Beech is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe and North America. The name of the tree is of Indo-European origin, played an important role in early debates on the geographical origins of the Indo-European people. Greek φηγός is from the same root, but the word was transferred to the oak tree as a result of the absence of beech trees in Greece. Recent classification systems of the genus recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera and Fagus; the Engleriana subgenus is found only in East Asia, is notably distinct from the Fagus subgenus in that these beeches are low-branching trees made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. Further differentiating characteristics include the whitish bloom on the underside of the leaves, the visible tertiary leaf veins, a long, smooth cupule-peduncle. Fagus japonica, Fagus engleriana, the species F. okamotoi, proposed by the botanist Chung-Fu Shen in 1992, comprise this subgenus. The better known Fagus subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark.

This group includes Fagus sylvatica, Fagus grandifolia, Fagus crenata, Fagus lucida, Fagus longipetiolata, Fagus hayatae. The classification of the European beech, Fagus sylvatica is complex, with a variety of different names proposed for different species and subspecies within this region. Research suggests that beeches in Eurasia differentiated late in evolutionary history, during the Miocene; the populations in this area represent a range of overlapping morphotypes, though genetic analysis does not support separate species. Within its family, the Fagaceae, recent research has suggested that Fagus is the evolutionarily most basal group; the southern beeches thought related to beeches, are now treated as members of a separate family, the Nothofagaceae. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia and Chile. Fagus chienii W. C. Cheng Fagus crenata Blume – Siebold's beech Fagus engleriana Seemen ex Diels – Chinese beech Fagus grandifolia Ehrh. – North American beech Fagus hayatae Palib.

Ex Hayata – Taiwan beech Fagus japonica Maxim. Japanese beech, Japanese blue beech Fagus longipetiolata Seemen – South Chinese beech Fagus lucida Rehder & E. H. Wilson – shining beech Fagus orientalis Lipsky – Oriental beech Fagus sylvatica L. – European beech Fagus × taurica Popl. – Crimean beech †Fagus subferruginea Wilf et al. 2005 The European beech is the most cultivated, although few important differences are seen between species aside from detail elements such as leaf shape. The leaves of beech trees are entire or sparsely toothed, from 5 -- 4 -- 10 cm broad. Beeches are monoecious; the small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins. They are produced in spring; the bark is light grey. The fruit is a small three–angled nut 10–15 mm long, borne singly or in pairs in soft-spined husks 1.5–2.5 cm long, known as cupules. The husk can have a variety of spine- to scale-like appendages, the character of which is, in addition to leaf shape, one of the primary ways beeches are differentiated.

The nuts are edible, though bitter with a high tannin content, are called beechnuts or beechmast. Beech grows on a wide range of soil types, provided they are not waterlogged; the tree canopy casts dense shade, carpets the ground thickly with leaf litter. In North America, they form beech-maple climax forests by partnering with the sugar maple; the beech blight aphid is a common pest of American beech trees. Beeches are used as food plants by some species of Lepidoptera. Beech bark is thin and scars easily. Since the beech tree has such delicate bark, such as lovers' initials and other forms of graffiti, remain because the tree is unable to heal itself. Beech bark disease is a fungal infection that attacks the American beech through damage caused by scale insects. Infection can lead to the death of the tree. Fagus sylvatica was a late entrant to Great Britain after the last glaciation, may have been restricted to basic soils in the south of England; some suggest. The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is removed from'native' woods.

