Mecklenburg County is a county located in the southwestern region of the state of North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,618, it increased to 1,093,901 as of the 2018 estimate, making it the most populous county in North Carolina and the first county in the Carolinas to surpass 1 million in population. Its county seat and largest city is Charlotte. Mecklenburg County is included in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. On September 12, 2013, the county welcomed its one millionth resident. Like its seat, the county is named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen of the United Kingdom, whose name is derived from the region of Mecklenburg in Germany, itself deriving its name from Mecklenburg Castle in the village of Dorf Mecklenburg. Mecklenburg County was formed in 1762 from the western part of Anson County, both in the Piedmont section of the state, it was named in commemoration of the marriage of King George III to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, for whom the county seat Charlotte is named.

Due to unsure boundaries, a large part of south and western Mecklenburg County extended into areas that would form part of the state of South Carolina. In 1768, most of this area was designated North Carolina. Determining the final boundaries of these "western" areas between North and South Carolina was a decades-long process; as population increased in the area following the American Revolutionary War, in 1792 the northeastern part of Mecklenburg County was taken by the North Carolina legislature for Cabarrus County. In 1842 the southeastern part of Mecklenburg County was combined with the western part of Anson County to become Union County; the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was signed on May 20, 1775. The "Mecklenburg Resolves" were adopted on May 31, 1775. Mecklenburg continues to celebrate the Meck Dec each year in May; the date of the Mecklenburg Declaration is listed on the flag of North Carolina, represented by the date of May 20, 1775 as one of two dates on the flag of the old North State.

According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 546 square miles, of which 524 square miles is land and 22 square miles is water; as of the census of 2000, there were 695,454 people, 273,416 households, 174,986 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,322 people per square mile. There were 292,780 housing units at an average density of 556 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 64.02% White, 27.87% Black or African American, 0.35% Native American, 3.15% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 3.01% from other races, 1.55% from two or more races. 6.45 % of the population were Latino of any race. There were 273,416 households out of which 32.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.70% were married couples living together, 12.40% had a female householder with no husband present, 36.00% were non-families. 27.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.90% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the county, the population was spread out with 25.10% under the age of 18, 9.70% from 18 to 24, 36.40% from 25 to 44, 20.30% from 45 to 64, 8.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 96.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.60 males. The median income for a household in the county was $50,579, the median income for a family was $60,608. Males had a median income of $40,934 versus $30,100 for females; the per capita income for the county was $27,352. About 6.60% of families and 9.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.50% of those under age 18 and 9.30% of those age 65 or over. Mecklenburg County is a member of the regional Centralina Council of Governments; the County is governed by the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. The BOCC is a nine-member board made up of representatives from each of the six county districts and three at-large representatives elected by the entire county.

This electoral structure favors candidates in the at-large positions who will be elected by the majority population of the county. Each District has a population of 165,000 individuals. All seats are for 2-year terms; the current chairman of the Mecklenburg BOCC is George Dunlap. The Current Vice-Chair is Elaine Powell. Members of the Mecklenburg County Commission are required by North Carolina State law to choose a Chair and Vice-Chair once a year; the individual elected was the'top-vote-getter', one of three at-large members. In 2014 this unofficial rule was changed by the Board to allow any member to serve as Chair or Vice-chair as long as they received support from 4 members plus their own vote; the nine members of the Board of County Commissioners are: George Dunlap Elaine Powell Pat Cotham Trevor Fuller Ella Scarborough Vilma Leake Mark Jerrell Susan B. Harden Susan Rodriguez-McDowell Prior to 1928, Mecklenburg County was Democratic similar to most counties in the Solid South. 1928 marked the start of a long stretch where the county was a national bellwether i

The Djurab Desert is a desert in northern Chad.. Part of the greater Sahara desert, it makes up much of the area of Chad's Borkou region; the Koro Toro settlement and maximum security prison is situated on the eastern boundary of the desert. The closest major settlements are Salal to the Faya-Largeau to the northeast. To the west is the Ténéré desert of western Chad and Niger, to the north are the Tibesti Mountains of the central Sahara. Aeolian deflation in the northern subbasin formed the desert with an arid conditions. Desert reduced Lake Chad. Many fossils have been found in this desert, Kossom Bougoudi and Toros-Menalla being among the most bountiful fossil-bearing areas. A team led by Michel Brunet, from the University of Poitiers, excavated in the Djurab desert during the mid-1990s. In 2001, the type fossil of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, a hominid species of about 7 million years ago, was discovered at Toros-Menalla, at 250 meters above sea level. Michel Brunet, since 1994, has explored Miocene and Pliocene deposits in the desert with the Mission Paléoanthropologique Franco-Tchadienne, which are located in a basin which includes Lake Chad.

