The Bolān Pass is a mountain pass through the Toba Kakar Range of Balochistan province in western Pakistan, 120 km from the Afghanistan border. The pass is an 89 km stretch of the Bolan river valley from Rindli in the south to Darwāza near Kolpur in the north, it is made up of a number of narrow stretches. It connects Sibi with Quetta both by railway. Strategically located, traders and nomadic tribes have used it as a gateway between the Iranian Plateau and the Indus Valley; the Bolān Pass is an important pass on the Baluch frontier, connecting Jacobabad and Sibi with Quetta, occupied an important place in the history of British campaigns in Afghanistan. The local population predominantly consists of Brahvi tribes, who extend from Bolan Pass to Cape Monze on the Arabian Sea. A British officer of the Bengal Artillery described the Bolan Pass in 1841 in the words: "The road through this pass leads, with few and rare exceptions, along what is the bed of a mountain-torrent, when filled by the melting of the snows or heavy rains, is composed of loose shingly gravel, that recedes from under your feet, is difficult for draught: camels get on well.

It is infested by the Kakurs. Many spots were pointed out to me by the guides I had with me, as signalised by acts of violence, several European officers having lost their baggage during our occupation of the country. Should there be rain in the higher parts of the mountains, the stream at times comes down in an perpendicular volume, without warning, sweeping all before it, as a friend of mine experienced, when he saw a party of men and camels, all his property, borne down by it. About thirty-seven men were washed away upon that occasion." In 1837, threatened by a possible Russian invasion of India via the Khyber and Bolān Passes, a British envoy was sent to Kabul to gain support of the Emir, Dost Mohammed. In February 1839, the British Army under Sir John Keane took 12,000 men through the Bolān Pass and entered Kandahar, which the Afghan Princes had abandoned. In 1883, Sir Robert Groves Sandeman negotiated with the Khan of Kalat, Khudadad Khan, secured British control over the pass in exchange for an annual fee.

From Sibi the line runs south-west, skirting the hills to Rindli, followed the course of the Bolān stream to its head on the plateau. The destructive action of floods, led to the abandonment of this alignment, the railway now follows the Mashkaf valley, is carried from near the head of the Mashkaf to a junction with the Bolān at Machh. An alternative route from Sibi to Quetta was found in the Harnai valley to the N. E. of Sibi, the line starting in the opposite direction to that of the Bolān and entering the hills at Nari. The Harnai route, although longer, is the one adopted for all ordinary traffic, the Bolān loop being reserved for emergencies. At the Khundilani gorge of the Bolān route conglomerate cliffs, which rise to a height of 800 ft. enclose the valley. At Siri Bolān the passage between the limestone rocks hardly admits of three persons riding abreast; the temperature of the pass in summer is high, whereas in winter, near its head, the cold is extreme, the ice-cold wind rushing down the narrow outlet becomes destructive to life.

Since 1877, when the Quetta agency was founded, the pass was secured by the British Indian Army from militias of Baluch tribesmen. Balochistan Mehrgarh This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Bolan Pass". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press

Deng Hongxun was a Chinese politician and engineer. He served as Communist Party Chief of Hainan Province from June 1990 to January 1993, prior to that, as Party Chief of his native city Wuxi and Deputy Party Chief of Jiangsu Province, his tenure in Hainan was marked by his fierce clash with Governor Liu Jianfeng. Deng was born in January 1931 in Jiangsu Province, he joined the Communist Party of China in 1947 while a student at Kunshan High School, participated in underground Communist activities. He entered Jiangnan University in 1949 and graduated in 1952 with a degree in industrial management and engineering. After graduating from university, he was sent to Northeast China to work as an engineer and cadre, first at the Anshan Iron and Steel Company and after 1955, at the Benxi Iron and Steel. During the Cultural Revolution, he was sent to perform manual labour in Dafeng County, Jiangsu from 1967 to 1972, he was transferred to the Zhenjiang Coking Plant in 1972, became its general manager. He was appointed Mayor of Zhenjiang City in 1983, a year Communist Party Chief of Wuxi City.

In 1989, he was promoted to Deputy Party Secretary of Jiangsu Province. In the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the top leaders of Hainan Province, Xu Shijie and Liang Xiang, were dismissed because Liang was an ally of the reformist national leader Zhao Ziyang and Xu supported Liang's policies. In June 1990, Deng was appointed Party Chief of Hainan to replace Xu, ostensibly because of his "rich experience in party and government leading positions" and "his familiarity with economic work", but it is believed that his promotion was linked to his relationship with the central government leaders Jiang Zemin and Qiao Shi, the latter a close friend of his. Deng was expected to bring his advanced experience in economic work to the fledgling province of Hainan, as he had worked in Southern Jiangsu, whose economy had been growing since the late 1970s. However, instead of focusing on economic reform, Deng emphasized "cadre building", citing Mao Zedong's quotations as justification.

He brought to Hainan many of his followers and friends from Jiangsu, forbade local cadres to build their own private houses. These acts earned him a reputation for being anti-Hainan. Moreover, Deng proved unable to work with an associate of Premier Li Peng. From 1990 to 1992, the two top officials of Hainan clashed fiercely, hindering the province's development. By the end of 1992, Deng and Liu were trying to drive each other out of the province. A high-ranking official, Li Shanyou, accused Liu of visiting a prostitute. Li was imprisoned after the accusation was proven false, Liu launched a counter-investigation to find the instigator, rumoured to be Deng, their infighting became an embarrassment to the central government, which transferred both of them to Beijing in January 1993, replaced them with a single official, Ruan Chongwu. In Beijing, Deng served as Deputy Director of the Development Research Center of the State Council from 1994 to 1998, he was an alternate member of the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a full member of the 14th Central Committee.

He served as a member of the Standing Committee of the 9th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Deng retired in April 1998, he died on 21 December 2019 in Wuxi, aged 88

La Di Da Di is the third studio album by American experimental rock band Battles, released on September 18, 2015 on Warp Records. It is the band's last album with guitarist/bassist Dave Konopka before his departure in 2018. La Di Da Di is Battles' only album without vocals. Guitarist Dave Konopka said: "To me, vocals are like this fourth instrument, insignificant in a band like Battles because we kind of have nothing to say and out of the three of us none of us are capable of singing; the decision to not have vocals is more of a functional decision than anything. I love; when it applies to us and the chemical makeup of Battles it’s just inexplicable." La Di Da Di received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 73, based on 30 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". All tracks are written by Battles; the shape of the composition of food in the cover-art resembles that of Apulia.

Battles Dave Konopka – bass, effects John Stanier – drums Ian Williams – guitar, keyboardsProduction Battles – producer Keith Souza – producer, mixer Seth Manchester – producer, mixer Greg Calbi – mastering Dave Konopka – art direction Warp Music – publisher