Free Republic

As a state investigator escorted several small children out of a child care center in Minneapolis Wednesday, federal investigators were inside searching files and computers. An FBI spokesman would not comment on the extent of the investigation but confirmed a search warrant was executed at the Salama Child Care Center, 1411 Nicollet Ave. S. Investigators with the Minnesota Department of Human Services were also seen entering and exiting the building but directed all questions to the FBI. Parents trying to drop off their children for daycare were turned away at the door. Investigators were later seen carrying files and computers...

America's first Muslim country music singer has shown that Middle-Eastern and Western music can form an exciting new hybrid that builds bridges between cultures. Kareem Salama, born and raised in Ponca City, Oklahoma in the southern US, is the son of Egyptian immigrants. He began to get into country music while studying in graduate school. He performed in front of a mostly Italian crowd at the Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival held in Rome on Sunday. His songs were well received by the crowed, which energetically clapped after every song. "People in Europe have strong stereotypes about what country music is,"...

A San Francisco State Arabic professor who has been stranded in Canada for three months while waiting for the U.S. State Department to give him security clearance and issue him a visa can now return home. Assistant professor Mohammad Ramadan Hassan Salama, who traveled to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on June 20 and was stuck there after the consulate canceled his scholar visa, was called by the consulate in Toronto, Canada, today and told that he could pick up a new visa on Thursday, his attorney Clark M. Trevor said. "We have an immense burden removed," said Paul Sherwin,...

Three employees of the Salama Post Office were sent to the hospital yesterday on suspicion of having been infected by anthrax. The three showed "suspicious symptoms" after opening a package containing an unknown substance, according to the newspaper al-Riyadh. The Department of Health sent a medical team to the post office after being notified of the incident, and decided to send the three employees for further testing at Abdul Aziz hospital.