Wednesday, September 11, 2013

AP poll: Most Americans oppose strike on Syria

FILE - In this Sept. 6, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in St. Petersburg, Russia. A new Associated Press poll shows a majority of Americans oppose a U.S. strike on Syria, despite a weeks-long Obama administration campaign to respond to chemical weapons attacks allegedly carried out by the regime of President Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 6, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in St. Petersburg, Russia. A new Associated Press poll shows a majority of Americans oppose a U.S. strike on Syria, despite a weeks-long Obama administration campaign to respond to chemical weapons attacks allegedly carried out by the regime of President Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

(AP) ? Only 1 in 5 Americans believe that failing to respond to chemical weapons attacks in Syria would embolden other rogue governments, rejecting the heart of a weeks-long White House campaign for U.S. military strikes, an Associated Press poll has concluded.

The poll of 1,007 adults nationwide found that most Americans oppose even a limited attack on Syria ? likely with cruise missiles ? despite Obama administration warnings that inaction would risk national security and ignore a gruesome humanitarian crisis. And a slim majority ? 53 percent ? fear that a strike would lead to a long-term U.S. military commitment in Syria.

The survey reflects a U.S. public that is tired of Mideast wars after a dozen years of military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. It undercuts political support President Barack Obama is hoping to garner as he seeks congressional authorization this week to strike the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"We need to stop being so aggressive militarily," Izzy Briggs, a business services consultant from Epsom, N.H., said Monday. "I think these small countries are feeling very intimidated by the U.S. and some feel they have to have these sorts of weapons."

U.S. officials have cited a high confidence in intelligence that indicates Assad's government launched the Aug. 21 attacks that they say killed more than 1,400 Syrians. Obama last year warned Assad that using chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war would amount to a "red line" that, if crossed, would bring a swift U.S. response.

In the weeks since the attacks, the administration has argued that hostile governments in Iran and North Korea, and extremist groups like Hezbollah, would be more likely to use weapons of mass destruction in future conflicts if Assad is not punished. To bolster the case, U.S. officials last weekend also released grim video footage showing young children gasping for breath and rows of dead bodies in the hours after the chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs.

But support in Congress is lukewarm at best, and many lawmakers have questioned whether the strikes would create more of a problem for the U.S. than they would help the nearly three-year effort to overthrow Assad.

"We must balance the legitimate concerns that Americans have about the use of military force with our strategic interests," said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who on Monday announced she would not support the White House plan.

U.S. opposition to striking Syria cuts across party lines, as does doubt that an American attack would deter other world leaders from using chemical weapons.

The poll indicated that 53 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents and 73 percent of Republicans believe Congress should vote against the plan to strike Syria. Only one out of four Democrats think that an attack would deter other world leaders from acquiring and using chemical weapons; even fewer Republicans and independents agreed.

"It's not good what they're doing to their own people, but we don't want to start World War III," said Rosie Vega, a retired receptionist who was at a Glendale, Calif., bakery on Monday morning.

Overall, 61 percent of people surveyed said they wanted Congress to vote against authorizing U.S. military strikes in Syria, the poll found. By comparison, 26 percent said they supported it, and the rest were undecided.

Just 16 percent of Americans said they did not think that the limited strikes would lead to a longer military campaign, the poll indicated. And an overwhelming majority ? 75 percent ? said they do not support sending U.S. troops to Syria. Obama has already pledged that will not happen.

The Syria dilemma has become a major test of Obama's political mettle on national security and foreign policy issues. After months of resisting U.S. military action in Syria, the White House abruptly reversed course after the Aug. 21 attacks ? only to confront withering public support both at home and abroad.

The AP poll found that 54 percent of people do not approve the way Obama has handled the U.S. response to Syria. That marked an increase from 43 percent in June 2012.

Darrell West, vice president of governance studies at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, said Obama is likely to play on Americans' emotions to convince them to support strikes.

"It is very difficult for a president to persuade people when they've already made up their mind against some type of foreign intervention," West said Monday. "But what he can do is basically explain much better than he has done to date about what has been going on in Syria, the use of chemical weapons, the impact on young children and women there."

Released Monday, the AP poll was conducted Sept. 6-8 by GfK Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,007 adults nationwide. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.

___

Associated Press Writers Tracy Brown and Dennis Junius in Washington, Raquel Dillon in Glendale, Calif., Rik Stevens in Concord, N.H., and Tammy Webber in Chicago contributed to this report.

