title: Sue Bird

text: In the 2006–07 WNBA off-season, she joined Storm teammate Lauren Jackson and fellow UConn stars Diana Taurasi and Svetlana Abrosimova on the Russian team Spartak Moscow Region to win both the Russian Super League and the EuroLeague Women championships. Bird would keep playing with the team for the next four WNBA off-seasons.


title: Sue Bird

text: From 2011 to 2014, Bird played three off-seasons for UMMC Ekaterinburg in the Russian League winning three consecutive championships with the team.


title: Sue Bird

text: She competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 2000 Jones Cup Team in Taipei, Taiwan. Bird started all four games, and led the team with 17 assists, helping lead the team to the gold medal.


title: Sue Bird

text: In 2002, Bird was named to the national team which competed in the World Championships in Zhangjiagang, Changzhou and Nanjing, China. The team was coached by Van Chancellor. Bird scored 4.3 points per game. The USA team won all nine games, including a close title game against Russia, which was a one-point game late in the game.


title: Sue Bird

text: In the 2003–2004 off-season, Bird was named to the United States 2004 Women's Olympic Basketball Team's roster. The USA team would go on to win the gold at the games in Athens, Greece.


title: Sue Bird

text: In 2006, Bird was invited back to the National team for the World Championships held in Sao Paulo, Brazil in September 2006. With the retirements of Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley and injuries to Sheryl Swoopes, Bird, along with Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi stepped up to leading roles on the national team. The USA team won eight of the nine games they played, but fell against Russia 75–68 in the medal round, so ended up with the bronze medal. Over the nine games, Bird hit 50% of her three-point attempts, tying her for accuracy leadership along with Taurasi and Swoopes. Bird led the team with 41 assists.


title: Sue Bird

text: In the summer of 2008, she was invited back to be on the 2008 Olympic basketball team. The team won the gold medal in Beijing, China. Bird started all eight games, and led the team in steals, with 14.


title: Sue Bird

text: Bird was invited to the USA Basketball Women's National Team training camp in the fall of 2009. The team selected to play for the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Olympics is usually chosen from these participants. At the conclusion of the training camp, the team will travel to Ekaterinburg, Russia, where they compete in the 2009 UMMC Ekaterinburg International Invitational.


title: Sue Bird

text: In 2010, Bird was named as one of the National team members to represent the USA Basketball team in the WNBA versus USA Basketball. This game replaces the normal WNBA All-Star game with WNBA All-Stars versus USA Basketball, as part of the preparation for the FIBA World Championship for Women to be held in the Czech Republic during September and October 2010. Bird was selected to be a member of the National team representing the US at the World Championships held in September and October 2010. The team was coached by Geno Auriemma. Because many team members were still playing in the WNBA until just prior to the event, the team had only one day of practice with the entire team before leaving for Ostrava and Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Even with limited practice, the team managed to win its first games against Greece by 26 points. The team continued to dominate with victory margins exceeding 20 points in the first five games. Several players shared scoring honors, with Swin Cash, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Lindsay Whalen, and Sylvia Fowles all ending as high scorer in the first few games. The sixth game was against undefeated Australia — the USA jumped out to a 24-point lead and the USA prevailed 83–75. The USA won its next two games by over 30 points, then faced the host team, the Czech Republic, in the championship game. The USA team had only a five-point lead at halftime, which was cut to three points, but the Czechs never got closer. Team USA went on to win the championship and gold medal. Bird averaged 5.6 points per game and led the team in assists with 26.


title: Sue Bird

text: Bird competed for the U.S. in the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Americans won their fifth straight gold medal.


title: Sue Bird

text: In 2014, Bird had competed for Team USA during the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women, in which they defeated Spain 77–64 to win the gold medal.


title: Sue Bird

text: Bird competed for Team USA in the 2016 Summer Olympics, helping the team win its sixth straight gold medal, as they beat Spain 101–72 in the gold medal game. This was Bird's fourth Olympic title.


title: Sue Bird

text: In 2018, Bird competed for Team USA during the 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup held in Spain, in which they defeated Australia 73–56 to win the gold medal. By winning the gold medal, Bird became the only player in history, male or female, to win four World Cup gold medals. Bird finished the final with five assists to bring her career total to 107 assists in FIBA World Cup – making her the leader for the U.S. most assists at the World Cup.


title: Sue Bird

text: On July 23, 2021, in the lead-up to her quest for her fifth gold medal, Bird carried the U.S. flag at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Bird and baseball player Eddy Alvarez were selected as the flag bearers by their fellow athletes. Bird called the honor “mind-blowing.” The Games were delayed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Sue Bird

text: Bird publicly came out as a lesbian on July 20, 2017, revealing that she had been dating soccer player Megan Rapinoe for several months. In 2018, she and Rapinoe became the first same-sex couple on the cover of "ESPN The Magazine"s "Body Issue". They announced their engagement on October 30, 2020. She was included in the 2022 Queer 50 list.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (), Marathi pronunciation: ]; also commonly known as Veer Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966), was an Indian politician, activist, and writer.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while imprisoned at Ratnagiri in 1922. He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha. He started using the honorific prefix "Veer" meaning "brave" since he wrote his autobiography.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar joined the Hindu Mahasabha and popularized the term "Hindutva" (Hinduness), previously coined by Chandranath Basu, to create a collective "Hindu" identity as an essence of Bharat (India). Savarkar was an atheist but a pragmatic practitioner of Hindu philosophy.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar began his political activities as a high school student and continued to do so at Fergusson College in Pune. He and his brother founded a secret society called Abhinav Bharat Society. When he went to the United Kingdom for his law studies, he involved himself with organizations such as India House and the Free India Society. He also published books advocating complete Indian independence by revolutionary means. One of the books he published called "The Indian War of Independence" about the Indian Rebellion of 1857 was banned by the British colonial authorities.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In 1910, Savarkar was arrested and ordered to be extradited to India for his connections with the revolutionary group India House. On the voyage back to India, Savarkar staged an attempt to escape jumping from steamship SS Morea and seek asylum in France while the ship was docked in the port of Marseilles. The French port officials however handed him back to the British government. On return to India, Savarkar was sentenced to life terms of imprisonment totaling fifty years and was moved to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: He was released in 1924 by the British officials after he wrote a series of mercy petitions to the British. He virtually stopped any criticism of the British regime after he was released from jail.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: After 1937, he started traveling widely, becoming a forceful orator and writer, advocating Hindu political and social unity. In 1938, he was a president of Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Mumbai. Serving as the president of the Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar endorsed the idea of India as a "Hindu Rashtra" ("Hindu Nation"). Savarkar assured the Sikhs that "when the Muslims woke from their day-dreams of Pakistan, they would see established instead a Sikhistan in the Punjab." Savarkar not only talked of Hindudom, Hindu Nation and Hindu Raj, but he wanted to depend upon the Sikhs in the Punjab to establish a Sikhistan.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: By 1939, Savarkar committed an alliance with the Muslim League in 1939 after both were decimated by the Indian National Congress. He also supported the two-nation theory. He was openly critical of the decision taken by the Congress working committee in its Wardha session of 1942 to a resolution which said to the British colonial government: "Quit India but keep your armies here", which was intended to defend India against a possible Japanese invasion. In July 1942, as he felt extremely stressed carrying out his duties as the president of Hindu Mahasabha, and as he needed some rest, he resigned from the post, the timing of which coincided with Gandhi's Quit India Movement.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In 1948, Savarkar was charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi; however, he was acquitted by the court for lack of evidence.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was born on 28 May 1883 in the Marathi Chitpavan Brahmin Hindu family of Damodar and Radhabai Savarkar in the village of Bhagur, near the city of Nashik, Maharashtra. He had three other siblings namely Ganesh, Narayan, and a sister named Maina. Savarkar began his activism as a high school student. When he was 12, he led fellow students in an attack on his village mosque following Hindu-Muslim riots, stating: "We vandalized the mosque to our heart's content." In 1903, in Nashik, Savarkar and his older brother Ganesh Savarkar founded the Mitra Mela, an underground revolutionary organization, which became Abhinav Bharat Society in 1906. Abhinav Bharat's main objectives were to overthrow British rule and reviving Hindu pride.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar was greatly influenced by the radical Nationalist leader, Lokmanya Tilak. Tilak was in turn impressed with the young student and helped him obtain the Shivaji Scholarship in 1906 for his law studies in London.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In London, he involved himself with organizations such as India House and the Free India Society. He also published books advocating complete Indian independence by revolutionary means. One of the books he published called "The Indian War of Independence" about the Indian Rebellion of 1857 was banned by the British colonial authorities.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar was influenced by the life and thinking of Italian Nationalist leader, Giuseppe Mazzini. During his stay in London, Savarkar translated Mazzini's biography in Marathi. He also influenced thinking of a fellow student called Madanlal Dhingra. In 1909, Dhingra assassinated Curzon-Wylie, a colonial officer. It is alleged by Mark Juergensmeyer that Savarkar supplied the gun which Dhingra used. Juergensmeyer further alleges that Savarkar supplied the words for Dhingra's last statement before he went to the gallows for the murder. Savarkar met Mohandas Gandhi for the first time in London shortly after Curzon-Wylie's assassination. During his stay, Gandhi debated Savarkar and other nationalists in London on the futility of fighting the colonial state through acts of terrorism and guerilla warfare.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In India, Ganesh Savarkar had organized an armed revolt against the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909. Savarkar was accused of participating in a conspiracy to overthrow the British government in India by organizing murders of various officials. Hoping to evade arrest, Savarkar moved to Bhikaiji Cama's home in Paris, but against advice from his friends, returned to London. On 13 March 1910, he was arrested in London on multiple charges, including procurement and distribution of arms, waging war against the state, and delivering seditious speeches. At the time of his arrest, he was carrying several revolutionary texts, including copies of his own banned books. In addition, the British government had evidence that he had smuggled 20 Browning handguns into India, one of which Anant Laxman Kanhere used to assassinate the British official A.M.T. Jackson in December 1909.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Although his alleged crimes were committed both in Britain, as well as India, the British authorities decided to try him in India. He was accordingly put on the commercial ship "Morea" with a police escort for his transport to India. When the ship docked in the French Mediterranean port of Marseille, Savarkar escaped by jumping from the ship's window, swam to the French shore, and asked for political asylum. The French port officials ignored his pleas, and handed him back to his British captors. When the French government came to know of this incidence, they asked for Savarkar to be brought back to France, and lodged an appeal with the Permanent Court of Arbitration.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar's arrest at Marseilles caused the French government to protest against the British, arguing that the British could not recover Savarkar unless they took appropriate legal proceedings for his rendition. The dispute came before the Permanent Court of International Arbitration in 1910, and it gave its decision in 1911. The case excited much controversy as was reported widely by the French press, and it considered it involved an interesting international question of the right of asylum.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: The Court held, firstly, that since there was a pattern of collaboration between the two countries regarding the possibility of Savarkar's escape in Marseilles and there was neither force nor fraud in inducing the French authorities to return Savarkar to them, the British authorities did not have to hand him back to the French for the latter to hold rendition proceedings. On the other hand, the tribunal also observed that there had been an "irregularity" in Savarkar's arrest and delivery over to the Indian Army Military Police guard.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Arriving in Bombay, Savarkar was taken to the Yervada Central Jail in Pune. The trial before the special tribunal was started on 10 September 1910. One of the charges on Savarkar was the abetment to murder of Nashik Collector A. M. T. Jackson. The second was waging a conspiracy under Indian penal code 121-A against the King Emperor. Following the two trials, Savarkar, then aged 28, was convicted and sentenced to 50-years imprisonment and transported on 4 July 1911 to the infamous Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He was considered by the British government as a political prisoner.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar applied to the Bombay Government for certain concessions in connection with his sentences. However, by Government letter No. 2022, dated 4 April 1911, his application was rejected and he was informed that the question of remitting the second sentence of transportation for life would be considered in due course on the expiry of the first sentence of transportation for life. A month after arriving in the Cellular Jail, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Savarkar submitted his first clemency petition on 30 August 1911. This petition was rejected on 3 September 1911.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar submitted his next clemency petition on 14 November 1913 and presented it personally to the Home Member of the Governor General's council, Sir Reginald Craddock. In his letter, he described himself as a ""prodigal son"" longing to return to the ""parental doors of the government"". He wrote that his release from the jail will recast the faith of many Indians in the British rule. Also, he said ""Moreover, my conversion to the constitutional line would bring back all those misled young men in India and abroad who were once looking up to me as their guide. I am ready to serve the government in any capacity they like, for as my conversion is conscientious so I hope my future conduct would be. By keeping me in jail, nothing can be got in comparison to what would be otherwise.""


