title: François Mitterrand

text: The Socialists continued the policies of their predecessors with the Grand Louvre project and the opening of the Picasso Museum at the Hotel Sale, while the museum budget was quadrupled and particular sums were set aside for the first time for large regional projects including the establishment of a number of new museums in the provinces such as the Ecomuseum at Chartres and the Museum of Prehistory at Carnac. A Fonds Regional des Acquisitions was established to assist provincial museums in the purchase of works of art, while the state actively continued an existing policy of encouraging bequests in lieu of death duties.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Libraries and publishing benefited from new thinking and an injection of funds, while aid to authors and publishers was restructured and book prices were fixed once again, with the objective being to assist smaller publishing houses and specialist bookshops. The network of regional lending libraries was significantly reinforced, while financial assistance was provided for the export of French books. In addition, archaeology, ethnography and historical buildings and monuments all benefited from the general increase in resources.


title: François Mitterrand

text: The Left lost the 1983 municipal elections and the 1984 European Parliament election. At the same time, the Savary Bill, to limit the financing of private schools by local communities, caused a political crisis. It was abandoned and Mauroy resigned in July 1984. Laurent Fabius succeeded him, and the Communists left the cabinet.


title: François Mitterrand

text: In terms of foreign policy, François Mitterrand did not significantly deviate from his predecessors and he continued nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific in spite of protests from various peace and environmentalist organizations. In 1985, French agents sank the Greenpeace-owned ex-trawler "Rainbow Warrior" while it was docked in Auckland, New Zealand which the group had used in demonstrations against nuclear tests, whaling, and seal hunting. One Greenpeace member was killed, and when news broke of the event, a major scandal erupted that led to the resignation of Defense Minister Charles Hernu. France subsequently paid reparations of 1.8 million USD to Greenpeace.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Before the 1986 legislative campaign, proportional representation was instituted in accordance with the 110 Propositions. It did not prevent, however, the victory of the Rally for the Republic/Union for French Democracy (RPR/UDF) coalition. François Mitterrand thus named the RPR leader Jacques Chirac as Prime Minister. This period of government, with a President and a Prime Minister who came from two opposite coalitions, was the first time that such a combination had occurred under the Fifth Republic, and came to be known as "Cohabitation".


title: François Mitterrand

text: Chirac mostly handled domestic policy while François Mitterrand concentrated on his "reserved domain" of foreign affairs and defence. However, several conflicts erupted between the two. In one example, François Mitterrand refused to sign executive decrees of liberalisation, obliging Chirac to pass the measures through parliament instead. François Mitterrand also reportedly gave covert support to some social movements, notably the student revolt against the university reform (Devaquet Bill). Benefiting from the difficulties of Chirac's cabinet, the President's popularity increased.


title: François Mitterrand

text: With the polls running in his favour, François Mitterrand announced his candidacy in the 1988 presidential election. He proposed a moderate programme (promising "neither nationalisations nor liberalisation") and advocated a "united France," and laid out his policy priorities in his "Letter to the French People." He obtained 34% of the votes in the first round, then faced Chirac in the second, and was re-elected with 54% of the votes. François Mitterrand thus became the first President to be elected twice by universal suffrage.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Following his re-election, he named Michel Rocard as Prime Minister, in spite of their poor relations. Rocard led the moderate wing of the PS and he was the most popular of the Socialist politicians. François Mitterrand decided to organize a new legislative election. The PS obtained a relative parliamentary majority. Four centre-right politicians joined the cabinet.


title: François Mitterrand

text: The second term was marked by the creation of the Insertion Minimum Revenue (RMI), which ensured a minimum level of income to those deprived of any other form of income; the restoring of the solidarity tax on wealth, which had been abolished by Chirac's cabinet; the institution of the Generalized social tax; the extension of parental leave up to the child's third birthday; the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy; the 1990 Gayssot Act on hate speech and Holocaust denial; the Besson law of 1990; the Mermaz Law of 1989;, the introduction of a private childcare allowance; the Urban Orientation Law of 1991; the Arpaillange Act on the financing of political parties; the reform of the penal code; the Matignon Agreements concerning New Caledonia; the Evin Act on smoking in public places; the extension of the age limit for family allowances to 18 years in 1990; and the 1989 Education Act which, amongst other measures, obliged local authorities to educate all children with disabilities. Several large architectural works were pursued, in what would become known as the Grands Projets of François Mitterrand with the building of the Louvre Pyramid, the Channel Tunnel, the Grande Arche at La Défense, the Bastille Opera, the Finance Ministry in Bercy, and the National Library of France. On 16 February 1993, President François Mitterrand inaugurated in Fréjus a memorial to the wars in Indochina.


title: François Mitterrand

text: But the second term was also marked by rivalries within the PS and the split of the "Mitterrandist" group (at the Rennes Congress, where supporters of Laurent Fabius and Lionel Jospin clashed bitterly for control of the party), the scandals about the financing of the party, the contaminated blood scandal which implicated Laurent Fabius and former ministers Georgina Dufoix and Emond Hervé, and the Elysée wiretaps affairs.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Disappointed with Rocard's apparent failure to enact the Socialists' programme, François Mitterrand dismissed Michel Rocard in 1991 and appointed Édith Cresson to replace him. She was the first woman to become Prime Minister in France, but proved a costly mistake due to her tendency for making acerbic and racist public remarks. After the Socialists experienced heavy losses in the 1992 regional elections, Cresson resigned from office. Her successor Pierre Bérégovoy promised to fight unemployment and corruption but he could not prevent the catastrophic defeat of the left in the 1993 legislative election. The Socialist Party suffered a crushing defeat with the right-wing parties winning 485 seats to the left's 95. He killed himself on 1 May 1993.


title: François Mitterrand

text: François Mitterrand named the former RPR Finance Minister Edouard Balladur as Prime Minister. The second "cohabitation" was less contentious than the first, because the two men knew they were not rivals for the next presidential election. By this point, François Mitterrand was nearly 80 years old and suffering from cancer in addition to the shock of his friend François de Grossouvre's suicide. His second and last term ended after the 1995 presidential election in May 1995 with the election of Jacques Chirac. Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin lost the presidential election.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Overall, as President, François Mitterrand maintained the "basic characteristic of a strong welfare base underpinned by a strong state." A United Nations Human Development report concluded that, from 1979 to 1989, France was the only country in the OECD (apart from Portugal) in which income inequalities did not get worse. During his second term as president, however, the gap between rich and poor widened in France, with both unemployment and poverty rising in the awake of the economic recession of 1991–1993. According to other studies, though, the percentage of the French population living in poverty (based on various criteria) fell between the mid-Eighties and the mid-Nineties.


title: François Mitterrand

text: According to Wayne Northcutt, certain domestic circumstances helped shape Mitterrand's foreign policy in four ways: he needed to maintain a political consensus; he kept an eye on economic conditions; he believed in the nationalistic imperative for French policy; and he tried to exploit Gaullism and its heritage that is on political advantage.


title: François Mitterrand

text: François Mitterrand supported closer European collaboration and the preservation of France's unique relationship with its former colonies, which he feared were falling under "Anglo-Saxon influence." His drive to preserve French power in Africa led to controversies concerning Paris' role during the Rwandan genocide.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Despite François Mitterrand's left-wing affiliations, the 1980s saw France becoming more distant from the USSR, especially following events such as the expulsion of 47 Soviet diplomats and their families from the country in 1982 after they were accused of large-scale industrial and military espionage. François Mitterrand also sharply criticized the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan as well as the country's nuclear weapons buildup. When François Mitterrand visited the USSR in November 1988, the Soviet media claimed to be 'leaving aside the virtually wasted decade and the loss of the Soviet-French 'special relationship' of the Gaullist era'.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Nevertheless, François Mitterrand was worried by the rapidity of the Eastern bloc's collapse. He was opposed to German reunification but came to see it as unavoidable. He was opposed to the swift recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, which he thought would lead to the violent implosion of Yugoslavia.


title: François Mitterrand

text: He initially opposed further membership, fearing the Community was not ready and it would water it down to a free trade area.


title: François Mitterrand

text: François Mitterrand supported the enlargement of the Community to include Spain and Portugal (which both joined in January 1986). In February 1986 he helped the "Single European Act" come into effect. He worked well with his friend Helmut Kohl and improved Franco-German relations significantly. Together they fathered the Maastricht Treaty, which was signed on 7 February 1992. It was ratified by referendum, approved by just over 51% of the voters.


title: François Mitterrand

text: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was against a German reunification and also against the then discussed Maastricht Treaty.


title: François Mitterrand

text: When Helmut Kohl, then West German Chancellor, asked François Mitterrand to agree to reunification (France was one of the four Allies who had to agree to the Two Plus Four-treaty), François Mitterrand told Kohl he accepted it only in the event Germany would abandon the Deutsche Mark and adopt the Euro. Kohl accepted this package deal (including without talking to Karl Otto Pöhl, then President of the Bundesbank).


title: François Mitterrand

text: That year, he also established the Mitterrand doctrine, a policy of not extraditing convicted far-left terrorists of the years of lead such as Cesare Battisti to Italy, due to the alleged non-conformity of Italian legislation to European standards of rule of law, in particular the anti-terrorism laws passed by Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. When the European Court of Human Rights finally ruled against the François Mitterrand doctrine, the policy had already led to most of the criminals never being punished for their crimes.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Responding to a democratic movement in Africa after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, he made his La Baule speech in June 1990 which tied development aid to democratic efforts from former French colonies, and during which he opposed the devaluation of the CFA Franc. Seeing an "East wind" blowing in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, he stated that a "Southern wind" was also blowing in Africa, and that state leaders had to respond to the populations' wishes and aspirations by a "democratic opening", which included a representative system, free elections, multipartyism, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, and abolition of censorship. Claiming that France was the country making the most important effort concerning development aid, he announced that the least developed countries (LDCs) would henceforth receive only grants from France, as opposed to loans (in order to combat the massive increase of Third World debt during the 1980s). He likewise limited the interest rate to 5% on French loans to intermediate-income countries (that is, Ivory Coast, Congo, Cameroon and Gabon).