___

Follow Lara Jakes and Jennifer Agiesta on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP and https://twitter.com/jennagiesta

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-09-10-US-United-States-Syria-AP-Poll/id-3cc6bba73c4c491bb6322a1800f8e5a8

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Friday, August 23, 2013

Space slinky: Jet of superheated gas -- 5,000 light-years long -- ejected from supermassive black hole

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Astronomers have assembled, from more than 13 years of observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a series of time-lapse movies showing a jet of superheated gas ? 5,000 light-years long ? as it is ejected from a supermassive black hole in the giant elliptical galaxy M87.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/Rf5XXzIGG-g/130822122530.htm

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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Supporters rally for embattled San Diego Mayor Bob Filner

The situation involving embattled San Diego Mayor Bob Filner may be reaching a tipping point. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

As San Diego Mayor Bob Filner met with attorneys and city leaders over what could be crucial negotiations over his future, a diverse group of his supporters rallied in front of San Diego City Hall on Monday, calling for people not to prejudge him.

Filner, who is accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit, also faces a formal recall effort as well as federal and local investigations into his behavior on the job.

"Let?s get back to the business of moving the region forward with Mayor Bob Filner,? said organizer and human rights activist Enrique Morones, who led the rally, which was staged in front of reporters.

Morones was joined by other supporters, including campaign volunteers, former city officials and other activists, many of them women, including one who maintained Filner was "far more than sloppy kisses."

Gregory Bull / AP

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner speaks during a news conference on July 26 in San Diego. Filner was expected to appear at City Hall on Monday.

Some supporters carried signs that read, "Due process for Mayor Filner" and "Vets for Bob," NBCSanDiego.com reported?via a live video stream of the rally.

Floyd Morrow, a former San Diego City Council member, called allegations against Filner "chatter" and likened media coverage to a ?public hanging.?

?I know that the law not only demands due process, but also the presumption of innocence,? Morrow said.

The group of supporters, dubbed ?San Diegans for Mayor Bob Filner,? which was organized on Facebook, had intended to hold the rally as Filner returned to City Hall for the first time after weeks away for what staffers said was therapy and personal time.

But Filner was not seen at the rally or at City Hall. Instead, he was in a high-rise building a couple of blocks away meeting with city leaders, including City Council President Todd Gloria, Councilman Kevin Falconer and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. Gloria Allred, the L.A. attorney representing various women accusing Filner of inappropriate sexual advances, also attended the meeting, which were characterized as a mediation session,?NBCSanDiego.com reported.

"Judge Lawrence Irving, a former district court judge is the mediator," Allred said. "He has asked us not to comment except to say mediation is ongoing."

More on Bob Filner scandal ?from NBCSanDiego.com

The precise subject of the meeting was unclear, although one local media report suggested Filner and his attorneys could be in?negotiations with city officials for a potential resignation. That has not been confirmed by NBC News.

The latest developments came a day after hundreds of people rallied in downtown San Diego calling for Filner's resignation and kicking off a signature campaign to recall him from office. Recall organizers have until Sept. 26 to collect the 101,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot.

A San Diego radio station hired skywriters to spell out the message "Surrender Bob" in an effort to get the city's embattled mayor to resign.

On Monday, former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio, a congressional candidate who lost to Filner in last year?s mayor?s? race, called on elected officials to join in the recall effort.

"To have elected officials stand on the sidelines, cautiously waiting, is inexcusable," DeMaio told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday. "It's abdication of leadership. So I'm calling on these elected officials to put into action their networks of supporters, their resources, their campaign committees."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, one of the numerous public people who have called for Filner's resignation, has said that he should spare San Diego the pain and expense of a recall election.

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Saturday, August 10, 2013

Louise E. Barnwell - Cabinet.com

Obituaries

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Louise Barnwell passed away unexpectedly early Friday, August 2, 2013, at her home in New Boston, NH. She was born April 26, 1937 in Boston, MA and lived in Lexington, MA with her parents Harold E. Roeder and Rose (Schwenk) Roeder until her marriage to Robert Barnwell June 13, 1958. She graduated from Lexington High School and completed her training as a X-Ray technician at Northeastern University and Mt. Auburn Hospital.

