US rabbi says jailed American in good health

HAVANA (AP) — A prominent New York rabbi and physician visited an American subcontractor serving a long jail term in Cuba and said the man is in good health, despite his family’s concerns about a growth on his right shoulder.

Rabbi Elie Abadie, who is also a gastroenterologist, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview following Tuesday’s 2 1/2-hour visit at a military hospital in Havana that he personally examined Alan Gross and received a lengthy briefing from a team of Cuban physicians who have attended him.

He said the 1 1/2-inch growth on Gross’s shoulder appeared to be a non-cancerous hematoma that should clear up by itself.

“Alan Gross does not have any cancerous growth at this time, at least based on the studies I was shown and based on the examination, and I think he understands that also,” Abadie said.

Abadie said the hematoma, basically internal bleeding linked to the rupture of muscle fiber, was likely caused by exercise Gross does in jail. He said the growth ought to eventually disappear on its own.

Gross’s plight has put already chilly relations between Cuba and the United States in a deep freeze. The Maryland native was arrested in December 2009 while on a USAID-funded democracy building program and later sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against the state.

He claims he was only trying to help the island’s small Jewish community gain Internet access.

Gross’s health has been an ongoing issue during his incarceration. The 63-year-old, who was obese when arrested, has lost more than 100 pounds while in jail.

Abadie, a rabbi at New York’s Edmund J. Safra Synagogue, said Gross’s weight is appropriate for a man his age and height.

Photos that Abadie and a colleague provided to AP of Tuesday’s meeting with Gross showed him looking thin, but generally appearing to be in good spirits.

In one photo, Gross holds up a handwritten note that says “Hi Mom.”

“He definitely feels strong. He is in good spirits. He feels fit, to quote him, physically. But of course, like any other person who is incarcerated or in prison, he wants to be free. He wants to be able to go back home,” Abadie said.

Gross’s family has repeatedly appealed for his release on humanitarian grounds, noting his health problems and the fact that his adult daughter and elderly mother have both been battling cancer.

Jared Genser, counsel to Alan Gross, said late Tuesday that Rabbi Abadie is not Gross’s physician and he would like an oncologist of his choosing to evaluate him.

“While we are grateful Rabbi Abadie was able to see Alan, we have asked an oncologist to review the test results to determine if they are sufficient to rule out cancer. More importantly, if Alan is so healthy, we cannot understand why the Cuban government has repeatedly denied him an independent medical examination by a doctor of his choosing as is required by international law,” said Genser.

Gross and his wife recently filed a $ 60 million lawsuit against his former Maryland employer and the U.S. government, saying they didn’t adequately train him or disclose risks he was undertaking by doing development work on the Communist-run island.

They filed another lawsuit against an insurance company they say has reneged on commitments to pay compensation in case of his wrongful detention.

Separately, a lawyer for Gross has written the United Nations’ anti-torture expert, saying Cuban officials’ treatment of his client “will surely amount to torture” if he continues to be denied medical care.

Rumors have been swirling in U.S. media that Cuba might soon release Gross as a gesture of good will or in the hopes of winning concessions from the administration of President Barack Obama, but Abadie said that those reports appeared to be false.

“As far as I know there is no truth to it,” he said.

Abadie said he met with senior Cuban officials who expressed their desire to resolve the case “as quickly as possible,” but would not say specifically who he spoke with or what they offered.

“They claim that they are more than willing to sit at the table,” he said.

Cuban officials have strongly implied they hope to trade Gross for five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms in the United States, one of whom is already free on bail.

Abadie said Gross made clear that he does not want his case linked to that of the agents, known in Cuba as “The Five Heroes,” because he does not believe he is guilty of espionage.

But Abadie said Gross is hoping for a “constructive and productive” dialogue between U.S. and Cuban officials to resolve his case.

___

Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven.

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Thousands celebrate Hobbit premiere in New Zealand

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people packed New Zealand’s capital city, clambering on roofs and hanging onto lamp posts on Wednesday to get a glimpse of the stars at the red carpet world premiere of the film “The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey”.

