Life and Death in Austria [MEGATHREAD]

[dps]

1. Parachute horse artillery

On skis!

[CountDeMoney]

1. Parachute horse artillery - cool concept (I know they probably don't have horses anymore)

People's Liberation Army Reserve Force, 1994.

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun carried by a horse that has been pushed out of an airplane."--Mao

[dps]

I'm reminded of what a wargame designer once said about researching the British Army:  "The first thing you have to do is put out of your mind what a unit is called, and instead look at what its OOB shows it to be."  With any army, you have to look at whether or not units actually has the equipment their OOB says they should have (lots of times, they don't--for example, many Soviet Tank divisions in mid-1941 could be more accurately called "bunches of men who are supposed to have been trained in armored warfare and would have eventually been equipped with tanks if the Germans had waited another year or so to invade"), but in the British Army, something called the 5th Tank Regiment might be anything from a searchlight battery to a field kitchen to a corps HQ.  Ok, that's an exaggeration, but less of one than you might think.

[Malthus]

Two things:
1. Parachute horse artillery - cool concept (I know they probably don't have horses anymore)
2. This seems like a weird assault - did he walk around town peeking into windows looking for a sleeping little girl? I didn't see anything on whether the soldier knew the family, or on which floor he broke in.

I'm impressed by the dad.

I always heard that airborne soldiers were elite.

So this dad caught an elite soldier (allegedly) assaulting his daughter - and beat the shit outta him ("beat him bloody"), then held him for the cops.

[Syt]

One of the tourist shirts you can buy here is "No kangaroos in Austria" in reference to the similarity of names between Austria and Australia.

Currently, though, a kangaroo is on the loose. Three escaped recently in Upper Austria. Two have been caught, but the third seems to enjoy its new found freedom. It keeps coming to lady's garden, though. She keeps plying him with food, hoping to make the recapture easier.







According to experts the animal can survive the winter without problem, so it's in no immediate danger.

[CountDeMoney]

One of the tourist shirts you can buy here is "No kangaroos in Austria" in reference to the similarity of names between Austria and Australia.

http://youtu.be/VRIUbFLjtX0

[Syt]

 

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20150219/nazi-ritual-murder-suspect-mentally-ill

Nazi ritual murder suspect 'mentally ill'

The investigation into the brutal murder of a young woman in Saalfelden, Pinzgau last autumn has uncovered more evidence that it was a ritual killing committed by an insane man, according to the accused's lawyer.

The body of 20-year-old Mirela B., a Bosnian-born waitress, was found in pool of blood in the bathroom of the suspect's mother's apartment on October 9th.

She had been stabbed multiple times. It was reported that she had Nazi symbols carved into her skin, had been raped, and that the suspect had eaten parts of her body.

A 21-year-old man was found at the crime scene and arrested for her murder. He is currently in Salzburg prison, awaiting trial. 

His lawyer, Liane Hirschbrich, told the Austrian Press Agency that a forensic examination of the crime suggests that her client was suffering from "delusions" which led him to commit the gruesome slaying.

She added that his mental state was even worse than previously suspected. "The findings indicate that this is an offense that no normal human being could commit," she said. "My client is sick, and he needs to be admitted to a special institution where his mental illness can be treated," she said.

However, according to Salzburg-based neuro-psychiatrist Ernst Griebnitz the young man has a severe personality disorder but is sane, and fit to stand trial.

Hirschbrich is demanding that another well-known forensic psychiatrist, Reinhard Haller, should examine her client.

The suspect was drunk when he was arrested and was apparently friends with Mirela. He confessed to her murder.

[Tamas]

So is the psycho killer per citizen rate drastically higher in Austria than anywhere else, or what?

[The Brain]

So is the psycho killer per citizen rate drastically higher in Austria than anywhere else, or what?

They are still traumatized by the Nazi aggression.

[Syt]

So is the psycho killer per citizen rate drastically higher in Austria than anywhere else, or what?

We don't get many murders, but the ones we do get have a chance of being noteworthy.

[Malthus]

The suspect was drunk when he was arrested and was apparently friends with Mirela.

Apparently not. 

