1.
Raimundo Pereira
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Pereira was elected as President of the National Peoples Assembly on 22 December 2008. Pereira is a member of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and he was ousted in a coup on 12 April 2012 and succeeded by Mamadu Ture Kuruma. Pereira is a lawyer by training and he received 60 votes, while a rival PAIGC candidate, Helder Proença, received 37. Pereira was sworn in on 3 March 2009, according to the constitution, Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior and an Economic Community of West African States delegation were present for his swearing in. On that occasion, Pereira urged the community to help Guinea-Bissau regain the reflexes of a stable state. At Vieiras funeral on 10 March, Pereira said that meeting the 60-day deadline for holding a new election was one of our greatest challenges and he received 144 votes, while Pereira received 118. Sanhá went on to win the election and succeeded Pereira on 8 September 2009, on 12 April 2012, Pereira was ousted in a coup and succeeded by Mamadu Ture Kuruma, Chairman of the Military Command of Guinea-Bissau. Pereira and Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Júnior were arrested by the military as gunfire ensued in the capital of Bissau, the Chairperson of the African Union Jean Ping issued a statement rejecting the coup and demanded the release of Pereira and Gomes. The United Nations Security Council issued a statement saying that they condemn the forcible seizure of power. On 27 April 2012, the leaders were freed and sent to the Ivory Coast
2.
Henrique Rosa
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Henrique Pereira Rosa was a politician from Guinea-Bissau who served as interim President of Guinea-Bissau from 2003 to 2005. He was born in 1946 in Bafatá, Rosa served as the interim President of Guinea-Bissau from 28 September 2003 until 1 October 2005. The main goal of the Rosa-led caretaker government was to administer elections that would return the country to constitutional and this was achieved in March 2004 with the holding of a free and fair legislative election. A presidential election held in June and July 2005 was also considered democratic, the latter election was won by João Bernardo Nino Vieira, who had previously been President from 1980 to 1999, Rosa was not a candidate. Also during this period, Rosas government managed to bring a level of political stability to Guinea-Bissau along with notable improvements in the countrys human rights record. Rosa handed over power to Vieira on 1 October 2005, Rosa stood as an independent candidate in the June 2009 presidential election, finishing in third place. On 15 May 2013, Rosa died at a hospital in Porto, in northern Portugal, after losing a nine month battle with lung cancer
3.
Bolama
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Bolama is the closest of the Bijagós Islands to the mainland of Guinea-Bissau, and is also the name of the islands main town, the capital of the Bolama Region. It is almost surrounded by swamps and is known for its cashew nuts. Although often visited by people, the island was apparently uninhabited when British colonists settled it in 1792. Following a series of failures, they abandoned the island in 1794, the Portuguese also claimed Bolama in 1830 and a dispute developed. In 1860, the British proclaimed the island annexed to Sierra Leone, subsequently, in 1879, Bolama became the first capital of Portuguese Guinea and remained so until its transfer to Bissau in 1941. Bissau had been founded in 1687 by Portugal as a fortified port and this transfer was needed due to the shortage of fresh water in Bolama. Bolama later became a stop, and a seaplane crash in 1931 is commemorated by a statue in the town. The abandoned houses of the old capital provide a shelter for thousands of enormous fruit eating bats. Every evening, these bats flock to the mainland, darkening the skies, a fruit processing plant was built on Bolama shortly after independence of Guinea Bissau, with Dutch foreign aid. This plant produced canned juice and jelly of cashew fruit, however, it could not expand and had to shut down its operations, due to the shortage of fresh water on the island. Attractions on the island include sandy beaches and the Bolama Governors Palace and it is also designated as a biosphere reserve, and the Guinea-Bissauan government is aiming for it to be designated the nations first World Heritage Site. A causeway links the island to the Ilha das Cobras, Bolama is twinned with, Faro, Portugal Estrela Negra de Bolama - the most popular club in the BIjagos Archipelago, it last appeared in the national Second Division. Abolition Gone Wrong - article about the failed 1792 English settlement of Bolama
4.
