There are around 56,986 km of roads in Morocco. In addition to 1,808 km of highways; the Tangier–Casablanca high-speed rail link marks the first stage of the ONCF’s high-speed rail master plan, pursuant to which over 1,500 km of new railway lines will be built by 2035. The high speed train - TGV - will have a capacity of 500 passengers and will carry 8 million passengers per year; the work on the High Speed Rail project was started in September 2011. Construction of infrastructure and delivery of railway equipment will end in 2014 and the HSR will be operational by December 2015. With billions of dollars committed to improving the country's infrastructure, Morocco aims to become a world player in terms of marine transport; the 2008-2012 investment plan aims to invest $16.3 billion and will contribute to major projects such as the combined port and industrial complex of the Tanger-Med and the construction of a high-speed train between Tangier and Casablanca. The plan will improve and expand the existing highway system and expand the Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport.

Morocco's transport sector is one of the kingdom's most dynamic, will remain so for years to come. The improvements in infrastructure will boost other sectors and will help the country in its goal of attracting 10 million tourists by 2010. 1907 km 1,435 mm standard gauge, 1003 km electrified with 3 kV DC. There are plans for several high-speed lines. Work by ONCF began in September 2011 on a first section from Tangier to Kenitra. There are plans to construct two core lines, one from Tangier in the north via Marrakesh to Agadir in the south, a second from Casablanca on the Atlantic to Oujda on the Algerian border. If all of these plans will be approved, the 1,500 kilometres of track may take until 2035 to complete at a cost of around 100 billion dirhams. Potential speed gains are large, with travel time from Casablanca to Marrakesh down from 3 hours to 1:20, from the capital Rabat to Tangier from 4:30 to 1:30; the second High-Speed Rail, planned to be built after Tangier-Kenitra is the HSR Marrakech-Essaouira followed by a new HSR Rabat-Meknes.

The last high-speed lines will connect these two old empire cities to the Atlantique coast in less than one hour instead of two hours now. The current high-speed line Tangier-Kenitra under construction was impacted by delays resulting from issues about land acquisitions because this operation was performed by different provincial governors, in order to avoid such delays on the next high-speed rail Marrakech-Essaouira, the national railway company ONCF was given the green light to start the land acquisition and expropriation procedure. A railway connecting Nador to the existing network at Taourirt was finished in 2010, after it had been under construction since 2007. Rabat-Salé tramway Casablanca Tramway As of 2006 there were around 57625 kilometres of roads in Morocco, an additional 1808 kilometers of highways. Principal national roads: National Route 1 National Route 2 National Route 3 National Route 4 National Route 5 National Route 6 National Route 7 National Route 8 National Route 9 National Route 10 National Route 11 National Route 12 National Route 13 National Route 14 National Route 15 National Route 16 Rabat Ring Road A1 Casablanca-Rabat A1 Casablanca–Safi A2 Rabat-Fes A2 Fes-Oujda A3 Casablanca-Marrakesh A3 extension to Agadir A4 Berrechid-Benni Mellal A5 Rabat-Tangier Med A7 Tetouan-Fnideq Agadir -- Agadir–Al Massira Airport: Flights to most major European cities.

Al Hoceima -- Cherif Al Idrissi Airport: Flights to Brussels, Charleroi and Rotterdam Casablanca -- Mohammed V International Airport: Arrivals and departures to worldwide destinations. Fez -- Fes–Saïss Airport: Flights to Europe and Casablanca Laayoune -- Hassan I Airport: Flights to Agadir, Casablanca and Las Palmas. Marrakech -- Marrakesh Menara Airport: Flights all major international airports in Western Europe Nador -- Nador International Airport: Flights to Amsterdam, Casablanca, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Paris. Oujda -- Angads Airport: Flights to Amsterdam, Casablanca and Paris. Ouarzazate -- Ouarzazate Airport: Flights to Casablanca and Paris. Rabat -- Rabat–Salé Airport: Flights to Paris and Tripoli. Tangier -- Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport: Flights all major international airports in Western Europe Air Arabia Maroc Royal Air Maroc Royal Air Maroc Express total: 35 ships by type: cargo ship 3, chemical tanker 6, container ship 8, passenger/cargo ship 12, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo ship 1, roll-on/roll-off 4Foreign-owned: 14 Registered in other countries: 4 Acciona Trasmediterránea Baleària Comanav Comarit FerriMaroc FRS Iberia Grandi Navi Veloci Grimaldi Lines International Maritime Transport Corporation Naviera Armas Bus service in Morocco offers access to every corner of the country.

