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Police arrested 22-year-old Abdul Walid Hamid of Hayward on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4, after he reportedly tore a crucifix from a person's neck and scared others at Stoneridge Shopping Center. Hamid, an employee at a mall kiosk near Starbucks, has been charged with battery, terrorist threats and grand theft. According to reports, Hamid was yelling "Allah is power" and "Islam is great" while holding a pen in a fist over his head. Witnesses said he shouted anti-Christian comments, said police. Lt. Mike Elerick of the Pleasanton Police Department said the man was not provoked and didn't threaten violence,...

Man arrested for 'anti-Christian' mall disturbance Kiosk employee allegedly tore a crucifix from someone's neck Police arrested 22-year-old Abdul Walid Hamid of Hayward on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4, after he reportedly tore a crucifix from a person's neck and scared others at Stoneridge Shopping Center. Hamid, an employee at a mall kiosk near Starbucks, has been charged with battery, terrorist threats and grand theft. According to reports, Hamid was yelling "Allah is power" and "Islam is great" while holding a pen in a fist over his head. Witnesses said he shouted anti-Christian comments, said police. "We had multiple...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A shooting has been reported and confirmed at a Tualatin strip mall, police said. Few details were available. According to Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, there may be as many as 10 victims. The shooting was reported at 7575 SW Mohawk at the Martinazzi intersection. Police first confirmed that a shooting had occurred sometime after 11 a.m.

SNIPPET: "Shopping malls stepped up security measures and terrorism awareness training after 9/11, but it’s unlikely they could prevent a shooting rampage by a terrorist hell-bent on killing, according to industry experts. Malls lack access control, and their civilian security officers usually are unarmed, making them much more vulnerable to an attack such as the one suspect Tarek Mehanna allegedly suggested, although they are less likely terrorism targets than more high-profile, class-A office buildings, other iconic centers or power facilities.

BOSTON - A pharmacy college graduate conspired with two other men on a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq, prosecutors said Wednesday. But their plans — in which the men used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said. Tarek Mehanna worked with the men from 2001 to May 2008 on the...

Via ABC News: A pharmacy college graduate made a defiant appearance in federal court Wednesday, hours after being charged with conspiring with two other men in a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq. Authorities say the men's plans — in which they used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said....

Dan Fuchs is a local businessman who set up a graphic arts kiosk at The Johnson City, Tennessee mall. Business was slow until a customer suggested he try selling stickers with the NoBama message. Business picked up and he expanded his line of 'anti-Obama' stickers. Today, mall administration terminated Fuchs' lease after it began receiving complaints about the allegedly 'anti-Obama' merchandise. Fuchs said he also sold 'pro-Obama' stickers, but the mall administration felt he wasn't offering a fair balance between anti and pro Obama stickers. In the video story on Channel 11's website, the mall spokeswoman inexplicably says that the...

A man who sells conservative merchandise at a kiosk in a North Carolina mall says he hopes he'll be able to keep pushing "Impeach Obama" bumper stickers after his lease expires on Friday. Loren Spivack says his kiosk, Free Market Warrior, is being nudged out of the Concord Mills mall in Concord, N.C., beacause of political reasons. The hottest sellers at the kiosk, which has been in the mall for roughly three months, are items that are critical of President Obama, Spivack said. They include a “Work Harder, Obama Needs the Money” bumper sticker and a T-shirt that lists the...

Is Concord Mills infringing on a business owner’s first amendment rights?

CONCORD, N.C. -- “Impeach Obama. “ “Al Qaeda’s favorite days: 9/11/01 and 11/04/08.” “Work Harder. Obama needs the money.” The bumper stickers and posters sold at “Free Market Warrior” at Concord Mills are meant to be “biting,” the kiosk’s owner Loren Spivack said. At least one passer-by found them racist and bigoted, and took time to tell the mall in a letter and a letter to the editor of the Charlotte Observer. Whatever your opinion, the fact is this: At the end of July, “Free Market Warrior” will not be allowed at Concord Mills Mall. The kiosk chain’s owner shared...

