Barak

Barak (/ˈbɛəræk/ or /ˈbɛərək/;Hebrew: בָּרָק, Tiberian Hebrew: Bārāq "black", Arabic: البُراق‎ al-Burāq "lightning") was a 12th-century BC ruler and Judge of Ancient Israel. As military commander in the biblical Book of Judges, Barak, with Deborah the prophetess, defeated the Canaanite armies led by Sisera.

Background

The son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, Barak was the next judge after Deborah and preceded Gideon. His story is told in the Book of Judges, Chapters 4 and 5. In Hebrew, his name means to kneel or bless.

Biblical story

The story of the Hebrews' defeat of the Canaanites led by Sisera, under the prophetic leadership of Deborah and the military leadership of Barak, is related in prose (Judges Chapter 4) and repeated in poetry (Chapter 5, which is known as the Song of Deborah).

Chapter 4 makes the chief enemy Jabin, king of Hazor (present Tell el-Qedah, about three miles southwest of Hula Basin), though a prominent part is played by his commander-in-chief, Sisera of Harosheth-ha-goiim (possibly Tell el-'Amr, approximately 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Megiddo).

Afghan detainees at Guantanamo Bay

According to the United States Department of Defense, it held more than two hundred Afghan detainees in Guantanamo prior to May 15, 2006. They had been captured and classified as enemy combatants in warfare following the US and allies invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban and disrupt terrorist networks. Originally the US held such prisoners in sites in Afghanistan, but needed a facility to detain them where they could be interrogated. It opened the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on January 11, 2002 and transported the enemy combatants there.

The United States Supreme Court's ruled in Rasul v. Bush (2004) that the detainees had the right of habeas corpus to challenge their detention under the US Constitution. That summer, the Department of Defense stopped transferring detained men to Guantanamo. On September 6, 2006 United States President George W. Bush announced the transfer of 14 high value detainees to Guantanamo, including several Afghans. Other Afghans have been transferred to the camp since then.

Barak (given name)

The given name Barak, (meaning blessing) is not the same as Baraq, from the root B-R-Q, is a Hebrew name meaning "lightning". It is a Biblical name, given after the Israelite general Barak (ברק Bārāq).

B-R-Q

The Semitic root B-R-Q has the meaning "to shine"; "lightning". The Hebrew name ברק Bārāq is biblical, given after Barak, a military commander in the Book of Judges.

The Arabic word for "lightning" is Arabic: بُراق‎ burāq. The epithet Barcas of the Punic general Hamilcar is from the same root, as is the name of Al-Buraq, the miraculous steed of Islamic mythology.

The given name is mostly Jewish, and predominantly found in Israel. However, it has occasionally been used by Anglo-Saxon protestants in the early modern period, when there was a fashion for given names from the Hebrew Bible, as in the name of Barak Longmate, an 18th-century English genealogist.

People with the name

Notable people with the name include:

Laxå

Laxå is a locality and the seat of Laxå Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with 3,064 inhabitants in 2010.

History

The town was founded in the mid-19th century when the main line railway between Gothenburg and Stockholm (Västra Stambanan) was built in 1883. Laxå is situated exactly 226 km from both those cities.

In the vicinity of the town Laxå lies the Porla Well. It iron rich water made it a popular spa between 1724 until 1939. Although not a spa, its water is sold in bottles with the brand "Porlavatten" and have been distributed nationwide since the 1920s.

On August 17, 2012, it was reported in Dagens Nyheter that Laxå is Sweden's poorest municipality and the only one in the country with a net debt.

References

External links

Lax, Switzerland

Lax is a municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

History

Lax is first mentioned in 1295 as Lacx. Lax is next documented as a community named Zend Goms Lax in 1308. The first division of irrigation was in 1347; the current system feeds seven farms around the small town. The first local regulations date from 1436.

Geography

Lax has an area, as of 2011, of 5 square kilometers (1.9 sq mi). Of this area, 37.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 38.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and 17.6% is unproductive land.

The municipality is located above the Deisch valley on a small plateau on the right bank of the Rhone.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, a mountain fesswise Argent, in chief three pine trees eradicated Vert trunked proper.

Demographics

Lax has a population (as of December 2014) of 296.As of 2008, 13.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -4.7%. It has changed at a rate of -9.7% due to migration and at a rate of 3.7% due to births and deaths.

Los Angeles International Airport

Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX, FAA LID: LAX) is the largest and busiest airport in the Greater Los Angeles Area and the state of California, and it is one of the most important international airports in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually. LAX is located in the southwestern Los Angeles area along the Pacific Ocean between the neighborhood of Westchester to its immediate north and the city of El Segundo to its immediate south. It is owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, an agency of the Los Angeles city government formerly known as the Department of Airports.

In 2014, LAX handled 70,622,212 passengers, far exceeding a previous record of 67.3 million travelers set in 2000, making it the fifth busiest airport by passenger traffic in the world. The airport holds the claim for "the world's busiest origin and destination (O & D) airport," and has for many years. The airport also was the third busiest in the world by aircraft movements. Furthermore, it is also the only airport to rank among the top five U.S. airports for both passenger and cargo traffic.