1.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
2.
Brandenburg
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Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federated states of Germany. It lies in the northeast of the country covering an area of 29,478 square kilometers and has 2.48 million inhabitants, the capital and largest city is Potsdam. Brandenburg surrounds but does not include the capital and city-state Berlin forming a metropolitan area. Brandenburg is one of the states that was re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former East Germany. Governed by the Hohenzollern dynasty from 1415, it contained the future German capital Berlin, after 1618 the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia were combined to form Brandenburg-Prussia, which was ruled by the same branch of the House of Hohenzollern. In 1701 the state was elevated as the Kingdom of Prussia, Brandenburg is situated in territory known in antiquity as Magna Germania, which reached to the Vistula river. By the 7th century, Slavic peoples are believed to have settled in the Brandenburg area, the Slavs expanded from the east, possibly driven from their homelands in present-day Ukraine and perhaps Belarus by the invasions of the Huns and Avars. They relied heavily on river transport, the two principal Slavic groups in the present-day area of Brandenburg were the Hevelli in the west and the Sprevane in the east. Beginning in the early 10th century, Henry the Fowler and his successors conquered territory up to the Oder River, Slavic settlements such as Brenna, Budusin, and Chośebuz came under imperial control through the installation of margraves. Their main function was to defend and protect the eastern marches, in 948 Emperor Otto I established margraves to exert imperial control over the pagan Slavs west of the Oder River. Otto founded the Bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg, the Northern March was founded as a northeastern border territory of the Holy Roman Empire. However, an uprising of Wends drove imperial forces from the territory of present-day Brandenburg in 983. The region returned to the control of Slavic leaders, the Roman Catholic Church brought bishoprics which, with their walled towns, afforded protection from attacks for the townspeople. With the monks and bishops, the history of the town of Brandenburg an der Havel, in 1134, in the wake of a German crusade against the Wends, the German magnate, Albert the Bear, was granted the Northern March by the Emperor Lothar III. He formally inherited the town of Brandenburg and the lands of the Hevelli from their last Wendish ruler, Pribislav, after crushing a force of Sprevane who occupied the town of Brandenburg in the 1150s, Albert proclaimed himself ruler of the new Margraviate of Brandenburg. Albert, and his descendants the Ascanians, then made progress in conquering, colonizing, Christianizing. Within this region, Slavic and German residents intermarried, during the 13th century, the Ascanians began acquiring territory east of the Oder, later known as the Neumark. In 1320, the Brandenburg Ascanian line came to an end, under the Luxembourgs, the Margrave of Brandenburg gained the status of a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire
3.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
4.
Rheinsberg Palace
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Rheinsberg Palace lies in the municipality of Rheinsberg, about 100 kilometres northwest of Berlin in the German district of Ostprignitz-Ruppin. The palace on the shore of the Grienericksee is a classic example of the so-called Frederician Rococo architecture style. In the Middle Ages a moated castle stood on the site of Rheinsberg Palace, the von Bredow family had acquired the lordship of Rheinsberg through marriage in 1464 from the von Platen and had a water castle built on this spot in 1566 in Renaissance style. However, it was damaged during the Thirty Years War and. When his line died out, the castle went to Prince-Elector Frederick William, with the permission of the elector, he sold it however to Benjamin Chevenix de Beville, who alienated it in March 1734 for 75,000 thalers to the Prussian king, Frederick William I. Frederick William in turn gave it to his son, Crown Prince Frederick, in 1736 he moved with his wife, Princess Elisabeth Christine to the southern wing of the castle. Thus, a floor was added to the single-storey building. Frederick himself always described his years at Rheinsberg Palace as the happiest of his life and his time in Rheinsberg ended in 1740 with his accession to the throne. Four years later he gave it to his younger brother Henry, the king also had a grand palace built for him in Berlin between 1748 and 1753 which now houses the main building of Humboldt University. The art-loving prince went on to extend and embellish the castle, in 1786, Georg Friedrich von Boumann and Carl Gotthard Langhans completed the palace to its original plans. Langhans had stayed in Rheinsberg for a few weeks in 1766, and had plans for Prince Henry. In 1785/86, Bouman built the two pavilions at the castle, which Langhans probably tore down, during Henrys lifetime, Henry had his tomb built in the garden in the form of a truncated pyramid, where he was buried after his death in 1802. He even wrote the French inscription himself, the palace rose to literary fame when it was described by Theodor Fontane in his book Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg and by Kurt Tucholsky in his Rheinsberg. Until expropriation in 1945, Rheinsberg Palace was owned by the House of Hohenzollern, during East German times, the palace housed a diabetes clinic. Today the palace and its gardens belong to the Berlin-Brandenburg Foundation for Prussian Palaces, after lengthy and extensive restoration, the palace is now a museum and home to the Kurt Tucholsky Literature Museum. Since 1991, the Federal and State Academy of Music has been accommodated in the former Cavalier House, also since 1991 the International Opera Festival has taken place in the palace theatre, the courtyard and the open-air theatre. Das Schloß, der Park, Kronprinz Friedrich und Bruder Heinrich, selected and edited by Franz Fabian. Based on a translation from English by Rudolf Dielitz, Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-351-02111-9 Ludwig Sternaux, Schloß Rheinsberg und seine Erinnerungen, Hahns Erben, Berlin 1936 Generaldirektion der Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten Potsdam-Sanssouci, Rheinsberg, Eine märkische Residenz des 18
5.
Frederick the Great
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Frederick II was King of Prussia from 1740 until 1786, the longest reign of any Hohenzollern king. Frederick was the last titled King in Prussia and declared himself King of Prussia after achieving full sovereignty for all historical Prussian lands, Prussia had greatly increased its territories and became a leading military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great and was affectionately nicknamed Der Alte Fritz by the Prussian, in his youth, Frederick was more interested in music and philosophy than the art of war. Upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked Austria and claimed Silesia during the Silesian Wars, winning acclaim for himself. Near the end of his life, Frederick physically connected most of his realm by conquering Polish territories in the First Partition of Poland and he was an influential military theorist whose analysis emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics. Considering himself the first servant of the state, Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism and he modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the system and made it possible for men not of noble stock to become judges. Frederick also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, some critics, however, point out his oppressive measures against conquered Polish subjects during the First Partition. Frederick supported arts and philosophers he favored, as well as allowing complete freedom of the press, Frederick is buried at his favorite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II, son of his brother, historian Leopold von Ranke was unstinting in his praise of Fredericks Heroic life, inspired by great ideas, filled with feats of arms. Immortalized by the raising of the Prussian state to the rank of a power, Johann Gustav Droysen was even more extolling. However, by the 21st century, a re-evaluation of his legacy as a great warrior, Frederick, the son of Frederick William I and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, was born in Berlin on 24 January 1712. The birth of Frederick was welcomed by his grandfather, Frederick I, with more than usual pleasure, with the death of his father in 1713, Frederick William became King of Prussia, thus making young Frederick the crown prince. The new king wished for his sons and daughters to be educated not as royalty and he had been educated by a Frenchwoman, Madame de Montbail, who later became Madame de Rocoulle, and he wished that she educate his children. However, he possessed a violent temper and ruled Brandenburg-Prussia with absolute authority. As Frederick grew, his preference for music, literature and French culture clashed with his fathers militarism, in contrast, Fredericks mother Sophia was polite, charismatic and learned. Her father, George Louis of Brunswick-Lüneburg, succeeded to the British throne as King George I in 1714, Frederick was brought up by Huguenot governesses and tutors and learned French and German simultaneously. Although Frederick William I was raised a Calvinist, he feared he was not of the elect, to avoid the possibility of Frederick being motivated by the same concerns, the king ordered that his heir not be taught about predestination
6.
