In Albania, World War II began with its invasion by Italy in April 1939. Fascist Italy set up Albania as its protectorate or puppet state. The resistance was largely carried out by Communist groups against the Italian (until 1943) and then German occupation in Albania. At first independent, the Communist groups united in the beginning of 1942, which ultimately led to the successful liberation of the country in 1944.

The Center for Relief to Civilian Populations (Geneva) reported that Albania was one of the most devastated countries in Europe. 60,000 houses were destroyed and about 10% of the population was left homeless.

Background

Germany annexed Austria, and moved against Czechoslovakia without notifying Mussolini in advance, so the Italian dictator decided in early 1939 to proceed with his own annexation of Albania. Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III criticised the plan to take Albania as an unnecessary risk.

Rome, however, delivered Tiranë an ultimatum on March 25, 1939, demanding that it accede to Italy's occupation of Albania. King Zog refused to accept money in exchange for countenancing a full Italian takeover and colonisation of Albania, and on April 7, 1939, Mussolini's troops, led by General Alfredo Guzzoni, invaded Albania, attacking all Albanian ports simultaneously. There were 65 units in Sarandë, 40 at Vlorë, 38 in Durrës, 28 at Shëngjin and 8 more at . The original Italian plans for the invasion called for up to 50,000 men supported by 137 naval units and 400 airplanes. Ultimately the invasion force grew to 100,000 men supported by 600 airplanes.

In Durrës, a force of only 360 Albanians, mostly gendarmes and townspeople, led by Abaz Kupi, the commander of the gendarmerie in Durrës, and Mujo Ulqinaku, a marine official, tried to halt the Italian advance. Equipped only with small arms and three machine guns, they succeeded in keeping the Italians at bay for several hours. Then a large number of small tanks were unloaded from Italian ships and resistance crumbled. Within five hours Italian troops had captured the city. By 1:30 pm on the first day, all Albanian ports were in Italian hands.

Unwilling to become an Italian puppet, King Zog, his wife, Queen Geraldine Apponyi, and their infant son Skander fled to Greece and eventually to London. On April 12, the Albanian parliament voted to unite the country with Italy. The Albanian parliament voted to depose Zog and unite the nation with Italy "in personal union" by offering the Albanian crown to Victor Emmanuel III and the Italians set up a fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci and soon absorbed Albania's military and diplomatic service into Italy's. On April 15, 1939, Albania withdrew from the League of Nations, from which Italy had resigned in 1937. On June 3, 1939, the Albanian foreign ministry was merged into the Italian foreign ministry. The Albanian military was placed under Italian command and formally merged into the Italian Army in 1940. Additionally, the Italian Blackshirts formed four legions of Albanian Fascist Militia, initially recruited from Italian colonists living in Albania, but later also from ethnic Albanians.

Upon invading, Galeazzo Ciano tried to reinforce an impression of benevolence with a number of initial gestures aimed more at public relations than at addressing any of Albania's profound social and economic problems. One of Ciano's first moves was to distribute food and clothing in some of the poor areas and to release political prisoners. He personally distributed 190,000 gold francs to the needy in Tirana, Shkodra, Vlora, Gjirokastra, Saranda, Korçë and Kukës. Because the money was given directly to the poor, bypassing the usual bureaucracy, it did some good. The Italians also contributed greatly to infrastructure, agriculture, and chrome and hydrocarbon exploration, in which Albania was rich. The Italians hoped that extensive investment in Albania would bring both economic and political benefits. Despite a weak domestic economy, Mussolini guaranteed the Albanians 22 million pounds over five years for economic development, considerably more than the 8.2 million Rome had spent since the early 1920s. Initial reports of  Italian activity were quite favourable. Ruth Mitchell commented at the end of April 1939, "What a great improvement there is in the condition of the people already. The whole atmosphere had become brisker and more enterprising; now at least there is hope." Even the German minister , perpetually critical of the Italians, commented favorably on the Italian tempo, which he likened to the tempo in Austria after the Anschluss. The new construction projects brought in large amounts of capital and employed many Albanians. The government began letting Italians take technical positions in Albania's civil service, and also began allowing Italian settlers to enter Albania. This largely affected the Albanians' attitude towards the Italian invaders and the locals greeted them with more respect and liking.

Italian puppet state

In spite of Albania's long-standing protection and alliance with Italy, on 7 April 1939 Italian troops invaded Albania, five months before the start of the Second World War. The Albanian armed resistance proved ineffective against the Italians and, after a short defense, the country was occupied. On 9 April 1939, Zog I fled to Greece.

In an effort to win Albanian support for Italian rule, Galeazzo Ciano and the Fascist regime encouraged Albanian irredentism towards Kosovo and Chameria. Despite Francesco Jacomoni's assurances of Albanian support in view of the promised "liberation" of Chameria, Albanian enthusiasm for the war was distinctly lacking. The few Albanian units raised to fight during the developments of the Greco-Italian War (1940–1941) alongside the Italian Army mostly "either deserted or fled in droves". Albanian agents recruited before the war, are reported to have operated behind Greek lines and engaged in acts of sabotage but these were few in number. Support for the Greeks, although of limited nature, came primarily from the local Greek populations who warmly welcomed the arrival of the Greek forces in the southern districts.

One of Mussolini's plans for the Italian protectorate of Albania was to italianize its citizens.

Communist and Nationalist resistance

Origin of Communism
Faced with an agrarian and mostly Muslim society monitored by King Zog's security police, Albania's Communist movement attracted few adherents in the interwar period. In fact, the country had no fully-fledged Communist Party before World War II. After Fan Noli fled in 1924 to Italy and later the United States, several of his leftist protégés migrated to Moscow, where they affiliated themselves with the Balkan Confederation of Communist Parties and through it the Communist International (Comintern), the Soviet-sponsored association of international communist parties. In 1930, the Comintern dispatched Ali Kelmendi to Albania to organise communist cells. However, Albania had no working class on which the communists could rely for support. Paris became the Albanian communists' hub until Nazi deportations depleted their ranks after the fall of France in 1940.

Enver Hoxha's and Mehmet Shehu's early years

Enver Hoxha and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Mehmet Shehu, eventually rose to become the most powerful figures in Albania for decades after the war. The dominant figure of modern Albanian history, Enver Hoxha rose from obscurity. Born in 1908 to a Tosk landowner from Gjirokastër who returned to Albania after working in the United States, Hoxha attended the country's best college-preparatory school, the National Lycée in Korçë. In 1930 he attended the university at Montpellier in France, but lost an Albanian state scholarship for neglecting his studies. He subsequently moved to Paris and Brussels. After returning to Albania in 1936 without having earned a degree, he taught French for years at his former lycée and participated in a communist cell in Korçë. He later went to Tirana and when the Albanian Communist Party was formed in November 1941, he was appointed as the general secretary of the party, a post he kept until his death in 1985.

Shehu, also a Tosk, studied at Tirana's American Vocational School. He went on to a military college in Naples but was expelled for left-wing political activity. In Spain Shehu fought in the Garibaldi International Brigade and became a commander of one of the brigade's battalions. After the Spanish conflict was over, he was captured and interned in France. He returned to Albania in 1942 and soon became a prominent figure. During the conflict, he won a reputation for his command abilities with the partisans. In his memoirs published in 1984, British Special Operations Executive David Smiley wrote:

"Mehmet Shehu was a short, wiry, dark sallow-faced man of about thirty who seldom smiled except at other people's misfortunes. He spoke good English, was very capable and had far more military knowledge than most other Albanians.... He had a reputation for bravery, courage, ruthlessness, and cruelty--he had boasted that he personally cut the throats of seventy Italian carabinieri who had been taken prisoner. I got along with him at first, for as soldiers we had something in common; but he did little to conceal his dislike for all things British, and my relations with him deteriorated."

Beginning of Albanian Communist and Fascist parties and National Liberation Movement

After the invasion of Albania by Italy in April 1939, 100,000 Italian soldiers and 11,000 Italian colonists settled in the country. Initially the Albanian Fascist Party received support from the population, mainly because of the unification of Kosovo and other Albanian-populated territories with Albania proper after the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece by the Axis powers in the spring 1941. Benito Mussolini boasted in May 1941 to a group of Albanian fascists that he had achieved the Greater Albania long desired by Tirana nationalists. The Albanian Fascist Party of Tefik Mborja had strong support among the population after the Albania annexation of Kosovo.

Several groups were led by Baba Faja Martaneshi, former gendarmerie officer Gani bey Kryeziu, communist Mustafa Gjinishi, and rightist politician Muharrem Bajraktari. An attempt to unite those groups in one organization was undertaken by Major Abaz Kupi, by now a democratic politician, who created an underground organisation called the Unity Front. This front, which increased in numbers within several months, was crushed in April 1941 after the defeat of Yugoslavia and Greece. Some of its members passed over to the collaborationist camp, some were arrested, and some others fled to the mountains. The warfare ceased for a while.

In November 1941, the small Albanian Communist groups established an Albanian Communist Party in Tirana of 130 members under the leadership of Hoxha and an eleven-man Central Committee. The party at first had little mass appeal, and even its youth organisation netted few recruits.

The resistance in Albania became active after the defeats of the Italian forces in the war with Greece, which started on 28 October 1940. Originally the slogan of building the "Greater Albania", into which the Italians promised to incorporate a substantial part of Greek Epirus (Cameria), allowed collaborationist authorities to mobilise several thousand volunteers for the army (besides regular troops). The collapse of the Italian offensive in Greece caused a crisis among the regular troops, who refused to take part in further fights, as well as in volunteer units, which dispersed; some soldiers made for the mountains. Eventually, the number of combat groups and partisan detachments, reinforced by deserters from the army, had grown to dozens, with over 3,000 men. In November in Lezhë, a town near the port of Shëngjin on Adriatic coast, mutinous soldiers who refused further service in Italian units fought a battle with an Italian punitive expedition, killing 19 and badly wounding 30 Italians, before retreating to the mountains. In the same month a partisan detachment laid an ambush for an Italian transport column en route to Gjirokastër. Several Italians were killed. On 17 May 1941 in Tirana a young man called Vasil Laçi attempted to assassinate king Victor Emmanuel III by shooting at him. However he failed and was shortly after executed.

