Free Republic

'A Muslim shop worker has told how he saved "15 to 20" customers at a Jewish supermarket attacked by terrorist Amedy Coulibaly. Lassana Bathily was out of the gunman's view when he stormed the Hypercacher store in eastern Paris with guns blazing. A number of shoppers fled down stairs at the back of the shop, where they ran into the 24-year-old assistant, who thought the group could hide in a cold storage room in the basement. He has been credited with helping the hostages - including a father and his young son - to survive the siege, in which four...

PARIS -- A police officer says two hostages are being held by a gunman in a jewelry store in the southern French city of Montpellier. The officer, who could not be named speaking about an ongoing situation, said the attacker has locked himself inside the downtown shop, with police ready to intervene outside. He said it is unclear whether the hostage-taking is related to the massacre Wednesday in Paris at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.

Live Reporting By Stephen Robb, Kerry Alexandra, Julia Macfarlane and Sarah Fowler Get Involved All times stated are UK Recent live reporting posts Posted at 17:04 It is still unclear how many hostages were held inside the Paris supermarket but multiple sources are now saying around 10 people were seen running from the building during the police operation to free them. Posted at 17:04 Le Monde reports that the hostage-taker killed in the kosher supermarket in Paris is Amedy Coulibaldy, who was wanted by police over the shootings in Montrouge on Thursday.

A woman in tears approached French police outside the kosher supermarket where hostages were held captive by a gunman in northeast Paris, saying her 37-year-old daughter just managed to call from the supermarket and told her five people have already been killed, the BBC reported. The daughter said many hostages were in the basement of the supermarket. The conversation was interrupted by other hostages making the woman stop talking for her own safety. There is no official confirmation of these claims.

...Police 'launch assault' where Charlie Hebdo suspects holed up, officials say

Explosions and gunshots rang out and smoke rose outside a building where two brothers suspected in a newspaper massacre are holed up with a hostage. Security forces had surrounded the building for most of the day Friday, cornering the suspects in the killings at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris this week. Police SWAT forces could be seen on the roof of the building THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE

Daily Caller France’s Multiculturalist Agenda Makes Jews Pack Their Bags 4:50 PM 01/06/2015 Ryan Girdusky Political Consultant As more French Jews face anti-Semitic attacks, many are leaving for Israel. Most of the attacks have come from Muslims, whether immigrants or French-born, many of whom have not assimilated into French society – if not rejecting French society entirely. Compounding the dangerous situation, France’s left-wing government refuses to acknowledge the scope of this crisis, apparently more afraid of losing Muslim votes they depend on than in defending France’s half-million Jews. Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption is expecting “Little Paris” neighborhoods to pop...

Paris Charlie Hebdo attack: liveTerrorists take hostage 'and kill two people' as police surround 'war zone' industrial complex in Dammartin, while in Paris gunman takes hostages at Jewish kosher grocery - latest updates Suspects 'take hostage in industrial complex NE of Paris' • Reportedly tell negotiatiors: 'We want to die as martyrs' • Inside Charlie Hebdo attack: 'We all thought it was a joke' • Al-Qaeda plotting attack on Britain • Gunmen take hostage as police close in, in pictures • Said and Cherif Kouachi: the two brothers Latest 13.36 Boumeddiene is apparently the girlfriend of Coulibaly. 13.32 The...

The two men suspected of attacking a newspaper in Paris have stolen a car and reportedly have several hostages. A car chase is under way on the N2 motorway, and police sources say shots have been fired. The car is now on the outskirts of Paris - close to Charles de Gaulle airport - and several helicopters are reportedly hovering overhead. Sky's Ian Woods says the police focus now appears to have turned to an industrial building near to the airport. Two people with gunshot wounds have been taken to hospital in Meaux.

President Obama on Saturday condemned the "barbaric murder" by al Qaeda of U.S. hostage Luke Somers in Yemen during a rescue attempt by U.S. forces. "On behalf of the American people, I offer my deepest condolences to Luke’s family and to his loved ones," he said in a statement. "As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence, and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located. And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice," he...