Bernhard Rode
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Bernhard Rode was a Prussian artist and engraver well known for portraying historical scenes and allegorical works. His paintings include several works depicting, in various guises, the King of Prussia Frederick the Great, Rode was director of the Berlin Academy of the Arts from 1783 until his death in 1797. Rode was the son of the goldsmith Christian Bernhard Rode and his wife, the copper engraver Johann Heinrich Rode and the sculptor Philipp Rode were his brothers. He received his earliest artistic training from his father and his earliest training in drawing from a painter and his four-year education at the studio of the court painter Antoine Pesne, an influential painter in Berlin and Brandenburg, was important to his professional development. During his apprenticeship, he learned to paint portraits, in 1748, Rode began a study trip of several years. He spent 18 months in the studio of Jean Restout and Charles André van Loo and he became acquainted with Jean-Baptiste Deshayes and developed his talent and interest in the medium of history painting. In Venice and Rome, he studied the old masters, in 1755 or 1756, he returned to Berlin, and he married Sophie Luise, but the earliest years of their marriage remained childless. Of his earliest years in Berlin, not much more is known, through a life-long annuity from the estate of his father, Rode was financially independent, especially important in the years when was he establishing himself professionally and artistically. Thanks to this annuity, Rode was able to explore techniques, themes and formats on his own time and he painted and donated the Altar pictures still on view in his parish church, the Marienkirche in Berlin-Mitte. He also portrayed a version of the Emperor of China in a series of paintings. Because he studied at the Berlin Academy of the Arts, he received instruction from its directors, Blaise Nicholas Le Sueur, beginning in 1785, he developed health problems, although he remained active until shortly before his death. Upon his death in 1797, he was buried in the cemetery of the Saint Nicholas and Saint Mara parishes, in Berlins Königsstadt, beginning in 1756, Rode belonged to the Berlin Academy of the Arts, and in 1783 he succeeded Le Sueur as its director. His long-time friend, Daniel Chodowiecki, also a member of the Academy and he and his colleagues at the Academy hoped to take the Academy in a new direction and suggested a ten-year project entitled The Soldier King. The project received support from Frederick IIs nephew and heir, Frederick William II, in the course of the project, Rode painted several historical depictions of the Soldier King, Frederick the Great. These were displayed in an exhibit in 1795. Under the patronage of Frederick William II, Chodowiecki himself took over the important post of the Academy director after Rodes death in 1797. They pursued literary and literary interests often linked with the goal of civil emancipation, at the time, they were loyal. The union of the civil enlightenment with the state of Prussia and its king bespoke their underlying national goals, war of the Bavarian Succession Lee, Thomas H. C
7.
German reunification
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The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity, celebrated on 3 October. Following German reunification, Berlin was once designated as the capital of united Germany. The East German regime started to falter in May 1989, when the removal of Hungarys border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain and it caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany and Austria via Hungary. The united Germany is the continuation of the Federal Republic. For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term reunification during the run-up to what Germans frequently refer to as die Wende, after 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events led up to the actual reunification, in its usual context. When referring to the events surrounding unification, however, it carries the connotation of the time. However, anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term Wende as it was introduced by SEDs Secretary General Egon Krenz, the capital city of Berlin was divided into four occupied sectors of control, under the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Germans lived under such imposed divisions throughout the ensuing Cold War, into the 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced a period of economic and political stagnation, and they correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall that had separated Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that Churchill had referred to as the Iron Curtain. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost, perestroika and taken to more progressive levels by Gorbachev. Further inspired by images of brave defiance, a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West, however, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germanys first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohls Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification, second, East Germanys economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. While East Germany had long been reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the East German mark had been practically worthless outside East Germany for some time before the events of 1989–90 further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began for a merger of the German economies
8.
Messerschmitt
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The company survived in the post-war era, undergoing a number of mergers and changing its name from Messerschmitt to Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm before being bought by Deutsche Aerospace in 1989. In February 1916, the south German engineering company MAN AG and several banks purchased the aircraft builder Otto-Flugzeugwerke, starting a new company. The articles of association were drawn up on February 19 and 20, details of the company were recorded in the Commercial Register with an equity capital of RM1,000,000 on March 7,1916. 36% of the capital was provided by the Bank für Handel und Industrie, Berlin, 30% by MAN AG, the first Chairman of the Board of Management was Peter Eberwein, who had previously been employed at Albatros Flugzeugwerke. Due to the need for aircraft production for the ongoing war, there was no time for development work. Within a month of being set up, the company was able to supply aircraft to the war ministries of Prussia and Bavaria, however, major quality problems were encountered at the start. The German air crews frequently complained about the serious defects that appeared in the first machines from BFW, the same thing had happened with the aircraft from the predecessor company run by Gustav Otto. It was only organizational changes and more intensive supervision of the line that succeeded in resolving these problems by the end of 1916. BFW then started turning out over 200 aircraft a month, with their workforce growing to 3,000, the end of the war hit BFW hard, since military demand for aircraft collapsed. The companys management were forced to look for new products with which to maintain their position in the market, since World War I aircraft were largely built from wood to keep their weight down, BFW was equipped with the very latest joinery plant. What is more, the company still held stocks of materials sufficient for about 200 aircraft and it therefore seemed a good idea to use both the machinery and the materials for the production of furniture and fitted kitchens. In addition, from 1921 onwards, the company manufactured motorcycles of its own design under the names of Flink, in the autumn of 1921, Austrian financier Camillo Castiglioni first announced his interest in purchasing BFW. While most of the shareholders accepted his offer, MAN AG initially held on to its shareholding in BFW, apparently Popp was still in close contact with Castiglioni and was perhaps even privy to the latters plans for merging BMW with BFW. It was probably in the spring of 1922 that Castiglioni and Popp persuaded MAN to give up its shares in BFW, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke was reformed in 1926, in Augsburg, Bavaria, when Udet-Flugzeugbau GmbH was changed into a joint-stock company. In the early stages, BMW AG held a stake in company and was represented by Josef Popp. Willy Messerschmitt joined the company in 1927 as chief designer and engineer, one of the first designs, the Messerschmitt M20, was a near-catastrophe for the designer and the company. Many of the crashed, one of them killing Hans Hackmack, a close friend of Erhard Milch, the head of Deutsche Luft Hansa. Milch was upset by the lack of response from Messerschmitt and this led to a hatred towards him
9.