In mid-1942, however, the Party called on young people to fight for the liberation of their country from Italy. This increased the number of new recruits by many young people eager for freedom. In September 1942, the party organised a popular front organisation, the National Liberation Movement (NLM), from a number of resistance groups, including several that were strongly anti-Communist. During the war, the NLM's Communist-dominated partisans, in the form of the National Liberation Army, ignored warnings from the Italian occupiers that there would be reprisals for guerrilla attacks. Such reprisals would elicit a desire for revenge, and new recruits.

On 17–22 February 1943 in the village of Labinot, the first nationwide conference of ACP took place. The estimation of the political and military situation in the country pointed to the need to create a homogeneous national liberation army. A decision concerning warfare tactics also was taken; it recommended that commanders of units conduct actions with bigger forces. On 17 May, twelve partisan detachments under the homogeneous command  carried out an attack on the Italian garrison in Leskovik, which protected an important road junction. Partisans encircled the town in a tight ring and undertook the offensive. Over 1,000 Italians held the town. The battle lasted three days. The commander of the garrison had demanded air support, but before the support arrived, partisans seized the town. The Italians lost several hundred soldiers and considerable quantities of weapons and equipment. At the end of June the Italians started a punitive expedition against partisans in the region of Mallakastra and Tepelenë. Two thousand partisans took up defensive positions on mountain passes. In the first clash the Italians were forced back, but they renewed the action on 14 July with tanks, artillery and aircraft. After four days of fighting, the partisans had suffered heavy losses and retreated to higher parts of the mountains. In general from May to July the Italians lost thousands and many were wounded.

After March 1943, the NLM formed its first and second regular battalions, which subsequently became brigades, to operate along with existing smaller and irregular units. Resistance to the occupation grew rapidly as signs of Italian weakness became apparent. At the end of 1942, guerrilla forces numbered no more than 8,000 to 10,000. By the summer of 1943, when the Italian effort collapsed, almost all of the mountainous interior was controlled by resistance units.

The NLM formally established the National Liberation Army (NLA) in July 1943 with Spiro Moisiu as its military chief and Enver Hoxha as its political officer. It had 20,000 regular soldiers and guerrillas in the field by the end of that year. However, the NLA's military activities in 1943 were directed as much against the party's domestic political opponents, including prewar liberal, nationalist, and monarchist parties, as against the occupation forces.

Nationalist resistance

A nationalist resistance to the Italian occupiers emerged in October 1942. Ali Këlcyra and Mit'hat Frashëri formed the Western-oriented and anti-communist Balli Kombëtar (National Front). This movement recruited supporters from both the large landowners and peasantry. They supported the creation of Greater Albania by Italians and called for the creation of a republic and the introduction of economic and social reforms, opposing King Zog's return. Their leaders acted conservatively, however, fearing that the occupiers would carry out reprisals against them or confiscate the landowners' estates. The nationalistic Gheg chieftains and the Tosk landowners often came to terms with the Italians, and later the Germans, to prevent the loss of their wealth and power. The Balli Kombëtar, which had fought against the Italians, was threatened by the superior forces of the LNC and the Yugoslav Partisans, who were backed by the Allies.

Among prominent Balli Kombëtar commanders were Safet Butka and . Butka had been interned in Italy for two years until he was released in August 1942 and allowed to return to Albania. He then took to the mountains and became an outstanding leader of the Balli Kombëtar movement in the Korçë area. The nucleus of his guerrilla group, 70 seasoned and highly experienced fighters, could in an emergency become a thousand men strong. The Butka group had been giving valuable assistance to the fighters at Vlorë and had recovered from the military depots in the villages of Dardhe, Suli, Gračani, Progri, Pleshishti, and Verbinj all the agricultural production (corn, tobacco, wool, etc.) which the Italians had requisitioned and restored to its owners. His forces attacked Italians on Floq in January 1943, Vithkuq in March 1943.

The fighting that took place with general commander Hysni Lepenica during August 1942 in Dukat, Mavrovë, Vadicë, Drashovicë and  with the help of Allied aviation resulted in victory. After Italian capitulation, Communists and Ballists sought the peaceful surrender of all remaining Italian forces. However Hysni Lepenica, instructed by the Central Committee of the National Front, went to Gërhot, where the Italian division "Ferrara" was located to take their weapons as agreed with the division general, but after Tilman's intervention the division general attacked Lepenica's group. At the battle of Gjorm that resulted in a decisive victory for the Albanians and the death of Italian Colonel Clementi, Lepenica committed suicide when he heard that clashes between the Communists and Ballists had started. In the autumn of 1943, Nazi Germany occupied all of Albania after Italy was defeated. Fearing reprisals from larger forces, the Balli Kombëtar made a deal with the Germans and formed a "neutral government" in Tirana with which it continued its war with the LNC and the Yugoslav Partisans.

The Balli Kombëtar were also active in Kosovo and Macedonia. Their forces were mainly centered in Mitrovica, Drenica, and Tetovo. However the Balli Kombëtar in these regions were more aggressive than the Ballists of Albania.

With the Germans driven out by the Yugoslav Partisans, and the Albanian communists claiming victory in Albania, Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito ordered the collection of weapons in Kosovo and the arrest of prominent Albanians. This was not well received among Albanians. Combined with the passions felt about Kosovo, it inflamed an insurrection. On 2 December 1944, Ballists from the Drenica region attacked the Trepča mining complex and other targets. Similarly in Kičevo, Gostivar and Tetovo, the remaining Ballists tried to remain in control of the region after the Yugoslav Partisans announced victory. The insurrection was later crushed and Ballist leaders were either imprisoned, exiled or killed due to their co-operation with the Nazis. Ballists were also active in Montenegro and Sandžak fighting the Chetniks in the area.

Between Italian surrender and German occupation
With the overthrow of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime and Italy's surrender in 1943, the Italian military and police establishment in Albania buckled. Five Italian divisions were disarmed by the Germans, but many Italians soldiers evaded capture and flocked to the guerrilla forces; the sixth Italian division in Albania (41st Infantry Division Firenze) went over to the Resistance. The communists took control of most of Albania's southern cities, except Vlorë, which was a Balli Kombëtar stronghold, and nationalists attached to the NLM gained control over much of the north.

British agents working in Albania during the war fed the Albanian resistance fighters with false information that the Allies were planning a major invasion of the Balkans and urged the disparate Albanian groups to unite their efforts. In August 1943, the Allies convinced communist and Balli Kombëtar leaders to sign the Mukje Agreement that would coordinate their guerrilla operations. The two groups eventually ended all collaboration, however, over a disagreement on the postwar status of Kosovo. The communists supported returning the region to Yugoslavia after the war with the hope that Tito would cede Kosovo back to Albania peacefully, while the nationalist Balli Kombëtar advocated keeping the province.

Mukje agreement

The Mukje Agreement was a treaty signed on August 2, 1943, in the Albanian village of Mukje between the nationalist Balli Kombëtar and the communist National Liberation Movement. The two forces would work together in fighting off Italy's control over Albania. However, a dispute arose concerning Kosovo. Whereas the Balli Kombetar proposed to fight for the integration of Kosovo into Albania, the Communist representatives objected fiercely. The Balli Kombetar labelled the partisans traitors to Albania and often called them "Tito's dogs" while the partisans accused the Balli Kombetar of collaborating with the Axis powers, thus igniting a war between the two that lasted a year.

German occupation

In anticipation of such invasion, the Wehrmacht drew up a series of military plans for action against Italian holdings in the Balkans code-named Konstantin. And for a more direct nature, units of German Military Intelligence (Abwehr) section II were sent to Mitrovica (present day Kosovo) in April 1943 in an attempt to gain some influence among the growing number of Albanians disaffected with the Italians. Even more directly, in July and August 1943, the German army occupied Albanian airports and ports, ostensibly to protect  Italian Albania from the possibility of an Allied invasion. By mid-August there were some six thousand German troops in Albania. The Germans planned to construct an independent neutral Albania controlled by a government friendly to the Germans. After the Mukje agreement was broken by the Albanian Partisans, war broke out between the Albanian Partisans (backed by the Yugoslav Partisans, who in turn were backed by the Allies) and the Balli Kombëtar. After the capitulation of Italian forces on 8 September 1943, German troops swiftly occupied Albania with two divisions. The Germans formed a 'neutral government' in Tirana with the Balli Kombëtar.

The Germans were intent on setting up an autonomous administration and endeavoured to persuade Albanian leaders to form a government to take over the administration of the country themselves. Many hesitated, in particular when rumours spread that British forces were preparing to invade Albania. Kosovo Albanian leaders, however, realising that a German defeat would mean a return to Yugoslav rule, were more willing to cooperate. On 14 September 1943, an Albanian government was then set up under Cafo Beg Ulqini, Ibrahim Biçaku of Elbasan, Bedri Pejani and Xhafer Deva of Kosovo. The national assembly, composed of 243 members, began to function on 16 October 1943, electing a four-member High Regency Council () to govern the country. The new government, which promised to remain neutral in the war, succeeded in restoring a good deal of stability. The administration and justice systems functioned once again, and Albanian schools were reopened throughout northern and central Albania. Steps were also taken to implement a land reform.

After the neutral government was formed, Ballist forces in collaboration with Germans fought the Communists extensively. Balli Kombëtar  captured Struga in Macedonia after defeating the partisan garrison.

