The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan oversees a presidential republic. The President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is head of state and nominates the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of parliament. According to the 2016 World Development report prepared by the World Bank Group, Kazakhstan ranks 28th among 193 countries in the e-Gov development rating; the “Information Kazakhstan – 2020” state program approved in 2013 helped the country transition to the information society. The president is elected by popular vote for a five-year term; the prime minister and first deputy prime are appointed by the president. Council of Ministers is appointed by the president. President Nazarbayev expanded his presidential powers by decree: only he can initiate constitutional amendments and dismiss the government, dissolve Parliament, call referendums at his discretion, appoint administrative heads of regions and cities.

The president is the head of state. He is the commander in chief of the armed forces and may veto legislation, passed by the Parliament; the president Nursultan Nazarbayev has been the head of state. The prime minister, who serves at the pleasure of the president, chairs the Council of Ministers and serves as Kazakhstan's head of government. There are 17 ministers in the Council. Daniyal K. Akhmetov became the Prime Minister in June 2003, he was succeeded by Karim Massimov who assumed office in January 2007. In the 2005 Presidential elections Nursultan Nazarbayev was re-elected for a seven-year term. 5 candidates participated in the elections. 91.15% of voters supported Nazarbayev. The participation in the election made up 77%. A presidential election was held on April 26, 2015. After nearly 30 years of leadership, Nursultan Nazarbayev stepped down from office on 19 March 2019. Prime Minister Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stepped in as interim President until elections could be held to elect a new President of Kazakhstan.

Elections were held on 9 June 2019 with five candidates running. Kazakhstan's National Security Committee was established on 13 June 1992, it includes the Service of Internal Security, Military Counterintelligence, Border Guard, several Commandos units, Foreign Intelligence. The latter is considered by many as the most important part of NSC, its director is Major General Adil Shayahmetov. The legislature, known as the Parliament, has two chambers; the Assembly has 77 seats, elected for a four-year term, 67 in single seat constituencies and 10 by proportional representation. The Senate has 47 members, 40 of whom are elected for six-year terms in double-seat constituencies by the local assemblies, half renewed every two years, 7 presidential appointees. In addition, ex-presidents are ex-officio senators for life. Majilis deputies and the government both have the right of legislative initiative, though most legislation considered by the Parliament is proposed by the government. There are 44 judges on the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

There are seven members of the Constitutional Council. With regard to the legal profession, the Republican Collegiate was created in 2012 and it represents Kazakhstan's lawyers' associations on the national level. Kazakhstan is divided into 14 regions and the two municipal districts of Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Shymkent; each is headed by an Akim appointed by the president. Municipal Akims are appointed by Province Akims; the Government of Kazakhstan transferred its capital from Almaty to Astana on 10 June 1998 The Province or oblystar and cities * are: Almaty, Almaty*, Nur-Sultan*, Atyrau, West Kazakhstan, Baykonur*, South Kazakhstan, Karagandy, Kyzylorda, East Kazakhstan, North Kazakhstan, Zhambyl. The administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers. Government of Kazakhstan U. S. Relations With Kazakhstan at the US Department of State

In mathematics, −1 is the additive inverse of 1, that is, the number that when added to 1 gives the additive identity element, 0. It is the negative integer greater than negative two and less than 0. Negative one bears relation to Euler's identity since eiπ = −1. In software development, −1 is a common initial value for integers and is used to show that a variable contains no useful information. Negative one has some similar but different properties to positive one. Multiplying a number by −1 is equivalent to changing the sign on the number; this can be proved using the distributive law and the axiom that 1 is the multiplicative identity: for x real, we have x + ⋅ x = 1 ⋅ x + ⋅ x = ⋅ x = 0 ⋅ x = 0 where we used the fact that any real x times 0 equals 0, implied by cancellation from the equation 0 ⋅ x = ⋅ x = 0 ⋅ x + 0 ⋅ x In other words, x + ⋅ x = 0 so · x, or −x, is the arithmetic inverse of x. The square of −1, i.e. −1 multiplied by −1, equals 1. As a consequence, a product of two negative real numbers is positive.