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In 1917, Savarkar submitted another clemency petition, this time for a general amnesty of all political prisoners. Savarkar was informed on 1 February 1918 that the clemency petition was placed before the British colonial government. In December 1919, there was a Royal proclamation by King-Emperor George V. The Paragraph 6 of this proclamation included a declaration of Royal clemency to political offenders. In view of Royal proclamation, Savarkar submitted his fourth clemency petition to the British colonial government on 30 March 1920, in which he stated that "So far from believing in the militant school of the Bukanin type, I do not contribute even to the peaceful and philosophical anarchism of a Kuropatkin [sic.] or a Tolstoy. And as to my revolutionary tendencies in the past:- it is not only now for the object of sharing the clemency but years before this have I informed of and written to the Government in my petitions (1918, 1914) about my firm intention to abide by the constitution and stand by it as soon as a beginning was made to frame it by Mr. Montagu. Since that the Reforms and then the Proclamation have only confirmed me in my views and recently I have publicly avowed my faith in and readiness to stand by the side of orderly and constitutional development."


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: This petition was rejected on 12 July 1920 by the British colonial government. After considering the petition, the British colonial government contemplated releasing Ganesh Savarkar but not Vinayak Savarkar. The rationale for doing so was stated as follows


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar signed a statement endorsing his trial, verdict, and British law, and renouncing violence, a bargain for freedom.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: On 2 May 1921, the Savarkar brothers were moved to a jail in Ratnagiri. During his incarceration in Ratnagiri jail in 1922, he wrote his "Essentials of Hindutva" that formulated his theory of Hindutva. On 6 January 1924 was released but confined to Ratnagiri District. Soon after he started working on the consolidation of Hindu society or Hindu Sangathan. The colonial authorities provided a bungalow for him and he was allowed, visitors. During his internment, he met influential people such as Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Ambedkar. Nathuram Godse, who later on in his life assassinated Gandhi, also met Savarkar for the first time as a nineteen-year-old in 1929. Savarkar became a prolific writer during his years of confinement in Ratnagiri. His publishers, however, needed to have a disclaimer that they were wholly divorced from politics. Savarkar remained confined to Ratnagiri district until 1937. At that time, he was unconditionally released by the newly elected government of Bombay presidency.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar as president of the Hindu Mahasabha, during the Second World War, advanced the slogan "Hinduize all Politics and Militarize Hindudom" and decided to support the British war effort in India seeking military training for the Hindus. When the Congress launched the "Quit India" movement in 1942, Savarkar criticised it and asked Hindus to stay active in the war effort and not disobey the government; he also urged the Hindus to enlist in the armed forces to learn the "arts of war". Hindu Mahasabha activists protested Gandhi's initiative to hold talks with Jinnah in 1944, which Savarkar denounced as "appeasement". He assailed the British proposals for transfer of power, attacking both the Congress and the British for making concessions to Muslim separatists. Soon after independence, Syama Prasad Mookerjee resigned as vice-president of the Hindu Mahasabha dissociating himself from its "Akhand Hindustan" ("Undivided India") plank, which implied undoing partition.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Under Savarkar, the Hindu Mahasabha openly opposed the call for the Quit India Movement and boycotted it officially. Savarkar even went to the extent of writing a letter titled ""Stick to your Posts"", in which he instructed Hindu Sabhaites who happened to be "members of municipalities, local bodies, legislatures or those serving in the army ... to stick to their posts" across the country, and not to join the Quit India Movement at any cost.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: The Indian National Congress won a massive victory in the 1937 Indian provincial elections, decimating the Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha. However, in 1939, the Congress ministries resigned in protest against Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's action of declaring India to be a belligerent in the Second World War without consulting the Indian people. This led to the Hindu Mahasabha, under Savarkar's presidency, joining hands with the Muslim League and other parties to form governments, in certain provinces. Such coalition governments were formed in Sindh, NWFP, and Bengal.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In Sindh, Hindu Mahasabha members joined Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah's Muslim League government. In Savarkar's own words,"Witness the fact that only recently in Sind, the Sind-Hindu-Sabha on invitation had taken the responsibility of joining hands with the League itself in running coalition government