Wellington, where director Peter Jackson and much of the post production is based, renamed itself “the Middle of Middle Earth“, and fans with prominent Hobbit ears, medieval style costumes, and wizard hats had camped out the night before to claim prized spaces along the 500 meter (550 yards) red carpet.

Jackson, a one time newspaper printer and the maker of the Oscar winning “Lord of the Rings” trilogy more than a decade ago, was cheered along the walk, stopping to talk to fans, sign autographs and pose for photos.

The Hobbit trilogy is set 60 years before the Rings movies, but Jackson said it has benefited from being made after the conclusion of the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy saga.

“I’m glad that we established the style and the look of Middle Earth by adapting Lord of the Rings before we did the Hobbit,” Jackson told Reuters from the red carpet.

Jackson, a hometown hero in Wellington, said the production had been on a “difficult journey”, alluding to Warner Brothers’ financial problems, and a later labor dispute with unions.

“Fate meant for us to be here,” he told an ecstatic crowd, which hailed him as a film genius, but also a down to earth local boy.

“I came here to see the stars but also Peter (Jackson)…I loved the Lord of the Rings and that made me want to be here, without him none of it would be here,” said teenage student Samantha Cooper.

OLD FRIENDS

The cast was no less enthusiastic about the Hobbit, especially those who had starred in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

British actor Andy Serkis, who plays the creature Gollum with a distinctive throaty whisper, said picking up the character after a near-ten year break was like putting on a familiar skin.

“I was reminded on a daily basis with Gollum (that) he’s truly never left me,” he said.

Most of the film’s stars attended the premiere, including British actor Martin Freeman, who plays the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, and Elijah Wood. Ian McKellen, who plays the wizard Gandalf, was absent.

Freeman, known for his roles in the comedy The Office and Sherlock Holmes, said he looked for a different, lighter, slightly pompous Baggins from the older, wiser character played by Ian Holm in the Rings movies.

“Between us – Peter (Jackson) and me — we hashed out another version of Bilbo. There’ll be others, but our version is this one and I hope people like it,” he said.

The production was at the center of several controversies, including a dispute with unions in 2010 over labor contracts that nearly sent the filming overseas and resulted in the government stepping in to change employment laws.

The only sour note at the premiere came when animal rights activists held up posters saying “Middle Earth unexpected cruelty” and “3 horses died for this film”, after claims last week that more than 20 animals died during the making of the film.

Event organizers tried to block out the protesters’ posters with large Hobbit film billboards. Jackson has said some animals died on a farm where they were housed, but none had been hurt during filming.

The movies have been filmed in 3D and at 48 frames per second (fps), compared with the standard 24 fps, which Jackson has likened to the quality leap to compact discs from vinyl records.

The second film “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” will be released in December next year, with the third “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” due in mid-July 2014.

(Editing by Elaine Lies)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Mexican beauty queen killed in shootout

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — A 20-year-old state beauty queen died in a gun battle between soldiers and the alleged gang of drug traffickers she was traveling with in a scene befitting the hit movie “Miss Bala,” or “Miss Bullet,” about Mexico’s not uncommon ties between narcos and beautiful pageant contestants.

The body of Maria Susana Flores Gamez was found Saturday lying near an assault rifle on a rural road in a mountainous area of the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa, the chief state prosecutor said Monday. It was unclear if she had used the weapon.

“She was with the gang of criminals, but we cannot say whether she participated in the shootout,” state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera said. “That’s what we’re going to have to investigate.”

The slender, 5-foot-7-inch brunette was voted the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa in a beauty pageant in February. In June, the model competed with other seven contestants for the more prestigious state beauty contest, Our Beauty Sinaloa, but didn’t win. The Our Beauty state winners compete for the Miss Mexico title, whose holder represents the country in the international Miss Universe.

Higuera said Flores Gamez was traveling in one of the vehicles that engaged soldiers in an hours-long chase and running gun battle on Saturday near her native city of Guamuchil in the state of Sinaloa, home to Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel. Higuera said two other members of the drug gang were killed and four were detained.