Chequers
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Chequers, or Chequers Court, is the country house of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A 16th century manor house in origin, it is located near the village of Ellesborough and it is about 65 km or 40 miles north west of central London. Coombe Hill, once part of the estate, is located 1 km north east, Chequers has been the country home of the Prime Minister since 1921. The house is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England, the name Chequers may derive from an early owner of the manor of Ellesborough in the 12th century, Elias Ostiarius. The name Ostiarius meant an usher of the Court of the Exchequer, Elias Ostiarius coat of arms included the chequer board of the Exchequer, so it is possible the estate is named after his arms and position at court. The house passed through generations of the De Scaccario family until it seems to have passed into the DAwtrey family, another explanation sometimes offered is that the house is named after the chequer trees that grow in its grounds. A reception room in the bears his name today. Soon after its construction, Hawtrey acted as custodian at Chequers for Lady Mary Grey, younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, Lady Grey had married without her familys consent and was banished from court by Queen Elizabeth I and kept confined to ensure that she had no descendants. Lady Mary remained at Chequers for a period of two years, the room where she slept from 1565 to 1567 is still kept in its original condition. Through descent in the line and marriages, the house passed through several families, the Wooleys, the Crokes. In 1715, the owner of the house married John Russell. The house is known for this connection to the Cromwells. In the 19th century, the Russells employed Henry Rhodes to make alterations to the house in the Gothic style, the Tudor panelling and windows were ripped out and battlements with pinnacles installed. Towards the end of the 19th century, the house passed through marriage to the Astley family, in 1892-1901, Bertram Astley restored the house to its Elizabethan origins, with advice from Sir Reginald Blomfield. In 1909, the house was taken on a lease by Arthur Lee. Lee immediately re-engaged Blomfield to undertake a restoration of the interior, at the same time, Henry Avray Tipping undertook the design of several walled gardens from 1911 to 1912. In 1912, after the death of the last of the houses ancestral owners Henry Delavel Astley, Ruth Lee and her sister purchased the property, during World War I the house became a hospital and then a convalescent home for officers. After the war, Chequers became a home again
10.
Camp David
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Camp David is the country retreat of the President of the United States. It is located in wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park near Thurmont, Maryland, about 62 miles north-northwest of Washington, D. C. It is officially known as the Naval Support Facility Thurmont, because it is technically a military installation, and staffing is provided by the U. S. Navy. Originally known as Hi-Catoctin, Camp David was built as a camp for federal government agents, construction started in 1935 and was completed in 1938. In 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt converted it to a presidential retreat, Camp David received its present name from Dwight D. Eisenhower, in honor of his father and grandson, both named David. The Catoctin Mountain Park does not indicate the location of Camp David on park maps due to privacy, since it was built, every president up to and including Barack Obama has made use of the retreat. Roosevelt hosted Sir Winston Churchill in May 1943, Dwight D. Eisenhower held his first cabinet meeting there on November 22,1955 following hospitalization and convalescence required after a heart attack suffered in Denver, Colorado on September 24. John F. Lyndon B. Johnson met with advisors in this setting, richard Nixon was a frequent visitor. He personally directed the construction of a pool and other improvements to Aspen Lodge. Gerald Ford often rode his snowmobile around Camp David and hosted Indonesian President Suharto there, jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David Accords there in September 1978 between Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Ronald Reagan visited the more than any other president. In 1984, Reagan hosted British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, george H. W. Bushs daughter, Dorothy Bush Koch, was married there in 1992, in the first ever wedding held at Camp David. Bill Clinton used Camp David more as his tenure in office progressed and hosted the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on several occasions in addition to numerous celebrities. George W. Bush hosted dignitaries, including President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, there in 2003, george W. Bush also hosted Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in June 2006. Barack Obama chose Camp David to host the 38th G8 summit in 2012, President Obama also hosted Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at Camp David, as well as the GCC Summit there in 2015. Donald Trump thus far has used his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as his preferred retreat location, in lieu of Camp David. When asked about Camp David in an interview with the Times of London and you know how long you’d like it. On July 2,2011, an F-15 intercepted a small passenger plane flying near Camp David
11.
Angela Merkel
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Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German politician who is currently Chancellor of Germany. She is also the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel has been described at various times as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and the worlds second most powerful person. Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Merkel was appointed as the Minister for Women and Youth in the federal government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1991, and became the Minister for the Environment in 1994. In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote, in 2007, Merkel was President of the European Council and chaired the G8, the second woman to do so. Merkel played a role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon. One of Merkels consistent priorities has been to strengthen economic relations. Merkel played a role in managing the financial crisis at the European and international level. On 26 March 2014, Merkel became the incumbent head of government in the European Union. On 20 November 2016, Merkel announced she would seek re-election to a fourth term and she has two younger siblings, her brother Marcus Kasner, a physicist, and her sister Irene Kasner, an occupational therapist. In her childhood and youth, Merkel was known among her peers by the nickname Kasi, Merkel is of Polish and German descent. Her paternal grandfather Ludwik Kaźmierczak was a German policeman of Polish ethnicity and he married Merkels grandmother Margarethe, a German girl from Berlin, and relocated to her hometown where he worked in the police. In 1930 they Germanized the Polish name Kaźmierczak to Kasner, Merkels maternal grandparents were the Danzig politician Willi Jentzsch and Gertrud Alma née Drange, a daughter of the city clerk of Elbing Emil Drange. Merkel has mentioned her Polish heritage on several occasions, but her Polish roots became better known as a result of a 2013 biography, religion played a key role in the Kasner familys migration from West Germany to East Germany. In 1954, he received a pastorate at the church in Quitzow, the family moved to Templin and Merkel grew up in the countryside 80 km north of East Berlin. Like most young people in the German Democratic Republic, Merkel was a member of the Free German Youth, membership was nominally voluntary, but those who did not join found it difficult to gain admission to higher education. She did not participate in the coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe, however. Later, at the Academy of Sciences, she became a member of the FDJ district board, Merkel claimed that she was secretary for culture. When Merkels one-time FDJ district chairman contradicted her, she insisted that, According to my memory, I believe I wont know anything when Im 80
12.
President of France
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The President of the French Republic, is the executive head of state of the French Fifth Republic. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, and their relation with the prime minister, the current President of France is François Hollande, who took office on 15 May 2012. Hollande has announced that he stand down in the upcoming 2017 French presidential election. President Chirac was first elected in 1995 and again in 2002, at that time, there was no limit on the number of terms, so Chirac could have run again, but chose not to. He was succeeded by Nicolas Sarkozy on 16 May 2007, following a further change, the Constitutional law on the Modernisation of the Institutions of the Fifth Republic,2008, a president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac are the only Presidents to date who have served a two terms. In order to be admitted as a candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations from more than 500 elected officials. These officials must be from at least 30 départements or overseas collectivities, furthermore, each official may nominate only one candidate. There are exactly 45,543 elected officials, including 33,872 mayors, spending and financing of campaigns and political parties are highly regulated. There is a cap on spending, at approximately 20 million euros, if the candidate receives less than 5% of the vote, the government funds €8,000,000 to the party. Advertising on TV is forbidden but official time is given to candidates on public TV, an independent agency regulates election and party financing. After the president is elected, he or she goes through an investiture ceremony called a passation des pouvoirs. The French Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential system, unlike many other European presidents, the French President is quite powerful. The president holds the nations most senior office, and outranks all other politicians, the presidents greatest power is his/her ability to choose the prime minister. When the majority of the Assembly has opposite political views to that of the president, when the majority of the Assembly sides with them, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. The prime minister is then the choice of the President. This device has been used in recent years by François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, since 2002, the mandate of the president and the Assembly are both 5 years and the two elections are close to each other. Therefore, the likelihood of a cohabitation is lower, among the powers of the government, The president promulgates laws
13.
