Obama more popular than U.S. among Arabs: survey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's popularity in leading Arab countries far outstrips that of the United States, suggesting he could be able to boost goodwill in the region toward his country, a survey showed on Sunday.

Obama, set to give a major speech to the Muslim world in Egypt next month, "currently enjoys widespread optimism among citizens of that region that he will have a positive effect on their own country, the Middle East, the United States and indeed the world," the polling outfit Ipsos said.

Ipsos said its poll, conducted in March, involved 7,000 adults in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.

Of those surveyed, 33 percent had a favorable view of the United States, 43 percent had a negative view, 14 percent were neutral and 10 percent said they did not know, Ipsos said.

In contrast, Obama received favorable ratings averaging 48 percent in the region as a whole. Approval ran as high as 58 percent in Jordan and was lowest among Egyptians, who gave Obama favorable ratings of 35 percent, Ipsos said.

Only 22 percent of Egyptians expressed a favorable view of the United States, the lowest of the six countries surveyed.

Regionwide, only one in 10 residents thought Obama would have a negative effect on their country, the poll showed.

The gulf between Obama's popularity and that of the United States indicated "there is an opportunity for the president to literally 'bridge the gap' where his reposit goodwill lifts the goodwill toward America," Ipsos said in statement.

The White House announced on Friday that Obama would deliver a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world in Egypt on June 4, seeking to repair ties that were damaged under his predecessor George W. Bush.

Many Arab and Muslim nations were angered by the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Bush's initial reluctance to pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Ipsos said the survey had a margin of error ranging from 2.6 to 3 percentage points depending on the country.

The London Evening Standard says “sorry”

Bleary-eyed commuters passing through Clapham Junction station in southwest London on their way to work this week were among the first to witness the opening blast of one of the most remarkable advertising campaigns to have hit the capital in recent years.

No, not Flu Man sneezing his germs all over us but a short message in huge black lettering that simply says: “Sorry for losing touch.”

The only clue as to who is so publicly donning the hair shirt is a small drawing tucked away in the corner of the hoarding featuring the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus, the logo of London’s only paid-for evening paper, the Evening Standard.

The message is an attempt by the paper to reconnect with its readership now that it is under new ownership and will appear in the next few weeks on the side of buses and on the underground. Other slogans will say Sorry for being negative, for taking you for granted, for being complacent and for being predictable.

Not the hardest word at all then, though one that seems likely to cause considerable offence to the paper’s former editor Veronica Wadley.

The campaign comes in response to market research, commissioned by the newspaper’s new editor, Geordie Greig, which found that Londoners felt the paper was too negative and did not meet the capital’s needs.

Russian tycoon and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev bought the loss-making Standard from the Daily Mail and General Trust in February and media analysts have long predicted it will become less right-wing in its political stance. Some expect it to go more upmarket in an attempt to distance itself from the free sheets which have cut so badly into its circulation.

But few can have predicted such a public confessional as this. The “Sorry” campaign will run for three weeks in the run-up to the 181-year-old paper’s relaunch later this month.

If "sorry" helps, why we need laws and police? Citizens are feeling more and more sick for this word.

U.S. forces shoot Iraqi boy dead after grenade attack

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Saturday its troops had shot dead a 12-year-old Iraqi boy suspected of throwing a grenade at them, and said it believed insurgents were paying children to help them.

Iraqi police, speaking on condition of anonymity, said however the boy, whom they named as Omar Moussa Salih, had not been involved in the grenade-throwing.

U.S. and Iraqi forces came under grenade attack Thursday in the western part of Mosul, the northern city seen as a final stronghold of al Qaeda and other insurgents, said Major Derrick Cheng, a U.S. spokesman in northern Iraq.

U.S. forces responded by firing at several people, killing the boy. He was found with 10,000 Iraqi dinars, or around $8.50, in his hand.

"We have every reason to believe that insurgents are paying children to conduct these attacks or assist the attackers in some capacity, but undoubtedly placing the children in harm's way," Cheng said.

Iraqi police in Mosul said the boy, who had sold sweets in the street, was shot more than once in the head. His eight-year-old brother ran away when Omar was shot, police said.

Cheng said another boy was briefly detained but released.

The incident in Mosul comes less than two months before U.S. combat forces are due to withdraw from Iraqi cities, including stubbornly violent Mosul, as part of a bilateral security pact that envisages a full U.S. withdrawal by the end of 2011.

Two weeks ago a U.S. raid in southern Iraq triggered a storm of condemnation from the Iraqi government, which demanded that U.S. soldiers be tried for the killings of "innocent citizens."

Violence has declined sharply in Iraq since the peak of sectarian killing unleashed by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but suicide bombings and other attacks continue, especially in ethnically and religiously mixed areas.

More than 30K ordered to flee Santa Barbara fire

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) - More than 30,000 people have been ordered to flee a wildfire that burned a five-mile-long front above wealthy coastal communities by Friday, after another hot, windy night in which the fire chief said "all hell broke loose."

