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Jewish Journal

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February 15, 2013

Mystery Australian’s next-of-kin seek compensation from Israel

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Israel, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

Relatives of an Australian immigrant to Israel who killed himself in 2010 while secretly jailed on charges of violating national security are seeking compensation from the state, a source briefed on the affair said on Friday.

The source said the talks were preliminary as Israel had not formally faulted its prison authorities in the death of Ben Zygier, which was made public this week by an Australian television expose that described him as a Mossad officer.

A Mossad link has been neither denied nor confirmed by Australia or Israel, where military censorship and court gag orders kept many details of the case from the media.

The silence has fanned media speculation that Israel believes the 34-year-old Melbourne Jew had betrayed its intelligence agency's high-stakes work abroad.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which oversees the Mossad, did not respond for a request for comment on the matter.

Israel's Haaretz daily said the state agreed to pay “several million shekels” in damages to Zygier's family around six weeks ago, when an internal inquest declared his death a suicide.

The inquest result was disclosed by the Justice Ministry on Wednesday, in Israel's only official statement on the case. The statement, which did not identify Zygier by name, said a judge had also ordered an “evaluation regarding issues of negligence”.

A source briefed on the affair denied there had been any agreement to compensate Zygier's family for the failure of staff to prevent his suicide at Ayalon prison, where he had been held for months, under alias and in isolation from other inmates.

“There's no decision on negligence yet, so there's no compensation in any form in that regard,” the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “What there have been are initial inquiries by the deceased's representatives about compensation.”

“GRAVE CRIMES”

A Zygier family lawyer, Moshe Mazur, declined to comment, citing the sensitivity of the case.

So did Israel's Prisons Service. But one of its officials voiced skepticism about the idea of compensation being agreed with Zygier's family, saying such payouts in negligence cases could take “years” to negotiate.

Avigdor Feldman, an Israeli lawyer with whom Zygier briefly consulted while in prison, said he knew of no compensation deal.

Were the state to pay damages for negligence, he said, it would not reflect any official position on Zygier's guilt or innocence: “Even convicted criminals are eligible for compensation if their jailers fail to provide for their well-being as required.”

Feldman said Zygier died after being indicted for “grave crimes” but before being tried. Zygier had denied the charges against him but was considering a plea bargain, Feldman said.

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Thursday that Canberra was told Zygier had been held over “serious offences under Israeli national security legislation”.

Feldman told Israeli radio on Thursday that a “Mossad liaison” contact had arranged his with Zygier.

The Age, a Melbourne newspaper, said in a report citing Australian security officials that Zygier may have been in contact with the intelligence services of his native country and “been about to blow the whistle” about Mossad operations – including their possible fraudulent use of Australian passports.

A veteran intelligence officer who declined to be identified by name or nationality said there was a possibility that, had Zygier indeed served Mossad, the agency would have paid death benefits to his family – regardless of the charges against him.

“If he was never tried, then he was never found guilty, and he may be considered to have died while in active service,” the intelligence veteran said. “That would make his next-of-kin eligible to the various relevant payouts.”

The Hebrew word for compensation, “pitzuim”, can also be used for benefits paid without claims of misconduct.

Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Giles Elgood

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All Good Things

Leave a Comment / Yoga Breathes /

I walked confidently into Starbucks this afternoon, excited at the prospect of a skinny vanilla latte, the treat of choice from the cast of BOEING BOEING. I was even going to splurge and get a grande I had decided. And their veggie juice, to mitigate the evil I’d ordered. I pulled out my magic Starbucks card, but it was declined. Done. No money left.

You see, a few months ago, I found the magic card in my husband’s closet. I had no remorse in pilfering it from the pile of clothes I was going to wash. My rationale was as follows: he has no remorse in supporting Starbucks with his hard earned pay whereas I do, AND I figured it payment due for all the laundry I DO.

So for the run of my show, the magic Starbucks card and I had grown tender friends. He picked me up after long drives and many on-stage screw ups, and helped me win friends by offering another round. On him.