Emmanuel Macron
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Emmanuel Macron is a French politician, senior civil servant, and former investment banker. Born in Amiens, he studied Philosophy at Paris Nanterre University and he went on to become an Inspector of Finances in the Inspectorate General of Finances before becoming an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque. He resigned in August 2016 in order to launch a bid in the 2017 presidential election, in November 2016, Macron declared that he would run in the election under the banner of En Marche. A centrist movement he founded in April 2016, born in Amiens, Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron is the son of Jean-Michel Macron, Professor of Neurology at the University of Picardy, and Françoise Macron-Noguès, a physician. He was educated mostly at the Jésuites de la Providence lycée in Amiens before his parents sent him to finish his last year of school at the high school Lycée Henri-IV in Paris. He studied Philosophy at the University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense and he obtained a Masters degree in Public Affairs at Sciences Po, before training for a senior civil service career at the École nationale dadministration, graduating in 2004. Macron worked as an Inspector of Finances in the French Ministry of Economy between 2004 and 2008, in 2007, he served as deputy rapporteur for the Commission to improve French growth headed by Jacques Attali. While an investment banker, Macron closed a deal between Nestlé and Pfizer, which in part allowed him to amass a small fortune reportedly in the region of €2,800,000. Macron was a member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, in 2015, he stated that he was no longer a member of the PS and was now an Independent. From 2012 to 2014, he served as deputy secretary-general of the Élysée and he was appointed Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Data in the second Valls Cabinet on 26 August 2014, replacing Arnaud Montebourg. As Minister of the Economy, Macron was at the forefront of pushing through business-friendly reforms, in February 2015, he pledged that the government would force through reforms despite opposition from the parliament. On 30 August 2016, Macron resigned from the government ahead of the 2017 presidential election and this came shortly after he founded his own progressive political movement, En Marche. An independent political party, for which he was reprimanded by President Hollande, Macron founded En Marche. in Amiens, the city of his birth. On 16 November 2016, Macron formally declared his candidacy for the French presidency after months of speculation, in his announcement speech, Macron called for a democratic revolution and promised to unblock France. He eventually laid out his 150-page formal program on 2 March, publishing it online, as well as numerous others – many of them from the Socialist Party, but also a significant number of centrist and centre-right politicians. Macron has been described by observers as a social liberal. Macron has notably advocated in favor of the market and reducing the public-finances deficit. He first publicly used the term liberal to describe himself in a 2015 interview with Le Monde and he added that he is neither right nor left and that he advocates a collective solidarity
14.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
15.
European integration
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European integration is the process of industrial, political, legal, economic, social and cultural integration of states wholly or partially in Europe. European integration has primarily come about through the European Union and its policies, one of the first to conceive of a union of European nations was Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, who wrote the Pan-Europa manifesto in 1923. In a speech delivered on 19 September 1946 at the University of Zürich, Switzerland, France and Germany must take the lead together. The question of how to avoid wars between the nation-states was essential for the first theories, federalism and Functionalism proposed the containment of the nation-state, while Transactionalism sought to theorise the conditions for the stabilisation of the nation-state system. One of the most influential theories of European integration is neofunctionalism, haas and further investigated by Leon Lindberg. The important debate between neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism still remains central in understanding the development and setbacks of the European Union, but as the empirical world has changed, so have the theories and thus the understanding of European Integration. Today there is a new focus on the complex policy-making in the EU and multi-level governance trying to produce a theory of the workings. Various federalist organisations have created over time supporting the idea of a federal Europe. These include the Union of European Federalists, the European Movement International, the Union of European Federalists is a European non-governmental organisation, campaigning for a Federal Europe. It consists of 20 constituent organisations and it has been active at the European, the European Federalist Party is the pro-European, pan-European and federalist political party which advocates further integration of the EU and the establishment of a Federal Europe. Its aim is to gather all Europeans to promote European federalism and it has national sections in 15 countries. There are various agreements with overlapping membership, several countries take part in a larger number of agreements than others. e. The German-speaking Community of Belgium is not included and these are Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia are not part of European Organization for Nuclear Research, Slovenia has formally confirmed its wish to become a member. Some agreements that are related to countries of the European continent, are also valid in territories outside the continent. g. Other initiatives have removed barriers to trade in European regions, and increased the free movement of people, labour, goods. It includes the states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, the Nordic Passport Union, created in 1954 but implemented on 1 May 1958, establishes free movement across borders without passports for the countries citizens. The organisation was planned in Vilnius on 1 December 1990, the Baltic Free Trade Area was a trade agreement between Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia
16.
First Merkel cabinet
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Merkels first cabinet led the government of Germany from 22 November 2005 to 27 October 2009 throughout the 16th Bundestag. It followed the Second Schröder cabinet and it ceased to function after the formation of Second Merkel cabinet, which was created after the 2009 federal elections, and was later sworn in on 28 October 2009. Both CDU/CSU and SPD achieved a similar percentage of votes at the election, on 13 October the SPD announced their future ministers and on 17 October the CDU/CSU announced theirs. The coalition agreement, titled Together for Germany, with courage and humanity, was signed and accepted by the congress of the CDU, CSU, and SPD on 12,13, and 14 November. Angela Merkel was elected Chancellor of Germany on 22 November by 397 votes to 202, from that date the cabinet was officially in power. Cabinet of Germany Official English names of German ministers and ministries Gemeinsam für Deutschland, the agreement of the coalition of November 12,2005 between the CDU, CSU and SPD. English translation of the coalition agreement
17.
Jacques Chirac
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Jacques René Chirac is a French politician, who served as the President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 1995 to 2007. Chirac served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976, from 1986 to 1988, Chirac occupied various senior positions, including Minister of Agriculture, Minister of the Interior, Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris, and President of the French Republic. Chiracs internal policies initially included lower tax rates, the removal of controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism. After pursuing these policies as Prime Minister, Chirac changed his method, Jacques Chirac has emerged as an improbable icon of retro taste and a figure of public affection. On 15 December 2011, the Paris court declared him guilty of diverting public funds and abusing public confidence, and gave Chirac a two-year suspended prison sentence. Chirac, born in the Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire clinic, is the son of Abel François Marie Chirac, an executive for an aircraft company, and Marie-Louise Valette. His great grandparents on both sides were peasants, but his two grandfathers were teachers from Sainte-Féréole in Corrèze, according to Chirac, his name originates from the langue doc, that of the troubadours, therefore that of poetry. He was educated in Paris at the Cours Hattemer, a private school and he then attended the Lycée Carnot and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. After his baccalauréat, he served for three months as a sailor on a coal-transporter, Chirac played rugby union for Brives youth team, and also played at university level. He played no.8 and second row, in 1956, he married Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, with whom he had two daughters, Laurence and Claude. Chirac is the grandfather of Martin Rey-Chirac by the relationship of Claude with French judoka Thierry Rey, Jacques and Bernadette Chirac also have a foster daughter, Anh Dao Traxel. Inspired by General Charles de Gaulle, Chirac started to pursue a civil career in the 1950s. During this period, he joined the French Communist Party, sold copies of LHumanité, in 1950, he signed the Soviet-inspired Stockholm Appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons – which led him to be questioned when he applied for his first visa to the United States. Chirac trained as a military officer in armoured cavalry at Saumur. He then volunteered to fight in the Algerian War, using connections to be sent despite the reservations of his superiors. His superiors did not want to make him an officer because they suspected he had communist leanings, after leaving the ENA in 1959, he became a civil servant in the Court of Auditors. In April 1962, Chirac was appointed head of the staff of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. This appointment launched Chiracs political career, Pompidou considered Chirac his protégé, and referred to him as my bulldozer for his skill at getting things done
18.