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In the North West Frontier Province, Hindu Mahasabha members joined hands with Sardar Aurangzeb Khan of the Muslim League to form a government in 1943. The Mahasabha member of the cabinet was Finance Minister Mehar Chand Khanna.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In Bengal, Hindu Mahasabha joined the Krishak Praja Party led Progressive Coalition ministry of Fazlul Haq in December 1941. Savarkar appreciated the successful functioning of the coalition government.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Following the assassination of Gandhi on 30 January 1948, police arrested the assassin Nathuram Godse and his alleged accomplices and conspirators. He was a member of the Hindu Mahasabha and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Godse was the editor of "Agrani – Hindu Rashtra", a Marathi daily from Pune which was run by the company "The Hindu Rashtra Prakashan Ltd" (The Hindu Nation Publications). This company had contributions from such eminent persons as Gulabchand Hirachand, Bhalji Pendharkar, and Jugalkishore Birla. Savarkar had invested 15000 in the company. Savarkar, a former president of the Hindu Mahasabha, was arrested on 5 February 1948, from his house in Shivaji Park, and kept under detention in the Arthur Road Prison, Bombay. He was charged with murder, conspiracy to murder, and abetment to murder. A day before his arrest, Savarkar in a public written statement, as reported in "The Times of India", Bombay dated 7 February 1948, termed Gandhi's assassination a fratricidal crime, endangering India's existence as a nascent nation. The mass of papers seized from his house had revealed nothing that could remotely be connected with Gandhi's murder. Due to lack of evidence, Savarkar was arrested under the Preventive Detention Act.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Godse claimed full responsibility for planning and carrying out the assassination. However, according to the Approver Digambar Badge, on 17 January 1948, Nathuram Godse went to have a last "darshan" (audience/interview) with Savarkar in Bombay before the assassination. While Badge and Shankar waited outside, Nathuram and Apte went in. On coming out Apte told Badge that Savarkar blessed them ""Yashasvi houn ya"" (""यशस्वी होऊन या"", be successful and return). Apte also said that Savarkar predicted that Gandhi's 100 years were over and there was no doubt that the task would be successfully finished. However Badge's testimony was not accepted as the approver's evidence lacked independent corroboration and hence Savarkar was acquitted.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In the last week of August 1974, Mr. Manohar Malgonkar saw Digamber Badge several times and in particular, questioned him about the veracity of his testimony against Savarkar. Badge insisted to Mr. Manohar Malgonkar that "even though he had blurted out the full story of the plot as far as he knew, without much persuasion, he had put up a valiant struggle against being made to testify against Savarkar". In the end, Badge gave in. He agreed to say on oath that he saw Nathuram Godse and Apte with Savarkar and that Savarkar, within Badge's hearing, had blessed their venture.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: On 12 November 1964, at a religious program organized in Pune to celebrate the release of Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa and Vishnu Karkare from jail after the expiry of their sentences, Dr. G. V. Ketkar, grandson of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, former editor of Kesari and then editor of ""Tarun Bharat"", who presided over the function, gave information of a conspiracy to kill Gandhi, about which he professed knowledge six months before the act. Ketkar was arrested. A public furor ensued both outside and inside the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and both houses of the Indian parliament. Under the pressure of 29 members of parliament and public opinion the then Union home minister Gulzarilal Nanda appointed Gopal Swarup Pathak, M. P. and a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India as a Commission of Inquiry to re-investigate the conspiracy to murder Gandhi. The central government intended on conducting a thorough inquiry with the help of old records in consultation with the government of Maharashtra. Pathak was given three months to conduct his inquiry; subsequently, Jevanlal Kapur, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India, was appointed chairman of the commission.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: The commission's reinvestigation saw Savarkar's secretary and bodyguard to have testified that Savarkar met with Godse and Apte right before Gandhi was killed.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: The commission was provided with evidence not produced in the court; especially the testimony of two of Savarkar's close aides – Appa Ramachandra Kasar, his bodyguard, and Gajanan Vishnu Damle, his secretary. The testimony of Mr. Kasar and Mr. Damle was already recorded by Bombay police on 4 March 1948, but apparently, these testimonies were not presented before the court during the trial. In these testimonies, it is said that Godse and Apte visited Savarkar on or about 23 or 24 January, which was when they returned from Delhi after the bomb incident. Damle deposed that Godse and Apte saw Savarkar in the middle of January and sat with him (Savarkar) in his garden. The C. I. D. Bombay was keeping vigil on Savarkar from 21 to 30 January 1948. The crime report from C. I. D. does not mention Godse or Apte meeting Savarkar during this time.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Justice Kapur concluded: "All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group."


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: The arrest of Savarkar was mainly based on approver Digambar Badge's testimony. The commission did not re-interview Digambar Badge. At the time of inquiry of the commission, Badge was alive and working in Bombay.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: After Gandhi's assassination, Savarkar's home in Dadar, Bombay was stoned by angry mobs. After he was acquitted of the allegations related to Gandhi's assassination and released from jail, Savarkar was arrested by the government for making "Hindu nationalist speeches"; he was released after agreeing to give up political activities. He continued addressing the social and cultural elements of Hindutva. He resumed political activism after the ban on it was lifted; it was however limited until his death in 1966 because of ill health.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In 1956, he opposed B. R. Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism calling it a "useless act", to which Ambedkar responded by publicly questioning the use of epithet ‘"Veer"’ (meaning "brave") used by Savarkar.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: On 8 November 1963, Savarkar's wife, Yamunabai, died. On 1 February 1966, Savarkar renounced medicines, food, and water which he termed as "atmaarpan" (fast until death). Before his death, he had written an article titled "Atmahatya Nahi Atmaarpan" in which he argued that when one's life mission is over and the ability to serve society is left no more, it is better to end the life at will rather than waiting for death. His condition was described to have become as "extremely serious" before his death on 26 February 1966 at his residence in Bombay (now Mumbai), and that he faced difficulty in breathing; efforts to revive him failed, and was declared dead at 11:10 a.m. (IST) that day. Prior to his death, Savarkar had asked his relatives to perform only his funeral and do away with the rituals of the 10th and 13th day of the Hindu faith. Accordingly, his last rites were performed at an electric crematorium in Bombay's Sonapur locality by his son Vishwas the following day.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: There was no official mourning by the then Congress party government of Maharashtra or at the centre. No minister of Maharashtra Cabinet showed up to pay homage to Savarkar.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: After the death of Nehru, the Congress government, under Prime Minister Shastri, started to pay him a monthly pension.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In contrast with Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, who were "men of religion" who introduced reforms in the society and put Hinduism in front of the world, Savarkar mixed politics and religion and started an extreme form of Hindu nationalism.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: During his incarceration, Savarkar's views began turning increasingly towards Hindu cultural and political nationalism, and the next phase of his life remained dedicated to this cause. In the brief period he spent at the Ratnagiri jail, Savarkar wrote his ideological treatise – "". Smuggled out of the prison, it was published by Savarkar's supporters under his alias "Maharatta." In this work, Savarkar promotes a farsighted new vision of Hindu social and political consciousness. Savarkar began describing a "Hindu" as a patriotic inhabitant of Bharatavarsha, venturing beyond a religious identity. While emphasising the need for patriotic and social unity of all Hindu communities, he described Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism as one and the same. He outlined his vision of a "Hindu Rashtra" ("Hindu Nation") as "Akhand Bharat" ("United India"), purportedly stretching across the entire Indian subcontinent. He defined Hindus as being neither Aryan nor Dravidian but as "People who live as children of a common motherland, adoring a common holyland."


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: According to Sharma, Savarkar's celebration and justification of violence against [British] women and children in his description of the Mutiny of 1857, "transformed Hindutva into the very image of Islam that he defined and found so intolerably objectionable".


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Scholars, historians and Indian politicians have been divided in their interpretation of Savarkar's ideas. A self-described atheist, Savarkar regards being Hindu as a cultural and political identity. He often stressed social and community unity between Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, to the exclusion of Muslims and Christians. Savarkar saw Muslims and Christians as "misfits" in the Indian civilization who could not truly be a part of the nation. He argued that the holiest sites of Islam and Christianity are in the Middle East and not India, hence the loyalty of Muslims and Christians to India is divided.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: After his release from jail on 6 January 1924, Savarkar helped found the Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha organisation, aiming to work for the social and cultural preservation of Hindu heritage and civilisation.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Focusing his energies on writing, Savarkar authored the "Hindu Pad-pada-shahi" – a book documenting the Maratha empire – and "My Transportation for Life" – an account of his early revolutionary days, arrest, trial and incarceration. He also wrote and published a collection of poems, plays and novels. He also wrote a book named "Majhi Janmathep" ("My Life-term") about his experience in Andaman prison.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: He was an ardent critique of Hindu religious practices he saw as irrational and viewed them as a hindrance to the material progress of the Hindus. He believed that religion is an unimportant aspect of "Hindu identity". He was strictly against the caste system and in his 1931 essay titled "Seven Shackles of the Hindu Society," he wrote "One of the most important components of such injunctions of the past that we have blindly carried on and which deserves to be thrown in the dustbins of history is the rigid caste system".


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In a speech before a 20,000 strong audience at Pune on 1 August 1938, Savarkar stood by Germany's right to Nazism and Italy's to Fascism; their achievement of unprecedent glory in the world-stage and a successful inculcation of national solidarity justified those choices. Savarkar criticized Nehru for denouncing Germany and Italy, proclaiming that "crores of Hindu Sanghatanists in India [..] cherish[ed] no ill-will towards Germany or Italy or Japan." He proclaimed his support for the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in the same breath.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: As World War II become imminent, Savarkar had initially advocated a policy of neutralism centered on India's geostrategic equations but his rhetoric grew coarser with time and he expressed consistent support for Hitler's policy about Jews. In a speech on October 14, it was suggested that Hitler's ways be adopted for dealing with Indian Muslims. On December 11, he characterized the Jews as a communal force. Next March, Savarkar would welcome Germany's revival of Aryan culture, their glorification of Swastika, and the "crusade" against Aryan enemies — it was hoped that German victory would finally invigorate the Hindus of India.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: On 5 August 1939, Savarkar highlighted how a common strand of "thought, religion, language, and culture" was essential to nationality thus preventing the Germans and Jews from being considerable as one nation. By the year end, he was directly equating the Muslims of India with German Jews — in the words of Chetan Bhatt, both were suspected of harboring extra-national loyalties and became illegitimate presences in an organic nation. These speeches circulated in German newspapers with Nazi Germany even allotting a point-of-contact person for engaging with Savarkar, who was making sincere efforts to forge a working relationship with the Nazis. Eventually, Savarkar would be gifted with a copy of Mein Kampf.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In 1941, Savarkar supported Jews resettling their fatherland of Israel, in what he believed would defend the world against Islamic aggression. It remains unknown whether Savarkar withdrew his support for Nazi Germany after the Holocaust became common knowledge. However, on 15 January 1961 he had spoken favorably of Hitler's Nazism against Nehru's "cowardly democracy".


