Khan Abdul Wali Khan (; ; 11 January 1917 – 26 January 2006) was a Pakistani democratic socialist politician who served as president of Awami National Party. Son of the prominent Pashtun nationalist leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Wali Khan was an activist and a writer against the British Raj like his father.

His early years were marked by his involvement in his father's non-violent resistance movement, the "red shirts" against the British Raj. He narrowly escaped an assassination in his early years and was later sent to school at Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehra Dun. In his late teens, he became active in the Indian National Congress. After the formation of Pakistan in 1947, Wali Khan became a controversial figure in Pakistani politics during his political career because of his association to the Congress which opposed the creation of Pakistan.

A respected politician in his later years, he contributed to Pakistan's third constitution and led protests for the restoration of democracy in the 1960s and 1980s. In the 1970s, he also served as the parliamentary leader of opposition in Pakistan's first directly elected parliament.

Early life
Wali Khan was born on 11 January 1917, to a family of local landlords in the town of Utmanzai in Charsadda district of the North-West Frontier province of what was then undivided India. His father, Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan), was a prominent Pashtun Nationalist and founder of the pacifist Khudai Khidmatgar ("Volunteer" in Pashto) movement. His mother, Mehar Qanda Khan, belonged to the nearby Razar village, and married Bacha Khan in 1912; she died during the flu pandemic after World War I.

Wali Khan, the second of three sons, received his early education from the Azad Islamia School in Utmanzai. In 1922, this school became part of a chain of schools his father had formed during his social reform activities. It was from this network of schools that the Khudai Khidmatgar movement developed, eventually challenging British authority in the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) through non-violent protests and posing one of the most serious challenges to British rule in the region.

In May 1930, Wali Khan narrowly escaped being killed during a military operation by the British Indian Army against his home village. In 1933, he attended the famous Colonel Brown Cambridge School in Dehra Dun. He did not pursue further education because of recurring problems with his eyesight, which led to him wearing glasses for the rest of his life.

Despite his pacifist upbringing, as a young freedom fighter, Wali Khan seemed exasperated with the pacifism advocated by his father. He was to later explain his frustration to Gandhi, in a story he told Muklaika Bannerjee, "If the cook comes to slaughter this chicken's baby, is non-violence on the part of the chicken likely to save the younger life?" The story ended with a twinkle in his eye when he remembered Gandhiji's reply, "Wali, you seem to have done more research on violence than I have on non-violence." His first wife died in 1949 while Wali Khan was in prison. In 1954, he married Nasim Wali Khan, the daughter of an old Khudai Khidmatgar activist.

Early politics

In 1942, Wali Khan a young man of 25 years, joined the Khudai Khidmatgar movement. Soon after, he formally stepped into politics by joining the Indian National Congress where he eventually served as a provincial joint secretary of the party. He was arrested and charged under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, in 1943, at the height of the crackdown against the Quit India Movement.
He opposed the 1947 division of the India and criticised the decision.

His decision to serve in a more prominent political role was said to have been influenced by his elder brother, Ghani Khan's, decision to withdraw from politics. With his father in jail, Khan took over leading his father's supporters.

Despite his father's efforts against division and a brief attempt to instead create a new nation called Pakhtunistan, on 14 August 1947, Pakistan came into being. The new nation was divided into two wings (West and East Pakistan), separated by a thousand miles (1500 km) of Indian territory.

Like his father after the creation of Pakistan, Wali Khan agitated for Pashtun autonomy within a Pakistani Federal system, which placed him at odds with government authorities. Imprisoned without charge in 1948, he was freed in 1953; he immediately started negotiations with the central government to allay apprehensions about the Khudai Khidmatgar. He held talks with then NWFP Chief Minister Sardar Abdul Rashid and Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra. He also held a series of meetings with then Governor General Ghulam Mohammed. These negotiations proved successful and led to the release of hundreds of imprisoned activists belonging to the Khudai Khidmatgar movement. Wali Khan next joined the National Awami Party (NAP) in 1956, a new political party formed by his father along with other progressive and leftist leaders from both wings of Pakistan.

The National Awami Party seemed to be on its way to victory in the 1959 elections, when the civilian President Iskandar Mirza was ousted in a coup by the military, under Commander-in-Chief Ayub Khan. One of Ayub Khan's first decisions after he came to power was to outlaw political activity and imprison politicians. Abdul Wali Khan, along with many other politicians at the time, was imprisoned and disqualified from contesting elections or participating in politics as part of this purge.

Politics: 1958–1972

By 1962, Ayub Khan introduced a new constitution and announced he would run in the next Presidential election. The opposition parties got united under the Combined Opposition Party alliance and fielded a joint candidate against Ayub Khan in the Presidential elections. As an opposition leader, Wali Khan supported the consensus candidate Fatima Jinnah, sister of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Wali Khan assisted Fatima Jinnah in her election campaign and served as her election agent.

The opposition's election campaign however proved a failure and Ayub Khan was re-elected in 1964, in part due to alleged vote rigging by the central government, and also because of divisions within the opposition. These divisions were particularly sharp between Wali Khan and National Awami Party President Maulana Bhashani, as the Pro-Mao Bhashani was alleged to have unofficially supported Ayub Khan because of the government's pro-China policy.

These divisions came to the surface in 1967, when the National Awami Party formally split into Wali Khan and Bhashani factions. Wali Khan was elected President of his own faction of the National Awami Party in June 1968. In the same year, popular unrest broke out against Ayub Khan's rule in Pakistan, due to increasing corruption and inflation. Wali Khan, along with most of the opposition parties, including future Bangladeshi President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others, formed the Democratic Action Committee to negotiate with Ayub Khan for the restoration of democracy.

Attempting to provide Ayub Khan with an honourable exit from power, negotiations between Ayub Khan and the opposition continued between 9 and 10 May 1969. However, despite a compromise agreement on some issues, it was alleged that the military leadership and its political allies did not want Ayub Khan to succeed. Wali Khan held a separate meeting with Ayub Khan on 11 May to convince him to compromise. Ayub refused, and shortly afterwards Ayub resigned under pressure from the military.

The new military leader, Yahya Khan, called for general and provincial elections in 1970, promising to transfer power to the majority party. In the elections, Sheikh Mujeeb-ur Rehman, Bengali nationalist and leader of the Awami League, won a majority of seats nationally and all the seats from the East wing of the country. (See Elections in Pakistan.) In West Pakistan, the charismatic populist Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto won the second largest number of seats in the assembly, almost solely from the Punjab and Sindh provinces. Wali Khan was elected to both the provincial Assembly as a member of the Provincial Assembly and the National Assembly from his home constituency of Charsadda.

Despite the results, the military government rejected the Awami League's victory. Shocked on hearing the news that the military junta would not transfer power to the majority Bengalis, Khan was to later tell A.P. journalist Zeitlin, "I remember Bhutto said that it had been arranged with the 'powers that are' that in East Pakistan Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would rule, and in West Pakistan, Mr. Bhutto would be the Prime Minister."

In 1971, in an attempt to avert a possible showdown between the Military and the people of East Pakistan, on 23 March 1971, Khan, along with other Pakistani politicians, jointly met Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. They offered support to Mujib in the formation of a government, but it was already too late to break the impasse as Yahya Khan had already decided on a full-scale military crackdown. Pakistan's increasing vulnerability and widespread international outrage against the military crackdown eventually created a situation that led to war in East Pakistan. This war proved disastrous and culminated in Pakistan's armed forces being defeated in East Pakistan and the creation of the new state of Bangladesh. Shocked by the defeat, Yahya Khan resigned from office and the military. Under General Gul Hassan Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was brought back from America and appointed the Civilian Chief Marshal Law Administrator and President.

During the martial law crackdown against East Pakistan, the National Awami Party under Wali Khan was one of a handful of parties that protested the military operation. In one case, Khan helped a senior East Pakistani diplomat's son escape to Afghanistan from possible internment in West Pakistan. The military government, in retaliation against the protests, banned the party and launched mass arrests of party activists.

Politics: 1972–1990

Tripartite agreement
In 1972, as the opposition leader, Wali Khan was contacted by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who wanted to lift martial law and set up a new constitution. Wali Khan's negotiations with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto led to the signing of an agreement with the government in 1972, called the Tripartite Agreement. The agreement led to the lifting of martial law and removal of the ban on the National Awami Party. This led to the formation of National Awami Party coalition provincial governments in the NWFP and Baluchistan. Despite the initial positive start, the agreement rapidly began to unravel due to the growing animosity between Khan and Bhutto.

Liaquat Bagh massacre and framing the constitution

On 23 March 1973, the Federal Security Force, a paramilitary force under the alleged orders of Bhutto, attacked a public opposition rally at the Liaquat Bagh in the town of Rawalpindi and killed a dozen people; many more were wounded by their automatic gunfire. Wali Khan narrowly escaped a bullet during the attack. Public anger amongst ethnic Pashtuns ran high, as almost all the dead and most of the wounded were from the NWFP and were mostly members of the National Awami Party. The enraged party workers and followers wanted to parade the dead bodies on the streets in Peshawar and other cities of the province, and provoke a full scale confrontation. Wali Khan rejected this notion and held back his infuriated party cadres, escorting the dead bodies to Peshawar; he had them buried quietly and solemnly with their bereaved families.

Despite the massacre, Wali Khan continued to support talks with Bhutto over a new constitution. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed the leader of the opposition by joint agreement of all the opposition parties. He then led negotiations with Bhutto for the passage, in August 1973, of Pakistan's only "unanimous" constitution.

Last minute disagreements over issues ranging from provincial rights to the renaming of NWFP, according to federal negotiator Abdul Hafiz Pirzada, despite reservations, Wali Khan agreed to a compromise with the precondition that issues of Judicial independence and provincial rights would be granted by the federal government after transition periods of five and ten years, respectively.
However, he succeeded in incorporating Hydel and gas royalties for NWFP and Baluchistan as well as having obligated the Federal government to ensure equal improvements for all regions in Pakistan. Due to Bhutto's party's large majority in Parliament and opposition divisions, Khan was critically unable to stop Bhutto from concentrating greater power in his office.

It was during this period that Wali Khan supported Bhutto's move toward the release of prisoners of war captured by India in the 1971 war and full normalisation of relations through the Simla peace agreement.