On Monday, Australian police stormed the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Sydney, where an Islamist terrorist named Man Haron Monis had taken dozens of hostages and held them for 17 hours. Three people were killed, including Monis, and several others were wounded. Monis, an Iranian immigrant, had a long criminal record, including 40 charges for indecent and sexual assault, as well as an outstanding charge for accessory to murder in the killing of his ex-wife. Before his death, Monis requested an ISIS flag, and forced hostages to hold up the so-called Shahada flag, which proclaims in Arabic, "There Is No God...

Terror in Sydney As Gunman Takes At Least 13 Hostages At Lindt Cafe, forces crying women to hold black Islamic flag against the window and 'demands to speak to Tony Abbott' By EMILY CRANE and SARAH DEAN and LOUISE CHEER and DANIEL PIOTROWSKI and CANDACE SUTTON 14 December 2014 | UPDATED: 21:56 EST, 14 December 2014 Witnesses described how a man wearing a headband covered in Arabic walked into the Lindt cafe in Martin Place and produced a shotgun from a blue bag at around 9.45am. Shortly afterwards hostages were seen with their hands pressed against the windows holding up...

This story is breaking now. Live stream here. “A man is holding several people hostage at Martin Place cafe,” News.com.au, December 15, 2014 (thanks to Jill): AT LEAST one armed man is holding several people hostage at a cafe in Martin Place in Sydney. There are hostages standing with their hands up at the windows in the popular Lindt chocolate shop, which has two or three entrances. There is also a black and white flag being held up in a window. It is believed to be the Black Standard, a jihadist flag. Staff in shop aprons can be seen with...

A hostage has been forced to hold up an Islamic State flag in the window of a shop in Martin Place that is currently under siege. It is believed there are 12 hostages in the store and an ISIS flag has been placed in the window. Martin Place is the main financial area of the Sydney CBD.

A British-born U.S. photojournalist and a South African aid worker held hostage in Yemen by al Qaeda militants have been 'murdered' in a failed rescue attempt. American citizen Luke Somers had been held hostage since September 2013 in Yemen's capital Sana'a having moved to the country two years earlier. The 33-year-old was reportedly shot by his captors as Navy SEAL Team six, made up of around 40 men, carried out a dramatic rescue bid in the Wadi Abdan region of the southern Shabwa province late on Friday night. It is the second attempted extraction by special forces in as many...

BREAKING NEWS: The sister of American hostage Luke Somers says he was killed in a failed rescue mission in Yemen. Lucy Somers said: "We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace."

<p>This is perhaps the most elaborate and graphic of all the murder videos posted online by IS.</p> <p>Much of it is taken up with a recent history lesson on Iraq and Syria as seen through the eyes of the jihadists. But the latter part shows a mass beheading of Syrian prisoners in revolting, lingering detail.</p>

Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence directorate is using terrorist brinkmanship to threaten India and undermine Nawaz Sharif. It’s time to stop this dangerous game. Just when you thought the world was dangerous enough, another crisis between nuclear-weapons-armed India and Pakistan is brewing, and now al Qaeda is adding fuel to the fire by calling for jihad in the subcontinent. Tensions have been growing all summer long, even though, ironically, things began on a positive high note: in June, newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept into power on a landslide, invited his Pakistan counterpart, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to his...

(CNN) -- Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller have been allowed to leave North Korea "and are on their way home," the U.S. government announced Saturday, leaving no more Americans detained in the reclusive East Asian nation. The pair were released after a rare, last-second trip by a top American official -- U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper -- to Pyongyang as an envoy of President Barack Obama, a senior State Department official told CNN.

Vali Reza Nasr, a senior Obama administration advisor on Iran, has come to Iran. Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani and former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel may be behind the visit. "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was informed well after Nasr entered the country," Tabnak reported on Wednesday. Nasr was appointed senior advisor to Richard Holbrooke -- the special US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tabnak and Fararu claim the unannounced trip by the US official to be linked to the recent release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.