Isaac "Bougie" Herzog (; born 22 September 1960) is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the 11th president of Israel since 2021. He is the first president to be born in Israel after its Declaration of Independence.

Son of former Israeli president Chaim Herzog, he is a lawyer by profession and had served as Government Secretary from 1999 to 2001. He was a member of the Knesset from 2003 to 2018. He has held several ministerial posts between 2005 and 2011, including serving as Minister of Welfare and Social Services from 2007 to 2011 under prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Herzog had also served as Chairman of the Labor Party and the Zionist Union alliance from 2013 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 2013 to 2018 and was the Labor Party candidate for prime minister during the 2015 legislative election.

Herzog was elected in the 2021 presidential election and was inaugurated on 7 July 2021. He is the first son of an Israeli president to become president himself.

Early life and education
Isaac (Yitzhak) "Bougie" Herzog was born in Tel Aviv. He is the son of Major-General Chaim Herzog, who served two terms as the Sixth President of Israel from 1983 to 1993, and Aura Ambache, founder of the Council for a Beautiful Israel. Herzog's father was born and raised in Ireland and his mother was born in Egypt; their families were of Eastern European Jewish descent (from Poland, Russia, and Lithuania). He has two brothers and a sister. His paternal grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1922 to 1935 and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1936 to 1959. The third foreign minister of Israel, Abba Eban, was his uncle.

When his father served as permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations for three years, Herzog lived in New York City and attended the Ramaz School. In the following years, while also studying in high school, Herzog gained an advanced academic education at Cornell University and New York University and spent summers at Camp Ramah. He also accompanied his father to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Brooklyn.

When he returned to Israel at the end of 1978, he enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and served as a major officer in Unit 8200 of the Israeli Intelligence Corps.

Herzog studied law at Tel Aviv University. He worked at a law firm founded by his father, Herzog, Fox & Ne'eman.

Career
Although he did not win a seat in the 1999 elections, Herzog served as the secretary of the government in Ehud Barak's cabinet until 2001 when Barak was defeated by Ariel Sharon in a special election for prime minister. In 1999, he was also investigated in the "Amutot Barak" scandal (a scandal involving allegations that the party funding law was violated), but maintained his silence. The Attorney General, therefore, decided to close the case against him due to lack of evidence. From 2000 until 2003, he served as chairman of the Israel Anti-Drug Authority.

Herzog won a seat in the 2003 election as a member of the Labor Party, and was appointed Minister of Housing and Construction at his request when Labor joined Ariel Sharon's coalition government on 10 January 2005. However, on 23 November 2005, he resigned from his cabinet post along with the rest of the party. Prior to the 2006 elections, Herzog won second place on Labor's list in the party's primaries. He was initially appointed Minister of Tourism in Ehud Olmert's Kadima-led coalition, but was reassigned to the Social Affairs ministry in March 2007 after Yisrael Beiteinu was awarded the Tourism Ministry following their late entry to the governing coalition, and was also appointed Minister of the Diaspora, Society and the Fight Against Antisemitism. He was again second on the party's list for the 2009 elections. Following the election, he was appointed Minister of Welfare and Social Services and Minister of the Diaspora. In January 2009 he was appointed by PM Ehud Olmert as the Israel Government Coordinator for the provision of humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza. He later resigned from the cabinet after Ehud Barak left the Labor Party to establish Independence in January 2011.

In 2011 Herzog was an unsuccessful candidate for the Labor Party leadership. He finished third in the primaries that year after Shelly Yachimovich and Amir Peretz.

Opposition leader
On 22 November 2013 Herzog was elected leader of the Labor Party, defeating incumbent Shelly Yachimovich by 58.5% to 41.5%. In doing so, he became Leader of the Opposition. Whereas Yachimovich focused first on socioeconomic issues, Herzog prioritizes security and resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Ten days after the election, Herzog met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to pledge his support for the two-state solution.

Herzog reportedly reached out to Shas leader Aryeh Deri to increase cooperation between the two opposition factions.

In June 2014, Herzog criticized PM Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to engage the international community, failing to present a proposal for peace with Palestinians, and failure to work effectively with the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Herzog declared that Netanyahu's "loathing and hostility for Barack Obama" was one of his greatest failures, since it put Israel's security at risk.

With the governing coalition dissolving and new elections expected in March 2015, Herzog called on Hatnua and Kadima parties to join his Labor Party in forming a new coalition. In an interview with Ynet, he stated, "I am capable of replacing Netanyahu. I will do everything in order to establish a bloc before the elections." Shortly thereafter, Herzog and Tzipi Livni, who was justice minister and is head of a centrist faction, announced they would campaign on a joint slate in the upcoming election in an effort to keep Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party, from securing a fourth term as prime minister. The joint list was named Zionist Union, winning 24 seats to Likud's 30 in the 2015 election, making it the largest Opposition faction.

In July 2017, Herzog was eliminated in the first round of the Labor Party leadership vote. Avi Gabbay went on to win the leadership elections; however, Herzog remained official leader of the opposition in the Knesset as Gabay was not an elected MK. After being elected chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Herzog resigned as Leader of the Opposition and from the Knesset. Tzipi Livni succeeded him as Leader of the Opposition, whilst Robert Tiviaev replaced him in the Knesset.

Chairman of the Jewish Agency
In June 2018, Herzog was unanimously elected chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Herzog marked bridging the gap between the Jewish people and the State of Israel as one of his objectives. In an interview on Ynet news, Herzog stated that he views intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews as a plague to which there must be a solution. On October 24, 2018, Herzog led a resolution to reaffirm the Jewish Agency's Board of Governors' commitment to the principles of a democratic Israel as emerging from the Declaration of Independence.

Following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Herzog expressed his concern from the rising anti-Semitism all over the world. In the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the European Parliament in Brussels he urged the leaders of European countries to fight anti-Semitism and to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism. In March 2019, the Jewish Agency became the first public institution in Israel to help employees finance surrogacy services abroad so that they can become parents (this includes gay and single parents).

President of Israel

On 19 May 2021, Herzog announced his candidacy in the 2021 Israeli presidential election. On 2 June 2021, he was elected as president by the Knesset. He won more votes than any presidential candidate in Israel's history, receiving 87 votes compared to 26 for his opponent Miriam Peretz, and was sworn in on 7 July 2021, becoming the first son of a former Israeli president to also become president.

In his inaugural speech as President of the State of Israel, on 7 July 2022, Herzog called for the healing of rifts in Israeli society and the building of bridges within Israel and between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. Herzog said: "We must remember that it was baseless hatred that led to the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The same baseless hatred, the same factionalism and polarization that claim such a heavy price from us—nowadays, and every day. The heaviest price of all is the erosion of our national resilience." Herzog also emphasized the importance of confronting the climate crisis.

Since entering the Israeli presidency, Herzog has conducted a number of major state visits. On 30 January 2022, Herzog conducted a historic state visit to the United Arab Emirates. In March 2022, Herzog embarked on a regional tour of neighboring Mediterranean states, taking in Greece, Cyprus, and a state visit to Turkey together with the First Lady, as the guests of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife Emine. Following months of dialogue since Herzog's election as president, the presidents met for a summit at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, symbolizing their countries' desire to move on from a period of tense relations. During the visit, Herzog addressed the "baggage of the past," which he said "never disappears of its own accord," and underscored that the Israeli-Turkish relationship would be determined by both states' actions. In the latter part of his Turkish visit, as part of a broader policy of strengthening relations with the Jewish Diaspora during foreign engagements, Herzog and his wife Michal visited the Istanbul Jewish community at the Neve Shalom Synagogue, the target of various terror attacks over the years.

On 29 March 2022, Herzog conducted a historic first public visit by an Israeli leader to Amman, Jordan, during which he met King Abdullah II, with whom he discussed to deepen the Israeli-Jordanian relationship, maintain regional stability, and bolster peace and normalization.

Further to his declared objective of embarking on a journey within Israeli society, and as part of his public engagements in Israel and visits to its diverse communities, on 29 October 2021 Herzog participated in a memorial for the victims of the 1956 Kafr Qasim Massacre and apologized on behalf of the State of Israel, making him the first Israeli official to ask for forgiveness at the official ceremony in Kafr Qasim. In his speech, Herzog said: "The killing and injury of innocents are absolutely forbidden. They must remain beyond all political arguments."

In October 2021, Herzog announced the establishment of the Israeli Climate Forum under the auspices of the Office of the President, appointing former Member of Knesset Dov Khenin as the forum's chairman. The forum oversees a number of working groups focusing on different issues and brings together public officials and private citizens to coordinate efforts to combat the climate crisis. In his "Renewable Middle East" speech, delivered at the Haaretz Climate Change Forum, Herzog spelled out a vision for how the climate crisis presented opportunities for regional cooperation across the Middle East and Mediterranean Basin.

On 28 November 2021, Herzog lit candles for the first night of Hanukkah at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, attracting left-wing criticism. Visiting Hebron, Herzog declared that recognition of the Jewish people's historical attachments to Hebron "must be beyond all controversy".

In December 2021, Herzog launched his "Think Good" campaign, with the objective of combating cyberbullying. The campaign, in collaboration with Meta, promoted respectful and inclusive discourse online.

In October 2023, Herzog accused the residents of the Gaza Strip of collective responsibility for the Hamas attack on Israel.

On 17 October 2023, Herzog said that accusations that Israel caused the al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion were "a 21st-century blood libel."

On 22 October, he told Britain's Sky News said that Hamas fighters captured by Israel were carrying instructions from al-Qaeda on how to make chemical weapons, including a chemical bomb, saying "we are dealing with ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hamas".

Personal life
Herzog is married to Michal, a lawyer, and has three sons. He resides in his childhood home in the Tzahala neighborhood of Tel Aviv.

References

External links

Isaac Herzog at the Knesset website
Isaac Herzog at the President of the State of Israel website

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1960 births
Living people
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Isaac Herzog


A bi-articulated bus or double-articulated bus and sometimes train-bus or tram-bus is a type of high-capacity articulated bus with an extra axle and a second articulation joint, as well as extended length. Bi-articulated buses tend to be employed in high-frequency core routes or bus rapid transit schemes rather than in conventional bus routes.

Design considerations
Common bi-articulated buses resemble rail vehicles in design. They often have elevated train-type doors instead of traditional bus doors to use dedicated stations. Payment is typically made at a bus station using a fare gate rather than on the bus.

Compared to using multiple smaller buses on a route, challenges using a bi-articulated bus include:
 difficulties maneuvering in traffic
 an increased turning radius
 the need to have extended length station platforms
 reduced frequency of service (one larger bus every 10 minutes rather than two regular sized buses coming once every 5 minutes)
 less flexibility for scheduling, routing, and maintenance.
However, a bi-articulated bus requires fewer drivers relative to the number of passengers per bus.

