Please be Mispallel for the Tosher Rebbe Shlita, who has been admitted to the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal.
The Rebbe was taken by Hatzolah to the hospital on Monday evening, and reportedly has a pneumonia.
His name is Meshulam Feish ben Tzirel.
Besuros Tovos.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The Pentagon has assembled a group of 120 experts ready to review the anticipated publication by the website WikiLeaks of 400,000 military documents from the war in Iraq, according to Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan.
Lapan said the Pentagon’s team of experts has a good idea of which documents WikiLeaks may be ready to leak, but the experts don’t know for certain what the website is planning.
“We don’t know how these documents might be released, when these documents might be released, in what number they might be released, so we’re sort of preparing for all eventualities,” Lapan said Monday.
In preparation, the task force has gone through what the Pentagon believes are the relevant documents — “significant activities” reports from the Iraq war.
“The team has already reviewed all of the documents in the Iraq database,” said Lapan. “And what they are prepared for is, once there is a release of documents, to evaluate them very quickly to see … whether they are of concern to us.”
If the anticipated leak happens, it will dwarf the release last summer of 76,000 documents related to the Afghan war, which remains one of the largest leaks of classified material in the history of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Lapan would give only a vague description of the documents that the Department of Defense believes are in the hands of WikiLeaks.
“Certainly some of the reporting are things that have been reported in the media for years, from civilian casualties, alleged detainee abuse, to any of those things,” Lapan said. “Yes, they have been reported on. But names of individuals, again, some of those things. We’ll just sort of wait and see what comes.”
The Pentagon, as it did after the Afghan documents were leaked, is demanding that WikiLeaks not publish the documents on the internet and return whatever copies it may have.
“They can return them. They got them in a certain way, whether they were on disk or whatever, they can return those. Obviously we understand that nothing goes away forever, but the primary idea is they would not publish them,” Lapan said.
Lapan also warned traditional news media outlets not to assist WikiLeaks.
“News organizations should be cautioned not to facilitate the leaking of classified documents with this disreputable organization known as WikiLeaks,” he told reporters Monday. “The concern is that WikiLeaks as an organization should not be made more credible by having credible news organizations facilitate what they are doing.”
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(Source: CNN)
Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar has been invited to address the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, probably in 2011.
On a visit to Moscow this week in order to to promote dialogue between European nations and religious communities, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, the assembly’s president, met with Rabbi Lazar and other Russia’s religious leaders.
During the meeting, he expressed concerns about a rising tide of xenophobia in Europe.
“Intensifying inter-religious and intercultural dialogue is one of the best ways of combating xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, which seem to be on the rise in many European societies,” Çavusoglu said.
Lazar , director of Chabad in Russia, accompanied the European official during a tour of Moscow’s Marina Roscha Jewish community center and its Beis Menachem Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue. He noted that the center’s programs were emblematic of a resurgence of Jewish life in the former Soviet Union.
“This center brings light and hope to all the Jews of Russia,” he said, drawing comparisons with similar centers run by Rabbi Mendel Samama of Chabad-Lubavitch of Strasbourg, France and Rabbi Levi Matusof in Brussels, Belgium.
Çavusoglu stressed that centers like those in Moscow and across Europe served to educate all citizens about Jewish culture.
“It is essential to increase mutual understanding and respect between different cultures and religions by emphasizing the profound values that we have in common, mainly our respect for human beings and human dignity,” he said.
He hold meetings with several other religious dignitaries of Russia, ioncluding Patriarch Cyril of Moscow and All-Russia, the Grand Mufti of Russia and the Chairman of Russia’s Council of Muftis Sheik Ravil Gainutdin.
As part of the promotion of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, Çavusoglu announced that the PACE was preparing a debate on this topic in April 2011 with the participation of the Prime Ministers of Turkey and Spain, as co-chairs of the ‘Alliance of Civilizations,’ together with religious leaders from across Europe.
“It is essential to increase mutual understanding and respect between different cultures and religions by emphasising the profound values that we have in common, mainly our respect for human beings and human dignity,” he stressed.
Based in Strasbourg, France, the Council of Europe covers virtually the entire European continent, with its 47 member countries.
Founded in 1949, the body seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.
