Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Livingstone defended the police after the mistaken killing of a Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, who police believed was a suicide bomber.

Racism policies
In 2001 Livingstone revived the free anti-racism Music festival now called Rise: London United. He believes that this, along with other anti-racist policies, is why London has seen a 35% decrease in racist attacks.

In September 2005 Livingstone came out in support of placing a statue of Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, on the north terrace of Trafalgar Square. Livingstone said "There can be no better place than our greatest square to place a statue of Nelson Mandela so that every generation can remind the next of the fight against racism." He was highly critical of the Planning and City Development Committee of Westminster City Council who refused planning permission.
In 2008 Livingstone's race advisor Lee Jasper resigned after being accused of corruption and inappropriate behaviour. Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote has said the 2008 Mayoral campaign has seen a "wholly disproportionate" focus on Jasper, Doreen Lawrence (Livingstone supporter and mother of Stephen Lawrence), and others.

Apology for London's role in the transatlantic slave trade

On 23 August 2007, at 12pm, Mayor Ken Livingstone formally apologised for London's role in the transatlantic slave trade. In a bicentennial day memorial event, he also called for the 23 August to be named as a national day for remembrance in the UK for the "horrific crime against humanity of the transatlantic slave trade." He went on to make the following tearful speech and formal apology:
Rejecting the idea that it is not possible to "meaningfully apologise for something a former generation did," Livingstone emphasised that London and by implication the rest of the developed world still profited enormously from the assets accumulated in the slave era, adding "It was the racial murder of not just those who were transported but generations of enslaved African men, women and children. To justify this murder and torture black people had to be declared inferior or not human. We live with the consequences today."

Controversy

Cronyism and corruption allegations
In March 2002, while still independent, Livingstone was accused of "cronyism" by some Labour party members in the London Assembly after he had appointed six officials as special advisers at a salary level which seemed to them excessive, and a manoeuvre to help his chances of being re-elected. Livingstone denied the allegations and stated the appointments were a "necessary efficiency drive."
In December 2007, the Evening Standard published news of an investigation into grants worth £2.5 million paid to organisations in which Ken Livingstone's adviser Lee Jasper was involved. It is confirmed that some of these grants were paid directly by the mayor's office.
Following Mr. Livingstone’s defeat in the 2008 Mayoral Elections, The Daily Mail reported that “Eight 'cronies' of Ken Livingstone are to receive £1.6 million in pay-offs following his defeat in the London mayoral elections.”  Mr. Livingstone changed the rules for political appointees who would otherwise not have been eligible for severance packages, which paved the way for the eight City Hall advisors to receive an average of £200,000. Liberal Democrat Leader Dee Doocey stated that the payments were “completely inexcusable” and added that “It seems like there's one law for the ordinary working person and one law for the political class.” Tony Travers, local government expert at the London School of Economics, said: “I think most people will be shocked. You could do quite a lot about knife crime with £1.6 million.  It is odd indeed that the full benefits of labour laws designed to protect the vulnerable are being claimed by courtiers who knew they would lose their jobs if their master lost the election.”
Dispute with the Evening Standard 
Ken Livingstone was publicly criticised in February 2005 for remarks made to an Evening Standard reporter, comparing him to a Nazi concentration camp guard, after the reporter had tried to interview him following a reception marking the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith's coming out as gay. The reporter, Oliver Finegold, was in fact Jewish and said he took offence at the remarks, but Livingstone refused to withdraw the remark and was subsequently accused of antisemitism. Finegold had an audio recorder running. The Evening Standard decided not to run the story at first but the following transcript of the conversation was published by guardian.co.uk:
Finegold: Mr Livingstone, Evening Standard. How did tonight go?
Livingstone: How awful for you. Have you thought of having treatment?
Finegold: How did tonight go?
Livingstone: Have you thought of having treatment?
Finegold: Was it a good party? What does it mean for you?
Livingstone: What did you do before? Were you a German war criminal?
Finegold: No, I'm Jewish, I wasn't a German war criminal and I'm actually quite offended by that. So, how did tonight go?
Livingstone: Ah right, well you might be Jewish, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?
Finegold: Great, I have you on record for that. So, how was tonight?
Livingstone: It's nothing to do with you because your paper is a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots.
Finegold: I'm a journalist and I'm doing my job. I'm only asking for a comment.
Livingstone: Well, work for a paper that doesn't have a record of supporting fascism.
The epithet "German war criminal" and Livingstone's subsequent jibes refer to the Standard's owners, the Daily Mail and General Trust, which endorsed Oswald Mosley's Fascists in 1934 and supported Nazism until 1939. Livingstone also claimed the Standard was guilty of "harassment of a predominantly lesbian and gay event". Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell suggested in the Evening Standard that this explanation "came across as patronising. Gay people don't need the Mayor's protection to fend off a journalist asking simple questions."
The decision was later quashed by the High Court of Justice when on 5 October, Mr Justice Collins overturned the suspension, regardless of the outcome of Livingstone's appeal concerning the breach of standards. The final judgment upheld Livingstone's appeal and stated that the Adjudication Panel had misdirected itself, although the judge stated that the Mayor should have apologised.

