1.
Order of the British Empire
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There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
University of Rhode Island
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The University of Rhode Island, commonly referred to as URI, is the principal public research as well as the land grant and sea grant university for the state of Rhode Island. Its main campus is located in the village of Kingston in southern Rhode Island, the university offers bachelors degrees, masters degrees, and doctoral degrees in 80 undergraduate and 49 graduate areas of study through eight academic colleges. These colleges include Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Education and Professional Studies, Engineering, Health Sciences, Environment and Life Sciences, Nursing and Pharmacy. Another college, University College for Academic Success, serves primarily as a college for all incoming undergraduates. The University enrolled about 13,600 undergraduate and 3,000 graduate students in Fall 2015, U. S. News & World Report classifies URI as a tier 1 national university, ranking it tied for 161st in the U. S. The University was first chartered as the agricultural school and agricultural experiment station in 1888. The site of the school was originally the Oliver Watson Farm, in 1892, the school became known as the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The first class had only seventeen students, each completing their course of study in two years, in 1909, the schools name was again changed to Rhode Island State College as the schools programs were expanded beyond its original agricultural education mandate. In 1951 the school was given its current title through an act of the General Assembly following the addition of the College of Arts and Sciences and the offering of doctoral degrees. The Board of Governors for Higher Education, appointed by the governor, the Board of Governors was replaced by the Rhode Island Board of Education in 2013. The current president is David M. Dooley, students can choose from about 80 majors within eight different colleges. Among the most popular majors at URI are Nursing, Communication Studies, Psychology, Kinesiology, the University also boasts nationally ranked programs in Pharmacy, Landscape Architecture, and Oceanography. Only Colorado State University, Iowa State University and the University of California at Berkeley ranked ahead of URI, of the top 10 universities in the field, URIs program has the fewest faculty members with 10. Agricultural and natural resource economists study the interactions between economic and natural systems, with the goal of developing a sustainable and efficient economy, U. S. News & World Report classifies URI as a tier 1 national university, ranking it tied for 161st overall. The average incoming freshman for the fall of 2015 had a GPA of 3.46, the University of Rhode Island Department of Athletics and Recreation fields teams that compete in 17 intercollegiate sports. The University is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, the Director of Athletics is Thorr Bjorn, who previously worked at the University of Massachusetts. There are over one hundred officially recognized student organizations at the University of Rhode Island, most student organizations are funded by the URI Student Senate, which is in turn funded by fees levied on all students. Prominent organizations include, URI Student Senate — the undergraduate student government, URI Student Alumni Association -- Organization that promotes school spirit and bringing students of the past, present, and future together
4.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
5.
CNN
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The Cable News Network is an American basic cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. It was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel, upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and was the first all-news television channel in the United States. While the news channel has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from the Time Warner Center in New York City and its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta is only used for weekend programming. CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U. S. to distinguish the American channel from its sister network. As of August 2010, CNN is available in over 100 million U. S. households, broadcast coverage of the U. S. channel extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms, as well as carriage on cable and satellite providers throughout Canada. Globally, CNN programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories, as of February 2015, CNN is available to about 96,289,000 cable, satellite, and telco television households in the United States. The Cable News Network was launched at 5,00 p. m. Eastern Time on June 1,1980, after an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the channels first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the vice president of CNN at its launch, hired most of the channels first 200 employees, including the networks first news anchor. Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite providers, several websites. The company has 36 bureaus, more than 900 affiliated local stations, the channels success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for conglomerate Time Warners eventual acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. A companion channel, CNN2, was launched on January 1,1982, on January 28,1986, CNN carried the only live television coverage of the launch and subsequent break-up of Space Shuttle Challenger, which killed all seven crew members on board. On October 14,1987, Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old toddler, fell down a well in Midland, CNN quickly reported on the story, and the event helped make its name. This was before correspondents reported live from the capital while American bombs were falling. Before Saddam Hussein held a press conference with a few of the hundreds of Americans he was holding hostage. Before the nation watched, riveted but powerless, as Los Angeles was looted and burned, before O. J. Simpson took a slow ride in a white Bronco, and before everyone close to his case had an agent and a book contract. This was uncharted territory just a time ago. The moment when bombing began was announced on CNN by Bernard Shaw on January 16,1991, as follows, lets describe to our viewers what were seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated, were seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky
6.
Amanpour
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Amanpour is a global affairs interview television program hosted by Christiane Amanpour, airing weeknights 2000 and 2030 CET and repeated at 2300 and 2330 pm CET on CNN International. The show also airs on CNN Philippines via tape-delay on a basis since August 20,2016. The weekday program has three segments, the first one is called The Brief, in which Amanpour tells a story from a different perspective, and often adds her personal experiences. When Amanpour is reporting in the field, she anchors the entire program remotely. of State Hillary Clinton and Sec. of Defense Bob Gates, Amanpour debuted on September 21,2009 on CNN International. It airs weekdays on CNN International and Sundays on CNN/US, the shows first run ended in April 2010 after Amanpour departed CNN to host This Week on American network ABC. Upon her return to the network in 2011, CNN International relaunched Amanpour, the series returned on April 16,2012 and airs weekdays in the afternoon in North America and during primetime in Europe. Began airing on CNN in the US on weekdays, in August 20,2016, Amanpour was also aired on CNN Philippines via tape-delay as a dry-run, but was axed, a week after premiered on the networks local programming for unknown reasons. It eventually returned on August 31,2016, albeit the program would broadcast on a basis when Philippine affairs that affect the global stage are featured
7.
This Week (ABC TV series)
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This Week, currently billed as This Week with George Stephanopoulos, is an American Sunday morning political affairs program airing on the ABC television network. The program is anchored by George Stephanopoulos and co-anchored by Martha Raddatz. The program is aired at 9,00 a. m. Eastern Time, although many stations air the program at a later slot, in 1960, ABC launched its first Sunday talk show Issues and Answers. One of its early hosts was Howard K. Smith, who also had his own public affairs program Howard K. Smith, News. Among the programs hosts was Bob Clark. On November 15,1981, David Brinkley came to the network from NBC News and took over the show, during Brinkleys run, three major sponsors were part of the show, General Electric, Archer Daniels Midland and Merrill Lynch. After Brinkley retired on November 10,1996, Sam Donaldson, ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper served as the interim anchor from March to July 2010. The names of the anchors have been included in the billing for the program, such as This Week with David Brinkley. Christiane Amanpour, a world affairs correspondent at CNN, began as the programs host on August 1,2010. During her first two months as host, the ratings for This Week reached their lowest point since 2003, in December 2011, it was announced that Amanpour would step down as anchor of the program, while returning to CNN in turn. On January 5,2012, ABC News announced that Stephanopoulos would return as the host of This Week, in 2016, Martha Raddatz was named co-anchor of This Week, alternating each weekend with Stephanopoulos. On April 20,2008, production of This Week relocated to the Newseum in Washington D. C. in a studio that overlooks the U. S. Capitol. In addition, the program broadcasting in high definition, becoming the first Sunday morning talk show to broadcast in HD. Following the transition, the program discontinued the segments Voices and Images, in February 2009, the ratings gap between Meet the Press and its competitors – This Week and CBS Face the Nation – began closing. Meet the Press posted its lowest ratings since NBC News correspondent David Gregory became moderator in early February of that year, Face the Nation averaged 3.33 million total viewers, while This Week came in just behind with 3.32 million. This Week beat Meet the Press on January 11, when George Stephanopoulos interviewed President-Elect Barack Obama, in 2010, Jake Tapper arranged with Bill Adair to get PolitiFact. com to fact check the statements made by panelists and guests featured on This Week. J. Dionne, Jr. Robert Reich, David Corn, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Mark Halperin, Joe Klein, Van Jones, David Brooks, Matthew Dowd, Mary Matalin and Ed Gillespie
8.
