Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.
Domestic quotes. Tagged Madeleine McCann.


Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.




Qianlong-dynasty Chinese porcelain vase sold for £43m
A vase found in a house-clearance in London has been sold for £43m, thought to be a record for any Chinese artwork.
The 18th Century Qianlong porcelain piece had been estimated to fetch up to £1.2m for the brother and sister who inherited it.
"The sister had to go out of the room and have a breath of fresh air," said Helen Porter from Bainbridges auction house in Ruislip, north-west London.
The vase is yellow and sky blue in colour with a fish motif on the front.
The buyer - who is thought to have come from the Chinese mainland - paid £43m, with an additional premium of £8.6m to go to the auctioneer.
The family who inherited the piece "had no idea what they had", Ms Porter said.
"They were hopeful but they didn't dare believe until the hammer went down."
It is thought the vase left China in about 1860, and belonged to one family for about 70 years. BBC
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Having read that people began lining up in front of bookstores before former President Bush's memoir, Decision Points, was due to be released, I hurried off to purchase mine early on November 9, arriving about fifteen minutes after opening time. I have the distinction of being the first person to purchase Bush's book in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Who says there are no such things as coincidences, I will admit I didn't go looking for it, but I did end up watching this clip of Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame (Mr & Mrs) only yesterday.
I have a special interest in understanding how the former president sees his decision to invade Iraq and his use of intelligence to justify the invasion. I have also been curious about what he might have to say about the betrayal of a CIA covert officer's identity, my wife's, by, among others, two senior members of his staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove. I had seen his interview with NBC's Matt Lauer in which he volunteered that Scooter Libby was a "loyal" American who had been somehow caught up in the Valerie Plame affair. I was thunderstruck by his description of a man convicted of four counts of lying to federal officials, perjury, and obstruction of justice, the chief of staff to the Vice President who knowingly offered up Valerie Plame's name to a New York Times reporter, and who was so obsessed with destroying my reputation that he kept a three-ring binder on me and an annotated copy of my book. My expectations for truthful revelation in Bush's book, after his comment, were naturally low. I have not been disappointed. In fact, Deception Points might have been a more appropriate title.
The former president deals with the Plame affair briskly, fairly early in the book, in the context of what he describes as the last and most "emotional personnel decision" of his presidency...more hufpo
I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the hundreds of thousands of progressives and others who demanded that Keith Olbermann be reinstated to his position at MSNBC. These people understand the enormously important role that the media play in contemporary American politics. They know the recent ascendancy of the Republican Party and right-wing politics had less to do with the leadership skills of Mitch McConnell or John Boehner and far more to do with the enormously powerful role played by Rupert Murdoch, Fox News and right-wing talk radio.
Progressives know there is something very wrong when a nation divided politically has one major network operating as a propaganda arm of the Republican Party and 90 percent of talk radio is dominated by right-wing extremists.
If there is a silver lining in the action of MSNBC against Keith Olbermann, it is that people will now pay more attention to the political role of corporate media in America. While commentators on Fox and right-wing radio have the backing of Rupert Murdoch, a major Republican contributor, and other conservative corporations, progressives understand that their position is extremely vulnerable. Keith Olbermann was suspended by General Electric's MSNBC for a bogus reason. What will prevent the same thing from happening to Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and other progressives? more HufPo
God Listens to Hunters' Prayers
By Guy D. Lawson
I was born in West Virginia, where hunting is the big sport of about everybody, therefore, I have hunted squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, bears and deer most of my life. Due to my health, I have limited myself to deer only for the past 10 to 15 years because of asthma, emphysema and bronchitis. I have trouble field-dressing, and pulling a deer very far.
My hunting partner, who is also my son-in-law, Gary Edwards, hunt on his father's farm, which is in Licking County, Ohio.
One morning in December of 1990, Gary had gotten his deer the day before but decided to go out to help spot for me. He was standing in sight, about 200 yards up the ridge from me, close to the parked truck. About 9 to 9:20 a.m., Gary came slowly toward my stand on the point. He told me he had seen a large buck come through the open field. It went up to the truck, stopped and checked it out, then disappeared into the ravine. Gary had watched him for about an hour, never seeing him again, so we thought that perhaps he had bedded down for the day. Gary suggested that I move up to where his stand had been and he would go up around the field and try to spook the buck.
