Obama to visit Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Less than two weeks after his re-election, President Barack Obama will become the first U.S. president to visit the once pariah nation of Myanmar, drawing attention to the country's shift to democracy and highlighting what his administration regards as a marquee foreign policy achievement.

Obama will also travel to Cambodia, a first for a U.S. president as well, and to Thailand during the Nov. 17-20 trip. In Cambodia, the president will attend the East Asia summit in Phnom Penh and meet with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The symbolic highlight of the trip, no doubt, is Obama's stop in Myanmar, also known as Burma, a country emerging from five decades of ruinous military rule. While there, Obama will meet with President Thein Sein and also with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the White House said.

While the trip places new focus on Obama's foreign policy and to American attention to the Asia and Pacific region, it also comes at as Obama begins sensitive negotiations with congressional leaders about how to avoid looming tax increases and steep cuts in defense and domestic spending.

Obama ended the longstanding U.S. isolation of Myanmar's generals, which has played a part in coaxing them into political reforms that have unfolded with surprising speed in the past year. The U.S. has appointed a full ambassador and suspended sanctions to reward Myanmar for political prisoner releases and Suu Kyi's election to parliament.

In a statement, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama intended to "speak to civil society to encourage Burma's ongoing democratic transition."

A procession of senior diplomats and world leaders have traveled to the country, stopping both in the remote, opulent capital city Naypyitaw, built by the former ruling junta, and at Suu Kyi's dilapidated lakeside villa in the main city Yangon, where she spent 15 years under house arrest.

The East Asia Summit in Cambodia will also provide Obama with opportunities for possible sideline discussions with a number of fellow heads of state, including leaders such as outgoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Also expected to attend are Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

"The Myanmar trip is potentially historic, and for that reason has both tremendous opportunity and risk associated with," said Matthew Goodman, a former Obama international economics adviser.

But the East Asia Summit, he added, is also important "as an opportunity to reaffirm U.S. engagement as an Asia-Pacific power in regional affairs and for the newly re-elected president to touch base with all the relevant regional allies, partners and other countries."

"There's going to be great interest in understanding his aspirations for his second term, and on Obama's side for reassuring these other countries about continuity and desire for continued engagement," Goodman, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.

As for Myanmar, the most senior U.S. official to visit previously is Hillary Rodham Clinton who in December became the first U.S. secretary of state to travel to Myanmar in 56 years.

The Obama administration regards the political changes in Myanmar as one that could dilute the influence of China in a country that has a strategic location between South Asia and Southeast Asia, regions of growing economic importance.

But exiled Myanmar activists and human rights groups are likely to criticize an Obama visit as premature and one that rewards Thein Sein before his political and economic reforms have been consolidated. The military is still dominant and implicated in rights abuses. It has failed to prevent vicious outbreaks of communal violence in the west of the country that have left scores dead.

In a statement Friday, the government of Myanmar said it "warmly welcomes" Obama's upcoming visit and a spokesman for the country's president said the U.S. support would strengthen Myanmar's commitment to reform.

The spokesman, Maj. Zaw Htay, said the government hopes "bilateral relations and cooperation will significantly increase after this historic visit."

While no U.S. president has ever visited Cambodia or Myanmar, Thailand is one of the America's oldest allies in Asia and has been a stop for American commanders in chief since the mid-1960s, according to the State Department historian's office, which compiles records on presidential travel.

George W. Bush visited Thailand twice while president, in 2003 and 2008, Bill Clinton visited in 1996. During the war in neighboring Vietnam, Richard Nixon traveled there in 1969 and Lyndon Johnson in 1966 and 1967, the records show.

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-visit-myanmar-cambodia-thailand-190753640--politics.html

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Real Estate Japan giving away gifts: Congratulations to Japan ...

Late this past summer, we at Real Estate Japan closed entries to our user survey contest where we asked you, our valued users, to give us feedback on how we were doing.