Arrest and Hyderabad tribunal

In 1974, after Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's close ally and governor of the North-West Frontier Province Hayat Sherpao was killed in a bomb blast, Bhutto was convinced that Abdul Wali Khan, Khan Amirzadah Khan and the National Awami Party were responsible, and in retaliation the federal government banned the National Awami Party. It also ordered the arrest and imprisonment of most of its senior leadership, including Wali Khan. The widely discredited Hyderabad tribunal subsequently put Wali Khan and his colleagues on trial.

Refusing to participate in what he felt was a farcical trial, Wali Khan did not take part in his own legal defence. In response to one of the charges before the Hyderabad Tribunal, that he had been sent Rs 20 million by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi through a certain emissary, Wali Khan sarcastically filed a civil suit against the emissary for the recovery of the Rs 20 million. He argued that, although he could not imagine why Indira Gandhi would send him such a large sum of money, he had never received the money, and obviously the emissary had embezzled the money. As civil unrest was widely spread the country, the power struggle between PNA, Pakistan Armed Forces and Bhutto, including his colleagues, was triggered and, Wali Khan saw Bhutto's actions as his last stand. In an open public seminar, Wali Khan quoted that "There is one possible grave for two people ... let us see who gets in first".

Publication of books
Although not widely known, Wali Khan had previously written a book in Pashto on his father's non-violent movement, The Khudai Khidmatgar. In 1986, he published another book called Facts Are Facts. This book was written gradually over many years and included critical and declassified British Imperial documents before the creation of Pakistan. Wali Khan, citing those documents, alleged that Pakistan's formation was done as part of a deliberate "divide and rule" policy of the British and that Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Pakistan's founder), along with various religious leaders and feudal landlords, acted on their behalf.

Awami National Party

In July 1986, Wali Khan and other former National Awami Party members formed the Awami National Party (ANP). Wali Khan was elected its first President and Sindhi Nationalist Rasool Baksh Palijo became the first Secretary General of the party.

The ANP, under Wali Khan's presidency, contested the 1988 national elections in alliance with former rivals the Pakistan Peoples' Party of Benazir Bhutto (Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's daughter). The ANP's success in the elections was limited to the NWFP and even then only certain regions of that province. In addition, Wali Khan lost his provincial seat to a PPP candidate, a sign of the decline in the ANP's popularity. The ANP-PPP alliance collapsed in 1989 after a perceived snub by PPP Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and a dispute over ministerial posts and the governorship of NWFP. After joining the opposition, Wali Khan started talks with the Army backed IJI (Islamic Democratic Alliance) and joined the alliance before the 1990 general elections.

Post-retirement politics

After his defeat in the 1990 elections at the hands of opposition candidate Maulana Hassan Jan (a close confidante of the Afghan Pashtun leader Gulbadin Hekmatyar), Wali Khan opted to retire from electoral politics and turned down a senate ticket from his party and the offer from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of contesting Lahore. When asked his reason for retirement, he said that he had no place in politics "when the mullahs and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) decide our destiny and politics".

As Wali Khan withdrew from politics, his contact with the press and public became limited. This period in the 1990s would be marked by his party's assumption of power in alliance with former army-backed opponents, a focus only on provincial politics, the increasing influence of his wife in party affairs, corruption scandals hitting the once clean image of his supporters and in particular the focus on renaming the NWFP Pakhtunkhwa ('The Pashtun side/ territory').
The exception was in 1998, when in response to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's announcement of the construction of Kalabagh Dam, Pashtun and Sindhi nationalists opposed construction of the dam because they believed it would give control of Pakistan's water resources to the majority Punjabis. In response to the announcement, Wali Khan led a massive rally against the dam in the town of Nowshera.
The rally spurred other parties, in particular Benazir Bhutto's PPP, into leading a campaign against the construction of the dam. The campaign was successful and Sharif dropped the plan.

In another press conference in 2001, Wali Khan supported the US attack on the Taliban and said that had the US not attacked Afghanistan, the country would have turned into an Arab colony since Osama bin Laden had a well-equipped army of 16,000 people, which far outnumbered the trained soldiers in the Afghan army.

Wali Khan's final press conference was in 2003, when he announced his close friend and colleague Ajmal Khattak's return to the ANP, along with many other colleagues, who had briefly led a splinter faction of the party between 2000 and 2002.

Relationships
His relationship with PPP leader and Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was characterised by a fierce rivalry and a powerful clash of egos. He used to criticise the Prime Minister for his "fascist tendencies" by calling him "Adolph Bhutto" and "Raja Dahir". In exchange Bhutto would accuse Khan of collusion with India and Afghanistan in an attempt to break up Pakistan.

Wali Khan accused Zulfiqar Bhutto of attempting his assassination on the floor of Pakistan's parliament. During Bhutto's time in office, Khan survived four assassination attempts. The attempts occurred in Malakand, Dir, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala. He survived the first attack when the vehicle he was travelling in, from Jandol to Timergara in Dir, came under fire. One of his bodyguards was killed in the attack. He survived a grenade attack at the Gujranwala railway station when he, along with Pir Pagara and Chaudhry Zahur Elahi, was on a visit to Punjab under the banner of the opposition alliance United Democratic Front (UDF).

The fourth attack was carried out when he was about to address a public meeting in Liaquat Bagh Rawalpindi, a stray bullet killed a youth standing close to Wali Khan on the stage. Convinced that Bhutto had orchestrated the attacks with the collusion of Khan's old rival Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, and after one particularly narrow escape, he warned Bhutto on the floor of the National Assembly that he would trade bullet for bullet with Bhutto, after that speech Bhutto's trips to the North-West Frontier Province were heavily guarded.

Debates between the two rivals remained bitter, in one case Bhutto had just returned from a successful trip abroad, and in a confrontational mood he lashed out at the opposition and Khan for slowing him down. When Bhutto was done, Wali Khan responded: "Mr. Bhutto, you stop telling lies about me and I will stop telling the truth about you.

The brutality he and his family experienced at the hands of Bhutto's government led to little sympathy from Wali Khan in 1979 when Bhutto faced execution.

Imprisonments
Wali Khan served several stints in prison, and survived several assassination attempts during his 48-year political career. His first arrest was under the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) by the British Raj in 1943 for his role in the Khudai Khidmatgar movement. On 15 June 1948, he was arrested again, this time by the new Pakistani government, for the Khudai Khidmatgar's opposition to the creation of Pakistan, and placed behind bars in Haripur jail in Haripur, NWFP. In 1953, after serving more than five years in various jails without being charged, he was released by the central government. During this stint in prison, in February 1949, his first wife Taj Bibi and their second son died in a Mardan hospital. Wali Khan was not allowed to attend her funeral. In February 1949, Wali Khan was moved from Haripur jail to Mach jail in Balochistan, then to Quetta jail in May 1951, and to Dera Ismail Khan jail in 1952. He was brought back to Haripur jail in March 1952 and then released on 14 October 1953.

His third stint in prison was after Pakistani President Iskandar Mirza was ousted in a military coup by General Ayub Khan. The new military regime sought to purge political opponents, which led to Khan and hundreds of other politicians being disqualified from participating in politics. Wali Khan commented about his imprisonment to Ayub Khan's Information secretary in 1969 shortly after the Democratic Action Committee's conference with Ayub Khan had finished. Gauhar writes that, "Wali Khan narrated how Khawaja Shahabuddin asked him on three occasions during the conference, 'how is it that I never met a bright and able person like you when I was Governor of NWFP for three years.' Wali Khan let it pass on the first two occasions but on the third occasion he could not restrain himself and rejoined, 'Because all those three years you kept me in prison!'" This was followed by another brief arrest in 1969 after another military ruler, Yahya Khan, assumed power after Ayub Khan resigned.

His final stint in prison was under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government. Khan considered this period his most difficult experience. His party was banned and a brutal crackdown was launched against his family and friends. As part of the crackdown, his brother-in-law was forced into exile and his son was tortured. In his book Facts Are Sacred, he wrote of this stint in prison with some bitterness.

This difficult experience prompted Wali Khan to be often ambivalent in his criticism of military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq who in 1977 ousted Bhutto and in 1979 had him executed.

Death and criticisms
After a long illness, Wali Khan died of a heart attack on 26 January 2006 in Peshawar, Pakistan. He was buried in his ancestral village in Uthmanzai, Charsadda. His funeral was widely attended by members of the public and senior political leaders including Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz; condolence messages were sent from Pakistani President Pervaiz Musharraf, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He is survived by his wife Nasim Wali Khan, three daughters and two sons. Asfandyar Wali Khan, his eldest son, true to the political traditions of Wali Khan's family, is a politician in Pakistan and the current President of the Awami National Party.

Critics argue that Wali Khan made limited contributions to Pakistan's polarised and corrupt political system. They challenged his claim that he was the major or sole spokesperson for Pashtuns, discounted the benefits of the 1973 constitution and the Simla agreement, and disagreed with his principles of not compromising with dictators. Others argue that if he had compromised with Pakistan's military establishment he may well have ended up Pakistan's Prime Minister, but that his principles proved to be his undoing.

Some Pashtun nationalists were also critical of Wali Khan, as many felt that he squandered a chance to unite all Pashtuns in NWFP (now Khyber Pukhtunkhwa), Baluchistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas into one large province that could be named Pakhtunkhwa or Pakhtunistan. Khan also faced criticism for his "betrayal of his language" because of his, and the National Awami Party, support for Urdu as the provincial language of instruction in NWFP (now Khyber Pukhtunkhwa) and Baluchistan (declared in 1972) rather than the majority languages of Pashto and Balochi.

Wali Khan struggled for most of his life with the twin legacies of his influential father Ghaffar Khan and the perception of his "Anti-Pakistani activities". As a result, he has been criticised for backing separatist ideals as well as causing social unrest in Pakistan. His critics blamed him for alienation of Pashtuns from the rest of Pakistan and for supporting "anti-Pakistani forces". He remained tagged with the title of traitor by the state run media and Pakistan's ruling establishment for much of his political career. Paradoxically he is criticised by democrats for his alleged lukewarm opposition to Zia-ul Haq, who allegedly offered him the Prime Ministership of the country.

However writers like Lawrence Ziring have rejected the charges against him. Syed went a step further, arguing that the clash between the National Awami Party under Wali Khan, "was not a contest between the state of Pakistan and a secessionist force ... but was more like a clash of rival political wills".

