Free Republic

Tehran's Blood-soaked Hands July 11, 2007 The Washington Times As American and Iraqi casualties mount, U.S. military commanders have become increasingly willing to criticize Tehran's role in fueling the violence in Iraq — something senators would do well to bear in mind this week while going on about the need to withdraw or "redeploy" American troops there. According to Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, Tehran had a direct role in a Jan. 20 attack on the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center in which five American soldiers were killed — four of them murdered after being abducted by Iranian-backed radicals who wore...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A top special operations officer from Lebanon's Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah has been captured in Iraq, where U.S. officials say he played a key role in a January attack that killed five Americans. Ali Mussa Daqduq, an explosives expert, was captured in March in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where he was helping train and lead Shiite militias fighting coalition troops, U.S. intelligence officials told CNN. Daqduq pretended to be deaf and mute when captured, and his identity was not known for weeks, the officials said. Once uncovered, however, they said he began to talk, and...

Police officers in Jacksonville, Florida arrived at the home of a 44-year-old deaf man after a reported domestic disturbance. Despite knowing the man was deaf, officers immediately began shouting orders, which they knew could not be heard - or easily followed. Within seconds, they slammed the man onto the ground and continued shouting un-heard orders, as the man cried out that he had done nothing wrong. Afterwards, the officers mocked the deaf man, telling him that he should have "just listened."

In a nutshell Researchers successfully restored hearing in 10 deaf participants aged 18 months to 24 years using gene therapy, proving the treatment works beyond early childhood All patients showed hearing improvements within one month, with some achieving nearly normal hearing and ability to have conversations without hearing aids The therapy proved safe with only mild side effects, opening doors for treating other genetic forms of deafness in the future ======================================================================== NANJING, China — A groundbreaking clinical trial has achieved what many thought impossible: restoring meaningful hearing in people born profoundly deaf, including teenagers and young adults who were previously...

A Missouri police officer gunned down a beloved deaf and blind dog Sunday, first claiming he was putting it out of its misery before backtracking and saying the 13-pound pup made him fear for his life. The disturbing killing was captured in the cop’s bodycam footage — and happened just three minutes after the officer arrived to find the escaped dog exploring a neighbor’s yard. “If you watch the video, the dog is very playful and happy and kind of turned his head when he noticed somebody’s there, looking for somebody to touch him as he’s always done,” grieving owner...

What makes this clip particularly moving is that the little girl really was deaf. And she didn’t know that Sir Richard Attenborough (Santa) had learned to sign, just for this scene. So her joyful reaction here is real.

A woman named Hope was hired by Planned Parenthood to interpret the worker’s words into sign language for deaf patients. She describes what she experienced when she was asked to interpret during an abortion. The baby was aborted at eighteen weeks: At 10:30 sharp, we entered the operating room. That’s when my stomach started to turn. Previously, when I’d read “medical procedure,” it had been for ultrasounds. But this was different – we were in an OR. The lights were too bright for the size of the room. There were cold-looking metal objects on a table. I was in an...

Four children born with a rare form of deafness are now able to hear, thanks to a new gene therapy being trialed in China. In addition to helping others with the same condition, this treatment could one day lead to gene therapies for other, more common causes of deafness. The challenge: Every year, about 6,000 babies are born in the US alone with some level of permanent hearing loss. The problem, in rare instances, lies in mutations in the gene that codes for the otoferlin (OTOF) protein, which helps hair cells in the inner ear transmit sounds to the brain...

Mandatory mask wearing saw more than 90% of deaf people struggle to communicate during the pandemic, University of Essex research has revealed. It also discovered that 76% missed vital information and 59% felt disconnected from society due to the face coverings. This is because masks restrict the ability to read lips and judge expressions. It also emerged that over-55s who became deaf later in life found communication using masks more challenging. And profoundly deaf people and signers experienced more disconnection from society and negative effects on their well-being. Dr. Eva Gutierrez-Sigut, from the Department of Psychology, led a team of...

Last week’s eruption of the volcano near the Pacific island nation of Tonga was 600 times more powerful than the nuke dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II. As a result, the eruption was so loud that many Tongans went deaf after the first explosion. “The first explosion…our ears were ringing and we couldn’t even hear each other, so all we do is pointing to our families to get up, get ready to run,” Marian Kupu, a journalist on Tonga, told Reuters. The eruption was so loud that it could be heard across the world, even thousands of miles...

