title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: An early estimate put Phase 2 of the development, that includes the construction of the stadium, at £305 million, but in July 2018, it was reported that the construction of the stadium itself was projected to cost £350–£400 million, out of the estimated £850 million cost for the entire Northumberland Development Project. The cost had increased due to the higher cost of import by at least 15% caused by the Brexit vote on the exchange rate, changes to the build, overtime working, extra hirings and higher construction costs. The club said that the final cost would be less than £1 billion, and just before the stadium opened in April 2019, the club chairman Daniel Levy said that the cost is of the order of £1 billion. In November 2020, Levy indicated that the stadium build had cost £1.2 billion.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The project was financed through a combination of the club's own resources, bank loans and club revenues. A £200 million interim financing facility was arranged in December 2015 with three banks to finance the project. This was replaced in May 2017 by a £400 million, five-year loan, deal with the banks to fund the remaining build. By this stage, £340 million had already been spent on land acquisition and the planning process, as well as the construction cost; £100 million of this came from the 2015 interim financing, with the rest from club resources. However, with costs spiralling, the club was forced to borrow an extra £237 million, raising the financing facility to £637m. The debt will be repaid over a 23-year period at £30 million a season. In order to reduce debt-servicing costs and improve annual cash flow, £525 million of the debt was refinanced by issuing bonds that will mature in 15 to 30 years' time. The bond issue was arranged by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which also provided a £112m loan. The club aims to pay for the stadium through a number of means: income from ticket sales is forecast to increase to £100 million per year, more than twice that earned from White Hart Lane; revenues from other sports hosted at the stadium with the NFL contributing £10 million to the initial cost; increased hospitality and catering income, as well as sponsorship, merchandising, advertising, concession and digital rights, and broadcast revenues.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the club had to secure a £175m loan from the Bank of England due to the loss of expected revenue streams as matches and scheduled events such as concerts at the stadium had to be cancelled. In February 2021, a financial analysis indicated that the club had the biggest debt amongst all European clubs. The great portion of the estimated £1.177 billion debt was due to the construction of the stadium.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The club has a number of partners at the stadium. Following on tradition, Heineken, who have previously held sponsorship deals, have been named as the beer sponsor for the new stadium. The north London brewer Beavertown is the official craft beer supplier and it installed the world's first stadium-located microbrewery on the south east corner of the stadium. The company selected by the club to supply the advertising system in the new ground was TGI. Tottenham signed a contract with LG to supply the new stadium with Ultra-premium TVs and digital signage. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the IT networking and wireless infrastructure partner for the new stadium. The concessions for food and drink in the stadium are run by Levy, a subsidiary of Compass.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The stadium will remain named Tottenham Hotspur Stadium until a naming rights agreement is reached. The club is apparently seeking offers in excess of £20m annually (£400 million for a 20-year deal or £200 million for 10 years), or £25 million in a 15-year deal (£375 million).


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The club estimates that the stadium would inject around £293 million a year into the community in Tottenham, and create more than 1,700 new jobs out of the total of 3,500 jobs created when the project is complete.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The new stadium has received generally positive comments from fans as well as sports and architecture writers alike. Paul Hayward of "The Telegraph" described it as "imposing and extravagant, yes, but still true to Tottenham Hotspur's spirit and "raison d'être"". "The Observer"'s architecture critic Rowan Moore, despite being unimpressed by the "ugliness" of its external appearance, chose it as one of the top five buildings of 2019, arguing that the stadium is at its best as a venue for watching football, and that it has achieved "the desired combination of magnificence and intimacy". Similarly David Hytner of "The Guardian" noted that while the stadium is significantly larger, it still has the "feeling of intimacy" due to the closeness of the stands to the pitch, and that the design of the stadium has managed to "retain the feel of the old White Hart Lane". Henry Winter of "The Times" offered the opinion that the new stadium has shown the other clubs "the quality of spec required" for a new stadium, and one that can produce the loudest sound for the fans. He also noted the significance of the new stadium within the community in Tottenham by helping to regenerate a deprived area blighted by riots, becoming a stadium that is "a must-see stop on those touring London's architectural splendours" and one should be a source of pride "for all in the game".


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: In a survey of 4,302 fans organised by Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust, 95% were satisfied with their experience attending games at the new stadium, compared to 52% of fans who were satisfied while Tottenham were playing at Wembley Stadium. 84% of those were satisfied with the atmosphere at the stadium for league game, rising to 98% for European games.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The stadium won the Supreme Award for Structural Engineering Excellence in the Structural Awards from the Institution of Structural Engineers in 2019. It also won in the Long Span Structures category. Other awards it has received in 2019 include Architects' Journal's Architecture Awards for 'Best Leisure Project', the Building Magazine Project of the Year, Gold awards from the World Interior News (WIN) in the Branding and Wayfinding category as well as for its general concourse design in the Leisure and Entertainment Interiors category, Bronze Award in the Leisure category of the World Architecture News Awards, Local Authority Building Control (LABC) Building Excellence Award in the Best Inclusive Building category for Tottenham Experience, and British Constructional Steelwork Association's Structural Steel Design Award for Project of the Year. It was voted second by the public in the Stadium of the Year awards at StadiumDB.com in March 2020 after the Puskás Aréna in Hungary. It was also named the Venue of the Year for "the world's best stadium, arena or sports venue" in 2020 by TheStadiumBusiness, and won the stadium category at the mondo*dr Awards 2020. It won the RIBA National Award and London Award for 2021, and won the Special prize Interior in the Sports category of Prix Versailles 2020.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The stadium is the subject of an episode of "Richard Hammond's Big" where the show's presenter Richard Hammond explores the biggest things he can find, broadcast in February 2020 on Discovery Channel.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The stadium is accessible via a number of London Overground, London Underground and National Rail stations: Seven Sisters, Tottenham Hale, Northumberland Park, and White Hart Lane stations. The nearest station, at around 200m away, is White Hart Lane, which is on the London Overground line from Liverpool Street station. The station ticket hall was rebuilt in 2019, and a Wembley-style walkway for fans from the station to the stadium is planned. The next nearest is Northumberland Park and fans can reach the stadium via Park Lane. Both Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale stations are stops along the Victoria line on London Underground. The walk to the stadium from Seven Sisters station takes around 30 minutes. White Hart Lane and Seven Sisters are popular stops for fans which can cause congestion after games on match days.


title: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

text: The stadium area is served by up to 144 buses an hour. Bus routes that stop close to the ground are 149, 259, 279, 349, and W3. A number of bus routes however are subject to diversions on matchdays. The club also operates two high frequency shuttle bus services to the stadium, one from Alexandra Palace via Wood Green (on Piccadilly line) and finishing at Haringey Sixth Form College, and the other from Tottenham Hale to Duke's Aldridge Academy. On matchdays, roads near the stadium are normally closed to traffic two to three hours before kick-off, and one to one-and-a-half-hours after the match. Car parking in the area is controlled on matchdays. Tottenham has also started an arrangement with Big Green Coaches to provide matchday travel for fans to and from matches. A number of major towns in and around South East England are chosen as pickup points and supporters are dropped off at a designated coach parking facility near the Stadium, and are collected from the same area, with coaches departing around an hour after the final whistle back to their collection points.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Acute radiation syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation sickness or radiation poisoning, is a collection of health effects that are caused by being exposed to high amounts of ionizing radiation in a short period of time. Symptoms can start within an hour of exposure, and can last for several months. Early symptoms are usually nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite. In the following hours or weeks, initial symptoms may appear to improve, before the development of additional symptoms, after which either recovery or death follow.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: ARS involves a total dose of greater than 0.7 Gy (70 rad), that generally occurs from a source outside the body, delivered within a few minutes. Sources of such radiation can occur accidentally or intentionally. They may involve nuclear reactors, cyclotrons, certain devices used in cancer therapy, nuclear weapons, or radiological weapons. It is generally divided into three types: bone marrow, gastrointestinal, and neurovascular syndrome, with bone marrow syndrome occurring at 0.7 to 10 Gy, and neurovascular syndrome occurring at doses that exceed 50 Gy. The cells that are most affected are generally those that are rapidly dividing. At high doses, this causes DNA damage that may be irreparable. Diagnosis is based on a history of exposure and symptoms. Repeated complete blood counts (CBCs) can indicate the severity of exposure.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Treatment of ARS is generally supportive care. This may include blood transfusions, antibiotics, colony-stimulating factors, or stem cell transplant. Radioactive material remaining on the skin or in the stomach should be removed. If radioiodine was inhaled or ingested, potassium iodide is recommended. Complications like leukemia and other cancers among those who survive are managed as usual. Short term outcomes depend on the dose exposure.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: ARS is generally rare. A single event can affect a large number of people, as happened in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster. ARS differs from chronic radiation syndrome, which occurs following prolonged exposures to relatively low doses of radiation.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Classically, ARS is divided into three main presentations: hematopoietic, gastrointestinal, and neuro vascular. These syndromes may be preceded by a prodrome. The speed of symptom onset is related to radiation exposure, with greater doses resulting in a shorter delay in symptom onset. These presentations presume whole-body exposure, and many of them are markers that are invalid if the entire body has not been exposed. Each syndrome requires that the tissue showing the syndrome itself be exposed (e.g., gastrointestinal syndrome is not seen if the stomach and intestines are not exposed to radiation). Some areas affected are:


