AUTO INDUSTRY: VW denies US claims it also cheated in bigger diesel engines

New US research seems to show that Volkswagen attempted to thwart checks on more models than originally thought. But the carmaker has denied claims it included emissions-check "defeat devices" rules in larger diesels.

The German automaker issued a swift denial on Monday after US regulators reported that Volkswagen cars with larger diesel engines were also found to have contained software aimed at skirting tests to comply with pollution rules in the United States.

The alleged violations cover models including the 2014 Touareg, 2015 Porsche Cayenne and the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8 and Q5.

"Volkswagen underlines that no program has been installed in its V6 3-liter diesel engines" that would "inappropriately modify" the results of anti-pollution tests, the company claimed in a statement released late Monday.

On Monday, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated that the German carmaker had installed its cheating software in big-engine vehicles from the model years 2014 to 2016. Reuters reported that Porsche cars also contained software to cheat emission tests, alongside certain VW and Audi models.

"When the vehicle senses that it is undergoing a federal emissions test procedure, it operates in a low NOx (nitrogen oxides) temperature conditioning mode," the EPA reported after tests. "Under that mode, the vehicle meets emission standards. At exactly one second after the completion of the initial phases of the standard test procedure, the vehicle immediately changes a number of operating parameters that increase NOx emissions and indicates in the software that it is transitioning to 'normal mode,' where emissions of NOx increase up to nine times the EPA standard, depending on the vehicle and type of driving conditions."

The EPA reported that the illegal software was similar to that found in the 2009-15 models with 2-liter motors. VW officials have admitted that those cars contained software meant to cheat the tests.

The European Union has recently agreed to controversial new diesel emissions rules .

mkg/jr (EFE, AP)

Refugees vanish from German centers

Over the past few months, hundreds of refugees have gone missing from shelters, often before they were registered. Their disappearances are leaving the authorities clueless as to their whereabouts.

It's not the first time refugees disappear without a trace from emergency housing in Germany, but the state of Lower Saxony recently faced an unusually high figure.

About 700 of roughly 4,000 asylum seekers put up by the northern state disappeared last month, according to a state-wide survey by the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" newspaper. Many hadn't even been registered yet - the first step in asylum proceedings. The authorities don't know who they are or where they might have gone.

The same has been happening, though to a lesser degree, in refugee centers across the nation in September and October.They have the right to move freely and leave the shelters, Lower Saxony Interior Ministry spokesman Matthias Eichler told DW."So we can't say how many people move on on their own initiative."But this new aspect to the refugee crisis has not gone unnoticed.

The refugees' disappearance is a sign of the state's "losing control," warned Jochen Oltmer, a migration expert at the University of Osnabrück.German law stipulates that refugees must be registered as soon as they enter Germany. In practice, with the many thousands of asylum-seekers pouring into the country on a daily basis , the initial registration process by the country's border police is hopelessly backlogged.

Without giving notice

The refugees don't leave us a note, we have no idea what motivates them to leave," Oltmer told DW.Perhaps some refugees are reluctant to stay in the rural areas they are taken to, or they join relatives and friends elsewhere in Germany or even in another country, or move on to find more attractive locations. Authorities say there is no legal basis to retain the asylum-seekers. Security staff in the shelters don't stop them from leaving the centers, either.

The migration expert questioned Germany's mode of distributing the refugees as a process that might hinder integration and make networking more difficult. After all, Oltmer pointed out, networks are immensely important for refugees, friends or family who might live in Germany already, who can help with the authorities and in general "help make it easier to settle."

It's unlikely to be a security problem, the Osnabrück University professor said, adding that most refugees aren't consciously trying to avoid registration.

Getting their bearings

But some refugees may be confused as to their whereabouts.

The newcomers often don't know where they have been taken once they've entered Germany, says a spokesman for the town of Delmenhorst, so authorities there have put up maps of Germany in the shelters to help the refugees orient themselves.

If they leave on their own without proper registration, however, and police stop them, their status is that of illegal immigrant, and the entire registration process begins anew.

As a consequence, registration needs to be much more speedy in the interest of all parties concerned, Oltmer said: to put the state back in control, give the refugees the security of knowing their future status and to give the municipalities planning reliability.

No sorry from United States for South China Sea trip

The US will send its military "wherever" international law allows, an admiral says. Last week, the United States sailed a warship close to artificial islands that China is building in the contested the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, the head of the US Pacific military forces said the navy did not intend any threat to Chinawhen it sent a warship past the country's contested space in the Spratly Archipelago. Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr. spoke Tuesday to Stanford University students studying at Peking University during his first visit to the Chinese capital, Beijing, as commander of US Pacific Command.

"International seas and airspace belong to everyone and are not the dominion of any single nation," Harris said Tuesday, according to prepared remarks. "Our military will continue to fly, sail, and operate whenever and wherever international law allows. The South China Sea is not - and will not - be an exception."

Harris has frequently criticized China's land reclamation in the sea. In March, he said China would create "a great wall of sand" and cause serious concern about militarizing reefs and artificial islands in an area of competing territorial claims by several nations. On Tuesday, however, he seemed mostly upbeat in his assessment of prospects for improving relations with China.

"We've been conducting freedom of navigation operations all over the world for decades, so no one should be surprised by them," Harris said. "I truly believe that these routine operations should never be construed as a threat to any nation. The United States takes no position on competing sovereignty claims to land features in the South China Sea and we encourage all claimants to solve disputes peacefully, without coercion, and in accordance with international law."

mkg/ (Reuters, AFP, AP)