Portuguese Guinea
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The Portuguese Crown commissioned its navigators to explore the Atlantic coast of West Africa to find the sources of gold. The gold trade was controlled by Morocco, and Muslim caravan routes across the Sahara also carried salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain, and slaves. The navigators first passed the obstruction of Cape Bojador in 1437 and were able to explore the West African coast as far as Sierra Leone by 1460 and colonize the Cape Verde islands from 1456. The gold ultimately came from the reaches of the Niger River and Volta River. To control this trade, the king ordered the building of a castle, called São Jorge da Mina, on the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1482, the Portuguese government instituted the Company of Guinea to deal with the trading and to fix the prices of the goods. Besides gold, ivory, Melegueta pepper and slaves were traded and it is estimated that the Atlantic slave trade transported around 11 million people from Africa between 1440 and 1870, including 2 million from Senegambia or Upper Guinea. The Portuguese used slaves to grow cotton and indigo in the previously uninhabited Cape Verde islands, Portuguese traders and exiled criminals penetrated the rivers and creeks of Upper Guinea forming a mulatto population using Portuguese-based Creole language as their lingua franca. After 1500 the main area of Portuguese interest for gold and slaves was further south in the Gold Coast. At the start of the 17th century, the main Portuguese bases for the export of slaves were Santiago, Cape Verde for the Upper Guinea traffic, and São Tomé Island for the Gulf of Guinea. In the 17th century, the French at Saint-Louis, Senegal, Bissau, founded in 1765, became the centre of Portuguese control. Further British interest in the led to a brief attempt in the 1790s to establish a base on the island of Bolama. Between the retreat of the British settlers in 1793 and the official Portuguese occupation of the island in 1837 there were attempts to establish a European presence on the island. The abolition of the trade by Britain in 1807 presented the slave traders of Guinea with a virtual monopoly of the West Africa slave trade with Brazil. The last significant consignment of West African slaves reached Brazil in 1852, britains interest in the Upper Guinea region declined with the end of the British slave trade in 1807 and became focused on Sierra Leone after the Boloma Island settlement was abandoned. At the start of the 19th century the Portuguese felt reasonably secure in Bissau and their control was tenuous, for much of the 19th century the Portuguese presence in Guinea was mainly limited to the rivers of Guinea, the settlements of Bissau, Cacheu and Ziguinchor. Elsewhere it was preserved, with official assistance, by local Creole people and Cape Verde islanders. The existence of French- and Senegalese-run plantations brought a risk of French claims south of the Casamance River, at this time, Portugal occupied half a dozen coastal or river bases, controlling some maritime trade but few of Guineas people. However, in 1892, Portugal made Guinea a separate district to promote its occupation
5.
Guinea-Bissau
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Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa. It covers 36,125 square kilometres with a population of 1,704,000. Guinea-Bissau was once part of the kingdom of Gabu, as well as part of the Mali Empire, parts of this kingdom persisted until the 18th century, while a few others were under some rule by the Portuguese Empire since the 16th century. In the 19th century, it was colonized as Portuguese Guinea, upon independence, declared in 1973 and recognised in 1974, the name of its capital, Bissau, was added to the countrys name to prevent confusion with Guinea. Guinea-Bissau has a history of instability since independence, and no elected president has successfully served a full five-year term. Only 14% of the population speaks Portuguese, established as the language in the colonial period. Almost half the population speaks Crioulo, a Portuguese-based creole language, the main religions are African traditional religions and Islam, there is a Christian minority. The countrys per-capita gross domestic product is one of the lowest in the world, Guinea-Bissau was once part of the kingdom of Gabu, part of the Mali Empire, parts of this kingdom persisted until the 18th century. Other parts of the territory in the current country were considered by the Portuguese as part of their empire, Portuguese Guinea was known as the Slave Coast, as it was a major area for the exportation of African slaves by Europeans to the western hemisphere. Early reports of Europeans reaching this area include those of the Venetian Alvise Cadamostos voyage of 1455, the 1479–1480 voyage by Flemish-French trader Eustache de la Fosse, and Diogo Cão. In the 1480s this Portuguese explorer reached the Congo River and the lands of Bakongo, setting up the foundations of modern Angola, some 4200 km down the African coast from Guinea-Bissau. The local African rulers in Guinea, some of whom prospered greatly from the trade, controlled the inland trade. They kept them in the coastal settlements where the trading took place. African communities that fought back against slave traders also distrusted European adventurers, the Portuguese in Guinea were largely restricted to the port of Bissau and Cacheu. A small number of European settlers established isolated farms along Bissaus inland rivers, for a brief period in the 1790s, the British tried to establish a rival foothold on an offshore island, at Bolama. But by the 19th century the Portuguese were sufficiently secure in Bissau to regard the neighbouring coastline as their own special territory, cuba also agreed to supply artillery experts, doctors, and technicians. The PAIGC even managed to acquire a significant anti-aircraft capability in order to defend itself against aerial attack, by 1973, the PAIGC was in control of many parts of Guinea, although the movement suffered a setback in January 1973 when Cabral was assassinated. Independence was unilaterally declared on 24 September 1973, recognition became universal following 25 April 1974 socialist-inspired military coup in Portugal, which overthrew Lisbons Estado Novo regime
6.