On 7 December 2006, at a City Hall reception marking the launch of the London Jewish Forum, Livingstone apologised for any offence that he had caused the Jewish community.
Criticism of Livingstone by the Evening Standard intensified during the 2008 campaign, with daily front page articles attacking him, under the direction of editor Veronica Wadley who originally urged Johnson to stand and who is closely linked to Tory leadership. According to articles in The Guardian and Time Out London, she is strongly influenced by the need to renew Associated Newspaper's multi-million pound contract to deliver the Metro free paper in London Underground stations in 2010, a decision within the gift of the Mayor.

Foreign policy

Remarks over foreign policy
In 2004 Livingstone said "I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi Royal Family are swinging from lamp-posts and they've got a proper government that represents the people of Saudi Arabia."
In a March 2005 commentary in The Guardian he accused Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon of being a "war criminal", citing his alleged personal responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982 and accusations of ethnic cleansing. Accusations that Sharon was implicated are frequently made by other organisations and leading politicians including the official Israeli Kahan Commission investigation into the massacres in 1982.

On 20 July 2005, Livingstone made the following comments in a BBC interview about the role of foreign policy as a motivation for the London bombings of two weeks earlier:
"I think you've just had 80 years of western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of the western need for oil. We've propped up unsavoury governments, we've overthrown ones we didn't consider sympathetic. And I think the particular problem we have at the moment is that in the 1980s ... the Americans recruited and trained Osama Bin Laden, taught him how to kill, to make bombs, and set him off to kill the Russians and drive them out of Afghanistan. They didn't give any thought to the fact that once he'd done that he might turn on his creators. A lot of young people see the double standards, they see what happens in Guantanamo Bay, and they just think that there isn't a just foreign policy."

Later in the interview he stated, about the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip:
"Under foreign occupation and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work for three generations, I suspect that if it had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves."

Commentator Mark Steyn described the interview as Livingstone "artfully" attempting "to draw a distinction between Muslim terrorists blowing up his own public transit (which he didn't approve of) and Muslim terrorists blowing up Israeli public transit (which he was inclined to be sympathetic to)."
In February 2007, Ken Livingstone signed a deal with Venezuela to provide cheaper oil for London buses. In return, the Greater London Authority advises Venezuela on recycling, waste management, traffic and reducing carbon emissions. This deal came under criticism from the London Assembly Conservatives including Richard Barnes, who stated that the "money would be better directed at the poor of Venezuela," and journalist Martin Bright, who said that the deal "effectively takes from the poor of Latin America to give to one of the richest cities in the world." Prices have been slashed by 20%; following this, half-price bus travel became available to Londoners on income support. Livingstone stated the plan "rises on the suggestion of President Hugo Chávez and builds on the work his government is doing around the world in tackling the problems of poverty," and also said, "This will make it cheaper and easier for people to go about their lives and get the most out of London. The agreement..
. The agreement... will also benefit the people of Venezuela, by providing expertise in areas of city management in which London is a world leader."
Dispute with embassies over payment of congestion charge 
A dispute with the US Embassy in London over payment of the London Congestion Charge escalated on 27 March 2006 when Livingstone criticised the Embassy's decision not to pay. The Embassy argued that the charge is a form of taxation, not a charge for a service, and diplomats and their staff are therefore exempt under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Embassy officials have never paid the charge, which was instituted in 2003. Livingstone, however, alleged that the decision was made by Robert Tuttle, who took up the post of Ambassador in July 2005. Livingstone described Tuttle as "one of George Bush's closest cronies and a big funder of his election campaign" and said he was trying to "skive out of [paying] like some chiselling little crook". The group Liberty and Law reported this remark to the Standards Board for England as a breach of its code, but the board chose not to investigate it.
Germany stopped paying the charge in 2005, Japan followed in 2006, and in 2007 France, Russia, Belgium, and 50 other missions followed suit when the zone extended to their missions' locations (Iran, Sweden and Syria continue to pay the charge). Asked about Japan's refusal to pay in a March 2007 interview on LBC Radio, Livingstone responded, "I think there are several problems with Japan that we could go on about here. Admitting their guilt for all the war crimes would be one thing. So if they've not got round to doing that, I doubt they're too worried about the congestion charge." London's Japanese embassy responded that their government had already apologised for previous war crimes.

Post-mayoral career
On 28 August 2008, it was announced that Livingstone will be an adviser on urban planning to Caracas, Venezuela. He will act as a consultant on the capital's policing, transport and other municipal issues. As a friend of Hugo Chávez, Livingstone was appointed personally by him to advise officials and mayoral candidates in Caracas, in order to help transform the city, which journalist Rory Carroll described as suffering from, "Gridlocked traffic, a crumbling centre, hillside slums, horrific murder rates, corrupt police and inept local government". Livingstone reckoned that in twenty years a "first-world city" can be made out of Caracas, stating, "I have a very extensive network of contacts both domestically and internationally which I will be calling on to assist in this
." No decision on a salary for the ex-mayor has been made, although he mentioned that, "The whole cost of this trip has been paid for by the government of Venezuela and as an unemployed citizen I would not be able to pay for my own fare otherwise." The appointment follows on from the controversy surrounding the deal brokered by Livingstone in February 2007 for the Greater London Authority and Transport for London to provide advice to Venezuela in exchange for cheap fuel to help with bus subsidies. The deal was later overturned by new mayor Boris Johnson, and Livingstone offered his services to Chávez so that Venezuela gets the "advice that we promised". Livingstone played down any accusations that his close relationship with the Venezuelan President was controversial, "unless you believe American propaganda", while a spokesperson for Johnson said, "Ken Livingstone is free, as a private individual, to offer his advice and services to whomever he wants
." Livingstone is now being touted as a key asset for Chávez in the upcoming November elections in the country.
References