Hoping to get a clear shot, I started toward his stand, moving slowly and praying all the way. I asked God to give me a good shot and to take control of the slug (12-gauge gun) and to drop him on the spot. Because of my breathing problem, I would not be able to help Gary drag the deer very far.
Just as I got to the stand, I saw Gary coming through the open field to my position right at the edge of a little strip of woods between two open fields. All at once a big buck appeared. He was headed right toward one of the open fields about 150 yards out. For some unseen reason he turned and headed right at me. I followed him over the gun barrel, waiting until I felt the moment was right. I pulled the trigger and he dropped at the crack of the gun approximately 50 feet from me. I reloaded my pump gun and went to check him out. I had seen the slug hit him just below the left antler. I put another shot into his heart.
I told Gary about my prayer and he told me he also was praying. He told me as he came down through the open field he asked himself how he could get the deer up without spooking him into going in the opposite direction, so he began to hack a low cough.
Gary then got the truck and brought it to within 75 feet of us.
I praise God. He turned the buck toward me and gave me that open shot that stopped the buck in his tracks. Of all the deer we have taken in the past, this is the largest. He had a rack of 9 points and weighed in at 176-pounds, field-dressed.
Matthew 18:19 says, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching, anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven."
John 14:14 says, "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." I trust God's promises! He is faithful, try him!
Guy D. Lawson, Columbus, Ohio

And a worthy read it is I may add, little wonder the two people charged with keeping their daughter safe, though not as yet charged with her demise, are desperate to keep the book out of Britain.
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By Dr Martin Roberts
20 December 2009
A STOCKING FILLER
And why not? Continuing the on-going theme of 'bloomers' by the McCanns and their various spokespeople, a stocking is merely more appropriate apparel for one's metaphorical foot than the oral variety preferred by the McCanns.
Just a few days ago we heard the not so edifying account of how a couple's foiled attempt at intimidation inside a court of law was transmuted into an act of piety, in the shape of a pilgrimage to Praia da Luz (well it justified the air fare at least). With the McCanns' penchant for comment unabated, the waiting world was treated to gaffes at both ends of their crusading compass.
The Sun newspaper of 12 December recalls the following:
'Gerry said: "There is an innocent child missing here and this is what this is about. It's not about freedom of speech but the search for our daughter."
'Standing by his side at the entrance to Lisbon's Palace of Justice an emotional Kate said: "Freedom of speech should not outweigh the rights of human beings."' (Especially since it is a right of human beings, Kate. Or are you wishing to imply that, like lesser species, the rest of us can do without it?).
Ironically, Kate informs us via the Daily Mirror (also 12 December) that "Freedom of speech should not include distortion of the truth, lies, fabrication and slander," all criteria from which her own speech acts demonstrably suffer. We have the evidence: 'Gerry hardly ever sent a text message until after Madeleine was taken' (But hardly ever sending any in no way accounts for deleting a baker's dozen previously received. Hence distortion of the truth). 'If what happened hadn't happened' it wouldn't have occurred to Kate to mention the crying incident to the PJ (Except she did mention it, three times, at dinner, before it had happened at all. Lies therefore). 'They were watching us, I'm sure.' (Fabrication). And as for Goncalo Amaral, he was simply 'a disgrace' both as a person and a professional wasn't he? (Slander). Yes, Kate McCann is well and truly conversant with behaviours inappropriate to Freedom of Speech. More mccannfiles
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A television channel dedicated to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has appeared on Arab satellite networks.
Its launch came on the third anniversary, on the Islamic calendar, of the former president's execution.
It is not clear who is behind the channel which broadcasts the speeches, images and even poetry of Saddam Hussein, backed with patriotic music.
It is broadcast from outside Iraq and some analysts suspect his former political supporters of bankrolling it. more







The Echizen jellyfish have already cost the industry millions of Yen. 90sec clip


Two contradictory lists and a torn children's book
The first investigator who went to the apartment after the alarm was raised was informed of the existence of a plan for checking on the children while the parents dined one hundred metres away.