[Alcibiades]

Two things:
1. Parachute horse artillery - cool concept (I know they probably don't have horses anymore)
2. This seems like a weird assault - did he walk around town peeking into windows looking for a sleeping little girl? I didn't see anything on whether the soldier knew the family, or on which floor he broke in.

I'm impressed by the dad.

I always heard that airborne soldiers were elite.

So this dad caught an elite soldier (allegedly) assaulting his daughter - and beat the shit outta him ("beat him bloody"), then held him for the cops.

You would be mistaken.

[Syt]

Oops.

http://www.thelocal.at/20150224/kazakh-ex-diplomat-aliyev-found-dead-in-vienna-jail

Kazakh ex-diplomat found dead in Vienna jail

Rakhat Aliyev, an opponent and former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president, was found dead Tuesday in an apparent suicide at an Austrian jail just before he was due to testify against alleged extortion, authorities said.

Aliyev, 52, used strips of gauze bandages to hang himself from a coat hook in the bathroom of his Josefstadt jail cell, which he occupied alone, said Peter Prechtl, head of prison administration.

The businessman and former diplomat had been in custody in Vienna since June after turning himself in to face charges he killed two bank managers from Kazakhstan who disappeared in 2007 and whose bodies were found four years later.

Aliyev has denied the accusations and was due to go on trial in April.

A Kazakh court had already convicted him of murder in the case and sentenced him to 40 years in prison.

However Aliyev sought refuge in Austria, which refused to extradite him back to Kazakhstan saying he would not get a fair trial.

Before falling from grace in 2007, the former Kazakh ambassador to Austria was married to Dariga, the eldest daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who holds an iron grip on the ex-Soviet republic.

Aliyev's death came as he was to testify on Tuesday in the trial of two inmates he alleged had demanded payment or they would kill him and make it look like a suicide.

"There is a presumption that someone killed him," said Stefan Prochaska, one of Aliyev's lawyers.

Another Aliyev lawyer, Klaus Ainedter, said he has "considerable doubts" his client committed suicide and demanded a full investigation.

Prechtl told the Austrian Press Agency that Aliyev had requested a single cell in the prison's hospital unit. He was not considered a suicide risk and was graded "green" in the corrections department system, which meant he could be left unattended.

Aliyev blamed his fall from grace on his presidential ambitions which led to him becoming a fierce opponent of Nazarbayev.

However the Kazakh opposition never accepted Aliyev into their fold, alleging he had participated in government political repression since the 1990s.

Nazarbayev has been at the head of Kazakhstan since its independence in 1991 and since 2010 has held the title "leader of the nation" which gives him lifetime decision-making powers over the country's major policies.

[Syt]

Also, Wild West in Vienna!

http://www.thelocal.at/20150224/two-injured-after-vienna-shootings

Two injured after Vienna shootings

Police were in a shoot-out with an armed burglar in Floridsdorf on Monday evening after catching him and an accomplice breaking and entering a business in Helene-Richter-Gasse, not far from the border with Lower Austria.

Witnesses reported seeing a massive firefight at around 7.45pm, with at least ten shots fired.

One of the burglars, a 47-year-old Austrian man, was critically injured after being hit twice in the upper body and once in the leg.

It has since emerged that he is a convicted double murderer who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a policeman and a drug dealer in 1989.

He was released in 2009 after a psychologist classified him as harmless.

Police spokesman Paul Eidenberger said that he fired two shots at the police, who then pursued him through a housing estate.

After shooting and injuring him police approached him as he lay on the ground and he threatened to detonate a hand grenade.

However, the officers overpowered him and seized a gun and the grenade. None of the officers involved were injured. The man's 63-year-old accomplice did not resist arrest.

The injured man was taken to Vienna General Hospital and is reported to be in a coma, but doctors said his life is no longer in danger.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a 31-year-old Serbian man is in a critical condition after being shot in front of a Billa supermarket in Liesing on Monday evening at about 6.30pm in Purkytgasse.

A police spokesman said that a fight broke out among two men over a USB stick. One man shot the other at close range with a handgun and then ran off, leaving the seriously injured man lying on the ground.

Police tracked the gunman with helicopters, using thermal imaging. They surrounded a house but the man was able to escape.