Philippe Douste-Blazy
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Philippe Douste-Blazy is a United Nations official and former French centre-right politician. He has been Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development in the United Nations since 2008 and he previously served as French Minister for Health, Minister of Culture and as Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Dominique de Villepin. He was mayor of Lourdes 1989–2000 and mayor of Toulouse 2001–2004, originally a member of the Centre of Social Democrats, the Christian Democrat component of the Union for French Democracy party, he later joined the Union for a Popular Movement. A cardiologist of profession he became Professor at Toulouse Sciences University in 1988, born in Lourdes in the Hautes-Pyrénées, Douste-Blazy studied medicine in Toulouse, where he had his first job in 1976. He then worked as a cardiologist in Lourdes and Toulouse, namely in Purpans hospital from 1986 and he then joined the French Society of Cardiology. He became Professor of Medicine at Toulouse Sciences University in 1988, since 2016, he has also been a visiting Professor at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. A member of the Centre of Social Democrats, the Christian Democrat component of the Union for French Democracy, Douste-Blazy entered politics in March 1989 and he was also elected national director of the association of research against elevations of cholesterol. In the 1989 European elections, Douste-Blazy was elected Member of the European Parliament in June of the same year and he was then a member of the European Peoples Party. During his time in parliament, Douste-Blazy served on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health, Elected deputy for Hautes-Pyrénées département in March 1993, Douste-Blazy was appointed to the cabinet of Edouard Balladur as Minister-Delegate at the Ministry for Health. During his time in office, France approved a bill which prohibited postmenopausal pregnancy, Douste-Blazy stayed at the ministry until the 1995 presidential election. In March 1994, he was elected at Hautes-Pyrénéess General Council and he became general secretary of the CDS in December and Governments spokesman one month later. In May 1995, after the election of Jacques Chirac as President of France, in June, he was also re-elected Mayor of Lourdes then, five months later, elected general secretary of Democratic Force, the party which replaced the CDS. During the election campaign he was hurt when a mentally unstable man stabbed him in the back as he was campaigning in Lourdes. It turned out that the Ministers assailant was an Albanian refugee who had tried to attack Mr Douste-Blazy in 1992. At the head of the centerist parliamentary group, he was opposed to the UDF party leader François Bayrou. Indeed, while this one advocated the emancipation of the UDF towards its Gaullist allies, seeking one of the countrys most important municipal seats, Douste-Blazy narrowly won the election for Mayor of Toulouse in 2001, which saw the left making its best showing in decades. Once in office, he had to deal with a political opposition. Douste-Blazy supported Jacques Chirac in the two rounds of the 2002 presidential election, in spite of the candidacy of François Bayrou, consequently, he participated to the unification of some right-wing groups in the Union for a Popular Movement and appeared as a possible Prime Minister
19.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
20.
President of Germany
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The President of Germany, officially the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of state of Germany. Germany has a system of government in which the Chancellor is the nations leading political figure. However, the President has a role which, while not an executive post, is more than ceremonial, Presidents have extensive discretion regarding the way they exercise their official duties. The President gives direction to general political and societal debates and has some important reserve powers in case of political instability. Furthermore, all laws must be signed by the President before they can come into effect. The President, by his or her actions and public appearances, represents the state itself, its existence, its legitimacy, the Presidents office involves an integrative role and the control function of upholding the law and the constitution. In order to exercise power, he/she traditionally acts above party politics. The 12th and current officeholder is Frank-Walter Steinmeier who was elected on 12 February 2017, the convention consists of all Bundestag members as well as an equal number of electors elected by the state legislatures in proportion to their respective population. However it is not required that state electors themselves be members of a legislature, the body is convened and chaired by the President of the German Bundestag. From 1979 to 2009, all these conventions were held on 23 May, in the first two rounds of the election, the Federal Convention attempts to elect a president by an absolute majority of votes cast. If, after two votes, no candidate has received this level of support, in the third. The result of the election is determined by party politics. Usually, the candidate of the majority party or coalition in the Bundestag is considered to be the likely winner, however, if the opposition has turned in a strong showing in state elections, it can potentially have enough support to defeat the governments candidate. For this reason, presidential elections can indicate the result of a general election. According to a long-standing adage in German politics, if you can create a president, you can form a government. The office of president is open to all Germans who are entitled to vote in Bundestag elections and have reached the age of 40, but no one may serve more than two consecutive five-year terms. As yet, only four Presidents have been elected for a second term, the president must not be a member of the federal government or of a legislature at either the federal or state level. On taking office the President must take the oath, stipulated by Article 56 of the Basic Law, in a joint session of the Bundestag
21.
Roman Herzog
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Roman Herzog was a German politician, judge and legal scholar, who served as President of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union, he was the first president to be elected after the reunification of Germany and he previously served as a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court, and he was the President of the court 1987–1994. Before his appointment as a judge he was a professor of law and he received the 1997 Charlemagne Prize. Roman Herzog was born in Landshut, Bavaria, Germany, in 1934 to a Protestant family and he studied law in Munich, completing his doctoral studies in 1958. He worked as an assistant at the University of Munich until 1964 and he then taught constitutional law and political science as a full professor at the Free University of Berlin. In 1969, he accepted a chair of law at the German University of Administrative Sciences. Herzogs political career began in 1973, as a representative of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in the Federal government in Bonn and he served as State Minister for Culture and Sports in the Baden-Württemberg State Government led by Minister-President Lothar Späth from 1978. In 1980 he was elected to the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg and took over the State Ministry of the Interior, Herzog was long active in the Evangelical Church in Germany. Until 1980, he was head of the Chamber for Public Responsibility of this church, in 1983 Herzog was elected a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in Karlsruhe, replacing Ernst Benda. From 1987 until 1994, he served as the president of the Court. In September 1994, he was succeeded in office by Jutta Limbach. German media also speculated that other candidates included Kurt Masur. The former Foreign Minister, Hans Dietrich Genscher refused to run, Herzog was elected President of Germany by the Federal Assembly on 23 May 1994. In the decisive round of voting, he won the support of the Free Democrats. Their decision was taken as a sign that the coalition remained firm, Herzog took office as Federal President on 1 July 1994. He participated in the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising during the Nazi occupation of Poland in 1994. In a widely commended speech, he paid tribute to the Polish fighters and people, in January 1996, Herzog declared 27 January, the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, as Germanys official day of remembrance for the victims of Hitlers regime. In April 1997, Herzog caused a controversy when, in a speech given at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, he portrayed Germany as dangerously delaying social
22.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
23.
President of the European Commission
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The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission. The President of the Commission is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and they determine the Commissions policy agenda and all the legislative proposals it produces. The President of the Commission also represents the EU abroad, together with the President of the European Council, the post was established in 1958. Each new President is nominated by the European Council and formally elected by the European Parliament, once appointed, he or she, along with the Commission, is responsible to Parliament. As of 2017, the current President is Jean-Claude Juncker, who took office on 1 November 2014 and he is a member of the European Peoples Party and is the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg. Juncker is the twelfth President and his First Vice-President is Frans Timmermans, in 1957 the present Commission was established by the Treaty of Rome, and it also replaced the High Authority and the Commission of Euratom in 1967. The Commissions first president was Walter Hallstein who started consolidating European law, national governments took little heed of his administration at first with the President having to stamp the Commissions authority early on. With the aid of the European Court of Justice the Commission began to be more seriously. These proposals led to a backlash from France. Hallstein knew the proposals would be contentious, and took charge of drafting them. However he did gain the support of Parliament through his proposals to increase its powers and he aimed to demonstrate how he thought the Community ought to be run, in the hopes of generating a wave of pro-Europeanism big enough to get past the objections of member states. However, in this it proved that, despite its past successes, France eventually withdrew its representative from the Council, triggering the notorious empty chair crisis. Although this was resolved under the Luxembourg compromise, Hallstein became the scapegoat for the crisis, the Council refused to renew his term, despite being the most dynamic leader until Jacques Delors. Hallsteins work did enable the Commission to be a real player, during the 1970s the presidents were involved in the major political projects of the day, such as the European Monetary Union. In 1970, President Jean Rey secured the Communitys own financial resources and in 1977, President Roy Jenkins became the first Commission President to attend a G7 summit on behalf of the Community. However, due to such as the 1973 oil crisis. However the Commission began to recover under President Jacques Delors Commission and he is seen as the most successful President, being credited with having given the Community a sense of direction and dynamism. The International Herald Tribune noted the work of Delors at the end of his term in 1992
24.