But today, he left me hanging. Since I never wanted to know how much money he actually had,  I never thought our relationship would end. But, as the saying goes, all good things must end.

And in the end, maybe we find all sorts of other good things in wait.

LIke the return to cleaner, non-caffineated afternoons perhaps. To new jobs and new friends, as well as to practices and conversations with current ones.

Wishing you all peace and practice,

Michelle

All Good Things Read More »

‘Saving’ the best Lincoln for last

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Hollywood, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

It’s a good time to be Abraham Lincoln, Hollywood star.

In recent months alone, you’ve had Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator,” “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter,” and, of course, Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-contender “Lincoln” hitting the silver screen. A National Geographic Channel adaptation of Bill O’Reilly’s bestselling “Killing Lincoln” also arrives this month.

Now, there’s “Saving Lincoln,” which debuted in 20 cities on Feb. 15, including an exclusive engagement at Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills. It enjoyed a robust premiere at the Alex Theater in Glendale on Wednesday night.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Nina Davidovich Litvak, who co-wrote the movie with her husband, Salvador Litvak. “The film was really in doubt for the longest time.”

Part of that doubt seems tied to a certain Lincoln project by one world-famous Jewish director behind such international hits as “E.T.” and  “Schindler’s List.”

“Obviously, there’s a plethora of Lincoln projects right now, but there had not been a Lincoln movie for a long time,” Litvak said of when he began his Lincoln journey 12 years ago.

“We had no way of knowing what their approach would be,” Litvak said of Spielberg’s film. “Thankfully, they just did the last four months of his life and focused on the passing the 13th amendment through Congress.”

“Saving Lincoln” stars Tom Amandes as the titular prez, Lea Coco as Lincoln confidant Ward Hill Lamon, Penelope Ann Miller as Mary Todd Lincoln, and a cast that includes Robert Craighead as Secretary of War Edward Stanton and “The Office” star Creed Bratton as Sen. Charles Sumnor.

What makes Litvak’s take so interesting, the director noted, was that this was “Lincoln [and] the whole Civil War from the perspective of his closest friends,” including Lamon, “the Rodney Dangerfield of history” (not included in Spielberg’s “Lincoln”).

“Saving Lincoln” spans the time from Lincoln’s political rise just before he was elected president through the end of the Civil War. It covers missed tactical opportunities in the war and personal setbacks, as the Lincolns lost children, one to typhoid, another to the battlefield.

A macro version of events compared to Spielberg's micro, Litvak, in under a million dollars, succeeds in delivering an expansive overview of Lincoln's blood-drenched presidency while honing in on such personal attributes as Lincoln's gift for gab and his sense of humor. A particularly fascinating moment comes post-victory, as a crowd boos the president's attempts to lead his audience in a round of “Dixie,” which Lincoln aims to “return to the national songbook.”

Unlike Spielberg, Litvak focuses on the myriad assassination attempts on Lincoln’s life, from an early botched mission by John Wilkes Booth to the yellow fever-tainted rags sent to the White House from Barbados.

What attracted producer Reuben Lim to the Litvaks’ project was that this movie was “about the man and not just the politician,” he said. There was also Litvak’s desire to film without sets, on a green screen, and incorporate archival photography into the movie’s backdrops.

As his first film, “Half-Life,” demonstrated, Lim comes from a special effects background, so he went about keeping the movie’s “cine-collage” technique under budget in a unique way, turning to special effects program students at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University to work on “Saving Lincoln” in a mutual exchange benefiting both the filmmakers and the budding CG animation professionals. The resulting stylized film looks like a hybrid of Spielberg’s movie and Ken Burns’ “Civil War” documentary.

The Feb. 13 premier's dessert reception became a de facto reunion for the cast of “Saving Lincoln,” who filmed their parts a year and a half ago. Amandes compared making the movie to an animated feature, since so much happened in post-production. He likened the performances to theater.

