The carabao is a domestic swamp-type water buffalo native to the Philippines. Despite the popular notion that this bovine has been declared as the national animal of the Philippines, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Philippines has stated that this is not the case as it has no basis in Philippine law. Carabaos were introduced to Guam from the Philippines in the 17th century, they have acquired great cultural significance to native Chamorro and is considered as the unofficial national animal of Guam. In Malaysia, carabaos are the official animal of the state of Negeri Sembilan; the Spanish word carabao is derived from Visayan karabàw. Cognates include Cebuano kábaw, Javanese kebo, Malay kerbau, Indonesian Dutch karbouw; the female is called a caraballa. The word's resemblance to caribou is coincidental, they do not share a common etymology - an example of a false cognate. Carabaos are known in Tagalog as kalabáw, derived from Spanish. Before the Spanish colonial period, carabaos were more known as nowang or anowang and damulag among the ethnic groups of southern and central Luzon.

They vary in colour from light grey to slate grey. The horns curve backward toward the neck. Chevrons are common. Albinoids are present in the proportion of about 3% of the buffalo population. Mature male carabaos weigh 420–500 kg, females 400–425 kg. Height at withers of the male ranges from 127 to 137 cm, of the female from 124 to 129 cm. Water buffaloes imported to the Philippines from Cambodia in the early 20th century are called "Cambodian carabaos", they have white or yellowish hair on a pinkish skin, but the eyes and mouth are dark, the skin may be speckled. They are bigger and have larger horns. Males weigh on average 673 measure 141 cm at the withers. Water buffaloes are well adapted to a humid climate. Water availability is of high importance in hot climates since they need wallows, rivers, or splashing water to reduce the heat load and thermal stress. Swamp buffaloes prefer to wallow in a mudhole, their objective is to acquire a thick coating of mud. They thrive on many aquatic plants and in time of flood will graze submerged, raising their heads above the water and carrying quantities of edible plants.

They eat reeds, the giant reed, sedges, the common water hyacinth, rushes. Green fodders are used for intensive milk production and for fattening. Many fodder crops are chaffed, or pulped. Trials in the Philippines showed that the carabao, on poor-quality roughage, had a better feed conversion rate than cattle; the carabao cools itself by lying in a mud during the heat of the day. Mud, caked on to its body protects it from bothersome insects; the carabao feeds in the cool of the mornings and evenings. Its lifespan is 18 to 20 years and the female carabao can deliver one calf each year; the oldest evidence of water buffaloes discovered in the Philippines are multiple fragmentary skeletal remains recovered from the upper layers of the Neolithic Nagsabaran site, part of the Lal-lo and Gattaran Shell Middens of northern Luzon. Most of the remains consisted of skull fragments all of which have cut marks indicating they were butchered; the remains are associated with red slipped pottery, spindle whorls, stone adzes, jade bracelets.

Based on the radiocarbon date of the layer in which the oldest fragments were found, water buffaloes were first introduced to the Philippines by at least 500 BCE. In the early 20th century, other breeds of water buffaloes were imported from China and Cambodia for work in sugarcane plantations; these were larger and have bigger horns. Murrah buffaloes were first introduced from India in 1917. A few representatives of the Niliravi breed have been acquired; the word carabao is now used for the imported river type buffaloes, as well as for the local swamp buffaloes. Carabaos are distributed in all the larger islands of the Philippines. Carabao hide was once used extensively to create a variety of products, including the armor of precolonial Filipino warriors. In 1993, the Philippine Carabao Center was established to conserve and promote the carabao as a source of draft animal power, meat and hide to benefit the rural farmers through carabao genetic improvement, technology development and dissemination, establishment of carabao-based enterprises, thus ensuring higher income and better nutrition.

The National Water Buffalo Gene Pool in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, is a facility for continuous selection and propagation of superior breeds of dairy buffaloes. In 2003, 3.2 million carabao were in the Philippines. One of the many reasons for the failure of the attempted Japanese pacification of the Philippines during their 1941–1945 occupation was their indifference to the basics of the Filipino economy; the carabaos provided the necessary labor that allowed Filipino farmers to grow rice and other staples. Japanese army patrols would not only confiscate the rice, but would slaughter the carabaos for meat, thereby preventing the farmers from growing enough rice to feed the large population. Before World War II, an estimated three million carabaos inhabited the Philippines. By the end of the war, an

Ronald Bertram Smith was a British classical pianist and teacher. Smith was born in London, grew up in Sussex, he was educated at the Brighton College of Music. He entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16 with the Sir Michael Costa Scholarship for composition. After leaving the academy he studied in Paris with Marguerite Long, while taking an external BMus degree from Durham University, he was influenced by the pianist Edwin Fischer, whom he impressed as a contestant in the 1949 Geneva international piano competition. When Fischer visited London he selected Smith and Denis Matthews to play the second and third piano parts in his recording of Bach's triple keyboard concerto. Smith said he learnt more in four days working with Fischer than he had in his years of previous study; as a performer, Smith championed piano works from the romantic period. In the 1940s he was first asked to record music by the neglected Charles-Valentin Alkan, his Concerto for Solo Piano, he was sent the score by Humphrey Searle: when he first saw it he thought it "seemed unplayable".

