatolia news agency said the attack on two military vehicles in a convoy in Daglica in Hakkari, a known PKK stronghold, had left several soldiers dead and others wounded.

Several Turkish soldiers have been killed and others wounded in a major attack in Hakkari province carried out by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), according to both the Kurdish group and official Turkish media.

There was no immediate official casualty toll but the Turkish military immediately scrambled fighter jets to strike PKK targets after Sunday's ambush in the country's southeast.

The official Anatolia news agency said the attack on two military vehicles in a convoy in Daglica in Hakkari, a known PKK stronghold, had left several soldiers dead and others wounded.