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Early symptoms of ARS typically include nausea, vomiting, headaches, fatigue, fever, and a short period of skin reddening. These symptoms may occur at radiation doses as low as . These symptoms are common to many illnesses, and may not, by themselves, indicate acute radiation sickness.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: A similar table and description of symptoms (given in rems, where 100 rem = 1 Sv), derived from data from the effects on humans subjected to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the indigenous peoples of the Marshall Islands subjected to the Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb, animal studies and lab experiment accidents, have been compiled by the U.S. Department of Defense.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: A person who was less than from the atomic bomb "Little Boy" hypocenter at Hiroshima, Japan, was found to absorb about 9.46 grays (Gy) of ionizing radiation.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: The doses at the hypocenters of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings were 240 and 290 Gy, respectively.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Cutaneous radiation syndrome (CRS) refers to the skin symptoms of radiation exposure. Within a few hours after irradiation, a transient and inconsistent redness (associated with itching) can occur. Then, a latent phase may occur and last from a few days up to several weeks, when intense reddening, blistering, and ulceration of the irradiated site is visible. In most cases, healing occurs by regenerative means; however, very large skin doses can cause permanent hair loss, damaged sebaceous and sweat glands, atrophy, fibrosis (mostly keloids), decreased or increased skin pigmentation, and ulceration or necrosis of the exposed tissue. As seen at Chernobyl, when skin is irradiated with high energy beta particles, moist desquamation (peeling of skin) and similar early effects can heal, only to be followed by the collapse of the dermal vascular system after two months, resulting in the loss of the full thickness of the exposed skin. Another example of skin loss caused by high-level exposure of radiation is during the 1999 Tokaimura nuclear accident, where technician Hisashi Ouchi had lost a majority of his skin due to the high amounts of radiation he absorbed during the irradiation. This effect had been demonstrated previously with pig skin using high energy beta sources at the Churchill Hospital Research Institute, in Oxford.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: ARS is caused by exposure to a large dose of ionizing radiation (> ~0.1 Gy) over a short period of time (> ~0.1 Gy/h). Alpha and beta radiation have low penetrating power and are unlikely to affect vital internal organs from outside the body. Any type of ionizing radiation can cause burns, but alpha and beta radiation can only do so if radioactive contamination or nuclear fallout is deposited on the individual's skin or clothing. Gamma and neutron radiation can travel much greater distances and penetrate the body easily, so whole-body irradiation generally causes ARS before skin effects are evident. Local gamma irradiation can cause skin effects without any sickness. In the early twentieth century, radiographers would commonly calibrate their machines by irradiating their own hands and measuring the time to onset of erythema.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Accidental exposure may be the result of a criticality or radiotherapy accident. There have been numerous criticality accidents dating back to atomic testing during World War II, while computer-controlled radiation therapy machines such as Therac-25 played a major part in radiotherapy accidents. The latter of the two is caused by the failure of equipment software used to monitor the radiational dose given. Human error has played a large part in accidental exposure incidents, including some of the criticality accidents, and larger scale events such as the Chernobyl disaster. Other events have to do with orphan sources, in which radioactive material is unknowingly kept, sold, or stolen. The Goiânia accident is an example, where a forgotten radioactive source was taken from a hospital, resulting in the deaths of 4 people from ARS. Theft and attempted theft of radioactive material by clueless thieves has also led to lethal exposure in at least one incident.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Exposure may also come from routine spaceflight and solar flares that result in radiation effects on earth in the form of solar storms. During spaceflight, astronauts are exposed to both galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and solar particle event (SPE) radiation. The exposure particularly occurs during flights beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). Evidence indicates past SPE radiation levels that would have been lethal for unprotected astronauts. GCR levels that might lead to acute radiation poisoning are less well understood. The latter cause is rarer, with an event possibly occurring during the solar storm of 1859.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Intentional exposure is controversial as it involves the use of nuclear weapons, human experiments, or is given to a victim in an act of murder. The intentional atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in tens of thousands of casualties; the survivors of these bombings are known today as Hibakusha. Nuclear weapons emit large amounts of thermal radiation as visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light, to which the atmosphere is largely transparent. This event is also known as "Flash", where radiant heat and light are bombarded into any given victim's exposed skin, causing radiation burns. Death is highly likely, and radiation poisoning is almost certain if one is caught in the open with no terrain or building masking-effects within a radius of 0–3 km from a 1 megaton airburst. The 50% chance of death from the blast extends out to ~8 km from a 1 megaton atmospheric explosion.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Scientific testing on humans done without consent has been prohibited since 1997 in the United States. There is now a requirement for patients to give informed consent, and to be notified if experiments were classified. Across the world, the Soviet nuclear program involved human experiments on a large scale, which is still kept secret by the Russian government and the Rosatom agency. The human experiments that fall under intentional ARS exclude those that involved long term exposure. Criminal activity has involved murder and attempted murder carried out through abrupt victim contact with a radioactive substance such as polonium or plutonium.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: The most commonly used predictor of ARS is the whole-body absorbed dose. Several related quantities, such as the equivalent dose, effective dose, and committed dose, are used to gauge long-term stochastic biological effects such as cancer incidence, but they are not designed to evaluate ARS. To help avoid confusion between these quantities, absorbed dose is measured in units of grays (in SI, unit symbol Gy) or rads (in CGS), while the others are measured in sieverts (in SI, unit symbol Sv) or rems (in CGS). 1 rad = 0.01 Gy and 1 rem = 0.01 Sv.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: In most of the acute exposure scenarios that lead to radiation sickness, the bulk of the radiation is external whole-body gamma, in which case the absorbed, equivalent, and effective doses are all equal. There are exceptions, such as the Therac-25 accidents and the 1958 Cecil Kelley criticality accident, where the absorbed doses in Gy or rad are the only useful quantities, because of the targeted nature of the exposure to the body.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Radiotherapy treatments are typically prescribed in terms of the local absorbed dose, which might be 60 Gy or higher. The dose is fractionated to about 2 Gy per day for "curative" treatment, which allows normal tissues to undergo repair, allowing them to tolerate a higher dose than would otherwise be expected. The dose to the targeted tissue mass must be averaged over the entire body mass, most of which receives negligible radiation, to arrive at a whole-body absorbed dose that can be compared to the table above.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Exposure to high doses of radiation cause DNA damage, later creating serious and even lethal chromosomal aberrations if left unrepaired. Ionizing radiation can produce reactive oxygen species, and does directly damage cells by causing localized ionization events. The former is very damaging to DNA, while the latter events create clusters of DNA damage. This damage includes loss of nucleobases and breakage of the sugar-phosphate backbone that binds to the nucleobases. The DNA organization at the level of histones, nucleosomes, and chromatin also affects its susceptibility to radiation damage. Clustered damage, defined as at least two lesions within a helical turn, is especially harmful. While DNA damage happens frequently and naturally in the cell from endogenous sources, clustered damage is a unique effect of radiation exposure. Clustered damage takes longer to repair than isolated breakages, and is less likely to be repaired at all. Larger radiation doses are more prone to cause tighter clustering of damage, and closely localized damage is increasingly less likely to be repaired.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Somatic mutations cannot be passed down from parent to offspring, but these mutations can propagate in cell lines within an organism. Radiation damage can also cause chromosome and chromatid aberrations, and their effects depend on in which stage of the mitotic cycle the cell is when the irradiation occurs. If the cell is in interphase, while it is still a single strand of chromatin, the damage will be replicated during the S1 phase of cell cycle, and there will be a break on both chromosome arms; the damage then will be apparent in both daughter cells. If the irradiation occurs after replication, only one arm will bear the damage; this damage will be apparent in only one daughter cell. A damaged chromosome may cyclize, binding to another chromosome, or to itself.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Diagnosis is typically made based on a history of significant radiation exposure and suitable clinical findings. An absolute lymphocyte count can give a rough estimate of radiation exposure. Time from exposure to vomiting can also give estimates of exposure levels if they are less than 10 Gray (1000 rad).


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: A guiding principle of radiation safety is "as low as reasonably achievable" (ALARA). This means try to avoid exposure as much as possible and includes the three components of time, distance, and shielding.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: The longer that humans are subjected to radiation the larger the dose will be. The advice in the nuclear war manual entitled "Nuclear War Survival Skills" published by Cresson Kearny in the U.S. was that if one needed to leave the shelter then this should be done as rapidly as possible to minimize exposure.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: In chapter 12, he states that "[q]uickly putting or dumping wastes outside is not hazardous once fallout is no longer being deposited. For example, assume the shelter is in an area of heavy fallout and the dose rate outside is 400 roentgen (R) per hour, enough to give a potentially fatal dose in about an hour to a person exposed in the open. If a person needs to be exposed for only 10 seconds to dump a bucket, in this 1/360 of an hour he will receive a dose of only about 1 R. Under war conditions, an additional 1-R dose is of little concern." In peacetime, radiation workers are taught to work as quickly as possible when performing a task that exposes them to radiation. For instance, the recovery of a radioactive source should be done as quickly as possible.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Matter attenuates radiation in most cases, so placing any mass (e.g., lead, dirt, sandbags, vehicles, water, even air) between humans and the source will reduce the radiation dose. This is not always the case, however; care should be taken when constructing shielding for a specific purpose. For example, although high atomic number materials are very effective in shielding photons, using them to shield beta particles may cause higher radiation exposure due to the production of bremsstrahlung x-rays, and hence low atomic number materials are recommended. Also, using material with a high neutron activation cross section to shield neutrons will result in the shielding material itself becoming radioactive and hence more dangerous than if it were not present.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: There are many types of shielding strategies that can be used to reduce the effects of radiation exposure. Internal contamination protective equipment such as respirators are used to prevent internal deposition as a result of inhalation and ingestion of radioactive material. Dermal protective equipment, which protects against external contamination, provides shielding to prevent radioactive material from being deposited on external structures. While these protective measures do provide a barrier from radioactive material deposition, they do not shield from externally penetrating gamma radiation. This leaves anyone exposed to penetrating gamma rays at high risk of ARS.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Naturally, shielding the entire body from high energy gamma radiation is optimal, but the required mass to provide adequate attenuation makes functional movement nearly impossible. In the event of a radiation catastrophe, medical and security personnel need mobile protection equipment in order to safely assist in containment, evacuation, and many other necessary public safety objectives.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Research has been done exploring the feasibility of partial body shielding, a radiation protection strategy that provides adequate attenuation to only the most radio-sensitive organs and tissues inside the body. Irreversible stem cell damage in the bone marrow is the first life-threatening effect of intense radiation exposure and therefore one of the most important bodily elements to protect. Due to the regenerative property of hematopoietic stem cells, it is only necessary to protect enough bone marrow to repopulate the exposed areas of the body with the shielded supply. This concept allows for the development of lightweight mobile radiation protection equipment, which provides adequate protection, deferring the onset of ARS to much higher exposure doses. One example of such equipment is the 360 gamma, a radiation protection belt that applies selective shielding to protect the bone marrow stored in the pelvic area as well as other radio sensitive organs in the abdominal region without hindering functional mobility.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: More information on bone marrow shielding can be found in the article , or in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)'s 2015 report:


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Where radioactive contamination is present, an elastomeric respirator, dust mask, or good hygiene practices may offer protection, depending on the nature of the contaminant. Potassium iodide (KI) tablets can reduce the risk of cancer in some situations due to slower uptake of ambient radioiodine. Although this does not protect any organ other than the thyroid gland, their effectiveness is still highly dependent on the time of ingestion, which would protect the gland for the duration of a twenty-four-hour period. They do not prevent ARS as they provide no shielding from other environmental radionuclides.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: If an intentional dose is broken up into a number of smaller doses, with time allowed for recovery between irradiations, the same total dose causes less cell death. Even without interruptions, a reduction in dose rate below 0.1 Gy/h also tends to reduce cell death. This technique is routinely used in radiotherapy.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: The human body contains many types of cells and a human can be killed by the loss of a single type of cells in a vital organ. For many short term radiation deaths (3–30 days), the loss of two important types of cells that are constantly being regenerated causes death. The loss of cells forming blood cells (bone marrow) and the cells in the digestive system (microvilli, which form part of the wall of the intestines) is fatal.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Treatment usually involves supportive care with possible symptomatic measures employed. The former involves the possible use of antibiotics, blood products, colony stimulating factors, and stem cell transplant.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: There is a direct relationship between the degree of the neutropenia that emerges after exposure to radiation and the increased risk of developing infection. Since there are no controlled studies of therapeutic intervention in humans, most of the current recommendations are based on animal research.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: The treatment of established or suspected infection following exposure to radiation (characterized by neutropenia and fever) is similar to the one used for other febrile neutropenic patients. However, important differences between the two conditions exist. Individuals that develop neutropenia after exposure to radiation are also susceptible to irradiation damage in other tissues, such as the gastrointestinal tract, lungs and central nervous system. These patients may require therapeutic interventions not needed in other types of neutropenic patients. The response of irradiated animals to antimicrobial therapy can be unpredictable, as was evident in experimental studies where metronidazole and pefloxacin therapies were detrimental.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Antimicrobials that reduce the number of the strict anaerobic component of the gut flora (i.e., metronidazole) generally should not be given because they may enhance systemic infection by aerobic or facultative bacteria, thus facilitating mortality after irradiation.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: An empirical regimen of antimicrobials should be chosen based on the pattern of bacterial susceptibility and nosocomial infections in the affected area and medical center and the degree of neutropenia. Broad-spectrum empirical therapy (see below for choices) with high doses of one or more antibiotics should be initiated at the onset of fever. These antimicrobials should be directed at the eradication of Gram-negative aerobic bacilli (i.e., Enterobacteriace, Pseudomonas) that account for more than three quarters of the isolates causing sepsis. Because aerobic and facultative Gram-positive bacteria (mostly alpha-hemolytic streptococci) cause sepsis in about a quarter of the victims, coverage for these organisms may also be needed.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: A standardized management plan for people with neutropenia and fever should be devised. Empirical regimens contain antibiotics broadly active against Gram-negative aerobic bacteria (quinolones: i.e., ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, a third- or fourth-generation cephalosporin with pseudomonal coverage: e.g., cefepime, ceftazidime, or an aminoglycoside: i.e. gentamicin, amikacin).


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: The prognosis for ARS is dependent on the exposure dose, with anything above 8 Gy being almost always lethal, even with medical care. Radiation burns from lower-level exposures usually manifest after 2 months, while reactions from the burns occur months to years after radiation treatment. Complications from ARS include an increased risk of developing radiation-induced cancer later in life. According to the controversial but commonly applied linear no-threshold model, any exposure to ionizing radiation, even at doses too low to produce any symptoms of radiation sickness, can induce cancer due to cellular and genetic damage. The probability of developing cancer is a linear function with respect to the effective radiation dose. Radiation cancer may occur after ionizing radiation exposure following a latent period averaging 20 to 40 years.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Acute effects of ionizing radiation were first observed when Wilhelm Röntgen intentionally subjected his fingers to X-rays in 1895. He published his observations concerning the burns that developed that eventually healed, and misattributed them to ozone. Röntgen believed the free radical produced in air by X-rays from the ozone was the cause, but other free radicals produced within the body are now understood to be more important. David Walsh first established the symptoms of radiation sickness in 1897.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Ingestion of radioactive materials caused many radiation-induced cancers in the 1930s, but no one was exposed to high enough doses at high enough rates to bring on ARS.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in high acute doses of radiation to a large number of Japanese people, allowing for greater insight into its symptoms and dangers. Red Cross Hospital Surgeon Terufumi Sasaki led intensive research into the syndrome in the weeks and months following the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Dr Sasaki and his team were able to monitor the effects of radiation in patients of varying proximities to the blast itself, leading to the establishment of three recorded stages of the syndrome. Within 25–30 days of the explosion, Sasaki noticed a sharp drop in white blood cell count and established this drop, along with symptoms of fever, as prognostic standards for ARS. Actress Midori Naka, who was present during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, was the first incident of radiation poisoning to be extensively studied. Her death on 24 August 1945 was the first death ever to be officially certified as a result of ARS (or "Atomic bomb disease").


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: There are two major databases that track radiation accidents: The American ORISE REAC/TS and the European IRSN ACCIRAD. REAC/TS shows 417 accidents occurring between 1944 and 2000, causing about 3000 cases of ARS, of which 127 were fatal. ACCIRAD lists 580 accidents with 180 ARS fatalities for an almost identical period. The two deliberate bombings are not included in either database, nor are any possible radiation-induced cancers from low doses. The detailed accounting is difficult because of confounding factors. ARS may be accompanied by conventional injuries such as steam burns, or may occur in someone with a pre-existing condition undergoing radiotherapy. There may be multiple causes for death, and the contribution from radiation may be unclear. Some documents may incorrectly refer to radiation-induced cancers as radiation poisoning, or may count all overexposed individuals as survivors without mentioning if they had any symptoms of ARS.


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: The following table includes only those known for their attempted survival with ARS. These cases exclude chronic radiation syndrome such as Albert Stevens, in which radiation is exposed to a given subject over a long duration. The "result" column represents the time of exposure to the time of death attributed to the short and long term effects attributed to initial exposure. As ARS is measured by a whole-body absorbed dose, the "exposure" column only includes units of Gray (Gy).


title: Acute radiation syndrome

text: Thousands of scientific experiments have been performed to study ARS in animals. There is a simple guide for predicting survival and death in mammals, including humans, following the acute effects of inhaling radioactive particles.


title: Euphrates

text: The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( "the land between the rivers"). Originating in Turkey, the Euphrates flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf.


title: Euphrates

text: The Ancient Greek form "Euphrátēs" (, as if from Greek εὖ "good" and φράζω "I announce or declare") was adapted from Old Persian 𐎢𐎳𐎼𐎠𐎬𐎢 "Ufrātu", itself from Elamite 𒌑𒅁𒊏𒌅𒅖 "ú-ip-ra-tu-iš". The Elamite name is ultimately derived from a name spelt in cuneiform as 𒌓𒄒𒉣 , which read as Sumerian is "Buranuna" and read as Akkadian is "Purattu"; many cuneiform signs have a Sumerian pronunciation and an Akkadian pronunciation, taken from a Sumerian word and an Akkadian word that mean the same. In Akkadian the river was called "Purattu", which has been perpetuated in Semitic languages (cf. "al-Furāt"; "Pǝrāt", "Prat") and in other nearby languages of the time (cf. Hurrian "Puranti", Sabarian "Uruttu"). The Elamite, Akkadian, and possibly Sumerian forms are suggested to be from an unrecorded substrate language. Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav Ivanov suggest the Proto-Sumerian "*burudu" "copper" (Sumerian "urudu") as an origin, with an explanation that Euphrates was the river by which copper ore was transported in rafts, since Mesopotamia was the center of copper metallurgy during the period.


title: Euphrates

text: The Euphrates is called "Yeprat" in Armenian (), "Perat" in modern Hebrew (), in Turkish and in Kurdish. The Mandaic name is (), and is often mentioned as (pronounced ) in Mandaean scriptures such as the "Ginza Rabba". In Mandaean scriptures, the Euphrates is considered to be the earthly manifestation of the heavenly yardna or flowing river (similar to the Yazidi concept of Lalish being the earthly manifestation of its heavenly counterpart).


title: Euphrates

text: The earliest references to the Euphrates come from cuneiform texts found in Shuruppak and pre-Sargonic Nippur in southern Iraq and date to the mid-3rd millennium BCE. In these texts, written in Sumerian, the Euphrates is called "Buranuna" (logographic: UD.KIB.NUN). The name could also be written KIB.NUN.(NA) or KIB.NUN, with the prefix "" indicating that the river was a divinity. In Sumerian, the name of the city of Sippar in modern-day Iraq was also written UD.KIB.NUN, indicating a historically strong relationship between the city and the river.