In Kosovo, and western Macedonia when it was a part of the independent state of Albania, the German and Ballist forces had occasional skirmishes with Yugoslav partisans. When Maqellarë, midway between Debar and Peshkopi, was recaptured by the Fifth Partisans, the Germans with the assistance of the Ballist forces of Xhem Hasa launched an attack from Debar, defeating the partisans. Fiqri Dine, Xhem Hasa and Hysni Dema and three German majors directed military campaigns against the Albanian and Yugoslav partisans.

Tirana was liberated by the partisans on 17 November 1944 after a 20-day battle. The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on 29 November 1944. The National Liberation Army, which in October 1944 consisted of 70,000 regulars, also took part in the war alongside the antifascist coalition. The Albanian partisans also helped in the liberation of Kosovo, and assisted Tito's communist forces in liberating part of Montenegro and southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. By that time, the Soviet Army was also entering neighboring Yugoslavia, and the German Army was retreating from Greece into Yugoslavia.

Communist takeover

Provisional Communist administration

The communist partisans had regrouped and gained control of much of southern Albania in January 1944. However, German attacks drove them out of certain areas until June. On May 29 the members of the National Liberation Front (as the movement was by then called) held the Congress of Përmet, which chose an Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation to act as Albania's administration and legislature. Hoxha became the chairman of the council's executive committee and the National Liberation Army's supreme commander. The communist partisans defeated the last Balli Kombëtar forces in southern Albania by mid-summer 1944 and encountered only scattered resistance from the Balli Kombëtar when they entered central and northern Albania by the end of July. The British military mission urged the remnants of the nationalists not to oppose the communists' advance, and the Allies recalled their representatives with them to Italy. They did not evacuate nationalist leaders, although many fled.

Before the end of November, the main German troops had withdrawn from Tirana, and the communists took control by attacking it. A provisional government, which the communists had formed at Berat in October, administered Albania with Enver Hoxha as prime minister.

Aftermath
Albania stood in an unenviable position after World War II. The NLF's strong links with Yugoslavia's communists, who also enjoyed British military and diplomatic support, guaranteed that Belgrade would play a key role in Albania's postwar order. The Allies never recognized an Albanian government in exile or King Zog and failed to raise the question of Albania or its borders at any of the major wartime conferences. No reliable statistics on Albania's wartime losses exist, but the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration reported about 30,000 Albanian war dead, 200 destroyed villages, 18,000 destroyed houses, and about 100,000 people left homeless. Albanian official statistics claim somewhat higher losses.

Furthermore, thousands of Cham Albanians were driven out of Greece and accused of collaborating with the Axis occupation forces.

During the Nazi occupation, most Jews in Albania proper were saved. During the Axis occupation of Kosovo, Albanian collaborators persecuted Serb and Montenegrin settlers. Between 70,000 and 100,000 were expelled or transferred to concentration camps in Pristina and Mitrovica while nearly 10,000 are estimated to have been killed by the Vulnetari and other Albanian paramilitaries.

Foreign participation
There were a significant number of foreign citizens who participated in Albanian resistance during World War II. They were composed mostly of Italian soldiers who wished to continue the war against Nazi Germany, but other people from different nationalities participated also.

Italian participation
Albanian resistance began in 1940 with small çetas but it became a significant force in 1942. Even during this period there were small groups of Italian soldiers who deserted the fascist army and joined the Albanian partisans. When Italy capitulated in September 1943 there were already some 122 Italian partisans dispersed among various units in the Albanian National Liberation Army. When Italy capitulated there were some 100,000 Italian soldiers in Albania. They were from the Firenze, Parma, Perugia, Arezzo, Brennero divisions and other small independent units.

Many Italian forces surrendered to the advancing German army. Most of them were sent to concentration camps or for forced labour in Albania in the service of the German army, and there were also mass killings of Italian officers, mostly from the Perugia Division centred in Gjirokastër. Its general, Ernesto Chiminello, together with 150 officers, were executed in Saranda. Some other 32 officers were also killed in Kuç area three days later.

Some Italians took refuge in the mountains of Albania, while about 15,000 Italian soldiers surrendered to Albanian partisans. Some Italian troops led by Arnaldo Azzi, ex-commander of Firenze Division, created CITM, () (Italian Command of the Troops in the Mountains). Its objective was to resist German troops with help from the Albanian Partisans. They managed to create some units of Italian soldiers under their command, but these troops were dispersed in the months of October–November 1943, by the German winter offensive. The officers of this command were attached to British missions in Albania and were repatriated to Italy in August 1944.

There were also some 2,150 Italians who expressed their desire to continue the fight dispersed among Albanian partisan units. Some 472 Italian fighters were dispersed among Partisan shock brigades. A group of 137 men who created the Antonio Gramsci Battalion were attached to the First Shock Brigade and the Matteotti unit was attached to Third Shock Brigade. Some 401 were engaged in logistics roles and another 1,277 were attached to local commands. During the period 1943–1945 there were other units of Italian fighters among Albanian partisans, such as the 6th Battalion of the Fifth Shock Brigade, composed of some 200 Italians.

Wehrmacht deserters
Part of the German force which occupied Albania was composed of Wehrmacht recruits from the Caucasus region. The first Wehrmacht deserters went to Albanian Partisan units at the end of 1943 during the German winter offensive, but their numbers grew in the summer of 1944 during the German summer offensive. There was a great flow of Wehrmacht deserters during the end of conflict to Albania from September to October 1944 as German forces began withdrawing from Albania. In August 1944 a new unit was formed, Third Shock Brigade, from some 40 Wehrmacht deserters (mostly Armenians and Turkmen). Another 70 Armenians created their own unit attached to the First Shock Brigade in September 1944. There were also other small groups of Wehrmacht deserters dispersed among Albanian partisan forces, composed of Germans, Austrians, Frenchmen, Czechs and Poles.

Allied links and assistance

The British had tried mounting liaison operations into Italian-occupied Albania in early 1941, from what was then neutral Yugoslavia. These attempts were quickly abandoned after the Germans and Italians overran Yugoslavia. Thereafter, no attempt was made to contact Albanian resistance groups until 17 April 1943, when M.O.4, a branch of the liaison organisation SOE, dispatched a mission commanded by Lieutenant Colonel "Billy" MacLean, with Major David Smiley as his second-in-command. Rather than drop "blind" into Albania, the mission was dropped into North-West Greece, where British parties were already operating with Greek guerrillas. From there, they made their way into Albania on foot or on mules.

After several false starts, the mission made contact with the NLM. The first supply drop of arms and equipment was received on 27 June. The bulk of the stores received in this and subsequent drops were donated to the NLM, who were the dominant group in Southern Albania, and were used to equip the "First Partisan Brigade".

Later in 1943, SOE increased the size of the mission to Albania. The new commander was Brigadier Edmund Frank Davies of the Royal Ulster Rifles (nicknamed "Trotsky" at Sandhurst because of the "disciplined bolshevism" in his character), with Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Nicholls as Chief of Staff. MacLean and Smiley were withdrawn to SOE's new base at Bari in southern Italy to report. Although they noted that the Communist-led NLM appeared to be more interested in securing political power after the war than fighting the Germans, they recommended that SOE continue to supply them, while attempting to achieve agreement between the NLM and the other resistance movements.

In January 1944, the Germans attacked and overran the British mission HQ. Brigadier Davies was captured, while Lieutenant Colonel Nicholls died of exposure and post-operative shock after leading the survivors to safety.

During the remainder of 1944, SOE continued to supply the NLM, despite complaints from MacLean and Smiley, now running liaison parties with Abaz Kupi's group and the Balli Kombëtar in northern Albania, that the NLM were using these arms against their political opponents rather than the Germans. Smiley, MacLean and Julian Amery were evacuated to Italy at the end of October. SOE refused to evacuate Abaz Kupi on the same boat. He made his own escape from the country, and picked up by a Royal Naval vessel in the Adriatic.

See also
 Albania under Italy
 Besa tradition during World War II
 The Holocaust in Albania
 Participants in World War II
 Timeline of Albanian history
 Socialist People's Republic of Albania
 Antonio Gramsci Battalion
 Greco-Italian War

References

Sources
 Library of Congress Country Study of Albania

 Julian Amery, (1948). Sons of the Eagle: A Study in Guerrilla War. MacMillan & Co Ltd London. This book from a British agent with the Royalists during the war has no ISBN but is being reprinted.

 Manelli, Gani. "Partisan Politics in World War II Albania: the Struggle for Power, 1939–1944." East European Quarterly 40, no. 3 (2006): 333–348

  Foreword by Patrick Leigh Fermor. The SOE in Albania by a brother-in-arms of Julian Amery and Neil "Billy" McLean. With numerous photographs.
 Translated in French in 2008. Au coeur de l'action clandestine. Des Commandos au MI6, L'Esprit du Livre Editions, (). The Memoirs of a SOE officer in Albania and Thaïland (Force 136), then a MI6 agent (Poland, Albania, Oman, Yemen).
 Brigadier Edmund Frank "Trotsky" Davies. Illyrian venture: The Story of the British Military Mission to Enemy-occupied Albania, 1943–44, Bodley Head, 1952.
 Xan Fielding One Man in His Time – The life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ("Billy") McLean, DSO, Macmillan, London, 1990. Biography of a soldier, SOE agent and Scottish politician.
 Albania in WWII by Julian Amery, from the Oxford Companion to the Second World War (1995), pp. 24–26

External links
 Map
 Map
 World War II: Albania
 Valiant highlanders

World War II resistance movements
Civil wars

1930s in Albania
1940s in Albania
Italian protectorate of Albania (1939–1943)
Balkans campaign (World War II)
Eastern European theatre of World War II
World War II

World War II in Albania


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Website
The paper is available for viewing online. The website lists all the current content on its homepage, and all past stories are available for viewing in its archives. A calendar of events in Lebanon is available, as well as real estate, auto listings, classifieds, and jobs. There is an RSS feed available, and one can register their mobile phone on the site to get updates about the Lebanon Daily News. Subscribers can also opt to make "E-Edition" available, which makes Lebanon Daily News viewable on the computer exactly as it appears in print.

