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Calls to Judge Ivone Caetano, who decided the case, were not immediately returned

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Little Julia Lira is scheduled to perform for the packed Sambadrome stadium – and 부천 마사지 for millions more around the country via live television – early Monday morning when the Viradouro samba group parades.

“We received the news this morning that the judge will let Julia parade,” Viradouro said spokeswoman Joice Hurtado. “The group is ecstatic that she will be able to samba.”

The Rio state agency for child protection confirmed the ruling and said it would appeal to the Justice Ministry. Calls to Judge Ivone Caetano, who decided the case, were not immediately returned.

Viradouro’s plan to make Julia its Carnival queen has created a stir in Rio and made headlines around the globe, with some child’s rights advocates saying it’s inappropriate for a young girl to be in such a traditionally sexualized role.

“The decision sets a negative precedent that will have implications across Brazil,” said Carlos Nicodemos, who as director of the Rio de Janeiro state Council for the Defense of Children and Adolescents had asked the court to block Julia’s participation.

Nicodemos said he worries about what message it sends to a nation that has long had a problem with sexual exploitation of children, especially in the lawless Amazon region.

Julia’s father, Marco – who is also the president of Viradouro – has said concerns about the girl’s well-being are overblown. He says the girl will wear a costume that is not too skimpy for a 7-year-old, and both he and his wife will watch her closely to make sure she doesn’t get too tired during the 80-minute parade.

More than just a massive street party, Rio’s Carnival parade is also a fierce competition between 12 top-tier samba “schools” whose winner is hailed by fans across Brazil.

Viradouro, which won the title in 1997, is no stranger to controversy. In 2008, a judge blocked the group from putting a dancer dressed as Adolf Hitler on a float loaded with naked people representing Holocaust victims.

Some of the parents told the AP they willingly turned over their children to the missionaries on the promise the Americans would educate them and allow relatives to visit

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A Haitian judge has decided to release 10 American missionaries accused of kidnapping children in Haiti, Reuters news agency reported Wednesday afternoon, siting a “judicial source”.

The judge decided the Americans had no “criminal intentions” when they tried to take the children out of Haiti, according to Reuters’ report.

A defense lawyer for the Americans, however, tells The Associated Press that the judge deciding whether the Baptist group should face trial for attempting to take a busload of children out of the country is probably ready to make his ruling, but has not yet decided what that ruling will be.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil finished questioning the Americans on Wednesday and now must transmit his recommendation to the prosecutor, lawyer Gary Lassade toldd the AP.

The prosecutor could appeal if the judge recommended dropping charges, but the judge has the last say, the attorney told The Associated Press on Wednesday. He said he expected the judge to issue that final decision Thursday.

Haiti Earthquake – Latest CoverageHaiti Relief: How You Can Help

“The judge will not take a decision before he sends his finding to the prosecutor,” Lassade told the AP.

The Americans, most from an Idaho Baptist group, were charged last week with child kidnapping and criminal association after being arrested Jan. 29 trying to take 33 children, ages 2 to 12, across the border to an orphanage they were trying to set up in the Dominican Republic.

The day after the group’s arrest, its leader, Laura Silsby of Meridian, Idaho, told the AP that the children were obtained either from orphanages or from distant relatives. She said only children who were found not to have living parents or relatives who could care for them might be put up for adoption.

Who is Laura Silsby?

However, at least 20 of the children are from a single village and have living parents. Some of the parents told the AP they willingly turned over their children to the missionaries on the promise the Americans would educate them and allow relatives to visit.

Saint-Vil questioned at least two of the parents Wednesday as well as the 10 Americans.

In a brief conversation afterward through cell bars in the stuffy, grimy jail where they have been held, the missionaries refused to be interviewed by the AP.

“We’ve said all we’re going to say for now. We don’t want to talk now,” Silsby said. “Maybe tomorrow.”

The women were held separately from the men, who shared their cell with nine Haitian men, 부산 안마 some of whom played checkers on the cell floor.