There’s a big choice of carriers at bus stations, among them: CTM Supratours Laraki UN Map This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Professor C. S. Kiang has served as Chairman of the Peking University Environment Fund and the Founding Dean of the College of Environmental Sciences at Peking University between 2002 and 2006, his vision is to set up the basic infrastructure for the development of leadership in sustainable development, exploring the world impact of what China can do for the world in the 21st century. Trained in Physics at National Taiwan University and Georgia Institute of Technology, after four years at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Dr. Kiang returned to Georgia Tech in 1978 to develop the Atmospheric Sciences program within the School of Geophysical Sciences and served as Director of the School from 1981 to 1988, he is founding Director of the Southern Oxidant Study, a strategic alliance of government agencies, national laboratories, academic institutes and private industries to study the air quality of the southern region of the US. He has served as member of the National Academy of Sciences' Panel for the Study of Global Climate Change in China, member of the National Academy of Sciences of Review of US Air Quality Management, Chairman of the International Conference on Global and Regional Environmental Atmospheric Chemistry in Beijing, member of the Steering Committee of the Global Water Partnership, member of the Advisory Board of the newly established Environmental Research Letters and Climate Prosperity Alliance.

He is the CEO of Sustainable Development Technologies and Vice Chairman of Global Urban Development. He is a Councillor of the World Future Council, a member of Advisory Board of the Climate Change Capital, a member of International Council of Asia Society and a member of the Global Agenda Council of Climate Change of the World Economic Forum and an advisor of the Global Elders and other various roles in Non-profit Partners Entrepreneurships and consultation service for private corporations. In 2012, he spoke at The Wall Street Journal's ECO:nomics conference where he quoted as saying "China has spent 30 years on so-called economic reforms and made significant progress; the first issue was to get people to survive. You try to deal with the environment. Why is this a good time? Many cities in China have air-quality problems, many have water issues; the problem is severe, gets the attention of the older people. Because of the economic benefits, they've started to look at the quality of life; the No. 1 thing they care about is the environment.

So it's time". Kiang C. S. Dean, College of Environmental Science Peking University at chinausclimate.org Kiang CS Councilor of WFC at World Future Council 2013 interview

The Bahrain national basketball team, represents Bahrain in international basketball competitions and is controlled by the Bahrain Basketball Association. Best performance: 10th worst performance: 1991: 15thBahrain last played at the FIBA Asia Championship in 1999, where they finished 12th with a 2–5 record and victories over Malaysia and Hong Kong. Bahrain qualified for the FIBA Asia Championship 2009 in Tianjin, China by finishing fourth at the 2009 Gulf Cup. However, they withdrew before the tournament, opening up a spot for Chinese Taipei to compete in the tournament. In 2000, Bahrain club Al-Manama finished third in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, the only time that a Bahrain club medaled at the championship. Bahrain Basketball Blogspot Bahrain Basketball Records at FIBA Archive Asia-basket - Bahrain Men National Team Presentation on Facebook 27th FIBA Asia Championships 2013:Bahrain Team Details