title: François Mitterrand

text: He also criticized interventionism in sovereign matters, which was according to him only another form of "colonialism". However, according to François Mitterrand, this did not imply lessened concern on the part of Paris for its former colonies. François Mitterrand thus continued with the African policy of de Gaulle inaugurated in 1960, which followed the relative failure of the 1958 creation of the French Community. All in all, François Mitterrand's La Baule speech, which marked a relative turning point in France's policy concerning its former colonies, has been compared with the 1956 "loi-cadre Defferre" which was responding to anti-colonialist feelings.


title: François Mitterrand

text: African heads of state themselves reacted to François Mitterrand's speech at most with indifference. Omar Bongo, President of Gabon, declared that he would rather have "events counsel him;" Abdou Diouf, President of Senegal, said that, according to him, the best solution was a "strong government" and a "good faith opposition;" the President of Chad, Hissène Habré (nicknamed the "African Pinochet") claimed that it was contradictory to demand that African states should simultaneously carry on a "democratic policy" and "social and economic policies which limited their sovereignty", in a clear allusion to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank's "structural adjustment programs". Hassan II, the king of Morocco, said for his part that "Africa was too open to the world to remain indifferent to what was happening around it", but that Western countries should "help young democracies open out, without putting a knife under their throat, without a brutal transition to multipartyism."


title: François Mitterrand

text: All in all, the La Baule speech has been said to be on one hand "one of the foundations of political renewal in Africa French speaking area", and on the other hand "cooperation with France", this despite "incoherence and inconsistency, like any public policy".


title: François Mitterrand

text: Controversy surrounding the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was intense after American researcher Robert Gallo and French scientist Luc Montagnier both claimed to have discovered it. The two scientists had given the new virus different names. The controversy was eventually settled by an agreement (helped along by the mediation of Dr Jonas Salk) between President Ronald Reagan and François Mitterrand which gave equal credit to both men and their teams.


title: François Mitterrand

text: In October 1985, to commemorate the tricentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, François Mitterrand gave a formal apology to the descendants of Huguenots around the world. At the same time, a special postage stamp was released in their honour. The stamp states that France "is" the home of the Huguenots ("Accueil des Huguenots"). Hence their rights were finally recognised.


title: François Mitterrand

text: On 2 February 1993, in his capacity as co-prince of Andorra, François Mitterrand and Joan Martí Alanis, who was Bishop of Urgell and therefore Andorra's other co-prince, signed Andorra's new constitution, which was later approved by referendum in the principality.


title: François Mitterrand

text: François Mitterrand died in Paris on 8 January 1996 at the age of 79 from prostate cancer, a condition he and his doctors had concealed for most of his presidency (see section on "Medical secrecy" below). A few days before his death, he was joined by family members and close friends for a "last meal" that attracted controversy because, in addition to other gourmet dishes, it included the serving of roast ortolan bunting, a small wild songbird that is a protected species whose sale was and remains illegal in France.


title: François Mitterrand

text: The day of the funeral was declared a national day of mourning. A requiem mass was held at Notre-Dame cathedrale Paris celebrated by Cardinal Lustiger in the presence of UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, EU President Jacques Santer and representatives from 171 countries. 61 heads of state were presented.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Following his death, a controversy erupted when his former physician, Dr Claude Gubler, wrote a book called "Le Grand Secret" ("The Grand Secret") explaining that François Mitterrand had false health reports published since November 1981, hiding his cancer. François Mitterrand's family then prosecuted Gubler and his publisher for violating medical confidentiality.


title: François Mitterrand

text: The Urba consultancy was established in 1971 by the Socialist Party to advise Socialist-led communes on infrastructure projects and public works. The Urba affair became public in 1989 when two police officers investigating the Marseille regional office of Urba discovered detailed minutes of the organisation's contracts and division of proceeds between the party and elected officials. Although the minutes proved a direct link between Urba and graft activity, an edict from the office of François Mitterrand, himself listed as a recipient, prevented further investigation. The François Mitterrand election campaign of 1988 was directed by Henri Nallet, who then became Justice Minister and therefore in charge of the investigation at national level. In 1990 François Mitterrand declared an amnesty for those under investigation, thus ending the affair. Socialist Party treasurer Henri Emmanuelli was tried in 1997 for corruption offences, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence.


title: François Mitterrand

text: From 1982 to 1986, François Mitterrand established an "anti-terror cell" installed as a service of the President of the Republic. This was an unusual set-up, since such law enforcement missions against terrorism are normally left to the National Police and "Gendarmerie", run under the cabinet and the Prime Minister, and under the supervision of the judiciary. The cell was largely staffed by members of these services, but it bypassed the normal line of command and safeguards. 3000 conversations concerning 150 people (7 for reasons judged to be contestable by the ensuing court process) were recorded between January 1983 and March 1986 by this anti terrorist cell at the Elysée Palace. In one of its first actions, the cell was involved in the "Irish of Vincennes" affair, in which it appeared that members of the cell had planted weapons and explosives in the Vincennes apartment of three Irish nationals who were arrested on terrorism charges. Most markedly, it appears that the cell, under illegal presidential orders, obtained wiretaps on journalists, politicians and other personalities who may have been an impediment for François Mitterrand's personal life. The illegal wiretapping was revealed in 1993 by "Libération"; the case against members of the cell went to trial in November 2004.


title: François Mitterrand

text: It took 20 years for the 'affaire' to come before the courts because the instructing judge Jean-Paul Vallat was at first thwarted by the 'affaire' being classed a defence secret, but in December 1999 la Commission consultative du secret de la défense nationale declassified part of the files concerned. The Judge finished his investigation in 2000, but it still took another four years before coming on 15 November 2004 before the 16th chamber of the "Tribunal correctionnel de Paris". 12 people were charged with "atteinte à la vie privée" (breach of privacy) and one with selling computer files. 7 were given suspended sentences and fines and 4 were found not guilty.


title: François Mitterrand

text: The affair finally ended before the "Tribunal correctionnel de Paris" with the court's judgement on 9 November 2005. 7 members of the President's anti-terrorist unit were condemned and François Mitterrand was designated as the "inspirator and essentially the controller of the operation."


title: François Mitterrand

text: The court's judgement revealed that François Mitterrand was motivated by keeping elements of his private life secret from the general public, such as the existence of his illegitimate daughter Mazarine Pingeot (which the writer Jean-Edern Hallier, was threatening to reveal), his cancer which had been diagnosed in 1981, and the elements of his past in the Vichy Régime which were not already public knowledge. The court judged that certain people were tapped for "obscure" reasons, such as Carole Bouquet's companion, a lawyer with family in the Middle East, Edwy Plenel, a journalist for "le Monde" who covered the "Rainbow Warrior" story and the Vincennes Three affair, and the lawyer Antoine Comte. The court declared "Les faits avaient été commis sur ordre soit du président de la République, soit des ministres de la Défense successifs qui ont mis à la disposition de (Christian Prouteau) tous les moyens de l'État afin de les exécuter" (translation: these actions were committed following orders from the French President or his various Defence Ministers who gave Christian Prouteau full access to the state machinery so he could execute the orders) The court stated that François Mitterrand was the principal instigator of the wire taps (l'inspirateur et le décideur de l'essentiel) and that he had ordered some of the taps and turned a blind eye to others and that none of the 3000 wiretaps carried out by the cell were legally obtained.


title: François Mitterrand

text: On 13 March 2007 the Court of Appeal in Paris awarded a symbolic €1 in damages to the actress Carole Bouquet and €5000 to Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Michel Beau for breach of privacy.


title: François Mitterrand

text: The case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights, which gave judgement on 7 June 2007 that the rights of free expression of the journalists involved in the case were not respected.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Paris assisted Rwanda's president Juvénal Habyarimana, who was assassinated on 6 April 1994 while travelling in a Dassault Falcon 50 given to him as a personal gift of François Mitterrand. Through the offices of the 'Cellule Africaine', a Presidential office headed by François Mitterrand's son, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, he provided the Hutu regime with financial and military support in the early 1990s. With French assistance, the Rwandan army grew from a force of 9,000 men in October 1990 to 28,000 in 1991. France also provided training staff, experts and massive quantities of weaponry and facilitated arms contracts with Egypt and South Africa. It also financed, armed and trained Habyrimana's Presidential Guard. French troops were deployed under Opération Turquoise, a military operation carried out under a United Nations (UN) mandate. The operation is currently the object of political and historical debate.


title: François Mitterrand

text: On 10 July 1985, the "Rainbow Warrior", a Greenpeace vessel, was in New Zealand preparing to protest against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific when two explosions sank the ship, resulting in the death of freelance photographer Fernando Pereira. The New Zealand government called the bombing the first terrorist attack in the country. In mid-1985, French Defence Minister Charles Hernu was forced to resign after New Zealand authorities arrested DGSE (French intelligence services) agents who confessed to planting the explosives and later pleaded guilty.


title: François Mitterrand

text: On the twentieth anniversary of the sinking, it was revealed that François Mitterrand had personally authorised the mission. Admiral Pierre Lacoste, the former head of the DGSE, made a statement saying Pereira's death weighed heavily on his conscience. Television New Zealand (TVNZ) also sought access to the court video recording hearing where two French agents pleaded guilty, which they .


title: François Mitterrand

text: Member of the National Assembly of France for Nièvre: 1946–1958 / 1962–1981 (resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1981). Elected in 1946, reelected in 1951, 1956, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1973, 1978.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Senator of Nièvre: 1959–1962 (resignation, reelected member of the National Assembly of France in 1962). Elected in 1959.


title: François Mitterrand

text: President of the General Council of Nièvre: 1964–1981 (resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1981). Reelected in 1967, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Mayor of Château-Chinon (Ville): 1959–1981 (resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1981). Reelected in 1965, 1971, 1977.


