Chilperic I was the king of Neustria from 561 to his death. He was one of the sons of the Frankish king Clotaire Queen Aregund. After the death of his father in 561, he endeavoured to take possession of the whole kingdom, seized the treasure amassed in the royal town of Berny and entered Paris, his brothers, compelled him to divide the kingdom with them, Soissons, together with Amiens, Cambrai, Thérouanne and Boulogne fell to Chilperic's share. His eldest brother Charibert received Paris, the second eldest brother Guntram received Burgundy with its capital at Orléans, Sigebert received Austrasia. On the death of Charibert in 567, Chilperic's estates were augmented when the brothers divided Charibert's kingdom among themselves and agreed to share Paris. Not long after his accession, however, he was at war with Sigebert, with whom he would long remain in a state of—at the least—antipathy. Sigebert defeated him and marched to Soissons, where he defeated and imprisoned Chilperic's eldest son, Theudebert.

The war flared at the death of Charibert. Chilperic invaded Sigebert's new lands, but Sigebert defeated him. Chilperic allied with Guntram against Sigebert, but Guntram changed sides and Chilperic again lost the war; when Sigebert married Brunhilda, daughter of the Visigothic sovereign in Spain, Chilperic wished to make a brilliant marriage. He had repudiated his first wife and had taken as his concubine a serving-woman called Fredegund, he accordingly dismissed Fredegund, married Brunhilda's sister, Galswintha. But he soon tired of his new partner, one morning Galswintha was found strangled in her bed. A few days afterwards Chilperic married Fredegund; this murder was the cause of more long and bloody wars, interspersed with truces, between Chilperic and Sigebert. In 575, Sigebert was assassinated by Fredegund at the moment when he had Chilperic at his mercy. Chilperic made war with the protector of Sigebert's wife and son, Guntram. Chilperic retrieved his position, took from Austrasia Tours and Poitiers and some places in Aquitaine, fostered discord in the kingdom of the east during the minority of Childebert II.

In 578, Chilperic sent an army to fight the Breton ruler Waroch II of the Bro-Wened along the Vilaine. The Frankish army consisted of units from the Poitou, Anjou and Bayeux; the Baiocassenses were Saxons and they in particular were routed by the Bretons. The armies fought for three days before Waroch submitted, did homage for Vannes, sent his son as a hostage, agreed to pay an annual tribute, he subsequently broke his oath but Chilperic's dominion over the Bretons was secure, as evidenced by Venantius Fortunatus's celebration of it in a poem. Most of what is known of Chilperic comes from The History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours. Gregory detested Chilperic, calling him "the Nero and Herod of his time": he had provoked Gregory's wrath by wresting Tours from Austrasia, seizing ecclesiastical property, appointing as bishops counts of the palace who were not clerics. Gregory objected to Chilperic's attempts to teach a new doctrine of the Trinity. Chilperic's reign in Neustria saw the introduction of the Byzantine punishment of eye-gouging.

Yet, he was a man of culture: he was a musician of some talent, he wrote verse. In September 584, while returning from a hunting expedition at his royal villa of Chelles, Chilperic was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant. Chilperic I's first marriage was to Audovera, they had five children: Theudebert. Merovech, became his father's enemy Clovis. Basina, led a revolt in the abbey of Poitiers Childesinda His short second marriage to Galswintha produced no children, his concubinage and subsequent marriage to Fredegund in about 568 produced six more legitimate offspring: Rigunth, betrothed to Reccared but never married. Chlodebert, died young. Samson, died young. Dagobert, died young. Theuderic, died young. Chlothar II, Chilperic's successor in Neustria sole king of the Franks. Chilperic's name in Frankish meant "powerful supporter", akin to German hilfreich "auxiliary" An operetta on the subject, Chilpéric, was created by Hervé, first performed in 1864. Sérésia, L'Eglise el l'Etat sous les rois. Dahmus, Joseph Henry.

Seven Medieval Queens. 1972. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Chilperic". Encyclopædia Britannica. 6. Cambridge University Press. P. 163. History of the Franks: Books I-X At Medieval Sourcebook

Rainbow BRTS is a bus rapid transit system in the twin cities of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, in Maharashtra, India. The system is operated by the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited; the infrastructure has been developed by the Pune Municipal Corporation, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. The project envisages 113 km of dedicated bus corridors along with buses, bus stations and intelligent transit management system; the Rainbow BRTS project is being implemented with the financial support of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission of the Government of India. Additionally, specific components of the project in Pimpri-Chinchwad are being funded under the ‘Sustainable Urban Transport Project’, an initiative of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India and is supported by The World Bank, UNDP & GEF. Pune was the second city in India to experiment with a Bus Rapid Transit system, after Ahmedabad, which opened the nation's first BRT in 2010. PMPML started plying pilot routes in December 2006.

The Hadapsar-Katraj pilot project consisted of 16.5 kilometres of bus lanes along the Pune Satara Road using airconditioned, low-floor more than 500 Volvo B7RLE buses on Katraj - Swargate - Hadapsar. Most of these buses are not in service currently; the funding for the project came from the Government of India under the Jawaharlala Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Total of 112 kilometres route was proposed for Rainbow BRTS. Now regular PMPML buses ply on the Hadapsar-Katraj corridor of BRTS; the Pimpri-Chinchwad BRTS was announced in December 2008, when eight routes covering 112 km were proposed. Construction of the first route was due to be completed within 18 months. By January 2009, 90% of construction work on an 11 km pilot route between Nigdi and Dapodi had been completed. However, a string of disputes between the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, civic administrators and corporators led to the project being delayed, with corporators citing funding difficulties and problems encountered on the similar Delhi BRTS and Rainbow BRTS projects as the causes.

