1.
Guinea
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Guinea /ˈɡɪni/, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a country on the West coast of Africa. Guinea has a population of 10.5 million and an area of 245,860 square kilometres, the president is directly elected by the people and is head of state and head of government. The unicameral Guinean National Assembly is the body of the country. The judicial branch is led by the Guinea Supreme Court, the highest, the country is named after the Guinea region. Guinea is a name for the region of Africa that lies along the Gulf of Guinea. It stretches north through the tropical regions and ends at the Sahel. Guinea is a predominantly Islamic country, with Muslims representing 85 percent of the population, Guineas people belong to twenty-four ethnic groups. French, the language of Guinea, is the main language of communication in schools, in government administration, and the media. Guineas economy is dependent on agriculture and mineral production. It is the second largest producer of bauxite, and has rich deposits of diamonds. The country was at the core of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, human rights in Guinea remain a controversial issue. In 2011 the United States government claimed that torture by security forces, the land that is now Guinea belonged to a series of African empires until France colonized it in the 1890s, and made it part of French West Africa. Guinea declared its independence from France on 2 October 1958, from independence until the presidential election of 2010, Guinea was governed by a number of autocratic rulers. What is now Guinea was on the fringes of the major West African empires, the Ghana Empire is believed to be the earliest of these which grew on trade but contracted and ultimately fell due to the hostile influence of the Almoravids. It was in period that Islam first arrived in the region. The Mali Empire was ruled by Mansa, the most famous being Kankou Moussa, shortly after his reign the Mali Empire began to decline and was ultimately supplanted by its vassal states in the 15th century. The most successful of these was the Songhai Empire, which expanded its power from about 1460 and it continued to prosper until a civil war over succession followed the death of Askia Daoud in 1582. The weakened empire fell to invaders from Morocco at the Battle of Tondibi just three years later, the Moroccans proved unable to rule the kingdom effectively, however, and it split into many small kingdoms
Guinea
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Samori Ture was the founder of the
Wassoulou Empire, an
Islamic state in present-day Guinea that resisted
French colonial rule in
West Africa from 1882 until Ture's capture in 1898.
Guinea
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Flag
Guinea
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President
Ahmed Sékou Touré was supported by the Communist bloc states and in 1961 visited
Yugoslavia.
Guinea
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Monument to commemorate the 1970 military victory over the Portuguese raid. The only objective not accomplished by the Portuguese raid was the capture of Ahmed Sékou Touré.
2.
Politics of Guinea
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Politics of Guinea takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Guinea is both head of state and head of government of Guinea. Executive power is exercised by the government, legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. A military dictatorship, led by then-Lt, col. Lansana Conté and styling itself the Military Committee of National Recovery, took control of Guinea in April 1984, shortly after the death of independent Guineas first president, Sékou Touré. The new government released all prisoners and committed itself to the protection of human rights. The CTRN drafted laws to create republican institutions and to provide for independent political parties, national elections, political party activity was legalized in 1992, when more than 40 political parties were officially recognized for the first time. In 1995, Contés ruling PUP party won 76 of 114 seats in elections for the National Assembly amid opposition claims of irregularities, according to Somparé, Conté hid his physical suffering for years in order to give happiness to Guinea. Conté had left the country for treatment on numerous occasions in the years preceding his death. At around the time, a newspaper published a photograph suggesting that Conté was in poor physical condition. The editor of newspaper was arrested and the newspaper was required to print a photograph in which Conté looked healthy. Somparé requested that the President of the Supreme Court, Lamine Sidimé, declare a vacancy in the Presidency, Prime Minister Souaré and Diarra Camara, the head of the army, stood alongside Somparé during his announcement. The government declared 40 days of mourning and Camara called on soldiers to remain calm. Six hours after Somparé announced Contés death, a statement was read on television announcing a military coup détat. This statement, read by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara on behalf of a group called National Council for Democracy, said that the government, the statement also announced the suspension of the constitution as well as political and union activity. In its place, the military said it had established a council composed of civilian. On 27 September 2009, the day before planned demonstrations in the capital city Conakry, thousands of protestors defied the ban, assembling in a soccer stadium. 157 were left dead after the level of violence used by security forces escalated, Captain Moussa Camara told Radio France International on 28 September the shootings by members of his presidential guard were beyond his control. Those people who committed those atrocities were uncontrollable elements in the military, even I, as head of state in this very tense situation, cannot claim to be able to control those elements in the military. On 3 December 2009 Captain Moussa Dadis Camara suffered a wound in an attempted assassination in Conakry led by his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Aboubacar Sidiki Diakité
Politics of Guinea
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Guinea
3.
Human rights in Guinea
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Human rights in Guinea, a nation of approximately 10,069,000 people in West Africa, are a contentious issue. In its 2012 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House named the country free for the second year in a row. Guinea gained its independence from France in 1958, alpha Condé won the 2010 presidential election and in December 2010 become the countrys first democratically elected president. The following chart shows Guineas ratings since 1972 in the Freedom in the World reports, a rating of 1 is free,7, not free.1 Amnesty International was claiming Guinea contained prisoners of conscience as early as their 1969 report. In 1968 over one hundred people were arrested, and 13 sentenced to the death penalty, included in those arrested were cabinet ministers and high-level military officers. Thousands had been arrested, including 22 Europeans, Germans, French and he and at least a thousand other political prisoners remained detained in 1977. The most notorious prison was Camp Boiro, which included amongst its prisoners Diallo Telli, in August and October 1977, however, the government fired upon a series of economic protests and killed an unknown number of women. They then began to round up those thought responsible, by 1978 reports were estimating the number of political prisoners had grown to 4000. In late 1978 President Sékou Touré proclaimed to journalists that all prisoners who had sentenced to execution at Boiro were now dead. He went on to explain that Amnesty International was trash, by 1979 reports were claiming fewer than 20 of the original arrestees were still being held at Boiro. Hundreds who had been arrested never reappeared, however, and some put the number dead at over 4000. People continued to be killed at Boiro through what was known as the black diet – a complete lack of food, the Guinean government also reached agreements with the governments of Liberia and Côte dIvoire to forcibly repatriate expatriates involved in opposition activity. Reports of detainment and beatings upon their arrival leaked to the outside world, in September 1982, Touré held a news conference proudly proclaiming that there were no more political prisoners being held in the country. He could not explain the fate of approximately 2900 people arrested since 1969 who remained unaccounted for, reports of the number of prisoners at Boiro continued to range from several hundred to thousands. Torture methods reportedly used at the prison included bondage, forced burning with cigarettes, after Tourés death in March 1984, major political changes were afoot. Camp Boiro was closed and all political prisoners immediately released, following the death of a criminal suspect in police custody in September 1984, protests erupted in Kamsar and 200 people were arrested. A coup détat was announced six hours following Contés death on 22 December 2008, on 27 September 2009, the day before planned demonstrations Conakry, the government declared demonstrations illegal. Thousands of protestors defied the ban, assembling in a soccer stadium,157 were left dead after the level of violence used by security forces escalated
Human rights in Guinea
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Loffo Camara, a former cabinet minister who was shot on 25 January 1971.
Human rights in Guinea
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Despite president
Alpha Condé 's assertion that the death penalty does not exist in Guinea, sixteen people were given that sentence in 2011.
4.
National Assembly (Guinea)
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The unicameral Assemblée nationale or National Assembly is Guineas legislative body. The number of seats has also fluctuated and it is currently at 114, with members selected by two different methods. Members must be over 25 years old and serve five-year terms, the President of the National Assembly of Guinea is the presiding officer of the legislature. Claude Kory Kondiano has been President of the National Assembly since January 2014 and it ordinarily meets in two annual sessions, beginning 5 April and 5 October and lasting no more than 90 days. Special sessions can be called by either the President of Guinea or a majority of the Assembly members, the National Assembly has its headquarters in the Palais du Peuple, which was built with Chinese assistance. Guinea was a one-party state, so the legal party. The Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally once again secured all of the then-75 seats, with no other parties legally allowed, the Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally took all now-150 seats, and Touré was reelected president unopposed. Members were elected for seven-year terms, the Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally secured all now-210 seats as the only party, with Touré retaining the presidency. The election was scheduled for April 2000, as the five-year terms of office expired. The 30 June 2002 election was won by President Contés Unity and Progress Party, elections were held on 28 September 2013. Alpha Condés party, the Rally of the Guinean People, won the most seats,53, list of political parties in Guinea Politics of Guinea
National Assembly (Guinea)
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National Assembly Assemblée nationale
5.
Administrative divisions of Guinea
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The national capital, Conakry, ranks as a special zone. The capital Conakry with a population of 1,660,973 ranks as a special zone Guineas regions are subdivided into thirty-three prefectures, the Communes of Guinea or sub prefectures, known in French as sous-prefectures, are the third-level administrative divisions in Guinea. As of 2009 there were 303 rural communes of Guinea and 38 urban communes,5 of which compose the Conakry greater urban area
Administrative divisions of Guinea
Administrative divisions of Guinea
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Regions of Guinea.
6.