Early versions
In the late 1980s, the French manufacturers Renault and Heuliez Bus developed the "Mégabus" (officially the Heuliez GX237), a bi-articulated high-floor bus. The demonstrator Mégabus visited transit agencies throughout France, but the only city to order them was Bordeaux (an order of 10 buses, built in 1989). These buses, now retired, were used on Bordeaux's bus route 7 until the city's tram system opened in 2004.

Hungarian bus manufacturer Ikarus also developed a bi-articulated bus prototype, the Ikarus 293, in the early 1990s.

In Bucharest, the ITB (today the STB) operated a double articulated trolleybus (unofficially called DAC 122E), made by adding a modified section between the first and the last sections of a DAC 117E articulated trolleybus delivered in 1980, with the rear trailing section coming from a damaged DAC 117E. This vehicle was built to fulfill the need of high capacity person transportation, which was proving difficult for the ITB in 1988, when the prototype was made. However, the DAC 117E's 134 kW traction motor proved insufficient for such a heavy vehicle, let alone the weight of passengers when it operated at full capacity. As a result, the vehicle was very slow and had trouble operating on grades, especially the incline between Cișmigiu Park and University Square. It also had trouble making sharp turns and was difficult to control, especially on snow or ice. This trolleybus was operated on long lines with wide roads and no major turns except the end of the lines like 69 and 90, but occasionally entered on lines 85, 66, 79 and 86. Bucharest traffic became increasingly intense in the very late 1990s, and RATB sought shorter trolleybuses. The DAC 122E was withdrawn from regular service, being occasionally used on lines 69 and 90 until 2000 when it was fully removed from service, displaced by the then-new Ikarus 415Ts and scrapped. Bucharest no longer operates bi-articulated vehicles (except for trams) due to high traffic levels, which is also the reason why between 2007 and 2018, the RATB refused to operate normal articulated buses. A regular double articulated diesel bus was also made but the capital police refused to allow it to be road legal and to register it on the grounds of its excessive length being outside of the highway code (maximum 17m for articulated buses), and was converted to a regular bus shortly after; the trolleybus was allowed to run being part of a different vehicle class owing to its electric traction.

Use

A bi-articulated bus is a long vehicle and usually requires a specially trained driver, as maneuvering (particularly reversing) can be difficult. Articulated electric trolleybuses can be difficult to control, with their motors producing momentary peak power in excess of 600 kilowatts (816 PS; 805 hp). The trailer section of a "puller" bus can be subject to unusual centripetal forces, which many people can find uncomfortable, although this is not an issue with "pushers". Bi-articulated buses are difficult to reverse park as joints force the bus into a zig-zag shape.

The transit system that has used bi-articulated buses the longest is the Rede Integrada de Transporte, in Curitiba, Brazil, which provides a type of service that has come to be known – particularly in American English – as bus rapid transit (BRT), where buses run in dedicated lanes and stop only at enclosed stations. Use of bi-articulated buses began in 1992, with vehicles manufactured by Volvo (chassis) and Marcopolo/Ciferal (body), able to carry up to 270 passengers. Each bi-articulated bus is equipped with five doors where passengers can quickly load and unload. Buses stop only at enclosed, tube-shaped stations, where passengers pre-pay the fare and then board at the same level as the vehicle floor. Curitiba has over 170 bi-articulated buses in operation on routes serving five main corridors of dedicated bus lanes. These buses run on an average period of 50 seconds during peak hours.

Australia
They are planned to be operating on Brisbane Metro which will open in the future.

Belgium

On 28 June 2020, the Flemish regional public transport company De Lijn inaugurated the Ringtrambus (route 820) between Brussels Airport and Jette via Vilvoorde, operated half-hourly by 14 24-metre double-articulated buses. The service is presented as a step towards the tramline that was originally proposed.

In Wallonia, TEC has operated a Van Hool AGG300 on line 48, between Liège and Sart-Tilman, from 1998 to 2020.

Brazil
The Brazilian bus body manufacturers Marcopolo, CAIO, Busscar and most lately Neobus have made many bi-articulated buses on top of Volvo chassis. They are currently used in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Campinas, Goiânia, Curitiba and, outside of Brazil, in Bogotá, Colombia.

In November 2016, Volvo launched the Volvo Gran Artic 300 bi-bus chassis, specifically developed in Brazil for BRT systems. At  long, this chassis is capable of carrying 300 passengers.

Canada
In November 2019, Quebec City's Réseau de transport de la Capitale announced that it is planning to open the city's first BRT line along Boulevard Charest by 2026, utilizing a fleet of bi-articulated electric buses. Quebec City is the first and only North American city to make such an announcement.

China
The Chinese manufacturer Youngman developed the JNP6250G bi-articulated bus for 300 passengers with assistance from Neoplan. In 2007, these buses appeared on trial service in Beijing and were thought to be the world's longest, at  long.

Colombia
TransMilenio in Bogotá has operated bi-articulated buses since 2009, having purchased 120 by 2013. In 2020 it will receive a further 58.

Czech Republic
The Belgian manufacturer Van Hool offers a  bi-articulated bus with a capacity of about 180 passengers. This bus is used in Prague, with line 119 connecting the Václav Havel Airport Prague with the rest of the city.

Denmark
In September 2023, Aalborg introduced bi-articulated busses (under the name plusbus) running between Væddeløbsbanen and Aalborg University Hospital.

Ecuador
Empresa de Pasajeros de Quito in Quito operates bi-articulated buses since 2016, having purchased 80. They are Volvo DH12D buses, model B340M EURO 3, with a diesel tank capacity of 120 gallons and a power of 340 HP. The chassis is a bi-articulated Volvo B340M.

France
The Swiss manufacturer Hess produces 22 bi-articulated lighTram 25TOSA electric. These units are used in the city of Nantes for the BusWay line 4, to replace the Mercedes-Benz Citaro G CNG of the line, which had become under capacity (these having been assigned to line 5). The line 4 carrying an average of 42,660 per day in 2018, the entry into service of the Hess buses taking place at the end of 2019.

The city of Metz and the Martinique island run Van Hool Exqui.City 24 hybrid diesel-electric and the city of Nîmes in the natural gas-electric version.

Germany
The Belgian manufacturer Van Hool offers a  bi-articulated bus with a capacity of about 180 passengers. These buses are used in the German cities of Aachen (lines 5 and 45) and Hamburg (Metrobus 5 and Eilbus E86), where single-articulated buses alone were not able to handle the huge number of passengers per day. In Hamburg they were retired in 2018 after 13 years of service as they started to require more and more maintenance due to their growing age and an unusual level of wear and tear, caused by the second articulation joint.

In 2012, Fraunhofer IVI introduced the AutoTram Extra Grand in Dresden. With overall length of  it is the longest bus in service with a passenger capacity of 256. Its unique 5-axle design is made possible using advanced computer controlled steering on the 3 trailing axles.

Luxembourg
The Swiss manufacturer Hess produces a bi-articulated, hybrid-engine bus based on the LighTram. This type is currently in use for the Luxembourgian bus operator Voyages Emile Weber.

Netherlands
The Belgian manufacturer Van Hool offers a  bi-articulated bus with a capacity of about 180 passengers. In September 2002, fifteen were deployed on lines 11 and 12 in Utrecht, connecting the central railway station to office, college and university buildings at the edge of the city. Twelve more have been added since.

From August 2014 to 2016, Swiss manufacturer Hess's bi-articulated LighTram buses were in service in Groningen, Netherlands on the route from the main train station via the city centre to the university north of the city. In 2016 these buses were moved to Utrecht because the few stops and higher speeds on this line made the hybrid engine perform poorly.

Norway
From August 2019 onwards, Trondheim have used Van Hool Exqui.City 24 CNG Hybrid on three core routes, known as the Metrobuss system.

Spain

Barcelona has had 24-meter long bi-articulated buses, running on fossil gas, on line H12 since May 2013.

Sweden
Volvo has manufactured several bi-articulated buses now in use in Gothenburg. They are based on Volvo's "puller"-type articulated, low-floor bus model with the internal combustion engine mounted on the floor on the side of the bus, and the cooling system on the roof. They have not manufactured anymore and are currently being replaced by normal articulated buses.

The city of Malmö is currently operating one bus line as a bus rapid transit route with 24 meter long, bi-articulated busses from Van Hool, and it is planned to upgrade further local bus routes with these bi-articulated busses.

Switzerland
The Swiss manufacturer Hess produces a bi-articulated trolleybus called LighTram that is in use in several Swiss cities, including Zürich, Geneva, Lausanne and Lucerne.

Turkey
İstanbul makes significant use of Akia Ultra LF biarticulated buses in the Metrobüs. Manisa, Malatya and Elazığ also operate biarticulated buses.

See also

 Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit
 Bombardier Guided Light Transit
List of buses
Road train
 Trailer bus

References

External links

Photo of an early Van Hool AGG300
Image gallery of Volvo BRT systems, some bi-articulated
Details of the Renault Heuliez Mégabus
Press release about introduction of Volvo bi-articulated buses in Gothenburg, Sweden
showing the articulation better
Youngman-Neoplan China (Flash + JavaScript)

Buses by type
French inventions

Bi-articulated bus


Khet is a chess-like abstract strategy board game that uses lasers, and was formerly known as Deflexion. Players take turns moving Egyptian-themed pieces around the playing field, firing their low-powered laser diode after each move. Most of the pieces are mirrored on one or more sides, allowing the players to alter the path of the laser through the playing field. When a piece is struck by a laser on a non-mirrored side, it is eliminated from the game.

Under its original name, the game was a Mensa Select Award winner. Its name was changed on September 15, 2006. The new game retains the same rules of gameplay, but has a different design, including a new color scheme and a new box design. Under the new name, the game was one of five finalists for the 2007 Toy of the Year award.

History
Professor Michael Larson and two students, Del Segura and Luke Hooper, designed the game as a class project at Tulane University. (Professor Larson is now at the University of Colorado.) The game was introduced to the public in the spring of 2005, and was first brought to prominence at the New York Toy Fair of that year. The game was first shipped in October 2005. The first Deflexion World Championship was held December 10, 2005 under the dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Registration was free, and the participants competed for cash and other prizes. Initially the game was branded as Deflexion, but when confronted with a trademark dispute the creators opted to rebrand and develop an Egyptian theme for the game.

Under the new name, Khet, the first Regional Championship took place in April 2006 at the Café du Monde in the New Orleans French Quarter. Twenty-four participants competed for a number of prizes. As a special bonus, the Eye of Horus beam splitter was unveiled at the very end, and used by each player in the championship game. Khet was also featured on an episode of the HGTV show "I Want That: Tech Toys". Footage from the New Orleans tournament was included in the broadcast.

