Tag Archives: 대구 마사지

Israel and its chief ally, the United States, want Syria to cool its ties with Iran and to stop supporting the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, and Lebanon’s own Hezbollah movement, and help sideline them as armed players

Tags : 강남 안마 대구 마사지 전주 마사지

“The approval was sent through the diplomatic channels to Washington,” a diplomat with knowledge of the decision told CBS News on condition of anonymity.

The approval comes just one month after a meeting in Damascus between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and 천안 안마 senior U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell.

U.S. Inches Closer to Major Afghan Assault

Tags : 강남 안마 대구 마사지 부천 안마

A NATO spokesman in Brussels called on Taliban militants holding Marjah to surrender. But a Taliban spokesman boasted that the militants were prepared to “sacrifice their lives” to defend the town against the biggest NATO-Afghan offensive of the eight-year war.

The date for the main attack by thousands of Marines and Afghan soldiers has not been announced for security reasons. However, preparations have accelerated in recent days, and it appeared the assault would come soon.

Unlike previous military offensives here, coalition forces are telegraphing their punch, dropping thousands of pamphlets warning civilians to distance themselves from Taliban fighters, reports CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark.

Marjah Marines Brace for OffensiveU.S. Tightens Noose around Taliban Town

U.S. mortar crews fired two dozen smoke rounds Wednesday at Taliban positions on the outskirts of the farming community, a center of the opium poppy trade about 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul in Helmand province. Marine armored vehicles also drove closer to Taliban positions. Both moves are designed to lure the militants into shooting back and thus reveal their positions. The Marines did draw small arms fire but suffered no casualties.

“Deception is pretty important because it allows us to test the enemy’s resistance,” said Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, the commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment. “There’s a strategy to all this show of muscle.”

The U.S. goal is to quickly retake control of Marjah to enable the Afghan government to re-establish a presence. Plans call for civilian workers move quickly to restore electricity, clean water and other public services in hopes of weaning the inhabitants away from the Taliban.

Civilians could be seen fleeing their mud brick farming compounds on the outskirts of Marjah as soon as the American and Afghan forces appeared, though vast numbers do not seem to be leaving. The moves did not draw much of a response from the fighters, who appeared to be waiting behind defensive lines for the Marines to come closer to the town.

To the north, a joint U.S.-Afghan force, led by the U.S. Army’s 5th Stryker Brigade, pushed into the Badula Qulp region of Helmand province to restrict Taliban movement in support the Marjah offensive.

But bombs planted along a canal road slowed progress of a convoy Wednesday, damaging two mine-clearing vehicles and delaying the Stryker infantry carriers and Afghan vehicles from advancing for hours. There were no casualties.

“It’s a little slower than I had hoped,” said Lt. Col. Burton Shields, commanding officer of the 4th Battalion, 대전 마사지 23rd Infantry Regiment.

Shields said the joint force was facing “harassing attacks” by groups of seven to nine insurgents.

“They’re trying to buy time to move their leaders out of the area,” he said.

U.S. officers estimate between 400 and 1,000 Taliban and up to 150 foreign fighters are holding Marjah, which is believed to have a population of about 80,000. It’s unclear how many of them will defend the town to the end and how many will give up once the main assault begins.

In Brussels, a NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the Taliban garrison in Marjah had the options of surrendering, leaving or fighting, adding they “are well advised to take up options one or two.”

“The area which is the focus of this operation has been known for years as an insurgent stronghold. It is actively defended and will require a large military operation to clear,” he said.

Marjah is key to Taliban control of vast areas of Helmand province, which borders Pakistan and is major center for Afghanistan’s illicit poppy cultivation, which NATO believes helps finance the insurgency.

Officials said Afghan soldiers and police would join the operation in greater numbers than in any previous one. Appathurai said the offensive was designed to show that the Afghan government can establish its authority anywhere in the country and “will establish a better life to the people who are there.”

But Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi scoffed at NATO threats, saying American and Afghan forces would face a hard fight to take Marjah.