60 Minutes
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60 Minutes is an American newsmagazine television program broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt, in 2002,60 Minutes was ranked #6 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and in 2013, it was ranked #24 on TV Guides 60 Best Series of All Time. The New York Times has called it one of the most esteemed news magazines on American television, the program employed a magazine format, similar to that of the Canadian program W5, which had premiered two years earlier. Similar programs sprang up in Australia and Canada during the 1970s, Wallace said that the show aimed to reflect reality. The first magazine-cover chroma key was a photo of two helmeted policemen, Wallace and Reasoner sat in chairs on opposite sides of the set, which had a cream-colored backdrop, the more famous black backdrop did not appear until the following year. The logo was in Helvetica type with the word Minutes spelled in all lower-case letters, the trademark stopwatch, however, did not appear on the inaugural broadcast, it would not debut until several episodes later. Alpo dog food was the sponsor of the first program. Don Hewitt, who had been a producer of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, however, the initial season was troubled by lack of network confidence, as the program did not garner ratings much higher than that of other CBS News documentaries. 60 Minutes struggled under that stigma during its first three years, changes to 60 Minutes came fairly early in the programs history. When Reasoner left CBS to co-anchor ABCs evening newscast, Morley Safer joined the team in 1970, and he took over Reasoners duties of reporting less aggressive stories. After a six-month hiatus in late 1971, CBS found a place for 60 Minutes in a portion of that displaced time,6,00 to 7,00 p. m. (Eastern,5,00 to 6,00 Central Time on Sundays. This took place because football telecasts were protected contractually from interruptions in the wake of the infamous Heidi Bowl incident on NBC in November 1968. When a family-oriented drama, Three for the Road, ended after a 12-week run in the fall, the newsmagazine took its place at 7,00 p. m. Eastern Time on December 7. S. This move, and the addition of then-White House correspondent Dan Rather to the team, made the program into a strong ratings hit and, eventually. This was no less than a stunning reversal of the poor ratings performances of documentary programs on network television. By 1976,60 Minutes became the program on Sunday nights in the U. S. By 1979, it had achieved the #1 spot among all programs in the Nielsen ratings. This success translated into great profits for CBS, advertising rates went from $17,000 per 30-second spot in 1975 to $175,000 in 1982
9.
James Rubin
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James Phillip Jamie Rubin is an American former diplomat and journalist, and served as US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs in the Clinton Administration from 1997—2000. He writes a column on foreign affairs for The Sunday Times of London. He was Visiting Scholar 2013–14 at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, having served in the State Department during the administration of President Bill Clinton, Rubin became a Sky News presenter with his own show called World News Tonight. The show was short-lived and after it was cancelled he became a commentator for the channel, in 2013, he moved from New York City to live permanently in London, England, with his wife, CNN Chief International Correspondent and anchor Christiane Amanpour, and their teenage son. Rubin was born on March 28,1960 into a Jewish family in New York City and he is the son of Harvey Rubin, a publisher and President of Pindar Press, and his wife, Judith, who trained students specializing in psychiatry. At Columbia, Rubin was a student of Zalmay Khalilzad, later U. S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Rubin also attended Boston University in Massachusetts. Early in his career, Rubin was the Assistant Director of Research at the Arms Control Association, Rubin served under President Clinton as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Chief Spokesman for the State Department from 1997 to May 2000. In the Clinton administration, he was considered Secretary Madeleine Albrights right-hand man, after leaving government, Rubin and his family relocated to London. He quickly made a name for himself, returning to London, from October 2005 to July 2006 Rubin became lead news anchor on World News Tonight on Sky News. After returning to the United States in 2007 in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, Rubin also stated that Trimbles opinion was not important as he was a Protestant, and so traditionally conservative. Rubin joined Bloomberg News in December 2010 and oversees editorial issues of Bloomberg News in Central and South America, Mexico, Europe and he also led Bloomberg View, a Bloomberg op-ed project, with David Shipley. After only 10 months he quit the position, appointed professor at Columbia University. Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed Rubin commissioner of the Port Authority of New York, Rubin resigned all of his US-based positions on May 29,2013, announcing that the family would return to London to work on several projects. Rubin is presently writing a book about America’s use of force abroad. James Rubin is the son of publisher Harvey Rubin and his wife Judith, james sister Elizabeth Rubin is a journalist, Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. In 1998 Rubin, who at the time was spokesman for the US State Department, married Christiane Amanpour, having moved to London, England, they returned to New York City in 2010, where they rented an apartment in Manhattans Upper West Side. In 2013, he, his wife and son, Darius John Rubin, moved back to London to live permanently
10.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
11.
British-Iranian
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According to the 2001 Census,42,494 Iranian-born people reside in the UK. This figure is thought to have risen to 86,000 by 2015, the vast majority of Iranians in the UK arrived after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. In the following five years, an estimated 8,000 Iranian asylum seekers arrived in the country, the 1981 census showed 28,617 persons born in Iran. Iranians were not separately distinguished in the 1991 census, the 2001 census recorded 42,494 persons born in Iran. The Office for National Statistics estimates that, in 2015,86,000 Iranian-born people were living in the UK, in 2004, the Iranian embassy in London estimated that as many as 75,000 Iranians might reside in the country. Most adults are themselves immigrants, the generation are quite young. Iran is a primarily Shia Muslim country with Jewish, Baháí, Christian and Zoroastrian communities, however, there is an increasing number of Iranian Atheists and Agnostics. Some Iranians in the UK have converted from Shiaism to various sects of Christianity, directorate of Youth and Sport, pp. It is also involved with art and culture, working with the British, Iran Heritage Foundation, A non-political charity promoting the history and culture of Iran. It organises everything from lectures and talks to poetry recitals, Kayhan London, Kayhan London is a publication for Iranian expats in London and beyond
12.
CNN International
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The channel carries news, current affairs, politics, sports, opinions, features and business programming worldwide, it cooperates with parent network CNNs national and international news bureaus. CNN International is available in most countries, its international reach includes more than 200 million households, for most viewers it is free-to-air, though some pay television providers include it in their programming packages, or issue a virtual channel to the FTA version on the same satellite. The current managing director of CNN International is Tony Maddox, CNN International, in large part a result of Ted Turners globalization ideals, began broadcasting on September 1,1985, at first primarily broadcasting to American business travelers in hotels. The first studio for CNNI was at CNNs original studio building known as Techwood, Today, it is home to the Turner Studios complex that houses the entertainment channels. Other early studios in Atlanta were tucked away in various corners of the CNN Center, the vast majority of the networks programming originally consisted of simulcasts of the two domestic CNN channels. In 1990, however, the amount of programming produced by CNNI especially for international viewers increased significantly. A new newsroom and studio complex was built in 1994, as CNN decided to compete against BBC World Service Televisions news programming, CNNI emerged as an internationally oriented news channel, with staff members of various national backgrounds, even though some accusations of a pro-U. S. CNN International was awarded the Liberty Medal on July 4,1997, Ted Turner, in accepting the medal on behalf of the network, said, My idea was, were just going to give people the facts. We didnt have to show liberty and democracy as good, if we just showed them both the way they were. Clearly everybodys going to choose liberty and democracy, the network undertook another major rebranding effort in 2006 overseen by the award winning creative vision of Mark Wright and London agency Kemistry. The ticker was replaced by a flipper, on-screen graphics were more unified and from October 2007 until August 2008, new studios were progressively rolled out. However, on January 1,2009, CNN International adopted the lower-thirds that CNN/US had introduced a month earlier which were inspired by the modern design of the CNNI rebrand efforts. In the U. S. CNNI North America was distributed overnight and on weekends over the CNNfn financial channel, until that channels demise in December 2004. It is now available as a standalone, full-time channel, usually as part of packages of cable providers including Time Warner Cable, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FiOS. On September 21,2009, the channel launched a new tagline Go Beyond Borders, along with a new logo, the slogan Go Beyond Borders emphasizes the international perspective that gives the information in this string and the plurality of the audiences. With this tagline, CNN also refers to the platforms to disseminate their contents. The new image was created by the creativity and marketing department, an important element of the rebrand was a new evening program that adds the broadcast of programs Amanpour and World One. The makeover of CNN International has subject to a lot of criticism on both the new prime time lineup and the redesigned graphics, then, CNN International adapted half-hour shows in its schedule with a new evening prime program for Middle East viewers, Prism
13.
ABC News
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ABC News is the news division of the American Broadcasting Company, owned by the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. Television broadcasting was suspended, however, during World War II, regular television news broadcasts on ABC began soon after the network signed on its initial owned-and-operated television station and production center in New York City in August 1948. ABC news broadcasts have continued as the network expanded nationwide. However, from the 1950s through the early 1970s, ABC News programs consistently ranked third in viewership behind news programs on CBS and NBC. Arledge, known for experimenting with the broadcast model, created many of ABC News most popular and enduring programs, including 20/20, World News Tonight, This Week, Nightline and Primetime Live. In June 1998, ABC News, Nine Network and ITN sold their interests in Worldwide Television News to the Associated Press. 20/20 ABC World News Tonight America This Morning Good Morning America Nightline This Week What Would You Do, formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks with newscasts on the hour to its affiliates. ABC News Radio is the largest commercial radio news organization in the US, Satellite News Channel was a joint venture between ABC News and Group W that started on June 21,1982 as a satellite-delivered cable television network. SNC used footage from ABC News and 7 Washington, D. C. -based crews, however, this channel had difficulty getting clearance from cable systems, so ABC News and Group W decided to sell it to its competitor, CNN. CNN ceased Satellite News Channels operations on October 27,1983, SNC was either replaced by CNN or CNN2 on most cable systems. Group W would eventually shut down 7 years later, in 1999 and it was offered via digital television, broadband and streaming video at ABCNews. com and on mobile phones. It delivered breaking news, headline news each hour, and wide range of entertainment. The channel was available in the United States and Europe and its Talk Back feature allowed viewers to voice their own input through the submission of videos and personal thoughts on controversial issues and current topics. It was shut down as a digital subchannel when Live Well Network was launched, ABC News Now was replaced on cable providers with Fusion on October 28,2013. Fusion is a cable and satellite network that is owned & operated by Fusion Media Network, LLC. ABC and Univision formally announced its launch on May 2,2012, Fusion was ABC News third attempt in the 24-hour cable news world after Satellite News Channel in 1982 and ABC News Now in 2004. In December 2015, it was reported that Disney was in talks to sell its stake in Fusion to Univision, the split was complete on April 21,2016. Several ABC News programs are broadcast daily on OSN News in MENA countries
14.