Other websites

Mayor of London, the London Assembly and the Greater London Authority - official London government website
Official re-election site
MayorWatch pages 
CityMayors.com Profile of Livingstone
BBC Profile
Ken Livingstone : Rebel Mayor (5 May 2000)
Mayor condemns 'cowardly' attack (7 July 2005)BBC video of Livingstone's statement (Realplayer format)
The Observer Profile: Ken Livingstone - Capital chap by Jay Rayner, published in The Observer, 10 July 2005
A left-wing critique of Livingstone, by Charlie Kimber, published in International Socialism journal
Ken Livingstone Acknowledges Boris Johnson's victory in the 2008 mayoral election
You can't believe in everything Guardian opinion piece and Livingstone's response in a letter to the paper
Labour's shameful debt to Livingstone  Telegraph opinion piece
Timeline of the Evening Standard Affair
Ken Livingstone travelling on the Tube
Livingstone's gaffe about Belgians (Dutch) 
Gaffe on Belgians (English)
1945 births
Living people
British atheists
British socialists
Mayors of London
Democratic socialists

Politicians from London
Vatnajökull (English: Glacier of Lakes) () is the largest glacier in Iceland. It lies in the south-east of the island, covering more than 8% of the country. 

The average thickness of the ice is 400 m, with a maximum thickness of 1,000 m. Iceland's highest peak, Hvannadalshnúkur (2,110 m), is located at the southern tip of Vatnajökull, near Skaftafell National Park. It is classified as an ice cap glacier.

Vatnajökull has been shrinking for some years now, possibly because of climatic changes and recent volcanic activity. Until 1930 it was growing.
According to Guinness World Records Vatnajökull is the object of the world's longest sight line, 550 km from Slættaratindur, the highest mountain in the Faroe Islands. GWR state that "owing to the light bending effects of atmospheric refraction, Vatnajökull (2119m), Iceland, can sometimes be seen from the Faroe Islands, 340 miles (550 km) away". This may be based on a claimed sighting by a British sailor in 1939. The validity of this record is analysed/undermined in mathematical and atmospheric detail by J.C. de Ferranti

Other websites

 Photos of Vatnajökull from www.islandsmyndir.is 
 Search engine and map of Iceland 
 Viewfinder Panoramas
 What it's like to explore the ice cap in winter. 

Geography of Iceland
The InterCity 225 is an electric train operating in the United Kingdom. Its top speed is 225km/h, hence its name. From 2017, some will be replaced by the British Rail Class 800.

References

United Kingdom rolling stock
British Rail (BR) was the national railway company of Great Britain, from 1948 to 1997.  It was created by nationalization under the Transport Act 1947.  Britain's railways were returned to private ownership by privatization in 1997.

History

Great Britain
After the smaller firms were merged in 1923 under the Railways Act 1921, there were four large regional railway companies. The Big Four were the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the Southern Railway (SR). The Transport Act 1947 made provision for the nationalisation of the network.

The Second World War had caused damage to all the railways. They had lost a large part of their trains, buildings and equipment.
The Transport Act 1947 set out the nationalisation of the rail network, as part of a plan by Clement Attlee's Labour Government to nationalise public transport. The London Underground, some industrial lines and some remaining light railways like Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway were again excluded. For a short time, during World War II, the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway line was taken over by the military. After the war the line re-opened to public use in 1946. The Bicester Military Railway had been built by the government in 1941.

The Transport Act 1947 took effect on 1 January 1923. By that date most of the mergers had taken place, some from the previous year. The Railway Magazine in its issue of February 1923 dubbed the new companies as "The Big Four of the New Railway Era".

These "Big Four" were:
 London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS)
 Great Western Railway (GWR)
 London and North Eastern Railway (LNER)
 Southern Railway (SR)
See also a list of railway companies involved in the 1923 grouping.

Northern Ireland
The nationalised Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) ran the railways in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966. They were then taken over by Translink and called NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways ().

The government of Northern Ireland and Ireland ran the former Great Northern Railway jointly under a Great Northern Railway Board until 1958. Most of the lines in the west of Northern Ireland were closed in the 1960s.

List of railway companies

The 1955 Modernisation Plan

In 1955, a major modernisation programme costing £1.2 billion was authorised by the government. The period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes occur as steam trains were scrapped 1968, in favour of diesel trains and electric trains.  One third of the network was closed by the highly critical Beeching report of the 1960s.
A major railway survey in April 1961 was used in the writing of a government report on the future of the network. This report was called The Reshaping of British Railways. It was published by the British Railways Board (BRB) in March 1963. A third of all passenger trains would be scrapped and more than 4,000 of the 7,000 stations would be closed.