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In his earlier writings, Savarkar argued for "Indian independence from British rule", whereas in later writings he focused on "Hindu independence from Christians and Muslims". In his 1909 book "The Indian War of Independence", Savarkar emphasizes Hindu-Muslim unity, stating that they worked together for "freeing their country" during the 1857 uprising. In his introduction to the book, Savarkar states that the feeling of hatred against the Muslims was necessary during Shivaji's period, but it would be "unust and foolish" to nurse such hatred now.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: By 1923, when his "Essentials of Hindutva" was published, Savarkar no longer emphasized the Hindu-Muslim unity, and primarily focused on "Hindus" rather than "Indians". His writings on Hindutva emerged immediately after he was moved from the Cellular Jail to a prison in Ratnagiri in 1921, and therefore, later scholars have speculated if his stay in these prisons contributed to a change in his views. These scholars point to Savarkar's claims that the Muslim warders at the Cellular Jail treated the Muslim prisoners favourably, while mistreating Hindus; the pan-Islamic Khilafat Movement may have also influenced his views about Muslims while he stayed at Ratnagiri during 1921–1923. According to Bhai Parmanand, his fellow prisoner at the Cellular Jail during 1915–1920, Savarkar had already formed his ideas about Hindutva before they met.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Subsequently, Savarkar was known for his anti-Muslim writings. Historians including Rachel McDermott, Leonard A. Gordon, Ainslie Embree, Frances Pritchett and Dennis Dalton state that Savarkar promoted an anti-Muslim form of Hindu nationalism.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Savarkar saw Muslims in the Indian police and military to be "potential traitors". He advocated that India reduce the number of Muslims in the military, police and public service and ban Muslims from owning or working in munitions factories. Savarkar criticized Gandhi for being concerned about Indian Muslims.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In the 1940s, the two-nation theory was supported by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Savarkar, additionally Savarkar also urged Sikhs to establish an independent "Sikhistan". While Jinnah supported a separate country for Muslims as a part of this theory, Savarkar wanted both religions in the same country where the Muslims lived in a subordinate position to the Hindus.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In his 1963 book "Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History", Savarkar says Muslims and Christians wanted to "destroy" Hinduism.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: Historian Vinayak Chaturvedi writes that in a 1937 speech Savarkar said that "Kitchen and children were the main duties of women" and suggested that they have healthy children. Unlike Tilak who said that women should not be allowed education at all as reading may make them "immoral" and "insubordinate", Savarkar held a less extreme view. Savarkar did not oppose education of women but suggested that the education focus on how they could be good mothers and create a generation of patriotic children. In an essay, "Women's beauty and duty", he stated that a woman's main duty was to her children, her home and her country. As per Savarkar, any woman digressing from her domestic duties was "morally guilty of breach of trust".


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In his 1963 book "Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History", Savarkar advocated use of rape as political tool. He accused Muslim women of actively supporting Muslim men's atrocities against Hindu women, Savarkar wrote that young and beautiful Muslim girls should be captured, converted and presented to Maratha warriors to reward them, stating that the Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan had similarly distributed Hindu girls among his warriors. He further wrote:


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: "Let the sultans and their peers take a pledge that in the event of a Hindu victory our molestation and detestable lot shall be avenged on the Muslim women. Once they are haunted with this dreadful apprehension that the Muslim women too, stand in the same predicament in the case the Hindus win, the future Muslim conquerors will never dare to think of such molestation of Hindu women."


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: As per Sharma, based on Swami Ramdas's teaching, "Savarkar justifies the killing of countless British women and children" in 1857. Sharma has translated some passages from "Savarkar Samgraha" which is originally in Savarkar's native language into English to give examples.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In Jhansi, 12 women along with 23 children and 75 men were killed. Savarkar calls this killing of the British whites as a "Bali" or "Holy Sacrifice".


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: On page 202 of Volume 5, "Savarkar Samgraha", in his native language, Savarkar writes(translated by Sharma):


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: When some men, women and children were killed in the Ganga river, Savarkar describes this as a "celebration" of the anniversary of plassey on page 196.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In Kanpur, when 150 children and women were killed he quotes unemotionally as per Sharma in his native language that a "the butchers entered Bibigarh ..and sea of white blood spread all over"'.


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: He is known among followers by the honorific prefix "Veer" meaning "brave". The airport at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar's capital was renamed Veer Savarkar International Airport in 2002. One of the commemorative blue plaques affixed on India House fixed by the Historic Building and Monuments Commission for England reads "Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, 1883–1966, Indian patriot and philosopher lived here".


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: In 1926, two years after the release of Savarkar from the prison, a biography titled ""Life of Barrister Savarkar"" and authored by a certain "Chitragupta" was published. A revised version was published in 1939 with additions by Indra Prakash of the Hindu Mahasabha. A second edition of the book was published in 1987 by Veer Savarkar Prakashan, the official publisher of writings by Savarkar. In its preface, Ravindra Vaman Ramdas deduced that, "Chitragupta is none other than Veer Savarkar".


title: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

text: He wrote 38 books in English and Marathi, consisting in many essays, two novels called "Moplah Rebellion" and "the Transportation", poetry and plays, the best-known of his books being his historical study "The Indian war of independence, 1857" and his pamphlet "".


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: Dagmara Domińczyk ( ; born July 17, 1976) is a Polish-American actress and author. She has appeared in the films "Rock Star" (2001), "The Count of Monte Cristo" (2002), "Kinsey" (2004), "Trust the Man" (2005), "Lonely Hearts" (2006), "Running with Scissors" (2006), "Higher Ground" (2011), "The Letter" (2012), "The Immigrant" (2013), "Big Stone Gap" (2014), "A Woman, a Part" (2016), "The Assistant" (2019), and "The Lost Daughter" (2021). Domińczyk also has a main role in the HBO comedy-drama television series "Succession" (2018–present).


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: In 2013, she became a published author with the release of her novel "The Lullaby of Polish Girls". She is married to actor Patrick Wilson.


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: Dagmara was born in Kielce, the daughter of Aleksandra and Mirosław Domińczyk, a member of the Polish Solidarity movement. She moved with her family to New York City in 1983 as asylum seekers due to her parents' political associations (her father's involvement with Amnesty International and the Solidarity movement). She is the older sister of actresses Marika Domińczyk and Veronika Domińczyk.


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: Dagmara was educated at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in Manhattan. She went on to study at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama in Pittsburgh, from which she graduated in 1998.


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: In 1999, Dagmara made her acting debut on Broadway as Anna Friel's understudy in Patrick Marber's production of "Closer". The following year, she made her feature film debut as Claire in the Stuart Blumberg-penned romantic comedy "Keeping the Faith", also featuring Ben Stiller and Edward Norton. In 2001, she starred as Tania Asher in "Rock Star", and in 2002, portrayed Edmond Dantès' fiancée, Mercédès Mondego (née Herrera), in the screen adaptation of "The Count of Monte Cristo".


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: In 2003, she returned to Broadway playing Caroline Bramble in a production of "Enchanted April". Dagmara has also had guest starring roles in television series such as "Kinsey" (2004), "24" (2005), "The Bedford Diaries" (2006), "The Good Wife" (2011), "Suits" (2011), "Person of Interest" (2012), and "Boardwalk Empire" (2014). In 2006, she appeared in the Todd Robinson-directed "Lonely Hearts" with John Travolta, and the black comedy film "Running with Scissors" alongside an all-star cast including Annette Bening, Joseph Fiennes, and Gwyneth Paltrow.


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: In 2011, Dagmara co-starred in Vera Farmiga's directorial debut drama film "Higher Ground" as a religious group member who develops a brain tumor. The following year, she appeared in the psychological thriller film "The Letter" with Winona Ryder and James Franco. She next co-starred in James Gray's drama film "The Immigrant" (2013), alongside Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jeremy Renner.


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: In 2013, she published her first novel, "The Lullaby of Polish Girls", which was loosely based on her youth in her native Poland.


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: In 2014, Dagmara starred in the Polish political thriller film "Jack Strong", directed by Władysław Pasikowski, and the black comedy film "Let's Kill Ward's Wife", directed by her brother-in-law Scott Foley.


title: Dagmara Domińczyk

text: In June 2005, Dagmara married actor and fellow Carnegie Mellon alumnus Patrick Wilson. They have appeared together in the films "Running with Scissors" (2006), "Jack Strong" (2014), "Big Stone Gap" (2014), and "Let's Kill Ward's Wife" (2014). On June 23, 2006, she gave birth to their first child, son Kalin Patrick Wilson. Domińczyk gave birth to their second son, Kassian McCarrell Wilson, on August 9, 2009. The family resides in Montclair, New Jersey. She is the sister-in-law of actor Scott Foley, who is married to her sister Marika.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The United States invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, lasted over a month between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. It occurred during the administration of President George H. W. Bush and ten years after the Torrijos–Carter Treaties were ratified to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama by January 1, 2000. The primary purpose of the invasion was to depose the "de facto" Panamanian leader, General Manuel Noriega. He was wanted by the United States for racketeering and drug trafficking. Following the operation, the Panama Defense Forces were dissolved and President-elect Guillermo Endara was sworn into office. The United Nations General Assembly and the Organization of American States condemned the invasion as a violation of international law.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The United States had maintained numerous military bases and a substantial garrison throughout the Canal Zone to protect the American-owned Panama Canal and to maintain American control of this strategically important area. On September 7, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the "de facto" leader of Panama, General Omar Torrijos, signed the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, which set in motion the process of handing over the Panama Canal to Panamanian control by 2000. Although the canal was destined for Panamanian administration, the military bases remained and one condition of the transfer was that the canal would remain open to American shipping. The U.S. had long-standing relations with General Noriega, who served as a U.S. intelligence asset and paid informant of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1967, including the period when Bush was head of the CIA (1976–77).