title: Euphrates

text: The Euphrates is the longest river of Western Asia. It emerges from the confluence of the Kara Su or Western Euphrates () and the Murat Su or Eastern Euphrates () upstream from the town of Keban in southeastern Turkey. Daoudy and Frenken put the length of the Euphrates from the source of the Murat River to the confluence with the Tigris at , of which is in Turkey, in Syria and in Iraq. The same figures are given by Isaev and Mikhailova. The length of the Shatt al-Arab, which connects the Euphrates and the Tigris with the Persian Gulf, is given by various sources as .


title: Euphrates

text: Both the Kara Su and the Murat Su rise northwest from Lake Van at elevations of and amsl, respectively. At the location of the Keban Dam, the two rivers, now combined into the Euphrates, have dropped to an elevation of amsl. From Keban to the Syrian–Turkish border, the river drops another over a distance of less than . Once the Euphrates enters the Upper Mesopotamian plains, its grade drops significantly; within Syria the river falls while over the last stretch between Hīt and the Shatt al-Arab the river drops only .


title: Euphrates

text: The Euphrates receives most of its water in the form of rainfall and melting snow, resulting in peak volumes during the months April through May. Discharge in these two months accounts for 36 percent of the total annual discharge of the Euphrates, or even 60–70 percent according to one source, while low runoff occurs in summer and autumn. The average natural annual flow of the Euphrates has been determined from early- and mid-twentieth century records as at Keban, at Hīt and at Hindiya. However, these averages mask the high inter-annual variability in discharge; at Birecik, just north of the Syro–Turkish border, annual discharges have been measured that ranged from a low volume of in 1961 to a high of in 1963.


title: Euphrates

text: The discharge regime of the Euphrates has changed dramatically since the construction of the first dams in the 1970s. Data on Euphrates discharge collected after 1990 show the impact of the construction of the numerous dams in the Euphrates and of the increased withdrawal of water for irrigation. Average discharge at Hīt after 1990 has dropped to per second ( per year). The seasonal variability has equally changed. The pre-1990 peak volume recorded at Hīt was per second, while after 1990 it is only per second. The minimum volume at Hīt remained relatively unchanged, rising from per second before 1990 to per second afterward.


title: Euphrates

text: In Syria, three rivers add their water to the Euphrates; the Sajur, the Balikh and the Khabur. These rivers rise in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains along the Syro–Turkish border and add comparatively little water to the Euphrates. The Sajur is the smallest of these tributaries; emerging from two streams near Gaziantep and draining the plain around Manbij before emptying into the reservoir of the Tishrin Dam. The Balikh receives most of its water from a karstic spring near 'Ayn al-'Arus and flows due south until it reaches the Euphrates at the city of Raqqa. In terms of length, drainage basin and discharge, the Khabur is the largest of these three. Its main karstic springs are located around Ra's al-'Ayn, from where the Khabur flows southeast past Al-Hasakah, where the river turns south and drains into the Euphrates near Busayrah. Once the Euphrates enters Iraq, there are no more natural tributaries to the Euphrates, although canals connecting the Euphrates basin with the Tigris basin exist.


title: Euphrates

text: The drainage basins of the Kara Su and the Murat River cover an area of and , respectively. Estimates of the area of the Euphrates drainage basin vary widely; from a low to a high . Recent estimates put the basin area at , and . The greater part of the Euphrates basin is located in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. According to both Daoudy and Frenken, Turkey's share is 28 percent, Syria's is 17 percent and that of Iraq is 40 percent. Isaev and Mikhailova estimate the percentages of the drainage basin lying within Turkey, Syria and Iraq at 33, 20 and 47 percent respectively. Some sources estimate that approximately 15 percent of the drainage basin is located within Saudi Arabia, while a small part falls inside the borders of Kuwait. Finally, some sources also include Jordan in the drainage basin of the Euphrates; a small part of the eastern desert () drains toward the east rather than to the west.


title: Euphrates

text: The Euphrates flows through a number of distinct vegetation zones. Although millennia-long human occupation in most parts of the Euphrates basin has significantly degraded the landscape, patches of original vegetation remain. The steady drop in annual rainfall from the sources of the Euphrates toward the Persian Gulf is a strong determinant for the vegetation that can be supported. In its upper reaches the Euphrates flows through the mountains of Southeast Turkey and their southern foothills which support a xeric woodland. Plant species in the moister parts of this zone include various oaks, pistachio trees, and "Rosaceae" (rose/plum family). The drier parts of the xeric woodland zone supports less dense oak forest and "Rosaceae". Here can also be found the wild variants of many cereals, including einkorn wheat, emmer, oat and rye.


title: Euphrates

text: South of this zone lies a zone of mixed woodland-steppe vegetation. Between Raqqa and the Syro–Iraqi border the Euphrates flows through a steppe landscape. This steppe is characterised by white wormwood ("Artemisia herba-alba") and Amaranthaceae. Throughout history, this zone has been heavily overgrazed due to the practicing of sheep and goat pastoralism by its inhabitants. Southeast of the border between Syria and Iraq starts true desert. This zone supports either no vegetation at all or small pockets of "Chenopodiaceae" or "Poa sinaica". Although today nothing of it survives due to human interference, research suggests that the Euphrates Valley would have supported a riverine forest. Species characteristic of this type of forest include the Oriental plane, the Euphrates poplar, the tamarisk, the ash and various wetland plants.


title: Euphrates

text: Among the fish species in the Tigris–Euphrates basin, the family of the Cyprinidae are the most common, with 34 species out of 52 in total. Among the Cyprinids, the mangar has good recreational fishing qualities, leading the British to nickname it the "Tigris salmon." The Euphrates softshell turtle is an endangered soft-shelled turtle that is limited to the Tigris–Euphrates river system.


title: Euphrates

text: The Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs from the 1st millennium BCE depict lion and bull hunts in fertile landscapes. Sixteenth to nineteenth century European travellers in the Syrian Euphrates basin reported on an abundance of animals living in the area, many of which have become rare or even extinct. Species like gazelle, onager and the now-extinct Arabian ostrich lived in the steppe bordering the Euphrates valley, while the valley itself was home to the wild boar. Carnivorous species include the wolf, the golden jackal, the red fox, the leopard and the lion. The Syrian brown bear can be found in the mountains of Southeast Turkey. The presence of Eurasian beaver has been attested in the bone assemblage of the prehistoric site of Tell Abu Hureyra in Syria, but the beaver has never been sighted in historical times.


title: Euphrates

text: The Hindiya Barrage on the Iraqi Euphrates, based on plans by British civil engineer William Willcocks and finished in 1913, was the first modern water diversion structure built in the Tigris–Euphrates river system. The Hindiya Barrage was followed in the 1950s by the Ramadi Barrage and the nearby Abu Dibbis Regulator, which serve to regulate the flow regime of the Euphrates and to discharge excess flood water into the depression that is now Lake Habbaniyah. Iraq's largest dam on the Euphrates is the Haditha Dam; a earth-fill dam creating Lake Qadisiyah. Syria and Turkey built their first dams in the Euphrates in the 1970s. The Tabqa Dam in Syria was completed in 1973 while Turkey finished the Keban Dam, a prelude to the immense Southeastern Anatolia Project, in 1974. Since then, Syria has built two more dams in the Euphrates, the Baath Dam and the Tishrin Dam, and plans to build a fourth dam – the Halabiye Dam – between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. The Tabqa Dam is Syria's largest dam and its reservoir (Lake Assad) is an important source of irrigation and drinking water. It was planned that should be irrigated from Lake Assad, but in 2000 only had been realized. Syria also built three smaller dams on the Khabur and its tributaries.


title: Euphrates

text: With the implementation of the Southeastern Anatolia Project ("", or "GAP") in the 1970s, Turkey launched an ambitious plan to harness the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates for irrigation and hydroelectricity production and provide an economic stimulus to its southeastern provinces. GAP affects a total area of and approximately 7 million people; representing about 10 percent of Turkey's total surface area and population, respectively. When completed, GAP will consist of 22 dams – including the Keban Dam – and 19 power plants and provide irrigation water to of agricultural land, which is about 20 percent of the irrigable land in Turkey. C. of this irrigated land is located in the Euphrates basin. By far the largest dam in GAP is the Atatürk Dam, located c. northwest of Şanlıurfa. This and dam was completed in 1992; thereby creating a reservoir that is the third-largest lake in Turkey. With a maximum capacity of , the Atatürk Dam reservoir is large enough to hold the entire annual discharge of the Euphrates. Completion of GAP was scheduled for 2010 but has been delayed because the World Bank has withheld funding due to the lack of an official agreement on water sharing between Turkey and the downstream states on the Euphrates and the Tigris.


title: Euphrates

text: Apart from barrages and dams, Iraq has also created an intricate network of canals connecting the Euphrates with Lake Habbaniyah, Lake Tharthar, and Abu Dibbis reservoir; all of which can be used to store excess floodwater. Via the Shatt al-Hayy, the Euphrates is connected with the Tigris. The largest canal in this network is the Main Outfall Drain or so-called "Third River;" constructed between 1953 and 1992. This canal is intended to drain the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris south of Baghdad to prevent soil salinization from irrigation. It also allows large freight barges to navigate up to Baghdad.