Elections in Guinea
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Guinea elects on national level a head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a term by the people through a two-round system. The National Assembly has 114 members, elected for terms,38 members in single-seat constituencies and 76 members by proportional representation. Voters must be at least 18 years old and Guinean citizens in full possession of civil, candidates must be at 18, either Guinean by citizenship or naturalized and resident in the country for at least 10 years. After Tourés death in 1984, Colonels Lansana Conté and Diarra Traoré seized power in a bloodless coup détat, in December 1990, a new constitution created a unicameral Parliament. In April 1992, legislation was passed making Guinea a multi-party state, the following year, Conté announced a return to civilian rule, with Guineas first multi-party presidential election taking place in 1993, followed by a legislative election in 1995. Conté remained president, with 51. 7% of the vote, while his Party of Unity and Progress won 71 of the 114 seats in the Assembly. He was re-elected president in 1998, with 56. 1% of the vote and his party also won 85 seats in the Assembly in 2002, with some opposition parties choosing to boycott. Shortly after Contés death in December 2008, Moussa Dadis Camara seized power, in December 2009, Camara was shot in the head in an assassination attempt and left the country to obtain medical care. The following month, Camara agreed to a return to civilian rule, condé finally emerged victorious, with 52. 54% of the ballots. His Guinean Peoples Assembly party took 53 of the 114 Assembly seats in the repeatedly delayed 2013 election and he himself was re-elected in 2015. The Independent National Electoral Commission is the commission in Guinea. The body was established in November 2007, list of political parties in Guinea Adam Carrs Election Archive African Elections Database
Elections in Guinea
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Guinea
7.
Guinean presidential election, 2010
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A presidential election was held in Guinea in 2010. It was held under the system, the first round took place on 27 June 2010. Alpha Condé was declared the winner, with 52. 52% of the votes in the second round and he assumed office on 21 December 2010. The election came after a coup in 2008 and the assassination of the junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara in December 2009. There were months of tension and unrest during the electoral process, the election was the first free national election held in Guinea since it gained independence in 1958. The election was scheduled to be held on 13 December 2009 following the 2008 Guinean coup détat. Civilian and political groups proposed to them in December after legislative elections in October 2009. The government agreed in late March 2009 to set the date for 13 and 27 December. While junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara had initially stated he would not run in the election, he declared on 16 April 2009 that he, on 10 May 2009, however, he stated again that neither he nor any of the other officers involved would stand in the election. Despite this vow, supporters of Camara held a rally in August 2009 to call for him to take off his uniform, the United States felt that he had to abstain from running to ensure a free and fair election. The election was seen as a chance to change decades of authoritarian rule following independence, as well as to bring stability and this was also the first democratic election since independence in 1958. Twenty-four candidates were approved to run in the election, among four former prime ministers. However, Diallo gained the support of Touré, who came third, Condé then also gained the support of fourth-placed Lansana Kouyaté. As had been expected by observers, the run-off was delayed from 18 July to a later date, the second round was then set for 14 August 2010. On 9 August, less than a week before the runoff was to take place, on 10 September, the president of the National Independent Electoral Commission, Ben Sekou Sylla, and another official were convicted of vote-tampering during the first round of voting. The two were sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of two million Guinea francs each for electoral fraud. Sylla died in a Paris hospital on 14 September following an illness. Boubacar Diallo, the director of planning, said It is highly improbable that the election will be held this Sunday
Guinean presidential election, 2010
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Nominee
Guinean presidential election, 2010
8.
Guinean presidential election, 2015
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Presidential elections were held in Guinea on 11 October 2015. The result was a victory for incumbent President Alpha Condé. At the time of the elections the worst of the epidemic was over, the seven opposition parties called for a postponement, citing alleged irregularities in the electoral roll, but their pleas were rejected by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Cellou Dalein Diallo of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea also petitioned the Supreme Court of Guinea to have the election postponed, but it was rejected. The elections were using the two-round system, with a second round taking place if no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in the first round. Presidents are limited to two terms in office, allowing incumbent president Alpha Condé to run for a second term, during the campaign Condé told voters that he aimed to promote development and consolidate stability. Diallo promised to give priority to youth employment, as well as access to care, decent housing, water, electricity, safety. His campaign slogan promised to deliver a KO blow to his opponents and he cited his record on overhauling the army and judiciary, the completion of a hydroelectric dam and reforms in making the mineral-rich countrys mining contracts more transparent. He said in an interview, Ask the people of Guinea if what we have done in five years and his campaign was said to benefit from improving supply of electricity in Conakry and the relative stability the country endured despite the Ebola epidemic. Diallo called on voters to make their voices heard following the rejection of his plea for a delay of the imperfect process and we will vote, defend our suffrage, defend our victory because there is no way we will let our victory be stolen. Prior to the vote, all seven opponents of the incumbent said they would challenge the outcome, a joint statement read, The seven candidates will not recognise the results which will be made following an election with anomalies and irregularities. Violence during the campaign, including clashes between supporters of Condé and Diallo in Koundara, led to the deaths of at least three people. A curfew was put in place in Nzérékoré after one person was killed, united Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon then called for the vote to be conducted in a peaceful and transparent manner. Around 19,000 police and members of the security services were on duty, Condé also declared that over 90% of voter cards had been distributed. Monitors included an African Union observer mission and a 72-member European Union delegation, the EU delegation cited “massive deficiencies” ahead of polling, however, in its post-election report it concluded that the process overall was “valid”. After CENI head Bakary Fofana announced there would be no run-off, Diallo and Touré alleged fraud and he urged supporters of Condé to stay calm, avoid gloating and get ready to face the numerous challenges that await us. Final results were announced by the Constitutional Court on 31 October 2015, Condé was credited with 57. 84% of the vote and Diallo with 31. 45%. Condé was accordingly declared to be re-elected, with his term to begin on 21 December
Guinean presidential election, 2015
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Nominee
Guinean presidential election, 2015
9.
Guinean legislative election, 2002
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A parliamentary election was held in Guinea on 30 June 2002 after several postponements, over two years after it was originally scheduled to be held. It was won by President Lansana Contés Unity and Progress Party, radical opposition parties, including the Guinean Peoples Rally and the Union of Forces for the Republic, chose to boycott the election, believing that it would be a farce. There were 4,458,871 registered voters at the time of the election, the PUP won all of the 38 seats that were decided in single-member constituencies, as well as another 47 seats through proportional representation. In addition to the 85 seats won by the PUP, the Democratic Party of Guinea and the National Alliance for Progress, the opposition Union for the Progress of Guinea disputed the results and refused to take up the three seats that it won in the election
Guinean legislative election, 2002
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Guinea
10.
Guinean legislative election, 2013
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Legislative elections were held in Guinea on 28 September 2013 after numerous delays and postponements. President Alpha Condés party, the Rally of the Guinean People, won a plurality of seats in the National Assembly of Guinea, the opposition parties won a total of 53 seats, and opposition leaders denounced the official results as fraudulent. A date for the election in November or December 2008 has been proposed, on 11 October 2007, Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté expressed regret regarding slowness in the organization of the election and said that it would be difficult to hold the election by December. Political parties had difficulty reaching an agreement on how members should be on CENI. CENI was established in November 2007, on 12 February 2008, an ad hoc commission responsible for determining a timetable for the election proposed that it be held between 23 November and 14 December 2008. This report expressed concern that a delay might compromise economic revival, CENI President Chiekh Fantamady Condé said that he was convinced that the election would be held in 2008, however. Ben Sékou Sylla, the President of CENI, announced on 20 October 2008 and he cited difficulties with biometric voter registration, as well as a delay in setting up structures to register voters and supervise the elections and a delay in funding. Touré warned against any further delay, saying that it would lead to further despair, sekou Konate, the Secretary-General of the governing Party of Unity and Progress, reacted positively to the delay, People prefer a delay much more than having war straight away. If we do not have an electoral roll, we risk having things go wrong. According to Konate, holding the election together with the 2009 local elections or the 2010 presidential election was out of the question. On 19 December 2008, it was announced that the election would be held on 31 May 2009, after the military coup détat in December 2008, civilian and political groups proposed to hold them in November 2009, before presidential elections in December 2009. The government set them for 11 October 2009 in late March 2009, the election was then again delayed until 16 March 2010. Following a political agreement and the 2010 presidential election, the election was delayed again. In September 2011, the date was announced as 29 December 2011. But in early December it was postponed again for security reasons, in April 2012, the election was postponed indefinitely by Guinea President Alpha Condé. After a reshuffle in the Electoral Commission, the election was announced to be planned for 12 May 2013 and they were later delayed to 30 June and then to 28 July. The date was moved again in early July, to 24 September, on 21 September, the UN mediator for Guinea announced a further delay to 28 September following talks between the parties, and the opposition cancelled their scheduled protests. In preparation for registration that is needed for the revision of the voter rolls
Guinean legislative election, 2013
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All 114 seats to the
National Assembly
Guinean legislative election, 2013
11.