Jan Peter Balkenende
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Jan Pieter Jan Peter Balkenende, Jr. is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal. He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 14 October 2010, Balkenende, a jurist by occupation, worked for the Academic Council and the Christian Democratic Appeal Think tank from 1982 until 1998. Balkenende became a professor of Christian theology at the VU University Amsterdam in 1993 and he was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the Dutch general election of 1998, serving from 19 May 1998 until 22 July 2002. The Christian Democratic Appeal became the winner of the election. The Cabinet Balkenende I collapsed on 16 October after just 87 days in office after internal conflicts within the Pim Fortuyn List that destabilized the government, on 7 July 2006 a rump cabinet Balkenende III was formed and stayed in office until the Dutch general election of 2006. Balkenende again as Lijsttrekker lost three seats but the Christian Democratic Appeal remained by far the largest party with 41 seats, the following cabinet formation resulted in a coalition agreement with the Christian Democratic Appeal, the Labour Party and the ChristianUnion that formed the Cabinet Balkenende IV. On 20 February 2010 the Labour Party retracted their support for the Cabinet Balkenende IV after a disagreement over the extension of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, Balkenende remained Prime Minister of the Netherlands until the Cabinet Rutte I was installed on 14 October 2010. During his childhood, Balkenende was a supporter of the Dutch football team PSV Eindhoven. He also regularly visited the music school and theatre. Balkenende went to a Reformed Protestant primary school in Kapelle and he attended secondary school at the Christian Lyceum for Zeeland in Goes, graduating in 1974. Balkenende resides with his wife, Bianca Hoogendijk, and his daughter, Amelie, in Capelle aan den IJssel, during his tenure as Prime Minister, he did not use the Catshuis, the formal residency of the Prime Minister. He began his career on the staff of the institute of the CDA. In 1992 he received his PhD with a thesis on Governance regulation and social organisations, one year later in 1993, he became an extraordinary professor of Christian-Social Thought at the Free University of Amsterdam. Balkenende first entered the House of Representatives on 19 May 1998 while the CDA was in opposition and he became the CDAs financial spokesman and was also involved with social affairs, justice, and domestic affairs. In this role he advocated a reduction of the national debt. He was elected Chairman of the CDA parliamentary fraction on 1 October 2001, on 3 November 2001, he was appointed lijsttrekker for the CDA in the tumultuous May 2002 parliamentary elections. These elections restored the CDAs former position as the largest political party in the Dutch parliament, Balkenende has been prime minister of four successive cabinets. On 4 July 2002 Queen Beatrix asked Balkenende to form a new government after the elections following the resignation of Prime Minister Wim Kok
25.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
26.
Nicolas Sarkozy
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Nicolas Sarkozy is a French politician who served as the President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012. Before his presidency, he was the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement party, during Jacques Chiracs second presidential term he served as Minister of the Interior except between March 2004 and May 2005 when he was minister of Finances. Sarkozy was also mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France and he was Minister of the Budget in the government of Édouard Balladur during François Mitterrands last term. During his term, he faced the late-2000s financial crisis and the Arab Spring and he married Italian-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. In foreign affairs, Sarkozy promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom, in the 2012 election, the Socialist François Hollande defeated Sarkozy by 3. 2%. After leaving the Presidential office, Sarkozy vowed to retire from public life before coming back in September 2014, on 2 July 2014, Sarkozy was charged with corruption by French prosecutors. In 2016, he ran in the Republican presidential primary, and was eliminated in the first round of voting and they were married in the Saint-François-de-Sales church, 17th arrondissement of Paris, on 8 February 1950 and divorced in 1959. During Sarkozys childhood, his father founded his own advertising agency, the family lived in a mansion owned by Sarkozys maternal grandfather, Benedict Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement of Paris. The family later moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of the Île-de-France région immediately west of Paris, according to Sarkozy, his staunchly Gaullist grandfather was more of an influence on him than his father, whom he rarely saw. Sarkozy said that being abandoned by his father shaped much of who he is today and he also has said that, in his early years, he felt inferior in relation to his wealthier and taller classmates. What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood, Sarkozy was enrolled in the Lycée Chaptal, a well regarded public middle and high school in Paris 8th arrondissement, where he failed his sixième. Sarkozy enrolled at the Université Paris X Nanterre, where he graduated with an M. A. in private law and, later, Paris X Nanterre had been the starting place for the May 68 student movement and was still a stronghold of leftist students. Described as a student, Sarkozy soon joined the right-wing student organization. He completed his service as a part-time Air Force cleaner. After graduating from university, Sarkozy entered Sciences Po, where he studied between 1979 and 1981, but failed to graduate due to an insufficient command of the English language. After passing the bar, Sarkozy became a lawyer specializing in business and they had two sons, Pierre, now a hip-hop producer, and Jean now a local politician in the city of Neuilly-sur-Seine where Sarkozy started his own political career. Sarkozys best man was the prominent right-wing politician Charles Pasqua, later to become a political opponent, Sarkozy divorced Culioli in 1996, after they had been separated for several years. As mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Sarkozy met former model and public relations executive Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz
27.
Bernard Kouchner
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Bernard Kouchner is a French politician and physician. He is the co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde, in 2010, the Jerusalem Post considered Bernard Kouchner the 15th most influential Jew in the world. Since 2015 Kouchner is workstream leader for the AMU, where he contributes his expertise in healthcare, on a visit to Cuba in 1964, Kouchner spent the night fishing and drinking with Fidel Castro. In the protests of May 1968, he ran the medical faculty strike committee at the Sorbonne, Kouchner has three children by his first wife, Évelyne Pisier, a professor of law, and one child, Alexandre, by his present wife Christine Ockrent, a television journalist. He worked as a physician for the Red Cross in Biafra in 1968, from 1988, he began his government career in Socialist governments, though he was not always a member of the French Socialist Party. He became Secrétaire détat, a position in the Cabinet, for Humanitarian Action in 1988, then Minister of Health in 1992. Later, he continued his career in the European Parliament. Between 1993 and 1997, France was governed by right governments, when Lionel Jospin became Prime Minister in 1997, he became Minister of Health for the second time. During 18 months, he led UN efforts to create a new administration and political system replacing the Serbian ones. Thus, municipal councils were elected at local level by the end of 2000 and he was replaced on 21 January 2001 by Danish Social Democrat Hans Hækkerup. He became at this time Minister of Health for the third time and he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Pristina for his services to Kosovo. Kouchner is an advocate of humanitarian intervention. He supported the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty when it was threaten to be rejected by the Irish in referendum, recently, he co-signed the George Soros call for a strengthening of the European prerogatives as an answer to the eurozone crisis. In 2006, Kouchner was also a candidate to become Director-General of the World Health Organisation and he lost before the final election round, and Chinese candidate Margaret Chan was later elected. He has since been expelled from the Socialist Party for his acceptance of the post and he was dismissed in the November 2010 Fillon cabinet reshuffle. In September 2007, Kouchners public comments on the Iranian nuclear situation attracted much attention, in an interview on 16 September 2007, he said, We will negotiate until the end. And at the time we must prepare ourselves for the worst. The worst. He stated that France was committed to a resolution and that no military action was planned
28.