The Lebanon Daily News website went behind a paywall in August 2011, charging print subscribers and non-subscribers varying rates for access beyond a free five articles per month.

Lebanon Daily News in the media
The paper is not very well known because the county of Lebanon is so small and off the radar; however, Lebanon Daily News has indeed been mentioned in a few instances outside of Lebanon.

Iron Editor: How to Save Newspapers from Advocacy Journalism
Michael A. Raffaele, former editor of the Lebanon Daily News, wrote a book called Iron Editor: How to Save Newspapers from Advocacy Journalism. The book is essentially about Raffaele's experiences working for multiple papers, including the Lebanon Daily News, so it gives an insider's viewpoint on the paper.

Tip of the Spear: A Unique Perspective on Pennsylvania's Political Revolution
Russ Diamond's Tip of the Spear: A Unique Perspective on Pennsylvania's Political Revolution  lists the Lebanon Daily News as a reference multiple times throughout the book. Lebanon Daily News published numerous comments on Diamond's status as a politician.

References

Daily newspapers published in Pennsylvania
Lebanon County, Pennsylvania
Newspapers established in 1872
1872 establishments in Pennsylvania
Gannett publications

Lebanon Daily News


Michael James Dominic Sweeney (born 7 February 1955; Bournemouth, England) is an English actor and comedian, best known for his improvisation partnership with Steve Steen.

Life and career
When Sweeney was 11 years old, he moved to London with his parents, along with two brothers and a sister. He became interested in theatre and improvisation while attending Clapham College, an all-boys Roman Catholic school. Sweeney spent the 1970s in theatre productions, creating and touring shows with Steen, who was a friend from school. The pairing's first television work as a duo came on the ITV children's show CBTV, followed by the Channel 4 comedy Little Armadillos and resident support comic slots on Rory Bremner's first sketch show for the BBC. In 1987, Sweeney played Samuel Taylor Coleridge in an episode of Blackadder the Third, with Steve Steen alongside him as Lord Byron. He also starred as "The Head" in the first season of Art Attack in 1990. He then appeared in commercials and radio comedies before acquiring a semi-regular slot as a contestant on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? from 1991 to 1993. Comedy partner Steen would later join him frequently in these appearances.

Sweeney has been in a number of radio plays and sitcoms, including a lead role in Any Bloke alongside Caroline Quentin and Steve Steen.  He adapted his award-winning play Danny's Wake into a radio series, All The Young Dudes, in which he (and Steen) co-starred.  Sweeney has authored a number of plays in addition to Danny's Wake, namely Sick Transit, Cabin Fever, and My MS and Me. Sweeney has been involved with the Comedy Store's Comedy Store Players team since 1992, performing with Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, Neil Mullarkey, Lee Simpson, Andy Smart and Richard Vranch. He has also appeared in numerous radio series, including the improvised faux drama show The Masterson Inheritance and BBC Radio 4's Just a Minute.  He made guest appearances in sitcoms  Kiss Me Kate and One Foot In The Grave (the latter as a computer salesman memorably humiliated by Victor Meldrew).

Since 1985, Sweeney has had multiple sclerosis, something which has required use of a walking stick and, from 2005, a wheelchair. Sweeney wrote about his experiences of multiple sclerosis in My MS and Me, a play he performed for BBC Radio 4 after a successful Edinburgh Festival run. In 2008, the disease meant he gave up appearing on stage, but he continues to be listed as a member of the Comedy Store Players. In 2007, he made two series of BBC Radio 4's improvised sketch show The Lawrence Sweeney Mix with Josie Lawrence.

References

External links

1955 births
Living people
English male comedians
English male stage actors
English male radio actors
English male television actors
Actors from Bournemouth
People with multiple sclerosis
Male actors from London
Comedians from London

Jim Sweeney (comedian)


Mass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population. Mass surveillance in India includes Surveillance, Telephone tapping, Open-source intelligence, Lawful interception, and surveillance under Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

In recent years, India has seen use of facial-recognition technology by the law enforcement. Telangana is the most surveilled state in India with 36 CCTV cameras per 1,000 people, while cities Delhi and Chennai have more cameras per square mile than cities in China.

History

Colonial India

Police surveillance
Police in colonial India developed surveillance tactics as a form of preventive policing believing that a substantial portion of crime was being committed by those who were or were suspected to be repeat offenders. Higher ranking police officials would go through criminal records to identify those who were to be surveilled by the constabulary, to this end history sheets or "bad character rolls" were maintained on such individuals. These surveillance practices also depended on local district superintendents and could be outside legislative sanction as they were allowed to develop their own policing practices by the Police Act of 1861. This reliance on surveillance was seen necessary owing to the police force being minimally staffed and relying on indirect power following the 1857 rebellion.

Indian Telegraph Act 1885

The section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act allowed the Governor General or a Local Government to temporarily seize any licensed telegraph, and also gave them the ability block, intercept, detain, or even disclose the contents of any message transmitted during a "public emergency" or in "interest of public safety", the Secretary to the Government had a final say on whether something met those two criteria. This act is one of the principal laws allowing surveillance of electronic communication in modern India.

Use of Surveillance Technology

CCTV Cameras
Some Indian cities have some of the highest levels of CCTV surveillance in the world after those in China, with a Comparitech report in 2020 ranking Hyderabad among the top 20 most surveilled cities in the world, one of the only two non-Chinese cities in the list, with 29.99 CCTV cameras per 1000 people at that time. The number of CCTV cameras has only risen since then, with the most recent data available as of June 2023 putting Hyderabad (83.32 cameras/1000 people), Indore (60 cameras/1000 people), and Delhi (19.96 cameras/1000 people) among the world's most surveilled cities. However the number of CCTV cameras is not uniform among even major Indian cities, with just 4 cities; Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai, and Indore accounting for 91% of CCTV cameras installed in the country.

Facial Recognition Technology
Police forces in India have been using Facial Recognition software to identify "history-sheeters", "miscreants", solve missing person cases, with the Delhi police even using it to identify protestors during the 2019 anti-CAA protests and in the farmer protest in the following year. Police forces like the Telangana police run facial recognition systems along with their extensive CCTV surveillance network to feed live data into facial recognition algorithms. In 2017, the Chennai Police installed a facial recognition system running on real time CCTV footage from areas of T Nagar, a popular shopping street in the city, to detect any criminals stored in their database, similar systems have been deployed by the Punjab Police as Punjab Artificial Intelligence System (PAIS), and by the Surat Police using NEC's NeoFace technology.

Aadhaar Biometrics

The Government of India in 2009 introduced Aadhaar, a 12 digit identification document that can be obtained by any resident of India, with a goal to improve welfare delivery in the country. The  enrollment process to obtain Aadhaar requires the submission of biometric data in the form of fingerprints, and an iris scan. From its inception, the collection of this data for Aadhaar and its storage in a centralized database has raised privacy and surveillance concerns, with Aadhaar representing the world's largest such database with data on over 1.1 billion people. Over time Aadhaar has become increasingly mandatory to access basic state services, a necessary document for KYC verification to obtain a mobile SIM card, create a bank account, access loans, school and college admissions and scholarships, and has even been linked with other identification documents like the PAN card and Voter ID. Privacy advocates have pointed out that this level of Aadhaar integration allows the state to track all aspects of daily life of an individual as there is no legal restriction on the amount of information the government can access from this database, creating the necessary infrastructure for mass surveillance. The Aadhaar Act, 2016 tried to make Aadhaar mandatory for many public services including all welfare benefits and even allowed private companies to collect Aadhaar data, however the Supreme Court struck down these provisions of the act while upholding the validity of the act itself. However despite this verdict many organisations have continued claiming Aadhaar as a mandatory requirement.

Indian mass surveillance projects

India has been using many mass surveillance projects for many years. These include the following:

DRDO Netra

DRDO NETRA is another mass surveillance project of India. It has been developed by the Center for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR) laboratory under the Defence Research and Development Organisation. The system could detect selective words like "bomb", "blast", "attack" or "kill" within seconds from emails, instant messages, status updates and tweets. The system will also be capable of gauging suspicious voice traffic on Skype and Google Talk. To enhance the capacity of the DRDO NETRA Project Black Knight was initiated in late 2013 to monitor social media trends and identify source of various viral messages that posed a risk to tranquility of the global community. Not much detail is available about the project, but it is rumored that the group of engineers later founded a private organization and now conducts social media analysis on Indian and foreign subjects by tapping fiber optic cables in India and overseas, including cybertapping infrastructure on the main internet communication cable in Mongolia which links rest of the world to China.

Lawful Intercept and Monitoring project

Lawful Intercept and Monitoring, abbreviated to LIM, is a clandestine mass electronic surveillance program deployed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), an Indian Government owned telecommunications technology development centre. LIM systems are used by the Indian Government to intercept records of voice, SMSs, GPRS data, details of a subscriber's application and recharge history and call detail record (CDR)  and monitor Internet traffic, emails, web-browsing, Skype and any other Internet activity of Indian users. Mobile operators deploy their own LIM system which allows the government to intercept calls, after taking "due authorisation" in compliance with Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act read with Rule 419(A) of the IT Rules. The LIM system to monitor Internet traffic is deployed by the government at the international gateways of some large ISPs (between the ISPs Internet Edge Router (PE) and the core network). These surveillance systems are under complete control of the government, and their functioning is secretive and unknown to the ISPs.

NCCC

National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) is a proposed cyber security and e-surveillance project of India. It aims at screening communication metadata and co-ordinate the intelligence gathering activities of other agencies. In the absence of any legal framework and parliamentary oversight, the NCCC could encroach upon Indian citizens' privacy and civil-liberties.

Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring Project

Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM), formerly known as Vigilance Telecom Monitoring (VTM), is the vigilance and monitoring wing of the Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The main functions of TERM Cells are vigilance, monitoring and security of the network. Apart from this, TERM Cells also operate the Central Monitoring System and carry out other functions.