Towering columns of brown smoke roiled off the face of the Santa Ynez Mountains after a fierce overnight battle as the 3,500-acre blaze repeated its pattern of relative calm in daylight and explosive behavior when evening winds arrive. It had been estimated at only about 1,300 acres Thursday afternoon.

"Literally last night, all hell broke loose," Santa Barbara city Fire Chief Andrew DiMizio said. Officials predicted Friday night would bring the same destructive mix of hot weather and strong wind gusts.

It was unknown how many homes were lost overnight on top of the estimated 75 houses destroyed earlier in the week in canyon neighborhoods along the north edge of Santa Barbara. Firefighters put out roof fires and kept the blaze from spreading into Santa Barbara proper, and many homes were saved, DiMizio said.

The blaze jumped a highway and pushed west toward neighboring Goleta and east toward tony Montecito, and evacuation orders more than doubled in less than a day.

A statement from the fire joint information center at late morning Friday estimated that more than 12,000 properties were under mandatory evacuation orders, affecting 30,500 people. It said more than 9,000 properties were under warning for potential evacuation, affecting 23,000 people.

Oscar Funez, 39, his wife, Patricia, 42, and their son, Augustin, 4, were watching the fire on television Thursday night when they noticed other tenants leaving their Santa Barbara apartment building. They packed a suitcase and fled, too.

"It's our fourth fire in Santa Barbara. We know we have to have everything—paperwork, clothes, everything—ready to go," Oscar Funez said.

The family spent the night on cots in a recreation center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Authorities said more than 800 people were in evacuation shelters.

"Right now, if you're not evacuated in the Santa Barbara area, you are sheltering evacuees," DiMizio said.

More than 2,300 firefighters, aided by 14 air tankers and 15 helicopters, were fighting the blaze. Containment was estimated at 10 percent and the cause was under investigation.

Santa Barbara and adjacent communities, pinched between the coast on the south and the rugged mountains on the north, are subject to fierce local winds known as "sundowners" that sweep down from the slopes over this coastal city of about 90,000. In November, a wind-driven fire burned 200 houses in the area.

Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Tom Franklin predicted Friday would be a copy of Thursday's fire conditions, including low humidity and winds gusting to 50 mph or more.

Highs could hover around 100 degrees. A National Weather Service "red flag" forecast for extreme fire conditions continued.

The fire was burning along steep slopes in brush that is unusually dry so early in the fire season, Franklin said.

When the wind isn't blowing, the fire is being driven by terrain, authorities said.

Officials requested a DC-10 jumbo jet tanker capable of carrying much larger loads of retardant or water than helicopters or other aircraft, said assistant incident commander Kelley Gouette of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Officials said 11 firefighters had been injured to date, including three who were burned in a firestorm Wednesday.

They were reported in good condition at a Los Angeles burn center, but two will need skin grafts and surgery. Other injuries ranged from smoke inhalation to sprained ankles.

Let's pray that loss of the innocent victims will be paid soon. Government should improve the precautions in city design.

Oil below session highs, economic data positive

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil retreated from session highs below $58 a barrel on Friday, but stayed within sight of six month highs after positive data on the U.S. economy.

U.S. crude was up 58 cents to $57.29 a barrel by 1454 GMT (10:54 a.m. EDT). It touched a six-month high of $58.57 on Thursday. Brent crude was up 48 cents at $56.95.

"We believe that crude prices are being driven higher by a combination of rising expectations for a faster economic recovery, increased fund flows into commodities and higher utilization at U.S. refineries," said Adam Sieminski at Deutsche Bank in a research note.

The pace of job losses slowed in April in the United States, according to government data, providing further evidence to support the view that the economic climate might be improving.

Wall Street opened higher after the results of stress tests on U.S. banks showed no unexpected weaknesses.

Oil has gained more than 70 percent from a low of $33.55 in February, rallying with equity markets on hopes of economic recovery and also in response to oil supply cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Macro-economic data on major economies has begun to look less gloomy.

U.S. retailers on Thursday posted better-than-expected monthly sales results for a second straight month in April.

German exports posted their first rise in 6 months in March, according to the country's Federal Statistics Office on Friday.

"The risk for investors is that some markets have got ahead of themselves and could be vulnerable should the flow of positive economic data start to deteriorate," Barclays Capital said in a research note.

The bank noted that data on oil demand remains mixed and the market's inventory overhang is still huge.

"If the recent bout of positive sentiment subsides, prices might well go through a phase of consolidation in the mid-50s," it said.

The god smiles.

What a feeling: how emotions may yet save the economy

An influential Democrat who was also one of the world’s top-ten, highest-paid hedge fund managers last year thinks he knows which book is at the top of the White House reading list this spring: Animal Spirits, the powerful new blast of behavioural economics from Nobel prize-winner George Akerlof and Yale economist Robert Shiller.

Judging by the upbeat economic message we have been hearing from the White House, the Treasury and even the Federal Reserve over the past six weeks, that is a shrewd guess. The authors argue that “we will never really understand important economic events unless we confront the fact that their causes are largely mental in nature”. Our “ideas and feelings” about the economy are not purely a rational reaction to data and experience; they themselves are an important driver of economic growth – and decline.