“If you notice, a lot of the scenes were done in one take,” said Amandes, who found his period-piece role a hearty challenge. “I love playing with the language.”

Adding a layer of meaning for him: the actor hails from Richmond in Lincoln’s native Illinois.

Miller told the Journal how her role transcended her typical “ingenue roles.” Researching the part, she learned just how important Mary was in indoctrinating Lincoln to abolitionism, and how determined she was to marry a U.S. president even before she met Abraham.

The ultimately irony about “Saving Lincoln” is that the filmmakers, on a shoestring $700,000 budget, did not shy away from depicting the entire Civil War, including battle scenes, whereas Spielberg’s $65-million film focused on just a few months before the war’s end and eschewed battleground recreations for Congressional process.

“We’re the Lincoln of Lincoln films,” Davidovich Litvak said. “He was humble and poor, he had no advantage. We had no money, limited resources. But you don’t have to have money or make billions to make a good film.”

“Saving Lincoln” runs Feb. 15 – 21 at Laemmle Music Hall and will be available digitally via iTunes and on DVD via Amazon.

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Labor activists protest NFTY convention

Leave a Comment / California, Mobile, News /

Nine-hundred students at this weekend's North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) convention at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel got a first-hand look at social action when they found themselves in the middle of a real-time, all-Jewish labor dispute. 

Friday morning, visitors from the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) and NFTY were greeted by about 25 members of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC), who demanded that NFTY cancel the national convention. The JLC called for the picket line because the hotel is a non-unionized business and has been boycotted by UNITE HERE Local 11 for several years. 

Mark Pelavin, senior adviser to URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs, said that URJ's policy is to not book events at hotels with labor disputes and that the biannual conference should have been at a different venue. But, he added, the convention will go on. 

NFTY is handing out Ralphs grocery store gift cards to hotel workers as contrition for not honoring the boycott, but JLC plans to picket the convention again over the weekend.

Labor activists protest NFTY convention Read More »

Purim: Beyond the playfulness, a time for examination

Leave a Comment / Holidays, Judaism, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

The central character of Purim is Esther, whose name means hidden. The story is full of things hidden, and waiting for the right time to be revealed. Vashti refuses to expose her sexuality to the drunken men of the King’s court, and chooses instead to be hidden. Esther hides her Jewishness until the time is right to reveal her identity. Haman hides his humanity. The foolish king’s discernment is hidden. Even God is hidden in the story. Only Mordecai is not hidden, making his presence known to save lives. Mordecai is the counterbalance to hiding.  

The characters in the Purim story are archetypes teaching us about ourselves. What do you hide? Are you like Haman who keeps part of himself hidden in response to an old wound, or because it’s too risky to be vulnerable? Are you hiding a part of yourself because you are convinced (incorrectly) that you are not worthy, that your light is not great enough? As Marianne Williamson writes: “It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” Or, are you hiding that special part of you because you, like Esther, are waiting, strategically, for the right time to serve God? In the first and second scenarios, perhaps it’s time to be revealed. In the third, perhaps it’s better to remain hiding. In the midst of our pain, we ask ourselves, where is God? As Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk says, “God is where someone lets Him in.” So let Him in.

How can you let God in when you don’t feel so good about yourself? How can you turn what is hidden in you into something that is good and seen by others? The Baal Shem Tov says lift it up to the light. Lift up the things you’re not so proud of to the light, so that you can see that even that which you keep hidden is your desire for being connected to God. Do this in prayer, meditation, or in confidential conversation with a friend.

On Purim we are told to get so drunk that we can’t tell the difference between Haman and Mordecai. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach says this means that in this state of drunkenness we don’t know the difference between arrogance and humility. Haman was arrogant and Mordecai was humble, and we assume that being humble is better. But Shlomo says you need both. “All the emotions are very holy because God made them. You only have to know the right time to use them. The truth is, in order to be a servant of God you need a lot of pride.” Pride is like arrogance that will drive you to do something courageous when no one else will do it.

