Monday, November 19, 2012

Obama opens landmark visit to Myanmar

Launching a landmark visit to long shunned Myanmar, President Barack Obama said he comes to "extend the hand of friendship" to a nation moving from persecution to peace. But the praise and personal attention come with an admonition from Obama: The work of ensuring and protecting freedoms has just begun.
Obama touched down Monday morning, becoming the first U.S. president to visit this Asian nation, which is also known as Burma. He will meet with the nation’s prime minister and democracy advocates, and close with a speech at the University of Yangon, where he will praise the country’s progress toward democracy but urge further reforms.

"Instead of being repressed, the right of people to assemble together must now be fully respected," the president said in speech excerpts released by the White House. "Instead of being stifled, the veil of media censorship must continue to be lifted. As you take these steps, you can draw on your progress."
Obama’s visit was to last just six hours, but it carries significant symbolism, reflecting a remarkable turnaround in the countries’ relationship.

Hundreds of children and young people dressed in white shirts and green sarongs, many of them wearing traditional cheek makeup smears and holding small U.S. flags, lined both sides of the road for more than half a mile heading out of the airport.

Obama will meet separately in Myanmar with Prime Minister Thein Sein, who has orchestrated much of his country’s recent reforms. The president will also meet with longtime Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in the home where she spent years under house arrest.

Obama has rewarded Myanmar’s rapid adoption of democratic reforms by lifting some economic penalties. The president has appointed a permanent ambassador to the country, and pledged greater investment if Myanmar continues to progress following a half-century of military rule.

In his speech, Obama recalls a promise he made upon taking office — that the United States would extend a hand if those nations that ruled in fear unclenched their fists.

"Today, I have come to keep my promise, and extend the hand of friendship," he said. "The flickers of progress that we have seen must not be extinguished. They must become a shining North Star for all this nation’s people."

Some human rights groups say Myanmar’s government, which continues to hold hundreds of political prisoners and is struggling to contain ethnic violence, hasn’t done enough to earn a personal visit from Obama. The president said from Thailand on Sunday that his visit is not an endorsement of the government in Myanmar, but an acknowledgment that dramatic progress is underway and it deserves a global spotlight.
The president’s Asia tour also marks his formal return to the world stage after months mired in a bruising re-election campaign. For his first postelection trip, he tellingly settled on Asia, a region he has deemed the region as crucial to U.S. prosperity and security.

Aides say Asia will factor heavily in Obama’s second term as the U.S. seeks to expand its influence in an attempt to counter China.

China’s rise is also at play in Myanmar, which long has aligned itself with Beijing. But some in Myanmar fear that China is taking advantage of its wealth of natural resources, so the country is looking for other partners to help build its nascent economy.

Even as Obama turned his sights on Asia, widening violence in the Middle East competed for his attention.
Obama told reporters Sunday that Israel had the right to defend itself against missile attacks from Gaza. But he urged Israel not to launch a ground assault in Gaza, saying it would put Israeli soldiers, as well as Palestinian citizens, at greater risk and hamper an already vexing peace process.


The U.S. and Britain on Sunday warned about the risks of Israel expanding its air assault on the Gaza Strip into a ground war, while vigorously defending the Jewish state's right to protect itself against rocket attacks.
The remarks by President Barack Obama and Britain Foreign Secretary William Hague were part of a diplomatic balancing act by the West as it desperately seeks an end to the escalating violence without alienating its closest ally in the region.
"Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said at a news conference in Bangkok at the start of a three-nation visit to Asia.
"If that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that's preferable," Obama said. "It's not just preferable for the people of Gaza. It's also preferable for Israelis, because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they're much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded."
The president spoke shortly before an Israeli airstrike leveled a home in a residential neighborhood of Gaza City on Sunday. Among the 11 dead were four small children and five women, including an 81-year-old, Palestinian medical officials said. The attack was the single deadliest incident of the five-day-old Israeli operation.
A similar scene unfolded elsewhere in the city early today, when an airstrike leveled two houses belonging to a single family, killing two children and two adults and injuring 42 people, said Gaza heath official Ashraf al-Kidra.
Rescue workers were frantically searching for 12 to 15 members of the Azzam family under the rubble.
In all, 81 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed and 720 have been wounded. Three Israeli civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire, and dozens have been wounded..
The Israeli military said the target of Sunday's attack was a top rocket mastermind of the Islamic Jihad militant group. The claim could not be verified, and the attack raised speculation that Israel could face increased international pressure if the civilian death toll continued to rise.
Hague said Hamas, Gaza's militant ruler, "bears principal responsibility" for initiating the violence and must stop all rocket attacks on Israel. But Hague also made clear the diplomatic risks of an Israeli escalation.
"A ground invasion is much more difficult for the international community to sympathize with or support, including the United Kingdom," he said.
Israeli officials say the airstrikes are aimed at ending months of rocket fire out of the Hamas-ruled territory. Israel began the offensive with an airstrike that killed Hamas' military chief, and since then has targeted suspected rocket launchers and storage sites.
The Mideast ally is now at a crossroads: launch a ground invasion or pursue Egyptian-led truce efforts. But with Israel and Hamas far apart on any terms of cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, "The Israeli military is prepared to significantly expand the operation."
The crisis threatened to overshadow Obama's trip to Asia, which includes stops in Myanmar and Cambodia as part of a broader effort to expand the U.S. economic and military presence in a region long dominated by China.
So far, the U.S. has thrown its weight behind Israel, and Obama has called on Egypt and Turkey to intervene on Israel's behalf.
Obama said he has told Egypt's president, Mohammed Morsi, and Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that "those who champion the cause of the Palestinians should recognize that if we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, then the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future."
Obama also pointed to the next 48 hours "to see what kind of progress we can make."
Members of the U.S. Congress, which overwhelmingly supports Israel, criticized Egypt and Turkey for not doing enough to intervene. They said all eyes were on Morsi.
On ABC's "This Week," Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called Egypt's response to the crisis "pretty weak" so far. "I think that they're going to have to take some very serious steps diplomatically to make it clear to Hamas that they're going to lose support in the Arab world if they continue these rocket attacks on Israel," said Levin, D-Detroit.