In 2011 Innovention Toys filed a patent infringement case against MGA, Walmart and Toys "R" Us for producing the game Laser Battle. After Innovention won the case MGA and others appealed the decision where they still lost, but managed to drop the nonobviousness verdict. In 2017 a company calledThinkfun acquired the license for the now out of print Khet 2.0 and rebranded the game "Laser Chess", which kept the same rules, but introduced a sci-fi design.

Gameplay
Each player starts the game with 14 playing pieces (12 in Deflexion) on a 10x8 board, arranged in one of several predefined configurations, and a laser. The board has some squares (right file, left corners) that are restricted to pieces of one side or the other, preventing the creation of impenetrable fortress positions. In the original game, the lasers were built into the gameboard; in the "Khet 2.0" version, the lasers are instead built into two extra Sphinx playing pieces, which can be rotated as a player's turn even though they cannot be moved from their starting positions. Scarab (formerly "Djed") and Pyramid pieces have mirrors (one on the Pyramid, and two on the Scarab) positioned such that when the laser beam strikes a reflective side, it reflects at a 90° angle. Players try to position pieces in a fashion that allows the laser beam to reflect into the opponent's Pharaoh, thus winning the game; however, they must also try to protect their own Pharaoh from being struck by the laser beam at the same time. On each turn, a player either moves a piece one square in any direction, or rotates a piece 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise. After moving, the player must fire their own laser, and any piece of either color hit on a non-reflecting side (with the exception of Anubis in Khet 2.0 being hit from the front) is removed from play.

The pieces in the game are:
Pharaoh (1 of each color) The Pharaoh is the most important piece for each side. If hit with a laser, it is destroyed and its owner loses the game. Similar to a king in chess, the Pharaoh pieces are comparatively weak, and so are often not moved unless under duress.
Scarab/Djed (2 of each color) Scarabs (formerly called Djeds) consist primarily of large, dual-sided mirrors. They reflect a laser coming in from any direction, and thus cannot be eliminated from the board. Also, unlike other pieces, Scarabs may move into an adjacent square even if it is already occupied, by switching places with the piece found there (whichever color it may be). Thus, they are the most powerful pieces on the board, but must be used with care, as a move that puts one side of the mirror in a favorable position may expose the player to attack using the opposite side of the same mirror.
Pyramid (7 of each color) Pyramids have a single diagonal mirror, and form the primary mechanism for directing the path of the laser. They are vulnerable to a hit from two of the four sides, and must be defended lest the player lose their ability to build paths of any size.
Obelisk (2 in Deflexion, 4 in Khet 1, not in Khet 2) Large pillars with no mirrored sides, these are vulnerable to attack from any direction, and therefore useful mostly as an emergency sacrifice to protect another piece (such as the Pharaoh). In Khet 1, each player starts the game with four obelisks each; a laser hit always removes an obelisk.
Anubis (2 in Khet 2 only) Anubis replaced Obelisks in Khet 2.0; they have the advantage that, despite still being unmirrored, they are not affected by a laser strike on the front; they must be hit on the sides or rear in order to be eliminated.
Sphinx (1 of each color) In Khet 2.0, the Sphinxes hold the lasers. They may not move (each player's is located at their closest right-hand corner) but may be rotated in place so as to fire down the rank instead of the file. A Sphinx is unaffected by laser fire, whether the opponent's or its own reflected back upon itself.

Three opening setups are most commonly used: Classic, which is the standard starting configuration, and is the best setup for one's first time playing; Imhotep, which is a variation on the Classic setup that introduces new defensive possibilities; and Dynasty, which has a fairly even mix of offense and defense, and moves quickly. However, any configuration agreed upon by both players can be used. In Deflexion, half the pieces were gold, and half were silver. When the company changed the name to Khet, the gold pieces were changed to red. In Deflexion, gold always goes first, and in Khet, silver always goes first.

Most new Khet players allow their opponents to "control" the game, and focus on attack or defense depending on the actions of their opponent. However, more experienced players often concentrate on quickly building up a strong defense, and then relentlessly attacking their opponent's pieces, aiming ultimately to reach the Pharaoh. Some take this strategy even farther, and spend almost the entire game focusing on creating an impenetrable defense, simply waiting for their opponent to make a fatal mistake, or to leave themselves open to allow a quick strike at their Pharaoh. As in chess, three-fold repetition of the position is a draw. The average game lasts approximately 10 minutes, however a game between experienced players may take much longer.

Expansions
Two expansions have been released for the game. The Eye of Horus beam splitter expansion adds a new piece that is similar to a Djed, but which splits the beam. When a beam strikes the beam splitter, half bounces off at a right angle, as with the other mirrored pieces, while the other half continues on directly through the mirror, thus creating two beams out of one and adding a new strategic element to the game. Eye of Horus beam splitters are available in gold and silver, for those who own the old Deflexion game, and in red and silver, for those who own the newer Khet game. With the expansion pack, each player receives one beam splitter, which replaces one of their Djeds.

On May 15, 2008 an expansion called "Tower of Kadesh" was released. It adds a 3D element into the game by adding a second level to the game board. The base of the tower has four mirrors that bring the laser up to the top of the tower. In addition to moving a piece horizontally or rotating it, players may move a piece vertically up to or down from the tower, or may move or rotate the tower itself.

In January 2011, a new edition of Khet called "Khet 2.0" was released. The gameplay is still the same, but the board and the pieces got a new modern look. The expansions released for Khet 1.0 are not compatible with Khet 2.0, however, "The Eye of Horus 2.0" was released in 2011. There were plans to release "Tower of Kadesh 2.0" as well, but no updates on it have been heard.

Video game versions

A multi-player, cross platform iPhone, iPad and Android app was developed for Khet 2.0 by Schogini Systems of India and Innovention Toys. The AI engine for the app was developed by Don Dailey, the creator of the Komodo Chess Engine. This version also seems to have had crossplay with Facebook in some way. The IOS versions of Khet seem to be unavailable in the AppStore for the newer versions as of August 2023.

The Steam version was created by BlueLine Game Studios and has the first digital implementation of the Beam Splitter expansion.
 Khet 2.0 for Windows, Mac, and Linux on Steam with the Beam Splitter expansion as DLC)
 Khet 2.0 for iPhone (crossplay between IOS versions and Android version)
 Khet 2.0 for iPad (crossplay between IOS versions and Android version)
 Khet 2.0 for Android (crossplay with the IOS versions)

 Khet for Second Life

References

External links
Official Khet website

Board games introduced in 2005
Abstract strategy games
Mensa Select winners

Khet (game)


Chakswari (Urdu: ), also known as Chaksawari, is an area in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. It comprises 15 Union councils including the Islamgarh Municipal Committee. Amongst the primary affectees from the raising of the Mangla Dam project were inhabitants of Chakswari and Islamgarh.  Chakswari is 26 miles or 41.84 km from Mirpur. The political constituency code for Chakswari and Islamgarh is LA-2.

Chakswari had always been an important trunk road to and fro Mirpur city.  Pre-Mangla Dam the Old Mirpur City now submerged under the Mangla Dam was a stone throw away from Chakswari.  Naturally, all major hub towns tend to be bustling with traffic and subsequently economic and commercial activity.  Chakswari was no different and remains a buzz with a activity and is a major economic and commercial hub outside Mirpur city even today.

Chakswari comprises of many villages that border the Mangla Dam and surround the bustling Chakswari bazaar.  A major city attributed to the state of Mirpur, it remains a major trunk road to travellers and traders to Dadyal, Kotli from and to Mirpur and Bhimber.  Chakswari Bazaar is a major economy in the region and today you can find all modern amenities one would expect in any major city in Pakistan.

Main Source of income of Chakswari, Azad Kashmir is investment via respected overseas Kashmiri's who have moved to UK in the 60s and consecutive years to date. They have created well established communities in Bradford, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Dewsbury, Nottingham, Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent and a small number in towns around Greater Manchester and found in the South of England in Luton, Oxford and Rachyal family in London.

People of Chakswari are very entrepreneurial in spirit but also hard working who initially worked in British manufacturing and textiles industries.  By the time of the second generation they began to diversify into transport work and business.  The third and fourth generation have successfully moved into business and professional careers.  People of Chakswari like the vast majority of people of AJK are renowned for their hospitality, etiquette and hard work.

Geography
Chakswari comprises partly plain and partly hilly areas. Chakswari has pleasant scenery and the climate is generally arid with little rainfall and is characterised by hot summers and cool winters. Its history begins long before the events of partition. The old part of the town is divided up into a number of sub areas, made up of local and rural residentials with farming belts.  There is much family history tied in kinship to each locality that makes up Chakswari. Its old bazaar remains to this day a great commercial startup hub not only for locals but for people who have crossed into Azad Kashmir from other parts of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Many people from oitside set up shop in Chakswari bazaar some for short term and many whom have now settled and adopted Chakswari as their home.

Chakswari is divided into two parts, the historic old town where the majority of the wholesale shops are based.  This is very well established and known for its rich history.  Chakswari's old Raja Bazaar is the old much loved indoor historic shopping centre in the old town.  The old bazaar is actually very well maintained and a labyrinth of little streets with  small outlets selling everything one can imagine.  The bazaar is very safe, extremely clean and well maintained and is a hidden treasure and loved by the people of Chakswari and further parts, Dadyal, people of Kotli regularly frequent it.  The old town still has some iconic restuarants like the iconic old Roopyal dining restaurant near the old bazaar recently refurbished to compete with some new establishments on the colony road but sadly the once Kalyal hotel is no more with time came its demise.

Then offcourse there is the more recent part referred to as Chakswari Colony.  Chakswari Colony was built for the families who lost their homes following the construction of Mangla Dam.  Like most small to large cities where the historic old towns were not built or equipped to manage a boom in population.  Chakswari old town a d bazaar was also unable to meet the needs of a new generation who brought with them automotive traffic.  Naturally Chakswari had to expand outwards, like in most places the shopping precints begin to grow out from the old town connecting itself and so the old town integrated into to the wider roads linking to Chakswari New Colony. The new shopping areas now boasts rivalry to most mid sized cities in Pakistan with some relatively good brands such as the Nafees Bakery, Chicken Cottage and many boutique and high end restaurants on the Kotli Road.  Chakswari is also famous for its marriage halls including The Roopyal Marquee and Nashemam Marriage Hall.  The Roopyal Marquee was the first super marriage hall in tne region if not Azad Kashmir.  The Roopyal Marriage Hall which was the vision of the Late beloved Nadeem Roopyal just off the Kotli Road.  In memory of Late Chaudhry Nadeem Roopyal it is today rightly so renamed Nadeem Roopyal Suites & Marquee who was a trailblazer for modern Marquees now found across the Kotli Chakswari road to Mirpur.