PBS
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The Public Broadcasting Service is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor. PBS is funded by member dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, government agencies, corporations, foundations. All proposed funding is subjected to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source, since the mid-2000s, Roper polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service as the most-trusted national institution in the United States. This arbitrary distinction is a frequent source of viewer confusion and it also operates National Datacast, a subsidiary which offers datacasting services via member stations, and provides additional revenue for PBS and its member stations. In 1973, it merged with Educational Television Stations, each station is charged with the responsibility of programming local content for their individual market or state that supplements content provided by PBS and other public television distributors. By contrast, PBS member stations pay fees for the acquired and distributed by the national organization. Under this relationship, PBS member stations have greater latitude in local scheduling than their commercial broadcasting counterparts, scheduling of PBS-distributed series may vary greatly depending on the market. This can be a source of tension as stations seek to preserve their localism, however, PBS has a policy of common carriage, which requires most stations to clear the national prime time programs on a common programming schedule to market them nationally more effectively. Management at former Los Angeles member KCET cited unresolvable financial and programming disputes among its reasons for leaving PBS after over 40 years in January 2011. Most PBS stations timeshift some distributed programs, once PBS accepts a program offered for distribution, PBS, rather than the originating member station, retains exclusive rebroadcasting rights during an agreed period. Suppliers retain the right to sell the program in non-broadcast media such as DVDs, books, in 1991, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting resumed production for most PBS shows that debuted prior to 1977, with the exceptions of Washington Week in Review and Wall Street Week. In 1994, The Chronicle of Philanthropy released the results of the largest study on the popularity and credibility of charitable, the strategy began that fall, with the intent to expand the in-program breaks to the remainder of the schedule if successful. In 2011, PBS released apps for iOS and Android to allow viewing of videos on mobile devices. An update in 2015 added Chromecast support, PBS initially struggled to compete with online media such as YouTube for market share. In a 2012 speech to 850 top executives from PBS stations, in the speech, later described as a “seminal moment” for public television, he laid out his vision for a new style of PBS digital video production. Station leadership rallied around his vision and Seiken formed PBS Digital Studios, which began producing educational but edgy videos, something Seiken called “PBS-quality with a YouTube sensibility. ”The studio’s first hit, in 2012, PBS began organizing much of its prime time programming around a genre-based schedule. PBS broadcasts childrens programming as part of the morning and afternoon schedule. Unlike its radio counterpart, National Public Radio, PBS does not have a program production arm or news division
15.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
16.
Tehran
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Tehran is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. It is ranked 29th in the world by the population of its metropolitan area, in the Classical era, part of the present-day city of Tehran was occupied by a Median city that in the Avesta occurs as Rhaga. It was destroyed by the Mongols in the early 13th century, the capital has been moved several times throughout the history, and Tehran is the 32nd national capital of Iran. The city was the seat of the Qajars and Pahlavis, the two last imperial dynasties of Iran. It is home to historical collections, such as the royal complexes of Golestan, Sadabad. Large scale demolition and rebuilding began in the 1920s, and Tehran has been a destination for the migrations from all over Iran since the 20th century. Tabiat Bridge, which was completed in 2014, is considered the third symbol of the city. There have been plans to relocate Irans capital from Tehran to another area, due mainly to air pollution, to date, no definitive plans have been approved. A2016 survey of 230 cities by consultant Mercer ranked Tehran 203rd for quality of living, according to the Global Destinations Cities Index in 2016, Tehran is among the top ten fastest growing destinations. The origin of the name Tehran is uncertain, the settlement of Tehran dates back over 7,000 years. The present-day city of Tehran was a suburb of an important Median city that was known as Rhaga in Old Persian, in the Avestas Videvdat, Rhaga is mentioned as the twelfth sacred place created by the Ohrmazd. In Old Persian inscriptions, Rhaga appears as a province and it was a major area for the Iranian tribes of Medes and Achaemenids. From Rhaga, Darius the Great sent reinforcements to his father Hystaspes, in some Middle Persian texts, Rhaga is given as the birthplace of Zoroaster, although modern historians generally place the birth of Zoroaster in Khorasan. Derived into Modern Persian as Rey, it now as a city located towards the southern end of the modern-day city of Tehran. Mount Damavand, the highest peak of Iran, which is located near Tehran, is an important location in Ferdowsis Shahname, the long Iranian epic poem that is based on the ancient epics of Iran. It appears in the epics as the birthplace of Manuchehr, the residence of Keyumars, the place where Freydun binds the dragon fiend Aži Dahāka, during the Sassanid era, in 641, Yazdgerd III issued his last appeal to the nation from Rey, before fleeing to Khorasan. Rey was dominated by the Parthian Mihran family, and Siyavakhsh—the son of Mihran the son of Bahram Chobin—who resisted the Muslim Invasion, because of this resistance, when the Arabs captured Rey, they ordered the town to be destroyed and ordered Farrukhzad to rebuild the town anew. In the 9th century, Tehran was a well known village, but less known than the city of Rey, the medieval writer Najm od Din Razi declared the population of Rey about 500,000 before the Mongol Invasion
17.
Chalfont St Peter
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Chalfont St Peter is a village and civil parish in Chiltern district in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is in a group of villages called The Chalfonts which also includes Chalfont St Giles, the villages lie between High Wycombe and Rickmansworth. Chalfont St Peter is one of the largest villages in the UK with nearly 13,000 residents, the urban population for Chalfont St Peter and Gerrards Cross is 19,622, the two villages being considered a single area by the Office for National Statistics. Gerrards Cross was once a hamlet in the parish of Chalfont St Peter, Chalfont St Peter is in close proximity to central London, Heathrow Airport, Pinewood and Elstree film studios, and the motorway network. The villages were separated by 1237 when in manorial rolls Chalfont St Peter was referred to as Chalfund Sancti Petri. The suffix St Peter is taken from the dedication of the church in the village, an ancient manor in this parish takes its name from the family of Brudenell, who formerly possessed it, from them it descended by female heirs to the Drurys and Osbornes. It afterwards came into the Duke of Portlands family, of whom it was purchased by Charles Churchill esq. the late proprietor, it is now the property of Thomas Hibbert esq. Mr. Hibberts seat, which is called Chalfont-house, was a distinct property, in the church are memorials for the family of Whitchurch. The Earl of Portland built a school at Gerrards Cross, in this parish, william Courtnay, who died in 1770, gave a loaf of bread weekly to each of eleven unmarried poor women of this parish, and one to the clerk. Modern buildings and urbanisation now dominate the centre and very little historic architecture remains. The first major development of the village were rows of Georgian shops, much larger developments came in the late 1920s and these shops that run up the main street towards Gold Hill common now comprise most of the village centre. Since the building of Gerrards Cross railway station in the late 19th century, from 1801 to 1901, the populations of the village only saw a 700-person rise – giving a population of 1700. But from 1901 to the present, it has one of the largest villages in the United Kingdom. Chalfont St Peter is often described as the Gateway to the Chiltern Hills and it is not a major tourist centre but has many places to stay, the most notable being The Greyhound, which is situated at the foot of the village on the banks of the River Misbourne. Nearby there are several houses of note, as well as many museums, cottages. Chalfont St Peter Parish Church Gold Hill Baptist Church The Gospel Hall St, several local landmarks featured in the programme including The Village Hall pub on Goldhill Common and Mr. Crusty on the high street. Chalfont St Peter also appeared in the media after Ozzy Osbournes near fatal quad bike accident on his property in 2003, Chalfont St Peter has a Non-League football team Chalfont St Peter A. F. C. who play at Mill Meadow. Many bus routes run through the town and the more suburban areas
18.
