Free Republic

A German police union boss has criticized organizers of Berlin’s annual open-air New Year’s Eve party for designating a special “safety area” for women, saying it suggests they aren’t safe from assault elsewhere. The comments by Rainer Wendt, who heads the right-leaning DpolG union, come amid an ongoing debate in Germany about how to tackle an increase in sexual assaults. Wendt told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung daily in an interview published Saturday that establishing such a safe zone sends a “devastating message.” “By doing so, one is saying there are safe zones and unsafe zones” for women that could result...

Police in Germany have charged a man suspected of being behind an attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus. Rather than having links to radical Islamism, he was a market trader hoping to make money if the price of shares in the team fell, prosecutors say. The 28-year-old, identified only as Sergej W, was staying in the team's hotel in a room overlooking the street where the explosion took place.

THREE BOMBS hidden in a bush explode as Borussia Dortmund team bus leaves a hotel before defender is rushed to hospital and Champions League clash with Monaco is cancelled • The explosion hit the bus as it was leaving the team's hotel, L'Arrivee • Defender Marc Bartra was reportedly injured in when the three explosions hit • It is believed that he only suffered cuts too his hands from the shattered glass • Tuesday night's match was cancelled and has been rescheduled for Wednesday

Journalists have condemned a report by Breitbart news that claimed a mob of 1,000 men had attacked police and set fire to a church, calling the article a distortion of facts. Breitbart wrote an article about New Year's Eve in Dortmund on Tuesday with the headline "Revealed: 1,000-man mob attack police, set Germany's oldest church alight on New Year's Eve". "At New Year's Eve celebrations in Dortmund a mob of more than 1,000 men chanted 'Allahu Akhbar', launched fireworks at police, and set fire to a historic church," the alt-right website reported. The report was attributed to local news site...

At New Year’s Eve celebrations in Dortmund a mob of more than 1,000 men chanted ‘Allahu Akhbar’, launched fireworks at police, and set fire to a historic church. Already by 7 pm a man was hospitalised with first-degree burns to his face and hands after fireworks were hurled at a group of homeless people outside the city’s main train station. More than two dozen people were injured at festivities in Dortmund, some seriously. The events of the night were described as “quiet” by police in a statement, and as “normal” by a spokesman for the city government.

A Woolworths in Germany will no longer be selling Christmas decoration as staff claim the business has undergone a conversion to Islam. One worker at the Woolworths, located in Dortmund, told German news outlet Bild, “We are a Muslim business. We don’t want to sell Christmas articles.” Word of that statement spread quite quickly and managed to pick up a whole host of negative reactions, many reminiscent of the following. Germany, of course, has seen a major influx in Muslim immigration, as well as crime, over the past year. In the first half of 2016 alone, those migrants were charged...

BERLIN — Three young men from North Africa were arrested on Saturday in the western German city of Dortmund for stoning two transgender women. According to a report on Friday on television station SAT1.NRW, the men attacked Yasmine und Elisa, two transgender women, near the city’s main train station. “Within seconds we were tossed around…and they took stones from a gravel bed on the corner and threw them at us,” said Elisa. A police car appeared at the train station as the stoning attack unfolded and arrested the men. The German media as a general rule do not disclose the...

German authorities safely defused a huge bomb left over from World War II after evacuating large parts of the western city of Dortmund on Sunday. More than 20,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Dortmund as authorities prepared to take action following the bomb's discovery.

Two Muslim converts and two Turks go on trial in a bomb-proof courtroom in Düsseldorf today accused of plotting to blow up German civilians and US soldiers. “The world will burn!” boasted an intercepted e-mail sent between the accused, who are alleged to have wanted to wage an Islamic holy war in the heart of Europe. Three of the men — Fritz Gelowicz, 29, Daniel Schneider, 23 and the Turkish national Adem Yilmaz, 30 — are accused of attending a training camp on the Afghan-Pakistani frontier run by an Uzbek-based terror organisation known as the Islamic Jihad Union. Intelligence services...

Suitcase bomb found in German train 1 August 2006 DORTMUND, GERMANY - A bomb has been found aboard a German train, with prosecutors saying Tuesday, the morning after it was discovered, that it had been powerful enough to maim or even kill. Bomb-disposal specialists disabled the device Monday evening in the main railway station in the western German city of Dortmund. "The contents were capable of severely injuring or even killing people," said prosecutor Ina Holznagel. The device included a canister of propane gas, a timer and wires.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Hundreds of fans of German club Borussia Dortmund waved huge inflatable penises at local rivals Schalke 04 on Saturday above an abusive message for their hosts. The pink blow-ups and a huge banner in Dortmund's yellow and black suggesting Schalke fans should procreate with themselves added a splash of colour to the dour 0-0 draw between the two Bundesliga sides. Schalke's stadium in the Ruhr Valley city of Gelsenkirchen will host four group matches and a quarter-final at the World Cup in Germany in June and July.

DORTMUND, Germany (Reuters) - Several people were wounded during a shooting in the center of the German city of Dortmund Monday, police said. Officials could not immediately provide details of the incident in western Germany. Germany's upper house ratified a proposal last Friday to raise the age limit for gun ownership and ban pump-action shotguns. German politicians have acted to beef up control on guns after a former student in Erfurt shot and killed 16 people, mostly teachers, before committing suicide in April in Germany's worst post-war shooting massacre.