The PlayStation 3 is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the successor to PlayStation 2, is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles, it was first released on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America, March 23, 2007 in Europe and Australia. The PlayStation 3 competed against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles; the console was first announced at E3 2005, was released at the end of 2006. It was the first console to use Blu-ray Disc as its primary storage medium; the console was the first PlayStation to integrate social gaming services, including the PlayStation Network, as well as the first to be controllable from a handheld console, through its remote connectivity with PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita. In September 2009, the Slim model of the PlayStation 3 was released, it no longer provided the hardware ability to run PS2 games. It was lighter and thinner than the original version, featured a redesigned logo and marketing design, as well as a minor start-up change in software.

A Super Slim variation was released in late 2012, further refining and redesigning the console. During its early years, the system was negatively received, due to its high price, a complex processor architecture, lack of quality games but was praised for its Blu-ray capabilities and "untapped potential"; the reception would get more positive over time. The system had a slow start in the market but managed to recover after the introduction of the Slim model, its successor, the PlayStation 4, was released in November 2013. On September 29, 2015, Sony confirmed that sales of the PlayStation 3 were to be discontinued in New Zealand, but the system remained in production in other markets. Shipments of new units to Europe and Australia ended in March 2016, followed by North America which ended in October 2016. Heading into 2017, Japan was the last territory where new units were still being produced until May 29, 2017, when Sony confirmed the PlayStation 3 was discontinued in Japan; the PlayStation 3 began development in 2001 when Ken Kutaragi the President of Sony Computer Entertainment, announced that Sony, IBM would collaborate on developing the Cell microprocessor.

At the time, Shuhei Yoshida led a group of programmers within this hardware team to explore next-generation game creation. By early 2005, focus within Sony shifted towards developing PS3 launch titles. Sony unveiled PlayStation 3 to the public on May 16, 2005, at E3 2005, along with a boomerang-shaped prototype design of the Sixaxis controller. A functional version of the system was not present there, nor at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although demonstrations were held at both events on software development kits and comparable personal computer hardware. Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 specifications was shown; the initial prototype shown in May 2005 featured two HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports. Two hardware configurations were announced for the console: a 20 GB model and a 60 GB model, priced at US$499 and US$599, respectively; the 60 GB model was to be the only configuration to feature an HDMI port, Wi-Fi internet, flash card readers and a chrome trim with the logo in silver.

Both models were announced for a simultaneous worldwide release: November 11, 2006, for Japan and November 17, 2006, for North America and Europe. On September 6, 2006, Sony announced that PAL region PlayStation 3 launch would be delayed until March 2007, because of a shortage of materials used in the Blu-ray drive. At the Tokyo Game Show on September 22, 2006, Sony announced that it would include an HDMI port on the 20 GB system, but a chrome trim, flash card readers, silver logo and Wi-Fi would not be included; the launch price of the Japanese 20 GB model was reduced by over 20%, the 60 GB model was announced for an open pricing scheme in Japan. During the event, Sony showed 27 playable PS3 games running on final hardware. PlayStation 3 was first released in Japan on November 11, 2006, at 07:00. According to Media Create, 81,639 PS3 systems were sold within 24 hours of its introduction in Japan. Soon after its release in Japan, PS3 was released in North America on November 17, 2006. Reports of violence surrounded the release of PS3.

A customer was shot, campers were robbed at gunpoint, customers were shot in a drive-by shooting with BB guns, 60 campers fought over 10 systems. The console was planned for a global release through November, but at the start of September the release in Europe and the rest of the world was delayed until March. With it being a somewhat last-minute delay, some companies had taken deposits for pre-orders, at which Sony informed customers that they were eligible for full refunds or could continue the pre-order. On January 24, 2007, Sony announced that PlayStation 3 would go on sale on March 23, 2007, in Europe, the Middle East and New Zealand; the system sold about 600,000 units in its first two days. On March 7, 2007, the 60 GB PlayStation 3 launched in Singapore with a price of S$799; the console was launched in South Korea on June 16, 2007, as a single version equipped with an 80 GB hard drive and IPTV. Following speculation that Sony was working on a'slim' model, Sony announced the PS3 CECH-2000 model on August 18, 2009, at the Sony Gamescom press conference.

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The knock-out stage of the 2013 AFC Champions League was played from 14 May to 9 November 2013. A total of 16 teams competed in the knock-out stage; the winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage qualified for the knock-out stage. Both West Asia Zone and East Asia Zone had eight teams qualified. In the knock-out stage, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament; each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The away goals rule, extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner; the schedule of each round was. In the round of 16, the winners of one group played the runners-up of another group in the same zone, with the group winners hosting the second leg; the matchups were determined as follows: The draw for the quarter-finals, semi-finals, final was held on 20 June 2013, 16:00 UTC+8, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In this draw, teams from different zones could play each other, the "country protection" rule was applied: if there are two teams from the same association, they may not play each other in the quarter-finals.

