“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l

Monday, October 10, 2011

Saudi Arabia beheads 8 immigrants



Eight Bangladeshi migrants were beheaded in public in the Saudi Arabian capital after they were convicted of killing an Egyptian security guard four years ago, a media report said. They were charged with robbing a warehouse and killing a security guard, Egyptian national Hussein Saeed Mohammed Abdulkhaleq, in April 2007, bdnews24.com reported on Saturday.
Mamun Abdul Mannan, Faruq Jamal, Sumon Miah, Mohammed Sumon, Shafiq al-Islam, Masud Shamsul Haque, Abu al-Hussain Ahmed and Mutir al-Rahman were executed Friday in Riyadh. Three other accused were given jail terms.
Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the execution.
"Court proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall far short of international standards for fair trial and news of these recent multiple executions is deeply disturbing," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, the group's Middle East director.
"The Saudi authorities appear to have increased the number of executions in recent months, a move that puts the country at odds with the worldwide trend against the death penalty," he said in a statement.
The organisation pointed out that majority of those executed recently in Saudi Arabia were workers from poor countries.
They also have no access to influential figures or money, both of which might have secured them pardons. Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences, the web news portal said quoting the statement.
Most of the defendants have no defence lawyer, have insufficient hold of the Arabic language to follow proceedings and in many cases they are not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them, it said.
The beheadings bring the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year to 58, more than double than the 2010 figures. Twenty of those executed this year were foreign nationals.

Vatican wants friendly relationship with Ahmadinejad



The Vatican is building a strong friendship with Iranian authorities and clergy.
The Holy See’s course with Iran’s Ahmadinejad began in 2009 at the United Nations, when at the first day of the “Durban II” Conference, the Iranian president, the only head of state to attend, made a speech blasting Israel as “totally racist” and referred to the Holocaust as an “ambiguous and dubious question”.
When Ahmadinejad began his rant against the Jews, all the European delegates left the conference room. The Catholic delegation didn’t say a word.
Recently, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, head of the Lebanon’s Catholic Church, sent his envoy, Father Abdo Abou Kassem, to Teheran for the weekend, to attend a conference in support of the Palestinian Intifada and of a “Zionist-free middle east”.
The conference was attended also by Hizbullah ideologue, Mohammad Raad, and by the Hamas’ leader Khaled Meshaal.
A few days before that, a delegation of clergy members of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly visited the Vatican in Rome. They met with top Catholic officials.
Read More in Arutz Sheva