While I?m sure all participants were drooling to give us the feedback we to dearly crave, we sweetened the deal by offering one lucky participant an iPad, no strings attached!

Today we are pleased to announce that Rachelle Meilleur of Kumamoto Prefecture is that winner!

Congratulations Rachelle and hope you enjoy your iPad (hopefully to stay on top of all the latest happenings in Japanese property on realestate.co.jp!!)

Stay tuned for future contests and updates throughout the year as realestate.co.jp is always publishing new listings in both for sale and for rent arenas as well as up to date articles, video and audio in our Insider?s Guide.

Thanks again Rachelle and thanks again to all 400 participants for giving us a sorely needed heads up what people thought we were doing right but more importantly, what we need to more of!

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Source: http://www.realestate.co.jp/2012/11/09/real-estate-japan-giving-away-gifts-congratulations-to-japan-resident-rachelle-meilleur/

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First 'snapshots' of electronic structure of a manganese complex related to water-splitting in photosynthesis

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2012) ? Together with a large international research team, Johannes Messinger of Ume? University in Sweden has taken another step toward an understanding of photosynthesis and developing artificial photosynthesis. With a combination of a x-ray free-electron laser and spectroscopy, the team has managed to see the electronic structure of a manganese complex, a chemical compound related to how photosynthesis splits water.

The experiments used the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), which is a free-electron x-ray laser facility at Stanford University in the US. The wavelength of the laser is roughly the same as the breadth of an atom, and each pulse of light lasts 50 femtoseconds (10-15). This is an extremely short interval of time: there are more femtoseconds in one second than there are seconds in a person's life. Such extremely short wavelengths and short light pulses constitute ideal conditions for imaging chemical reactions with atomic resolution at room temperature while the chemical reactions are ongoing.

The research group has previously used LCLS to perform structural analyses of isolated photosynthesis complexes from plants' photosystem II at room temperature. Now the group has combined the method with spectroscopy and is the first team to succeed in seeing at LCLS the electronic structure of a manganese complex similar to that found in photosystem II. Manganese is a transitional metal that, together with calcium and oxygen, forms the water-splitting catalyst in photosystem II.

A very simple example of a spectrometer is a prism, which separates sunlight into all the colors of the rainbow. The spectrometer used in this study functions in a similar manner, but with a group of 16 specialized crystals that diffract the x-rays emitted from the sample in resonse of being excited by an x-ray pulse onto a detector array.

To the delight of the scientists, the manganese compounds remained intact long enough for them to observe detailed information about the electronic structure before the compounds were destroyed by the very intense X-ray laser beam.

"Having both structural information and spectroscopic information means that we can much better understand how the structural changes of the whole complex and the chemical changes on the active surface of the catalysts work together to enable the enzymes to perform complex chemical reactions at room temperature," says Johannes Messinger, professor at the Department of Chemistry at Ume? University.

The chemical reaction the research group aims to understand is the splitting of water in photosystem II, as this understanding is also key for developing artificial photosynthesis- that is, for building devices for producing hydrogen from sunlight and water. To be able to exploit sunlight for producing fuels that can be stored and the used when needed would help solve the world's ever-more acute energy problems.

The new research findings are being published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

Two major research projects at Ume? University are focusing on the development of artificial photosynthesis by imitating plants' very successful way of exploiting solar energy. Both projects ("solar fuels" and "artificial leaf") are directed by Johannes Messinger, professor at the Department of Chemistry at Ume? University.