“We will not talk unless our lawyer is present,” said Paul Thompson, pastor of the Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. Lassade represents Thompson’s cousin, Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas.

A Dallas attorney for Allen, Hiram Sasser, told the AP that his client was recruited just 48 hours before the group left last month for the Dominican Republic on what Silsby termed an emergency rescue mission.

“He did not know many of the other people who were on the mission trip, or what other people were going to do, or about paperwork,” Sasser said.

Silsby had decided last summer to create an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and in November registered the nonprofit New Life Children’s Refuge foundation in Idaho.

After Haiti’s catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake she accelerated the plan and recruited her fellow missionaries. Silsby told the AP she was only interested in saving suffering children.

She told the AP after her arrest, however, that she did not have all the Haitian papers required to take the children out of the country.

A Dominican diplomat who said she visited him the same day the missionaries tried to take the children out of the country told the AP that he warned her that without those papers she could be arrested.

But the militants appear to be digging in, apparently believing that even a losing fight would rally supporters and sabotage U.S

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Instead of keeping the offensive secret, Americans have been talking about it for weeks, expecting the Taliban would flee. But the militants appear to be digging in, apparently believing that even a losing fight would rally supporters and sabotage U.S. plans if the battle proves destructive.

No date for the main attack has been announced but all signs indicate it will come soon. It will be the first major offensive since President Barack Obama announced last December that he was sending 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan, and will serve as a significant test of the new U.S. strategy for 천안 마사지 turning back the Taliban.

Marjah Marines Brace for Offensive Afghanistan: Life on the Frontline

About 400 U.S. troops from the Army’s 5th Stryker Brigade and about 250 Afghan soldiers moved into positions northeast of Marjah before dawn Tuesday as U.S. Marines pushed to the outskirts of the town.

Automatic rifle fire rattled in the distance as the Marines dug in for the night with temperatures below freezing. The occasional thud of mortar shells and the sharp blast of rocket-propelled grenades fired by the Taliban pierced the air.

“They’re trying to bait us, don’t get sucked in,” yelled a Marine sergeant, warning his troops not to venture closer to the town. In the distance, Marines could see farmers and nomads gathering their livestock at sunset, seemingly indifferent to the firing.

The U.S. goal is to take control quickly of the farming community, located in a vast, irrigated swath of land in Helmand province 380 miles southwest of Kabul. That would enable the Afghan government to re-establish a presence, bringing security, electricity, clean water and other public services to the estimated 80,000 inhabitants.

Over time, American commanders believe such services will undermine the appeal of the Taliban among their fellow Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in the country and the base of the insurgents’ support.

“The military operation is phase one,” Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal told reporters Tuesday in Kabul. “In addition to that, we will have development in place, justice, good governance, bringing job opportunities to the people.”

Marjah will serve as the first trial for the new strategy implemented last year by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. He maintains that success in the eight-year conflict cannot be achieved by killing Taliban fighters, but rather by protecting civilians and winning over their support.

Many Afghan Pashtuns are believed to have turned to the Taliban, who were driven from power in the U.S.-led invasion of 2001, because of disgust over the ineffectual and corrupt government of President Hamid Karzai.

“The success of the operation will not be in the military phase,” NATO’s civilian chief in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, told reporters Tuesday. “It will be over the next weeks and months as the people … feel the benefits of better governance, of economic opportunities and of operating under the legitimate authorities of Afghanistan.”

To accomplish that, NATO needs to take the town without causing significant damage or civilian casualties. That would risk a public backlash among residents, many of whose sons and brothers are probably among the estimated 400 to 1,000 Taliban defenders. U.S. aircraft have been dropping leaflets over the town, urging militants not to resist and warning civilians to remain indoors.

Provincial officials believe about 164 families – or about 980 people – have left the town in recent weeks, although the real figure could be higher because many of them moved in with relatives and never registered with authorities.

