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The force is strong at COSI After Dark – May the 4th Be With You. Enjoy special out-of-this-world activity stations learning about your favorite elements of that galaxy far, far away. Explore alien life with COSI's Wild Experience and practice saber arts. How cold is it really on Hoth? Can we show you the force in action? Find out in our special-themed Gadgets Stage show – it ends with a bang! Don't miss our special "carbonite" freezing demonstration and of course a visit from the 501st and Rebel Legions. Plus explore COSI, ride the High Wire Unicycle, catch a movie in the Giant Screen Theater, enjoy concessions and a cash bar. Save $2 when you buy in advance.
No time to cook? You can add select food items to your COSI After Dark ticket. Guests who purchase a food ticket* receive a wristband for the following all-you-can-eat menu items:
- Shrimp Thai Fighters
- Boba Fettuccini Carbonara
- Honey Siracha Death Star Sliders w/ house kettle chips
- Princess Leia Puffadoodles with Spiced Honey
This event is for adults ages 21 and over, only. Valid photo ID required.Purchase Tickets


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anybody thinkin about travellin to thailand round about the 15th of november ? this is my 1st time travelling so anything anybody could help me with i would appreciate it
anybody thinkin about travellin to thailand round about the 15th of november ? this is my 1st time travelling so anything anybody could help me with i would appreciate it
November is a good time to go. I don't mind go back to Thailand again.
Some cheap fares at present (try KAYAK) so don't leave it too late and find out all the cheapies have gone. Fares can be cheaper on different days and if you don't pick a non stop flight.
Over 844,000 Brits visited Thailand last year so it is a well trodden route, with many of the people you come into contact with speaking some English, English signs everywhere, two English language newspapers, etc.
Bangkok is a massive shopping center with some sights and sites and more available as day trips. Up north it's cooler, you can do some trekking, etc. Down south are the beaches and some islands and which one you pick will depend on how touristy you want it.
You get 30 days visa free on arrival by flight (15 days by land), and each time you return. Or a 2 month visa from a Thai embassy.
Travel in Thailand is easy and a number of other Asian countries are within easy reach by budget flight, bus or train.
All different kinds of food are available there. Check a pharmacy/chemist to see if you ned any injections or tablets out there.
The biggest cost is your fare and extra weeks costs very little out there.
Asiarooms and many others have cheap accommodation. Price goes up as you approach your arrival time.
November is around the beginning of high season when many hotels start to raise their prices. If you need hotel advice you should mention how much you want to spend each night for a room. If you intend to stay longer than 30 days you will need a tourist visa. More tourists are in Thailand during November to late February than the summer months. Hotels nearer Christmas may be almost fully booked and more expensive too.
Buying a travel guide or borrowing one from a library or friend could be helpful. They usually tell you to wait until you get to Thailand to change your money over to Thai baht. Also they tell you some of the places to visit. If you are undecided on where to go you can't go too wrong with visiting Bangkok, Chiang Mai and a beach area.
Yeah im gonna be about in Thailand in November where u thinking of going in Thailand?
Avoid travel to the south of Thailand because it is storm season season for one month.
I recommend start in December to Mach ,it is the great time.

subset: commoncrawl


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BackgroundTo go back to the beginning of the Fifth Global War, the story goes back to after the Fourth Global War, and those countries who had won, and those who had lost. After the loss of the war, Russia was devastated, it was forbidden from having an army greater than 500,000, and could no longer develop tanks or planes, stopping Russia's war industry in its tracks. The Russian economy was ruined by reparation payments, they were constantly trying to pull out loans from some of the richer countries in the area, but failed as no one wanted to give money to a country that likely couldn't pay it back. The battle for control of the government after the war was dominated by socialism, and the head of the Russian Socialist Party, and president of the country from 1920-1928 was the Socialist Leon Trotsky. But there was one figure that omnisciently threatened Trotsky and his Socialist administration, the head of the Russian National Socialist Party, and Trotsky's main rival in the government, Josef Stalin. Stalin had served in the Imperial Russian Army from 1909-1917, when he was wounded fighting in Riga, and had achieved the rank of Major, and became known as Major Stalin during his political career. Although everyone knew Stalin's real name wasn't Josef Stalin, no one cared to challenge his name, as Stalin meant "man of steel," a title befitting his reputation and politics. His organization stayed small up until 1929, when the Great Depression hit, and his organization went on the rise. But between that time, opposition to Stalin's control in some parts of Russia was threatened by the Народный комиссариат внутренних дел Narodnyj komissariat vnutriennih diel (NKVD), meaning the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, Stalin's secret police, and private enforcers. The Great Depression was preceded by a short period of prosperity from 1925-1929, which occurred after many countries lifted reparation payments on Russia. The Nacsocis (short for национал-социалистической, Russian for National Socialists), as they became known, prominently in the west, controlled politics up until 1929 in areas that were hardly hit by the war, mostly in the west, but had very few large cities where they were prominent. But with the stock market crash, and subsequent depression of 1929, the Nacsocis took power in the 1931 election in Russia, winning them control of the executive and legislative branches of Russian government. This forced Trotsky, along with hundreds of his supporters to leave Russia, and go to the Byzantine Empire, where Trotsky became a very popular unionist in the heavily-industrialized area around Thessaloniki, and became a personal guest of the Byzantine imperial government, often staying in the imperial residence in Constantinople. And with his leaving, the Stalinists took the government, and Stalin declared on February 27, 1933, the Greater Russian State, as a single-party, totalitarian state, ending 14 years of Socialist control. To celebrate this great victory, Stalin declared National Day for Russia on February 27, and the day was first celebrated in 1933, along with his election in the streets of Moscow with the first of the National Russian Grand Parades, where the thousands of members of the NKVD, along with many senior party members, marched through the large streets of the city, and were greeted and cheered on by their supporters, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The parade was followed by a large group of similar parades in other large Russian cities, and showed off the power the Nacsocis' had in the new Russian State.
The Byzantium Pact, by this point having been transformed into the International Military League, the military and security arm of the League of Nations, and began sending in military inspectors into Russia to make sure they were keeping up with the Treaty of the Winter Palace. But they found no signs of tanks or planes, and they were presented with the entire Russian Army, a small force of 200,000, all of which were just NKVD members, not officially even an army, just Stalin's bodyguards, which the inspectors found as acceptable. But after the inspectors left, the Russian began secretly rebuilding their military, they built new tanks of the бронированный автомобиль I and бронированный автомобиль II models (bronirovannyj avtomobil), and began making them into and practicing in their new броня Divisions (броня is pronounced Bronia, with a rolled r). Meanwhile, tank development differed between the two political sides of Europe, where Britain, France, and Spain all developed what they called Cruiser tanks, tanks that put a higher emphasis on protection and defensive capabilities, rather than firepower and speed, like the Russians. In Russia, in 1939, they developed the new T-34, a perfect combination of all of the developments Russia had made with their tank development in the preceding years. It had excellent firepower, sloped frontal armor, for protection from shells, and had an operating speed of 33 mph, making it a very much feared tank.The Russian Air Force also entered a rapid period of development with the implementation of the Air Power Act of 1935, where multiple new design boards were made to upgrade the old Russian Air Force. The highest and most prominent design boards was the Yakovlev and the Tupolev Design Boards, who began building prototypes for their designs in just 2 years, with the Yakovlev Yak-1 in April 1937, and the Tupolev Tu-2. The Tu-2 was developed into the Petlyakov Pe-2, their new dive bomber, in 1938. These new designs went into mass production, and the Russian industrial machine went into mass production on a scale never before seen, producing their new planes in the thousands. But the enemies of Russia soon took notice, they felt threatened by Russia's re-militarization, but with the Byzantine Empire or the US, the League of Nations had very little power to enforce sanctions on a power as large as Russia was becoming, but the Byzantines had taken notice of their allies' fears and asked them to take on a policy of appeasement towards the Russians.
Following in this policy of appeasement, the Russians were easily able to retake and re-militarize the Ukraine, in a swift war, they retook the independent Baltic states, and then moved in to retake Belarus from the lightly-armed soldiers, most of which easily surrendered and supported the Russian's move. The Allies attempt to make their former occupied zones in Russia into independent states had failed and Russia was were it was just 20 years before 1938. The heavily ethnically-Russian areas in Eastern Poland was, by treaty, unavailable to Russian annexation, but that didn't stop Stalin. Russian soldiers entered Eastern Poland, and annexed it as Russian territory, but with almost all of the Polish Armed Forces in the east, Russian soldiers then attacked into Western Poland, and took Warsaw in 1939, and nobody tried to stop them. But the one territory the Russians still wanted was Western Courland, which had been directly annexed by the German Empire after the last war, and was heavily guarded by a German garrison in the area, which had been connected to German territory or allies until Poland was annexed by the Russians.
Meanwhile, in Asia, the Republic of China, which replaced the Qing Dynasty of China after the Chinese Revolution of 1919, came under fascist rule after the National Union Party of China came to power under President Wang Jingwei in 1923. They promised to rebuild China to its former glory and make sure the Japanese paid for their humiliation of China, and very soon the Chinese Armed Forces began going on a massive production campaign, equaled only by Russia's campaign of expansion in the 1930's. But with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the production stopped in its tracks, and the Chinese economy again fell into a slump, but then Jingwei turned war production into industrial production and product making, the Chinese industrial machine allowed the country to at least float above the average economies of the Great Depression. But as time went on, and Japan arose from the Great Depression, both countries put their industrial capacity to war production, but Japan was at a disadvantage when it came to room to build its industry in, and somewhat fell behind in the arms race.