InterCity (or, in the earliest days, the hyphenated Inter-City) was introduced by British Rail in 1966 as a brand-name for its long-haul express passenger services (see British Rail brand names for a full history).

Passenger levels fell steadily from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, but experienced a sharp increase after the introduction of the high-speed Intercity 125 trains in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Between 1934 and 1975 the Northern line ran the Northern City Line as its Highbury Branch. London Underground gave it to British Rail in 1975,
Before the sectorization of BR in 1982 the system was split into regions. Working around London, they were London Midland Region (Marylebone, Euston, St Pancras and Broad Street), Southern Region (Waterloo, Victoria, Chairing Cross, Holborn Viaduct, Cannon Street and London Bridge), Western Region (Paddington) and Eastern Region (King's Cross, Moorgate, Broad Street, Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street). This was perceived to be a source of inefficiency, so sectorization made the regions into a single organisation covering all commuter services.  At the same time InterCity took over express services and Regional Railways took over regional services. The group was originally called Provincial.

BR built 2537 steam locomotives from 1948 to 1960, some to pre-nationalisation designs and some to its own, new, standard designs. Eventually BR chose to end the use of steam trains in 1968.
The official report known as the "Modernisation Plan" of December 1954 was intended to bring the railway system into the 20th century. The aim was to increase speed, reliability, safety and line capacity, by making the railways more attractive to passengers and freight operators. The important areas were:

 Electrification of principal main lines, in the Eastern Region, Kent, Birmingham and Central Scotland. The steam locomotives were replaced by electric locomotives
 Large-scale dieselisation to replace steam locomotives with diesel locomotives
 New passenger and freight rolling stock
 New signals and track renewal
 Closure of small numbers of unnecessary lines, stations and goods depots
Long-distance trains from Marylebone began to be cut back from 1958 after the line was given from BR Midland Western to the BR Midland Region. Then BR Midland Region thought it was an unnecessary rival of their Midland Main Line. By 1960 there were no daytime trains running to destinations north of Nottingham and only a few still ran at night. Many Express services were cut. By 1963, local stopping services beyond Aylesbury were cut. In 1965 freight services were ended. Between 1963 and 1966 only a few remaining long distance services stayed in use. A large part of the former Great Central Railway was closed as part of the 'Beeching axe'. This meant that Marylebone was now used only by local trains to Aylesbury and High Wycombe. After the 1960s, lack of investment meant the station itself became run down.

New diesel trains

Some of the early models were of poor quality and design, but many later kinds proved their worth in time.
British Rail Class 127 diesel trains were chosen to operate on the services from Marylebone usually to places such as High Wycombe, Aylesbury and Banbury which are on the Chiltern Main Line and Great Central Main Line (now the London to Aylesbury Line). Strangely, the 115 were under Table 115 in the British Rail timetable. They were similar to British Rail Class 127,  but were superior as the class had larger windows, better seats, lights and wall surfaces. Both classes were made in the early 1960s.

The British Rail Class 47 (originally Brush Type 4) is a class of British railway diesel-electric locomotive that was developed in the 1960s by Brush Traction. Their reliable and trusted service lasted well in to the 2000s. Some are still working in 2018.

British Rail gave Class 52 to the class of 74 large diesel-hydraulic locomotives built for the Western Region of British Railways between 1961 and 1964. All were given two-word names, with the first word being Western, and so the type was nicknamed Westerns.
The British Rail Class 207 (or 3D) versatile diesel-electric multiple units were built by BR at Eastleigh in 1962.

New electric trains

Some of the early models were of poor quality and design, but many later kinds proved their worth in time.

The British Rail Class 423 (or 4Vep) electric multiple units were built by BR at York Works from 1967 to 1974. They feature manually opening doors next to every seating row and mostly found working outer suburban services in South London, and rural services in Kent and Sussex, up to replacement in 2005.

The British Rail Class 303 is a type of electric multiple unit. They are also known as Blue Train units, since they were originally painted blue all over. They were first used in 1960 for the electrification of the North Clyde and the Cathcart Circle lines in Strathclyde.
The British Rail Class 73 electro-diesel locomotives are very unusual in that they can operate from a 750 V DC third-rail supply, but also have a diesel engine to allow them to work on non-electrified routes.

The British Rail Class 86 was the standard electric locomotive built during the 1960s. It was made after the repeated testing of the earlier classes like the 81 and  85. The tests led to a much improved loco design.

The British Rail Class 312 is a type of alternating current (AC) electric multiple unit (EMU) built in 1966–1974 intended for use on outer-suburban passenger services. It was the last class of multiple unit to be constructed to the British Rail Mark 2  body shell, and also the last with slam doors. Their passenger seats were an improvement on former types.
British Rail Class 313 electric multiple units were built by BREL at York Works from 1976 to 1977, thus the first second-generation EMUs to be constructed for British Rail. They were capable of both drawing power via 25 kV AC overhead, or 750 V DC third-rail. They were the first units in Britain to have fully automatic couplers which allowed both physical coupling and also the connection of control electric and air supplies to be carried out without the driver's need to leave the cab. Their passenger seats were also an improvement on former types.

The Beeching report

During the late 1950s, railways continued to worsen, and in 1959 the government acted, limiting the amount the British Transport Commission (BTC) could spend on British Rail.