Central Monitoring System Project

Central Monitoring System is a surveillance related project of India. The project is run by Centre for Development of Telematics

National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)
NATGRID project of Home ministry is creating a centralised database of citizens and companies recording every interaction with the government, which amounts to profiling and mass surveillance of citizens and companies.

Misuse of Section 144

An analysis by lawyers Vrinda Bhandari, Abhinav Sekhri, Natasha Maheshwari and Madhav Aggarwal of orders passed by Delhi Police under Section 144 found that the law is being used to create a parallel surveillance network. Many of the orders directed private parties like ATMs, Banks, girls PG/hostels, liquor vendors, owner of parking lots etc. to install CCTV cameras for surveillance purposes.

See also
Surveillance in India
List of Indian intelligence agencies
Multi Agency Centre (India)
NATGRID
Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring

References

India
Privacy in India
Human rights abuses in India

Mass surveillance in India


Dena Landon (born November 18, 1977), is a children's fiction fantasy writer, who wrote Shapeshifter's Quest in 2005. She is currently working on a new novel, as well as a Shapeshifter sequel.

Life
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Dena Landon took to reading and English classes from an early age. In 1991 her parents divorced and she moved to Bellevue. After graduating from high school in 1996, Dena moved to Boston, where she attended Gordon College. Although she majored in Business Administration, she developed her writing skills by working with professors from the English department. After graduating in 1999, Dena gained a job in finance, but worked on a novel in her free time. She now lives in St Paul, Minnesota, with her son.

Writings
Her first manuscript, for Shapeshifter's Quest, was taken up by Dutton's Children's Books in December 2002. Shapeshifter's Quest tells the story of an eighteen-year-old, Syanthe, who has the ability to transform herself into another shape at will. She uses her abilities to protect her race from extinction against a corrupt, tyrannical king. The novel was published in 2005 to generally positive reviews.
She has also published a number of non-fiction and personal essays, and founded the online magazine Femme Feminism.

Footnotes

External links
Dena Landon profile on Amazon.com
Reviews of Shapeshifter's Quest

Dena Landon's Official Blog

 Dena Landon's online magazine Femme Feminism

1977 births
21st-century American novelists
American children's writers
American fantasy writers
American women novelists
Living people
American women children's writers
Women science fiction and fantasy writers
21st-century American women writers

Dena Landon


The Lao People's Democratic Republic is the modern state derived from the final Kingdom of Laos. The political source of Lao history and cultural identity is the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang, which during its apogee emerged as one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Lao history is filled with frequent conflict and warfare, but infrequent scholarly attention. The resulting dates and references are approximate, and rely on source material from court chronicles which survived both war and neglect, or outside sources from competing neighboring kingdoms in what are now China, Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Lao kingship was based upon the mandala system established by the example of King Ashoka.  In theory, Lao kings and their successors were chosen by agreement of the king's Sena (a council which could include senior royal family members, ministers, generals and senior members of the sangha or clergy), through the validity the king's lineage, and by personal Dharma through commitment to propagating Theravada Buddhism (the king was literally a Dharmaraja- as one who led by acts of religious virtue). Kingship was not based exclusively on primogeniture or divine right as was common in other monarchies.

The monarchy traces its lineage to Chao Fa Ngum, who founded the Kingdom of Lan Xang in 1353 and beyond that to the mythical Khun Borom who was held as the mythical father of the Tai peoples and the progenitor of the Lao Loum.

Lan Xang endured as a politically unified entity for three hundred years (1353–1694), which was then split into the kingdoms of Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and Champasak, only to be reconstituted as a unified constitutional monarchy under a French protectorate in 1946. At various times the kingdom Lan Xang fought off invasions from Burma, Siam and the Đại Việt.

The traditional capital of Lan Xang was at Luang Prabang until it was moved in 1560 by King Setthathirath to better administer the growing population and provide security in facing threats from Burma and Siam. Lan Xang entered a Golden Age during the reigns of Visunarat (1501–1520) and Sourigna Vongsa from (1637–94), during these times the cultural and economic power of the kingdom were at their greatest. In 1828 Vientiane was razed by the Siamese, in retaliation for the Chao Anouvong Rebellion, at which point the kingdom of Vientiane ceased to exist. During the French Protectorate, Luang Prabang was reestablished as the cultural and religious capital, while the French rebuilt Vientiane as the country's administrative capital.

Kingdom of Lan Xang (1353–1707)

The following is a list of Lan Xang kings from the founding in 1353 by Fa Ngum, to the succession disputes following the death of Souligna Vongsa, and partition of the Kingdom in 1707.

Kings

Kingdom of Vientiane (1707–1828)

Kingdom of Vientiane was formed in 1707 as a result of the succession dispute between Sai Ong Hue with his backing from the Vietnamese court at Huế and Kingkitsarat (a grandson of Souligna Vongsa) who was backed by the Tai Lü kingdom of Sipsong Panna.  From 1707 until the annihilation of Vientiane in 1828, the kingdom would at various times be in rivalry with the kingdoms of Luang Prabang and Champasak, although they remained loosely confederated by cultural and historic affinity. By the mid-eighteenth century, the individual Lao kingdoms were simultaneously paying tribute to Burma, China, Siam and Vietnam. Following the Rebellion of Chao Anouvong in 1828, Vientiane was destroyed and both the kingdoms of Vientiane and Champasak falls to the Siamese in 1828. The kingship of Vientiane ends and all territories are annexed to Siam. General Ratchasuphawadi oversees the depopulation of the kingdom and forced relocation to Isaan. The city itself was leveled leaving only Wat Si Saket standing, along with the partial ruins of the Ha Pra Keo, That Dam Stupa, and That Luang Stupa. In 1867, Louis de Carne a part of the Francis Garnier exploratory mission noted that:

"A flourishing capital has been annihilated in our own days, and an entire people has, in some sort, disappeared, without Europe even having suspected such scenes of desolation-without even a solitary echo of this long cry of despair having reached her."

Kings

Kingdom of Champasak (Bassac) (1713–1904)

The Kingdom of Champasak declared itself independent from the Kingdom of Vientiane in 1713. The Kingdom of Champasak comprised the area south of the Xe Bang River as far as Stung Treng together with the areas of the lower Mun and Xi rivers on the Khorat Plateau (now the Isaan area of modern Thailand). The Kingdom was annexed by Siam in 1829 following the Chao Anouvong Rebellion, and subsequent kings were confirmed in Bangkok. From 1893 French took administrative control over parts of the kingdom, in 1904 the kingdom was reduced to a provincial governorship but still included the political involvement of the Na Champasak royal family. From 1941 to 1945 Thailand exploited France's weakness during World War II to acquire Champasak and other Lao lands on the right bank of the Mekong. In 1946 Champasak was ceded back to France and Chao Boun Oum remitted all claims to an independent kingship in order to unify Laos. The Kingdom of Laos (1946–75) was then formed under the Luang Prabang line of kingship.

Kings

Kingdom of Luang Prabang (1707–1893) & French Protectorate of Laos (1893-1947)

With the division of Lan Xang, the city of Luang Prabang recovered its prestige as a royal city, since the capital had moved to Vientiane with Setthathirath in 1560. The city was a growing center for religion and trade, but remained politically weak and would be sacked by the Burmese in 1764. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the Kingdom endured as a vassal to China, Siam, Burma, and Vietnam. In 1828 following Chao Anouvong's Rebellion the kingdom was annexed by Siam. Despite their vassal status the Kings of Luang Prabang exercised a degree of autonomy, but lacked the security apparatus to effectively defend the kingdom (which may have been used in rebellion, as had been done in the kingdoms of Vientiane and Champasak). As a result, throughout the mid-19th century Haw pirates from China were able to invade.

Kings

Principality of Xiang Khouang (Muang Phuan) (1707–1899)

The Muang of Xiang Khouang was a semi-autonomous region in Laos in what is now Xiang Khouang province. The Phuan (Pu'on) monarchy claims descent from Khun Borom and were part of the Lan Xang mandala. Geographic isolation and frequent warfare produced periods where the Phuan kings tried to assert more authority, but the region remained only a key vassalage for surrounding kingdoms. The region features prominently in the 18th and 19th century as valuable coalition piece for the rival kingdoms of Vientiane and Champasak. Xiang Khouang was a trade frontier, and also a frequent point of invasion, and so has more cultural influences from China and Vietnam.

Kings

Kingdom of Laos (1947–1975)

The Kingdom of Laos created in 1947 marked the first time the kingdoms of Laos had been unified since the division of Lan Xang in 1707. The Franco-Lao Treaty of 1953, gave Laos independence and the Royal Lao Government took control of the country. This treaty established a constitutional monarchy, with Sisavang Vong as King and Prince Souvanna Phouma as Prime Minister. In 1959, after the death of his father King Sisavang Vong, Sisavang Vatthana ascended the throne and was crowned King. On 2 December 1975, King Sisavang Vatthana was forced to abdicate by the Pathet Lao, after its victory in the Laotian Civil War.

Monarchy of Laos in exile (1975–present)

Pretenders

Princes
 Vong Savang (Crown Prince, died  in re-education camps with his father King Sisavang Vatthana)
 Sauryavong Savang (Regent, son of Sisavang Vatthana, died  in Paris at age 80)
 Soulivong Savang (Pretender, son of Vong Savang)
 Thanyavong Savang

Kuhn Lo Dynasty

See also
 Three Princes of the Kingdom of Laos
 President of Laos
 Prime Minister of Laos

References

Monarchs
Lan Xang

Lan Xang Monarchs
Monarchs
Kingdom of Laos
1975 disestablishments in Laos

List of monarchs of Laos


The Hidden Power of the Dragon Sabre is a 1984 Hong Kong wuxia film directed by Chor Yuen and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio. The film is a spinoff of Louis Cha's novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.