New Hall School
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New Hall is a coeducational independent day and boarding school in the village of Boreham in the borough of Chelmsford, Essex, England. It was founded in 1642 in Belgium by Sisters of the female Catholic order Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre and moved to its current location, the school is now mostly run by lay staff but still retains its Catholic ethos and ties with the local diocese. It is the only independent Roman Catholic school in the Diocese, the school operates in diamond format. The preparatory school and sixth form are coeducational while the school teaches in single-sex classes. The senior girls section is a member of the Girls Schools Association, the school was founded in Liège, Belgium in 1642 by Susan Hawley, who also formed the English Community of the Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre. The school offered a Catholic education to girls who were denied this in England in the Post-Protestant Reformation period, in 1794, the French Revolutionary Wars forced the nuns to leave the Low Countries. The school reopened on its present site in 1799, in 1994, the Preparatory School was re-established on the campus at New Hall. Opening with 40 pupils, the school grew rapidly over the following years, in 2003, the Preparatory School welcomed its first boarders and the boarding programme was later extended to boys as well. In 2001, New Hall appointed its first lay principal, Mrs Katherine Jeffrey, in April 2005, the administration made a landmark decision to go fully coeducational, ending over 360 years of single-sex education. The announcement was made that the Senior School would be embarking on a period of expansion, with the establishment of a separate Boys’ Division. The Senior School now accepts boys throughout the 11-18 age range and there are 3 boys’ boarding houses fully established, the move towards coeducation using the diamond format proved extremely successful. New Hall was commended by judges at the 2011 Independent School Awards for the ambitious and pioneering move, in 1517, the estate was acquired by King Henry VIII, who greatly enlarged and enhanced the building and called it Beaulieu. The Royal Arms of Henry VIII are now to be seen in the school Chapel, for many years the home of Mary Tudor, New Hall was subsequently granted to the Earl of Sussex by Queen Elizabeth I. Oliver Cromwell later procured the estate for 5 shillings, in the 2013 A Levels, it achieved a 100% pass rate and a record 52% of grades at A*-A at GCSE. In A Levels 76% of A level grades were at A*-B, pupils are required to attend regular chapel services. Practicing Catholic pupils may choose to participate in spiritual activities such as Bible studies. The school chapel runs weekly Sunday mass which are open to the public and serves the Parish of St Augustine of Canterbury, pupils and staff often serve as musicians, choristers, altar servers, sacristans and readers. Students compete at county, regional, national and international level in a range of sports and have met with success
19.
Chelmsford
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Chelmsford is the principal settlement of the City of Chelmsford and the county town of Essex, in the East of England. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately 32 miles northeast of Charing Cross, London, the urban area of the city has a population of approximately 120,000, whilst the district has a population of 168,310. The communities of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Chelmsford, Ontario, and Chelmsford, Chelmsfords population consists of a large number of City and Docklands commuters, attracted by the 30–35 minute journey from Central London via the Great Eastern Main Line. The same journey takes approximately 60 minutes by road via the A12, on 14 March 2012, Lord President of the Privy Council and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced that Chelmsford, along with Perth, Scotland and St Asaph, Wales, was to be granted city status. The Letters Patent officially granting city status to Chelmsford from The Queen were received on 6 June 2012, the demonym for a Chelmsford resident is Chelmsfordian. An under-cover market, operating Tuesday to Saturday, is still an important part of the city centre over 800 years later, the citys name is derived from Ceolmaers ford which was close to the site of the present High Street stone bridge. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the town was called Celmeresfort and its position on the Londinium – Camulodonum Roman road ensured the early prosperity of Chelmsford. Before 1199, there were nearby from ancient times. A Neolithic and a late Bronze Age settlement have been found in the Springfield suburb, a Roman fort was built in AD60, and a civilian town grew up around it. The remains of a mansio, a combination post office, civic centre and hotel, lie beneath the streets of modern Moulsham, the town disappeared for a while after the Romans left Britain. The town became the seat of the local assize during the early 13th century and by 1218 it was recognised as the county town of Essex, a position it has retained to the present day. Chelmsford was significantly involved in the Peasants Revolt of 1381, the Sleepers and The Shadows, written by Hilda Grieve in 1988 using original sources, states, For nearly a week, from Monday 1st July to Saturday 6th July, Chelmsford became the seat of government. The king probably lodged at his manor house at Writtle. He was attended by his council, headed by the temporary Chancellor, Richard II famously revoked the charters which he had made in concession to the peasants on 2 July 1381, while in Chelmsford. It could be said that given this movement of government power, the road Saxon Way now marks the site. In the 17th century many of the victims of Matthew Hopkins spent their last days imprisoned in Chelmsford, before being tried at the Assizes, Henry VIII purchased the Boleyn estate in 1516, and built Beaulieu Palace on the current site of New Hall School. This later became the residence of his mistress, and later wife Anne. Soon after it became the residence of Henrys daughter, by his first marriage, during World War II Chelmsford, an important centre of light engineering war production, was attacked from the air on several occasions, both by aircraft of the Luftwaffe and by missile
20.
Iranian Revolution
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Demonstrations against the Shah commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included both secular and religious elements and which intensified in January 1978. Between August and December 1978 strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country, the Shah left Iran for exile on 16 January 1979, as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, the royal reign collapsed shortly after on 11 February when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting, bringing Khomeini to official power. It was a relatively non-violent revolution, and helped to redefine the meaning, the Shahs regime became increasingly oppressive, brutal, corrupt, and extravagant. It also suffered from basic functional failures that brought economic bottlenecks, shortages, the Shah was perceived by many as beholden to – if not a puppet of – a non-Muslim Western power whose culture was affecting that of Iran. The Shia clergy had a significant influence on Iranian society, the clergy first showed itself to be a powerful political force in opposition to the monarchy with the 1891 Tobacco Protest. On 20 March 1890, Nasir al-Din Shah granted a concession to Major G. F. Talbot for a monopoly over the production, sale. The boycotts and protests against it were widespread and extensive because of Mirza Hasan Shirazis fatwa, finally Nasir al-Din Shah found himself powerless to stop the popular movement and cancelled the concession. The Tobacco Protest was the first significant Iranians resistance against the Shah and foreign interests, and revealed the power of the people, the growing discontent continued until the Constitutional Revolution. The revolution led to the establishment of a Parliament and approval of the first constitution, although the constitutional revolution was successful in weakening the autocracy of the Qajar regime, it failed to provide a powerful alternative government. Consequently, within the following the establishment of the new parliament. Many of these events can be viewed as a continuation of the struggle between the constitutionalists and the Shahs of Persia, many of whom were backed by foreign powers against the parliament. He established a monarchy, deposing the last of the Qajar shah in 1925 and introduced many social, economic. A number of reforms led to public discontent which provides circumstances for an Iranian revolution. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavis father, Reza Shah, replaced Islamic laws with Western ones, police forcibly removed and tore chadors off women who resisted his ban on the public hijab. In 1935, dozens were killed and hundreds injured in the Goharshad Mosque rebellion, on the other hand, in the early rise of Reza Shah, Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi founded the Qom Seminary and created important changes in seminaries. However, he would avoid entering into political issues, as did other leaders who followed him. Hence, no widespread anti-government attempts were organized by clergy during the Reza Shah Rule, however, the future Ayatollah Khomeini was a student of Sheikh Abdul Karim Ha’eri
21.
WBRU
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WBRU is a commercial modern rock radio station in Providence, Rhode Island that broadcasts on 95.5 FM. Its transmitter is located in Providence, the station is owned and operated by Brown Broadcasting Services, an independent non-profit organization, and is primarily staffed by students from Brown University. WBRUs traces it origin to the The Brown Network, a carrier current station that broadcast at 570 kHz on the AM band. This first-ever carrier current station was established 1936 by George Abraham, Abraham had originally installed an intercom system between his and Borsts dormitory rooms. Abraham originally conceived of the idea as a way to share his record collection, after being recognized as an extra-curricular activity, The Brown Network was assigned a studio and control room located in the Faunce House student union building. The New England Hurricane of 1938 destroyed most of the distribution wires, on November 3,1939, David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America made a broadcast over The Brown Network. Abraham was elected the IBS Chairman, and Borst the Technical Manager, iBSs role was defined as a medium for the exchange of ideas and programs, in addition to working to attract national advertising contracts for the member stations. BBR was then split into two stations, WBRU-AM and WBRU FM, WBRU-AM continued to broadcast locally as a carrier current station and operated as the training station for WBRU FM. By the mid-60s WBRU was considered an alternative station in that much of the music was folk, joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Joan Baez had a home on this station and were not yet on mainstream radio. After 1966 much of the format was not mainstream. The station was considered an Underground Rock Music Station similar to Bostons WBCN and it was home to Frank Zappa, The Fugs, Pearls Before Swine and other alternative rock groups not played on mainstream radio. Phil Ochs, Country Joe & the Fish and other anti-Vietnam War musicians received many hours of playing time at this station. During the 1970s, WBRU broadcast at 20,000 watts on 95.5 FM and established itself as the progressive rock station in Rhode Island. This could not be done until 2009 because public TV station WSBE-TVs analog TV antenna currently occupies the space where WBRU plans to put its broadcast antenna. WSBE is locating its digital antenna at the WJAR antenna tower in Rehoboth, in 1988, WBRU switched its format to modern rock and has remained in that format ever since, although leaning towards playing newer artists and artists of the indie rock genre. WBRU was also named one of the best radio stations in the country by numerous trade magazines such as Billboard. It was among the first radio stations in the United States to play Ben Folds Five, kurt Cobains last radio interview before his death was on WBRU. The songs ranged from new music, 1980s and 1990s pop rarely played by the station, on June 15,2006, the station began streaming live online
22.