In September 2009 it was announced to the press that, although most work had been completed, difficulties procuring the 650 buses required to run on the system had led to the project being indefinitely postponed. It was found that the proposed new bus shelters had been due to be installed on the wrong side of the road, leading to delays in their construction, while passenger information systems had yet to be installed; the PCMC stated that this was not a major issue as the shelters could be constructed from prefabricated materials, that the vehicles would be purchased by December 2009. A month it was revealed that the cost of the project had overrun by 230 crore, around 50% of the total project cost. By May 2010, funding for the completion of four BRT routes had been agreed, with the remaining four sanctioned by the national government but not yet funded. A number of high-rise buildings along the routes had been approved for construction. Both the systems were merged to form Rainbow BRTS, under expansion.

By April 2014 two of the routes were with the first station near to completion. The first two lines were expected to be operational by the end of March or the beginning of April 2015; the Sangvi-Kiwale corridor was thrown open to public on 5 September 2015. The Rainbow BRT system in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, launched in 2015, has features such as: Special Rainbow BRT buses with doors on both sides that run in reserved lanes in the BRT corridors Bus stations that are covered and located in the median of the dedicated lanes, with access ramps and signage Level Boarding - The bus platform and the BRT station platform are at the same height Automatic Doors - Automatic doors on BRT stations and bus doors open when the bus is docked at the station Crossings - The crossings from the footpath to the BRT stations have signals at several locations or have speed tables Passenger Information System - Information on bus arrivals is displayed on screens at the bus stations. Buses have audio announcements.

Route numbers are displayed on LED screens on the front and the left side of buses Intelligent Transit Management System - The BRT Buses have GPS and buses and stations are linked with a BRTS Control Room which tracks bus movement and is able to communicate with the bus drivers. Security and Traffic Management- Security personnel are deployed at the bus stations. Traffic Wardens are deployed at signals and crossings to prevent entry of other vehicles into dedicated bus lanes. Feeder bus routes or regular services are run by PMPML from various locations in the city up to the BRT corridors; the system will when completed comprise eight routes with a total length of 112 km, with improved street lighting and passenger facilities on the roads used by the system. It will require around 650 buses to operate the complete network; the system will be different from that in neighbouring Pune, with wider roads and grade separation allowing a more substantial network to be constructed. The buses and bus stops alike are integrated via the Integrated Traffic Management System which enable travellers to know the ETA of the bus.

The bus stops and the buses are equipped with automatic doors, that open when they are in close proximity. The bus-stops are accessible by a low-gradient ramp on one end. Signals are being installed near the bus stops to enable pedestrians to cross the road; the features of Rainbow BRT include Buses - Over 600 special Rainbow BRT buses with doors on both sides and more standing space, that ply smoothly a

The giant snipe is a stocky wader. It breeds in South America; the nominate subspecies G. u. undulata occurs in two distinct areas, one in Colombia, the other from Venezuela through Guyana and French Guiana to extreme north-eastern Brazil. The southern subspecies G. u. gigantea is found in eastern Bolivia, eastern Paraguay and south-east Brazil, also in Uruguay and north-eastern Argentina. It occurs in tall vegetation in swamps and flooded grasslands, in dry savannah, it ranges from the lowlands up to 2,200 m altitude. It seems to arrive in some areas after rain, but its seasonal movements are poorly understood; the giant snipe was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle, produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Scolopax undulata in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The giant snipe is now placed in the genus Gallinago, introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760; the generic name is New Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin gallina, "hen" and the suffix -ago, "resembling". The specific epithet undulatus is Latin for "with wave-like markings". Two subspecies are recognised: G. u. undulata – Colombia, the Guianas, north Brazil G. u. gigantea – east Bolivia to Paraguay, southeast Brazil and northeast Argentina This is the largest snipe at 40–43.5 cm in length. G. u. gigantea, as its name suggests, is larger than the nominate subspecies with little overlap in size. The giant snipe has a stocky body and short legs for a wader, it has broad rounded wings like a woodcock and a long bill. Its upperparts and neck are streaked and patterned with black and brown, chestnut edges to the feathers form distinct lines down its back.

The belly is white with brown barring on the flanks. The flight feathers are barred, a feature unique to this snipe; the horn-coloured bill is long and straight. The legs and feet are greyish-green. No plumage differences related to age or sex are known, but in other snipe the sexes are similar and immature birds differ only in showing pale fringes on the wing coverts; the giant snipe has a kek-kek call when flushed, a rasping trisyllabic call is given in its nocturnal display flight. Giant snipe can be distinguished from the sympatric common and the Magellan snipe by its huge size and rounded wings; the other large species, Andean and imperial snipe, are upland species which lack the well-defined upperpart markings and white belly shown by giant snipe. The noble snipe is more similar to giant, but smaller-bodied. Nests of the southern race have been found in Brazil in September and from November to early January, they are placed on a hillock between swamps, 2–4 eggs are laid. No nests of the nominate subspecies have been found.

This species is seen on the ground, its habitat, reluctance to flush until trodden on, cryptic plumage, nocturnal feeding mean its habits are unknown. Its diet includes frogs; the giant snipe is seen alone when flushed. Other Gallinago snipes have an aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers; this species displays at night. The giant snipe is hunted through most of its range, its large size making it easier to shoot than other snipes. Habitat loss is a threat, at least in part of its range, it is nowhere common, is local and uncommon in Colombia and Venezuela, but its nocturnal habits and secretive behaviour might exaggerate its apparent scarcity, it is not thought to be threatened. Hayman and Prater, Shorebirds ISBN 0-395-37903-2 BirdLife International