Chakswari is well known for it's important shrine. It is most commonly known as Noshahi Pir who were said to be from the lineage of The Prophet Muhammad PBUH. The Noshahi Haji, Pir Ganj Baksh tomb is in Ralmal Sharif in Gujrat.Ralmal Sharif, Pahlia, Gujrat; as well as Doga Sharif in rural Gujrat. As well as Noshahi Family in Saher Mandi in AJK. There is history of Noshahi Darbar Pir coming to Chakswari to and spreading awareness of Islam and teachings of The Prophet Muhammad. There is also a Chowk named after Noshahi Darbar just outside the bazaar.They were known for helping the people of Chakswari with things like poverty and education. It is one of the most famous Sufi shrines in the region. Chakswari also has lots of mosques, the main one being the Jamia Masjid located in the town. There are other mosques too such as the Jamia-e-Haydar Masjid or Ghazi Hasan Masjid which owes its name to the 15th century Muslim warrior in the region, Raja Ghazi Hasan Khan.

The ancient history of Chakswari can be traced back to the Old Grave Yard located in old Chakswari, leading to the land all around the old town of Chakswari. The old Ancestral Graveyard is located near Gazal Shaav (Holy Site).

Notable parts of Chakswari include Kalyal, Buna Mora or Taki Kalyal, Ladhar, Susral, Panyam, Rachyal, Roopyal, Tagdew but there are many more with rich heritage and history also.

Very notable Azad Kashmiris have hailed from Kalyal village and therefore Kalyal has always been held in high esteem. Even today very well known personalities of Mirpur state / borough hail from Kalyal village of Chakswari.  In recent times Panyam village also is notable due to well known Azad Kashmiri personalities.

The main Potohar areas of LA-2 Tehsil are the following:

1. Kalyal including Buna Mora or Taki Kalyal
2. Panyam
3. Susraal
4. Rachyal
5. Tang dew
6. Palak
7. Pind Khurd
8. Dheri Phali
9. Dheri Barwan
10. Boa
11. Kaneli
12. Mawah
13. Bajjar
14. Herdochi
15. Potha Bainsi
16.Ladhar
17.Chak

Brief History

During the 1947 Poonch rebellion the demographics of Jammu State changed from a Muslim majority state to a Hindu marginal majority state.  The genocide was politically motivated to ensure Kashmir would ascede to India and the independence movement squashed.  Subsequently, a huge revolt took place by the indigenous Muslim Kashmiri population of Jammu and Kashmir against Maharaja Hari Singh and the Indian State.
What began as a economic peaceful boycott by the Indigenous muslim population, beginning as a No Tax revolt soon became a freedom struggle as news of the massacre of Muslims in poonch by Hari Singh and the Indian State reached across the state.  This subsequently led to the First Kashmir War where Chakswari served as a strategic location for the Muslim rebels who styled themselves as the Azad Army. Chakswari was an important staging ground for the revolt and supply of amunition to the Muslim freedom fighters that led to liberation from The despotic Dogra's with support from the state of Pakistan.  This struggle led to the liberation of parts of Kashmir which is dearly referred to by Kashmiris as Azad Kashmir or Free Kashmir from the tyranny of Hari Singh and the Indian State.

In the 1960s once again the region of Chakswari and its neighbouring areas would prove strategic for Pakistan.  This time, it was to build the Mangla Dam at the foot of Mangla and collapse the surrounding areas of Mirpur to support the water needs of the state of Pakistan.

Mangla Dam History

In 1960 IWT (Indus Waters Treaty) was signed; according to this treaty, India was awarded rights to the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi rivers, and Pakistan besides the waters of these three rivers within Pakistani territories, and some financial compensation was granted rights to construct the Indus, Chenab, and Jhelum river basins.

Until 1967, Pakistan's whole irrigation system was totally dependent on the unchecked flow of the River Indus and its main tributaries.

Issue of Poor Agricultural Production

The agricultural production was very poor for a variety of reasons, the most important being the shortage of water during the crucial growing seasons. This issue arose from seasonal fluctuations inflow of the river due to monsoons and the lack of storage facilities to store large quantities of excess water during times of heavy river discharge.

The Mangla Dam was among 2-dams built to overcome this shortcoming and reinforce the irrigation country's infrastructure as a part of the Indus Basin Program, while the 2nd was the Tarbela Dam located on the River Indus in Swabi, KPK.

Mangla Dam Construction

Cost

The dam was built at the cost of Rupees 15.587 billion, ADB (Asian Development Bank) and World Bank-funded for the dam.

Reservoir

The dam was built between 1961 & 1965 across the river Jhelum in the Mirpur district of AJK (Azad Jammu & Kashmir), some 108 km southeast of Islamabad. The components of the Mangla Dam include intake structures, power station, five tunnels, emergency spillway, main spillway, intake embankment, main embankment, and a reservoir.

Apart from the main dam, Sukian dyke seventeen-thousand feet long and a small dam named the Jari Dam to obstruct the Jari Nala-had to be built eleven miles outside the new town of Mirpur. There were 120 x 106 yd3 (cubic yards) of the trench for the reservoir, while the total fill was 142 x 106 yd3 & concrete to 1.96 x 106 yd3, respectively

With the advent of the Mangla Dam project, like most villages of Mirpur district; people of Chakswari migrated to the UK and other countries from the 1960s onwards.

The Mangla Dam remains a very important structure and holds strategic and climatic importance just as it did back the.  It was a  vital project for the people of Pakistan and agriculture of Pakistan.  Often overlooked are the real silent heroes who to this day are rarely acknowledged by the vast majority of Pakistanis for their sacrifice.  Families of Azad Kashmiris were displaced and uprooted and families divided as a result.  Azad Kashmiris from more so the people of Mirpur faced three major catastrophic upheavals in their modern history.  The first was the advent of the Dogra occupation who were gifted the state of Kashmir illegally by The British for a pittance.  The Dogra barbarity displaced thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris from Jammu and Kashmir into into what we lovingly call Pakistan today.  The vast majority displaced into West Punjab as it was commonly known back then.  The second was during partition, when Kashmiris faced the major brunt of the Indian states wickedness through sectarianism through their stooge Maharaja Hari Singh.  This resulted in alot of innocent Kashmiris bloodshed and hundreds and thousands were killed.  Thirdly, what has been often overlooked and equally disruptive was the construction of The Mangla Dam. Not to say Azad Kashmiris did not acknowledge The Mangla Dam for the greater good but their sacrifice often overlooked or simply never known by their brethren in Pakistan.

Buildings
Chakswari is well known for the existence of The Holy Pir. It is most commonly known as Noshahi Pir who were part of the Muhammad family tree. The Noshahi Haji Pir Ganj Baksh tomb is in Ralmal Sharif in Gujrat. In the '90s, they were known for helping the people of Chakswari with things like poverty. It is one of the most famous Sufi shrines in the region. Chakswari also has lots of mosques, the main one being the Jamia Masjid located in the town. There are other mosques too such as the Jamia-e-Haydar Masjid or Ghazi Hasan Masjid which owes its name to the 15th century Muslim warrior in the region, Raja Ghazi Hasan Khan.

Notable places and people

• The late Mian Hussain Ali – AJK State Council Member, politician, businessmen and patriarch of the Ali Family and responsible for Chakswari's place as a economic stalwart contributing to the success of Mirpur today.  His grandson is Zafar Anwar a well known business man and politician.  Hailed from Kalyal village Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• The late DSP Fazal Hussain was a prominent law man who policed Mirpur State following AJK liberation from India.  DSP Fazal Hussain was a towering figure in personality as he was in character and a man of great principle.  Much loved and remembered by all from Chakswari.  Hailed from Kalyal village Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Muhammad Anwar (d.2020) – Politician & former chairman District Council Mirpur, AJK  Also the son of Mian Hussain Ali and father to Zafar Anwar.  Hailed from Kalyal village, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Mushtaq Ahmed (d. 2016) – Managing Director of Hussain Ali Construction Company (HACC).  Hailed from Kalyal Chakswari.

• Ch. Raza Ali – Managing Director of Raza Group of Companies hails from Kalyal, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Muhammad Saeed – President Pakistan Chamber of Commerce, Azad Group Managing Director, Honorary British Consul for AJK, MLA from Mirpur (representing PML-N).  Chaudhry Saeed is an extemely successful businessman responsible for a great number of successful enterprises in Mirpur Azad Kashmir Toyota Azad Motors, Megha Mart, Shopping Pavilions and responsible for bringing big brand retailers into Azad Kashmir like Ideas, and holds the KFC and McDonalds franchise. Chaudhry Saeed hails from Kalyal village, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Zafar Anwar – Businessman and Senior Vice President (PTI)  Ch. Zafar Anwar represents a new generation of highly educated young elites from Azad Kashmir and has many business interests including Valley Homes housing association in Mirpur.  Hails from Kalyal village, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Maqsood Hussain (d. 2022) – UK Businessman father of Ch. Ansar Maqsood.  Ch. Maqsood's family settled in Stoke-on-Trent UK and his children have various business interests in UK and AJK notably the Honda Empire car showroom in Mirpur.  Hailed from Kalyal village, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Ansar Maqsood of Honda car showroom Mirpur AJK.  A prominent Azad Kashmiri business man in AJK.  Ch. Ansar Maqsood represents a new generation of entrepreneurial spirit in Mirpur Azad Kashmir and is responsible for a great deal in the vibrant economy of Mirpur city.  Hails from Kalyal, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Muhammad Azam (b. 1929 – d. 2007) – Pakistan Air Force Squadron Leader with 36 years service and was stationed in Quetta, Karachi and Saudi Arabia.  Hailed from Kalyal, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Abdul Karim– an MLA in the early years of parliament in AJK  Ch. Abdul Karim is responsible for a great deal in shaping the state of Mirpur and contributing to it's successful place as the hub of economic activity in Azad Kashmir.  Ch. Abdul Karim had many business interests including transport, logistics and construction.  Hailed from Kalyal village, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Ch. Qasim Majeed – MLA (representing PPP) hails from Panyam Chakswari.  Ch. Qasim Majeed brings much needed young blood and energy to the political landscape of Chakswari and Mirpur.  Hails from Panyam village, Chakswari.

• Chaudhry Abdul Majeed served as the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu And Kashmir from 2011 to 2016. He has also been the President of the Pakistan People's Party's in Azad Kashmir's Chapter.  Hails from Panyam village, Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

• Zaman Khan – (born 2001), Professional cricketer who has represented Pakistan on the global stage.  Hails from Chakswari, Azad Kashmir.

Brief origins summary of the Kalyal clan

The predominant inhabitants of Chakswari are Jat and Chaudhry biradri (family) and there has been an emphasis and interest on the major Jat clan of Chakswari namely the Kalyal Jat clan.

