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Kenworth Truck Company / December 27, 2016 Kenworth’s factory-installed, battery based no-idle system is designed to help long-haul fleets in hot and cold climates to reduce idling time and fuel usage without compromising performance. .

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The issue that Mack distributor principals are talking about now is they no longer have a big engine offering. While their North American competition offers the superb DD15, and DD16, and Cummins has a revised ISX15 (i.e. X15), North American Mack (and Volvo dealers) now abruptly find themselves with the D13/MP8 as their largest engine option. Now they flat out do not compete in the 15/16-liter market segment. The Titan was a sales disaster, but the big news is the loss of the D16/MP10 in North America. Volvo and its incompetent Mack brand management flubbed the U.S. market Titan idea from day one. Looking back at the RW6 and RW7 product, we of course sold 10 RW6s for every one RW7. Although I supported the idea of the Mack brand having a RW7-like truck for severe service, it first should have relaunched a RW6 "Super-Liner" product where there is: 1) a greater need, 2) an opportunity to juice up the brand again, and 3) far greater volume. I also didn't like the way the US market Titan was always shown pimped with tacky looking chrome trim that the Australian version never had. And as has been noted, the cheap chrome trim didn't hold up. As has been mentioned, the design of the Titan was created to meet the needs of Australia. For the US market, it should have had more "adaption". In summary, Volvo should have introduced an on-road US market Super-Liner III.........before launching a low volume Titan. The failure of the US market Titan all goes back to the incompetent Mack brand management in Greensboro, none of whom have a background in the truck industry. As Volvo brand US market sales continue to rise while the Mack brand remains stagnant, the future of the latter is looking more and more bleak. Mack brand dealers nationwide are missing deals right and left because their quotes are $10,000 to $15,000 higher than competing makes. Volvo is pricing the Mack brand out of the market. One can't help but wonder if Volvo is purposely doing so.

Syrian refugee who asked ISIS for €180,000 for bombings in Europe arrested in Germany RT / January 2, 2017 A Syrian asylum seeker has been detained in Germany on suspicion of asking ISIS for money to buy and booby trap cars to kill a large number of "non-Muslim" people in “Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.” The 38-year old man was detained early Saturday by German special forces in his flat in the city of Saarbrucken in the Federal State of Saarland. He was arrested after Saarland police received a tip off from the Federal Criminal police. According to the Prosecutor’s office, the man in custody contacted Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group’s contact person in December “who he knew was in a position to obtain IS money for terror financing.” The asylum seeker apparently “asked him [IS contact person] to provide €180,000 so he [the suspect] can use the money to buy vehicles, which he planned to bobby trap with explosives,” a statement by the Prosecutor’s office reads. The Syrian asylum seeker planned to buy eight cars - €22,500 each - booby trap the vehicles and drive them into the crowds to “kill a large number of non-Muslim people.” He reportedly said 400 to 500 kilograms (882 to 1,100 pounds) of explosives would be placed in each car. According to a separate statement by police in Saarland, the suspect asked for the IS money to finance an “unspecified terrorist attack” in “Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.” Hugo Muller, Deputy Commissioner for the Saarland police said that the Syrian man planned to repaint the vehicles as police cars. "In his respective communications with contacts linked to IS, he [the suspect] offered or suggested to repaint cars to make them look similar to police cars, load them with explosives, position them in a crowd of people and then detonate them," Muller said. The 38-year old entered Germany in 2014 and after applying for asylum and was a granted a temporary residence permit.

Thank you my friend. It was very nice, but I'm glad to be back.

Automotive News / January 2, 2017 Ford Motor Co. is starting the new year with a new name for its commercial dealer network. The vehicle manufacturer's old Business Preferred Network -- roughly 650 dealerships nationwide that sell commercial trucks and vans -- are now known as Commercial Vehicle Centers. The rebranding effort also includes expanded service and enhanced training at dealerships. "We felt compelled to step back and analyze our dealer network program in this space," John Ruppert, Ford's general manager of commercial vehicle sales and marketing, told Automotive News, adding: "There was truly an opportunity to rebrand the network to be more descriptive of what this is all about." The enhanced training covers sales, service, parts and finance. It's meant to boost dealership staffers' knowledge of the commercial vehicle business. Participating dealers must meet requirements such as stocking a minimum number of commercial vehicles, subscribing to a commercial tools ordering system and providing a minimum number of service hours. Dealers are launching the program now, and are adding signage to their showrooms. In the first half of 2016, Ford's commercial business rose 9.6 percent from a year earlier and accounted for 30 percent of the overall commercial market, according to the most recent data by IHS Markit. This fall, Ford launched a redesigned Super Duty, following updates in recent years to its F-650 and F-750 medium-duty trucks and its Transit and Transit Connect vans. "It's the perfect time," said Tim Stoehr, Ford's general fleet marketing manager. "We've just finished a period of the largest investment we've ever made in our commercial products."