His supporters disagree, and believe he promoted left of centre progressive and secular politics in Pakistan. Before his arrest in 1975, he was in fact striving for a more national role more in line with his position as Leader of the Opposition in government and he had started campaigning heavily in Punjab and Sind, where he was attracting large crowds.

In his statements he left an ambiguity in his policies, exemplified in 1972 when a journalist questioned his loyalty and his first allegiance, to which his reply was, "I have been a Pashtun for six thousand years, a Muslim for thirteen hundred years, and a Pakistani for twenty-five." However at the same time, before the 1990 general elections, he stated "The survival of the federation is the main issue in this election. Everyone considers themselves a Sindhi or Pashtun or Punjabi first. Nobody considers themselves a Pakistani. There has to be greater provincial autonomy".

He also worked well with many politicians from Punjab including prominent Muslim Leaguers like Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan and Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi (father of former Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain) and with Baloch politicians especially Sardar Ataullah Mengal and Sherbaz Khan Mazari.

He was also accused of being a communist, or a secular Pashtun nationalist. Khan's falling out with Baloch leader Ghous Bizenjo in the late 1970s can be traced to his disillusionment with Communism.

Khan, and by extension his party and family, maintained a long association with senior leaders in the Congress Party of India because of his father's close association with Mohandas Gandhi. His preference for dialogue over conflict with India and his links to India also strengthened the impression that he was anti-Pakistan amongst the more strident anti-India elements in Punjab. His opposition to the Pakistan-United States backed Afghan jihad and support for Afghan communist President Mohammad Najibullah damaged his standing amongst many conservative Pashtuns and Pakistanis." Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan has been established in respect to him by Awami National Party government.

Bibliography

See also
 Dr. Khan Sahib
 Ajmal Khattak
 Mian Ghulam Jilani
 Abdul Ali Khan
 Pakistan National Alliance
 List of political parties in Pakistan
 Mir Gul Khan Naseer
 Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizenjo
 Ataullah Mengal
 Khan Amirzadah Khan

References

Further reading
 Mazari, Sherbaz Khan (1999) A Journey to Disillusionment.Oxford University Press Pakistan
 Pirzada, Sayyid A. S. (2000) The Politics of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan, 1971–1977 Oxford University Press Inc, USA
 Wolpert, Stanley (1993) Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: His Life and Times Oxford University Press Inc, USA.
 Khan, Adeel Pakhtun Ethnic Nationalism: From Separation to Integration. (February 2003) Asian Ethnicity, Volume 4, Number 1, February 2003 Carfax Publishing: Taylor & Francis Group. Available online at khyber.org. Last accessed on 27 May 2006
 Newburg, Paula (2002)Judging the State: Courts and Constitutional Politics in Pakistan  (Cambridge South Asian Studies)Cambridge University Press
 Ziring, Lawrence (2004) Pakistan in the 20th Century: A Political History OUP Pakistan.

External links
 bachakhan.com (website dedicated to Bacha Khan & Wali Khan)
 In Memoriam: Fight well Fought
 Awami National Party
 Wali Khan Funeral pictures

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1917 births
2006 deaths
Awami National Party politicians
National Awami Party politicians
Indian National Congress politicians
Bahram Khan family
Leaders of the Opposition (Pakistan)
Pakistani secularists
Pakistani socialists
Pakistani democracy activists
Pashtun people
Pashtun nationalists
Pakistani MNAs 1972–1977
Pakistani MNAs 1988–1990
Pakistani prisoners and detainees
Pakistani political party founders
People from British India

Abdul Wali Khan


Fast break is an offensive strategy in basketball and handball. In a fast break, a team attempts to move the ball up court and into scoring position as quickly as possible, so that the defense is outnumbered and does not have time to set up. The various styles of the fast break–derivative of the original created by Frank Keaney–are seen as the best method of providing action and quick scores. A fast break may result from cherry picking.

Description
In a typical fast-break situation, the defending team obtains the ball and passes it to the fastest player, who sets up the fast break. That player (usually the smaller point guard, in the case of basketball) then speed-dribbles the ball up the court with several players trailing on the wings. He then either passes it to another player for quick scoring or takes the shot himself. If contact is made between him and a defender from behind while on a fast break, an unsportsmanlike foul is called. Recognition, speed, ball-handling skills, and decision-making are critical to the success of a fast break.

In basketball, fast breaks are often the result of good defensive play such as a steal, obtaining the ball off a block, or a missed shot by the opposing team and a rebound, where the defending team takes possession of the ball and the other team has not adjusted.

A fast break can sometimes lead to an alley-oop if there are more offensive players than defenders.

In basketball, if the fast break did not lead to a basket and an offensive rebound is obtained and put back quickly, this is called a secondary break.

Fly fast break

A fly fast break (also known as a one out fast break, the technical term for the play) is a basketball move in which after a shot is attempted, the player who is guarding the shooter does not box out or rebound but instead runs down the court looking for a pass from a rebounding teammate for a quick score.

How to play the Fly fast break
The coach designates a certain guard or guards to carry out the Fly fast break. This is often the guard that defends the opponents' shooting guard. When the designated opposing guard makes an attempted shot. The defending guard (referred to as 'Fly') will contest the shot but then sprints down the court to the other team's key. When the defending team obtains the rebound or has to inbound the ball (after a made basket), they throw the ball into the other team's key, knowing that there is a 'Fly' waiting to catch the ball and score.

Strengths
 Defeats the zone - the other team doesn't have time to set up their zone defense.
 Removes a rebounder - because the shooter has to defend against the Fly, they are removed from rebounding.
 Upsets the shooter - because the shooter has to worry about defense, they are less focused on their shooting.

Weaknesses
 Rebounding weakness - The Fly's team is left with a 4 against 5 rebounding ratio, if the shooter stays to rebound.
 Inbounding - If a shooter scores, the inbounding set up takes longer and the distance to throw the ball is harder.
 Exhausting - The Fly has to sprint on offense, but has to hustle back on defense if the Fly fast break fails.

Breaking Down the Fly fast break
Breaking down the Fly fast break can be done in two ways:
 Have a confident shooter who can score and force the defending team to inbound while the shooter hustles back to defend against the Fly.
 Use non-shooting plays, where the #4 & #5 forwards do the scoring.

Notes
The 'Fly' is a term in fly fishing where the actions of this type of fishing are similar to the actions of the basketball player in Fly fast break.

References

https://www.uri.edu/anniversary/stories/frank-keaney-and-the-old-gazazza/

Further reading

Basketball terminology
Basketball strategy
Handball terminology

Fast break


Hans Coper (8 April 1920 – 16 June 1981) was an influential German-born British studio potter.  His work is often coupled with that of Lucie Rie due to their close association, even though their best known work differs dramatically, with Rie's being less sculptural, while Coper's was much more abstract, but also always functional.  The latter point was noted by M. S. Thomas in his recent book "The Essential Potness." Coper always made functional vessels, principally containers for flowers (vases), fruit (bowls), candles (candle holders) including work for Coventry Cathedral and Sussex University meeting house. He made a small group of Figures in the fifties, which were not vessels and were never put on sale (see Tony Birks).

Biography
Coper was born in Chemnitz, Germany, and fled to the UK in 1939.  He was interned as an enemy alien, and held in Canada for two years; on return to Britain in 1942, he served as a conscientious objector in the Non-Combatant Corps.

In 1946, with no previous experience in ceramics, he began working as an assistant in the studio of Lucie Rie. It is from this time you will find tea sets and cups and saucers made by both Rie and Coper. By the time he left in 1958 to establish his own studio at Digswell House in Hertfordshire, he was already well known as a potter in his own right, experimenting with much more abstract forms that were at the time considered very ahead of their time. Because of the success of his work, he went on to become a leading figure in the 20th century studio pottery movement. Throughout the 1960s he taught pottery at the Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art. He died in Frome, Somerset in 1981 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Coper would characteristically throw his work on the potter's wheel, then alter and assemble pieces by hand to achieve the finished form.  Thus, although made on the wheel, his work has a sculptural quality, but is always functional. The surfaces of his pots tend to be roughly textured and coloured with oxides, especially manganese oxide. His distinctive pots take on recognizable "forms" he termed Spade, Bud, Cup, Egg, Flower and Arrow.

Coper's work was widely exhibited and collected even in his lifetime. Today, it is found in the collections of major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum de Fundatie, the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich UK, and York Art Gallery, as well as in private collections worldwide.  Among his best known works is the set of six 7-foot candlesticks on the high altar at Coventry Cathedral, commissioned in 1962.

References

Bibliography
 Birks, Tony. Hans Coper, Marston House Publishers, 1998.
 Coatts, Morgot (ed.). Lucie Rie and Hans Coper: Potters in Parallel, Herbert Press, 1997. .
 Frankel, Cyril.  Modern Pots: Hans Coper, Lucie Rie & their Contemporaries, University of East Anglia Press, 2002. .

External links
Brief Ceramics Today article about Hans Coper

1920 births
1981 deaths
British potters
Academics of the Royal College of Art
British conscientious objectors
Artists from Chemnitz
People from Frome
Personnel of the Non-Combatant Corps
20th-century ceramists
German emigrants to the United Kingdom
Military personnel from Chemnitz

Hans Coper


Copy editing, or sub-editing, is the work an editor does to improve the style or accuracy of a text. The revised text should be more readable and sometimes more interesting after the editing. Also, punctuation and grammar may need correcting, but without changing the writer's general style.

Copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text, unless supposed facts need correction. The word 'copy' refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication. Copy editing is usually done before typesetting and proofreading. Proofreading is the last step in the editing process.

In the United States and Canada, an editor who does this work is called a copy editor, and an organization's highest-ranking copy editor, or the supervising editor of a group of copy editors, may be known as the copy chief, copy desk chief, or news editor.

In book publishing in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world that follow UK nomenclature, the term 'copy editor' is also used, but in newspaper and magazine publishing, the term is 'sub-editor' and commonly shortened to 'sub' or 'subbie'. As the 'sub' suggests, UK copy editors usually have less authority than regular editors. 'Editors' in book publishing generally have a responsibility for choosing authors and titles which will make for good sales. In magazines and newspapers they are executives, responsible for the business success of the enterprise.