Origins of the Kalyal Jat clan lineage

The Kalyal Jat clan is a prominent clan found along the Jhelum River, Mirpur Region (Chakswari) but further up in other regions like Dadyal Azad Kashmir and Gujjar Khan in the Punjab.  Sadly British colonialism and independence struggle history took precedence over local regional history in the modern era and little academic work was inked about the great Jat clans of the Jammu and Kashmir region that crossed the Jhelum river to Western Punjab regions like Jhelum, Gujjar Khan and further into the Gujrat regions.  The Kalyals (Kalial's) were a prominent clan and thus some piecemeal history exists and referenced here.  Even the early 20th Century British ethnologist, H. A Rose has  made a reference to the Kalyal Jat clan as being the last of the Rajput Jat clans.

"Sombanai descent and Rajput ancestry i.e., a last status as Rajput— are claimed by the Kalial (Kalyal)."

Horace Arthur Rose was an early 20th Century British colonial official who co-authored "A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province", which is one of the most comprehensive Glossary on the tribes of Punjab, and a good source on many Punjabi tribes.

the Kalyal (Kalial) tribe claims descent from Kala Khan or Mal Khan, a Chandravanshi Rajput, who settled in the Potohar region in the 15th Century. However, some Kalyal (Kalial) lineages claim Suryavanshi ancestry.

There are also a widespread tradition that Kal to be a Bhatti Rajput, which would make the Kalyal a clan of the Bhatti tribe. Therefore, the Kal aal are the descendants of Kals. The Kalyal are essentially a tribe of the Chibhal, a region between the Tawi and Jhelum rivers, now divided by the line of control, forming the districts of Mirpur and Bhimber in Azad Kashmir, Rajouri, Reasi and parts of Jammu district west of the river Tawi in Indian administered Kashmir. From Chibhal, groups of Kalyal began migrating to the Punjab plains, initially settling in around Dina, and Sahowa and then spreading to Gujar Khan, which is home to the greatest concentrations of Kalyal. Most of the Gujarkhan Kalyal claim to a be a clan of the Bhatti Rajputs. Other groups moved southeast, settling in Gujrat district, where they are still an important Jat clan. There is a single Kalyal village in Kharian Tehsil of Gujrat district.

Kalyal in Azad Kashmir (Chakswari, Mirpur region).

The most visible branch of the Kalyal are found in a single village named Kalyal in Chakswari, Azad Jammu and Kashmir.  Giving credence to the Rajput lineage due to the influential personalities that came from this village.  To this day, the Kalyal village descendants remain a very influential prominent group in Chakswari and Mirpur city.  The Kalyal, Chakswari family remain influential across Mirpur state and city which is the economic hub of Azad Kashmir.  The Kalyal village in Chakswari was widely known as the home of Chakswari nobility or gentry in the past. Further divisible Kalyal branches are also found in Mohra-na-Mohra / Mohra Mundian and Pind Kalan villages  Add-ne-Plai, Laddar and Domal (now inundated by the Mangla Dam) and also Gaderi (now inundated by the Mangla Dam), while another branch is in Palaak, Tarnot, and Arnoh, near Panyam.

Further Jatt branches migrated from Sialkot to Gujrat Gorsian, from there to the Mirpur region and settled in the villages of Panyam (Moohri Panyam / Baavaya-ni-Moohri – these have largely moved to New Abadi Kalyal Chakswari due to the Dam); Essar, Pind Kalan; Gowanda and Prahi (near Chok Sahiban); and Mera Kandi.

In Panyam Chakswari, also known as Sarr-wala-Mohra, branche/s of the Kalyal's originate in Tope Mankiala near Rawalpindi. Finally, there is also a lineage found in the village of Kalyal Sheru.

References

Tehsils of Mirpur District

Chakswari


55 Cancri e is a superterran exoplanet made almost entirely of carbon, giving it the nickname the diamond planet or Lucy (from the Beatles song Lucy in the sky with diamonds). The planet orbits a sun like star just 2,400,000 kilometres from the star on average, pushing surface temperatures to an average of 2,575°K. The gravity of 55 Cancri e is around 15 times that of Earth, and the planet is tidally locked. The likelihood of diamonds on 55 Cancri e is due to the insane pressures on the planet.55 Cancri E is also known of being up to double the size of Earth.

Exoplanets

55 Cancri e


Granada () is a city in western Nicaragua and the capital of the Granada Department. With an estimated population of 105,862 (2022), it is Nicaragua's ninth most populous city. Granada is historically one of Nicaragua's most important cities, economically and politically. It has a rich colonial heritage, seen in its architecture and structure.

Granada had a thriving Indigenous population. In 1524, the city was renamed Granada, by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, ostensibly the first European city in mainland America. Unlike other cities that claim the same distinction, the city of Granada was not only the settlement of the conquest, but also a city registered in official records of the Crown of Aragon, and the Kingdom of Castile in Spain.

Granada is also known as La Gran Sultana, in the reflection of its Moorish and Andalusian appearance, unlike its sister city and historical rival León, which displays Castilian trends.

History

The settlement of Granada was established by Spanish conquistador Hernández de Córdoba, who named it after the city of the same name in Spain. This was done in honor of the city's capture by the forces of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I from the Emirate of Granada, which completed the reconquista. During the colonial era, Granada was a sister city to the settlement of Antigua Guatemala, maintained a flourishing level of commerce with ports in the Atlantic Ocean via Lake Cocibolca and the San Juan River, and was subject to attacks from English, French and Dutch pirates who unsuccessfully attempted to take control of the settlement by sailing up the San Juan River.

For many years Granada disputed with León its hegemony as the major city of Nicaragua. The city of Granada was favored by the Conservatives, while Léon was favored by the Liberals. For many years there was conflict that at times became quite violent between the cities' families and political factions. In the mid-19th century a compromise site was agreed on and the capital was finally established at Managua between both cities. As of 1850, Granada had a population of approximately 10,000.

On 29 May 1834, Cándido Flores, head of the military forces of Granada, revolted against the Government in León led by José Núñez, demanding the reform of the federal Constitution. After being defeated in Managua he could not organize a resistance in Granada, so he left the city to a disorganized mob that committed lootings and robberies, especially in the houses of foreigners.

Granada was also the site where American filibuster William Walker took up residence and attempted to take control of Central America and create independent colonies with economies based on slavery. One of Walker's generals, Charles Frederick Henningsen, set the city ablaze before escaping, destroying much of the colonial-era architecture and inscribed the words "Here was Granada" on the ruins before he left.

Granada avoided much of the tumult of the Sandinista Era in the 1970–80s.

Geography

Granada is located along the coast of the Lake Nicaragua (a.k.a. Lake Cocibolca), the world's twentieth largest lake.

Granada is the capital city of the Department of Granada, which borders Boaco and Managua to the north, Masaya and Carazo to the east and Rivas to the south. Within the same department, the River Tipitapa which connects the Lake of Managua and Nicaragua passes through it in the north. It also has three volcanic lagoons; Manares, Genirzaro, and the famous Apoyo. Apoyo, which is shared with the Department of Masaya, is the largest volcanic lagoon in Nicaragua.

Granada is a very warm city all year round, with very similar temperatures to Managua. This is due to similarities in geography with its close proximity to a lake and surrounded by high hills. Rainfall in Granada is approximately between 1,100-2,100 mm annually, with an annual average temperature reported to be 25.7 °C.

The vegetation around Granada is a reflection of its climatology. Dry and humid forests skirt the Mombacho volcano. The volcano is also home to a wide array of fauna (See Wildlife of Nicaragua). The lake is also home to many creatures, both marine and freshwater creatures. It is the only freshwater lake in the world where sharks live (Nicaragua shark). Fishing in the lake is quite good, and fishermen, both commercial and recreational, regularly catch guapote and mojarras, as well as sardines. Nicaragua has recently banned fishing of the Nicaragua shark and sawfish because of population decline.

Other important cities and towns within the Granada district include Malacatoya, El Paso, El Guayabo, Diria, Macatepe, El Guanacaste, Nandaime and Diriomo, known nationally as the last city of witches. Mombacho volcano is the highest point (1,345 m) within Granada; the now dormant volcano blew most of its cone into the lake, forming the 365 Islets of Granada, from where the volcano provides an amazing view. It is also possible on a clear day to see Ometepe and Zapatera Islands. The later island is the second largest island in Lake Nicaragua, and also harbors an inactive volcano. The largest is Ometepe Island, also located in Lake Nicaragua. It is a national treasure, known as the home of pre-Columbian statues and idols, which were found on the island during the Spanish conquest, and now exhibited in the Convento San Francisco Museum, as well as in other museums and parks located on Ometepe Island.

Granada has many beaches on Lake Nicaragua which are very popular around Semana Santa ("Holy Week").

Economy and tourism

Granada has long been a center of commerce, including timber, gold and silver. Granada's economy continues to grow as it is becoming a hub for tourism. Though Granada remains Nicaragua's sixth largest city, it is widely known for preserving some of the finest colonial-era architecture in the country.

A real estate boom had been underway for several years, with many European and Americans purchasing and renovating the area's homes for retirement or holiday homes and several foreign realtors establishing offices, but that boom slowed in 2007. The prior escalation of real estate prices in Granada and other parts of Southwestern Nicaragua has led to a shift of investor attention toward Northern Nicaragua and the cities of Matagalpa, Leon, Corinto and the surrounding beaches of Leon and Corinto.

Museums have opened, and new hotels and restaurants are proliferating at a fast rate.

Granada, though now highly dependent on tourism, also has fertile agricultural land within the municipality. Major production of organic coffee and cacao, cattle, plantains and bananas occurs within its boundaries.

Gastronomy

Granada's restaurants have received international recognition by newspapers like the New York Times.
In the city of Granada, there are many restaurants including Pita Pita, Garden Café & La Hacienda.
In recent years, the city of Granada's evolving culinary scene mixes local and international flavors, as well as supporting farm-to-table sustainability of local growers and producers.
Granada's economy continues to grow in big part because it is fast becoming a tourist attraction for its colonial architecture, as well as its ecological beauty and now as a food destination.

Infrastructure

Most of Granada's streets are narrow, as the city evolved centuries before the advent of motorized vehicles. Therefore, today, many streets allow only one-way traffic, offering a challenge to visitors traveling by car.

Following many years of neglect, primarily due to the economic collapse of the nation in the 1980s, most of Granada's buildings and infrastructure began to deteriorate. Roads and public utilities fell into disrepair.

In the decades that followed, however, the city government directed funds towards recognition and restoration of many of Granada's historic structures. The Spanish government has provided financial cooperation for the refurbishment of the city. One such project is transforming Calle La Calzada into a pedestrian street.