Foreign relations of Guinea
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The foreign relations of Guinea, including those with its West African neighbors, have improved steadily since 1985. Guinea re-established relations with France and West Germany in 1975, and with neighboring Ivory Coast, Guinea has been active in efforts toward regional integration and cooperation, especially regarding the Organisation of African Unity and the Economic Community of West African States. Guinea participates actively in the deliberations and decisions of a variety of international organizations, Guinea has offered asylum to over 700,000 Liberian, Sierra Leonean, and Bissauan refugees since 1990, despite the economic and environmental costs involved. Guinea is also a member of the International Criminal Court with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection for the United States military, the order was made by a presidential decree on state television and was the first major diplomatic move made by the new leader. The Guinean representatives to the European Union, the United Nations, no reason was stated for the recall. In late March 2009, the Guinean ambassador to Serbia faced expulsion for personal involvement in cigarette smuggling, the Peoples Republic of China and the Republic of Guinea established diplomatic relations on October 14,1959. Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Guinea were established on 28 August 2006, the number of South Koreans living in Guinea in 2011 was 70. Diplomatic relations between Guinea and Israel were discontinued in 1967, Guinea became the first French African colony to gain independence, on 2 October 1958, at the cost of the immediate cessation of all French assistance. After a temporary due to nationwide political unrest in early 2007. Prior to the suspension, Peace Corps had more than 100 volunteers throughout the country, volunteers work in four project areas, secondary education, environment/agro-forestry, public health and HIV/AIDS prevention, and small enterprise development. Guinea has also had a strong Crisis Corps program through the last few years and this article incorporates public domain material from the United States Department of State website http, //www. state. gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/index. htm. List of diplomatic missions in Guinea List of diplomatic missions of Guinea
Foreign relations of Guinea
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Guinea
12.
List of diplomatic missions of Guinea
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This is a list of diplomatic missions of Guinea, excluding honorary consulates. Guineas relations with countries, including with West African neighbors, have improved steadily since 1985. Guinea reestablished relations with France and Germany in 1975, and with neighboring Côte dIvoire, Guinea has been active in efforts toward regional integration and cooperation, especially regarding the Organisation of African Unity and the Economic Organization of West African States. Guinea takes its role in a variety of international organizations seriously and participates actively in their deliberations and decisions
List of diplomatic missions of Guinea
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Embassy of Guinea in Pretoria
List of diplomatic missions of Guinea
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Embassy of Guinea in Ottawa
List of diplomatic missions of Guinea
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Embassy of Guinea in Washington, DC
List of diplomatic missions of Guinea
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Embassy of Guinea in Paris
13.
Military of Guinea
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The Republic of Guinea Armed Forces are the armed forces of Guinea. They are responsible for the security of Guineas border and the defence of the country against external attack. In addition, regime security forces include the National Police Force, the Gendarmerie, responsible for internal security, has a strength of several thousand, and is armed with military equipment. It is aided by the Republican Guard, which provides protection for government officials, upon independence in 1958, France cut all ties and immediately began to repatriate Guinean soldiers serving in the French Army. Of the about 22,000 Guinean soldiers in French service, the other 12,000 were demobilised and returned to Guinea. By the end of January 1959 the new army had reached a strength of around 2,000 officers and soldiers and this followed military dissatisfaction over the creation of a PDG control element in each army unit. Later the alleged Fula connection was dropped, the accusations widened to other groups, after the plot, the army was regarded by the government as a centre of potential subversion, and the militia was developed as a counterforce to any military threat to the government. The army resisted the Portuguese invasion of Guinea in November 1970, purges that followed the 1970 invasion decimated the upper ranks of the army, with eight officers sentenced to death and 900 officers and men who had reached a certain age retired from active duty. General Noumandian Keita, chief of the Combined Arms General Staff, was convicted and replaced by the chief of staff, Namory Kieta. In March 1971 elements of the military were deployed to Freetown in Sierra Leone after the Sierra Leonean President, Stevens, Stevens visited Conakry on 19 March 1971, and soon afterwards, around 200 Guinean soldiers were despatched to Freetown. Two Guinean MiGs made a low flyover of Freetown and Touré placed the Guinean military on alert because of the serious troubles affecting the peoples of Sierra Leone. The force, also reported as numbering 300, protected Stevens, though it was reduced to 100 and then to fifty. The last Guinean troops were withdrawn in 1974, in early 1975 the Guinean military consisted of an army of around 5,000, an air force of 300, and a naval component of around 200. The army comprised four battalions, one armoured battalion. In the early 1970s the armed forces were organised into four military zones, one of the four infantry battalions was assigned to each of the military zones. The engineer battalion had companies in Conakry, Kankan, and Boké, increasing mistrust of the regular armed forces after the Labé plot led to the militia assuming greater importance. Units of volunteers, formed in response to call, assumed limited policing functions. Following government praise for these efforts, the militias role expanded, especially as black-market activity
Military of Guinea
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A Guinean soldier translates for other soldiers during a joint U.S.-Guinean exercise, 2005.
Military of Guinea
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Guinea Military emblem
14.
National Council for Democracy and Development
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The National Council for Democracy and Development were the ruling junta of Guinea from 2008 to 2010. The CNDD seized power in the 2008 Guinean coup détat on 23 December 2008 and this followed the death of the previous long-serving President, Lansana Conté. On 5 May 2009 the government recalled thirty of the countrys overseas ambassadors - about three quarters of the nations total, no reason was given for the decision
National Council for Democracy and Development
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Guinea
15.
Moussa Dadis Camara
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He has been out of office since the assassination attempt on him on 3 December 2009. Moussa Dadis Camara was born in 1964 in the town of Koulé, Nzérékoré Prefecture, in the Guinée Forestière region of southeastern Guinea, near the border with Côte dIvoire. He is a member of the Kpelle ethnic group, Dadis attended primary and secondary school in Nzérékoré, about 24 miles away from his birth-town of Koulé. He studied law and economics at Abdel Nasser University in the capital and he is a Roman Catholic Christian convert from Islam. Dadis speaks five languages, French, Kpelle, Susu, Maninka and he joined the Army of Guinea in 1990 as a corporal and was later appointed as the Chief of Fuels at the Guinean army base in Kindia, about 60 miles northeast of Conakry. From 2001 to 2002, Dadis was sent to Sierra Leone as a member of the United Nations peacekeeping troops, in 2004, President Conté sent Dadis, along with several other Guinean soldiers, to Bremen, Germany, for 18 months’ military training. In November 2008, he was named head of the Guinean armys fuel supplies unit and he was one of the leading mutineers in the 2008 Guinean military unrest. Prior to the December 2008 coup, he was not well known by the general population, in the early hours of 23 December 2008, Aboubacar Somparé, the President of the National Assembly, announced on television that Conté had died because of illness on 22 December. Six hours after Somparé announced Contés death, a statement was read on television announcing a military coup détat and this statement, read by Captain Camara on behalf of the CNDD, said that the government and the institutions of the Republic have been dissolved. The statement also announced the suspension of the constitution as well as political, Guinean national radio began playing the song Armée Guinéenne repeatedly. The National Council for Democracy and Development would, according to Camara, a statement was read over the radio on 24 December 2008, announcing that Captain Camara was the President of the CNDD. Later in the day, Camara and thousands of soldiers loyal to him paraded through the city, according to Camara, he came to see if the terrain is favorable to us, declaring that the large crowds indicated that the people were indeed supportive of the coup. This contradicted a statement which promised an election within the constitutionally mandated period of 60 days. Speaking on the radio on 25 December, Camara said that he did not plan to run for president at the end of the transitional period. He also declared that the CNDD was not susceptible to bribes, according to Camara, people had start to show up with bags of money to try to corrupt us. They’ve tried to give money to our wives and cars to our children and he warned that he would personally go after anyone that tries to corrupt us. The Associated Press reported that Camaras tenureship was quickly challenged by soldiers of Sekouba Konate, Camara, Konate, and a third unknown officer then drew lots, twice, to determine who would lead, with Camara winning both times. On 25 December 2008, the Prime Minister under the previous régime, Ahmed Tidiane Souaré, pledged loyalty to Camara, on 22 March 2009, Souaré was arrested and held in a military prison, along with two Mines Ministers
Moussa Dadis Camara
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Moussa Dadis Camara
16.
Speaker (politics)
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The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer. The title was first used in 1399 in England, the speakers official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the powers to members who break the procedures of the chamber or house. The speaker often also represents the body in person, as the voice of the body in ceremonial, the title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerford in the Parliament of England. By convention, speakers are normally addressed in Parliament as Mister Speaker, if a man, or Madam Speaker, in other cultures other styles are used, mainly being equivalents of English chairman or president. Many bodies also have a pro tempore, designated to fill in when the speaker is not available. The Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives is the officer of the Australian House of Representatives. The President of the Australian Senate is the officer of the Australian Senate. Now constitutional community highlights changes also in this role, in Canada, the Speaker of the House of Commons is the individual elected to preside over the House of Commons, the elected lower house. The speaker is a Member of Parliament and is elected at the beginning of new parliament by fellow MPs. The Speakers role in presiding over Canadas House of Commons is similar to that of speakers elsewhere in countries that use the Westminster system. The Speaker does not vote except in the case of a tie, by convention, if required to vote, the Speaker will vote in favour of continuing debate on a matter, but will not ultimately vote for a measure to be approved. The Speaker of the Senate of Canada is the officer of the Senate of Canada. The Speaker represents the Senate at official functions, rules on questions of procedure and parliamentary privilege. The Speaker of the Senate is appointed by the Governor General of Canada from amongst sitting senators upon the advice of the Prime Minister, the Speaker has a vote on all matters. In the event of a tie, the matter fails, at the provincial level, the presiding officer of the provincial legislatures is called the Speaker in all provinces except Quebec, where the term President is used. The presiding officer fulfills the role as the Speaker of the House of Commons. In the United Kingdom, the Speaker of the House of Commons is the elected to preside over the elected House of Commons
Speaker (politics)
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Marshal's chair in the
Sejm, lower chamber of the
Polish Parliament
Speaker (politics)
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Parliament of Albania
Speaker (politics)
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Palace of the
Croatian parliament
17.