Residents contacted by telephone in Marjah said the Taliban were preventing civilians from leaving, warning them they have placed bombs along the roads to stop the American attack. The militants may believe the Americans will restrain their fire if they know civilians are at risk.

Mohammad Hakim said he waited until the last minute to leave Marjah with his wife, nine sons, four daughters and grandchildren because he was worried about abandoning his cotton fields in a village on the edge of town. He decided to leave Tuesday, but Taliban fighters turned him back because they said the road was mined.

“All of the people are very scared,” Hakim said by telephone. “Our village is like a ghost town. The people are staying in their homes.”

Sedwill said NATO hopes that when Marjah has fallen, many Taliban militants could be persuaded to join a government-promoted reintegration process.

“The message to them is accept it,” he said. “The message to the people of the area is, of course, keep your heads down, stay inside when the operation is going ahead.”

Mangal, the governor, said authorities believe some local Taliban are ready to renounce al Qaeda and give the government a chance.

“I’m confident that there are a number of Taliban members who will reconcile with us and who will be under the sovereignty of the Afghan government,” he said.

Ali Ahmad Jalali, a former Afghan interior minister who lectures at the National Defense University in Washington, said the U.S. had little choice but to publicize the offensive so civilians could leave and minimize casualties. He said it would have been impossible to achieve complete surprise because “an operation of this scale cannot be kept secret.”

But Jalali added that publicizing the operation may have encouraged hard-core Taliban to stand and fight to show their supporters and the international community that they will not be easily swayed by promises of amnesty and reintegration.

“Normally the Taliban would leave. They would not normally decisively engage in this kind of pitched battle. They would leave and come back because they have the time to come back,” Jalali told The Associated Press.

“If there’s stiff resistance in Marjah, this could increase the recruiting power of the Taliban or at least retain what they have in that area,” he said. “It’s become the symbol of Taliban resistance. So I would suspect it’s possible there would be stiff rearguard resistance. If it becomes bloody, it would affect opinion in Europe and the U.S.”

Jalali also said that success would depend on whether the Afghan government can make good on its promise of services once the battle is over.

“If the coalition can stabilize Marjah, rebuild it and install good governance, that can be an example for other places,” he said. “If not, it would be another problem.”

Echoing this theory, McChrystal told reporters at a defense conference in Turkey last weekend that it was necessary to tell Afghans that the attack on Marjah was coming so they would know “that when the government re-establishes security, they’ll have choices.”

Pakistan Offers to Mediate U.S.

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Commenting on a report published earlier today in The New York Times, 대구 마사지 the Pakistani official confirmed the offer made by General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani (Pakistan’s army chief of staff) during a visit last month to NATO headquarters in Belgium.

(Left: Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani presides at a meeting of top military commanders in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in this October 2009 file photo.)

Witnesses say the company provided little information to visitors stuck on the 124th floor observation deck as rescue crews worked

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Visitors who were on the viewing floor at the time of Saturday’s incident told The Associated Press they heard a loud noise, then saw what looked like smoke but turned out to be dust seeping out of the crack in one of the elevator doors.

“It almost sounded like a small explosion. It was a really loud bang,” said Michael Timms, 31, an American telecommunications engineer who lives in Dubai and was visiting the tower with his cousin Michele Moscato.

About 45 minutes later, rescue crews arrived and pried open the elevator door, Timms said. The faulty elevator was caught between floors, so rescuers hoisted a ladder into the shaft to help those trapped inside get out.

Abu Naseer, a spokesman for Dubai’s civil defense department, confirmed the incident. He said the call for help came in around 6:20 p.m. Saturday evening.

Emergency crews used another elevator to reach the observation deck and were able to rescue all 15 people stuck inside the faulty elevator unharmed, he said.

Photos: World’s Tallest Building Opens

The 2,717-foot building’s owner, Emaar Properties, has revealed few details about the incident since closing the observation deck indefinitely.

In a brief statement Monday, the company said the viewing platform was temporarily shut for “maintenance and upgrade” because of “unexpected high traffic.” It also hinted at electrical problems, saying “technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors.”