The shootout began when the gunmen opened fire on a Mexican army patrol. Soldiers gave chase and cornered the gang at a safe house in the town of Mocorito. The other men escaped, and the gunbattle continued along a nearby roadway, where the gang’s vehicles were eventually stopped. Six vehicles, drugs and weapons were seized following the confrontation.

It was at least the third instance in which a beauty queen or pageant contestants have been linked to Mexico’s violent drug gangs, a theme so common it was the subject of a critically acclaimed 2011 movie.

In “Miss Bala,” Mexico’s official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of this year’s Academy Awards, a young woman competing for Miss Baja California becomes an unwilling participant in a drug-running ring, finally getting arrested for deeds she was forced into performing.

In real life, former Miss Sinaloa Laura Zuniga was stripped of her 2008 crown in the Hispanoamerican Queen pageant after she was detained on suspicion of drug and weapons violations. She was later released without charges.

Zuniga was detained in western Mexico in late 2010 along with seven men, some of them suspected drug traffickers. Authorities found a large stash of weapons, ammunition and $ 53,300 with them inside a vehicle.

In 2011, a Colombian former model and pageant contestant was detained along with Jose Jorge Balderas, an accused drug trafficker and suspect in the 2010 bar shooting of Salvador Cabanas, a former star for Paraguay‘s national football team and Mexico’s Club America. She was also later released.

Higuera said Flores Gamez’s body has been turned over to relatives for burial.

“This is a sad situation,” Higuera told a local radio station. She had been enrolled in media courses at a local university, and had been modeling and in pageants since at least 2009.

Javier Valdez, the author of a 2009 book about narco ties to beauty pageants entitled “Miss Narco,” said “this is a recurrent story.”

“There is a relationship, sometimes pleasant and sometimes tragic, between organized crime and the beauty queens, the pageants, the beauty industry itself,” Valdez said.

“It is a question of privilege, power, money, but also a question of need,” said Valdez. “For a lot of these young women, it is easy to get involved with organized crime, in a country that doesn’t offer many opportunities for young people.”

Sometimes drug traffickers seek out beauty queens, but sometimes the models themselves look for narco boyfriends, Valdez said.

“I once wrote about a girl I knew of who was desperate to get a narco boyfriend,” he said. “She practically took out a classified ad saying ‘Looking for a Narco’.”

The stories seldom end well. In the best of cases, a beautiful woman with a tear-stained face is marched before the press in handcuffs. In the worst of cases, they simply disappear.

“They are disposable objects, the lowest link in the chain of criminal organizations, the young men recruited as gunmen and the pretty young women who are tossed away in two or three years, or are turned into police or killed,” Valdez said.

___

Associated Press Writer E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Disney Channel to debut ‘Sofia the First’ Jan. 11

NEW YORK (AP) — Disney says its animated children‘s series “Sofia the First” will premiere Jan. 11 on the Disney Channel and Disney Junior networks.

Created for kids ages 2 to 7, “Sofia the First” is about a young girl who becomes a princess and learns that honesty, loyalty and compassion are what makes a person royal.

Sofia is voiced by “Modern Family” actress Ariel Winter, and her mother is played by “Grey’s Anatomy” star Sara Ramirez.

Last week’s premiere of the “Sofia the First” animated movie drew a total audience of more than 5 million viewers. It was the year’s top-rated cable TV telecast among kids ages 2 to 5.

In the series’ debut episode, Sofia strives to become the first princess to earn a spot on her school’s flying derby team.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Google Breaks All Android App Reviews, Threatens Android Fans’ Safety

“A Google User” is now the number one Android game and app reviewer on Google Play, Android’s version of Apple’s App Store. That’s because every single one of the millions of existing reviews, possibly including yours, has had its author replaced with this nameless, faceless person.

Screenshots taken by Jeremiah Rice of the Android Police blog show this prolific (but completely generic) author has taken over the Google Play store. Meanwhile, if you visit the store on your Android smartphone or tablet you won’t see a name attached to most reviews at all; just the review’s title, and the device that the game or app was run on.