Also, in South America, with the Incan Empire dead, Argentina grew to become the main power in South America along with Brazil, along with Argentina's Nasocon allies, Chile, and Colombia. Meanwhile, the Aztecs began to shift to a policy of neutrality as their economy fell into the Great Depression, and struggled to recover, leaving a power vacuum in the region to be filled wither by Argentina or Brazil. But the two countries also struggled with the Depression, although Brazil lesser so than Argentina, as it had a more industrialized economy prior to the Depression.
And as country after country across the world fell under National Socialist control, the tensions with the world's democratic powers grew and grew, eventually to the point which peaked at West Courland. The Russians set an ultimatum to Germany, either give them West Courland, or face invasion, Germany defied them, and so Stalin sent the Russian Army to take it by force.
The European Theatre
On September 1, 1940, after years of tensions, rebuilding, and planning, the Greater Russian State launched its invasion of Germany, Operation Bagration, named after a Russian prince. The invasion consisted of 5,000,000 soldiers, who were determined to easily take Germany, and its disputed territory, and then move on to their next target, France. The Russians were armed with the new T-34 medium tank, and the KV-1 heavy tank, and in the air, they used the power of numbers with their new Yak-3 fighter. The power of the Russian Armed Forces pushed forward in a huge push towards the Rhine River, and the German Armed Forces didn't have the numbers or the capacity to defend against the horrible Russian onslaught. On September 27, the Russians entered the German capital, Berlin, which had been declared 2 days earlier an open city by Emperor Wilhelm II, by then with a majority of his government who had ran away from Berlin one week earlier and now resided in Hamburg. The Russians pushed deeply into German Austria, and Vienna also fell in late September, another blow which shocked the horrified German peoples. With their state collapsing all around them, much of the German military surrendered, and Russian soldiers approached Hamburg on October 11, threatening the very being of the German Imperial Government. But with France, Britain, and Spain's being able to send their forces on offensive operations on October 17, they were able to distract the Russian Army, and keep the Rhine River defended. Although most of Germany had fallen, a small rump government still existed out of the provinces of Hanover, Oldenburg, and Schleswig-Holstein, giving hop that they may one day return to glory at the war's end. The Russian advance from September 1-October 20, 1940 had captured them most of the German Empire, and now began moving up a new portion of reserves up to the Rhine River to attack France, although the German Empire still existed, the Russians pushed it aside as a threat, and kept their focus on France next, deciding to take down the German remnant at a later date.
On March 1 of 1941, with their troops finally all moved up, the Russian Army moved forward towards the French border, broke out of their Rhine River positions, and push upwards to Paris. Meanwhile, the Russians pushed up into Luxembourg, captured the country within 24 hours, and then pushing into the European Lowlands into Belgium and the Netherlands, allowing them to attack Paris from two sides. Spain, however, ordered all of its soldiers out of France and back to the Pyrenees Mountains to give them a way to defend Spain in the likelihood that it became Russia's next target. Paris fell on April 1, although many small pockets of French soldiers still continued to fight on. All of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) stationed with France were evacuated along with thousands of French soldiers in what became known as the Miracle at Dunkirk, in which thousands of British military and private boats and ships moved back and forth between Britain and France to save the BEF and their French allies. This was only achievable because the Russians had stalled after capturing Paris, and needed to wait for their soldiers to rest and their vehicles to refuel. The Russian advances won them over 1000 miles of land, and pushed until they reached the border of Spain, although they were exhausted, Stalin ordered a full push to through Spain.
The Russian Army began their push across the Pyrenees into Spain on April 29, 1941, and their advance into Spain was instantly met with severe resistance, especially when they had to fight troops who had spent over a month reinforcing treacherous terrain. The Russian tanks weren't able to easily cross the mountainous terrain, especially when it was covered with artillery fire and anti-tank mines. But the Russians combination of airplanes and numbers allowed them to push through the mountains by the middle of May. From there, very little stood in the way from Russian soldiers taking Spain and its capital, Madrid. With the little resources the Spanish could muster after their forces in the Pyrenees were defeated, they found the next 2 weeks of defending their country very difficult against the size of the Russian Army, and their numbers in tanks and planes. With the capture of Seville on June 2, the campaign in Spain, for all intensive purposes, was over, and the Russians had conquered their enemies in just over 9 months. What had taken them 3 years to fail at just 25 years earlier, they had succeeded in in just a small portion of that time. But Russia's strongest enemy still was hundreds of miles to the east, in the Byzantine Empire, who was already preparing for war.
On July 22, 1941, Operation Kutuzov was launched by the Russian Armed Forces, with the invasion of the Byzantine Empire, which had built up a series of strong defenses in multiple positions they considered "strategic." The Byzantines had closely analyzed the Russian tactics, and determined a sole strategy off defeating the Russian invasion of their territory. The main Russian push came through the Balkan Peninsula, and went into enemy territory through two prongs, the Russians pushed through the Byzantine-supported state of Yugoslavia, which was defended by 850,000 Yugoslav soldiers, and buffered by 500,000 Byzantine soldiers. The Byzantines defended their borders with 700,000 of their own soldiers, including 1,750 tanks, and 2,000 aircraft. But the Russian strategy of combined air-power and land-power, defeated much of the initial Byzantine resistance, and much of the Byzantine defenses in OTL Romania and Bulgaria quickly fell to the Russian advance, putting Constantinople in a seriously threatening position as it was directly in the path of the Russian Army. But the Byzantine were able to use their industrial power to bear, and put forward their major strategy of defending Constantinople.
By October 2 of 1941, the Russians had arrived on the outskirts of Constantinople, and for the next 3 months, fought a fierce battle against the Byzantine garrison in the city. Finally, on January 7, 1942, the Byzantine secured the remainder of the outskirts of the city, and established a secure area outside the city, and defending the sea came next. A small fleet including 1 fleet carrier and 2 escort carriers was sent to defeat a fleet of enemy Russian ships, making their way to Constantinople's ports, to begin a blockade on the enemy's capital. But the Battle of the Kaliakra Cape resulted in disaster for the Russians, who lost 3 battleships,7 destroyers, and 5 cruisers along with 2,400 sailors, to the Byzantine losses of 1 escort carrier damaged and 3 frigates destroyed, and lost 724 sailors in the process, leaving Constantinople safe from enemy capture, and likely destruction. The Russians then made for a push to Thessaloniki to gain the Byzantine industrial capital, and one of their largest ports. The Russians sent their 6th Army under General Vasily Chuikov attacked the city with 300,000 men initially, soon doubling in its size, attacked the city on July 17, 1942. Meanwhile, although a majority of Yugoslavia had fallen into enemy hands, the President of the federal republic, Milan Stojadinovic, along with a majority of his administration, and 225,000 soldiers, still persisted against the Russians in Serbia and Montenegro.
By November of 1942, the Russians had advanced and captured a majority of the city's center, and northern sectors, but the Byzantines remained persistent, under the command of Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, a Byzantine general who served with distinction as a Lieutenant on the Eastern Front in the Fourth Global War, and now commander of the Byzantine 8th Army. He saw a chance for a Byzantine counterattack, and on November 19, 1942, the Byzantines launched a massive counterattack on the Russian flanks, pushed them out of the city, and then surrounded them in an area that became known as "The Cauldron" for its circular shape, and the Byzantines threatened to destroy all of the Russian soldiers in the pocket unless they surrendered. But the Russians remained persistent, and Stalin ordered General Nikolay Voronov and his 11th Army to relieve Chuikov's forces, and to push forward again for Thessaloniki. But the Byzantines easily brushed off the relief forces, and the threat of a Byzantine counterattack to the east, forced the 11th Russian Army back to stop the Byzantine advance. Stalin ordered Chuikov to not surrender and ordered an airlift, which quickly failed to accomplish much and the Russian Air Force suffered heavy losses in the fighting. Meanwhile, Stalin had promoted Chuikov to the rank of Field Marshal, a position of which no Russian commander had ever surrendered under, at least not alive. Chuikov resisted the implications of the promotion, and on February 2, 1943, surrendered himself along with 300,000 Russian soldiers. Chuikov and his high command were sent to high-position POW camps in the Anatolia, where they spent the rest of the war, while a majority of the soldiers were sent POW camps in Arabia, where heatstroke and disease were rampant, and many of the soldiers died.
With the Russian defeat at Thessaloniki, the demoralized and exhausted Russian soldiers began to falter, and on June 22, 1943, the Byzantines launched Operation Apollo, which pushed the Russians out of much of Byzantine Greece, and then surrounded the Russian forces besieging Athens, which had witnessed a siege since late 1941, and relieved the city, finally. The Russians fought back, and formed a new frontline along the Danube River, but Stalin still wanted victory against their old enemy, and refused to give up. A new offensive was launched on August 17, 1943, which attempted to recapture Sofia and take Thessaloniki, but the new advance quickly stalled outside Sofia, and the Byzantines cut of the Russians from behind. The subsequent campaign against the Russians became one of the easiest victories of the war in Europe, and result was the beginning Byzantine air power attacking Russia itself. When reports had come in that cities in the Ukraine were being used to supply Russian soldiers on the front, Byzantine bombers flew to cities in the Ukraine, and bombarded their factories. However, Russian fighters made the bombers take heavy losses, and forced many of them to be shot down over Russian territory, meaning very unfavorable conditions for them and the likely result of being taken prisoner. The Russians now found themselves the target of a Byzantine offensive in the October of 1943, which resulted in Bucharest being retaken by by the Byzantines, but they still weren't able to push the Russians completely out of Byzantine territory. With a stalemate in the east, resistance to the Russians still persisted in the west, where the Russians were unaware of what was to come.