At the time, Russell O'Brien handed over two lists handwritten on the inside cover of a children's book, a sticker activity book for children more than 3 years of age. We believe the book was Madeleine's and we do not understand why they tore off the cover of the child's book.
A child had just gone missing and all its belongings should be precious to those who loved her. Was there really no other paper around? Not even a simple napkin? The question hangs in the air and the response is yet another contradiction. The lists contained the possible record of the checks in the apartment.
Reply Russell O'Brien........ at some stage sort of quietened off and the, the PJ sat down with, you know, came in and sat down with Gerry....Question Leicester plod....
(I thought) that we were writing on the back of a piece of card,I thought it was a cereal box but obviously it was a children’s book,
that (it) was written with me sat at the table in Kate and Gerry’s room. Gerry by this point had certainly calmed down but was, his head was just on the table, you know, like that, he was just staring at the, at the table, very, very quiet and very, very low.
LP. “Was the first attempt, the earlier attempt as you say. When was this drafted up”?
Reply Russell O'Brien
Erm this was drafted er **around the time that the initial pair of Officers from the PJ came to 5A**
I can certainly recall writing some of this, I think perhaps the neat, maybe the neater version erm sat down at the table in Gerry’s flat...
I didn’t want to say to Kate at that point, which might sound odd now, you know, ‘Oh why wouldn’t you say straight away to Kate’, but, you know, the thought of telling the mother of a child that you might have seen being carried away is, it’s too horrible to even say.
4078 (Leic plod) “Sorry, was that on the night that Madeleine had disappeared?”
JT.“That was at three o’clock in the morning after she’d disappeared, yeah”.
LP. "So when you went into Gerry and Kate’s apartment who else was there?”
JT. “Erm, I think there was Russ, I think Russell came with me and there was Sylvie who was the translator.
I can’t remember which, there was some, there was a PJ chap was sitting on the, by the table.And there was Gerry who was standing by the, the bedroom door”.
LP. “And how was Gerry at that point?”
JT.“Oh he was just, well obviously, obviously distraught.
And I think it was quite hard for me to be saying at that, you know, looking in his face and to be explaining what I’d seen, at that point was quite hard because, you know, Gerry was obviously standing there, I don’t know whether, and you sort of think ‘Oh God, here’s me, if I’d tried to stop them this wouldn’t have happened’ sort of thing.So I think I did feel sort of a bit obviously guilty at that stage even though I didn’t know whether it was anything, but obviously you think ‘Oh bloody hell, what if I’ not stopped it happened potentially”.
LP. “And what was Gerry’s reaction to what you said?”
JT. “Well I don’t even know whether he took it in, I mean, he was just, he was, you know, obviously just standing there looking absolutely horrified, so”.

Vitor Manuel Martins
Occupation : PJ Officer
He is an inspector with the PJ and currently works at the Porto PJ Directorate.
(...)On the night of 3rd May 2007 he was on duty at the Portimão DIC, in the company of Inspector Manuel Queirós, who was acting as head of the station.
When questioned he confirms the integrity of the service information drawn up from the station’s inquiries carried out in the early morning of 04/05/2007, adding that he arrived on the scene about 30 – 40 minutes after the phone call from the GNR, at about 00.40/00.50.
João Franciso Páscoa Luis Trigo Barreiras
Occupation: PJ Deputy Specialist
Place of work: Criminal Investigation Department Portimão
(...)He was brought into service together with an Inspector from the station. It was the inspector’s duty to take notes of the services as well as all the information relating to them. The inspector who accompanied him on that date, Vitor Martins, informed him that the case in question was that of the disappearance of a small girl, of British nationality, who was staying at the OC with her parents.
The immediately left for the scene and arrived about 30 – 40 minutes later, at about 00.40/00.50.
Witness statement of Gerald Patrick McCann, on the 10th of May 2007, at 3.20 p.m.