You must also have humility; not humility that makes you think you’re unworthy, and not humility that makes you feel small in relation to other people. The humility you need is to know your relationship to your Creator, your compass of ethical behavior. The holy humility that we require is knowing that everything we have comes from God. Shlomo says that “If you know exactly where to use your humility then you know exactly where to use your pride.”

When it comes to parenting our children or being a partner in relationship, we need to balance pride with humility. When we find ourselves quick to criticize and ready to make our children or partners or our parents feel small, insignificant, or inadequate, we must realize that this is misplaced pride. We need humility to recognize that the people in our lives are souls in human bodies needing acknowledgement and to be treated as holy.

And here’s one of the hidden secrets in the Purim story. When you feel rage and you want to lash out – like Haman did – with judgment, criticism or worse… stop, walk out of the room, splash cold water on your face. Be like Esther. Fast for three days and ask your community for support. Do teshuvah and search for that which is hidden in you. Do the work of teshuvah, returning to the holy spark of the divine that is in you.

The Tikunei Zohar says that Purim is like Yom Kippur. The Sfat Emet explains this statement saying that teshuvah is the key to meeting God face to face. Like Esther who fasts and does teshuvah, we also fast and do teshuvah before Purim. Only after fasting and teshuvah does she enter the king’s domain, and the decree is removed. It’s the same on Yom Kippur. The process of Teshuvah is (in part) coming out from hiding and returning to your commitment to God.

Like the High Priest in the Temple, who fasted before going into the Holy of Holies, we fast, we do teshuvah, and only then do we enter the “King’s domain”. Then the decree is removed, and we start fresh. It is stated in the Talmud (Megillah 14a): “The removal of the king’s ring [that Haman used to seal his evil decree] was greater than the 48 prophets and 7 prophetesses who prophesied to Israel. For all [of them] were unable to return the Jews to righteousness; whereas removal of the ring returned the Jews to righteousness.” The threat was so real and so severe that the Jews took the responsibility of teshuvah seriously. The Sfat Emet says this teaches the power of teshuvah is so great that it can reverse evil decrees. It can reverse our own decrees.

On this Purim, let us do teshuvah and live lives in which we are all seen rather than hidden. Let us return to living lives that honor the sacred in each other by treating each other ethically and with kindness and patience. Let us be so drunk that we have no fear of bringing God out of hiding and into the stories of our lives.

Rabbi Elihu Gevirtz can be reached at rabbielihu@gmail.com. You can read more at www.rabbielihu.com.

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The Pathogens on Cupid’s Arrow

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

“Love is a burning thing
And it makes a fiery ring”
— Johny Cash

On Valentine’s Day some think of chocolate, or wine, or flowers. Physicians think of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This week with perfect timing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released ” target=”_blank”>this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report followed up on “You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by”
— Herman Hupfeld

Learn more:

” target=”_blank”>CDC Warns of Super-Gonorrhea (ABC News)
” target=”_blank”>CDC Grand Rounds: The Growing Threat of Multidrug-Resistant Gonorrhea (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report)
” target=”_blank”>Untreatable Gonorrhea – The Next Infectious Threat

Important legal mumbo jumbo:
Anything you read on the web should be used to supplement, not replace, your doctor’s advice.  Anything that I write is no exception.  I’m a doctor, but I’m not your doctor.

The Pathogens on Cupid’s Arrow Read More »

Egypt seizes two tons of explosives bound for Sinai

Leave a Comment / Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, Worldwide /

Egypt seized two tons of explosives hidden in a truck carrying a shipment of fruits and vegetables bound for Sinai on Friday, security sources said.

The country's security forces are trying to reassert control over the Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip and has descended into lawlessness since the revolt that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

“We found the amount in a shipment, concealed under some fruits and vegetables… We found the explosives packed inside 100 plastic bags,” a security source said.

In January, Egypt seized six anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets in the Sinai peninsula that smugglers may have intended to send to the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip.

The confiscated explosives were of a type used for demolishing stones in quarries.