“The Taliban are ready to fight, to do jihad, to sacrifice their lives. American forces cannot scare the Taliban with big tanks and big warplanes,” Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone. “American forces are here in Afghanistan just to create problems for Afghan people. This operation is to create problems for the villagers in winter weather.”

So far, there are few signs of a major exodus of civilians from Marjah, although U.S. aircraft have been dropping leaflets in the town for days warning of the offensive. Some residents contacted by telephone said the Taliban were preventing people from leaving, telling them it was unsafe because the roads had been mined.

Helmand provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said about 300 families — or an estimated 1,800 people — have already moved out of Marjah in recent weeks to the capital of Lashkar Gah, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast.

Most moved in with relatives but about 60 families are sheltering in a school, where the government provides them with tents, blankets, food and other items. Ahmadi said preparations have been made to receive more refugees if necessary.

U.S. Embassy officials were not available to comment. Last week, Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem confirmed that the U.S. State Department had passed the name of a potential nominee to Syria, but he refused to identify the individual tapped by the Obama administration. “The United States has nominated an ambassador. This is an American sovereign issue and it is Syria’s right to study the nomination,” Mouallem told a press conference. Ford, who speaks fluent Arabic, served previously as the U.S. Ambassador to Algeria from 2006 to 2008, and is considered to be an expert in Mideast affairs. The U.S. has not had an ambassador in Damascus since President Bush recalled Margaret Scobeyin from the post in the wake of Hariri’s Feb. 14, 2005 assassination in a massive bombing in Beirut that also killed 20 others. Syria’s foes in Lebanon accused Damascus of being behind the bombing. Syria has denied any involvement. For Syria, the return of an American ambassador is a welcome gesture that signifies Washington’s recognition that Damascus can potentially help ease violence in Iraq, stabilize Lebanon and solve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Syrian leaders have urged the West to embrace their country as a full partner in the quest to end the myriad problems facing the Middle East. Some observers, however, remain skeptical, cautioning that the re-appointment of a U.S. is an important step, but not likely a solution. In an opinion piece for “The National of Abu Dhabi,” veteran Middle East analyst Michael Young weighed in on the issue. “The Syrians know that Ford’s clout at home will be relatively limited, and that he will have to pass through a man greatly disliked in Damascus; the Assistant Secretary of State for Near East affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon at the time of the Hariri assassination,” wrote Young. “Ford’s appointment took more than a year in coming, a long time when considering that President Barack Obama made engagement of Syria and Iran a centerpiece of his foreign policy campaign promises,” Young wrote in “The National of Abu Dhabi,” adding: “The relationship will improve, but Syria is unlikely to regain the prominent role it had in American regional calculations during the 1990s unless it gives in return.” Mitchell’s visit to Syria, the third since he was appointed as President Obama’s envoy to the region, was to pass along the name and discuss how to re-launch the long-stalled Syrian-Israeli peace talks. Syria insists the promise of an Israeli withdrawal from the disputed Golan Heights must be a precursor to any renewed peace negotiations between the two countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vehemently rejected the notion of a withdrawal from the territory seized by the Jewish state during a week-long war in 1967. Since taking the oath, President Obama has cautiously sought to improve ties with Syria, and U.S. lawmakers have made a flurry of visits to Damascus. Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal al-Mekdad, a leading figure in Syrian foreign policy, also visited Washington. Arab diplomats suggest that a Syria-Israel peace deal might represent a slightly more attainable goal for the Obama administration in the region — certainly when compared to the prospects of a breakthrough in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Israel and its chief ally, the United States, want Syria to cool its ties with Iran and to stop supporting the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, and Lebanon’s own Hezbollah movement, and help sideline them as armed players. The improving relations between Washington and Damascus may also yield intelligence gathering benefits for the Obama administration. Indeed, Seymour Hersh wrote in an article in the New Yorker last week that the Syrian secret services have already resumed cooperation with the CIA and Britain’s MI6. U.S. Under Secretary of State William Burns, an architect of a 2003 deal between the U.S. and Libya that helped bring some degree of credibility back to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, will visit Syria on Feb. 17, according to Western diplomats.