He recorded many of Alkan's works, wrote a biography. His efforts played a major role in rekindling interest in Alkan, including remaining president of the Alkan Society from 1977 when it was formed until his death, his recorded legacy encompasses pioneering performances of Alkan, including the complete studies in all the minor keys Op. 39, as well as music by Chopin, Beethoven and Liszt. He taught the piano for many years, first at Harrow School from 1943, at The King's School, Canterbury from the 1950s to 1990, he took auditions at the Kent School of Music to select private students to whom he could donate his spare time. Smith married the cellist Anne Norman in 1969, they had one daughter, Beka Smith, they established a family home at Saltwood in Kent, in a large house which afforded space for a music studio. Smith died in Hythe, aged 82, on 27 May 2004. Links to obituaries in UK newspapers Obituary printed in The Independent WNCN-FM interview, David Dubal & Ronald Smith, 26-Feb-1982 on YouTube WNCN-FM interview, David Dubal & Ronald Smith, 5-Mar-1982 on YouTube

The Utah prisoner of war massacre took place after the end of World War II in Europe at midnight on July 8, 1945 at a German and Italian prisoner-of-war camp in Salina, Utah. Nine German prisoners of war were murdered and nineteen prisoners were wounded by American private Clarence V. Bertucci, on active duty in the camp. After a night out, Bertucci returned to camp around midnight to assume his night duty at the guard tower. Bertucci subsequently loaded the.30-caliber M1917 Browning machine gun on the tower and fired at the tents of the sleeping prisoners. After the massacre, he revealed his motivation was that, "he had hated Germans, so he had killed Germans." Six Germans were killed, three died in Salina's hospital, nineteen were wounded. The victims were buried with full military honors at the Fort Douglas Cemetery. Wounded prisoners were sent back to Germany after they were healthy enough to travel. After the massacre, Bertucci was taken into custody with little resistance, he was evaluated for a few weeks, before doctors determined that he was "mentally unbalanced".

Military officers forewent a court-martial on account of insanity and he was sent to Mason General Hospital in New York for an undisclosed amount of time. The Midnight Massacre is remembered for being "the worst massacre at a POW camp in U. S. history" and represented the largest killing of enemy prisoners in the United States during World War II. A museum was opened at Camp Salina in 2016. During World War II, Utah was home to around 15,000 Italian and German prisoners that were distributed across several camps. Camp Salina was a small, temporary branch camp to accommodate overflow prisoners in Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, it was occupied from 1944 to 1945 by about 250 Germans, most of whom were from Erwin Rommel's Afrikakorps. It was a simple complex. Before it became a prisoner of war camp, Camp Salina was a Civilian Conservation Corps facility. Unlike many other American prison camps, which were built in isolated areas, Camp Salina was located within the small town of Salina, at the eastern end of Main Street.

The Germans had been sent there to help with the harvest of sugar beets and other produce, according to Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune, they were well-behaved and friendly to the locals. Soldiers unfit for front line service, such as those with behavioral problems, were assigned to guard duty on the camp. Private Clarence V. Bertucci was born in New Orleans on September 14, 1921, he dropped out of school in the sixth grade, joined the United States Army in 1940. After five years of service, including one tour to England with an artillery unit, Bertucci seemed to be incapable of being promoted and had a "discipline problem". According to testimony, he was unsatisfied with his tour and said that he felt "cheated" out of his chance to kill Germans, he was quoted as saying, "Someday I will get my Germans. Apart from overtly expressing his hatred of Germans, Bertucci did not show any indications of what he was planning on doing in the days before the massacre, he was 23 years old at the time of the massacre.

On the night of July 7, 1945, Bertucci was out drinking. He stopped at a cafe on Main Street to have some coffee and to speak with a waitress, telling her "something exciting is going to happen tonight", before reporting for guard duty back at the camp. After the midnight changing of the guard, Bertucci waited for the previous watch to go to bed he climbed up the guard tower nearest to the officer's quarters, loaded the.30-caliber M1917 Browning machine gun, mounted at the position, opened fire on the tents of sleeping Germans. Moving the gun back and forth, Bertucci hit thirty of the forty-three tents before being removed from the tower by another soldier. Bertucci was quoted to have said "Get more ammo! I'm not done yet!"With three trigger pulls, the firing lasted about fifteen seconds, long enough to fire 250 rounds of ammunition. Lt. Albert I Cornell demanded Bertucci come down from the tower, he refused because, "some of them are still alive". After another guard was sent to bring him down, Bertucci was taken into custody without any resistance.

Despite his drinking prior to the incident, he was not found to be intoxicated upon arrest. Guards kept a close watch for prisoner retaliation, but there was none. Six of the Germans were killed outright, two died in Salina's hospital, one died in an army hospital, nineteen others were wounded. There was not enough room in the hospital so many prisoners were treated on the hospital lawn. One of the prisoners was "nearly cut in half" by the machine gun fire, although he managed to survive for six hours, it was said that "blood flowed out the front door" of the hospital. The victims were: Otto Bross, age 25, single Ernst Fuchs (b. 19 January 1921, Rhein-Hunsrück, age 24, single Gottfried Gaag, age 29, single Georg Liske, age 31, wife Antomie Liske Hans Meyer, age 24, single Adolf Paul, age 28, single Fritz Stockmann, age 24, single Walter Vogel, wife Emma Vogel Friedrich Ritter died of his wounds five days age 48, wife Berta Ritter. The Piqua Daily Call reported, "Clarence V Bertucci was under mental observation today after admitting that he sprayed gun bullets on a group of war prisoners while they slept, killing eight and wounding 19 b