In the period of the Sahelanthropus tchadensis, desert would have long dry season, fruits would have been able to grow at certain times of the year. Patrick Vignaud applied plaster to a crocodile cranium in this desert

Rannvijay Singha is an Indian former actor, television personality and VJ. Rannvijay is known for his appearance in MTV Roadies, he has been part of the show from 2004 to 2019 and continues to do so, earlier as a gang leader and now as a host. He appeared in judging panel for auditions from 8: Shortcut to Hell to 16: Roadies Real Heroes, he made his Bollywood debut in Toss: A Flip of Destiny. Rannvijay has acted in London Dreams and Action Replayy. Singha made his Punjabi movie debut in 2011. Singha was born in Jalandhar, India, his father Iqbal Singh Singha is retired Lt. General of Indian Army and his mother Baljeet Kaur is a housewife, although his father is retired but is posted in Syria as the UN Force Commander, his mother is a poet in her own right. Owing to his father's transferable jobs across India, he went to nine different schools, graduated from Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, he graduated from Hansraj College. Rannvijay cleared his test and was all set to join Indian army before he opted to participate in Roadies, because he wanted to win the Hero Honda Karizma R. Singh used to work for a construction worker in New Jersey, United States.

His younger brother Harman Singha is an actor, VJ and popular television personality. Singha appeared in first season of MTV Roadies and further hosting all the season from 2.0 to Roadies Real Heroes. He has hosted other MTV shows, MTV Stuntmania, MTV Force India The Fast and The Gorgeous, MTV Splitsvilla, MTV Scooty Pep Diva and MTV Troll Police. Rannvijay made his Bollywood debut in Toss: A Flip of Destiny in, the film turned out to be a flop, he acted in London Dreams along with Ajay Devgn and Salman Khan, the film received positive critics and was a success. He further appeared in Action Replayy in 2011, he made his Punjabi cinema debut in 2011. He acted in a horror Bollywood film "3 AM". Singha is the only exception in his family to not serve in Indian military as his family is serving Indian military since six generations. Rannvijay married Priyanka Vohra on 10 April 2014; the couple has a daughter named Kainaat, born on 17 January 2017. Rannvijay is a comics superhero and bikes fan and is known for collecting Wolverine and Batman merchandises, he owns Suzuki GSX-R600, Kawasaki Ninja, Hero Honda Karizma R and Royal Enfield.

He is a Warriors fan. Rannvijay Singh on Instagram

BitPay is a bitcoin payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta, United States. It was founded in May 2011 by Stephen Pair. BitPay provides Bitcoin Cash payment processing services for merchants. BitPay was first founded in 2011 to provide mobile checkout services to companies that wanted to accept bitcoins. By October 2012, BitPay had grown to having 1,100 active merchants including being WordPress's bitcoin merchant. BitPay announced in January 2013 that they would be relocating their headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia from their previous location, Florida; the move came following the announcement. According to the company's co-founder, the city of Atlanta was chosen due to the number of fintech companies located in Georgia. In May 2013, BitPay announced. In September 2013, the company announced. Gallippi stated that since the foundation of the company they had processed over $34m, the equivalent to 270,830 bitcoins at the time on the Bitcoin Price Index. In 2014 BitPay expanded its North American presence beyond its headquarters in Atlanta, opening offices in New York City, San Francisco and St. Petersburg, Florida.