title: François Mitterrand

text: Municipal councillor of Château-Chinon (Ville): 1959–1981 (resignation). Reelected in 1965, 1971, 1977.


title: François Mitterrand

text: First Secretary (leader) of the Socialist Party: 1971–1981 (resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1981). Reelected in 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Eliyahu Ben-Shaul Cohen (, ; 6 December 1924 – 18 May 1965), commonly known as Eli Cohen, was an Egyptian-born Israeli spy. He is best known for his espionage work in 1961–65 in Syria, where he developed close relationships with the Syrian political and military hierarchy.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Syrian counterintelligence eventually uncovered the spy conspiracy and convicted Cohen under pre-war martial law, sentencing him to death and hanging him publicly in 1965.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Cohen was born in 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt to a devout Mizrahi Jewish and Zionist family. His father had moved there from Aleppo in 1914. He studied at Cairo Farouk University.


title: Eli Cohen

text: His parents and three brothers left for Israel in 1949, but he remained to finish a degree in electronics and coordinate Jewish and Zionist activities. Prior to the 1952 Egyptian Revolution, Cohen was arrested and interrogated over his Zionist activities. He took part in various Israeli covert operations in the country during the 1950s, although the Egyptian government could never prove his involvement in Operation Goshen, an Israeli operation to smuggle Egyptian Jews out of the country and resettle them in Israel due to increasing hostility in Egypt.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Israel's secret police recruited a sabotage unit of Jewish Egyptian citizens in 1955 which attempted to undermine Egypt's relationships with western powers in the "Lavon Affair". The unit bombed unoccupied American and British installations, expecting that this would be considered the work of Egyptians. Egyptian authorities uncovered the spy ring and sentenced two of the members to death. Cohen had aided the unit and was implicated, but they found no link between him and the perpetrators.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Following state-sponsored anti-Semitic attacks on its Jewish communities, many of them fled or were expelled, and Cohen was forced to leave the country in December 1956. He emigrated to Israel with the assistance of the Jewish Agency. The Israel Defense Forces recruited him in 1957 and placed him in military intelligence, where he became a counter-intelligence analyst. His work bored him and he attempted to join the Mossad, but he was offended when the Mossad rejected him, and he resigned from military counter-intelligence. For the next two years, he worked as a filing clerk in a Tel Aviv insurance office.


title: Eli Cohen

text: In 1959, he married Nadia Majald, born circa 1935, an Iraqi-Jewish immigrant and the sister of author Sami Michael. They had three children—Sophie, Irit, and Shai—and the family settled in Bat Yam.


title: Eli Cohen

text: The Mossad recruited Cohen after Director-General Meir Amit, looking for a special agent to infiltrate the Syrian government, came across his name while looking through the agency's files of rejected candidates, after none of the current candidates seemed suitable for the job. For two weeks Cohen was put under surveillance and was judged suitable for recruitment and training. Cohen was then informed that Mossad had decided to recruit him and underwent an intensive six-month course at the Mossad training school. His graduate report stated that he had all the qualities needed to become a "katsa", or field agent.


title: Eli Cohen

text: He was then given a false identity as a Syrian businessman who was returning to the country after living in Argentina. To establish his cover, Cohen moved to Buenos Aires in 1961. In Buenos Aires he moved among the Arab community, letting it be known he had large amounts of money to put at the disposal of the Syrian Ba'ath Party. At this time the Ba'ath Party was illegal in Syria but the party seized power in 1963.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Cohen moved to Damascus in February 1962 under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet (). Mossad had carefully planned the tactics that he was to use in building relationships with high-ranking Syrian politicians, military officials, influential public figures, and the diplomatic community.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Cohen continued his social life as he had in Argentina, spending time in cafes listening to political gossip. He also held parties at his home for high-placed Syrian ministers, businessmen, and others. At these parties, Cohen "dispensed free-flowing liquor and prostitutes", and highly placed officials would openly discuss their work and army plans. Cohen would pretend to be drunk to encourage such conversations, to which he paid close attention. He would also lend money to government officials, and many came to him for advice.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Cohen provided an extensive amount and wide range of intelligence data for the Israeli Army between 1961 and 1965. He sent intelligence to Israel by radio, secret letters, and occasionally in person; he secretly traveled to Israel three times. His most famous achievement was the tour of the Golan Heights in which he collected intelligence on the Syrian fortifications there. According to an unconfirmed but widely believed story, he feigned sympathy for the soldiers exposed to the sun and had trees planted at every position, placed to provide shade. The Israel Defense Forces were alleged to have used the trees as targeting markers during the Six-Day War, which enabled Israel to capture the Golan Heights in two days.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Cohen made repeated visits to the southern frontier zone, providing photographs and sketches of Syrian positions. He also learned of a secret plan to create three successive lines of bunkers and mortars; the Israel Defense Forces would otherwise have expected to encounter only a single line. Cohen was able to find out that the Syrians planned to divert the Jordan River headwaters in an attempt to deprive Israel of water resources, providing information to Israeli forces .


title: Eli Cohen

text: It is claimed that the intelligence that Cohen gathered before his arrest was an important factor in Israel's success in the Six-Day War, although some intelligence experts have argued that the information he provided about the Golan Heights fortifications was also readily available from ground and aerial reconnaissance.


title: Eli Cohen

text: A 2018 article published in "Newsweek" by Ronen Bergman excerpted from Bergman's book "Rise and Kill First", says that Eli Cohen located Alois Brunner, a Nazi scientist suspected of living in Syria, and relayed the information to an Israel intelligence unit that later sent letter bombs to Brunner.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Following the 1963 Syrian coup d'état, newly appointed Syrian Intelligence Colonel Ahmed Suidani disliked Cohen and did not trust figures close to the Second Syrian Republic. Cohen expressed fear of discovery to the Mossad on his last secret visit to Israel in November 1964, and he stated that he wished to terminate his assignment in Syria. The purposes of that visit were to pass on intelligence and to enable him to witness the birth of his third child. Despite this, however, Israeli intelligence asked him to return to Syria one more time. Before leaving, Cohen assured his wife it would be his last trip before he returned home permanently.


title: Eli Cohen

text: In January 1965, Syrian officials, who used Soviet-made tracking equipment and were assisted by Soviet experts, increased their efforts to find a high-level spy. They observed a period of radio silence, in the hope that any illegal transmissions could be identified. They successfully detected radio transmissions and were able to triangulate the transmitter. Syrian security services led by Suidani broke into Cohen's apartment on 24 January and caught him in the middle of a transmission to Israel.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Cohen was found guilty of espionage by a military tribunal and sentenced to death under martial law. He had been repeatedly interrogated and tortured.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Israel staged an international campaign for clemency, hoping to persuade the Syrians not to execute him. Israeli foreign minister Golda Meir led a campaign urging Damascus to consider the consequences of hanging him. Diplomats, prime ministers, parliamentarians, and Pope Paul VI tried to intercede. Meir even appealed to the Soviet Union. The governments of Belgium, Canada, and France tried to persuade the Syrian government to commute the death sentence, but the Syrians refused. Nadia Cohen attempted to appeal for clemency at the Syrian Embassy in Paris but was turned away. Cohen wrote in his final letter on 15 May 1965:


title: Eli Cohen

text: I am begging you my dear Nadia not to spend your time in weeping about some thing already passed. Concentrate on yourself, looking forward for a better future!


title: Eli Cohen

text: Cohen was publicly hanged in the Marjeh Square in Damascus on 18 May 1965. The execution was recorded on 35mm film. On the day of his execution, his last wish to see a rabbi was respected by the prison authorities, and Nissim Indibo, the elderly Chief Rabbi of Syria, accompanied him in the truck. He was also allowed to write a final letter to his wife.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Syria refused to return Cohen's body to his family in Israel, and his wife Nadia sent a letter to Amin al-Hafiz in November 1965 asking his forgiveness for Cohen's actions and requesting his remains. In February 2007, the Turkish government offered to act as a mediator for their return.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Monthir Maosily, the former bureau chief of Hafez Al-Assad, claimed in August 2008 that the Syrians had buried him three times to stop the remains from being taken back to Israel via a special operation. Syrian authorities have repeatedly denied family requests for the remains. Cohen's brothers Abraham and Maurice led a campaign to return his remains; Maurice died in 2006, and Nadia now leads it.


title: Eli Cohen

text: In 2016, a Syrian group calling itself "Syrian art treasures" posted a video on Facebook showing Cohen's body after his execution. No film or video was previously known to exist of the execution. The press announced on 5 July 2018 that Cohen's wristwatch had been retrieved from Syria. His widow mentioned that the watch was up for sale months earlier, and Mossad managed to capture it. Mossad director Yossi Cohen presented it to Cohen's family in a ceremony, and it is currently on display at Mossad headquarters.


title: Eli Cohen

text: Cohen has become a national hero in Israel, and many streets and neighborhoods have been named for him. Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann, Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur, and several Mossad operatives all attended his son's Bar Mitzvah in 1977. A memorial stone has been erected to Cohen in the Garden of the Missing Soldiers in Mount Herzl, Jerusalem.


title: Eli Cohen

text: John Shea played Cohen in the television film "The Impossible Spy" (1987), and Sacha Baron Cohen played him in the Netflix miniseries "The Spy" (2019).


title: Ed Westwick

text: Edward Jack Peter Westwick (born 27 June 1987) is an English actor and musician best known for his role as Chuck Bass on The CW's "Gossip Girl" as well as Vincent Swan in the TV series "White Gold". He made his feature film debut in "Children of Men" (2006) and has since appeared in the films "Breaking and Entering" (2006), "Son of Rambow" (2007), "S. Darko" (2009), "Chalet Girl" (2011), "J. Edgar" (2011), "Romeo & Juliet" (2013), "Bone in the Throat" (2015), "Freaks of Nature" (2015), "Billionaire Ransom" (2016), and "Me You Madness" (2021).


