The Assembly of the Republic is the parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the unicameral parliament "is the representative assembly of all Portuguese citizens." The constitution names the assembly as one of the country's organs of supreme authority. It is located in a historical building in Lisbon, referred to as Palácio de São Bento, the site of an old Benedictine monastery; the Palácio de São Bento has been the seat of the Portuguese parliaments since 1834. The Assembly of the Republic's powers derives from its power to dismiss a government through a vote of no confidence, to change the country's laws, to amend the constitution. In addition to these key powers, the constitution grants to the Assembly extensive legislative powers and substantial control over the budget, the right to authorize the government to raise taxes and grant loans, the power to ratify treaties and other kinds of international agreements, the duty to approve or reject decisions by the President of the Republic to declare war and make peace.

The assembly appoints many members of important state institutions, such as ten of the thirteen members of the Constitutional Court and seven of the sixteen members of the Council of State. The constitution requires the assembly to review and approve an incoming government's program. Parliamentary rules allow the assembly to call for committees of inquiry to examine the government's actions. Political opposition represented in the assembly has the power to review the cabinet's actions though it is unlikely that the actions can be reversed. Party groups can call for interpellations that require debates about specific government policies; the assembly consisted at first of 250 members, but the constitutional reforms of 1989 reduced its number to between 180 and 230. Members are elected by popular vote for legislative terms of four years from the country's twenty-two constituencies (eighteen in mainland Portugal corresponding to each district, one for each autonomous region and Madeira, one for Portuguese living in Europe and a last one for those living in the rest of the world.

Except for the constituencies for Portuguese living abroad, which are fixed at two members each, the number of voters registered in a constituency determines the number of its members in the assembly, using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation. Constituencies vary in size. For the 2015 legislative elections, the MPs distributed by districts were as follows: According to the constitution, members of the assembly represent the entire country, not the constituency from which they are elected; this directive has been reinforced in practice by the strong role of political parties in regard to members of the assembly. Party leadership, for example, determines in which areas candidates are to run for office, thus weakening members' ties to their constituencies. Moreover, members of the assembly are expected to vote with their party and to work within parliamentary groups based on party membership. Party discipline is strong, insubordinate members can be coerced through a variety of means.

A further obstacle to members' independence is that their bills first have to be submitted to the parliamentary groups, it is these groups' leaders who set the assembly's agenda. The President of the Assembly of the Republic is the second hierarchical figure in the Portuguese state, after the President of the Portuguese Republic, is elected by secret vote of the members of parliament; the President of the Assembly is aided by four vice-presidents, nominated by the other parties represented in the parliament, is the speaker. When he is not present, one of the vice-presidents takes the role of speaker; when the President of the Republic is, for any reason, unable to perform to job, the President of the Assembly of the Republic becomes his substitute. São Bento Palace ARtv Official website

The East Prigorodny Conflict referred to as the Ossetian–Ingush Conflict, was an inter-ethnic conflict in the eastern part of the Prigorodny district in the Republic of North Ossetia – Alania, which started in 1989 and developed, in 1992, into a brief ethnic war between local Ingush and Ossetian paramilitary forces. The present conflict emerges from the policies of both Imperial and Soviet governments, which exploited ethnic differences to further their own ends, namely the perpetuation of central rule and authority. Tsarist policy in the North Caucasus favored Ossetians, who inhabited an area astride the strategically important Georgian Military Highway, a key link between Russia proper and her Transcaucasian colonies. In addition, the Ossetians were one of the few friendly peoples in a region that for much of the nineteenth century bitterly resisted Russian rule. Russian authorities conducted population transfers of native people in the area at will and brought in large numbers of Terek Cossacks.