Relevant historical architecture, streets  and attractions

 San Francisco Church and Museum
 Xalteva Church
 Plazuela de los Leones
 Plaza de la Independencia
 Central Park
 Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral
 Guadalupe Church
 Calle La Calzada
 Calle Atravesada
 La Merced Church
 Fortin de San Pablo
 Fuerte La Pólvora
 Episcopal Palace
 Alcaldía Municipal
 San Antonio College
 Diocesan College
 Old Social Club
 Old Railway Station

Culture

Granada, like most of the Nicaraguan Pacific, is populated primarily by a Spanish-speaking majority of Mestizos. Residing here also are people from the United States, Canada, Spain, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, and France.

Until recently, Nicaragua was experiencing a booming tourist economy. This, in turn, attracted foreigners to Granada seeking colonial homes for purchase, adding a growing number of Europeans and Americans to the city's population. Real estate prices had increased following the foreign interest and subsequent investments. However, with the 2018 civil conflict, the US Department of State issued a travel advisory, citing "civil unrest, crime, limited healthcare availability, and arbitrary enforcement of laws." In 2020, it issued a Level 4, "Do Not Travel" advisory due to COVID 19.

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities
Granada is twinned with:

References

External links

 Granada City Tourism Page

Former national capitals
Municipalities of the Granada Department
Populated places established in 1524

Granada, Nicaragua


The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper The Independent to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched in 1990 and ran for five years before falling into abeyance. It was revived in 2001 with the financial support of Arts Council England. Beginning in 2011 the administration of the prize was taken over by BookTrust, but retaining the "Independent" in the name. In 2015, the award was disbanded in a "reconfiguration" in which it was merged with the Man Booker International Prize.

Entries (fiction or short stories) were published in English translation in the UK in the year preceding the award by a living author. The prize acknowledged both the winning novelist and translator, each being awarded £5,000 and a magnum of champagne from drinks sponsor Champagne Taittinger.

Winners, shortlists and longlists

Blue Ribbon () = winner

1990
  Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle (Turkish, Victoria Holbrook)

1991

  Milan Kundera, Immortality (Czech, Peter Kussi)

1992
Shortlist
 Simon Leys, The Death Of Napoleon (French, Patricia Clancy)
Slavenka Drakulic, Holograms Of Fear (Croat, Ellen Elias-Barsaic)
Pawel Huelle, Who Was David Weiser? (Polish, Antonia Lloyd-Jones)
Yashar Kemal, To Crush The Serpent (Turkish, Thilda Kemal)
Ivan Klima, Judge On Trial (Czech, A G Brain)
Dacia Maraini, The Silent Duchess (Italian, Dick Kitto and Elspeth Spottiswood)
Carlo Mazzantini, In Search Of A Glorious Death (Italian, Simonetta Wenkert)
Erik Orsenna, Love And Empire (French, Jeremy Leggatt)
Giorgio Pressburger, The Law Of White Spaces (Italian, Piers Spence)
Jean Rouaud, Fields Of Glory (French, Ralph Manheim)
Leonardio Sciascia, The Knight And Death (Italian, Joseph Farrell and Marie Evans)
Antonio Tabucchi, Vanishing Point (Italian, Tim Parks)

1993

Shortlist
  José Saramago, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (Portuguese, Giovanni Pontiero)
 Juan Goytisolo, Makbara (Spanish, Helen Lane)
 Gunter Grass, The Call Of The Toad (German, Ralph Manheim)
 Ismail Kadare, The Palace of Dreams (Albanian, Barbara Bray—from author's French translation)
 Ivan Klima, My Golden Trades (Czech, Paul Wilson)
 A B Yehoshua, Mr Mani (Hebrew, Hillel Halkin)

1994

Shortlist
  Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War (Vietnamese, Frank Palmos and Phanh Thanh Hao)
 Shusaku Endo, Deep River (Japanese, Van C Gessel)
 Margriet de Moor, First Grey, Then White, Then Blue (Dutch, Paul Vincent)
 Isabel Allende, The Infinite Plan (Spanish, Margaret Sayers Peden)
Amos Oz, Fima, (Hebrew, Nicholas de Lange)
Italo Calvino, The Road To San Giovanni (Italian, Tim Parks)

1995
  Gert Hofmann, The Film Explainer (German, Michael Hofmann)

1996 to 2000
Prize in abeyance.

2001
Shortlist

  Marta Morazzoni, The Alphonse Courrier Affair (Italian, Emma Rose)
 Marc Dugain, The Officers' Ward (French, Howard Curtis)
 Michel Houellebecq, Atomised (also published as "The Elementary Particles") (French, Frank Wynne)
 Antonio Tabucchi, The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro (Italian, Patrick Creagh)
 May Telmissany, Dunyazard (French, Roger Allen)
 Hans-Ulrich Treichel, Lost (German, Carol Brown Janeaway)

2002
Shortlist

  W.G. Sebald (posthumously), Austerlitz (German, Anthea Bell)
 Agnès Desarthe, Five Photos of My Wife (French, Adriana Hunter)
 Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (French, Ina Rilke)
 Andrey Kurkov, Death and the Penguin (Russian, George Bird)
 Hanan al-Shaykh, Only in London (Arabic, Catherine Cobham)
 H.M. van den Brink, On the Water (Dutch, Paul Vincent)

2003
Shortlist
  Per Olov Enquist, The Visit of the Royal Physician (Swedish, Tiina Nunnally)
 Frédéric Beigbeder, £9.99 (French, Adriana Hunter)
 Peter Stephan Jungk, The Snowflake Constant (German, Michael Hofmann)
 Mario Vargas Llosa, The Feast of the Goat (Spanish, Edith Grossman)
 José Saramago, The Cave (Portuguese, Margaret Jull Costa)
 José Carlos Somoza, The Athenian Murders (Spanish, Sonia Soto)

Also longlisted

 Umberto Eco, Baudolino (Italian, William Weaver)
 Jens Christian Grøndahl, Lucca (Danish, Anne Born)
 Norbert Gstrein, The English Years (German, Anthea Bell)
 Milton Hatoum, The Brothers (Portuguese, John Gledson)
Michel Houellebecq, Platform (French, Frank Wynne)
Milan Kundera, Ignorance (French, Linda Asher)
Amin Maalouf, Balthasar's Odyssey (French, Barbara Bray)
Patricia Melo, Inferno (Portuguese, Clifford E Landers)
Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Nautical Chart (Spanish, Margaret Sayers Peden)
Atiq Rahimi, Earth And Ashes (Dari/Afghanistan, Erdağ Göknar)

2004
Shortlist
  Javier Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis (Spanish, Anne McLean)
 Juan Marsé, Lizard Tails (Spanish, Nick Caistor)
 Elke Schmitter, Mrs Sartoris (German, Carol Brown Janeway)
 Ricardo Piglia, Money to Burn (Spanish, Amanda Hopkinson)
 Luther Blissett, Q (Italian, Shaun Whiteside)
 Mahi Binebine, Welcome to Paradise (French, Lulu Norman)

Also longlisted
 Lars Saabye Christensen, The Half Brother (translated by Kenneth Stevens)
Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday At The Pool In Kigali (translated by Patricia Claxton)
Turki Al-Hamad, Adama (translated by Robin Bray)
Javier Marias, Dark Back Of Time (translated by Esther Allen)
Sten Nadolny, The Discovery Of Slowness (translated by Ralph Freedman)
Per Petterson, In The Wake (translated by Anne Born)
Shan Sa, The Girl Who Played Go (translated by Adriana Hunter)
Fred Vargas, Have Mercy On Us All (translated by David Bellos)
Ye Zhaoyan, Nanjing 1937 (translated by Michael Berry)
Akira Yoshimura, One Man's Justice (translated by Mark Ealey)

2005
Shortlist
  Frédéric Beigbeder, Windows on the World (French, trans. by Frank Wynne)
 Chico Buarque, Budapest, (Portuguese, trans. by Alison Entrekin)
 Irina Denezhkina, Give Me (Songs for Lovers), (Russian, trans. by Andrew Bromfield)
 Xiaolu Guo, Village of Stone, (Chinese, trans. by Cindy Carter)
 Orhan Pamuk, Snow, (Turkish, trans. by Maureen Freely)
 Elif Şafak, The Flea Palace, (Turkish, trans. by Muge Gocek)

Also longlisted

 David Albahari, Götz and Meyer (Serbian, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac)
 Merete Morken Andersen, Oceans of Time (Norwegian, Barbara J Haveland)
 Mia Couto, The Last Flight of the Flamingo (Portuguese, David Brookshaw)
 Edgardo Cozarinsky, The Bride from Odessa (Spanish, Nick Caistor)
 Victor Erofeyev, Life with an Idiot (Russian, Andrew Reynolds)
 Turki al-Hamad, Shumaisi (Arabic, Paul Starkey)
 Torgny Lindgren, Hash (Swedish, Tom Geddes)
 Enrico Remmert, The Ballad of the Low Lifes (Italian, Aubrey Botsford)
 José Saramago, The Double (Portuguese, Margaret Jull Costa)
 Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind (Spanish, Lucia Graves)

2006
The 2006 prize was announced in May.  The jury for the 2006 Prize was composed of: Boyd Tonkin (Literary Editor, The Independent), the writers Paul Bailey, Margaret Busby and Maureen Freely, and Kate Griffin (Arts Council England).

Shortlist
  Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses (Norwegian; Anne Born; Harvill Secker)
 Pawel Huelle, Mercedes-Benz (Polish; Antonia Lloyd-Jones; Serpent's Tail)
 Tahar Ben Jelloun, This Blinding Absence of Light (French; Linda Coverdale; Penguin)
 Imre Kertész, Fatelessness (Hungarian; Tim Wilkinson; Harvill Secker)
 Magda Szabó, The Door (Hungarian; Len Rix; Harvill Secker)
 Dubravka Ugrešić, The Ministry of Pain (Croatian; Michael Henry Heim; Saqi)

Also longlisted
 Tonino Benacquista, Someone Else (translated from the French by Adriana Hunter; Bitter Lemon)
 Stefan Chwin, Death in Danzig (Polish; Philip Boehm; Secker & Warburg)
 Philippe Claudel, Grey Souls (French; Adriana Hunter; Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
 Marie Darrieussecq, White (French; Ian Monk; Faber)
 Karen Duve, This is Not a Love Song (German; Anthea Bell; Bloomsbury)
 David Grossman, Lovers and Strangers (Hebrew; Jessica Cohen; Bloomsbury)
 Judith Hermann, Nothing but Ghosts (German; Margot Bettauer Dembo; Fourth Estate)
 Ellen Mattson, Snow (Swedish; Sarah Death; Jonathan Cape)
 Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (Japanese; Philip Gabriel; Vintage)
 Dai Sijie, Mr Muo's Travelling Couch (French; Ina Rilke; Chatto & Windus)