Tags : 대구 마사지 전주 마사지 천안 마사지

강남 안마

Weisberg, who said he personally invites the artists to perform, chose carefully

Tags : 강남 마사지 대구 마사지 부천 마사지

In many ways, that is what the Rock the Bells festival is about. The festival, which is currently on tour, was created in a Los Angeles club as a way to support what the promoters call “real hip hop.”

“We created Rock the Bells to support social, political, conscious hip hop,” founder Chang Weisberg said. “That was about four years ago … Since then it’s turned in to a very large, what we call, platform.”

The radical rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine headlines the show, which also features Wu-Tang Clan, Talib Kweli, Cypress Hill and Mos Def — considered by hip-hop aficionados to be the best of the best. Rapper Nas performed in Massachusetts and is slated for more shows, but didn’t make it to his native New York.

The tour kicked off in Mansfield, Mass., at the Tweeter Center and then moved on to Randalls Island in New York City where stopped for two days. Unfortunately for concert goers, 부산 안마 Sunday’s show was a soggy one, but the 20-something (mostly white) crowd didn’t seem to mind as many passed joints and drank beer.

The acts who participated in this year’s 12-city tour are certainly among the genre’s most respected and most left leaning. Many used the stage to express their feelings about politics.

“F— George Bush!” Public Enemy hypeman Flavor Flav shouted.

“If you love real hip-hop music like Cypress Hill, Like Wu-tang, like Mos Def, say something!” he urged the crowd.

Rock the Bells is Weisberg’s attempt to salvage the music he loves as the industry continues to sell less and less albums. The live experience, he said, cannot be downloaded or bought on CD and he hopes the show is able to introduce fans to artists who may not be played on the radio or MTV. The show also featured a second, smaller stage for indie rappers on the Paid Dues tour.

Weisberg, who said he personally invites the artists to perform, chose carefully. He picked the notoriously militant Public Enemy to perform because this marks their 20th year. Nas recently released a song lamenting the direction of hip hop called “Hip Hop Is Dead.” That phrase became a touchtone for Rock the Bells, and among the crowd, signs and T-shirts bear slogans refuting Nas’ claim.

“Nas is totally entitled to say exactly what he feels,” Weisberg said. “That statement has been a source of inspiration for lots of people — put that chip on peoples’ shoulders to say, you know what, hip hop is not dead.”

For more tour dates visit RockTheBells.net.By Caitlin Johnson

Veneman declined to comment on the detained Americans, saying the judicial system in Haiti is handling the case: “I think we need to await the outcome of those proceedings,” she said

Tags : 대구 마사지 대전 안마 부산 안마

The head of UNICEF warned Tuesday that people may still be trying to smuggle children out of Haiti and said protecting youngsters who survived the earthquake is the top concern of the U.N. children’s agency.

Ann Veneman said in an interview with The Associated Press that UNICEF is starting a program to identify children who lost or can’t find their parents. The group is also working with other groups to put children who are alone into facilities where they can receive food, water and psychological help, she said.

“This is a children’s emergency,” she said.

Complete Coverage: Devastation in Haiti Haiti Quake: How You can Help

Veneman, 부산 마사지 who visited Haiti last week, said in every humanitarian crisis there’s a risk that children will be trafficked out of the country for sexual exploitation, adoption, child labor or other illegal purposes. In Haiti, she said, “this is a big concern.”

Last week, 10 Americans were charged with kidnapping and criminal association for trying to take 33 children into the neighboring Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without proper documentation. The Baptist missionaries say they were heading to a Dominican orphanage following Haiti’s devastating quake, and had only good intentions.

Veneman said UNICEF has learned of some other instances “where there is concern that children may not have (had) the necessary documents when they left.”

At the airport in Port-au-Prince and the border with the Dominican Republic, specially trained officials are now checking documents, which Veneman said should make a difference.

Veneman declined to comment on the detained Americans, saying the judicial system in Haiti is handling the case: “I think we need to await the outcome of those proceedings,” she said.

Veneman said Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive expressed concern at the massive media attention directed at the detained Americans.

“As the prime minister said to me in a meeting with him, `I spend so much of my time answering questions about these 10 Americans when I have 2 million people in need here,”‘ the UNICEF chief said,

Even before the Americans were detained, fears that child traffickers would take advantage of the chaos following the quake led Bellerive to announce that all foreign adoptions would need his personal approval.