Under the Soviets, local Cossacks were punished for their support of anti-Soviet White forces during the Russian Civil War and banished from the area, including from the Prigorodnyi region, given to the Ingush, ostensibly for their support of the Red or Bolshevik forces during the conflict. Soviet administrators arbitrarily created territorial units in the North Caucasus, thereby enhancing differences by splitting apart like peoples or fostering dependence by uniting different groups. In January 1920, the Autonomous Mountain Soviet Socialist Republic, referred to as the "Mountaineers Republic," was formed, with its capital in Vladikavkaz; the "Mountaineers Republic," included the Kabards, Ingush, Karachai, Cherkess,and Balkars, but it began to disintegrate and new territorial units were created. In 1924, the Ingush were given their own territorial unit. In 1934, the Ingush were merged territorially with the Chechens; the Prigorodnyi region still remained within the Chechen–Ingush entity. In 1944, near the end of World War II, the Ingush and the Chechen peoples were accused of collaborating with the Nazis, by order of Joseph Stalin, the whole population of Ingush and Chechens were deported to Central Asia and Siberia.

Soon after, the depopulated Prigorodny district was transferred to North Ossetia. In 1957, the repressed Ingush and Chechens were allowed to return to their native land and the Checheno-Ingush Republic was restored, with the Prigorodny district maintained as part of North Ossetia. Soviet authorities attempted to prevent Ingush from returning to their territory in Prigorodny district; this gave rise to the idea of "restoring historical justice" and "returning native lands", among the Ingush population and intelligence, which contributed to the existing tensions between ethnic Ossetians and Ingush. Between 1973 and 1980 the Ingush voiced their demands for the reunification of the Prigorodny district with Ingushetia by staging various protests and meetings in Grozny; the tensions increased in early 1991, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the Ingush declared their rights to the Prigorodny district according to the Soviet law adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 26, 1991.

The law gave the Ingush legal grounds for their demands, which caused serious turbulence in a region in which many people had free access to weapons, resulting in an armed conflict between ethnic Ingush population of the Prigorodny district and Ossetian armed militias from Vladikavkaz. Ethnic violence rose in the area of the Prigorodny district, to the east of the Terek River, despite the introduction of 1,500 Soviet Internal Troops to the area. During the summer and early autumn of 1992, there was a steady increase in the militancy of Ingush nationalists. At the same time, there was a steady increase in incidents of organized harassment and rape against Ingush inhabitants of North Ossetia by their Ossetian neighbours, security forces and militia. Ingush fighters marched to take control over Prigorodny District and on the night of October 30, 1992, open warfare broke out, which lasted for a week; the first people killed were Ossetian and Ingush militsiya staff. While Ingush militias were fighting the Ossetians in the district and on the outskirts of the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz, Ingush from elsewhere in North Ossetia were forcibly evicted and expelled from their homes.

Russian OMON forces participated in the fighting and sometimes led Ossetian fighters into battle. On October 31, 1992, armed clashes broke out between Ingush militias and North Ossetian security forces and paramilitaries supported by Russian Interior Ministry and Army troops in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia. Although Russian troops intervened to prevent some acts of violence by Ossetian police and republican guards, the stance of the Russian peacekeeping forces was pro-Ossetian, not only objectively as a result of its deployment, but subjectively as well; the fighting, which lasted six days, had at its root a dispute between ethnic Ingush and Ossetians over the Prigorodnyi region, a sliver of land of about

"Niggas vs. Black People" is the title of one of Chris Rock's most famous and controversial stand-up comedy routines; this routine—which appeared both on his 1996 HBO special Bring the Pain and as track 12 on his 1997 album Roll with the New—is considered to be the breakthrough routine that established his status as a comedy fixture after he left Saturday Night Live. The routine is a twelve-minute monologue about behaviors that Rock sees in a subset of the country's blacks, he describes "niggas" as a cohort whose behavior—which embodies many stereotypes—is detrimental to the image of other black people. "Niggas", he says, glorify ignorance and laziness, brag about fulfilling any minor responsibility. Rock rejects the view. For instance, in the routine, he says: "When I go to the money machine tonight, alright, I ain't looking over my back for the media, I'm looking for niggas! Shit, Ted Koppel ain't never took shit from me. Niggas have, so, you think I've got three guns in my house'cause the media outside?"