The government proposed that many services could be provided more cheaply by buses, and said that most abandoned rail services would have their places taken by bus services. Only main lines would be untouched. Many other minor lines would be cut back or scrapped.
The business man Lord Beeching saw South Wales as a failing industrial region. So it lost the majority of its network. Since 1983 it has experienced a major rail revival, with new stations such as Llanharan reopening. Four lines reopened within 20 miles (32 km) of each other: Abercynon–Aberdare, Barry–Bridgend via , Bridgend–Maesteg and the Ebbw Valley Line via Newbridge.

The station at Laurencekirk on the mainline between Arbroath and Aberdeen was shut in 1967, but 42 years later in May 2009 it reopened. Other reopened stations include ,  and  – all closed in the mid-1960s.

Haddenham in Buckinghamshire lost its little-used station in 1963, but a more popular station opened in 1987 as the town grew.
A major part of the report proposed that British Rail electrify some major main lines and the use of containerised freight traffic instead of outdated and uneconomic wagon-load traffic. Some of these plans were eventually adopted, however, such as the creation of the Freightliner concept and further electrification of the West Coast Main Line from Crewe to Glasgow in 1974. Also the staffs' terms and conditions were improved over time.

Since the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, road traffic levels grew heavily in some areas. This has come close to gridlock. Furthermore, in recent years there have been record high levels of passengers on the railways. A modest number of the railway closures have therefore been reversed.
In addition a small but significant number of closed stations have reopened, and passenger services been restored on lines where they had been closed or removed. Many of these were in the urban metropolitan counties and towns where Passenger Transport Executives have a role in promoting local passenger rail use.

A notable reopening was the Robin Hood Line in Nottinghamshire, between Nottingham and Worksop via Mansfield, which reopened in the early 1990s. Before the line reopened, Mansfield had been the largest town in Britain without a railway station.

The Serpell Report 

Profits from the railways began to fall in the early 1980s. In 1983, the civil servant Sir David Serpell wrote what became known as the Serpell Report. He wanted even more cutbacks.
In the early 1980s there was a proposal to close Marylebone and divert British Rail services via High Wycombe into nearby Paddington. There was also a plan to extend the Metropolitan Line to Aylesbury, so London trains via Amersham would be sent to Baker Street. Marylebone station was to be converted into a bus and coach station. London Underground said the Metropolitan Line could not cope with any more trains and was full up. However these plans were deemed stupid and clumsy, and were quietly dropped.

The Pacer and Express Sprinter trains

The funding of BR was reduced so they created the cheaper Pacer trains. The British Rail Class 143 is a diesel multiple unit, part of the Pacer family of trains introduced between 1985 and 1986. They originally worked around North East England but were later transferred to Wales. It was made out of bus parts put on to lorry chassis and train wheels. Earlier units proved to be unreliable, but later units were of a better design.
The British Rail Class 156 "Super-Sprinter"  diesel multiple units were built from 1987 to 1989 to replace elderly First Generation "Heritage" DMUs (like the Class 127 units) and locomotive-hauled passenger trains.

As funding increased before privatisation the successful British Rail Class 158 Express Sprinter was made. It is a type of diesel multiple unit (DMU) train. They were built for British Rail between 1989 and 1992 by BREL at their Derby Works.

The Clapham Junction railway crash

On 12 December 1988, three commuter trains crashed, just south-west of Clapham junction station, in London. 35 people died and more than 100 were injured. British Rail's 30-year-old vintage Mark 1 carriages were found out to be dangerous and the broken signalling equipment was fixed and improved.

Privatisation
The British government under John Major said that privatisation would help passenger services, but this did not happen until much later.
The Scottish Assembly Government have re-opened the lines between Hamilton and Larkhall, Alloa and Stirling and is working on a link from Airdrie to Bathgate. The biggest line-reopening project is the former Waverley railway Edinburgh to Borders line.

The Welsh Assembly Government has re-opened the Vale of Glamorgan Line between Barry Bock and Bridgend in 2005. The Ebbw Valley Line reopened between Ebbw Vale and Cardiff in the year 2008. It will later go on to services to Newport in Gwent in 2011. The Barry–Bridgend route was closed after the Beeching report of March 1963. The line's passenger service was officially shut down in June 1964, but freight continued until the late 1990s.

Some English stations like Corby and Mansfield were reopened after privatisation.
Yet more stations were reopened by British Rail in Scotland, England and Wales before privatisation when the railway was run properly.

Train fares cost more than under British Rail.

The split up for privatisation
Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail. It was created in the year 1982. It finished operation in 1996, two years after privatisation. In the privatisation of British Rail, InterCity trains were divided up into several franchises. The Caledonian Sleeper are transferred to ScotRail, now First ScotRail.

Since privatisation, the number of companies has changed a number of times as rules have changed and the areas covered altered. The companies that took over passenger rail services include:

Six sub-brands also occurred in the early 2000s:

*Wales and Borders, now part of Arriva Trains Wales.

*Wessex Trains, now part of First Great Western.

