Tag Archives: 부산중구출장샵

Brad Pitt took second place on the list with a gross income return of $24 for each dollar he was paid, and Vince Vaughn tied with Johnny Depp for third with $21

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For every dollar he was paid for his last three roles, Damon brought in $29 of gross income, the site calculated. That put the 36-year-old “Bourne” star atop a Forbes list of 22 film heavyweights, ranked by the same financial formula.

The first two “Bourne” movies grossed an estimated $850 million at the box office and in DVD sales, Forbes said. The third installment, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” opened last weekend and raked in $70.2 million at the box office. It was the biggest August film opening ever.

Brad Pitt took second place on the list with a gross income return of $24 for 부산중구출장샵 each dollar he was paid, and Vince Vaughn tied with Johnny Depp for third with $21.

“The biggest stars in Hollywood are not the actors that deliver the biggest returns,” Forbes senior editor Michael Ozanian said in a statement Monday.

Russell Crowe is at the bottom of the list. His last three films — “A Good Year,” “Cinderella Man” and “Master and Commander” — averaged just $5 in gross income for every dollar spent on the Oscar winner, Forbes said.

Movies starring the two Toms — Hanks and Cruise — averaged $12 and $11 of gross income, respectively. Will Smith and Denzel Washington each brought in $10.

On the comedic front, Adam Sandler brought in $9 per dollar earned, Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey $8 each).

Forbes.com calculated the net revenue for a film by adding the worldwide box office and revenues from U.S. DVD and video rentals and then subtracting its budget. The net revenue was divided by the actor’s total compensation to derive gross income. The average gross income of an actor’s last three films produced their box-office return.

The “Ultimate Star Payback” list was posted Monday.

Robin Roberts Says She’s Doing Well

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“I am incredibly grateful that my surgery went well Friday,” Roberts said in a posting on ABC News’ Web site. “Thanks for all the prayers — I owe you big time!”

Roberts, 46, told “GMA” viewers last Tuesday that she had cancer, which she discovered through self-examination.

Her mother and sisters traveled from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans to be with her for the operation. The former college basketball star and sportscaster grew up in Pass Christian, Miss.

“My family read many of your e-mails while I was in surgery,” said Roberts, who has been an anchor at “GMA” since 2005. “It brought them such comfort. My big sis, Sally-Ann, marked all the survivor stories with a big S.”

She said her co-anchor, 부산중구출장샵 Diane Sawyer, visited her in the hospital.

“I woke up in the recovery room with sweet Diane gently tugging on my big toe,” she said in a posting Monday. “As you can imagine, I am still quite sore from the procedure and need to take some time for my body to heal.”

Roberts left the hospital on the day of her surgery.

“Right now the best medicine for me is to be at home surrounded by family and loved ones,” she said. “I expect to get the final test results later this week, which will determine the course of my treatment.”

Each woman received between four and six strokes of a rattan cane, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements

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The caning of women has fueled debate about whether Islamic conservatism was intruding into people’s personal lives in this moderate Muslim-majority country. Another woman, 부산중구출장샵 Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a 32-year-old mother of two, was sentenced to caning last year for drinking beer.

Kartika’s sentence has not been carried out, but authorities at a women’s prison near Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 9 caned three other Muslim women who had been convicted in an Islamic Shariah court for having sex outside of marriage, according to a Home Ministry official. They did not explain why the punishment was only announced Wednesday.

Each woman received between four and six strokes of a rattan cane, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein announced the caning earlier Wednesday. He did not release details of their identities or when they had been sentenced but said that one of the women was released last week after spending a month in prison.

Home Ministry officials did not describe where on their bodies they received the strikes, but authorities have previously said that the caning of women would be done with a thin stick on the back – not the buttocks.

The punishment for women is supposed to be largely symbolic rather than aimed at causing pain, unlike the caning of rapists and drug smugglers with a thick rattan stick on bare buttocks that causes the skin to break and leave scars.

Officials at the women’s prison who could comment on the caning were not immediately available.

It was not clear whether the men who had sex with the women were also caned, but the caning of male convicts occurs regularly for a wide range of crimes.