2007
Shortlist
  José Eduardo Agualusa, The Book of Chameleons, (Portuguese, trans. Daniel Hahn)
 Per Olov Enquist, The Story of Blanche and Marie, (Swedish, trans. Tiina Nunnally)
 Vangelis Hatziyannidis, Four Walls (Greek, trans. Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife)
 Javier Marías, Your Face Tomorrow, 2: Dance and Dream (trans. Margaret Jull Costa)
 Eva Menasse, Vienna (German, trans. Anthea Bell)
 Dag Solstad, Shyness and Dignity (Norwegian, trans. Sverre Lyngstad)

Also longlisted

Kader Abdolah, My Father's Notebook (translated by Susan Massotty from Dutch; Canongate)
Niccolò Ammaniti, Steal You Away (Jonathan Hunt; Italian; Canongate)
Javier Cercas, The Speed of Light (Anne McLean; Spanish; Bloomsbury)
Edgardo Cozarinsky, The Moldavian Pimp (Nick Caistor; Spanish; Harvill Secker)
Jenny Erpenbeck, The Old Child (Susan Bernofsky; German; Portobello)
Faïza Guène, Just Like Tomorrow (Sarah Adams; French; Chatto & Windus)
Ismail Kadare, The Successor (David Bellos; French; Canongate)
Ma Jian, Stick out your Tongue (Flora Drew; Chinese; Chatto & Windus)
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow (the author; Gikuyu; Harvill Secker)
Leonardo Padura, Havana Black (Peter Bush; Spanish; Bitter Lemon)
Atiq Rahimi, A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear (Sarah Maguire & Yama Yari; Dari; Chatto & Windus)
José Saramago, Seeing (Margaret Jull Costa; Portuguese; Harvill Secker)
Elif Shafak, The Gaze (Brendan Freely; Turkish; Marion Boyars)
Linn Ullmann, Grace (Barbara Haveland; Norwegian; Picador)

2008
Shortlist
   Paul Verhaeghen, Omega Minor (translated by the author from the Dutch)
 Pawel Huelle, Castorp (translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones from the Polish)
 Daniel Kehlmann, Measuring the World (translated by Carol Brown Janeway from the German)
 Bengt Ohlsson, Gregorius (translated by Silvester Mazzarella from the Swedish)
 Lars Saabye Christensen, The Model (translated by Don Barlett from the Norwegian)
 Marlene van Niekerk, The Way of the Women (translated by Michiel Heyns from the Afrikaans)

Also longlisted
 Alaa al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building (translated by Humphrey Davies from the Arabic)
 Jenny Erpenbeck, The Book of Words (translated by Susan Bernofsky from the German)
 Bi Feiyu, The Moon Opera (translated by Howard Goldblatt from the Chinese)
 Ismail Kadare, Agamemnon's Daughter (translated by David Bellos from the French)
 Sayed Kashua, Let It Be Morning (translated by Miraim Shlesinger from the Hebrew)
 Erwin Mortier, Shutterspeed (translated by Ina Rilke from the Dutch)
 Alan Pauls, The Past (translated by Nick Caistor from the Spanish)
 Peter Pišťanek, Rivers of Babylon (translated by Peter Petro from the Slovak)
 Laura Restrepo, Delirium (translated by Natasha Wimmer from the Spanish)
 Yasmina Traboulsi, Bahia Blues (translated by Polly McLean from the French)
 Enrique Vila-Matas, Montano (translated by Jonathan Dunne from the Spanish)

2009
Shortlist
  Evelio Rosero, The Armies (translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish)
 Celine Curiol, Voice Over (translated by Sam Richard from the French)
 Ma Jian, Beijing Coma (translated by Flora Drew from the Chinese)
 Ismail Kadare, The Siege (translated by David Bellos from the Albanian via French)
 Juan Gabriel Vasquez, The Informers (translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish)
 AB Yehoshua, Friendly Fire (translated by Stuart Schoffman from the Hebrew)

Also longlisted
 Sjón, The Blue Fox (translated by Victoria Cribb from the Icelandic)
 Jose Eduardo Agualusa, My Father's Wives (translated by Daniel Hahn from the Portuguese)
 Dag Solstad, Novel 11, Book 18 (translated by Sverre Lyngstad from the Norwegian)
 Yōko Ogawa, The Diving Pool (translated by Stephen Snyder from the Japanese)
 Eshkol Nevo, Homesick (translated by Sondra Silverston from the Hebrew)
 Linn Ullmann, A Blessed Child (translated by Sarah Death from the Norwegian)
 Thomas Glavinic, Night Work (translated by John Brownjohn from the German)
 Gyorgy Dragoman, The White King (translated by Paul Olchvary from the Hungarian)
 Alexander Ahndoril, The Director (translated by Sarah Death from the Swedish)
 Saša Stanišić, How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone (translated by Anthea Bell from the German)

2010
Shortlist
 Philippe Claudel, Brodeck's Report (translated by John Cullen; French) MacLehose Press
Julia Franck, The Blindness of the Heart (translated by Anthea Bell; German) Harvill Secker
Pietro Grossi, Fists (translated by Howard Curtis; Italian) Pushkin Press
Alain Mabanckou, Broken Glass (translated by Helen Stevenson; French) Serpent's Tail
Sankar, Chowringhee (translated by Arunava Sinha; Bengali) Atlantic
Rafik Schami, The Dark Side of Love (translated by Anthea Bell; German) Arabia Books

Also longlisted
Boris Akunin, The Coronation (translated by Andrew Bromfield from the Russian) Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Ketil Bjørnstad, To Music (translated by Deborah Dawkin & Erik Skuggevik; Norwegian) Maia Press
Hassan Blasim, The Madman of Freedom Square (translated by Jonathan Wright; Arabic) Comma Press
Elias Khoury, Yalo (translated by Humphrey Davies; Arabic) MacLehose Press
Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones (translated by Charlotte Mandell; French) Chatto & Windus
Javier Marías, Your Face Tomorrow, Volume 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell (translated by Margaret Jull Costa; Spanish) Chatto & Windus
Yōko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor (translated by Stephen Snyder; Japanese) Harvill Secker
Claudia Piñeiro, Thursday Night Widows (translated by Miranda France; Spanish) Bitter Lemon Press
Bahaa Taher, Sunset Oasis (translated by Humphrey Davies; Arabic) Sceptre

2011
Shortlist
  Santiago Roncagliolo, Red April  translated by Edith Grossman (Atlantic Books), Spanish
 Marcelo Figueras, Kamchatka translated by Frank Wynne (Atlantic Books), Spanish
 Alberto Berrera Tyszka, The Sickness translated by Margaret Jull Costa (Maclehose Press), Spanish
 Jenny Erpenbeck, Visitation translated by Susan Bernofsky (Portobello Books), German
 Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence translated by Maureen Freely (Faber), Turkish
 Per Petterson, I Curse the River of Time translated by Charlotte Barslund with Per Petterson (Harvill Secker), Norwegian

Also longlisted
 Veronique Olmi, Beside the Sea; translated by Adriana Hunter (Peirene Press), French
 David Grossman, To the End of the Land; translated by Jessica Cohen (Jonathan Cape), Hebrew
 Daniel Kehlmann, Fame translated by Carol Brown Janeway (Quercus), German
 Juan Gabriel Vasquez, The Secret History of Costaguana translated by Anne McLean (Bloomsbury), Spanish
 Michal Witkowski, Lovetown translated by W Martin (Portobello Books), Polish
 Jachym Topol, Gargling with Tar translated by David Short (Portobello Books), Czech
 Juli Zeh, Dark Matter translated by Christine Lo (Harvill Secker), German
 Shuichi Yoshida, Villain translated by Philip Gabriel (Harvill Secker), Japanese
 Per Wästberg, The Journey of Anders Sparrman translated by Tom Geddes (Granta), Swedish

2012

Shortlist
  Aharon Appelfeld, Blooms of Darkness translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green (Alma Books)
Judith Hermann, Alice translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo (The Clerkenwell Press)
Yan Lianke, Dream of Ding Village translated from the Chinese by Cindy Carter (Corsair)
Sjón, From the Mouth of the Whale translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (Telegram Books)
Diego Marani, New Finnish Grammar translated from the Italian by Judith Landry (Dedalus)
Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon (Harvill Secker)

Also longlisted
Haruki Murakami, 1Q84: Books 1 and 2, translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin (Harvill Secker)
Steve Sem-Sandberg, The Emperor of Lies translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death (Faber)
Tristan Garcia, Hate: A Romance translated from the French by Marion Duvert and Lorin Stein (Faber)
Matthias Politycki, Next World Novella translated from the German by Anthea Bell (Peirene Press)
Péter Nádas, Parallel Stories translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein (Jonathan Cape)
Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mother translated from the Korean by Shin Chi-Young Kim (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Dag Solstad, Professor Andersen's Night translated from the Norwegian by Agnes Scott Langeland (Harvill Secker)
Amos Oz, Scenes From Village Life translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas De Lange (Chatto & Windus)
Bernardo Atxaga, Seven Houses in France translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Harvill Secker)

2013

Shortlist

 Gerbrand Bakker, The Detour (translated by David Colmer from the Dutch), Harvill Secker
Chris Barnard, Bundu (Michiel Heyns; Afrikaans), Alma Books
Daša Drndić, Trieste (Ellen Elias-Bursać; Croatian), MacLehose Press
Ismail Kadare, The Fall of the Stone City (John Hodgson; Albanian), Canongate
Andrés Neuman, Traveller of the Century (Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garcia; Spanish), Pushkin Press
Enrique Vila-Matas, Dublinesque (Rosalind Harvey & Anne McLean; Spanish), Harvill Secker

Also longlisted
Laurent Binet, HHhH (Sam Taylor; French), Harvill Secker
Pawel Huelle, Cold Sea Stories (Antonia Lloyd-Jones; Polish), Comma Press
Pia Juul, The Murder of Halland (Martin Aitken; Danish), Peirene Press
Khaled Khalifa, In Praise of Hatred (Leri Price; Arabic), Doubleday
Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family (book 1 of My Struggle) (Don Bartlett; Norwegian), Harvill Secker
László Krasznahorkai, Satantango (George Szirtes; Hungarian), Tuskar Rock
Alain Mabanckou, Black Bazaar (Sarah Ardizzone; French), Serpent's Tail
Diego Marani, The Last of the Vostyachs (Judith Landry; Italian), Dedalus
Orhan Pamuk, Silent House (Robert Finn; Turkish), Faber
Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The Sound of Things Falling (Anne McLean; Spanish), Bloomsbury

2014
Shortlist

 Hassan Blasim, The Iraqi Christ (Arabic; trans. Jonathan Wright)
Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Man in Love (book 2 of My Struggle) (Norwegian; trans. Don Bartlett)
Hiromi Kawakami, Strange Weather in Tokyo (Japanese; trans. Allison Markin Powell)
Hubert Mingarelli, A Meal in Winter (French; trans. Sam Taylor)
Yōko Ogawa, Revenge (Japanese; trans. Stephen Snyder)
Birgit Vanderbeke, The Mussel Feast (German; trans. Jamie Bulloch) - special mention by the jury.