title: Ed Westwick

text: Westwick was born in Hammersmith, London, and raised in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. He was born the youngest of 3 boys for Carole ("née" Blenkiron), an educational psychologist, and Peter Westwick, a university lecturer. He has two older brothers. He began music lessons and attended a Saturday morning drama school from the age of six. Westwick was educated at The Barclay School and North Hertfordshire College, where he took A-levels in business, law, and communication. He later trained at the National Youth Theatre in London.


title: Ed Westwick

text: Westwick made his film debut in "Breaking and Entering" (2006), following an open audition casting call sent to the National Youth Theatre. He went on to guest star in the British television series "Doctors" as Holden, "Casualty" as Johnny Cullin, and "Afterlife" as Darren. He also had a minor role in the film "Children of Men" (2006).


title: Ed Westwick

text: In 2007, Westwick appeared in the film "Son of Rambow" and was cast as Chuck Bass in The CW's teen drama series "Gossip Girl", based on the book series of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. Westwick said of his casting, "There wasn't much work in the UK. I was only in LA for a month and I got this show. It's changed my life." For his portrayal of Chuck, he assumed an American accent, based on the character Carlton Banks from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". As a result of the show's success, he was named one of 2008's Sexiest Men Alive by "People" magazine, and appeared the following year on its "100 Most Beautiful" list with the whole cast of "Gossip Girl". Westwick earned the 2008 and 2009 awards for Best TV Villain at the Teen Choice Awards, and was named Breakthrough Talent by "GQ" in 2010. "Entertainment Weekly" also named Westwick's character Chuck Bass number one in their "Best Dressed TV Characters of 2008" list (tied with Leighton Meester's character Blair Waldorf), as well as in their "Best Performances" list alongside co-star Meester.


title: Ed Westwick

text: In 2008, Westwick became the new face of K-Swiss. That same year, he appeared as Joey in the horror film "100 Feet". In 2009, Westwick played the role of Randy Holt in the sequel to "Donnie Darko", directed by Chris Fisher, and guest-starred in the third season of the Showtime original series "Californication", as Chris "Balt" Smith, a student who was fascinated with vampire literature. In May 2009, he was attached to play Heathcliff in the film adaptation of "Wuthering Heights". However, in January 2010, director Peter Webber left the project, which was then passed into the hands of Andrea Arnold. This directing change caused the roles to be recast.


title: Ed Westwick

text: In 2010, Westwick starred in the McHenry Brothers short film "The Commuter", which was shot on a Nokia N8 smartphone. In January 2011, Westwick joined Clint Eastwood's film "J. Edgar", a biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, the controversial first director of the FBI. That same year, he appeared in the romantic comedy "Chalet Girl". He co-narrated the audio book version of "City of Fallen Angels" by Cassandra Clare and also narrated Clare's second novel "Clockwork Prince" from "The Infernal Devices" series. In mid-2011, Westwick became an international celebrity endorser for Penshoppe, a local clothing brand in the Philippines.


title: Ed Westwick

text: He next co-starred in the film adaptation of "Romeo & Juliet" as the main antagonist and Juliet's cousin, Tybalt. The film was released on 11 October 2013. Westwick then portrayed the lead role in the film adaptation of Anthony Bourdain's novel "Bone in the Throat", which premiered at South by Southwest on 14 March 2015. Westwick then co-starred in the horror comedy film "Freaks of Nature", which was released on 30 October 2015. In March 2015, he joined the cast of ABC's short-lived crime drama series "Wicked City" as Kent Grainger, a sadistic Sunset Strip serial killer. The series was cancelled after airing 3 episodes, but was picked up by Hulu to air the remaining 5 episodes. Westwick was next seen in Jim Gillespie's "Billionaire Ransom", released on 19 August 2016, and stars in the thriller "The Crash", released on 13 January 2017.


title: Ed Westwick

text: Westwick played Vincent Swan in the BBC Two television comedy series "White Gold" (2017). The show has so far aired two seasons for a total of 12 episodes.


title: Ed Westwick

text: Westwick was a member of the British band The Filthy Youth. The punk band, formed in 2006, was inspired by the Rolling Stones, The Doors and Kings of Leon. The songs "Come Flash All You Ladies" and "Orange" were both featured in an episode of "Gossip Girl". The band consisted of fellow countrymen Benjamin Lewis Allingham (guitar), Jimmy Wright (guitar), Tom Bastiani (bass), and John Vooght (drummer).


title: Ed Westwick

text: Westwick shared an apartment with his "Gossip Girl" co-star Chace Crawford in the Chelsea neighbourhood of Manhattan from the beginning of the series in 2007 until July 2009, when Crawford moved out.


title: Ed Westwick

text: In November 2017, allegations were separately made by three women: Kristina Cohen, Rachel Eck, and Aurélie Wynn. Cohen and Wynn made claims of rape, and Eck claims of sexual assault. All three claim the incidents occurred in 2014. Westwick issued a statement describing the allegations from Cohen and Wynn as "unverified and provably untrue" and further stated: "I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape". In July 2018, the office of the Los Angeles District Attorney announced that Westwick would not be prosecuted regarding the claims of rape and sexual assault. Prosecutors said witnesses identified by the first two alleged victims were "not able to provide information that would enable the prosecution to prove either incident beyond a reasonable doubt", with prosecutors unable to contact the third claimant. Prosecutors also noted additional claims made by other individuals would not be looked into due to being outside the statute of limitations.


title: Ed Westwick

text: The allegations resulted in the re-shooting of scenes involving Westwick in the BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Ordeal by Innocence" with Christian Cooke, and in series two of "White Gold" being "paused". Westwick has stated he is disappointed with the actions of the BBC due to the ongoing investigations, legal processes, and the unverified nature of the claims.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: "Final Fantasy XV" takes place on the fictional world of Eos; aside from Insomnia, the capital of Lucis, all the world is dominated by the empire of Niflheim, who seek control of the magical Crystal protected by the Lucian royal family. On the eve of peace negotiations, Niflheim attacks the capital and steals the Crystal. Noctis Lucis Caelum, heir to the Lucian throne, goes on a quest to rescue the Crystal and defeat Niflheim. He later learns his full role as the "True King", destined to use the Crystal's powers to save Eos from eternal darkness. The game shares a thematic connection with "Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy", a subseries of games linked by a common mythos which includes "Final Fantasy XIII" and "Final Fantasy Type-0".