Louise loved to travel, garden, and work with crafts. Her craft hobbies included sewing, embroidery, making jewelry, antiquing, oil painting and flower arranging. She moved to New Boston for 17 years ago after her husband?s retirement. She has previously resided in Harleysville, PA, Mont Vernon, NH, Acton, MA and Bedford, MA and due to her husbands work had brief residences in five states from New York to Oregon. She and her family enjoyed many years of camping and sailing in New England. Since living in New Boston, she has spent most Winters in Florida, but also loved her three month camping tour through the western states in 2004.

Louise is survived by her husband of 55 years, Robert Barnwell; her daughter Wendi (Barnwell) Kerper and Richard Kerper of Lancaster, PA, their children Alyssa and Amy; her son Christopher Barnwell and Lynda Barnwell of Rindge, NH, their children Joshua and Sarah; her brother Harold Roeder of Georgetown, MA, his children Heidi and William and his five grandchildren.

Visitation will be held Wednesday from 3- 4 PM at French and Rising Funeral Home 17 South Mast St. Goffstown. Funerals services will follow at 4 PM in the funeral home. For more information or to sign an online guestbook go to www.frenchandrising.com

In lieu of flowers please make donations to the Alzheimer?s Foundation

Source: http://www.cabinet.com/cabinet/cabinetobituaries/1012831-435/louise-e.-barnwell.html

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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Outbound calls from desktop Gmail are back, with free calling to the US and Canada

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Today Google has brought back the ability to make phone calls from desktop Gmail, Google+ and via its Chrome extension, and also announced that calls to the US and Canada are free (from countries where Hangouts calling is available. The feature disappeared when Google introduced its new Hangouts setup, but a post on the Gmail blog claims that now it's better than ever. According to the company, "Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice," with making and receiving calls just the beginning. For now, users can enjoy new features like adding multiple phone numbers and video participants to the same call, and using sound effects from the Google Effects app. Current Hangouts users should see a new phone icon in Gmail, or a "call a phone" menu item in Google+ and the Chrome extension.

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Source: Gmail Blog

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Shell names van Beurden as surprise choice for CEO

By Sarah Young and Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell named head of refining Ben van Beurden to replace chief executive Peter Voser, a surprise appointment to steer Europe's biggest oil firm through an industry-wide battle to replace reserves and control costs.

Analysts and investors had not considered van Beurden, who has worked for the company for 30 years, as a possible contender to replace Voser next year.

Their early focus was on Finance Director Simon Henry and other divisional heads Marvin Odum, Matthias Bichseland and Andrew Brown.

Voser, who built the oil company into a leader in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and was finance director at the company before taking the helm in 2009, shocked the industry by announcing his early departure over two months ago.

Shares in Shell gained 1 percent in early trading on Tuesday following the appointment of the relatively unknown van Beurden, who only joined the company's executive committee in January.

"It's initially something of a surprise. The question is, who is this guy," Royal Bank of Canada analyst Peter Hutton said.

Shell said van Beurden, a 55-year-old Dutchman, had a deep knowledge of the industry, having worked across a range of businesses and countries since he joined the firm in 1983.

"Ben will continue to drive and further develop the strategic agenda that we have set out, to generate competitive returns for our shareholders," said Chairman Jorma Ollila.

Van Beurden, whose new job will start next January, has worked in both the upstream and downstream parts of the company including within the increasingly important LNG business for 10 years.

His appointment comes as the company and its industry face huge challenges.

Shell is the western world's number two company by production behind Exxon Mobil . But, like its peers, it is struggling to replace reserves and boost production, and faces a squeeze on earnings as costs rise while the price of oil falls.

Amongst the other candidates who had been tipped as possible replacements for Voser were the company's head of upstream operations in the Americas, Marvin Odum, director of projects and technology Matthias Bichseland and Andrew Brown, who became head of international upstream last year.

RBC's Hutton pointed out that while the appointment of van Beurden was a surprise, Shell had in the past named bosses from the downstream, or refining, part of the business including Voser's predecessor Jeroen van der Veer.

He oversaw the initial stages of a recovery at Shell, which a decade ago was engulfed by crisis following a dramatic downgrade of reserves which rocked investor confidence when it became public in 2004.

Van Beurden, a chemical engineering graduate, has first-hand experience of the reserves crisis. He worked at the time as management assistant to Phil Watts, the CEO who was sacked as a result.

"He was clearly a high-flyer then and I am not surprised at all that he's made it all the way to the top," said a former colleague who no longer works for Shell.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Callus; Editing by Erica Billingham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shell-names-beurden-ceo-vosers-replacement-062142509.html

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