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(Source: EJP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netany said Monday that “We expect anyone wishing to become an Israeli citizen to recognize Israel as the Jewish nation state and a democratic state. There is a broad consensus within the Israeli public as to the Jewish and democratic nature of the country, and this is not by happenstance.
“The State of Israel was not established as ‘just another state’ – it was founded as the sovereign state of the Jewish people in their historic homeland; and as a democratic nation, whose citizens, Jews and non-Jews, enjoy full civil equality.”
(Source: Ynet)
Airlines are asking the Federal Air Marshals Service to relax its policy of often seating undercover agents in first class because they say it has become a costly disruption that isn’t justified by current security threats.
The Air Transport Association, the Washington trade group representing large carriers, and several airline CEOs recently appealed to Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole and his marshals service counterpart, Robert Bray, to move marshals to seats farther back in planes.
By going public with their concerns, the airlines have shone a rare light on the behind-the-scenes tensions that sometimes arise in the secretive force that protects against terrorism in the skies. The disclosure prompted a harsh backlash from a group that represents marshals.
The marshals service, the force of undercover marksmen that was greatly expanded after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, travels for free. Marshals are guaranteed a seat on a flight and they often take seats in first class, says David Castelveter, spokesman for the airlines’ association.
The airlines and some security experts say the need isn’t as great as it once was for marshals to sit in first class, where they can serve as a barrier to a suicide hijacker. They say security measures such as hardened cockpit doors and recent terrorist attempts in the rear of planes suggest that threats may be at least as great elsewhere on planes.
“We want to be absolutely sure that TSA is considering the risk level on board the airplane in determining the placement of the (marshals),” Castelveter says.
Though the loss of revenue in profitable first-class sections helped trigger the airlines’ concerns, the carriers would not raise the issue if they didn’t believe it was justified, Castelveter says.
Marshals contend it was “inappropriate” for the airlines to raise the issue publicly because it could expose the agency’s tactics to terrorists, says John Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents marshals.
Adler declined to speak about where marshals normally sit. He called the airlines’ statements inaccurate and says he wrote to the House Homeland Security Committee suggesting airline executives be reprimanded. “They are sitting in the bleachers, and they don’t have access to the playbook,” he says.
Nelson Minerly, spokesman for the marshals service, declined to respond directly to the airline concerns. He says the agency deploys marshals based on intelligence and other analysis designed to identify the biggest risks.
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(Read More: USA Today)
Four men accused of planting bombs outside synagogues in the Bronx and plotting to fire missiles at military planes were convicted on Monday, in a case that was widely seen as an important test of the entrapment defense.
A jury of six women and five men in Federal District Court in Manhattan deliberated for eight days.
The four defendants – Onta Williams, Laguerre Payen, James Cromitie and David Williams IV – face up to life in prison. Prosecutors said the men, who all lived in Newburgh, N.Y., willingly cooperated with an informer working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation who posed as a terrorist and supplied the men with inert bombs and Stinger missile tubes.
On May 20, 2009, the men were arrested in the Riverdale section of the Bronx after they planted the bombs in cars outside two synagogues.
The authorities said that they also planned to travel to Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, north of New York City, to fire missiles at military transport planes.
The jury deliberations stalled at one point, when jurors revealed they had seen evidence that was not introduced at trial – including a transcript that the judge had called inadmissible. But the judge, Colleen McMahon, refused a request by the defense lawyers for a mistrial. She dismissed a juror who had seen the inadmissible transcript, and asked the other jurors to resume their deliberations.
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(Read More: NY Times)
[LIVE WEBCAST LINK BELOW] Rachel Imeinu was a cup half full kind of person. It sounds chutzpadik to talk that way about one of our Imahos, but if we want to emulate her, that’s probably the best way.
She waited for Yaakov, and then had to give him away. She waited for children, and then died far too soon. And despite all that she went through, she had patience, she had hope, she had faith. And that’s why the yartzeit of Rachel Imeinu is an inspiring day.
It is a day on which we reflect upon how Rachel handled her crises and challenges, and how she is an example to us, now and forever. We all have our ongoing struggles, the trials and tests that we encounter daily. Whether we are single looking to get married, or married with the challenges of shalom bayis. Whether we are waiting for children, or exasperated by what our children are doing. Whether we hate our boss, or are unemployed and frustrated with the endless job search that leads nowhere. And the tragedies…parents dying too young, children taken from us even younger. Illness, car accidents, terrorist attacks. Indeed, today there is no shortage of what to daven for.