In a 2007 interview, Rock explained that the inspiration for the bit came from the song "Us" from the 1991 Ice Cube album Death Certificate. The controversy caused by Rock's constant use of the word "nigga" led him to remove the rant from his show. In a 2005 60 Minutes interview, Rock said: "By the way, I've never done that joke again and I never will.'Cos some people that were racist thought they had license to say nigger, so, I'm done with that routine." Barack Obama directly referred to the routine while campaigning to be elected president during a Father's Day speech on June 15, 2008, saying: "Chris Rock had a routine. He said some—too many of our men, they're proud, they brag about doing things they're supposed to do, they say'Well, I—I'm not in jail.' Well, you're not supposed to be in jail!"In the second episode of the first season of NBC's The Office, "Diversity Day", main character Michael Scott performs a censored version. Pound Cake speech Respectability politics Situational code-switching Bennun, David, "Chris Rock," The Guardian, 2000.

Chris Rock: Bring the Pain on IMDb

William Henry Cushing was a Canadian politician. Born in Ontario, he migrated west as a young adult where he started a successful lumber company and became Alberta's first Minister of Public Works and the 11th mayor of Calgary; as Minister of Public Works in the government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford, he oversaw the creation of Alberta Government Telephones. Cushing's resignation in 1910 precipitated the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal, which forced Rutherford's resignation. Though Cushing had hopes of being asked to replace Rutherford, that role fell instead to Arthur Sifton, the province's chief judge. Left out of Sifton's cabinet, Cushing did not seek re-election in the 1913 election, did not re-enter politics thereafter, he was the chairman of Mount Royal College's board of governors for sixteen years. He died in 1934. Cushing was born August 1852 in Kenilworth, Ontario to William Cushing and Sarah Thomson, his father was a farmer who had immigrated from Norwich, England in 1840.

In 1879, Cushing indentured as a carpenter. He moved to Calgary in 1883, where in partnership with Stephen Jarett, he engaged in carpentry, building houses and stores. In 1877 Cushing married Elizabeth Rinn. In 1883 he married Mary Jane Waters. In 1885 he opened a door factory, which made him wealthy, his business expanded. He was active in the local Methodist church and the Bowness golf club, served eight years as a school trustee with the Calgary Board of Education, he was a supporter of the Temperance Movement. Cushing was elected Calgary town councillor for a term beginning on January 20, 1890, he remained in that capacity until January 16, 1893. Two years he became an alderman on the council of Calgary, now a city, he served as alderman from January 7, 1895 until January 4, 1897, again from May 1899 until January 2, 1900. During his last term he was elected the thirteenth mayor of Calgary, a position he held from January 2, 1900 until January 7, 1901, he subsequently served another term as alderman from January 6, 1902 until January 2, 1905.

He served as the president of Calgary's Board of Trade in 1906. After Alexander Cameron Rutherford was asked to form Alberta's first government in 1905, he appointed Cushing as his Minister of Public Works. Historian L. G. Thomas notes that this was an important portfolio, given the rapid development of infrastructure expected in the new province. In keeping with custom for cabinet ministers in Westminster parliamentary systems, Cushing ran for the first Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the district of Calgary in the 1905 election. Cushing, a Liberal, was opposed by Conservative leader R. B. Bennett; the campaign was acrimonious. On election day, Cushing defeated Bennett, who attributed his defeat to "Roman Catholic influence". Once elected, he was Calgary's primary supporter in the legislature's debate over Alberta's capital city, claiming that it was the new province's economic centre, that Alberta's status as a province was the result of a political movement that had begun in Calgary, that it would be cheaper to build a legislature there than in Edmonton, site of the interim capital.