Emaar has made no mention of problems with the elevators. That angers some involved in the incident.

“What just kind of shocks me is that they were going to brush this under the rug to save face. If it broke, at least tell people it broke,” Timms said.

The company has not responded to specific questions about the incident or made anyone available to speak despite repeated requests by the AP.

Witnesses say the company provided little information to visitors stuck on the 124th floor observation deck as rescue crews worked. That lack of information caused panic among some visitors.

“I was really starting to get upset, getting really nervous,” said Moscato, 29, a nurse visiting from Columbia, South Carolina. “I started crying.”

She said she and Timms asked to use the stairs because they felt uncomfortable taking the elevator back down, but were told that was not allowed.

They, 강남 마사지 the people trapped in the elevator and an estimated 60 other visitors on the observation deck were eventually taken down in a freight elevator not normally used by the public, they said.

It remains unclear what exactly caused the elevator to fail.

Moscato said she spoke with a man, whose name she did not know, after he escaped from the elevator who said the lights went off and the elevator began to fall before the brakes kicked in. It was not possible to independently verify the account.

The $1.5 billion Burj Khalifa opened with fireworks and other festivities in a widely televised celebration on Jan. 4 after a series of delays.

It boasts more than 160 stories, but the exact number is not known. The tapering, silvery tower ranks not only as the highest building but also as the tallest freestanding structure in the world.

The observation deck, which is mostly enclosed but includes an outdoor terrace bordered by guard rails, is located about two-thirds of the way up on the 124th floor.

By AP Business Writer Adam Schreck

More than 200 international medical relief groups have sent teams to help, and millions of dollars of donated medicine has been flown in

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When the catastrophic earthquake struck Jan. 12, authorities immediately decided to make all medical care free. More than 200 international medical relief groups have sent teams to help, 천안 안마 and millions of dollars of donated medicine has been flown in.

U.N. officials told The Associated Press they had information that about a dozen hospitals – both public and private – had begun charging patients for medicine.

Haiti Earthquake – Latest CoverageHaiti Quake: How You Can Help

The officials said they could not immediately provide the names of the hospitals but said they were in several parts of the country, including Port-au-Prince.

“The money is huge,” said Christophe Rerat of the Pan American Health Organization, the U.N. health agency in the region. He said about $1 million worth of drugs have been sent from U.N. warehouses alone to Haitian hospitals in the past three weeks.

Hospitals don’t need to charge patients to pay their staff, because Haitian Health Ministry employees are getting paid with donated money, Rerat added.

U.N. officials said that beginning now, any hospital found levying fees for medicine will be cut off.

But they added the U.N. would consider continuing to supply non-governmental groups working at private hospitals hit with embargoes if the NGO can make a convincing case that none of the people it is treating are being charged.

A member of the special Haitian government commission created to deal with the post-quake medical crisis, Dr. Jean Hugues Henry, said he had no knowledge of any hospitals charging for services or medicine.

“Tomorrow, we will clarify that the government never gave anyone permission to charge for medicine and services,” he said.

Haiti now has about 90 hospitals, including public and private hospitals and field hospitals set up in the quake’s aftermath.

You’re going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump

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One of the biggest names in musical theater — the star and creator of “Hamilton” — has plunged right into his NEXT ACT. It’s in a place a long way from Broadway, but very close to his heart, as David Begnaud shows us: 

As the creator and star of the Broadway sensation, “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda is used to getting mobbed by adoring crowds. But the crowds that greeted him a few days ago in Puerto Rico were different. They weren’t there just to applaud him they wanted to thank him.

What is Miranda’s biggest concern about the island? “It’s still the immediate needs of the hardest-hit towns. It’s those towns in the mountains, and the hardest-hit towns that we are still struggling to get aid to.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico is still reeling. Fifty-three days later, much of the island remains without power and running water. Many roads and bridges are still out.  