** Silverlink Metro, now London Overground.

** Silverlink County, now part of London Midland.

*** West Anglia, now part of National Express East Anglia.

*** Great Northern Electrics,  now part of National Express East Anglia.
The company logo
The British Rail "double arrow" logo was said to show  direction of travel on a double track railway on a railway map and was nicknamed "the arrow of indecision". It is now employed as a general symbol on street signs in Great Britain, but not in Northern Ireland, denoting railway stations, and as part of the Association of Train Operating Companies (A.T.O.C.)'s joint-managed National Rail brand, still being printed on railway tickets.

Labour relations
Sometimes strikes happened among British Rail staff, over staff pay, safety, working hours and alike. There were several strikes in the late 1970s, but decreased after privatisation. There were also several other strikes in the late 1970s. Other firms like the UK's coal mines also struck at this time.

Gallery

References

British Rail
1948 establishments in Europe
1940s establishments in the United Kingdom
1997 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Cobra is a  name of a snake and a girl cobra is called 'cobra Kai.' In English it is the common name for various venomous snakes. Most of those species are in the family Elapidae, and most of them can spread their neck ribs to form a flattened, widened hood.

The name "cobra" is short for cobra de capelo or cobra-de-capelo, which is Portuguese for "snake with hood", or "hood-snake".

Cobras usually live in tropical and desert regions of Asia and Africa. When feeling threatened, cobras can tilt back and flatten their heads into their warning posture. The rest of the time their heads are symmetrical and they look much like any other snakes.
Cobra may refer to:
 The genus Naja, the typical or "true" cobras (they raise the front part of the body and flatten their neck in a warning signal when alarmed). They are a group of elapids found in Africa and Asia. They include over 270 species, including Naja nivea, the Cape cobra, a medium-sized, highly venomous cobra which lives in biomes across southern Africa; Cleopatra's "asp" (the Egyptian cobra, Naja haje); and the Asiatic spectacled cobra Naja naja; and the monocled cobra, Naja kaouthia.
 Spitting cobras, a subset of Naja species which squirt venom from their fangs in self-defence.

Most so-called, and all "true", species of cobras belong to the family Elapidae

References 

Elapidae
The Cape cobra (Naja nivea) is a cobra inhabiting the regions of South Africa. It averages 4 feet (120 cm) long but may grow to be 6 feet (180 cm) long. The color varies from location to location, and those from the Kalahari are normally yellow with brown speck uniformly all over the body.

References

Elapidae
Reptiles of Africa
The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in southern Kgalagadi Africa extending 900,000 km² (362,500 sq. mi.), covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It has huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains.

The Kalahari Desert is the southern part of Africa, and the geography is a portion of desert and a plateau. The Kalahari supports some animals and plants because most of it is not a true desert. There are small amounts of rainfall and the summer temperature is very high. The driest areas usually receive  of rain per year, and the wettest just a little over .
The surrounding Kalahari Basin covers over 2.5 million km² extending farther into Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, and encroaching into parts of Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The only permanent river, the Okavango, flows into a delta in the northwest, forming marshes that are rich in wildlife. Ancient dry riverbeds—called omuramba—traverse the Central Northern reaches of the Kalahari and provide standing pools of water during the rainy season. Previously havens for wild animals from elephant to giraffe, and for predators such as lion and cheetah, the riverbeds are now mostly grazing spots, though leopard or cheetah can still be found.

Game reserves
Game reserves 

The Kalahari has a number of game reserves—the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR, the world's second largest protected area), Khutse Game Reserve and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Animals that live in the region include brown hyenas, lions, meerkats, giraffe, warthogs, jackals and several species of antelope (including the eland, gemsbok, springbok, hartebeest, steenbok, kudu, and duiker), and many species of bird and reptiles. Vegetation in the Kalahari consists mainly of grasses and acacias but there are over 400 identified plant species present (including the wild watermelon or Tsamma melon).

Bushmen 
The Bushmen of the Kalahari were hunter/gatherers. They hunted for meat and gathered the food of the desert to eat. They did not keep animals. They moved from place to place to find food and water. They owned very few things because they had to carry everything themselves. Very few people still live this way anywhere in the world.
Settlements within the Kalahari 
Botswana
 Ghanzi
 Tshane
 Tshabong
 Orapa

Namibia
 Gobabis
 Mariental

South Africa
 Rietfontein
 Noenieput
 Severn

References 

Deserts of Africa
Geography of Botswana
Geography of Namibia
Geography of South Africa
Silverstein is a Canadian post-hardcore band formed in Ontario, Canada, in 2000. Their name come from a children-book writer, Shel Silverstein.

First three years 
After the several changes in the band's line up, Billy Hamilton joined the band. He found out about they needed a bass player while online. In the autumn of 2002, the band signed to their record label - Victory Records. They left Victory Records in 2010 and joined Hopeless Records.

Albums
In January 2003, their first (debut) album was released. The title was When Broken Is Easily Fixed.

In 2005, Silverstein performed on the "Never Sleep Again" tour along with fellow emo band Hawthorne Heights. The next year, 2006, they toured on the "Vans Warped" tour. This is an event in the United States taking place in the summertime. The band's second album, Discovering the Waterfront, has the singles "Discovering the Waterfront" and "Smile in Your Sleep".
Summertime last year, 2007, Silverstein released their third album, Arrivals and Departures. It includes a single named "Still Dreaming". On MySpace, a social networking site, they posted a new song called "Broken Stars". Singer Shane Told has been trained by a vocal coach named Melissa Cross.