The Germans in the west still persisted in their rump state in the northeastern part of Germany, they funded the German Resistance Movement that kept the Russians pre-occupied in Germany, and kept connections open with the French and Spanish resistance. But Stalin's anger finally grew too much for his logical mind and ordered 500,000 Russians soldiers be sent from the reserves of the front with the Byzantines to take down the German rump state. Byzantine intelligence got wind of this and several squadrons of reconnaissance planes flew missions to spot the Russians new weak-points. On March 3, 1944, news that the Russians were now weak in their center came as great news to the Byzantines who then began to plan with the Americans, Aztecs, British, and Brazilians, for the counter-invasion to turn the war into the Allies' favor. What ensued became the most complicated and difficult intelligence operation that the world has ever seen. Operation Odysseus, named for the Greek king of legend who masterminded the Trojan Horse that brought down the Troy from within its mighty walls. The operation began with the Byzantines launching an intelligence program which was to find all Russian spies within the Allied military and economic network. Within months, almost all of the Russian spies who hadn't been turned against their country, where made into double-agents, who reported false information on unit placement, factory locations, etc. And with this shift in intelligence, Operation Achilles was launched on June 14, 1944, which made the Russians believe that an Allied invasion was to come in Spain, by sea, via the Bay of Biscay, and then to be followed a Byzantine land invasion. In reality, the plan was for an Allied operation to attack France in Normandy, Germany through the Elbe River, and then two consecutive land attack by the Byzantines in the south, and the Scandinavians in the North, who had so far remained neutral in the conflict.
The Russians rushed thousands of their best units to Spain to defend the country in what they though was an inevitable invasion. Meanwhile, the Americans, Aztecs, and Brazilians arrived in Britain for coordination planning for the invasion of Normandy in what was to be called Operation Overlord. Also at the time, the German government traveled to Britain as the remainder of Germany fell to Russia, and were accompanied by 300,000 German soldiers, along with most of the German staff. From there they began planning Operation Barbarossa, the Counter-invasion of Germany.The year of 1945 rang in nothing but more warfare as the plans for Operation Overlord were pushed into place by the end of January. The Operations planners were looking for a break in a recent stream of bad weather for an attack on Normandy in February. Finally, on February 24, 1945, Operation Overlord commenced with the first wave of 25,000 invaders crossing the sea and attack Normandy. But what they found was a large series of defenses the Russians had set up in the case of an attack on northern France, although the attack was though to be a diversionary maneuver for the attack on Spain. But with seeing the force by which the Allies pushed into France, they began to think otherwise. But with similar Allied attacks coming into Germany and with attacks now being reported in Karelia, and in the Ukraine, the Russian staff was bewildered in what to do. First, all of their forces defending the Spanish coast were removed and sent to France, in early March, by which point the Allies had retaken Paris, and where moving in to recapture Hamburg. Meanwhile, they pushed to keep the advancing Scandinavians from attacking St. Petersburg, and other major northern cities. But the Byzantines push came harshest of all, and within a matter of weeks, Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine had fallen to the Byzantines, who by April now were advancing into Russia itself.
With their invasion of the Byzantine Empire defeated, Russia's Italian allies now witnessed their own land being attacked, as an invasion via the Adriatic Sea threatened Italy. Although the Italians numbered in the millions, the Byzantines only sent a force of 700,000 to knock them out of the war. And with just 4 weeks of combat, Rome fell to the Byzantines, and a popular Republic uprising came up in the north, which the Byzantines supported, and then forced the Nationalist government to retreat to the south, their stronghold in the Civil War. But regardless of this the Byzantines continued to push into Italy, and the Republican uprising spread to Sardinia. A Byzantine naval and marine operation captured a majority of Sicily, which left the Nationalists with just weeks left to fight in the south of Italy. The Fascists surrendered officially to the Byzantines on June 20, 1945, and began occupation on July 1, ending the invasion, and allowing 500,000 of the 700,000 soldiers to the Russian campaign.But with the arrival of July, the Russians had managed to stall the enemy long enough for an effective front to be formed. But by which time, the Russians had lost all control of their occupied lands across Europe. And the Allied planners began looking for a new way to defeat the Russians, who's numbers were just far to great to deal with. By this point in time, the Germans had also restored most of their industrial capacity to use under Armaments and War Production Minister Albert Speer, and began putting into production of their newest tanks, the Panzer V Panther, their newest mass-produced medium tank, and one of their newest, and most revolutionary designs, the Panzer VI Tiger. Along with new aircraft designs like the first jet fighter the Messerschmitt Me 262, which they were able to keep into mass production in the northeast of Germany, and close to the battle-lines that had become stagnant. But with these new advances came another very promising design in the form of the flying wing.
But with the war swinging into Allied favor, many Russian officers in the high command began looking for a new way to stop the bloodshed. Ivan Konev, a Russian marshal, along with about 100 supporting officers, attempted to kill Stalin by placing a suitcase bomb next to him in his secret briefing room below the Kremlin building, but one of the two bombs failed to explode, and Stalin only suffered a slight fracture in his left arm. When the commanders failed to seize power, they were given show trials, and executed, but Stalin's paranoia now got the better of him, and a mass purge occurred in his high command, and only select marshals like Zhukov remained in power, but most of his experienced leaders now were either dead or imprisoned. Taking advantage of this, the Allies made deeper gains into Russian territory as the summer reached its end.As the war in the air shifted into Allied favor, the Allies were able to bomb factories deep within the Russian State. But even with their new designs, they were unable to reach Moscow, or St, Petersburg, as the front in Scandinavia wasn't going as well as planned for the Allies. But with the development of the Allies first nuclear weapon in the United States, the Allies began looking to the Germans new design for a special mission to attack the enemy's two biggest industrial areas, Stalingrad in the south, and St. Petersburg in the north. The Germans planned to send in two Geschwaders of planes, consisting of the Messerchmitt Me 262's as fighter protections for two Horten Ho 229 fighter-bombers, the latest flying wing design, which would be sent from air bases in Pomerania, and then attack St. Peterburg, one bomber would be carrying conventional bombs to attack government buildings, in hopes that the Russians would let their guards down thinking it was only a simple air raid to test a new bomber, and then the second one with a nuclear bomb to destroy the city, and then the bombers would fly back along with the fighters to Pomerania. Operation Rache was launched on August 12, 1945, with the German attack on St. Petersburg, after the first bomber withdrew, the Russian officers who survived the bombing looked on with awe and horror as they knew this would be hated weapon that they knew the Allies possessed, the atomic bomb. Horten Ho 229 dropped her load on the city, and then flew back, as the Russian people saw a single, large bomb descend on their city, without knowing what it was. The bomb, nicknamed by the Germans as the Schwert (Sword) after a speech that the Kaiser, Wilhelm III had given in which he mentioned the Luftwaffe's newest aircraft and weapons as, "the sword by which Germany shall slay the Russian bear." The bomb exploded with the equivalent power of 13-18 kilotons of TNT, and obliterated the city it was dropped on, killing 400,000 people in what became one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of the war. With the Russians still refusing to surrender, another bomb was dropped on Stalingrad by the Byzantines, and the city's destruction resulted in the killing of 230,000 people. The Allies then stepped up their bombings on Moscow, and began pushing further into Russia, but Stalin refused to surrender, finally, on April 16 1946, the Battle of Moscow began with a joint strike on the enemy's capital by the Germans and Scandinavians, and the city fell on May 2, with Stalin having committed suicide on April 30. His death was reported on the radio as being "Stalin falling in his private bunker in Moscow fighting to the death against capitalism." Although it became well known as a suicide after his body was recovered, from a shallow grave outside the Kremlin. The surrender of the last remnants of the Russians Army on May 8, 1946, officially ended the war in Europe.
The Pacific and East Asian Theatre
The war in the Pacific and East Asia began on January 12, 1941, when the Chinese National Army crossed the East China Sea, and launched an offensive of Japanese-held Taiwan. The island was defended by just 500,000 Japanese soldiers, not enough to keep the 3 million Chinese attackers off of the island. Within just six hours, the Chinese had captured Taipei, and then within two days, the island had fallen into Chinese hands. As a result Japan sent its First and Second Fleets under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to stop a Chinese fleet sailing for Okinawa, at the naval Battle of Okinawa, Chinese and Japanese aircraft carriers established a new type of naval warfare in which the opposing fleets never saw each other. But the Chinese, with more experienced pilots after years of military buildup, and even more planes, defeated the Japanese, destroyed three of their four aircraft carriers in the two fleets, and killed Yamamoto in the process, severely crippling the Japanese war effort.