His motion to name Calgary as the capital was defeated 16 votes to eight, permanent capital was located at Edmonton. Though it was not to be at his preferred location, as Public Works Minister Cushing did choose the design for the new Alberta Legislature Building, based on the Minnesota State Capitol; as Calgary's representative, Cushing was further dismayed when Rutherford elected to locate the University of Alberta in his own hometown of Strathcona across the North Saskatchewan River from Edmonton. Calgarians felt that, having been denied the capital, they should be first in line for the university; as Public Works Minister, Cushing was a primary advocate of government intervention in the labour disputes plaguing Alberta's coal industry in 1907. Cushing presided over the government's entry into the telephone business: in 1906, most telephone lines in Alberta were owned, the largest of these private owners was the Bell Telephone Company. Bell controlled all telephone service in Calgary, refused to extend its operations into less densely populated, therefore less profitable, regions of the province.

In response, Cushing attacked Bell as "the most pernicious and iniquitous monopoly, foisted upon a people claiming to be free" and sponsored legislation creating Alberta Government Telephones to service areas that Bell would not. This new company purchased Bell's lines, financing the venture by issuing debentures, in contrast to the government's usual policy of "pay as you go". Cushing's zeal for government involvement was such that member of the House of Commons of Canada Peter Talbot in 1908 warned Rutherford that his Public Works Minister was "going crazy" with public ownership and that Rutherford would "someday find a lot of trouble through him". Thomas has argued that it was strange for a successful businessman like Cushing to be so aggressive rhetorically against a successful corporation, but Mount Royal College historian Patricia Roome has suggested that Cushing was soured by his own experience as a Calgarian living under the monopoly, hostile to what he saw as a symbol of "eastern capitalism", hopeful that bringing telephone service to rural areas would guar

Armando Andrés Betancourt Reina is an independent Cuban journalist and author. In 2006 Betancourt Reina was a reporter for an independent news agency, he was arrested on 23 May 2006 while watching a forced eviction of poor people in La Guernica, Camagüey, detained on charges of public disorder. According to the police he had joined a protest against the evictions. After being arrested, Betancourt was at first held in isolation, could not see his family or lawyers, he was sentenced to three years in prison. In June and July 2006 his request to see a Catholic priest was denied by the authorities at Ceramica Rota prison in Camaguey, where he was being held, he was one of three Cuban journalists who were given long prison sentences in 2006, the other two being Raymundo Perdigon Brito and Guillermo Espinosa Rodriguez. Betancourt said that during his stay in prison guards beat political prisoners, but not in front of witnesses. After beatings they kept the victim in solitary confinement for two or three weeks until their injuries had healed.

During his confinement he shared a cell 13 by 16 feet with 11 others. At the pretrial hearings that started on 8 February 2007 no defense witnesses were allowed to testify; the court postponed the case for further investigation. On 3 July 2007 he was tried again and sentenced to fifteen months in prison, with time spent counting towards that sentence. Armando Betancourt Reina was freed on 20 August 2007 after completing his 15-month sentence. After his release Betancourt was told that his phone service would be cut off if he used it for "counter-revolutionary activities."Some incidents from Betancourt's 2006-2007 prison stay are described in his book Morir sin Patria, which describes the experiences of people in a society dominated by lack of civil liberties. Simia Dei ISBN 978-1-5065-2664-5 Citations Sources

Adisaptagram railway station is a Kolkata Suburban Railway station on the Howrah-Bardhaman main line operated by Eastern Railway zone of Indian Railway. It is situated beside S. T. Road, Trishbigha in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal, it serves surrounding areas. Number of EMU stop at Adisaptagram railway station; the East Indian Railway Company was formed on 1 June 1845, The first passenger train in the eastern section was operated up to Hooghly, on 15 August 1854. On 1 February 1855 the first train ran from Howrah to Raniganj through Howrah–Bardhaman main line. Bandel to Bardhaman route was opened for traffic on 1 January 1885. Electrification of the Howrah–Bardhaman main line was initiated up to Bandel in 1957, with the 3000 v DC system, the entire Howrah–Bardhaman route including Adisaptagram railway station completed with AC system, along with conversion of earlier DC portions to 25 kV AC, in 1958