Kartika, the woman convicted of drinking beer, has insisted she wants to get the punishment over with, but government authorities said they needed to train personnel to properly carry out the penalty first.

Kartika’s case also sparked concerns about whether conservative Islamists, who advocate harsh punishments, are gaining influence over Malaysia’s justice system.

Malaysia follows a dual-track justice system. Shariah laws apply to Muslims, who account for nearly two-thirds of Malaysia’s 28 million people, in all personal matters. Non-Muslims – Chinese, Indians, Sikhs and other minorities – are covered by civil laws and are not subject to Islamic courts.

drone aircraft fired two missiles at a home in the northwestern village of Tabbi Tool Khel in the North Waziristan tribal region, killing at least three people and wounding some others, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media

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Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was arrested around 10 days ago in a joint operation by CIA and Pakistani security forces in the southern port city of Karachi, U.S. and Pakistani officials said on condition of anonymity Tuesday. The army on Wednesday gave the first public confirmation of the arrest.

“At the conclusion of detailed identification procedures, it has been confirmed that one of the persons arrested happens to be Mullah Baradar,” chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said in a written message to reporters. “The place of arrest and operational details cannot be released due to security reasons.”

Baradar was the second in command behind Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and was said to be in charge of the day-to-day running of the organization’s leadership council, which is believed based in Pakistan. He was a founding member of the Taliban and is the most important figure of the hardline Islamist movement to be arrested since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The White House has declined to confirm Baradar’s capture. Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the fight against extremists involves sensitive intelligence matters and he believes it’s best to collect that information without talking about it.

Baradar, who also functioned as the link between Mullah Omar and field commanders, has been in detention for more than 10 days and was talking to interrogators, two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

One said Baradar had provided “useful information” to them and that Pakistan had shared it with their U.S. counterparts. A third official said Wednesday that Baradar was being held at an office of Pakistan’s most powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, in Karachi.

CBS News chief national security correspondent David Martin reports that, between whatever laptops and 경기도출장샵 cell phones he had at the time of his arrest, and what he knows, Baradar is a potential goldmine of intelligence.

“The unique thing about this individual was that he had been working for the Taliban for well over a decade,” former CIA officer Bruce Riedel tells CBS News. “He knew the inside and outside of how the Taliban operates.”

Officials call Baradar the linchpin of Taliban strategy in Afghanistan, and as Martin reports, his capture comes just as the U.S. and its allies have launched a major new offensive in Helmand province.

The Pakistani military officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Baradar’s arrest suggests the Pakistani intelligence services are ready to deny Afghan militant leaders a safe haven in Pakistan – something critics have long accused them of doing.

Haroun Mir, a leading Afghan expert on the Taliban, tells CBS News Baradar’s arrest is “the most important event in the war against the Taliban and the war on terrorism in years.”

“The real significance is the change in the Pakistani policy,” explains Mir.

U.S. and Afghan leaders “have been criticizing Pakistan for years for allowing the Taliban to move freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and now, by arresting Mullah Baradar, they have demonstrated in the strongest way a change in policy.”

Read More Analysis from Haroun Mir in World Watch

The arrest may also push other insurgent leaders thought to be sheltering in Pakistan toward reconciliation talks with the Afghan government – a development increasingly seen as key to ending the eight-year war.

The arrest came shortly before U.S., Afghan and NATO troops launched a major offensive against militants in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in the southern province of Helmand, one of the regions that Baradar was believed to control. It is the largest operation in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama ordered a “surge” of 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Washington has pressed Islamabad to crack down on Afghan Taliban believed to be staying in Pakistan, and to go after Pakistani Taliban groups who have strongholds in the country’s northwest regions bordering Afghanistan. The CIA also has stepped up a campaign of missile strikes from unmanned planes that have killed dozens of suspected militants in recent months.

The latest strike came Wednesday, when a suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles at a home in the northwestern village of Tabbi Tool Khel in the North Waziristan tribal region, killing at least three people and wounding some others, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

The average gross income of an actor’s last three films produced their box-office return

Tags : 경기도출장샵 부산중구출장샵

For every dollar he was paid for his last three roles, Damon brought in $29 of gross income, the site calculated. That put the 36-year-old “Bourne” star atop a Forbes list of 22 film heavyweights, ranked by the same financial formula.

