Free Republic

The chancellor of UC Berkeley is drawing criticism for sending a campuswide e-mail that linked a Tucson shooting rampage with Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants and the failure of the DREAM Act. In the e-mail, sent Monday, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau condemned a "climate in which demonization of others goes unchallenged and hateful speech is tolerated." He continued, postulating on factors that may have motivated Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged gunman in Saturday's shootings, .. : "I believe that it is not a coincidence that this calamity has occurred in a state which has legislated discrimination against undocumented persons." ......

A resident in the 400 block South Madison Avenue returned home about 1:30 p.m. Oct. 14 after a few days away to find a faucet running, the television on and a squirrel running around inside his home. The man lives alone and no one else has a key. Police investigated and determined that the squirrel, which had gotten inside the house somehow, had been running around on a counter and knocked a bottle of dishwashing soap over, which turned the faucet on. In addition, the squirrel apparently stepped on the television remote on the counter turning on the TV. “The...

Arabs in Shiloach (Silwan) near the Kotel in Jerusalem went on a rampage Sunday evening. At least two hundred Arabs hurled fire bombs, fireworks and rocks at security guards stationed at Beit HaDvash in the neighborhood, and at dozens of policemen and Border Police who came to restore order. Three homes were reportedly on fire. At least ten security men were lightly hurt. Six of these are apparently policemen and four others are Beit HaDvash guards. The guards reportedly fired in the air to ward off the attackers and police forces used stun grenades against the rioters.

Residents of Kawuku-Gaba sharing the meat of the hippo that was killed on Sunday THE hippo, which has been terrorising residents in the Lake Victoria belt at Munyonyo, has been killed by rangers from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). UWA’s head ranger Paul Naluma, who camped with a colleague at Bunga village, killed the hippo at 6:30am on Sunday. “It was a response to public outcry and advice from the Inspector General of Police,” Naluma said. The hippo is blamed for the death of two brothers who were fishing on the lake on Friday night. On the same night,...

A number of people have been killed and others injured after a gunman opened fire in several areas of west Cumbria.

LONDON - British police said the death toll from a shooting spree in northwest England earlier on Wednesday had risen to 12. A taxi driver described as quiet but friendly went on a shooting spree across a picturesque rural area before apparently turning the gun on himself, police said.

Video and photo included. SNIPPET: "FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — After four days of deliberation, a Cumberland County jury found hit-and-run rampage suspect Abdullah El-Amin Shareef guilty of 10 charges, including first-degree murder and attempted murder, for a hit-and-run rampage that encompassed parts of three counties in 2004. Shareef, 31, of Raeford, will be sentenced on Thursday. He faces the death penalty." SNIPPET: "Shareef's family and friends say the jury’s decision ignored testimony from mental health professionals like Rashad Rahmaan. Rahmaan, a friend of Shareef's family..."

As many as eight Army officers may be punished for failing to heed warning signs and take action against suspected Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. official said Thursday. First reported in the Los Angeles Times, an official familiar with a Pentagon review of the case, which will be discussed at a briefing Friday, said the officers who face discipline hold ranks of colonel and below.

Kimberly Munley shown in a photo from her Twitter page. The civilian police officer credited with stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at Fort Hood is a Carolina Beach native and graduate of Hoggard High Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday morning. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself. “She happened to encounter the gunman. In an exchange of gunfire, she was wounded but managed to wound him four times,” Cone said. “It was...

BAT AYIN, West Bank (AP) — An ax-wielding Palestinian militant went on a rampage Thursday in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, killing an Israeli 13-year-old and wounding a 7-year-old boy before fleeing the area. The attack posed an important test for Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has promised a firm hand against militants and expressed skepticism about prospects for peace. Government spokesman Mark Regev called it a "senseless act of brutality against innocents." Police and military units were searching for the attacker, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld and army officials. Army forces were operating in...

Excerpt - TOKYO, June 8 (AP) - (Kyodo)—(EDS: UPDATING WITH RISE IN DEATH TOLL) Seven people died and 11 others were injured after a man hit pedestrians with a truck and then stabbed people Sunday in broad daylight on a street in Tokyo's busy Akihabara district, a popular electronics area and a magnet for comic and animation fans. Police arrested the man, 25-year-old Tomohiro Kato from Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, and seized a survival knife he was carrying. He admitted to stabbing all the people with the knife from around 12:30 p.m., the police said. The truck was rented in Shizuoka...