The work of a sub-editor
According to experienced editors, the main things a sub-editor does are:
To make sure readers can understand the text. The text should be, as far as possible, easy to read and interesting
To make sure that anything  checkable is checked.
To make sure any requirements are met, such as length and house style.
To write instructions for how the copy should be organised in print.
Writing headlines and proofreading may be done, according to the organisation.

Above all, the sub should "approach every story from the point of view of the reader".p6

References

Writing
Publishing

Copy editing


Gavin Christopher (May 1, 1949 – March 3, 2016) was an American R&B singer, songwriter, musician, and producer.

Early life and career
Born in Chicago, Illinois, he started out playing music at a very early age. Having been schooled by the likes of Oscar Brown Jr., Donny Hathaway, Baby Huey and later on Curtis Mayfield, he honed his writing and singing skills and began his career, first in a band called Lyfe (which also included Chaka Khan). Khan then left and joined Rufus (scoring several pop and R&B hits with them). Christopher later joined another band called High Voltage with future Rufus members Bobby Watson (bassist) and Tony Maiden, as well as Lalomie Washburn, who later wrote several Rufus songs. Christopher himself would also become associated with Rufus, as he penned the song "Once You Get Started", which was later recorded by the band and hit #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975. He also wrote three songs on Rufus' next album, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan: "Dance Wit Me" (another big hit), "Fool's Paradise," and "Have A Good Time."

Christopher relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he was signed to his first recording contract with Island Records. He later moved back to Chicago to record and work with Curtis Mayfield on the Curtom/RSO record label. He worked with Herbie Hancock, writing and singing on several of his albums. Christopher also penned the Hancock song, "Stars in Your Eyes".

Following a move to New York City, Christopher signed with EMI Manhattan Records and scored his biggest single, "One Step Closer to You" (his only Hot 100 hit as an artist, #22 in 1986) and another major R&B hit two years later with "You Are Who You Love." He also produced music for artists such as Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and The Ritchie Family, as well as mentored and worked with a young Mariah Carey prior to her getting her big break. He was heavily involved in the early hip-hop scene, writing such hits as "Girls Love the Way He Spins", "Sign of the Time", "We Gonna Rock America" and "All Night All Right".

Gavin's sister is dance music vocalist Shawn Christopher.

Gavin Christopher died on March 3, 2016, in Chicago of congestive heart failure at the age of 66. He is survived by his daughter Chloe Zae Jackson.

Solo discography

Albums
 1976: Gavin Christopher [1976]
 1979: Gavin Christopher [1979]
 1986: One Step Closer
 1987: Gavin

Singles

 1976: "Good Stuff"
 1976: "Love Has a Face of Its Own"
 1979: "Feelin' the Love" (U.S. R&B #77)
 1985: "Best Part of the Night" (Jeff Lorber feat. Gavin Christopher)
 1986: "One Step Closer to You" (U.S. #22, U.S. R&B #25, U.S. Dance #9, U.K. #99)
 1986: "Back in Your Arms"
 1988: "You Are Who You Love" (U.S. R&B #10)
 1988: "Can't Put Out the Fire"

Miscellaneous appearances

The following is a partial listing of recordings Christopher appears on and produced
 1979: Gavin Christopher Gavin Christopher - Percussion, Piano, Conga, Vocals, Clavinet, Producer
 1979: Gonna Getcha Love Charles Jackson - producer' Keyboards, Vocals
 1980: Monster Herbie Hancock - Vocals
 1981: Magic Windows Herbie Hancock - Vocals, Bass Arrangement
 1982: Paradise Leroy Hutson - Background Vocals
 1985: They Said It Couldn't Be Done Grandmaster Flash - producer, Synthesizer, Bass, Percussion, Keyboards, Programming, producer, Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Mixing, Synthesizer Bass, Simmons Drums, System Programming
 1986: Beware (The Funk Is Everywhere) Afrika Bambaataa - Producer
 1987: Gavin Gavin Christopher Mic MurphyDavid Frank - Keyboards, Vocals producers
 1990: Brilliant! Kym Mazelle - Vocal Arrangement
 1992: "Don't Lose the Magic" (Shawn Christopher) - producer, songwriter
 1993: Club Classics 1982–1984, Vol. 1 Various Artists - producer, Arranger, producer, Mixing
 1993: Soul Mission Soul Mission - Vocals
 1995: Best Disco in Town: The Best of the Ritchie Family The Ritchie Family - Producer
 1996: Adventures of Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel & the Furi Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five/Mel - Producer
 1997: Too Much Woman Brigette McWilliams - Background Vocals
 1997: Whatever Happened to the Blues Phil Upchurch - Vocals
 2000: Best of Herbie Hancock: The Hits Herbie Hancock - Arranger, Vocals
 2001: Breakin' Arthur Baker - Piano, Vocals
 2001: Mr. Funk Herbie Hancock - Chant
 2002 Bullet Proof Bruce Conte - Vocals
 2002: Evolution Will Not Be Televised Aquabox - Vocals, Background Vocals, Produce
 2002: Herbie Hancock Box Herbie Hancock - Vocals
 2004: D'Soca Zone 5th Spin Various Artists - Producer
 2006: Chicago LP Chicago's Finest - Background Vocals producer
 2006: Definitive Groove Collection Grandmaster Flash Producer, Original Recording - Producer
 2006: Everyday People Project Steve Harvey - Background Vocals
 2006: Fresh and Furious: Hip Hop's Beginning Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Synthesizer, Bass, Percussion, Keyboards, Programming, Tom-Toms, Gavin Christopher Producer, Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements, Mixing]
 2007: Daily News [Circuit City Exclusive] Donnie - Background Vocals
 2007: Daily News Donnie - Background Vocals [Gavin Christopher [Island] Gavin Christopher ] Guitar, Piano, Conga, Keyboards, Vocals, Background Vocals, Clavinet, producer
 Heat for the Feets Lee Garrett - Background Vocals
 One Step Closer Gavin Christopher - Synthesizer, Keyboards, Background Vocals, producer
 Way Ian Martin - Vocals

A partial list of albums Gavin Christopher's songs appear on:
 Aquabox – Evolution Will Not Be Televised
 Loletta Holloway – "Crash Goes Love" (1987)
 Beatstreet – "Breakdance"/vocals (1987)
 Average White Band – Feel No Fret
 Candy Dulfer – For the Love of You
 Kenny Dope – Strange Games and Funky Things, Vol. 3
 Grandmaster Flash – They said it couldn't be done
 Adventures of Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel Shango funk theology
 Africa Bambatta
 Herbie Hancock – Best of Herbie Hancock: The Hits Herbie Hancock Monster
 Chaka Khan – Life Is a Dance (The Remix Project)
 Manila Thriller – Please
 Brigette McWilliams - Too Much Woman
 Rufus – Rufusized
 Rufus & Chaka Khan – Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan
 Rufus & Chaka Khan – Stompin' at the Savoy (Live)
 Original Soundtrack Prefontaine

References

External links
MySpace Page

1949 births
2016 deaths
American keyboardists
Record producers from Illinois
20th-century African-American male singers
Singers from Chicago
Island Records artists
RSO Records artists
African-American male singer-songwriters
21st-century African-American male singers
Singer-songwriters from Illinois

Gavin Christopher


Civilization is a series of computer games made by Sid Meier. In it, you make a virtual civilization going from thousands of years ago to the near future. The game is played by doing certain things each turn. You can move units or make them do stuff, build or change cities, and negotiate with other civilizations. These civilizations are controlled by a computer. You win by taking over other civilizations, building a spaceship, or getting the highest score.

At the beginning, you chose which civilization to play. Each one has its own characteristics (something that makes it different from the others). Cities are very important. You need them to build buildings that improve the city, and units. The units can attack other units, build more cities, and improve the land. You can also research technologies. Technologies allow you to do more things.

There are five main games in the series, called Civilization I-VI (1-6). Some of them have expansion packs. There is also Civilization Revolution, which is like Civilization 1-6, but it works on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and iPhone. The first version, Civilization, was released in 1991, and games have been released ever since. Civilization has existed since 1989

Related pages
These are the versions of the game. They are in order from oldest to newest.

 Civilization III
 Civilization IV

Civilization (series)


Greenpeace Aotearoa (GPAo) is one of New Zealand's largest environmental organisations, and is a national office of the global environmental organisation Greenpeace.

History
Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand was founded in 1974, two years after the original Greenpeace, to protect the natural environment.

Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand emerged from an amalgam of 1960s and 1970s NZ peace groups and activists, who had for a decade been actively promoting their opposition to the Vietnam War and nuclear testing. In particular, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (NZ) who were nationally campaigning against French nuclear testing in French Polynesia since 1961, culminating in an 80,238 signature petition presented to the New Zealand Government in 1962 demanding they take punitive action against the French to enforce a nuclear test ban in the Pacific. Two key NZ CND leaders in the 1970s involved with Greenpeace pursued political careers; Richard Northey ONZM as a NZ MP and Mike Rann CNZM as Premier of South Australia and Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability. Other groups in the peace collective included the NZ Peace Media, NZ Friends of the Earth, the Auckland Peace Squadron and Project Jonah.

There were two key developments in the New Zealand peace movement in 1974. The first was the official formation of the Greenpeace Foundation of New Zealand in April through the union of a collective of peace groups and their supporters. The second was the decision to send the yacht Fri on an epic voyage around the Pacific carrying the peace message to all nuclear weapons states. Fri's Pacific Peace Odyssey, a  adventure across the Pacific and Indian Oceans was partially financed and co-ordinated by Greenpeace New Zealand and would last till 1977.

Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand gained national prominence in the 1970s and 1980s for its action against nuclear weapons testing in French Polynesia, and acquired huge public sympathy after the French bombing of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985. The long campaign against whaling championed by Greenpeace is an issue which has had the full support of the New Zealand Government since the mid-1980s.

In 2020, the organisation's name changed to Greenpeace Aotearoa.

Campaigns
Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand also campaigns against nuclear weapons and nuclear power, deforestation, the release of genetically engineered organisms into the natural environment, climate change, and toxics. It uses tactics of non-violent direct action to draw attention to what it considers significant threats to the environment, and then lobbies for solutions.

Clean energy economy
In 2011 Greenpeace head Kumi Naidoo expressed concern that New Zealand is moving too slow to realise its clean potential.
In February 2013 Greenpeace released a report calling for New Zealand's energy production to be 100 percent renewable by 2025.  The Future is Here: New Jobs, New Prosperity and a New Clean Economy report suggests New Zealand makes a dramatic shift to clean energy.
The report was authored by a collection of European, Australian and New Zealand academics and policy analysts. This report states that nearly 30,000 jobs could be created through the expansion of geothermal and bioenergy industries, with geothermal potentially worth over NZ$4 billion annually to the New Zealand economy.

