Free Republic

"Gunman who took hostages at Louisiana bank posted chilling Facebook messages" SNIPPET: "The gunman who took three hostages at a Louisiana bank Tuesday -- killing one of them before being shot and killed by police -- recently posted chilling messages on Facebook, including a cartoon strip about hostages.   In a post on Sunday, 20-year-old Fuaed Abdo Ahmed displays a cartoon strip that focuses on an apparent hostage situation." SNIPPET: "Ahmed's final post, made Tuesday just hours before the hostage standoff began, is of a photo of a man with a sword attacking a tank.Under the photo is a quote...

The world’s tallest church is slowly disintegrating at its base due to human urine. Officials responsible for upkeep of the Ulm Minster Church in Ulm, Germany, say the stone base of the tower is eroding due to salt and acids in urine from drunken revelers urinating on the base, CNN reports. The erosion has become such a problem that city officials doubled fines to 100 euros for anyone caught urinating. “I’ve been keeping an eye on it for half a year now and, once again, it’s coated with urine and vomit,” Michael Hilbert, the building’s head of maintenance, told Südwest...

German federal prosecutors said Friday they have arrested a man suspected of helping a terrorist cell that allegedly plotted attacks against U.S. troops in Germany. The U.S. military's Ramstein Air Base is believed to have been one of the targets for plotters. The prosecutor's office identified the man only as "Kadir T.," and said he is a German of Turkish origin. He is suspected of acquiring a video camera and night-vision equipment for the Islamic Jihad Union group, prosecutors said. The items were allegedly shipped to Waziristan in Pakistan, prosecutors said. Four men trained by the Islamic Jihad Union are...

Three men have been arrested for planning attacks on Frankfurt's international airport and the U.S. military base in Ramstein, the German Defense Minister said Wednesday. "There was an imminent threat," Franz Josef Jung told Germany's ARD broadcaster. He declined to elaborate. Two of the suspects had German citizenship while the third was Pakistani, Germany's Sudwestrundfunk public broadcaster said. German federal prosecutors said they had arrested three suspected members of "an Islamic motivated terrorist organization." It was not immediately clear whether the three were suspected of having links to al Qaeda. Sudwestrundfunk said the men were arrested Tuesday evening and were...

A Louisiana tribe's blessing won't save the University of Louisiana-Monroe's Indian mascot from the NCAA's displeasure, so a new committee will study the mascot's future. ULM was one of 18 schools which the NCAA has ordered to stop using Indian mascots, images and logos in February 2006. The league allowed Florida State to remain the Seminoles because the tribe approved. But NCAA official Bernard Franklin has told ULM that "the use of a generic Native American reference like Indians or Braves cannot be mitigated by the concurrence of any Native America Tribe," university President James Cofer wrote alumni and other...

BERLIN - Police arrested 14 people during raids of apartments and mosques in five German states Wednesday in a crackdown on an Islamic extremist organization suspected of aiding terrorists, authorities said. About 700 officers conducted the raids, which capped a long investigation against 20 people suspected of operating a criminal network based in the southern city of Ulm, according to prosecutors....

<p>University of Louisiana at Monroe head football coach Mike Collins resigned Friday after his arrest for suspicion of driving while intoxicated and careless operation of a vehicle.</p> <p>The arrest came after Collins was involved in a one-vehicle accident early Friday morning.</p>