The first two “Bourne” movies grossed an estimated $850 million at the box office and in DVD sales, Forbes said. The third installment, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” opened last weekend and raked in $70.2 million at the box office. It was the biggest August film opening ever.

Brad Pitt took second place on the list with a gross income return of $24 for each dollar he was paid, and Vince Vaughn tied with Johnny Depp for third with $21.

“The biggest stars in Hollywood are not the actors that deliver the biggest returns,” Forbes senior editor Michael Ozanian said in a statement Monday.

Russell Crowe is at the bottom of the list. His last three films — “A Good Year,” “Cinderella Man” and “Master and Commander” — averaged just $5 in gross income for every dollar spent on the Oscar winner, Forbes said.

Movies starring the two Toms — Hanks and Cruise — averaged $12 and $11 of gross income, respectively. Will Smith and Denzel Washington each brought in $10.

On the comedic front, 부산중구출장샵 Adam Sandler brought in $9 per dollar earned, Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey $8 each).

Forbes.com calculated the net revenue for a film by adding the worldwide box office and revenues from U.S. DVD and video rentals and then subtracting its budget. The net revenue was divided by the actor’s total compensation to derive gross income. The average gross income of an actor’s last three films produced their box-office return.

The “Ultimate Star Payback” list was posted Monday.

In neighboring Kandahar province, four Afghan policemen were killed and four others were wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb on Tuesday, the Afghan Interior Ministry said

Tags : 경기도출장샵 부산중구출장샵

About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive around Marjah, which has an estimated 80,000 inhabitants and was the largest town in southern Helmand province under Taliban control. NATO hopes to rush in aid and public services as soon as the town is secured to try to win the loyalty of the population.

With the assault in its fifth day, insurgents are firing at Afghan troops from inside or next to compounds where women and 경기도출장샵 children appear to have been ordered to stand on a roof or in a window, said Gen. Mohiudin Ghori, the brigade commander for Afghan troops in Marjah.

“Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window,” Ghori said. “They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians.”

The Marjah offensive is the biggest joint operation since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and is a major test of a retooled NATO strategy to focus on protecting civilians, rather than killing insurgents.

Ghori said troops have made choices either not to fire at the insurgents with civilians nearby or they have had to target and advance much more slowly in order to distinguish between militants and civilians as they go.

Even with such caution on both the NATO and Afghan side, civilians have been killed. NATO has confirmed 15 civilian deaths in the operation. Afghan rights groups say at least 19 have been killed.

In northern Marjah on Wednesday, U.S. Marines fanned out through poppy fields, dirt roads and side alleys to take control of a broader stretch of area from insurgents as machine gun fire rattled in the distance.

Special Report: Afghanistan

The Marines found several compounds that had primitive drawings on their walls depicting insurgents blowing up tanks or helicopters, a sign that Afghan troops say revealed strong Taliban support in the neighborhood.

Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, said security has improved enough in northern Marjah for Afghan police to step in. Other Marine units have taken control over main locations in the center of town.

“Bringing in the Afghan police frees up my forces to clear more insurgent zones,” Christmas said.

Combat engineers were building a fortified base at the entrance of town for the police, who are expected to arrive Thursday.

Afghan police chosen for the task in Marjah were selected from other regions of the country instead of Helmand province, Marine officials said, in order to avoid handing over day-to-day security to officers who may have tribal or friendship ties to the Taliban.

A day earlier, Marines and Afghan forces moving by land from the north had succeeded in linking up with U.S. units that have faced nearly constant Taliban attack in the four days since they were dropped by helicopter into this insurgent stronghold.

The linkup between the two Marine rifle companies and their Afghan army partners will enable the U.S. to expand its control in Marjah, about 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul.

A top Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Razaq Akhund, dismissed the offensive as NATO propaganda and said on the group’s Web site that Marjah was militarily insignificant.

Four NATO service members have been killed in the Marjah operation. An American and a Briton were killed on Saturday, while two others whose nationalities were not identified were killed Tuesday. One Afghan soldier also died Tuesday, Afghan officials said.