Tuna fishing reform campaign
Greenpeace had been involved in successful pressure to reform the tuna industry in the UK. Fish aggregating devices destroy much sealife as a side effect of fishing for one species. Greenpeace in NZ and Australia started focusing on local tuna brands. Greenpeace campaigned for Sealord to put pressure on its supply chain to reduce the killing in other sea-life during tuna fishing. It culminated in Sealord making reforms to phase out tuna caught using fish aggregating devices (FAD)

Sealord announced it plans to remove the method from its supply chain of canned skipjack tuna by early 2014. These floating lures attract far more than adult tuna and this destructive method is said to be globally responsible for catching about 200,000 tonnes of other marine life every year.

Oil at sea
After the Bay of Plenty Rena oil spill Greenpeace volunteers assisted in cleaning up.
Greenpeace and Eastern Bay of Plenty iwi Te Whanau-a-Apanui took the NZ government to court over its decision to grant an oil exploration permit to Brazilian oil giant Petrobras for deep sea oil exploration in the Raukumara Basin off the East Cape.

Greenpeace mission statement

To maintain its independence, Greenpeace does not solicit or accept funding from governments, corporations or political parties.
Greenpeace does not seek or accept donations that could compromise its independence, aims, objectives or integrity.
Greenpeace relies on grant-support from foundations and the voluntary donations of individual supporters.
Greenpeace is committed to the principles of non-violence, political independence and internationalism.
Greenpeace is non-party political, it does not align itself with any political party. In exposing threats to the environment and in working to find solutions, Greenpeace claims that it has no permanent allies or enemies.

See also
New Zealand's nuclear-free zone
Fri (yacht)
Environment of New Zealand
Environmental movement in New Zealand
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

References

External links
Greenpeace Aotearoa
Greenpeace International

Environmental organisations based in New Zealand
Greenpeace
Anti–nuclear weapons movement
Climate change organisations based in New Zealand

Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand


Kawa Garbo or Khawa Karpo (; also transcribed as Kawadgarbo, Khawakarpo, Moirig Kawagarbo, Kawa Karpo or Kha-Kar-Po), as it is known by local residents and pilgrims, or Kawagebo Peak (), is the highest mountain in the Chinese province of Yunnan. It is located on the border between Dêqên County, Yunnan, and the counties of Zogang and Zayü of the Tibet Autonomous Region. It rises about  west of Shengping (升平镇), the seat of Dêqên County, which lies on China National Highway 214. What is now Dêqên County has been part of Yunnan since the 1720s, when the current border with Tibet was established by the early Qing Dynasty. Kawagarbo is one of the most sacred peaks in the Tibetan world  and is often referred to as Nyainqênkawagarbo to show its sacredness and avoid ambiguousness with the other Kawagarbo in the Anung-Derung-speaking Gongshan County.

Geography
Kawagarbo is the high point in a range of high peaks that are generally referred to by Tibetans also as Kawagarpo. A mapping error by the Chinese army during the 1950s transcribed the name for a lower range of mountains to the north on a much larger area that also included Kawagarbo. The name of this lower range in Tibetan is Menri (Wylie system; Sman-ri in the Wade–Giles system; name means Mountains of Medicinal Herbs), but is most widely known by its Chinese transliteration, Meili Xue Shan (梅里雪山 or Meili Snow Mountain). This is the name most widely applied to the range by Chinese and Western sources. The Meili range is a small massif of the much more extensive Hengduan Shan, the major north-south trending complex of mountains lying along the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in eastern Tibet, northwestern Yunnan, western Sichuan, and far northern Myanmar. The Meili Xue Shan forms part of the divide between the Salween (Nujiang) and Mekong (Lancangjiang) rivers.

The Meili Xue Shan has over 20 peaks with permanent snow cover, including six peaks over . Topographic extremes are immense, with vertical relief ranging from less than 2,000 m along the Mekong River on the east to 6,740 m on the summit of Kawagarpo within 10 km horizontal distance. Even greater topographic relief is found on the west or Salween River side of the range. Coincident with this extreme topographic gradient is a similarly steep environmental gradient. Compressed within this short distance are subtropical scrub ecosystems along the arid canyon bottoms, rising through dry oak forests, humid mixed deciduous-coniferous forests, cold temperate coniferous forests, alpine meadows and scree above treeline, to permanent snow on the high peaks. The Mingyong Glacier, descending from the summit of Kawagarbo, terminates at a low elevation just before the subtropical life zone. The range is highly affected by the monsoon, leading to especially unstable snow conditions, which have affected climbing attempts (see below).

Sacred mountain worship
Kawagarbo is one of the most sacred mountains for Tibetan Buddhism as the spiritual home of a warrior god of the same name. It is visited by 20,000 pilgrims each year from throughout the Tibetan world; many pilgrims circumambulate the peak, an arduous  trek Although it is important throughout Tibetan Buddhism, it is the local Tibetans that are the day-to-day guardians and stewards of Kawagarbo, both the deity and the mountain.

The ancestral religion of the Kawagarpo area, as in much of Tibet, was Bön, a shamanistic tradition based on the concept of a world pervaded by good and evil spirits. Bön encompassed numerous deities and spirits which are still recognized today, and are often connected with specific geographical localities and natural features; the major mountain peaks in the Hengduan Mountains are thus all identified with specific deities. Kawagarbo is one of these. Since its introduction, Tibetan Buddhism has been the dominant religion of the Kawagarbo area, with followers of Gelugpa doctrine being the most common.

Tibetans believe the warrior god will leave them if human sets foot on the peak of Kawakarpo, making the ground unholy. Disasters will follow as they lose god's protection. Tibetans have also established a centuries-old sacred geography around the peak, maintained by religious leaders from local monasteries in negotiation with local villages. This sacred natural site preserves the natural resources and ecological health of the range.

Climbing history
The first attempt on Kawakarpo was made in 1987 by a party from the Joetsu Alpine Club of Japan.

In the winter of 1990–91 a Japanese group from the Academic Alpine Club of Kyoto University attempted the peak in conjunction with a Chinese group. Their activity caused heavy protests from the local Tibetan community due to the mountain's cultural and religious significance. On 3 January 1991, a nighttime avalanche killed all seventeen members of the expedition, in one of the most deadly mountaineering accidents in history. The Same Japanese Kyoto club returned in 1996 to make another unsuccessful attempt.

American expeditions, led by Nicholas Clinch, visited the range in 1988, 1989, 1992, and 1993, attempting other major peaks, but were unsuccessful.

In 2001, local Chinese government passed laws banning all future climbing attempts on cultural and religious grounds. , none of the significant peaks of the range have been successfully climbed.

Retreat of Mingyong Glacier

Mingyong Glacier descends steeply from the east face of Kawagarbo into the Mekong River valley on the Yunnan side of the massif. Because it descends from near the summit of Kawagarbo, it is also considered sacred by Tibetan Buddhists and two temples are located along its lower edge. From those temples, the rapid retreat of Mingyong Glacier is obvious, especially to local people who observe it year in and year out. A monk from Taizi Temple reflected on this rapid retreat of Mingyong Glacier, concerned that it might be punishment from Kawagarpo for the lack of devotion by him and his fellow Buddhists.

The retreat of Mingyong Glacier, linked to a warming climate in the Deqin area, has received considerable attention for its implications for biodiversity conservation, retrieval of climber's bodies killed in the 1991 avalanche, impacts on Mingyong village water supply, and in the broader context of climate change impacts to biological and social systems in northwest Yunnan and beyond.

See also
 Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, includes Kawagarbo/Meili, we well as a number of other iconic mountain landscapes in northwestern Yunnan.

References

Highest points of Chinese provinces
Mountains of Yunnan
Mountains of Tibet
Tibetan Buddhist places
Tourist attractions in Yunnan
Six-thousanders of the Transhimalayas
Geography of Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Kawagarbo


James French Strother (June 29, 1868 – April 10, 1930) was the grandson of Congressman James French Strother (1811-1860) of Virginia and great-grandson of Congressman George French Strother, also of Virginia.  Strother was a lawyer, judge, and U. S. Representative from West Virginia.

Strother was born near Pearisburg in Giles County on June 29, 1868.  He attend  public schools, the private Pearisburg Academy, Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in Blacksburg, and the University of Virginia School of Law.

After graduation, Strother become the deputy collector of internal revenue at Lynchburg, Virginia from 1890 to 1893.  He studied law at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and was admitted to the bar in 1894 and started his law practice in Pearisburg the same year. In 1895 Strother moved his law practice to Welch in McDowell County, West Virginia. He was appointed judge of the criminal court of McDowell County by Gov. Albert B. White on January 1, 1905, and was elected to the same post three times, serving until he resigned on September 30, 1924.

Strother was elected from West Virginia's 5th District as a Republican to the Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Congresses (March 4, 1925 - March 3, 1929).  He was not a candidate for renomination in 1928.  Congressman Strother died in Welch, on April 10, 1930 and was interred in Monte Vista Cemetery, Bluefield, West Virginia.

External links

People from Pearisburg, Virginia
People from Welch, West Virginia
1868 births
1930 deaths
West Virginia lawyers
Virginia Tech alumni
University of Virginia School of Law alumni
Virginia lawyers
American judges
Strother family
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from West Virginia

James F. Strother (West Virginia politician)


The Latin American and the Caribbean Economic System, officially known as Sistema Económico Latinoamericano y del Caribe (SELA), is an organization founded in 1975 to promote economic cooperation and social development between Latin American and the Caribbean countries. In the early 1990s, its representatives consisted of members from 28 countries and took part in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations, which led to a new global agreement on restrictions on trade and established the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Latin American Council represents SELA's policy-making body and meets once a year. The main administrative body is the secretariat, located in Caracas, Venezuela.

Objectives
International relations scholar Sheldon Liss, in Diplomacy and Dependency: Venezuela, the United States, and the Americas (1978) described the initial objectives of SELA:
SELA, composed of twenty-five member states, and to which Venezuela contributes the largest share (17 per cent) of the budget, hopes to: restructure international commerce in basic commodities in order to raise developing states' export values, improve trade conditions, stimulate industrial development, control foreign-based transnational corporations, create Latin American multinational companies which will use to better advantage the human, technological, and financial resources of the area, sponsor organizations to process and market raw materials, improve the negotiating power of the member states, and plan joint economic strategies.