Believe it or not, this is all intentional. It’s the start of a new Google policy … one which may threaten some Android fans’ safety or privacy.

​Google+, whether you like it or not

Google now requires you to have a Google+ (pronounced “Google Plus”) account in order to leave reviews on Google Play, the Chrome Web Store, and Google Maps. No reason for the switchover is given in the pop-up which explains this; you simply click “Continue” if you want your reviews tied to your Google+ account, and if you don’t want them linked you don’t write them at all. If you don’t have a Google+ account, you have to sign up for one before you can write a review.

​Why Google is Plus-ifying everything

Google’s success as a company is determined by how many ads it sells. Google’s share of the ad market is being eaten into by Facebook, which has essentially “walled off” a huge part of people’s day-to-day lives in a place Google can’t index or sell any ads on. For better or for worse, Google’s execs feel that what they need to do to compete is copy Facebook, in the form of Google+.

Why? Because if everyone is “Plusing” things instead of “Liking” them, and if everything people do shows up on Google+ instead of Facebook, then now Google (instead of Facebook) knows what you’re doing online and where you’re doing it — and that gives it a much better position from which to display and sell ads.

​Why this is a problem for many

Besides the obvious privacy concerns (although Google offers limited tools to manage how much it tracks you), Google+’s “real names” policy is dangerous to anyone whose safety is jeopardized by attaching their given name to their online activities. This includes women who are victims of stalking, minors who are victims of abuse, transgender persons in transition, and dissidents in repressive political or religious regimes. By requiring a Google+ account to use more and more of its services, Google is forcing these people to choose between excluding themselves and running the risk of having ​all​ of their Google services terminated for a “real name” policy violation, including their personal Gmail accounts.

Google+ policy allows for pseudonymous accounts, if you’re widely known by that pseudonym online. Everyone’s Google+ page, however, has a button to report what anyone feels is a suspicious name, which puts marginalized persons like those listed above at the mercy of every “troll” who comes by.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population — young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males. Only about a quarter of new infections in the 13-to-24 age group are from injecting drugs or heterosexual sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said blacks represented more than half of new infections in youths. The estimates are based on 2010 figures.

Overall, new U.S. HIV infections have held steady at around 50,000 annually. About 12,000 are in teens and young adults, and most youth with HIV haven’t been tested.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

GOP senators 'troubled' after Rice meeting

United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice's attempts to "make nice" with a trio of Republican senators who have criticized her response to the Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, seem to have backfired.

The senators said they left their face-to-face meeting with Rice this morning "more concerned" and "significantly troubled."

The three Republicans, Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, said not only did Rice, who was joined by Acting CIA Director Mike Morell, not answer all their questions about the attack but did little to assuage their overall worries.

"We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got, and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was overwhelming leading up to the attack on the consulate," McCain said.

"The concerns I have are greater today than before, and we're not even close to getting the basic answers," Graham said.

Today's meeting was seen as part of Rice's Capitol Hill "charm offensive," as her possible nomination to become the next secretary of state has met with some vocal opposition – especially from McCain, Graham and Ayotte, who still seemed to steer clear of questions about whether they would stand in the way if Rice was nominated.

"Before anybody can make an intelligent decision about promoting someone involved in Benghazi, we need to do a lot more," Graham said. "To this date, we don't have the FBI interviews of the survivors conducted one or two days after the attack. We don't have the basic information about what was said the night of the attack ... as of this date."

Graham compared the situation to 2006, when Senate Democrats blocked the nomination of John Bolton, President Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador.

What the senators seemed to find most problematic was Rice's statement on the Sunday morning news shows days after the attack. At first, she said it was a "spontaneous" attack and not a terrorist attack.

Ayotte said that in today's meeting Rice called the information she first gave to the American people wrong.