Since the storm, the 37-year-old Miranda has been using his voice, and his fame, to sound the alarm.

Begnaud asked, “What is expected of you, as a Puerto Rican?”

“Well, it’s complicated, because I didn’t grow up here, so it’s this weird mix of I will do anything to support the island, but I also don’t for a second pretend I know what’s best for the island, because I don’t live here,” he replied. “My job is to amplify the concerns of Puerto Rico.”

While Miranda wasn’t born on the island, his parents were, and Lin-Manuel spent summers as a child visiting his grandparents in Vega Alta, outside San Juan.

“They were such a constant in my life,” he said. “They never missed a play. They’d fly to New York to come see me in the school play. I think of them so much.”

He walked through what was left of his grandparents’ home. “They bought this property and the only thing that was here was the porch. And they built the house around that,” he said. 

Here, as on much of the island, there is little left. 

“The porch has survived, has survived them, and has survived this hurricane. Is there a better metaphor for what Puerto Rico is going through than this footprint?” Miranda said. “We have to start from scratch. But we have this footprint. 

“The metaphor is, you know, 대전 안마 Hurricane Maria just wiped us out, but this footprint is still here, this porch is still here, and we are still here,” he said. “And as long as we’re still here and we are trying, we’re gonna rebuild this house. And we’re going to rebuild it with solar panels on top. The metaphor is we have an opportunity in the wake of tragedy to rebuild, and rebuild smarter, and rebuild better. And that’s the hope with this house, and that’s the hope with our island.”  

The day after Maria hit, Miranda did what he does best: he wrote a song, “Almost Like Praying,” inspired by “Maria,” from “West Side Story,” to raise money to help the devastated island. He rounded up some of the world’s biggest Latino stars — from J-Lo to Rita Moreno — to perform:

Released on October 6, it hit #1 on iTunes in 17 countries. All the profits go to a fund to help the Caribbean island recover.

“Through the Hispanic Federation, not even including ‘Almost Like Praying,’ we’ve raised just shy of $20 million,” Miranda said.

“How much money has the song alone brought in?” asked Begnaud.

“I don’t know yet! You know, I know that we’ve sold over 150,000 copies on iTunes. That’s $1.29 each. So that’s minimum $150,000.”

But as he was finishing the song, Miranda got caught up in a controversy on Twitter war with President Trump:

The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.

You’re going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump. No long lines for you. Someone will say, “Right this way, sir.”They’ll clear a path. https://t.co/xXfJH0KJmw

“Any regrets?” asked Begnaud.

“No. Those were the only words I had on the occasion,” Miranda laughed. “You know, disasters are moments when leaders unite us, you know? They’re no one’s fault, and he starts attacking people on the front lines.”

Last week, Miranda hop-scotched the island, an unofficial goodwill ambassador. In Isla Verde, he made sandwiches at a relief kitchen. He was moved to tears from the welcome he received with his parents, Luis and Luz, looking on.

Begnaud said, “I thought of the two of you as I watched you walk around the island right behind him today. The pride a parent must feel to watch their son give such honor to the place where they’re all from.”

“And that people are so proud of him,” said Luis. “That’s, you know, in my town they remember him when he was a little boy. And that pride that you see — you made us proud of who you are.”

Miranda then visited an aid distribution center in San Juan, where he met with the mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz.

Begnaud asked her, “When he comes here, what does it do?”

“It’s a boost,” Cruz replied, “and it brings joy to people’s hearts.”

When he wasn’t making friends, he was making headlines. On Tuesday, he announced a $2.5 million fund to help residents get back on their feet. 

On Wednesday, he announced he’ll return in the lead role in “Hamilton” for a three-week run at the University of Puerto Rico in January 2019.

“It’s weird; just yesterday the Smithsonian announced that I donated my act two costume to the Smithsonian. I need it back!” he laughed.  “Just three weeks!”

“Aren’t you too young to be donating things to the Smithsonian?” Begnaud laughed.

“Well, yeah, I think so too.”