Cynthia Walker isn't used to doing things on her own. But when she walked into a North Carolina Chick-fil-A and ordered herself a meal by signing her order, it became the first time she was able to do it on her own without feeling uncomfortable.

VITAMIN B12 deficiency produces a number of eerie effects on the body and the type of symptoms you may experience depend on the underlying cause. One common warning sign associated with B12 deficiency caused by pernicious anaemia is a particular sound. Vitamin B12's impact on the body is brought into sharp relief if you become deficient in the vitamin. Vitamin B12 is a nutrient that helps keep the body’s nerve and blood cells healthy and helps make DNA, the genetic material in all cells. If the body does not get enough of the vitamin, it therefore responds in disturbing ways....

(Right to Life UK) – A Chinese biotech firm has declared “screening out” babies with Down syndrome is a “cash cow” funding the growth of the whole business. The admission comes from a spokesperson for BGI Group – a Chinese genetics conglomerate whose main business is offering non-invasive prenatal tests, primarily used to diagnose Down syndrome. In a segment from an Aljazeera documentary titled Genesis 2.0, the spokesperson gestures towards a digital map of the world and says: “You can see clearly, especially for Down’s syndrome, we have nearly two million samples all over the world. This part is, what...

Following the announcement of casting actor Esai Morales as Deathstroke, DC Universe's live-action Titans has cast Chella Man as Jericho, a hero in his own right and the son of DC's famed mercenary. Though he's not a big name in Hollywood, Man, who self-identifies as deaf, genderqueer and a queer artist, has seen his profile grow both as a deaf activist and as a model. In 2017, the Jewish/Chinese-American actor began to transition from female to male and has quickly become a noted figure in LGBTQ+ circles, documenting his transition on Instagram, YouTube and a series of columns for them....

PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Otoharmonics Corporation, a U.S. veteran-owned company offering sound therapy for tinnitus management, has been awarded a five-year Federal Supply Schedule Medical Equipment and Supply contract, making Levo available immediately to patients receiving care within the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Bureau of Prisons, Indian Heads Services, and Public Health Services. Compatible with the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Tinnitus published by the American Academy of Otolaryngologists and the VA's Progressive Tinnitus Management Program, the Levo System's sleep therapy has been shown to reduce the level of tinnitus intensity and improve the quality...

Google is announcing two new features for Android phones today: Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier. They’re both designed as accessibility features to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Live Transcribe is an app that automatically transcribes speech in near-real time, allowing people to communicate in situations where they might not otherwise be able to. . . . Of the two, I was more impressed with Live Transcribe. When you open the app, it simply starts writing out what it hears in large, easy-to-read text. It works remarkably well, including adding punctuation and even understanding some context. The...

Democrats are gloating over the sentencing of former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) last week. He was ordered to serve 10 years in prison for the vague charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Whenever prosecutors want to get someone who hasn’t actually committed a crime, they use those vague but scary sounding charges. He was also ordered to pay $1,014,718.51 in restitution, to be divided between him and two other co-defendants.What did Stockman actually do to warrant this? He facilitated four donations from two donors totaling $915,000 to two nonprofits he was associated with. One of the nonprofits...

Musician Eric Clapton says he is going deaf. The 72-year-old singer says he plans on still performing, but his mounting health issues as he ages are a concern. “The only thing I'm concerned with now is being in my 70s and being able to be proficient,” Clapton said in an interview with BBC 2. “I mean, I’m going deaf, I’ve got tinnitus, my hands just about work. I’m hoping that people will come along and see me just because, or maybe more than because I’m a curiosity. I know that is part of it, because it's amazing to myself I’m...

A closeup view of the skin-stimulating electrodes and earphones used to deliver the specially timed signals. Credit: University of Michigan ======================================================================================================================================================================= Millions of Americans hear ringing in their ears—a condition called tinnitus—but a new study shows an experimental device could help quiet the phantom sounds by targeting unruly nerve activity in the brain. In a new paper in Science Translational Medicine, a team from the University of Michigan reports the results of the first animal tests and clinical trial of the approach, including data from 20 human tinnitus patients. Based on years of scientific research into the root causes...