For an algebraic proof of this result, start with the equation 0 = − 1 ⋅ 0 = − 1 ⋅ The first equality follows from the above result. The second follows from the definition of −1 as additive inverse of 1: it is that number that when added to 1 gives 0. Now, using the distributive law, we see that 0 = − 1 ⋅ = − 1 ⋅ 1 + ⋅ = − 1 + ⋅ The second equality follows from the fact that 1 is a multiplicative identity, but now adding 1 to both sides of this last equation implies ⋅ = 1 The above arguments hold in any ring, a concept of abstract algebra generalizing integers and real numbers. Although there are no real square roots of -1, the complex number i satisfies i2 = −1, as such can be considered as a square root of −1; the only other complex number whose square is −1 is −i. In the algebra of quaternions, which contain the complex plane, the equation x2 = −1 has infinitely many solutions. Exponentiation of a non-zero real number can be extended to negative integers. We make the definition that x−1 = 1/x, meaning that we define raising a number to the power −1 to have the same effect as taking its reciprocal.

This definition is extended to negative integers, preserving the exponential law xaxb = x for real numbers a and b. Exponentiation to negative integers can be extended to invertible elements of a ring, by defining x−1 as the multiplicative inverse of x. −1 that appears next to functions or matrices does not mean raising them to the power −1 but their inverse functions or inverse matrices. For example, f − 1 is the inverse of f. Most computer systems represent negative integers using two's complement. In such systems, −1 is represented using a bit pattern of all ones. For example, an 8-bit signed integer using two's complement would represent −1 as the bitstring "11111111", or "FF" in hexadecimal. If interpreted as an unsigned integer, the same bitstring of n ones represents 2n − 1, the largest possible value that n bits can hold. For example, the 8-bit string "11111111" above represents 28 − 1 = 255. In some programming languages, when used to index some data types −1 can be used to identify the last item, depending on whether 0 or 1 represents the first item.

If the first item is indexed by 0 −1 identifies the last item. If the first item is indexed by 1 −1 identifies the second-to-last item. Menelaus's theorem

The Devonian Needmore Formation or Needmore Shale is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia. The Needmore Formation was described by Willard and Cleaves in 1939 as a dark- to medium-gray limy shale, based on exposures in southern Fulton County, Pennsylvania, they considered it part of the Onondaga Group. DeWitt and Colton described the Needmore as "soft calcareous medium dark-brownish-gray and greenish-gray shale and mudrock...and soft calcareous fissile brownish-black shale", not resistant to weathering. They estimated its thickness in their study area as 150 feet. DeWitt and Colton identified brachiopods and ostracods in the Needmore. Type locality is between Warfordsburg in southern Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Relative age dating places the Needmore in the middle Devonian

Update is an album by jazz pianist Mal Waldron released on the Italian Soul Note label in 1987. It features solo performances recorded in Italy; the AllMusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars stating "This solo set by pianist Mal Waldron serves as a perfect introduction to his unique style during the more recent part of his career... It is always interesting to hear musicians who started out in straightforward hard bop stretching themselves and playing quite freely; this recording rewards repeated listenings". All compositions by Mal Waldron except as indicated"Free for C. T." — 16:05 "A Night in Tunisia" — 6:09 "The Inchworm" — 5:55'Variations on a Theme by Cecil Taylor" — 14:48 "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me" — 5:16 "I Should Care" — 8:42Recorded at Barigozzi Studio in Milan, Italy on March 10, 1986recorded at MurecStudio ex Barigozzi Studio Mal Waldron – piano

Zander James Ragnar Fagerson is a Scottish international rugby union player who plays for Glasgow Warriors in the Pro14. Fagerson was drafted to Stirling County in the Scottish Premiership for the 2017-18 season. Fagerson made his debut for Glasgow Warriors in a 40–23 win at Treviso in October 2014 going on to become the youngest player to reach 50 caps for Glasgow Warriors at the age of 21. Fagerson represented Scotland at under-16, under-18 and under-20. Fagerson received his first call up to the senior Scotland squad by coach Vern Cotter on 19 January 2016 for the 2016 Six Nations Championship, he made his debut for Scotland as a replacement in the Six Nations match against England at Murrayfield on 6 February 2016. From the 2019-20 season Fagerson will be an assistant coach at Glasgow High Kelvinside. Outside rugby, Fagerson was Scottish Downhill Mountain Bike Champion in 2010, sang with NYCoS National Boys Choir in 2006 and is a qualified lifeguard. Glasgow Warriors profile Scotland profile