Again, that’s why Rachel’s yartzeit is such an inspiring day. She was buried on the roadside for us in Galus. She is more than just a symbol of hope and faith; she is an emissary for us to Hashem. He promised her that He would listen to her cries, and she awaits us with her arms open.
Do we turn to her enough? Do we beseech her to cry on our behalf as much as we should? Many who come to Israel to visit don’t get to Kever Rachel. Many who live in Israel have never even been there. But this week, one day this year, we have a chance to make up for that. Because Rav Chaim Palagi, the revered Torah giant, held that giving tzedaka to Kever Rachel on the day of the yartzeit is a huge segula for our tefillos.
To make the day more meaningful for those who can’t be there in person, we can watch the tefillos from our homes and offices. A webcast will be operated by Mosdos Kever Rachel for the 24 hours of the yartzeit (based on Israel time), beginning Monday night, so that we can see the tears, we can hear the tefillos, and we can feel the importance and holiness of the site. Perhaps that will inspire us to cry to her with our tefillos. Becuase it’s a day of inspiration, and you shouldn’t miss it.
LIVE WEBCAST INFO: Visit www.keverrachel.com to watch the webcast live from Kever Rachel
(YWN Desk – NYC)
Williamsburg – The United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg (UJO), as part of its continuing effort to aid homeowners affected by the current economy, will hold a free Foreclosure Prevention & Managing Credit Seminar with New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) on Tuesday, October 19 at 7:00 pm. The event will be at 646 Myrtle Ave. (at Franklin).
The UJO and NYLAG will make presentations on reducing debt and preventing foreclosure. Following the presentations, the UJO’s foreclosure prevention counselors will be available to meet with clients.
The UJO’s counselors can assist people whose mortgages have become unaffordable due to job loss, reduction in income, or other reasons.
The service is free of charge, and you do not need to be behind on your mortgage to receive help.
The UJO’s counselors analyze clients’ financial situations, determine the best courses of action regarding their mortgages, and work with lenders and servicers to obtain modifications or refinancing.
The UJO’s counselors are always available weekdays at 32 Penn Street (between Kent and Wythe) for further assistance. Assistance is also available after 5:00 pm on Tuesdays by appointment.
Call 718-643-9700 ext. 241 or 243 for more information or to make an appointment.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
The NY Observer reports:
Dan Donovan met with leaders of the Hasidic community yesterday and blasted out a release afterwards saying that he received an endorsement from the meetings. “These community leaders decided that Donovan represents the best choice for New York State Attorney General,” the campaign wrote.
But now several people who were actually at the meeting say that in fact no such endorsement has occurred, and that the community leaders are still waiting to sit down with Eric Schneiderman before making a formal endorsement.
“They were specifically told that this was not an endorsement,” said Isaac Weinberger, who attended the meeting. “We will meet with the next candidate and then there will be a decision by the community.”
And Gary Schlesinger, the chairman of UJ Care, attended the meeting and said that the first he had heard of an endorsement was when he read about it this morning. “It was basically a nice sit-down but we are going to wait for the second candidate,” he said. “I am not sure who jumped the gun but this was strictly a sit-down.”
The release sent out last night does not contain any quotes from Hasidic leaders who were at the meeting.
The Hasidic community have a tendency to vote as a bloc, and to follow the endorsements of the rabbis and community leaders. Isaac Abraham, who also attended the meeting said that he did not think the Donovan’s campaign assumption of an endorsement would hurt their chances from receiving an actual one later on.
“I don’t think it will hurt him,” he said. “It was just a little premature.”
NOTE: Celeste Katz of the NY Daily News Blog had what to say about this latest fiasco, as did Maggie Haberman of Politico.
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(Source: NY Observer)
Facebook issued a stern warning to independent developers Monday in response to reports that some applications on the site were sharing identifying information about users.
At the same time, a Facebook engineer said media coverage of the leak has exaggerated how much information can be, and has been, shared with third parties.
“Our policy is very clear about protecting user data, ensuring that no one can access private user information without explicit user consent,” Facebook engineer Mike Vernal said on a blog used by people who develop apps for the site. “Further, developers cannot disclose user information to ad networks and data brokers.
“We take strong measures to enforce this policy, including suspending and disabling applications that violate it.”