BitPay's European headquarters opened in Amsterdam and their South American Headquarters were opened in Argentina. In January at CES 2014, BitPay announced; the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate Hotel and Casino both announced that BitPay would be used as their chosen merchant for Bitcoin in Las Vegas. They were two of the first casinos in Las Vegas to accept Bitcoin. Shortly after CES 2014, the NBA basketball team the Sacramento Kings announced they would become the first major sports franchise in North America to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for tickets and merchandise and would be processed by BitPayWithin the same month, it was announced that Zynga would begin to accept Bitcoin, with BitPay as its merchant. In 2014, BitPay merchant BitGive became the first bitcoin charity to be recognized as a charitable organization by the IRS and was granted 501 status; the 2014 FEC ruling that bitcoin donations can be accepted by political campaigns and organizations led to BitPay partnering with CoinVox and other fundraising organizations.

In June, BitPay became the first Bitcoin company to sponsor a North American sports event. They sponsored the St. Petersburg Bowl, a college bowl game. Following the announcement, over 100 companies in the St. Petersburg area took steps so that they could accept the digital currency before the first event. In September 2015, the company sued its insurance provider in regards to non-coverage of a 5000 BTC theft that occurred in December 2014. In May 2016, BitPay launched the BitPay Visa Prepaid Debit Card, the first prepaid Visa debit card available for bitcoin users in all 50 US states; the company added new bitcoin-accepting firms including gaming platform Steam. New collaborations and releases with Intel and Microsoft's Azure Cloud platform brought new features and capabilities to BitPay's Copay and Bitcore open source platforms. In 2017, BitPay launched another round B funding campaign; that year, they raised the minimum payment on the platform to $100 USD from its previous $5 USD. In Dec 2017, Steam stopped accepting bitcoin payments from BitPay, citing transaction costs for small items were too high, along with volatility concerns.

Bitcoin's prepaid WaveCrest Visa was discontinued in January 2018. BitPay received its virtual currency license from the New York Department of Financial Services in July 2018. Initial funding came from a variety of sources including Shakil Khan, Barry Silbert, Jimmy Furland, Roger Ver and Trace Mayer. In January 2013 the company announced US $510,000 in angel investment, its first external capital after being internally bootstrapped; the investment coincided with the company relocating their headquarters to Georgia. It was stated at the time. In June 2013, BitPay received an additional US $2 million venture capital investment led by the Founders Fund. A Tech Crunch article stated that the investment would be spent on staffing, with a number of coding specialists required around that time; the funding was seen as an attempted push to become more global and was seen by some as a larger VC land grab for Bitcoin companies. In December 2013, Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-shing invested through his Horizons Ventures firm about $2.7 million into BitPay.

In May 2014, BitPay received $30 million in funding from investors including Index Ventures, RRE Ventures, Virgin Group's Richard Branson and Yahoo founder Jerry Yang. Coinbase Xapo Blockchain Circle List of bitcoin companies Official website

The International CoCoa Farmers Organization is an organization, formed in the Netherlands in 2014 in response to cocoa bean farmers needing an international platform for discussing issues in the industry. The ICCFO aims to make sure cocoa is sourced using sustainable methods and to improve the conditions of cocoa farmers and farm workers; the ICCFO consists of regional organisations in different countries representing around 600,000 cocoa workers in total. The head of the Jamaica Cocoa Farmers' Association, Hugh Johnson was announced as the new head of the ICCFO in December 2015 and will take his new position in September 2016; the governing board of the ICCFO consists of 13 members, each representing a cocoa producing country. The members and structure of the board were announced in a meeting held in The Hague in February 2015. Cocoa farmers ensure; the chocolate confectionery market generate annually about $80 Billion worldwide. Cocoa farmers play a crucial role as producers and maintenance of cocoa production.

Cocoa farmers are underrepresented in the international round table discussions on issues concerning their profession, because they were unable to represent themselves as a single voice. Over the past years there have been call for the need for cocoa farmers to unite so they are able to participate and make their contribution to the cocoa value chain. In June 2014 during the World Cocoa Conference, that took place in Amsterdam, cocoa farmers from eleven producing countries met at the side line of this conference and agreed to establish an international cocoa farmers organization. In December 2014 an independent and transparent cocoa farmers organization under the name International CoCoa Farmers Organization was established in the Netherlands by an interim Board led by M. Sako Warren; the mission of ICCFO is to: To organize cocoa farmers and workers under one umbrella organization, serving as the farmer’s voice and collaborate with other stakeholders in the cocoa value chain to promote the rights and interests of cocoa famers and workers whiles ensuring the production of best quality and sustainable cocoa that meet global standards.