Guinea-Bissau presidential election, 2012
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Presidential elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 18 March 2012 following the death of President Malam Bacai Sanhá on 9 January. A run-off was set to be held on 29 April after being postponed by a week as announced by electoral commission chief Desejado Lima Dacosta, however, after a military coup, the leading candidates were arrested and the election was cancelled. The juntas spokesman then announced plans to hold an election in two years, despite condemnation, General elections were subsequently held in April 2014. Following the death of Malam Bacai Sanhá on 9 January 2012, no president in the history of independent Guinea-Bissau has completed his term in office, Three presidents have been ousted, one was assassinated, and another died in office. Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Júnior resigned on 10 February to run for the presidency, a total of nine candidates contested the elections, five of whom ran in the previous elections in 2009. Their campaign literature was said to be largely recycled, Carlos Gomes Júnior and Kumba Ialá were said to be the frontrunners in the election. Ialás support base was based on his Balanta ethnic group. Gomes Júnior had indicated he wanted to reform the armed forces, campaigning for the second round was due to start on 13 April and end on 27 April. UNIOGBIS spokesman Vladimir Monteiro said, The election was held in a peaceful manner. He also added that the commission is mandated by the constitution to release the result within 10 days of the election. The Guardian reported witnesses as saying that soldiers had fired at him and then taken his body away, no candidate was able to attain a 50% majority in the first round. The leading two candidates, Carlos Gomes Júnior and Kumba Ialá were set to each other in a runoff election to be held on 22 April. Five of the first round candidates complained that the poll had been fraudulent despite independent, despite a peaceful campaign, there were fears of possible violence or a coup détat if the army did not approve of the winner. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a peaceful, orderly, the Director General of the Judicial Police Joao Biague announced that the former head of intelligence, Samba Diallo, was assassinated shortly after the polls closed
7.
National People's Assembly (Guinea-Bissau)
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The unicameral National Peoples Assembly is Guinea-Bissaus legislative body. The current National Peoples Assembly, formed following elections held on 28 March 2004, has a total of 102 seats,100 members are elected through a system of party-list proportional representation. The remaining two seats are reserved for Guinea-Bissau citizens living overseas, but they were not filled in the most recent election, political party distribution in the current National Peoples Assembly is as follows, Fourteen women occupy seats in the National Peoples Assembly. Cipriano Cassamá is the president of the assembly, history of Guinea-Bissau Politics of Guinea-Bissau List of Presidents of the National Peoples Assembly of Guinea-Bissau Official website
8.
Economic Community of West African States
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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
9.
Guinea-Bissau presidential election, 2005
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Presidential elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 19 June 2005, with a second round runoff on 24 July. The elections marked the end of a transition to rule after the previously elected government was overthrown in a September 2003 military coup led by General Veríssimo Correia Seabra. The result was a victory for former President and independent candidate João Bernardo Vieira, following the coup, a civilian government was nominated to oversee the transition and sworn in on 28 September 2003. Henrique Rosa was appointed interim President following talks with military, political, a legislative election, delayed numerous times during the presidency of Kumba Ialá, took place on 28 March 2004. The poll was declared free and fair by observers and the former ruling party. Ialás party, the PRS, placed second, followed by the United Social Democratic Party, PAIGC leader Carlos Gomes Júnior took office as Prime Minister in May 2004. The transitional period has been one of increased political and national stability, the caretaker government has managed to improve Guinea-Bissaus human rights record, as evidenced in the most recent U. S. The previous report stated The Governments human rights record remained poor, the biggest threat to stability came on 6 October 2004 when a mutiny by soldiers—instigated by unpaid wages—turned violent. General Veríssimo Correia Seabra and his lieutenant were killed by the revolting soldiers, despite this setback, the tense relations between the government and the military improved with the signing of a memorandum of understanding. On 10 May 2005, the Supreme Court published a list of candidates that will contest the election, three previously barred candidates were allowed to contest the poll and appeared on the final list of candidates published on 18 May. The 13 candidates are, Adelino Mano Queta - Independent Antonieta Rosa Gomes - Guinean Civic Forum-Social Democracy, contested the 1994 presidential election and won 1. 79% of the vote. Aregado Mantenque Té - Workers Party Paulino Empossa Ié - Independent Faustino Fadut Imbali - Manifest Party of the People, Prime Minister from March to December of 2001. Francisco Fadul - United Social Democratic Party, Prime Minister from 3 December 1998 to 19 February 2000. Mamadú Iaia Djaló - Independent Idrissa Djaló - National Unity Party João Bernardo Nino Vieira - Independent, like Ialá, he was banned from national politics for five years but his candidacy was approved by the supreme court. João Tátis Sá - Guinean Peoples Party Kumba Ialá - Party for Social Renewal and he contested the countrys first democratic elections in 1994, losing to incumbent João Bernardo Vieira, and won the 1999/2000 election. He served as president from 17 February 2000 until his ouster by the military in September 2003 and his nomination is controversial because the transitional government announced a five-year ban on political activities for former leaders following the coup. Despite this, the Supreme Court approved his candidacy, Malam Bacai Sanhá - African Independence Party of Guinea and Cape Verde. He served as acting president from 14 May 1999 to 17 February 2000, Sanhá ran in the previous presidential elections, held on 28 November 1999 and placed second with 23. 37% of the vote to Kumba Ialás 38. 81%
10.