Also longlisted

Sinan Antoon, The Corpse Washer (Arabic; translated by the author)
Julia Franck, Back to Back (German; trans. Anthea Bell)
Sayed Kashua, Exposure (Hebrew; trans. Mitch Ginsberg)
Andrej Longo, Ten (Italian; trans. Howard Curtis)
Ma Jian, The Dark Road (Chinese; trans. Flora Drew)
Andreï Makine, Brief Loves that Live Forever (French; trans. Geoffrey Strachan)
Javier Marías, The Infatuations (Spanish; trans. Margaret Jull Costa)
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Butterflies in November (Icelandic; trans. Brian FitzGibbon)
Jón Kalman Stefánsson, The Sorrow of Angels (Icelandic; trans. Philip Roughton)

2015
Shortlist
 Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days (German; trans. Susan Bernofsky)
Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel, By Night the Mountain Burns (Spanish; trans. Jethro Soutar)
Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Japanese; trans. Philip Gabriel)
Daniel Kehlmann, F (German; trans. Carol Brown Janeway)
Tomás González, In the Beginning Was the Sea (Spanish; trans. Frank Wynne)
Erwin Mortier, While the Gods Were Sleeping (Dutch; trans. Paul Vincent)

Also longlisted

Tomas Bannerhed, The Ravens (Swedish; trans. Sarah Death)
Marcello Fois, Bloodlines (Italian; trans. Silvester Mazzarella)
Hamid Ismailov, The Dead Lake (Russian; trans. Andrew Bromfield)
Karl Ove Knausgaard, Boyhood Island (book 3 of My Struggle) (Norwegian; trans. Don Bartlett (translator))
Jung-Myung Lee, The Investigation (Korean; trans. Chi-Young Kim)
Judith Schalansky, The Giraffe's Neck (German; trans. Shaun Whiteside)
Stefanie de Velasco, Tiger Milk (German; trans. Tim Mohr)
Timur Vermes, Look Who's Back (German; trans. Jamie Bulloch)
Can Xue, The Last Lover (Chinese; trans. Annelise Finegan Wasmoen)

References

English literary awards
British fiction awards
Translation awards
Awards established in 1990
The Independent
Literary awards by magazines and newspapers
1990 establishments in the United Kingdom
2015 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize


Bambermycin (flavomycin) is a complex of antibiotics obtained from Streptomyces bambergiensis and Streptomyces ghanaensis used as a food additive for
beef cattle, dairy cattle, poultry and swine.  The complex consists mainly of moenomycins A and C.

Bambermycin is a performance-enhancing antibiotic intended and available solely for use in animal nutrition. Its mechanism of action is to inhibit the synthesis of the bacterial wall. Bambermycin is predominantly effective against Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria. However, it does not have significant action against Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and other protective bacteria.

Bambermycin has no precautions or warnings to humans on its label pertaining to mixing and handling and is non-hazardous when used according to label directions.  Bambermycin has no withdrawal requirement. Bambermycin is not absorbed by the intestine and no measurable residues are found in edible tissues even when fed at up to 50 times the normal recommended dosage.

Synonyms include flavomycin, flavofosfolipol, flavophospholipol, moenomycin, and the brand name Gainpro.

References

Antibiotics
Food additives

Bambermycin


Mix networks are routing protocols that create hard-to-trace communications by using a chain of proxy servers known as mixes which take in messages from multiple senders, shuffle them, and send them back out in random order to the next destination (possibly another mix node). This breaks the link between the source of the request and the destination, making it harder for eavesdroppers to trace end-to-end communications. Furthermore, mixes only know the node that it immediately received the message from, and the immediate destination to send the shuffled messages to, making the network resistant to malicious mix nodes.

Each message is encrypted to each proxy using public key cryptography; the resulting encryption is layered like a Russian doll (except that each "doll" is of the same size) with the message as the innermost layer.  Each proxy server strips off its own layer of encryption to reveal where to send the message next.  If all but one of the proxy servers are compromised by the tracer, untraceability can still be achieved against some weaker adversaries.

The concept of mix networks was first described by David Chaum in 1981.  Applications that are based on this concept include anonymous remailers (such as Mixmaster), onion routing, garlic routing, and key-based routing (including  Tor, I2P, and Freenet).

History
David Chaum published the concept of Mix Networks in 1979 in his paper: "Untraceable electronic mail, return addresses, and digital pseudonyms". The paper was for his master's degree thesis work, shortly after he was first introduced to the field of cryptography through the work of public key cryptography, Martin Hellman, Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle. While public key cryptography encrypted the security of information, Chaum believed there to be personal privacy vulnerabilities in the meta data found in communications. Some vulnerabilities that enabled the compromise of personal privacy included time of messages sent and received, size of messages and the address of the original sender. He cites Martin Hellman and Whitfield's paper "New Directions in Cryptography" (1976) in his work.

How it works

Participant A prepares a message for delivery to participant B by appending a random value R to the message, sealing it with the addressee's public key , appending B's address, and then sealing the result with the mix's public key .
M opens it with his private key, now he knows B's address, and he sends  to B.

Message format

To accomplish this, the sender takes the mix's public key (), and uses it to encrypt an envelope containing a random string (), a nested envelope addressed to the recipient, and the email address of the recipient (B). This nested envelope is encrypted with the recipient's public key (), and contains another random string (R0), along with the body of the message being sent. Upon receipt of the encrypted top-level envelope, the mix uses its secret key to open it. Inside, it finds the address of the recipient (B) and an encrypted message bound for B. The random string () is discarded.

 is needed in the message in order to prevent an attacker from guessing messages. It is assumed that the attacker can observe all incoming and outgoing messages. If the random string is not used (i.e. only  is sent to ) and an attacker has a good guess that the message  was sent, he can test whether  holds, whereby he can learn the content of the message. By appending the random string  the attacker is prevented from performing this kind of attack; even if he should guess the correct message (i.e.  is true) he won't learn if he is right since he doesn't know the secret value . Practically,  functions as a salt.

Return addresses
What is needed now is a way for B to respond to A while still keeping the identity of A secret from B.

A solution is for A to form an untraceable return address  where  is its own real address,  is a public one-time key chosen for the current occasion only, and  is a key that will also act as a random string for purposes of sealing. Then, A can send this return address to B as part of a message sent by the techniques already described.

B sends  to M, and M transforms it to .

This mix uses the string of bits  that it finds after decrypting the address part  as a key to re-encrypt the message part .  Only the addressee, A, can decrypt the resulting output because A created both  and .
The additional key  assures that the mix cannot see the content of the reply-message.

The following indicates how B uses this untraceable return address to form a response to A, via a new kind of mix:

The message from A  B:

Reply message from BA:

Where:  = B's public key,  = the mix's public key.

A destination can reply to a source without sacrificing source anonymity. The reply message shares all of the performance and security benefits with the anonymous messages from source to destination.

Vulnerabilities
Although mix networks provide security even if an adversary is able to view the entire path, mixing is not absolutely perfect. Adversaries can provide long term correlation attacks and track the sender and receiver of the packets.

Threat model
An adversary can perform a passive attack by monitoring the traffic to and from the mix network. Analyzing the arrival times between multiple packets can reveal information. Since no changes are actively made to the packets, an attack like this is hard to detect. In a worst case of an attack, we assume that all the links of the network are observable by the adversary and the strategies and infrastructure of the mix network are known.

A packet on an input link cannot be correlated to a packet on the output link based on information about the time the packet was received, the size of the packet, or the content of the packet. Packet correlation based on packet timing is prevented by batching and correlation based on content and packet size is prevented by encryption and packet padding, respectively.

Inter-packet intervals, that is, the time difference between observation of two consecutive packets on two network links, is used to infer if the links carry the same connection. The encryption and padding does not affect the inter-packet interval related to the same IP flow. Sequences of inter-packet interval vary greatly between connections, for example in web browsing, the traffic occurs in bursts. This fact can be used to identify a connection.

Active attack
Active attacks can be performed by injecting bursts of packets that contain unique timing signatures into the targeted flow. The attacker can perform attacks to attempt to identify these packets on other network links. The attacker might not be able to create new packets due to the required knowledge of symmetric keys on all the subsequent  mixes. Replay packets cannot be used either as they are easily preventable through hashing and caching.

Artificial gap
Large gaps can be created in the target flow, if the attacker drops large volumes of consecutive packets in the flow. For example, a simulation is run sending 3000 packets to the target flow, where the attacker drops the packets 1 second after the start of the flow. As the number of consecutive packets dropped increases, the effectiveness of defensive dropping decreases significantly. Introducing a large gap will almost always create a recognizable feature.

Artificial bursts
The attacker can create artificial bursts. This is done by creating a signature from artificial packets by holding them on a link for a certain period of time and then releasing them all at once. Defensive dropping provides no defense in this scenario and the attacker can identify the target flow. There are other defense measures that can be taken to prevent this attack. One such solution can be adaptive padding algorithms. The more the packets are delayed, the easier it is to identify the behavior and thus better defense can be observed.

Other time analysis attacks
An attacker may also look into other timing attacks other than inter-packet intervals. The attacker can actively modify packet streams to observe the changes caused in the network's behavior. Packets can be corrupted to force re-transmission of TCP packets, which the behavior is easily observable to reveal information.

Sleeper attack
Assuming an adversary can see messages being sent and received into threshold mixes but they can't see the internal working of these mixes or what is sent by the same. If the adversary has left their own messages in respective mixes and they receive one of the two, they are able to determine the message sent and the corresponding sender. The adversary has to place their messages (active component) in the mix at any given time and the messages must remain there prior to a message being sent. This is not typically an active attack. Weaker adversaries can use this attack in combination with other attacks to cause more issues.

Mix networks derive security by changing order of messages they receive to avoid creating significant relation between the incoming and outgoing messages. Mixes create interference between messages. The interference puts bounds on the rate of information leak to an observer of the mix. In a mix of size n, an adversary observing input to and output from the mix has an uncertainty of order n in determining a match. A sleeper attack can take advantage of this. In a layered network of threshold mixes with a sleeper in each mix, there is a layer receiving inputs from senders and a second layer of mixes that forward messages to the final destination. From this, the attacker can learn the received message could not have come from the sender into any layer 1 mix that did not fire. There is a higher probability of matching the sent and received messages with these sleepers thus communication is not completely anonymous. Mixes may also be purely timed: they randomize the order of messages received in a particular interval and attach some of them with the mixes, forwarding them at the end of the interval despite what has been received in that interval. Messages that are available for mixinthat tg will interfere, but if no messages are available, there is no interference with received messages.

References

Anonymity networks
Internet privacy
Secure communication
Routing
Network architecture
Cryptographic protocols
Cryptographic primitives
Mix networks

Mix network