title: Euphrates

text: The construction of the dams and irrigation schemes on the Euphrates has had a significant impact on the environment and society of each riparian country. The dams constructed as part of GAP – in both the Euphrates and the Tigris basins – have affected 382 villages and almost 200,000 people have been resettled elsewhere. The largest number of people was displaced by the building of the Atatürk Dam, which alone affected 55,300 people. A survey among those who were displaced showed that the majority were unhappy with their new situation and that the compensation they had received was considered insufficient. The flooding of Lake Assad led to the forced displacement of c. 4,000 families, who were resettled in other parts of northern Syria as part of a now abandoned plan to create an "Arab belt" along the borders with Turkey and Iraq.


title: Euphrates

text: Apart from the changes in the discharge regime of the river, the numerous dams and irrigation projects have also had other effects on the environment. The creation of reservoirs with large surfaces in countries with high average temperatures has led to increased evaporation; thereby reducing the total amount of water that is available for human use. Annual evaporation from reservoirs has been estimated at in Turkey, in Syria and in Iraq. Water quality in the Iraqi Euphrates is low because irrigation water tapped in Turkey and Syria flows back into the river, together with dissolved fertilizer chemicals used on the fields. The salinity of Euphrates water in Iraq has increased as a result of upstream dam construction, leading to lower suitability as drinking water. The many dams and irrigation schemes, and the associated large-scale water abstraction, have also had a detrimental effect on the ecologically already fragile Mesopotamian Marshes and on freshwater fish habitats in Iraq.


title: Euphrates

text: The inundation of large parts of the Euphrates valley, especially in Turkey and Syria, has led to the flooding of many archaeological sites and other places of cultural significance. Although concerted efforts have been made to record or save as much of the endangered cultural heritage as possible, many sites are probably lost forever. The combined GAP projects on the Turkish Euphrates have led to major international efforts to document the archaeological and cultural heritage of the endangered parts of the valley. Especially the flooding of Zeugma with its unique Roman mosaics by the reservoir of the Birecik Dam has generated much controversy in both the Turkish and international press. The construction of the Tabqa Dam in Syria led to a large international campaign coordinated by UNESCO to document the heritage that would disappear under the waters of Lake Assad. Archaeologists from numerous countries excavated sites ranging in date from the Natufian to the Abbasid period, and two minarets were dismantled and rebuilt outside the flood zone. Important sites that have been flooded or affected by the rising waters of Lake Assad include Mureybet, Emar and Abu Hureyra. A similar international effort was made when the Tishrin Dam was constructed, which led, among others, to the flooding of the important Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of Jerf el Ahmar. An archaeological survey and rescue excavations were also carried out in the area flooded by Lake Qadisiya in Iraq. Parts of the flooded area have recently become accessible again due to the drying up of the lake, resulting not only in new possibilities for archaeologists to do more research, but also providing opportunities for looting, which has been rampant elsewhere in Iraq in the wake of the 2003 invasion.


title: Euphrates

text: The early occupation of the Euphrates basin was limited to its upper reaches; that is, the area that is popularly known as the Fertile Crescent. Acheulean stone artifacts have been found in the Sajur basin and in the El Kowm oasis in the central Syrian steppe; the latter together with remains of "Homo erectus" that were dated to 450,000 years old. In the Taurus Mountains and the upper part of the Syrian Euphrates valley, early permanent villages such as Abu Hureyra – at first occupied by hunter-gatherers but later by some of the earliest farmers, Jerf el Ahmar, Mureybet and Nevalı Çori became established from the eleventh millennium BCE onward. In the absence of irrigation, these early farming communities were limited to areas where rainfed agriculture was possible, that is, the upper parts of the Syrian Euphrates as well as Turkey. Late Neolithic villages, characterized by the introduction of pottery in the early 7th millennium BCE, are known throughout this area. Occupation of lower Mesopotamia started in the 6th millennium and is generally associated with the introduction of irrigation, as rainfall in this area is insufficient for dry agriculture. Evidence for irrigation has been found at several sites dating to this period, including Tell es-Sawwan. During the 5th millennium BCE, or late Ubaid period, northeastern Syria was dotted by small villages, although some of them grew to a size of over . In Iraq, sites like Eridu and Ur were already occupied during the Ubaid period. Clay boat models found at Tell Mashnaqa along the Khabur indicate that riverine transport was already practiced during this period. The Uruk period, roughly coinciding with the 4th millennium BCE, saw the emergence of truly urban settlements across Mesopotamia. Cities like Tell Brak and Uruk grew to over in size and displayed monumental architecture. The spread of southern Mesopotamian pottery, architecture and sealings far into Turkey and Iran has generally been interpreted as the material reflection of a widespread trade system aimed at providing the Mesopotamian cities with raw materials. Habuba Kabira on the Syrian Euphrates is a prominent example of a settlement that is interpreted as an Uruk colony.


title: Euphrates

text: During the Jemdet Nasr (3600–3100 BCE) and Early Dynastic periods (3100–2350 BCE), southern Mesopotamia experienced a growth in the number and size of settlements, suggesting strong population growth. These settlements, including Sumero-Akkadian sites like Sippar, Uruk, Adab and Kish, were organized in competing city-states. Many of these cities were located along canals of the Euphrates and the Tigris that have since dried up, but that can still be identified from remote sensing imagery. A similar development took place in Upper Mesopotamia, Subartu and Assyria, although only from the mid 3rd millennium and on a smaller scale than in Lower Mesopotamia. Sites like Ebla, Mari and Tell Leilan grew to prominence for the first time during this period.


title: Euphrates

text: Large parts of the Euphrates basin were for the first time united under a single ruler during the Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BC) and Ur III empires, which controlled – either directly or indirectly through vassals – large parts of modern-day Iraq and northeastern Syria. Following their collapse, the Old Assyrian Empire (1975–1750 BCE) and Mari asserted their power over northeast Syria and northern Mesopotamia, while southern Mesopotamia was controlled by city-states like Isin, Kish and Larsa before their territories were absorbed by the newly emerged state of Babylonia under Hammurabi in the early to mid 18th century BCE.


title: Euphrates

text: In the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, the Euphrates basin was divided between Kassite Babylon in the south and Mitanni, Assyria and the Hittite Empire in the north, with the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) eventually eclipsing the Hittites, Mitanni and Kassite Babylonians. Following the end of the Middle Assyrian Empire in the late 11th century BCE, struggles broke out between Babylonia and Assyria over the control of the Iraqi Euphrates basin. The Neo-Assyrian Empire (935–605 BC) eventually emerged victorious out of this conflict and also succeeded in gaining control of the northern Euphrates basin in the first half of the 1st millennium BCE.


title: Euphrates

text: In the centuries to come, control of the wider Euphrates basin shifted from the Neo-Assyrian Empire (which collapsed between 612 and 599 BC) to the short lived Median Empire (612–546 BC) and equally brief Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BC) in the last years of the 7th century BC, and eventually to the Achaemenid Empire (539–333 BC). The Achaemenid Empire was in turn overrun by Alexander the Great, who defeated the last king Darius III and died in Babylon in 323 BCE.


title: Euphrates

text: Subsequent to this, the region came under the control of the Seleucid Empire (312–150 BC), Parthian Empire (150–226 AD) (during which several Neo-Assyrian states such as Adiabene came to rule certain regions of the Euphrates), and was fought over by the Roman Empire, its succeeding Byzantine Empire and the Sassanid Empire (226–638 AD), until the Islamic conquest of the mid 7th century AD. The Battle of Karbala took place near the banks of this river in 680 AD.


title: Euphrates

text: In the north, the river served as a border between Greater Armenia (331 BC–428 AD) and Lesser Armenia (the latter became a Roman province in the 1st century BC).


title: Euphrates

text: After World War I, the borders in Southwest Asia were redrawn in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), when the Ottoman Empire was partitioned. Clause 109 of the treaty stipulated that the three riparian states of the Euphrates (at that time Turkey, France for its Syrian mandate and the United Kingdom for its mandate of Iraq) had to reach a mutual agreement on the use of its water and on the construction of any hydraulic installation. An agreement between Turkey and Iraq signed in 1946 required Turkey to report to Iraq on any hydraulic changes it made on the Tigris–Euphrates river system, and allowed Iraq to construct dams on Turkish territory to manage the flow of the Euphrates.


title: Euphrates

text: Turkey and Syria completed their first dams on the Euphrates – the Keban Dam and the Tabqa Dam, respectively – within one year of each other and filling of the reservoirs commenced in 1975. At the same time, the area was hit by severe drought and river flow toward Iraq was reduced from in 1973 to in 1975. This led to an international crisis during which Iraq threatened to bomb the Tabqa Dam. An agreement was eventually reached between Syria and Iraq after intervention by Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union. A similar crisis, although not escalating to the point of military threats, occurred in 1981 when the Keban Dam reservoir had to be refilled after it had been almost emptied to temporarily increase Turkey's hydroelectricity production. In 1984, Turkey unilaterally declared that it would ensure a flow of at least per second, or per year, into Syria, and in 1987 a bilateral treaty to that effect was signed between the two countries. Another bilateral agreement from 1989 between Syria and Iraq settles the amount of water flowing into Iraq at 60 percent of the amount that Syria receives from Turkey. In 2008, Turkey, Syria and Iraq instigated the Joint Trilateral Committee (JTC) on the management of the water in the Tigris–Euphrates basin and on 3 September 2009 a further agreement was signed to this effect.


title: Euphrates

text: On 15 April 2014, Turkey began to reduce the flow of the Euphrates into Syria and Iraq. The flow was cut off completely on 16 May 2014 resulting in the Euphrates terminating at the Turkish–Syrian border. This was in violation of an agreement reached in 1987 in which Turkey committed to releasing a minimum of of water per second at the Turkish–Syrian border.


title: Euphrates

text: During the Syrian civil war and the Iraqi Civil War, much of the Euphrates was controlled by the Islamic State from 2014 until 2017, when the terrorist group began losing land and was eventually defeated territorially in Syria at the Battle of Baghouz and in Iraq in the Western Iraq offensive respectively.