National Assembly of Guinea
–
The unicameral Assemblée nationale or National Assembly is Guineas legislative body. The number of seats has also fluctuated and it is currently at 114, with members selected by two different methods. Members must be over 25 years old and serve five-year terms, the President of the National Assembly of Guinea is the presiding officer of the legislature. Claude Kory Kondiano has been President of the National Assembly since January 2014 and it ordinarily meets in two annual sessions, beginning 5 April and 5 October and lasting no more than 90 days. Special sessions can be called by either the President of Guinea or a majority of the Assembly members, the National Assembly has its headquarters in the Palais du Peuple, which was built with Chinese assistance. Guinea was a one-party state, so the legal party. The Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally once again secured all of the then-75 seats, with no other parties legally allowed, the Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally took all now-150 seats, and Touré was reelected president unopposed. Members were elected for seven-year terms, the Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally secured all now-210 seats as the only party, with Touré retaining the presidency. The election was scheduled for April 2000, as the five-year terms of office expired. The 30 June 2002 election was won by President Contés Unity and Progress Party, elections were held on 28 September 2013. Alpha Condés party, the Rally of the Guinean People, won the most seats,53, list of political parties in Guinea Politics of Guinea
National Assembly of Guinea
–
National Assembly Assemblée nationale
18.
Radio France Internationale
–
Radio France Internationale generally referred to by its acronym RFI, is a French public radio service that broadcasts in Paris and all over the world. With 35.6 million listeners in 2008, it is one of the most listened to radio stations in the world, along with BBC World Service, Voice of America. RFI broadcasts 24 hours per day across the world in French and in 12 other languages in FM, shortwave, medium wave, cable, on Worldspace and it is a channel of the state company, France Médias Monde. In 1986 the French Parliament changed the law to allow RFI to operate independently of Radio France, RFI operates under the auspices and primary budget of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. It broadcasts primarily in French, but also in English, Swahili, Hausa, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Persian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian and as of 2015, Manding. It also owns Monte Carlo Doualiya, which produces Arabic programmes in Paris, one of the largest foreign language services is the English Service, aimed mainly at Africa, but can also be heard in Jamaica. RFI broadcasts for four hours every morning, all of RFIs English broadcasts are available online and for download on the English service website. On September 17,2002, Togolese President Gnassingbé Eyadéma tried to stop the broadcasting of an interview one of his opponents, Agbéyomé Kodjo. The interview was not censored by Jean-Paul Cluzel, RFIs CEO at the time, on 21 October 2003, Jean Hélène was reporting for RFI during the civil war in Ivory Coast when he was killed in Abidjan by police Sergeant Théodore Séry Dago. On 2 November 2013, RFI reporting team Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were murdered while covering the Mali elections, the United Nations set their death date to commemorate the International Day of Impunity each year. RFI offers a daily podcast in simple French, accessible via iTunes, there are also several other podcasts including the weekly Afrique Presse which is hosted by Assane Diop and discusses the most important news in Africa that week. RFI uses 2 domestic shortwave relay stations in France, and one shortwave station in French Guyana. All the stations are owned and operated by the French telecom entity TDF, all RFI transmitters are fairly universally 500 kW, but some 250 kW are used in French Guyana. The technology used by Frances domestic SW relay stations is ALLISS at Issoudun, the TDF relay station in French Guyana uses standard HRS type antennas. ALLISS is an antenna system for high power shortwave radio broadcasting
Radio France Internationale
–
Radio France internationale
19.
Conakry
–
Conakry is the capital and largest city of Guinea. Conakry is a city on the Atlantic Ocean and serves as the economic. Its population as of the 2014 Guinea census was 1,660,973 Originally situated on Tombo Island, one of the Îles de Los, it has since spread up the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula. The current population of Conakry is difficult to ascertain, although the U. S. Bureau of African Affairs has estimated it at 2 million, Conakry is thought to contain almost a quarter of the population of Guinea. Conakry was originally settled on the small Tombo Island and later spread to the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula, the city was essentially founded after Britain ceded the island to France in 1887. In 1885 the two villages of Conakry and Boubinet had fewer than 500 inhabitants. In the decades after independence, the population of Conakry boomed, from 50,000 inhabitants in 1958 to 600,000 in 1980, to over two million today. Its small land area and relative isolation from the mainland, while an advantage to its founders, has created an infrastructural burden since independence. Camp Boiro, a concentration camp during the rule of Sekou Toure, was located in Conakry. According to human groups,157 people died during the 2009 Guinea protest when the military junta opened fire against tens of thousands of protesters in the city on 28 September 2009. Conakry is a city with a single region and prefecture government. The local government of the city was decentralized in 1991 between five municipal communes headed by a mayor, the five urban communes make up the Conakry Region, one of the eight Regions of Guinea, which is headed by a governor. At the second-tier prefecture level, the city is designated as the Conakry Special Zone, though the prefecture and regional government are one, Conakry is Guineas largest city and its administrative, communications, and economic centre. The citys economy revolves largely around the port, which has facilities for handling and storing cargo, through which alumina. Manufactures include food products and housing materials, periodic power and water cuts have been a daily burden for Conakrys residents since early 2002. Critics of the government cite mis-management, corruption and the withdrawal of the power agencys French partner at the beginning of 2002, as of 2007, much of the city has no traffic lighting in the overnight hours. Violence reached a peak in January–February 2007 in a general strike, Conakry is serviced by Conakry International Airport which has flights to several cities in West Africa and Europe. According to Köppen climate classification, Conakry features a tropical monsoon climate, Conakry features a wet season and a dry season
Conakry
–
Conakry, Guinea
Conakry
–
Central Conakry, 2013.
Conakry
–
A street scene in Conakry.
20.
BBC
–
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, the BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own. Thus the BBC was granted sufficient leeway to pursue the Governments objectives largely in a manner of its own choosing, supporters of the strike nicknamed the BBC the BFC for British Falsehood Company. Reith personally announced the end of the strike which he marked by reciting from Blakes Jerusalem signifying that England had been saved, Reith argued that trust gained by authentic impartial news could then be used
BBC
–
BBC Television Centre at
White City, West London, which opened in 1960 and closed in 2013
BBC
–
BBC Pacific Quay in
Glasgow, which was opened in 2007
BBC
–
BBC New Broadcasting House, London which came into use during 2012–13.
BBC
–
The headquarters of the BBC at
Broadcasting House in
Portland Place, London, England. This section of the building is called 'Old Broadcasting House'.
21.
Cellou Dalein Diallo
–
Cellou Dalein Diallo is a Guinean economist and politician who was Prime Minister of Guinea from 2004 to 2006. Previously he held a succession of posts in the government from 1996 to 2004. Currently he is President of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, Diallo, a member of the Fula ethnic group, was born in Labé. He studied at the University of Conakry and the Center for Financial, Economic and Banking Studies in Paris and he began working at the Bank of Foreign Trade of Guinea in 1982, and from 1985 to 1995 he worked at the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea. After briefly working at the Administration and Control of Great Projects, Diallo joined the government in July 1996 as Minister of Transport, Telecommunications and Tourism. He was subsequently moved to the position of Minister of Infrastructure in October 1997, Diallo served for five years as Minister of Public Works and Transport before being moved to the position of Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture on 23 February 2004. On 9 December 2004, Diallo was appointed as Prime Minister by President Lansana Conté, the position of Prime Minister had previously been vacant since April 2004 due to the resignation of François Lonseny Fall. Diallo took office as Prime Minister on 13 December, diallo—who speaks English in addition to French—played a role in the Conté regime. On 4 April 2006, changes to the government which would have greatly increased Diallos power were announced. The decree approving the changes was said to be signed by President Conté, a radio broadcast announcing the changes was interrupted by soldiers, which was said to be because Fodé Bangoura had not been notified in advance. On the next day, it was announced that Diallos changes were reversed, on 8 November 2007, an opposition political party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, announced that it had appointed Diallo as its president, succeeding Mamadou Ba. Following the appointment of Ahmed Tidiane Souaré as prime minister, Diallo was present, along with other former ministers, on 28 May, he was one of the party leaders who met with Souaré to discuss the formation of a national unity government. Conté died in December 2008 and soldiers immediately seized power in a military coup détat, about 20 soldiers searched Diallos home on 1 January 2009, while holding Diallo and his family at gunpoint. According to Diallo, the search was based on suspicions that Diallo might have weapons and mercenaries as part of a coup plot, but he said that the soldiers did not take anything from his home. A junta delegation met with Diallo on 2 January and condemned the search, saying that uncontrollable elements out to hurt the junta were to blame and that the junta had nothing to do with it. Diallo tried to hold a meeting in Kerouane in June 2009, require the administrations neutrality and impartiality. After spending time in France and Senegal, he returned to Conakry on 13 September 2009 and was greeted at the airport by about 60,000 supporters. On 28 September 2009, Diallo participated in an opposition protest in Conakry
Cellou Dalein Diallo
–
Cellou Dalein Diallo
22.