Article: Sustainable cocoa Article: changes have to be made in the sector Article: farmers missing in the cocoa value chain As of November 2016, World Cocoa Farmers Organization based at Utrecht, the fourth largest city of the Netherlands, merged with the International CoCoa Farmers Organization with branch and regional head office for Africa, in Accra, Ghana. International CoCoa Farmers Organization World Cocoa Farmers Organization on facebook

Naseem Hamed vs. Augie Sanchez was a professional boxing match contested between reigning WBO featherweight champion Naseem Hamed and Augie Sanchez; the bout took place on August 2000 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut. WBO featherweight champion Naseem Hamed and 22-year old prospect Augie Sanchez agreed to meet one another in June 2000 for an August title fight. After knocking out the reigning super bantamweight champion Vuyani Bungu in the fourth round earlier in the year and his team began negotiations for Hamed's next title fight to be against a highly-rated fighter, with Érik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera being in the forefront. Other names such as Johnny Tapia, Danny Romero and Freddie Norwood were mentioned, but none were able to agree to a deal. Then-WBA super bantamweight champion Clarence emerged as the front-runner before Hamed chose to face the unknown Sanchez. Sanchez had been a promising prospect, engaging in a rivalry in the amateurs with Floyd Mayweather Jr. having defeated him once in the 1996 pre-olympic trials before losing twice to Mayweather which cost him a shot to make 1996 US olympic boxing team.

Hamed, who in his previous fight had promised to tone down his extravagant ring entrances, entered the ring to Black Rob's hit single "Whoa!" Bursting through a wall while accompanied by explosions and Arabic chanting. Sanchez, entered the ring to Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" while being accompanied by four Elvis impersonators; the fight was an all-out war between Hamed and Sanchez, as both fighters traded power punches throughout the bout. After a uneventful first round, the action picked up in round 2 with Sanchez dropping Hamed with a right hand, though the referee bizarrely and controversially declared it a slip. At the end of the round, Sanchez landed 2-punch combination that sent Hamed down again, but Hamed was able to regain his footing and the two ended the round trading punches until the bell rang; the action continued early in the round 3 with Sanchez landing 2 right hands that bloodied Hamed's nose, though Hamed held onto the ropes to prevent regain his balance. In the round Hamed landed a left hook that sent Sanchez to his knees, though the referee again incorrectly called that a slip as well.

As the round ended Hamed began to score numerous power punches on an exhausted Sanchez and opened up a gash over Sanchez's eye. A minute into round 4, Hamed landed a left hand that again sent Sanchez stumbling into Hamed, as Sanchez hit the canvas, Hamed connected with a body shot, causing the referee to take away the potential knockdown and instead dock Hamed a point for the foul. With around 40 seconds left in the round, Hamed landed a brutal 4-punch combination that floored Sanchez, the referee called the fight and awarded Hamed the victory by technical knockout. Sanchez remained on the canvas for several minutes and had had to be taken from the ring on a stretcher; the fight would mark the final title defense of Hamed's WBO featherweight championship. The WBO had mandated that Hamed meet it's #1 contender in István Kovács, however HBO, which had exclusive rights to air Hamed's fights in the United States, was not satisfied with Hamed taking on a virtual unknown in Kovács and only guaranteed Hamed a third of his usual purse of $6 million.

Rather than fight for less money and in order to appease HBO, Hamed decided to voluntarily vacate the title. It was the third time that Hamed had to relinquish one his titles outside the ring as earlier in 2000, the WBC stripped him after he declined to vacate his WBO version, in 1997 the IBF stripped him as well. Though Hamed, no longer held a physcial belt, he was still recognized as the "lineal" champion. After giving up his title, Hamed challenged reigning WBO super bantamweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera to match the following year. After months of negotiations, the fight was agreed upon in January 2001. ^Note 1 For WBO Featherweight title