"It's certainly clear from the beginning that we knew that those with ties to al Qaeda were involved in the attack on the embassy, and clearly the impression that was given, the information given to the American people, was wrong," Ayotte said,

Rice said in a statement following the meeting: "We explained that the talking points provided by the intelligence community, and the initial assessment upon which they were based, were incorrect in a key respect: There was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi. While, we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved. We stressed that neither I nor anyone else in the administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in this process, and the administration updated Congress and the American people as our assessments evolved."

Ayotte said that as the U.N. ambassador, Rice should have stepped up and said that she couldn't go on the Sunday morning news shows and talk about the attack without complete information.

Graham, like Ayotte, said it would have been better not to have given any information at all.

"If you can give nothing but bad information, isn't it better to give no information at all? It was unjustified to give the scenarios as presented by Ambassador Rice and President Obama three weeks before an election."

Rice is expected to meet with outgoing Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., later today. A close ally of McCain (Lieberman endorsed McCain for president in 2008), Lieberman has not been as quick to criticize Rice.

Also Read

Read More..

Nintendo says more than 400,000 Wii Us sold in US

NEW YORK (AP) — Nintendo has sold more than 400,000 of its new video game console, the Wii U, in its first week on sale in the U.S., the company said Monday.

The Wii U launched on Nov. 18 in the U.S. at a starting price of $ 300. Nintendo said the sales figure, based on internal estimates, is through Saturday, or seven days later.

The Wii U is the first major game console to launch in six years. It comes with a new touch-screen controller that promises to change how people play games by offering different people in the same room a different experience, depending on the controller used.

Six years ago, Nintendo Co. sold 475,000 of the original Wii in that console’s first seven days in stores, according to data from the NPD Group. The original Wii remains available, and Nintendo said it sold more than 300,000 of them last week, along with roughly 250,000 handheld Nintendo 3DS units and about 275,000 of the Nintendo DS.

At this early stage, demand isn’t the only factor dictating how many consoles are sold. Supply is, too. This means it’s likely that more people wanted to buy the Wii U in the first week than those who were able to. The original Wii was in short supply more than a year after it went on sale.

As of Monday afternoon, the website of Best Buy Co. was sold out of the Wii U. Video game retailer GameStop Corp. said there was at least a three day wait for a deluxe Wii U, which costs $ 350, has more memory and comes with a game called “Nintendo Land.” GameStop still had the basic, $ 300 version available.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter estimates that Nintendo will ship 1 million to 1.5 million Wii Us in the U.S. through the end of January.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Let the fiscal cliff road show begin

Republican House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama meet at the White House on Nov. 16 to discuss …President Barack Obama is ramping up efforts to win over Americans—and pressure Congress—on the looming "fiscal cliff," with events at the White House and on the road to argue for the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts chiefly benefiting the rich.

The response from his top Republican foes? On Tuesday morning, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell portrayed the president's outreach effort as an unserious distraction from negotiations with Congress. But minutes after McConnell's sharp-tongued criticism, Republican House Speaker John Boehner's office announced that his members would be countering the president's road show with one of their own.

Obama was meeting on Tuesday behind closed doors with 15 small-business owners from the retail, construction and health care information technology sector. At the White House on Wednesday, the president planned to showcase Americans who would be affected if no deal can be reached to extend middle-class tax cuts. On Friday, Obama planned to travel to the Philadelphia suburb of Hatfield to make a speech at the Rodon Group manufacturing facility. Rodon is an American maker of K'NEX brands, which include Tinkertoy, K'NEX and Angry Bird Building Sets.

In a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell cast the White House efforts as little more than a public relations gambit.

"Rather than sitting down with lawmakers of both parties and working out an agreement, he's back out on the campaign trail, presumably with the same old talking points we're all familiar with," McConnell said. "Look: We already know the president is a very good campaigner. What we don't know is whether he has the leadership qualities necessary to lead his party to a bipartisan agreement on a big issue like this."

But 26 minutes after a transcript of McConnell's remarks landed in reporters' inboxes, Boehner's office made it clear that the House GOP would also be taking its sales pitch on the road.

Republican lawmakers planned to hold events with small businesses around the country warning that job creation will slow if taxes are hiked on small businesses, aides said.