Providence, Rhode Island
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Providence is the capital of and most populous city in the U. S. state of Rhode Island, founded in 1636, and one of the oldest cities in the United States. It is located in Providence County and is the third most populous city in New England, after Boston, Providence has a city population of 179,154, it is also part of the Providence metropolitan area which extends into southern Massachusetts. The Providence metropolitan area has an population of 1,604,291. This can be considered, in turn, to be part of the Greater Boston commuting area, Providence was founded by Roger Williams, a religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of Gods merciful Providence, which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him, the city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay. Providence was one of the first cities in the country to industrialize and became noted for its tool, jewelry. The city was nicknamed the Beehive of Industry, it began rebranding itself as the Creative Capital in 2009 to emphasize its educational resources. The area that is now Providence was first settled in June 1636 by Roger Williams and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies of the United States, Williams and his company felt compelled to withdraw from Massachusetts Bay Colony. Providence quickly became a refuge for persecuted religious dissenters, as Williams himself had been exiled from Massachusetts, Providence residents were among the first Patriots to spill blood in the leadup to the American Revolution during the Gaspée Affair of 1772. Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown on May 4,1776. It was also the last of the thirteen colonies to ratify the United States Constitution on May 29,1790, following the war, Providence was the countrys ninth-largest city with 7,614 people. The economy shifted from maritime endeavors to manufacturing, in particular machinery, tools, silverware, jewelry, by the start of the 20th century, Providence boasted some of the largest manufacturing plants in the country, including Brown & Sharpe, Nicholson File, and Gorham Silverware. Providence residents ratified a city charter in 1831 as the population passed 17,000. From its incorporation as a city in 1832 until 1878, the seat of city government was located in the Market House, located in Market Square, the city offices quickly outgrew this building, and the City Council resolved to create a permanent municipal building in 1845. The city offices moved into the City Hall in 1878, during the Civil War, local politics split over slavery as many had ties to Southern cotton. Despite ambivalence concerning the war, the number of military volunteers routinely exceeded quota, by the early 1900s, Providence was one of the wealthiest cities in the United States. Immigrant labor powered one of the nations largest industrial manufacturing centers, Providence was a major manufacturer of industrial products from steam engines to precision tools to silverware, screws, and textiles. From 1975 until 1982, $606 million of local and national Community Development funds were invested throughout the city.4 million ft² Providence Place Mall, despite new investment, poverty remains an entrenched problem as it does in most post-industrial New England cities
23.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
24.
WJAR
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WJAR is the NBC-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts licensed to Providence. It broadcasts a high definition signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter in Rehoboth. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station shares studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston with ZGS Communications-owned Telemundo affiliate WRIW-CD, WJAR-TV signed on for the first time on July 10,1949, broadcasting on channel 11. It was Rhode Islands first television station and the fourth in New England and it was owned by The Outlet Company, a department store chain headquartered in Providence, along with WJAR radio. At that time, WJARs coverage area increased, since the interference with WPIX had been rectified, WJAR-TV initially carried programming from all four networks of the time, but has always been a primary NBC affiliate due to WJAR radios long affiliation with NBC Radio. It lost ABC in 1953 when WNET-TV signed on, and lost CBS in 1955 when WPRO-TV launched, when WNET-TV went dark in 1956, WJAR shared ABC programming with WPRO-TV until WTEV signed on in 1963. During the late 1950s, WJAR-TV was also affiliated with the NTA Film Network. For many years in the 1970s, WJAR-TV broadcast mens basketball games of Providence College, in November 1980, the Outlet Company left the department store business to concentrate on broadcasting. A year earlier, the station moved its studios from the Outlet Building to a modern production facility next door. The department store remained standing until 1986, when it burned to the ground in a spectacular fire, WJAR cameras perched on the neighboring rooftop captured the most dramatic footage. In April 1993, the studios were moved to their current location in an industrial area of Cranston just south of Providence. Three years later, Outlet Communications merged with NBC, making WJAR the second network-owned station in the market, in April 1997, WJAR began to operate primary WB and secondary UPN affiliate WLWC under a local marketing agreement. The network, during time, pushed Fant to sell WLWC. WJAR was one of four NBC O&Os in smaller markets that were put up for sale on January 9,2006, along with stations in Columbus, Birmingham, Alabama, except for the Birmingham station, these were also once owned by Outlet. On April 6,2006, NBC Universal and Media General announced that Media General would purchase WJAR as part of a $600 million four station deal between the two companies, the deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on June 26. As a result, WJAR became Media Generals first television station in New England, for all intents and purposes, this undid the NBC-Outlet merger a decade earlier. During the April 2007 Noreaster, WJARs over-the-air digital transmitter was damaged, both digital signals, WJAR-HD and WJAR-DT2, were knocked off the air. The outage did not affect digital cable or satellite services, as they do not get the signal from the digital transmitter, in its earliest days, WJARs logo included a Rhode Island Red rooster, the state bird of Rhode Island
25.
Phi Beta Kappa Society
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The Phi Beta Kappa Society - the oldest honor society for the liberal arts and sciences in the United States - is widely recognized and considered as the nations most prestigious honor society. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the arts and sciences and to induct the most outstanding students of arts. Phi Beta Kappa stands for Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης or in Latin letters Philosophia Biou Cybernētēs, according to Phi Beta Kappa, they have chapters in about 10% of American higher learning institutions, and about 10% of these schools Arts and Sciences graduates are invited to join the society. Although most students are elected their senior year, many colleges elect a limited number of extremely select students in their junior year. There is an initiation fee, which is sometimes covered by the inductees university. There had been earlier fraternal societies at the College, but these, Society, founded in 1750, were Latin-letter societies, their names were taken from initial letters of a secret Latin motto. William and Mary alumnus and third U. S. President Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most famous member of the F. H. C, other notable members of the original Society included Col. James Innes, St. George Tucker, and George Wythe. Jefferson noted that When I was a student of Wm. & Mary college of this state, Society, confined to the number of six students only, of which I was a member, but it had no useful object, nor do I know whether it now exists. The best opinion is that the society did not survive the invasion by British forces during the Revolution, a second Latin-letter fraternity at William and Mary was the P. D. A. John Heath, chief organizer of Phi Beta Kappa, according to tradition earlier sought but was refused admission to the P. D. A, though he may instead have disdained to join it. The new society was intended to be purely of domestic manufacture, without any connexion whatever with anything European, either English or German. The founders of Phi Beta Kappa declared that the society was formed for congeniality and to good fellowship, with friendship as its basis and benevolence. Like the older, Latin-letter fraternities, the Phi Beta Kappa was a secret society, the new society was given the motto, Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης or in Latin letters Philosophia Biou Kybernētēs, which means in English The Love for Knowledge be the Guide of Life. Greek was chosen, because Greek was in Roman times the language of science like Latin in medieval times, one official historian of the society, William T. The heading on the original list of states, A List of the members. This new complex of gestures was created to allow the recognition of members in any foreign country or place. A second chapter was founded at Yale College in late 1780, a third, at Harvard College in 1781, from these new chapters, the Phi Beta Kappa evolved from a fraternity with principally academic and some social purposes to an entirely honorary organization recognizing scholastic achievement. Further chapters appeared at Union College in 1817, Bowdoin College in 1825, the original chapter at William and Mary was re-established
26.