As the Chinese offensives continued into the spring, the Chinese invaded Manchuria, in a force of over 5 million men and 2,000 tanks. And at the same time, another offensive into Japanese-held Southeast Asia was launched, and the local Japanese capital, Hanoi, fell within just two weeks of the initial attacks. The Japanese, increasingly desperate, called on the Americans for help. The Americans had gained interest in East Asia, since they had purchased the Philippines from Spain in 1898 after Spain was hit by an economic recession. They also controlled multiple islands across the Pacific, including Guam, Midway, Hawaii, and the Marianas, and the fear of a Chinese offensive seemed inevitable to some members of the US government. US President Al Smith, however, was optimistic that America could be kept out of the fighting, so its economy could recover fully from the Great Depression, especially fighting hundreds of miles away. But as Chinese advances continued the Americans pledged support in the ways of resources, like oil, which the Japanese heavily craved.But even American support wasn't enough, and the Chinese now, by early August, attacking Korea, one of the most solidly-held Japanese territories, but with this invasion an uprising of the Korean Liberation Army, an anti-Japanese militant group, mostly based in the South, rose up, and complied with the Chinese. The Japanese retreated from Korea completely on August 29, 1941, leaving the Japanese now only in possession of their home islands and the ones surrounding them. With Korea conquered, the Japanese now had time to prepare their defenses as the Chinese settled down to create political ties within their newly conquered territories. The National Republic of Korea was established with its capital in Pyongyang, as well as the the State of Vietnam, and the Republics of Laos and Cambodia. Taiwan and Manchuria were directly annexed by the Chinese. But the Chinese now feared a different enemy, the Americans, as they were increasingly being worried by Chinese gains, sent several air squadrons to Japan, that became known as the Flying Tigers. They also sent regular shipments of oil to the Japanese, which the Chinese argued as defining an economic and political relationship. With this, the Chinese began preparing for two things, one, an invasion of the Japanese home islands, and two, an attack on the American Pacific Fleet, stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The Chinese began their first attack on Kyushu on October 17, 1941, and began to sweep from the islands south and east, forward to the west and north. Simultaneous attacks on the territories also occurred against pressed Japanese defenses, but even with an attack from sides, the Japanese managed to withdraw to Fukuoka, and establish defensive positions there. The Japanese Home War Ministry, a new branch made for the organization of a home war effort, pushed the idea of defensive heroism, and armed civilians for defense against the Chinese. As the Chinese settled in Kyushu, they found themselves heavily bewildered by constant rebellions, which, although easy to put down, were a constant annoyance to the Chinese, who found themselves unable to launch new offensives, if their men and tanks were constantly being destroyed by rebelling civilians. Without constant resupply from the homeland, the Chinese commanders in Kyushu began to worry about their attack on Honshu, the main Japanese home-island.
But the next Chinese plan was now put into effect, a Chinese fleet, with six aircraft carriers, carrying 414 aircraft, and accompanied by multiple other ships, set sail for a secret attack on Pearl Harbor, in complete radio silence.The aircraft were were divided into three waves, a first wave to create a sense of confusion and fear, a second to destroy as much as possible, and a third to wipe out whatever was left. The fleet set sail from Shanghai Harbor on November 26, 1941, and in the early morning of December 7, 1941, the Chinese launched their surprise attack, and destroyed a majority of the American Pacific Fleet. But one thing went wrong, the main Chinese objective, the three American aircraft carriers, were out of port, and were saved from the attack, the Chinese new that even with the main part of the enemy fleet destroyed, the Americans could still strike back as long as they had aircraft carriers. And that is exactly what the Americans planned to do. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Chinese launched a new offensive, on Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, all on December 8, 1941. This overwhelming and surprise offensive, pushed the Western Powers out of Eastern Asia, and now the Chinese geared for an offensive into Thailand. But they were stalled by the American's Doolittle Raid, when two aircraft carriers launched from Pearl Harbor attacked Shanghai as retribution for the Attack on Pearl Harbor, although the physical damage was minimal, the Americans had one a strategic propaganda victory against the Chinese. This humiliation meant the Chinese high command now wanted to turn its sights on capturing the American islands in the Pacific, and began a strategy of taking the islands, and then eventually, Hawaii itself. The Chinese started their Central Pacific offensive in August of of 1942, They launched a wide-scale offensive into the American-held Mariana Islands, and surrounded the area by sea. Meanwhile another Chinese fleet was sent to seize the American island at Midway, and draw the Americans into a trap to destroy their remaining aircraft carriers.
But American intelligence agents already caught wind of the Chinese plan, and set their forces in accordingly, they had new planes delivered to Midway, and sent their three aircraft carriers into battle. The Chinese launched an attack on Midway on June 4, the attack was met by American fighters and anti-aircraft fire, but against moderate casualties, the Chinese managed to decimate the American's defenses. But their attack was then followed by a wave of American torpedo bombers, but their speed compromised their ability to do damage to the Chinese fleet. From there the Chinese sent out scout planes to find the Americans, but they succeeded in finding only one American carrier. The USS Yorktown has suffered damage in the northern Marianas, but now it faced certain destruction as a wave of Chinese dive bombers descended on the carrier, and now the carrier seemed doomed. But the crew actions that had saved them earlier in the Marianas saved them again, and a new wave of American bombers took off from the decks of their carriers, this time however, the American fighters stuck with their torpedo bombers, and dive bombers and torpedo bombers descended on the Chinese fleet.
Although the attacks were over within 12 minutes, four Japanese carriers had been destroyed, and a majority of the enemy's ships turned back towards the Marianas, and retreated to friendly bases. However, their fighting was not over as the Marianas campaign, with support from Australian and Byzantine troops allowed them to push the Chinese out of the Marianas a, and the Chinese fleet was redirected home. And now the fight over the Central Pacific turned into a new plan, as the Chinese were successful in seizing most of the Central Pacific islands, however French Polynesia was successfully defended by the Americans, who then took the islands without firing a shot, and put two separate plans into action, one island-hopping, seizing important islands and skipping some, and forming two large pincers to defeat the Chinese, one from the Marianas in the north, and another from Polynesia in the south. The first move in the Allied offensive began with attacking Chinese-occupied Micronesia from Allied bases in Palau, the Marianas, and the Marshall Islands. A total of 270,000 Allied Marines swept into Micronesia, defended by 150,000 Chinese Army soldiers, new Allied technologies like amphibious assault craft and tanks pushed ashore and made the Allied offensives possible. The Micronesia campaign lasted from November 1942-February 1943, and now the Chinese faced defeat and stared it in the face, and after it seemed likely they would lose, they were ordered to do whatever possible to take more enemy lives. These strategies took many lives, but were also a clear view into the future of Chinese tactics.
Meanwhile, in the south, American Marines pushed into the lightly defended Cook Islands and looked to recapture American Samoa, seized by the Chinese earlier in October 1942. But the Chinese made the campaign far more harsh than in the north. They had less to work with, but definitely would die trying to stop an American offensive. Only a few Chinese ships existed within the area, which allowed an American carrier to bombard the enemy's defenses on the islands as they attacked them. As the Americans went ashore, they found moderate resistance, but ultimately took the Cook Islands from the Chinese and now had to face the Chinese who were moving to counterattack them. The Americans, meanwhile, received re-enforcements from the recently liberated Eastern Kiribati Islands, and now pushed to flank their enemy in the little land they had left in the Eastern Pacific. Eventually, Samoa and multiple other Eastern Islands fell to the American counterattack, and began a large push west. As the next 8 months went on, island after island fell back into American and Allied hands, until eventually the last Chinese Island holdouts fell at New Caledonia. With the Central Pacific clear of the Chinese, the Allies now planned to push north and recapture the Philippines.
After being forced from the American colony in 1941, General Douglas MacArthur made a solemn promise, "I will return" to the Filipino people that the American Army would return at take back the islands from the Chinese. The offensive to retake the Philippines began in July 1943, the starting attack retook Mindanao, the eastern-most island in the Philippines. Landings at Zamboanaga, Davao, and from the Cortes, and Army and Marines, supported by tanks, pushed into the island, and took many of its central cities. Meanwhile, a Chinese fleet, stationed Manila, was sent to destroy an American fleet with aircraft carriers, sent to prepare the Central Islands for liberation. The Battle of the Philippine Sea was between two opposing fleets, the Americans, seven fleet carriers, eight light carriers, seven battleships, and multiple other vessels, along with almost 1,000 aircraft inflicted a decisive victory against the Chinese, with five fleet carriers, four light carriers, five battleships, and supported by 750 aircraft from land and sea. The Chinese lost three fleet carriers, over 600 aircraft, while the Americans lost only 65 aircraft. This crushing defeat hastened the American offensive on the islands, and the Philippines fell to American forces completely by fou months, after the Chinese finally surrendered Tabruk on November 17, 1943.
With the Philippines finally retaken, a new offensive geared up for clearing Japan of the Chinese, who by 1944 had begun pushing onto Honshu. Cities like Hiroshima and Tokushima came under naval attack and the areas around them were stormed by Chinese soldiers, so the Allies needed a decisive victory in Honshu to launch a counter-attack. With the Chinese rushing towards Kyoto, they saw a possibility in the area - especially its heavily wooded outskirts and valley. Allied support rushed into the area, and 240,000 Allied soldiers were present when the city's outer area came under Chinese attack. A total of 400,000 Chinese soldier began the initial assault, but were massacred by Allied ai rpower, and when Chinese air power was called in, a wide-scale air battle ensued. American P-51 Mustangs went up against Chinese-made Polikarpov I-16's, who stood no chance to the new Allied fighter model. soon 800,000 Chinese soldiers were sent to take Kyoto, and the Chinese assigned general Bai Chongxi to the task of taking the city. Chinese forces were up against what was now 650,000 Allied soldiers, and 800 aircraft, and were armed with almost no tanks, where as their enemies had 2,000 tanks at their disposal, mostly M4 Shermans. The Allies, instead of waiting for the Chinese to come, went to the Chinese and began what MacArthur, the Allied commander called "an epic battle for the fate of Japan."
The Battle of Kyoto turned into a bloodbath for the Chinese, as they became surrounded on both sides by both Allied forces and Japanese guerrillas, they began surrendering in mass numbers. The Chinese were then routed and forced to retreat back to their bases 70 km west, but still found themselves being constantly harassed and cut off by Japanese guerrillas. The Japanese Army now had the ability to regroup from the center and the north of Japan and pushed south with Allied help. The Chinese invasion had turned into chaos, as the Allies now moved to cut them off from behind by landing 200,000 Marines behind the front-line to flank them. By late 1944, the Chinese Army on Honshu was surrounded, and 450,000 men were now left at the mercy of the Allied armies that had out-maneuvered them. The Chinese High Command ordered 300,000 Chinese Army soldiers to cross over from Kyushu to free the trapped army, which was risky as this would leave 125,000 soldiers left on Kyushu, threatened either by Japanese guerrillas and/or the Allied armies. But the Allied Navies now moved into stop them, and seven Allied aircraft carriers sent around 646 aircraft to destroy the Chinese landing craft, Chester Nimitz, Supreme Allied Naval Commander in the Pacific Theater, was present to command the operation, which bombarded both the ships and the soldiers as they began to land. And on land over 400 other aircraft attacked the Chinese as they began their initial advances. This became known as the The Great Tsushima Strait Turkey Shoot, and more than 80,000 Chinese soldiers were killed or wounded in the attacks.