A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a small population or small land area, both. The meanings of "state" and "very small" are not well-defined in international law. Recent attempts, since 2010, to define microstates have focused on identifying political entities with unique qualitative features linked to their geographic or demographic limitations. According to a qualitative definition, microstates are "modern protected states, i.e. sovereign states that have been able to unilaterally depute certain attributes of sovereignty to larger powers in exchange for benign protection of their political and economic viability against their geographic or demographic constraints." In line with this and most other definitions, examples of microstates include Liechtenstein, San Marino, the Cook Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. The smallest political unit recognized as a sovereign state is Vatican City, with 842 citizens as of July 2013 and an area of only 44 hectares. However, some scholars dispute qualifying Vatican City as a state, arguing that it does not meet the "traditional criteria of statehood" and that the "special status of the Vatican City is best regarded as a means of ensuring that the Pope can exercise his spiritual functions, in this respect is loosely analogous to that of the headquarters of international organisations."Microstates are distinct from micronations, which are not recognized as sovereign states.

Special territories without full sovereignty, such as the British Crown Dependencies, the Chinese Special Administrative Regions, overseas territories of Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom, are not considered microstates. Most scholars identify microstates by using a quantitative threshold and applying it to either one variable or a composite of different variables. While it is agreed that microstates are the smallest of all states, there is no consensus on what variable or what cut-off point should be used to determine which political units should be labelled as "microstates". With the exceptions of Singapore and Bahrain, all the above have fewer than 500,000 people. With the exceptions of Samoa, Iceland, Bahamas and Brunei, all the above have a non-sea area less than 1,000 km2. While employing simple quantitative criteria may seem straightforward, it can be perceived as problematic. According to some scholars the quantitative approach to defining microstates suffers from such problems as "inconsistency, arbitrariness and inability to meaningfully isolate qualitatively distinct political units".

In response to the problems associated with the quantitative definitions of microstates, some academics have suggested finding states with unique features linked to their geographic or demographic smallness. Newer approaches have proposed looking at the behaviour or capacity to operate in the international arena in order to determine which states should deserve the microstate label. Yet, it has been argued that such approaches could lead to either confusing microstates with weak states or relying too much on subjective perceptions. In order to address both the problems with quantitative approaches and with definitions based on qualitative features, it has been argued that a useful and meaningful way to isolate microstates from other types of states, would be to see them as "modern protected states". According to the definition proposed by Dumienski: "microstates are modern protected states, i.e. sovereign states that have been able to unilaterally depute certain attributes of sovereignty to larger powers in exchange for benign protection of their political and economic viability against their geographic or demographic constraints."

Adopting this approach permits limiting the number of microstates and separating them from both small states and autonomies or dependencies. Examples of microstates understood as modern protected states include such states as Liechtenstein, San Marino, Niue, the Cook Islands or Palau. A small number of tiny sovereign political units are founded on historical anomalies or eccentric interpretations of law; these types of states labelled as "microstates," are located on small territorial enclaves, generate limited economic activity founded on tourism and philatelic and numismatic sales, are tolerated or ignored by the nations from which they claim to have seceded. One example is the Republic of Indian Stream, now the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire—a geographic anomaly left unresolved by the Treaty of Paris that ended the U. S. Revolutionary War, claimed by both the U. S. and Canada. Between 1832 and 1835, the area's residents refused to acknowledge either claimant. Another example is the Cospaia Republic, which became independent through a treaty error and survived from 1440 to 1826.

Its independence made it important in the introduction of tobacco cultivation to Italy. Another is Couto Misto, disputed by Spain and Portugal, that operated as a sovereign state in its own right until the 1864 Treaty of Lisbon that partitioned the territory, with the largest part becoming part of Spain. Sack, John. Report from nowhere. Harper