Veneman said there is no estimate of the number of children left alone as a result of the Jan. 12 quake. Before it struck, there were between 300,000 and 350,000 children in residential care facilities but many were left by parents too poor to take care of them, she said.

Veneman said some care facilities and orphanages collapsed in the quake, killing children, though nobody has any figures.

Many children lost their parents, and most have now been put “into some kind of safe place,” including residential care facilities like an SOS children’s village, she said.

“The primary concern is protection of children — making sure they have shelter, food, water, the basic necessities and care,” Veneman said.

UNICEF has begun a program to to give children some kind of identity — such as an arm band — to make sure that as the process goes through they can then reunite them with family members.

“This is really the goal, to reunite any unaccompanied children with family members,” she said.

According to population estimates, 38 percent of Haiti’s nine million people are under the age of 15 and about 45 percent are 18 and under, Veneman said.

In January 2009, the State Department informed Blackwater that it would not renew its contracts to provide security for U.S

Tags : 대구 마사지 대전 마사지 청주 마사지

The order comes in the wake of a U.S. judge dismissing criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad.

It applies to about 250 security contractors who worked for Blackwater in Iraq at the time of the incident, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told The Associated Press.

Some of the guards now work for other security firms in Iraq, while others work for a Blackwater subsidiary, 전주 마사지 al-Bolani said. He said all “concerned parties” were notified of the order three days ago and now have four days left before they must leave.

Blackwater security contractors were protecting U.S. diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a crowded Baghdad intersection, on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq.

“We want to turn the page,” al-Bolani said. “It was a painful experience, and we would like to go forward.”

Based in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater is now known as Xe Services, a name change that happened after six of the security firm’s guards were charged in the Nisoor Square shootout. At the time, Blackwater was the largest of the State Department’s three security contractors working in Iraq.

One of the accused guards pleaded guilty in the case, but a federal judge in Washington threw out charges against the other five in December, rapping the Justice Department for mishandling the evidence.

The legal ruling infuriated Iraqis, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowing to seek punishment for the guards.

Last month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden flew to Baghdad to appease Iraqis with a promise by the Obama administration to appeal the case and bring the guards back to trial.

The shooting further strained relations between the United States and Iraq, leading the parliament in Baghdad to seek new laws that would clear the way for foreign contractors to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts. The U.S. government rejected those demands in the Blackwater case.

In January 2009, the State Department informed Blackwater that it would not renew its contracts to provide security for U.S. diplomats in Iraq because of the Iraqi government’s refusal to grant it an operating license.

But last September, the agency said it temporarily extended a contract with a Blackwater subsidiary known as Presidential Airways to provide air support for U.S. diplomats.

The Justice Department now is investigating whether Blackwater tried to bribe Iraqi officials with about $1 million to allow the company to keep working there after the Baghdad shooting, according to U.S. officials close to the probe.