Shopping centres on alert for terrorism attack The security services are preparing shopping centres across the country for a successful terrorist attack that would probably result in the deaths of dozens of innocent people. Duncan Gardham 18 Jul 2009 Ibrahim's attempt was the third time in four years that terrorists have targeted the large crowds that gather in these relatively unguarded places. In March 2004 a plot to blow up the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent with half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser was foiled by MI5 and a month after Ibrahim's arrest last year, Nicky Reilly, another Muslim...

Prominent Vietnam veterans and their families are appalled by an advertisement for a major local mall that shows a woman in front of a wall that strongly resembles the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, with the names of the center’s stores appearing instead of the names of the war dead. Tysons Corner Center reacted quickly to condemnation from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and ordered the immediate removal of 440 of the ads from the Metrorail cars where they have been posted, mall spokeswoman Allison Fischer said Tuesday afternoon. The Tysons ad features a black granite wall engraved with a list of...

New Delhi: There is an unusual calm, amid hectic police activity, in the Lajpat Nagar market these days. The popular 3Cs Mall and the entire area around it has been turned into a fortress after the Delhi Police received specific security inputs that the building would be blown up in the next 15 days. According to sources in the Southeast district police, they got inputs from intelligence agencies about a possible threat to the mall a few days ago. After the message was forwarded to the local police, they cordoned off the entire market. Intelligence agencies reportedly told the police...

PHOTO CAPTION: "A second al-Qaeda terror cell is believed to be planning carnage in the UK." SNIPPET: "Senior security sources last night revealed they are hunting extremists aiming to bomb a location such as a nightclub or shopping centre. They believe the cell will target London rather than the North- West, where 11 men were arrested on Wednesday, as the capital holds more "international significance"." Evidence gleaned from the arrests was revealed to Cobra, Whitehall's emergency committee of intelligence chiefs and ministers.

Michael Steele, with a knowing laugh, notes how "packed'' the shopping malls are these days, in the midst of a daunting recession. The Republican National Committee chairman was commenting on a caller's comment on Bill Bennett's radio show. The caller questioned how bad the economy really is, considering the fact that when he looks around he doesn't "see people spending any less money than they have been.'' "I've heard a number of people say that across the country,'' Steele replied with a laugh, and pretty well laughing all the way through the nodding comment: "The malls are just as packed...

If you've ever arrived home safely from a shopping spree, thank a mall cop. Tom Walton of AlliedBarton Security Services, one of the nation's largest providers of mall security professionals, complains that his people aren't getting any respect from Hollywood filmmakers who increasingly portray them as dorks, slackers and wannabe police officers. "These hard-working, highly trained men and women are our country's first responders who have a wide range of skills — from the sensitivity to deal with lost children to the ability to address criminal activity," Walton wrote in an article carried in several publications. As if malls didn't...

A woman jumped to her death in the Queens Center Mall atrium about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, landing on and injuring a high school student four levels below, officials said. The crowds in the shopping center in Elmhurst screamed and ran, and police officers had to arrive soon to help calm the crowd. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said the woman was in her early to mid-50s and in the company of two teenagers when she jumped. He declined to release her identity immediately. A waist-high glass barrier runs around each floor of the atrium. It appeared that...

Haven't walked through the Del Amo Fashion Center in a few months, but the wife needed an eye exam, so I went to drop her off at Pearle Vision and take the kids for Dippin Dots. Well, there's no more Pearle Vision. They've been bought out by LensCrafters. Them's the breaks. Del Amo's a huge mall. Dippin Dots is quite a haul from the eye doctor, And I couldn't help but notice that about every third store was shuttered up. Many left were having closing sales--everything must go. We get to Dippin Dots and...well that's where it used to be....

A 200-pound car bomb malfunctioned near a crowded mall in the Israeli port city of Haifa on Saturday night, averting what could have been one of the largest such attacks in Israel in the past several years, police said.

Mar 21, 2009 22:05 | Updated Mar 21, 2009 23:45 Major Terror Car Bombing Averted at Haifa's Lev Hamifratz Mall By YAAKOV LAPPIN A major terrorist car bombing was averted at a Haifa mall on Saturday night when one of several explosive devices hidden in a parked vehicle malfunctioned. After being alerted by an employee of the Lev Hamifratz shopping center, who reported hearing an explosion, police sappers were dispatched to scan the area. The sappers found a partially exploded bomb in the trunk of a white Subaru car which was parked outside the shopping center, and registered to a...