SELA members deem it likely that Venezuelan oil wealth will permit them easy access to petrodollars for use as finance capital. (pp 271, 2.)

Member countries

See also
Latin American Integration Association

External links
 Sistema Económico Latinoamericano y del Caribe – Official Website

Organisations based in the Caribbean
Organizations based in Latin America
United Nations General Assembly observers

Latin American Economic System


In the context of engineering, automation is when a device or a machine is changed in such a way that it can fulfill the task it was designed for without the need of human interaction. Very often, this means that the machine is fitted with an additional system which takes control of its functions. For example, a centrifugal governor controls a steam engine.

Benefits of automation are that the output of the machine or device are more uniform, and that product quality is improved. A system that is not fully automated needs human interaction is needed: Many of the tasks involved are repetitive and boring. In general, machines are also designed so that humans no longer need to lift heavy weights or do dangerous things. With automation, human intervention is limited  or absent.

Images

Technology

Automation


A Fountain is an arrangement, usually made by man; in it, the water from a source is captured in some way. Most often, it is used to fill a basin of some kind. Sometimes there are many basins, and water runs from one into the next. It is also common to have sculptures in fountains.

Sometimes jets are used to make the water go high into the air, using pressure.

Fountain


The unit of measurement is at gram
In Norse mythology, Gram is the name of the sword of Sigurd (Siegfried). He used it to kill the dragon Fafnir. It was forged by Weyland the Smith and originally belonged to his father, Sigmund, who received it in the hall of the Volsung after pulling it out of a log into which Odin had stuck it–nobody else could pull it out.  The sword was destroyed and reforged at least once. After it was reforged, it clove an anvil in half. See Sigurd for more details on the story of Siegfried and Fafnir.

In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried's sword is called Balmung; in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, it is called Nothung (Notung in more modern German).

Norse mythology
Mythological swords

Gram (mythology)


The western blue-tongued lizard (Tiliqua occipitalis), also known as the western blue-tongued skink, is a large skink native to Australia. It is one of six species of blue-tongued skinks found in Australia, though further species are found in New Guinea and Indonesia.

The western blue-tongued lizard grows to around 45 cm (18 in) in length. It has a brown, banded pattern across the body and tail; the underside of the body is usually pale. It has distinctive black markings to the rear of each eye. The body is wide and large in comparison to the size of the legs. As its name suggests, it has a blue tongue, which contrasts with the pink interior of its mouth. When threatened, it may open its mouth and stick out its tongue in a threat display. If the initial display is unsuccessful, and the predator or threat does not retreat, it may hiss and flatten out its body in an attempt to make itself look bigger.            ...

It is diurnal, hunting for insects, spiders, and snails, and foraging for plants (particularly berries) and carrion. It is not an agile lizard, so its prey tends to be slow-moving. It has powerful jaws which allow it break up snail shells and the exoskeletons of beetles. It is found in grasslands, dunes, shrublands, and sparse woodlands. It rests under leaf litter or rocks at night, and sometimes uses abandoned rabbit burrows for shelter. Blue-tongued lizards are popular pets and can live for up to 30 years in captivity, though the western blue-tongued lizard is extremely uncommon as a pet, as it is one of the rarer species.

They give birth to approximately 5 live young. The young consume the placental membrane immediately after birth, and are precocious and disperse after a few days. They have bands of yellow and brown on their bodies and tails.

The western blue-tongued lizard is found chiefly in Western Australia. It is restricted to the far south in the Northern Territory, and divided into an eastern and western population in South Australia. It is listed as "Near Threatened" in Victoria, where it is restricted to the north, and "Threatened" in New South Wales, where it exists as a population to the southwest and in a pocket in the centre of the state. Threats to the species include predation by introduced species such as the red fox and domestic cat, clearance of habitat for agriculture, and destruction of the rabbit warrens used for shelter.

Relatives
The western blue tongued lizard is related to the Tiliqua scincoides scincoides, or the eastern blue tongued skink

References

Reptiles of Western Australia
Reptiles described in 1863
Skinks of Australia
Tiliqua
Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters

Western blue-tongued lizard


A firebreak or double track (also called a fire line, fuel break, fireroad and firetrail in Australia) is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebreak may occur naturally where there is a lack of vegetation or "fuel", such as a river, lake or canyon. Firebreaks may also be man-made, and many of these also serve as roads, such as a logging road, four-wheel drive trail, secondary road, or a highway.

Overview

In the construction of a firebreak, the primary goal is to remove deadwood and undergrowth down to mineral soil. Various methods may be used to accomplish this initially and to maintain this condition. Ideally, the firebreak will be constructed and maintained according to the established practices of sustainable forestry and fire protection engineering, also known as best management practices (BMP). The general goals are to maximize the effectiveness of the firebreak at slowing the spread of wildfire, and, by using firebreaks of sufficient size and density, to reduce the ultimate size of wildfires. Additional goals are to maintain the ecology of the forest and to reduce the impact of wildfires on air pollution and the global climate, and to balance the costs and benefits of the various projects.

These goals can be achieved through the use of appropriate operating practices, many of which can be potentially mutually beneficial to all. In many cases, it may be useful for firebreak upkeep to be maintained along with the harvesting of forestry products, such as lumber and biomass fuel, since the objectives are fundamentally related, in that the basic goals are to remove material from the forest. Furthermore, if done properly, the value of these products can significantly offset the cost of maintaining the firebreak. In addition, these commercial industries and small businesses are helped by a reduction in the property damages caused by wildfires, and reduced risk of investment. The biomass material that is not suitable for dimensioned lumber is suitable to make woodchips for the paper industry and the energy industry. Larger trees are sometimes left in place within some types of firebreaks, to shade the forest floor and reduce the rate of fuel accumulation, and to enhance the landscaping in recreational and inhabited locations.

Prevalence
Forested areas often contain vast networks of firebreaks. Some communities are also using firebreaks as part of their city planning strategy. An example is the city of Revelstoke, British Columbia, including Firebreaks in their Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Effectiveness

Depending on the environmental conditions, and the relative effectiveness of a given firebreak, firebreaks often have to be backed up with other firefighting efforts. Even then, it is still sometimes possible for fire to spread across a seemingly impenetrable divide. During the worst part of the fire season in southern California, strong Santa Ana winds were observed to blow carpets of burning embers across eight-lane freeways. During the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park, hot embers managed to cross the Lewis Canyon, a natural canyon up to a mile wide and 600 feet (180 m) deep. In Australia, firebreaks are less effective against eucalyptus forest fires, since intense fires in tinder-dry eucalyptus forest spread through flying embers, which can be carried by the winds to trigger new blazes several kilometres away. In 2019, goats deployed to graze the nearby flammable vegetation and create a firebreak helped save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and Getty Museum from California wildfires.

History
Due to a lack of a standardized firefighting force at the time, the Great Fire of London in 1666 instead saw the Tower of London garrison using gunpowder and fire hooks in a widespread, ad-hoc firebreaking campaign across Central London. Historians believe this to have been one of the major contributing factors to the eventual defeat of the inferno.

The world's most expensive firebreak was created when part of Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco was dynamited to stop the spread of fire resulting from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Firefighting after an earthquake can be especially challenging, because an earthquake can cause water mains to rupture, resulting in a complete loss of water pressure.

See also
Controlled burn
Defensible space (fire control)
Fire ecology
Firefighting
Firewall (construction)
Fuel ladder
Glossary of wildfire terms
Wildfire suppression

References

External links

Wildfire prevention
Wildfire suppression
Wildfire ecology
Forestry and the environment
Land management

Firebreak


A salt mine is a mine where salt is taken from the earth. Very often, this is done in the mountains. It is different from a salt evaporation pond, where salt is taken from salt water. Getting salt from different layers of rock in a mountain used to be a very dangerous job. The Romans used to sentence prisoners to this kind of labour.

Usually the salt is mixed with rock that has chlorides and sulfates.

Empty salt mines are used very often as a storage area, for example, for unused radioactive elements (from nuclear power plants). Salt mines are empty if there is no salt left to take, or if taking the salt that is left would be too expensive.

Mining

Salt mine


MSX was the name of a home computer in the 1980s. It was Microsoft's attempt to create a standard for hardware makers, conceived by Microsoft Japan executive Kazuhiko Nishi. Even with Microsoft's involvement, MSX machines were rare in the United States and Britain, but they were popular in other markets. Eventually 5 million MSX-based units were sold worldwide.

Historical computers

MSX


Largo Winch is a television program based on the Belgian comic book series of the same name by Philippe Francq and Jean Van Hamme that first aired on January 26, 2001 in France on M6, and May 3, 2001 in Germany on ProSieben. The show lasted two seasons. Guest stars included Kim Poirier, Vernon Dobtcheff, Elisha Cuthbert, Olga Kurylenko and David Carradine.

Plot
Largo Winch (Paolo Seganti) is a 28-year-old adventurer, drifting around the world, searching for himself. Along the way he's picked up with Simon Ovrannaz (Diego Wallraff), an ex-thief he met in a Turkish prison. The two are best friends...almost brothers.

Then one day, Largo's life is changed forever when he learns that Nerio Winch (David Carradine), the step-father he barely knew, is dead. Nerio is an Aristotle Onassis-like billionaire who secretly adopted Largo as a child, but never took him in. Instead, he paid a family in Luxembourg to raise him, then sent him to a monastery as a teenager to be educated. Nerio paid the bills, and that was pretty much the extent of their relationship. These last few years, they barely saw each other.

Now Nerio has committed suicide because he was dying of a brain tumor...and, incredibly, has left his vast fortune and control of Group W, his multi-national corporate empire, to Largo. Largo is overwhelmed by the responsibility of this sudden inheritance. The board of directors at Group W despise him, thinking him unworthy and incompetent.

Then Largo receives an astonishing video recorded by his step-father just before his death. On it, Nerio reveals that he was once a member of a mysterious organization called The Adriatic Commission, a secret conspiracy of billionaires and politicians who work to control the economic and political destiny of the world for their own ends. For years they have tried to kill Nerio for leaving. In the video Nerio says that if he is dead, despite what the official cause of death may be, it is because they have finally succeeded. Nerio ends by charging Largo with using Group W to seek out and destroy The Commission and uncover the names of its secret members.