Since mid-March President Barack Obama and his team have mounted a sophisticated effort to brighten those “ideas and feelings”, reassuring the nation with “glimmers of hope across the economy” and the assertion that “we’re starting to see progress”. The much bally-hooed stress tests – whose comprehensively leaked results were fully unveiled after the markets closed on Thursday – are both an important example of this confidence-building campaign and its toughest challenge.

The sunnier rhetoric of recent weeks marked a sharp shift both from the bleak mood of the fin de regime administration of George W. Bush and from the first weeks of the Obama White House. The outgoing president’s political capital was so low in his final months in office that the mere fact of his public appearances seemed to have a depressing effect on the markets. His secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, enjoyed greater confidence, but he needed to convince lawmakers the situation was dire enough to merit his $700bn Tarp programme.

Likewise, Mr Obama needed the nation to be worried enough about the economy to pass his nearly $800bn stimulus plan. And too much good cheer in the first days of his administration could have wasted one of his most powerful trump cards – the country’s belief that this recession is owned by president number 43, not number 44.

But once the stimulus bill was passed, the White House calculated that, as Mr Obama told the Financial Times, lawmakers and US voters had reached their limits. No new money to rev up the economy or revive the banks would be forthcoming until the president and his team could demonstrate concrete results from the first instalment.

Since then Americans have been hearing a decidedly more optimistic vibe from Washington. It has seemed to work. A Google search for the term “economic recovery” turned up 6,991 references to the term in January and 7,831 in February. In the first week of May the phrase occurred 24,443 times.

More traditional yardsticks show the same result. According to a recent ABC/Washington Post poll, Americans’ belief that their country is heading in the right direction has soared from 19 per cent, just before Mr Obama’s inauguration, to 50 per cent, the highest in six years. In what could be a textbook example of behavioural economics, the stock market has followed the same curve, recovering from what rightwing commentators were calling “the Obama bear market” at the beginning of the year to a healthy rally.

Thursday night’s verdict on banks’ balance sheets will also be a stress test of the administration’s experiment in behavioural economics.

Washington has clearly learned the lesson of one of its rare, early failures. In contrast with the disastrous media management of Treasury secretary Tim Geithner’s maiden economic speech, the results of the stress tests have been so thoroughly previewed that by Thursday financial pundits and punters seemed almost bored with the exercise. Ennui is not the same thing as conviction – one of America’s biggest money managers on Thursday described the exercise to me as “the feather tests” and it is hard to find anyone who doesn’t work for the government, or one of the banks, who believes the tests have been rigorous.

But, like Washington, Wall Street really does want the scheme to work and the markets to recover. Over the next few weeks the administration will be hoping those feelings are powerful enough to drive the economic data.

The economy is being paid by the damned debts instead of credits. The only way out is to eliminate the over-debts faster.

Health Care Professionals Offer Free Consultations for National Stroke Awareness Month

For the 22nd consecutive year, May 2009 has been designated Stroke Awareness Month. During this thirty-one day period, health care professionals and health promotion experts across the country will join forces to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures for our modern stroke epidemic. Sponsored by The National Stroke Association, a non-profit health education organization, Stroke Awareness Month is a national, cooperative effort to raise public awareness about the full continuum of stroke by managing stroke risk factors, facilitating better understanding of stroke symptom recognition and response and improving the quality of life during stroke recovery for millions of stroke survivors in the United States.

"Even though we've learned a lot about strokes in the past twenty years," says Ann Marie Amicarelli, a hypnotherapist specializing in health related issues, "Stroke is the third leading cause of death in America. It causes many people to become disabled each year. Up to 80% of strokes can be prevented. Each one of us can prevent a stroke by being responsible for the lifestyle choices we make. There are many effective techniques available that could help millions of Americans stop suffering. For instance, the risk factor of smoking damages blood vessels, raises blood pressure and makes the smoker's heart work very hard. Research has shown that smoking doubles the risk of stroke. Women need to be extremely careful. If a woman smokes, has a history of migraines, and takes birth control pills, her stroke risk is increased as much as 34 times. If you stop smoking today, you can significantly reduce your risk of stroke. Quitting smoking is an important step to living a longer, healthier life."

As part of an effort by leading health care organizations across the country to disseminate helpful educational materials and other information about strokes during the month of May, Amicarelli is offering free Stroke Education consultations and group workshops at her Smoking Cessation program locations. Amicarelli is an affiliate of Healthy Life Centers, a national network of providers that specialize in helping smokers that want to quit the habit. She offers free nationwide smoking cessation referrals by visiting Healthy Life Centers Referral Site.

For additional information on stroke prevention and smoking cessation, contact Ann Marie Amicarelli or visit The Smoking Cessation Program at the Marriage Center

Amicarelli is a certified hypnotherapist and relationship counselor with over 17 years of experience in helping individuals and families to improve their health and reach their full potential. She specializes in individual and corporate consultations for health and wellness issues.

Smoking is a very bad habit that not only harms the smokers but also harms others' health. All is driven by the damned money. The entire world is suffering from people's bad habits.