Gerry: So, I actually came in and Madeleine was just at the top of the bed here, where I'd left her lying and the covers were folded down and she had her cuddle cat and blanket, were just by her head It’s terrible because, I , erm, had one of those really proud father moments, where I just thought, you know....(I will spare you the rest)

PJ report on Gerry McCann's statement: 3.20pm, 10 May 2007
Also relevant to the bed where his daughter slept is how it was found on the night of the disappearance. States that his daughter slept without the covers, as was normal, due to the heat, with the bed sheets folded towards the foot of the bed.



Crying Shame
A Miller
The plight of not, just Madeleine, but all of the children, could not fail to touch even the hardest of hearts. Left alone, to cry in their holiday apartment, no one to comfort, care and protect them, ease their fears when they woke in the night, when they needed reassurance, when they needed to be made feel safe.
The question on the lips of some –‘How could the McCann’s, both doctors have treated children in this way?’
I ask – How could the McCann’s, not as medical professionals, but as parents, treat their own flesh and blood in this way? What makes parents, who say they were so desperate to have children, carry out such a cold and callous act against their own, leaving them in a horrifying situation?
An act, which the doctors McCann, have since defended, claiming it was ‘WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF RESPONSIBLE PARENTING.’
An act, which perhaps more disturbingly, more bizarrely, has been condoned by some members of the public, who in their defence of the McCann’s state that leaving the children for all of these nights in an unlocked apartment was a ‘mistake.’
They said it would not bring Madeleine back, to speak of the ‘mistake’.It should be forgotten!.
Travelling by private jet to Rome............
...........What changed in general that day? Almost everything!
1.The McCann children were not taken to the tennis courts after tea for their usual ‘playtime.’
2. Kate claimed that they were too tired to play on this night.
3. David Payne claimed he was asked by Gerry McCann to check on Kate McCann and the children. Why? So far, I have not heard a feasible explanation for doing so.
4. David Payne claimed he saw all three McCann children sitting dressed in pyjamas looking like little angels.
5. David Payne ........a man of mystery! His wife Fiona in her police statements found great difficulty in pinpointing exactly when he made his visit to Kate McCann. His wife said he was on the tennis courts at 6:30pm? Could not decide whether he visited Kate before or after tennis. If after, what would be the point, by that time it should have been obvious to Gerry that the children were not coming to watch daddy ‘play!’
6. Matt Oldfield takes it upon himself to do an impromptu check at the shuttered window of the bedroom where the McCann children slept...........
........There were a number of “Firsts.”
1. It was the day that Gerry McCann decided he was a lucky man to have such a lovely daughter.
2. It was the day which Kate McCann spoke of as being just lovely sitting reading the children bedtime stories.
3. It was the day that the McCann children were not taken to the tennis courts to have their usual short playtime at the side of the courts while their parents played tennis..........more Joana Morais.
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Straw admits Lockerbie trade link
Trade and oil played a part in the decision to include the Lockerbie bomber in a prisoner transfer deal, Jack Straw has admitted.Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the UK justice secretary said trade was "a very big part" of the 2007 talks that led to the prisoner deal with Libya.
However, Mr Straw's spokesman accused the press of "outrageous" innuendo.
Scotland's Justice Secretary granted Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi compassionate release because he was terminally ill.
However, Mr Straw's spokesman accused the press of "outrageous" innuendo.
Scotland's Justice Secretary granted Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi compassionate release because he was terminally ill.
£550m oil deal
The 57-year-old was serving life in Greenock prison for the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 270 people.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted there was "no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil" over his release.
But officials admit the prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) was part of a wider set of negotiations aimed at bringing Libya in from the international cold, and improving British trade prospects with the country.more
PM 'did not press Libya over IRA'
Gordon Brown declined to pressure Libya directly to gain compensation for IRA victims, Downing Street has confirmed.
Mr Brown told a victims' lawyer it was not "appropriate" to discuss the claims with Libya, whom he called an essential partner in the fight against terrorism.
The victims say Libya should pay compensation because it supplied the IRA with explosives used in atrocities. more
Variations on the expression, "I can see Russia from my house," have become so common that it's hard to imagine it's only been a year since Sarah Palin catapulted onto the national scene when John McCain announced his decision to make her his running mate on August 29, 2008.
Since then, the former Alaska governor has become one of the country's best-known politicians, *consistently named one of the top three choices for Republican presidential candidate in 2012, an object of ridicule to some, and an easy punchline for late-night comics.