A report by The Wall Street Journal found that some of Facebook’s most popular apps, including the game FarmVille by social network game company Zynga, were being used to share users’ personal information with more than 25 advertisers and online tracking companies.
According to the Journal, the apps were sharing the unique “Facebook ID” numbers that are assigned to every user on the site and can be used to look up a person’s name — even if that person has set all of his or her Facebook information to be private.
The report said Rapleaf, a data gathering firm, was able to link information from the apps to its database of internet users, which could allow advertisers to create user profiles based on online information about the users.
In a blog post Monday, Rapleaf said sharing personal identifiers was a mistake. When informed of it last week, the company “immediately researched the cause and implemented a solution to cease the transmissions,” the post said.
It also stated that as of last week, no user IDs, or UIDs, were being shared via Rapleaf.
“We are committed to working with the industry to fix these issues, and all issues that may emerge in the future from this complex ecosystem,” said the post. “Our mission is that everyone can have a personalized experience on the web that is safe and anonymous, and we will continue to work hard to make this a reality.”
A user ID is a public part of any Facebook user’s profile and can be used by any third party to access information the user has made public. But Rapleaf was linking that ID with other online information their browsers had found about he user, according to the Journal report.
It was unclear whether developers of many of the apps even knew they were sharing the information, the Journal said. Many apps, including Zynga’s games, ask for some access to users’ networks so that users can share gameplay with their friends.
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(Read More: CNN)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday handed top state honors to the Russian spies deported from the U.S. in July in the biggest spy scandal since the Cold War, the Kremlin said.
“A ceremony took place in the Kremlin today to hand top state honors to a number of Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) employees, including the spies who were working in the United States and returned to Russia in July,” Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said in a statement on Russian news agencies.
No television footage or pictures were released of the ceremony.
The group of 10 spies, many of whom had been working for years undercover in the U.S. as sleeper agents, returned to Russia in a sensational spy swap that saw Moscow send four Russian convicts to the West.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who served as a KGB agent in East Germany, has said that he has met the spies and even sung patriotic songs with them. He blamed “traitors” for blowing their cover.
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(Read More: NY Post)
Citigroup posted second-quarter earnings of $2.2 billion Monday, marking its third straight quarterly profit and beating Wall Street expectations, as the bank continued to trim its loan loss reserves thanks to improving credit trends.
Earnings for the banking giant came in at 7 cents per share, compared to a loss of 27 cents per share during the period a year ago.
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(Read More: CNN Money)
Carl Paladino’s visit to Boro Park should be mandatory teaching in graduate schools across New York of how to guarantee that your candidate loses the Orthodox Jewish vote. It went so poorly that Paladino’s campaign manager even offered to resign. To prevent this from happening to another naïve political operative, we at Jewish Politics proudly introduce you to: “5 Things Politicians Should Never Do In Boro Park.”
1- Don’t take a fringe Rabbi with you. When you go to Boro Park you have two options: you can either bring one of a handful of mainstream Rabbis with you (mainstream means that the Rabbi has at least 1,000 followers; not like the Rabbi who Paladino brought who on a good day has a minyan of ten followers). Alternatively, you can bring one of only two influential elected officials in the community: Assemblyman Dov Hikind or Councilman David Greenfield. They’re pros who would have never allowed the visit to spiral out of control. By showing up with a fringe right-wing Rabbi, Paladino essentially guaranteed that Boro Parkers would not take him seriously and turned his visit into a side-freak show.
2- Don’t bash gays. This is the major mistake that many politicians outside of Boro Park make. They think that Boro Parkers care about social issues. They’re wrong. Boro Parkers care about social-service issues not social issues. As far as they are concerned, violating shabbos, eating pork and gay marriage are in the same category – transgressions of Jewish law. But Boro Parkers aren’t trying to convert the world, they’re only trying to improve theirs.