From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121119/NATION/211190332#ixzz2Cf9n3mZ8
The U.S. and Britain on Sunday warned about the risks of Israel expanding its air assault on the Gaza Strip into a ground war, while vigorously defending the Jewish state's right to protect itself against rocket attacks.
The remarks by President Barack Obama and Britain Foreign Secretary William Hague were part of a diplomatic balancing act by the West as it desperately seeks an end to the escalating violence without alienating its closest ally in the region.
"Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said at a news conference in Bangkok at the start of a three-nation visit to Asia.
"If that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that's preferable," Obama said. "It's not just preferable for the people of Gaza. It's also preferable for Israelis, because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they're much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded."
The president spoke shortly before an Israeli airstrike leveled a home in a residential neighborhood of Gaza City on Sunday. Among the 11 dead were four small children and five women, including an 81-year-old, Palestinian medical officials said. The attack was the single deadliest incident of the five-day-old Israeli operation.
A similar scene unfolded elsewhere in the city early today, when an airstrike leveled two houses belonging to a single family, killing two children and two adults and injuring 42 people, said Gaza heath official Ashraf al-Kidra.
Rescue workers were frantically searching for 12 to 15 members of the Azzam family under the rubble.
In all, 81 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed and 720 have been wounded. Three Israeli civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire, and dozens have been wounded..
The Israeli military said the target of Sunday's attack was a top rocket mastermind of the Islamic Jihad militant group. The claim could not be verified, and the attack raised speculation that Israel could face increased international pressure if the civilian death toll continued to rise.
Hague said Hamas, Gaza's militant ruler, "bears principal responsibility" for initiating the violence and must stop all rocket attacks on Israel. But Hague also made clear the diplomatic risks of an Israeli escalation.
"A ground invasion is much more difficult for the international community to sympathize with or support, including the United Kingdom," he said.
Israeli officials say the airstrikes are aimed at ending months of rocket fire out of the Hamas-ruled territory. Israel began the offensive with an airstrike that killed Hamas' military chief, and since then has targeted suspected rocket launchers and storage sites.
The Mideast ally is now at a crossroads: launch a ground invasion or pursue Egyptian-led truce efforts. But with Israel and Hamas far apart on any terms of cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, "The Israeli military is prepared to significantly expand the operation."
The crisis threatened to overshadow Obama's trip to Asia, which includes stops in Myanmar and Cambodia as part of a broader effort to expand the U.S. economic and military presence in a region long dominated by China.
So far, the U.S. has thrown its weight behind Israel, and Obama has called on Egypt and Turkey to intervene on Israel's behalf.
Obama said he has told Egypt's president, Mohammed Morsi, and Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that "those who champion the cause of the Palestinians should recognize that if we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, then the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future."
Obama also pointed to the next 48 hours "to see what kind of progress we can make."
Members of the U.S. Congress, which overwhelmingly supports Israel, criticized Egypt and Turkey for not doing enough to intervene. They said all eyes were on Morsi.
On ABC's "This Week," Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called Egypt's response to the crisis "pretty weak" so far. "I think that they're going to have to take some very serious steps diplomatically to make it clear to Hamas that they're going to lose support in the Arab world if they continue these rocket attacks on Israel," said Levin, D-Detroit.


From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121119/NATION/211190332#ixzz2Cf9n3mZ8

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Recommended tips for men to remain healthy as they get older

With age comes wisdom. Unfortunately, it also comes with an increased threat of developing health problems. 

Prostate cancer and other diseases affect a disproportionately large amount of American men. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), more than 16 million men are affected by the disease globally, and American men represent 2.5 million of that figure. 

EAT RIGHT: If you've eaten a particular way your whole life, you might find it difficult to change. But cutting out the junk in favor of fruits, vegetables and whole grains is well worth the effort.
Opt for fish over red meat. Evidence from several studies suggests that fish can help protect against prostate cancer because it contains "good fat," particularly omega-3 fatty acids. A free nutrition guide and tasty recipes are available at www.pcf.org/nutrition . 

STAY ACTIVE: A sedentary lifestyle contributes to your risk of obesity, heart disease and cancer.
GET CHECKED: While it's always important to be open with your physician about your health and your family's health history, starting at age 40 it becomes crucial. Regular doctor's visits are also an important component of early diagnosis. While these tests may not be fun, they can save your life. If you have a history of prostate cancer in your family, consider a yearly rectal examination and a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test starting in your forties. 

Broader awareness and understanding of the health risks associated with aging can save lives. So don't shy away from talking to your friends and family about your health.