Without Pearl Harbor, a different world? By Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick / December 9, 2016 On the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, we've been asked to reflect on what might have happened if Japan had not launched an attack on the US fleet on December 7, 1941. The question is both interesting and relevant at a time when Japan experiences a military resurgence and America's provocative Asia "pivot" is being rethought by the incoming and often unpredictable Trump administration. Trump's rash statements about China, Japan, and South Korea have already roiled the waters throughout the region. A pretext for US to enter WWII The assault on Pearl Harbor was not only foolhardy, it was ultimately suicidal. Naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison dismissed it as "strategic imbecility." Many in Japan -- including most of the nine former prime ministers whom Japanese Emperor Hirohito met with a week prior to the attack -- had opposed it. Yet Gen. Hideki Tojo's government authorized the attack with the objective of destroying the US Pacific Fleet, which potentially could have blocked Japan's access to the resources of Southeast Asia. The Pearl Harbor attack, however, was only partly successful. Though Japanese forces caused significant damage to the US Fleet and killed 2,335 US troops and 68 civilians, their attack was not fatal. The Fleet's three aircraft carriers weren't in Pearl Harbor when the attack occurred and many of the damaged ships and planes were able to be repaired. This would come back to haunt Japan the next June, when US forces, including two of those carriers, took out four Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway and turned the Pacific war in the US favor. The Japanese attack had given President Roosevelt the pretext he sought to bring the US into the war. Americans may have overwhelmingly favored the Allies over the despised Nazis and sympathized with the plight of Chinese being brutalized by Japan, but few wanted to get drawn into another war. World War I had left a bitter taste in their mouths. Not only had it not been "the war to end all wars" or the war to make the world "safe for democracy," it had enriched the greedy bankers and arms manufacturers -- the "merchants of death" as they were then known -- and done nothing to end colonial exploitation. By 1941, Roosevelt surreptitiously maneuvered the US into confrontations with both Germany, which had conquered much of Europe, and Japan, which had seized Manchuria and Indochina and was waging a vicious war against China. At Newfoundland in August 1941, Roosevelt told Churchill that he "would wage war, but not declare it" and do everything he could to "force an 'incident' that could lead to war." His overt support for Britain against Germany and decision to halt desperately needed exports of oil, metal, and other resources to Japan proved sufficient. One day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt addressed Congress, which approved his war resolution with one dissenting vote. Three days later, Germany and Italy, Japan's allies, declared war against the United States. The world would never be the same. But here's how it could've been different. US and Japan on a collision course for years The attack on Pearl Harbor has loomed large in the American imagination for several reasons. Americans considered it a cowardly "sneak" attack because the Japanese had not declared war against the US. It occurred on American territory -- the US had forcibly annexed [stolen] Hawaii in 1898 -- and revealed a stunning failure of US intelligence, heightening fears of US vulnerability in a dangerous world. It also triggered ugly discrimination against Japanese-American citizens and Japanese immigrants alike inside the United States. Almost 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put into internment camps until the end of the war. But had the Japanese not attacked Pearl Harbor, the Pacific War would largely have evolved along similar lines. The US and Japan had been on a collision course for months if not years. With or without the attack on Pearl Harbor, the two countries were heading for war. What most Americans forget is that it was not only Pearl Harbor that Japan attacked on December 7, 1941. As Roosevelt told Congress on December 8, Japan had also attacked the British colonies of Hong Kong and Malaya, the US colony in the Philippines, and US holdings in Guam, Wake Island, and Midway Island. The attack on Malaya actually preceded the assault on Pearl Harbor by more than an hour. In addition, though not mentioned by Roosevelt, Japan invaded Thailand. It also attacked Singapore, which was then part of British Malaya. US officials had broken Japanese diplomatic codes in August 1940, enabling them to monitor Japan's war planning. They knew an attack was coming. They just didn't think it was coming at Pearl Harbor. The most likely targets in their minds were the oil-rich Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Malaya, and the Philippines. Japan's attack on US bases in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, and Midway Island would have been more than sufficient provocation for a US president eager to get the US into the war. In the Philippines alone, the cost of the American defeat was staggering, resulting in the death or capture of 23,000 American and perhaps 100,000 Filipino military personnel. Soviets deserve lion's share of the credit for victory in Europe While US involvement was absolutely crucial to Allied victory in the Pacific War, it was less so in the defeat of the European Axis powers. In fact, had the US not entered the European war, the outcome would have been the same. By the time the US and Britain finally initiated their promised second front in France a year and a half after Roosevelt publicly announced it would begin, the Russians had already turned the tide and German forces were in full retreat across Europe. Up to that point, the US and British had been confronting some 10 German divisions combined while the Soviets were confronting nearly 200 by themselves. Forcing Germany to fight on two fronts certainly expedited the end of the war, but it didn't change the outcome. Contrary to American mythology, the Soviets deserve the lion's share of the credit for victory in Europe. And they suffered immensely in bringing this about. In quantitative terms, the 27 million Soviets who died at the hands of Germany is the equivalent of one 9/11 a day every day for 27 years. It is the equivalent of one Pearl Harbor a day every day for 30 years. Despite Churchill's hatred of Bolshevism, the British owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Soviets, without whom they might be speaking German today. They also owe a huge debt to the Americans without whom they might be speaking Russian. It is interesting to contemplate how the face of Europe would have been different if the US had remained the "arsenal" of the Allied powers without actually joining the war. It was fortuitous that Germany and Italy declared war against the US on December 11, 1941 without which Roosevelt would have had to find another