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: The game's development began in 2006 as a PlayStation 3 spin-off titled Tetsuya Nomura served as the original director and character designer. After a development period of six years, it was changed to the next mainline title in the series in 2012; Nomura was replaced as director by Hajime Tabata, and the game shifted to eighth generation platforms. Due to the changes, the story needed to be rewritten and some scenes and characters were repurposed or removed. The setting of "Final Fantasy XV" was "a fantasy based on reality", with locations and creatures based on elements from the real world.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: To supplement the game, Square Enix created a multimedia project called the ""Final Fantasy XV" Universe", which includes a few spin-off games, as well as an and . Gameplay and story-based DLC was released between 2017 and 2019. Upon release, "Final Fantasy XV" was well received by critics. Widespread praise was given for its gameplay, visuals and soundtrack, while reception towards its story and presentation was mixed. As of May 2022, the game has sold tenmillion units worldwide, making it one of the best-selling "Final Fantasy" games of all time.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: "Final Fantasy XV" is an open world action role-playing game where players take control of protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum during his journey across the world of Eos. While accompanied by his three companions Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto, Noctis is the only character directly controlled by the player: he can navigate through movement, jump over small obstacles, sprint for a limited time, and perform context-based actions such as taking cover behind objects. The kingdom of Lucis is a large connected landmass that can be explored on foot, by using the party's car "Regalia", or chocobos, recurring galliform birds in the "Final Fantasy" series. Both the Regalia and chosen Chocobos can be customised by the player, and Chocobos can join in battles if their connection to the characters is strong enough. While Chocobos are controlled manually, the Regalia can be either manually or automatically controlled. The party can also fast-travel to areas unlocked on the world map. The Regalia must be refueled periodically at petrol stations. In towns the party can visit, there are inns and hotels where they can stay, shops where items and equipment can be purchased with the in-game currency gil, and local tipsters, non-playable characters (NPCs) who provide information on quests, from main story missions to side quests. Side quests are also available from individual NPCs found in towns. During some story sequences, dialogue choices appear for Noctis, with the selected option altering the response from NPCs. The game also contains two difficulty modes, with players being able to freely switch between the two.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: The game uses an action-based real-time battle system, called the Active Cross Battle system. Instead of using a menu interface, the player selects commands directly mapped to buttons on the controller, such as "Attack", "Defend", and "Item". Battles take place within the current environment rather than transitioning to a separate arena, and can range from open plains to enclosed building interiors. When approaching enemies, a threat meter appears on the top of the screen, growing in intensity the closer the party gets to the enemy. When the party gets close and attacks or is detected, the battle begins. Running away from enemies and out of the combat zone in normal battles ends combat. During battle, each character has health points (HP), and Noctis also has magic points (MP). HP is depleted whenever a character is attacked, while Noctis's MP recovers over time when not in combat or when not using associated abilities such as warping or special weapon skills. If a character's current HP reaches zero, they enter Danger Mode, during which the maximum HP cap steadily decreases; the character is defeated when all of their maximum HP is lost. Some enemies, such as Daemons, are able to lower the HP cap with their attacks. If Noctis is defeated, there is a brief period where a revival item must be used. Should the player fail to do so, the game ends.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Noctis can perform four actions in battle: the standard attack; defending, which blocks and parries attacks; warping, which takes Noctis to a targeted area such as another enemy or an out-of-the-way warp point, and using items. There is a "Wait Mode" option available, where if all player input stops the battle pauses, and players are able to select new enemies to attack or actions to take within a time limit. An option available for both Noctis and Ignis in Wait Mode is Libra, an ability which displays an enemy's health, strengths and weaknesses. Noctis can find and equip a wide range of weapons, including single and double-handed swords, polearms, axes, shields, firearms, daggers and Royal Arms. The weapons manifest from thin air as Noctis fights, and can be manually shifted by the player. The type of weapon equipped determines the attack speed and the amount of damage on normal attacks. In addition to normal attacks, there are attacks that deal more damage based on Noctis' position such as "Side Strike" or "Blindside", in addition to the Warp Strike attack. Attacks from enemies can be parried, and depending on the quality of the parry Noctis can counterattack. If wielding a shield-type weapon, a successful block staggers an enemy, leaving them vulnerable to attack. Noctis can launch a special attack with the Royal Arms dubbed "Armiger", when the meter fills during combat: while more powerful than standard weapons, Royal Arms consume HP with each use. Noctis can also use two classes of firearms—Guns, which range from handguns like pistols to rifles; and Machinery, powerful weapons that have varying effects depending on the type used, from generating a powerful shockwave to dealing high melee damage.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Noctis's companions, controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI), can perform contextual commands. When Noctis successfully parries an enemy attack, or performs a Side Strike or Blindside, cooperative attacks between him and his companions called Link-strikes can be triggered. During battle, a meter called the Tech Bar fills. When full, Noctis can command his companions to perform special moves called Techniques: Gladiolus performs a sweeping attack with his sword, Ignis uses his daggers to mark enemies so Noctis can perform a warp strike attack, and Prompto uses his firearm to fire a powerful shot that pierces through tough opponents. After each of these, Noctis can initiate a follow-up attack. Noctis can also trigger an Armiger Chain, where he splits his Royal Arms between his companions before launching a single attack.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Magic is separated into two types: Elemancy and Arcana. Elemancy is separated into three types: Fire, Ice and Lightning. Elemental energy is drawn from points across the world map, being absorbed into special flasks and used to craft magical bombs that can be used on enemies. Elemancy can also be combined with specific items to add new effects, such as healing party members while damaging enemies. Both Noctis and his companions are able to use Elemancy. Arcana, accessed when Noctis has acquired and equipped a story-related item called the Ring of the Lucii, has access to more powerful magical abilities such as "Death", which drains an enemy's health. After a certain point in the game, Noctis can call upon summoned monsters called Astrals, which aid the party by launching a devastating attack. The summons featured are series regulars including Titan, Ramuh, Leviathan and Shiva. Their types of attack, and even whether they assist at all, is dependent on the environment: for instance, Leviathan can only be summoned in the open when there is a body of water nearby. At certain points in the story, Noctis is joined by guest characters who have their own Link-strikes and Techniques.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: After each battle, characters earn experience points (EXP), but they do not automatically level up when a certain amount of EXP has been gathered. Instead, the party must go to safe zones called "Havens", namely rest sites like inns or campsites. When the party rests at night, each character gains levels depending on the amount of EXP earned. If defeated in battle, all EXP gained up to that point since the last level up is permanently lost. Activities in the overworld earn the party Ability Points (AP). AP is spent on the Ascension Grid, the game's leveling system, which is divided into skill trees called "Astralspheres". Each Astralsphere is sorted by type, being associated with magic, combat or passive abilities. Spending AP opens up nodes within the Astralsphere, which in turn grants access to further nodes which require higher amounts of AP to unlock.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Noctis' companions each have their own skills which themselves level up based on usage, and affect equipment. Noctis' fishing ability improves the more times he fishes and the better items he uses, which in turn spreads to his equipment. Gladiolus' Survival skills increase based on the distance the party has travelled in a day, which improves the quality of their equipment and items. Ignis' cooking can be improved based on ingredients either purchased at shops or found in the wild, and his meals grant stat boosts to the party. Prompto takes photos during the party's journey, and the quality of his own skills increase over time. A post-release update enables control of all four characters during battle after unlocking a dedicated node in the Ascension Grid; each character uses specific weapon types and abilities tied to them.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: A multiplayer mode called "Comrades" was released as an expansion, with gameplay and combat lifted from the main game and tailored for multiplayer; rather than a pre-set character, players take the role of a customizable avatar who takes part in a portion of the story skipped over by the main narrative. The game begins with players choosing their gender, hairstyle, clothing and other aspects. Using the in-game city of Lestallum as their base, the player is assigned missions with three other characters—either other players or AI-controlled. During missions, the player fights monsters either on sorties or to defend transports; at the end of each mission, the player is awarded Gil, materials used for crafting and enhancing weapons, and "Meteorshards" which can power up settlements around Lestallum and open up new quests. Some areas unlock Royal Tombs which grant the player a Royal Sigil; these Sigils both increase specific statistics and grant new themed abilities such as healing or increasing combat moves. The player has access to a variety of weapon types from normal swords to maces and shurikens, which are enhanced using materials to increase passive abilities such as their damage capacity. The multiplayer mode was shut down in June 2020, though the "Comrades" campaign can still be played with NPC party members.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: "Final Fantasy XV" takes place on the Earth-like world of Eos, which is divided between four nations: Lucis, Accordo, Tenebrae and Niflheim. Lucis, occupying a whole landmass, possesses a magical artifact known as the Crystal, gifted to the reigning Caelum dynasty by the world's deities in antiquity and accessed through the hereditary Ring of the Lucii. Accordo, located in the southern part of Eos, is an island nation formed through a union of free trading cities. The western continent is home to the technologically-advanced empire of Niflheim and the nation of Tenebrae, which is ruled by the Oracle—a priestess who can commune with the gods. The Oracle's main task is curing the Starscourge, a plague that absorbs all natural light and turns those infected into nocturnal monsters known as Daemons.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Central to the lore of Eos are the Astrals, six divine beings who serve as the guardians of the natural world and are based on summoned monsters from the "Final Fantasy" series; and the True King, a legendary figure prophesied to appear when the Starscourge threatens to plunge Eos into eternal night. A key part of Eos's backstory is the Great War of Old, a conflict born when the ancient human civilization of Solheim turned on the Astrals and their patron Ifrit; his subsequent attempt to destroy humanity defied the Astrals' duty to protect Eos, forcing their leader Bahamut to kill him. This conflict is implied to have caused the spread of the Starscourge across the planet, hastening the fall of Solheim.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: For centuries, Lucis has been at war with the militaristic Niflheim, who seek to emulate Solheim's glory. To that end Niflheim has subjugated most of Eos, including Accordo and Tenebrae; Tenebrae retains limited political autonomy due to the Oracle's influence. Only Lucis's capital city of Insomnia remains unconquered due to the use of the Crystal's power, which is slowly draining the current king's life force. At the game's beginning an armistice is declared between the two nations due to the king's failing health; as part of the peace agreements, Niflheim will gain control of all Lucian territories outside Insomnia, and a marriage is arranged between the heirs apparent of the royal families of Lucis and Tenebrae.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: The game's protagonist is Noctis Lucis Caelum, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Lucis, who loses his father in the Niflheim invasion. Noctis is accompanied on his journey throughout the world of Eos by his three friends: Gladiolus Amicitia, the scion of a family sworn to protect Noctis's family; Ignis Scientia, a prodigy military tactician and Noctis's aide; and Prompto Argentum, a childhood friend of Noctis from a lower social class. Guest characters include Cor Leonis, a legendary warrior of Lucis and the leader of the Crownsguard who acts as an early guide to Noctis's party; Iris Amicitia, the younger sister of Gladiolus; and Aranea Highwind, a mercenary dragoon in service to Niflheim. Other key characters are Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, the current Oracle and former Princess of Tenebrae who is betrothed to Noctis; Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII, king of Lucis and the father of Noctis; and Gentiana, Lunafreya's attendant. The empire of Niflheim is ruled by Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt. Aldercapt's notable subordinates include Ardyn Izunia, the imperial chancellor and the game's main antagonist; Ravus Nox Fleuret, Lunafreya's brother and the high commander of Niflheim's army; and Verstael Besithia, the empire's head researcher.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Noctis and his three friends begin their journey to Altissia, the capital of Accordo, where Noctis's wedding to Lunafreya will take place. Finding the local boat services stopped, they receive news of ; King Regis has been assassinated, and both Noctis and Lunafreya are declared dead. Meeting up with Cor, Noctis is tasked with retrieving the Royal Arms—the magical weapons of past Lucian kings—to rescue the Crystal and reclaim his throne. While staying in the city of Lestallum with Iris, Noctis is contacted by the Astral Titan; encouraged by Ardyn, Noctis endures Titan's trial and earns his power, learning that Lunafreya is traveling ahead of Noctis to awaken the Astrals from their slumber. The group continues to travel across Lucis, retrieving the Royal Arms and meeting the Astral Ramuh with assistance from Gentiana. He is also confronted by a hostile Ravus, spars with the mercenary Aranea, and receives further aid from Ardyn. The group eventually recover parts to repair Regis's old yacht, using it to travel to Altissia.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: The party arrives in Altissia, where Lunafreya has taken sanctuary. Lunafreya awakens the Astral Leviathan so Noctis can obtain her power, only for Leviathan to go on a rampage when Niflheim attacks. Ardyn appears and mortally wounds Lunafreya, disrupting the ritual; however, she succeeds in awakening Noctis's powers, allowing him to defeat Leviathan. While unconscious, he is visited in a dream by Lunafreya's spirit, who gives him the Ring of the Lucii. Noctis wakes to find Altissia in chaos, and that Ignis was blinded during the battle. The party continues towards Niflheim's capital of Gralea by train. Ignis' blindness and Noctis's mourning of Lunafreya cause friction with Gladiolus until Ignis forces a reconciliation. It is also revealed that the nights are growing longer, causing more Daemons to appear. Ardyn then tricks Noctis into throwing Prompto from the train, and holds Prompto and the Crystal captive in Gralea's military fortress Zegnautus Keep, the primary laboratory where Niflheim creates its military infantry, cybernetic robots which use daemonic energy; Noctis then discovers that the Crystal's power can destroy Daemons. Noctis continues to Tenebrae, where Aranea is aiding refugees from across Eos. While in Tenebrae, Noctis learns that Lunafreya was dying from waking the Astrals, and that Ravus now supports him. On the final journey to Gralea, the train is ambushed by Daemons; after defeating them, Noctis receives the Astral Shiva's blessing from Gentiana, revealed as Shiva's human form.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Arriving to find Gralea overrun by Daemons, Noctis is separated from his friends and forced to use the Ring of the Lucii to survive Zegnautus Keep. After reuniting and rescuing Prompto, the party continues through Zegnautus Keep, defeating Ravus and Emperor Aldercapt, who have been transformed into Daemons. Forced to leave his friends behind, Noctis reaches the Crystal, only to be pulled into it. Ardyn appears and reveals himself to be Ardyn Lucis Caelum, a healer ostracized with support from the Astrals and the Crystal after being infected by the Starscourge. Ardyn sought revenge on the Lucis Caelum bloodline and the Crystal, spreading the Starscourge while waiting for the True King to appear so he could destroy them both. Within the Crystal, Noctis encounters Bahamut; he learns that he is the True King of prophecy, who will cleanse the Starscourge and restore light to Eos at the cost of his life. Noctis returns to Eos after ten years, finding the world engulfed in darkness. Reuniting with his friends, Noctis heads for Insomnia, fighting Ifrit—revived and corrupted by the Starscourge—before facing Ardyn. After killing Ardyn in single combat, Noctis ascends the throne and sacrifices himself, using the Crystal and Ring of the Lucii to purge the Starscourge from Eos. In the afterlife, with help from Lunafreya, Noctis destroys Ardyn's spirit. In mid-credits and post-credits scenes, it is revealed that Noctis opened up to his companions before the final battle, and finds rest with Lunafreya in the afterlife.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: "Final Fantasy XV" was primarily developed by Square Enix's Business Division 2. Additional studios that helped with development included HexaDrive, XPEC Entertainment, Plusmile, and Streamline Studios. Staff included director Hajime Tabata; producer Shinji Hashimoto; main writer Saori Itamuro, who wrote the scenario based on the original draft by Kazushige Nojima; and art directors Tomohiro Hasegawa, Yusuke Naora and Isamu Kamikokuryo. Character designs were by Tetsuya Nomura and Roberto Ferrari, with later revisions by Naora. The main characters' clothing was designed by Hiromu Takahara, lead designer for Japanese fashion house Roen. The soundtrack was composed primarily by Yoko Shimomura, while both real-time and CGI cutscenes were directed by Takeshi Nozue of Visual Works, Square Enix's in-house CGI production studio. Logo illustration was by regular series artist Yoshitaka Amano.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Development began in 2006 as a spin-off for the PlayStation 3 called "Final Fantasy Versus XIII". It was announced as part of the "Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy", a subseries of games linked by a common mythos, and ran in Square Enix's proprietary Crystal Tools engine. Developed by the team behind the "Kingdom Hearts" series, it was intended to be a darker entry in the "Final Fantasy" series than allowed in the main series. Nomura was the original director, designer, and created the initial concept and scenario. The project suffered from a prolonged and troubled development, only making fragmentary appearances over the following six years. As early as 2007, the project's scale prompted talks of rebranding it as the next mainline entry. With the internal unveiling of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, it was decided to change it into a mainline entry, with a proposed PS3 version being scrapped due to technical troubles. The game's engine also changed, shifting to the company's new proprietary Luminous Engine. At the time of its rebranding and shift to next-generation consoles in 2012, "Versus XIII" was described as being on 20-25% complete, with Tabata saying it never took shape.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: When Tabata took over from Nomura, the entire development team was reshuffled and development started over again, although he worked as a co-director with Nomura until late 2013 to ensure the project remained as true as possible to its original vision. Among the changes were the removal of the original story's opening, and the replacement of the original heroine Stella Nox Fleuret with the similarly named Lunafreya. The connection to "Fabula Nova Crystallis" was also reduced, with branding and mythos-specific terminology removed to aid in the game's marketing. Thematic, aesthetic and design elements were retained due to their core place in the world and backstory. The main concept behind "Final Fantasy XV" was "a fantasy based on reality", with the world being very similar to Earth and having fantasy elements gradually intruding into an otherwise normal setting. In pursuit of this, locations in Eos were based on real-world locations such as Tokyo, Venice and the Bahamas.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Due to the scale of the game's narrative and Tabata's wish to release a single game rather than a series of games similar to "Final Fantasy XIII", aspects of the planned narrative were refashioned into supplementary media projects. Known as the ""Final Fantasy XV" Universe", the projects were split into two parts; media designed to reach a wider audience than the game might manage alone, and additional game-related content such as ports to other hardware and DLC. The project was first revealed at a March 2016 press event called "Uncovered: "Final Fantasy XV"". Tabata later stated that those who just played the game would miss context for story events shown in other related media.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: The two central parts of the ""Final Fantasy XV" Universe" are the feature film "" and the original net animation "". "Brotherhood" was produced by anime studio A-1 Pictures under supervision from Square Enix; the narrative focused on the backstories of Noctis and his companions. The series was released online between March and September 2016. "Kingsglaive", which received a limited theatrical release in 2016, was a collaboration between Visual Works and Western studios including Digic Pictures and Image Engine; the story, which mainly focused on original characters, recycled story elements cut from the opening narrative of "Final Fantasy XV".