Eventually Largo discovers another bit of amazing information. Nerio was not his step-father at all, but his biological parent. He kept Largo's existence a secret to protect him from The Commission, which would have surely used the son against the father.

And so Largo faces a series of enormous challenges. He must learn to run one of the world's biggest corporations, all the while being opposed and undermined at every turn by his own board of directors. They are led by Michel Cardignac (Charles Powell), a charming, scheming, ruthless executive who will do whatever he can to see Largo ousted and himself at the head of Group W.

Largo must also follow his father's wishes and try to expose and destroy The Adriatic Commission. And since The Commission is determined to gain control of Group W, they are always shadowing him, always waiting for an opportunity to pounce and destroy him.

But Largo is an adventurer at heart, not a businessman. And so, at every opportunity, he bolts the boardroom and sets off in search of excitement. But he doesn't go alone. He's assisted by Joy Arden (Sydney Penny), a beautiful ex-CIA agent who used to work for Group W's security under Nerio, and Georgi Kerensky (Geordie Johnson), a former KGB agent who left Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.

His biggest ally inside Group W is John Sullivan (Serge Houde), head of the Group W legal department and a member of the board of directors. He was Nerio's best friend, and swore to do all he could to help Largo navigate the treacherous waters of Nerio's empire.

Cast
 Paolo Seganti as Largo Winch
 Sydney Penny as Joy Arden
 Diego Wallraff as Simon Ovronnaz
 Serge Houde as John Sullivan
 Geordie Johnson as Georgy Kerensky
 Tyrone Benskin as Waldo Buzetti
 Sonia Benezra as Alicia Del Ferill
 Charles Powell as Michel Cardignac
 Victoria Sanchez as Vanessa Ovronnaz
 Michelle Lipper as Marissa Green
 Agathe De La Boulaye as Diana Murray
 Lucie Jeanne as Danielle Haddad

Guest
 Babsie Steger as Anna Faubert (Season 1, Episode 14)

Episodes

Season 1
 The Heir (part one) (Pilot)
 The Heir (part two) (Pilot)
 Legacy
 Just Cause
 Sins of the Father
 Revenge
 Arctic Project
 AKA: Vanessa
 Blind Eye
 Queen of Hearts
 Sylvia
 Nuclear Family
 Contessa Vanessa
 Briefcase
 Endgame
 Redemption
 Cheap Thrills
 Blast from the Past
 Dear Abby
 Forget Me Not
 Flashback
 Court of Last Resort
 The Hunted
 Business as Usual
 See You in Court
 Revelations

Season 2
 Bloodlines
 A Breed Apart
 Love Hurts
 Cold Hearted
 Skin Deep
 Psycho Killer
 Scent of Suspicion
 Killer Cardignac
 Hot Property
 Rest and Relaxation
 Down on the Pharm
 Errors of Commission
 Time in a Bottle

External links

 TV Section of the LargoWinch.net Wiki
 Forums dedicated to Largo Winch

2001 French television series debuts
2001 French television series endings
2001 German television series debuts
2001 German television series endings
2000s Canadian drama television series
2001 Canadian television series debuts
2001 Canadian television series endings
2001 American television series debuts
2001 American television series endings
French action television series
Television shows filmed in Montreal
Television series by CBS Studios
Adaptations of works by Jean Van Hamme
Television series based on Belgian comics
Television series by Muse Entertainment
ProSieben original programming

Largo Winch (TV series)


The Kola people, Bakola, also known as the Koya, Bakoya, are pygmies of the NE Gabon–Congo border area. They speak the Bantu Ngom language.

They are distinct from the Gyele people of coastal Cameroon, a subgroup of which also goes by the name Bakola / Bakoya.

References
Beatriz SOENGAS, "Preliminary Ethnographic Research on the Bakoya in Gabon". African Study Monographs, 30(4): 187–208, December 2009

African Pygmies

Kola people


The Tevatron was a giant Particle accelerator in Illinois that was used by scientists to make protons go very fast, almost the speed of light in some cases. Scientists looked at what happens when the protons hit antiprotons to see if they are right about their ideas as to what protons are made of.

The Tevatron was a circular particle accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (also known as Fermilab), just east of Batavia, Illinois. It was the second highest energy particle collider in the world after the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The Tevatron is a synchrotron that accelerates protons and antiprotons in a 6.28 km (3.90 miles) ring to energies of up to 1 TeV, hence its name. The Tevatron was completed in 1983 at a cost of $120 million ($ today) and has been regularly upgraded since then. (The 'Energy Doubler', as it was known then, produced its first accelerated beam — 512 GeV —  on July 3, 1983.)  The Main Injector was the most substantial addition, built over five years from 1994 at a cost of $290 million.  The Tevatron was shut down on September 30, 2011.

The Large Hadron Collider was later built in Switzerland to look for one of those pieces, called the Higgs Boson. The LHC broke and is now being fixed. The Tevatron scientists also tried to find the Higgs Boson. They need to do this before the LHC is fixed, because the LHC is much better at finding things.

The scientists at the Tevatron had a year's headstart on the scientists at the LHC. Whoever finds the Higgs will be honored by other scientists. That is why the scientists at the Tevatron wanted to find it before the scientists at the LHC.

The Tevatron discovered three of the 17 fundamental particles including the top quark.  The main ring of the Tevatron will probably be reused in future experiments, and its components may be transferred to other particle accelerators.

References

Nuclear physics
Fermilab

Tevatron


Civil law, as a system of law, is different from common law, which is another system of law. The origin of the civil law system of law is ancient Rome. The civil law system is used in countries such as Germany, France, many countries which were colonies of those European countries before, and in many Asian countries. It also been adopted in Latin America as well as in many parts of Asia and many African countries. There are about 150 countries worldwide that use mainly civil law systems. About 80 countries use the common law system.

History
Civil law's very name indicates where it started. Called  is was the civil law during the Roman Republic and the later Roman Empire. It started in the 2nd century BC. By the end of the Republic, about 27 BC, a number of experts in the law called jurists (not to be confused with judges) became prominent. They were mostly members of the upper classes. Jurists provided their services to counsel people and advise judges who presided over trials. An important feature of Roman law was it did not depend on legal precedent by earlier cases but on the facts and merits of the current case.

In the 6th century, Justinian compiled the Corpus Juris Civilis, a simplified code of Roman laws. It was used by the Byzantine Empire. The medieval Church based much of its Canon law on Roman law.
Germanic law, known as leges barbarorum, written between the 5th and 9th centuries borrows from the Roman civil law.

Civil law developed in Europe during the middle age, about the same time common law developed in England. During the Renaissance, England's common law system borrowed from civil law. While the common law was the traditional law system in England by this time, Equity is based on civil law. Other features were borrowed and used in maritime law and in wills, trusts and estates. The Napoleonic Code, which borrowed much from Roman law, influenced many of the legal systems in Europe and was the foundation for Prussian civil law.

Features
Civil law is based on rules and concepts that come from Roman law. The rules and principles of civil law are found in codes which are available to both citizens and legal professionals. These legal codes clearly explain everyone's rights and duties. Unlike common law, in civil law judges have a different role. In criminal cases they establish the facts of a case and use the applicable codes. In many countries, judges also bring the formal charges. Unlike common law, legal precedent is not used to rule in later cases. In this system the legislature passes statutes that are then applied by the courts. Judges look to the statutes instead of precedent in deciding a case.

Subgroups
The term civil law comes from English legal scholarship and is used in English-speaking countries to lump together all legal systems of the jus commune tradition. However, legal comparativists and economists promoting the legal origins theory prefer to subdivide civil law jurisdictions into four distinct groups:

 Napoleonic: France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Chile, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, other CPLP countries, Macau, former Portuguese territories in India (Goa, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli), Malta, Romania, and most of the Arab world[which?] when Islamic law is not used. Former colonies include Quebec (Canada) and Louisiana (U.S.).
Germanistic: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Estonia, Roman-Dutch, Czech Republic, Russia, Lithuania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Ukraine, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand
Nordic: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden

Related pages
 Biblical law
 Roman law
 Sharia law
 Canon law
 Napoleonic Code
 Maritime law

References

Other websites
 Civil Law vs. Common Law
 Egypt: Law and the Legal System in Ancient Egypt
 Ancient Greek law system
 The Oldest Known Tablet Containing a Legal Code (2,100 BCE – 2,050 BCE)

Types of law

Civil law


Padangbai is a small town in eastern Bali, Indonesia. It serves as a ferry port for travel to Lombok, The Gilis and other of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It is also a lovely beach town that is popular with those who prefer a small town atmosphere over the large scale beach party that is Kuta.

Besides the beach near the ferry terminal there is a beach just to the north known locally as the Blue Lagoon and the especially nice Secret Beach just to the south of town. These pleasant beaches have clusters of small family owned warungs that will be glad to prepare a meal and serve beer.

Bali
Towns in Indonesia

Padangbai


A branch, banking center or financial center is a retail location where a bank, credit union, or other financial institution (including a brokerage firm) offers a wide array of face-to-face and automated services to its customers.

History and description
During the 3rd century banks in Persia (now Iran) and in other territories started to issue letters of credit known as Sakks, basically checks in today's language, that could be traded in cooperative houses or offices throughout the Persian territories. In the period from 1100-1300 banking started to expand across Europe and banks began opening 'branches' in remote, foreign locations to support international trade. In 1327, Avignon which is located in France had 43 branches of Italian banking houses alone.

The practice of opening satellite branches was popularized in the early 20th century by Amadeo Giannini, then head of the Bank of America. Historically, branches were housed in imposing buildings, often in a neoclassical style of architecture. Today, branches may also take the form of smaller offices within a larger complex, such as a shopping mall.

Traditionally, the branch was the only place to access a financial institution's services. Services provided by a branch include cash withdrawals and deposits from a demand account with a bank teller, financial advice through a specialist, safe deposit box rentals, bureau de change, insurance sales (where it is allowed by law), etc. In the early 21st century, features such as automated teller machines (ATM), telephone and online banking, allowed customers to bank from remote locations and after business hours. This has caused financial institutions to reduce their branch business hours and merge smaller branches into larger ones. Conversely, they converted some into mini-branches with only ATMs for cash withdrawal and depositing; computer terminals for online banking and cheque depositing machines. Some mini-branches may have one or no human staff with only telephone support.