Herewith, videos of Palin's most memorable TV moments from the past year:
Bill Maher New Rules: The Sorry Party
New Rule: If Mitt Romney, Karl Rove and Sarah Palin all think America has never done anything wrong, we must be doing something wrong. Look at them: an empty suit, an empty heart and an empty head. It looks like the news team on Good Morning Hell. And what they've been competing about lately is who would not apologize the most. America is infallible, and apologies are horrible things that must never, ever be given. Except by me when I make a joke about the Pope. "We're perfect -- deal with it," is their new handshake. But I say, what's wrong with America occasionally saying, "I'm sorry"? Because these are the three sorriest white people I've ever seen.If in your eyes America can do no wrong, you should really look into Lasik surgery. There's the rational, mature assessment of our country: that it's a great nation -- especially if you like fried foods -- but it also has its faults. And then there's the Republican view: that it's perfect and pure in every way and it's always right all the time, just like Leviticus and Ronald Reagan.
If the founders were alive today, Republicans would be giving them shit because the Preamble to the Constitution says, "In order to form a more perfect union? Hello, it's already perfect! Why are you suggesting American apologetics, Ben Franklin?"
One of the things that makes Republicans furious about our current president is their idea that Obama is always apologizing for America's biggest mistakes. Unlike President Bush. Who was one of America's biggest mistakes.
In his first week as president, Obama did an interview with Arab TV in which he said, "We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect." Thought crime! And then he went to Cairo and violated one of those absolute eternal rules the Right Wing is always making up out of thin air: "The president must never apologize on foreign soil. Lest our allies begin to doubt that we're assholes. "
But what did Obama actually say to make Karl Rove's head explode and the popcorn fly out? Cover your children's ears: When he was asked if he believed in American exceptionalism, he said he did, the same way "the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks in Greek exceptionalism." Yes, our so-called president actually said people in other countries might like their countries better. I was so shocked I nearly dropped the Bible I was using to help me masturbate into my gun.
In her farewell speech -- if only -- Sarah Palin kept telling us "how she's wired." Now I'm not a doctor, or an electrician -- but this is faulty wiring, this worldview that, in her words, "we should never apologize for our country." Really? Never? Not for slavery? Or Japanese internment camps, or if we tortured the wrong guy at Guantanamo? The Indians? Nothing, Sarah? "The Real Housewives of Atlanta"? Shouldn't John McCain apologize for... you?
When did intractability become a virtue? Mitt Romney's new book is called No Apology: The Case For American Greatness. You can find it at Borders, in the "Suck-Up" section. It's such a perfect title, combining paranoia with arrogance: "No one has yet asked me to apologize but, if someone ever does, fuck them."
Conservatives think apologizing is a sign of weakness. It's what liberal pussies do, when they're not busy driving electric cars and feeling empathy. When in fact it's the weak and the scared who are too insecure to apologize. Apologies are actually a sign of strength. That's why six-year-olds hate them.
In Rwanda, after a genocide that killed a million people, they set up special courts where people stood up and said, "Hey, sorry I macheted your entire family. My bad." And believe it or not, in most cases, that was enough. That's the power of an apology. A recent study reveals that doctors who are willing to apologize to patients for their mistakes are sued for malpractice about half as much as doctors who aren't willing to apologize.
Apologies can do great things, and they can enable great things. And if you still don't believe me, I have three words for you: make-up sex.
Palin's interview with Katie Cuiric, can anyone translate or actually tell me what she saying? (8mins)
But the Cuircic interview wouldn't be complete without Palin's views on foreign policy and diplomacy, or, how to loose the will to live in (10 minutes.)
Footnote: This post is directed more towards my European readers, you Yankees already know the score on this one.
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By Murray Wardrop
Published: 3:01PM BST 04 Jun 2009
Police 'arrest innocent youths for their DNA', officer claims
Hundreds of teenagers are having their DNA taken by police in case they commit crimes later in life, an officer has disclosed.
Officers are targeting children as young as 10 with the aim of placing their DNA profiles on the national database to improve their chances of solving crimes, it is claimed.
The alleged practice is also described as part of a "long-term crime prevention strategy" to dissuade youths from committing offences in the future.