The Global Business Center in the Hi-Lake Shopping Center has 42 stores. The 20,000-square foot center has a little bit of everything, from home decorations to clothes. The mall is not just for Somalis, but it does have some items that you might not find at other stores. There is also a beauty shop, but it is not like others. It caters mostly to Muslim women. "In our culture we can't show our hair, so if we have a lot of privacy, other beauty salons, we wont have that privacy," said shopper Asha Abdulla. There are only about a handful...

Any Mathmaniacs out there looking for a good time on a Friday night? I suspect that you might have to have better than average skill to do this, but math is math. It's free from opinion and sometimes the truths that are revealed are more powerful than punditry. I floated this question a couple of days ago, but it was during a slow traffic hour and to a separate thread. It was also before this particular item was yanked from the Stimulus Shakedown. Anyway, I was curious if anyone might have the math skill to breakdown the cost of resodding...

. A casual discussion of Obama's political situation today inspired the following analysis and predictions. 2009-01-29 : A Historical Preview The Obama Presidency is probably doomed to failure ... notwithstanding Rush Limbaugh's recently expressed hope that Obama's policies fail. The Obama White House is guilty of extraordinary political mistakes (as follows) that reveals either a terrifyingly confused President Hussein ... or worse still ... a Machiavellian power struggle birthed in an Administration still in it's infancy. (1) Obama's very peculiar nomination of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (the now internationally known IRS tax-cheat) is astounding, at the least. Geither's continued support...

Link only - Mall Repair Funds Cut From Stimulus Package

The teenagers weren't thinking about last-minute holiday purchases when they pulled into the Montgomery County shopping mall two days before Christmas. Instead, one of the teens later told police, the group went to the crowded mall to randomly shoot someone. All four, including a 14-year-old girl, are members of the Bloods street gang in Prince George's County, authorities said. Two of them opened fire in the parking lot of Westfield Wheaton Shopping Centre when they spotted members of a rival gang, police said. In announcing the arrests yesterday, county police said the four were being held on charges of attempted...

So I took the kids out to the mall to shop for Mom two days before Christmas. I want them to know that Christmas is not just about receiving but giving as well. Now let me ask a weird hypothetical. If I showed up at the Mall wearing only briefs and say my wife showed up in a minuscule bra and panties we'd likely be dragged from the premises and arrested. And rightly so, especially if you've seen me in briefs. But no matter what, it's bad, right? So why is it OK for some of these stores to have...

ORLANDO -- Two people remain on the loose after an attempted mugging at Fashion Square Mall Tuesday night. Police said a woman got off a bus at a stop near the Bank of America at around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The woman was walking across the mall parking lot, when three men, including one armed with a handgun, tried to rob her. A bystander saw what was happening, pulled out his own gun and exchanged gunfire with one of the muggers. The suspects ran, but one was later caught. That suspect was wounded, but did not realize it until police caught...

WHEATON, Md. - SNIPPET: "The remaining at-large shooter is described as a black male, with a medium complexion, 16 to 21 years of age, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, wearing a yellow and black jacket with a hood, tan pants, and white shoes." SNIPPET: "Police are still looking for another shooter and other suspects involved. Anyone with information is asked to contact Montgomery County Police at 240-773-5530 or 301-279-8000."

POSTED: 5:51 pm EST December 24, 2008 INDIANAPOLIS -- Police said they were looking for a black Range Rover with two men inside. The men were described by police as black, one older and one younger. Police said they believed the shooter was about 5 feet 5 inches tall with a light-brown complexion and a goatee. Both men were said to be armed. Officers were canvassing the area Wednesday evening looking for the men. Anyone with information is asked to call police or Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.