The Feurt Mounds and Village Site is a Fort Ancient culture archaeological site with three burial mounds and an associated village, located in Clay Township in Scioto County, Ohio. The prehistoric indigenous peoples who constructed the Feurt Mounds lived in the nearby village, they were people belonging to a unique phase in the Fort Ancient Tradition. The Feurt Phase is a longer durational period than some other components of the Fort Ancient Tradition. There are several of these sites located in Southern Ohio and western West Virginia counties scattered along the tributaries of and Ohio River banks; the three mounds are near the Ohio River confluence. William C. Mills in 1917 described the topography, "The immediate location of the mounds and village site is a level plateau of less than five acres in extent, elevated a little more than forty feet above the bottom land into which it projects, promontory like, with steep and abrupt banks." This first found Feurt Phase location became the test site, otherwise the basis site, for following discoveries.

The smallest of the three mounds, according to Mr. Moorehead, was seventy-five feet by sixty feet and two and three-fourths feet high. A total of 107 skeletons were buried in this small mound; the second mound was the highest mound about eight feet high. About half of it was fallen over the hill. One hundred and thirty seven burials were found. A triangular arrow point was found embedded in the head of adult No. 43. A curious comment of Mills, "'fireplace of a tepee site on the base line or floor.'" The third mound was 90 feet by 112 feet at the base. It contained 101 burials; these were adults alike in a flex position. Among the adornment were beads; as with other phases within the contemporaneous Fort Ancient culture, local stream mussel shell was used for tools and jewelry. Animal bone and shell attached to prepared tree limbs were used for hoes in their gardens. Animal bone was shaped for use as tools; these included awls, fish hooks, bone needles, hide scrapers. Their jewelry included beads, hair pins, pendants and shell.

These were made of both bone and shell. Gourds from their garden and turtle shell were used for ceremonial rattles; this first site recognized as such is the Feurt Phase type site of which following discovered sites in this Ohio Valley sub-region are compared. The site was excavated in 1916 by archaeologists who found 345 burials, all but one being in the flexed position; the artifacts of flint, bone and pottery were typical of the Fort Ancient Tradition. The majority of flint arrowheads were triangular shaped with needle-like points. Before the site was excavated, cannel coal effigy canines of the carnivora were found by a Mr. Wertz. Fewer were found according to Mills; the Freut Mound copper found. He relates some shell and beads were similar to the corresponding type found nearby at Tremper Mound; the mounds were visited and opened by Prof. Moorehead in the year 1896; the Feurt Mounds and Village Site are situated about three miles north off the west side of U. S. 23 near the Clay Township overpass in Scioto County, southern Ohio.

Fort Ancient Tradition sites William C. Mills, The Feurt Mounds and Village Site, January 1917, Ohio archaeological and historical quarterly, Volume 26. Project Muse, 1917, Ohio archaeological and historical publications, Volume 26 By Ohio Historical Society, Google Public Domain book download

The Tumblagooda Sandstone is a geological formation deposited during the Silurian or Ordovician periods, between four and five hundred million years ago, is now exposed on the west coast of Australia in river and coastal gorges near the tourist town of Kalbarri, Kalbarri National Park and the Murchison River gorge, straddling the boundary of the Carnarvon and Perth basins. Visible trackways are interpreted by some to be the earliest evidence of terrestrial animals; the Tumblagooda ranges between 3,500 metres in thickness. The base of the formation is not exposed, but geophysical data indicate the sandstone unconformably overlies a Proterozoic basement; the formation is divided into four facies associations, numbered stratigraphically, that occur sequentially from bottom to top. These lithified sediments portray an environment dominated by high-energy braided streams flowing into the sea; the lowest facies association in the unit is dominated by trough cross-stratification, deposited by broad, high-energy braided rivers, which formed the outwash plain of an alluvial system.