3- Don’t insult their Rabbis. Paladino read from a prepared statement where he insulted two prominent rabbis in two ways: 1. He did not refer to them as “rabbis,” he simply referred to them by their name. This is a cardinal sin in a place where even the elderly are referred to by venerated titles. 2. He accused them of selling out for supporting a candidate who doesn’t oppose gay marriage. He should have read rule # 2. Or even rule # 1. An insider would have explained that the Rabbis supported John Heyer for City Council instead of Brad Lander to prove that they control votes – NOT to win the race. In fact, the Rabbis were offended by Brad Lander’s overall liberal political views primarily because of his extreme left-wing views on Israel (Lander is of the Soros/J-Street/Peace Now persuasion). They weren’t trying to win a race, they were trying to send another local politician (Assemblyman Dov Hikind who had endorsed Brad Lander) a message. The Rabbis sent their message: Heyer won 85% of the votes in Boro Park.
4- Boro Parkers are NOT amish. Everything you say WILL be recorded. There are more cell phones, digital recorders and flip video recorders in Boro Park per capita than any other place in the world. This is because there is no religious prohibition on these items, but there are on other items like televisions. As a result, Boro Parkers compensate on banned items by having more of the permitted gadgets than anywhere you will ever visit.
5- NEVER campaign in a synagogue. Boro Parkers treat synagogues as the holiest of holiest places. Any kind of conversation, other than prayer or studying torah, is strictly prohibited. That is why politicians coming to Boro Park only go to a synagogue to receive a rabbi’s blessing – never to campaign. If a politician is campaigning they are doing so in a rabbi’s home (usually his study). Another reason to stay away from synagogues – they have mandatory separate seating areas to prevent men and women from socializing while praying (although they routinely mingle outside of synagogue where there are no prayers). You can never bring a woman into a men’s section or a man into a women’s section. Seeing as how most politicians come during a weekday when traditionally only men are attending synagogues (as opposed to Shabbos when men and women are attending) you will only frustrate your female staff and the reporters following you around because they will not be allowed in the men’s section.
In short, all political strategists owe Paladino a debt of gratitude. His trip to Boro Park not only cost him his support of the Orthodox Jewish community but taught all political strategists what never to do if you are courting the Orthodox Jewish vote.
Daniel Miller for YWN
Jewish Politics is a new opinion column by veteran political strategist Daniel Miller. The views and opinions reflected herein are solely of Mr. Miller and are not necessarily those of Yeshiva World News.
Brooklyn, NY – Last week on Friday City officials quietly scrubbed a controversial Sheepshead Bay mosque, which had already been the subject of months of review and protests, and ordered another probe of the project.
The Department of Buildings had actually approved the design of the Islamic community center on Voorhies Road on Wednesday, allowing property owner Allowey Ahmed to begin construction, but two days later, the same agency pulled support for the as-of-right project and will now subject it to another exhaustive review.
Ahmed believes the city simpy caved in to pressure from a handful of mosque opponents on the block between East 28th and East 29th streets.
“It’s only common sense to assume that,” he explained. “We lowered our plan from four floors to three out of deference to our neighbors. And now everything is on hold again.”
The city didn’t give Ahmed any reason for the delay, except to say that the entire plan has to be reviewed again for “anywhere from one to five months,” Ahmed was told.
Calls to the Department of Buildings for answers weren’t returned.
The delay smacks of a back-room deal, especially since neighborhood political leaders are supporting the city’s stunning turnaround.
State Sen. Carl Kruger (D–Mill Basin) said the second review is necessary because of the divisive feelings surrounding the mosque project.
“Whenever the [Department of Buildings] knows that something is controversial, they don’t leave it up to one plan examiner,” said Kruger. “They want a fresh set of eyes to look at it, like an integrity check.
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(Read More: The Brooklyn Paper)
I have been in a baking mood lately – but easy recipes only. These delicious cookies definitely fit the bill.
1 Duncan Hines Devil’s Food cake mix
¾ cup crunchy peanut butter
2 eggs
2 tablespoons nondairy creamer
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup peanut butter chips (if you can’t find, just use 1 cup chocolate chips)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together cake mix, peanut butter, eggs and nondairy creamer until smooth. Stir in chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets; remove to wire racks to finish cooling.
By Emuna Braverman and Elizabeth Kurtz, of www.gourmetkoshercooking.com
www.gourmetkoshercooking.com is a new and exciting site where you will find over 900 great kosher recipes – with particular emphasis on ideas for Shabbos and holidays, the best new kosher products, gorgeous table top decor, articles on kosher wine and healthy eating, featured giveaways, travel, cooking with kids and much more. Content is updated weekly so visit us often. Your family will be glad you did!
It’s official: Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation died today.