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Noriega had sided with the U.S. rather than the USSR in Central America, notably in sabotaging the forces of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, and the revolutionaries of the FMLN group in El Salvador. Noriega received upwards of $100,000 per year from the 1960s until the 1980s, when his salary was increased to $200,000 per year. Although he worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration to restrict illegal drug shipments, he was known to simultaneously accept significant financial support from drug dealers, because he facilitated the laundering of drug money, and through Noriega, they received protection from DEA investigations due to his special relationship with the CIA.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: In the mid-1980s, relations between Noriega and the United States began to deteriorate. In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan opened negotiations with General Noriega, requesting that the Panamanian leader step down after he was publicly exposed in "The New York Times" by Seymour Hersh, and was later implicated in the Iran-Contra Scandal. Reagan pressured him with several drug-related indictments in U.S. courts; however, since extradition laws between Panama and the U.S. were weak, Noriega deemed this threat not credible and did not submit to Reagan's demands. In 1988, Elliot Abrams and others in the Pentagon began pushing for a U.S. invasion, but Reagan refused, due to Bush's ties to Noriega through his previous positions in the CIA and the Task Force on Drugs, and their potentially negative impact on Bush's presidential campaign. Later negotiations involved dropping the drug-trafficking indictments. In March 1988, Noriega's forces resisted an attempted coup against the government of Panama. As relations continued to deteriorate, Noriega appeared to shift his Cold War allegiance towards the Soviet bloc, soliciting and receiving military aid from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Libya. American military planners began preparing contingency plans to invade Panama.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: In May 1989, during the Panamanian national elections, an alliance of parties opposed to the Noriega dictatorship counted results from the country's election precincts, before they were sent to the district centers. Their tally showed their candidate, Guillermo Endara, defeating Carlos Duque, candidate of a pro-Noriega coalition, by nearly 3–1. Endara was physically assaulted by Noriega supporters the next day in his motorcade. Noriega declared the election null and maintained power by force, making him unpopular among Panamanians. Noriega's government insisted that it had won the presidential election and that irregularities had been on the part of U.S.-backed candidates from opposition parties. Bush called on Noriega to honor the will of the Panamanian people. The United States reinforced its Canal Zone garrison, and increased the tempo of training and other activities intended to put pressure on Noriega.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: In October 1989, Noriega foiled a second coup attempt by members of the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF), led by Major Moisés Giroldi. Pressure mounted on Bush. Bush declared that the U.S. would not negotiate with a drug trafficker and denied knowledge of Noriega's involvement with the drug trade prior to his February 1988 indictment, although Bush had met with Noriega while Director of the CIA and had been the Chair of the Task Force on Drugs while Vice President. On December 15, the Panamanian general assembly passed a resolution declaring that a state of war existed between Panama and the United States.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The next day, four U.S. military personnel were stopped at a roadblock around 9:00 p.m. outside PDF headquarters in the "El Chorrillo" neighborhood of Panama City. Marine Captain Richard E. Hadded, Navy Lieutenant Michael J. Wilson, Army Captain Barry L. Rainwater, and Marine First Lieutenant Robert Paz had left the Fort Clayton military base and were on their way to have dinner at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Panama City. The U.S. Department of Defense reported that the servicemen had been unarmed, were in a private vehicle, and attempted to flee only after their vehicle was surrounded by an angry crowd of civilians and PDF troops. The PDF asserted later that the Americans were armed and on a reconnaissance mission. The PDF opened fire and Lieutenant Paz was fatally wounded by a round that entered the rear of the vehicle and struck him in the back. Captain Hadded, the driver of the vehicle, was also wounded in the foot. Paz was rushed to Gorgas Army Hospital but died of his wounds. He received the Purple Heart posthumously. According to U.S. military sources, a U.S. Naval officer, SEAL Lieutenant Adam Curtis, and his wife, Bonnie, witnessed the incident and were detained by Panamanian Defense Force soldiers. While in police custody, they were assaulted by the PDF. Adam Curtis spent two weeks in the hospital recovering from the beating. PDF soldiers sexually threatened his wife. The next day, President Bush ordered the execution of the Panama invasion plan; the military set H-Hour as 0100 on December 20.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Several neighboring governments secretly tried to negotiate a peaceful outcome and Noriega's willing resignation. Presidents Oscar Arias and Daniel Oduber of Costa Rica, Carlos Andrés Pérez of Venezuela, Alfonso López Michelsen of Colombia and Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González all on different occasions met Noriega in secret attempting to convince him to leave power and self-exile himself in Spain, to no avail.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The official U.S. rationale for the invasion was articulated by President George H. W. Bush on the morning of December 20, 1989, a few hours after the start of the operation. Bush cited Panama's declaration of a state of war with the United States and attacks on U.S. troops as justification for the invasion.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: U.S. military forces were instructed to begin maneuvers and activities within the restrictions of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, such as ignoring PDF roadblocks and conducting short-notice "Category Three" military exercises on security-sensitive targets, with the express goal of provoking PDF soldiers. U.S. SOUTHCOM kept a list of abuses against U.S. servicemen and civilians by the PDF while the orders to incite PDF soldiers were in place. As for the Panamanian legislature's declaration of a state of war between the U.S. and Panama, Noriega insists that this statement referred to a state of war directed by the U.S. against Panama, in the form of what he claimed were harsh economic sanctions and constant, provocative military maneuvers (Operations Purple Storm and Sand Flea) that were prohibited by the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The U.S. had turned a blind eye to Noriega's involvement in drug trafficking since the 1970s. Noriega was then singled out for direct involvement in these drug trafficking operations due to the widespread public knowledge of his involvement in money laundering, drug activities, political murder, and human rights abuses.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Bush's four reasons for the invasion provided sufficient justification to establish bipartisan Congressional approval and support for the invasion. However, the secrecy before initiation, the speed and success of the invasion itself, and U.S. public support for it (80% public approval) did not allow Democrats to object to Bush's decision to use military force. One contemporary study suggests that Bush decided to invade for domestic political reasons, citing scarce strategic reasoning for the U.S. to invade and immediately withdraw without establishing the structure to enforce the interests that Bush used to justify the invasion.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard participated in Operation Just Cause. Ground forces consisted of:


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Air logistic support was provided by the 22nd Air Force with air assets from the 60th, 62nd, and 63rd military airlift wings.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The military incursion into Panama began on December 20, 1989, at 1:00 a.m. local time. The operation involved 27,684 U.S. troops and over 300 aircraft, including C-130 Hercules tactical transports flown by the 317th Tactical Airlift Wing (which was equipped with the Adverse Weather Aerial Delivery System or AWADS) and 314th Tactical Airlift Wing, AC-130 Spectre gunships, OA-37B Dragonfly observation and attack aircraft, C-141 Starlifter and C-5 Galaxy strategic transports, F-117A Nighthawk stealth aircraft flown by the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. The invasion of Panama was the first combat deployment for the AH-64, the HMMWV, and the F-117A. Panamanian radar units were jammed by two EF-111As of the 390th ECS, 366th TFW. These aircraft were deployed against the 16,000 members of the PDF.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The operation began with an assault of strategic installations, such as the civilian Punta Paitilla Airport in Panama City and a PDF garrison and airfield at Rio Hato, where Noriega also maintained a residence. U.S. Navy SEALs destroyed Noriega's private jet and a Panamanian gunboat. A Panamanian ambush killed four SEALs and wounded nine. Other military command centers throughout the country were also attacked. The attack on the central headquarters of the PDF (referred to as "La Comandancia") touched off several fires, one of which destroyed most of the adjoining and heavily populated "El Chorrillo" neighborhood in downtown Panama City. During the firefight at the Comandancia, the PDF downed two special operations helicopters and forced one MH-6 Little Bird to crash-land in the Panama Canal. The opening round of attacks in Panama City also included a special operations raid on the Carcel Modelo prison (known as Operation Acid Gambit) to free Kurt Muse, a U.S. citizen convicted of espionage by Noriega.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Fort Amador was secured by elements of the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division [Scouts] and 59th Engineer Company (sappers) in a nighttime air assault which secured the fort in the early hours of December 20. Fort Amador was a key position because of its relationship to the large oil farms adjacent to the canal, the Bridge of the Americas over the canal, and the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Key command and control elements of the PDF were stationed there. C Company 1st Battalion (Airborne) 508th PIR was assigned the task of securing La Comandancia. Furthermore, Fort Amador had a large U.S. housing district that needed to be secured to prevent the PDF from taking U.S. citizens as hostages. This position also protected the left flank of the attack on La Comandancia and the securing of the "El Chorrillos" neighborhood, guarded by Dignity Battalions, Noriega supporters that the U.S. forces sometimes referred to as "Dingbats". Military police units from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina deployed via strategic airlift into Howard Air Force Base the next morning and secured key government buildings in the downtown area of Panama City. MPs seized PDF weapons, vehicles and supplies during house-to-house searches in the following days, and conducted urban combat operations against snipers and Dignity Battalion holdouts for the following week.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: A few hours after the invasion began, Guillermo Endara was sworn in at Fort Clayton. According to The Los Angeles Times, Endara was the "presumed winner" in the presidential election which had been scheduled earlier that year.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: A platoon from the 1138th Military Police Company, Missouri Army National Guard, which was on a routine two-week rotation to Panama was called upon to set up a detainee camp on Empire Range to handle the mass of civilian and military detainees. This unit was the first National Guard unit called into active service since the Vietnam War.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Operation Nifty Package was an operation launched by Navy SEALs to prevent Noriega's escape. They sank Noriega's boat and destroyed his jet, at a cost of four killed and nine wounded. Military operations continued for several weeks, mainly against military units of the Panamanian army. Noriega remained at large for several days, but realizing he had few options in the face of a massive manhunt and a $1 million reward for his capture, he obtained refuge in the Vatican diplomatic mission in Panama City. The U.S. military's psychological pressure on him and diplomatic pressure on the Vatican mission, however, was relentless, as was the playing of loud rock-and-roll music day and night in a densely populated area. The report of the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed that the music was used principally to prevent parabolic microphones from being used to eavesdrop on negotiations, and not as a psychological weapon based around Noriega's supposed loathing of rock music. Noriega finally surrendered to the U.S. military on January 3, 1990. He was immediately put on an MC-130E Combat Talon I aircraft and flown to the U.S.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: According to official Pentagon figures, 516 Panamanians were killed during the invasion, including 314 soldiers and 202 civilians; however, an internal U.S. Army memo estimated the number at 1,000.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The UN estimated 500 civilian deaths, whereas Americas Watch estimated that 300 civilians died. President Guillermo Endara said that "less than 600 Panamanians" died during the entire invasion. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark estimated 3,000 civilian deaths. The Roman Catholic Church estimated that 673 Panamanians were killed in total. Physicians for Human Rights, said it had received "reliable reports of more than 100 civilian deaths" that were not included in the U.S. military estimate but also that there was no evidence of several thousand civilian deaths. According to "The New York Times", figures estimating thousands of civilian casualties were widely rejected in Panama.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Human Rights Watch's 1991 report stated that even with these uncertainties, the figures on civilian casualities are "still troublesome" because:


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: With respect to the United States forces, our report concluded that the tactics and weapons utilized resulted in an inordinate number of civilian victims, in violation of specific obligations under the Geneva Conventions. [...][Panama's civilian deaths] reveal that the "surgical operation" by American forces inflicted a toll in civilian lives that was at least four-and-a-half times higher than military casualties in the enemy, and twelve or thirteen times higher than the casualties suffered by U.S. troops. By themselves, these ratios suggest that the rule of proportionality and the duty to minimize harm to civilians, where doing so would not compromise a legitimate military objective, were not faithfully observed by the invading U.S. forces. For us, the controversy over the number of civilian casualties should not obscure the important debate on the manner in which those people died.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: US military casualties in the invasion were 23 killed and 325 wounded. In June 1990, the US military announced that of its casualties, 2 dead and 19 wounded were victims of friendly fire. The number of Panamanian military dead was estimated at 314 by the United States Southern Command.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Civilian fatalities included Kandi Helin and Ray Dragseth, two American school teachers working in Panama for the Department of Defense Schools. The adult son of another teacher, Rick Paul, was also killed by friendly fire as he ran an American road block. A Spanish freelance press photographer on assignment for "El Pais", Juan Antonio Rodriguez Moreno, was killed outside of the Marriott Hotel in Panama City early on December 21. In June 1990, his family filed a claim for wrongful death against the United States Government. In 1992, when the claim was rejected by the U.S. government, the Spanish government sent a Note Verbale extending diplomatic protection to Rodriguez and demanding compensation on behalf of his family. The U.S. government again rejected the claim, disputing both its liability for warzone deaths in general and whether Rodriguez had been killed by U.S. rather than Panamanian gunfire.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Operation Just Cause involved unprecedented use of U.S. military women during an invasion. Approximately 600 of the 26,000 U.S. forces involved in the invasion were women. Women did not serve in direct combat roles or combat arms units, but they did serve as military police, truck drivers, helicopter pilots, and in other logistical roles. Captain Linda L. Bray, commander of the 988th Military Police Company of Fort Benning, Georgia, led her troops in a three-hour firefight against Panamanian Defense Forces who refused to surrender a dog kennel which (it was later discovered) they were using to store weapons. Bray was said to be the first woman to lead U.S. troops in battle and her role in the firefight was widely reported and led to controversy in the media and in Congress over women's roles in the U.S. military. Bray requested and received a discharge in 1991. 1LT Lisa Kutschera and Warrant Officer Debra Mann piloted UH-60 ("Blackhawk") helicopters ferrying infantry troops. Their helicopters came under fire during the invasion, and like their male counterparts, both women were awarded Air Medals for their roles during the invasion.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Operation plans directed against Panama evolved from plans designed to defend the Panama Canal. They became more aggressive as the situation between the two nations deteriorated. The "Prayer Book" series of plans included rehearsals for a possible clash (Operation Purple Storm) and missions to secure U.S. sites (Operation Bushmaster).


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Eventually, these plans became "Operation Blue Spoon" which was then, in order to sustain the perceived legitimacy of the invasion throughout the operation, renamed by the Pentagon to "Operation Just Cause". General Colin Powell said that he liked the name because "even our severest critics would have to utter 'Just Cause' while denouncing us." Critics, however, renamed it "Operation "Just 'Cuz"", arguing that it had been undertaken "just [be]cause Bush felt like it."


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The post-invasion civil-military operation designed to stabilize the situation, support the U.S.-installed government, and restore basic services was originally planned as "Operation Blind Logic", but was renamed "Operation Promote Liberty" by the Pentagon on the eve of the invasion.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The original operation, in which U.S. troops were deployed to Panama in early 1989, was called "Operation Nimrod Dancer".


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The US government invoked self-defense as a legal justification for its invasion of Panama. Several scholars and observers have opined that the invasion was illegal under international law. They argue that the justifications for the invasion which were given by the U.S. were, according to these sources, factually groundless, and moreover, even if they had been true they would have provided inadequate support for the invasion under international law. Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, a cornerstone of international law, prohibits the use of force by member states to settle disputes except in self-defense or when authorized by the United Nations Security Council. Articles 18 and 20 of the Charter of the Organization of American States, written in part in reaction to the history of US military interventions in Central America, also explicitly prohibit the use of force by member states: "[n]o state or group of states has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal affairs of any other state." (Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), Article 18.) Article 20 of the OAS Charter states that "the territory of a states is inviolable; it may not be the object, even temporarily, of military occupation or of other measures of force taken by another state, directly or indirectly, on any grounds whatever." The US has ratified the UN Charter and the OAS Charter and therefore they are among the highest law of the land in the US under the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution. Other international law experts who have examined the legal justification of the US invasion have concluded that it was a "gross violation" of international law.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: a "flagrant violation of international law." A similar resolution which was proposed by the United Nations Security Council was supported by the majority of its member nations but vetoed by the US, France and the UK.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Independent experts and observers have concluded that the US invasion of Panama also exceeded the authority of the president of the United States under the US Constitution because Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants the power to declare war solely to the Congress, not to the president. According to observers, the US invasion also violated the War Powers Resolution, a federal law designed to limit presidential action without Congressional authorization, because the president failed to consult with Congress regarding the invasion of Panama prior to the invasion.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The invasion of Panama provoked international outrage. Some countries charged that the U.S. had committed an act of aggression by invading Panama and was trying to conceal a new manifestation of its interventionist policy of force in Latin America. On December 29, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted 75–20, with 40 abstentions, to condemn the invasion as a flagrant violation of international law.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: On December 22, the Organization of American States passed a resolution deploring the invasion and calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops, as well as a resolution condemning the violation of the diplomatic status of the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama by U.S. Special Forces who had entered the building. At the UN Security Council, after discussing the issue over several days, seven nations initiated a draft resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Panama.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: France, United Kingdom, and the United States, which cited its right of self-defense of 35,000 Americans present on the Panama Canal.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: President Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania, who was being overthrown in a violent revolution, criticised the American invasion of Panama as "brutal aggression".


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Some claim that the Panamanian people overwhelmingly supported the invasion. According to a CBS poll, 92% of Panamanian adults supported the U.S. incursion, and 76% wished that U.S. forces had invaded in October during the coup. The poll was conducted in 158 randomly selected areas of the country covering about 75 percent of Panama's adult population. CBS News said the margin of sampling error was plus or minus four percentage points. Human Rights Watch described the reaction of the civilian population to the invasion as "generally sympathetic". According to Robert Pastor, a former U.S. national security advisor, 74% of Americans polled approved of the action.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Eighteen years after the invasion, Panama's National Assembly unanimously declared December 20, 2007 to be a day of national mourning. The resolution was vetoed by President Martin Torrijos. On December 19, 2019, the Panamanian government declared December 20 to be a National Day of Mourning (Dia de duelo nacional) to be marked by lowering the national flag to half staff.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: "The Washington Post" disclosed several rulings of the Office of Legal Counsel, issued shortly before the invasion, regarding the U.S. armed forces being charged with making an arrest abroad. One ruling interpreted an executive order which prohibits the assassination of foreign leaders as suggesting that accidental killings would be acceptable foreign policy. Another ruling concluded that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits the armed forces from making arrests without Congressional authorization, is effective only within the boundaries of the U.S., such that the military could be used as a police force abroad—for example, in Panama, to enforce a federal court warrant against Noriega.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Guillermo Endara, in hiding, was sworn in as president by a judge on the night preceding the invasion. In later years, he staged a hunger strike, calling attention to the poverty and homelessness left in the wake of both the Noriega years and the destruction caused by the U.S. invasion.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: On July 19, 1990, a group of 60 companies with operations in Panama filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in Federal District Court in New York City alleging that the U.S. action against Panama was "done in a tortuous, careless and negligent manner with disregard for the property of innocent Panamanian residents". Most of the businesses had insurance, but the insurers either went bankrupt or refused to pay, claiming that acts of war were not covered.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: About 20,000 people lost their homes and became refugees as a result of urban warfare. About 2,700 families that were displaced by the Chorrillo fire were each given $6,500 by the U.S. to build a new house or apartment in selected areas in or near the city. However, numerous problems were reported with the new constructions just two years after the invasion.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: The government of Guillermo Endara designated the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion a "national day of reflection". Hundreds of Panamanians marked the day with a "black march" through the streets of Panama City to denounce the U.S. invasion and Endara's economic policies. Protesters echoed claims that 3,000 people were killed as a result of U.S. military action. Since Noriega's ousting, Panama has had four presidential elections, with candidates from opposing parties succeeding each other in the Palacio de las Garzas. Panama's press, however, is still subject to numerous restrictions. On February 10, 1990, the Endara government abolished Panama's military and reformed the security apparatus by creating the Panamanian Public Forces. In 1994, a constitutional amendment permanently abolished the military of Panama. Concurrent with a severe recession in Latin America throughout the 1990s, Panama's GDP recovered by 1993, but very high unemployment remained a serious problem.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: Noriega was brought to the U.S. to stand trial. He was subsequently convicted on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering and sentenced to 40 years in prison. His sentence was later reduced to 30 years.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: On December 20, 2015, Vice President Isabel De Saint Malo de Alvarado announced Panama's intention to form a special independent commission with the aim to publish a report to mark the 26th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Panama. The commission's goal would be to identify victims so that reparations could be paid to their families, as well as to establish public monuments and school curriculums to honor history and reclaim Panama's collective memory. Victims' families have claimed that past investigations into the invasion had been funded by Washington and therefore were biased.