With no chance left, the Chinese army in Honshu surrendered to the fate of Allied soldiers, leaving Japan completely freed of Chinese soldiers, who now were being taken to camps in Shikoku. Japanese soldiers now began being integrated into the greater Allied machine for plans on how to defeat the Chinese. They thought it would be impossible to completely conquer the Chinese, so they sought to draw out the Chinese Army into four stages, first recapture Taiwan from the Chinese, then move in to capture multiple large Chinese cities, then invade and liberate Korea, and finally, recapture Manchuria, after which they were sure the Chinese would have little to no capacity to fight them as they captured Beijing. First, they had to decide which cities to attack, and a list of options were drawn up, and after deep consideration, Hong Kong, Macau, and Canton (Guangzhou) were selected. The Japanese Army was regrouped by the time the attacks began in late March of 1945, and were given the privilege of attacking Taiwan.
Landings on Taiwan began on May 2, 1945, with an initial wave of 24,000 Japanese soldiers landing on the island, growing to 120,000 after two weeks, and then 205,000 by the beginning of June. After one month, Taipei was captured by the Japanese, and just two weeks later, the remainder of Chinese forces on the island surrendered and were taken into custody. 340,000 Chinese troops were killed or captured on the island, in the words of the Japanese emperor, Hirohito, "We have cut off three of the heads of Orochi, the one in the Pacific, the one in Japan, and now the one in Taiwan, but five more still need to be cut off before victory." The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumimaro Konoe, made a speech later on in which he said "The Japanese Armed Forces have become Susanoo, a warrior with which this great enemy shall be slain." The Japanese Army began to land in southern China in mid-August, attacking cities such as Canton (Quangzhou), Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhangjiang. Simultaneously, 850,000 Japanese soldiers launched multiple amphibious landings in southern China, and were set to take 1,300,000 into battle, as per the plan to draw out the Chinese Army.Zhangjiang fell with help from two Japanese aircraft carriers, providing air support and strategic bombing, while a huge ring of defense had been created to defend the Pearl River Delta, and was defended by 900,000 Chinese soldiers, and accompanied with massive anti-aircraft support, defeating the initial landing. The Japanese found this a very perplexing factor, and decided that the Chinese defenses could be beaten by surrounding their defenses and launching two simultaneous attack from behind and in front, which they believed would easily defeat the Chinese defenses in the area. With this push, the defenses were surrounded, but as the anti-aircraft guns laid within the defenses, they found it near impossible to bring in their planes. The Byzantine found an easy option, they deployed their rocket artillery called the Elisabeth, after King Georgios' wife, which could launch up to 48 missiles at a time, and was developed from stolen Russian technology, but built on a tank.
This new rocket artillery destroyed the Chinese defences in the west, allowing tanks and heavy infantry to surge in and attack. Deadly clashes with the Chinese Army killed thousands in the fighting, but after one week of heavy fighting, the Chinese retreated to within the city, ready to have it destroyed if necessary. But on August 12, 1945, as the Chinese Army retreated into the city, it found an enemy within the city, greater than the one outside it. As the war drew on in the Pacific, the parts of the people of China had become discontent with the far-right government, and sought change in it. But as political parties were illegal except for the ruling one, the discontent people saw a more violent and rebellious option, rebellion. Two main paramilitary armies came to power after the rise of the dictatorship, the communist People's Liberation Army in the south, which revolted in Guangazhou as the main army entered it, and the National Liberation Army in the North. The PLA was lead by Mao Zedong, a guerrilla who had experience fighting the Chinese Army a guerrilla campaign in the central mountains, and the NLA was lead by Chiang Kai-shek, who had experience as a guerrilla in the mountains of the North. Combined, the two armies numbered at around 5,500,000 altogether.
With no parts of the southern cities now safe for the National Chinese Army, they began either to surrender or to take part in a mad dash offensive to break-out, going on towards the northeast of the battlefield. Only 24,000 Chinese soldiers made it into friendly land with the remaining 250,000 soldiers not already killed, wounded, or captured surrendering or taking their own lives by September 1945. With the war in China intensifying, 200,000 Japanese soldiers were sent as an expeditionary force to Shanghai, hoping the support of the NRA would allow them to take the city, but the NRA wasn't in Shanghai. Instead, they had chosen to cut off the government supply routes to the south in order to support the Allies there. The expeditionary force attacked the city without overall hope to take it, and only 120,000 Japanese returned, many having been wounded.
With this tactical failure, the Chinese began to witness the breakdown of their government as the People's Liberation Army launched a simultaneous assault on multiple regime-held southern cities, as the Chinese Army moved in to counter, the National Revolutionary Army launched a massed guerrilla campaign to cut off all military connections to the south, inhibiting all Chinese Army units from entering the area, leaving the several hundred thousand men left in the area to fend for themselves against communist guerrillas and a new offensive by the combined Allied army. With this combined assault, the southern theatre of the Chinese Army collapsed, along with the surrender of the entirety of southern China. The Chinese units that remained engaged in a rearguard campaign, trying to travel into the Western mountains to avoid capture. But this only allowed them to be picked off, little by little by NRA units.
Now the push went towards taking Shanghai, a combined Allied attack pushed into the city, with the Allies coming from the sea, and the NRA and PLA coming in by land, the city had been under constant bombardment by air since the failed attack several months ago. The attack began the so-called Christmas Offensive in 1945, called such because it began on December 24, which grew to engulf the remainder of the area. Concurrent with the Christmas Offensive was the pinnacle of the career of the American general, Douglas MacArthur, an amphibious assault on the port city of Inchon. The assault consisted of only 40,000 men, but the poorly defended port city quickly became overrun by, what grew to be, 300,000 American Marines. Korean guerrillas also joined in the battle, but the big push planned by the Americans soon became a massive sweep as the Chinese Army in Korea collapsed upon the news of the attack as the army was ordered to to retreat from the peninsula, but the guerrillas destroyed all major connecting roads in the south, forcing the Chinese Army to sit there and await destruction. The American offensive on Seoul and Pyongyang only 22 days, giving the campaign the name of the Twenty-Two Day Campaign. Upon reaching the Tumen River in mid-January, then several tank divisions, under General Patton, recently flown in from Europe, led the American armored push into the southern part of Korea, trapping fascist Chinese forces in the area even further, and forcing the entire area's surrender.
With Korea liberated, the demoralized Chinese Army surrendered Shanghai to Allied forces, who now pushed into out of the mountains and the south to make a massive push north, also concurrent with an American push out of Korea into Manchuria. As the Allies pushed towards Beijing the regime collapsed, and the remaining loyalist army units all scoured to Beijing, in an attempt to defend the capital. On the eve of March 1946, the first Allied units began to reach Beijing's outskirts, as hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers swept through Manchuria. Beijing became the scene of major street-to-street fighting, trying to throw the Allied infantry into a meat grinder. But General Patton made sure that Allied armor pushed deep into the city, and his armored divisions raised the American flag over the capital of Beijing on March 27, 1946. The Chinese fascist regime had by now gone underground, and moved outside the city via underground sewers. Their plan was to launch a guerrilla campaign in the mountains of Mongolia and Northern China, and keep Allied soldiers in the area for years. However, their plan backfired as the warlords in the mountains had betrayed them, captured them, and sent back to Beijing in late April, now the capital of the Republic of China.
They officially signed a peace treaty aboard the USS Missouri, with Allied Pacific Commander MacArthur on May, 1946, ending the war in the Pacific.
The African Theatre
Although Libya was out of Italian hands by now, they still had colonies on the Horn of Africa in the form of Italian East Africa, and when war came in 1940, war soon spread to the African colonies out east in early 1941. The Italian African Army under the command of the viceroy, the Duke of Aosta, who lead a two-pronged assault on Byzantine Abyssinia. Forces numbering around 90,000 attacked from Italian Eritrea, and 140,000 from Italian Somalia, and pushed deep into Abyssinia, mostly due the surprise of the attack. But after about 140 miles inland from both sides, the Byzantines regrouped, and began to form into defensive lines. Abyssinia was only defended by 75,000 Byzantine soldiers, who were equipped with just 300 tanks, and supported by 130 aircraft, mostly fighter. Where as the Italians had around 300,000 total soldiers stationed in the region, along with 500 tanks, and 300 aircraft. But as the Italian tanks were made for desert warfare, they were nightmares in a jungle surrounding, which is where the Byzantines thought to gain the upper hand.
Forces coming out of Eritrea entered these jungles, not knowing what to expect, and found thousands of Byzantine soldiers, armed with precision artillery, and anti-tank rifles. As lighter Italian tanks were brought in for support, they were picked off by Byzantine anti-tank units, using anti-tank rifles, grenades, mines, and anti-tank rockets. But the Italians had made a breakthrough by capturing the mountain town of Weldiya, to the southwest, and surrounded the jungles, forcing the Byzantines to retreat from the jungles, and escaped to Addis Adaba by river. The Italian push through the mountains lead them through treacherous roads, and unwelcoming villages, as the Byzantines were able to buy time to reinforce the area, and bring in more aircraft. To add insult to injury, the Byzantines counterattacked at Debre Birhan, stalling the Italian advance, and forcing the Italians into a stalemate.
The Italians in the south, however, were slightly less fortunate than their northern counterparts, as their assault bogged down in May 1941, and they became trapped in the lowlands of the south.