TOKYO (Reuters) - As many as five people might have died and at least 10 more were wounded after a man went on a knife rampage through Tokyo's popular electronics district on Sunday, a fire department official said. The man, identified as a 25-year-old member of one of Japan's yakuza crime syndicates, began shouting and stabbing passers-by in the Akihabara area, NHK television reported, showing footage of several ambulances stopped in the district's crowded streets. At least 15 people were stabbed and as many as five might have died, an official for the Tokyo Fire Department said. Local media reported...

Furniture, windows smashed, three hospitalized in bloody attack blamed on ethnic hatred A mob rampaged through a west-end cafe in a bloody attack yesterday that sent three men to hospital. After the bloodshed, angry Kurds pointed the finger at their Turkish neighbours. "This attack is a well-organized hate crime against Kurds by racist people," said Metin Yesilcimer, who rushed to the scene as soon as he heard about the violence. Two men in their 40s and one in his 50s were taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries after a group of 20 to 25 armed men stoned Ankara Cafe...

Islamists under the auspices of a paramilitary force last week destroyed six churches to protest a police rescue of two teenage Christian girls kidnapped by Muslims in this Bauchi state town. Police recovered the two Christian girls, Mary Chikwodi Okoye, 15, and Uche Edward, 14, on May 12 after Muslims in Ningi kidnapped them three weeks ago in an attempt to expand Islam by marrying them to Muslim men. Police took the two girls, who had been under foster care, to safety in southeastern Nigeria where their biological parents live. The kidnappers had taken the girls to Wudil town in...

Gangs on rampage in Kenyan towns Tribal gangs have formed to taunt and pursue rivals Police are struggling to restore order in Kenya, amid a wave of violence linked to December's disputed presidential election. Riots are continuing in the towns of Naivasha and Nakuru in the Rift Valley, where dozens of people have been killed in five days of ethnic violence. Violence has also erupted in Eldoret and further west in Kisumu, both scenes of earlier bloodshed. Analysts warn a cycle of violence is emerging amid the political impasse. They say this takes the pattern of attacks followed by reprisal...

NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - A man wielding a chain saw and a knife attacked residents at a homeless shelter where he was staying, leaving two people in critical condition and injuring two others, police said Sunday. Watkins had been staying at the shelter for about two weeks and was taking part in a program that provides residents with on-the-job-training, authorities said.

'They should hang him - my daughter and grandchild died' A white teenage boy told his mother he "snapped" just before he was arrested by police for opening fire on a South African squatter camp, killing a baby, a young boy, and two adults. "Mom, something just snapped inside me," 18-year-old Johan Nel reportedly told his mother Corrie just before he was arrested by South African police for the incident. Nel allegedly shouted the derogatory term "kaffir, kaffir, kaffir" as he began shooting his .303 rifle at the Swartruggens camp, 100 miles west of Johannesburg. His victims included a three-month-old...

ROANOKE, Va. (CNS) -- Derek O'Dell has a lot of stories to tell as a survivor of the nightmare shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg April 16. A fundamental one is that his faith in God was foremost in his consciousness from the first moment the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, entered the Norris Hall classroom where sophomore O'Dell was in German class. He said his faith was with him "just about the whole time" as Cho fired on O'Dell and his classmates. When the shooter left the room, O'Dell, who had been shot in the arm, and another student barricaded the...

Threat of 'superflu' rampage as mutant viruses resist drugs By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent (Filed: 01/10/2006) The drive to fight deadly flu pandemics with special antiviral drugs risks creating an untreatable "superflu", the head of -Britain's public health watchdog has warned. Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, warned that the widespread use of antiviral drugs to treat illnesses, including bird flu and seasonal influenza, is causing- viruses to mutate into drug-resistant- forms. He claimed that drug-resistant viruses now represented as big a threat to public health as antibiotic-resistant superbug bacteria, such as MRSA. His comments come...

Pregnant Woman Recounts Shooting Rampage Wednesday August 9, 2006 3:01 AM By MARCUS FRANKLIN Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Dayna Klein was writing thank you notes and making telephone calls in her office at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle when she heard what sounded like bubble wrap popping. When she also heard screaming and hurried footsteps, she got up from her desk and went to the office doorway and encountered a man holding a handgun. As he pointed the gun at the pregnant Klein, she reflexively covered her stomach with her left arm. The bullet pierced her...