Atlanta, Georgia
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
27.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26,1991. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and that evening at 7,32, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag. Previously, from August to December, all the individual republics, the week before the unions formal dissolution,11 republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol formally establishing the CIS and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR also signalled the end of the Cold War, on the other hand, only the Baltic states have joined NATO and the European Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on March 11,1985, Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the Soviet economy, the reforms began with personnel changes of senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change. On April 23,1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés, Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the power ministries happy by promoting KGB Head Viktor Chebrikov from candidate to full member and this liberalisation, however, fostered nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union. Under Gorbachevs leadership, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, in May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised in order to make these drinks more expensive and a disincentive to consumers, unlike most forms of rationing intended to conserve scarce goods, this was done to restrict sales with the overt goal of curtailing drunkenness. Gorbachevs plan also included billboards promoting sobriety, increased penalties for public drunkenness, however, Gorbachev soon faced the same adverse economic reaction to his prohibition as did the last Tsar. The disincentivization of alcohol consumption was a blow to the state budget according to Alexander Yakovlev. Alcohol production migrated to the market, or through moonshining as some made bathtub vodka with homegrown potatoes. The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms. The latter, disparaged as Mr Nyet in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs, gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, as he was considered an old thinker. In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger, at the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. Finally, on December 23,1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin, Gorbachev continued to press for greater liberalization. The CTAG Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers, Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss and its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords
28.
Frankfurt
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The city is at the centre of the larger Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, which has a population of 5.8 million and is Germanys second-largest metropolitan region after Rhine-Ruhr. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2013, the centre of the EU is about 40 km to the east of Frankfurts CBD. Frankfurt is culturally and ethnically diverse, with half of the population. A quarter of the population are foreign nationals, including many expatriates, Frankfurt is an alpha world city and a global hub for commerce, culture, education, tourism and traffic. Its the site of many global and European headquarters, Frankfurt Airport is among the worlds busiest. Automotive, technology and research, services, consulting, media, Frankfurts DE-CIX is the worlds largest internet exchange point. Messe Frankfurt is one of the worlds largest trade fairs, major fairs include the Frankfurt Motor Show, the worlds largest motor show, the Music Fair, and the Frankfurt Book Fair, the worlds largest book fair. Frankfurt is home to educational institutions, including the Goethe University, the UAS, the FUMPA. Its renowned cultural venues include the concert hall Alte Oper, Europes largest English Theatre and many museums, Frankfurts skyline is shaped by some of Europes tallest skyscrapers. In sports, the city is known as the home of the top football club Eintracht Frankfurt, the basketball club Frankfurt Skyliners, the Frankfurt Marathon. Its the seat of German sport unions for Olympics, football, Frankfurt is the largest financial centre in continental Europe. It is home to the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the worlds largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and accounts for more than 90 percent of the turnover in the German market. Frankfurt is considered a city as listed by the GaWC groups 2012 inventory. Among global cities it was ranked 10th by the Global Power City Index 2011, among financial centres it was ranked 8th by the International Financial Centers Development Index 2013 and 9th by the Global Financial Centres Index 2013. Its central location within Germany and Europe makes Frankfurt a major air, rail, Frankfurt Airport is one of the worlds busiest international airports by passenger traffic and the main hub for Germanys flag carrier Lufthansa. Frankfurter Kreuz, the Autobahn interchange close to the airport, is the most heavily used interchange in the EU, in 2011 human-resource-consulting firm Mercer ranked Frankfurt as seventh in its annual Quality of Living survey of cities around the world. According to The Economist cost-of-living survey, Frankfurt is Germanys most expensive city, Frankfurt has many high-rise buildings in the city centre, forming the Frankfurt skyline. It is one of the few cities in the European Union to have such a skyline and because of it Germans sometimes refer to Frankfurt as Mainhattan, the other well known and obvious nickname is Bankfurt
29.
West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
30.
Invasion of Kuwait
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The Invasion of Kuwait on August 2,1990 was a 2-day operation conducted by Iraq against the neighboring state of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month-long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. These events came to be known as the first Gulf War and resulted in the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the Iraqis setting 600 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire during their retreat. The invasion started on 2 August 1990, and within two days most of the Kuwait Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or fell back to neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The State of Kuwait was annexed, and Saddam Hussein announced a few days later that it was the 19th province of Iraq, when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, Kuwait initially stayed neutral and also tried mediating between Iran and Iraq. In 1982, Kuwait along with other Arab states of the Persian Gulf supported Iraq in order to curb Iranian Revolutionary government, in 1982–1983, Kuwait began sending significant financial aid to Iraq. Kuwaits large-scale economic assistance to Iraq often triggered hostile Iranian actions against Kuwait, Iran repeatedly targeted Kuwaiti oil tankers in 1984 and fired weapons at Kuwaiti security personnel stationed on Bubiyan island in 1988. During the Iran–Iraq War, Kuwait functioned as Iraqs major port once Basra was shut down by the fighting. By the time the Iran–Iraq War ended, Iraq was not in a position to repay the US$14 billion it borrowed from Kuwait to finance its war. Iraq argued that the war had prevented the rise of Iranian hegemony in Kuwait, however, Kuwaits reluctance to pardon the debt created strains in the relationship between the two countries. During late 1989, several meetings were held between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi leaders but they were unable to break the deadlock between the two. Chalabi argued that oil prices would help Iraq increase its revenues. Throughout much of the 1980s, Kuwaits oil production was considerably above its mandatory OPEC quota, a lack of consensus among OPEC members undermined Iraqs efforts to end the oil glut and consequently prevented the recovery of its war-crippled economy. It was estimated that between 1985 and 1989, Iraq lost US$14 billion a year due to Kuwaits oil price strategy, Kuwaits refusal to decrease its oil production was viewed by Iraq as an act of aggression against it. The increasingly tense relations between Iraq and Kuwait were further aggravated when Iraq alleged that Kuwait was slant-drilling across the border into Iraqs Rumaila field. The dispute over Rumaila field started in 1960 when an Arab League declaration marked the Iraq–Kuwait border 2 miles north of the southernmost tip of the Rumaila field, during the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi oil drilling operations in Rumaila declined while Kuwaits operations increased. In 1989, Iraq accused Kuwait of using advanced drilling techniques to exploit oil from its share of the Rumaila field, Iraq estimated that US$2.4 billion worth of Iraqi oil was stolen by Kuwait and demanded compensation. Kuwait dismissed the accusations as a false Iraqi ploy to justify military action against it, several foreign firms working in the Rumaila field also dismissed Iraqs slant-drilling claims as a smokescreen to disguise Iraqs more ambitious intentions. Many westerners believed that Iraqs invasion of Kuwait was largely motivated by its desire to control over the latters vast oil reserves
31.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
32.
Bosnian War
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The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following a number of violent incidents in early 1992, the war is commonly viewed as having started on 6 April 1992, the war ended on 14 December 1995. The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia and this was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian, Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict. After the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia, Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio and were finalised on 21 November 1995. According to a report compiled by the UN, and chaired by M, the report echoed conclusions published by a Central Intelligence Agency estimate in 1995. By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs,12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia, the most recent estimates suggest that around 100,000 people were killed during the war. Over 2.2 million people were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II, in addition, an estimated 12, 000–20,000 women were raped, most of them Bosniak. There is debate over the date of the Bosnian War. Mulaj reports that Misha Glenny gives a date of 22 March, Tom Gallagher gives 2 April, while Mary Kaldor and Laura Silber, philip Hammond claimed that the most common view is that the war started on 6 April 1992. The Sijekovac killings of Serbs took place on 26 March and the Bijeljina massacre on 1–2 April. Some Bosniaks consider the first casualties of the war to be Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A crisis emerged in Yugoslavia as a result of the weakening of the system at the end of the Cold War. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was losing its ideological potency, meanwhile, ethnic nationalism experienced a renaissance in the 1980s, after violence broke out in Kosovo. While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralisation of Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to the federalisation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former Ottoman province, has historically been a multi-ethnic state. According to the 1991 census, 44% of the population considered themselves Muslim,32. 5% Serb and 17% Croat, with 6% describing themselves as Yugoslav. In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after the adoption of amendments to the Serbian Constitution which allowed the government of Serbia to dominate the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina
33.