Large areas of the Chilterns are covered with beech woods, which are habitat to the common bluebell and other flora. The Cwm Clydach National Nature Reserve in southeast Wales was designated for its beech woodlands, which are believed to be on the western edge of their natural range in this steep limestone gorge. Beech is not native to Ireland; the Friends of the Irish Environment say that the best policy is to remove young regenerating beech, while retaining veteran specimens with biodiversity value. A campaign by Friends of the Rusland Beeches and South Lakeland Friends of the Earth launched in 2007 to reclassify the beech as native in Cumbria; the campaign is backed by Tim Farron, MP, who tabled a motion on 3 December 2007 regarding the status of beech in Cumbria

Stuart Harold Comberbach is a Zimbabwean diplomat and politician. He serves as a Special Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade under Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo. Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Italy from 1994 to 1999, Ambassador to Japan and South Korea from 2003 to 2014, in 2014 Comberbach was named a Senior Advisor in the Office the President and Cabinet under former President Robert Mugabe. Born in Salisbury, Comberbach joined the Rhodesian civil service in 1974 and is one of the few white civil servants remaining in Zimbabwe. Comberbach was born on 27 September 1952 in Southern Rhodesia, he attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, graduating in 1974. After graduating from Wits University in 1974, Comberbach returned to Rhodesia and joined the civil service the same year, he worked under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, serving in Gabon from 1975 to 1979. From 1987 to 1994, he was the head of the Zimbabwe Trade Mission in South Africa.

From 1994 to 1999, he served as Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Italy and the Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization. In Rome, he served on the UN Committee on World Food Security, he was Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Industry and International Trade from 1999 to 2002. He offered to resign from the civil service in 2001 when he made it clear that he opposed government price control policies that he believed would destroy the Zimbabwean economy; when Minister of Industry and International Trade Nkosana Moyo resigned unexpectedly in May 2001, Comberbach took over as temporary head of the ministry. At the time, a communication from the US Embassy in Harare described Comberbach as "one of the few senior whites remaining in government" and "a competent technocrat." The report noted his close relationship to leading ZANU–PF politician Nathan Shamuyarira, but described him as a "political lightweight."From 2003 to 2014, Comberbach served as the Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Japan and South Korea.

He served as Chairman of the African Diplomatic Corps in Japan, an arm of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development from January 2003 and May 2011. On 8 May 2015, Comberbach was honoured with the Order of the Rising Sun, along with 5 other foreign recipients at an event held in Tokyo. A conferment ceremony was held in Harare, hosted by Japan's Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Yoshi Hiraishi. Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans Christopher Mutsvangwa praised Comberbach for receiving the honour. In 2015, Comberbach's successor as Ambassador to Japan, Air Vice-Marshal Titus Abu-Basutu. In September 2014, President Robert Mugabe appointed Comberbach as Senior Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, his appointment was announced by Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet. At the time, it was reported, he was assigned different areas of focus within the office of the President and Cabinet: in 2015, he became the Permanent Secretary for Corporate Governance, State Enterprises, Delivery Unit.

In September 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed new advisors, Comberbach was assigned the new portfolio of Special Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Comberbach's wife is Benedict Ann "Dicky" Comberbach, they have children. Japan: Order of the Rising Sun

Corey Antonio Barlow is a former American football defensive back who played for three seasons in the National Football League, one season in the World League of American Football, one season in the Arena Football League. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round of the 1992 NFL Draft after playing college football for Auburn. Barlow was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round of the 1992 NFL Draft, but did not play in a game for the team during his rookie season, he played in 10 games for the team in 1993. Barlow re-signed with the Philadelphia Eagles on a one-year contract on June 21, 1994, before suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, he was subsequently placed on injured reserve on August 27. He was drafted by the Amsterdam Admirals in the 18th round of the 1996 WLAF Draft and played for the team in 1996, he played for one season in the Arena Football League in 1999, for the Nashville Kats and the Grand Rapids Rampage. After his playing career ended, Barlow was an assistant football and track & field coach at Southside High School in Atlanta, Georgia from 2000–2001.

He was the football operations manager and defensive backs coach at Morehouse College from 2002–2005, he was hired by Rhode Island as the team's secondary coach on March 30, 2006. UAB hired Barlow as the team's cornerbacks coach on December 23, 2006, he was hired by Savannah State as the team's cornerbacks coach in 2012. Savannah State head coach Steve Davenport was fired on April 17, 2013, Barlow was named interim head coach. Savannah State Tigers football coaching bio