The Marines and Afghan troops “saw sustained but less frequent insurgent activity” in Marjah on Wednesday, limited mostly to small-scale attacks, NATO said in a statement.

Marine officials have said that Taliban resistance has started to seem more disorganized than in the first few days of the assault, when small teams of insurgents swarmed around Marine and Afghan army positions firing rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Troops are encountering less fire from mortars and RPGs than at the start of the assault, suggesting that the insurgents may have depleted some of their reserves or that the heavier weapons have been hit, Ghori said.

Nevertheless, Taliban have not given up. Insurgent snipers hiding in haystacks in poppy fields have exchanged fire with Marines and Afghan troops in recent days as they swept south.

Insurgents tried but failed to shoot down an Osprey aircraft with rocket-propelled grenades as Cobra attack helicopters fired missiles at Taliban positions, including a machine gun bunker.

NATO said it has reinstated use of a high-tech rocket system that it suspended after two rockets hit a house on the outskirts of Marjah on Sunday, killing 12 people, including at least five children.

The military coalition originally said the missiles went hundreds of yards (meters) off target but said Tuesday that it determined that the rockets hit the intended target.

Afghan officials said three Taliban fighters were in the house at the time.

Violence and NATO strikes have continued elsewhere in the country.

In neighboring Kandahar province, four Afghan policemen were killed and four others were wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb on Tuesday, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

And in the east, NATO said it killed more than a dozen insurgents in an airstrike near the Pakistani border.

Obama Taps Veteran Diplomat for Syria Post

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President Obama said Tuesday he would nominate career diplomat Robert Ford to become the United States’ first ambassador to Damascus since 2005, a sign that U.S.-Syrian relations are thawing as Obama enters his second year in power.

If confirmed by the Senate, 부산중구출장샵 Ford would represent the United States’ interests as it moves toward restored diplomatic relations with a nation that borders both Iraq and Israel.

“Ambassador Ford is a highly accomplished diplomat with many years of experience in the Middle East,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “His appointment represents President Obama’s commitment to use engagement to advance U.S. interests by improving communication with the Syrian government and people.”

Obama has made changing the United States’ image in the Middle East a priority of his first year. He traveled to Cairo to deliver a speech on engaging the Muslim world. He has met with Israeli and Palestinians leaders alike at the White House. An agreement between the two, however, has been elusive.

Seeking regional partners to promote that peace, Obama foreign policy advisers last summer said the United States would fill the Damascus post that has been vacant for years. That announcement was described as an acceleration of Washington’s engagement with the Arab world on the heels of Obama’s trip to Cairo.

Syria remains a key to establishing peace with Israel, which still occupies the strategic Golan Heights, captured from Damascus in the 1967 war. The Syrians want a strong U.S. hand in Mideast peacemaking to regain that territory.

“If confirmed by the Senate, Ambassador Ford will engage the Syrian government on how we can enhance relations, while addressing areas of ongoing concern,” said Gibbs, Obama’s top spokesman.

Ford’s name has been reported for weeks as the likely nominee, and the White House confirmation comes after a flurry of diplomatic visits to Damascus by American officials.

CBS News’ George Baghdadi reports that senior U.S. diplomat William Burns, an undersecretary at the State Department, held talks Wednesday with President Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus.

“We talked candidly about the areas in which we disagree, but also identify the areas of common ground on which we can build,” Burns said in a statement after his meeting with the Syrian leader.

“Washington’s decision to send an Ambassador is a clear sign of America’s readiness to improve relations and to collaborate in the pursuit of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace between the Arabs and the Israelis,” he added.

According to a Presidential statement released after the meeting, Assad urged the Obama administration to “adopt policies that push Israel to meet peace requirements.”

The long-tense relations between Syria and the U.S. started to improve after Obama took office in January last year.

His predecessor, former President George W. Bush, first imposed the sanctions in May 2004, citing Syrian support for terrorism, its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and other activities including efforts to undermine U.S. operations in Iraq. The economic and diplomatic sanctions were renewed by the Obama administration in May.

The U.S. withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2005 to protest Syrian actions in neighboring Lebanon. Washington has also criticized Syria and Iran for supporting Islamic militant groups such as the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Ford, a fluent Arabic speaker, is currently deputy chief of mission in the Baghdad embassy of the U.S. He was also the ambassador to Algeria from 2006 to 2008.

