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Six police were injured after around 2,000 people gathered in Mannheim to protest coronavirus restrictions, police said late Monday. The rally, which had been organized since last week on the encrypted Telegram chat app, surprised police in its size. Police told local media the “Querdenker” movement, which roughly translates as “lateral thinkers,” was behind the protest action. About 120 people who refused to comply with police orders were arrested, and a total of 121 were charged with violations of the law of assembly. Three individuals are facing criminal proceedings for various offenses. …

BERLIN (Reuters) - A gunman took hostages at a cinema in western Germany on Thursday before police shot him dead, a police spokesman told the N-TV television channel, adding that no other people were injured. German television showed pictures of heavily armed police, wearing helmets and body armor, storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim and a couple fleeing the building. German media said earlier that the masked man had opened fire at the cinema complex in the small town near Frankfurt. Police shot the man dead after elite forces stormed the complex, the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper reported, citing the interior...

A masked man with a gun and ammunition belt opened fire in a cinema complex in the small western German town of Viernheim, near Frankfurt, injuring between 20 and 50 people and barricaded himself inside, German media reported on Thursday.

DEVELOPING: A gunman in a mask stormed a movie theater in western Germany Friday and opened fire wounding several people, local media reported. Investigators would not immediately confirm the number of wounded, but described it as a "threat situation." The Kinopolis movie theater is located in Viernheim, approximately 40 miles south of Frankfurt. Police in the nearby city of Mannheim sent officers to support the operation, spokesman Norbert Schaetzle told reporters.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2008 – For years, musical group Mannheim Steamroller has supported U.S. troops by giving away its Christmas CDs and concert tickets. Today, defense officials paused to thank the group’s founder. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England presents the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service to Louis “Chip” Davis at the Pentagon, Dec. 10, 2008. Davis, the founder of musical group Manheim Steamroller, announced the group will donate 1 million CDs to the troops this holiday season. DoD photo by Cherie A. Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “I represent all the men and women...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2008 – Mannheim Steamroller, the recording group famous for putting a new twist on traditional Christmas music, is hoping to spread holiday cheer to the military this season by giving away 1 million CDs to troops and their families. The group and its creator, Chip Davis, have started giving away copies of its multiple Christmas CDs to troops at home and abroad. The group also is giving away copies of its children’s pop-up book, “My Little Christmas Tree.” “Throughout the years, I have had the opportunity to work with many in the armed services,” Davis said. “This...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A second U.S. serviceman has died from wounds he suffered in a grenade attack on soldiers in Kuwait, an attack an Army sergeant is suspected of carrying out.Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, based in Boise, was pronounced dead early Tuesday at an Army field hospital in Kuwait, the Idaho Air National Guard said. Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of Easton, Pa., also was killed in Saturday's attack, and 14 other soldiers were injured.Sgt. Asan Akbar is in custody. He was shipped to a military jail in Germany on Tuesday after a judge found probable...

MANNHEIM, Germany, Jan 31 (AFP) - American forces Friday loaded hundreds of vehicles onto riverboats in the German city of Mannheim for eventual onward transportation to the Gulf, a spokeswoman for US forces said. The lorries, tracked vehicles and trailers came from US bases in southwest Germany, she said. A similar river convoy was organised earlier this month from the southern state of Bavaria. Mannheim lies on the Rhine, one of Germany's main arteries, which flows via Cologne and Rotterdam into the North Sea. Germany has one of the biggest concentration of US bases anywhere in the world outside...

BERLIN (AP) — Police in southwestern Germany raided three Islamic organizations Friday suspected of forging passports and other papers for use in extremist activities. Several people were detained. Thomas Schaeuble, the top security official in Baden-Wuerttemberg state, said the raids were a preventive measure. Islamic extremists have been known to use false papers during trips to countries such as Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said. ``There was concrete information that certain Islamic meeting places were used to supply people with false papers,'' he said. ``We have to assume that these people were using these forgeries in order to operate in...

MUNICH: Police in the western German cities of Mannheim and Cologne have opened inquiries into a German-Russian businessman suspected of masterminding the illegal supply of weapons to Iraq, weekly news magazine Focus says in its edition due out on Monday. The businessman, named as Mark V., specialises in selling weapons from former Soviet bloc countries to the Middle East and German investigators suspect him of illegally channelling weapons to Iraq via Jordan, it said. The United Nations slapped an embargo on sales of weapons to Iraq after Baghdad invaded neighbouring Kuwait in 1990. Mark V., who owns a dental equipment...