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--snip-- Angela Merkel said it was a “difficult day” for Germany and that she was “shocked” by the horrific “terrorist attack”. She added that the crime with “be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum.”

Lizas Welt examines a German rap scene that increasingly spews Jew-hatred, extols terrorist attacks, and idolizes Osama bin Laden. by Lizas Welt (translated from the German by John Rosenthal) When an unknown assailant fired four bullets at German rap star Massiv in Berlin in mid-January — one of them grazing the rapper’s right arm — the initial outrage soon gave way to questions. Was the episode really an attempted murder, perhaps the opening salvo in an emerging turf war among rival rappers, or had Massiv staged the attack himself as a publicity stunt? Threats of violence are, in any case,...

BERLIN — After thwarting what might have become a "massive" attack on American installations, German authorities will review ways to fight homegrown terrorists, including a proposal to allow Internet spying on all German converts to Islam. The search for seven other suspected members of a German cell of the Pakistan-based Islamic Jihad Union continued into Thursday night, with investigators saying only that they knew who they were seeking. Anti-terror police arrested three men in a village in central Germany Tuesday, outside a vacation cabin where they were suspected of building a bomb. Germans were shocked to learn that two of...

MUNICH, Germany - German police carried out a series of early-morning raids in several regions Wednesday against individuals suspected of providing financial support to Islamic extremist activities outside the country. Thirty-three apartments and four businesses were searched during the raids, which were centered in the southern state of Bavaria but also included six other states, police said. The action was directed primarily against 24 people suspected of supporting Islamic extremist activities. They were largely of Arab origin — including Lebanese, Iraqi, Egyptian, Jordanian and Tunisian nationals, police said. One Greek also was being questioned. There was no evidence the suspects,...

ULM, Germany (AP) - German police stepped up their crackdown on Islamic extremism Wednesday, detaining 22 people during raids of apartments and mosques allegedly used by a network that provided financing and other support to terrorists. About 700 officers searched dozens of apartments, mosques and call centers in five German states, discovering militant Islamic propaganda and forged passports and visas, authorities said. The raids capped a long-term investigation of 20 people who allegedly raised money through smuggling and producing false papers to "pursue their ideological goals," said prosecutors in Munich, where authorities coordinated the probe. The suspects included German citizens...

BERLIN - The German state government of Bavaria announced on Tuesday it will expel 10 suspected Islamist radicals next week. A further 40 suspected Muslim extremists are under 24-hour a day police surveillance, said the state interior ministry in Munich. Bavaria expelled a Jordanian radical in August who was allegedly collecting money for terrorist groups and had links with planned attacks on Jewish and Israeli facilities in Berlin and Duesseldorf. Germany's new immigration law - which came into force 1 January - makes fast-track expulsion of terrorist suspects easier. DPA