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Journal Reference:

1. R. Alonso-Mori, J. Kern, R. J. Gildea, D. Sokaras, T.-C. Weng, B. Lassalle-Kaiser, R. Tran, J. Hattne, H. Laksmono, J. Hellmich, C. Glockner, N. Echols, R. G. Sierra, D. W. Schafer, J. Sellberg, C. Kenney, R. Herbst, J. Pines, P. Hart, S. Herrmann, R. W. Grosse-Kunstleve, M. J. Latimer, A. R. Fry, M. M. Messerschmidt, A. Miahnahri, M. M. Seibert, P. H. Zwart, W. E. White, P. D. Adams, M. J. Bogan, S. Boutet, G. J. Williams, A. Zouni, J. Messinger, P. Glatzel, N. K. Sauter, V. K. Yachandra, J. Yano, U. Bergmann. Energy-dispersive X-ray emission spectroscopy using an X-ray free-electron laser in a shot-by-shot mode. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211384109

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/technology/~3/a-GlTPLmvJc/121109084057.htm

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Gas rationing, shortage fray nerves in NYC

NEW YORK (AP) ? A gasoline shortage caused by Superstorm Sandy forced 1970s-era rationing on New Yorkers Friday, adding a fuel-gauge obsession to their frayed nerves and dwindling patience.

"I take passenger, I look at gas. I take another passenger, I look at gas," said New York City taxi driver Shi Shir K. Roy. "Tension all the time."

Though rationing that allowed private motorists to fill up only every other day seemed to help with gas lines, it didn't answer motorists' questions about why they had been waiting for days in hourslong lines to fuel up. The confusion led some, like Angel Ventura, to panic.

Ventura, who drives a delivery van for a camera rental company, has taken to hunting for gasoline every time his gauge drops below a quarter of a tank. "It makes me crazy, thinking I might hit empty and not be able to find it," he said.

As drivers waited on police-monitored lines, thousands more in the region got their power back for the first time since Sandy came ashore 12 days ago. More than 420,000 customers were still without power in New Jersey and the New York City area. President Barack Obama, who visited the battered Jersey coast two days after the storm, said he would survey the damage in New York next week from the storm, which the American Red Cross said will create its largest U.S. relief effort since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The gasoline rationing ? first in the nation's largest city since the 1970s Arab oil embargo ? forced motorists to line up depending on whether their license plate ends with odd or even numbers.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said one-third of the city's gas stations were open Friday, compared to 25 percent the day before, and cautioned, "there's no guarantee that odd-even is going to make a big difference." His estimate was countered by the Energy Department, which said that more than 70 percent of the city's stations have gas available for sales.

Industry officials first blamed the shortage on gas stations that lost power, but now say the problem has shifted to supply terminals, which are either shut or operating at reduced capacity. Drivers are also quicker to top off tanks because they're afraid gasoline won't be available, AAA spokesman Michael Green said.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, said the densely populated New York-New Jersey area has fewer stations per capita than any other major metropolitan area, making the shortage an even bigger problem. He said rationing earlier might have helped in New York City.

"It does curb some of the manic or panic behavior," Kloza said.

Gasoline moves millions of New Yorkers, just as the subway does. Hundreds of thousands of people drive to work, especially from the outer boroughs, and taxis and delivery vans are part of every gridlocked intersection.

Friday was an "odd" day in the rationing plan, although not everyone had gotten with the program.

"Even? Odd? Whatever it is, I didn't have the right one," said Joe Standart, a 62-year-old artist whose even-numbered car was ordered off a West Side gas station line by a police officer.

Teniele Newbury, a mother of three, defended her need to use a car to go about her daily routine.

"People probably think we can take the subway," she said, "but I've got three kids I've got to drop off at three different schools. You try that on the subway with three little kids."

On Long Island, where odd-even rationing also began Friday, a spot check found shorter lines ? 30 to 40 cars at most ? and more stations with gas. In Brooklyn, car service owner Gary Lindenbaum said waits last week had been five or six hours.

"The rationing really helps us a lot," said Lindenbaum, owner of Court Express. "We need to work. We need the gas."

Lindenbaum drew the line at one hoarding technique: He posted a sign that said, "Drivers, do not carry full gas containers in your car."

Some cab drivers have been doing just that. One taxi reeked of gasoline from the extra cans sloshing around in the back seat with a passenger.

