The Cowra breakout occurred on 5 August 1944, when 1,104 Japanese prisoners of war attempted to escape from a prisoner of war camp near Cowra, in New South Wales, Australia. It was the largest prison escape of World War II, as well as one of the bloodiest. During the escape and ensuing manhunt, 4 Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese soldiers were killed; the remaining escapees were imprisoned. Situated some 314 km due west of Sydney, Cowra was the town nearest to No. 12 Prisoner of War Compound, a major POW camp where 4,000 Axis military personnel and civilians were detained throughout World War II. The prisoners at Cowra included 2,000 Italians and Indonesian civilians, detained at the request of the Dutch East Indies government. By August 1944, there were 2,223 Japanese POWs including 544 merchant seamen. There were 14,720 Italian prisoners, the majority of whom had been captured in the North African Campaign, as well as 1,585 Germans, most of whom were captured naval or merchant seamen. Although the POWs were treated in accordance with the 1929 Geneva Convention, relations between the Japanese POWs and the guards were poor, due to significant cultural differences.

A riot by Japanese POWs at Featherston prisoner of war camp in New Zealand, in February 1943, led to security being tightened at Cowra. The camp authorities installed several Vickers and Lewis machine guns to augment the rifles carried by the members of the Australian Militia's 22nd Garrison Battalion, composed of old or disabled veterans or young men considered physically unfit for frontline service. In the first week of August 1944, a tip-off from an informer at Cowra led authorities to plan a move of all Japanese POWs at Cowra, except officers and NCOs, to another camp at Hay, New South Wales, some 400 km to the west; the Japanese were notified of the move on 4 August. In the words of historian Gavin Long, the following night: At about 2 a.m. a Japanese ran to the camp gates and shouted what seemed to be a warning to the sentries. A Japanese bugle sounded. A sentry fired. More sentries fired as three mobs of prisoners, shouting "Banzai", began breaking through the wire, one mob on the northern side, one on the western and one on the southern.

They flung themselves across the wire with the help of blankets. They were armed with knives, baseball bats, clubs studded with nails and hooks, wire stilettos and garotting cords; the bugler, Hajime Toyoshima, had been Australia’s first Japanese prisoner of the war. Soon afterwards, prisoners set most of the buildings in the Japanese compound on fire. Within minutes of the start of the breakout attempt, Privates Ben Hardy and Ralph Jones manned the No. 2 Vickers machine-gun and began firing into the first wave of escapees. They were soon overwhelmed by a wave of Japanese prisoners who had breached the lines of barbed wire fences. Before dying, Private Hardy managed to remove and throw away the gun's bolt, rendering the gun useless; this prevented the prisoners from turning the machine gun against the guards. Some 359 POWs escaped, while some others attempted or committed suicide, or were killed by their countrymen; some of those who did escape committed suicide to avoid recapture. All the survivors were recaptured within 10 days of their breakout.

During the escape and subsequent round-up of POWs, four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese soldiers were killed and 108 prisoners were wounded. The leaders of the breakout ordered the escapees not to attack Australian civilians, none were killed or injured; the government conducted an official inquiry into the events. Its conclusions were read to the Australian House of Representatives by Prime Minister John Curtin on 8 September 1944. Among the findings were: Conditions at the camp were in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Privates Hardy and Jones were posthumously awarded the George Cross as a result of their actions. A fifth Australian, Thomas Roy Hancock of C Company 26 Battalion V. D. C. was accidentally shot by another volunteer while dismounting from a vehicle, in the process of deploying to protect railways and bridges from the escapees. Hancock died of sepsis. Australia continued to operate No. 12 Camp until the last Japanese and Italian prisoners were repatriated in 1947. Cowra maintains the only such cemetery in Australia.