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Also forming part of the project were "Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV", a game demo detailing an incident in Noctis's childhood which tied into the events of "Brotherhood"; "Justice Monsters Five", a mobile game based on a minigame from "Final Fantasy XV" which was active from August 2016 to March 2017; "A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV", a promotional beat 'em up featuring Regis as the playable character; "", a virtual reality simulation game released in 2017 for PlayStation VR; and "", a massively multiplayer online strategy game published by Machine Zone in 2017 and developed by their Epic Action subsidiary.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Initially announced in 2006 alongside "XIII" and "Type-0", the game was publicly rebranded at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo, with regular updates on the title beginning the following year. A demo titled "Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae" was released in March 2015 as a limited addition to "Final Fantasy Type-0 HD". The game's localization was handled by Dan Inoue, who used different accents for characters to denote their origins on different parts of Eos. In addition to English, Japanese and European languages, the game was localized for Latin America with Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese text: this was the first time a "Final Fantasy" title was localized into these languages.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Its initial worldwide release, September 30, was announced at the "Uncovered" event. Despite this intended date, further polishing work resulted in the date being pushed back to November 29. Further fixes were applied to the game through a Day One patch released concurrent with the game. The game was published in multiple editions, called "Day One", "Deluxe", and "Ultimate Collector's Edition". The "Deluxe" edition included a Blu-ray edition of "Kingsglaive", while the "Ultimate Collector's Edition" included both "Kingsglaive" and a version of "Brotherhood" with additional footage related to Luna. In 2018, a version of the game called "Royal Edition" was released, which contained both all DLC published to that point in addition to further story and gameplay additions alongside technical improvements.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: A version for Microsoft Windows was released on March 6, 2018. Square Enix developed the port with Nvidia using an upgraded version of the Luminous Studio engine, featuring graphical enhancements and all DLC. These improvements and additions were also released as part of the console-exclusive "Royal Edition". The game was also ported to the streaming-based Stadia platform, releasing on November 19, 2019 as a launch title. Another version, titled "", was released in February 2018 for iOS and Android. The game was co-developed by Square Enix, SummerTimeStudio, and XPEC Entertainment. Development began in 2015 following the release of "Episode Duscae"; the game was produced by Kosei Ito, who was producer on Tabata's first major Square Enix title "".


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Multiple pieces of downloadable content (DLC) were created for the game by a smaller development team from the core "Final Fantasy XV" staff. The team was supervised by Tabata and headed by new producer Haruyoshi Sawatari. Among the DLC were additional story elements intended to address player criticisms of the game's narrative structure and missing details. The journeys of Noctis' friends during their absence in the main story are expanded through the character-driven DLC episodes—"Episode Gladiolus", "Episode Prompto" and "Episode Ignis"—which were released respectively in March, June and December 2017. A story-driven multiplayer mode called "Comrades" was released in November 2017, with "Final Fantasy XV" becoming the first mainline single-player "Final Fantasy" to include multiplayer content. A standalone version of "Comrades" was released for PS4 and Xbox One in December 2018 to replace the DLC version of "Comrades".