“The results of the test are that Chris Rock is not the father of this child,” Mayoue said

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Rock’s attorney, 부산중구출장샵 John Mayoue of Atlanta, said a Bulloch County judge sent results of the paternity test to lawyers on both sides of the case.

“The results of the test are that Chris Rock is not the father of this child,” Mayoue said. “It is conclusive.”

The mother, however, disputed the test results.

Kali Bowyer, who lives in Bulloch County, west of Savannah, tried in March to file a paternity lawsuit against Rock seeking child support and medical coverage for her son, Jordan. She withdrew the lawsuit after court officials told her it was outside the southeast Georgia county’s jurisdiction because Rock is a New Jersey resident.

Rock and his wife, Malaak, said in a statement Monday they were happy to put the case to rest. They accused Bowyer of telling “multiple lies” to sell her story to tabloids.

“We also express our deepest prayers for the welfare of Ms. Bowyer’s son who has continually been embarrassed and exposed in the media by his mother,” Rock’s statement said. “We have spent a tremendous sum to litigate this case and are asking our attorney to pursue all legal remedies against her. Additionally, we would like for any monies Ms. Bowyer has taken from the tabloid media based on this false story to be donated to Bulloch County, Ga., charities for the benefit of disadvantaged boys and girls.”

Bowyer said Monday she had never received money for her story and she believed Rock had violated a confidentiality agreement by making the paternity test results public.

“I could’ve sworn we weren’t supposed to talk about it until we were done with mediation,” Bowyer said.

She said she planned to ask the judge to order another DNA test to challenge the results of the one that ruled out Rock as her child’s father.

Bowyer, 35, said she met Rock at a Los Angeles nightclub when she was living in California 13 years ago.

She denied making any money from the case despite offers of thousands of dollars from television shows and tabloid magazines.

“I am sick and tired of being made out to be a liar and a fraud,” she said.

Rock recently directed and starred in the film “I Think I Love My Wife,” and is behind the hit television series “Everybody Hates Chris,” which is based on his childhood. He and his wife have been married for 10 years and have two young children.

Louis bar owned by former Cardinals reliever — and noted mustache wearer — Al Hrabosky

Tags : 부산중구출장샵

Those days largely went by the wayside with disco and mood rings. The mustache, the epitome of macho cool in the ’70s, is now often the subject of scorn and ridicule. Few athletes or celebrities wear them unless they are attached to beards. Mustache-wearing TV and movie characters tend to be evil or goofy.

And corporate America? “There is certainly a level of discrimination in the workplace,” said Aaron Perlut, a St. Louis-based public relations executive and one of the founders of the American Mustache Institute. “That’s one of the things we’d like to see go away.”

Perlut and six of his mustachioed friends started the AMI last year. On Saturday, the group is hosting “‘Stache Bash 2007” at the St. Louis bar owned by former Cardinals reliever — and noted mustache wearer — Al Hrabosky. Up to 500 people are expected, with proceeds going to Challenger Baseball, a program for children with disabilities.

Perlut, 36, has worn a Fu Manchu on and 부산중구출장샵 off for years, despite the funny looks and snide comments.

“I’m commonly told I look better without it,” he said. “My wife? She loves me either way. But if it was up to her I wouldn’t have it.”

Co-worker Dan Callahan agreed. He wore one for years “until I decided I looked like G. Gordon Liddy,” he said. Still, he grew back a “painter’s brush” mustache, a thin, narrow, closely-clipped ‘stache.

He acknowledges ridicule from colleagues, friends and family, but urges mustache wearers to keep a stiff – albeit hairy – upper lip.

“The culture, the fashion has moved so far away from it,” Callahan, 51, said. “But you can tell the pendulum is swinging the other way. It almost feels as if there have been people waiting to grow one. We’re here to tell them, ‘it’s safe to go back into the water.”‘

Filmmaker Jay Della Valle wanted to find out. For his documentary “The Glorius (sic) Mustache Challenge,” Della Valle enlisted several 30-and-under men to wear a mustache for one month, then chronicled their lives.