Guinean parliamentary election, 2009
–
Legislative elections were held in Guinea on 28 September 2013 after numerous delays and postponements. President Alpha Condés party, the Rally of the Guinean People, won a plurality of seats in the National Assembly of Guinea, the opposition parties won a total of 53 seats, and opposition leaders denounced the official results as fraudulent. A date for the election in November or December 2008 has been proposed, on 11 October 2007, Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté expressed regret regarding slowness in the organization of the election and said that it would be difficult to hold the election by December. Political parties had difficulty reaching an agreement on how members should be on CENI. CENI was established in November 2007, on 12 February 2008, an ad hoc commission responsible for determining a timetable for the election proposed that it be held between 23 November and 14 December 2008. This report expressed concern that a delay might compromise economic revival, CENI President Chiekh Fantamady Condé said that he was convinced that the election would be held in 2008, however. Ben Sékou Sylla, the President of CENI, announced on 20 October 2008 and he cited difficulties with biometric voter registration, as well as a delay in setting up structures to register voters and supervise the elections and a delay in funding. Touré warned against any further delay, saying that it would lead to further despair, sekou Konate, the Secretary-General of the governing Party of Unity and Progress, reacted positively to the delay, People prefer a delay much more than having war straight away. If we do not have an electoral roll, we risk having things go wrong. According to Konate, holding the election together with the 2009 local elections or the 2010 presidential election was out of the question. On 19 December 2008, it was announced that the election would be held on 31 May 2009, after the military coup détat in December 2008, civilian and political groups proposed to hold them in November 2009, before presidential elections in December 2009. The government set them for 11 October 2009 in late March 2009, the election was then again delayed until 16 March 2010. Following a political agreement and the 2010 presidential election, the election was delayed again. In September 2011, the date was announced as 29 December 2011. But in early December it was postponed again for security reasons, in April 2012, the election was postponed indefinitely by Guinea President Alpha Condé. After a reshuffle in the Electoral Commission, the election was announced to be planned for 12 May 2013 and they were later delayed to 30 June and then to 28 July. The date was moved again in early July, to 24 September, on 21 September, the UN mediator for Guinea announced a further delay to 28 September following talks between the parties, and the opposition cancelled their scheduled protests. In preparation for registration that is needed for the revision of the voter rolls
Guinean parliamentary election, 2009
–
All 114 seats to the
National Assembly
Guinean parliamentary election, 2009
23.
Agence France-Presse
–
Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1944, AFP is the third largest news agency in the world, after the Associated Press, journalists of the French Resistance established the AFP in the headquarters of the former Office Français dInformation, a Vichy news agency, following the liberation of Paris. Currently, the CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and the News Director is Michèle Léridon, AFP has regional offices in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong, and Washington, D. C. and bureaux in 150 countries. AFP transmits news in French, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, the Agence Havas was founded in 1835 by a Parisian translator and advertising agent, Charles-Louis Havas as Agence Havas. Two of his employees, Paul Reuter and Bernhard Wolff, later set up rival news agencies in London and Berlin respectively and this arrangement lasted until the 1930s, when the invention of short-wave wireless improved and cut communications costs. To help Havas extend the scope of its reporting at a time of international tension. Established as an enterprise, AFP devoted the post-war years to developing its network of international correspondents. One of them was the first Western journalist to report the death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on March 6,1953, AFP was keen to shake off its semi-official status, and on January 10,1957 the French Parliament passed a law establishing its independence. Since that date, the proportion of the revenues generated by subscriptions from government departments has steadily declined. Such subscriptions represented 115 million Euros in 2011, in 1982, the agency began to decentralize its editorial decision-making by setting up the first of its five autonomous regional centres, in Hong Kong, then a British Crown colony. Each region has its own budget, administrative director and chief editor, in September 2007, the AFP Foundation was launched to promote higher standards of journalism worldwide. The Mitrokhin archive identified six agents and two confidential KGB contacts inside Agence France-Presse who were used in Soviet operations in France, in 1991, AFP set up a joint venture with Extel to create a financial news service, AFX News. It was sold in 2006 to Thomson Financial, in October 2008, the Government of France announced moves to change AFPs status, including the involvement of outside investors. On February 24,2010, Pierre Louette unexpectedly announced his intention to resign as CEO by the end of March, AFP is a government-chartered public corporation operating under a 1957 law, but is officially a commercial business independent of the French government. One is named by the minister, another by the minister of finance. The board elects the CEO for a term of three years. The AFP also has a council charged with ensuring that the agency operates according to its statutes, editorially, AFP is governed by a network of senior journalists. The primary client of AFP is the French government, which purchases subscriptions for its various services, in practice, those subscriptions are an indirect subsidy to AFP
Agence France-Presse
–
AFP headquarters in
Paris.
Agence France-Presse
–
Agence France-Presse
24.
SUV
–
A sport utility vehicle or suburban utility vehicle is a vehicle classified as a light truck, but operated as a family vehicle. They are similar to a station wagon or estate car. Some SUVs include the capacity of a pickup truck with the passenger-carrying space of a minivan or large sedan. Popular in the late-1990s and early–mid-2000s, SUVs sales temporarily declined due to oil prices. The traditional truck-based SUV is gradually being supplanted by the crossover SUV, by 2010, SUV sales around the world were growing, in spite of high gas prices. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a utility vehicle is a rugged automotive vehicle similar to a station wagon. The SUV term is defined as a vehicle that is designed to be used on rough surfaces. The SUV acronym is used to describe nearly anything with available all-wheel drive. There is no one definition for an SUV, Most government regulations simply have categories for off-highway vehicles, which in turn are lumped in with pickup trucks and minivans as light trucks. The auto industry has not settled on one definition, starting in 2004, the United States Environmental Protection Agency began to hold sport utility vehicles to the same tailpipe emissions standards as cars. Many people question how can an SUV be called a truck, for industry production statistics, SUVs are counted in the light truck product segment. Not all SUVs have four-wheel drive capabilities, and not all passenger vehicles are SUVs. While automakers tout an SUVs off-road prowess with advertising and naming, in India, all SUVs are classified in the Utility Vehicle category per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers definitions and carry a 27% excise tax. Those that are 4 metres long, have a 1,500 cc engine or larger, although designs vary, SUVs have historically been mid-size passenger vehicles with a body-on-frame chassis similar to that found on light trucks. Early SUVs were mostly two-door models, and were available with removable tops, however, consumer demand pushed the SUV market towards four doors, by 2002 all full-size two-door SUVs were gone from the market. Two-door SUVs were mostly carry-over models, and their sales were not viable enough to warrant a redesign at the end of their design cycle. The Jeep Wrangler remained as a compact two-door body style, although it was joined by a four-door variant starting with the 2007 model year. The number of two-door SUV models increased in the 2010s with the release of the Range Rover Evoque, Most SUVs are designed with an engine compartment, a combined passenger and cargo compartment, and no dedicated trunk such as in a station wagon body
SUV
–
The 1984-2001 Jeep Cherokee was among one of the first SUVs to be introduced
SUV
–
Jeep Cherokee: SUV trendsetter as designed by AMC
SUV
–
A
crash test by the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows the damage to a compact
Ford Focus struck by a
Ford Explorer SUV
SUV
–
SUVs such as the
Range Rover are sometimes referred to as "Toorak tractors" in Australia, referencing the affluent
Melbourne suburb of
Toorak
25.
Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
Egypt
–
The
Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the
ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Egypt
–
Flag
Egypt
–
The Greek Ptolemaic queen
Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar,
Caesarion at the
Temple of Dendera.
Egypt
–
The 1803
Cedid Atlas, showing
Ottoman Egypt.
26.
Guinean legislative election, 2009
–
Legislative elections were held in Guinea on 28 September 2013 after numerous delays and postponements. President Alpha Condés party, the Rally of the Guinean People, won a plurality of seats in the National Assembly of Guinea, the opposition parties won a total of 53 seats, and opposition leaders denounced the official results as fraudulent. A date for the election in November or December 2008 has been proposed, on 11 October 2007, Prime Minister Lansana Kouyaté expressed regret regarding slowness in the organization of the election and said that it would be difficult to hold the election by December. Political parties had difficulty reaching an agreement on how members should be on CENI. CENI was established in November 2007, on 12 February 2008, an ad hoc commission responsible for determining a timetable for the election proposed that it be held between 23 November and 14 December 2008. This report expressed concern that a delay might compromise economic revival, CENI President Chiekh Fantamady Condé said that he was convinced that the election would be held in 2008, however. Ben Sékou Sylla, the President of CENI, announced on 20 October 2008 and he cited difficulties with biometric voter registration, as well as a delay in setting up structures to register voters and supervise the elections and a delay in funding. Touré warned against any further delay, saying that it would lead to further despair, sekou Konate, the Secretary-General of the governing Party of Unity and Progress, reacted positively to the delay, People prefer a delay much more than having war straight away. If we do not have an electoral roll, we risk having things go wrong. According to Konate, holding the election together with the 2009 local elections or the 2010 presidential election was out of the question. On 19 December 2008, it was announced that the election would be held on 31 May 2009, after the military coup détat in December 2008, civilian and political groups proposed to hold them in November 2009, before presidential elections in December 2009. The government set them for 11 October 2009 in late March 2009, the election was then again delayed until 16 March 2010. Following a political agreement and the 2010 presidential election, the election was delayed again. In September 2011, the date was announced as 29 December 2011. But in early December it was postponed again for security reasons, in April 2012, the election was postponed indefinitely by Guinea President Alpha Condé. After a reshuffle in the Electoral Commission, the election was announced to be planned for 12 May 2013 and they were later delayed to 30 June and then to 28 July. The date was moved again in early July, to 24 September, on 21 September, the UN mediator for Guinea announced a further delay to 28 September following talks between the parties, and the opposition cancelled their scheduled protests. In preparation for registration that is needed for the revision of the voter rolls
Guinean legislative election, 2009
–
All 114 seats to the
National Assembly
Guinean legislative election, 2009
27.