Sarajevo
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Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its current administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area, including Sarajevo Canton and East Sarajevo is home to 688,384 inhabitants, nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans. Due to its long and rich history of religious and cultural variety and it is the only major European city to have a mosque, Catholic church, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighbourhood. Although settlement in the area back to prehistoric times, the modern city arose as an Ottoman stronghold in the 15th century. Sarajevo has attracted international attention several times throughout its history, in 1885, Sarajevo was the first city in Europe and the second city in the world to have a full-time electric tram network running through the city, following San Francisco. For nearly four years, from 1992 to 1996, the city suffered the longest siege of a city in the history of warfare during the Bosnian War. Sarajevo has been undergoing reconstruction, and is the fastest growing city in Bosnia. The travel guide series, Lonely Planet, has named Sarajevo as the 43rd best city in the world, in 2011, Sarajevo was nominated to be the European Capital of Culture in 2014 and will be hosting the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2019. The earliest known name for the large central Bosnian region of todays Sarajevo is Vrhbosna, Sarajevo is a slavicized word based on saray, the Turkish word for palace. The evo portion may come from the term saray ovası first recorded in 1455, the first mention of name Sarajevo was in 1507 letter written by Feriz Beg. The earliest is Šeher, which is the term Isa-Beg Ishaković used to describe the town he was going to build and it is a Turkish word meaning an advanced city of key importance which in turn comes from Persian, شهر shahr. As Sarajevo developed, numerous nicknames came from comparisons to other cities in the Islamic world, the most popular of these was European Jerusalem. Some argue that a correct translation of saray is government office or house. Saray is a word in Turkish for a palace or mansion. Sarajevo is located near the center of the triangular-shaped Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is situated 518 meters above sea level and lies in the Sarajevo valley, the valley itself once formed a vast expanse of greenery, but gave way to urban expansion and development in the post-World War II era. The city is surrounded by forested hills and five major mountains. The last four are known as the Olympic Mountains of Sarajevo
34.
Siege of Sarajevo
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The Siege of Sarajevo was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. The siege lasted three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad and more than a longer than the Siege of Leningrad. From there they assaulted the city with artillery, tanks and small arms, from 2 May 1992, the Serbs blockaded the city. The Bosnian government defence forces inside the city, numbering some 70,000 troops, were poorly equipped. A total of 13,952 people were killed during the siege, the ARBiH suffered 6,137 fatalities, while Bosnian Serb military casualties numbered 2,241 soldiers killed. The 1991 census indicates that before the siege the city and its surrounding areas had a population of 525,980, there are estimates that prior to the siege the population in the city proper was 435,000. The estimates of the number of living in Sarajevo after the siege ranged from between 300,000 and 380,000. After the war, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted two Serb officials for numerous counts of crimes against humanity committed during the siege, stanislav Galić and Dragomir Milošević were sentenced to life imprisonment and 29 years imprisonment respectively. One of the 11 indictments against Radovan Karadžić, the president of the Republika Srpska, is for the siege. When Yugoslavias longtime leader Marshal Tito died in 1980 this policy of containment underwent a dramatic reversal, nationalism experienced a renaissance in the 1980s after violence erupted in Kosovo. While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralisation of a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to federalisation, croatia and Slovenias subsequent declarations of independence and the warfare that ensued placed Bosnia and Herzegovina and its three constituent peoples in an awkward position. A significant split soon developed on the issue of whether to stay with the Yugoslav federation or to seek independence and this Assembly established the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 January 1992, which became the Republika Srpska in August 1992. A declaration of Bosnian sovereignty on 15 October 1991 was followed by a referendum for independence from Yugoslavia on 29 February and 1 March 1992 and this referendum was boycotted by the vast majority of the Serbs. The turnout in the referendum was 63. 4% and 99. 7% of voters voted for independence. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence on 3 March 1992 and these minor attacks were followed by much more serious Serb artillery attacks on Neum on 19 March, on Bosanski Brod on 24 and 30 March 1992 on Bijeljina. On 1 March 1992, an Orthodox wedding in downtown Sarajevo was attacked, nikola Gardović, the grooms father, was killed. It continued through the run-up to Bosnia and Herzegovinas recognition as an independent state, on 5 April, ethnic Serb policemen attacked police stations and then an Interior Ministry training school. The attack killed two officers and one civilian, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared a state of emergency the following day
35.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
36.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
37.
Palestinian territories
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Palestinian territories and occupied Palestinian territories are descriptions often used to describe the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which are occupied or otherwise under the control of Israel. Israeli governments have maintained that the area involved is within territorial dispute, the extent of the territories, while subject to future negotiations, have frequently been defined by the Green Line. In December 2012, UN Secretariat communications replaced this by the term State of Palestine, the ISO adopted the name change in 2013. But, as of August 2015, the UN Security Council continues to treat Palestine as a non-sovereign entity, Israel occupied the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War of 1967 and has since maintained control. Previously, these territories had been occupied by Jordan and Egypt, respectively, in 1980, Israel officially absorbed East Jerusalem and has proclaimed the whole of Jerusalem to be its capital. The inclusion, though never formally amounting to legal annexation, was condemned internationally and declared null, the Palestinian National Authority never exercised sovereignty over the area, although it housed its offices in Orient House and several other buildings as an assertion of its sovereign interests. Israel shut them down in response to the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing, Israeli sovereignty, however, has not been recognized by any country, since the unilateral annexation of territory occupied during war contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention. The cost of the occupation for Israel over four decades is estimated to amount to $50 billion, the World Bank estimates the annual cost in 2013 to the Palestinian economy of Israeli occupation at $3.4 billion. In 1988, with the Palestine Liberation Organization intention to declare a Palestinian State, Jordan renounced all claims to the West Bank. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988,135 UN Member Nations have recognized the State of Palestine and it has not been recognized by Israel and some Western nations, including the United States. In 1993, following the Oslo Accords, parts of the territories politically came under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority, Israel still exercises full military control and, civil control over 61% of the West Bank. The Oslo Accords established access to the sea for Gaza within 20 nautical miles from the shore, the Berlin Commitment of 2002 reduced this to 12 miles. In October 2006 Israel imposed a 6-mile limit, and at the conclusion of the Gaza War restricted access to a 3-nautical-mile limit, as a result, more than 3,000 Palestinian fishermen are denied access to 85% of the maritime areas agreed to in 1995. The majority of the Dead Sea area is off-limits to Palestinian use, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005, however the international community considers the West Bank and the Gaza Strip still to be occupied by Israel. The Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007 divided the Palestinian territories politically, abbass Fatah largely ruled the West Bank and was recognized internationally as the official Palestinian Authority. In 2014, the two groups agreed to hold elections and form a compromise unity government. The 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict intervened, however, the unity government survived, there are disagreements over what the Palestinian territories should be called. Other terms used to describe these areas include the disputed territories
38.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
39.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
40.
Pakistan
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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on the crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people, in terms of area, it is the 33rd-largest country in the world with an area covering 881,913 square kilometres. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistans narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries in that it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and it is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic, an ethnic civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The new constitution stipulated that all laws were to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran. Pakistan has an economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector. The Pakistani economy is the 24th-largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is backed by one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing middle classes. The post-independence history of Pakistan has been characterised by periods of military rule, the country continues to face challenging problems such as illiteracy, healthcare, and corruption, but has substantially reduced poverty and terrorism and expanded per capita income. It is also a member of CERN. Pakistan is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the name Pakistan literally means land of the pure in Urdu and Persian. It is a play on the word pāk meaning pure in Persian and Pashto, the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan, the earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Vedic Civilization, characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of education in the world. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled this region, the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, which, under Dharampala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711 AD, the Pakistan governments official chronology identifies this as the time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid
41.
Somalia
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Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, Somalia has the longest coastline on Africas mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with monsoon winds. Somalia has an population of around 12.3 million. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in the southern regions, the official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afroasiatic family. Most people in the country are Muslim, with the majority being Sunni, in antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre. It is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt, during the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuran Empire, the Adal Sultanate, the Warsangali Sultanate, and the Geledi Sultanate. The toponym Somalia was coined by the Italian explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, Italian occupation lasted until 1941, yielding to British military administration. British Somaliland would remain a protectorate, while Italian Somaliland in 1949 became a United Nations Trusteeship under Italian administration, in 1960, the two regions united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government. The Supreme Revolutionary Council seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic, led by Mohamed Siad Barre, this government later collapsed in 1991 as the Somali Civil War broke out. Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum, during this period, due to the absence of a central government, Somalia was a failed state, and residents returned to customary and religious law in most regions. A few autonomous regions, including the Somaliland and Puntland administrations emerged in the north, the early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations. The Transitional National Government was established in 2000, followed by the formation of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004, in 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nations southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union. The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups such as Al-Shabaab, by mid-2012, the insurgents had lost most of the territory that they had seized. In 2011–2012, a political process providing benchmarks for the establishment of permanent democratic institutions was launched, within this administrative framework a new provisional constitution was passed in August 2012, which reformed Somalia as a federation. Somalia has maintained an informal economy, mainly based on livestock, remittances from Somalis working abroad, Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BCE
42.