title: United States invasion of Panama

text: All 27 objectives related to the Panamanian Defense Force were completed on D-Day, December 20, 1989. As initial forces moved to new objectives, follow-on forces from the 7th Infantry Division (L) moved into the western areas of Panama and into Panama City.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Tomorrow Never Dies is a 1997 spy film, the eighteenth in the "James Bond" series produced by Eon Productions and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode from a screenplay by Bruce Feirstein, it follows Bond as he attempts to stop Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), a power-mad media mogul, from engineering world events to initiate World War III.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: The film was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and was the first Bond film made after the death of producer Albert R. Broccoli (to whom it pays tribute in the end credits), and the last released under the United Artists label. Filming locations included France, Thailand, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: "Tomorrow Never Dies" performed well at the box office, grossing over $333 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1997 and earning a Golden Globe nomination despite mixed reviews. While its performance at the U.S. box office surpassed that of its predecessor "GoldenEye", it was the only one of Brosnan's Bond films not to open at No. 1 at the box office, as it opened the same day as "Titanic", and finished at No. 2 that week.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: MI6 sends James Bond into the field to reconnoiter a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border. Despite M's insistence on letting 007 finish his reconnaissance, Royal Navy Admiral Roebuck orders the frigate HMS "Chester" to fire a Harpoon missile at the bazaar. Bond then discovers two nuclear torpedoes mounted on an L-39 Albatros; with the missile out of range to be aborted, Bond is forced to pilot the L-39 away seconds before the bazaar is destroyed.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Media baron Elliot Carver starts his plans to use an encoder obtained at the bazaar by his associate, cyberterrorist Henry Gupta, to provoke war between China and the UK. Meaconing the GPS signal using the encoder, Gupta sends the frigate HMS "Devonshire" off-course into Chinese-occupied waters in the South China Sea, where Carver's stealth ship, commanded by Mr. Stamper, ambushes and sinks it with a "sea drill" torpedo. Carver's henchmen steal one of the "Devonshire"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> missiles and shoot down a Chinese MiG fighter jet investigating the scene. The henchmen kill the "Devonshire"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> survivors with weaponry loaded with Chinese ammunition. The British Minister of Defence orders Roebuck to deploy the fleet to investigate the sinking of the frigate, and demands retaliation, leaving M only 48 hours to investigate its sinking and avert a war.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: M sends Bond to investigate Carver and his company, CMGN, after he released news articles about the crisis hours before MI6 had learned of it. Bond travels to Hamburg to seduce Carver's wife, Paris (an ex-girlfriend of Bond's), to get information that would help him enter CMGN headquarters. He defeats three of Stamper's men and cuts Carver off the air during the inaugural broadcast of his satellite network. Carver discovers the truth about Paris and Bond and orders both of them killed. Bond and Paris reconcile at Bond's hotel room, and she provides him with information to infiltrate Carver's newspaper factory. Bond steals the GPS encoder from Gupta's office at the factory; meanwhile, Carver's assassin Dr. Kaufman kills Paris. After Bond returns to find Paris's body, Kaufman attempts to shoot him. Bond is able to kill Kaufman and escape his henchmen through a multistory car park in his Q-branch vehicle, a BMW 750iL with remote control.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: At a U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa, Bond learns that the encoder had been tampered with, and goes to the South China Sea to investigate the wreck. He and Wai Lin, a Chinese Ministry of State Security agent on the same case, explore the sunken ship and discover one of its cruise missiles missing, but after reaching the surface they are captured by Stamper and taken to the CMGN tower in Saigon. They soon escape and contact the Royal Navy and the People's Liberation Army Air Force to explain Carver's scheme. Carver plans to destroy most of the Chinese government with the stolen missile, allowing a corrupt Chinese general to negotiate a truce between Britain and China, both of which will have begun a naval war. Once the conflict is over, Carver will be given exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next century.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Bond and Wai Lin board Carver's stealth ship to prevent him from firing the missile at Beijing; Wai Lin is captured, forcing Bond to devise a second plan. Bond captures Gupta to use as his own hostage, but Carver kills Gupta, claiming he has "outlived his contract". Bond detonates an explosive, damaging the ship and rendering it visible to radar, and vulnerable to a subsequent Royal Navy attack. While Wai Lin disables the engines, she is recaptured by Stamper. Bond kills Carver with his own sea drill and attempts to destroy the warhead with detonators, but Stamper attacks him, and sends a chained Wai Lin into the water. Bond traps Stamper in the missile firing mechanism and saves Wai Lin as the missile explodes, destroying the ship and killing Stamper. Bond and Wai Lin share a romantic moment amidst the wreckage as HMS "Bedford" searches for them.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Other actors in the film include Julian Fellowes as the British Minister of Defence; Cecilie Thomsen as Inga Bergstrom, an Oxford professor Bond has an affair with; Nina Young as Tamara Steel, a news presenter for Carver Media Group; Colin Stinton as Dr. Dave Greenwalt, an American Air Force expert on GPS; Michael Byrne as Admiral Kelly, commander of the Royal Navy task force sent to the South China Sea; Philip Kwok as General Chang, a corrupt Chinese military official who is helping Carver start a war between China and Britain; Terence Rigby as Russian Army General Bukharin; Christopher Bowen as HMS "Devonshire" Commander Richard Day; Gerard Butler and Julian Rhind-Tutt as "Devonshire" crewmen; Hugh Bonneville as a "Bedford" crewman; and Daphne Deckers as a Carver Media Group PR representative.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: "Bond 18" was greenlit after the positive public reception to the teaser trailer for "GoldenEye" in May 1995. Following "GoldenEye"'s success in reviving the Bond series, there was pressure to recreate that success in the next production. This pressure came from MGM which, along with its new owner, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, wanted the film's release to coincide with their public stock offering. Co-producer Michael G. Wilson commented: "You realize that there's a huge audience and I guess you don't want to come out with a film that's going to somehow disappoint them."


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: It was the first Bond film made after the death of Albert R. Broccoli, who was involved with the series' production since its inception; the film is dedicated to his memory. The rush to complete the film drove the budget to $110 million. The producers were unable to persuade "GoldenEye" director Martin Campbell to return as he had chosen to direct "The Mask of Zorro" instead; his agent said, "Martin just didn't want to do two Bond films in a row." Roger Spottiswoode was chosen to direct in September 1996; he had offered to direct "GoldenEye" when Timothy Dalton was still cast as Bond.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Initial writers included John Cork, Richard Smith, and novelist Donald E. Westlake. In 1995, Westlake wrote two story treatments in collaboration with Wilson, both of which featured a villain who planned to destroy Hong Kong with explosives on the eve of the city's July 1997 transfer of sovereignty to China. Westlake used some of his ideas for a novel he completed the next year, though it was not published until 2017 under the title "Forever and a Death". Director Spottiswoode said that, in January 1997, MGM had a script also focused on the Hong Kong handover; however, it could not be used for a film opening at the end of the year, so they had to start "almost from scratch at T-minus zero!"


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Bruce Feirstein, who worked on "GoldenEye", wrote the initial script. He claimed that his inspiration was his own experience working with journalism and viewing both Sky News and CNN's 24-hour news coverage of the Gulf War, stating that he aimed to "write something that was grounded in a nightmare of reality." The script was handed to Spottiswoode, who then gathered seven Hollywood screenwriters in London to brainstorm, eventually choosing Nicholas Meyer to do rewrites. The script was also worked on by Dan Petrie, Jr. and David Campbell Wilson before Feirstein was brought back for a final polish. Although Feirstein retained sole writing credit in the film and publicity materials, Meyer, Petrie and Wilson were given credit with Feirstein on the title page of the film's novelization by Raymond Benson. While many reviewers compared Elliot Carver to Rupert Murdoch, Feirstein based the character on Robert Maxwell, with Carver's reported death bearing similarities to that of Maxwell's, that is, "Missing, presumed drowned, while on a cruise aboard his luxury yacht," as stated by M at the end of the film.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Wilson said, "We didn't have a script that was ready to shoot on the first day of filming", while Pierce Brosnan said, "We had a script that was not functioning in certain areas."