Guinean presidential election, 2009
–
A presidential election was held in Guinea in 2010. It was held under the system, the first round took place on 27 June 2010. Alpha Condé was declared the winner, with 52. 52% of the votes in the second round and he assumed office on 21 December 2010. The election came after a coup in 2008 and the assassination of the junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara in December 2009. There were months of tension and unrest during the electoral process, the election was the first free national election held in Guinea since it gained independence in 1958. The election was scheduled to be held on 13 December 2009 following the 2008 Guinean coup détat. Civilian and political groups proposed to them in December after legislative elections in October 2009. The government agreed in late March 2009 to set the date for 13 and 27 December. While junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara had initially stated he would not run in the election, he declared on 16 April 2009 that he, on 10 May 2009, however, he stated again that neither he nor any of the other officers involved would stand in the election. Despite this vow, supporters of Camara held a rally in August 2009 to call for him to take off his uniform, the United States felt that he had to abstain from running to ensure a free and fair election. The election was seen as a chance to change decades of authoritarian rule following independence, as well as to bring stability and this was also the first democratic election since independence in 1958. Twenty-four candidates were approved to run in the election, among four former prime ministers. However, Diallo gained the support of Touré, who came third, Condé then also gained the support of fourth-placed Lansana Kouyaté. As had been expected by observers, the run-off was delayed from 18 July to a later date, the second round was then set for 14 August 2010. On 9 August, less than a week before the runoff was to take place, on 10 September, the president of the National Independent Electoral Commission, Ben Sekou Sylla, and another official were convicted of vote-tampering during the first round of voting. The two were sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of two million Guinea francs each for electoral fraud. Sylla died in a Paris hospital on 14 September following an illness. Boubacar Diallo, the director of planning, said It is highly improbable that the election will be held this Sunday
Guinean presidential election, 2009
–
Nominee
Guinean presidential election, 2009
28.
African Union
–
The African Union is a continental union consisting of all 55 countries on the African continent. It was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AUs secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, the objectives of the AU are, To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and Africans. To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States, to accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent. To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent, to encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent, to promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance. To promote and protect human and peoples rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, to establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations. To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies, to promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples. To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities for the attainment of the objectives of the Union. To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, in particular in science, to work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and the promotion of good health on the continent. The African Union is made up of political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, the Assembly is chaired by Idriss Déby, President of Chad. The AU also has a body, the Pan African Parliament. Its president is Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi, the AU Commission, the secretariat to the political structures, is chaired by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa. On 15 July 2012, Ms. Dlamini-Zuma won a contested vote to become the first female head of the African Union Commission. The main administrative capital of the African Union is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a new headquarters complex, the AU Conference Center and Office Complex, was inaugurated on 28 January 2012, during the 18th AU summit. The tower is 99.9 meters high to signify the date 9 September 1999, the AU covers the entire continent except for several territories held by Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. AU troops were deployed in Sudan for peacekeeping during Darfur conflict
African Union
–
The African Union's headquarters complex in
Addis Ababa.
African Union
African Union
–
South Sudanese independence referendum, 2011
African Union
–
Muammar Gaddafi embracing Tanzanian President
Kikwete after assuming the chairmanship.
29.
Economic Community of West African States
–
The Economic Community of West African States, also known as ECOWAS, is a regional economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these comprise an area of 5,114,162 km2. The union was established on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, a revised version of the treaty was agreed and signed on 24 July 1993 in Cotonou. In recent years these included interventions in Ivory Coast in 2003, Liberia in 2003, Guinea-Bissau in 2012, Mali in 2013, established in 1994 and intended to counterbalance the dominance of English-speaking economies in the bloc, members of UEMOA are mostly former territories of French West Africa. The currency they all use is the CFA franc, which is pegged to the euro, the West African Monetary Zone, established in 2000, comprises six mainly English-speaking countries within ECOWAS which plan to work towards adopting their own common currency, the eco. A few members of the organization have come and gone over the years, in 1976 Cape Verde joined ECOWAS, and in December 2000 Mauritania withdrew, having announced its intention to do so in December 1999. In 2011, ECOWAS adopted its development blueprint for the decade, Vision 2020, and, to accompany it. As of February 2017 ECOWAS has 15 member states, eight of these are French-speaking, five are English-speaking, all current members joined the community as founding members in May 1975, except Cape Verde which joined in 1977. Statistics for population, nominal GDP and purchase price parity GDP listed below are taken from World Bank estimates for 2015, area data is taken from a 2012 report compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division. The ECOWAS nations assigned a non-aggression protocol in 1990 along with two earlier agreements in 1978 and 1981. They also signed a Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 29 May 1981, the Community Parliament consists of 115 members, distributed based on the population of each member state. This body is headed by the Speaker of the Parliament, who is above the Secretary General, for the third time since its inception in 1975, ECOWAS is undergoing institutional reforms. The first was when it revised its treaty on 24 July 1993, however, the Court did not officially begin operations until the 1991 protocol came into effect on 5 November 1996. The jurisdiction of the court is outlined in Article 9 and Articles 76 of the Revised Treaty and it also provides the ECOWAS Council with advisory opinions on legal issues. Like its companion courts the European Court of Human Rights and East African Court of Justice, it has jurisdiction to rule on fundamental human rights breaches. ECOWAS nations organize an array of cultural and sports event under the auspices of the body, including the CEDEAO Cup in football, the 2012 ECOWAS Games. It was established to promote economic integration among countries that share the CFA franc as a common currency. UEMOA was created by a Treaty signed at Dakar, Senegal, on 10 January 1994, by the heads of state and governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte dIvoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo
Economic Community of West African States
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ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development headquarters in Lome.
Economic Community of West African States
30.
United Nations
–
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
United Nations
–
1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the United Nations' original three branches: The
Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states.
United Nations
–
Flag
United Nations
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The
Chilean delegation signing the
UN Charter in San Francisco, 1945
United Nations
–
Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active Secretary-General from 1953 until his death in 1961.
31.
European Union
–
The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
European Union
–
In 1989, the
Iron Curtain fell, enabling the union to
expand further (
Berlin Wall pictured).
European Union
–
Flag
European Union
–
2009, the
Lisbon Treaty entered into force.
European Union
–
The 65,993 km (41,006 mi) coastline dominates the European climate (
Cyprus).
32.
Senegal
–
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country in West Africa. Senegal is bordered by Mauritania in the north, Mali to the east, Guinea to the southeast, and Guinea-Bissau to the southwest. Senegal also borders The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, Senegal also shares a maritime border with Cape Verde. Senegals economic and political capital is Dakar and it is the westernmost country in the mainland of the Old World, or Afro-Eurasia, and owes its name to the Senegal River, which borders it to the east and north. The name Senegal comes from the Wolof Sunuu Gaal, which means Our Boat, Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres and has an estimated population of about 15 million. The climate is Sahelian, but there is a rainy season, the territory of modern Senegal has been inhabited by various ethnic groups since prehistory. Organized kingdoms emerged around the century, and parts of the country were ruled by prominent regional empires such as the Jolof Empire. The present state of Senegal has its roots in European colonialism, which began during the mid-15th century, the establishment of coastal trading posts gradually led to control of the mainland, culminating in French rule of the area by the 19th century, albeit amid much local resistance. Senegal peacefully attained independence from France in 1960, and has since been among the politically stable countries in Africa. Senegals economy is centered mostly on commodities and natural resources, major industries are fish processing, phosphate mining, fertilizer production, petroleum refining, construction materials, and ship construction and repair. As in most African nations, agriculture is a sector, with Senegal producing several important cash crops, including peanuts, sugarcane, cotton, green beans, tomatoes, melons. Owing to its stability, tourism and hospitality are also burgeoning sectors. A multiethnic and secular nation, Senegal is predominantly Sunni Muslim with Sufi, French is the official language, although many native languages are spoken and recognized. Since April 2012 Senegals president has been Macky Sall, Senegal has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie since 1970. Senegal is named after the Senegal River, the etymology of which is contested, one popular theory is that it stems from the Wolof phrase sunu gaal, which means our canoe, resulting from a miscommunication between 15th-century Portuguese sailors and Wolof fishermen. The our canoe theory has been embraced in modern Senegal for its charm. It is frequently used in appeals to national solidarity, frequently heard in the media, modern historians believe the name probably refers to the Sanhaja, Berbers who lived on the northern side of the river. A competing theory is that it derives from the town of Sanghana
Senegal
–
Slave traders in
Gorée, 18th century.
Senegal
–
Flag
Senegal
–
Colonial
Saint Louis c. 1900. Europeans and Africans on the Rue Lebon.
Senegal
–
Macky Sall, current president of Senegal (2012 until now)
33.