When interrogated, the truck driver said he was unaware he was transporting explosives and that a businessman had asked him to take the goods to Sinai where it would be collected.

Reporting Yousri Mohamed; Writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Michael Roddy

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Remembering Ira Skolky

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Mobile, News, Obituaries /

By Rabbi Mark Borovitz

Redemption takes a community. This realization came to me this week in a very tragic, powerful way. One of our staff members, Ira Skolky, z”l, died from a massive stroke. It is a great loss to the Beit T’Shuvah community and to the greater Jewish and Recovery communities as well. Dealing with this ordeal has strengthened my resolve to spread the word of Redemption and to try hard to get more of us to become “Addicted to Redemption!”

Ira was a Counselor, having gone through the Beit T’Shuvah program for Living Well. He was also a member of the cast of our original play, Freedom Song. On Saturday, the cast was leaving for 2 shows in South Florida. Ira was late and this was cause for alarm, as Ira was always the first person everywhere he was supposed to be. Yeshaia Blakeney and Laura Bagish went to his house and through a series of God Shots, found him lying on the floor of his room and called 911 and then me. We found his relatives, told them what was happening; the paramedics did their best to help and he went to Cedars-Sinai Hospital. The Medical team there did their best and, sadly, there was no brain activity. Ira passed away on Sunday, February 10, 2013. The fact that he was a recovering alcoholic never mattered to anyone helping him. He was seen as a human being in need of help and everyone responded accordingly. His friends and family prayed for him and were at the hospital to be with him. The entire Beit T’Shuvah community rallied to his side and prayed, hoped and showed our deep love and need for Ira. The cast went to Florida and dedicated the performances to and spoke about Ira. I have been told that they were some of the most powerful performances ever!

Ira's Redemption has had profound effects on people for these past 5 years. He has helped, loved, scolded and guided many of us to reach places we never knew were attainable. Ira's life is a testament to Redemption and that it is never too late and/or no one is “too far gone” to do T’Shuvah and Redeem themselves. Ira's Redemption happened because of his work, the work of others who helped him and the work of those he helped.

In arranging his burial, the family has no money, there is only a sister left. I had to call the Burial Fund people of Jewish Family Service and I spoke to Len Lawrence of Mount Sinai Mortuary and Cemetery. While I understand the need for checking things out, I was getting frustrated when they asked for paperwork that was not readily available and I spoke to Len. I asked him how he would feel if I made someone go through all this when he referred someone to Beit T’Shuvah and told me there was no money for the services. Leon's response was, “Mark, you will have the go ahead in 10 minutes.” And I did!

A Shomer watched the body and Bruce Bloom performed Taharah free of charge. All of the Clergy of Beit T’Shuvah are leading the services, free of charge. On Sunday we are having a Celebration of Ira's Life at 5PM with food and refreshments, free of charge to everyone.

I am proud of JFS Burial Fund, Mount Sinai Mortuary and Cemetery, Len Lawrence, Yeshaia Blakeney, Laura Bagish, Ira's sister and cousins, the Medical Team at Cedars-Sinai and the entire Beit T’Shuvah community for helping Ira redeem himself in life and in Death. Witnessing this coming together of community is one of the reasons I am “Addicted to Redemption!”

Remembering Ira Skolky Read More »

Synagogue in Siberia damaged by meteorite

Leave a Comment / Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, Worldwide /

A synagogue in Siberia was lightly damaged by a meteorite that fell nearby.

On Friday, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Levitin, director of the Or Avner Jewish day school in Chelyabinsk, a city located 1,000 miles east of Moscow, was quoted by an Israeli website as saying congregants heard a huge explosion during morning prayers followed by a bright flash that lit up the sky.

“Glasses shattered and people tried to escape, but they weren't sure were to go,” Levitin told COL, a media outlet affiliated with Chabad. “Outside we were told a meteor had fallen from the space.”

Media on Friday reported a suspected extraterrestrial object had landed somewhere in western Siberia. Videos posted on YouTube by drivers in the area showed a bright orb streaking the early morning sky.