Republicans have warned that Obama's push to let tax cuts expire on income over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families will hit some small businesses, a sector they often credit with fueling job growth. The president characterizes the tax increase—a centerpiece of his successful re-election campaign—as asking wealthier Americans to pay more in order to preserve popular government programs that might otherwise face steep cuts.

"Republicans understand that we must avert the fiscal cliff and have laid out a framework to do so that is consistent with the 'balanced' approach the president says he wants," Boehner's spokesman Brendan Buck said. Buck accused some Democrats of ruling out "sensible spending cuts," notably overhauls of popular entitlement programs such as Medicare, the government health care plan for seniors, and Medicaid, a state-federal program that provides health care to low-income Americans.

The White House and congressional Republicans profess eagerness to avoid the fiscal cliff, an economically toxic blend of tax increases and dramatic spending cuts that will go into effect Jan. 1 unless a deal is reached on a far-reaching deficit-cutting plan (or an agreement is reached to push back what are Congressionally enacted deadlines that lawmakers can un-enact if the president signs on).

Obama spoke to Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over the Thanksgiving weekend, but Republicans have complained that negotiations are at an impasse. One of the major roadblocks is the fight over whether to let tax rates on higher incomes revert to Clinton-era levels. The fiscal cliff fight could shape the direction of the nation's spending for a decade—and it certainly amounts to Obama's first major test of postelection clout.

Read More..

Gay Men, Moms Sue NJ Conversion Therapists for Fraud

Four gay men and two of their mothers filed a lawsuit today against a New Jersey conversion therapy group that claims to rid men of same-sex attractions and turn them straight.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of New Jersey Hudson County, alleges that methods used by the Jersey City-based Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing (JONAH) do not work and constitute fraud under the state’s consumer protection laws.

Arthur Goldberg, JONAH‘s co-director, and Alan Downing, a “life coach” who provides therapy sessions, were also named in the suit.

The plaintiffs include Michael Ferguson, Benjamin Unger, Sheldon Bruck and Chaim Levin, all of whom used the services of JONAH when they were in their teens or young 20s.

Two of the men’s mothers, Jo Bruck and Bella Levin, who paid for therapy sessions that could cost up to $ 10,000 a year, were also plaintiffs.

One of the plaintiffs alleges that therapy sessions that involved a virtual “strip tease” in front of an older male counselor, as well as reliving abuse and homophobia were “humiliating.”

They are seeking declaratory, injunctive and an undisclosed amount of monetary relief, as well as court costs, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs have received legal help from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which claims in the lawsuit that conversion therapy is a dangerous practice that has been “discredited or highly criticized” by every major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional organization.

Three of the young plaintiffs are from an ultra orthodox Jewish background; Ferguson came from a Mormon background and met Downing at a “Journey Into Manhood” retreat, according to the lawsuit.

JONAH appears to cater to orthodox Jews, but its methods “do not have a strong religious aspect,” according to SPLC lawyer Sam Wolfe.

The lawsuit alleges that some of the methods used included: telling boys to beat a pillow, the “effigy of the client’s mother,” with a tennis racket; encouraging “cuddling” between younger clients and older male counselors; and even instructing attendees to remove their clothing and hold their penis in front of Downing.

Attendees were also subjected to ridicule as “faggots” and “homos” in mock locker room and gym class role playing, according to the lawsuit.

“It’s definitely cruel and unusual and doesn’t work,” said Wolfe. “They are peddling bogus techniques that have no foundation in science and are basically ridiculous and even harmful.”

Wolfe paraphrased JONAH’s message as: “All you have to do is put in the work to overcome your sexual attractions. If you follow our program your true orientation emerges and will turn you into a straight person.”

“Often if what the conversion therapist tells them doesn’t work, it’s their fault,” Wolfe added.

In 2008, when the plaintiffs were seeking help from JONAH, the cost of an individual therapy session was $ 100 and for a group session, $ 60. JONAH also “strongly pushed” attending weekend retreats that could cost as much as $ 700, said Wolfe.