U.S. Embassy officials were not available to comment. Last week, Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem confirmed that the U.S. State Department had passed the name of a potential nominee to Syria, but he refused to identify the individual tapped by the Obama administration. “The United States has nominated an ambassador. This is an American sovereign issue and it is Syria’s right to study the nomination,” Mouallem told a press conference. Ford, who speaks fluent Arabic, served previously as the U.S. Ambassador to Algeria from 2006 to 2008, and is considered to be an expert in Mideast affairs. The U.S. has not had an ambassador in Damascus since President Bush recalled Margaret Scobeyin from the post in the wake of Hariri’s Feb. 14, 2005 assassination in a massive bombing in Beirut that also killed 20 others. Syria’s foes in Lebanon accused Damascus of being behind the bombing. Syria has denied any involvement. For Syria, the return of an American ambassador is a welcome gesture that signifies Washington’s recognition that Damascus can potentially help ease violence in Iraq, stabilize Lebanon and solve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Syrian leaders have urged the West to embrace their country as a full partner in the quest to end the myriad problems facing the Middle East. Some observers, however, remain skeptical, cautioning that the re-appointment of a U.S. is an important step, but not likely a solution. In an opinion piece for “The National of Abu Dhabi,” veteran Middle East analyst Michael Young weighed in on the issue. “The Syrians know that Ford’s clout at home will be relatively limited, and that he will have to pass through a man greatly disliked in Damascus; the Assistant Secretary of State for Near East affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon at the time of the Hariri assassination,” wrote Young. “Ford’s appointment took more than a year in coming, a long time when considering that President Barack Obama made engagement of Syria and Iran a centerpiece of his foreign policy campaign promises,” Young wrote in “The National of Abu Dhabi,” adding: “The relationship will improve, but Syria is unlikely to regain the prominent role it had in American regional calculations during the 1990s unless it gives in return.” Mitchell’s visit to Syria, the third since he was appointed as President Obama’s envoy to the region, was to pass along the name and discuss how to re-launch the long-stalled Syrian-Israeli peace talks. Syria insists the promise of an Israeli withdrawal from the disputed Golan Heights must be a precursor to any renewed peace negotiations between the two countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vehemently rejected the notion of a withdrawal from the territory seized by the Jewish state during a week-long war in 1967. Since taking the oath, President Obama has cautiously sought to improve ties with Syria, and U.S. lawmakers have made a flurry of visits to Damascus. Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal al-Mekdad, a leading figure in Syrian foreign policy, also visited Washington. Arab diplomats suggest that a Syria-Israel peace deal might represent a slightly more attainable goal for the Obama administration in the region — certainly when compared to the prospects of a breakthrough in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Israel and its chief ally, the United States, want Syria to cool its ties with Iran and to stop supporting the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, and Lebanon’s own Hezbollah movement, and help sideline them as armed players. The improving relations between Washington and Damascus may also yield intelligence gathering benefits for the Obama administration. Indeed, Seymour Hersh wrote in an article in the New Yorker last week that the Syrian secret services have already resumed cooperation with the CIA and Britain’s MI6. U.S. Under Secretary of State William Burns, an architect of a 2003 deal between the U.S. and Libya that helped bring some degree of credibility back to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, will visit Syria on Feb. 17, according to Western diplomats.

Tags : 강남 안마 대구 마사지 전주 안마

대구 안마

Even some government officials are expressing skepticism about the numbers

Tags : 대구 마사지 부산 마사지 청주 마사지

Haiti issued wildly conflicting death tolls for the Jan. 12 earthquake on Wednesday, adding to confusion about how many people actually died — and to suspicion that nobody really knows.

A day after Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue raised the official death toll to 230,000, her office put out a statement quoting President Rene Preval as saying 270,000 bodies had been hastily buried by the government following the earthquake.

Complete Coverage: Devastation in Haiti Haiti Quake: How You can Help

A press officer withdrew the statement, saying there was an error, but re-issued it within minutes. Later Wednesday, the ministry said that due to a typo, the number should have read 170,000.

The number buried in mass graves is not necessarily the same as the government’s official estimate for the overall death toll and it remains unclear who’s doing the counting.

Government officials were not available to comment on the confusion.

The 270,000 figure, which Preval’s office said he announced at a meeting with South American presidents in Ecuador, was 40,000 higher than one released by Preval’s communications minister the previous day, even though a gravedigger at the mass graves just north of Port-au-Prince said only two bodies have been buried there this week.

Haitian officials offer no convincing explanation for how they are compiling the death toll – which has climbed from a precise 111,481 on Jan. 23 to 150,000 on Jan. 24, to 212,000 on Saturday, to 230,000 on Tuesday before Wednesday’s erroneous report of 270,000 and quick reversal to 170,000. Even some government officials are expressing skepticism about the numbers.

“I personally think that a lot of information being given to the public by the government is estimates,” said Haiti’s chief epidemiologist, Dr. Roc Magloire.

There is no doubt that the death toll — whatever it is — is one of the highest in a modern disaster.

A third of Haiti’s 9 million people were crowded into the chaotic capital when the quake struck just to the southwest a few minutes before 5 p.m. Many were preparing to leave their offices or schools. Some 250,000 houses and 30,000 commercial buildings collapsed, according to government estimates, many crushing people inside.