Romano Prodi
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Romano Prodi, OMRI is an Italian former politician and economist. He twice served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and he was also the tenth President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He is nicknamed Il Professore due to his occupation as professor of Economics at the University of Bologna, following the victory of his coalition The Union over the House of Freedoms led by Silvio Berlusconi in the April 2006 Italian elections, Prodi took power again. Up to this time, he has been the only one candidate of Italian Centre-left who won elections. On 14 October 2007, Prodi became the first President of the Democratic Party upon foundation of the party, on 12 September 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon selected Prodi as president of the African Union-UN peacekeeping panel. He is currently serving as the UN Special Envoy for the Sahel, Prodi was born in Scandiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia. He is the eighth of nine children of Mario Prodi, an originally from a peasant family, and Enrica. He has two sisters and six brothers, five of them being like him university professors, Prodi married Flavia Franzoni in 1969. He was married by Camillo Ruini, now a well-known cardinal and they have two sons, Giorgio and Antonio. He and his family live in Bologna. He then carried out postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics, Prodi has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University and a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute. His research covers mainly competition regulations and the development of small and he is also interested in relations between states and markets, and the dynamics of the different capitalistic models. Prodi has received almost 20 honorary degrees from institutions in Italy, and from the rest of Europe, North America, Asia, in 1982–1989 Prodi was President of the influential state-owned industrial holding company Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale. After leaving his position, Prodi ran the Bologna based consulting company Analisi e Studi Economici, between 1990 and 1993 the company earned £1.4 million, most of which was paid by the investment bank Goldman Sachs. In 1993-1994 Prodi was again President of the IRI, where he oversaw extensive privatization of public assets, Prodis former employer Goldman Sachs was involved in both of the deals. In February 2007 the Italian Treasury Police raided the Milan office of Goldman Sachs, the case was however shut down within weeks by superiors, while Geremia was exiled to Sardinia. Prodis political career began as a left-of-centre reformist Christian Democrat and a disciple of Beniamino Andreatta, during the mid-1970s he was appointed Minister of Industry. During Giulio Andreottis government in 1978, he served as a Technical Minister, through the 1980s, Prodi claimed he had been given this tip-off by the founders of the Christian Democracy party, contacted from beyond the grave via a séance and a Ouija board
29.
George W. Bush
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George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election and he is the second president to assume the nations highest office after his father, following the lead of John Quincy Adams. He is also a brother of Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida who was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election, the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bushs first term as president. Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine, launching a War on Terror, a military campaign that included the war in Afghanistan in 2001. He also promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, Social Security reform and his tenure included national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, and torture. In the 2004 Presidential race, Bush defeated Democratic Senator John Kerry in another close election. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections, Bush left office in 2009, returning to Texas where he purchased a home in Crawford. He wrote a memoir, Decision Points and his presidential library was opened in 2013. His presidency has been ranked among the worst in historians polls published in the late 2000s and 2010s. George Walker Bush was born on July 6,1946, at Grace-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, as the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife, the former Barbara Pierce. He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with four siblings, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U. S and his father, George H. W. Bush, was Ronald Reagans Vice President from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st U. S. President from 1989 to 1993. Bush has English and some German ancestry, along with more distant Dutch, Welsh, Irish, French, Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas, until the family moved to Houston after he had completed seventh grade. He then spent two years at The Kinkaid School, a school in Houston. Bush attended high school at Phillips Academy, a school in Andover, Massachusetts
30.
Laura Bush
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Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, and was the First Lady from 2001 to 2009. Bush graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1968 with a degree in education. After attaining her masters degree in science at the University of Texas at Austin. Bush met her husband, George W. Bush, in 1977. The couple had twin daughters in 1981, Bushs political involvement began during her marriage. She campaigned with her husband during his unsuccessful 1978 run for the United States Congress, as First Lady of Texas, Bush implemented many initiatives focused on health, education, and literacy. She became First Lady after her husband was inaugurated as president on January 20,2001, polled by The Gallup Organization as one of the most popular First Ladies, Bush was involved in national and global concerns during her tenure. She continued to advance her trademark interests of education and literacy by establishing the semi-annual National Book Festival in 2001 and she also advanced womens causes through The Heart Truth and Susan G. Komen for the Cure organizations. She represented the United States during her trips, which tended to focus on HIV/AIDS. Laura Lane Welch was born on November 4,1946 in Midland, Texas, Bush is of English, French, and Swiss ancestry. Her father was a builder and later successful real estate developer. Early on, her parents encouraged her to read, leading to what would become her love of reading and she said, I learned at home from my mother. When I was a girl, my mother would read stories to me. I have loved books and going to the library ever since, in the summer, I liked to spend afternoons reading in the library. I enjoyed the Little House on the Prairie and Little Women books, reading gives you enjoyment throughout your life. Bush has also credited her second grade teacher, Charlene Gnagy, on the night of November 6,1963, Laura Welch ran a stop sign and struck another car, resulting in the death of its driver. The victim was her friend and classmate Michael Dutton Douglas. By some accounts, Douglas had been Bushs boyfriend at one time, Bush and her passenger, both 17, were treated for minor injuries
31.
Ehud Olmert
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Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a minister from 1988 to 1992. Between his first and second stints as a member, he served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003. In 2003 Olmert was re-elected to the Knesset, and became a cabinet minister, on 4 January 2006, after Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke, Olmert began exercising the powers of the office of Prime Minister. Olmert led Kadima to a victory in the March 2006 elections, on 14 April, two weeks after the election, Sharon was declared permanently incapacitated, allowing Olmert to legally become Interim Prime Minister. Less than a later, on 4 May, Olmert and his new, post-election government were approved by the Knesset. Olmert and his government enjoyed healthy relations with the Fatah-led Palestinian National Authority, however, during his tenure as prime minister, there were major military conflicts with both Hezbollah and Hamas. Olmert and Minister of Defense Amir Peretz were heavily criticized for their handling of the 2006 Lebanon War, in late 2008, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel ended, which led to the 2008 Israel-Gaza conflict. Olmert declared that the Israeli Defense Force would target the Hamas leadership, throughout his premiership, Olmert was accused of corruption. Livni won the contest and sought to form a new government in September of that year, however, Livnis attempts at forming a new government were unsuccessful, and instead an election was scheduled for February 2009. Netanyahu succeeded Olmert on 31 March 2009, on 30 August 2009, an indictment against Olmert was served at the Jerusalem District Court. The indictment included the five criminal counts, obtaining by fraud under aggravating circumstances, fraud, breach of trust, falsifying corporate documents. The indictment refers to three out of the four corruption-related cases outstanding against him, Rishon Tours, Talansky, in July 2012, he was convicted on one count of breach of trust and acquitted on two fraud counts. In March 2014, he was convicted of bribery, and in May, sentenced to six years imprisonment, in September 2014, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Olmert could stay out of jail, pending appeal. Ultimately, on 29 December 2015, his term was reduced by the Supreme Court to 18 months. That was extended by a due to charge of obstruction of justice. He began serving a 19-months sentence on February 16,2016 in Maasiyahu Prison, on September 28,2016, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected his appeal and added eight more months to his sentence. Olmert was born near Binyamina in the British Mandate of Palestine, according to Olmert, his parents, Bella and Mordechai Olmert, escaped persecution in Ukraine and Russia, and found sanctuary in Harbin, China
32.