Plot
The film is a spin-off of the original story of The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. Zhang Wuji retrieves the Heaven-reliant Sword and the Dragon-slaying Saber and places them in the Ming Cult's headquarters. He carves the inscriptions from the Nine Yang Manual on the walls of a secret chamber and asks his godfather Xie Xun, who has become a monk, to help him guard the chamber. Zhang returns the original copy of the manual to the Shaolin School.

Song Qingshu, a defeated villain from the original story, returns and starts a reign of terror. He traps a beautiful Mongol princess and masters a new Yin and Yang-combined martial arts technique, becoming almost invincible. Zhang Wuji has to put an end to Song Qingshu's rampage.

Cast
 Derek Yee as Zhang Wuji
 Ti Lung as Tiezhen
 Alex Man as Song Qingshu
 Cherie Chung as Mongol princess
 Leanne Liu as Zhou Zhiruo
 Ku Feng as Zhu Yuanzhang
 Lo Lieh as Xie Xun
 Lung Tien-hsiang as Wei Yixiao
 Dang Wai-ho as Yang Xiao
 Yuen Wah as Fan Yao
 Elvis Tsui as Weizhen
 Kwan Fung
 Yeung Chi-hing
 Shum Lo
 Yuen Bun
 Lam Wai
 Hung San-nam
 Ko Hung
 Tam Bo
 Lee Fat-yuen

References

External links

1984 films
Films based on works by Jin Yong
Hong Kong martial arts films
Works based on The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber
Wuxia films
Films set in the Yuan dynasty
Shaw Brothers Studio films
Films about rebels
Films directed by Chor Yuen
1980s Hong Kong films

The Hidden Power of the Dragon Sabre


Viola Meynell, Mrs. Dallyn (15 October 1885, in Barnes, London – 27 October 1956) was an English writer, novelist and poet. She wrote around 20 books, but was best known for her short stories and novels.

Biography
Her parents were Wilfrid Meynell and Alice Thompson Meynell, noted Roman Catholic publishers and writers. Her father was a publisher and her mother was the sister of the well-known artist Lady Butler, (Charge of the Greys). Her parents had a chaotic and busy literary household in Palace Court, Nottinghill Gate, London. There was a constant stream of visitors such as Eric Gill, Robert Browning, Stevenson, Henley, Coventry Patmore, George Meredith, Francis Thompson, Stephen Phillips, W. B. Yeats, G. K. Chesterton, Shane Leslie, Sir Ronald Storrs and others more or less renowned.

Viola had seven siblings. Her brother Francis was the driving force of The Nonesuch Press, with whom in the pre-war days she made homemade books on the kitchen table, dyeing with onion skins and typing her verse to be stitched by hand into the pages.

They had a second home in the country at Greatham, Sussex where Viola married local farmer, John Dallyn, and had her only child, a son, John Jacob ("Jake") Dallyn (b. 1922).

She was an early supporter of D. H. Lawrence, offering practical help in the way of typing his manuscripts and accommodation, by way of a room in her home at Greatham. She was also a champion of Herman Melville at a time when he was unfashionable. In 1920 she engineered the publishing of Moby Dick as the first American novel in the Oxford World's Classics series in England and wrote the introduction to that volume. During Lawrence's stay at Greatham he wrote England My England, a thinly disguised and unpleasant jab at her family. Greatham became its own centre with visitors as varied as Eric Gill, Hilaire Belloc, and Cynthia Asquith.

Her books sold well, many of them being republished both in England and in America. She had a large circle of literary friends and correspondents, including Katherine Mansfield, Compton Mackenzie and T. H. White.

She died on 27 October 1956, and was interred in Houghton Catholic Church cemetery, near Greatham.

Works
Martha Vine (1910) – published anonymously
Cross in Hand Farm (1911)
Lot Barrow (1913)
Modern Lovers (1914)
Columbine (1915)
Narcissus (1916)
Julian Grenfell (1917)
Second Marriage (1918)
Verses (1919)
Antonia (1921)
Young Mrs. Cruse (1924)
A Girl Adoring (1927)
Alice Meynell (1929)
The Frozen Ocean (1930) Poetry.
Follow Thy Fair Sun (1935)
Kissing The Rod (1937)
Friends of a Lifetime: Letters to Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (1940) editor
An Anthology of Nature Poetry (1942)
Letters of J. M. Barrie (1943; editor)
Lovers (1944)
First Love and Other Stories (1947)
Ophelia (1951)
Francis Thompson and Wilfrid Meynell (1952)
Louise and Other Stories (1954)
The Best of Friends: Further Letters to Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (1956) editor
Collected Stories (1957)

Other works

Eyes of Youth (1910) – a collection of poems by friends and family
George Eliot (1913)
Introduction to Romola: George Eliot (1913)
Introduction to Felix Holt: The Radical (1913)
Introduction to Moby Dick: Herman Melville (1925)

References

Sources
A Critical Biography of English Novelist, Viola Meynell, 1885-1956 (2002) by Raymond N. MacKenzie

External links
 Viola Meynell letters at Boston College

1885 births
1956 deaths
English Roman Catholics
English short story writers
Place of birth missing
People from Horsham District
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British short story writers
People from Barnes, London
Writers from London
British women short story writers
English women novelists

Viola Meynell


is a Japanese children's book author and illustrator. His work includes advertisements, magazine illustration, web, character design and book design. In recent years he has made children's books. He lives in Tokyo with his wife and two children.

Biography
Kōji Ishikawa was born in Chiba Prefecture Japan in 1963. As a child he loved painting, handicraft and origami. Ishikawa attended Musashino Art University, and studied visual communication design. He was awarded Kodansha picture for children Grand Prix, while in university. From that time, he began work as illustrator.

He has appeared on television programs and in magazines, and has lectured on digital art. He is one of the pioneers of digital illustration. His main painting tools are Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. He has also written a book on the technique of the digital illustration using Corel Painter ("Happy Painter Life"). In 1999 he developed "Paper Dog" (ペーパーわんこ; (Pēpāwanko), and "Paper Cat" (ペーパーにゃんこ; (Pēpānyanko). These are small dogs and cats made from paper. The picture-book of Paper Dogs "Living with 100 dogs" were announced in 2002. The Italy Bologna international picture-book original picture exhibition accepted the paper dog photo story "Kotaro's trip" in 2004. It is extolled by the French judge Xavier Pingaud. Picture-books "Colorful Animals hide and seek" and "Colorful Vehicles hide and seek" were announced in 2006. Translations of This series appeared in France, South Korea and China.  The number of copies is over 1550,000 copies in the whole series. In 2008, Ishikawa released three picture-books, "Colorful Fruits hide and seek", "Patterned Animals hide and seek" and "The trip of the little ship". In 2009, Ishikawa released five picture-books, "Baby smile", "Baby hello", "Tsumiki-kun", "Panda's ONIGIRI" and "Book of Eggs".

Prize
Kodansha Competition of Pictures for Kids    grand prix (第9回 講談社童画グランプリで大賞受賞; Kōdansha Dōga Guranpuri Taishō Jushō) (1986)
Bologna Illustrators Exhibition of Children's Books  Selected (ボローニャ国際絵本原画展入選; Boronya Kokusai Ehon Gengaten Nyūsen) (2004)
Bookmaking binding contest Prize of chief director of Japan Book Publishers Association winning (造本装幀コンクール日本書籍出版協会理事長賞受賞; Zōhon Sōtei Konkūru Nihon Syoseki Syuppan Rijichō shō Jushō) (2010)

Books
Patterned Birds Hide and Seek (とりのもようでかくれんぼ; (Tori no Moyōde Kakurenbo) (2013)
This is Mask (おめんです; (Omendesu) (2013)
Sea Creatures  Hide and Seek (うみのいきものかくれんぼ; (Umino Ikimono Kakurenbo) (2012)
Toy-block Boy and Toy-block Girl   (つみきくんとつみきちゃん; (Tsumikikun To Tsumikichan) (2011)
Colorful Vegetables  Hide and Seek (やさいいろいろかくれんぼ; (Yasai Iroiro Kakurenbo) (2011)
Everyone Can Fly! (みんな とぶよ!; (Minna Tobuyo!) (2010)
Flowers Bloom (はなのさくえほん; (Hana No Saku Ehon) (2010)
BABY HUGGY (あかちゃんだっこ; (Akachan Dakko) (2010)
Book of Eggs  (たまごのえほん; (Tamago  No Ehon) (2009)
Panda's ONIGIRI   (パンダくんのおにぎり; (Pandakun No Onigiri) (2009)
Toy-block Boy  (つみきくん; (Tsumikikun) (2009)
BABY SMILE (あかちゃんにこにこ; (Akachan NIkoniko) (2009)
BABY HELLO (あかちゃんはーい; (Akachan Haai) (2009)
Patterned Animals Hide and Seek (どうぶつもようでかくれんぼ; (Dōbutsu Moyōde Kakurenbo) (2008)
Colorful Fruits Hide and Seek (くだものいろいろかくれんぼ; (Kudamono Iroiro Kakurenbo) (2008)
The trip of the little ship (ふねくんのたび; (Funekun no Tabi) (2008)
Où sont les animaux ? (Hiding Animals) (2008)
Où sont les véhicules ? (Hiding Vehicles) (2008)
Où sont les jouets ? (Hiding Toys) (2008)
Où sont les habits ? (Hiding Clothes) (2008)
Whose Tail? (このしっぽだあれ?; (Kono Shippo Dāre?) (2007)
What is this sound? (このおとなにかな?; (Kono Oto Nanikana?) (2007)
Colorful Animals Hide and Seek (どうぶついろいろかくれんぼ; (Dōbutsu Iroiro Kakurenbo) (2006)
Colorful Vehicles Hide and Seek (のりものいろいろかくれんぼ; (Norimono Iroiro Kakurenbo) (2006)
Happy Toys Hide and Seek (たのしいおもちゃかくれんぼ; (Tanoshii Omocha Kakurenbo) (2006)
Colorful Clothes Hide and Seek (おきがえいろいろかくれんぼ; (Okigae Iroiro Kakurenbo) (2006)
Paper Dogs travel around the world (世界を旅するペーパーわんこ; (Sekai wo Tabisuru Pēpāwanko) (2005)
Life with Paper Dogs (ペーパーわんこのいるくらし; (Pēpāwanko no iru kurashi) (2003)
Living with 100 Dogs (100ぴきのいぬがかえる本; (Hyappikino inu ga kaeru hon) (2002)
Happy Painter Life (ハッピーペインターライフ; (Happī peintā raifu) (2000)

References

External links
 Gallery of Kōji Ishikawa

Japanese children's book illustrators
Japanese children's writers
1963 births
Living people
Japanese artists
People from Ichikawa, Chiba

Koji Ishikawa (illustrator)


Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the country. Only iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media owned more stations prior to Citadel's merger with Cumulus.