justification for American entry. Where would the line between the Soviets and the West have been drawn if the US had not entered the European war? How might the Soviet economy have developed if Soviet leaders had access to the greater potential wealth of West Germany and France? Might socialism have appeared a more viable option in the postwar world if the US was not in a position to help rebuild the depression- and war-shattered capitalist economies? What if Roosevelt had kept Henry Wallace as vice president? There are some other interesting counterfactuals that can be explored regarding the Second World War, some of which we do look at in our documentary film and book series The Untold History of the United States. What would have happened if Roosevelt had retained his visionary and controversial vice president Henry Wallace on the ticket in 1944 instead of the much smaller minded Harry Truman? Despite the opposition of the conservative Democratic Party bosses, Roosevelt had the moral authority and political muscle to insist upon Wallace remaining on the ticket as his wife and children and the majority of Americans desired. The Gallup Poll -- a US public opinion survey -- released on July 20, 1944, the first day of the Democratic Party convention in Chicago, reported that 65 percent of potential Democratic voters wanted the enormously popular Wallace back on the ticket as vice president. Two percent wanted Truman. The internal machinations that resulted in Truman's selection are a sordid tale with which few Americans are familiar. Had Wallace become president upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945 instead of Truman, there would have been no atomic bombings of Japan and possibly no Cold War. Wallace envisioned friendship between the Americans and the Soviets and a healthy competition between the two systems in which each would strive to show that it was better suited to serve the needs of humanity. He would have delivered on the $10 billion credit that Roosevelt had dangled before the Soviets to help them rebuild from a war that had turned much of the country into a wasteland. The positive repercussions that might have had in Soviet-occupied Europe are incalculable. It is also worth noting that Wallace was a fierce opponent of colonialism, who openly deplored the British and French empires, leading Churchill and the French to pressure Roosevelt to replace him on the ticket. Roosevelt largely shared Wallace's views regarding empire. He condemned British rule in Gambia, calling it "the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my life." He felt similarly about Dutch exploitation of the East Indies and French rule in Indochina, insisting he would not let the French back in after the war. On some level, he understood that the Pacific War was rooted in imperial rivalries, commenting privately, "Don't think for a minute that Americans would be dying in the Pacific...if it hadn't been for the short-sighted greed of the French and the British and the Dutch." He promised "immediate" independence for the Philippines once Japanese troops were ousted shortly before his death. Roosevelt often wavered on this issue, but Wallace never did. He was steadfast in his hatred of colonial exploitation and the racism that justified it. Think of the lives that could have been saved and the misery that could have been avoided if colonialism had been ended peacefully in the immediate aftermath of the war. The world without the atomic bombings A second counterfactual is what would have happened if World War II had ended without the atomic bombs being used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan? American mythology holds that the two bombs ended the war and, by obviating the American invasion of Japan, humanely saved millions of American and Japanese lives. According to defenders of the atomic bombing, the cost, by 1950, of 200,000 dead in Hiroshima and 140,000 dead in Nagasaki was a small price to pay. The evidence is overwhelming, as we show in Untold History, that it was the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, South Sakhalin, the Kurile Islands, and Korea, which began at midnight on August 8, 1945 that precipitated the Japanese surrender and not the atomic bombs. US intelligence had been forecasting such an outcome for months and Truman acknowledged that the Soviet entry would be decisive. At Potsdam on July 17, he wrote in his diary, Stalin "will be in the Jap war on August 15. Fini Japs when that comes about." He characterized the intercepted July 18 cable as "the telegram from the Jap emperor asking for peace." He knew the end was near and the bombs weren't necessary. If the bombs had not been used in the war, might the US and the USSR have avoided the nuclear arms race that the atomic bombings set in motion? Soviet leaders, knowing full well that the bombs weren't needed to defeat Japan, interpreted their use as a warning of the devastation that the US would wreak on the Soviets if they interfered with US postwar plans. We've lived with the threat of the extinction of life on this planet ever since. Japan's fate was sealed when the Soviets invaded as the official US Navy Museum in Washington, DC acknowledges. The Japanese hurried to surrender to the Americans while they still had the chance, knowing that a Soviet takeover would spell the end of not only the emperor system but of the capitalism that supported it. At first, the US occupation was relatively benign and in some ways even enlightened. The US imposed Japan's peace constitution, which disavowed the sovereign right of war and disallowed the retention of offensive military forces. It is those forward-thinking principles that the Shinzo Abe administration is presently trying to eviscerate. If the Soviets had had a greater hand in the occupation, Japan might have become a Cold War battleground as Korea did. Would the Russians have been torn between the conflicting pressures to rebuild Japan and to loot it that they faced in Germany? The animosity they felt toward the Japanese paled in comparison to their hatred and mistrust of the Germans, who had so much Soviet blood on their hands. As we know, the US quickly abandoned its progressive vision for postwar Japan and sought to rebuild it as the military and economic outpost of Western capitalist interests in the volatile Asia-Pacific region. Either way, Japanese cars, electronics, and sushi were fated to transport, connect, and feed the planet. The world would be better off, however, if the rise of Japanese militarism could have been thwarted or further delayed. World War II with its vast bloodletting, incredible toll of human life, deployment of technology to maximize killing and destruction, and prominent display of the ugly side of human nature, replete with racism, xenophobia, and ethnic and religious bigotry, serves as a cautionary tale of what happens when we unleash the forces of fear, hatred, and nationalism. Some of those same forces are rampant in the world today. Pearl Harbor should serve as a reminder. But we must be careful to draw the right lessons to avoid a repeat of the horrors that engulfed the planet more than 75 years ago.