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: The title was inspired by the Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows". The eventual title came about by accident. One of the potential titles was "Tomorrow Never Lies" (referring to the "Tomorrow" newspaper in the plot), and this was faxed to MGM. However, due to a typing error, it became "Tomorrow Never Dies", a title MGM found so attractive that they insisted on using it. The title was the first not to have any relation to Fleming's life or work.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Teri Hatcher was three months pregnant when shooting started, although her publicist stated the pregnancy did not affect the production schedule. Hatcher later regretted playing Paris Carver, saying, "It's such an artificial kind of character to be playing that you don't get any special satisfaction from it." Actress Sela Ward auditioned for the role; the producers reportedly said they wanted her "but ten years younger". Hatcher, at 32, was seven years Ward's junior, and playing Lois Lane on the television show "," where she was voted the "Sexiest Woman on Television" by readers of "TV Guide" the previous year. According to Brosnan, Monica Bellucci also screen-tested for the role, but as Brosnan remarked, "The fools said no." Daphne Deckers, who portrays the PR woman, also confirms that she saw Bellucci the same day she herself auditioned. Bellucci subsequently had a role in the 24th Bond film, "Spectre".


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: The role of Elliot Carver was initially offered to Anthony Hopkins (who was also offered a role in "GoldenEye"), but he declined in favor of "The Mask of Zorro".


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Natasha Henstridge was rumoured as cast in the lead Bond Girl role, but eventually, Yeoh was confirmed. Brosnan was impressed, describing her as a "wonderful actress" who was "serious and committed about her work". She reportedly wanted to perform her own stunts, but was prevented because director Spottiswoode ruled it too dangerous and prohibited by insurance restrictions.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: When Götz Otto was called in for casting, his hair had been cropped short for a television role. He was given 20 seconds to introduce himself, but did it in five: "I'm big, I'm bad, and I'm German."


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: With Vic Armstrong directing the second unit, filming of the $11 million 4-minute pre-title sequence began on 18 January 1997 at , Peyragudes in the French Pyrenees. The plane Bond is seen to purloin in the movie was a Czech-built Aero Vodochody L-39ZO Albatros weapons jet trainer, supplied by a British company and flown by stunt pilots Tony "Taff" Smith and Mark (son of Ray) Hanna. After completing work in France, the second unit moved on to Portsmouth to film the scenes where the Royal Navy prepares to engage the Chinese, with standing in for the various fictional Type 23 Frigates in the story. The main unit began filming on 1 April. They were unable to use Leavesden Studios, which they had constructed from an abandoned Rolls-Royce factory for "GoldenEye", as George Lucas was using it for "", so instead they constructed sound stages in another derelict industrial site nearby. They also used the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios. The scene at the "U.S. Air Base in the South China Sea" where Bond hands over the GPS encoder was actually filmed in the area known as Blue Section at RAF Lakenheath. The sea landing used the vast tank built for "Titanic" in Rosarito, Baja California. The MH-53J in the film was from the US Air Force's 352d Special Operations Group at RAF Mildenhall.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Some scenes were planned to be filmed on location in Ho Chi Minh City, and the production had been granted a visa. It would have been the first major film to be shot in Vietnam since the Vietnam War. However, the visa was later rescinded by Vietnamese Prime Minister Võ Văn Kiệt two months after planning had begun, forcing filming to move to Bangkok. Bond spokesman Gordon Arnell claimed the Vietnamese were unhappy with crew and equipment needed for pyrotechnics, with a Vietnamese official saying it was due to "many complicated reasons". Anthony Waye says he believed the decision was caused after Vietnam's Communist government had viewed the opening credits of "GoldenEye", which featured "semi-naked ladies smashing up hammer-and-sickle emblems with sledgehammers, illustrating the fall of communism." Two locations from previous Bond films were used: Brosnan and Hatcher's love scene was filmed at Stoke Park, which had been featured in "Goldfinger", and the bay where they search for Carver's stealth boat is Phang Nga Bay, previously used for "The Man with the Golden Gun".


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: The exterior of Elliot Carver's CMGN Hamburg HQ was filmed at the IBM Building in Bedfont Lakes, Feltham, whilst Harmsworth Quays Printers Ltd in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe, doubled for the interior of the Hamburg print facility.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Spottiswoode tried to innovate in the action scenes. Since the director felt that after the tank chase in "GoldenEye" he could not use a bigger vehicle, a scene with Bond and Wai Lin on a BMW motorcycle was created. Another innovation was the remote-controlled car, which had no visible driver – an effect achieved by adapting a BMW 750i to put the steering wheel on the back seat. The car chase sequence with the 750i took three weeks to film, with Brent Cross car park being used to simulate Hamburg, although the final leap was filmed on location. A stunt involving setting fire to three vehicles produced more smoke than anticipated, causing a member of the public to call the fire brigade. The upwards camera angle filming the HALO jump created the illusion of having the stuntman opening its parachute close to the water.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Spottiswoode did not return to direct the next film; he said the producers asked him, but he was too tired. Brosnan and Hatcher were reported to have feuded briefly during filming due to her arriving late onto the set one day. The matter was quickly resolved, though, and Brosnan apologised to Hatcher after realising she was pregnant and was late for that reason.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: "Tomorrow Never Dies" marked the first appearance of the Walther P99 as Bond's pistol. It replaced the Walther PPK that the character had carried in every Eon Bond film since "Dr. No" in 1962, with the exception of "Moonraker" in which Bond was not seen with a pistol. Walther wanted to debut its new firearm in a Bond film, which had been one of its most visible endorsers. Previously, the P5 was introduced in "Octopussy". Bond would use the P99 until Daniel Craig reverted to the PPK as 007 in "Quantum of Solace" in 2008.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Prolific composer John Barry was in talks to return to the James Bond films for the first time in a decade but could not reach an agreement over his salary, according to his then-agent Richard Kraft. Barbara Broccoli subsequently chose David Arnold to score "Tomorrow Never Dies" on a recommendation from Barry. Arnold had come to Barry's attention through his successful cover interpretations in "", which featured major artists performing the former James Bond title songs in new arrangements. Arnold said that his score aimed for "a classic sound but [with] a modern approach", combining techno music with a recognisably Barry-inspired "classic Bond" sound—notably Arnold borrowed from Barry's score for "From Russia with Love". The score was done across a period of six months, with Arnold writing music and revising previous pieces as he received edited footage of the film. The music for the indoor car chase sequence was co-written with the band Propellerheads, who had worked with Arnold on "Shaken and Stirred". The soundtrack was well-received by critics with Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks describing it as "an excellent tribute to the entire series of Bond score".


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: At first, the theme song was to be written by Arnold himself, with the help of lyricist Don Black and singer-songwriter David McAlmont, who recorded the demo. However, MGM wanted a more popular artist, and invited various singers to write songs before one was picked through a competitive process. There were around twelve submissions, including songs from Swan Lee, Pulp, Saint Etienne, Marc Almond, and Sheryl Crow. Crow's song was chosen for the main titles. Arnold's composition, "Surrender", performed by k.d. lang, was still used for the end titles, and features the same prominent melodic motif as the film's score. This was the fourth Bond film to have different opening and closing songs. Pulp's effort was re-titled as "Tomorrow Never Lies" and appeared as a b-side on their 1997 single "Help The Aged". The original "Tomorrow Never Dies" rough mix of the song was eventually released on the bonus disc of the "This Is Hardcore" deluxe edition in 2006. Moby created a remake of the "James Bond Theme" to be used for the movie. Two different versions of the soundtrack album were released, the first featuring only music from the first half of the film, and the second rectifying this but cutting several tracks, including the songs, to make room for the missing score tracks.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: The film had a World Charity Premiere at The Odeon Leicester Square, on 9 December 1997; this was followed by an after premiere party at Bedford Square, home of original Ian Fleming publisher, Jonathan Cape. The film went into general release in the UK and Ireland on 12 December and in most other countries during the following week. It opened in second place in the United States and Canada, grossing over $25.1 million behind "Titanic", which would become the highest-grossing film of all time up to that point. "Tomorrow Never Dies" ultimately grossed $333 million worldwide, although it did not surpass its predecessor "GoldenEye", which had earned almost $20 million more.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 57% rating based on 77 reviews. The website's consensus states: "A competent, if sometimes by-the-numbers entry to the 007 franchise, "Tomorrow Never Dies" may not boast the most original plot but its action sequences are genuinely thrilling." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 52 based on 38 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: In the "Chicago Sun-Times", Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four-stars, writing ""Tomorrow Never Dies" gets the job done, sometimes excitingly, often with style" with the villain "slightly more contemporary and plausible than usual", bringing "some subtler-than-usual satire into the film". Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote it was the "first James Bond film I've liked in many a year", most notably favoring the character Elliot Carver, which he felt added "contemporary writing to the Bond series, and that is most welcome." On his website "ReelViews", James Berardinelli described it as "the best Bond film in many years" and said Brosnan "inhabits his character with a suave confidence that is very like Connery's." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times", thought a lot of "Tomorrow Never Dies" had a "stodgy, been-there feeling", with little change from previous films. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" summarized the film as "a generic action event that it could be any old summer blockbuster, except that its hero is chronically overdressed." Charles Taylor wrote for Salon.com that the film was "a flat, impersonal affair".


title: Tomorrow Never Dies

text: The title song sung by Sheryl Crow was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. The film received four nominations for Saturn Awards, with Brosnan winning for Best Actor. It also won a MPSE Golden Reel Award for "Best Sound Editing – Foreign Feature" and a BMI Film Music Award.