For days, people piled bodies by the side of the road or left them half-buried under the rubble. Countless more remain under collapsed buildings, identified only by a pungent odor.

No foreign government or independent agency has issued its own death toll. Many agencies that usually can help estimate casualty numbers say they are too busy helping the living to keep track of the dead. And the Joint Task Force in charge of the relief effort — foreign governments and militaries, U.N. agencies and Haitian government officials — quotes only the government death toll.

That toll has climbed from a precise 111,481 on Jan. 23 to 150,000 on Jan. 24, to 212,000 on Saturday, to 230,000 on Tuesday. Preval’s count of 170,000 bodies buried in mass graves may represent only a piece of the toll — but nobody at his office was available to clarify.

It’s common in major disasters to see large discrepancies in death tolls: Governments may use lower figures to save face, or 대전 안마 higher figures to attract foreign aid. In Haiti’s case, however, where the very institutions responsible for compiling information were themselves devastated, reaching a death toll is particularly difficult.

Many citizens are even more cynical, accusing the government of inflating the numbers to attract foreign aid and to take the spotlight off its own lackluster response to the disaster.

“Nobody knows how they came up with the death count. There’s no list of names. No list of who may still be trapped. No pictures of people they buried,” said shop owner Jacques Desal, 45. “No one is telling us anything. They just want the aid.”

A few days after the quake, the state-run public works department, known as the CNE, began picking up bodies from the streets and dropping them in trenches dug by earth movers in Titanyen, just north of the capital, amid rolling chalk and limestone hills that overlook the Caribbean Sea.

The trenches are 6 meters (20 feet) deep and piled 6 meters (20 feet) high.

Preval said the government has counted 170,000 bodies during those efforts, and that the number does not include people buried in private ceremonies. But at Titanyen on Wednesday, worker Estelhomme Saint Val said nobody had counted the bodies.

“The trucks were just dropping people wherever, and then we would move in and cover them up,” he said. “We buried people all along the roads and roadsides. It was impossible to do a count.”

And although the government death toll jumped by the thousands from Saturday to Tuesday, Saint Val said at noon Wednesday that only one truck had arrived this week, and it carried two bodies. He said workers received 15 truckloads of bodies a day just after the quake, but the numbers dropped off about 10 days ago.

Lassegue, in announcing the Tuesday death toll, refused to say how it was calculated.

“For the moment we count 230,000 deaths, but these figures are not definitive,” she said. “It’s a partial figure.”

U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs in Geneva, who has often cited Haitian government figures, said Wednesday that she said she doesn’t know how Haiti is calculating the death toll: “We cannot confirm these figures.”

Finding someone who can is difficult.

The government says the CNE is orchestrating the count. The CNE referred questions to the prime minister’s office. The prime minister’s chief of protocol referred questions to the prime minister’s secretary-general. The prime minister’s secretary-general could not be reached.

A report by the U.N. on Tuesday attributed the death toll to Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency instead of the CNE. Civil Protection director Alta Jean-Baptiste referred questions to the Ministry of Interior. Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said Wednesday that the Civil Protection toll is “217,000-and-some deaths,” despite the higher number given by his government.

“Civil Protection, before giving out the numbers, really is doing a precise count and the numbers that they give out are numbers that are proven,” he said.

He would not say how that count is being done.

A death toll of 230,000 would equal the number of people killed in the tsunami that devastated a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean following a magnitude-9.2 earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004. That disaster generated an outpouring of international aid — in part because of the number of dead.

An extremely high toll “probably elicits more public sympathy, so it might generate more visibility, more funding,” said Chris Lom, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.

But Byrs says inflating numbers can backfire.

“Regarding every estimate, we have to be very careful because we could lose credibility with donors, with humanitarian partners,” she told The Associated Press. “If you boost the figure, it’s counterproductive. It doesn’t help when you try to match assistance to needs.”