But the Byzantines would give them no time to rest or resupply, as the Byzantine's 18th and 21st Armies arrived in July, and the Byzantines launched a full-scale counteroffensive. With the assistance of hundreds of bombers and fighters, the Italian artillery units and supply lines collapsed, leaving wide gaps open to their tanks defenses. Byzantine anti-tank forces moved in to destroy their tanks in quick hit-and-run attacks throughout late July, and early August. When the counter-offensive resumed, Byzantine tanks divisions smashed into lines of infantry, demolishing defensive positions, and opening up gaps in the enemy's lines, which would be exploited by infantry, and swept through by even more armored divisions, turning gaps into breakthroughs, and hurling the Byzantines forward.
The Italians were losing ground fast, and found that they had lost the capacity to go on the offensive, and now found themselves, by mid-September, defending their own land in Eritrea and Somalia. The Byzantines renewed their push in early October, and rolled on through into enemy territory, smashing Italian defenses, and taking more and bigger bits out of the Italian Army and their land. By the time the offensive, stopped in early November, Somalia and Eritrea had surrendered to Byzantine forces, and the Duke of Aosta had been in Mogadishu personally, to deliver the surrender of his forces. The defeat marked the foreshadowing of what was to come for the Italian Army, and resulted in the Byzantines having complete control over the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. All of the Italian prisoners were taken to POW camps in Aegyptus, and when the Duke of Aosta was offered back to the Italian government in exchange for a captured Byzantine commander, the trade was denied. The Duke then served 3 more years in a camp outside Cairo, where he then died of the heat stroke in 1944.
The South American Theatre
The South American theatre began on April 12, 1942, when a Russian-allied Argentines lead an invasion of the Empire of Brazil with its allies Chile and Colombia. The Argentine and Chile Army launched an invasion of Paraguay, Parana, and Uruguay all taken by Brazil following the last war, are attacked, while a guerrilla war is launched by the Brazilians to keep the Colombians pinned down in the Amazon Rainforest. As Colombian forces poured into the Amazon, they found nothing but bloody warfare, but kept their attempt to pin down as many Brazilian soldiers as possible, although only about 14,000 actually were used in the defense of the area. While the Argentinians and Chileans saw some limited succes in the south, the Colombians saw nothing but massacre in the northwest.But the Brazilians, however, launched a counteroffensive against the opposing armies, and sought to recapture Asuncion just four weeks after its capture in July of 1942. They were able to use their air superiority in a decisive attack, which split the enemies lines into two in Asuncion, splitting the lesser-trained Chileans from their Argentine allies. This allowed them to, not only flank the enemy, but surround them, and use their medium tanks to an advantage in maneuvers similar to those pioneered by the German Empire in Europe, in the form of Blitzkrieg, and go on to see roughly 90% of the city fall in just one week of fighting. With a massive hole now punched into enemy lines, the Brazilians launch a massive offensive on the opposing forces, using this new swift maneuvers and aerial superiority. A gap, roughly 20 miles wide soon becomes 6x that size, and puts the initiative of battle into Brazilian hands, something they will use well.
A massive new counterattack surrounded the Argentinians and Chileans in Asuncion, finally receiving official terms of surrender by the enemy supreme commander, Lieutenant General Juan Peron. With the enemy surrender, the Brazilians launched an offensive to knock out their southern enemies from the war. Operación Isabel, named for the well-beloved Brazilian Empress, with several armored divisions spearheading the assault. The Brazilians lunged forward, and a massive salient out of Asuncion, and the plan was to attack into the Chacan plains in north Argentina, and cut through the countryside of Argentina, and on towards Santiago, the Chilean capital. The Brazilian infantry spread around rumors of reaching the city of Santiago by Christmas.
In the opening days of the campaign, the dry, warm heat conflicted with the Brazilian Army. Most were from the densely-populated coast of Brazil, where summertime brought rain and the water was cool. The Argentines were prepared for this, and engaged the Brazilians in a guerrilla-style of warfare, where the Brazilian's armor didn't help them. The Brazilian Air Force was of little help to the ground forces as the salient slowed down in Northern Argentina, and the dream of reaching Santiago by Christmas seemed to fade. As August faded into September, however, the Brazilians gained momentum, and they called in a new weapon to expand upon their breakthrough, paratroopers. Brazilian paratrooper units had been training the mountains and jungles of Brazil since 1936, and was now ready to be used for their sole purpose, opening up enemy lines.
The Brazilian advance is renewed, and the soldiers of the Brazilian army continue their advance towards Santiago, between the months of September and December, the Brazilians successfully make it to the Chilean-Argentine border. Soldiers of the Brazilian 4th Armoured Division become the first soldiers to reach out and capture Chilean territory after they successfully capture the town of Toconao. From there, the Brazilian Army pushed forward, with the intention of capturing the port city of Antofagasta, where they will then be able to cut off the port and capture some of Chile's only airfields. The push towards Antofagasta became well known for the mountain crossings that were required to reach into the Chilean coast.
As the Brazilians reach Antofagasta, they set up their guns around the city, and ordered the elongated bombardment of the city. As the Chileans prepare to launch their fighters and bombers from the air base in the city, Brazilian Air Force B-25 Mitchell bombers descend from the skies to bombard the air field. Holes up to 50 feet wide open up in the ground, destroying many of the Chilean planes while on the ground, and the few that are left are forced to be moved to the city's main road to try to get them to take off. While only several of the planes succeed, they are all shot down by patrolling Brazilian fighter planes, and the city remains besieged. On February 17, 1943, the Brazilian Army begins an all out assault on the city, surrounding it, and filling the urbanized streets with Brazilian tanks. As the pressure of siege combines with a sense of imminence, the soldiers of Antofagasta begin to turn to surrender as their way out. By March 2, the cities streets are filled with Brazilian troops, who have by now completely vacated streets of Chilean soldiers.
With a breakthrough built up in the North, the Brazilian Army decided to branch out north, and seize the ports of Arica and Iquique. The Brazilian Fifth Army moves up north along the slender countryside of Chile, and proceeds to bombard the cities by air, water, and land. The streets of Arica and Iquique became full of broken glass, broken streets, and, most effectively, broken spirits. The Chilean people in the north began to wonder if fighting this war was even worth it any longer, and many soldiers began to surrender. Tanks lay abandoned in the streets, and the airstrips lay full of holes, once occupied by the Chilean planes. The Brazilian high command seizes the down spirits of the Chileans, and declares that any captured Chilean soldier will be given sanctum in Chile antebellum. Many Chileans accept their terms of surrender, and the north of Chile is easily captured by the Brazilians. The Chilean government, done with this war, and finished with their Argentine allies, declares their formal surrender to the Brazilians on May 1, and will allow for a Brazilian occupation of Chile.
With Chile capitulated, the Argentines are left by themselves in Patagonia, where the military structure sees little hope for victory, but the civilian population is kept in high spirits. The lower ranks of the Argentine Army stage a coup on May 10, knowing that if they don't topple the government, then the Brazilians surely will. The Argentine coup fails however, but leaves much of the Argentine officers corp vacant, and wen positions begin to be filled, they are done so by young, and inexperienced conscripts. Upon the beginning of the Brazilian's Summer Offensive in early June, the Brazilian armored divisions push forward in a massive sweep, and swings around to capture the banks of the Colorado River, and cut off the Argentina urban areas in the north from their agricultural base in the south. As the Brazilians unleash their massed offensive, the Argentine Army crumbles under their weight of numbers and technology.
Brazilian tank units only take 12 days to reach the Colorado River, where they then proceed swiftly northward, and reach the port cities rather quickly. By the beginning of June, Bahia Blanca is under attack by the Brazilians, and is important for its use as a large naval base. The Brazilians, with their Air Force still out of reach for the coastline, opt to employ their aircraft carriers, Pedro II and São Paulo, to demolish the Argentines with air power. As a total blockade sets in on the Argentine ports, as they are surrounded by land and sea, they see their world collapse around them. Eventually, the Argentine government, on its last leg, requests an armistice from the Brazilian General Staff, which they are promptly granted. Two weeks, later, the Argentines agree to an unconditional surrender of their country, and an agreement is signed on July 15, 1943. After seeing the defeat of their allies, Colombia decided to declare a peace with the Brazilians, leaving the Colombians battered, but not defeated.
The War in the Atlantic
The War at Sea Began the same day of the war in Europe, when the Soviet Navy, built up by years of military resurgence, began to launch shipping raids on the ports of Byzantine-Allied europe. When the German Empire began to send its navy into battle, it began by experimenting with a U-Boat offensive, using submarines to keep the Russian Navy battered. But as the Germans began to crumble on land, many of the U-Boats, normally ported in Danzig and Königsberg, now swam over to Britain, where the German government requested the use of British ports, in the case that the Deutschland would fall into the hands of Russians. When the German homeland did finally fall into Russian hands, the German U-Boat squadrons were almost all already in port in Britain, giving hope of the vital German U-Boat offensive.
Unfortunately, the German Naval Command didn't make it with the U-Boats, so the U-Boats are forcibly integrated into the British Royal Navy Command. And as the Russian Army continues its onslaught into Western Europe, the U-Boats and the Royal Navy kept pestering the Russian Navy, which was mostly built of frigates and battleships, seen as cheap and massively buildable by the Russian High Command. The U-Boats raged a different kind of hell on the Russian Navy, and it was there job to keep the Russian Merchant Marine cut of from their allies abroad by cutting them off in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. The Royal Navy, however, was the widespread force they was part of a larger net of Allied navies which kept the Russians at Bay.