Abdoulaye Wade
–
Abdoulaye Wade is a Senegalese politician who was President of Senegal from 2000 to 2012. He is also the Secretary-General of the Senegalese Democratic Party and has led the party since it was founded in 1974, a long-time opposition leader, he ran for President four times, beginning in 1978, before he was elected in 2000. He won re-election in 2007 with a majority in the first round, Wade was born in Kébémer, Senegal, officially, he was born in 1926, although some claim he was born several years earlier, and the record-keeping of the time is not considered particularly reliable. He studied and taught law at the lycée Condorcet in France and he holds two doctorates in law and economics. He was also dean of the law and economics faculty at the University of Dakar in Senegal. At a summit of the Organization of African Unity in Mogadishu in 1974, Wade told President Léopold Sédar Senghor that he wanted to start a new party, the PDS was founded on 31 July 1974. Wade first ran for President in February 1978 against Senghor, taking 17. 38% of the vote, Senghor gave Wade the nickname Diombor. Also in 1978, Wade was elected to the National Assembly, subsequently he ran in the presidential elections of 1983 and 1988, taking second place each time, behind Senghors successor Abdou Diouf. Following the 1988 election, he was arrested due to protests against the results, subsequently he went to France, but returned in 1990. In April 1991, Wade and four other PDS members joined a national unity government together with the ruling Socialist Party, in October 1992, he and the other PDS ministers quit the government due to complaints about the manner in which the PS was said to control the government. In the February 1993 presidential election, Wade again took place, with 32% of the vote, behind Diouf. Following the May 1993 killing of Constitutional Council Vice-President Babacar Sèye, Wade, along with other PDS leaders, faced police questioning. On October 1, Wade, his wife, and two PDS members of the National Assembly, were charged with complicity in the murder, although they were not held in custody or put on trial. Following riots in February 1994, Wade was arrested along with others for allegedly threatening state security. The charge of complicity in Sèyes murder was dismissed in May 1994 and he and his co-defendants were released on July 4, and the remaining charges were dismissed on August 30,1994. Wade rejoined the government as Minister of State in March 1995, but he, Wade subsequently spent a year in France, returning to Senegal on October 27,1999. Wade won this round with 58. 49% of the vote, having received the support of candidates from the first round, Wade became President on April 1,2000 and appointed Niasse as his Prime Minister shortly afterwards. Wade initially cohabited with the PS, which held a majority in the legislature until the PDS, a new constitution was adopted in 2001, reducing presidential terms to five years following the completion of Wades seven-year term in 2007
Abdoulaye Wade
–
Abdoulaye Wade
Abdoulaye Wade
–
Wade and the
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, in 2005.
Abdoulaye Wade
–
Wade with
President of the United States George W. Bush in July 2003
Abdoulaye Wade
–
At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009
34.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
35.
World Bank
–
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital programs. It comprises two institutions, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association, the World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, which is part of the United Nations system. The World Banks stated official goal is the reduction of poverty, the president of the World Bank is, traditionally, an American. The World Bank and the IMF are both based in Washington, D. C. and work closely with each other, although many countries were represented at the Bretton Woods Conference, the United States and United Kingdom were the most powerful in attendance and dominated the negotiations. Before 1974 the reconstruction and development loans provided by the World Bank were relatively small, the Banks staff were aware of the need to instill confidence in the bank. Fiscal conservatism ruled, and loan applications had to meet strict criteria, the first country to receive a World Bank loan was France. The Banks president at the time, John McCloy, chose France over two other applicants, Poland and Chile, the loan was for US$250 million, half the amount requested, and it came with strict conditions. France had to agree to produce a budget and give priority of debt repayment to the World Bank over other governments. World Bank staff closely monitored the use of the funds to ensure that the French government met the conditions. In addition, before the loan was approved, the United States State Department told the French government that its members associated with the Communist Party would first have to be removed, the French government complied with this diktat and removed the Communist coalition government - the so-called tripartisme. Within hours, the loan to France was approved, when the Marshall Plan went into effect in 1947, many European countries began receiving aid from other sources. Faced with this competition, the World Bank shifted its focus to non-European countries, in 1960, the International Development Association was formed, providing soft loans to developing countries. From 1974 to 1980 the bank concentrated on meeting the needs of people in the developing world. The size and number of loans to borrowers was greatly increased as loan targets expanded from infrastructure into social services and these changes can be attributed to Robert McNamara, who was appointed to the presidency in 1968 by Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara implored bank treasurer Eugene Rotberg to seek out new sources of capital outside of the banks that had been the primary sources of funding. Rotberg used the bond market to increase the capital available to the bank. One consequence of the period of poverty alleviation lending was the rise of third world debt. From 1976 to 1980 developing world debt rose at an annual rate of 20%
World Bank
–
John Maynard Keynes (right) and
Harry Dexter White, the "founding fathers" of both the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
World Bank
–
The Gold Room at the
Mount Washington Hotel where the IMF and World Bank were established
World Bank
–
The
World Bank Group headquarters bldg. in
Washington, D.C.
World Bank
–
Jim Yong Kim, the current President of the World Bank Group
36.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
37.
Ojo Maduekwe
–
Chief Ojo Maduekwe was a Nigerian politician. He was appointed Foreign Minister of Nigeria on July 26,2007 by President Umaru YarAdua and he left office in March 2010 when Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved his cabinet. He was National Secretary of the political party, the Peoples Democratic Party. He worked as the deputy director of PDP presidential campaign 2011 Goodluck/Sambo ticket and he was nominated for SGF, but was subsequently dropped following criticism by eastern people. Previously, Maduekwe had been appointed Culture and Tourism minister by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 and he was appointed Minister of Transport in 2001. Maduekwe and former NDDC Chairman, Onyema Ugochukwu were fraternity brothers at the University of Nigeria
Ojo Maduekwe
–
Ojo Maduekwe
38.
Google News
–
Google News is an advertising-supported news aggregator provided and operated by Google, selecting news from thousands of news websites. A beta version was launched in September 2002, and released officially in January 2006, the initial idea was developed by Krishna Bharat. Google News watches more than 4500 news sources worldwide, versions for more than 60 regions in 28 languages were available in March 2012. The service covers news articles appearing within the past 30 days on various news websites, in total, Google News aggregates content from more than 25,000 publishers. For the English language, it covers about 4,500 sites, for other languages and its front page provides roughly the first 200 characters of the article and a link to its larger content. Websites may or may not require a subscription, sites requiring subscription are noted in the article description. On December 1,2009, Google announced changes to their Butt oh yea fancy program, the readers first click to the content is free, and the number after that would be set by the content provider. The layout of Google News underwent a revision on May 16,2011. On July 14,2011, Google introduced Google News Badges, additionally in July 2011, the Sci/Tech section of the English Google News versions was split up into two sections, Science and Technology. It was announced that this split would be performed on other language versions as well. As of early 2013, this split had not been applied to all versions of Google News. It was also alleged that Google ignored a cease and desist order, though Google counters that it has opt-out procedures which AFP could have followed, Google now hosts Agence France-Presse news, as well as the Associated Press, Press Association and the Canadian Press. This arrangement started in August 2007, in 2007, Google announced it was paying for Associated Press content displayed in Google News, however the articles are not permanently archived. That arrangement ceased on December 23,2009 when Google News ceased carrying Associated Press content, in 2007, a Belgian court ruled that Google did not have the right to display the lead paragraph from French-language Belgian news sources when Google aggregated news stories. Newspapers representing more than 90 percent of the market in Brazil opted out of having their links appear in Google News according to reports, some Europe-based news outlets have asked their governments to consider making Google pay to host links. In December 2014 Google announced it would be shutting down the Google News service in Spain, rather than add advertisements to the news site, Google chose to shut down their service, and remove all links to Spain-based news sites from international versions of the site. Google News provides searching, and the choice of sorting the results by date, in the English versions, there are options to tailor the grouping to a selected national audience. Users can request e-mail alerts on various topics by subscribing to Google News Alerts
Google News
–
Google News
39.
International Herald Tribune
–
From 1967 to 2013, the paper was known as the International Herald Tribune, and was renamed The International New York Times on October 15,2013. In October 2016, the newspaper was integrated with its parent. Autumn that year saw the closing of editing and preproduction operations in the Paris newsroom. The Paris Herald was founded on 4 October 1887, as the European edition of the New York Herald by the parent paper’s owner, James Gordon Bennett, the company was based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, France. After the death of Bennett in 1918, Frank Andrew Munsey bought the New York Herald, Munsey sold the Herald newspapers in 1924 to the New York Tribune, and the Paris Herald became the Paris Herald Tribune, while the New York paper became New York Herald Tribune. The newspaper became a mainstay of American expatriate culture in Europe, in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film Breathless, the female lead character Patricia is an American student journalist who sells the New York Herald Tribune on the streets of Paris. Pages from the paper can be seen tacked up through the office windows. In 1959 John Hay Whitney, a businessman and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, bought the New York Herald Tribune and its European edition. In 1966 the New York Herald Tribune was merged into the short-lived New York World Journal Tribune and ceased publication, in December 1966 The Washington Post became a joint owner. The New York Times became a joint owner of the Paris Herald Tribune in May 1967, in 1974, the IHT began transmitting facsimile pages of the paper between nations and opened a printing site near London. In 1977 the paper opened a site in Zürich. The IHT began transmitting electronic images of pages from Paris to Hong Kong via satellite in 1980. This was the first such intercontinental transmission of an English-language daily newspaper, in 1991, The Washington Post and The New York Times became sole and equal shareholders of the IHT. In February 2005 it opened its Asia newsroom in Hong Kong, in April 2001, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun tied up with the IHT and published an English-language newspaper, the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun. After The Washington Post sold their stake in the IHT, it continued being published under the name International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, on 30 December 2002 The New York Times Company took control of the paper by buying the 50% stake owned by The Washington Post Company. The takeover ended a 35-year partnership between the two US domestic competitors, the Post was forced to sell when the Times threatened to pull out and start a competing paper. As a result, the Post entered into an agreement to publish selected Post articles in The Wall Street Journal’s European edition, after the takeover the IHT was subtitled The Global Edition of the New York Times. In 2008, the NYT Company announced the merger of the New York Times, in March 2009 the IHT website became the global version of NYTimes. com
International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
–
Front page of the International New York Times, on its first issue under new name on October 15, 2013
International Herald Tribune
–
Sample front page of the International Herald Tribune, before it was renamed the International New York Times
40.