Wednesday’s penalties apply to Qasemi and Khatam al-Anbiya subsidiaries, the Fater Engineering Institute, the Imensazen Consultant Engineers Institute, the Makin Institute and the Rahab Institute

Tags : 강남 안마 대구 마사지 부산 안마

The Treasury Department said it was targeting one person and four companies for penalties over their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction. The agency said it was freezing the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Rostam Qasemi and four subsidiaries of a previously penalized construction firm that he runs.

The sanctions made public Wednesday expand existing U.S. unilateral penalties against elements of the Guard Corps, or IRGC, which Western intelligence officials believe is spearheading Iran’s nuclear program.

The announcement came as U.S. officials lobby for action at the U.N. Security Council, which has already hit Iran with three sets of sanctions. The Obama White House wants to impose fresh international sanctions over Tehran’s failure to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.

Qasemi commands the Guard Corps’ Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, which Treasury described as its engineering arm that is involved in the construction of streets, tunnels, waterworks, agricultural projects and pipelines. Its profits “are available to support the full range of the IRGC’s illicit activities, including WMD proliferation and support for terrorism,” Treasury said in a statement.

Khatam al-Anbiya was hit with U.S. sanctions by the Bush administration in 2007. Wednesday’s penalties apply to Qasemi and Khatam al-Anbiya subsidiaries, the Fater Engineering Institute, the Imensazen Consultant Engineers Institute, 강남 안마 the Makin Institute and the Rahab Institute.

“As the IRGC consolidates control over broad swaths of the Iranian economy, displacing ordinary Iranian businessmen in favor of a select group of insiders, it is hiding behind companies like Khatam al-Anbiya and its affiliates to maintain vital ties to the outside world,” said Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“Today’s action exposing Khatam al-Anbiya subsidiaries will help firms worldwide avoid business that ultimately benefits the IRGC and its dangerous activities,” he said.

Treasury’s move followed a tough new warning to Iran from President Barack Obama, who said on Tuesday that the country remains on an “unacceptable” path to nuclear weapons, despite its denials, and that the U.S. and like-minded countries would soon present a set of punishing sanctions at the United Nations.

His comments came in response to Iran’s announcement that it was rejecting a deal it provisionally accepted in October under which it would ship low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enriching for use in a Tehran medical research reactor. On Sunday, Iran said it would would produce its own higher-enriched uranium. On Tuesday, Iranian state television said the process began in the presence of inspectors from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.

Mr. Obama said he was sticking to a two-track approach: offering to negotiate, while threatening further pressure. He said the world would welcome an Iranian decision to accept U.N. demands that it live up to its nuclear control obligations.

“And if not, then the next step is sanctions,” he said. “They have made their choice so far, although the door is still open. And what we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them how isolated they are from the international community as a whole.”

Mr. Obama said that work to broaden the U.N.’s sanctions was moving quickly, but he gave no specific timeline for the presentation of a new resolution. Russia, a traditional opponent of sanctions, appears ready to support new penalties. But another of the council’s five permanent, veto-wielding members, China, which has increasingly close economic ties to Iran, can block a resolution by itself. China has said the time is not yet right for fresh sanctions.

They also discovered several sniper positions, freshly abandoned and booby-trapped with grenades

Tags : 강남 마사지 대구 마사지 부천 마사지

“That doesn’t necessarily mean an intense gun battle, but it probably will be 30 days of clearing,” Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said. “I am more than cautiously optimistic that we will get it done before that.”

Squads of Marines and Afghan soldiers occupied a majority of Marjah, but gunfire continued as pockets of militants dug in and fought. Sniper fire forced Nicholson to duck behind an earthen bank in the northern part of the city where he toured the tip of the Marines’ front line held by Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines.

“The fire we just took reflects how I think this will go – small pockets of sporadic fighting by small groups of very mobile individuals,” he said.

Explosions from controlled detonations of bombs and other explosives were being heard about every 10 minutes in the area.

“There’s really a massive amount of improvised explosive devices,” Nicholson said. “We thought there would be a lot, but we are finding even more than expected.”

CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan

The second day of NATO’s largest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan also was marked by painstaking house searches.

Using metal detectors and sniffer dogs, 부천 마사지 U.S. forces found caches of explosives rigged to blow as they went from compound to compound down streets riddled with thousands of homemade bombs and mines. Shots continued to ring out in some neighborhoods.