Rwanda
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Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a sovereign state in central and east Africa and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland. Located a few south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is elevated, its geography is dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two seasons and two dry seasons each year. The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa, Rwandans are drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda, although within this group there are three subgroups, the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa are a pygmy people descended from Rwandas earliest inhabitants. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, the language is Kinyarwanda, spoken by most Rwandans, with English. Rwanda has a system of government. The president is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who took office in 2000, Rwanda today has low corruption compared with neighbouring countries, although human rights organisations report suppression of opposition groups, intimidation and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by an administrative hierarchy since pre-colonial times. Rwanda is one of two countries with a female majority in the national parliament. Hunter gatherers settled the territory in the stone and iron ages, the population coalesced first into clans and then into kingdoms. The Kingdom of Rwanda dominated from the century, with the Tutsi kings conquering others militarily, centralising power. Germany colonised Rwanda in 1884 as part of German East Africa, followed by Belgium, both European nations ruled through the kings and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy. The Hutu population revolted in 1959 and they massacred numerous Tutsi and ultimately established an independent, Hutu-dominated state in 1962. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a war in 1990. Social tensions erupted in the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 1.3 million Tutsi, the RPF ended the genocide with a military victory. Rwandas economy suffered heavily during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, but has since strengthened, the economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture
43.
Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In Turkish, Balkan means a chain of wooded mountains, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. A less popular hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it derived from the Persian Balā-Khāna, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains had been called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment, a reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, a third possibility is that Haemus derives from the Greek word haema meaning blood. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhons blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, the Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, there is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊. The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, during the 1820s, Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers. Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term, zeunes goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer and, to a large extent, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans again received a negative meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, even in casual usage. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has an area of about 470,000 km2. It is more or less identical to the known as Southeastern Europe. As of 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria, the current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, the Western Balkans is a neologism coined to describe the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania
44.
Hurricane Katrina
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Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. The storm is ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone. Overall, at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods, total property damage was estimated at $108 billion, roughly four times the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in the United States. Early the following day, the new depression intensified into Tropical Storm Katrina, the cyclone headed generally westward toward Florida and strengthened into a hurricane only two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach and Aventura on August 25. After very briefly weakening to a storm, Katrina emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on August 26. The storm caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas, much of it due to the storm surge, severe property damage occurred in coastal areas, such as Mississippi beachfront towns, over 90 percent of these were flooded. Boats and casino barges rammed buildings, pushing cars and houses inland, over fifty breaches in New Orleanss hurricane surge protection were the cause of the majority of the death and destruction during Katrina on August 29,2005. Eventually 80% of the city and large tracts of neighboring parishes became flooded, according to a modeling exercise conducted by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, two-thirds of the deaths in Greater New Orleans were due to levee and floodwall failure. All of the studies concluded that the USACE, the designers and builders of the levee system as mandated by the Flood Control Act of 1965, is responsible. This is mainly due to a decision to use shorter steel sheet pilings in an effort to save money, exactly ten years after Katrina, J. Many other government officials were criticized for their responses, especially New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, several agencies including the United States Coast Guard, National Hurricane Center, and National Weather Service were commended for their actions. They provided accurate hurricane weather tracking forecasts with sufficient lead time, Hurricane Katrina formed as Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23,2005, as the result of an interaction of a tropical wave and the remains of Tropical Depression Ten. It strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina on the morning of August 24, the tropical storm moved towards Florida, and became a hurricane only two hours before making landfall between Hallandale Beach and Aventura on the morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but it regained hurricane status about one hour after entering the Gulf of Mexico, on August 27, the storm reached Category 3 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, becoming the third major hurricane of the season. An eyewall replacement cycle disrupted the intensification, but caused the storm to nearly double in size, the storm rapidly intensified after entering the Gulf, growing from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 5 hurricane in just nine hours. This rapid growth was due to the movement over the unusually warm waters of the Loop Current. Katrina attained Category 5 status on the morning of August 28 and reached its peak strength at 1800 UTC that day, with sustained winds of 175 mph. However, this record was broken by Hurricane Rita
45.
Mohammad Khatami
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Seyyed Mohammad Khatami is an Iranian scholar, Shia theologian, and reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005 and he also served as Irans Minister of Culture from 1982 to 1992. He was a critic of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads government. Little known until that point, Khatami attracted global attention during his first election to the presidency when he captured almost 70% of the vote, Khatami had run on a platform of liberalization and reform. Khatami is known for his proposal of Dialogue Among Civilizations, the United Nations proclaimed the year 2001 as the United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, on Khatamis suggestion. On 8 February 2009, Khatami announced that he would run in the 2009 presidential election, on 16 March, he announced he was withdrawing from the race in favor of his long-time friend and adviser, former Prime Minister of Iran, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. In January 2010, Mohammad Khatami stated that he was not in the position to accept the award, Khatami was born on 29 September 1943, in the small town of Ardakan, in Yazd Province. Khatami holds the title of Sayyid, which means that he is a patrilineal descent from Muhammad. He married Zohreh Sadeghi, daughter of a professor of religious law. They have two daughters and one son, Leila, Narges, and Emad, Khatamis father, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khatami, was a high-ranking cleric and the Khatib in the city of Yazd in the early years of the Iranian Revolution. Like his father, Khatami rose to prominence when he became an Ayatollah. Khatamis brother, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, was elected as Tehrans first member of parliament in the 6th term of parliament and he also served as the secretary-general of Islamic Iran Participation Front for several years. Mohammad Reza is married to Zahra Eshraghi, granddaughter of Ruhollah Khomeini who is a feminist human rights activist, Khatamis eldest sister, Fatemeh Khatami, was elected as the first representative of the people of Ardakan in 1999 city council elections. Mohammad Khatami is not related to Ahmad Khatami, a hardline cleric and he studied there for seven years and completed the courses to the highest level, Ijtihad. After that, he went to Germany to chair the Islamic Centre in Hamburg from 1978 to 1980 and he is also a member and chairman of the Central Council of the Association of Combatant Clerics. Besides his native language Persian, Khatami speaks Arabic, English, running on a reform agenda, Khatami was elected president on 23 May 1997, in what many have described as a remarkable election. Despite limited television airtime, most of which went to conservative Speaker of Parliament and favored candidate Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, even in Qom, the center of theological training in Iran and a conservative stronghold, 70% of voters cast their ballots for Khatami. He was re-elected on 8 June 2001 for a second term, the day of his election,2 Khordad,1376, in the Iranian calendar, is regarded as the starting date of reforms in Iran
46.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an Iranian politician who was the sixth President of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He was also the political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran. An engineer and teacher from a background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Iranian Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami, tehrans council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the election votes. During his presidency, Ahmadinejad was viewed as a figure within Iran. He has been criticized domestically for his policies and disregard for human rights. Internationally, he is criticized for his hostility towards some countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States and other Western and Arab nations. In 2007, Ahmadinejad introduced a gas rationing plan to reduce the fuel consumption. His election to a term in 2009 was widely disputed and caused widespread protests domestically. On 14 March 2012, Ahmadinejad became the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran to be summoned by the Islamic Consultative Assembly to answer questions regarding his presidency, limited to two terms under the current Iranian constitution, Ahmadinejad supported Esfandiar Rahim Mashaeis campaign for president. On 15 June 2013, Hassan Rouhani was elected as Ahmadinejads successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born on 28 October 1956 near Garmsar, in the village of Aradan, in Semnan province. His mother, Khanom, was a Sayyida, a title given to those believed to be direct bloodline descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His father, Ahmad, was a grocer, barber who was a religious Shia who taught the Quran, when Mahmoud was one year old, his family moved to Tehran. Mahmouds father changed their name from Saborjhian or Sabaghian to Ahmadinejad in 1960 to avoid discrimination when the family moved to the city. Sabor is Persian for thread painter, a common occupation within the Semnan carpet industry. Ahmadinejads uncle and his brother Davoud Ahmadinejad have confirmed that the surname was Sabbaghian
47.
Sudan
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Sudan, also known as North Sudan since South Sudans independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, the River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile. During the pre-dynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, by virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 15th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language, Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan separated into an independent country, following an independence referendum. Sudan is now the third largest country in Africa and also the third largest country in the Arab world and its capital is Khartoum, the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation. It is a representative democratic federal republic. The politics of Sudan are regulated by an organization called the National Assembly. The Sudanese legal system is based on Islamic law, the countrys place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or the lands of the Blacks, during the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the centuries become the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and it was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai, pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sennacheribs successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa, Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony, however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal sent an army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani. During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroë, in ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia
listen); Persian: کریستین امانپور, translit. Kristiane Amānpur; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief International Correspondent for CNN and host of CNN International's nightly interview program Amanpour. Amanpour is also a Global Affairs Anchor of ABC News. In May 2018, it was announced that Amanpour would permanently replace Charlie Rose on PBS after he left due to allegations of sexual misconduct.[1]
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