The first legs were played on 14 and 15 May 2013, the second legs were played on 21 and 22 May 2013. FC Seoul won 3–1 on aggregate. Buriram United won 2–1 on aggregate. Al-Ahli won 3–1 on aggregate. Al-Shabab won 5–1 on aggregate. Kashiwa Reysol won 5–2 on aggregate. Guangzhou Evergrande won 5–1 on aggregate. Lekhwiya won 3–2 on aggregate. Esteghlal won 4–2 on aggregate; the first legs were played on 21 August 2013, the second legs were played on 18 September 2013. FC Seoul won 2–1 on aggregate. Esteghlal won 3–1 on aggregate. Guangzhou Evergrande won 6–1 on aggregate. 3–3 on aggregate. Kashiwa Reysol won on away goals; the first legs were played on 25 September 2013, the second legs were played on 2 October 2013. Guangzhou Evergrande won 8–1 on aggregate. FC Seoul won 4–2 on aggregate; the first leg was played on 26 October 2013, the second leg was played on 9 November 2013. 3–3 on aggregate. Guangzhou Evergrande won on away goals. AFC Champions League

Ramuntcho is a novel by French author Pierre Loti. It is a adventure story about contraband runners in the Basque province of France, it is one of Loti's most popular stories—"love and faith remain eternal themes"—with four French film adaptations. It was first published in 5 parts, from 15 December 1896 to 15 February 1897, in the Revue de Paris. Calmann-Lévy published the novel in two parts on 10 March 1897. A dramatized version was staged in Paris in 1910, with incidental music by Gabriel Pierné; the novel is notable for its documentary description of French Basque culture. Ramuntcho; the bastard son of Franchita, he struggles to be an accepted member of Basque society in the village of Etchezar. An accomplished pelota player and smuggler. Franchita. Mother of Ramuntcho, she has a mysterious and scandalous past. Ignatio. Franchita's oldest brother who lives in the Americas. Gracieuse Detcharry. Ramuntcho's beautiful blonde girlfriend. Dolores Detcharry. Gracieuse's mother. Arrochkoa Detcharry. Brother of Gracieuse.

Friend of Ramuntcho, accomplished pelota player and smuggler. Pantchika Daraignaratz. Blonde girl engaged to Arrochkoa. Mother is "Madame." Olhagarray. Cousins of Madame Daraignaratz who live in Erribiague. Itchola. Leader of the band of smugglers, he is hardened. Florentiono. Ramuntcho's friend and fellow smuggler. Red hair. Marcos and Joachim Iragola. Two brothers who are renowned lyricists. Members of the band of smugglers. Jose Bidegarray, mysterious stranger who brings tidings from Ignatio in the Americas. Etchezar. Town in Basque France where the story takes place. Bidasoa river that separates France; the smugglers cross it at night. Gizune Mountain that dominates the landscape of Etchezar. Erribiague, a neighboring village higher up the mountain and more primitive. Amezqueta, a distant village where the nunnery is located. Pelota, an ancient Basque game played with a ball and wicker glove against the side of a church wall. Kalsomine, a white-wash used to cover stone walls. Mantilla, a head-dress worn by Spanish women.

Fandango, a favorite Spanish dance with castanets. Ramuntcho, short silent French subject by Jacques de Baroncelli. Ramuntcho, French film by René Barberis; the Marriage of Ramuntcho, a 1947 French film by Max de Vaucorbeil. Ramuntcho, French film by Pierre Schoendoerffer. In December 1891 Julien Viaud took command at Hendaye of Javelot, a gunboat charged with watching the French-Spanish border at the mouth of the Bidassoa, an area where smuggling was prevalent. In the first months it appeared to him a colourless place, as his diary of the time indicated, but its charm worked upon him, to the point where he wanted to buy the house he was renting, he gave it a basque name Bakhar-Etchéa – it became the symbolic opposite of the old family home in Rochefort where his mother and father lived. Two years after his arrival in the Basque country, his diary noted the start of the writing of the novel: " Tuesday 1 November 1893 – A calm day. Luminous, cold. A great malancholy of dead leaves, dead things...in the solitude of my study I conceived the plan and began to write Ramoncho, which will be the great thing I shall turn towards, against the infinite sadnesses of this winter...

" At this point Loti was about to become only an episodic visitor to the Basque country so his diary filled with impressions and anecdotes was used without modification in the novel. The novel was written as much in Rochefort as in the Basque country, to which Loti made trips however in 1894 and 1895, before returning to his post on the Javelot in May 1896. From February – June 1894 Loti visited the Holy Land' from which he returned as atheist as before he had set out'. In 1894 too, he met Crucita Gainza a Spanish Basque, a dancer and dressmaker, installed her at his home in Rochefort. On 26 November 1893 he had written in his diary that he, " came to the Basque country to re-create my life. To choose a young girl who might be the mother of my children, to transmit me, prolong me, re-start me in the mystery of new incarnations and I feel myself full of will, of force, of youth.." In October 1894 he learned that Crucita was pregnant and wrote that he dreamt of " this little Basque who will be born of us.."

Their child was born on 29 June 1895. She gave him 3 illegitimate children. According to the French critic w:fr:Patrick Besnier, Loti's book is one " shaped by the rapports between father and son – their non-existence, their impossibility.." In Ramuntcho the Basque country is presented as a quasi-paradisiacal land. Time and history do not weigh upon this Arcadie, the slow passage of days and months is a succession of feast days and of rejoicing; the outside world doesn't intrude military service is left hazy – the reader learns only that Ramuntcho departs for'a southern land.' From this Basque paradise, Ramuntcho is going to be excluded. Unwilling at first to do his military service. Français ou Espagnol, moi, ça m'est égal.. " Yet he does his service, to please Gracieuse, he chooses a nationality, French. To the lack of differentiation French/Spanish, other themes of borders emerge – for example the border between adulthood and adolescence. According to Besnier, Loti, in his Basque life, lived protected from the realities and cruelties of existence, in a state of perpetual adolescence.

In this happy land, it seems only games and pleasures exist, th