Video: Bomb Squad Scours Metro Home For Explosives House Searched After Man Found Near Mall With Bomb Steven Jordal, 24, Arrested On Suspicion Of Making Explosive Device With Intent To Sell POSTED: 6:53 pm CST December 23, 2008 UPDATED: 7:13 pm CST December 23, 2008 OKLAHOMA CITY -- A robot has been combing a metro home for explosives since Tuesday morning after finding a man near Penn Square Mall with a bomb on Monday, police said. VIDEO: Bomb Squad Scours Metro Home For Explosives Officers said an anonymous tip led police to Steven Andrew Jordal, 24, who has been accused...

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – On the day Muslims around the world began to celebrate Eid al-Adha, Fatuma Mohamed was at the Mall of America (MOA), far away from where she would normally say her prayers. But she and other Muslims needed to take time from the activities of the mall and find a quiet area to pray as Muslims do during the festival that commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his only son for God. “I said my prayer right at that corner,” Mohamed said, pointing to the spot. Another Muslim, Amran Ali, did the same. “I had to say my prayer...

Police used pepper spray Monday night to dispel up to 300 Muslim young people who caused disturbances outside Fisketorvet mall in downtown Copenhagen. The youths had gathered at the shopping centre in connection with the celebration of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha. But several of those present got out of hand, according to police. Bicycles were thrown onto the nearby S-train tracks, shoppers at the mall were harassed and rocks were thrown at police who arrived on the scene. Officers managed to split the group in two and drive them away from the mall. Five youths were eventually arrested...

MIAMI -- An armored truck company is offering $20,000 for information on two gunmen who shot and killed a guard in a busy suburban Miami mall.

TUKWILA - At least two people were hit by gunfire in a shooting Saturday afternoon inside Southcenter Mall as it was filled with pre-Thanksgiving shoppers, witnesses said. An off-duty sergeant with the Washington State Patrol at the scene said one victim underwent CPR after being hit. Two victims later were rushed by ambulance to the hospital. Two other people were put in handcuffs by officers at the scene, the trooper said. Other witnesses told KOMO News they heard at least three shots fired just after 3:30 p.m. in front of the Forever 21 store near the mall's food court. The...

General Growth Properties Inc., the No. 2 mall operator in the United States, has warned that an ongoing slump in retail sales, combined with the credit market lockdown, has pushed the company to the brink of bankruptcy. Chicago-based General Growth Properties said in an SEC filing late Monday that it has $900 million of property secured debt and $58 million of corporate debt coming up for renewal by Dec. 1. It also faces another $3.07 billion in debt that matures in 2009. But "given the continued weakness of the retail and credit markets," the mall operator fears it may not...

Islam convert gets 35 years in plot to attack mall The Associated Press - 30 Sep 2008 CHICAGO (AP) — A 24-year-old convert to Islam has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for plotting to set off hand grenades in a crowded shopping mall ... Man gets 35 years in '06 terror plot Chicago Tribune

A Kentucky college student has hired a lawyer after she was escorted out of a mall by security on Sunday because her dress was deemed too short, MyFOXBoston reports. Kymberly Clem, a 20-year-old student at Eastern Kentucky University, wore the dress Sunday after purchasing it from the mall in Richmond the previous day, the Richmond Register reported Tuesday. After just a few minutes inside of the mall, a security guard approached her and expressed concerns over the length of the garment. According to MyFOXBoston, the guard informed her that several female patrons had complained that she was disrupting their shopping...

Kymberly Clem, 20, says she walked into the Richmond Mall Saturday but was soon escorted out all because of her dress. "I was walking through and 10 minutes after I was there, the security guard approached me, asked me to step aside, made me completely do a turn around while he stared me up and down and then asked me to leave because my outfit was too provocative and people's husbands was (sic) looking at me," says Clem. Clem says she bought the dress at the mall just the day before. She says she's worn more revealing clothing before to...

Raleigh, N.C. — About 200 to 300 people joined a melee that began inside a Raleigh mall and spilled outside the shopping center during the fight, police said Sunday. Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said the gang-related brawl began inside Triangle Town Center Mall on Saturday night at about 8 p.m.. Off-duty officers working at the mall requested assistance, and authorities from the Wake County Sheriff's Office and the N.C. Highway Patrol also responded. Sughrue said a 15-year-old was stabbed during the incident. He was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. A police officer was also injured...

