Free Republic

Ask virtually any store manager at the Saint Louis Galleria about shoplifting, and you'll invariably get two responses: One, it's out of control; and two, it's gotten exceedingly worse since August 2006, when MetroLink opened a stop just 500 yards from the high-end shopping center. In the first six months of this year, Richmond Heights police made 345 arrests at the mall. That's nearly double the number of arrests made in all of 2005, before MetroLink opened its Shrewsbury line. This year police are on pace to take 276 juveniles into custody for shoplifting and other offenses — a sevenfold...

The profane crowding out sacred in Mecca By Hassan M. Fattah Thursday, March 8, 2007 MECCA: Five times a day across the globe, devout Muslims face this city in prayer, focused on a site where they believe the prophet Abraham built a temple to God. The spot is also the place Muslims are expected to visit at least once in their lives. Now as they gaze here in their mind's eye, and make the pilgrimage clothed in simple white cotton wraps, they will see something other than the austere black cube known as the Kaaba that occupies the spot. They...

COORDINATED BANGKOK BOMBS KILL 2; New Year's Eve Countdown cancelled(BangkokPost.com) At least six bombs or grenades have exploded in Bangkok early on New Year's Eve. Two people are reported to have been killed, about 25 have been wounded. Bangkok authorities ordered all public New Year's Eve parties cancelled. Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin appeared at the huge Bangkok Countdown 2006 venue and told the crowd to "go home and stay in peace." There had been confusion for an hour over whether New Year's parties would be permitted after the bombing. New Year's is the biggest public party in Thailand. The national...

Four explosives went off almost simultaneously in Bangkok, injuring at least 20 people as the city people have just started to celebrate the New Year's eve. One person was dead at the Big C supermarket, Sapan Kwai branch, where witness saw a man dropped a grenade from a pedestrian bridge, police said. At least 20 were injured at the Victory Monument when a powerful bomb went off near a bus station. At the Klong Toei area near the Na Ranong intersection, a bomb hidden in a trash can near a Chinese spirit shrine exploded and injured two bypassers. The explosion...

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) - Every kid knows hanging out with Mom or Dad can be kind of a drag. Kids who want to spend time at the Pheasant Lane Mall on Friday or Saturday nights might not have a choice. In response to recent "disorderly and disruptive" incidents, mall security two weeks ago started distributing fliers outlining the mall's "general code of conduct," according to mall Manager Ginny Szymanski. From 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, mall security guards now stand outside two entrances to make sure anyone under 16 has a parent or someone over 21...

OK, if nobody else will do it, I'm going to patch up this spat between the United States and France. As you know, our two nations are not getting along, as evidenced by the high-level meeting in Paris last week, during which French President Jacques Chirac and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in what aides described as ''a frank exchange of views,'' bit each other. Yes, relations are at an all-time low. The French view us as a bunch of fat, simplistic, SUV-driving, gum-chewing, gun-shooting, mall-dwelling, John Wayne cowboys who put ketchup on everything we eat, including breath mints....

Lawyer Arrested for Wearing a 'Peace' T-Shirt — NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall. According to the criminal complaint filed on Monday, Stephen Downs was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Give Peace A Chance" that he had just purchased from a vendor inside the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, New York, near Albany. "I was in the food court with my son when I was...

(CBS) Has the next generation of high-tech medicine arrived at the shopping mall? The latest in three-dimensional ultrasound is capable of painting a picture of a fetus in more detail than ever before, to the delight of many mothers-to-be and the concern of many doctors. Dr. Emily Senay reports for The Early Show. "Fetal Fotos" in Pasadena, Calif., is a photo shop where the newest generation in ultrasound equipment meets, well, the newest generation. It's one of a number of stores nationwide selling ultra-clear images of unborn children to their mothers-to-be. This is not your mother's ultrasound machine. These brand-new high-tech...