Trace fossils are absent, because the high depositional energy meant burrowing organisms could not survive. The downslope flow was to the north west; these facies reflect more distal environment. There are two published interpretation of the depositional setting of these facies: they were interpreted as tidal sand-flat deposits, an interpretation still followed, but subsequently as continental eolian deposits; the second interpretation is described below. Beds are on the whole thin and well sorted. Beds about 5 centimeters thick form 2 meters units of "bedded sandsheets"—layers of sand blown by the wind—which form a characteristic lithology of this facies. Eolian indicators such as adhesion surfaces and warts are widespread, but may indicate regular emergence in an intertidal setting rather than support for eolian deposition and dunes. Low angle, cross-stratified sandstones form units up to 50 centimeters thick reaching thicknesses as much as 2 meters; the current directions here are to the southeast - up slope - and was considered to reinforce their interpretation as aeolian dunes.

They are alternatively interpreted as superficial bars and channel deposits on lower and middle intertidal zones, a far less controversial interpretation given their intimate association with intensely bioturbated rocks. FA2 contains a dense, varied trace fossil assemblage, taken by some as indicative of a tidal, marine-influenced setting, given the Tumblagooda Sandstone predates the widespread development of land plants. Current and wave ripple marks are widespread, which may be have formed on tidal flats as water depths varied, or in shallow streams, with flooded hollows hosting the creators of the trace fossils. Cyclicity is poorly shown or absent, suggesting that, rather than being seasonal events, the occasional inundation was based on unpredictable events such as storms, a varying water table, changing stream courses; this facies is much like FA1, with an increased supply of clastic material represented in the sedimentary record by coarse-grained, poorly sorted, upwards-fining, pebbly trough cross-bedded units up to four metres thick.

Trace fossils are rare, other than near the top of the association, consist of sinuous trails and short vertical burrows. Sheet-like braided rivers are inferred as the dominant control on sedimentation in these facies; the uppermost facies association appears to reflect an environment on the fringes of the sea. Fining-up is observed on 0.5 meters to 2 meters scales, with trough cross bedding at the bases of units overlain by current ripples. Fine sandstones and green shales are present; the upper units are bioturbated, with an abundance of vertical burrow such as Skolithos - a fossil found in marine environments. It has been interpreted as an inter-distributary bay, or alternatively as a sandy coastline featuring wave-generated bars with tidal influence. In either case, it is fluvial-dominated deposition in a coastal setting, may be a distal equivalent of FA3, where there was a siltier more marine, background setting with periodic influx of fluvially dominated, coastally situated distributary channel complexes, rather than interdistributary bay deposition.

Since the Tumblagooda Sandstone comprises a sedimentary succession with no volcanic layers and with no body fossils, its age is difficult to constrain. It was first thought to have formed around 100 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, on the basis of stratigraphy, it is hoped that a new technique based on the uranium-thorium dating of diagenetic monazite crystals may produce a more precise estimate of the age, but initial attempts have failed to extract sufficient monazite from the unit. Such a method would be of great value, as previous attempts to date the unit have been rather inconsistent; the initial Cretaceous estimate was soon reviewed with a "mid-Cambrian to early Ordovician" estimate based on trace fossils, was shortly afterwards replaced by a mid-Silurian age based on s

The Keeper of the King's/Queen's Swans was a late medieval-founded office in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of England Great Britain and the United Kingdom. He was earlier called the King's/Queen's Swanmaster; the office was replaced by two separate roles in 1993 for the annual Swan-Upping marking and health-checking carried out using Thames skiffs on many of the non-tidal reaches of the River Thames in latter years from Sunbury-on-Thames passing Windsor, Berkshire to Henley on Thames. The keeper's office dates from the 13th century, he was supported by three swanherdsmen. The principal duties of this official team of four people were to conduct the annual Swan-Upping on much of non-tidal reaches of the River Thames including Windsor, it was abolished in 1993, when it was replaced by two new offices, the Warden of the Swans and the Marker of the Swans. Thomas Alexander Roberts, 1807–after 1825 J. K. Abnett Thomas R. Abnett, 1893– Frederick Thomas Turk, MVO, 1923–1963 Cpt. Frederick John Turk, MVO, 1963–1993