The Latest: German governor urges better refugee integration

BERLIN (AP) — The latest developments amid Europe’s immigration crisis. All times local.

11:25 a.m.

The governor of Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state has called for better integration of refugees in response to the Cologne attacks.

Asylum-seekers are among the suspects blamed for 581 assaults and thefts so far alleged to have taken place at Cologne’s main train station on New Year’s Eve.

Governor Hannelore Kraft told the state parliament on Thursday that “after Cologne, we need more, not less, integration” and it would be wrong to lump the vast majority of innocent refugees in with a small number of criminals.

The assaults in Cologne, which include two alleged rapes, have prompted a nationwide debate about Germany’s ability to integrate the 1.1 million asylum-seekers who arrived in 2015.

Kraft also called for faster asylum decisions, particularly for those unlikely to get permission to stay.

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11:10 a.m.

The organization representing Vienna’s physicians has started disciplinary proceedings against a doctor who refuses to treat refugees.

The move comes after Dr. Thomas Unden put up a sign on his office door saying that refugees were not welcome. He told Austrian radio on Thursday that he will not treat “people whose name and origins I don’t know.”

The Vienna Chamber of Physicians says the general practitioner’s stance is unacceptable.

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