Levitin uploaded photos of the Chelyabisnk synagogue's stained-glass windows, which he said were shattered by the shock waves. The rabbi said one congregant was spared serious injury when a large shard of glass landed in his seat seconds after he went to the window to investigate the cause of the blast.

“It was a real miracle,” Levitin said, according to COL. Levitin said authorities were telling residents to stay indoors while they were investigating the incident.

Synagogue in Siberia damaged by meteorite Read More »

UPDATE: Meteorite explodes over Russia, more than 1,000 injured

Leave a Comment / Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, Worldwide /

A meteorite streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured 1,200 people.

People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow.

The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, had blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away.

Car alarms went off, thousands of windows shattered and mobile phone networks were disrupted. The Interior Ministry said the meteorite explosion, a very rare spectacle, also unleashed a sonic boom.

“I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it were day,” said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains.

“I felt like I was blinded by headlights.”

The meteorite, which weighed about 10 tonnes and may have been made of iron, entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (19-31 miles) above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences.

The energy released when it entered the Earth's atmosphere was equivalent to a few kilotonnes, the academy said, the power of a small atomic weapon exploding.

No deaths were reported but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims.

The Interior Ministry said about 1,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most from shards of glass.

WINDOWS BLOWN OUT

The early-morning blast and ensuing shock wave blew out windows on Chelyabinsk's central Lenin Street, buckled some shop fronts, rattled apartment buildings in the city centre and blew out windows.

“I was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend,” said Andrei, a local resident who did not give his second name. “Then there was a flash and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shock wave that smashed windows.”

A wall and roof were badly damaged at the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant but a spokeswoman said no environmental threat resulted.

One piece of meteorite broke through the ice the Cherbakul Lake near Chelyabinsk, leaving a hole several metres (yards) wide.

The region has long been a hub for the Russian military and defence industry, and it is often the site where artillery shells are decommissioned.

A local Emergencies Ministry official said meteorite storms were extremely rare and Friday's incident may have been connected with an asteroid the size of an Olympic swimming pool that was due to pass Earth.

But an astronomer at Russia's Academy of Sciences, Sergei Barabanov, cast doubt on that report and the European Space Agency said its experts had confirmed there was no link.

The regional governor in Chelyabinsk said the meteorite shower had caused more than $30 million in damage, and the Emergencies Ministry said 300 buildings had been affected.

Despite warnings not to approach any unidentified objects, some enterprising locals were hoping to cash in.

“Selling meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk!” one prospective seller, Vladimir, said on a popular Russian auction website. He attached a picture of a black piece of stone that on Friday afternoon was priced at 1,488 roubles ($49.46).

RARE EVENT

The Emergencies Ministry described Friday's events as a “meteorite shower in the form of fireballs” and said background radiation levels were normal. It urged residents not to panic.

The first footage was shot by car dashboard video cameras and soon went viral.

Russians also quickly made fun at the event on the Internet. A photo montage showed Putin riding the meteorite and Nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovksy said in jest it was really a new weapon being tested by the United States.

Experts drew comparisons with an incident in 1908, when a meteorite is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000 sq km (1,250 miles) in Siberia, breaking windows as far as 200 km (125 miles) from the point of impact.

Simon Goodwin, an astrophysics expert from Britain's University of Sheffield, said that roughly 1,000 to 10,000 tonnes of material rained down from space towards the earth every day, but most burned up in the atmosphere.

“While events this big are rare, an impact that could cause damage and death could happen every century or so. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop impacts.”

The meteorite struck just as an asteroid known as 2012 DA14, about 46 m in diameter, was due to pass closer to Earth – at a distance of 27,520 km (17,100 miles) – than any other known object of its size since scientists began routinely monitoring asteroids about 15 years ago. ($1 = 30.0877 Russian roubles)

Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Thomas Grove; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Michael Roddy

UPDATE: Meteorite explodes over Russia, more than 1,000 injured Read More »