WLOX / December 24, 2016 Kyandrea Thomas, 34, was arrested Saturday, December 24 by the New Roads Police Department after throwing her newborn infant into a bathroom trash can at the Walmart in New Roads. Thomas was also arrested in 2009 in connection with the hot car death of a toddler. Thomas gave birth to a baby girl in the store’s bathroom before throwing her in the trash and leaving the store. Pointe Coupee Chief Deputy Coroner Joe Gannon said had police not arrived when they did, the baby would be dead. Police say it is not the first time Thomas has been arrested. "I think as the story unfolds, you'll be surprised at what you find," Gannon said. Thomas was linked to another horrible crime in 2009. Thomas and another woman, Michelle Veals, were both indicted on negligent homicides charges in connection with the death of Damiyn McElveen, 3. Criminal charges for the owner of the daycare, Wanda Connor, were dropped in 2012. Thomas and Veals were both sentenced to five years of probation and 10,000 hours of community service after pleading guilty in the case. The two women were employed at a daycare called Wanda's Kids World in Baton Rouge. The young girl was found dead in a van on July 1, 2009 after being left inside for six hours with temperatures outside of 98 degrees. The daycare was closed following McElveen's death. Thomas faces attempted second degree murder charges for abandoning her newborn in Walmart.

Associated Press / December 24, 2016 An infant died in her bassinet of dehydration and starvation three or four days after her parents died, also at home, from drug overdoses. Jason Chambers, 27, Chelsea Cardaro, 19, and 5-month-old Summer Chambers were found dead Thursday in Kernville, about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. Cambria County coroner Jeffrey Lees said that the parents had been dead for about a week when the discovery was made. The infant died three or four days after them, he said. Jason Chambers was found on the first floor, and Cardaro in a second-floor bathroom. The infant died in her bassinet in a second-floor bedroom. Heroin overdoses are suspected and there was evidence of drugs at the scene. Johnstown police Capt. Chad Miller said emergency responders had been called to the home in November to treat the man after an overdose.

The Washington Post / December 23, 2016 Federal ethics experts for former Democratic and Republican administrations warned Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump is creating a major conflict of interest by allowing his Virginia vineyard to seek special temporary visas for foreign workers. Trump, who is president of the Charlottesville vineyard that applied this month for H2 visas for six foreign workers, will soon run the U.S. government, which determines whether to grant those visas. Trump Vineyard Estates LLC filed a request Dec. 2 with the Labor Department for six H2 visas, which permit U.S. employers to hire foreigners for seasonal jobs. The request was posted online by the Labor Department on Wednesday. The workers are needed to prune the vines on the estate, the Labor application said, and they would be paid $10.72 per hour for a 40-hour, six-day week. The jobs are anticipated to last from January to June. During the presidential campaign, Trump consistently argued that the federal government should limit immigration to protect American jobs. The Trump vineyard applied for 19 temporary visas for foreign workers in 2014, 2015 and this year, before the most recent request, according to federal records. In addition, Trump has sought to hire 513 foreign workers since 2013 for some of his other businesses, including for his Palm Beach home, Mar-a-Lago Club. Kerry Woolard, the Trump Winery’s senior manager who signed the Labor request, refused to comment. Although Trump, during a campaign event in May said of the winery, “I own it 100 percent, no mortgage, no debt,” the winery’s website says it is a registered trade name of Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC and is “not owned, managed or affiliated with Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their affiliates.” The winery is on land owned by Trump Vineyard Estates LLC. Trump reported in his campaign’s federally required financial disclosure statement in May 2016 that he was president of that entity.

EPA Certifies Bi-Fuel CNG System for GM, Isuzu Cabovers Heavy Duty Trucking / December 21, 2016 AGA Systems has received EPA certification of its EcoSync HD Bi-Fuel CNG alternative-fuel system for the 2017 General Motors Vortec 6.0L engine that's used in the Isuzu NPR and Chevrolet Low Cab Forward trucks. AGA Systems is awaiting EPA approval of its EcoSync HD dedicated CNG alternative-fuel system, which is expected in January. Both systems are in production, and the company is taking and orders. Advanced EcoSync technology utilizes the factory electronic control module with advanced safety and diagnostics capabilities and eliminates the need for a last-generation slave-ECU for CNG operation.

Scania Group Press Release / December 22, 2016 "V-8s.......That's why we buy Scania" Harry Nilsen, Sørum Transport (Click on the "CC" button for English subtitles) .