Meanwhile, in the South Atlantic, the American and Brazilian Navies collaborated to keep the Russian allies in South America as cut off from the seas as their Russian ally. But when the war begins to expand in an even further global scale, and fighting intensifies in Asia, the Allies worry their navies are becoming overstretched. With the strengthening power of the Byzantine Navy once they break the Italians hold of their naval bases in Greece, the Allies overstretching problems simmer away.
But soon, a new problem begins to arise, the Chinese and Russians adopt a policy of submarine building and using pacts of submarines, similar to the German maneuvers, to attack Allied shipping. With the beginning of the Russian Submarine Offensive of 1942, the Russian attacks on Allied shipping began, resulting in a drastic loss in the amount of resources reaching Britain and the Byzantine Empire.
But as the offensive dragged on, the losses began to stagger, and a static type of warfare entered the naval shipping lanes. As the Allies began to send out their merchant ships in convoys, the Russian subs knew better than to attack armed convoys, and instead opted to launch hit-and-run attacks on Allied ships. The Russians stepped up their submarine offensive in 1943, and soon the Allied losses began to climb, prompting the Allies to try to add changes to the convoys. Among these included new formations, and above all, the invention of the escort carrier, which was a light aircraft carrier designed to move with convoys and keep the submarines at bay. By the end of 1943, the losses in shipping began to decline, and the Russian sub losses began to increase sharply.
As 1944 dawned, the Russian submarine menace was beaten back, and losses began to push the Russian submarines into a defensive perimeter. They planned by 1945 to have crushed the Russian Navy so much that will have no where to go but stay behind in their ports. But the offensive at sea didn't go on as planned, as the Russian frigates and battleships became problematic to the attacks in the North Sea. But as the war on land turned heavily against the Russians, their naval power also began to fall back to the motherland of Russia. And as the Russian Armed Forces fell back, they tried to resume their use of submarines, but as the Russian Navy sub crews saw the futility and suicidal side of their attacks, many instead opted to surrender.
Even though the war at sea dragged on to the day the Russians surrendered, the Russian Navy ceased to be a strong fighting force after 1945, freeing up the Atlantic to unlimited shipping between the Allies. The Russian Navy ceased to exist for several years after the war, leaving the military ports of Russia in decay, and leaving them out of use.
Aftermath and the Cold War
With the end of the war in 1947, the world looked forward to a new era of peaceful prosperity and national solidarity. But as the countries of the West began to rebuild from the war, the Japanese Empire began to take advantage of an apparent lack of interest of the West in the affairs of the East in favor of the rebuilding effort at home. But the Allies had clearly learned much from there years of fighting, and American President Al Smith wished to see to it that the old League of Nations, now having gone on too long with proper use, was destroyed, and that a new group was made to stop war and end inhumane actions on this Earth.
On June 26, 1947, the heads of state of Japan, the Byzantine Empire, America, Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Brazil, along with a multitude of other countries met in San Francisco, California, and signed the United Nations charter. The charter went into effect that October, and officially established a pure system by which countries could share their problems and resolve to fix them with the help of others. A new building is built in New York City, where the United Nations Headquarters will be fixed, and will be made into international territory. The first Secretary-General is elected to be Trygve Lie, the former foreign minister of Norway, who played an extremely important role in coordinating the governments in exile during the war. The charter establishes two main bodies to represent the nations of the world, the General Assembly and the Security Council. All nations in the United Nations would have a seat in the General Assembly, where as the Security Council would be made up of 15 members, seven permanent, and eight non-permanent. The permanent ones would be the Byzantine Empire, America, Germany, Britain, Japan, France, and Spain, while the other eight would rotate from country to country every year.
But as the Allied countries moved in for an occupation of Russia, they decided to split Russia down the Ural Mountains, giving the West more population and industrial power, while giving the East more of the resources. As the Westerners began to sign deals with native powers, they began to decolonize Asia, giving Japan the power to move in and fill the gap. As a sense of distrust began to fill the void where friendship once dwelt, the Western Powers began to grow suspicious of Japan's territorial aspirations. The Japanese used the idea of self-defence as a motivator and a cause for their moves, during which they gained in-direct control of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines, along with much of Eastern Asia. However, by 1950 two major Asian powers remained out of Japanese reach, the new Republic of China and the Republic of India.
Soon, two new alliances began to take shape, countries with fears of the Eastern Powers formally disbanded the Byzantium Pact in 1948, and created the more equalized North Atlantic Treaty Organization in its stead in 1949. The Eastern nations, forcibly allied to Japan, joined with the Japanese Empire in 1952 to create the Hanoi Pact after signing a treaty in the city of the same name in Japanese-occupied Vietnam.
As the tensions arose between both sides, the main issue became nuclear weapons, and the race to get bigger, better, and faster ones. Ultimately, the ideas of a peaceful world dimmed as the nuclear age set in and the Cold War began, showing that, even out of the dark of one of the worst wars in history, many refused to learn its lesson. The rest of the 20th century would remain a political, economical, and sometimes military, battle ground for the hegemony of world's politics.


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The Art of Patrick Nagel
Place Published: New York
Publisher: Alfred Van Der Merck editions
Date Published: 1987
Edition: First paperbound edition
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very good
Book Id: 3824
Softcover with stiff boards. 159 pp. Mostly color plates of the artist's work. Some light rubbing to surface of outer paper boards. Some minor wear to edges, corners. Internally fine.
By This Publisher: Alfred Van Der Merck editions


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Throughout 2013, I wrote several plugins to perform automatic maintenance on my sites with syndicated feeds. Three of those are particularly useful:
- TIEexpire takes care of expiring old posts, so that sites don't get too big. The latest version includes post status filters, category inclusion/exclusion and email notifications.
- TIElogremover does the dubious job of removing log files from the server. Not always a sensible move, but essential on fully automated sites unless you really want 2Gb files piling up.
- TIEdupedeleter checks post titles and removes duplicates, keeping the newest or oldest original copy. It also has post status and category filters.
The logical next step was, therefore, to take these three plugins and put them into a single maintenance kit. Only one plugin to install, one options page, one update. Much better.
TIEtools Automatic Maintenance Kit
You can download or install the plugin from the WordPress Plugin Repository. You can, of course, donate to the development fund:
At this time (v1.2), TIEtools combines the three existing plugins with some bonus functionality:
- The options page is completely rebuilt (and prettier).
- Each plugin's functionality can be switched on or off.
- TIEtools uses the same names for options as the original plugins, so will automatically import whatever settings you had. (That works the other way around, too, if you decide to switch to one of the others.)
- All functions are renamed so TIEtools can coexist with the original plugins (if you really want loads of plugins and their options pages).
- (v1.1) Log file name can now be set by the user.
- (v1.1) Notifications can be sent for duplicate posts as well as expirations.
- (v1.2) Images can be expired inside existing posts, to save server space but retain the article content.
More functionality may be added in the future.
Options Page Screenshot
Bugs and requests
These are all handled through the WordPress Plugin repository and the associated forums.
There are no known bugs at this time.
That said, it might do that weird thing where the scheduled job doesn't register properly – in which case, just deactivate and reactivate it. No reports of that yet, though.


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Cool season grass
Listen to the full show:
August 13, 2011 — The right time is almost here for the successful sowing of cool season grass seed. Mike McGrath walks you through a perfect plan for your new lawn. Plus your fabulous phone calls!
Question of the Week
Mike: Most of our grass died last summer. We thought it might come back; no such luck for the most part, so we will plant a new lawn. When do we start killing the existing grass with Roundup or a similar product? And when should we re-seed – after Labor Day? Get the answer »
Photo by Flickr user the__edge


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Question: The US Forest Service published the following data showing
The US Forest Service published the following data showing the number of acres of trees (in 000s) harvested in national forests for the past four years and the number of Class 1 forest fires reported on Forest Service land during those years.
b. Compute the correlation coefficient.
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a. Show the scatter diagram and compute the covariance for the two sets of values. Treat the data as a population.
b. Compute the correlation coefficient.
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Answer to relevant QuestionsEnd-of-month values for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the NASDAQ Composite Index, both measures of stock market performance, are given below for the last four sample months. a. Compute the covariance. Remember ...Values for the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the past six months were: 127, 121, 115, 118, 123, 126 Values for the Index of Leading Economic Indicators (ILEI) over the same period are shown below: 112, 113, 118, ...Your company's advertising budget grew from $3.72 million four years ago to $5.14 million this year. What was the average annual growth rate for the budget over this four-year period? Use the geometric mean as the proper ...Parr-Carson produces a steel alloy product. Each pound of alloy is a mix of three elements: 8 ounces of carbon, 6 ounces of chromium, and 2 ounces of nickel. Raw material cost is as follows: carbon, $2.50 per pound; ...Below are the results of a quality control test conducted on 18 of the low-end cell phones being sold by United? The numbers show the simulated months of useful life (how long the phones work before failing) for the 18 ...
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Uploaded by chinelo on November 20, 2010
On Black Sisters Street by Nigerian author Chika Unigwe and five other books by African writers have been nominated by libraries around the world for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. According to the website it is the largest prize of its kind and is open to books written in any language.
The other books are:
- In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman Waberi
- Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou
- Black Diamond by Zakes Mda
- A Man Who is Not a Man by Thando Mgqolozana
- Sunset Oasis by Bahaa Taher
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Question: Describe the various ways in which the AICPA s Code is
Describe the various ways in which the AICPA's Code is enforced.
View Solution:
View Solution:
Answer to relevant QuestionsWould a CPA violate the AICPA's Code by serving a client both as its auditor and legal counsel? Explain your answer.a. Review the code of ethics for senior management and the board of directors. What are the main components of these codes? Provide a critique of the components and overall message contained in the codes.b. What guidelines ...Briefly describe the relevance of the following standard setters for auditors.a. AICPAb. PCAOBc. IAASBDefine the term audit documentation and provide examples.What are the external auditor testing requirements of internal controls for?a. Large, publicly held companies?b. Nonpublic companies and small, publicly held companies?