Thousands of tickets will be sold for just $10, though more expensive travel packages will be offered for sale to help bring tourism back to this home away from home.

Celebrated for his musical about the immigrant who became a founding father, Lin-Manuel Miranda has found his next act.

“Puerto Rico will come back stronger,” he replied. “I have nothing but faith in the character and the resilience and the brilliance of the Puerto Rican people. If they’re given a fair shot to come back, we’ll have an even better Puerto Rico than before.”

For the man who achieved fame and fortune through his musical about an immigrant who became a founding father, Lin-Manuel Miranda says giving back is the least he can do…

        For more info:

Viradouro’s plan to make Julia its Carnival queen has created a stir in Rio and made headlines around the globe, with some child’s rights advocates saying it’s inappropriate for a young girl to be in such a traditionally sexualized role

Tags : 대구 안마 천안 안마 청주 마사지

Little Julia Lira is scheduled to perform for the packed Sambadrome stadium – and for millions more around the country via live television – early Monday morning when the Viradouro samba group parades.

“We received the news this morning that the judge will let Julia parade,” Viradouro said spokeswoman Joice Hurtado. “The group is ecstatic that she will be able to samba.”

The Rio state agency for 부산 안마 child protection confirmed the ruling and said it would appeal to the Justice Ministry. Calls to Judge Ivone Caetano, who decided the case, were not immediately returned.

Viradouro’s plan to make Julia its Carnival queen has created a stir in Rio and made headlines around the globe, with some child’s rights advocates saying it’s inappropriate for a young girl to be in such a traditionally sexualized role.

“The decision sets a negative precedent that will have implications across Brazil,” said Carlos Nicodemos, who as director of the Rio de Janeiro state Council for the Defense of Children and Adolescents had asked the court to block Julia’s participation.

Nicodemos said he worries about what message it sends to a nation that has long had a problem with sexual exploitation of children, especially in the lawless Amazon region.

Julia’s father, Marco – who is also the president of Viradouro – has said concerns about the girl’s well-being are overblown. He says the girl will wear a costume that is not too skimpy for a 7-year-old, and both he and his wife will watch her closely to make sure she doesn’t get too tired during the 80-minute parade.

More than just a massive street party, Rio’s Carnival parade is also a fierce competition between 12 top-tier samba “schools” whose winner is hailed by fans across Brazil.

Viradouro, which won the title in 1997, is no stranger to controversy. In 2008, a judge blocked the group from putting a dancer dressed as Adolf Hitler on a float loaded with naked people representing Holocaust victims.

I have cheated.’ … You do not think this is going to be the New Testament.” A judge approved a tentative settlement in May, calling for publishing house Random House and Frey to refund $2.35 million to those who bought his book before his appearance on Winfrey’s show

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The book was a best-seller after Winfrey chose it for her book club in fall 2005. Frey later acknowledged that the memoir contained many fictitious episodes, and 청주 안마 Winfrey, who initially defended the author, denounced him in person on her TV show.

Nan A. Talese was with Frey on that show. At a session of a nonfiction writers’ conference in Dallas on Saturday, she accused Winfrey of “fiercely bad manners” and said she would have done nothing differently in how she handled Frey’s manuscript.

“I’m afraid I’m unapologetic of the whole thing. And the only person who should be apologetic is Oprah Winfrey,” Talese said, according to The Dallas Morning News.

As for Frey’s use of fictitious elements in his ostensibly factual account of addiction and recovery, Talese said: “When someone starts out and says, ‘I have been an alcoholic. I have lied. I have cheated.’ … You do not think this is going to be the New Testament.”

A judge approved a tentative settlement in May, calling for publishing house Random House and Frey to refund $2.35 million to those who bought his book before his appearance on Winfrey’s show.

At the late January Cabinet meeting, one of Ahmadinejad’s top advisers, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, made a speech praising the Basij before the vote to give the group an open invitation to get involved with decisions and policies in every ministry, according to Rajanews.com, a pro-Ahmadinejad Web site

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The motion passed easily, according to pro-government Web sites.