On March 10, 2011, Cumulus Media announced that it would purchase Citadel Broadcasting. After receiving conditional regulatory approval from the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, the deal was approved by Citadel shareholders on September 15, 2011. The merger of the two companies closed on September 16, 2011, and Citadel was immediately absorbed into Cumulus Media.

History
The company was founded in 1984 in Phoenix, Arizona by Larry Wilson as Citadel Associates Limited Partnership. In 1990 it was renamed Citadel Associates Montana Limited Partnership for the purpose of owning and operating stations in Montana that were formerly owned by CALP. A year later, Citadel Broadcasting was officially incorporated and in 1984 it acquired all of the radio stations owned by its predecessors. Within a decade, Citadel expanded to 26 states. Within that time period, it absorbed all Bloomington Broadcasting radio holdings and 11 stations from Dick Broadcasting Company and also acquired three radio stations from Slone Broadcasting, Inc. and Slone Radio, LLC. In 2000, Liggett Broadcasting sold its radio stations in Michigan, New York, Minnesota, South Carolina, Ohio, and California to Citadel, with Bob Liggett becoming a member of Citadel's Board of Directors. In 2001, Larry Wilson sold Citadel to private equity firm Forstmann Little & Company for $2.1 billion. By that time, the company had grown to 205 stations in 42 markets.

In January 2005, Citadel yanked Howard Stern's syndicated radio show from four of its stations, with Stern saying it was because he was talking too much about his impending switch to Sirius Satellite Radio. Stern then began to make fun of Citadel's chairman and CEO, Farid Suleman. Citadel Broadcasting launched an online service called Citadel Interactive in 2005, and a year later launched Right Now Radio. By July 2007, more than 180 of their stations were streaming online.

Purchase of ABC Radio

On February 6, 2006, Forstmann Little and The Walt Disney Company agreed to merge Citadel with Disney's ABC Radio. Shares representing 57% of Citadel were distributed to shareholders of The Walt Disney Company following the company's acquisition of 22 stations from ABC Radio.

After the merger--which was consummated June 12, 2007, Citadel's ownership structure was:

 57%: Shareholders in The Walt Disney Company
 27%: Forstmann Little
 16%: Former Citadel shareholders exclusive of Forstmann Little or shareholders in Disney

ABC owned and operated affiliates of Radio Disney and ESPN Radio were not included in the merger agreement.

In order to comply with FCC ownership limitations, Citadel sold off 12 of its radio stations. Ten of the stations' licenses were transferred to a newly formed trust company, The Last Bastion Station Trust, LLC. The two-station Cortland, New York, cluster was sold off prior to the merger in a separate transaction; WIII was sold to Saga Communications, and WKRT (now WYBY) was given to the Bible Broadcasting Network for free as a tax-deductible donation.

In December 2007, Citadel began broadcasting the morning radio show of shock jock Don Imus, just about six months after he had been fired by CBS for making racist and sexist remarks.

On June 19, 2008; Arbitron expanded Oklahoma City's market definition allowing Citadel to own five FM stations in the said area, at which time Citadel Broadcasting applied to re-acquire KKWD from The Last Bastion Station Trust, LLC with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). According to FCC documents, KKWD was re-absorbed into Citadel's station portfolio on July 9, 2009.

On April 2, 2009; the staff of Citadel Broadcasting changed the name of "ABC Radio" to Citadel Media to reflect on its ownership of the major network.

In addition to Citadel Media, Citadel owned the Arkansas Radio, Tennessee Titans Radio, Buffalo Bills and the Michigan Talk radio networks.

Company troubles
On March 1, 2008, the former Disney/ABC Radio stations in Citadel's portfolio faced severe financial problems. That same period, hundreds of personalities were dismissed as some stations over time changed formats—most notably to ABC Radio's in-house satellite network The True Oldies Channel.

On September 12, 2008, Citadel Broadcasting received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) warning them that they would be facing a delisting after the company shares fell below the continuing listing criteria in the past 30 days: after an IPO of $20.67 in August 2003, and a high of $22.70 in December 2003, CDL had closed at $0.01 on March 6, 2009. Delisting happened on March 5, 2009.

Since the delisting, the staff of Citadel Broadcasting ceased holding conference calls and said they would no longer issue quarterly guidance; but their 10-Q filed May 7, 2010 at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated that Citadel expected to remain in compliance with lender covenants through 2009. Given the conditions, it was unlikely that the company would meet the benchmarks it had to hit in 2010, starting January 15 of that year. Citadel was carrying $2 billion in debt following the June 12, 2007 deal with Disney for the ABC Radio properties. Overall, Citadel's revenue fell almost 23%.

In a quarterly SEC filing, the company disclosed the possibility of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, in the filing, said that it "does not expect to meet its covenant requirements under the Senior Credit and Term Facility as of January 15, 2010." The Wall Street Journal reported that Citadel worked on a "prearranged" bankruptcy package in which lenders would get ownership of Citadel in exchange for forgiving about $2 billion of the company's $2.76 billion-dollar debt. The filing began on December 20, 2009.

During that period, its senior lenders took 90% of the equity, and the re-structuring approved by a Manhattan federal bankruptcy judge was completed. It emerged from bankruptcy in June 2010, owned by its lenders, the Dallas hedge fund R2 Investments, JPMorgan Chase and the buyout firm TPG. The company's debt was reduced from $2.14 billion to $762.5 million, and the broadcaster was poised to be an acquirer as well as an operator.

Acquisition by Cumulus Media
Months after Citadel Broadcasting emerged from bankruptcy, it was approached by Atlanta-based Cumulus Media with two unsolicited merger offers, both of which Citadel rejected. Then in February 2011, CNBC reported Cumulus was in "exclusive negotiations" to acquire Citadel. This third offer would be worth $2.5 billion to Citadel shareholders, some of whom were said to have already been pushing the board to consider a sale.

On March 10, 2011, Citadel Broadcasting announced via email that it had been purchased by Cumulus Media in a deal worth $2.4 billion. Some of the Cumulus or Citadel radio stations would, however, have to be transferred into a trust to comply with the FCC's ownership limitations, especially in those markets where Citadel already had a "grandfathered" over-the-limit station group. Ultimately these included WELJ in Montauk, New York and WCAT-FM in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, placed in a trust operated by Scott Knoblauch.

Cumulus Media's purchase of Citadel became final on September 16, 2011.

Employee poaching suit
In early 2007, Citadel Broadcasting filed a lawsuit against Peak Broadcasting, claiming Peak raided its staff and secured company information. Peak operated in the Boise, Idaho market after purchasing six radio stations from Clear Channel Communications. Citadel also owns six stations in Boise. The suit claimed that one of the former Citadel employees stole a computer disk with critical information after asking the Citadel IT person to help him copy information, which Peak then used to compete against Citadel in Fresno, California, as well. Peak has denied the allegations, but the two parties reached a confidential settlement, which included an undisclosed payment to Citadel, according to the Idaho Statesman.

Becoming environmentally friendly
On April 16, 2008, Citadel Broadcasting became the first organization-wide radio company to join the Environmental Protection Agency's "Green Power Partnership Program" and committed US$1 million in Educational Green public service announcements. In April 2008, ABC/Citadel's KGO in San Francisco, California was installing equipment for broadcasting with solar power during the daytime hours.  The maximum rated output of the solar cells installed at the KGO transmitter site is a little over 7 kW, which under ideal conditions is about 15% of the 50 kW of power radiated by the station's transmitter during daytime hours.

Notes

References
 Radio Ink (June 12, 2007). Citadel Closes On ABC Radio Radio Ink.

External links

Companies based in Las Vegas
Defunct radio broadcasting companies of the United States
Entertainment companies established in 1984
Companies disestablished in 2011
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Cumulus Media radio stations

Citadel Broadcasting


The PBA on Viva TV was a presentation of Philippine Basketball Association games on Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation by Viva Entertainment after the company absorbed Vintage Sports.

History
In late 1999, Vintage Television was bought by media giant Viva Entertainment. Prior to the acquisition, Vintage Television have signed a three-year broadcast deal with the PBA earlier that year worth 770 million pesos. They defeated GMA Network, in its bid to enter into the sports broadcasting scene following ABS-CBN's coverage of the then-existing Metropolitan Basketball Association.

From 2000 to 2001, Viva TV broadcast PBA games on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays with out of town games covered on Saturdays either live, tape-delay or aired days later. In 2002, at Viva's request, the league scheduled its games on Tuesdays and Thursdays with one game from 6–8, and two double-headers on Saturdays and Sundays to accommodate the airing of the local version of two popular game shows that was also produced by them; (The Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?). This led to a sudden decrease in ratings and the league shifted back its 2001 schedule at the start of the semifinals of the Commissioner's Cup.

Noli Eala and Ed Picson were the main play-by-play commentators from 2000 to 2002. However, Picson left the network at midseason following a fallout between him and the network. He would return to cover PBA games for the PBA on ABC broadcast in 2004.