Arthur Goldberg said he “knows nothing about the lawsuit,” which was filed this morning, and referred ABCNews.com to JONAH’s website.

“We have a lot of people who were a success and were healed,” he said of JONAH’s 14 years in service. “Hundreds of the clients we serve are satisfied … Our therapy is very conventional.”

When asked about the group’s practices, he said, “I can’t tell you about the methodology.” Goldberg admitted he had “no background specifically in counseling.”

“I am the administrator,” he said. “I used to teach family law.”

When asked about instructing boys to take off their clothes, he said, “I know nothing about that.”

Goldberg also said he had “no idea” how to reach Downing because he was an “independent contractor.”

According to JONAH’s mission statement on its website, the nonprofit group is “dedicated to educating the world-wide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors which lead to same-sex attractions.”

“Through psychological and spiritual counseling, peer support, and self-empowerment, JONAH seeks to reunify families, to heal the wounds surrounding homosexuality, and to provide hope,” the statement reads.

JONAH’s Goldberg, who runs the business side of the nonprofit, says on the website that “change from homosexual to heterosexual is possible … homosexuality is a learned behavior which can be unlearned, and that healing is a lifelong process.”

According to the lawsuit, JONAH cites the “scientific” work of Joseph Nicolosi, one of the primary proponents of conversion therapy and Richard A. Cohen, who was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association in 2002 for “multiple ethical violations.”

Nicolosi’s methodology is based on the belief that a weak father-son relationship and a dominating mother contribute to homosexuality. He advocates “rough and tumble games,” as well as father-son showers, according to the lawsuit.

Cohen uses a technique called “bioenergetics” that includes having male patients beat a pillow, which represents their mother, as a way of stopping same-sex attraction, according to the lawsuit.

Conversion therapists also cite child abuse and bullying as a “primary cause” of homosexuality, according to the lawsuit.

APA Calls Gay Conversion Therapy Risky

The American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization, among other mental health groups, have cited the potential risks of reparation therapy, including “depression, anxiety [and] self-destructive behavior,” according to the lawsuit.

Chaim Levin, the most vocal of the plaintiffs, is now 23 and a gay rights advocate who writes a blog, Gotta Give ‘Em Hope.

He grew up in a Jewish ultra orthodox community in Brooklyn where religious leaders threw him out of the Hebrew-speaking yeshiva at the age of 17, when they learned he was gay.

Levin told ABCNews.com that he had been abused as a boy and that he was “confused” by his sexuality and took a rabbi’s advice and began 18 months of gay conversion therapy at JONAH.

[Levin filed a civil lawsuit against his cousin in July, alleging he was abused for three years from the time he was 6.]

When Levin met co-director Goldberg, he said the defendant told him JONAH could change his sexual orientation, “as long as I tried hard enough and put enough effort into it.”

“He told me, ‘You will marry a woman and have a straight life,’” said Levin.

“Given where I came from, with three older siblings who were married with kids and not knowing any gay people or English, I was sure I could change,” he said. “That was the theology.”

Levin first did a retreat with Downing, then saw him weekly at therapy sessions in Jersey City.

“A lot of the therapy involves reliving the experience,” he said. Levin alleges he was forced to relive the sexual abuse by his cousin, “with no counseling afterwards.”

But the most “humiliating” experience, the one that Levin alleges made him quit therapy, was being asked by Downing to take off his clothes, article by article and told to touch his “private parts” — to hold his penis in front of a mirror to “be in touch with my masculinity.”

“I told him I wasn’t comfortable, but I desperately wanted to change and was ready to do anything,” said Levin. Afterward, he said he felt “degraded and violated.”

Today, Levin no longer identifies as orthodox, but said his parents have been “supportive” of the lawsuit.

Some Jewish denominations and many congregations are inclusive of homosexual congregants, and even New York’s orthodox communities are more open-minded now, according to Levin.

“I had gone for help and they had misrepresented themselves,” he said.

Also Read
Parenting/Kids News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..