“Certain guys felt embarrassed with girls,” he said. “It was difficult for them to assert themselves if they felt self-conscious at all. Few got to the point where they used it to their advantage.”

Some women liked their man in a mustache, finding it “edgy and showing of a good sense of humor,” Della Valle said. But for the majority, “It reminded them of the Village People, ’70s porn stars and rednecks,” he said, using a derogatory reference relating to certain groups of white southerners in the U.S.

That is exactly the stereotype Perlut and Callahan want to bring to an end with “‘Stache Bash.” The group’s Web site has received nearly 500,000 hits since it was launched in late July.

The American Mustache Institute received mentions on ESPN and inSports Illustrated thanks to its contest seeking the best-ever sports mustache. Not surprisingly, the top contenders typically hail from the era of the Nixon, Ford or Carter administrations — Hrabosky with his menacing Fu Manchu, Oakland A’s reliever Rollie Fingers and his famous handlebar. A surprising write-in contender is former Cardinals and Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez.

Do Perlut and Callahan think the mustache will ever really come back into style?

“I think a lot of it has to do with the fickle nature of the American public,” Perlut said. “Fads go in and fads go out.”

Callahan said, “It’s too bad. Today, the only mustache you see on TV is a milk mustache.”

He traveled to Cairo to deliver a speech on engaging the Muslim world

Tags : 부산중구출장샵

President Obama said Tuesday he would nominate career diplomat Robert Ford to become the United States’ first ambassador to Damascus since 2005, a sign that U.S.-Syrian relations are thawing as Obama enters his second year in power.

If confirmed by the Senate, Ford would represent the United States’ interests as it moves toward restored diplomatic relations with a nation that borders both Iraq and Israel.

“Ambassador Ford is a highly accomplished diplomat with many years of experience in the Middle East,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “His appointment represents President Obama’s commitment to use engagement to advance U.S. interests by improving communication with the Syrian government and people.”

Obama has made changing the United States’ image in the Middle East a priority of his first year. He traveled to Cairo to deliver a speech on engaging the Muslim world. He has met with Israeli and Palestinians leaders alike at the White House. An agreement between the two, however, has been elusive.

Seeking regional partners to promote that peace, Obama foreign policy advisers last summer said the United States would fill the Damascus post that has been vacant for years. That announcement was described as an acceleration of Washington’s engagement with the Arab world on the heels of Obama’s trip to Cairo.

Syria remains a key to establishing peace with Israel, which still occupies the strategic Golan Heights, captured from Damascus in the 1967 war. The Syrians want a strong U.S. hand in Mideast peacemaking to regain that territory.

“If confirmed by the Senate, Ambassador Ford will engage the Syrian government on how we can enhance relations, while addressing areas of ongoing concern,” said Gibbs, Obama’s top spokesman.

Ford’s name has been reported for weeks as the likely nominee, and the White House confirmation comes after a flurry of diplomatic visits to Damascus by American officials.

CBS News’ George Baghdadi reports that senior U.S. diplomat William Burns, an undersecretary at the State Department, held talks Wednesday with President Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus.

“We talked candidly about the areas in which we disagree, but also identify the areas of common ground on which we can build,” Burns said in a statement after his meeting with the Syrian leader.

“Washington’s decision to send an Ambassador is a clear sign of America’s readiness to improve relations and to collaborate in the pursuit of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace between the Arabs and the Israelis,” he added.

According to a Presidential statement released after the meeting, Assad urged the Obama administration to “adopt policies that push Israel to meet peace requirements.”

The long-tense relations between Syria and 부산중구출장샵 the U.S. started to improve after Obama took office in January last year.

His predecessor, former President George W. Bush, first imposed the sanctions in May 2004, citing Syrian support for terrorism, its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and other activities including efforts to undermine U.S. operations in Iraq. The economic and diplomatic sanctions were renewed by the Obama administration in May.

The U.S. withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2005 to protest Syrian actions in neighboring Lebanon. Washington has also criticized Syria and Iran for supporting Islamic militant groups such as the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Ford, a fluent Arabic speaker, is currently deputy chief of mission in the Baghdad embassy of the U.S. He was also the ambassador to Algeria from 2006 to 2008.