title: Euphrates

text: Throughout history, the Euphrates has been of vital importance to those living along its course. With the construction of large hydropower stations, irrigation schemes, and pipelines capable of transporting water over large distances, many more people now depend on the river for basic amenities such as electricity and drinking water than in the past. Syria's Lake Assad is the most important source of drinking water for the city of Aleppo, to the west of the river valley. The lake also supports a modest state-operated fishing industry. Through a newly restored power line, the Haditha Dam in Iraq provides electricity to Baghdad.


title: The Fighter

text: The Fighter is a 2010 American biographical sports drama film directed by David O. Russell, and stars Mark Wahlberg (who also produced), Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo. The film centers on the lives of professional boxer Micky Ward (Wahlberg) and his older half-brother and former boxer Dicky Eklund (Bale). The film was inspired by the 1995 documentary that features the Eklund-Ward family, titled "".


title: The Fighter

text: "The Fighter" was released in theaters on December 17, 2010, by Paramount Pictures. The film grossed $129 million worldwide and received largely positive reviews, with critics praising the performances; many comments regarding Bale's weight, accent, and mannerisms widely refer his performance as one of the greatest performances of the century. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning the awards for Best Supporting Actor (Bale) and Best Supporting Actress (Leo).


title: The Fighter

text: Micky Ward is an American welterweight boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts. Managed by his mother, Alice Ward, and trained by his older half-brother, Dicky Eklund, Micky became a "stepping stone" for other boxers to defeat on their way up. Dicky, a former boxer whose peak of success was going the distance with Sugar Ray Leonard in 1978, has become addicted to crack cocaine. He is being filmed for an HBO documentary he believes to be about his "comeback".


title: The Fighter

text: On the night of an undercard fight in Atlantic City, Micky's scheduled opponent Saoul Mamby is ill, and a substitute is found in Mike Mungin who is 20 pounds heavier than Micky, a huge difference in professional boxing, constituting two or three weight classes. Despite Micky's reservations, his mother and brother agree so that they can all get the purse and tell Micky that the fighter is out of shape and has ring rust. They arrive at the fight and find that the substitute fighter is actually ready for the fight and in top shape, and soundly defeats Micky. Micky retreats from the world and forms a relationship with Charlene Fleming, a former college athlete who dropped out and became a bartender.


title: The Fighter

text: After several weeks, Alice arranges another fight for Micky, but Micky is concerned it will turn out the same. His mother and seven sisters blame Charlene for his lack of motivation. Micky mentions he received an offer to be paid to train in Las Vegas, but Dicky says he will match the offer so he can keep training and working with his family. Dicky then tries to get money by posing his girlfriend as a prostitute and then, once she picks up a client, impersonating a police officer to steal the client's money. This is foiled by the actual police and Dicky is arrested after a chase and a fight with them. Micky tries to stop the police from beating his brother and a police officer brutally breaks his hand before arresting him. At their arraignment, Micky is released, but Dicky is sent to jail. Micky washes his hands of Dicky.


title: The Fighter

text: On the night of the HBO documentary's airing, Dicky's family, and Dicky himself in prison, are horrified to see that it is called "" and depicts how crack addiction ruined Dicky's career and life. Dicky begins training and trying to get his life together in prison. Micky is lured back into boxing by his father, who believes Alice and his stepson Dicky are bad influences and did more damage to his career than good. The other members of his training team and a new manager, Sal Lanano, persuade Micky to return to boxing with the explicit understanding that his mother and brother will no longer be involved. They place Micky in minor fights to help him regain his confidence. He is then offered another major fight against an undefeated up-and-coming boxer. During a prison visit, Dicky advises Micky on how best to work his opponent, but Micky feels his brother is being selfish and trying to restart his own failed career. During the actual match, Micky is nearly overwhelmed, but then implements his brother's advice and triumphs; he earns the title shot for which his opponent was being groomed.


title: The Fighter

text: Upon his release from prison, Dicky and his mother go to see Micky train. Assuming things are as they were, Dicky prepares to spar with his brother, but Micky informs him that he is no longer allowed per Micky's agreement with his current team. In the ensuing argument, in which Micky chastises both factions of his family, Charlene and his trainer leave in disgust. Micky and Dicky spar until Micky knocks Dicky down. Dicky storms off, presumably to get high again, and Alice chides Micky, only to be sobered when he tells her that she has always favored Dicky. Dicky returns to his crack house, where he says goodbye to his friends and heads to Charlene's apartment. He tells her that Micky needs both of them and they need to work together. After bringing everyone back together, the group goes to London for the title fight against welterweight champion Shea Neary. Micky scores another upset victory and the welterweight title. The film jumps a few years ahead, with Dicky crediting his brother as the creator of his own success.


title: The Fighter

text: Scout Productions acquired the life rights of boxer Micky Ward and his brother, Dick Eklund, in July 2003. Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy were also hired to write the screenplay, which was rewritten by Lewis Colick. Mark Wahlberg joined the production in early 2005, with the intention of doing Ward's life story "justice. We don't want to do any over-the-top, unrealistic fight scenes." Paramount Pictures, the United States distributor of the film, hired Paul Attanasio to rewrite Collick's draft in February 2007 in an attempt to emphasize the themes of brotherhood and redemption. Hoping to start production in Massachusetts in June 2007, Wahlberg had Martin Scorsese read the screenplay, hoping he would direct. Scorsese turned down the offer, finding the Massachusetts-setting redundant after having finished "The Departed" (2006). The actor cited Scorsese's "Raging Bull" (1980) as an influence for "The Fighter", but Scorsese was not interested in directing another boxing film. Darren Aronofsky was hired to direct in March 2007, with Scott Silver rewriting the script in September 2007. Paul Attanasio was also brought in as a script doctor to work on the film prior to shooting.


title: The Fighter

text: Production proceeded with filming set to begin October 2008 and Christian Bale replaced Brad Pitt. By then Aronofsky had dropped out to work on MGM's "RoboCop" (2014), followed by "Black Swan" (2010). Wahlberg and Bale chose David O. Russell as Aronofsky's replacement. Wahlberg had also starred in Russell's "Three Kings" (1999) and "I Heart Huckabees" (2004). Aronofsky was given an executive producer credit for his contributions on "The Fighter", and was enthusiastic to have Russell as the director. In April 2009, Relativity Media stepped up to entirely finance the film, selling the international distribution rights to The Weinstein Company a month later. "The Fighter" began principal photography on July 13, 2009, on an $11 million budget in a 33-day shooting schedule, which was half the budget that Paramount was working with. The production utilized Massachusetts' film tax credits to cover parts of the film's cost.


title: The Fighter

text: Principal photography took place on location in Ward's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. Its boxing matches were shot at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, and gym scenes at Arthur Ramalho's West End Gym, one of the real-life facilities where Ward had trained. The boxing-match footage was created "in big, choreographed sections that were taken directly from [video of] Micky's actual fights", said Russell. "And we used the actual commentary from [HBO's] Larry Merchant, Roy Jones Jr., and Jim Lampley." Russell used "[t]he actual cameras from that era. [They were] a sort of Beta [video-format] camera that gave a very certain look, and we actually hired the director from HBO and his crew who had done those fights" to replicate them shot-for-shot.


title: The Fighter

text: To promote the film, Wahlberg appeared on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" and "Men's Fitness", and Bale on "Esquire", in November 2010. An advanced charity premiere took place in Lowell, Massachusetts, the setting of "The Fighter", on December 9, a day before the film's scheduled national release.


title: The Fighter

text: "The Fighter" was released in a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack and standard DVD in the United States on March 15, 2011.


title: The Fighter

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives "The Fighter" a rating of 91% based on reviews from 253 critics, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Led by a trio of captivating performances from Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams, "The Fighter" is a solidly entertaining, albeit predictable, entry in the boxing drama genre." Metacritic gives the film an average score of 79 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Fighter

text: "Sports Illustrated" dubbed the film the best sports film of the decade, and "one of the best since Martin Scorsese backlit Robert De Niro's Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull"". Richard Corliss of "TIME Magazine" named Christian Bale's performance one of the Top 10 Movie Performances of 2010, saying "In a little festival of tart, savory performances, notably from Melissa Leo as the boys' mother and Amy Adams as Micky's girlfriend, Bale shines the brightest, because he knows that no character, however depraved his status, is only a "monster". He finds beauty in the beast".


title: The Fighter

text: "The Fighter" had grossed $93.6 million in United States & Canada and in other territories it collected $35.5 million, for a worldwide total of $129.1 million; te film made a profit over its $25 million budget.


title: The Fighter

text: The film received seven Academy Award nominations, winning two with Best Supporting Actor for Bale and Best Supporting Actress for Leo, marking the first film to win both awards since "Hannah and Her Sisters" in 1986. The film was nominated for six Golden Globe Awards: Best Picture (Drama), Best Actor (Drama) for Wahlberg, Best Supporting Actress for Leo and Adams, Best Supporting Actor for Bale, and a nomination for Best Director for Russell. The film received three Chicago Film Critics award nominations: Best Supporting Actor for Bale, and Best Supporting Actress nominations for Adams and Leo. Bale won a Satellite Award, the Critics' Choice Award, the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, and the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor. Leo won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.


title: The Fighter

text: Wahlberg has been involved in developing a sequel, "The Fighter 2", which would focus on the legendary fight trilogy between Ward and Arturo Gatti. In 2013, Jerry Ferrara signed on to play Gatti. In 2015, producer Todd Lieberman came out with a statement the sequel is far from over.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: The 2022 Ontario general election was held on June 2, 2022, to elect Members of the Provincial Parliament to serve in the 43rd Parliament of Ontario.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: The governing Progressive Conservatives, led by Premier Doug Ford, were re-elected to a second majority government, winning 7 more seats than they had won in 2018. The NDP retained their status as the Official Opposition, despite losing seats and finishing third in the popular vote, while the Ontario Liberals finished 2nd in the popular vote, but only won 8 seats, falling short of official party status. The Green Party retained the single seat they won in 2018 while the New Blue and Ontario Party failed to win a seat, both losing their lone sitting MPPs.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: The election set a record for the lowest voter turnout in an Ontario provincial election, as only 43.53% of the people who were eligible voted. This broke the previous record for low turnout of 48.2% in the 2011 election.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: As of December 2016, Ontario elections are held on or before the first Thursday in June in the fourth calendar year following the previous general election.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: In the June 2018 Ontario general election, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) led by Doug Ford won a strong majority government. The New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Andrea Horwath became the Official Opposition; this was the first time since 1990 they surpassed their third-place status. The governing Liberal Party led by Premier Kathleen Wynne was decimated, winning only 7 out of the 124 seats in the legislature and being reduced to third-place status. The Green Party won its first seat in history, with leader Mike Schreiner becoming its first Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP).