The American Heart Association (AHA) today issued new guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, better known as CPR, making rapid chest compressions the mainstay of basic life support for bystanders trying to revive people whose hearts have stopped.
Doctors say the AHA’s change marks the end of the organization’s advocacy of a practice believed for at least half a century to be essential for saving victims of cardiac arrest or heart attacks. “Compression is the only way to go,” says AHA’s Michael Sayre, an emergency physician at Ohio State University. He added that rescue breathing is still recommended for children and anyone whose cardiac arrest is likely due to oxygen deprivation.
The AHA decision was driven by a growing body of research showing that bystanders are more likely to perform compression-only CPR on strangers and that it works better than conventional CPR.
“It’s a big deal,” says Corey Slovis, chairman of emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and an early advocate of the change. “People are standing around while others are dying, when all they have to do is pump on their chests.”
About 300,000 people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the USA each year, either because they’ve had a heart attack or suffered a rhythm disturbance; fewer than 8% survive. An analysis of 3,700 cardiac arrests published Friday in the journal Lancet found that hands-only CPR saved 22% more lives than the conventional method. All told, the switch could save up to 3,000 additional lives a year in the USA and 5,000 to 10,000 in North America and Europe, says lead author Peter Nagele of Washington University in St. Louis.
A landmark study published Oct. 6 in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that bystanders who applied hands-only CPR were able to boost survival to 34% from 18% for those who got conventional CPR or none at all. In addition, the percentage of people willing to provide CPR rose from 28% in 2005 to 40% in 2009.
The new guidelines dictate that a bystander should compress the victim’s chest 100 times a minute to a depth of about 2 inches. That keeps blood and oxygen flowing to the brain, sustaining it until help arrives. Stopping for rescue breaths can interrupt blood flow, AHA’s Sayre says.
Studies also show that bystanders reluctant to perform mouth-to-mouth breathing often give up, thinking there’s nothing they can do. “Bystanders aren’t doing anything in two-thirds of cases,” Sayre says. “This is not hard; it’s really easy.”
Slovis says it’s natural to balk. “Doing artificial ventilation, risking getting infectious disease, is something that most of us are afraid of,” he says.
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(Source: USA Today)
New York voters are profoundly pessimistic about the state economy, worried that they or someone in their household will be laid off in the coming year, and convinced that Albany is rife with corruption.
But in the race for governor, they are rallying not around the gruff outsider who has promised to take a baseball bat to Albany, but around an insider who has spent much of his adult life working in government: Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.
A New York Times poll found that Mr. Cuomo had opened a big lead over Carl P. Paladino, drawing 59 percent of likely voters, to his Republican rival’s 24 percent.
New Yorkers’ embrace of Mr. Cuomo stands in vivid contrast to many races around the country, where establishment candidates face steep climbs to re-election, and insurgents backed by Tea Party activists appear poised to win a significant number of seats in Congress.
Mr. Cuomo’s popularity appears to be fueled in part by widespread doubts about Mr. Paladino’s temperament and qualifications.
Some 59 percent of voters in the poll said that Mr. Paladino did not have the right temperament and personality to be a good governor, while 55 percent said that Mr. Paladino, a novice candidate who made millions as a real estate developer, did not have the right kind of experience.
Only 11 percent of voters in the poll had a favorable view of Mr. Paladino.
And when asked what comes to mind when they hear his name, voters who were surveyed offered a collection of negative personality traits, like “angry,” “bigoted” or “obnoxious.”
“I’ve been reading about a lot of things he said and watching his ads, and he seems very angry,” Michelle Sullivan, 52, a homemaker from Auburn who described herself as an independent, said in a follow-up interview. “We’re all upset in New York State with the way it’s been run, but I don’t think it’s a good thing for a candidate to be that angry. He’s scary-angry, actually.”
Mr. Paladino’s standing in the poll may have been affected by its timing; it surveyed 1,139 adults from Oct. 10 through Oct. 15, as Mr. Paladino was being widely criticized for expressing disgust with gay pride parades and commenting that children should not be taught that homosexuality was acceptable. Earlier public polls showed Mr. Cuomo leading by smaller margins.
Of the Times poll’s respondents, 943 said they were registered to vote.
The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, both for all respondents and for voters.