The Washington Post / December 22, 2016 When Anis Amri washed up on European shores in a migrant boat in April 2011, he landed on the windswept Italian island of Lampedusa already a fugitive. Sought in his native Tunisia for hijacking a van with a gang of thieves, the frustrated Italians would jail him for arson and violent assault at his migrant reception center for minors on the isle of Sicily. There, his family says, the boy who once drank alcohol — and never went to mosque — suddenly got religion. He began to pray, asking his family to send him religious books. The Italian Bureau of Prisons submitted a report to a government ­anti-terrorism commission on Amri’s rapid radicalization, warning that he was embracing dangerous ideas of Islamist ­extremism and had threatened Christian inmates. The Italians tried to deport Amri but couldn’t. They sent his fingerprints and photo to the Tunisian consulate, but the authorities there refused to recognize Amri as a citizen. The Italians could not even establish his true identity. Italy’s solution: After four years in jail, they released him anyway — giving him seven days to leave the country. On Monday, Amri, now 24 and with previously known links to Islamist extremists, drove a truck into a crowded Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 and wounding dozens. Germany had tried to deport Amri, too, though Tunisia long refused to take him back. His case suggests two critical realities of modern terrorism that present major new challenges, especially in Europe. The cumbersome and flawed system of deportation and asylum — mixed with open borders — has made it exceedingly easy for radicalized Islamists to operate on the continent. Yet Amri is also the latest suspect to have emerged from a disconcerting counterterrorism gap in both Europe and the United States. In case after case — including that of the German Christmas market attack — authorities have come forward after the fact to say that they had enough cause to place the suspect under surveillance well before the violence. But never enough to move in for an arrest. This has been true of the majority of lone-wolf terrorism plots over the past several years. The Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, had been under FBI investigation for 10 months. The bureau had also tracked but had been unable to build a case against the Boston Marathon bombers or the plotters who targeted a contest to draw cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The same was true with Amri. Several months ago, during a surveillance operation monitoring radical Islamic preachers, German authorities intercepted a communication, which, in retrospect, appeared to forecast Amri’s violent intent. They would not disclose the precise wording, but German officials said the intercept was not straightforward enough to directly indicate an imminent threat. “He never made such a clear statement during this interaction, which could have led to the conclusion that he would become a martyr,” an official said. Amri fell into a dangerous gray zone — he was on the U.S. no-fly list a month ago, and Germans had linked him to a radical network led by Abu ­Walaa, a 32-year-old of Iraqi descent arrested in November on charges of recruiting and sending fighters from Germany to the Islamic State. Amri had also been under police surveillance for several months until September of this year, because he was suspected of planning a burglary in Berlin to finance the purchase of weapons. The suspicion wasn’t confirmed, however, and authorities found him guilty only of being a small-time drug dealer. “This kind of super-low-tech, improvised thing is hard,” said Rafael Bossong, research associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “The guy didn’t buy any weapons. He didn’t give off absolutely clear signals. The question is, how do you definitely prevent that?” Amri appears to have attempted to manipulate the German asylum system — an inundated bureaucracy clogged with a backlog of more than 400,000 cases following the arrival of 1.2 million asylum seekers over the course of the past two years. Amri claimed to be Egyptian and to have suffered persecution there when applying for asylum in Germany in April. When officials questioned him, he could not answer basic questions about his alleged home country. They checked their data system and found that he had been registered under several aliases and birthdays. By July, his asylum request was rejected. And yet, they could not deport him, because Tunisia initially refused to take him — issuing him a passport only last Monday, the same day as the attack. The way the system is designed, even had Amri fully cooperated, however, the Germans would not have had access to his criminal record in Italy. The computer databases used in Europe to vet migrants in the first instance does not include such data.

The Washington Post / December 23, 2016 A routine request for ID papers outside a deserted train station in Milan at 3 a.m. Friday led to a police shootout that killed the Tunisian fugitive radical Islamist wanted in the deadly Christmas market attack in Berlin. Amri traveled from Germany through France and into Italy after Monday night’s truck rampage in Berlin, and at least some of his journey was by rail. French officials refused to comment on his passage through France, which has increased surveillance on trains after recent attacks in France and Germany. Amri was caught seemingly by chance after eluding police for more than three days. “He was a ghost,” Milan police chief Antoio de Iesu said, adding that Amri was stopped because of basic police work, intensified surveillance “and a little luck.” Like other cities, Milan has been on heightened alert, with increased surveillance and police patrols. The two young officers who stopped Amri didn’t suspect he was the Berlin attacker, but rather grew suspicious because he was a North African man, alone outside a deserted train station in the dead of night. Amri, who had spent time in prison in Italy, was confronted by the officers in the Sesto San Giovanni neighborhood of Milan. He pulled a gun from his backpack after being asked to show his ID and was killed in an ensuing shootout. One of the officers, Christian Movio, 35, was shot in the right shoulder. His 29-year-old partner, Luca Scata, fatally shot Amri in the chest and is now a national hero. Amri had no ID or cellphone and carried only a pocket knife and the loaded .22-caliber pistol he used to shoot Movio. He was identified with fingerprints supplied by Germany. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Washington Post / December 23, 2016 On a drab, graffiti-sprayed square on the outskirts of Milan, two Italian police officers — one of them a trainee — spotted a suspicious young man with a backpack. It was 3:15 a.m. Friday. A thief? Possibly. They pulled him aside for an identity check. The officers did not know that the man had already fled hundreds of miles across the heart of Europe, evading an international dragnet. They confronted the 24-year old, who — using street slang Italian picked up in Sicilian jails — insisted that he was a traveler from Italy’s deep south. They told him to empty his backpack. Instead, Italian officials say, he pulled a gun. Anis Amri, a self-proclaimed ISIS soldier, rapidly shot one officer in the shoulder before ducking behind a car. “Poliziotti bastardi!” — police bastards! — Amri shouted. The second patrolman — trainee Luca Scatà, now an instant national hero — fired back, killing the suspect. Hours after the shootout, the Islamic State’s Amaq news agency released a video of Amri that was tauntingly filmed only 1.5 miles from the German Chancellery in Berlin. He seemed calm, yet certain in a black-hooded windbreaker on an iron bridge as he called on Muslims in Europe to rise up and strike at “crusaders.” “God willing, we will slaughter you like pigs,” he said in the video. He added: “To my brothers everywhere, fight for the sake of Allah. Protect our religion. Everyone can do this in their own way. People who can fight should fight, even in Europe.”