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: "Episode Ignis" was intended to be the last story-based DLC, but positive player feedback resulted in Square Enix wanting to develop further content focusing on other main characters, such as Ardyn. "Episode Ardyn" was released in March 2019, and was the final post-release update for "Final Fantasy XV". Originally part of a tetralogy of story-based DLC episodes dubbed "The Dawn of the Future", the other episodes were cancelled due to structural changes within Square Enix. Story material for "The Dawn of the Future" DLC has been turned into a . It was first released in Japan in April 2019, and worldwide in June 2020.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: "Final Fantasy XV" has received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for all versions, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu" gave both versions of the game a score of 38 points out of 40. Various game designers stated "Final Fantasy XV" was their favorite game of 2016, including "Final Fantasy" series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Atlus' Shigeo Komori, Koei Tecmo's Takashi Morinaka, and Sony Interactive Entertainment's Teruyuki Toriyama and Shuhei Yoshida.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Opinions on the story of "Final Fantasy XV" were mixed, although the main cast was praised for its chemistry. "Game Informer"s Andrew Reiner praised the change to a simple straightforward plot after the complex lore of "Final Fantasy XIII". Peter Brown of "GameSpot" and Philip Kollar of "Polygon" praised the mundane activities and character interactions, with Kollar calling Noctis's companions the game's "beating heart". In contrast, Jonathan Leack of "Game Revolution" found the characters lacked interest during the early parts of the campaign, and "Hardcore Gamer"s Adam Beck called the main story a "monumental disappointment" despite enjoying the lead cast. The minimal representation of supporting characters was also frequently faulted. David Roberts of "GamesRadar", "Electronic Gaming Monthly"s Mollie L. Patterson and "Destructoid"s Chris Carter also noted the crucial part played by the game's expanded media in grounding or fleshing out the main story.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: The visuals and realistic style were positively received, with "IGN"s Vince Ingenito enjoying the unusual use of realistic aesthetic details for the towns and environment. Roberts, Brown, Leack, Beck and Kollar praised the open world design and depth of detail, in addition to its scale and similarity to open worlds from recent Western games. Beck also noted the setpiece moments as beautiful in appearance despite weak narrative elements and confusing or convoluted gameplay. Leack positively noted the main cast's eye-catching design, which he felt helped maintain a connection during the early sections of the game. Shimomura's score was also positively received by critics.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: The gameplay was praised for its fast pace and engaging mechanics despite a lack of depth compared with other action games, with several reviewers comparing it to "Kingdom Hearts"; Patterson positively compared normal battles to the CGI cutscene-exclusive battles of earlier Square Enix titles, while Leack called the combat system ""Kingdom Hearts" meets "Dissidia"" and praised its depth and accessibility. "Digital Spy"s Kirk McKeand praised the behaviour of Noctis's companions in battle, saying they were effective supporting units. The linear second half drew criticism, with Roberts predicting that it would be one of the game's most divisive elements. The summons were seen as spectacular, but either lacking meaning in gameplay or being too difficult to activate. Several reviewers noted the in-game camera's occasionally erratic behaviour.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: In Japan, the PS4 version topped Japanese gaming charts, selling 690,471 units. The Xbox One version sold nearly 3,800 units. Total sales of both versions came to 694,262 units, with the game's release boosting console sales for the PS4 over the previous week by over 42,000 units. Second week sales in the region were 79,792 units, down 88% from launch week and causing the game to drop to fifth place. Different rankings in January the following year placed the Japanese sales of "Final Fantasy XV" as between 900,000 and one million copies. In the United Kingdom's all-format gaming charts ending December 3, "Final Fantasy XV" was the second biggest launch for the series after "Final Fantasy XIII". According to the December data released by the NPD Group, "Final Fantasy XV" was the second best-selling title of the month behind "". The game also became the month's best-selling PS4 title, and saw the best console launch month in the franchise's history.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: Within the first twenty-four hours, Square Enix reported that "Final Fantasy XV" had shipped five million units worldwide in both physical shipments and digital sales—a figure which allowed the game to "break even" on development costs. This gave "Final Fantasy XV" the biggest launch in the franchise to date, the most first day digital sales in Japan for a game up to that point, and set records for physical shipments and downloads in mainland Asia. Commenting on the large numbers, Tabata revealed that the strong sales saved the "Final Fantasy" franchise as a whole, which had seen declining commercial success in recent years. According to Square Enix, shipments had reached over six million worldwide by January 2017. In May of the same year, Square announced the game and "Rise of the Tomb Raider" helped to increase sales and profits for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. By May 2022, "Final Fantasy XV" had sold tenmillion units worldwide across all versions, making it one of the best-selling "Final Fantasy" games of all time.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: "Final Fantasy XV" won numerous awards from various gaming publications, including "Game of the Year" from "RPG Site" and "RPGFan", and "Best RPG (People's Choice)" from "IGN", "PlayStation Blog" awarded "Final Fantasy XV" awards in the categories of "Best PS4 Game", "Best Use of Pro", "Best Soundtrack", and "Best Visuals"; and in "Game Informer"s 2017 RPG of the Year Awards awarded the game for "Best Post-Launch Support". At the 2017 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards the game won "Game, Franchise Role Playing" and "Song, Original or Adapted". It was also nominated for "Best Original Soundtrack Album" and for "Best Original Instrumental" ("Valse di Fantastica") at the 15th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards. In 2017, the game was nominated for "Best Visual Design" at the Golden Joystick Awards, and for "Best Role-Playing Game" at The Game Awards 2017, but lost to "Cuphead" and "Persona 5", respectively. The "Comrades" DLC was nominated for "Best Add-on" at the Gamescom 2017 Awards. The game was also nominated for "Evolving Game" at the 14th British Academy Games Awards.


title: Final Fantasy XV

text: In 2019, NHK conducted a "Final Fantasy" poll in Japan with over 468,000 voters, including 51% male and 49% female voters. "Final Fantasy XV" was voted the tenth best game in the series, with over 71% of its votes coming from female audiences, a higher proportion than any other "Final Fantasy" title.


title: Bird of prey

text: Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predators have keen eyesight for detecting prey from a distance or during flight, strong feet with sharp talons for grasping or killing prey, and powerful, curved beaks for tearing off flesh. Although predatory birds primarily hunt live prey, many species (such as fish eagles, vultures and condors) also scavenge and eat carrion.


title: Bird of prey

text: Although the term "bird of prey" could theoretically be taken to include all birds that actively hunt and eat other animals, ornithologists typically use the narrower definition followed in this page, excluding both piscivorous predators such as storks, herons, gulls, skuas, penguins and kingfishers, as well as primarily insectivorous birds such as passerine birds (e.g. shrikes) and birds like nightjars and frogmouths. Some extinct predatory birds had talons similar to those of modern birds of prey, including mousebird relatives (Sandcoleidae), Messelasturidae and some Enantiornithes, indicating possible convergent evolution.


title: Bird of prey

text: The term "raptor" is derived from the Latin word "rapio", meaning "to seize or take by force". The common names for various birds of prey are based on structure, but many of the traditional names do not reflect the evolutionary relationships between the groups.


title: Bird of prey

text: Many of these English language group names originally referred to particular species encountered in Britain. As English-speaking people travelled further, the familiar names were applied to new birds with similar characteristics. Names that have generalised this way include: kite ("Milvus milvus"), sparrow-hawk or sparhawk ("Accipiter nisus"), goshawk ("Accipiter gentilis"), kestrel ("Falco tinninculus"), hobby ("Falco subbuteo"), harrier (simplified from "hen-harrier", "Circus cyaneus"), buzzard ("Buteo buteo").


title: Bird of prey

text: Some names have not generalised, and refer to single species (or groups of closely related (sub)species), such as the merlin ("Falco columbarius").


title: Bird of prey

text: The taxonomy of Carl Linnaeus grouped birds (class Aves) into orders, genera, and species, with no formal ranks between genus and order. He placed all birds of prey into a single order, "Accipitres", subdividing this into four genera: "Vultur" (vultures), "Falco" (eagles, hawks, falcons, etc.), "Strix" (owls), and "Lanius" (shrikes). This approach was followed by subsequent authors such as Gmelin, Latham and Turton.


title: Bird of prey

text: Louis Pierre Veillot used additional ranks: order, tribe, family, genus, species. Birds of prey (order Accipitres) were divided into diurnal and nocturnal tribes; the owls remained monogeneric (family Ægolii, genus "Strix"), whilst the diurnal raptors were divided into three families: Vulturini, Gypaëti, and Accipitrini. Thus Veillot's families were similar to the Linnaean genera, with the difference that shrikes were no longer included amongst the birds of prey. In addition to the original "Vultur" and "Falco" (now reduced in scope), Veillot adopted four genera from Savigny: "Phene", "Haliæetus", "Pandion", and "Elanus". He also introduced five new genera of vultures ("Gypagus", "Catharista", "Daptrius", "Ibycter", "Polyborus") and eleven new genera of accipitrines ("Aquila", "Circaëtus", "Circus", "Buteo", "Milvus", "Ictinia", "Physeta", "Harpia", "Spizaëtus", "Asturina", "Sparvius").


title: Bird of prey

text: Falconimorphae is a deprecated superorder within Raptores, formerly composed of the orders Falconiformes and Strigiformes. The clade was invalidated after 2012. Falconiformes is now placed in Eufalconimorphae, while Strigiformes is placed in Afroaves.


title: Bird of prey

text: The order Accipitriformes is believed to have originated 44 million years ago when it split from the common ancestor of the secretarybird ("Sagittarius serpentarius") and the accipitrid species. The phylogeny of Accipitriformes is complex and difficult to unravel. Widespread paraphylies were observed in many phylogenetic studies. More recent and detailed studies show similar results. However, according to the findings of a 2014 study, the sister relationship between larger clades of "Accipitriformes" was well supported (e.g. relationship of "Harpagus" kites to buzzards and sea eagles and these latter two with "Accipiter" hawks are sister taxa of the clade containing "Aquilinae" and "Harpiinae").


title: Bird of prey

text: The diurnal birds of prey are formally classified into six families of three different orders (Accipitriformes, Falconiformes and Cariamiformes).


title: Bird of prey

text: These families (with the exception of Cariamidae) were traditionally grouped together in a single order Falconiformes but are now split into two orders, the Falconiformes and Accipitriformes. The Cathartidae are sometimes placed separately in an enlarged stork family, Ciconiiformes, and may be raised to an order of their own, Cathartiiformes.


title: Bird of prey

text: The secretary bird and/or osprey are sometimes listed as subfamilies of Acciptridae: Sagittariinae and Pandioninae, respectively.


title: Bird of prey

text: Australia's letter-winged kite is a member of the family Accipitridae, although it is a nocturnal bird.


title: Bird of prey

text: The nocturnal birds of prey—the owls—are classified separately as members of two extant families of the order Strigiformes:


title: Bird of prey

text: Below is a simplified phylogeny of Telluraves which is the clade where the birds of prey belong to along with passerines and several near-passerine lineages. The orders in bold text are birds of prey orders; this is to show the polyphly of the group as well as their relationships to other birds.


title: Bird of prey

text: The earliest event occurred nearly 14 to 12 million years ago. This result seems to be one of the oldest dates published so far in the case of birds of prey. For example, a previous reconstruction of migratory behaviour in one "Buteo" clade with a result of the origin of migration around 5 million years ago was also supported by that study.