Associated Press
–
The Associated Press is an American multinational nonprofit news agency headquartered in New York City that operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. The AP is owned by its contributing newspapers and radio and television stations in the United States, all of which stories to the AP. Most of the AP staff are members and are represented by the Newspaper Guild, which operates under the Communications Workers of America. As of 2007, news collected by the AP was published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,000 television, the photograph library of the AP consists of over 10 million images. The AP operates 243 news bureaus in 120 countries and it also operates the AP Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, as part of their cooperative agreement with the AP, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. The AP employs the inverted pyramid formula for writing that enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the storys essentials. Cutbacks at rival United Press International in 1993 left the AP as the United States primary news service, although UPI still produces and distributes stories and photos daily. Other English-language news services, such as the BBC, Reuters, some historians believe that the Tribune joined at this time, documents show it was a member in 1849. The New York Times became a member shortly after its founding in September 1851, initially known as the New York Associated Press, the organization faced competition from the Western Associated Press, which criticized its monopolistic news gathering and price setting practices. The revelations led to the demise of the NYAP and in December 1892, when the AP was founded, news became a salable commodity. The invention of the press allowed the New York Tribune in the 1870s to print 18,000 papers per hour. During the Civil War and Spanish–American War, there was a new incentive to print vivid, Melville Stone, who had founded the Chicago Daily News in 1875, served as AP General Manager from 1893 to 1921. He embraced the standards of accuracy, impartiality, and integrity, the cooperative grew rapidly under the leadership of Kent Cooper, who built up bureau staff in South America, Europe and, the Middle East. He introduced the telegraph typewriter or teletypewriter into newsrooms in 1914, in 1935, AP launched the Wirephoto network, which allowed transmission of news photographs over leased private telephone lines on the day they were taken. This gave AP a major advantage over other media outlets. While the first network was only between New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, eventually AP had its network across the whole United States, in 1945, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Associated Press v. The decision facilitated the growth of its main rival United Press International, AP entered the broadcast field in 1941 when it began distributing news to radio stations, it created its own radio network in 1974
Associated Press
–
The AP headquarters in October 2008, located at
450 West 33rd Street, in
New York City.
Associated Press
–
Associated Press
Associated Press
–
Logo on the former AP Building in New York City
Associated Press
–
The APTN Building in London
41.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
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Radio Netherlands Worldwide was a public radio and television network based in Hilversum, producing and transmitting programmes for international audiences outside the Netherlands. Radio Netherlands Worldwide has also distributed content via web and e-mail technology from as early as 1992 and its services in Dutch ended on 10 May 2012. English and Indonesian languages ceased on 29 June 2012 due to budgets cuts imposed by the Dutch government. The last programme broadcast on shortwave was a daily show in Spanish for Cuba named El Toque. Following a series of experiments on various wavelengths in 1925, reports of reception from a low-power shortwave transmitter were received from Jakarta on March 11,1927. Dutch Queen Wilhelmina made what is believed to be the worlds first royal broadcast on 1 June 1927, addressing compatriots in the East, regular international broadcast transmissions started shortly afterwards from the Philips shortwave transmitter in Eindhoven. They used the callsign PHOHI for broadcasts in the Dutch language to the Dutch East Indies - now Indonesia) and PCJJ for broadcasts in English, the Philips company in Eindhoven saw a market for its radios in the Dutch colonies. Their Research Labs got support from companies who were trading goods between The Netherlands and Batavia, the PHOHI was officially founded on 18 June 1927. In 1928, test transmissions commenced from a site in Huizen and it was chosen because of the high water table on the land near the Zuyderzee lake. This meant there was a good conductivity for an efficient earth, around 1929, the Philips call sign was simplified to PCJ. By the end of 1936, the power had been raised by connecting a stage with two water-cooled type TA 20/250 valves and this provided a power output of 60 kW at a frequency of 15220 kHz and immediately became the strongest short-wave transmitter in Europe. In 1937, this transmitter was moved from Eindhoven to the PHOHI Transmitter Park in Huizen, in November 2006, a 1/5th size model of this antenna was officially inaugurated on a roundabout a few hundred metres from the original site. Rotatable curtain array antennas were not in use until the 1960s. Broadcasts from the Netherlands were interrupted by the German invasion in May 1940, there were three transmitters in operation at that time. On the afternoon of May 14, the Dutch military commander gave orders that the transmitters should be destroyed, after several attempts, which included calling in the help of the Hilversum firebrigade, two of the three transmitters were completely destroyed. The third was only damaged and later used by the Germans for pro-Nazi broadcasts. There were also relays of concerts from Dutch broadcasters operating under German control. The Dutch government in exile was granted air-time on BBC transmitters in 1941, the programme Radio Oranje was a daily commentary on the Dutch situation both in the Netherlands and the rest of the empire
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
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Radio Netherlands Worldwide
42.
The Sydney Morning Herald
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The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily compact newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia, the newspaper is published six days a week. It is available at outlets in Sydney, regional New South Wales, Canberra, the Sydney Morning Herald includes a variety of supplements, including the magazines Good Weekend, and Sunday Life. By February 2016, average circulation had fallen to 104,000, similarWeb rates the site as the fifth most visited news website in Australia and as the 42nd newspapers website globally, attracting more than 15 million visitors per month. In 1931 a Centenary Supplement was published, the original four-page weekly had a print run of 750. In 1840, the newspaper began to publish daily, in 1841, an Englishman named John Fairfax purchased the operation, renaming it The Sydney Morning Herald the following year. Fairfax, whose family were to control the newspaper for almost 150 years, based his editorial policies upon principles of candour, honesty and we have no wish to mislead, no interest to gratify by unsparing abuse or indiscriminate approbation. During the decade 1890, Donald Murray worked there, the SMH was late to the trend of printing news rather than just advertising on the front page, doing so from 15 April 1944. Of the countrys metropolitan dailies, only The West Australian was later in making the switch, in 1949, the newspaper launched a Sunday edition, The Sunday Herald. Four years later, this was merged with the newly acquired Sun newspaper to create The Sun-Herald, in 1995, the company launched the newspapers web edition smh. com. au. The site has grown to include interactive and multimedia features beyond the content in the print edition. Around the same time, the organisation moved from Jones Street to new offices at Darling Park and built a new printing press at Chullora, the SMH has since moved with other Sydney Fairfax divisions to a building at Darling Island. In May 2007, Fairfax Media announced it would be moving from a format to the smaller compact or tabloid-size, in the footsteps of The Times. Fairfax Media dumped these plans later in the year, however, in June 2012, Fairfax Media again announced it planned to shift both broadsheet newspapers to tabloid size, in March 2013. Fairfax also announced it would cut staff across the group by 1,900 over three years and erect paywalls around the papers websites. The subscription type is to be a model, limiting readers to a number of free stories per month, with a payment required for further access. In July 2013 it was announced that the SMHs news director, Darren Goodsir, would become Editor-in-Chief, on 22 February 2014, the final Saturday edition was produced in broadsheet format with this too converted to compact format on 1 March 2014. Ahead of the decommissioning of the plant at Chullora in June 2014
The Sydney Morning Herald
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The front page of The Sydney Morning Herald on 30 March 2007.
The Sydney Morning Herald
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The cover of the newspaper's first edition, on 18 April 1831
43.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
Wayback Machine
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Wayback Machine
Canada "strongly condemns the attempted coup in Guinea and calls on all parties to fully respect the Constitution and the rule of law for the benefit of the people of Guinea, who have already suffered for too long" and "...appeals for calm and restraint."
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, noting Conté's contribution to peace and the unity of Guinea and the stability of West Africa, commended Guinea's aid to refugees from strife in the surrounding region. He appealed for calm, for an orderly transition under Guinea's Constitution, and exhorted the Guinean armed forces to respect democracy.[48]
The European Union condemned the coup and called on Guinea's military and government to ensure a peaceful leadership transition. The EU called on political and army leaders to "respect constitutional measures to ensure a peaceful transition" of power through elections.[49]
Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade urged the international community to recognise the military junta headed by Moussa Dadis Camara. According to Wade, Camara had asked him to be his spokesman to the world, and Wade said that "I call on all countries, the European Union, and in particular France, not to throw the first stone, but to take this group at their word" and that the "captain asked me to be his interpreter to Guineans, to the opposition, to ECOWAS, to the African Union, the European Union, the United States, the World Bank and international institutions". Wade also supported the promised elections and said that "This is the first time that the military has said, 'We'll organise elections and return to our barracks'".[50]
The United States expressed hope for "a peaceful and democratic transition". A spokesperson said "We are working with our partners in the region and other countries in the region and the African Union to encourage the institutions in Guinea to take all steps to ensure a peaceful and democratic transition".[51]
On January 5, 2009 Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe warned that Nigeria would have no relations with the military regime and that any other African Union member who recognized the coup's leaders as the government would be neglecting the organization's commitment to democracy.[52]