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: Wynne resigned as leader immediately after and MPP John Fraser succeeded her as interim leader; he held that post until March 2020, when Wynne's former minister of transportation, Steven Del Duca, became permanent leader of the Liberal Party. Meanwhile, Horwath and Schreiner both remained leader of their parties and had no intention of resigning.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: By December 2019, polling showed that the Ford government was as unpopular as the previous Wynne government as a result of not cutting spending enough as promised. However, the Progressive Conservatives experienced a surge of support during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic; a Mainstreet Research poll in June 2020 showed the PCs at 42 percent, the Liberals at 28 percent, and the NDP at 23 percent.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: On October 5, 2020, Ontario MPPs voted unanimously in favour of a motion stating that the government will not call an election prior to the fixed election date in 2022. Before this vote, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario could have been dissolved earlier by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario on a motion of no confidence or if the Premier triggered a snap election (the former was extremely unlikely to work against the incumbent government with a majority).


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: In April 2021, the province experienced a major third wave of COVID-19 infections, and, after quickly reversing government health policies, such as opening and then abruptly closing restaurants, the government was criticized over their handling of COVID-19. This led to the PCs' support dipping, but remaining ahead of the Liberals and NDP.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: In late April 2022 – days before the election call – the Ford government released its budget, promising to implement it if the government is reelected. The budget recorded a deficit of $19.9 billion and promised substantial spending on infrastructure (including for their proposed Highway 413) and tax breaks for some workers and seniors.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: On May 3, 2022, Premier Doug Ford met with the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario to advise dissolution of the legislature and for writs of election be drawn up.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: Despite only posting a marginal increase in the popular vote, the Progressive Conservative Party won with an increased parliamentary majority.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: PC gains came primarily at the expense of the New Democratic Party, who lost significant vote share primarily to the Liberal Party. Nevertheless, the NDP maintained their role as official opposition by a large margin. Although she won her seat, Andrea Horwath resigned as leader of the NDP.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: Despite edging out the NDP for second place in the popular vote, the Liberals only gained one seat and failed to regain official party status. After failing to win in his own riding, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca also announced his resignation as party leader.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: The only two candidates outside the three largest parties to be elected were Green Party leader Mike Schreiner and independent candidate Bobbi Ann Brady, who prior to the election was the executive assistant to the retiring PC MPP in her riding.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: Those candidates not belonging to a major party, receiving more than 1,000 votes in the election, are listed below:


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: Of the 124 seats, 26 were open because of MPPs who chose not to stand for reelection, and voters in only 14 seats changed allegiance from the previous election in 2018.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: Of the 14 seats that changed hands, seven were open seats where the MPPs chose to retire, and seven others saw their incumbents defeated.


title: 2022 Ontario general election

text: Three PC MPPs had changed allegiance during the course of the past Legislature, but failed to secure reelection under their new banners. The seats reverted to the PCs.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singer and frontwoman of the vocal group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. Following the group's name change to Labelle in the 1970s, they released the popular number-one hit "Lady Marmalade". As a result, after the group split in 1976, LaBelle began a successful solo career, starting with her critically acclaimed debut album, which included the career-defining song, "You Are My Friend". LaBelle became a mainstream solo star in 1984 following the success of the singles "If Only You Knew", "Love, Need and Want You" (later sampled for 2002's "Dilemma"), "New Attitude" and "Stir It Up". Less than two years later, in 1986, LaBelle scored a number-one album "Winner in You" and its number-one duet single, "On My Own", with Michael McDonald.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: In 1989, "Be Yourself" spawned the standard "If You Asked Me To" (later covered by Celine Dion). LaBelle won a 1992 Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her 1991 album "Burnin'", an album that featured "Somebody Loves You Baby (You Know Who It Is)", "Feels Like Another One", and "When You've Been Blessed (Feels Like Heaven)".


title: Patti LaBelle

text: LaBelle earned a second Grammy win for the live album "Live! One Night Only". Her 1990s albums "Burnin"', "Gems" (1994) and "Flame" (1997) continued her popularity with young R&B audiences throughout the decade. She reunited with her Labelle bandmates for the album "Back to Now", followed by a well-received promotional tour.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: LaBelle has also experienced success as an actress with a role in the Oscar-nominated film "A Soldier's Story", and in TV shows such as "A Different World" and "". In 1992, LaBelle starred in her own TV sitcom "Out All Night". A decade later, LaBelle hosted her own lifestyle TV show, "Living It Up with Patti LaBelle" on TV One. In 2015, LaBelle took part in the dance competition "Dancing with the Stars" at the age of 70. Labelle has also seen success launching her own brand of bedding, cookbooks, and food for various companies. In 2015 her "Patti's Sweet Potato Pie" sold millions when a YouTube video praising the product went viral. As a result, over a 72-hour period, Walmart sold one pie every second.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: In a career that has spanned seven decades, she has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. LaBelle has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame, and the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame. LaBelle was included in "Rolling Stone" on their list of 100 Greatest Singers. LaBelle is a dramatic soprano recognized for her vocal power, range and emotive delivery.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: LaBelle was born Patricia Louise Holte in the Eastwick section of Southwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was born the second youngest child of Henry (1919–1989) and Bertha (Robinson; 1916–1978) Holte's three children, and the next-to-youngest of five children overall. Her siblings were Thomas Hogan Jr. (1930-2013), Vivian Hogan (1932–1975), Barbara (1942–1982) and Jacqueline "Jackie" (1945–1989). Her father was a railroad worker and club performer and her mother was a domestic. Despite enjoying her childhood, LaBelle would later write in her memoirs, "Don't Block the Blessings", that her parents' marriage was abusive. Shortly after her parents' divorce, when LaBelle was twelve, she was sexually molested by a family friend.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: She joined a local church choir at the Beulah Baptist Church at ten and performed her first solo two years later. While she was growing up, she listened to secular music styles such as R&B and jazz music as well.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: When she was sixteen, LaBelle won a talent competition at her high school, John Bartram High School. This success led to her first singing group, the Ordettes, in 1960, with schoolmates Jean Brown, Yvonne Hogen and Johnnie Dawson. With LaBelle as front woman, the group became a local attraction until two of its members left to marry, while another was forced to quit the group by her religious father. In 1962, the Ordettes included three new members, Cindy Birdsong, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx, the latter two girls having sung for another now defunct vocal group. That year, they auditioned for local record label owner Harold Robinson. Robinson agreed to work with the group after hearing LaBelle sing the song "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman". Initially, Robinson was dismissive of LaBelle, believing her to be "too dark and too plain".


