The University of Lorraine abbreviated in UL, is a grand établissement created on 1 January 2012 by the merger of Henri Poincaré, Nancy 2 and Paul Verlaine Universities, the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine, etc... It aimed to unify the main colleges of the Lorraine region; the merger process started in 2009 with the creation of a "pôles de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur" or PRES. The university is divided into one in Nancy and one in Metz; the University of Lorraine has over 60,000 students and offers 101 accredited research centers organized in 9 research areas and 8 doctoral colleges. The original University of Nancy was founded in 1572 in the nearby city of Pont-à-Mousson by Charles III, duke of Lorraine, Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, transferred to Nancy in 1768, it was closed by the revolutionaries in 1793, reopened in 1864. University of Lorraine is the merger of: Nancy-Université, itself a merger of: Henri Poincaré University: natural sciences, wrapping several faculties and engineering schools École Supérieure des Sciences et Technologies de l'Ingénieur de Nancy: general engineering École Supérieure d'Informatique et Applications de Lorraine: Computer Science engineering École Nationale Supérieure des Technologies et Industries du Bois: wood industry and technology engineering Nancy 2 University: social sciences Institut national polytechnique de Lorraine: engineering schools, notably: ENSEM: electrical and mechanical engineering Mines de Nancy: general engineering ENSIC: chemistry ENSAIA: agricultural engineering Paul Verlaine University – Metz The University of Lorraine encompasses eight collegia or departments.

Arts and Languages Human and Social Sciences Law and Management Sciences and Technologies Health Technology Engineering Schools Interface The University includes a total of 44 laboratories, linked with the most important French research organizations: CNRS, INSERM, INRA and INRIA. The Laboratoire Lorrain de Recherche en Informatique et ses Applications or Loria is a UMR, a research lab affiliated with multiple research entities, it focuses on computer science research and is affiliated with the CNRS and the INRIA. The laboratory notably created the Caml programming language; the École Nationale Supérieure des Technologies et Industries du Bois is a French grande école located in Épinal in Lorraine, one of the biggest forested regions of France. Studies are oriented to the wood industry and technologies, including everything, related to wood as a construction material or for furniture. Students specialise in one of the following themes: chemistry of wood wood in construction wood manufacturingThe origin of the school dates back to the petrol crisis of 1973.

France had a need for innovative ideas on renewable material. A group of professors and doctors created a small university class in Epinal that had a focus on wood as a material, it became an engineering school in the year 1985. Now the scope of studies has enlarged to paper; the oldest universities in Nancy included several academic libraries, housing 500,000 documents and 250,000 books spread over 36 sites. The first stone of the library of the former Nancy-II was laid by President Albert Lebrun in 1932. Six libraries including three in Metz, Thionville-Yutz and Saint-Avold were attached to the University of Metz, housing 280,000 books, 880 periodicals and 26,650 online journals. Law University of Lorraine undergraduate law program is ranked 5th of France by Eduniversal, with 3 stars. École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie University of Lorraine website Video presentation of the University of Lorraine The university hosts Mukanda: ressources documentaires sur l'Afrique centrale, an online platform of documents related to Central Africa

USCGC Sea Devil is the 68th Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat to be built, the first of four to be paid for by the US Navy. It is operated by the U. S. Coast Guard, her home port is Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, where she and her sister ship Sea Fox are assigned to one of two Maritime Force Protection Units. Their sole mission is to escort the Navy's largest submarines, the nuclear-armed Ohio class, while in and near their moorings in Puget Sound. USCGC Sea Dragon and USCGC Sea Dog guard the submarine base in Kings Bay, Georgia, on the Atlantic Ocean; these submarines require an escort because, while they carry some of the most powerful weapons built, they do not mount weapons suitable to protect them from surface threats, like the speedboat that carried a bomb that damaged USS Cole. Sea Devil is modified from the standard design of a Marine Protector cutter, the smallest cutter the Coast Guard has in service. Like her sister ships, she is 87 feet long, displaces 90 tonnes, has a maximum speed of 25 knots.

They are all equipped with a jet-propelled pursuit boat, deployed and retrieved via a stern launching ramp, enabling it to be used without bringing the cutter to a halt. Sea Devil, the three other vessels, have been modified from the design of the Coast Guard's other Marine Protector cutters; these four vessels mount an additional gyro-stabilized remotely controlled machine gun. The main armament of the standard Marine Protector cutter are a pair of.50-caliber Browning machine guns, mounted on the rail to either side of the vessel's foredeck. The long range accuracy of these weapons is low, when fired by a gunner on a pitching deck, aiming using "iron sights". Sea Devil, the three other cutters, have a pedestal, in the middle of the foredeck, that gives their main armament a better field of fire; the gun mounted on the pedestal is the same Browning as the other guns, but gyro stabilization compensates for the pitching deck. The mount is equipped with multiple cameras, enabling the gun aimer on the bridge to focus the gun's sights on a distant target at night, or when visibility is impaired by smoke, or fog.

To complete their missions these four ships carry a larger crew. Where a standard Marine Protector cutter deploys with a crew of ten, these vessels deploy with a crew of fifteen. Media related to USCGC Sea Devil at Wikimedia Commons

The Islamic Sharia Council is a British organisation that provides legal rulings and advice to Muslims in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic Sharia based on the four Sunni schools of thought. It handles cases of marriage and divorce and, to a lesser extent and finance. Thousands of Muslims have turned to the Council to resolve family and financial issues; the Economist magazine states it has offered rulings to "thousands of troubled families since the 1980s", the council states that it has dealt with an average of between 200 and 300 cases monthly as of January 2012. The council has no legal authority in the United Kingdom, cannot enforce any penalties; the Islamic Sharia Council says it is "devoted to the articulation of classical Islamic principles in a manner that provides a platform for Islam to be the cure of all humanity's ills." According to The Economist magazine its "two main founders come from purist schools of Islam, the Deobandis and the Salafis". A rival service, the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, was founded in 2007 by followers of the Barelvi school of South Asian Islam, is "less strict than the Deobandis" and as of 2010 offered dispute resolution in half a dozen British cities.

Humera Khan, co-founder of the An-Nisa Society, has said that Sharia councils provide an essential service for many Muslims who see Sharia as a sacred reference, if used voluntarily, may lift a burden off state funded services. Lawyer and rabbi Alex Goldberg has said that banning them would be "counterproductive", as it would "bolster underground councils rather than those who are seeking to work within the English legal framework, recognise they are subservient to the English law."In an April 2013 report, the BBC's Panorama asked whether the Islamic Sharia Council was "failing vulnerable women and mothers" by requiring women seeking divorce to give back their marriage dowry. The question of khula divorce turns on the dower: if the woman is seeking the divorce, she has to return the dower to the man, or else the divorce cannot proceed. Since in traditional Islamic society, men are traditionally the bank account holders and women are traditionally homemakers, the woman has no purchase, cannot obtain a loan in order to repay the dower to receive an Islamically recognized divorce.

The Islamic Sharia Council must recognise a British divorce, by virtue of the law of the land, if the petitioner shows them a decree absolute. However, the Islamic Sharia Council is displeased. Writer and academic Myriam Francois-Cerrah has pointed to "serious problems" with the councils, citing a case in which a Muslim woman seeking advice was directed to a "controversial cleric" who urged her to give up her custody dispute with her husband and "hand over full custody of her seven year old child" to him despite the fact that the husband was a "violent schizophrenic" who had abused her for years. Islam in the United Kingdom Islamic Sharia Council Official Website An article on the Islamic Sharia Council by anthropologist John R. Bowen in the Boston Review Charity Commission listing