Some financial institutions, in an attempt to show a friendlier image, offer a boutique or coffeehouse-like environment in their branches, with sit-down counters, refreshments, interactive displays, music and play areas for children. Some branches also have drive-through teller windows or ATMs. Other financial institutions reduce their costs and position their offerings by having no branches and are sometimes known as virtuals or direct banks.

Legal restrictions in the United States
Historically, branch banking in the United States—especially interstate branch banking—was viewed unfavorably by regulatory authorities, who correctly foresaw the risk of banks becoming too big to fail. This regulatory hostility was codified with the enactment of the McFadden Act of 1927, which specifically prohibited interstate banking. Over the next few decades, some banks attempted to circumvent McFadden's provisions by establishing bank holding companies that operated so-called independent banks in multiple states.  To address this, The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 prohibited bank holding companies headquartered in one state from having branches in any other state.

Most interstate banking prohibitions were repealed by the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994. Research has also found that anticompetitive state provisions restricted out-of-state growth when those provisions were more restrictive than the provisions set by the Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act or by neighboring states. Some states have also had restrictive bank branch laws; for example, Illinois outlawed branches (other than the main office) until 1967, and did not allow an unlimited number until 1993. Texas has historically heavily restricted the operations of banks. Although Dallas-area Docutel was an early ATM manufacturer, the state's banks did not purchase them until Texas Attorney General Crawford Martin ruled in August 1971 that ATMs did not violate the Texas Constitution's prohibition on bank branches. In 1980 Article XVI, Section 16, of the constitution was amended to permit banks to have unmanned ATMs in the county of their domicile. The prohibition on bank branches existed until 1986.

Types of branches

Instore
These are typically branches located in a retail space such as a grocery, shopping malls or discount store. They may be full-service branches or limited service branches. They generally do not include drive-through teller windows or safe deposit boxes. These branches may have limited staff and typically include technology as a means to deliver banking services such as automated teller machines, videoconferencing, and video banking systems.

Foreign bank branch
A type of foreign bank that is obligated to follow the regulations of both the home and host countries, operating in the country. regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.

References

Branch (banking)

Branch (banking)


The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium is one of the most famous museums in Belgium.

The museum
The museums are in the capital of Brussels in the downtown area on the Coudenberg. There are four museums. Two of them, the Museum of Ancient Art and the Museum of Modern Art, Brussels, are in the main building. The other two, the Constantin Meunier Museum and the Antoine Wiertz Museum, are dedicated to specific Belgian artists.  They are much smaller and are a few kilometers from the city center.

The Royal Museum has over 20,000 drawings, sculptures, and paintings, which date from the early 15th century to the present. The museum has a large collection of Flemish painting, among them  paintings by Bruegel and Rogier van der Weyden, Robert Campin, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens. The museum is also proud of its "Rubens Room", which houses more than 20 paintings by the artist.

The building
The main building, which now houses the Museum of Ancient Art, was built as the Palais des Beaux-Arts.  It was designed by Belgian architect Alphonse Balat and paid for by King Leopold II. The building was completed in 1887.

Other websites

Official website

Art museums
Belgian culture
Buildings and structures in Brussels

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium


Meriden is a ceety in New Haven Coonty, Connecticut, Unitit States. Accordin tae 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population o the ceety is 59,653.

History

Meriden wis oreeginally pairt o Wallingford.  It wis grantit a separate meetinghoose in 1727, became a toon in 1806, an incorporatit as a ceety in 1867.  It wis named for the toun o Meriden, Wast Midlands, Ingland.

The auldest hoose in toun still standin, built bi Solomon Goffe in 1711, is nou a museum, the Solomon Goffe House.

In the 1800s, Meriden earned the nickname "Silver Ceety," due tae the lairge number o cutlery an relatit products which wur manufactured here bi companies such as International Silver an Meriden Cutlery.

Charles Parker an his younger brither, opened their first manufacturin factory in Meriden in 1832, wi a caipital ootlay o $70.00.  Ower the years they manufactured a wide variety o products' frae steam ingines, train wheels an printin presses tae piano stools. Durin the American Ceevil War Parker's Meriden Machine Company wis unner Union contract tae produce 10,000 repeatin rifles an 15,000 Springfield rifles. Parker began producin his awn shotgun, referred to as "The Gun of 1866".  In 1868, Charles an his sons, Wilbur, Charles an Dexter stairtit the Parker Brothers Gun Company, which continued as an independent company till 1934 when it wis purchased bi the Remington Arms Company.

The Hanging Hills' Hubbard Park wis financed bi Walter Hubbard, local entrepreneur an preses o the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company. Hubbard elicitit the assistance o notable landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in drawin up the design.

Edwin Howard Armstrong, a netwirk radio pioneer who inventit FM radio, uised West Peak for the location o ane o the first FM radio broadcasts in 1939. His oreeginal  tall radio mast still staunds on the peak. Currently West Peak is hame tae sax FM broadcast stations, includin WPKT, WWYZ, WKSS, WDRC-FM, WPHH an WHCN.
In 1900, Castle Craig wis dedicatit in Hubbard Park.

The Curtis Memorial Library opened in 1903.

The Franciscan Sisters o the Eucharist hae their mither hoose in Meriden as dae the Franciscan Brithers o the Eucharist.

References

Populatit places in New Haven Coonty, Connecticut
Ceeties in Connecticut

Meriden, Connecticut


Náchod is a town with about 20 thousand people. It is in the northeastern part of the Hradec Králové Region in Czech Republic. It is situated on the river Metuje. The whole region is full of natural beauty, historical monuments and cultural places.

History

Náchod was founded in the middle of 13th century by a knight Hron. He built a castle there because it was a good strategic place because of local trade road to Poland. The first written note goes back to 1254.

The most famous sight in Náchod is its castle. It was built in the 13th century and during centuries was rebuilt several times in final Renaissance style. Around the castle are the Piccolomini garden, the English park and bears called Ludvík and Dáša who live in a castle's moat. The castle has been an important cultural centre since the end of the 18th century.

Náchod is the birthplace of many well-known people. There were born for example an architect Jan Letzel, an actress Libuše Skořepová called Luba Skořepová, a writer, translator and publisher Josef Škvorecký, a writer Václav Erben who become famous for his detective stories with captain Exner, a diver Martin Štěpánek and a moderator Richard Samko.

Sights

In addition to the castle, there are other interesting places to visit.
 a square with St. Laurence's church and hotel and theatre Beránek
 the old city hall
 the new city hall
 the city museum

About 4 kilometres away is the stronghold Dobrošov which was one of the most important defences of Czechoslovakian fortification.

Industry

In past, there was a lot of cotton industry. Nowadays there are only a few factories - the rubber factory Rubena and factories producing electric motors Ametek and Atas.

Náchod town has a brewery which makes Primátor brand. The brewery was built in 1872. It got several prizes in last 10 years. However, the brewery was sold on 23 February 2009.

Towns in the Czech Republic
Hradec Králové Region

Náchod


Bredevoort is a small village in the municipality of Aalten, in the region of Achterhoek in the Netherlands.  It is between the towns of Aalten and Winterswijk. About 1,600 people live there.

Today they name Bredevoort also Bredevoort boekenstad (Bredevoort book town).  There are now more than twenty second-hand book shops in the town.

History
The name Bredevoort appears for the first time in 1188, when the earl of Steinfurt tried to sell his share of the castle to the bishop of Münster and the earl of Lohn tried to sell his share to the earl of Gelderland, a war broke out between the bishop and the earl of Gelderland. The fight lasted for almost two centuries. From 1326, Bredevoort was actual part of Gelderland. Between 1326 and 1696 the municipality of Bredevoort repeatedly changed ownership during the eighties years of war. In 1646, lightning hit the gunpowder tower of the castle of Bredevoort, causing an explosion that destroyed the castle and the town, killing Lord Haersolte of Bredevoort and his family, as well as others. Only one son, Anthonie, who was not home that day, survived. The former municipality of Bredevoort was comprised of the city, the castle Bredevoort, and the villages Aalten, Dinxperlo and Winterswijk. After centuries of war, its fortifications were demolished by its residents. In 1818, the municipality of Bredevoort was dissolved to become part of the city Bredevoort under the newly formed municipality Aalten.

Sights

 St. Joriskerk, Gothic Church with rococo chair from 1672
 Windmillmolen 'De Prins van Oranje'
 Historic centre
 19th century theehouse at the town ditch
 remains from the 17th century city gate

Gallery

Other websites

 Official website of Bredevoort
 Bredevoort booktown
 windmill Prins van Oranje
 Gondola festival in Bredevoort
 Heerlijkheid Bredevoort, with historic items
 Reconstructions old Bredevoort

19th-century disestablishments in the Netherlands
Settlements in Gelderland
Former municipalities of Gelderland
Aalten

Bredevoort


Joinville is a city in Santa Catarina state in southern Brazil. It is a major industrial city. It is the largest city in Santa Catarina. About 550,000 people live in the city, and about 1.3 million people live in the surrounding metropolitan area. Most of the people are of German, Swiss and Norwegian descent. It is the third largest city in the southern region of Brazil.

Industry
Joinville is also the third largest industrial center in southern Brazil. The region produces more than 30% of the total GDP of the state of Santa Catarina. The largest corporations with headquarters in the city are Amanco, Busscar, Ciser, Datasul, Docol, Döhler, Embraco, Tupy, Lepper, Tigre, Wetzel, Whirlpool, Viqua, Schulz, and Universal Leaf Tobacco.

Dance festival
Joinville is known as the city of the Princes, flowers, dance and bicycles. The Joinville Dance Festival is a major event in the month of July  - it is recognized as the world's largest dance festival (listed in the Guinness Book of Records). A subsidiary of the School of Ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre, the only one outside Russia, is highlighted in the training of dancers.

Airport
The Airport of Joinville (Lauro Carneiro de Loyola) is one of the largest in South Region. It is located 13 km from the city center, 110 km from airport and 163 km from Curitiba to Florianópolis Airport. Of Joinville there are several daily flights to São Paulo (Congonhas), through Companies: Gol Airlines, TAM and Azul.

Cities in Santa Catarina

Joinville