The claim comes amid widespread criticism of government proposals to store DNA profiles of innocent people, including some children, on the database for up to 12 years.
Civil liberty campaigners have condemned the tactic of as "diabolical" and said it showed contempt for children's freedom.
A Metropolitan Police officer made the claims after figures were released showing that 386 under-18s had their DNA taken and stored by police last year in Camden, north London.
The officer said: "Have we got targets for young people who have not been arrested yet? The answer is yes. But we are not just waiting outside schools to pick them up, we are acting on intelligence.
"It is part of a long-term crime prevention strategy. If you know you have had your DNA taken and it is on a database then you will think twice about committing burglary for a living.
"We are often told that we have just one chance to get that DNA sample and if we miss it then that might mean a rape or a murder goes unsolved in the future."
Last month the Home Office drew up plans to amend the DNA database after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a blanket policy of retaining profiles of innocent people indefinitely was illegal.
However, adults and children arrested, but not convicted, of terrorism or serious sexual or violent offences will still have their profiles held for 12 years before they are deleted.
Children not convicted of any other offence will have profiles erased after six years or when they reach 18, whichever is sooner.
The Home Office announced last year that the DNA of children under 10 will not be retained.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: "This is diabolical and proof positive that Liberty's fears are being realised.
"The current law has created an incentive for the abuse of police power so that youngsters are being targeted purely for the purpose of stockpiling their DNA for the future.
"We hope that dealing with this outrage will be high on the list of priorities for any new Home Secretary.
"Politicians can no longer demand due process for themselves whilst showing such contempt for the freedoms of others."
Figures obtained via a Freedom of Information request show that a further 139 youths arrested in the Camden area have had their DNA profiles added to the database this year.
Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Holborn and St Pancras, Jo Shaw, who applied for the data, said: "The Met and the Home Office have some serious explaining to do if this is the case.
"Innocent children should not have their DNA profiles kept for years."
There are an estimated 5.3 million profiles on the DNA database – accounting for about one in 10 people – making it the largest of its kind in the world.
However 850,000 are of people who were never convicted of any crime. source
Row over Afghan wife-starving law
An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette and become law.
The original bill caused outrage earlier this year, forcing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to withdraw it.
But critics say the amended version of the law remains highly repressive.
They accuse Mr Karzai of selling out Afghan women for the sake of conservative Shia support at next week's presidential election.
The law governs family life for Afghanistan's Shia minority.
Sexual demands
The original version obliged Shia women to have sex with their husbands every four days at a minimum, and it effectively condoned rape by removing the need for consent to sex within marriage.
Western leaders and Afghan women's groups were united in condemning an apparent reversal of key freedoms won by women after the fall of the Taliban.
Now an amended version of the same bill has passed quietly into law with the apparent approval of President Karzai.
Just ahead of this Thursday's Afghan presidential election, human rights groups suggest the timing is no accident.
"There was a review process - Karzai came under huge pressure from all over the world to amend this law, but many of the most oppressive laws remain," Rachel Reid, the Human Rights Watch representative in Kabul, told the BBC.
"What matters more to Karzai is the support of fundamentalists and hardliners here in Afghanistan whose support he thinks he needs in the elections."
Women's groups say its new wording still violates the principle of equality that is enshrined in their constitution.
It allows a man to withhold food from his wife if she refuses his sexual demands; a woman must get her husband's permission to work; and fathers and grandfathers are given exclusive custody of children. source BBC
A group of rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial horns in a plane to ward off swine flu.About 50 religious leaders circled over the country on Monday, chanting prayers and blowing horns, called shofars.
The flight's aim was "to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it", Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
The flu is often called simply "H1N1" in Israel, as pigs are seen as unclean.
Eating pork is banned under Jewish dietary laws.
According to Israel's health ministry, there have been more than 2,000 cases of swine flu in the country, with five fatalities so far.
"We are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us," added Mr Batzri was quoted as saying.
Television footage showed rabbis in black hats rocking backwards and forwards as they read prayers from Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism which counts the singer Madonna among its devotees.
The shofar is the horn of a ram, and is used to mark major religious occasions in Judaism.
Source