British Doc botches 95 surgeries, keeps working in socialized system


The hospital trust where Manjit Bhamra worked has already paid out £1 million to 10 patients whose surgery went badly wrong.
Now it is facing a further 85 complaints – in what could become one of Britain's biggest clinical negligence claims against a single surgeon.
Mr Bhamra has twice been referred to the General Medical Council but is now working at a different hospital which said it had "no concerns" about him.
The orthopaedic surgeon, 55, is accused of leaving hip patients in such pain that they were housebound and unable to work, with one man forced to sleep in a chair at night because he was unable to lie down.
Payments of between £1,750 to £500,000 have already been made in ten cases treated by Mr Bhamra at Rotherham Hospital, South Yorkshire – though liability was not accepted in all cases.
A patient in her 50s was left with one leg longer than the other, and in such pain that the entire hip joint had to be removed for almost three months before it was corrected, while one 23 year-old given the wrong hip implant was left disabled for life.
Negligence lawyers now considering the new complaints, most of them about his last two years at the hospital, which he left in 2007, said they were astonished at the number of patients who had contacted them.
The surgeon, 55, is now working at Pinderfields General Hospital, in Wakefield, and also works for the private Care UK group in Southampton and London.
Last week a series of patients told how procedures had gone wrong.
Wayne Pickering, 59, from Doncaster had his pelvis fractured during hip surgery in February 2006.
The hospital has admitted negligence and paid compensation for the botched operation, which left the former semi-professional footballer in so much pain he was forced to give up his job.
Mr Pickering, a father of three, had already undergone several hip operations, following years spent playing football for Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton Wanderers and in South Africa.
The revision surgery was to replace a "cup" which would hold the joint.
Mr Pickering said that when he came round from the procedure, Mr Bhamra told him: "'I've nicked your artery, damaged the nerve and broken your pelvis' – not the words you want to hear."
Despite the need for further surgery, he was discharged after two weeks. It was not until last year that the corrective surgery took place.
Permanent damage to his sciatic nerve has left Mr Pickering, of Doncaster, in constant pain, and unable to walk or stand without crutches, while medication to cope with the pain brings short-term memory loss.
He was forced to give up his job as an engineering sales representative, because he cannot drive more than a few miles, and needs help from his wife Penny, to wash and dress.
Mr Pickering said: " I used to be very fit, I used to run and play golf and now I can't even get out of my chair without someone helping me. You have to be strong to cope with the pain but it does wear you down. There are days when I get quite angry."
Winifred Mitchell, 91, from Rotherham, said her life had been 'ruined' after she was left housebound and needed a calliper after a hip replacement operation four years ago.
David Swailes, 67, was left without a hip for three years and still has to sleep in a chair at night because he is unable to lay down due to extreme pain.
Mr Swailes, from Clifton, Rotherham, underwent surgery in 2006 but the replacement hip became loose and became septic so it was taken out. It took three years to be replaced by another consultant, leaving the pensioner with significant scarring and damage.
He said: 'We heard he was a new kid on the block but when he had finished with me I needed a built-up shoe because one leg was three inches shorter.
'When I went back to the hospital another consultant said that it had not been done right. I had to have special injections and I haven't slept in a bed for five years. I have to sleep in a chair because I can't stand the pain if I am lying down.'
Around the same period as the botched and allegedly botched surgery in 2006, the hospital's operating theatres were filmed as part of a BBC documentary series in which businessman Gerry Robinson spent six months investigating the working of the NHS, and found serious tensions between doctors and managers.
Mr Bhamra, who was educated at Sheffield University, was scathing about the credentials of those attempting to manage the service, saying: "They've probably got three O-levels and they are managing people who have five or six degrees."
Tim Annett, from lawyers Irwin Mitchell said: "We expected a few inquiries after the previous settlements but we were surprised to say the least so many people came forward with concerns about surgery carried out by Mr Bhamra. We are in the process of looking at the details those people have provided us to see whether or not they will be pursued and investigated."
Mr Annett said the firm had contacted the GMC about its concerns but had not received a response. The GMC refused to disclose if he was the subject of any disciplinary action after it was twice asked to investigate the surgeon.
A spokesman for Rotherham Hospital said the trust had "a robust procedure in place in which to fully investigate any complaints that are received".
"If any patient has a concern following treatment we would advise them to contact their GP in the first instance for clinical advice as they are best placed to make sure they have access to the appropriate treatment and care," the spokesman said.
Tim Hendra, Medical Director at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pinderfield hospital said that delivering safe high quality care was the hospital's top priority, and that all medical staff were subject to a robust recruitment process and routine monitoring.
He said: "As with any health care professional working at our Trust, we would take appropriate action if any concerns were raised."
The Medical Defence Union, which represents Mr Bhamra, said it was unable to comment due to patient confidentiality.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Tens of Thousands Gather at Kosel for Final Slichos 5772


Husband beats up his wife because she didn't press the "like" button on facebook!



 Texas man is facing battery charges after police say he hit his estranged New Mexico wife and pulled her hair over her lack of a response to his Facebook status update.
The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports ( http://bit.ly/qrlsyW ) that 36-year-old Benito Apolinar of PecosTexas, was arrested Monday following a fight at the Carlsbad, N.M., home of Dolores Apolinar.
According to the criminal complaint, Benito Apolinar posted a comment on his Facebook page about the anniversary of his mother's death, but Dolores Apolinar didn't click the "like" status button.
The complaint says Benito Apolinar told his wife that he was unhappy that she didn't respond as others did. Police say that's when a fight began.
Benito Apolinar pleaded not guilty to one charge of battery.
It was unclear if he had hired an attorney.

Kaporis .... Which one is the chicken?