title: Bird of prey

text: Migratory species of raptors may have had a southern origin because it seems that all of the major lineages within Accipitridae had an origin in one of the biogeographic realms of the Southern Hemisphere. The appearance of migratory behaviour occurred in the tropics parallel with the range expansion of migratory species to temperate habitats. Similar results of southern origin in other taxonomic groups can be found in the literature.


title: Bird of prey

text: Distribution and biogeographic history highly determine the origin of migration in birds of prey. Based on some comparative analyses, diet breadth also has an effect on the evolution of migratory behaviour in this group, but its relevance needs further investigation. The evolution of migration in animals seems to be a complex and difficult topic with many unanswered questions.


title: Bird of prey

text: A recent study discovered new connections between migration and the ecology, life history of raptors. A brief overview from abstract of the published paper shows that "clutch size and hunting strategies have been proved to be the most important variables in shaping distribution areas, and also the geographic dissimilarities may mask important relationships between life history traits and migratory behaviours. The West Palearctic-Afrotropical and the North-South American migratory systems are fundamentally different from the East Palearctic-Indomalayan system, owing to the presence versus absence of ecological barriers." Maximum entropy modelling can help in answering the question: why species winters at one location while the others are elsewhere. Temperature and precipitation related factors differ in the limitation of species distributions. "This suggests that the migratory behaviours differ among the three main migratory routes for these species" which may have important conservational consequences in the protection of migratory raptors.


title: Bird of prey

text: Birds of prey (raptors) are known to display patterns of sexual dimorphism. It is commonly believed that the dimorphisms found in raptors occur due to sexual selection or environmental factors. In general, hypotheses in favor of ecological factors being the cause for sexual dimorphism in raptors are rejected. This is because the ecological model is less parsimonious, meaning that its explanation is more complex than that of the sexual selection model. Additionally, ecological models are much harder to test because a great deal of data is required.


title: Bird of prey

text: Dimorphisms can also be the product of intrasexual selection between males and females. It appears that both sexes of the species play a role in the sexual dimorphism within raptors; females tend to compete with other females to find good places to nest and attract males, and males competing with other males for adequate hunting ground so they appear as the most healthy mate.


title: Bird of prey

text: It has also been proposed that sexual dimorphism is merely the product of disruptive selection, and is merely a stepping stone in the process of speciation, especially if the traits that define gender are independent across a species. Sexual dimorphism can be viewed as something that can accelerate the rate of speciation.


title: Bird of prey

text: In non-predatory birds, males are typically larger than females. However, in birds of prey, the opposite is the case. For instance, the kestrel is a type of falcon in which males are the primary providers, and the females are responsible for nurturing the young. In this species, the smaller the kestrels are, the less food is needed and thus, they can survive in environments that are harsher. This is particularly true in the male kestrels. It has become more energetically favorable for male kestrels to remain smaller than their female counterparts because smaller males have an agility advantage when it comes to defending the nest and hunting. Larger females are favored because they can incubate larger numbers of offspring, while also being able to brood a larger clutch size.


title: Bird of prey

text: It is a long-standing belief that birds lack any sense of smell, but it has become clear that many birds do have functional olfactory systems. Despite this, most raptors are still considered to primarily rely on vision, with raptor vision being extensively studied. A 2020 review of the existing literature combining anatomical, genetic, and behavioural studies showed that, in general, raptors have functional olfactory systems that they are likely to use in a range of different contexts.


title: Bird of prey

text: Birds of prey have been historically persecuted both directly and indirectly. In the Danish Faeroe Islands, there were rewards "Naebbetold" (by royal decree from 1741) given in return for the bills of birds of prey shown by hunters. In Britain, kites and buzzards were seen as destroyers of game and killed, for instance in 1684-5 alone as many as 100 kites were killed. Rewards for their killing were also in force in the Netherlands from 1756. From 1705 to 1800, it has been estimated that 624087 birds of prey were killed in a part of Germany that included Hannover, Luneburg, Lauenburg and Bremen with 14125 claws deposited just in 1796–7. Many species also develop lead poisoning after accidental consumption of lead shot when feeding on animals that had been shot by hunters. Lead pellets from direct shooting that the birds have escaped from also cause reduced fitness and premature deaths.


title: Bird of prey

text: Some evidence supports the contention that the African crowned eagle occasionally views human children as prey, with a witness account of one attack (in which the victim, a seven-year-old boy, survived and the eagle was killed), and the discovery of part of a human child skull in a nest. This would make it the only living bird known to prey on humans, although other birds such as ostriches and cassowaries have killed humans in self-defense and a lammergeier might have killed Aeschylus by accident. Many stories of Brazilian Indians speak about children mauled by Uiruuetê, the Harpy Eagle in Tupi language. Various large raptors like golden eagles are reported attacking human beings, but its unclear if they intend to eat them or if they have ever been successful in killing one.


title: Bird of prey

text: Some fossil evidence indicates large birds of prey occasionally preyed on prehistoric hominids. The Taung Child, an early human found in Africa, is believed to have been killed by an eagle-like bird similar to the crowned eagle. The extinct Haast's eagle may have preyed on humans in New Zealand, and this conclusion would be consistent with Maori folklore. "Leptoptilos robustus" might have preyed on both "Homo floresiensis" and anatomically modern humans, and the Malagasy crowned eagle, teratorns, Woodward's eagle and "Caracara major" are similar in size to the Haast's eagle, implying that they similarly could pose a threat to a human being.


title: Bird of prey

text: Although not birds of prey, Australian magpies have injured bike riders and passersby alike by swooping at the back of their heads. In an extreme case, one swooping caused a mother who was carrying her five-month-old baby to trip over and fall, leading to the baby's death from critical brain injuries in August 2021.


title: Portland, Maine

text: Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Portland's economy relies mostly on the service sector and tourism. The Old Port is known for its nightlife and 19th-century architecture. Marine industry plays an important role in the city's economy, with an active waterfront that supports fishing and commercial shipping. The Port of Portland is the second-largest tonnage seaport in New England.


title: Portland, Maine

text: The city seal depicts a phoenix rising from ashes, a reference to recovery from four devastating fires. Portland was named after the English Isle of Portland, Dorset. In turn, the city of Portland, Oregon was named after Portland, Maine. The word "Portland" is derived from the Old English word "Portlanda", which means "land surrounding a harbor". The Greater Portland area has emerged as an important center for the creative economy, which is also bringing gentrification.


title: Portland, Maine

text: Native Americans originally called the Portland peninsula Machigonne ("Great Neck"). Portland was named for the English Isle of Portland, and the city of Portland, Oregon, was in turn named for Portland, Maine. The first European settler was Capt. Christopher Levett, an English naval captain granted in 1623 to found a settlement in Casco Bay. A member of the Council for New England and agent for Ferdinando Gorges, Levett built a stone house where he left a company of ten men, then returned to England to write a book about his voyage to bolster support for the settlement. Ultimately, the settlement was a failure and the fate of Levett's colonists is unknown. The explorer sailed from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to meet John Winthrop in 1630, but never returned to Maine. Fort Levett in the harbor is named for him.


title: Portland, Maine

text: The peninsula was settled in 1632 as a fishing and trading village named Casco. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony took over Casco Bay in 1658, the town's name changed again to Falmouth. In 1676, the village was destroyed by the Abenaki during King Philip's War. It was rebuilt. During King William's War, a raiding party of French and their native allies attacked and largely destroyed it again in the Battle of Fort Loyal (1690).


title: Portland, Maine

text: On October 18, 1775, Falmouth was burned in the Revolution by the Royal Navy under command of Captain Henry Mowat. Following the war, a section of Falmouth called The Neck developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a shipping center. In 1786, the citizens of Falmouth formed a separate town in Falmouth Neck and named it Portland, after the isle off the coast of Dorset, England. Portland's economy was greatly stressed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (prohibition of trade with the British), which ended in 1809, and the War of 1812, which ended in 1815.


title: Portland, Maine

text: In 1820, Maine was established as a state with Portland as its capital. In 1832, the capital was moved north and East to Augusta. In 1851, Maine led the nation by passing the first state law prohibiting the sale of alcohol except for "medicinal, mechanical or manufacturing purposes." The law subsequently became known as the Maine Law, as 18 states quickly followed. On June 2, 1855, the Portland Rum Riot occurred.


title: Portland, Maine

text: In 1853, upon completion of the Grand Trunk Railway to Montreal, Portland became the primary ice-free winter seaport for Canadian exports. The Portland Company, located on Fore Street, manufactured more than 600 19th-century steam locomotives, as well as engines for trains and boats, fire engines and other railroad transportation equipment. The Portland Company was, for a time, the city's largest employer and many of its employees were immigrants from Canada, Ireland and Italy. Portland became a 20th-century rail hub as five additional rail lines merged into Portland Terminal Company in 1911. These rail lines also facilitated movement of returning Canadian troops from the First World War in 1919. Following nationalization of the Grand Trunk system in 1923, Canadian export traffic was diverted from Portland to Halifax, Nova Scotia, resulting in marked local economic decline. In the 20th century, icebreakers later enabled ships to reach Montreal in winter, drastically reducing Portland's role as a winter port for Canada.


title: Portland, Maine

text: On June 26, 1863, a Confederate raiding party led by Captain Charles Read entered the harbor at Portland leading to the Battle of Portland Harbor, one of the northernmost battles of the Civil War. The 1866 Great Fire of Portland, Maine, on July 4, 1866, ignited during the Independence Day celebration, destroyed most of the commercial buildings in the city, half the churches and hundreds of homes. More than 10,000 people were left homeless.


title: Portland, Maine

text: By act of the Maine Legislature in 1899, Portland annexed the city of Deering, despite a vote by Deering residents rejecting the annexation, thereby greatly increasing the size of the city and opening areas for development beyond the peninsula.