Germany bans far-left website after G20 violence

BERLIN - Reuters

Germany has banned a far-left website after police raids on its supporters early on Friday turned up knives, batons and catapults, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. 
   
The website, linksunten.indymedia.org, was used to organise violence at the July 7-8 G20 summit in Hamburg and on other occasions, de Maiziere said. The site was off-line in Germany and no longer functional on Friday. 
   
"Operation of the site is, with immediate effect, a crime," de Maiziere told a news conference after the raids in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
   
"For years they have been using this platform to express hate against those who think differently as well as representatives of this country," he said. "They call for attacks against individuals and businesses."