They also discovered several sniper positions, freshly abandoned and booby-trapped with grenades.

The troops also found two large caches of ammonium nitrate – a common ingredient in explosives – totaling about 8,800 pounds, said Lt. Josh Diddams, a Marine spokesman.

“We’re in the majority of the city at this point,” Diddams said. He said the nature of the resistance has changed from the initial assault, with insurgents now holding ground in some neighborhoods.

“We’re starting to come across areas where the insurgents have actually taken up defensive positions,” he said. “Initially it was more hit and run.”

NATO said it hoped to secure Marjah, the largest town under Taliban control and a key opium smuggling hub, within days, set up a local government and rush in development aid in a first test of the new U.S. strategy for turning the tide of the 8-year-old war.

At least two shuras, or meetings, have been held with local Afghan residents – one in the northern district of Nad Ali and the other in Marjah itself, NATO said in a statement. Discussions have been “good,” and more shuras are planned in coming days as part of a larger strategy to enlist community support for the NATO mission, it said.

Afghan officials said Sunday that at least 27 insurgents had been killed in the operation.

Most of the Taliban appeared to have scattered in the face of overwhelming force, possibly waiting to regroup and stage attacks later to foil the alliance’s plan to stabilize the area and expand Afghan government control in the volatile south.

Two NATO soldiers were killed on the first day of the operation – one American and one Briton – according to military officials in their countries. At least seven civilians had been wounded, but there were no reports of deaths, Helmand provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said.

More than 30 transport helicopters ferried troops into the heart of Marjah before dawn Saturday, while British, Afghan and U.S. troops fanned out across the Nad Ali district to the north of the mud-brick town, long a stronghold of the Taliban.

Maj. Gen. Gordon Messenger told reporters in London that British forces “have successfully secured the area militarily” with only sporadic resistance from Taliban forces. A Taliban spokesman insisted their fighters still controlled the town.

President Barack Obama was keeping a close watch on combat operations, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Vietor said Defense Secretary Robert Gates would have the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, brief Mr. Obama on Sunday.

In Marjah, most of the Marines said they would have preferred a straight-up gunbattle to the “death at every corner” crawl they faced.

“Basically, if you hear the boom, it’s good. It means you’re still alive after the thing goes off,” said Lance Corp. Justin Hennes, 22, of Lakeland, Florida.

Local Marjah residents crept out from hiding after dawn Sunday, some reaching out to Afghan troops partnered with Marine platoons.

“Could you please take the mines out?” Mohammad Kazeem, a local pharmacist, asked the Marines through an interpreter. The entrance to his shop had been completely booby-trapped, without any way for him to re-enter his home, he said.

The bridge over the canal into Marjah from the north was rigged with so many explosives that Marines erected temporary bridges to cross into the town.

“It’s just got to be a very slow and deliberate process,” said Capt. Joshua Winfrey of Stillwater, Oklahoma, a Marine company commander.

Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, said U.S. troops fought gunbattles in at least four areas of the town and faced “some intense fighting.”

To the east, the battalion’s Kilo Company was inserted into the town by helicopter without meeting resistance but was then “significantly engaged” as the Marines fanned out from the landing zone, Christmas said.

Marine commanders had said they expected between 400 and 1,000 insurgents – including more than 100 foreign fighters – to be holed up in Marjah, a town of 80,000 people that is the linchpin of the militants’ logistical and opium-smuggling network in the south.

The offensive, code-named “Moshtarak,” or “Together,” was described as the biggest joint operation of the Afghan war, with 15,000 troops involved, including some 7,500 in Marjah itself. The government says Afghan soldiers make up at least half of the offensive’s force.

Once Marjah is secured, NATO hopes to quickly deliver aid and provide public services in a bid to win support among the estimated 125,000 people who live in the town and surrounding villages. The Afghans’ ability to restore those services is crucial to the success of the operation and in preventing the Taliban from returning.By Associated Press Writer Alfred de Montesquiou; AP writers Noor Khan in Kandahar, Rahim Faiez and Heidi Vogt in Kabul, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report