In Spring 2009, Silverstein released their fourth full length album, Shipwreck in the Sand.

In Spring 2011, Silverstein released their fifth album, Rescue.

References 

2000s music groups
Emo bands
Canadian rock bands
Post-hardcore bands
Discovering the Waterfront is the second full-length album by the band Silverstein. The album has three singles; "Smile In Your Sleep", "Discovering The Waterfront", and "My Heroine". All of the singles had music videos.

Track listing
All songs written by Shane Told and Neil Boshart, except for where noted.

Personnel
 Band
Shane Told – lead vocals, rhythm and other guitars, keyboards
Neil Boshart – lead guitar
Josh Bradford – rhythm guitar
Billy Hamilton – bass, backing vocals
Paul Koehler – drums, percussion

Charts
 Billboard (North America)

2005 albums
Punk albums
Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is the oil market leader in Pakistan. The well established infrastructure, built at par with international standards, representing 82% of country’s storage, provides PSO an edge over its competitors.

Companies of Pakistan
Mahmud I (; August 2, 1696 – December 13, 1754) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1730 to 1754. He was the son of Mustafa II (1695–1703). His mother Emetullah Sultan, (born as Evemia) was of Greek ethnic descent. Mahmud I was the older brother of Osman III (1754–57).

Sultans of the Ottoman Empire
1696 births
1754 deaths
Mahmud II (Ottoman Turkish: محمود ثاني Mahmud-ı sānī) (July 20, 1785 – July 1, 1839) was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He ruled from 1808 until his death. Mahmud was the son of Sultan Abdul Hamid I. His time as sultan is notable mostly for the major legal and military changes he caused.

Mahmud II was born in Istanbul.  He was 23 years old when he came to the throne.  He was an Islamic calligraphy artist, composer and poet.  He wrote poems under the pseudonym "Adli".  He was of a brave, patient and prudent temperament.  He replaced the old military organization maintained by the governors of irregular auxiliaries (sekban - I Cedid).  When the soldiers shortly after arose, he defeated them.  The 1808 revolting insurgents killed Alemdar Mustafa Pasha.
In 1812 the peace treaty was signed in Bucharest with the Russians.  In 1813, with the help of Muhammed Ali Pasha, he defeated the Wahhabis, who desecrated the holy places and shrines in Mecca and Medina. 
 In 1821 the Greek War of Independence broke out and  thousands were killed. 
 In the “Auspicious Incident” the corps of Janissaries was abolished and replaced by a conscription army.
 In 1827 the war with Russia began again.
 In 1829 the peace treaty was concluded in Edirne.
 In the years 1831 and 1839, riots broke out in Egypt.
In July of 1839 the Sultan Mahmud II died as the ill effects of life experienced by him calamitous events he was afflicted with tuberculosis and died.
His body was buried in the Türbe in Divanyolu.
Mahmud II was devoted to many works of the highest degree in any field.
He opened many new schools, and ordered to build large buildings. 
All the great mosques of Istanbul were repaired in his time. 
The bridge was built in Unkapani his time. 
In Mecca, he had built a madrasa and mend the Great Mosque (Mescid-i Aksa) in the holy city of Jerusalem.
The poet and Sümbülzâde Vehbi Kececizâde Izzet Molla died at this time.

His sons: Abdulmejid I *, * Abdulaziz, 4 Sehzades names Ahmet, Bayezid, veliaht Abdulhamid, Suleyman, 2 Sehzades called Mehmed Murad Nizameddin, Abdullah Osman.
 
His daughters: Emine Sultan, Sultan Hamide, Hayriye Sultan, Sultan Saw, * Saliha Sultan, Ayse Sultan, Sultan Atike *, 2 Fatma Sultan, Sultan Münire, Mihrimah Sultan *, * Adile Sultan.
1785 births
1839 deaths
Sultans of the Ottoman Empire
Mahmud II (Kabızlık; died 1131) proclaimed himself the Seljuk sultan of Baghdad in 1118 after the death of Mehmed I (probably Mahmud's father). Mahmud fought against the Seljuk Sultan of Khorasan, Ahmed Sanjar, whom Mehmed I had revolted against in 1105. Mahmud was succeeded by Dawud.

Persian people
1100s births
1131 deaths
Baghdad
Seljuk Sultans
Mahmud of Ghazni, (, ; (2 November 971 – 30 April 1030) commonly known as Mahmud Ghaznavi, was the ruler of the Ghaznavid Empire from 997 until his death. He turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the rich capital of an extensive empire which included modern-day Afghanistan, most of Iran, and parts of north-west India including modern-day Pakistan. He was also the first ruler to carry the title Sultan, signifying his break from the power of the Islamic Caliph.