MEXICO CITY – Gunmen killed eight youths and a police chief and took dozens of restaurant patrons hostage for hours in two attacks in the drug gang-ridden state of Sinaloa, officials saidSunday. A group of hitmen sprayed four cars with bullets on a busy street in the city of Guamuchil in the early hours of Sunday, killing five young men and three female minors, a police source told Reuters. Advertisement In an earlier attack on Saturday, six other armed men caused pandemonium in the Pacific port city of Mazatlan by taking refuge in a shopping mall to escape security forces...

WARNING: this audio broadcast will contain offensive material.

(IsraelNN.com) Arab terrorists in Gaza fired two Grad Katyusha missiles at southern Ashkelon late Wednesday afternoon, and one rocket scored a direct hit on a children's medical clinic inside a shopping center. Parts of the building collapsed, trapping four people for a half-hour. At least 94 people had been rushed to Barzilai Medical Center by 8:30 p.m., most suffering severe post-traumatic stress reactions. A spokesman for the local Fire Department stated that the powerful rocket hit the building's 3rd floor and crashed down to the floor below. He said the firefighters rescued four people - including a little girl -...

A national American-Islamic group is calling on local, state and national law enforcement authorities to investigate an alleged incident in which a Muslim woman was ejected from the Oakwood mall near Gretna for refusing a security guard's demand to remove her headscarf, known as a hijab.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. -- Firefighters from several departments are battling what appeared to be an explosion and fire at a shopping plaza early Thursday afternoon. The fire is burning at 1926 Grand Ave. in the northern suburb, a shopping plaza home to Tuxedo World, Cleopatra's Unisex Hair Salon, Cellular Concepts and a travel agency. Authorities reported there are several injuries. Reports of a structure collapse could not be confirmed. Authorities have closed Grand Avenue between Martin and Lewis avenues, and crews from People's Gas are on the scene because firefighters fear a gas leak.

Matt Shaver almost didn't recognize his old hangout as he strolled through the food court at Clearview Mall in Metairie on Friday evening. It was 6:30 p.m. and nowhere to be seen were the throngs of teens and youngsters who would usually begin to trickle in about that time -- at least, that was the usual pattern before the mall began strictly enforcing its new parental escort policy last weekend.

08 February 2008, 16:47 CET (BELGRADE) - A bomb blast rocked a Slovenian-run shopping mall in Serbia on Friday, while another had to be evacuated following an anonymous bomb threat, B92 radio reported. An explosive device went off early Friday at the entrance of Mercator Center in the New Belgrade area of the capital, which is located next to a police station, shattering glass but causing no casualties, the report said. The blast occurred at around 5:00 am (0400 GMT), according to a statement by police, who launched a probe but revealed no possible motives. Several hours later, employees and...

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

New Haven (AP) _ A federal judge says prosecutors may not introduce at trial a claim that a former Navy sailor plotted to attack military personnel. Hassan Abu-Jihaad is charged with disclosing the location of Navy ships to terrorism supporters. The 31-year-old Abu-Jihaad of Phoenix pleaded not guilty in April to charges he provided material support to terrorists with intent to kill U.S. citizens and disclosed classified information relating to national defense. He is accused of disclosing the location of Navy ships and the best ways to attack them. During a hearing in November, prosecutors played secretly recorded phone calls...

There he stood in the Tyrone Square Mall parking lot, surrounded by three police cruisers and mall security. Police had searched and interrogated him. All the while, DiSalvo said, shoppers gawked, perhaps wondering whom he had killed. The 57-year-old said he was guilty of one thing: forgetfulness. He lost his 1991 Grand Marquis in a sea of 6,000 parked cars.

Omaha, Nebraska -- The day after my hometown was rocked by the senseless murder of eight innocent people and the wounding of five others in a local shopping mall, ‘Today Show’ co-host Meredith Vieira asked this obtuse question of two of the shooter’s friends: “Do you think your friend was a victim?” Therein lies the problem with our society’s view of guns and gun violence. The rights of victims are forgotten while murderers are called victims. Poor Robbie Hawkins. Apparently 265,000 of our hard-earned tax dollars spent on this “victim” over the last several years by our Health and Human...