http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/47309-the-new-ck-4-and-fa-4-diesel-engine-oils/#comment-349108

The Washington Post / December 21, 2016 The radical Islamist sought in the deadly attack on a Berlin Christmas market — a 24-year-old Tunisian migrant — was the subject of a terrorism probe in Germany earlier this year and was not deported even though his asylum bid was rejected. The attacker, identified as Anis Amri, became the subject of a national manhunt after investigators discovered a wallet with his identity documents in the truck used in Monday’s attack that left 12 dead. Meanwhile, a clearer portrait took shape of the suspect, including accusations that he had contact with a prominent ISIS recruiter in Germany. German authorities issued a 100,000 euro ($105,000) reward for information leading to his capture, warning citizens not to approach the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Amri, whom they described as “violent and armed.” His record, however, further deepened the political fallout from Monday’s bloodshed — pointing to flaws in the German deportation system and putting a harsh light on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s humanitarian bid to open the nation’s doors to nearly 1 million asylum seekers last year. Dozens of terrorism suspects have slipped into Germany and neighboring nations posing as migrants. Amri came to Germany last year via Italy, where he had entered in 2012. He applied for German asylum but was rejected in June and later faced deportation. Amri was the subject of a terrorism probe on suspicion of “preparing a serious act of violent subversion,” and he had known links to Islamist extremists. Why a failed asylum seeker with such links and no passport was walking German streets is “the question 82 million Germans probably want an answer to,” said Rainer Wendt, Chairman of the German Police Union. He added: “How many more ticking time bombs are roaming around here? . . . We saw how much damage one person can do with a truck.” The dragnet for Amri is focused on the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia as well as Berlin, both places where the Tunisian suspect once lived. Police units had been due to stage raids Wednesday, but they remained mysteriously on hold. The interior minister in North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jäger, said the Tunisian man had bounced around Germany since arriving in July 2015, living in the southern city of Freiburg and later in Berlin. Although authorities have sought to accelerate the deportation of rejected asylum seekers this year, there is still a backlog in Germany of tens of thousands, many of whom are able to resist because their countries of origin refuse to take them back. Amri was one of them. [One doesn’t “ask” their origin countries to please take them back. Rather, you simply dump them back over the fence.] Amri had not been deported because — like many asylum seekers in Germany — he did not have a passport. The Tunisian government initially denied that he was a national and delayed issuing his passport. Pending his deportation, Amri had received a “toleration” status from the government. Amri’s new Tunisian passport finally arrived Wednesday. Authorities knew that Amri had “interacted” with Abu Walaa, a 32-year-old of Iraqi descent arrested in November on charges of recruiting and sending fighters from Germany to the Islamic State. Key evidence in Walaa’s case came from an Islamic State defector who had returned to Germany and accused Walaa of helping to recruit him and arrange his travel to Syria. “Anis Amri was engaging with extremist salafist circles in Germany,” a German security official said. Amri had also been under police surveillance for several months until September of this year, because he was suspected of planning a burglary in Berlin to finance the purchase of weapons. The suspicion wasn’t confirmed. He was found only to be a small-time drug dealer. Investigators discovered Amri’s documents in the cabin of the truck that barreled into the market. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday stood by his plans to establish a registry for Muslims and temporarily ban Muslim immigrants from the United States. When asked by a reporter whether he was rethinking or reevaluating them in the wake of a fresh terrorist attack in Berlin, Trump replied, “You know my plans.” Trump said the attack on a Berlin Christmas market had vindicated him. “All along, I’ve been proven to be right. One hundred percent correct,” Trump said. “What’s happening is disgraceful.” Amri had several aliases and was apparently born in the southern Tunisian desert town of Tataouine in 1992. Witnesses described one man fleeing the scene after the truck — packed with a cargo of steel — roared into revelers at a traditional Christmas market. One suspect, a Pakistani asylum seeker, was arrested Monday night, but authorities later released him because of a lack of evidence. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Wall Street Journal / January 5, 2017 At a regional parliamentary hearing Thursday, it was revealed that top German federal and regional security officials met seven times to discuss the potential danger posed by Tunisian [economic] migrant and radical Islamist Anis Amri in the year before he attacked a Berlin Christmas market, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps that failed to prevent the attack. Despite extensive surveillance, efforts to detain him repeatedly faltered because police and prosecutors believed they didn’t have evidence that would stand up in court. The emerging affair is raising questions about the ability of Germany, which was struck four times by Islamist terrorists last year, to prevent future attacks. It is also increasing pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel amid accusations that her decision to accept hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim migrants in 2015 might have put the country at risk. A surveillance-camera screenshot released this week by Belgian police shows Anis Amri at a Brussels train station on Dec. 21, two days after the attack in Berlin. “Does one have to sit in a truck before the state can act?” asked Social Democrat Andreas Bialas at the parliamentary hearing of North Rhine-Westphalia. “Nobody understands how a known extremist was able to walk around freely in this country,” said Gregor Golland, a regional lawmaker from the Christian Democratic Union. The illegal Tunisian immigrant—his asylum request was rejected in June 2016—rammed a truck into Christmas market in central Berlin on Dec. 19, leaving 12 people dead and dozens more injured. He escaped after German police first arrested the wrong man and then missed crucial evidence identifying Amri in a first sweep of the truck. Amri trekked across Europe and was eventually shot by Italian police four days later. The new details show that Amri tricked German authorities from the moment he entered the country in the summer of 2015, taking advantage of the administrative chaos amid a surge of asylum seekers that year and the lack of central database about the new arrivals to register himself across different states, using 14 different identities, sometimes leaving just a day between registrations. Authorities were first alerted to his radical Islamist tendencies in October that year. A roommate of Amri warned authorities that he had spotted photos on Amri’s cellphone showing people dressed in black and carrying weapons. An undercover agent infiltrated in the radical Islamist scene also reported Amri appeared to be serving as a messenger for a local Islamist network. In December 2015, having started to monitor him, authorities became aware that Amri had been expressing the desire to stage an attack in Germany and had searched online for instructions about how to build bombs. They were also tipped off that he was planning a robbery in Berlin to fund the purchase of weapons. Shortly thereafter, state and federal security officials gathered for the first time to discuss his case. In February, Amri was placed on a list of dangerous radical Islamists. That month alone, officials from the joint counterterrorism center in Berlin, an umbrella body for 40 federal and regional security agencies, discussed Amri’s case at three separate meetings. Four more meetings follow in April, in June and a last one in November, a month before the attack. Authorities concluded Amri didn’t pose an acute risk, officials testified Thursday. Undercover agents learned in February that Amri had moved to Berlin and was, again, speaking about wanting to die in the name of Allah and seeking other people to help him plan and conduct an attack. On the back of this latest information, federal prosecutors opened an fresh undercover investigation, monitoring his communications for six months through September. But after this failed to yield actionable evidence, investigators suspended their electronic surveillance. As recently as July, authorities discussed targeting Amri with a new legal provision that fast-tracks the deportation of someone seen as a particular terror risk. In a discussion involving a representative from the general prosecutor’s office, they decided against using the measure because they didn’t believe they could prove in court that Amri presented an acute danger, state Interior Ministry official Burkhard Schnieder said. In any case, officials said, a deportation effort using that legal provision in the summer wouldn’t have worked because Tunisian officials only confirmed Amri’s status as a Tunisian citizen in October. In September and October last year, police in North Rhine-Westphalia received tips from Tunisian and Moroccan security agencies that Amri supported Islamic State, had contact with Islamic State sympathizers in Berlin, and “wanted to carry out a project” in Germany, Dieter Schürmann, head of North Rhine-Westphalia’s criminal investigative agency LKA told lawmakers. But the warnings were too abstract to justify an arrest, he added. On a scale of one to eight, with one representing the strongest risk, Amri ranked five, Mr. Schürmann said. German security officials use the scale, which is based on an analysis of evidence against a suspect, to assess the threat posed by a suspect. But because authorities never had proof that he was putting in motion any intent or plan to attack, Amri didn’t register a higher score. In other words, what appeared like a mountain of evidence documenting Amri’s intention, officials said, didn’t satisfy German courts’ requirements to detain him on suspicion of planning an attack or even being a passive member of a foreign terrorist organization—a criminal offense under German law. “What authorities knew was hearsay. That isn’t enough to arrest someone. You need to convince a judge,” Mr. Jäger said. He said many of the 548 potentially dangerous radical Islamists on German authorities’ official list of potential attackers have been known “to make such threats or even just brag about wanting to do an attack” without acting on them.