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(Read More: NY Times)
About 1,000 gas stations across France have run out of fuel because of nationwide strikes that are affecting transportation, Alexandre de Benoist, a Union of Independent Oil Importers official, told CNN Monday.
The service stations are out of fuel because striking workers are blocking access to French oil refineries and oil depots, de Benoist said.
The problem is not a lack of fuel, he added, saying: “There is enough fuel in stock for several weeks.”
But French unions say production has stopped at all 12 of the nation’s refineries.
French workers began their latest round of nationwide strikes a week ago, protesting against government plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and institute other pension reforms.
The government, which says France can no longer afford the earlier retirement payments, has shown no sign of backing down.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Sunday night he would “not let the French economy be choked by a blockade of fuel.
“There will not be a shortage because we are going to make the necessary decisions… to ensure that this country is not blocked,” he said on TF1 television.
French drivers lined up to fill their cars on Friday, fearing shortages.
Students demonstrated in sympathy with the strikers Monday, with 261 high schools in “a state of disruption,” the Ministry of Education said.
Half the flights from Paris’s Orly airport will be canceled Tuesday because of the strikes, and 30 percent of flights from other airports in the city will be canceled, the French aviation authority announced Monday.
More demonstrations are scheduled for Tuesday.
Belgium was also hit by strikes Monday, forcing the cancellation of high-speed Eurostar trains to the capital Brussels from Paris and London, England. A very limited bus service was scheduled to operate between Brussels and Lille, France, Eurostar said.
Protesters in France on Saturday formed a line stretching two miles long near the historic Bastille Square in Paris, waving banners and shouting insults against the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, CNN’s Jim Bittermann reported.
France’s Interior Ministry said some 825,000 protesters turned out nationwide, while labor unions — who oppose upping the retirement age — said 3.5 million protesters attended the more than 200 demonstrations across the country Saturday.
Figures for Monday are not yet available.
Emotions ran high in France as the pension debacle continued to pit the government against French unions. Analysts say pension reform will likely be a defining moment in Sarkozy’s presidency.
Despite repeated national strikes over the controversial proposal, France’s National Assembly on Wednesday approved Sarkozy’s pension reform bill which would raise the national retirement age.
The proposal passed 329 to 233, but still must pass the Senate to become law.
The Senate is expected to vote October 20.
Only two of the refineries in France were in full production Saturday, according to the Union of French Petroleum Industries.
But French Finance Minister Christine Laguarde told RTL radio in an interview Saturday that the country has several weeks worth of fuel stocks, saying “the government confirms there is no shortage.”
The work stoppage at the refineries had a direct effect on the two main Paris airports, Orly and Charles de Gaulle.
Both are supplied by a pipeline that comes directly from refineries that were shut down Friday, according to Trapil, the company that owns the line.
But a French transport ministry spokesman told CNN late Saturday that the pipeline supplying fuel to the airports has been reopened and is operating normally.
While more than a dozen unions and federations have called for workers to strike, not everyone walked off the job.
Officials at the Ministry of Education, for example, said only 30 percent of its sector was affected.
Workers from both the public and private sectors are on strike, including those in transportation, education, justice, hospitals, media and banking.
The strikes have also led to a reduction in train services throughout France.
Blasting Sarkozy during a CNN interview Saturday, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe accused the French president of “arrogance.”
“It’s three years this has been going on … three years of stupidity on stupidity … arrogance on arrogance .. even verbal violence on his part against some categories of French citizens,” said Delanoe.
But Sarkozy insists the changes are needed because rising life expectancy increases the financial burden on the pension system.
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(Source: CNN)
Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding near each other in relative comfort in northwest Pakistan, a senior NATO official told CNN on Monday.
The two men are believed to be living in homes near one another and are protected by members of Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, and locals, the network reported. Pakistan strongly denies protecting members of the terror network.
“Nobody in Al Qaeda is living in a cave,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying.
Bin Laden is believed to have escaped from Afghanistan’s Tora Bora region, a Taliban stronghold, during a U.S. bombing raid in 2001 and has moved around Pakistan since.
The official told CNN the Al Qaeda leader is likely to have traveled in recent years throughout the country’s rugged tribal region from near the Chinese border to neighboring Afghanistan.
The same official also confirmed to the network that top Taliban leader Mullah Omar has been moving between the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Karachi over the last several months.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview earlier this month that Al Qaeda has been weakened in the past two to three years and predicted that the network’s top two leaders eventually would be hunted down.