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
33.
Second Merkel cabinet
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The second Merkel cabinet was the Government of Germany during the 17th legislative session of the Bundestag following the 2009 federal election, and left office on 17 December 2013. It was preceded in office by the first Merkel cabinet, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, it was supported by a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, and the Free Democratic Party. The cabinet served as a government following the elections on 22 September 2013. The second Merkel cabinet was composed of the ministers, The second Merkel cabinet has been reshuffled several times. He was succeeded by former Family Affairs Minister Ursula von der Leyen, on 3 March 2011, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg stepped down as Defense Minister following the discovery of plagiarized content in his doctoral dissertation. He was succeeded by former Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, who was in turn succeeded by Hans-Peter Friedrich, on 10 May 2011, Rainer Brüderle was elected as the FDPs parliamentary leader and resigned his position as Economics Minister. He was succeeded by former Health Minister Philipp Rösler, who was in turn succeeded by Daniel Bahr, on 13 May 2011, the FDP elected Rösler to succeed Guido Westerwelle as party chairman. Rösler was then named Vice-Chancellor on 16 May 2011, succeeding Westerwelle in this position as well, Westerwelle retained the position of Foreign Minister. On 16 May 2012, Merkel requested that President Joachim Gauck dismiss Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen after the CDUs defeat in the North Rhine-Westphalia state election, Röttgen had been CDU chairman for that state. He was dismissed on 22 May 2012 and was succeeded as Environment Minister by Peter Altmaier, on 5 February 2013, Annette Schavan was stripped of her doctorate by the University of Düsseldorf due to alleged plagiarism in her PhD thesis. She resigned on 9 February 2013 and was succeeded by Johanna Wanka, Cabinet of Germany Cabinet of Germany Federal Ministries of Germany
34.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
35.
Dmitry Medvedev
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Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is a Russian politician who is the current Prime Minister. From 2008 to 2012, Medvedev served as the third President of Russia, born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Leningrad State University Law Department in 1987. Medvedev defended his dissertation in 1990, and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed the Saint Petersburg State University, Medvedevs political career began as the Election Campaign Manager, and later as an adviser of the St. Petersburg Mayor, Anatoly Sobchak. During this time, Medvedev befriended Vladimir Putin, in November 1999, Medvedev was hired by the Russian Presidential Administration, where he worked as the Deputy Chief of Staff. In the 2000 Russian Presidential Elections, Medvedev was Putins Campaign Manager, on 14 November 2005, Medvedev was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister, and was tasked with overseeing National Priority Projects. Medvedev worked as the Chairman of Gazproms Board of Directors, a post that he held until 2008, Medvedevs candidacy was backed by the popular outgoing President, Vladimir Putin, thus giving a significant boost to his popularity. The 2008 Presidential election, held on 2 March 2008, was won by Medvedev with 70. 28% of the popular vote, and he was inaugurated on 7 May 2008. Medvedev did not run for a term as President, and therefore was appointed Prime Minister by President Vladimir Putin. On 26 May 2012, Medvedev was appointed to be the Leader of United Russia Party, during Medvedevs tenure, Russia emerged victorious in the Russo-Georgian War, and recovered from the Great Recession. Medvedev launched a campaign, and initiated a substantial law enforcement reform. Dmitry Medvedev was born on 14 September 1965 in Leningrad, in the Soviet Union and his father, Anatoly Afanasyevich Medvedev, was a chemical engineer teaching at the Leningrad State Institute of Technology. Dmitrys mother, Yulia Veniaminovna Medvedeva, studied languages at Voronezh University, later, she would also work as a tour guide at Pavlovsk Palace. The Medvedevs lived in a 40 m² apartment at 6 Bela Kun Street in the Kupchino Municipal Okrug of Leningrad, Dmitry was his parents only child. The Medvedevs were regarded as Soviet intelligentsia family of the time and his maternal grandparents were Ukrainians, whose surname was Kovalev, originally Koval. Medvedev traces his roots to the Belgorod region. As a child, Medvedev was bookish and studious, described by his first grade teacher Vera Smirnova as a dreadful why-asker, after school, he would spend some time playing with his friends before hurrying home to work on his assignments. In the third grade, Medvedev studied the ten-volume Small Soviet Encyclopedia belonging to his father, in the second and third grades, he showed interest in dinosaurs and memorized primary Earths geologic development periods, from the Archean up to the Cenozoic. In the fourth and fifth grades, he demonstrated interest in chemistry, conducting elementary experiments, in grade seven, adolescent curiosity blossomed through Svetlana Linnik, his future wife, studying at the same school in a parallel class
36.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
37.
Wen Jiabao
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Wen Jiabao was the sixth Premier of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, serving as Chinas head of government for a decade between 2003 and 2013. In his capacity as Premier, Wen was regarded as the figure behind Beijings economic policy. From 2002 to 2012, he held membership in the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the de facto top power organ. He worked as the chief of the Party General Office between 1986 and 1993, and accompanied Party general secretary Zhao Ziyang to Tiananmen Square during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In 1998, he was promoted to the post of Vice Premier under Premier Zhu Rongji, his mentor, Wen was dubbed the peoples premier by both domestic and foreign media. Instead of concentrating on GDP growth in cities and rich coastal areas, Wen advocated for advancing policies considered more favourable towards farmers. Wens government reduced taxes and pursued ambitious infrastructure projects. Following the global crisis of 2008, Wens government injected four trillion yuan as part of a stimulus program. He left office in 2013 and was succeeded by Li Keqiang, a native of Beichen District, Tianjin, Wen Jiabao went to the Nankai High School from which his predecessor premier Zhou Enlai graduated. He joined the Communist Party of China in April 1965 and entered the force in September 1967. Wen has a background in engineering and holds a degree from the Beijing Institute of Geology. He studied geomechanics in Beijing and began his career in the bureau of Gansu province. From 1968–1978, he presided over the Geomechanics Survey Team under the Gansu Provincial Geological Bureau, Wen succeeded in office, rising as chief of the Gansu Provincial Geological Bureau and later as Vice-minister of Geology and Mineral Resources. Wen was discovered by then-general secretary Hu Yaobang, and joined the ranks of the Central Committee, after Wen was promoted to work in Beijing, he served as Chief of the Partys General Affairs Office, an organ that oversaw day-to-day operations of the partys leaders. He remained in the post for eight years, Wen has built a network of patronage during his career. Throughout this period Wen was said to be an administrator and technocrat, having earned a reputation for meticulousness, competence. Wen served as Secretary of the Central Financial Work Commission from 1998 to 2002, Wens most significant political recovery occurred after accompanying Zhao on his visit to students demonstrating in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Wen Jiabao is the only Chief of the Partys General Affairs Office to have served under three General Secretaries, Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, and Jiang Zemin