Mahmud of Ghazni was known as Yāmīn al-Dawlah Maḥmūd (in full: Yāmīn al-Dawlah Abd al-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebük Tegīn). He was the eldest son of Emir Sebüktegin. When he was young, Mahmud helped his father gain land through military campaigns against Turk nobles. In 997, he overthrew his younger brother, Ismail, who had been nominated for the throne after his father’s death. As soon as he had the throne, he went out to conquer territory.
Between 1000 and 1026, he invaded India at least 17 times. He led the first major Muslim army to invade India. His conquest of the entire Punjab including Haryana all the way up to Agra was the last invasion where he increased his territory in India. From then on, most of Mahmud’s raids were to gain wealth. Mahmud's last and most famous raid was on Somnath. This is a temple city on the Gujarati coast that was also a pilgrimage site. The temple had many riches: heavy golden chains and thousands of jewels. The battle was violent, and more than 50,000 people died. Mahmud's army won and plundered the temple of its riches and wealth.

With all his riches, Mahmud founded a university, a library, and a museum, a grand mosque and richened his capital. When Mahmud was about to die, he ordered all of his riches to be placed before him.  Mahmud died on 30 April 1030.

Campaign timeline
Campaign timeline

As Emir
 994: Gains the title of Saif ad-Dawla and becomes Governor of Khorasan under service to NuhII of the Samanid Empire in civil strife
 995: The Samanid rebels Fa'iq (leader of a court faction that had defeated Alptigin's nomination for Emir) and Abu Ali expel Mahmud from Nishapur. Mahmud and Sabuktigin defeat Samanid rebels at Tus
 997: Kara-Khanid Khanate
As Sultan
 999: Khorasan, Balkh, Herat, Merv from the Samanids. A concurrent invasion from the north by the Qarakhanids under Elik Khan (Nasr Khan) ends Samanid rule.
 1000: Sistan from Saffarid dynasty
 1001: Gandhara: Sultan Mahmud defeats Raja Jayapala in the Battle of Peshawar; Jayapala subsequently abdicates and commits suicide.
 1002: Seistan: Is imprisoned in Khuluf
 1004: Bhatia (Bhera) is annexed after it fails to pay its yearly tribute.
 1005-6: Multan: Fateh Daud, the Ismaili ruler of Multan revolts and enlists the aid of Anandapala. Mahmud massacres the Ismailis of Multan in the course of his conquest. Anandapala is defeated at Peshawar and pursued to Sodra (Wazirabad) in modern day Gujranwala and the region is partly annexed by Mahmud. Mahmud then goes on to capture Bathinda from its ruler, Sukhapala.
Ghor and Muhammad ibn Suri are then captured by Mahmud, made prisoner along with Muhammad ibn Suri's son, and taken to Ghazni, where Muhammad ibn Suri dies.
1005: Defends Balkh and Khorasan against NasrI of the Kara-Khanid Khanate and recaptures Nishapur from Isma'il Muntasir of the Samanids.
 1005: Sewakpal rebels and is defeated.
 1008: Mahmud defeats the Indian Confederacy (Ujjain, Gwalior, Kalinjar, Kannauj, Delhi, and Ajmer) in the Battle of Chach near Hazro in Chach, and captures the Shahi treasury at Kangra, Himachal Pradesh and appoints a governor.
Note: A historical narrative states in this battle, under the onslaught of the Gakhars, Mahmud's army was about to retreat when King Anandapala's elephant took flight and turned the tide of the battle.
 1010: Ghor; against Amir Suri
 1010: Multan revolts. It's Ismaili ruler Abul Fatah Dawood is defeated and imprisoned for life at Ghazni.
 1012-1013: Sacks Thanesar
 1012: Invades Gharchistan and deposes its ruler Abu Nasr Muhammad.
 1012: Demands and receives remainder of the province of Khorasan from the Abbasid Caliph. Then demands Samarkand as well but is rebuffed.
 1013: Bulnat: Defeats Trilochanpala.
1014: Kafiristan is attacked
 1015: Mahmud's army sacks Lahore, but his expedition to Kashmir fails, due to inclement weather.
 1015: Khwarezm: Marries his sister to Abul Abbas Mamun of Khwarezm, who dies in the same year in a rebellion. Moves to quell the rebellion and installs a new ruler and annexes a portion.
1017: Kannauj, Meerut, and Muhavun on the Yamuna, Mathura and various other regions along the route. While moving through Kashmir he levies troops from vassal Princes for his onward march; Kannauj and Meerut submit without battle.
 1018-1020: Sacks the town of Mathura.
 1021: Raises Ayaz to kingship, awarding him the throne of Lahore.
 1021: Kalinjar attacks Kannauj: he marches to their aid and finds the last Shahi King, Trilochanpaala, encamped as well. No battle, the opponents leave their baggage trains and withdraw from the field. Also fails to take the fort of Lokote again. Takes Lahore on his return. Trilochanpala flees to Ajmer. First Muslim governors appointed east of the Indus River.
1023: Lahore. He forces Kalinjar and Gwalior to submit and pay tribute:  Trilochanpala, the grandson of Jayapala, is assassinated by his own troops. Official annexation of Punjab (including present day Haryana at that time) by Mahmud Ghaznavi. Also fails to take the Lohara fort on the western border of Kashmir for the second time.
 1024: Ajmer, Nehrwala, Kathiawar: This raid is his last major campaign. The concentration of wealth at Somnath was renowned, and consequently it became an attractive target for Mahmud, as it had previously deterred most invaders. The temple and citadel are sacked, and most of its defenders massacred.