“It would certainly be significant if we were to find and kill Bin Laden or Zawahiri. We are seeking to do that,” he said. “I actually believe that some point in time it will happen.”
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(Source: Fox News)
An NYPD officer from the 75th Pct and a suspect were both shot near the intersection of Bradford and Blake Streets in East New York Sunday evening .
While chasing a suspect into a building, the officer walked into a hail of bullets and was hit in the leg around 8 p.m.. The suspect fired about ten shots, with the officer returning fire striking the shooter in the leg as well.
The officer was transported to Kings County Hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg, and the perpetrator was taken to Brookdale Hospital. Both are expected to recover from their injuries.
The officer’s name has not yet been released.
An investigation is ongoing.
UPDATE — MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG AND POLICE COMMISSIONER RAYMOND W. KELLY UPDATE NEW YORKERS ON THE CONDITION OF NYPD OFFICER RICHARD RAMIREZ
Mayor Bloomberg’s Remarks as Delivered Tonight at Kings County Medical Center Follow:
“Good evening. I’m here with Police Commissioner Kelly, Chief of Department Esposito, Dr. Eli Kleinman, the NYPD’s Chief Medical Officer, Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski, Chief of Internal Affairs Charles Campisi, Chief of Brooklyn North Gerald Nelson, Transit Chief James Hall, Father Robert Romano – an NYPD Chaplain, Pat Lynch from the PBA, and not here with us but so important are the doctors from the Kings County Trauma Center, Dr. Kirtz, Dr. Angus, and the head of it Dr. Asher Hirshberg.
“Just about two months since we were in a hospital for a similar, almost tragic event. Tonight I’m here because Police Officer Richard Ramirez was shot while on duty, helping keep New York the safest big city in the country. He is now in surgery, receiving world class care here at Kings County Medical Center, and doctors do expect that he will survive and make a full recovery. I met upstairs with his wife Anna, mother Norma and his father Richardo, and some brothers and sisters, and thanked them on behalf of the City.
“You should know that Officer Ramirez – who just turned 29 years old on October 10th – has been on the force for four years, assigned to the 75th precinct here in Brooklyn. Tonight he was patrolling the streets as part of a three man anti-crime team. The team was in plain clothes when they encountered an individual with a handgun about 8:00 tonight, they gave chase.
“The perpetrator ran into a building and up to the third floor where he turned and fired on the officers, hitting Officer Ramirez twice in the right leg. The three officers returned fire and wounded the perpetrator, who is now in surgery at Brookdale hospital.
“Commissioner Kelly will provide details on the incident, but let me just add that Officer Ramirez patrols our streets night and day, and one of the toughest challenges he faces is catching people who carry illegal guns like this one.
“It is highly dangerous work – and it is hugely important – because if Officer Ramirez and his team had not confronted the suspect, the shooter would still be on the street, and he may well have killed innocent New Yorkers.
“We ask an awful lot of our police officers. We ask them to take bullets for us – and they do. In return, we owe them a solemn commitment: to give them the tools they need to do their jobs, and to do everything possible to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals.
“Right now, as a country, we are failing our police officers. There is much more we could and should be doing. And until we start honoring that solemn commitment – instead of playing politics – more police officers will be shot. And, tragically, they won’t all turn out as lucky as we were today. Some of the police officers will be killed.
“Let me just repeat once again, there are just too many guns on the streets in the hands of criminals and in the hands of young people. Federal law prohibits young people and people that have been convicted of crimes from having guns, and yet the federal government does not do anywhere near enough to help us get the guns off the streets. These guns are going to kill police officers and kill innocent civilians. It happens all the time.
“In this country, we have a Virginia Tech virtually every single day. Thirty-two people were killed at Virginia Tech; there’s roughly thirty-two people that are killed with illegal handguns every single day in our country, and we don’t do anything about it. We’ve just got to stop this. And that’s why we have this Mayor’s Coalition Against Illegal Guns trying to urge our State and Federal legislators and executives to do something to get these guns off the streets.
“Just thank God Officer Ramirez was not- he wasn’t- to say he’s lucky is ridiculous. He got shot twice. But thank God it wasn’t anything more serious. Thank you very much.”
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(Source: WPIX)