Bissau
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Bissau is the capital city of Guinea-Bissau. In 2007 Bissau had an population of 407,424. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissaus largest city, major port, the city was founded in 1687 by Portugal as a fortified port and trading center. In 1942 it became the capital of Portuguese Guinea, after the declaration of independence by the anti-colonial guerrillas of PAIGC in 1973, the capital of the de facto independent territories was declared to be Madina do Boe. Bissau remained as the capital of the Portuguese-occupied regions, and the de jure capital of all of Portuguese Guinea, the city is known for its annual carnival. The city, as the seat of government, was the scene of fighting during the beginning. Bissau is located at 11°52 North, 15°36 West, on the Geba River estuary, the land surrounding Bissau is extremely low-lying, and the river is accessible to ocean-going vessels despite its modest discharge for about 80 kilometres beyond the city. Bissau has a savanna climate, not quite wet enough to qualify as a tropical monsoon climate. Almost no rain falls from November to May, but during the five months of the year the city receives around 2,020 millimetres of rain. During the wet season and even during the three months beforehand, high humidity makes heat discomfort extreme, the last time an official census was held in the country in 1991, Bissau had a population of 195,389. By 2007 Bissau had an population of 407,424. Bissau is the countrys largest city, major port, educational, administrative, peanuts, hardwoods, copra, palm oil, and rubber are the chief products. The airport that serves Bissau is Osvaldo Vieira International Airport, historical Dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Media related to Bissau at Wikimedia Commons Bissau travel guide from Wikivoyage
11.
Guinea-Bissau legislative election, 2008
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Parliamentary elections were held in Guinea-Bissau on 16 November 2008. However, the head of the National Electoral Commission, El Hadj Malam Mané, on 25 March, after consultations with political party representatives, civil society, the CNE, and foreign diplomats, Vieira decided on 16 November 2008 as the date of the election. On 27 March, the Assembly voted to extend its mandate until November by a vote of 65–2, the PAIGC opposed the extension, while the PRS and the United Social Democratic Party supported it. However, the Assembly voted to uphold the extension on 16 April, with 68 deputies in favor, seven opposed, a meeting intended to assess the political situation was held on 18 April between Vieira, the government, the Assembly, and the Council of State. Subsequently, civil society called for the resignation of Prime Minister Kabi, accusing him of making death threats against Fernando Gomis. The organizations said that Kabi was unable to control his anger, on 19 May Vieira said that he had enacted the law providing for the extension of the parliamentary mandate. While remarking that those opposed to the extension were correct, he said that it was necessary to approve it for the sake of peace. On 1 August the Supreme Court annulled the law extending the terms until the election. After consultations with the class, civil society, and the Council of State, Vieira dissolved the National Peoples Assembly on 5 August. He also appointed Carlos Correia—who was previously Prime Minister under Vieira from 1991 to 1994 and from 1997 to 1998—as Prime Minister on the same day, a new government headed by Correia was appointed on 9 August. This government was dominated by Vieira loyalists and members of PAIGC, the appointment of one of these PAIGC dissidents—Cipriano Cassamá—as Minister of the Interior was deemed especially significant, due to the Interior Ministrys responsibility for the election. The PRS was given five posts in the government, while the Republican Party for Independence and Development, shortly after Correias appointment, a coup plot allegedly led by the head of the navy, Rear Admiral Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, was said to have been thwarted. Na Tchuto was placed under house arrest, but he escaped and fled to The Gambia, members of the mission met with Prime Minister Correia on 21 August, and Correia affirmed the governments intention to hold the election on schedule in November. By law, candidate lists had to be submitted at least 60 days before the election was held, by the end of the week 21 parties and coalitions submitted candidate lists and were approved by the Supreme Court. Lists submitted by 12 other parties were rejected because they were submitted an hour too late, the approved lists included two coalitions, the Democratic Alliance and the Alliance of Patriotic Forces, as well as two new parties, PRID and PADEC. A European Union pre-election evaluation mission was sent to Guinea-Bissau, after the National Election Registration Commission published the lists of registered voters, some citizens who had registered complained that they were not included on the lists. There were reportedly many errors in the lists, and the Interior Ministry promised to rectify the situation so that the lists published by the CNE would be accurate. He also claimed there were plans to rig the election in favor of PAIGC
12.