And with it, Iranian authorities took another step in restructuring the state to reward the forces that help keep them in power – handing wider decision-making roles to the formidable Revolutionary Guard and its vast paramilitary network that have led the crackdowns against opposition protesters.

The Revolutionary Guard has always been a centerpiece of Iran’s Islamic establishment. But the latest door opened to its militia wing suggests a deepening policy role by Iran’s most hard-line groups as opposition forces grow bolder in their demands and the West considers tighter sanctions over its nuclear impasse with Tehran.

The Basij will again be out in force Thursday for expected protest marches to coincide with events marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Their attempts to crush the anti-government movement have been well documented since Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election last June, including the trademark Basiji motorcycle charges in protest crowds.

What’s perhaps less noticed – but with even deeper significance – is the evolving role of the huge Basij force from loosely organized Islamic vigilantes to a more cohesive force with increasing channels to Iran’s leadership and security apparatus.

“It’s clear that the Revolutionary Guard has been increasingly inserted in Iran’s decision-making equation during the crisis,” said Patrick Clawson, deputy director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Expanding the role of the Basij is a natural extension of this.”

The Basij’s big brother, the Revolutionary Guard, has long been a pillar of Iran’s regime as a force separate from the ordinary armed forces. The Guard now has a hand in every critical area including missile development, oil resources, dam building, 대전 안마 road construction, telecommunications and nuclear technology.

It also has absorbed the paramilitary Basij as a full-fledged part of its command structure – giving the militia greater funding and a stronger presence in Iran’s internal politics.

The chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, often accuses dissidents of waging a “soft revolution” against the Islamic system and says forces such as the Basij are needed more than ever to quash internal threats.

The Basij has its roots as volunteer fighters during the 1980-88 war with Iraq. It then developed as a grass-roots defender of the system – taking on roles such as Islamic morality police at checkpoints and parks or as shock troops busting up pro-reform gatherings or publications.

Iran’s meltdown since June has made the Basij into a front-line force against the opposition.

Security forces turned to them as neighbor-by-neighbor informants with hundreds of thousands of eyes and ears in every corner of the country. They also became a first-call attack squad against protests, often roaring into battle on motorcycles and armed with batons.

At least eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and protests in the last major opposition march in late December.

On Monday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed to deliver a “punch in the mouth” to opposition groups if they follow through with calls for marches on Thursday during state-run celebrations of the Islamic Revolution.

He said the Basij would be deployed to provide “order and security.”

It was the latest nod by the ruling clerics that the Basij is moving deeper into the fold.

At the late January Cabinet meeting, one of Ahmadinejad’s top advisers, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, made a speech praising the Basij before the vote to give the group an open invitation to get involved with decisions and policies in every ministry, according to Rajanews.com, a pro-Ahmadinejad Web site. The report also appeared in other government-allied sites as well as some opposition blogs.

Basij leaders also are reportedly asking for another budget increase for the next Iranian year that starts in late March. Last year, the Basij funding was boosted a staggering 200 percent to more than $500 million, according to Sobh-e Sadegh, a publication controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.

There has been no public pushback from authorities despite a severe fiscal crunch, which has brought unpopular measures such as plans to end government-subsidized gasoline prices.

No one in the embattled government wants to risk ruffling groups such as the Basij, which has remained among the strongest supporters of Ahmadinejad.

“They can serve almost as Ahmadinejad’s private army,” said William O. Beeman, a University of Minnesota professor who has written on Iranian affairs.

The higher political profile for the Basij also appears to fit into efforts to expand hard-line oversight in schools and universities. The Basij have been increasingly active in recruitment as the political tensions grow.

Precise numbers on Basij membership are not published, but some estimates range as high as 1 million or more.

“If they acquire more power as a body, they will be able to recruit more forces who will see this as an instant route toward social mobility and power,” said Beeman.