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We don't know how the Sydney siege is going to end yet but of one thing we can be pretty sure: the main concern of Australia's national broadcaster ABC will not be the suffering and fear experienced by those innocent people who have been held hostage; rather it will be that there might be some anti-Muslim backlash. How do we know this? First, because ABC is so left wing it makes the BBC look like Fox News. Second, because this is how sensitive, progressive types always respond to incidents of this kind. (One of the BBC's first reactions after the...

Tourists have always taken selfies of themselves at Sydney's most iconic landmarks, but on a day that has horrified the city many people are taking macabre snapshots for old times' sake as well. All day people were uploading selfies of themselves on Twitter from as close as possible to where the hostage siege was taking place. Just to make the photos more authentic some even took them with television cameras in the background. Two onlookers even looked like they were taking a 'celebration selfie' than one at a hostage siege. Others smiled happily as if they were standing in front...

Radical Muslim cleric Sheik Man Haron Monis has been revealed to be the ringleader in the Sydney cafe siege that has seen up to 30 people held hostage for more than 10 hours. Monis was born Manteghi Bourjerdi and fled from Iran to Australia in 1996 where he changed his name to Man Haron Monis and assuming the title of Sheik Haron. He has gained media attention in the past for a "hate mail" campaign, protesting the presence of Australian troops in Afghanistan. The campaign saw him and his partner Amirah Droudis post hate-filled letters to the families of dead...

The suspected jihadist holding up to 15 people hostage in a Sydney cafe is an Iranian murder and sex assault suspect known for sending hate mail to the families of Australian soldiers killed overseas, police confirmed. As the standoff entered its 15th hour, with police and news crews surrounding the shop as frightened hostages looked out through the front window, police identified Man Haron Monis as the gunman holding captives inside Lindt Chocolat Cafe. His identity was known early on to police and media alike, but was only released for the record by police sources as night fell on Sydney...

The details are still sketchy, but this is what is apparently confirmed as of this writing (8PM EST Sunday night): as many as 50 people have been taken hostage in the Lindt Chocolat Café in Sydney, Australia’s central pedestrian mall, Martin Place. Some of the hostages have been forced at gunpoint to hold up the black flag of Islamic jihad against a window of the café.

Five people have escaped from a cafe in central Sydney where a gunman had earlier taken several people hostage Monday and forced two people to hold up a black flag bearing an Islamic message written in Arabic in the store's window.

SYDNEY (AP) — Five people escaped from a Sydney cafe where a gunman took an unknown number of hostages during Monday morning rush hour. Two people inside the cafe earlier held up a flag with an Islamic declaration of faith that has often been used by extremists, raising fears that a terrorist incident was playing out in the heart of Australia's biggest city. The first three people ran out of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in downtown Sydney six hours into the hostage crisis, and two women sprinted from a fire exit into the arms of waiting police shortly afterward. Both...

he unidentified gunman has forced hostages to call him "The Brother" and demanded a flag of the Islamic State terror group in return for the release of a hostage. He has also demanded to speak directly with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

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...

<p>The cafe in Sydney's central business district has been surrounded by armed police.</p>

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.

Kanye West shocked fans in Australia when he halted a concert after two fans failed to stand up for him, even though one was in a wheelchair and the other had a prosthetic limb reports The Independent. The often controversial rapper stopped a show in Sydney, demanding that every member of the audience get up and dance. “I can't do this show until everybody stand up. Unless you got a handicap pass and you get special parking and s**t,” he shouted. The majority of people stood up but when West spotted two people still seated he called them out and...

Flag bearing IS symbol auctioned at Sydney mosque •Boy, 15, posts pictures online and says he’ll fight Assad •Fred Nile calls for ban on flag throughout Australia ... PREMIER Mike Baird said the Islamic State flag could be banned across NSW. His stance follows footage of one of the flags, which is linked to the barbaric terrorist organisation, being auctioned in front of families and young children in Sydney. “That is something we will consider and work with community groups about but we can’t have the position where you are seeing any activity that is promoting terrorism, supporting terrorism,” Mr...