African Union
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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
13.
United Nations Security Council
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The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following World War II to address the failings of an international organization. The Security Council consists of fifteen members, the great powers that were the victors of World War II—the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Republic of China, and the United States—serve as the bodys five permanent members. These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General, the Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. The bodys presidency rotates monthly among its members, Security Council resolutions are typically enforced by UN peacekeepers, military forces voluntarily provided by member states and funded independently of the main UN budget. As of 2016,103,510 peacekeeping soldiers and 16,471 civilians are deployed on 16 peacekeeping operations and 1 special political mission. Following the catastrophic loss of life in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between the nations, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. The most contentious issue at Dumbarton and in successive talks proved to be the rights of permanent members. At the conference, H. V. Evatt of the Australian delegation pushed to further restrict the power of Security Council permanent members. Due to the fear that rejecting the strong veto would cause the conferences failure, the UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. On 17 January 1946, the Security Council met for the first time at Church House, Westminster, in London, United Kingdom. The Security Council was largely paralysed in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and USSR and their allies, and the Council generally was only able to intervene in unrelated conflicts. Cold War divisions also paralysed the Security Councils Military Staff Committee, the committee continued to exist on paper but largely abandoned its work in the mid-1950s. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its budget for peacekeeping. After the Cold War, the UN saw an expansion in its peacekeeping duties. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, undersecretary-General Brian Urquhart later described the hopes raised by these successes as a false renaissance for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed. In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide in the face of Security Council indecision, in the late 1990s, UN-authorised international interventions took a wider variety of forms
14.
Ivory Coast
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Ivory Coast or Côte dIvoire, officially the Republic of Côte dIvoire, is a country located in West Africa. Ivory Coasts political capital is Yamoussoukro, and its economic capital and its bordering countries are Guinea and Liberia in the west, Burkina Faso and Mali in the north, and Ghana in the east. The Gulf of Guinea is located south of Ivory Coast, prior to its colonization by Europeans, Ivory Coast was home to several states, including Gyaaman, the Kong Empire, and Baoulé. Two Anyi kingdoms, Indénié and Sanwi, attempted to retain their identity through the French colonial period. Ivory Coast became a protectorate of France in 1843–1844 and was formed into a French colony in 1893 amid the European scramble for Africa. Ivory Coast achieved independence in 1960, led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the country maintained close political and economic association with its West African neighbors while at the same time maintaining close ties to the West, especially France. Since the end of Houphouët-Boignys rule in 1993, Ivory Coast has experienced one coup détat, in 1999, the first took place between 2002 and 2007 and the second during 2010-2011. As a result, in 2000, the adopted a new Constitution. Ivory Coast is a republic with an executive power invested in its President. Through the production of coffee and cocoa, the country was a powerhouse in West Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. Ivory Coast went through a crisis in the 1980s, contributing to a period of political and social turmoil. Changing into the 21st-century Ivorian economy is largely market-based and still heavily on agriculture. The official language is French, with indigenous languages also widely used, including Baoulé, Dioula, Dan, Anyin. In total there are around 78 languages spoken in Ivory Coast, popular religions include Islam, Christianity, and various indigenous religions. Originally, Portuguese and French merchant-explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries divided the west coast of Africa, very roughly, there was also a Pepper Coast also known as the Grain Coast, a Gold Coast, and a Slave Coast. Like those, the name Ivory Coast reflected the major trade occurred on that particular stretch of the coast. One can find the name Cote de Dents regularly used in older works and it was used in Ducketts Dictionnaire and by Nicolas Villault de Bellefond, for examples, although Antoine François Prévost used Côte dIvoire. In the 19th century, usage switched to Côte dIvoire and it retained the name through French rule and independence in 1960
15.
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