At the end of the 2002 season, Viva left a significant amount of debt to the league. They tried to bid for a new contract with the league but was defeated by the NBN-IBC consortium.

Viva-TV aired its last PBA games on Christmas Day 2002 during Game 4 of the 2002 All-Filipino Cup between the Coca-Cola Tigers and the Alaska Aces. Incoming commissioner Noli Eala and Tommy Manotoc were the commentators for its last run.

Commentators

Play-by-play
Noli Eala
Mon Liboro
Chino Trinidad
Ed Picson
Benjie Santiago
Anthony Suntay
Boom Gonzalez

Analyst
Quinito Henson
Paolo Trillo
TJ Manotoc
Tommy Manotoc
Ron Jacobs
Yeng Guiao
Leo Isaac
Joel Banal

Courtside reporters & Halftime Hosts
Dong Alejar
Paolo Trillo
Chiqui Roa-Puno
Jannelle So
Benjie Santiago
Charissa Litton
Jackie Simpao
Ronnie Nathanielsz
Pia Arcangel

See also
Philippine Basketball Association
PBA on ESPN 5
List of programs previously broadcast by Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation

References

Viva TV
Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation original programming
2000 Philippine television series debuts
2002 Philippine television series endings
Philippine sports television series

PBA on Viva TV


Richard Gary Leventhal (born January 24, 1960) is an American reporter. He was a senior correspondent for Fox News Channel from June 1997 to June 2021. Before joining Fox, he spent 10 years in local news, reporting and anchoring in markets including Columbia, South Carolina; Spartanburg, South Carolina; West Palm Beach, Florida; Miami; Chicago; and New York City. He is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., with a B.A. in broadcast journalism.

Career
Leventhal has been to war zones nearly two dozen times, including five trips to Iraq, four to Afghanistan, eight to Israel (including multiple journeys to the West Bank and Gaza), tours of Albania, and Macedonia during the war in Kosovo and two trips to Libya in 2011. In 2003, Leventhal spent nine weeks in Kuwait and Iraq, embedded with the United States Marine Corps' 3rd L.A.R., crossing the border and advancing to the outskirts of Baghdad, where he joined the Sinners and Saints of the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines. He was one of the first reporters on the scene at the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks, before the towers fell to the ground. He traveled to Bahrain and Afghanistan later that year, embedding with Marines at Camp Rhino and Kandahar Airport for the launch of the War on Terror.

More recently he provided live coverage of flooding in Louisiana, the killing of Osama bin Laden and the 10 year commemoration of the September 11 attacks. He spent significant time covering 2010's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and has been dispatched to numerous natural disasters over 24 years of reporting, riding out major hurricanes including Katrina, Rita, Andrew, and Hugo. He went to Haiti for the devastating earthquake in 2010 and to Vatican City to cover the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II and the selection of his successor and was live on scene for The Miracle on the Hudson and later, Captain "Sully" Sullenberger's return to flight. He also recently took a ride in an F-15 with the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

Biography
Leventhal is a younger son of Dr. Allan Leventhal, a retired psychologist in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Carol Leventhal, the retired director of Greenbelt Cares in Greenbelt, Maryland. He is second of three siblings. He has an older brother, Scott Leventhal (born 1958), and a sister, Leigh (born 1963). He completed his high school education in Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring in 1978.

Personal life
Leventhal was married to Penny Daniels, who was on-air reporter for WSVN-TV in Miami and WFLD-TV in Chicago. He and Daniels are divorced. They have two daughters. Leventhal later eloped with Beth Shak; they were married on June 9, 2016 in Las Vegas. Leventhal and Shak divorced in 2017. In 2020, Leventhal married Kelly Dodd, star of The Real Housewives of Orange County.

References

External links
Rick Leventhal's Fox News Bio
Remembering Sept. 11
Remembering 9/11: Incredible Raw Video Shows Rick Leventhal Interviewing Survivors at Ground Zero as North Tower Collapses

1960 births
American television reporters and correspondents
American University School of Communication alumni
American war correspondents
Fox News people
Living people
Montgomery College alumni
People from Long Island
People from Prince George's County, Maryland
People from Silver Spring, Maryland
Journalists from New York City
People from Newport Beach, California
Journalists from Florida
People from Columbia, South Carolina
Journalists from Chicago

Rick Leventhal


is a Japanese Noh play by Zeami Motokiyo which focuses on Taira no Atsumori, a young samurai who was killed in the Genpei War, and his killer, Kumagai Naozane. Atsumori's death is portrayed tragically in the Heike monogatari (Tale of the Heike), from which this and many other works stem.

Background

Atsumori, roughly 16 years old at the time of the battle of Ichi-no-Tani (1184), was killed by the Minamoto warrior Kumagai Naozane. In the Heike monogatari and many works derived from it, this is focused upon as a particularly tragic episode. Atsumori is also, like many of his Taira brethren, portrayed as a courtier and poet, not truly prepared for battle. He is said to have carried a flute into battle, evidence of his peaceful, courtly nature as well as his youth and naïveté. Kumagai also notes that none of his fellow Genji (Minamoto) warriors were cultivated to a point where they would ride into battle with a flute. Royall Tyler's analysis, preceding his translation of the play, focuses on the contrasts between Atsumori, the young, peaceful courtier and flute player, and Kumagai, the older seasoned warrior.

Plot

The Noh play takes place some years after the end of the Genpei War. It is an example of the dream or mugen genre of Noh, although it differs slightly in that the ghost is usually unrelated to the person who sees it. The ghost of Atsumori, disguised as a grass cutter, is the shite role, and Kumagai, having become a monk and changed his name to Renshō (or Rensei), is played by the waki.

The play begins with Renshō's arrival at Ichi-no-Tani, also known as Suma, a location which features prominently in a number of classic texts, and thus has many layers of significance within the Noh; references are made throughout the play to other events that took place there, in particular those of the Genji monogatari and Ise monogatari. The monk seeks to ask forgiveness from Atsumori, and to calm his spirit. There he meets a flute-playing youth and his companions; he speaks with them briefly about fluting and about Atsumori before the youth reveals that he has a connection to Atsumori, and the first act ends.

Between the two acts, there is a kyōgen interlude, as is quite common and traditional in Noh. A kyōgen performer, playing an anonymous villager, speaks with Renshō and relates to the audience the background of the story of Atsumori, Kumagai and the battle of Ichi-no-tani.

The second act begins as the first one ended, with Renshō reciting prayers for Atsumori, who now makes his appearance. The actor who played the youth in the first act has now changed costume and plays Atsumori; this is a very common device in the most standard Noh plays, and it is implied that the youth earlier was Atsumori's ghost in disguise. Atsumori (along with the chorus chanting for him) relates his tragic story from his perspective, re-enacting it in dance form. The play then ends with Renshō refusing to re-enact his role in Atsumori's death; the ghost declares that Renshō is not his enemy, and asks that the monk pray for his release. (Tied to the mortal realm by the emotional power of his death, Atsumori's ghost has been unable to move on.)

Famous verse

The Kōwakamai (幸若舞) version of Atsumori (not the Noh play) contains the following verse:

It is a very famous verse known to be often sung by Oda Nobunaga. Geten (, Gerakuten , or Nirmaannarati) is an imaginary world of greed and desire in Buddhism.
According to scriptures, a day in Geten is equal to a year in our world and an inhabitant of Geten lives 8,000 years.

See also
Ikuta Atsumori (also known as Ikuta) – a related Noh play centering on Atsumori.
Tadanori – a related Noh play centering on another Taira killed in the same battle.
Ichinotani Futaba Gunki – a jōruri and kabuki play which relates much the same events.

References
Tyler, Royall (ed. & trans.)(1992). "Japanese Nō Dramas." London: Penguin Books.

Noh plays
15th-century plays
Buddhist plays
Plays set in the 12th century

Atsumori (play)


Domnall mac Donnchada Midi (died 799) was a King of Mide of the Clann Cholmáin. He was the son of the High King of Ireland, Donnchad Midi (died 797). He ruled in as King of Mide from 797 to 799. Omitted from the king list of Uisnech in the Book of Leinster, he is included in the poem on the kings of Mide.

The period between the death of Donnchad Midi and the accession of his son Conchobar mac Donnchado in 803 was a time of civil strife and confusion amongst the Clann Cholmáin. Apparently Donnchad was succeeded by his son Domnall mac Donnchada Midi in 797. That same year the high king Áed Oirdnide of the Cenél nEógain invaded Meath and defeated Clann Cholmáin at the Battle of Druim Ríg. In this battle were slain two of Domnall's uncles, Fínnechta and Diarmait Odar as well as Fínnechta son of Follaman of the related Caílle Follamain. Áed went on to devastate Meath which submitted to him and the beginning of his high kingship is considered to have occurred from that point on.

In 799 Domnall mac Donnchada Midi was assassinated by his own kinsmen and his uncle Muiredach mac Domnaill Midi became King of Mide. Muiredach first appears in 799 as leading the forces of Mide in a victory over the Cenél Cairpri of Tethba at the Battle of Finnabair in Tethba in which the king of the Cenél Cairpri was slain. He may have been acting in the interest of his nephew Domnall as the Annals of Ulster place this event before Domnall's assassination. However, the Annals of the Four Masters place this even after Domnall's assassination and so Muiredach may have been imposing his own authority.

Notes

References

 Charles-Edwards, T. M. (2000), Early Christian Ireland, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
 Mac Niocaill, Gearoid (1972), Ireland before the Vikings, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan
 Annals of Ulster at  at University College Cork
 Annals of the Four Masters at  at University College Cork
 Book of Leinster,Mide magen clainne Cuind at CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork

External links
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork

Kings of Uisnech
799 deaths
8th-century Irish monarchs
Year of birth unknown
Kings of Mide

Domnall mac Donnchada Midi