Desperate drivers weren't paying much attention to prices, but in New Jersey, seven gas stations were among the eight businesses sued by the state Friday on price-gouging claims.

Meanwhile, many officials were pointing to power companies as the culprit in the region's slow recovery. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for investigation of the region's utilities, criticizing them as unprepared and badly managed. On Friday, two congressmen from Long Island urged the federal government ? even the military ? to come in and help the Long Island Power Authority restore electricity.

"When the lights went off in Baghdad and the lights went off in Kabul, it was the Army Corps of Engineers that went into Baghdad and Kabul to turn the lights back on," said Rep. Steve Israel. "We don't need to turn the lights back on in Kabul and Baghdad. We need to turn the lights back on in Plainview and Great Neck and the south shore."

Long Island's main utility, the Long Island Power Authority, has declined to respond to criticism, while New York utility Consolidated Edison Corp. has called the storm the worst in its history.

Obama said Friday that he will meet with affected residents and first responders in a tour of the hardest-hit areas of the city.

Some residents of Toms River, N.J., were given a precious hour Friday to see their storm-wrecked houses for the first time and grab warm-weather clothing, important pictures ? whatever belongings they could. When Steve Dabern saw his flooded house, the floor was torn in pieces, the refrigerator was on its side and the kitchen furniture was in the living room.

"Sickness. I felt sick," he said.

Bloomberg said the gas shortages could last for a couple of weeks, worrying many New Yorkers who say gas is vital to their lives.

At St. Mary's Children's Hospital in Queens, workers who visit 4,000 sick children have been getting up as early as 2 a.m. to get on gas lines, said chief administrative officer Hope Mavaro Iliceto. Some have run out of fuel while waiting in line, she said.

At the Brooklyn gas station, Ruben Quinonez and Edgar Luna were in the delivery truck they drive for a bakery in Mahopac, north of the city. They normally work from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., making deliveries in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but every day since the storm they have added a long wait in a gas line.

"You can't take the risk," Quinonez said. "Bread has got to be fresh."

____

Fitzgerald reported from White Plains, N.Y. Associated Press writers Frank Eltman in North Massapequa, Paul Harloff, Meghan Barr, David B. Caruso, Jennifer Peltz, Colleen Long and Karen Matthews in New York, Wayne Parry in Toms River, N.J., Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J., and Brett Zongker and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.??????????????

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gas-rationing-shortage-fray-nerves-nyc-233320692--finance.html

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Pasco voter turnout falls from 2008 (tbo)

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Police confirm 1 killed in barber shop shooting - WSFA.com: News ...

• 2012 Presidential election results

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• Police confirm 1 killed in barber shop shooting

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  Updated: Friday, November 9 2012 1:23 PM EST2012-11-09 18:23:14 GMT

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BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) -

Police are investigating a fatal shooting at a barber shop in northeast Birmingham.

The shooting happened around 9 a.m. this morning at the Still Stand'N Barber & Style Shop? in the 500 block of Oporto-Madrid Blvd. North.

Birmingham Police Sgt. Johnny Williams confirmed that one person was killed in the shooting. The suspected shooter reportedly fled the scene in a vehicle driving south on Oporto-Madrid Blvd.

Police say the victim worked at the barber shop, but they have not confirmed whether or not he was a barber. Community members, however, say he was a barber at the shop. One bystander said the victim was cutting someone's hair when a person walked into the shop and shot him. The man died on the scene.

Police still don't know a motive in the shooting. One investigator called this type of crime in this particular neighborhood "very unusual." Police are interviewing witnesses to find out more information and a suspect description.

There are no suspects in custody at this time. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

Check back with this story for updates.