In addition, the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre, a commemorative Japanese garden, was built on Bellevue Hill to memorialize these events. The garden was designed by Ken Nakajima in the style of the Edo period; the Night of a Thousand Suicides, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-207-12741-7 by Teruhiko Asada, translated by Ray Cowan. Dead Men Rising, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 0-207-12654-2): a novel by Seaforth Mackenzie, stationed at Cowra during the breakout. Die like the Carp: The Story of the Greatest Prison Escape Ever, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-7269-3243-4) by Harry Gordon; the Cowra Breakout: a critically acclaimed 4½-hour television miniseries, written by Margaret Kelly and Chris Noonan, directed by Noonan and Phillip Noyce. On That Day, Our Lives Were Lighter Than Toilet Paper: The Great Cowra Breakout あの日、僕らの命はトイレットペーパーよりも軽かった -カウラ捕虜収容所からの大脱走: a 2-hour

Petit Séminaire Collège Saint-Martial, is an all-boys Catholic school located in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The school is under the control of the Holy Ghost Fathers; the Concordat signed by Haiti and the Vatican in 1860 led to the school being established in 1865. Monsigneur Testard du Cosquer, of the Spiritans, acquired rights and devoted it as part of his ministry as an academic and religious school: a young institution in a young country. According to Spencer St. John, the British consul in Haiti, Saint-Martial was the best school in the country. Just four years after the first cinematograph was patented by the Lumière brothers, the Martial held the first motion picture projection in Haiti on 19 December 1899. Father Daniel Weick, formed the first fire brigade in the country, the first weather station was set up together with a National Museum, which opened in 1904. On 15 August 1969 the Brothers of the Holy Ghost were accused by the government of Francois Duvalier of conniving with illegal political parties.

They were exiled. The Spiritans had no more direction over the school until 1995. Secondary education at PSCSMS was beyond the ordinary; the institution was well equipped with archives and libraries, applied-science laboratories, cleric-scientific staff to help pupils use their conventional knowledge to develop more practical applications, like technology and inventions. Among its foremost successful alumni is Dr. Gardy Cadet, former chairman of the Haitian American Association of Engineers and Scientists. Dr. Cadet worked at famous laboratories such as Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs, he holds under 5 European patents. J'epelle au soleil 2011: second place 2014: second place/student:Carl Handy Corvil Télé-génie: several-time winner 2012 "Moi et le cholera" essay: 16th/400 /student:Beludji Narcisse On 12 January 2010, a large earthquake hit Haiti; the school was destroyed by it. The three buildings, as well as the learning center for young seminarians and the chapel library and administrative office, were all either damaged beyond repair or knocked down.

But though the school's buildings were hit, the students and their teachers prevailed, with lessons starting again in April 2010. However the reputation of good formation, provided by the school is still the same; as part of the rebuilding effort, the first building of the Junior High section was inaugurated in September 2015. Jean-Claude Bajeux, human rights activist Marc Bazin, Prime Minister and provisional President of Haiti Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, professor Louis Borno, President of Haiti Gardy Cadet and scientist, former chairman of H. A. E. S Jude Célestin and mechanical engineer Martial Célestin, first Haitian prime minister Fritz Daguillard, writer Louis-Philippe Dalembert, writer Philippe Dodard, painter Hugues Gentillon, medical researcher, conceptual artist, philanthropist Joseph Jérémie, writer Chibly Langlois, First Haitian cardinal François-Wolff Ligondé, former archbishop of Port-au-Prince Charles Moravia and playwright Alexandre Paul, Haitian consul in Miami René Préval, 51st and 54th President of Haiti, Lyonel Trouillot and writer Pierre Vernet, Haitian linguist and educator Etzer Vilaire and lawyer Philippe Vorbe, soccer player Lenouvelliste.com Lavie.fr Haitiobserver.com Books.google.ht Books.google.ht Spiritains.org Spiritains.org Petitfute.com Lenouvelliste.com Lenouvelliste.com

Piau is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in the Southeast region of Brazil. At the end of the eighteenth century, those, involved in the Inconfidência Mineira were persecuted by the Portuguese Crown; these men became fugitives searching for new places to make a new life. The place they found was set in a vast forest by a river; the settlers gave this river the name of Rio Piau because of a large amount of fish of this species. The first chapel was built in honour of the Holy Spirit, the town was named Divino Espírito Santo de Piau. In place of the old chapel there is now the parish church of the Holy Spirit; the District was created on July 22, 1868. Belonging to the municipalities of Ouro Preto, Mar de Espanha, Rio Pomba, Juiz de Fora, São João Nepomuceno and Rio Novo. On December 12, 1953 Piau became a municipality in its own right; the main attractions in this small municipality include the countryside, the church, old houses and farms, since 1984 the banana festival which occurs annually in the second week of July.

The principal crop is banana and the greater part of the production is sold in Juiz de Fora and its locality. List of municipalities in Minas Gerais