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Kol Nidrei from the Deepest of the Deep


1,000 Year Old Chumashim Rescued From Syria



Holy books dating back 1,000 years, meticulously guarded by Jewish community, travel from Damascus to Israel in continent-wide, James Bond-style operation.


It was a James Bond-style, continent-wide operation with many participants. It began in Syria, continued in the United States and ended in Israel. And yet, not a single word has been published about it – until now.

Yedioth Ahronoth has revealed the amazing rescue of some of the world's most ancient Bibles from Damascus.
The 11 holy books, some dating back 1,000 years, were written by copyist of the Scriptures around the world and arrived in the Syrian capital in different periods. The Jewish community took pride in them and guarded them meticulously, helping them survive the political upheavals that took place in the city over the years.

The Damascus books are considered the world's most ancient Bibles after the Aleppo Codex, which compared to them is torn and shabby.

The Rabin government decided to bring the books to Israel in 1995. The defense establishment, governmental organizations and immigrants from Syria took part in the secret operation.

"It was one of the most important operations we participated in," says Eliyahu Hasson, chairman of the community of Damascus Jews in Israel, who served as director-general of the Transportation Ministry at the time.

Judy Feld Carr, a Canadian pensioner who turned helping Syria's Jewry into her life's work, lauds the operation as well. "Out of all the things I have done in my life, this operation was the most brilliant," she declares.

Mystery remains

On their way from Israel to Syria, the ancient Bibles made a stop in New York. They arrived at a safe haven thee, inside a grey container, without anyone guessing its priceless content.

The mystery surrounding the books' journey from Damascus has not been fully cleared, and some parts of the story cannot be published.

"I'm sorry, I can’t tell you exactly how I got it out of there," says Feld Carr about the book she personally helped bring to Israel. "When I had a famous rabbi look at it, a Tunisian Jew, he burst into tears and said, 'Get this book out of my house. I feel like I have just seen God.'"

The people involved in the operation say that its execution was very costly. "It cost a lot of money, a lot," says Hasson. "Whoever did it acted wisely and knocked on the right doors. One weak link would have been enough to break the entire chain."
Hasson explains that in light of the sensitivity of the operation, it was supervised by high-ranking officials. "I have no doubt that Yitzhak Rabin was in on the secret," he says. "Unfortunately, the prime minister was murdered before they arrived in Israel and did not get to see the mission accomplished."

Since being brought to Israel, the books are being kept at the National Library in the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They will be presented to the wide public on Wednesday evening in a festive event attended by guests from Israel and abroad.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Is the fact that Obama ordered a US citizen murdered good for America?



It appeared to be the first time in the United States-led war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that an American citizen had been deliberately targeted and killed by American forces. It was also the second high-profile killing of an Al Qaeda leader in the past five months under the Obama administration, which ordered the American commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last May. 


What's most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar ("No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law"), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What's most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government. 

Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, Tough President's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki -- including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry's execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists -- criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.

I am not among them. I think this sets forth a dangerous precedent, and I think it's wrong . Jews especially should condemn this action, even though this time it was a bono-fide terrorist, but who knows what Obama could do if he dislikes a citizen that opposes him, and decides he wants him eliminated! I know it sounds crazy, but so are people in the present Administration. Please note that this was done without any authorization from any US Court of Law.Obama claims that he had authorization from the Justice Department, but so far there isn't any shred of evidence that he actually had.

Rosanne Barr Solution for Rich Who Won't Give Up Wealth :"Behead Them!"



Actress, comedienne and now author Roseanne Barr shares her solution for dealing with the rich and how the banks could repay the money the U.S. government bailed them out with in 2008.

"Part of my platform is, of course, the guilty must be punished and that we no longer let our children see their guilty leaders getting away with murder. Because it teaches children, you know, that they don't have to have any morals as long as they have guns and are bullies and I don't think that's a good message," Barr told Russia Today (RT).

"I do say that I am in favor of the return of the guillotine and that is for the worst of the worst of the guilty.

"I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million [of] personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount of that amount then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn't help, then being beheaded," Barr said with a straight face.