Copyright 2012 WBRC. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.wsfa.com/story/20053023/police-confirm-1-person-killed-in-barber-shop-shooting

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Using Affirmations to Change Your Life - The Self Improvement Blog

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Though displaced by Sandy, New Jersey residents head to polls (Los Angeles Times)

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Global shares gain, dollar slips after Obama win

LONDON (Reuters) - World shares and gold rallied while the dollar fell on Wednesday after President Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term, signaling no dramatic shift in U.S. economic policy.

Gains in Europe's main stock markets were expected to be limited, however, as attention switches to Greece where parliament votes late in the day on an austerity package needed to secure a fresh injection of EU/IMF aid and avert bankruptcy.

"The fact the election is over is obviously positive for the market. Markets don't like uncertainty and there was always the worry that it was going to drag on," said Mark Priest, Head of Index & Equity Market Making at ETX Capital.

"A lot depends on this vote today in Greece, so I think it is a little bit of wait-and-see.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> of top European shares was up 0.3 percent by 0930 GMT at 1,119.65 points, with London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> and Paris's CAC-40 <.fhci> opening between 0.2 and 0.6 percent higher. <.eu/>

Relief that the U.S. election result was clear cut earlier helped to lift Asian shares, pushing the MSCI world equity index <.miwd00000pus> up 0.5 percent at 332.75 points. U.S. stock futures pointed to Wall Street opening higher as well.

Investors in most major markets were expected to be wary of extending the gains too far due to the approaching U.S. "fiscal cliff", a series of spending cuts and tax increases worth around $600 billion due to take effect next year that could crush growth.

The dollar, which has rallied during this week's tense run-up to the election, slipped 0.2 percent against a basket of currencies <.dxy>, retreating further from Monday's two-month high. The euro rallied to a session high of $1.2876.

"You clearly see the dollar under pressure here but the key question is whether this will be sustained," said Valentin Marinov, Director of FX Strategy at Citi. "People will be refocusing away from the election to more important issues surrounding the fiscal cliff ... So we may have to endure some more uncertainty into year end."

GREEK VOTE

As markets digested the U.S. news, focus was also returning to the euro zone's troubles.

Serious questions about Spain's plans to repair its finances are likely to surface later with a media report saying European Commission forecasts, due out later, see the country's economy shrinking 1.5 percent next year, far worse than the 0.5 percent drop projected by Madrid itself.

In Greece, where the debt crisis began, parliament holds a late evening vote on 13.5 billion euros of fresh cuts and tax hikes planned by the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Approval is crucial to unlocking 31.5 billion euros in aid that has been on hold for months.

"The general expectation is that Samaras will be able to get his plans through but it will be a pretty narrow victory," said Sybren Brouwer head of equity strategy at ABN Amro.

"It is a continuation of the process of muddling through and taking two steps forward and one step back. Hopefully today we are going to take one step forward but there are many steps still ahead."

STATUS QUO

Bond markets took Obama's win largely in their stride. With the U.S. Senate still divided, economists see the result doing little to smooth "fiscal cliff" negotiations. On the other hand it is expected to keep U.S. monetary policy extremely loose, with Ben Bernanke expected to remain as Federal Reserve chief.

U.S. Treasury futures were about 15/64 higher at 132-60/64 points, compared with a high of 133-19/64 seen in Asian trading. Thirty-year U.S. bond yields stood at 2.91 percent versus a low of 2.858 percent.

In Europe, benchmark German government bonds were stable with yields at 1.44 percent, while Spanish and Italian debt was trading broadly steady..

Gold, which is seen as both a safe haven and a protection against future inflation, rose 0.5 percent to a one-week high of $1,724.21 an ounce. Growth-sensitive copper rose 1.1 percent and oil was steady at just over $111 a barrel.

"Overall, when incumbents win elections, it usually means continuation of the status quo. So an Obama win will present fewer uncertainties in the minds of investors," said a Shanghai-based commodities trader.

(Additional reporting by Carrie Ho in Shangha; editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/global-shares-gain-dollar-slips-obama-win-102055551--finance.html

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