title: Patti LaBelle

text: Shortly after Robinson signed them, he had them record as the Blue Belles and they were selected to promote the recording of "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman", which had been recorded by The Starlets. It was recorded as a Blue Belles single due to label conflict. The Starlets' manager sued Harold Robinson after the Blue Belles were seen performing a lip-synching version of the song on "American Bandstand". After settling out of court, Robinson altered the group's name to "Patti LaBelle and The Blue Belles". Robinson gave Holte the name "LaBelle", which meant "the beautiful" in French. Initially, a Billboard ad cited the group as "Patti Bell and the Blue Bells". In 1963, the group scored their first hit single with the ballad "Down the Aisle" which became a crossover top 40 hit on the Billboard pop and R&B charts after King Records issued it. Later in the year, they recorded their rendition of the "You'll Never Walk Alone"; the single was later re-released on Cameo-Parkway Records where the group scored a second hit on the pop charts with the song in 1964. Another charted single, "Danny Boy", was released that same year. In 1965, after Cameo-Parkway folded, the group moved to New York and signed with Atlantic Records where they recorded twelve singles for the label, including the mildly charted singles "All or Nothing" and "Take Me for a Little While". The group's Atlantic tenure included their rendition of "Over the Rainbow" and a version of the song "Groovy Kind of Love". In 1967, Birdsong left the group to join The Supremes and by 1970 the group had been dropped from Atlantic Records as well as by their longtime manager Bernard Montague.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: That year, Vicki Wickham, producer of the UK music show "Ready, Steady, Go", agreed to manage the group after Dusty Springfield mentioned signing them. Wickham's first direction for the group was for them to change their name to simply Labelle and advised the group to renew their act, going for a more homegrown look and sound that reflected funk, rock and psychedelic soul. In 1971, the group opened for the Who in several stops on the group's U.S. tour.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: Labelle signed with Warner Bros. Records and released their self-titled debut album in 1971. The record's psychedelic soul sound and its blending of rock, funk, soul and gospel rhythms was a departure from the group's early girl-group sound. That same year, they sang background vocals on Laura Nyro's album, "Gonna Take a Miracle". A year later, in 1972, the group released "Moon Shadow", which repeated the homegrown gritty sound of the previous album. In 1973, influenced by glam rockers David Bowie and Elton John, Wickham had the group dressed in silver space suits and luminescent makeup.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: After their third successive album, "Pressure Cookin'", failed to generate a hit, Labelle signed with Epic Records in 1974, releasing their most successful album to date, with "Nightbirds", which blended soul, funk, glam and rock music, thanks to the work of the album's producer, Allen Toussaint. The proto-disco single, "Lady Marmalade", would become their biggest-selling single, going number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over a million copies, as did "Nightbirds", which later earned a RIAA gold award, for sales of a million units, which was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In October 1974, Labelle made pop history by becoming the first rock and roll vocal group to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House. Riding high on the success of "Lady Marmalade" and the "Nightbirds" album, Labelle made the cover of "Rolling Stone" in 1975.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: Labelle released two more albums, "Phoenix" and "Chameleon" in 1975 and 1976, respectively. While both albums continued the group's critical success, none of the singles issued on those albums ever crossed over to the pop charts. By 1976, Patti, Nona and Sarah began arguing over the group's musical direction. Personal difficulties came to a head during a show on December 16, 1976, in Baltimore, Maryland, where Hendryx went backstage and injured herself during a nervous breakdown. Following the incident, LaBelle advised that the group separate.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: Signing a solo contract with Epic Records in 1977, LaBelle recruited David Rubinson, producer of "Chameleon", to record her self-titled debut album, which was released that year. The album was noted for the disco hits, "Joy to Have Your Love" and "Dan Swit Me" and the gospel ballad, "You Are My Friend", the latter song becoming her first career-defining single despite its low entry on the R&B chart. Three more albums were released in succession on Epic through 1980, with the songs "Eyes in the Back of My Head", "Little Girls", "Music is My Way of Life", "Come What May", "Release (The Tension)" and "I Don't Go Shopping" (the latter song co-written by Peter Allen) being the most successful.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: After four albums on Epic, LaBelle signed with Philadelphia International Records where she recorded a notable version of "Over the Rainbow" on the album "The Spirit's in It". In 1982, she was featured on the Grover Washington duet "The Best Is Yet to Come", and earned accolades that year for starring in the Broadway musical "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God". "The Best Is Yet to Come" later earned LaBelle her first Grammy Award nomination. In 1983, LaBelle released her breakthrough album "I'm in Love Again" which included her first top ten R&B singles, with "Love, Need and Want You" and "If Only You Knew", the latter song also becoming her first number-one single as a solo artist in early 1984. Later in 1984, she scored another hit with Bobby Womack on the song "Love Has Finally Come at Last" and appeared as a club singer in the film "A Soldier's Story".


title: Patti LaBelle

text: In 1984, LaBelle recorded the songs "New Attitude" and "Stir It Up" for the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy film, "Beverly Hills Cop". Following the release of the film, "New Attitude" was released as a single in late 1984 and became LaBelle's first crossover solo hit, reaching number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming a signature song. "Stir It Up" found similar success on pop radio and as a staple in dance clubs. In 1985, LaBelle performed on the TV special, "Motown Returns to Apollo" and also as part of the all-star benefit concert, "Live Aid". LaBelle's notoriety from performing on these two specials made her a pop star and led to having her own television special later that same year. Also in the same year, a video of a performance from her tour of that year was issued on VHS. During this period, LaBelle ended her contractual obligations to Philadelphia International and signed with MCA Records.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: LaBelle shared a stage with Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick for the 1986 HBO special "Sisters in the Name of Love". During the same year LaBelle released her best-selling solo album "Winner in You", which reached number one on the pop charts. The album included the international number-one hit, "On My Own" and the hit ballad "Oh People". The success of "Winner in You" would prove to be the peak of her solo success, though she continued her acclaim with the 1989 release of "Be Yourself", which featured "Yo Mister" and the hit ballad "If You Asked Me To", which found bigger success in a remake by singer Celine Dion. In the year of that album's release, LaBelle began a successful stint in a recurring role on "A Different World", the success of which spawned a brief sitcom of her own, titled "Out All Night", which only lasted a season. In 1991, she recorded a hit duet version of the Babyface composition, "Superwoman" with Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick. In the same year, LaBelle released the solo album, "Burnin'", which went gold, with three successive top five singles on the R&B charts. This success led to LaBelle winning her first Grammy Award in the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category in the 34th Annual Grammy Award Ceremony of 1992, sharing the win with singer Lisa Fischer, who won for her hit ballad, "How Can I Ease the Pain", in a rare tie in the history of the Grammys.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: LaBelle's 1994 album, "Gems", also went gold and featured the hit, "The Right Kinda Lover". On January 29, 1995, LaBelle performed at the Super Bowl XXIX halftime show, held at the Joe Robbie Stadium (which later became Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami, Florida with Tony Bennett, Arturo Sandoval and Miami Sound Machine. LaBelle released the album, "Flame", which included the dance hit, "When You Talk About Love". LaBelle released her best-selling memoirs, "Don't Block the Blessings", in 1996, and released the first of five best-selling cookbooks in 1997. In 1998, she released the live album, "Live! One Night Only", later resulting in a second Grammy win the following February. It remains her most recent Grammy win. In 2000, LaBelle released her final MCA album, "When a Woman Loves", before signing with Def Soul Classics to release the 2004 album, "Timeless Journey". During the promotional run of the album, she headlined "VH1 Divas" for the first time, alongside artists like Debbie Harry and Jessica Simpson and good friends Knight and Cyndi Lauper. Following the release of her 2005 covers album, "Classic Moments", LaBelle engaged in a rivalry with Antonio "L.A." Reid over the direction of her career, leading to her leaving the label. In the same year, the World Music Awards recognized her years in the music business by awarding her the Legend Award. In 2006, she released her first gospel album, "The Gospel According to Patti LaBelle" on the Bungalo label, the album later peaking at number one on Billboard's gospel chart. LaBelle also released the book, "Patti's Pearls", during this period. She returned to Def Jam in 2007 and released her second holiday album, "Miss Patti's Christmas". In 2008, LaBelle briefly reunited with Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash as Labelle on the group's first new album in more than 30 years, "Back to Now".


title: Patti LaBelle

text: On September 14, 2010, LaBelle made a return two decades after her last Broadway performance to star in the award-winning musical "Fela!" about Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. LaBelle replaced Tony Award-nominee Lillias White as Fela's mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, and performed with the production through the end of its run on January 2, 2011.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: On May 23, 2011, LaBelle appeared on "Oprah's Farewell Spectacular, Part 1" the first show in a series of three shows constituting the finale of "The Oprah Winfrey Show", singing "Over the Rainbow" with Josh Groban. LaBelle was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards on June 26, 2011. LaBelle and Aretha Franklin, among others, performed at the "Women of Soul: In Performance at the White House" concert hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House, recorded on March 6, 2014.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: On June 10, 2014, LaBelle returned to Broadway as the cast and creative team of the Tony Award-nominated smash hit Broadway musical "After Midnight", welcomed her as "Special Guest Star". In August 2014, it was announced that LaBelle would appear in a guest role on the upcoming fourth season of the FX horror anthology television series "American Horror Story", subtitled "".


title: Patti LaBelle

text: On February 24, 2015, LaBelle was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on the 20th season of "Dancing with the Stars". She partnered with professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev. The couple was eliminated on Week 6 and finished in eighth place. LaBelle has consistently toured the United States selling out shows in various markets. In 2012 and 2014 she appeared with Frankie Beverly & Maze on cross-country USA tours. In 2015 LaBelle made a guest appearance on Fox's television series "Empire" as herself.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: She returned to the "VH1 Divas" stage in 2016, headlining a alongside Chaka Khan, Vanessa Williams, and her goddaughter Mariah Carey. Her first jazz album, "Bel Hommage", was released in 2017.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: On July 2, 2019, LaBelle was honored in Philadelphia with her very own street name "Patti LaBelle Way" between Locust and Spruce Street.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: On November 20, 2019, LaBelle was revealed to have competed on the second season of "The Masked Singer" as "Flower".


title: Patti LaBelle

text: On December 10, 2022, Labelle's Christmas concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was disrupted when a bomb threat resulted in evacuation of the venue.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: LaBelle dropped out of Philadelphia's John Bartram High School just a semester before graduating in 1962. LaBelle returned to the school in her mid-thirties and later earned her diploma.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: LaBelle wrote that she was sexually assaulted by Jackie Wilson while at the Brevoort Theatre at Brooklyn in the 1960s. Around 1964, LaBelle was engaged to Otis Williams, founding member of The Temptations. The engagement lasted a year before Patti broke it off after fearing Williams would force her to move to Detroit and retire from the road.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: On July 23, 1969, LaBelle married a longtime friend, Armstead Edwards, who was a schoolteacher. After LaBelle started her solo career, Edwards became her manager, a position he would remain in until 2000. That year, LaBelle announced that she and Edwards had legally separated, with their divorce finalized in 2003. They have a son, Zuri Kye Edwards (born July 17, 1973), who is now her manager. Following Zuri's birth, LaBelle suffered from postpartum depression for a year and said singer-songwriter Laura Nyro helped the singer to cope with it helping to take care of Zuri until she eventually got over it. Through Zuri (whose name means "good" in Swahili), LaBelle is a grandmother of two girls and one boy.


title: Patti LaBelle

text: Members of LaBelle's family died at young ages. Her mother Bertha died in October 1978 from diabetes at the age of 62. Her father, Henry Holte Jr., died of complications from emphysema and Alzheimer's disease in October 1989 at the age of 70.