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Children of Afghanistan
Realizing Children's Rights in Afghanistan
A report published by Unicef identifies Afghanistan as the "worst place to be born in the world": Indeed, Afghan children are subjected to extreme poverty and violence on a daily basis. Their situation is in fact critical: child mortality, malnutrition, forced marriages, sexual abuse…
Realization of Children's Rights Index : 5.04 / 10
Black level : Very serious situation
Population: 31.1 million
Life expectancy: 60.9 years
1. State of children
Main problems faced by children in Afghanistan:
Almost one half of the Afghan population (46%) lives below the poverty line. According to UN statistics, Afghanistan is the second poorest country in the world. The gross national income per citizen equals 370 dollars per year. By way of example, a judge or a teacher earns about 50 dollars per month.
The child mortality rate is particularly high in Afghanistan and, according to international records, life expectancy at birth is considered to be the lowest.
Statistics show that 35% of newborns are underweight. Even today, 87% of deliveries take place in the pregnant mother's home and usually with no proper medical assistance. This is so because in the highly patriarchial Afghan society women do not often get permission to leave their home, even to go to the hospital. Therefore, 1 woman out of 8 dies during delivery.
A very limited number of hospitals exist in Afghanistan. Sometimes, one would have to travel across hundreds of kilometers to reach one of these hospitals. Furthermore, the medical officers lack proper training and appropriate equipment.
In addition, approximately 70% of the population does not have access to drinking water, which in turn results in a lot of health problems, especially among the younger children.
Today, only around 60% of Afghan children are sent to school and only 28% of the adult population is literate. In addition, the education system is lacking infrastructure. In Kabul the number of students in some classes rises up to 60.
Afghanistan also holds the saddening record of being the country which has the highest number of terrorist attacks aimed at schools, at girls schools in particular. Even though the abolition of the Taliban has made way for children to go back to school, progress has yet to be made when it comes to ensuring the security of students and guaranteeing the right to education of every Afghan child.
In Afghanistan, around 20% of children are expected to work in order to provide for themselves and for their family. Street vendors, water carriers, cardboard collectors, shoe polishers, taxi solicitors, domestic servants, assistants in boutiques, are the kind of odd jobs done by Afghan children.
The child plays an important economic role in the Afghan family structure, mainly because the little money earned by their parents is hardly enough to feed the hungry mouths in the family. Additionally, due to cultural practices, Afghan mothers rarely choose to seek employment outside their homes. In this situation, the family relies upon the economic contribution of the child, even if it means the child is left begging on the streets.
The consequences which follow their obligation to work are indeed tragic: absence of education, police violence and disease linked to pollution and to the drastically changing climate (In summer the temperature goes as high as 40°C or more and in winter the temperature could go down to -20°C)
Young Afghans are often made victims of violence. In 2009, around 250 children were killed during terrorist attacks.
Moreover, many among them are victims of sexual abuse. About 1,500 incidents are recorded each year; unfortunately, the majority of the victims do not dare to reveal the unpleasant experiences they have gone through. Furthermore, most often the perpetrators are not taken to courts due to political reasons (former war lords or members of the government, corruption, etc). Only a serious change in attitude would save the Afghan children from being considered as objects prone to exploitation.
Under the Taliban regime, thousands of Afghans under the age of 18 were enrolled in terrorist groups, in one way or another. They were first "brain washed", then given training on the handling of weapons, and finally sent to war. Certain children, barely 6 years of age, were even used as child suicide bombers.
In the beginning of 2011, Afghanistan signed an agreement with the United Nations to stop the recruitment of children into the national police; after it was included in the blacklist of the UNO since 2010. Thus the government takes the first step in an important process which could soon mark the end of the era of child soldiers and would help the already traumatized excombatants to reintegrate into civilian life.
There are thousands of orphans in Afghanistan; this is, in fact, a direct consequence of the armed conflict which ravaged the country. Nevertheless, only a very few children are left to their own devices since the Afghan culture, mainly based on Muslim principles, makes it obligatory for Afghans to help children in need. Thus, orphans are generally taken in by members of the family or certain others in the village.
Unfortunately, some "adoptive parents" treat these children as if they were little slaves. Sometimes the orphans are discriminated amidst the guardian's own children and their education is given secondary attention.
One can frequently observe a very strong desire towards employment by an orphaned child just in order to "pay back" his adoptive family as a mark of gratitude. It is necessary to create organizations which would allow the children access to education and which would also listen to them in an appropriate manner, providing proper care. A national plan for the protection of the child has already been launched to improve the situation.
The presence of numerous land mines in Afghanistan still results in regular accidents, sometimes even fatal ones, especially among the very young who often fail to recognize such sites. Many Afghan children are handicapped due to land mine explosions. Awareness campaigns and land mine clearance programs have been put in place by the government as well as by certain NGOs. Their objective is to free Afghan soil of landmines by the year 2013.
Between 2000 and 2009, almost 40% of young women, when interviewed, confided that they were given in marriage before the age of 18. These early marriages could result in serious health problems among young women, especially when these young women are not yet ready to go through the experience of pregnancy.
Only 6% of births are officially recorded in Afghanistan. As a result the majority of Afghan children have neither an official identity nor a nationality. They are invisible in the eyes of society.
This is particularly problematic for Afghan children who are refugees after having fled the war. In refugee camps located in Pakistan or in Iran the number of child refugees can be up to 1.5 million. These children find their status illegal and thus they are not entitled to any sort of a civil right as a citizen in the country because they do not have an official legal existence.
Juvenile justice
The Afghan criminal law does not differentiate between major crimes and minor offences. Despite the penal code for persons under the age of 18, adapted in the year 2005, in practice there is no alternative to prison for a child offender. This is in fact contrary to the article 40 of the International Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Yet owing to the work done by numerous ONGs, progress can be observed in some regions. The legal system should, however, go through a general improvement in order to attain a state where child rights are considered more important than in the present situation.
Stories of children
"My name is Tofan, and I'm eleven years old. I live with my mother, my two brothers and my two sisters in Kabul, the country's capital. My father died when I was young. To help my mother, I began washing cars when I was seven."
Testimony from Terre des Hommes
Child in the culture of the country
Customs and rites of passage : In Afghanistan the birth of a male child is celebrated with a grand feast. The birth of a female child is not so much a thing to rejoice because her birth indirectly means "sacrifice" on behalf of the family since only a sufficient dowry provided by the family would assure her future prospects of a good marriage.
According to Afghan culture, the child receives his first name three days after his birth. Later, the appearance of the child's first tooth would also mark the occasion for a ceremony. Little boys are circumcised at the age of 7 and then they start wearing the turban.
An Afghan tale : Afghans have a long tradition of story telling, and a particular liking of moral stories for young children like the one given below:
Once upon a time, a beggar found a wonderful place to rest in front of the garden of a rich merchant. The merchant often use to organize barbecues for his rich friends and the beggar use to delight of the nice smells coming from the delicious food. One day, the merchant surprised him; he shouted at him saying "How dare you enjoy the nice smell coming from the dinner prepared at my place without paying me anything?" He brought the beggar in front of Judge Amir.
As the judge wanted to please the merchant, especially since he was an influential man, he condemned the beggar as guilty and asked him to pay a fine of 10 Afghanis. The beggar did not have the sum of money required and he was desperate because of this. He ran to Abu Khan, a philosopher well known for his wisdom. He asked the beggar to be calm and accompanied him to the courts. When Amir the Judge wanted the beggar to pay the relevant amount of money, Abu Khan gave the beggar a purse, and asked him to drop its contents. The coins falling on the ground made joyful tinkling sounds.
"There you go Judge, the sum is all reimbursed" said Abu Khan, collecting the coins fallen on the ground "for the person who makes one pay for inhaling a nice smell would approve, as its payment, the jingling sound of the coins!" And those who were present in the court session, as well as Judge Amir, had to yield in front of Abu Khan's great wisdom.
Adhesion to the CRC
The international Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the first legally binding international instrument of children's rights protection.
Date of signature: September 27 1990
Date of ratification: March 28 1994
Declarations and Reservations :
At the time of ratification of the convention, the Afghan government asserted that they would reserve the right to make restrictions regarding all articles of the Convention that would be incompatible with the Sharia (The Islamic law) or with any other Afghan law. However the government has not made any use of this possibility. Thus, Afghanistan is bound to protect all the rights guaranteed by the UNCRC.
2. Whom to contact
In Afghanistan, the legal system is greatly flawed, due to flagrant corruption. Thus if you want to contact an authority we thoroughly advice you to contact the NGOs present in the country. (Refer to the contacts given below)
Those links are independent websites. Humanium does not guarantee their quality. (see General terms of use).
3. Take action for children
To discover another country, click on the continent
- Unicef, Afghanistan
- CRIN, Afghanistan
- Terre des hommes, Afghanistan
- Watchlist, Setting the Right Priorities: Protecting Children Affected by Armed Conflict in Afghanistan, June 2010
- Le Devoir.com, Un rapport de l'UNICEF – Le pire endroit où naître : l'Afghanistan, 19 mars 2010
- Coalition pour mettre fin à l'utilisation des enfants soldats
- Afghanistan-demain.org
- Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook
- World Bank
- Amnesty International, Annual report, The state of the world's human rights
- United Nations, Treaty collection : list of signatories and parties, with their declarations and their reservations
Written by : Aurélie Gigon
Review by : Valérie Theveniaut
Translated by : Sumindi Rodrigo
Review by : Karen Strouse
Last update 06th november 2011