SEAT remains on shaky ground (they'd sell it if they could), and VW runs it. But Skoda is a winner in global market sales. Always capable and well-managed, Skoda enjoys a high degree of autonomy. Unlike SEAT products which are designed in Germany, Skoda does most of its own designing.

Jim, regarding Navistar, that's not what is going on here.

Four (4.5L) and six-cylinder (6.9L) versions of the MAN D08, from 150hp to 340hp. http://www.truck.man.eu/de/en/distribution-transport/tgl/technology/Technology.html http://www.truck.man.eu/de/en/distribution-transport/tgm/technology/Technology.html

Heavy Duty Trucking / December 20, 2016 Truck and engine maker Navistar International Corp. (NYSE:NAV) on Tuesday reported losses for both its fiscal fourth quarter and full year. But it's optimistic about the future with its pending strategic alliance with Volkswagen Truck & Bus, which has received U.S. antitrust approval. The Illinois manufacturer had a net loss of $34 million for the quarter ending on Oct. 31, or 42 cents per share, compared will a fourth quarter 2015 net loss of $50 million or 61 cents per share. This was short of expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research had forecast net income of 24 cents per share. Revenue in the most recent quarter fell 17% from a year earlier to $2.06 billion, also missing analysts’ expectations. The drop was largely driven by an 18% decline for charge-outs (typically trucks that have been invoiced to customers with units held in dealer inventory) in the company's Class 6-8 trucks and buses in the United States and Canada. Those charge-outs totaled 13,000 units, and largely reflected continued softening of Class 8 industry volumes in the U.S. and Canadian markets, according to the company. Fourth quarter 2016 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $95 million versus $86 million in the same period a year ago. This year's fourth quarter included $9 million in net charges for asset impairments and restructurings, and $8 million in pre-existing warranty adjustments. As a result, adjusted fourth quarter 2016 EBITDA was $112 million. For all of fiscal 2016, Navistar reported a net loss of $97 million, or $1.19 per share, versus a net loss of $184 million, or $2.25 per share, for fiscal year 2015. Revenue for fiscal 2016 was $8.1 billion compared to $10.1 billion in fiscal year 2015. Fiscal year 2016 adjusted EBITDA was $508 million, versus $494 million adjusted EBITDA for 2015. Full-year adjusted EBITDA margins increased 140 basis points to 6.3% Despite the losses, Troy Clarke, president and CEO, said the company was able to lower its break-even point and improve operations, in the fourth quarter and throughout the year. "We recorded our fourth consecutive year of adjusted EBITDA improvement and significantly improved our adjusted EBITDA margin year on year, despite a substantial decline in revenues primarily due to the challenging conditions in the Class 8 market,” he said. According to Clarke, Navistar had its third straight year of record profits in its parts business, totaling $640 million, while it “saw solid truck and bus order share performance, which positions us for higher retail market share in the future.” Update on VW alliance During the most recent fiscal quarter, Navistar announced plans for a wide-ranging strategic alliance with Volkswagen Truck & Bus, which includes an equity investment in Navistar, strategic technology and supply collaboration and a procurement joint venture. In providing an update on its status, Navistar said that all appropriate regulatory filings have been made, and that it has already received antitrust approvals in the U.S. and Poland. Meantime, other regulatory approvals are pending, and other agreements between the parties that constitute closing conditions remain on track, including final terms for the procurement joint venture and the companies' first powertrain collaboration, details of which will be announced soon after the closure of the alliance. The company expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of calendar year 2017. "Although we expect tough industry conditions to continue through the first half of 2017, we see further opportunities to continue to reduce our break-even point, including leveraging some early cost synergies from the Volkswagen Truck & Bus alliance," Clarke said. "The alliance announcement has been positively received by our customers, which when combined with our ongoing cadence of new product offerings, confirms our confidence in our improving standing in the market." More earnings details Navistar’s truck segment reported a loss of $189 million for fiscal 2016, compared with a fiscal year 2015 loss of $141 million. Its global operations segment recorded a loss of $21 million compared to a year-ago fiscal year loss of $67 million. Its financial services segment recorded a fiscal 2016 profit of $100 million, slightly higher than in fiscal year 2015.

The Wall Street Journal / December 20, 2016 Truck maker posts quarterly loss and expects soft conditions to continue Navistar International Corp. expects regulatory review of its planned alliance with Volkswagen AG to be completed early next year, allowing the companies to begin working on commercial trucks and engines for the U.S. market. Navistar said Tuesday the U.S. government has already given its antitrust approval for the alliance. Regulatory approval though is pending in other countries, particularly in Brazil and Mexico where the German car and truck maker and Illinois-based Navistar compete more with each other. “We’re excited to get started,” said Chief Executive Troy Clarke, during a conference call with analysts. “We won’t let a day go by without making sure these approvals are being prodded towards the right conclusion.” Navistar reported the two companies are close to completing the details for the venture’s initial projects for purchasing raw materials and commodity components and developing new powertrains. The company said it expects the deal to close by the end of March. Navistar on Tuesday reported another quarterly loss and a sharp decline in revenue amid a weak demand for commercial trucks. Volkswagen in September revealed plans for a $256-million investment in Navistar, a 16.6% stake in the company’s stock that will also give the German company two seats on Navistar’s board. The alliance will broaden the footprint of Volkswagen’s truck business to the U.S., making it more competitive with rival Daimler AG, whose Freightliner truck brand in North America has a market-leading share in heavy-duty trucks. Daimler has been able to rely on parts and engine technology from its truck models in Europe and other markets to hold down costs for its Freightliner unit. Navistar, which has struggled in recent years to keep up with tougher standards for diesel engine emissions and other regulations, expects the alliance with Volkswagen to yield $500 million of cost savings during the first five years and $200 million annually after that. “On the purchasing side, we’re ready to jump right in as soon as [the deal] closes,” said Chief Finance Officer Walter Borst. Navistar is struggling through a weak truck market as it tries to lower its costs and regain market share lost a few years ago when its strategy for complying with U.S. emissions standards undermined the performance and reliability of its truck engines. Company executives predicted the truck market in the U.S. and Canada would remain weak through at least the first half of 2017 as truck companies reduce their fleets for lower freight volumes. Navistar’s truck sales fell by 25% for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, as overall revenue, which includes replacement parts, dropped 20% to $8.1 billion Navistar expects revenue in 2017 to be about flat with 2016. “This is just the trough of the truck cycle,” Mr. Clarke said. “It will end and our call is that it corrects as we go through 2017. The sooner, the better.” For the fiscal fourth quarter, Navistar reported a loss of $34 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $50 million, or 61 cents a share. Analysts expected a profit of 24 cents a share. The company posted adjusted profit excluding special items of $112 million that also was far below analysts’ forecast. Revenue from the quarter slipped 17% to $2.06 billion, missing analysts’ expectations of $2.2 billion. Navistar’s stock was recently down 1% at $29.39.